Chapter 3

'I am sorry for the Dean of Exeter; if he dies I conclude the leaden mace of the Antiquarian Society will be given to Judge Barrington.' (He was 'second Justice of Chester.')

For Dr. Brocklesby see _ante_, pp. 176, 230, 338, 400.

Of Mr. John Nichols, Murphy says that 'his attachment to Dr. Johnson was unwearied.' _Life of Johnson_, p. 66. He was the printer of _The Lives of the Poets_ (_ante_, p. 36), and the author of _Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, Printer_, 'the last of the learned printers,' whose apprentice he had been (_ante_, p. 369). Horace Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 259) says:--

'I scarce ever saw a book so correct as Mr. Nichols's _Life of Mr. Bowyer_. I wish it deserved the pains he has bestowed on it every way, and that he would not dub so many men _great_. I have known several of his _heroes_, who were very _little_ men.'

The _Life of Bowyer_ being recast and enlarged was republished under the title of _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_. From 1778 till his death in 1826 the _Gentleman's Magazine_ was in great measure in his hands. Southey, writing in 1804, says:--

'I have begun to take in here at Keswick the _Gentleman's Magazine_, _alias_ the _Oldwomania_, to enlighten a Portuguese student among the mountains; it does amuse me by its exquisite inanity, and the glorious and intense stupidity of its correspondents; it is, in truth, a disgrace to the age and the country.' Southey's _Life and Correspondence_, ii. 281.

Mr. William Cooke, 'commonly called Conversation Cooke,' wrote _Lives of Macklin and Foote_. Forster's _Essays_, ii. 312, and _Gent. Mag._ 1824, p. 374. Mr. Richard Paul Joddrel, or Jodrell, was the author of _The Persian Heroine, a Tragedy_, which, in Baker's _Biog. Dram._ i. 400, is wrongly assigned to Sir R.P. Jodrell, M.D. Nichols's _Lit. Anec._ ix. 2.

For Mr. Paradise see _ante_, p. 364, note 2.

Dr. Horsley was the controversialist, later on Bishop of St. David's and next of Rochester. Gibbon makes splendid mention of him (_Misc. Works_, i. 232) when he tells how 'Dr. Priestley's Socinian shield has repeatedly been pierced by the mighty spear of Horsley.' Windham, however, in his _Diary_ in one place (p. 125) speaks of him as having his thoughts 'intent wholly on prospects of Church preferment;' and in another place (p. 275) says that 'he often lays down with great confidence what turns out afterwards to be wrong.' In the House of Lords he once said that 'he did not know what the mass of the people in any country had to do with the laws but to obey them.' _Parl. Hist_. xxxii. 258. Thurlow rewarded him for his _Letters to Priestley_ by a stall at Gloucester, 'saying that "those who supported the Church should be supported by it."' Campbell's _Chancellors_, ed. 1846, v. 635.

For Mr. Windham, see _ante_, p. 200.

Hawkins (_Life of Johnson_, p. 567) thus writes of the formation of the Club:--

'I was not made privy to this his intention, but all circumstances considered, it was no matter of surprise to me when I heard that the great Dr. Johnson had, in the month of December 1783, formed a sixpenny club at an ale-house in Essex-street, and that though some of the persons thereof were persons of note, strangers, under restrictions, for three pence each night might three nights in a week hear him talk and partake of his conversation.'

Miss Hawkins (_Memoirs_, i. 103) says:--

'Boswell was well justified in his resentment of my father's designation of this club as a sixpenny club, meeting at an ale-house. ... Honestly speaking, I dare say my father did not like being passed over.'

Sir Joshua Reynolds, writing of the club, says:--

'Any company was better than none; by which Johnson connected himself with many mean persons whose presence he could command. For this purpose he established a club at a little ale-house in Essex-street, composed of a strange mixture of very learned and very ingenious odd people. Of the former were Dr. Heberden, Mr. Windham, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Steevens, Mr. Paradise. Those of the latter I do not think proper to enumerate.' Taylor's _Life of Reynolds_, ii. 455.

It is possible that Reynolds had never seen the Essex Head, and that the term 'little ale-house' he had borrowed from Hawkins's account. Possibly too his disgust at Barry here found vent. Murphy (_Life of Johnson_, p. 124) says:--

'The members of the club were respectable for their rank, their talents, and their literature.'

The 'little ale-house' club saw one of its members, Alderman Clarke (_ante_, p. 258), Lord Mayor within a year; another, Horsley, a Bishop within five years; and a third, Windham, Secretary at War within ten years. Nichols (_Literary Anecdotes_, ii. 553) gives a list of the 'constant members' at the time of Johnson's death.

APPENDIX E.

(Page 399.)

Miss Burney's account of Johnson's last days is interesting, but her dates are confused more even than is common with her. I have corrected them as well as I can.

'Dec. 9. He will not, it seems, be talked to--at least very rarely. At times indeed he re-animates; but it is soon over and he says of himself:--"I am now like Macbeth--question enrages me."'

'Dec. 10. At night my father brought us the most dismal tidings of dear Dr. Johnson. He had thanked and taken leave of all his physicians. Alas! I shall lose him, and he will take no leave of me. My father was deeply depressed. I hear from everyone he is now perfectly resigned to his approaching fate, and no longer in terror of death.'

'Dec. 11. My father in the morning saw this first of men. He was up and very composed. He took his hand very kindly, asked after all his family, and then in particular how Fanny did. "I hope," he said, "Fanny did not take it amiss that I did not see her. I was very bad. Tell Fanny to pray for me." After which, still grasping his hand, he made a prayer for himself, the most fervent, pious, humble, eloquent, and touching, my father says, that ever was composed. Oh! would I had heard it! He ended it with Amen! in which my father joined, and was echoed by all present; and again, when my father was leaving him, he brightened up, something of his arch look returned, and he said: "I think I shall throw the ball at Fanny yet."'

'Dec. 12. [Miss Burney called at Bolt-court.] All the rest went away but a Mrs. Davis, a good sort of woman, whom this truly charitable soul had sent for to take a dinner at his house. [See _ante_, p. 239, note 2.] Mr. Langton then came. He could not look at me, and I turned away from him. Mrs. Davis asked how the Doctor was. "Going on to death very fast," was his mournful answer. "Has he taken," said she, "anything?" "Nothing at all. We carried him some bread and milk--he refused it, and said:--'The less the better.'"'

