Chapter 8

[669]

'But how did he return, this haughty brave, Who whipt the winds, and made the sea his slave? (Though Neptune took unkindly to be bound And Eurus never such hard usage found In his Aćolian prison under ground).'

Dryden, _Juvenal_, x. 180.

[670] Most likely Mr. Pepys, a Master in Chancery, whom Johnson more than once roughly attacked at Streatham. See _post_, April 1, 1781, and Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 46.

[671] See _ante_, ii. 73.

[672] 'Jan. 5, 1772. Poor Mr. Fitzherbert hanged himself on Wednesday. He went to see the convicts executed that morning; and from thence in his boots to his son, having sent his groom out of the way. At three his son said, Sir, you are to dine at Mr. Buller's; it is time for you to go home and dress. He went to his own stable and hanged himself with a bridle. They say his circumstances were in great disorder.' Horace Walpole's _Letters_, v. 362. See _ante_, i. 82, and _post_, Sept. 15, 1777.

[673] Boswell, in his _Hebrides_ (Aug. 18, 1773) says that, 'Budgel was accused of forging a will [Dr. Tindal's] and sunk himself in the Thames, before the trial of its authenticity came on.' Pope, speaking of himself, says that he--

'Let Budgel charge low Grub-street on his quill, And write whate'er he pleas'd, except his will.'

_Prologue to the Satires_, 1, 378.

Budgel drowned himself on May 4, 1737, more than two years after the publication of this Prologue. _Gent. Mag_. vii. 315. Perhaps the verse is an interpolation in a later edition. See _post_, April 26, 1776.

[674] See _post_, March 15, 1776.

[675] On the Douglas Cause. See _ante_, ii. 50, and _post_, March 26, 1776.

[676] I regretted that Dr. Johnson never took the trouble to study a question which interested nations. He would not even read a pamphlet which I wrote upon it, entitled _The Essence of the Douglas Cause_; which, I have reason to flatter myself, had considerable effect in favour of Mr. Douglas; of whose legitimate filiation I was then, and am still, firmly convinced. Let me add, that no fact can be more respectably ascertained than by the judgement of the most august tribunal in the world; a judgement, in which Lord Mansfield and Lord Camden united in 1769, and from which only five of a numerous body entered a protest. BOSWELL. Boswell, in his Hebrides, records on Oct. 26, 1773:--'Dr. Johnson roused my zeal so much that I took the liberty to tell him that he knew nothing of the [Douglas] Cause.' Lord Shelburne says: 'I conceived such a prejudice upon the sight of the present Lord Douglas's face and figure, that I could not allow myself to vote in this cause. If ever I saw a Frenchman, he is one.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 10. Hume 'was struck,' he writes, 'with a very sensible indignation at the decision. The Cause, though not in the least intricate, is so complicated that it never will be reviewed by the public, who are besides perfectly pleased with the sentence; being swayed by compassion and a few popular topics. To one who understands the Cause as I do, nothing could appear more scandalous than the pleadings of the two law lords.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 423. In Campbell's _Chancellors_, v. 494, an account is given of a duel between Stuart and Thurlow that arose out of this suit.

[677] The Fountains. _Works_, ix. 176.

[678] See _ante_, ii. 25.

[679] It has already been observed (_ante_, ii. 55), that one of his first Essays was a Latin Poem on a glow-worm; but whether it be any where extant, has not been ascertained. MALONE.

[680] 'Mallet's works are such as a writer, bustling in the world, shewing himself in publick, and emerging occasionally from time to time into notice, might keep alive by his personal influence; but which, conveying little information and giving no great pleasure, must soon give way, as the succession of things produces new topicks of conversation and other modes of amusement.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 468.

[681] Johnson made less money, because he never 'traded' on his reputation. When he had made his name, he almost ceased to write.

