Chapter 9

enjoyed the pleasure of his own superiority. He could also have defended himself by the example of Aeneas, who, introducing himself, said:--

'Sum pius Aeneas ..... ... fama super aethera notus.'

_Aeneid_, i. 378. I fear that Twalmley met with the neglect that so commonly befalls inventors. In the _Gent. Mag_. 1783, p. 719, I find in the list of 'B-nk-ts,' Josiah Twamley, the elder, of Warwick, ironmonger.

[607] 'Sir, Hume is a Tory by chance, as being a Scotchman; but not upon a principle of duty, for he has no principle. If he is anything, he is a Hobbist.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 30. Horace Walpole's opinion was very different. 'Are not atheism and bigotry first cousins? Was not Charles II. an atheist and a bigot? and does Mr. Hume pluck a stone from a church but to raise an altar to tyranny?' _Letters_, v. 444. Hume wrote in 1756:--'My views of _things_ are more conformable to Whig principles; my representations of _persons_ to Tory prejudices.' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 11. Hume's Toryism increased with years. He says in his _Autobiography/_ (p. xi.) that all the alterations which he made in the later editions of his _History of the Stuarts_, 'he made invariably to the Tory side.' Dr. Burton gives instances of these; _Life of Hume_, ii. 74. Hume wrote in 1763 that he was 'too much infected with the plaguy prejudices of Whiggism when he began the work.' _Ib_. p. 144. In 1770 he wrote:--'I either soften or expunge many villainous, seditious Whig strokes which had crept into it.' _Ib_. p. 434. This growing hatred of Whiggism was, perhaps, due to pique. John Home, in his notes of Hume's talk in the last weeks of his life, says: 'He recurred to a subject not unfrequent with him--that is, the design to ruin him as an author, by the people that were ministers at the first publication of his _History_, and called themselves Whigs.' _Ib_. p. 500. As regards America, Hume was with the Whigs, as Johnson had perhaps learnt from their common friend, Mr. Strahan. 'He was,' says Dr. Burton, 'far more tolerant of the sway of individuals over numbers, which he looked upon as the means of preserving order and civilization, than of the predominance of one territory over another, which he looked upon as subjugation.' _Ib_. p. 477. Quite at the beginning of the struggle he foretold that the Americans would not be subdued, unless they broke in pieces among themselves. _Ib_. p. 482. He was not frightened by the prospect of the loss of our supremacy. He wrote to Adam Smith:--'My notion is that the matter is not so important as is commonly imagined. Our navigation and general commerce may suffer more than our manufactures.' _Ib_. p. 484. Johnson's charge against Hume that he had no principle, is, no doubt, a gross one; yet Hume's advice to a sceptical young clergyman, who had good hope of preferment, that he should therefore continue in orders, was unprincipled enough. 'It is,' he wrote, 'putting too great a respect on the vulgar and on their superstitions to pique one's self on sincerity with regard to them. Did ever one make it a point of honour to speak truth to children or madmen? If the thing were worthy being treated gravely, I should tell him that the Pythian oracle, with the approbation of Xenophon, advised every one to worship the gods--[Greek: nomo poleos]. I wish it were still in my power to be a hypocrite in this particular. The common duties of society usually require it; and the ecclesiastical profession only adds a little more to an innocent dissimulation, or rather simulation, without which it is impossible to pass through the world.' _Ib/_. p. 187.

[608] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 48) says that Johnson told her that in writing the story of Gelaleddin, the poor scholar (_Idler_, No. 75), who thought to fight his way to fame by his learning and wit, 'he had his own outset into life in his eye.' Gelaleddin describes how 'he was sometimes admitted to the tables of the viziers, where he exerted his wit and diffused his knowledge; but he observed that where, by endeavour or accident he had remarkably excelled, he was seldom invited a second time.' See _ante_, p. 116.

[609] See ante, p. 115.

[610] Bar. BOSWELL.

[611] Nard. BOSWELL.

[612] Barnard. BOSWELL.

[613] It was reviewed in the _Gent. Mag_. 1781, p. 282, where it is said to have been written by Don Gabriel, third son of the King of Spain.

[614] Though 'you was' is very common in the authors of the last century when one person was addressed, I doubt greatly whether Johnson ever so expressed himself.

[615] See _ante_, i. 311.

[616] Horace Walpole (_Letters_ v. 85) says, 'Boswell, like Cambridge, has a rage of knowing anybody that ever was talked of.' Miss Burney records 'an old trick of Mr. Cambridge to his son George, when listening to a dull story, in saying to the relator "Tell the rest of that to George."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 274. See _ante_, ii. 361.

[617] Virgil, _Eclogues_, i. 47.

[618] 'Mr. Johnson,' writes Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 21), 'was exceedingly disposed to the general indulgence of children, and was even scrupulously and ceremoniously attentive not to offend them. He had strongly persuaded himself of the difficulty people always find to erase early impressions either of kindness or resentment.'

[619] _Ante_, ii.171, iv.75; also _post_, May 15, 1784.

[620] Johnson, on May 1, 1780, wrote of the exhibition dinner:--'The apartments were truly very noble. The pictures, for the sake of a sky-light, are at the top of the house; there we dined, and I sat over against the Archbishop of York. See how I live when I am not under petticoat government.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 111. It was Archbishop Markham whom he met; he is mentioned by Boswell in his _Hebrides, post_, v. 37. In spite of the 'elaboration of homage' Johnson could judge freely of an archbishop. He described the Archbishop of Tuam as 'a man coarse of voice and inelegant of language.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 300.

[621] By Lord Perceval, afterwards Earl of Egmont. He carried, writes Horace Walpole (_Letters_, ii. 144), 'the Westminster election at the end of my father's ministry, which he amply described in the history of his own family, a genealogical work called the _History of the House of Yvery_, a work which cost him three thousand pounds; and which was so ridiculous, that he has since tried to suppress all the copies. It concluded with the description of the Westminster election, in these or some such words:--"And here let us leave this young nobleman struggling for the dying liberties of his country."'

[622] Five days earlier Johnson made the following entry in his Diary:--'1783, April 5. I took leave of Mrs. Thrale. I was much moved. I had some expostulations with her. She said that she was likewise affected. I commended the Thrales with great good-will to God; may my petitions have been heard.' Hawkins's _Life_, p. 553. This was not 'a formal taking of leave,' as Hawkins says. She was going to Bath (Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 264). On May-day he wrote to her on the death of one of her little girls:--'I loved her, for she was Thrale's and yours, and, by her dear father's appointment, in some sort mine: I love you all, and therefore cannot without regret see the phalanx broken, and reflect that you and my other dear girls are deprived of one that was born your friend. To such friends every one that has them has recourse at last, when it is discovered and discovered it seldom fails to be, that the fortuitous friendships of inclination or vanity are at the mercy of a thousand accidents.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 255. He was sadly thinking how her friendship for him was rapidly passing away.

[623] Johnson modestly ended his account of the tour by saying:--'I cannot but be conscious that my thoughts on national manners are the thoughts of one who has seen but little.' _Works_, ix. 161. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 22.

[624] See _ib_. Oct. 21.

[625] She says that he was 'the genuine author of the first volume. An ingenious physician,' she continues, 'with the assistance of several others, continued the work until the eighth volume.' Mrs. Manley's _History of her own Life and Times_, p. 15--a gross, worthless book. Swift satirised her in _Corinna, a Ballad_. Swift's _Works_ (1803), x. 94.

[626] The real authour was I. P. Marana, a Genoese, who died at Paris in 1693. John Dunton in his _Life_ says, that Mr. _William Bradshaw_ received from Dr. Midgeley forty shillings a sheet for writing part of the _Turkish Spy_; but I do not find that he any where mentions _Sault_ as engaged in that work. MALONE.

[627] See _ante_, ii. 355, iii. 46, and iv. 139.

[628] This was in June, 1783, and I find in Mr. Windham's private diary (which it seems this conversation induced him to keep) the following memoranda of Dr. Johnson's advice: 'I have no great timidity in my own disposition, and am no encourager of it in others. Never be afraid to think yourself fit for any thing for which your friends think you fit. _You will become an able negotiator--a very pretty rascal_. No one in Ireland wears even the mask of incorruption; no one professes to do for sixpence what he can get a shilling for doing. Set sail, and see where the winds and the waves will carry you. Every day will improve another. _Dies diem docet_, by observing at night where you failed in the day, and by resolving to fail so no more.' CROKER. The Whigs thought he made 'a very pretty rascal' in a very different way. On his opposition to Whitbread's bill for establishing parochial schools, Romilly wrote (_Life_, ii. 2l6), 'that a man so enlightened as Windham should take the same side (which he has done most earnestly) would excite great astonishment, if one did not recollect his eager opposition a few months ago to the abolition of the slave trade.' He was also 'most strenuous in opposition' to Romilly's bill for repealing the act which made it a capital offence to steal to the amount of forty shillings in a dwelling-house, _Ib_. p. 316.

[629] We accordingly carried our scheme into execution, in October, 1792; but whether from that uniformity which has in modern times, in a great degree, spread through every part of the Metropolis, or from our want of sufficient exertion, we were disappointed. BOSWELL.

[630] Piozzi's _Anecdotes_, p. 193. See _post_, under June 30, 1784.

[631] Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 139-143) says that the picture, which was execrable beyond belief, was exhibited in an empty room. Lowe, in 1769 (not in 1771 as Northcote says), gained the gold medal of the Academy for the best historical picture. (_Gent. Mag_. 1770, p. 587.) Northcote says that the award was not a fair one. He adds that Lowe, being sent to Rome by the patronage of the Academy, was dissatisfied with the sum allowed him. 'When Sir Joshua said that he knew from experience that it was sufficient, Lowe pertly answered "that it was possible for a man to live on guts and garbage."' He died at an obscure lodging in Westminster, in 1793. There is, wrote Miss Burney, 'a certain poor wretch of a villainous painter, one Mr. Lowe, whom Dr. Johnson recommends to all the people he thinks can afford to sit for their picture. Among these he applied to Mr. Crutchley [one of Mr. Thrale's executors]. "But now," said Mr. Crutchley to me, "I have not a notion of sitting for my picture--for who wants it? I may as well give the man the money without; but no, they all said that would not do so well, and Dr. Johnson asked me to give _him_ my picture." "And I assure you, Sir," says he, "I shall put it in very good company, for I have portraits of some very respectable people in my dining-room." After all I could say I was obliged to go to the painter's. And I found him in such a condition! a room all dirt and filth, brats squalling and wrangling... "Oh!" says I, "Mr. Lowe, I beg your pardon for running away, but I have just recollected another engagement; so I poked three guineas in his hand, and told him I would come again another time, and then ran out of the house with all my might."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii.41. A correspondent of the _Examiner_ writing on May 28, 1873, said that he had met one of Lowe's daughters, 'who recollected,' she told him, 'when a child, sitting on Dr. Johnson's knee and his making her repeat the Lord's Prayer.' She was Johnson's god-daughter. By a committee consisting of Milman, Thackeray, Dickens, Carlyle and others, an annuity fund for her and her sister was raised. Lord Palmerston gave a large subscription.

[632] See _post_, May 15, 1783.

[633] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, _post_, v. 48.

[634] See _ante_, p. 171.

[635] Quoted by Boswell, _ante_, iii. 324.

[636] It is suggested to me by an anonymous Annotator on my Work, that the reason why Dr. Johnson collected the peels of squeezed oranges may be found in the 58th [358th] Letter in Mrs. Piozzi's _Collection_, where it appears that he recommended 'dried orange-peel, finely powdered,' as a medicine. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 330.

[637] There are two mistakes in this calculation, both perhaps due to Boswell. _Eighty-four_ should be _eighty-eight_, and square-yards should be _yards square_. 'If a wall cost £1000 a mile, £100 would build 176 yards of wall, which would form a square of 44 yards, and enclose an area of 1936 square yards; and £200 would build 352 yards of wall, which would form a square of 88 yards, and inclose an area of 7744 square yards. The cost of the wall in the latter case, as compared with the space inclosed, would therefore be reduced to one half.' _Notes and Queries_, 1st S. x. 471.

[638] See _ante_, i. 318.

[639] 'Davies observes, in his account of Ireland, that no Irishman had ever planted an orchard.' Johnson's _Works_, ix.7. 'At Fochabars [in the Highlands] there is an orchard, which in Scotland I had never seen before.' _Ib._ p. 21.