'Dec. 20. This day was the ever-honoured, ever-lamented Dr. Johnson committed to the earth. Oh, how sad a day to me! My father attended. I could not keep my eyes dry all day; nor can I now in the recollecting it; but let me pass over what to mourn is now so vain.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 333-339.

APPENDIX F.

(_Notes on Boswell's note on pages 403-405_.)

[F-1] In a letter quoted in Mr. Croker's Boswell, p. 427, Dr. Johnson calls Thomas Johnson 'cousin,' and says that in the last sixteen months he had given him £40. He mentions his death in 1779. _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 45.

[F-2] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 603) says that Elizabeth Herne was Johnson's first-cousin, and that he had constantly--how long he does not say--contributed £15 towards her maintenance.

[F-3] For Mauritius Lowe, see _ante_, iii. 324, and iv. 201.

[F-4] To Mr. Windham, two days earlier, he had given a copy of the _New Testament_, saying:--'Extremum hoc munus morientis habeto.' Windham's _Diary_, p. 28.

[F-5] For Mrs. Gardiner see _ante_, i. 242.

[F-6] Mr. John Desmoulins was the son of Mrs. Desmoulins (_ante_, iii. 222, 368), and the grandson of Johnson's god-father, Dr. Swinfen (_ante_, i. 34). Johnson mentions him in a letter to Mrs. Thrale in 1778. 'Young Desmoulins is taken in an _under-something_ of Drury Lane; he knows not, I believe, his own denomination.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 25.

[F-7] The reference is to _The Rambler_, No. 41 (not 42 as Boswell says), where Johnson mentions 'those vexations and anxieties with which all human enjoyments are polluted.'

[F-8] Bishop Sanderson described his soul as 'infinitely polluted with sin.' Walton's _Lives_, ed. 1838, p. 396.

[F-9] Hume, writing in 1742 about his _Essays Moral and Political_, says:--

'Innys, the great bookseller in Paul's Church-yard, wonders there is not a new edition, for that he cannot find copies for his customers.' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 143.

[F-10] Nichols (_Lit. Anec._ ii. 554) says that, on Dec. 7,

'Johnson asked him whether any of the family of Faden the printer were living. Being told that the geographer near Charing Cross was Faden's son, he said, after a short pause:--"I borrowed a guinea of his father near thirty years ago; be so good as to take this, and pay it for me."'

[F-11] Nowhere does Hawkins more shew the malignancy of his character than in his attacks on Johnson's black servant, and through him on Johnson. With the passage in which this offensive _caveat_ is found he brings his work to a close. At the first mention of Frank (_Life_, p. 328) he says:--

'His first master had _in great humanity_ made him a Christian, and his last for no assignable reason, nay rather in despite of nature, and to unfit him for being useful according to his capacity, determined to make him a scholar.'

But Hawkins was a brutal fellow. See _ante_, i. 27, note 2, and 28, note 1.

[F-12] Johnson had written to Taylor on Oct. 23 of this year:--

'"Coming down from a very restless night I found your letter, which made me a little angry. You tell me that recovery is in my power. This indeed I should be glad to hear if I could once believe it. But you mean to charge me with neglecting or opposing my own health. Tell me, therefore, what I do that hurts me, and what I neglect that would help me." This letter is endorsed by Taylor: "This is the last letter. My answer, which were (_sic_) the words of advice he gave to Mr. Thrale the day he dyed, he resented extremely from me."' Mr. Alfred Morrison's _Collection of Autographs_, &c., ii. 343.

'The words of advice' which were given to Mr. Thrale _the day before_ the fatal fit seized him, were that he should abstain from full meals. _Ante_, iv. 84, note 4. Johnson's resentment of Taylor's advice may account for the absence of his name in his will.

[F-13] They were sold in 650 Lots, in a four days' sale. Besides the books there were 146 portraits, of which 61 were framed and glazed. These prints in their frames were sold in lots of 4, 8, and even 10 together, though certainly some of them--and perhaps many--were engravings from Reynolds. The Catalogue of the sale is in the Bodleian Library.

APPENDIX G.

(_Notes on Boswell's note on page 408_.)

[G-1] Mrs. Piozzi records (_Anecdotes_, p. 120) that Johnson told her,--

'When Boyse was almost perishing with hunger, and some money was produced to purchase him a dinner, he got a bit of roast beef, but could not eat it without ketch-up; and laid out the last half-guinea he possessed in truffles and mushrooms, eating them in bed too, for want of clothes, or even a shirt to sit up in.'

Hawkins (_Life_, p. 159) gives 1740 as the year of Boyse's destitution.

'He was,' he says, 'confined to a bed which had no sheets; here, to procure food, he wrote; his posture sitting up in bed, his only covering a blanket, in which a hole was made to admit of the employment of his arm.'

Two years later Boyse wrote the following verses to Cave from a spunging-house:--

'Hodie, teste coelo summo, Sine pane, sine nummo, Sorte positus infeste, Scribo tibi dolens moeste. Fame, bile tumet jecur: Urbane, mitte opem, precor. Tibi enim cor humanum Non a malis alienum: Mihi mens nee male grato, Pro a te favore dato. Ex gehenna debitoria, Vulgo, domo spongiatoria.'

He adds that he hopes to have his _Ode on the British Nation_ done that day. This _Ode_, which is given in the _Gent. Mag._ 1742, p. 383, contains the following verse, which contrasts sadly with the poor poet's case:--

'Thou, sacred isle, amidst thy ambient main, _Enjoyst the sweets of freedom_ all thy own.'

[G-2] It is not likely that Johnson called a sixpence 'a serious consideration.' He who in his youth would not let his comrades say _prodigious_ (_ante/_, in. 303) was not likely in his old age so to misuse a word.

[G-3] Hugh Kelly is mentioned _ante_, ii. 48, note 2, and iii. 113.

[G-4] It was not on the return from Sky, but on the voyage from Sky to Rasay, that the spurs were lost. _Post_, v. 163.