[682] 'May 27, 1773. Dr. Goldsmith has written a comedy--no, it is the lowest of all farces. It is not the subject I condemn, though very vulgar, but the execution. The drift tends to no moral, no edification of any kind. The situations, however, are well imagined, and make one laugh, in spite of the grossness of the dialogue, the forced witticisms, and total improbability of the whole plan and conduct. But what disgusts me most is, that though the characters are very low, and aim at low humour, not one of them says a sentence that is natural or marks any character at all. It is set up in opposition to sentimental comedy, and is as bad as the worst of them.' Horace Walpole's _Letters_, v. 467. Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, i. 286) says that Goldsmith gave him an order to see this comedy. 'The next time I saw him, he inquired of me what my opinion was of it. I told him that I would not presume to be a judge of its merits. He asked, "Did it make you laugh?" I answered, "Exceedingly." "Then," said the Doctor, "that is all I require."'

[683] Garrick brought out his revised version of this play by Beaumont and Fletcher in 1754-5. Murphy's _Garrick_, p. 170. The compliment is in a speech by Don Juan, act v. sc. 2: 'Ay, but when things are at the worst, they'll mend; example does everything, and the fair sex will certainly grow better, whenever the greatest is the best woman in the kingdom.'

[684] _Formular_ is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_.

[685]

'On earth, a present god, shall Caesar reign.'

FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, iii. 5.2.

[686] See _ante_, i. 167.

[687] Johnson refers, I believe, to Temple's Essay _Of Heroic Virtue_, where he says that 'the excellency of genius' must not only 'be cultivated by education and instruction,' but also 'must be assisted by fortune to preserve it to maturity; because the noblest spirit or genius in the world, if it falls, though never so bravely, in its first enterprises, cannot deserve enough of mankind to pretend to so great a reward as the esteem of heroic virtue.' Temple's _Works_, iii. 306.

[688] See _post_, Sept. 17, 1777.

[689] In an epitaph that Burke wrote for Garrick, he says: 'He raised the character of his profession to the rank of a liberal art.' Windham's _Diary_, p. 361.

[690] 'The allusion,' as Mr. Lockhart pointed out, 'is not to the _Tale of a Tub_, but to the _History of John Bull_' (part ii. ch 12 and 13). Jack, who hangs himself, is however the youngest of the three brothers of _The Tale of a Tub_, 'that have made such a clutter in the work' (_ib_. chap ii). Jack was unwillingly convinced by Habbakkuk's argument that to save his life he must hang himself. Sir Roger, he was promised, before the rope was well about his neck, would break in and cut him down.

[691] He wrote the following letter to Goldsmith, who filled the chair that evening. 'It is,' Mr. Forster says (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 367), 'the only fragment of correspondence between Johnson and Goldsmith that has been preserved.'

'April 23, 1773.

'SIR,--I beg that you will excuse my absence to the Club; I am going this evening to Oxford.

'I have another favour to beg. It is that I may be considered as proposing Mr. Boswell for a candidate of our society, and that he may be considered as regularly nominated.

'I am, sir,

'Your most humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

If Johnson went to Oxford his stay there was brief, as on April 27 Boswell found him at home.

[692] 'There are,' says Johnson, speaking of Dryden (_Works_, vii. 292), 'men whose powers operate only at leisure and in retirement, and whose intellectual vigour deserts them in conversation.' See also _ante_, i. 413. 'No man,' he said of Goldsmith, 'was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had;' _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. Horace Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 560), who 'knew Hume personally and well,' said, 'Mr. Hume's writings were so superior to his conversation, that I frequently said he understood nothing till he had written upon it.'

[693] The age of great English historians had not long begun. The first volume of _The Decline and Fall_ was published three years later. Addison had written in 1716 (_Freeholder_, No. 35), 'Our country, which has produced writers of the first figure in every other kind of work, has been very barren in good historians.' Johnson, in 1751, repeated this observation in _The Rambler_, No. 122. Lord Bolingbroke wrote in 1735 (_Works_, iii. 454), 'Our nation has furnished as ample and as important matter, good and bad, for history, as any nation under the sun; and yet we must yield the palm in writing history most certainly to the Italians and to the French, and I fear even to the Germans.'