[640] Miss Burney this year mentions meeting 'Mr. Walker, the lecturer. Though modest in science, he is vulgar in conversation.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 237. Johnson quotes him, _Works_, viii. 474.

[641] 'Old Mr. Sheridan' was twelve years younger than Johnson. For his oratory, see _ante_, i. 453, and _post_, April 28 and May 17, 1783.

[642] See _ante_, i. 358, when Johnson said of Sheridan:--'His voice when strained is unpleasing, and when low is not always heard.'

[643] See _ante_, iii. 139.

[644] 'A more magnificent funeral was never seen in London,' wrote Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p. 349). Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 169), wrote on the day of the funeral:--'I do think the pomp of Garrick's funeral perfectly ridiculous. It is confounding the immense space between pleasing talents and national services.' He added, 'at Lord Chatham's interment there were not half the noble coaches that attended Garrick's.' _Ib_. p. 171. In his _Journal of the Reign of George III_ (ii. 333), he says:--'The Court was delighted to see a more noble and splendid appearance at the interment of a comedian than had waited on the remains of the great Earl of Chatham.' Bishop Horne (_Essays and Thoughts_, p. 283) has some lines on 'this grand parade of woe,' which begin:--

'Through weeping London's crowded streets, As Garrick's funeral passed, Contending wits and nobles strove, Who should forsake him last. Not so the world behaved to _him_ Who came that world to save, By solitary Joseph borne Unheeded to his grave.'

Johnson wrote on April 30, 1782: 'Poor Garrick's funeral expenses are yet unpaid, though the undertaker is broken.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 239. Garrick was buried on Feb. 1, 1779, and had left his widow a large fortune. Chatham died in May, 1778.

[645] Boswell had heard Johnson maintain this; _ante_, ii. 101.

[646] See _post_, p. 238, note 2.

[647] This duel was fought on April 21, between Mr. Riddell of the Horse-Grenadiers, and Mr. Cunningham of the Scots Greys. Riddell had the first fire, and shot Cunningham through the breast. After a pause of two minutes Cunningham returned the fire, and gave Riddell a wound of which he died next day. _Gent. Mag._ 1783, p. 362. Boswell's grandfather's grandmother was a Miss Cunningham. Rogers's _Boswelliana_, p. 4. I do not know that there was any nearer connection. In Scotland, I suppose, so much kindred as this makes two men 'near relations.'

[648] 'Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other.' _St. Luke_, vi. 29. Had Miss Burney thought of this text, she might have quoted it with effect against Johnson, who, criticising her _Evelina_, said:--'You write Scotch, you say "the one,"--my dear, that's not English. Never use that phrase again.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 84.

[649] 'Turn not thou away.' _St. Matthew_, v. 42.

[650] I think it necessary to caution my readers against concluding that in this or any other conversation of Dr. Johnson, they have his serious and deliberate opinion on the subject of duelling. In my _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3 ed. p. 386 [p. 366, Oct. 24], it appears that he made this frank confession:--'Nobody at times, talks more laxly than I do;' and, _ib_. p. 231 [Sept. 19, 1773], 'He fairly owned he could not explain the rationality of duelling.' We may, therefore, infer, that he could not think that justifiable, which seems so inconsistent with the spirit of the Gospel. At the same time it must be confessed, that from the prevalent notions of honour, a gentleman who receives a challenge is reduced to a dreadful alternative. A remarkable instance of this is furnished by a clause in the will of the late Colonel Thomas, of the Guards, written the night before he fell in a duel, Sept. 3, 1783:--'In the first place, I commit my soul to Almighty GOD, in hopes of his mercy and pardon for the irreligious step I now (in compliance with the unwarrantable customs of this wicked world) put myself under the necessity of taking.' BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 179.

[651] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 24 and Sept. 20. Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, i. 177) says that when the assembly at Philadelphia, the majority of which were Quakers, was asked by New England to supply powder for some garrison, 'they would not grant money to buy powder, because that was an ingredient of war; but they voted an aid of £3000 to be appropriated for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat, or _other grain_.' The Governor interpreted _other grain_ as gunpowder, without any objection ever being raised.

[652] 'A gentleman falling off his horse brake his neck, which sudden hap gave occasion of much speech of his former life, and some in this judging world judged the worst. In which respect a good friend made this good epitaph, remembering that of Saint Augustine, _Misericordia Domini inter pontem et fontem_.

"My friend judge not me, Thou seest I judge not thee; Betwixt the stirrop and the ground, Mercy I askt, mercy I found."'

_Camden's Remains_, ed. 1870, p. 420.

[653] 'In sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life.' _Prayer-book._

[654] Upon this objection the Reverend Mr. Ralph Churton, Fellow of Brazennose College, Oxford, has favoured me with the following satisfactory observation:--'The passage in the Burial-service does not mean the resurrection of the person interred, but the general resurrection; it is in sure and certain hope of _the_ resurrection; not _his_ resurrection. Where the deceased is really spoken of, the expression is very different, "as our hope is this our brother doth" [rest in Christ]; a mode of speech consistent with every thing but absolute certainty that the person departed doth _not_ rest in Christ, which no one can be assured of, without immediate revelation from Heaven. In the first of these places also, "eternal life" does not necessarily mean eternity of bliss, but merely the eternity of the state, whether in happiness or in misery, to ensue upon the resurrection; which is probably the sense of "the life everlasting," in the Apostles' Creed. See _Wheatly and Bennet on the Common Prayer_.' BOSWELL.

[655] Six days earlier the Lord-Advocate Dundas had brought in a bill for the Regulation of the Government of India. Hastings, he said, should be recalled. His place should be filled by 'a person of independent fortune, who had not for object the repairing of his estate in India, that had long been the nursery of ruined and decayed fortunes.' _Parl. Hist_. xxiii. 757. Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor on Nov. 22 of this year:--'I believe corruption and oppression are in India at an enormous height, but it has never appeared that they were promoted by the Directors, who, I believe, see themselves defrauded, while the country is plundered; but the distance puts their officers out of reach.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 482. See _ante_, p. 66.

[656] See _ante_, p. 113.

[657] Stockdale (_Memoirs_, ii. 57) says that, in 1770, the payment to writers in the _Critical Review_ was two guineas a sheet, but that some of the writers in _The Monthly Review_ received four guineas a sheet. As these Reviews were octavos, each sheet contained sixteen pages. Lord Jeffrey says that the writers in the _Edinburgh Review_ were at first paid ten guineas a sheet. 'Not long after the _minimum_ was raised to sixteen guineas, at which it remained during my reign, though two-thirds of the articles were paid much higher--averaging, I should think, from twenty to twenty-five guineas a sheet on the whole number.' Cockburn's _Jeffrey_, i. 136.

[658] See ante, ii. 344.

[659] See _ante_, iii.32.

[660] See _ante_, p. 206.

[661] _Monday_ is no doubt put by mistake for _Tuesday_, which was the 29th. Boswell had spent a considerable part of Monday the 28th with Johnson (_ante_, p. 211).

[662]

'A fugitive from Heaven and prayer, I mocked at all religious fear.' FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, i.34. 1.

[663] He told Boswell (_ante_, i. 68) that he had been a sort of lax talker against religion for some years before he went to Oxford, but that there he took up Law's _Serious Call_ and found it quite an overmatch for him. 'This,' he said, 'was the first occasion of my thinking in earnest of religion after I became capable of rational enquiry.' During the vacation of 1729 he had a serious illness (_ante_, i. 63), which most likely was 'the sickness that brought religion back.'

[664] See _ante_, i. 93, 164, and _post_, under Dec. 2, 1784.

[665] Mr. Langton. See _ante_, ii. 254.

[666] See _ante_, ii. 249.

[667] Malloch continued to write his name thus, _after he came to London_. His verses prefixed to the second edition of Thomson's _Winter_ are so subscribed. MALONE. 'Alias. A Latin word signifying otherwise; as, Mallet, _alias_ Malloch; that is _otherwise_ Malloch.' The mention of Mallet first comes in Johnson's own abridgment of his _Dictionary_. In the earlier unabridged editions the definition concludes, 'often used in the trials of criminals, whose danger has obliged them to change their names; as Simpson _alias_ Smith, _alias_ Baker, &c.' For Mallet, see _ante_, i. 268, and ii. 159.

[668] Perhaps Scott had this saying of Johnson's in mind when he made Earl Douglas exclaim:--

'At first in heart it liked me ill, When the King praised his clerkly skill. Thanks to St. Bothan, son of mine, Save Gawain, ne'er could pen a line.' _Marmion_, canto vi. 15.

[669] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 10.

[670] Johnson often maintained this diffusion of learning. Thus he wrote:--'The call for books was not in Milton's age what it is in the present. To read was not then a general amusement; neither traders, nor often gentlemen, thought themselves disgraced by ignorance. The women had not then aspired to literature nor was every house supplied with a closet of knowledge.' _Works_, vii. 107. He goes on to mention 'that general literature which now pervades the nation through all its ranks.' _Works_, p. 108. 'That general knowledge which now circulates in common talk was in Addison's time rarely to be found. Men not professing learning were not ashamed of ignorance; and, in the female world, any acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be censured.' _Ib_. p.470. 'Of the _Essay on Criticism_, Pope declared that he did not expect the sale to be quick, because "not one gentleman in sixty, even of liberal education, could understand it." The gentlemen, and the education of that time, seem to have been of a lower character than they are of this.' _Ib_. viii. 243. See _ante_, iii. 3, 254. Yet he maintained that 'learning has decreased in England, because learning will not do so much for a man as formerly.' Boswell's _Hebrides, post_, v. 80.

[671] Malone describes a call on Johnson in the winter of this year:--'I found him in his arm-chair by the fire-side, before which a few apples were laid. He was reading. I asked him what book he had got. He said the _History of Birmingham_. Local histories, I observed, were generally dull. "It is true, Sir; but this has a peculiar merit with me; for I passed some of my early years, and married my wife there." [See _ante_, i. 96.] I supposed the apples were preparing as medicine. "Why, no, Sir; I believe they are only there because I want something to do. These are some of the solitary expedients to which we are driven by sickness. I have been confined this week past; and here you find me roasting apples, and reading the _History of Birmingham_."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 92.

[672] On April 19, he wrote:--'I can apply better to books than I could in some more vigorous parts of my life--at least than I _did_; and I have one more reason for reading--that time has, by taking away my companions, left me less opportunity of conversation.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 727.

[673] He told Mr. Windham that he had never read the _Odyssey_ through in the original. Windham's _Diary_, p. 17. 'Fox,' said Rogers (_Table Talk_, p. 92), 'used to read Homer through once every year. On my asking him, "Which poem had you rather have written, the _Iliad_ or the _Odyssey_?" he answered, "I know which I had rather read" (meaning the _Odyssey_).'

[674] 'Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.' Johnson's _Works_, iv. 145. Of Pope Johnson wrote (_ib_. viii. 321):--'To make verses was his first labour, and to mend them was his last. ... He was one of those few whose labour is their pleasure.' Thomas Carlyle, in 1824, speaking of writing, says:--'I always recoil from again engaging with it.' Froude's _Carlyle_, i. 213. Five years later he wrote:--'Writing is a dreadful labour, yet not so dreadful as _idleness_.' _Ib_. ii. 75. See _ante_, iii. 19.

[675] See _ante_, ii. 15.

[676] Miss Burney wrote to Mrs. Thrale in 1780:--'I met at Sir Joshua's young Burke, who is made much ado about, but I saw not enough of him to know why.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 416. Mrs. Thrale replied:--'I congratulate myself on being quite of your opinion concerning Burke the minor, whom I once met and could make nothing of.' _Ib_. p. 418. Miss Hawkins (_Memoirs_, i. 304) reports, on Langton's authority, that Burke said:--'How extraordinary it is that I, and Lord Chatham, and Lord Holland, should each have a son so superior to ourselves.'

[677] Cruikshank, not Cruikshanks (see _post_, under Sept. 18, 1783, and Sept. 4 1784). He had been Dr. Hunter's partner; he was not elected (_Gent. Mag._ 1783, p. 626). Northcote, in quoting this letter, says that 'Sir Joshua's influence in the Academy was not always answerable to his desire. "Those who are of some importance everywhere else," he said, "find themselves nobody when they come to the Academy."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 145.