[G-5] Dr. White's _Bampton Lectures_ of 1784 'became part of the triumphant literature of the University of Oxford,' and got the preacher a Christ Church Canonry. Of these _Lectures_ Dr. Parr had written about one-fifth part. White, writing to Parr about a passage in the manuscript of the last Lecture, said:--'I fear I did not clearly explain myself; I humbly beg the favour of you to make my meaning more intelligible.' On the death of Mr. Badcock in 1788, a note for £500 from White was found in his pocket-book. White pretended that this was remuneration for some other work; but it was believed on good grounds that Badcock had begun what Parr had completed, and that these famous _Lectures_ were mainly their work. Badcock was one of the writers in the _Monthly Review_. Johnstone's _Life of Dr. Parr_, i. 218-278. For Badcock's correspondence with the editor of the _Monthly Review_, see _Bodleian_ MS. _Add._ C. 90.

[G-6] 'Virgilium vidi tantum.' Ovid, _Tristia_, iv. 10. 51.

[G-7] Mackintosh says of Priestley:--'Frankness and disinterestedness in the avowal of his opinion were his point of honour.' He goes on to point out that there was 'great mental power in him wasted and scattered.' _Life of Mackintosh_, i. 349. See _ante_, ii. 124, and iv. 238 for Johnson's opinion of Priestley.

[G-8] Badcock, in using the term 'index-scholar,' was referring no doubt to Pope's lines:--

'How Index-learning turns no student pale, Yet holds the eel of science by the tail.'

_Dunciad_, i. 279.

APPENDIX H.

(_Notes on Boswell's note on pages 421-422_.)

[H-1] The last lines of the inscription on this urn are borrowed, with a slight change, from the last paragraph of the last _Rambler/_. (Johnson's _Works_, iii. 465, and _ante_, i. 226.) Johnson visited Colonel Myddelton on August 29, 1774, in his Tour to Wales. See _post_, v. 453.

[H-2] Johnson, writing to Dr. Taylor on Sept. 3, 1783, said:--'I sat to Opey (sic) as long as he desired, and I think the head is finished, but it is not much admired.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 481. Hawkins (_Life of Johnson_, p. 569) says that in 1784 'Johnson resumed sitting to Opie, but,' he adds, 'I believe the picture was never finished.'

[H-3] Of this picture, which was the one painted for Beauclerk (_ante_, p. 180), it is stated in Johnson's _Work_, ed. 1787, xi. 204, that 'there is in it that appearance of a labouring working mind, of an indolent reposing body, which he had to a very great degree.'

[H-4] It seems almost certain that the portrait of Johnson in the Common Room of University College, Oxford, is this very mezzotinto. It was given to the College by Sir William Scott, and it is a mezzotinto from Opie's portrait. It has been reproduced for this work, and will be found facing page 244 of volume iii. Scott's inscription on the back of the frame is given on page 245, note 3, of the same volume.

APPENDIX I.

(_Page_ 424.)

Boswell most likely never knew that in the year 1790 Mr. Seward, in the name of Cadell the publisher, had asked Parr to write a _Life of Johnson_. (Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, iv. 678.) Parr, in his amusing vanity, was as proud of this _Life_ as if he had written it. '"It would have been," he said, "the third most learned work that has ever yet appeared. The most learned work ever published I consider Bentley _On the Epistles of Phalaris_; the next Salmasius _On the Hellenistic Language_." Alluding to Boswell's Life he continued, "Mine should have been, not the droppings of his lips, but the history of his mind."' Field's _Life of Parr_, i. 164.

In the epitaph that he first sent in were found the words 'Probabili Poetae.'

'In arms,' wrote Parr, 'were all the Johnsonians: Malone, Steevens, Sir W. Scott, Windham, and even Fox, all in arms. The epithet was cold. They do not understand it, and I am a Scholar, not a Belles-Lettres man.'

Parr had wished to pass over all notice of Johnson's poetical character. To this, Malone said, none of his friends of the Literary Club would agree. He pointed out also that Parr had not noticed 'that part of Johnson's genius, which placed him on higher ground than perhaps any other quality that can be named--the universality of his knowledge, the promptness of his mind in producing it on all occasions in conversation, and the vivid eloquence with which he clothed his thoughts, however suddenly called upon.' Parr, regardless of Johnson's rule that 'in lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath' (_ante_, ii. 407), replied, that if he mentioned his conversation he should have to mention also his roughness in contradiction, &c. As for the epithet _probabili_, he 'never reflected upon it without almost a triumphant feeling in its felicity.' Nevertheless he would change it into 'poetae sententiarum et verborum ponderibus admirabili.' Yet these words, 'energetic and sonorous' though they were, 'fill one with a secret and invincible loathing, because they tend to introduce into the epitaph a character of magnificence.' With every fresh objection he rose in importance. He wrote for the approbation of real scholars of generations yet unborn. 'That the epitaph was written by such or such a man will, from the publicity of the situation, and the popularity of the subject, be long remembered.' Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, iv. 694-712. No objection seems to have been raised to the five pompous lines of perplexing dates and numerals in which no room is found even for Johnson's birth and birth-place.

'After I had written the epitaph,' wrote Parr to a friend, 'Sir Joshua Reynolds told me there was a scroll. I was in a rage. A scroll! Why, Ned, this is vile modern contrivance. I wanted one train of ideas. What could I do with the scroll? Johnson held it, and Johnson must speak in it. I thought of this, his favourite maxim, in the Life of Milton, [Johnson's _Works_, vii. 77],

"[Greek: Otti toi en megaroisi kakon t agathon te tetuktai.]."

In Homer [_Odyssey_, iv. 392] you know--and shewing the excellence of Moral Philosophy. There Johnson and Socrates agree. Mr. Seward, hearing of my difficulty, and no scholar, suggested the closing line in the _Rambler_ [_ante_, i. 226, note 1]; had I looked there I should have anticipated the suggestion. It is the closing line in Dionysius's _Periegesis_,

"[Greek: Anton ek makaron antaxios eiae amoibae.]."

I adopted it, and gave Seward the praise. "Oh," quoth Sir William Scott, "_[Greek: makaron]_ is Heathenish, and the Dean and Chapter will hesitate." "The more fools they," said I. But to prevent disputes I have altered it.

"[Greek: En makaressi ponon antaxios ein amoibae]." Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, iv. 713.