[694] Gibbon, informing Robertson on March 26, 1788, of the completion of _The Decline and Fall_, said:--'The praise which has ever been the most flattering to my ear, is to find my name associated with the names of Robertson and Hume; and provided I can maintain my place in the triumvirate, I am indifferent at what distance I am ranked below my companions and masters.' Dugald Stewart's _Robertson_, p. 367.

[695] 'Sir,' said Johnson, 'if Robertson's style be faulty, he owes it me; that is, having too many words, and those too big ones.' _Post_, Sept. 19, 1777. Johnson was not singular among the men of his time in condemning Robertson's _verbiage_. Wesley (_Journal_, iii. 447) wrote of vol. i. of _Charles the Fifth_:--'Here is a quarto volume of eight or ten shillings' price, containing dry, verbose dissertations on feudal government, the substance of all which might be comprised in half a sheet of paper!' Johnson again uses _verbiage_ (a word not given in his _Dictionary_), _post_, April 9, 1778.

[696] See _ante_, ii. 210.

[697] See _post_, Oct. 10, 1779.

[698] 'Vertot, nA(C) en Normandie en 1655. Historien agrA(C)able et A(C)lA(C)gant. Mort en 1735.' Voltaire, _SiA"cle de Louis XIV_.

[699] Even Hume had no higher notion of what was required in a writer of ancient history. He wrote to Robertson, who was, it seems, meditating a History of Greece:--'What can you do in most places with these (the ancient) authors but transcribe and translate them? No letters or state papers from which you could correct their errors, or authenticate their narration, or supply their defects.' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 83.

[700] See _ante_, ii. 53. Southey, asserting that Robertson had never read the Laws of Alonso the Wise, says, that 'it is one of the thousand and one omissions for which he ought to be called rogue as long as his volumes last.' Southey's _Life_, ii. 318.

[701] Ovid. de Art. Amand. i. iii. v. 13 [339]. BOSWELL. 'It may be that our name too will mingle with those.'

[702] The _Gent. Mag_. for Jan. 1766 (p. 45) records, that 'a person was observed discharging musket-balls from a steel crossbow at the two remaining heads upon Temple Bar.' They were the heads of Scotch rebels executed in 1746. Samuel Rogers, who died at the end of 1855, said, 'I well remember one of the heads of the rebels upon a pole at Temple Bar.' Rogers's _Table-Talk_, p. 2.

[703] In allusion to Dr. Johnson's supposed political principles, and perhaps his own. BOSWELL.

[704] 'Dr. Johnson one day took Bishop Percy's little daughter upon his knee, and asked her what she thought of _Pilgrim's Progress_. The child answered that she had not read it. "No!" replied the Doctor; "then I would not give one farthing for you:" and he set her down and took no further notice of her.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 838. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 281) says, that Johnson once asked, 'Was there ever yet anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting _Don Quixote_, _Robinson Crusoe_, and The _Pilgrim's Progress_?'

[705] It was Johnson himself who was thus honoured. _Post_, under Dec. 20, 1784.

[706] Here is another instance of his high admiration of Milton as a Poet, notwithstanding his just abhorrence of that sour Republican's political principles. His candour and discrimination are equally conspicuous. Let us hear no more of his 'injustice to Milton.' BOSWELL.

[707] There was an exception to this. In his criticism of _Paradise Lost_ (_Works_, vii. 136), he says:--'The confusion of spirit and matter which pervades the whole narration of the war of Heaven fills it with incongruity; and the book in which it is related is, I believe, the favourite of children, and gradually neglected as knowledge is increased.'

[708] In the _Academy_, xxii. 348, 364, 382, Mr. C. E. Doble shews strong grounds for the belief that the author was Richard Allestree, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford, and Provost of Eton. Cowper spoke of it as 'that repository of self-righteousness and pharisaical lumber;' with which opinion Southey wholly disagreed. Southey's _Cowper_, i. 116.