[678] William Hunter, scarcely less famous as a physician than his youngest brother, John Hunter, as a surgeon.

[679] Let it be remembered by those who accuse Dr. Johnson of illiberality that both were _Scotchmen_. BOSWELL.

[680] The following day he dined at Mrs. Garrick's. 'Poor Johnson,' wrote Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 280), 'exerted himself exceedingly, but he was very ill and looked so dreadfully, that it quite grieved me. He is more mild and complacent than he used to be. His sickness seems to have softened his mind, without having at all weakened it. I was struck with the mild radiance of this setting sun.'

[681] In the winter of 1788-9 Boswell began a canvass of his own county, He also courted Lord Lonsdale, in the hope of getting one of the seats in his gift, who first fooled him and then treated him with great brutality, _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 270, 294, 324.

[682] On April 6, 1780--'a day,' wrote Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 345), 'that ought for ever to be a red-lettered day'--Mr. Dunning made this motion. It was carried by 233 to 215. _Parl. Hist._ xxi. 340-367.

[683] See _ante_, i. 355, and ii. 94 for Johnson's appeal to meals as a measure of vexation.

[684] Johnson defines _cant_ as '1. A corrupt dialect used by beggars and vagabonds. 2. A particular form of speaking peculiar to some certain class or body of men. 3. A whining pretension to goodness in formal and affected terms. 4. Barbarous jargon. 5. Auction.' I have noted the following instances of his use of the word:--'I betook myself to a coffee-house frequented by wits, among whom I learned in a short time the _cant_ of criticism.' _The Rambler_, No.123. 'Every class of society has its _cant_ of lamentation.' _Ib_. No.128. 'Milton's invention required no assistance from the common _cant_ of poetry.' _Ib_. No.140. 'We shall secure our language from being overrun with _cant_, from being crowded with low terms, the spawn of folly or affectation.' _Works_, v. II. 'This fugitive _cant_, which is always in a state of increase or decay, cannot be regarded as any part of the durable materials of a language.' _Ib_. p.45. In a note on I _Henry VI_, act iii. sc.1, he says: 'To _roam_ is supposed to be derived from the _cant_ of vagabonds, who often pretended a pilgrimage to Rome.' See _ante_, iii. 197, for 'modern _cant_.'

[685] 'Custom,' wrote Sir Joshua, 'or politeness, or courtly manners has authorised such an eastern hyperbolical style of compliment, that part of Dr. Johnson's character for rudeness of manners must be put to the account of scrupulous adherence to truth. His obstinate silence, whilst all the company were in raptures, vying with each other who should pepper highest, was considered as rudeness or ill-nature.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 458.

[686] 'The shame is to impose words for ideas upon ourselves or others.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 64. See _ante_, p.122, where he says: 'There is a middle state of mind between conviction and hypocrisy.' Bacon, in his _Essay of Truth_, says: 'It is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt.'

[687] See _ante_, p. 204.

[688] 'I dined and lay at Harrison's, where I was received with that old-fashioned breeding which is at once so honourable and so troublesome.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 144. Mr. Pleydell, in _Guy Mannering_, ed. 1860, iv. 96, says: 'You'll excuse my old-fashioned importunity. I was born in a time when a Scotchman was thought inhospitable if he left a guest alone a moment, except when he slept.'

[689] See _ante_, ii. 167.

[690] See _ante_, i. 387.

[691] In Johnson's _Works_, ed. 1787, xi. 197, it is recorded that Johnson said, 'Sheridan's writings on elocution were a continual renovation of hope, and an unvaried succession of disappointments.' According to the _Gent. Mag._ 1785, p. 288, he continued:--'If we should have a bad harvest this year, Mr. Sheridan would say:--"It was owing to the neglect of oratory."' See _ante_, p. 206.

[692] Burke, no doubt, was this 'bottomless Whig.' When Johnson said 'so they _all_ are now,' he was perhaps thinking of the Coalition Ministry in which Lord North and his friends had places.

[693] No doubt Burke, who was Paymaster of the Forces. He is Boswell's 'eminent friend.' See _ante_ ii.222, and _post_, Dec. 24, 1783, and Jan.8, 1784. In these two consecutive paragraphs, though two people seem to be spoken of, yet only one is in reality.

[694] I believe that Burke himself was present part of the time, and that he was the gentleman who 'talked of _retiring_. On May 19 and 21 he had in Parliament defended his action in restoring to office two clerks, Powell and Bembridge, who had been dismissed by his predecessor, and he had justified his reforms in the Paymaster's office. 'He awaited,' he said, the 'judgement of the House. ...If they so far differed in sentiment, he had only to say, _Nunc dimittis servum tuum.' Parl. Hist._ xxiii.919.

[695] A copy of _Evelina_ had been placed in the Bodleian. 'Johnson says,' wrote Miss Burney, 'that when he goes to Oxford he will write my name in the books, and my age when I writ them, and then,' he says, 'the world may know that we _So mix our studies, and so joined our fame._ For we shall go down hand in hand to posterity.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i.429. The oldest copy of _Evelina_ now in the Bodleian is of an edition published after Johnson's death. Miss Burney, in 1793, married General D'Arblay, a French refugee.

[696] Macaulay maintained that Johnson had a hand in the composition of _Cecilia_. He quotes a passage from it, and says:--'We say with confidence, either Sam. Johnson or the Devil.' (_Essays_, ed. 1874, iv. 157.) That he is mistaken is shown by Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_ (ii. 172). 'Ay,' cried Dr. Johnson, 'some people want to make out some credit to me from the little rogue's book. I was told by a gentleman this morning that it was a very fine book, if it was all her own.' "It is all her own," said I, "for me, I am sure, for I never saw one word of it before it was printed."' On p. 196 she records the following:--'SIR JOSHUA. "Gibbon says he read the whole five volumes in a day." "'Tis impossible," cried Mr. Burke, "it cost me three days; and you know I never parted with it from the day I first opened it."' See _post_, among the imitators of Johnson's style, under Dec. 6, 1784.

[697] In Mr. Barry's printed analysis, or description of these pictures, he speaks of Johnson's character in the highest terms. BOSWELL. Barry, in one of his pictures, placed Johnson between the two beautiful duchesses of Rutland and Devonshire, pointing to their Graces Mrs. Montagu as an example. He expresses his 'reverence for his consistent, manly, and well-spent life.' Barry's _Works_, ii. 339. Johnson, in his turn, praises 'the comprehension of Barry's design.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 256. He was more likely to understand it, as the pictures formed a series, meant 'to illustrate one great maxim of moral truth, viz. that the obtaining of happiness depends upon cultivating the human faculties. We begin with man in a savage state full of inconvenience, imperfection, and misery, and we follow him through several gradations of culture and happiness, which, after our probationary state here, are finally attended with beatitude or misery.' Barry's _Works_, ii. 323. Horace Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 366) describes Barry's book as one 'which does not want sense, though full of passion and self, and vulgarisms and vanity.'

[698] Boswell had tried to bring about a third meeting between Johnson and Wilkes. On May 21 he wrote:--'Mr. Boswell's compliments to Mr. Wilkes. He finds that it would not be unpleasant to Dr. Johnson to dine at Mr. Wilkes's. The thing would be so curiously benignant, it were a pity it should not take place. Nobody but Mr. Boswell should be asked to meet the doctor.' An invitation was sent, but the following answer was returned:--'May 24, 1783. Mr. Johnson returns thanks to Mr. and Miss Wilkes for their kind invitation; but he is engaged for Tuesday to Sir Joshua Reynolds, and for Wednesday to Mr. Paradise.' Owing to Boswell's return to Scotland, another day could not be fixed. Almon's _Wilkes_, iv. 314, 321.

[699] 'If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.' _Ecclesiastes_, xi. 3.

[700] 'When a tree is falling, I have seen the labourers, by a trivial jerk with a rope, throw it upon the spot where they would wish it should lie. Divines, understanding this text too literally, pretend, by a little interposition in the article of death, to regulate a person's everlasting happiness. I fancy the allusion will hardly countenance their presumption.' Shenstone's _Works_, ed. 1773, ii. 255.

[701] Hazlitt says that 'when old Baxter first went to Kidderminster to preach, he was almost pelted by the women for maintaining from the pulpit the then fashionable and orthodox doctrine, that "Hell was paved with infants' skulls.'" _Conversations of Northcote_, p. 80.

[702] _Acts_, xvii. 24.

[703] Now the celebrated Mrs. Crouch. BOSWELL.

[704] Mr. Windham was at this time in Dublin, Secretary to the Earl of Northington, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. BOSWELL. See _ante_, p.200.

[705] Son of Mr. Samuel Paterson. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii.90, and _post_, April 5, 1784.

[706] The late Keeper of the Royal Academy. He died on Jan. 23 of this year. Reynolds wrote of him:--'He may truly be said in every sense, to have been the father of the present race of artists.' Northcote's _Reynolds_ ii.137.

[707] Mr. Allen was his landlord and next neighbour in Bolt-court. _Ante_, iii. 141.

[708] Cowper mentions him in _Retirement_:--

'Virtuous and faithful Heberden! whose skill Attempts no task it cannot well fulfill, Gives melancholy up to nature's care, And sends the patient into purer air.'

Cowper's _Poems_, ed. 1786, i. 272.

He is mentioned also by Priestley (_Auto._ ed. 1810, p.66) as one of his chief benefactors. Lord Eldon, when almost a briefless barrister, consulted him. 'I put my hand into my pocket, meaning to give him his fee; but he stopped me, saying, "Are you the young gentleman who gained the prize for the essay at Oxford?" I said I was. "I will take no fee from you." I often consulted him; but he would never take a fee.' Twiss's _Eldon_, i. 104.

[709] How much he had physicked himself is shewn by a letter of May 8. 'I took on Thursday,' he writes, 'two brisk catharticks and a dose of calomel. Little things do me no good. At night I was much better. Next day cathartick again, and the third day opium for my cough. I lived without flesh all the three days.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii.257. He had been bled at least four times that year and had lost about fifty ounces of blood. _Ante_, pp.142, 146. On Aug. 3, 1779, he wrote:--'Of the last fifty days I have taken mercurial physick, I believe, forty.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v.461.

[710] An exact reprint of this letter is given by Professor Mayor in _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v.481. The omissions and the repetitions 'betray,' he says, 'the writer's agitation.' The postscript Boswell had omitted. It is as follows:--'Dr. Brocklesby will be with me to meet Dr. Heberden, and I shall have previously make (sic) master of the case as well as I can.'

[711] Vol. ii. p.268, of Mrs. Thrale's _Collection_. BOSWELL. The beginning of the letter is very touching:--'I am sitting down in no cheerful solitude to write a narrative which would once have affected you with tenderness and sorrow, but which you will perhaps pass over now with the careless glance of frigid indifference. For this diminution of regard, however, I know not whether I ought to blame you, who may have reasons which I cannot know, and I do not blame myself, who have for a great part of human life done you what good I could, and have never done you evil.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 268. 'I have loved you,' he continued, 'with virtuous affection; I have honoured you with sincere esteem. Let not all our endearments be forgotten, but let me have in this great distress your pity and your prayers. You see I yet turn to you with my complaints as a settled and unalienable friend; do not, do not drive me from you, for I have not deserved either neglect or hatred.' _Ib._ p.271.

[712] On Aug. 20 he wrote:--'I sat to Mrs. Reynolds yesterday for my picture, perhaps the tenth time, and I sat near three hours with the patience of _mortal born to bear_; at last she declared it quite finished, and seems to think it fine. I told her it was _Johnson's grimly ghost_. It is to be engraved, and I think _in glided_, &c., will be a good inscription.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 302. Johnson is quoting from Mallet's ballad of _Margaret's Ghost_:--

'Twas at the silent solemn hour, When night and morning meet; In glided Margaret's grimly ghost, And stood at William's feet.'

_Percy Ballads_, in. 3, 16.

According to Northcote, Reynolds said of his sister's oil-paintings, 'they made other people laugh and him cry.' 'She generally,' Northcote adds, 'did them by stealth.' _Life of Reynolds_, ii. 160.

[713] 'Nocte, inter 16 et 17 Junii, 1783.

