Volume 4 — FOOTNOTES:

1709.

[15]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[61]

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

Hammond. Elegy, v. In Boswell's Hebrides (Sept. 29), he said 'Hammond's Love Elegies were poor things.'

[65]

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

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

'Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill, And thence poetick laurels bring, Must first acquire due force and skill, Must fly with swan's or eagle's wing. Who Nature's treasures would explore, Her mysteries and arcana know; Must high as lofty Newton soar, Must stoop as delving Woodward low. Who studies ancient laws and rites, Tongues, arts, and arms, and history; Must drudge, like Selden, days and nights, And in the endless labour die. Who travels in religious jars, (Truth mixt with errour, shades with rays;) Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars, In ocean wide or sinks or strays. But grant our hero's hope, long toil And comprehensive genius crown, All sciences, all arts his spoil, Yet what reward, or what renown? Envy, innate in vulgar souls, Envy steps in and stops his rise, Envy with poison'd tarnish fouls His lustre, and his worth decries. He lives inglorious or in want, To college and old books confin'd; Instead of learn'd he's call'd pedant, Dunces advanc'd, he's left behind: Yet left content a genuine Stoick he, Great without patron, rich without South Sea.' BOSWELL.

In Mr. Croker's octavo editions, arts in the fifth stanza is changed into hearts. J. Boswell, jun., gives the following reading of the first four lines of the last stanza, not from Dodsley's Collection, but from an earlier one, called The Grove.

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

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

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

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

Young in The Last Day, book I, had written:—

'Words all in vain pant after the distress.'

'In himself was all his state.' Paradise Lost, v. 353.

[101]

'E'en in a bishop I can spy desert; Seeker is decent, Rundel has a heart.'

Pope, Epil. to Sat. ii. 70. Horace Walpole wrote on Aug. 4,1768 (Letters, v. 115):—'We have lost our Pope. Canterbury [Archbishop Seeker] died yesterday. He had never been a Papist, but almost everything else. Our Churchmen will not be Catholics; that stock seems quite fallen.'

'When his mouth opened all were in a pother, Rushed to the door and tumbled o'er each other, But rallying soon with all their force again, In bright array they issued from his pen.'

Fitzgerald's Garrick, ii. 363. See ante, ii. 231.

'Others for Francklin voted; but 'twas known, He sickened at all triumphs but his own.'

'My purpose was only to have allotted to every poet an Advertisement, like that [in original those] which we find in the French Miscellanies, containing a few dates, and a general character; but I have been led beyond my intention, I hope by the honest desire of giving useful pleasure.' BOSWELL.

'Clarendon is here returned.'

'By some accident, I laid your note upon Duke up so safely, that I cannot find it. Your informations have been of great use to me. I must beg it again; with another list of our authors, for I have laid that with the other. I have sent Stepney's Epitaph. Let me have the revises as soon as can be. Dec. 1778.'

'I have sent Philips, with his Epitaphs, to be inserted. The fragment of a preface is hardly worth the impression, but that we may seem to do something. It may be added to the Life of Philips. The Latin page is to be added to the Life of Smith. I shall be at home to revise the two sheets of Milton. March 1, 1779.'

'Please to get me the last edition of Hughes's Letters; and try to get Dennis upon Blackmore, and upon Calo, and any thing of the same writer against Pope. Our materials are defective.'

'As Waller professed to have imitated Fairfax, do you think a few pages of Fairfax would enrich our edition? Few readers have seen it, and it may please them. But it is not necessary.'

'An account of the Lives and works of some of the most eminent English Poets. By, &c.—"The English Poets, biographically and critically considered, by SAM. JOHNSON."—Let Mr. Nichols take his choice, or make another to his mind. May, 1781.'

'You somehow forgot the advertisement for the new edition. It was not inclosed. Of Gay's Letters I see not that any use can be made, for they give no information of any thing. That he was a member of the Philosophical Society is something; but surely he could be but a corresponding member. However, not having his life here, I know not how to put it in, and it is of little importance.'