[709] Johnson said to Boswell:--'Sir, they knew that if they refused you they'd probably never have got in another. I'd have kept them all out. Beauclerk was very earnest for you.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 21, 1773.

[710] Garrick and Jones had been elected this same spring. See _ante_, i. 481, note 3.

[711] Mr. Langton, in his _Collection_ (_post_, 1780), mentions an ode brought by Goldsmith to the Club, which had been recited for money.

[712] Dr. Johnson's memory here was not perfectly accurate: _Eugenio_ does not conclude thus. There are eight more lines after the last of those quoted by him; and the passage which he meant to recite is as follows:--

'Say now ye fluttering, poor assuming elves, Stark full of pride, of folly, of--yourselves; Say where's the wretch of all your impious crew Who dares confront his character to view? Behold Eugenio, view him o'er and o'er, Then sink into yourselves, and be no more.'

Mr. Reed informs me that the Author of _Eugenio_, a Wine Merchant at Wrexham in Denbighshire, soon after its publication, viz. 17th May, 1737, cut his own throat; and that it appears by Swift's _Works_ that the poem had been shewn to him, and received some of his corrections. Johnson had read _Eugenio_ on his first coming to town, for we see it mentioned in one of his letters to Mr. Cave, which has been inserted in this work; _ante_, p. 122. BOSWELL. See Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, xix. 153, for his letter to this wine merchant, Thomas Beach by name.

[713] These lines are in the _Annus Mirabilis_ (stanza 164) in a digression in praise of the Royal Society; described by Johnson (_Works_, vii. 320) as 'an example seldom equalled of seasonable excursion and artful return.' _Ib_ p. 341, he says: 'Dryden delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning, where light and darkness begin to mingle.... This inclination sometimes produced nonsense, which he knew; and sometimes it issued in absurdities, of which perhaps he was not conscious.' He then quotes these lines, and continues: 'They have no meaning; but may we not say, in imitation of Cowley on another book--

"'Tis so like _sense_, 'twill serve the turn as well."'

Cowley's line is from his _Pindarique Ode to Mr. Hobs_:--

''Tis so like _truth_, 'twill serve _our_ turn as well.'

[714] In his _Dictionary_, he defines _punster as a low wit, who endeavours at reputation by double meaning_. See _post_, April 28, 1778.

[715] I formerly thought that I had perhaps mistaken the word, and imagined it to be _Corps_, from its similarity of sound to the real one. For an accurate and shrewd unknown gentleman, to whom I am indebted for some remarks on my work, observes on this passage--'Q. if not on the word _Fort_? A vociferous French preacher said of Bourdaloue, "Il preche _fort bien, et_ moi _bien fort_."'--Menagiana. See also Anecdotes Litteraires, Article Bourdaloue. But my ingenious and obliging correspondent, Mr. Abercrombie of Philadelphia, has pointed out to me the following passage in _Menagiana_; which renders the preceding conjecture unnecessary, and confirms my original statement:

'Madme de Bourdonne, Chanoinesse de Remiremont, venoit d'entendre un discours plein de feu et d'esprit, mais fort peu solide, et tresirregulier. Une de ses amies, qui y prenoit interet pour l'orateur, lui dit en sortant, "Eh bien, Madme que vous semble-t-il de ce que vous venez d'entendre?--Qu'il ya d'esprit?"--"Il y a tant, repondit Madme de Bourdonne, que je n'y ai pas vu de _corps_"'--Menagiana, tome ii. p. 64. Amsterd. 1713. BOSWELL. _Menagiana, ou les bans mots et remarques critiques, historiqites, morales et derudition de M. Menage, recueillies par ses amis_, published in 1693. Gilles Menage was born 1613, died 1692.