Summe pater, quodcunque tuum de corpore Numen Hoc statuat, precibus Christus adesse velit: Ingenio parcas, nee sit mihi culpa rogasse, Qua solum potero parte placere tibi.'

_Works_, i.159.

[714] According to the _Gent. Mag_. 1783, p.542, Dr. Lawrence died at Canterbury on June 13 of this year, his second son died on the 15th. But, if we may trust Munk's _Roll of the College of Physicians_, ii.153, on the father's tomb-stone, June 6 is given as the day of his death. Mr. Croker gives June 17 as the date, and June 19 as the day of the son's death, and is puzzled accordingly.

[715] Poor Derrick, however, though he did not himself introduce me to Dr. Johnson as he promised, had the merit of introducing me to Davies, the immediate introductor. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i.385, 391.

[716] Miss Burney, calling on him the next morning, offered to make his tea. He had given her his own large arm-chair which was too heavy for her to move to the table. '"Sir," quoth she, "I am in the wrong chair." "It is so difficult," cried he with quickness, "for anything to be wrong that belongs to you, that it can only be I that am in the wrong chair to keep you from the right one."' Dr. Burney's _Memoirs_, ii. 345.

[717] His Lordship was soon after chosen, and is now a member of THE CLUB. BOSWELL. He was father of the future prime-minister, who was born in the following year.

[718] He wrote on June 23:--'What man can do for man has been done for me.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii.278. Murphy (_Life_, p. 121) says that, visiting him during illness, he found him reading Dr. Watson's _Chymistry_ (_ante_, p. 118). 'Articulating with difficulty he said:--"From this book he who knows nothing may learn a great deal, and he who knows will be pleased to find his knowledge recalled to his mind in a manner highly pleasing."'

[719] 'I have, by the migration of one of my ladies, more peace at home; but I remember an old savage chief that says of the Romans with great indignation-_ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant_ [_Tacitus, Agricola_, c. xxx]. _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 259.

[720] 'July 23. I have been thirteen days at Rochester, and am just now returned. I came back by water in a common boat twenty miles for a shilling, and when I landed at Billingsgate, I carried my budget myself to Cornhill before I could get a coach, and was not much incommoded' _Ib_. ii.294. See _ante_, iv.8, 22, for mention of Rochester.

[721] Murphy (_Life_, p. 121) says that Johnson visited Oxford this summer. Perhaps he was misled by a passage in the _Piozzi Letters_ (ii. 302) where Johnson is made to write:--'At Oxford I have just left Wheeler.' For _left_ no doubt should be read _lost_. Wheeler died on July 22 of this year. _Gent. Mag_. 1783, p. 629.

[722] This house would be interesting to Johnson, as in it Charles II, 'for whom he had an extraordinary partiality' (_ante_, ii. 341), lay hid for some days after the battle of Worcester. Clarendon (vi. 540) describes it 'as a house that stood alone from neighbours and from any highway.' Charles was lodged 'in a little room, which had been made since the beginning of the troubles for the concealment of delinquents.'

[723] 'I told Dr. Johnson I had heard that Mr. Bowles was very much delighted with the expectation of seeing him, and he answered me:--"He is so delighted that it is shocking. It is really shocking to see how high are his expectations." I asked him why, and he said:--"Why, if any man is expected to take a leap of twenty yards, and does actually take one of ten, everybody will be disappointed, though ten yards may be more than any other man ever leaped."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii.260. On Oct. 9, he wrote:--'Two nights ago Mr. Burke sat with me a long time. We had both seen Stonehenge this summer for the first time.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii.315.

[724] Salisbury is eighty-two miles from Cornhill by the old coach-road. Johnson seems to have been nearly fifteen hours on the journey.

[725] 'Aug. 13, 1783. I am now broken with disease, without the alleviation of familiar friendship or domestic society. I have no middle state between clamour and silence, between general conversation and self-tormenting solitude. Levett is dead, and poor Williams is making haste to die.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii.301. 'Aug. 20. This has been a day of great emotion; the office of the Communion of the Sick has been performed in poor Mrs. Williams's chamber.' _Ib_. 'Sept. 22. Poor Williams has, I hope, seen the end of her afflictions. She acted with prudence and she bore with fortitude. She has left me.

"Thou thy weary [worldly] task hast done, Home art gone and ta'en thy wages."

[_Cymbeline_, act iv. sc. 2.]

Had she had good humour and prompt elocution, her universal curiosity and comprehensive knowledge would have made her the delight of all that knew her.' _Ib_. p. 311.

[726] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 354) described in 1756 such a companion as he found in Mrs. Williams. He quotes Pope's _Epitaph on Mrs. Corbet_, and continues:--'I have always considered this as the most valuable of all Pope's epitaphs; the subject of it is a character not discriminated by any shining or eminent peculiarities; yet that which really makes, though not the splendour, the felicity of life, and that which every wise man will choose for his final and lasting companion in the languor of age, in the quiet of privacy, when he departs, weary and disgusted, from the ostentatious, the volatile and the vain. Of such a character which the dull overlook, and the gay despise, it was fit that the value should be made known, and the dignity established.' See _ante_, i.232.

[727] _Pr. and Med_. p. 226. BOSWELL.

[728] I conjecture that Mr. Bowles is the friend. The account follows close on the visit to his house, and contains a mention of Johnson's attendance at a lecture at Salisbury.

[729] A writer in _Notes and Queries_, 1st S. xii. 149, says:--'Mr. Bowles had married a descendant of Oliver Cromwell, viz. Dinah, the fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Frankland, and highly valued himself upon this connection with the Protector.' He adds that Mr. Bowles was an active Whig.

[730] Mr. Malone observes, 'This, however, was certainly a mistake, as appears from the _Memoirs_ published by Mr. Noble. Had Johnson been furnished with the materials which the industry of that gentleman has procured, and with others which, it it is believed, are yet preserved in manuscript, he would, without doubt, have produced a most valuable and curious history of Cromwell's life.' BOSWELL.

[731] See _ante_, ii.358, note 3.

[732] _Short Notes for Civil Conversation_. Spedding's _Bacon_, vii.109.

[733] 'When I took up his _Life of Cowley_, he made me put it away to talk. I could not help remarking how very like he is to his writing, and how much the same thing it was to hear or to read him; but that nobody could tell that without coming to Streatham, for his language was generally imagined to be laboured and studied, instead of the mere common flow of his thoughts. "Very true," said Mrs. Thrale, "he writes and talks with the same ease, and in the same manner."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 120. What a different account is this from that given by Macaulay:--'When he talked he clothed his wit and his sense in forcible and natural expressions. As soon as he took his pen in his hand to write for the public, his style became systematically vicious.' Macaulay's _Essays_, edit. 1843, i.404. See _ante_, ii.96, note; iv.183; and _post_, the end of the vol.

[734] See _ante_, ii.125, iii.254, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 14.

[735] Hume said:--'The French have more real politeness, and the English the better method of expressing it. By real politeness I mean softness of temper, and a sincere inclination to oblige and be serviceable, which is very conspicuous in this nation, not only among the high, but low; in so much that the porters and coachmen here are civil, and that, not only to gentlemen, but likewise among themselves.' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 53.

[736] This is the third time that Johnson's disgust at this practice is recorded. See _ante_, ii.403, and iii.352.

[737] See _ante_, iii.398, note 3.

[738] 'Sept. 22, 1783. The chymical philosophers have discovered a body (which I have forgotten, but will enquire) which, dissolved by an acid, emits a vapour lighter than the atmospherical air. This vapour is caught, among other means, by tying a bladder compressed upon the body in which the dissolution is performed; the vapour rising swells the bladder and fills it. _Piozzi Letters_, ii.310. The 'body' was iron-filings, the acid sulphuric acid, and the vapour nitrogen. The other 'new kinds of air' were the gases discovered by Priestley.

[739] I do not wonder at Johnson's displeasure when the name of Dr. Priestley was mentioned; for I know no writer who has been suffered to publish more pernicious doctrines. I shall instance only three. First, _Materialism_; by which _mind_ is denied to human nature; which, if believed, must deprive us of every elevated principle. Secondly, _Necessity_; or the doctrine that every action, whether good or bad, is included in an unchangeable and unavoidable system; a notion utterly subversive of moral government. Thirdly, that we have no reason to think that the _future_ world, (which, as he is pleased to _inform_ us, will be adapted to our _merely improved_ nature,) will be materially different from _this_; which, if believed, would sink wretched mortals into despair, as they could no longer hope for the 'rest that remaineth for the people of GOD' [_Hebrews_, iv.9], or for that happiness which is revealed to us as something beyond our present conceptions; but would feel themselves doomed to a continuation of the uneasy state under which they now groan. I say nothing of the petulant intemperance with which he dares to insult the venerable establishments of his country.

As a specimen of his writings, I shall quote the following passage, which appears to me equally absurd and impious, and which might have been retorted upon him by the men who were prosecuted for burning his house. 'I cannot, (says he,) as a _necessarian_, [meaning _necessitarian_] hate _any man_; because I consider him as _being_, in all respects, just what GOD has _made him to be_; and also as _doing with respect to me_, nothing but what he was _expressly designed_ and _appointed_ to do; GOD being the _only cause_, and men nothing more than the _instruments_ in his hands to _execute all his pleasure_.'-- _Illustrations of Philosophical Necessity_, p. 111.

The Reverend Dr. Parr, in a late tract, appears to suppose that _'Dr. Johnson not only endured, but almost solicited, an interview with Dr. Priestley_. In justice to Dr. Johnson, I declare my firm belief that he never did. My illustrious friend was particularly resolute in not giving countenance to men whose writings he considered as pernicious to society. I was present at Oxford when Dr. Price, even before he had rendered himself so generally obnoxious by his zeal for the French Revolution, came into a company where Johnson was, who instantly left the room. Much more would he have reprobated Dr. Priestley. Whoever wishes to see a perfect delineation of this _Literary Jack of all Trades_, may find it in an ingenious tract, entitled, 'A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH OF DR. PRIESTLEY,' printed for Rivingtons, in St. Paul's Church-Yard. BOSWELL. See Appendix B.

[740] Burke said, 'I have learnt to think _better_ of mankind.' _Ante_, iii.236.

[741] He wrote to his servant Frank from Heale on Sept. l6:--'As Thursday [the 18th] is my birthday I would have a little dinner got, and would have you invite Mrs. Desmoulins, Mrs. Davis that was about Mrs. Williams, and Mr. Allen, and Mrs. Gardiner.' Croker's _Boswell_, p.739. See _ante_, iii.157, note 3.

[742] Dr. Burney had just lost Mr. Bewley, 'the Broom Gentleman' (_ante_, p. 134), and Mr. Crisp. Dr. Burney's _Memoirs_, ii.323, 352. For Mr. Crisp, see Macaulay's _Review_ of Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary. Essays_, ed. 1874, iv.104.

[743] He wrote of her to Mrs. Montagu:--'Her curiosity was universal, her knowledge was very extensive, and she sustained forty years of misery with steady fortitude. Thirty years and more she had been my companion, and her death has left me very desolate.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 739. This letter brought to a close his quarrel with Mrs. Montagu (_ante_, p. 64).

[744] On Sept. 22 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'If excision should be delayed, there is danger of a gangrene. You would not have me for fear of pain perish in putrescence. I shall, I hope, with trust in eternal mercy, lay hold of the possibility of life which yet remains.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii.312.

[745] Rather more than seven years ago. _Ante_, ii.82, note 2.

[746] Mrs. Anna Williams. BOSWELL.

[747] See _ante_, p. 163, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov 2.

[748] Dated Oct. 27. _Piozzi Letters_, ii.321.

[749] According to Mrs. Piozzi (_Letters_, ii.387), he said to Mrs. Siddons:--'You see, Madam, wherever you go there are no seats to be got.' Sir Joshua also paid her a fine compliment. 'He never marked his own name [on a picture],' says Northcote, 'except in the instance of Mrs. Siddons's portrait as the Tragic Muse, when he wrote his name upon the hem of her garment. "I could not lose," he said, "the honour this opportunity offered to me for my name going down to posterity on the hem of your garment."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 246. In Johnson's _Works_, ed. 1787, xi. 207, we read that 'he said of Mrs. Siddons that she appeared to him to be one of the few persons that the two great corrupters of mankind, money and reputation, had not spoiled.'