Though the inscription on the scroll is not strictly speaking part of the epitaph, yet this mixture of Greek and Latin is open to the censure Johnson passed on Pope's Epitaph on Craggs.

'It may be proper to remark,' he said, 'the absurdity of joining in the same inscription Latin and English, or verse and prose. If either language be preferable to the other, let that only be used; for no reason can be given why part of the information should be given in one tongue and part in another on a tomb more than in any other place, or on any other occasion.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 353.

Bacon the sculptor was anxious, wrote Malone, 'that posterity should know that he was entitled to annex R.A. to his name.' Parr was ready to give his name, lest if it were omitted 'Bacon should slily put the figure of a hog on Johnson's monument'; just as 'Saurus and Batrachus, when Octavia would not give them leave to set their names on the Temples they had built in Rome, scattered one of them [Greek: saurai] [lizards], and the other [Greek: batrachoi] [frogs] on the bases and capitals of the columns.' But as for the R.A., the sculptor 'very reluctantly had to agree to its omission.' Johnstone's _Parr_, iv. 705 and 710.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Nothing can compensate for this want this year of all years. Johnson's health was better than it had been for long, and his mind happier perhaps than it had ever been. The knowledge that in his _Lives of the Poets_, he had done, and was doing good work, no doubt was very cheering to him. At no time had he gone more into society, and at no time does he seem to have enjoyed it with greater relish. 'How do you think I live?' he wrote on April 25. 'On Thursday, I dined with Hamilton, and went thence to Mrs. Ord. On Friday, with much company at Reynolds's. On Saturday, at Dr. Bell's. On Sunday, at Dr. Burney's; at night, came Mrs. Ord, Mr. Greville, &c. On Monday with Reynolds, at night with Lady Lucan; to-day with Mr. Langton; to-morrow with the Bishop of St. Asaph; on Thursday with Mr. Bowles; Friday ----; Saturday, at the Academy; Sunday with Mr. Ramsay.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 107. On May 1, he wrote:--'At Mrs. Ord's, I met one Mrs. B---- [Buller], a travelled lady, of great spirit, and some consciousness of her own abilities. We had a contest of gallantry an hour long, so much to the diversion of the company that at Ramsay's last night, in a crowded room, they would have pitted us again. There were Smelt, [one of the King's favourites] and the Bishop of St. Asaph, who comes to every place; and Lord Monboddo, and Sir Joshua, and ladies out of tale.' _Ib_. p. 111. The account that Langton gives of the famous evening at Mrs. Vesey's, 'when the company began to collect round Johnson till they became not less than four, if not five deep (_ante_, May 2, 1780), is lively enough; but 'the particulars of the conversation' which he neglects, Boswell would have given us in full.

[2] In 1792, Miss Burney, after recording that Boswell told some of his Johnsonian stories, continues:--'Mr. Langton told some stories in imitation of Dr. Johnson; but they became him less than Mr. Boswell, and only reminded me of what Dr. Johnson himself once said to me--"Every man has some time in his life an ambition to be a wag."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, v. 307.

[3] _Stephanorum Historia, vitas ipsorum ac libros complectens_. London, 1709.

[4] _Senilia_ was published in 1742. The line to which Johnson refers is, 'Mel, nervos, fulgur, Carteret, unus, habes,' p. 101. In another line, the poet celebrates Colley Cibber's Muse--the _Musa Cibberi_: 'Multa Cibberum levat aura.' p. 50. See Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1843, i. 367.

[5] _Graecae Linguae Dialecti in Scholae Westmonast. usum_, 1738.

[6] Giannone, an Italian historian, born 1676, died 1748. When he published his _History of the Kingdom of Naples_, a friend congratulating him on its success, said:--'Mon ami, vous vous êtes mis une couronne sur la tête, mais une couronne d'épines.' His attacks on the Church led to persecution, in the end he made a retractation, but nevertheless he died in prison. _Nouv. Biog. Gén._ xx. 422.

[7] See _ante_, ii. 119.

[8] 'There is no kind of impertinence more justly censurable than his who is always labouring to level thoughts to intellects higher than his own; who apologises for every word which his own narrowness of converse inclines him to think unusual; keeps the exuberance of his faculties under visible restraint; is solicitous to anticipate inquiries by needless explanations; and endeavours to shade his own abilities lest weak eyes should be dazzled with their lustre.' _The Rambler_, No. 173.

[9] Johnson, in his _Dictionary_, defines _Anfractuousness_ as _Fulness of windings and turnings_. _Anfractuosity_ is not given. Lord Macaulay, in the last sentence in his _Biography of Johnson_, alludes to this passage.

[10] See _ante_, iii. 149, note 2.

[11] 'My purpose was to admit no testimony of living authors, that I might not be misled by partiality, and that none of my contemporaries might have reason to complain; nor have I departed from this resolution, but when some performance of uncommon excellence excited my veneration, when my memory supplied me from late books with an example that was wanting, or when my heart, in the tenderness of friendship, solicited admission for a favourite name.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 39. He cites himself under _important_, Mrs. Lennox under _talent_, Garrick under _giggler_; from Richardson's _Clarissa_, he makes frequent quotations. In the fourth edition, published in 1773 (_ante_, ii. 203), he often quotes Reynolds; for instance, under _vulgarism_, which word is not in the previous editions. Beattie he quotes under _weak_, and Gray under _bosom_. He introduces also many quotations from Law, and Young. In the earlier editions, in his quotations from _Clarissa_, he very rarely gives the author's name; in the fourth edition I have found it rarely omitted.

[12] In one of his _Hypochondriacks_ (_London Mag._ 1782, p. 233) Boswell writes:--'I have heard it remarked by one, of whom more remarks deserve to be remembered than of any person I ever knew, that a man is often as narrow as he is prodigal for want of counting.'

[13] 'Sept. 1778. We began talking of _Irene_, and Mrs. Thrale made Dr. Johnson read some passages which I had been remarking as uncommonly applicable to the present time. He read several speeches, and told us he had not ever read so much of it before since it was first printed.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 96. 'I was told,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'that a gentleman called Pot, or some such name, was introduced to him as a particular admirer of his. The Doctor growled and took no further notice. "He admires in especial your _Irene_ as the finest tragedy modern times;" to which the Doctor replied, "If Pot says so, Pot lies!" and relapsed into his reverie.' _Croker Corres._ ii. 32.