See several more in The Gent. Mag., 1785. The Editor of that Miscellany, in which Johnson wrote for several years, seems justly to think that every fragment of so great a man is worthy of being preserved. BOSWELL. In the original MS. in the British Museum, Your in the third paragraph of this note is not in italics. Johnson writes his correspondent's name Nichols, Nichol, and Nicol. In the fourth paragraph he writes, first Philips, and next Phillips. His spelling was sometimes careless, ante, i. 260, note 2. In the Gent. Mag. for 1785, p. 10, another of these notes is published:—'In reading Rowe in your edition, which is very impudently called mine, I observed a little piece unnaturally and odiously obscene. I was offended, but was still more offended when I could not find it in Rowe's genuine volumes. To admit it had been wrong; to interpolate it is surely worse. If I had known of such a piece in the whole collection, I should have been angry. What can be done?' In a note, Mr. Nichols says that this piece 'has not only appeared in the Works of Rowe, but has been transplanted by Pope into the Miscellanies he published in his own name and that of Dean Swift.'

[137]

'Purpureus, late qui splendeat unus et alter Assuitur pannus.' '... Shreds of purple with broad lustre shine Sewed on your poem.'

FRANCIS. Horace, Ars Poet. 15.

'He possessed extraordinary powers of understanding, which were much cultivated by study, and still more by meditation and reflection. His memory was remarkably retentive, his imagination uncommonly vigorous, and his judgement keen and penetrating. He had a strong sense of the importance of religion; his piety was sincere, and sometimes ardent; and his zeal for the interests of virtue was often manifested in his conversation and in his writings. The same energy which was displayed in his literary productions was exhibited also in his conversation, which was various, striking, and instructive; and perhaps no man ever equalled him for nervous and pointed repartees.'

'His Dictionary, his moral Essays, and his productions in polite literature, will convey useful instruction, and elegant entertainment, as long as the language in which they are written shall be understood.' BOSWELL.

Having availed myself of this editor's eulogy on my departed friend, for which I warmly thank him, let me not suffer the lustre of his reputation, honestly acquired by profound learning and vigorous eloquence, to be tarnished by a charge of illiberality. He has been accused of invidiously dragging again into light certain writings of a person respectable by his talents, his learning, his station and his age, which were published a great many years ago, and have since, it is said, been silently given up by their authour. But when it is considered that these writings were not sins of youth, but deliberate works of one well-advanced in life, overflowing at once with flattery to a great man of great interest in the Church, and with unjust and acrimonious abuse of two men of eminent merit; and that, though it would have been unreasonable to expect an humiliating recantation, no apology whatever has been made in the cool of the evening, for the oppressive fervour of the heat of the day; no slight relenting indication has appeared in any note, or any corner of later publications; is it not fair to understand him as superciliously persevering? When he allows the shafts to remain in the wounds, and will not stretch forth a lenient hand, is it wrong, is it not generous to become an indignant avenger? BOSWELL. Boswell wrote on Feb. 16, 1789:—'There is just come out a publication which makes a considerable noise. The celebrated Dr. Parr, of Norwich, has—wickedly, shall we say?—but surely wantonly—published Warburton's Juvenile Translations and Discourse on Prodigies, and Bishop Kurd's attacks on Jortin and Dr. Thomas Leland, with his Essay on the Delicacy of Friendship.' Letters of Boswell, p. 275. The 'editor,' therefore, is Parr, and the 'Warburtonian' is Hurd. Boswell had written to Parr on Jan. 10, 1791:—'I request to hear by return of post if I may say or guess that Dr. Parr is the editor of these tracts.' Parr's Works, viii. 12. See also ib. iii. 405.

'A heart, which virtue ne'er disgraced; A head where learning runs to waste.'

207).

[187] See ante, i. 30, and iii. 155.

[195] Let not my readers smile to think of Johnson's being a candidate for female favour; Mr. Peter Garrick assured me, that he was told by a lady, that in her opinion Johnson was 'a very seducing man.' Disadvantages of person and manner may be forgotten, where intellectual pleasure is communicated to a susceptible mind; and that Johnson was capable of feeling the most delicate and disinterested attachment, appears from the following letter, which is published by Mrs. Thrale [Piozzi Letters, ii. 391], with some others to the same person, of which the excellence is not so apparent:—

'TO MISS BOOTHBY. January, 1755.