[750] 'Indeed, Dr. Johnson,' said Miss Monckton, 'you _must_ see Mrs. Siddons.' 'Well, Madam, if you desire it, I will go. See her I shall not, nor hear her; but I'll go, and that will do.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 198.

[751] 'Mrs. Porter, the tragedian, was so much the favourite of her time, that she was welcomed on the stage when she trod it by the help of a stick.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 319.

[752] He said:--'Mrs. Clive was the best player I ever saw.' Boswell's _Hebrides, post_, v. 126. See _ante_, p. 7. She was for many years the neighbour and friend of Horace Walpole.

[753] She acted the heroine in _Irene. Ante_, i. 197. 'It is wonderful how little mind she had,' he once said. _Ante_, ii. 348. See Boswell's _Hebrides, post_, v. 126.

[754] See _ante_, iii. 183.

[755] See ante, iii. 184.

[756] 'Garrick's great distinction is his universality,' Johnson said. 'He can represent all modes of life, but that of an easy, fine-bred gentleman.' Boswell's _Hebrides, post_, v. 126. See _ante_, iii. 35. Horace Walpole wrote of Garrick in 1765 (_Letters_, iv. 335):--'Several actors have pleased me more, though I allow not in so many parts. Quin in Falstaff was as excellent as Garrick in _Lear_. Old Johnson far more natural in everything he attempted; Mrs. Porter surpassed him in passionate tragedy. Cibber and O'Brien were what Garrick could never reach, coxcombs and men of fashion. Mrs. Clive is at least as perfect in low comedy.'

[757] See _ante_, ii. 465.

[758] Mr. Kemble told Mr. Croker that 'Mrs. Siddons's pathos in the last scene of _The Stranger_ quite overcame him, but he always endeavoured to restrain any impulses which might interfere with his previous study of his part.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 742. Diderot, writing of the qualifications of a great actor, says:--'Je lui veux beaucoup de jugement; je le veux spectateur froid et tranquille de la nature humaine; qu'il ait par conséquent beaucoup de finesse, mais nulle sensibilité, ou, ce qui est la même chose, l'art de tout imiter, et une égale aptitude à toutes sortes de caractères et de rôles; s'il était sensible, il lui serait impossible de jouer dix fois de suite le même rôle avec la même chaleur et le même succès; très chaud à la première représentation, il serait épuisé et froid comme le marble à la troisième,' &c. Diderot's _Works_ (ed. 1821), iii. 274. See Boswell's _Hebrides, post_, v. 46.

[759] My worthy friend, Mr. John Nichols, was present when Mr. Henderson, the actor, paid a visit to Dr. Johnson; and was received in a very courteous manner. See _Gent. Mag_. June, 1791.

I found among Dr. Johnson's papers, the following letter to him, from the celebrated Mrs. Bellamy [_ante_, i. 326]:--

'To DR. JOHNSON.

'SIR,

'The flattering remembrance of the partiality you honoured me with, some years ago, as well as the humanity you are known to possess, has encouraged me to solicit your patronage at my Benefit.

'By a long Chancery suit, and a complicated train of unfortunate events, I am reduced to the greatest distress; which obliges me, once more, to request the indulgence of the publick.

'Give me leave to solicit the honour of your company, and to assure you, if you grant my request, the gratification I shall feel, from being patronized by Dr. Johnson, will be infinitely superiour to any advantage that may arise from the Benefit; as I am, with the profoundest respect, Sir,

'Your most obedient, humble servant, G. A. BELLAMY. No. 10 Duke-street, St. James's, May 11, 1783.'

I am happy in recording these particulars, which prove that my illustrious friend lived to think much more favourably of Players than he appears to have done in the early part of his life. BOSWELL. Mr. Nichols, describing Henderson's visit to Johnson, says:--'The conversation turning on the merits of a certain dramatic writer, Johnson said: "I never did the man an injury; but he would persist in reading his tragedy to me."' _Gent. Mag_: 1791, p. 500.

[760] _Piozzi Letters_, vol. ii. p. 328. BOSWELL.

[761] _Piozzi Letters_, vol. ii. p. 342. BOSWELL. The letter to Miss Thrale was dated Nov. 18. Johnson wrote on Dec. l3:--'You must all guess again at my friend. It was not till Dec. 31 that he told the name.

[762] Miss Burney, who visited him on this day, records:--'He was, if possible, more instructive, entertaining, good-humoured, and exquisitely fertile than ever.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 284. The day before he wrote to one of Mrs. Thrale's little daughters:--'I live here by my own self, and have had of late very bad nights; but then I have had a pig to dinner which Mr. Perkins gave me. Thus life is chequered.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 327.

[763] See _ante_, i. 242.

[764] See _ante_, i. 242.

[765] Nos. 26 and 29.

[766] _Piozzi Letters_, i. 334. See _ante_, p. 75.

[767] He strongly opposed the war with America, and was one of Dr. Franklin's friends. Franklin's _Memoirs_, ed. 1818, iii. 108.

[768] It was of this tragedy that the following story is told in Rogers's _Table-Talk_, p. 177:--'Lord Shelburne could say the most provoking things, and yet appear quite unconscious of their being so. In one of his speeches, alluding to Lord Carlisle, he said:--"The noble Lord has written a comedy." "No, a tragedy." "Oh, I beg pardon; I thought it was a comedy."' See _ante_, p. 113. Pope, writing to Mr. Cromwell on Aug. 19, 1709, says:--'One might ask the same question of a modern life, that Rich did of a modern play: "Pray do me the favour, Sir, to inform me is this your tragedy or your comedy?"' Pope's _Works_, ed. 1812, vi. 81.

[769] Mrs. Chapone, when she was Miss Mulso, had written 'four billets in _The Rambler_, No. 10.' _Ante_, i. 203. She was one of the literary ladies who sat at Richardson's feet. Wraxall (_Memoirs_, ed. 1815, i. 155) says that 'under one of the most repulsive exteriors that any woman ever possessed she concealed very superior attainments and extensive knowledge.' Just as Mrs. Carter was often called 'the learned Mrs. Carter,' so Mrs. Chapone was known as 'the admirable Mrs. Chapone.'

[770] See _ante_, iii. 373.

[771] A few copies only of this tragedy have been printed, and given to the authour's friends. BOSWELL.

[772] Dr. Johnson having been very ill when the tragedy was first sent to him, had declined the consideration of it. BOSWELL.

[773] Johnson refers, I suppose, to a passage in Dryden which he quotes in his _Dictionary_ under _mechanick_:--'Many a fair precept in poetry is like a seeming demonstration in mathematicks, very specious in the diagram, but failing in the mechanick operation.'

[774]

'I could have borne my woes; that stranger Joy Wounds while it smiles:--The long imprison'd wretch, Emerging from the night of his damp cell, Shrinks from the sun's bright beams; and that which flings Gladness o'er all, to him is agony.' BOSWELL.

[775] Lord Cockburn (_Life of Lord Jeffrey_, i. 74) describing the representation of Scotland towards the close of last century, and in fact till the Reform Bill of 1832, says:--'There were probably not above 1500 or 2000 county electors in all Scotland; a body not too large to be held, hope included, in Government's hand. The election of either the town or the county member was a matter of such utter indifference to the people, that they often only knew of it by the ringing of a bell, or by seeing it mentioned next day in a newspaper.'

[776] Six years later, when he was _Praeses_ of the Quarter-Sessions, he carried up to London an address to be presented to the Prince of Wales. 'This,' he wrote, 'will add something to my _conspicuousness_. Will that word do?' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 295.

[777] This part of this letter was written, as Johnson goes on to say, a considerable time before the conclusion. The Coalition Ministry, which was suddenly dismissed by the King on Dec. 19, was therefore still in power. Among Boswell's 'friends' was Burke. See _ante_, p. 223.

[778] On Nov. 22 he wrote to Dr. Taylor:-'I feel the weight of solitude very pressing; after a night of broken and uncomfortable slumber I rise to a solitary breakfast, and sit down in the evening with no companion. Sometimes, however, I try to read more and more.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 482. On Dec. 27 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'You have more than once wondered at my complaint of solitude, when you hear that I am crowded with visits. _Inopem me copia fecit_. Visitors are no proper companions in the chamber of sickness. They come when I could sleep or read, they stay till I am weary.... The amusements and consolations of langour and depression are conferred by familiar and domestick companions, which can be visited or called at will.... Such society I had with Levett and Williams; such I had where I am never likely to have it more.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 341.

[779] The confusion arising from the sudden dismissal of a Ministry which commanded a large majority in the House of Commons had been increased by the resignation, on Dec. 22, of Earl Temple, three days after his appointment as Secretary of State. _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 238.

[780] 'News I know none,' wrote Horace Walpole on Dec. 30, 1783 (_Letters_, viii. 447), 'but that they are crying Peerages about the streets in barrows, and can get none off.' Thirty-three peerages were made in the next three years. (_Whitaker's Almanac_, 1886, p. 463.) Macaulay tells how this December 'a troop of Lords of the Bedchamber, of Bishops who wished to be translated, and of Scotch peers who wished to be reelected made haste to change sides.' Macaulay's _Writings and Speeches_, ed. 1871, p. 407.

[781] See _ante_, ii. 182. He died Oct. 28, 1788.

[782]'Prince Henry was the first encourager of remote navigation. What mankind has lost and gained by the genius and designs of this prince it would be long to compare, and very difficult to estimate. Much knowledge has been acquired, and much cruelty been committed; the belief of religion has been very little propagated, and its laws have been outrageously and enormously violated. The Europeans have scarcely visited any coast but to gratify avarice, and extend corruption; to arrogate dominion without right, and practise cruelty without incentive. Happy had it then been for the oppressed, if the designs of Henry had slept in his bosom, and surely more happy for the oppressors.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 219. See _ante_, ii. 478.

[783] 'The author himself,' wrote Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, i. 220), 'is the best judge of his own performance; no one has so deeply meditated on the subject; no one is so sincerely interested in the event.'

[784] Mickle, speaking in the third person as the Translator, says:-- 'He is happy to be enabled to add Dr. Johnson to the number of those whose kindness for the man, and good wishes for the Translation, call for his sincerest gratitude.' Mickle's _Lusiad_, p. ccxxv.

[785] A brief record, it should seem, is given, _ante_, iii. 37.

[786] See _ante_, iii. 106, 214.

[787] The author of _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr, Johnson_ says (p. 153) that it was Johnson who determined Shaw to undertake this work. 'Sir,' he said, 'if you give the world a vocabulary of that language, while the island of Great Britain stands in the Atlantic Ocean your name will be mentioned.' On p. 156 is a letter by Johnson introducing Shaw to a friend.

[788] 'Why is not the original deposited in some publick library?' he asked. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 10.

[789] See ante, i. 190.

[790] See Appendix C.

[791] 'Dec. 27, 1873. The wearisome solitude of the long evenings did indeed suggest to me the convenience of a club in my neighbourhood, but I have been hindered from attending it by want of breath.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 340. 'Dec. 31. I have much need of entertainment; spiritless, infirm, sleepless, and solitary, looking back with sorrow and forward with terrour.' _Ib_, p. 343.

[792] '"I think," said Mr. Cambridge, "it sounds more like some club that one reads of in _The Spectator_ than like a real club in these times; for the forfeits of a whole year will not amount to those of a single night in other clubs."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 290. Mr. Cambridge was thinking of the Two-penny Club. _Spectator_, No. ix.

[793] I was in Scotland when this Club was founded, and during all the winter. Johnson, however, declared I should be a member, and invented a word upon the occasion: 'Boswell (said he) is a very _clubable_ man.' When I came to town I was proposed by Mr. Barrington, and chosen. I believe there are few societies where there is better conversation or more decorum. Several of us resolved to continue it after our great founder was removed by death. Other members were added; and now, above eight years since that loss, we go on happily. BOSWELL. Mr. Croker says 'Johnson had already invented _unclubable_ for Sir J. Hawkins,' and refers to a note by Dr. Burney (_ante_, i. 480, note I), in which Johnson is represented as saying of Hawkins, while he was still a member of the Literary Club:--'Sir John, Sir, is a very unclubable man.' But, as Mr. Croker points out (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 164), 'Hawkins was not knighted till long after he had left the club.' The anecdote, being proved to be inaccurate in one point, may be inaccurate in another, and may therefore belong to a much later date.