[14] _Scrupulosity_ was a word that Boswell had caught up from Johnson. Sir W. Jones (_Life_, i. 177) wrote in 1776:--'You will be able to examine with the minutest _scrupulosity_, as Johnson would call it.' Johnson describes Addison's prose as 'pure without scrupulosity.' _Works_, vii. 472. 'Swift,' he says, 'washed himself with oriental scrupulosity.' _Ib._ viii. 222. Boswell (_Hebrides_, Aug. 15) writes of 'scrupulosity of conscience.'

[15]

'When thou didst not, savage, Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known.' _The Tempest_, act i. sc. 2.

[16] Secretary to the British Herring Fishery, remarkable for an extraordinary number of occasional verses, not of eminent merit. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 115, note i. Lockman was known in France as the translator of Voltaire's _La Henriade_. See Marmontel's Preface. Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, viii. 18.

[17] _Luke_ vii. 50. BOSWELL.

[18] Miss Burney, describing him in 1783, says:--'He looks unformed in his manners and awkward in his gestures. He joined not one word in the general talk.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 237. See _ante_, ii. 41, note 1.

[19] By Garrick.

[20] See _ante_, i. 201.

[21] See _post_, under Sept. 30, 1783.

[22] The actor. Churchill introduces him in _The Rosciad_ (_Poems_, i. 16):--'Next Holland came. With truly tragic stalk, He creeps, he flies. A Hero should not walk.'

[23] In a letter written by Johnson to a friend in 1742-43, he says: 'I never see Garrick.' MALONE.

[24] See _ante_, ii. 227.

[25] _The Wonder! A Woman keeps a Secret_, by Mrs. Centlivre. Acted at Drury Lane in 1714. Revived by Garrick in 1757. Reed's _Biog. Dram_. iii. 420.

[26] In _Macbeth_.

[27] Mr. Longley was Recorder of Rochester, and father of Archbishop Longley. To the kindness of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Newton Smart, I owe the following extract from his manuscript _Autobiography_:--'Dr. Johnson and General Paoli came down to visit Mr. Langton, and I was asked to meet them, when the conversation took place mentioned by Boswell, in which Johnson gave me more credit for knowledge of the Greek metres than I deserved. There was some question about anapaestics, concerning which I happened to remember what Foster used to tell us at Eton, that the whole line to the _Basis Anapaestica_ was considered but as one verse, however divided in the printing, and consequently the syllables at the end of each line were not common, as in other metres. This observation was new to Johnson, and struck him. Had he examined me farther, I fear he would have found me ignorant. Langton was a very good Greek scholar, much superior to Johnson, to whom nevertheless he paid profound deference, sometimes indeed I thought more than he deserved. The next day I dined at Langton's with Johnson, I remember Lady Rothes [Langton's wife] spoke of the advantage children now derived from the little books published purposely for their instruction. Johnson controverted it, asserting that at an early age it was better to gratify curiosity with wonders than to attempt planting truth, before the mind was prepared to receive it, and that therefore, _Jack the Giant-Killer, Parisenus and Parismenus_, and _The Seven Champions of Christendom_ were fitter for them than Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer.' Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 16) says:--'Dr. Johnson used to condemn me for putting Newbery's books into children's hands. "Babies do not want," said he, "to hear about babies; they like to be told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and stimulate their little minds." When I would urge the numerous editions of _Tommy Prudent_ or _Goody Two Shoes_; "Remember always," said he, "that the parents buy the books, and that the children never read them.'" For Johnson's visit to Rochester, see _post_, July, 1783.

[28] See _post_, beginning of 1781, after _The Life of Swift_, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 15.

[29] See _ante_, under Sept. 9, 1779.

[30] Johnson wrote of this grotto (_Works_, viii. 270):--'It may be frequently remarked of the studious and speculative that they are proud of trifles, and that their amusements seem frivolous and childish.'

[31] See _ante_, i. 332.

[32] _Epilogue to the Satires_, i. 131. Dr. James Foster, the Nonconformist preacher. Johnson mentions 'the reputation which he had gained by his proper delivery.' _Works_, viii. 384. In _The Conversations of Northcote_, p. 88, it is stated that 'Foster first became popular from the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke stopping in the porch of his chapel in the Old Jewry out of a shower of rain: and thinking he might as well hear what was going on he went in, and was so well pleased that he sent all the great folks to hear him, and he was run after as much as Irving has been in our time.' Dr. T. Campbell (_Diary_, p. 34) recorded in 1775, that 'when Mrs. Thrale quoted something from Foster's _Sermons_, Johnson flew in a passion, and said that Foster was a man of mean ability, and of no original thinking.' Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, v. 300) wrote of Foster:--'Wonderful! a divine preferring reason to faith, and more afraid of vice than of heresy.'

[33] It is believed to have been her play of _The Sister_, brought out in 1769. 'The audience expressed their disapprobation of it with so much appearance of prejudice that she would not suffer an attempt to exhibit it a second time.' _Gent. Mag._ xxxix. 199. It is strange, however, if Goldsmith was asked to hiss a play for which he wrote the epilogue. Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, ii. 80. Johnson wrote on Oct. 28, 1779 (_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 72):--'C---- L---- accuses ---- of making a party against her play. I always hissed away the charge, supposing him a man of honour; but I shall now defend him with less confidence.' Baretti, in a marginal note, says that C---- L---- is 'Charlotte Lennox.' Perhaps ---- stands for Cumberland. Miss Burney said that 'Mr. Cumberland is notorious for hating and envying and spiting all authors in the dramatic line.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 272.

[34] See _ante_, i. 255.

[35] In _The Rambler_, No. 195, Johnson describes rascals such as this man. 'They hurried away to the theatre, full of malignity and denunciations against a man whose name they had never heard, and a performance which they could not understand; for they were resolved to judge for themselves, and would not suffer the town to be imposed upon by scribblers. In the pit they exerted themselves with great spirit and vivacity; called out for the tunes of obscene songs, talked loudly at intervals of Shakespeare and Jonson,' &c.

[36] See _ante_, ii. 469.