[716] That Johnson only relished the conversation, and did not join in it, is more unlikely. In his _charge_ to Boswell, he very likely pointed out that what was said within was not to be reported without. Boswell gives only brief reports of the talk at the Club, and these not openly. See _post_, April 7, 1775, note.

[717] See _post_, the passage before Feb. 18, 1775.

[718] By the Rev. Henry Wharton, published in 1692.

[719] See _ante_, ii. 126, for what Johnson said of the _inward light_.

[720] Lady Diana Beauclerk. In 1768 Beauclerk married the eldest daughter of the second Duke of Marlborough, two days after her divorce from her first husband, Viscount Bolingbroke, the nephew of the famous Lord Bolingbroke. She was living when her story, so slightly veiled as it is, was thus published by Boswell. The marriage was not a happy one. Two years after Beauclerk's death, Mr. Burke, looking at his widow's house, said in Miss Burney's presence:--'I am extremely glad to see her at last so well housed; poor woman! the bowl has long rolled in misery; I rejoice that it has now found its balance. I never myself so much enjoyed the sight of happiness in another, as in that woman when I first saw her after the death of her husband.' He then drew Beauclerk's character 'in strong and marked expressions, describing the misery he gave his wife, his singular ill-treatment of her, and the necessary relief the death of such a man must give.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 147.

[721] Old Mr. Langton. CROKER. See _post_, April 26, 1776.

[722] See _post_, Sept. 22, 1777.

[723] See _post_, May 15, 1776.

[724] The writer of hymns.

[725] Malone says that 'Hawkesworth was introduced by Garrick to Lord Sandwich, who, thinking to put a few hundred pounds into his pocket, appointed him to revise and publish _Cook's Voyages_. He scarcely did anything to the MSS., yet sold it to Cadell and Strahan for AL6000.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 441. Thurlow, in his speech on copy-right on March 24, 1774, said 'that Hawkesworth's book, which was a mere composition of trash, sold for three guineas by the booksellers' monopolizing.' _Parl. Hist_. xvii. 1086. See _ante_, i. 253, note 1, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 3.

[726] Gilbert White held 'that, though most of the swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay behind, and bide with us during the winter.' White's _Selborne_, Letter xii. See _ante_, ii. 55.

[727] See _ante_, ii. 73.

[728] No. 41. 'The sparrow that was hatched last spring makes her first nest the ensuing season of the same materials, and with the same art as in any following year; and the hen conducts and shelters her first brood of chickens with all the prudence that she ever attains.'

[729] See _post_, April 3, 1776, April 3, 1779, and April 28, 1783.

[730] Rousseau went further than Johnson in this. About eleven years earlier he had, in his _Contract Social_, iv. 8, laid down certain 'simple dogmas,' such as the belief in a God and a future state, and said:--'Sans pouvoir obliger personne A les croire, il [le Souverain] peut bannir de l'Etat quiconque ne les croit pas: ... Que si quelquiun, aprA"s avoir reconne publiquement ces mA¬mes dogmes, se conduit comme ne les croyant pas, qu'il soit puni de mort; il a commis le plus grand des crimes, il a menti devant les lois.'

[731] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_.

[732] Boswell calls Elwal Johnson's countryman, because they both came from the same county. See _ante_, ii.

[733] Baretti, in a MS. note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 219, says:--'Johnson would have made an excellent Spanish inquisitor. To his shame be it said, he always was tooth and nail against toleration.'

[734] Dr. Mayo's calm temper and steady perseverance, rendered him an admirable subject for the exercise of Dr. Johnson's powerful abilities. He never flinched; but, after reiterated blows, remained seemingly unmoved as at the first. The scintillations of Johnson's genius flashed every time he was struck, without his receiving any injury. Hence he obtained the epithet of The Literary Anvil. BOSWELL. See _post_, April 15, 1778, for an account of another dinner at Mr. Dilly's, where Johnson and Mayo met.

[735] The Young Pretender, Charles Edward.