[794] See Appendix D.

[795] Ben Jonson wrote _Leges Convivales_ that were 'engraven in marble over the chimney in the Apollo of the Old Devil Tavern, Temple Bar; that being his Club Room.' Jonson's _Works_, ed. 1756, vii. 291.

[796] RULES.

'To-day deep thoughts with me resolve to drench In mirth, which after no repenting draws.'--MILTON.

['To-day deep thoughts _resolve with me_ to drench In mirth _that_, &c.' _Sonnets_, xxi.]

'The Club shall consist of four-and-twenty.

'The meetings shall be on the Monday, Thursday, and Saturday of every week; but in the week before Easter there shall be no meeting.

'Every member is at liberty to introduce a friend once a week, but not oftener.

'Two members shall oblige themselves to attend in their turn every night from eight to ten, or to procure two to attend in their room.

'Every member present at the Club shall spend at least sixpence; and every member who stays away shall forfeit three-pence.

'The master of the house shall keep an account of the absent members; and deliver to the President of the night a list of the forfeits incurred.

'When any member returns after absence, he shall immediately lay down his forfeits; which if he omits to do, the President shall require.

'There shall be no general reckoning, but every man shall adjust his own expences.

'The night of indispensable attendance will come to every member once a month. Whoever shall for three months together omit to attend himself, or by substitution, nor shall make any apology in the fourth month, shall be considered as having abdicated the Club.

'When a vacancy is to be filled, the name of the candidate, and of the member recommending him, shall stand in the Club-room three nights. On the fourth he may be chosen by ballot; six members at least being present, and two-thirds of the ballot being in his favour; or the majority, should the numbers not be divisible by three.

'The master of the house shall give notice, six days before, to each of those members whose turn of necessary attendance is come.

'The notice may be in these words:--"Sir, On ---- the ---- of ---- -- will be your turn of presiding at the Essex-Head. Your company is therefore earnestly requested."

'One penny shall be left by each member for the waiter.'

Johnson's definition of a Club in this sense, in his _Dictionary_, is, 'An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions.' BOSWELL.

[797] She had left him in the summer (_ante_, p. 233), but perhaps she had returned.

[798] He received many acts of kindness from outside friends. On Dec. 31 he wrote:--'I have now in the house pheasant, venison, turkey, and ham, all unbought. Attention and respect give pleasure, however late or however useless. But they are not useless when they are late; it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 343.

[799] 'Dec. 16, 1783. I spent the afternoon with Dr. Johnson, who indeed is very ill, and whom I could hardly tell how to leave. He was very, very kind. Oh! what a cruel, heavy loss will he be! Dec. 30. I went to Dr. Johnson, and spent the evening with him. He was very indifferent indeed. There were some very disagreeable people with him; and he once affected me very much by turning suddenly to me, and grasping my hand and saying:--"The blister I have tried for my breath has betrayed some very bad tokens; but I will not terrify myself by talking of them. Ah! _priez Dieu pour moi_."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 293, 5. 'I snatch,' he wrote a few weeks later, 'every lucid interval, and animate myself with such amusements as the time offers.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 349.

[800] He had written to her on Nov. 10. See Croker's _Boswell_, p. 742.

[801] Hawkins (_Life_, 562) says that this November Johnson said to him:--'What a man am I, who have got the better of three diseases, the palsy, the gout, and the asthma, and can now enjoy the conversation of my friends, without the interruptions of weakness or pain.'

[802] 'The street [on London Bridge], which, before the houses fell to decay, consisted of handsome lofty edifices, pretty regularly built, was 20 feet broad, and the houses on each side generally 26-1/2 feet deep.' After 1746 no more leases were granted, and the houses were allowed to run to ruin. In 1756-7 they were all taken down. Dodsley's _London and its Environs_, ed. 1761, iv. 136-143.

[803] In Lowndes's _Bibl. Man_. i. 328 is given a list of nearly fifty of these books. Some of them were reprinted by Stace in 1810-13 in 6 vols. quarto. Dr. Franklin, writing of the books that he bought in his boyhood says:--'My first acquisition was Bunyan's works in separate little volumes. I afterwards sold them to enable me to buy R. Burton's _Historical Collections_; they were small chapmen's books, and cheap. Forty volumes in all.' Franklin's _Memoirs_, i. 17.

[804] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale this same day:--'Alas, I had no sleep last night, and sit now panting over my paper. _Dabit Deus his quoque finem.' ['This too the Gods shall end.' MORRIS, Virgil, _Aeneids_, 1.199.] _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 347.

[805] Boswell's purpose in this _Letter_ was to recommend the Scotch to address the King to express their satisfaction that the East India Company Bill had been rejected by the House of Lords. _Ib_. p. 39. 'Let us,' he writes, 'upon this awful occasion think only of _property_ and _constitution_;' p. 42. 'Let me add,' he says in concluding, 'that a dismission of the Portland Administration will probably disappoint an object which I have most ardently at heart;' p. 42. He was thinking no doubt of his 'expectations from the interest of an eminent person then in power' (ante, p. 223.)

[806] On p. 4 Boswell condemns the claim of Parliament to tax the American colonies as 'unjust and inexpedient.' 'This claim,' he says, 'was almost universally approved of in Scotland, where due consideration was had of the advantage of raising regiments.' He continues:--'When pleading at the bar of the House of Commons in a question concerning taxation, I avowed that opinion, declaring that the man in the world for whom I have the highest respect (Dr. Johnson) had not been able to convince me that _Taxation was no Tyranny_.'

[807] Boswell wrote to Reynolds on Feb. 6:--'I intend to be in London next month, chiefly to attend upon Dr. Johnson with respectful affection.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 748.

[808] 'I have really hope from spring,' he wrote on Jan. 21, 'and am ready, like Almanzor, to bid the sun _fly swiftly_, and _leave weeks and months behind him_. The sun has looked for six thousand years upon the world to little purpose, if he does not know that a sick man is almost as impatient as a lover.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 347. Almanzor's speech is at the end of Dryden's _Conquest of Granada_:--

'Move swiftly, Sun, and fly a lover's pace; Leave weeks and months behind thee in thy race.'

See _ante_, i. 332, where Johnson said, 'This distinction of seasons is produced only by imagination operating on luxury. To temperance every day is bright,' and _post_, Aug. 2, 1784.

[809] He died in the following August at Dover, on his way home. Walpole's _Letters_, viii. 494. See _ante_, iii. 250, 336, and _post_, Aug. 19, 1784.

[810] On the last day of the old year he wrote:--'To any man who extends his thoughts to national consideration, the times are dismal and gloomy. But to a sick man, what is the publick?' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 344.

The original of the following note is in the admirable collection of autographs belonging to my friend, Mr. M. M. Holloway:--

'TO THE REV. DR. TAYLOR,

'in Ashbourne,

'Derbyshire.

'DEAR SIR,

'I am still confined to the house, and one of my amusements is to write letters to my friends, though they, being busy in the common scenes of life, are not equally diligent in writing to me. Dr. Heberden was with me two or three days ago, and told me that nothing ailed me, which I was glad to hear, though I knew it not to be true. My nights are restless, my breath is difficult, and my lower parts continue tumid.

'The struggle, you see, still continues between the two sets of ministers: those that are _out_ and _in_ one can scarce call them, for who is _out_ or _in_ is perhaps four times a day a new question. The tumult in government is, I believe, excessive, and the efforts of each party outrageously violent, with very little thought on any national interest, at a time when we have all the world for our enemies, when the King and parliament have lost even the titular dominion of America, and the real power of Government every where else. Thus Empires are broken down when the profits of administration are so great, that ambition is satisfied with obtaining them, and he that aspires to greatness needs do nothing more than talk himself into importance. He has then all the power which danger and conquest used formerly to give; he can raise a family and reward his followers.

'Mr. Burke has just sent me his Speech upon the affairs of India, a volume of above a hundred pages closely printed. I will look into it; but my thoughts seldom now travel to great distances.

'I would gladly know when you think to come hither, and whether this year you will come or no. If my life be continued, I know not well how I shall bestow myself.

'I am, Sir,

'Your affectionate &c.,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'London, Jan. 24, 1784.'

[811] See _post_, v. 48.

[812] See _post_, p. 271.

[813] I sent it to Mr. Pitt, with a letter, in which I thus expressed myself:--'My principles may appear to you too monarchical: but I know and am persuaded, they are not inconsistent with the true principles of liberty. Be this as it may, you, Sir, are now the Prime Minister, called by the Sovereign to maintain the rights of the Crown, as well as those of the people, against a violent faction. As such, you are entitled to the warmest support of every good subject in every department.' He answered:--'I am extremely obliged to you for the sentiments you do me the honour to express, and have observed with great pleasure the _zealous and able support_ given to the CAUSE OF THE PUBLICK in the work you were so good to transmit to me.' BOSWELL. Five years later, and two years before _The Life of Johnson_ was published, Boswell wrote to Temple:--'As to Pitt, he is an insolent fellow, but so able, that upon the whole I must support him against the _Coalition_; but I will _work_ him, for he has behaved very ill to me. Can he wonder at my wishing for preferment, when men of the first family and fortune in England struggle for it?' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 295. Warburton said of Helvetius, whom he disliked, that, if he had met him, 'he would have _worked_ him.' Walpole's _Letters_, iv. 217.

[814] Out of this offer, and one of a like nature made in 1779 (_ante_, iii. 418), Mr. Croker weaves a vast web of ridiculous suspicions.

[815] From his garden at Prestonfield, where he cultivated that plant with such success, that he was presented with a gold medal by the Society of London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. BOSWELL.

[816] In the original _effusion_. Johnson's _Works_, vii. 402.

[817] Who had written him a very kind letter. BOSWELL.

[818] On Jan. 12 the Ministry had been in a minority of 39 in a House of 425; on March 8 the minority was reduced to one in a House of 381. Parliament was dissolved on the 25th. In the first division in the new Parliament the Ministry were in a majority of 97 in a House of 369. _Parl. Hist._ xxiv. 299, 744, 829.

[819] See _ante_, p. 241.

[820] 'In old Aberdeen stands the King's College, of which the first president was Hector Boece, or Boethius, who may be justly reverenced as one of the revivers of elegant learning.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 11.

[821] See _ante_, iii. 104.

[822] In his dining-room, no doubt, among 'the very respectable people' whose portraits hung there. _Ante_, p. 203, note.

[823] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 466) wrote on March 30:--'The nation is intoxicated, and has poured in Addresses of Thanks to the Crown for exerting the prerogative _against_ the palladium of the people.'

[824] The election lasted from April 1 to May 16. Fox was returned second on the poll. _Ann. Reg._ xxvii. 190.

[825] He was returned also for Kirkwall, for which place he sat for nearly a year, while the scrutiny of the Westminster election was dragging on. _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 799.

[826] Hannah More wrote on March 8 (_Memoirs_, i. 310):--'I am sure you will honour Mr. Langton, when I tell you he is come on purpose to stay with Dr. Johnson, and that during his illness. He has taken a little lodging in Fleet-street in order to be near, to devote himself to him. He has as much goodness as learning, and that is saying a bold thing of one of the first Greek scholars we have.'

[827] Floyer was the Lichfield physician on whose advice Johnson was '_touched_' by Queen Anne. _Ante_, i. 42, 91, and _post_, July 20, 1784.

[828] To which Johnson returned this answer:--

'TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL OF PORTMORE.

'Dr. Johnson acknowledges with great respect the honour of Lord Portmore's notice. He is better than he was; and will, as his Lordship directs, write to Mr. Langton.

'Bolt-court, Fleet-street,

April 13, 1784.'

BOSWELL. Johnson here assumes his title of Doctor, which Boswell says (_ante_, ii. 332, note 1), so far as he knew, he never did. Perhaps the letter has been wrongly copied, or perhaps Johnson thought that, in writing to a man of title, he ought to assume such title as he himself had.

[829] The eminent painter, representative of the ancient family of Homfrey (now Humphry) in the west of England; who, as appears from their arms which they have invariably used, have been, (as I have seen authenticated by the best authority,) one of those among the Knights and Esquires of honour who are represented by Holinshed as having issued from the Tower of London on coursers apparelled for the justes, accompanied by ladies of honour, leading every one a Knight, with a chain of gold, passing through the streets of London into Smithfield, on Sunday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, being the first Sunday after Michaelmas, in the fourteenth year of King Richard the Second. This family once enjoyed large possessions, but, like others, have lost them in the progress of ages. Their blood, however, remains to them well ascertained; and they may hope in the revolution of events, to recover that rank in society for which, in modern times, fortune seems to be an indispensable requisite. BOSWELL.