[37] Dr. Percy told Malone 'that they all at the Club had such a high opinion of Mr. Dyer's knowledge and respect for his judgment as to appeal to him constantly, and that his sentence was final.' Malone adds that 'he was so modest and reserved, that he frequently sat silent in company for an hour, and seldom spoke unless appealed to. Goldsmith, who used to rattle away upon _all_ subjects, had been talking somewhat loosely relative to music. Some one wished for Mr. Dyer's opinion, which he gave with his usual strength and accuracy. "Why," said Goldsmith, turning round to Dyer, whom he had scarcely noticed before, "you seem to know a good deal of this matter." "If I had not," replied Dyer, "I should not, in this company, have said a word upon the subject."' Burke described him as 'a man of profound and general erudition; his sagacity and judgment were fully equal to the extent of his learning.' Prior's _Malone_, pp. 419, 424. Malone in his _Life of Dryden_, p. 181, says that Dyer was _Junius_. Johnson speaks of him as 'the late learned Mr. Dyer.' _Works_, viii. 385. Had he been alive he was to have been the professor of mathematics in the imaginary college at St. Andrews. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25. Many years after his death, Johnson bought his portrait to hang in 'a little room that he was fitting up with prints.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 639.

[38] _Memoirs of Agriculture and other Oeconomical Arts_, 3 vols., by Robert Dossie, London, 1768-82.

[39] See _ante_, ii. 14.

[40] Here Lord Macartney remarks, 'A Bramin or any cast of the Hindoos will neither admit you to be of their religion, nor be converted to yours;--a thing which struck the Portuguese with the greatest astonishment, when they first discovered the East Indies.' BOSWELL.

[41] See _ante_, ii. 250.

[42] See _ante_, Aug. 30, 1780.

[43] John, Lord Carteret, and Earl Granville, who died Jan. 2, 1763. It is strange that he wrote so ill; for Lord Chesterfield says (_Misc. Works_, iv. _Appendix_, p. 42) that 'he had brought away with him from Oxford, a great stock of Greek and Latin, and had made himself master of all the modern languages. He was one of the best speakers in the House of Lords, both in the declamatory and argumentative way.'

[44] Walpole describes the partiality of the members of the court-martial that sat on Admiral Keppel in Jan. 1779. One of them 'declared frankly that he should not attend to forms of law, but to justice.' So friendly were the judges to the prisoner that 'it required the almost unanimous voice of the witnesses in favour of his conduct, and the vile arts practised against him, to convince all mankind how falsely and basely he had been accused.' Walpole, referring to the members, speaks of 'the feelings of seamen unused to reason.' Some of the leading politicians established themselves at Portsmouth during the trial. _Journal of the Reign of George III_, ii. 329

[45] See _ante_, ii. 240.

[46] In all Gray's _Odes_, there is a kind of cumbrous splendour which we wish away.... The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural violence. "Double, double, toil and trouble." He has a kind of strutting dignity, and is tall by walking on tip-toe. His art and his struggle are too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 484-87. See _ante_, i. 402, and ii. 327, 335.

[47] One evening, in the Haymarket Theatre, 'when Foote lighted the King to his chair, his majesty asked who [sic] the piece was written by? "By one of your Majesty's chaplains," said Foote, unable even then to suppress his wit; "and dull enough to have been written by a bishop."' Forster's _Essays_, ii. 435. See _ante_, i. 390, note 3.

[48] Bk. v. ch. 1.

[49] See _ante_, ii. 133, note 1; Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 27, and Oct. 28.

[50] The correspondent of _The Gentleman's Magazine_ [1792, p. 214] who subscribes himself SCIOLUS furnishes the following supplement:--

'A lady of my acquaintance remembers to have heard her uncle sing those homely stanzas more than forty-five years ago. He repeated the second thus:--

She shall breed young lords and ladies fair, And ride abroad in a coach and three pair, And the best, &c. And have a house, &c.

And remembered a third which seems to have been the introductory one, and is believed to have been the only remaining one:--

When the Duke of Leeds shall have made his choice Of a charming young lady that's beautiful and wise, She'll be the happiest young gentlewoman under the skies, As long as the sun and moon shall rise, And how happy shall, &c.

It is with pleasure I add that this stanza could never be more truly applied than at this present time. BOSWELL. This note was added to the second edition.

[51] See _ante_, i. 115, note 1.

[52] See _ante_, i. 82.

[53] Baretti, in a MS. note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 121, says:--'Johnson was a real _true-born Englishman_. He hated the Scotch, the French, the Dutch, the Hanoverians, and had the greatest contempt for all other European nations; such were his early prejudices which he never attempted to conquer.' Reynolds wrote of Johnson:--'The prejudices he had to countries did not extend to individuals. In respect to Frenchmen he rather laughed at himself, but it was insurmountable. He considered every foreigner as a fool till they had convinced him of the contrary.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 460. Garrick wrote of the French in 1769:--'Their _politesse_ has reduced their character to such a sameness, and their humours and passions are so curbed by habit, that, when you have seen half-a-dozen French men and women, you have seen the whole.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 358.

[54] 'There is not a man or woman here,' wrote Horace Walpole from Paris (_Letters_ iv. 434), 'that is not a perfect old nurse, and who does not talk gruel and anatomy with equal fluency and ignorance.'

[55] '"I remember that interview well," said Dr. Parr with great vehemence when once reminded of it; "I gave him no quarter." The subject of our dispute was the liberty of the press. Dr. Johnson was very great. Whilst he was arguing, I observed that he stamped. Upon this I stamped. Dr. Johnson said, "Why did you stamp, Dr. Parr?" I replied, "Because you stamped; and I was resolved not to give you the advantage even of a stamp in the argument."' This, Parr said, was by no means his first introduction to Johnson. Field's _Parr_, i. 161. Parr wrote to Romilly in 1811:--'Pray let me ask whether you have ever read some admirable remarks of Mr. Hutcheson upon the word _merit_. I remember a controversy I had with Dr. Johnson upon this very term: we began with theology fiercely, I gently carried the conversation onward to philosophy, and after a dispute of more than three hours he lost sight of my heresy, and came over to my opinion upon the metaphysical import of the term.' _Life of Romilly_, ii. 365. When Parr was a candidate for the mastership of Colchester Grammar School, Johnson wrote for him a letter of recommendation. Johnstone's _Parr_, i. 94.