[736] Mr. Croker, quoting Johnson's letter of May 20, 1775 (_Piozzi Letters_, i. 219), where he says, 'I dined in a large company at a dissenting bookseller's yesterday, and disputed against toleration with one Doctor Meyer,' continues:--'This must have been the dinner noted in the text; but I cannot reconcile the date, and the mention of the death of the Queen of Denmark, which happened on May 10, 1775, ascertains that the date of the _letter_ is correct. Boswell ... must, I think, have misdated and misplaced his note of the conversation.' That the dinner did not take place in May, 1775, is, however, quite clear. By that date Goldsmith had been dead more than a year, and Goldsmith bore a large part in the talk at the Dilly's table. On the other hand, there can be no question about the correctness of the date of the letter. Wesley, in his _Journal_ for 1757 (ii. 349), mentions 'Mr. Meier, chaplain to one of the Hanoverian regiments.' Perhaps he is the man whom Johnson met in 1775.

[737] See _ante_, i. 423, note 2.

[738] 'It is very possible he had to call at Covent-garden on his way, and that for this, and not for Boswell's reason, he had taken his hat early. The actor who so assisted him in Young Marlow was taking his benefit this seventh of May; and for an additional attraction Goldsmith had written him an epilogue.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 376.

[739] Johnson was not given to interrupting a speaker. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 164), describing his conversation, says:--'For the pleasure he communicated to his hearers he expected not the tribute of silence; on the contrary, he encouraged others, particularly young men, to speak, and paid a due attention to what they said.' See _post_, under April 29, 1776, note.

[740] That this was Langton can be seen from Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 22, 1773, and from Johnson's letters of July 5, 1773, July 5, 1774, and Jan. 21, 1775.

[741] See _post_, April 28, 1783.

[742] _Pr. and Med_. p. 40. Boswell.

[743] See _ante_, i. 489.

[744] 'In England,' wrote Burke, 'the Roman Catholics are a sect; in Ireland they are a nation.' Burke's _Corres_. iv. 89.

[745] 'The celebrated number of _ten_ persecutions has been determined by the ecclesiastical writers of the fifth century, who possessed a more distinct view of the prosperous or adverse fortunes of the church, from the age of Nero to that of Diocletian. The ingenious parallels of the _ten_ plagues of Egypt, and of the _ten_ horns of the Apocalypse, first suggested this calculation to their minds.' Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, ch. xvi, ed. 1807, ii. 370.

[746] See _ante_, ii. 121, 130.

[747] See _ante_, ii. 105.

[748] Reynolds said:--'Johnson had one virtue which I hold one of the most difficult to practise. After the heat of contest was over, if he had been informed that his antagonist resented his rudeness, he was the first to seek after a reconciliation.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 457. He wrote to Dr. Taylor in 1756:--'When I am musing alone, I feel a pang for every moment that any human being has by my peevishness or obstinacy spent in uneasiness.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 324. More than twenty years later he said in Miss Burney's hearing:--'I am always sorry when I make bitter speeches, and I never do it but when I am insufferably vexed.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 131. 'When the fray was over,' writes Murphy (_Life_, p. 140), 'he generally softened into repentance, and, by conciliating measures, took care that no animosity should be left rankling in the breast of the antagonist.' See _ante_, ii. 109.

[749] Johnson had offended Langton as well as Goldsmith this day, yet of Goldsmith only did he ask pardon. Perhaps this fact increased Langton's resentment, which lasted certainly more than a year. See _post_, July 5, 1774, and Jan. 21, 1775.

[750] 'Addison, speaking of his own deficiency in conversation, used to say of himself, that with respect to intellectual wealth he could draw bills for a thousand pounds, though he had not a guinea in his pocket.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 446. Somewhat the same thought may be found in _The Tatler_, No. 30, where it is said that 'a man endowed with great perfections without good-breeding, is like one who has his pockets full of gold, but always wants change for his ordinary occasions.' I have traced it still earlier, for Burnet in his _History of his own Times_,