[830] Son of Mr. Samuel Paterson. BOSWELL. In the first two editions after 'Paterson' is added 'eminent for his knowledge of books.' See _ante_, iii. 90.

[831] Humphry, on his first coming to London, poor and unfriended, was helped by Reynolds. Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 174.

[832] On April 21 he wrote:--'After a confinement of 129 days, more than the third part of a year, and no inconsiderable part of human life, I this day returned thanks to God in St. Clement's Church for my recovery.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 365.

[833] On April 26 he wrote:--'On Saturday I showed myself again to the living world at the Exhibition; much and splendid was the company, but like the Doge of Genoa at Paris [Versailles, Voltaire, _Siècle de Louis XIV_, chap, xiv.], I admired nothing but myself. I went up the stairs to the pictures without stopping to rest or to breathe,

"In all the madness of superfluous health."

[Pope's _Essay on Man_, iii. 3.] The Prince of Wales had promised to be there; but when we had waited an hour and a half, sent us word that he could not come.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 367. 'The first Gentleman in Europe' was twenty-one years old when he treated men like Johnson and Reynolds with this insolence. Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 244) says that it was at this very dinner that 'Johnson left his seat by desire of the Prince of Wales, and went to the head of the table to be introduced.' He does not give his authority for the statement.

[834] Mr. Croker wrote in 1847 that he had 'seen it very lately framed and glazed, in possession of the lady to whom it was addressed.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 753.

[835] Shortly before he begged one of Mrs. Thrale's daughters 'never to think that she had arithmetic enough.' _Ante_, p. 171, note 3. See _ante_, iii. 207, note 3.

[836] Cowper wrote on May 10 to the Rev. John Newton:--'We rejoice in the account you give us of Dr. Johnson. His conversion will indeed be a singular proof of the omnipotence of Grace; and the more singular, the more decided.' Southey's _Cowper_, xv. 150. Johnson, in a prayer that he wrote on April 11, said:--'Enable me, O Lord, to glorify Thee for that knowledge of my corruption, and that sense of Thy wrath, which my disease and weakness and danger awakened in my mind.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 217.

[837] Mr. Croker suggests _immediate_.

[838] 'The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.' _St. James_, v. 16.

[839] Upon this subject there is a very fair and judicious remark in the life of Dr. Abernethy, in the first edition of the _Biographia Britannica_, which I should have been glad to see in his life which has been written for the second edition of that valuable work. 'To deny the exercise of a particular providence in the Deity's government of the world is certainly impious: yet nothing serves the cause of the scorner more than an incautious forward zeal in determining the particular instances of it.'

In confirmation of my sentiments, I am also happy to quote that sensible and elegant writer Mr. _Melmoth_ [see _ante_, iii. 422], in Letter VIII. of his collection, published under the name of _Fitzosborne_. 'We may safely assert, that the belief of a particular Providence is founded upon such probable reasons as may well justify our assent. It would scarce, therefore, be wise to renounce an opinion which affords so firm a support to the soul, in those seasons wherein she stands in most need of assistance, merely because it is not possible, in questions of this kind, to solve every difficulty which attends them.' BOSWELL.

[840] I was sorry to observe Lord Monboddo avoid any communication with Dr. Johnson. I flattered myself that I had made them very good friends (see _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, third edit. p. 67, _post_, v. 80), but unhappily his Lordship had resumed and cherished a violent prejudice against my illustrious friend, to whom I must do the justice to say, there was on his part not the least anger, but a good-humoured sportiveness. Nay, though he knew of his Lordship's indisposition towards him, he was even kindly; as appeared from his inquiring of me after him, by an abbreviation of his name, 'Well, how does _Monny_?' BOSWELL. Boswell (_Hebrides, post_, v. 74) says:--'I knew Lord Monboddo and Dr. Johnson did not love each other; yet I was unwilling not to visit his lordship, and was also curious to see them together.' Accordingly, he brought about a meeting. Four years later, in 1777 (_ante_, iii. 102), Monboddo received from Johnson a copy of his Journey to the Hebrides. They met again in London in 1780 (Piozzi Letters, ii. III), and perhaps then quarrelled afresh. Dr. Seattle wrote on Feb. 28, 1785:-'Lord Monboddo's hatred of Johnson was singular; he would not allow him to know anything but Latin grammar, "and that," says he, "I know as well as he does." I never heard Johnson say anything severe of him, though when he mentioned his name, he generally "grinned horribly a ghastly smile,"' ['Grinned horrible,' &c. _Paradise Lost_, ii. 846.] Forbes's _Beattie_, p. 333. The use of the abbreviation _Monny_ on Johnson's part scarcely seems a proof of kindliness. See _ante_, i. 453, where he said:--'Why, Sir, _Sherry_ is dull, naturally dull,' &c.; and iii. 84, note 2, where he said:--'I should have thought _Mund_ Burke would have had more sense;' see also Rogers's _Boswelliana_, p. 216, where he said:--'_Derry_ [Derrick] may do very well while he can outrun his character; but the moment that his character gets up with him he is gone.'

[841] On May 13 he wrote:--' Now I am broken loose, my friends seem willing enough to see me. ... But I do not now drive the world about; the world drives or draws me. I am very weak.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 369.

[842] See _ante,_ iii, 443.

[843] See _ante,_ p. 197.

[844] Boswell himself, likely enough.

[845] Verses on the death of Mr. Levett. BOSWELL. _Ante,_ p. 138

[846] If it was Boswell to whom this advice was given, it is not unlikely that he needed it. The meagreness of his record of Johnson's talk at this season may have been due, as seems to have happened before, to too much drinking. _Ante,_ p.88, note 1.

[847] _Ante,_ ii. 100.

[848] George Steevens. See _ante,_ iii. 281.

[849] Forty-six years earlier Johnson wrote of this lady:-'I have composed a Greek epigram to Eliza, and think she ought to be celebrated in as many different languages as Lewis le Grand.' _Ante_, i. 122. Miss Burney described her in 1780 as 'really a noble-looking woman; I never saw age so graceful in the female sex yet; her whole face seems to beam with goodness, piety, and philanthropy.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 373.

[850] 'Mrs. Thrale says that though Mrs. Lennox's books are generally approved, nobody likes her.' _Ib._ p. 91. See _ante_, i. 255, and iv. 10.

[851] 'Sept. 1778. MRS. THRALE. "Mrs. Montagu is the first woman for literary knowledge in England, and if in England, I hope I may say in the world." DR. JOHNSON. "I believe you may, Madam. She diffuses more knowledge in her conversation than any woman I know, or, indeed, almost any man." MRS. THRALE. "I declare I know no man equal to her, take away yourself and Burke, for that art."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 118. It is curious that Mrs. Thrale and Boswell should both thus instance Burke. Miss Burney writes of her in much more moderate terms:--'Allowing a little for parade and ostentation, which her power in wealth and rank in literature offer some excuse for, her conversation is very agreeable; she is always reasonable and sensible, and sometimes instructive and entertaining.' _Ib._ p. 325. See _ante_, ii. 88, note 3. These five ladies all lived to a great age. Mrs. Montagu was 80 when she died; Mrs. Lennox, 83; Miss Burney (Mme. D'Arblay), 87; Miss More and Mrs. (Miss) Carter, 88. Their hostess, Mrs. Garrick, was 97 or 98.

[852] Miss Burney, describing how she first saw Burke, says:--'I had been told that Burke was not expected; yet I could conclude this gentleman to be no other. There was an evident, a striking superiority in his demeanour, his eye, his motions, that announced him no common man.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 145. See _ante_, ii. 450, where Johnson said of Burke:--'His stream of mind is perpetual;' and Boswell's _Hebrides post,_, v. 32, and Prior's _Life of Burke_, fifth edition, p. 58.

[853] _Kennel_ is a strong word to apply to Burke; but, in his jocularity, he sometimes 'let himself down' to indelicate stories. In the House of Commons he had told one--and a very stupid one too--not a year before. _Parl. Hist_, xxiii. 918. Horace Walpole speaks of Burke's 'pursuit of wit even to puerility.' _Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 443. He adds (_ib_. ii. 26):--'Burke himself always aimed at wit, but was not equally happy in public and private. In the former, nothing was so luminous, so striking, so abundant; in private, it was forced, unnatural, and bombast.' See _ante_, p. 104, where Wilkes said that in his oratory 'there was a strange want of taste.'

[854] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, third edition, p. 20 [_post_, v. 32.] BOSWELL. See also _ante_, i. 453, and iii. 323.

[855] I have since heard that the report was not well founded; but the elation discovered by Johnson in the belief that it was true, shewed a noble ardour for literary fame. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote on Feb. 9:--'One thing which I have just heard you will think to surpass expectation. The chaplain of the factory at Petersburgh relates that the _Rambler_ is now, by the command of the Empress, translating into Russian, and has promised, when it is printed, to send me a copy.' _Piozzi Letters,_ ii. 349. Stockdale records (_Memoirs,_ ii. 98) that in 1773 the Empress of Russia engaged 'six English literary gentlemen for instructors of her young nobility in her Academy at St. Petersburgh.' He was offered one of the posts. Her zeal may have gone yet further, and she may have wished to open up English literature to those who could not read English. Beauclerk's library was offered for sale to the Russian Ambassador. _Ante,_ iii. 420. Miss Burney, in 1789, said that a newspaper reported that 'Angelica Kauffmann is making drawings from _Evelina_ for the Empress of Russia.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary,_ v. 35.

[856]

'--me peritus Disect Iber, Rhodanique potor.'

'To him who drinks the rapid Rhone Shall Horace, deathless bard, be known.'

FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, ii. 20. 19.

[857] See _ante_, iii. 49.

[858] See _post_, June 12, 1784.

[859] See _ante_, p. 126.

[860] H. C. Robinson (_Diary_, i. 29) describes him as 'an author on an infinity of subjects; his books were on Law, History, Poetry, Antiquities, Divinity, Politics.' He adds (_ib_. p. 49l):--'Godwin, Lofft, and Thelwall are the only three persons I know (except Hazlitt) who grieve at the late events'--the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. He found long after his death 'a MS. by him in these words:--"Rousseau, Euripides, Tasso, Racine, Cicero, Virgil, Petrarch, Richardson. If I had five millions of years to live upon this earth, these I would read daily with increasing delight."' _Ib_. iii. 283.

[861] Dunciad, iv. 394, note.

[862] The King opened Parliament this day. Hannah More during the election found the mob favourable to Fox. One night, in a Sedan chair, she was stopped with the news that it was not safe to go through Covent Garden. 'There were a hundred armed men,' she was told, 'who, suspecting every chairman belonged to Brookes's, would fall upon us. A vast number of people followed me, crying out "It is Mrs. Fox; none but Mr. Fox's wife would dare to come into Covent Garden in a chair; she is going to canvas in the dark."' H. More's _Memoirs_, i. 316. Horace Walpole wrote on April 11:--'In truth Mr. Fox has all the popularity in Westminster.' _Letters_, viii. 469.

[863] See _post_, under June 9, 1784, where Johnson describes Fox as 'a man who has divided the kingdom with Caesar.'

[864] See _ante_, p. 111.

[865] See _ante_, ii. 162.

[866] Boswell twice speaks of W. G. Hamilton as 'an eminent friend' of Johnson. He was not Boswell's friend. (Ante, p. 111, and _post_, under Dec. 20, 1784.) But Boswell does not here say 'a friend _of ours_.' By 'eminent friend' Burke is generally meant, and he, possibly, is meant here. Boswell, it is true, speaks of his 'orderly and amiable domestic habits' (_ante_, iii. 378); but then Boswell mentions the person here 'as a virtuous man.' If Burke is meant, Johnson's suspicions would seem to be groundless.

[867] See _ante_, p. 168, where Johnson 'wonders why he should have any enemies.'