[56] 'Somebody was praising Corneille one day in opposition to Shakespeare. "Corneille is to Shakespeare," replied Mr. Johnson, "as a clipped hedge is to a forest."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 59.

[57] Johnson, it is clear, discusses here Mrs. Montagu's _Essay on Shakespeare_. She compared Shakespeare first with Corneille, and then with Aeschylus. In contrasting the ghost in _Hamlet_ with the shade of Darius in _The Persians_, she says:--'The phantom, who was to appear ignorant of what was past, that the Athenian ear might be soothed and flattered with the detail of their victory at Salamis, is allowed, for the same reason, such prescience as to foretell their future triumph at Plataea.' p. 161.

[58] Caution is required in everything which is laid before youth, to secure them from unjust prejudices, perverse opinions, and incongruous combinations of images. In the romances formerly written, every transaction and sentiment was so remote from all that passes among men, that the reader was in very little danger of making any applications to himself.' _The Rambler_, No. 4.

[59] Johnson says of Pope's _Ode for St. Cecilia's Day_:--'The next stanzas place and detain us in the dark and dismal regions of mythology, where neither hope nor fear, neither joy nor sorrow can be found.' _Works_, viii. 328. Of Gray's _Progress of Poetry_, he says:--'The second stanza, exhibiting Mars' car and Jove's eagle, is unworthy of further notice. Criticism disdains to chase a school-boy to his common-places.' _Ib_. p. 484.

[60] See _ante_, ii. 178.

[61]

'A Wizard-Dame, the Lover's ancient friend, With magic charm has deaft thy husband's ear, At her command I saw the stars descend, And winged lightnings stop in mid career, &c.'

Hammond. _Elegy_, v. In Boswell's _Hebrides_ (Sept. 29), he said 'Hammond's _Love Elegies_ were poor things.'

[62] Perhaps Lord Corke and Orrery. _Ante_, iii. 183. CROKER.

[63] Colman assumed that Johnson had maintained that Shakespeare was totally ignorant of the learned languages. He then quotes a line to prove 'that the author of _The Taming of the Shrew_ had at least read Ovid;' and continues:--'And what does Dr. Johnson say on this occasion? Nothing. And what does Mr. Farmer say on this occasion? Nothing.' Colman's _Terence_, ii. 390. For Farmer, see _ante_, iii. 38.

[64] 'It is most likely that Shakespeare had learned Latin sufficiently to make him acquainted with construction, but that he never advanced to an easy perusal of the Roman authors.' Johnson's _Works_, V. 129. 'The style of Shakespeare was in itself ungrammatical, perplexed, and obscure.' _Ib_. p. 135.

[65]

'May I govern my passion with an absolute sway, And grow wiser and better, as my strength wears away, Without gout or stone by a gentle decay.'

_The Old Man's Wish_ was sung to Sir Roger de Coverley by 'the fair one,' after the collation in which she ate a couple of chickens, and drank a full bottle of wine. _Spectator_, No. 410. 'What signifies our wishing?' wrote Dr. Franklin. 'I have sung that _wishing song_ a thousand times when I was young, and now find at fourscore that the three contraries have befallen me, being subject to the gout and the stone, and not being yet master of all my passions.' Franklin's _Memoirs_, iii. 185.

[66] He uses the same image in _The Life of Milton_ (_Works_, vii. 104):--'He might still be a giant among the pigmies, the one-eyed monarch of the blind.' Cumberland (_Memoirs_, i. 39) says that Bentley, hearing it maintained that Barnes spoke Greek almost like his mother tongue, replied:--'Yes, I do believe that Barnes had as much Greek and understood it about as well as an Athenian blacksmith.' See _ante_, iii 284. A passage in Wooll's _Life of Dr. Warton_ (i. 313) shews that Barnes attempted to prove that Homer and Solomon were one and the same man. But I. D'Israeli says that it was reported that Barnes, not having money enough to publish his edition of _Homer_, 'wrote a poem, the design of which is to prove that Solomon was the author of the _Iliad_, to interest his wife, who had some property, to lend her aid towards the publication of so divine a work.' _Calamities of Authors_, i. 250.

[67] 'The first time Suard saw Burke, who was at Reynolds's, Johnson touched him on the shoulder and said, "Le grand Burke."' _Boswelliana_, p. 299. See ante, ii. 450.

[68] Miss Hawkins (_Memoirs_, i. 279, 288) says that Langton told her father that he meant to give his six daughters such a knowledge of Greek, 'that while five of them employed themselves in feminine works, the sixth should read a Greek author for the general amusement.' She describes how 'he would get into the most fluent recitation of half a page of Greek, breaking off for fear of wearying, by saying, "and so it goes on," accompanying his words with a gentle wave of his hand.'

[69] See post, p. 42.

[70] See ante, i. 326.

[71] This assertion concerning Johnson's insensibility to the pathetick powers of Otway, is too _round_. I once asked him, whether he did not think Otway frequently tender: when he answered, 'Sir, he is all tenderness.' BURNEY. He describes Otway as 'one of the first names in the English drama.' _Works_, vii. 173.

[72] See ante, April 16, 1779.

[73] Johnson; it seems, took up this study. In July, 1773, he recorded that between Easter and Whitsuntide, he attempted to learn the Low Dutch language. 'My application,' he continues, 'was very slight, and my memory very fallacious, though whether more than in my earlier years, I am not very certain.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 129, and ante, ii. 263. On his death-bed, he said to Mr. Hoole:--'About two years since I feared that I had neglected God, and that then I had not a _mind_ to give him; on which I set about to read _Thomas à Kempis_ in Low Dutch, which I accomplished, and thence I judged that my mind was not impaired, Low Dutch having no affinity with any of the languages which I knew.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 844. See ante, iii. 235.

[74] See post, under July 5, 1783.

[75] See ante, ii. 409, and iii. 197.

[76] One of Goldsmith's friends 'remembered his relating [about the year 1756] a strange Quixotic scheme he had in contemplation of going to decipher the inscriptions on the _written mountains_, though he was altogether ignorant of Arabic, or the language in which they might be supposed to be written.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, ed. 1801, i. 40. Percy says that Goldsmith applied to the prime minister, Lord Bute, for a salary to enable him to execute 'the visionary project' mentioned in the text. 'To prepare the way, he drew up that ingenious essay on this subject which was first printed in the _Ledger_, and afterwards in his _Citizen of the World_ [No. 107].' _Ib_. p. 65. Percy adds that the Earl of Northumberland, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, regretted 'that he had not been made acquainted with his plan; for he would have procured him a sufficient salary on the Irish establishment.' Goldsmith, in his review of Van Egmont's _Travels in Asia_, says:--'Could we see a man set out upon this journey [to Asia] not with an intent to consider rocks and rivers, but the manners, and the mechanic inventions, and the imperfect learning of the inhabitants; resolved to penetrate into countries as yet little known, and eager to pry into all their secrets, with an heart not terrified at trifling dangers; if there could be found a man who could unite this true courage with sound learning, from such a character we might hope much information.' Goldsmith's _Works_, ed. 1854, iv. 225. Johnson would have gone to Constantinople, as he himself said, had he received his pension twenty years earlier. _Post_, p. 27.

[77] It should be remembered, that this was said twenty-five or thirty years ago, [written in 1799,] when lace was very generally worn. MALONE. 'Greek and Latin,' said Porson, 'are only luxuries.' Rogers's _Table Talk_, p. 325.

[78] See _ante_, iii. 8.

[79] Dr. Johnson, in his _Life of Cowley_, says, that these are 'the only English verses which Bentley is known to have written.' I shall here insert them, and hope my readers will apply them.

'Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill, And thence poetick laurels bring, Must first acquire due force and skill, Must fly with swan's or eagle's wing.

Who Nature's treasures would explore, Her mysteries and arcana know; Must high as lofty Newton soar, Must stoop as delving Woodward low.

Who studies ancient laws and rites, Tongues, arts, and arms, and history; Must drudge, like Selden, days and nights, And in the endless labour die.

Who travels in religious jars, (Truth mixt with errour, shades with rays;) Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars, In ocean wide or sinks or strays.

But grant our hero's hope, long toil And comprehensive genius crown, All sciences, all arts his spoil, Yet what reward, or what renown?

Envy, innate in vulgar souls, Envy steps in and stops his rise, Envy with poison'd tarnish fouls His lustre, and his worth decries.

He lives inglorious or in want, To college and old books confin'd; Instead of learn'd he's call'd pedant, Dunces advanc'd, he's left behind: Yet left content a genuine Stoick he, Great without patron, rich without South Sea.' BOSWELL.

In Mr. Croker's octavo editions, _arts_ in the fifth stanza is changed into _hearts_. J. Boswell, jun., gives the following reading of the first four lines of the last stanza, not from _Dodsley's Collection_, but from an earlier one, called _The Grove_.

'Inglorious or by wants inthralled, To college and old books confined, A pedant from his learning called, Dunces advanced, he's left behind.'

[80] Bentley, in the preface to his edition of _Paradise Lost_, says:--

'Sunt et mihi carmina; me quoque dicunt Vatem pastores: sed non ego credulus illis.'

[81] The difference between Johnson and Smith is apparent even in this slight instance. Smith was a man of extraordinary application, and had his mind crowded with all manner of subjects; but the force, acuteness, and vivacity of Johnson were not to be found there. He had book-making so much in his thoughts, and was so chary of what might be turned to account in that way, that he once said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he made it a rule, when in company, never to talk of what he understood. Beauclerk had for a short time a pretty high opinion of Smith's conversation. Garrick, after listening to him for a while, as to one of whom his expectations had been raised, turned slyly to a friend, and whispered him, 'What say you to this?--eh? _flabby_, I think.' BOSWELL. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 279), says:--'Smith's voice was harsh and enunciation thick, approaching to stammering. His conversation was not colloquial, but like lecturing. He was the most absent man in company that I ever saw, moving his lips, and talking to himself, and smiling in the midst of large companies. If you awaked him from his reverie and made him attend to the subject of conversation, he immediately began a harangue, and never stopped till he told you all he knew about it, with the utmost philosophical ingenuity.' Dugald Stewart (_Life of Adam Smith_, p. 117) says that 'his consciousness of his tendency to absence rendered his manner somewhat embarrassed in the company of strangers.' But 'to his intimate friends, his peculiarities added an inexpressible charm to his conversation, while they displayed in the most interesting light the artless simplicity of his heart.' _Ib_. p. 113. See also Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 302, and _ante_, ii. 430, note 1.

[82] Garrick himself was a good deal of an infidel: see _ante_, ii. 85, note 7.

[83] _Ante_, i. 181.

[84] The Tempest, act iv. sc. i. In _The Rambler_, No. 127, Johnson writes of men who have 'borne opposition down before them, and left emulation panting behind.' He quotes (_Works_, vii. 261) the following couplet by Dryden:--

'Fate after him below with pain did move, And victory could scarce keep pace above.'

Young in _The Last Day_, book I, had written:--

'Words all in vain pant after the distress.'

[85] I am sorry to see in the _Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, vol. ii, _An Essay on the Character of Hamlet_, written, I should suppose, by a very young man, though called 'Reverend;' who speaks with presumptuous petulance of the first literary character of his age. Amidst a cloudy confusion of words, (which hath of late too often passed in Scotland for _Metaphysicks_,) he thus ventures to criticise one of the noblest lines in our language:--'Dr. Johnson has remarked, that "time toil'd after him in vain." But I should apprehend, that this is _entirely to mistake the character_. Time toils after _every great man_, as well after Shakspeare. The _workings_ of an ordinary mind _keep pace_, indeed, with time; they move no faster; _they have their beginning, their middle, and their end_; but superiour natures can _reduce these into a point_. They do not, indeed, _suppress_ them; but they _suspend_, or they _lock them up in the breast_.' The learned Society, under whose sanction such gabble is ushered into the world, would do well to offer a premium to any one who will discover its meaning. BOSWELL.

[86] 'May 29, 1662. Took boat and to Fox-hall, where I had not been a great while. To the old Spring Garden, and there walked long.' Pepys's _Diary_, i. 361. The place was afterwards known as Faux-hall and Vauxhall. See _ante_, iii. 308.

[87] 'One that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar.' _King Lear_,