[868] After all, I cannot but be of opinion, that as Mr. Langton was seriously requested by Dr. Johnson to mention what appeared to him erroneous in the character of his friend, he was bound, as an honest man, to intimate what he really thought, which he certainly did in the most delicate manner; so that Johnson himself, when in a quiet frame of mind, was pleased with it. The texts suggested are now before me, and I shall quote a few of them. 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.' _Mat._ v. 5.--'I therefore, the prisoner of the LORD, beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called; with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.' _Ephes._ v. [iv.] 1, 2.--'And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.' _Col._ iii. 14.--'Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up: doth not behave itself unseemly, is not easily provoked.' 1 _Cor._ xiii. 4, 5. BOSWELL. Johnson, in _The Rambler,_ No. 28, had almost foretold what would happen. 'For escaping these and a thousand other deceits many expedients have been proposed. Some have recommended the frequent consultation of a wise friend, admitted to intimacy and encouraged by sincerity. But this appears a remedy by no means adapted to general use; for, in order to secure the virtue of one, it pre-supposes more virtue in two than will generally be found. In the first, such a desire of rectitude and amendment as may incline him to hear his own accusation from the mouth of him whom he esteems, and by whom therefore he will always hope that his faults are not discovered; and in the second, such zeal and honesty as will make him content for his friend's advantage to lose his kindness.'

[869] Member for Dumfries.

[870] Malone points out that the passage is not in Bacon, but in Boyle, and that it is quoted in Johnson's _Dictionary_ (in the later editions only), under _cross-bow._ It is as follows:--'Testimony is like the shot of a long-bow, which owes its efficacy to the force of the shooter; argument is like the shot of the cross-bow, equally forcible whether discharged by a giant or a dwarf.' See Smollett's _Works_, ed. 1797, i. cliv, for a somewhat fuller account by Dr. Moore of what was said by Johnson this evening.

[871] The Peace made by that very able statesman, the Earl of Shelburne, now Marquis of Lansdown, which may fairly be considered as the foundation of all the prosperity of Great Britain since that time. BOSWELL. In the winter of 1782-83, preliminary treaties of peace were made with the United States, France, and Spain; and a suspension of arms with Holland. The Ode is made up of such lines as the following:--

'While meek philosophy explores Creation's vast stupendous round, With piercing gaze sublime she soars, And bursts the system's distant bound.'

_Gent. Mag._; 1783. p. 245.

[872] In the first edition of my Work, the epithet _amiable_ was given. I was sorry to be obliged to strike it out; but I could not in justice suffer it to remain, after this young lady had not only written in favour of the savage Anarchy with which France has been visited, but had (as I have been informed by good authority), walked, without horrour, over the ground at the Thuillieries, when it was strewed with the naked bodies of the faithful Swiss Guards, who were barbarously massacred for having bravely defended, against a crew of ruffians, the Monarch whom they had taken an oath to defend. From Dr. Johnson she could now expect not endearment but repulsion. BOSWELL.

[873] Rogers (_Table-Talk_, p. 50) described her as 'a very fascinating person,' and narrated a curious anecdote which he heard from her about the Reign of Terror.

[874] This year, forming as it did exactly a quarter of a century since Handel's death, and a complete century since his birth, was sought, says the _Gent. Mag._ (1784, p. 457) as the first public periodical occasion for bringing together musical performers in England. Dr. Burney writes (_Ann. Reg._ 1784, p. 331):--'Foreigners must have been astonished at so numerous a band, moving in such exact measure, without the assistance of a Coryphaeus to beat time. Rousseau says that "the more time is beaten, the less it is kept."' There were upwards of 500 performers.

[875] See _ante_, iii. 242.

[876] Lady Wronghead, whispers Mrs. Motherly, pointing to Myrtilla.

'_Mrs. Motherly_. Only a niece of mine, Madam, that lives with me; she will be proud to give your Ladyship any assistance in her power.

'_Lady Wronghead_. A pretty sort of a young woman--Jenny, you two must be acquainted.

'_Jenny_. O Mamma! I am never strange in a strange place. _Salutes Myrtilla_.' _The Provoked Husband; or, A Journey to London_, act ii. sc. 1, by Vanbrugh and Colley Gibber. It was not therefore Squire Richard whom Johnson quoted, but his sister.

[877] See _ante_, p. 191.

[878] See Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 353, for his application of this story.

[879] She too was learned; for according to Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 292) she had learnt Hebrew, merely to be useful to her husband.

[880]

'This day then let us not be told, That you are sick, and I grown old; Nor think on our approaching ills, And talk of spectacles and pills.'

Swift's _Lines on Stella's Birthday_, 1726-27. Works, ed. 1803, xi. 21.

[881] Dr. Newton, in his _Account of his own Life_, after animadverting upon Mr. Gibbon's _History_, says, 'Dr. Johnson's _Lives of the Poets_ afforded more amusement; but candour was much hurt and offended at the malevolence that predominates in every part. Some passages, it must be allowed, are judicious and well written, but make not sufficient compensation for so much spleen and ill humour. Never was any biographer more sparing of his praise, or more abundant in his censures. He seemingly delights more in exposing blemishes, than in recommending beauties; slightly passes over excellencies, enlarges upon imperfections, and not content with his own severe reflections, revives old scandal, and produces large quotations from the forgotten works of former criticks. His reputation was so high in the republick of letters, that it wanted not to be raised upon the ruins of others. But these _Essays_, instead of raising a higher idea than was before entertained of his understanding, have certainly given the world a worse opinion of his temper.--The Bishop was therefore the more surprized and concerned for his townsman, for _he respected him not only for his genius and learning, but valued him much more for the more amiable part of his character, his humanity and charity, his morality and religion.'_ The last sentence we may consider as the general and permanent opinion of Bishop Newton; the remarks which precede it must, by all who have read Johnson's admirable work, be imputed to the disgust and peevishness of old age. I wish they had not appeared, and that Dr. Johnson had not been provoked by them to express himself, not in respectful terms, of a Prelate, whose labours were certainly of considerable advantage both to literature and religion. BOSWELL.

[882] Newton was born Jan. 1, 1704, and was made Bishop in 1761. In his _Account of his own Life_ (p. 65) he says:--'He was no great gainer by his preferment; for he was obliged to give up the prebend of Westminster, the precentorship of York, the lecturership of St. George's, Hanover Square, and the _genteel office of sub-almoner_.' He died in 1781. His _Works_ were published in 1782. Gibbon, defending himself against an attack by Newton, says (_Misc. Works_, l. 24l):--'The old man should not have indulged his zeal in a false and feeble charge against the historian, who,' &c.

[883] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides,_ 3rd ed. p. 371 [Oct. 25]. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 216.

[884] The Rev. Mr. Agutter [_post,_ under Dec. 20] has favoured me with a note of a dialogue between Mr. John Henderson [_post,_ June 12] and Dr. Johnson on this topick, as related by Mr. Henderson, and it is evidently so authentick that I shall here insert it:--HENDERSON. 'What do you think, Sir, of William Law?' JOHNSON. 'William Law, Sir, wrote the best piece of Parenetick Divinity; but William Law was no reasoner.' HENDERSON. 'Jeremy Collier, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'Jeremy Collier fought without a rival, and therefore could not claim the victory.' Mr. Henderson mentioned Kenn and Kettlewell; but some objections were made: at last he said, 'But, Sir, what do you think of Leslie?' JOHNSON. 'Charles Leslie I had forgotten. Leslie _was_ a reasoner, and _a reasoner who was not to be reasoned against.'_ BOSWELL.

For the effect of Law's 'Parenetick Divinity' on Johnson, see _ante_, i. 68. 'I am surprised,' writes Macaulay, 'that Johnson should have pronounced Law no reasoner. Law did indeed fall into great errors; but they were errors against which logic affords no security. In mere dialectical skill he had very few superiors.' Macaulay's _England_, ed. 1874, v. 81, note. Jeremy Collier's attack on the play-writers Johnson describes in his _Life of Congreve_ (_Works_, viii. 28), and continues:--'Nothing now remained for the poets but to resist or fly. Dryden's conscience, or his prudence, angry as he was, withheld him from the conflict: Congreve and Vanbrugh attempted answers.' Of Leslie, Lord Bolingbroke thus writes (_Works_, in. 45):--'Let neither the polemical skill of Leslie, nor the antique erudition of Bedford, persuade us to put on again those old shackles of false law, false reason, and false gospel, which were forged before the Revolution, and broken to pieces by it.' Leslie is described by Macaulay, _History of England_, v. 81.

[885] Burnet (_History of his own Time_, ed. 1818, iv. 303) in 1712 speaks of Hickes and Brett as being both in the Church, but as shewing 'an inclination towards Popery.' Hickes, he says, was at the head of the Jacobite party. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 25.

[886] 'Only five of the seven were non-jurors; and anybody but Boswell would have known that a man may resist arbitrary power, and yet not be a good reasoner. Nay, the resistance which Sancroft and the other nonjuring Bishops offered to arbitrary power, while they continued to hold the doctrine of non-resistance, is the most decisive proof that they were incapable of reasoning.' Macaulay's _England_, ed. 1874, v. 81.

[887] See _ante_, ii. 321, for Johnson's estimate of the Nonjurors, and i. 429 for his Jacobitism.

[888] Savage's _Works_, ed. 1777, ii. 28.

[889] See _ante_, p. 46.

[890] See Boswell's _Hebrides, post_, v. 77.

[891] I have inserted the stanza as Johnson repeated it from memory; but I have since found the poem itself, in _The Foundling Hospital for Wit_, printed at London, 1749. It is as follows:--

'EPIGRAM, _occasioned by a religious dispute at Bath_.

'On Reason, Faith, and Mystery high, Two wits harangue the table; B----y believes he knows not why. N---- swears 'tis all a fable. Peace, coxcombs, peach, and both agree, N----, kiss they empty brother: Religion laughs at foes like thee, And dreads a friend like t'other.'

BOSWELL. The disputants are supposed to have been Beau Nash and Bentley, the son of the doctor, and the friend of Walpole. Croker. John Wesley in his _Journal_, i. 186, tells how he once silences Nash.

[892] See ante, ii. 105.

[893] Waller, in his _Divine Poesie_, canto first, has the same thought finely expressed:--

'The Church triumphant, and the Church below, In songs of praise their present union show; Their joys are full; our expectation long, In life we differ, but we join in song; Angels and we assisted by this art, May sing together, though we dwell apart.'

BOSWELL.

[894] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, post, v. 45.

[895] In the original, _flee_.

[896] The sermon thus opens:--'That there are angels and spirits good and bad; that at the head of these last there is ONE more considerable and malignant than the rest, who, in the form, or under the name of a _serpent_, was deeply concerned in the fall of man, and whose _head_, as the prophetick language is, the son of man was one day to _bruise_; that this evil spirit, though that prophecy be in part completed, has not yet received his death's wound, but is still permitted, for ends unsearchable to us, and in ways which we cannot particularly explain, to have a certain degree of power in this world hostile to its virtue and happiness, and sometimes exerted with too much success; all this is so clear from Scripture, that no believer, unless he be first of all _spoiled by philosophy and vain deceit [Colossians_, ii. 8], can possibly entertain a doubt of it.'

Having treated of _possessions_, his Lordship says, 'As I have no authority to affirm that there _are_ now any such, so neither may I presume to say with confidence, that there are _not_ any.'

'But then with regard to the influence of evil spirits at this day upon the SOULS of men, I shall take leave to be a great deal more peremptory.--(Then, having stated the various proofs, he adds,) All this, I say, is so manifest to every one who reads the Scriptures, that, if we respect their authority, the question concerning the reality of the demoniack influence upon the minds of men is clearly determined.'

Let it be remembered, that these are not the words of an antiquated or obscure enthusiast, but of a learned and polite Prelate now alive; and were spoken, not to a vulgar congregation, but to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's-Inn. His Lordship in this sermon explains the words, 'deliver us from evil,' in the Lord's Prayer, as signifying a request to be protected from 'the evil one,' that is the Devil. This is well illustrated in a short but excellent Commentary by my late worthy friend, the Reverend Dr. Lort, of whom it may truly be said, _Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit_. It is remarkable that Waller, in his _Reflections on the several Petitions, in that sacred form of devotion_, has understood this in the same sense;--

'Guard us from all temptations of the FOE.'

BOSWELL. Dr. Lort is often mentioned in Horace Walpole's _Letters_. Multis ille _quidem_ flebilis occidit,' comes from Horace, _Odes_, i.