DEAREST MADAM,

Though I am afraid your illness leaves you little leisure for the reception of airy civilities, yet I cannot forbear to pay you my congratulations on the new year; and to declare my wishes that your years to come may be many and happy. In this wish, indeed, I include myself, who have none but you on whom my heart reposes; yet surely I wish your good, even though your situation were such as should permit you to communicate no gratifications to, dearest, dearest Madam, Your, &c. SAM JOHNSON.' (BOSWELL.)

30.

The rigid north, Her native bed, on which bleak Boreas blew.'

She died nearly two years before The Life was published.

'See what a grace was seated on this brow: Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself, An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; A station like the herald, Mercury, New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill; A combination, and a form, indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man.! [Act iii. sc. 4.]

Milton thus pourtrays our first parent, Adam:—

'His fair large front and eye sublime declar'd Absolute rule; and hyacinthin locks Round from his parted forelock manly hung Clus'tring, but not beneath his shoulders broad.' [P.L. iv. 300.] BOSWELL.

[260] Essays on Husbandry, 1764.

'When death had finished Blackmore's reign, The leaden crown devolved to thee, Great poet of the hollow tree.'

Mr. Nichols, in a note on this, says that Grimston 'wrote the play when a boy, to be acted by his schoolfellows.' Swift's Works (1803), xi. 297. Two editions were published apparently by Grimston himself, one bearing his name but no date, and the other the date of 1705 but no name. By 1705 Grimston was 22 years old—no longer a boy. The former edition was published by Bernard Lintott at the Cross Keys, Fleet-street, and the latter by the same bookseller at the Middle Temple Gate. The grossness of a young man of birth at this period is shewn by the Preface. The third edition with the elephant on the tight-rope was published in 1736. There is another illustration in which an ass is represented bearing a coronet. Grimston's name is not given here, but there is a dedication 'To the Right Sensible the Lord Flame.' Three or four notes are added, one of which is very gross. The election was for St. Alban's, for which borough he was thrice returned.

[278] 'Mrs. Garrick and I,' wrote Hannah More (Memoirs, i. 208), 'were invited to an assembly at Mrs. Thrale's. There was to be a fine concert, and all the fine people were to be there. Just as my hair was dressed, came a servant to forbid our coming, for that Mr. Thrale was dead.'

[284] See post, paragraph before June 22, 1784.

[307]

'One wife is too much for most husbands to bear, But two at a time there's no mortal can bear.' Act iii. sc. 4.

[312] See vol. iii. p. 331. BOSWELL.

[329]

'Some for renown on scraps of learning doat, And think they grow immortal as they quote.'

Young's Love of Fame, sat. i. Cumberland (Memoirs, ii. 226) says that Mr. Dilly, speaking of 'the profusion of quotations which some writers affectedly make use of, observed that he knew a Presbyterian parson who, for eighteenpence, would furnish any pamphleteer with as many scraps of Greek and Latin as would pass him off for an accomplished classic.'

'Who now reads Cowley? if he pleases yet, His moral pleases, not his pointed wit.'

Imitations of Horace, Epis. ii. i. 75.

"Accept a miracle," &c.'

Spence's Anecdotes, p. 377. Dr. Maty (Memoirs of Chesterfield, i. 227) assigns the lines to Pope, and lays the scene at Lord Cobham's. Spence, however, gives Young himself as his authority.

'When first I drew my vital breath, A little minikin I came upon earth; And then I came from a dark abode, Into this gay and gaudy world.' BOSWELL.

To THE HONOURABLE Miss MONCKTON.

'Not that with th' excellent Montrose I had the happiness to dine; Not that I late from table rose, From Graham's wit, from generous wine. It was not these alone which led On sacred manners to encroach; And made me feel what most I dread, JOHNSON'S just frown, and self-reproach. But when I enter'd, not abash'd, From your bright eyes were shot such rays, At once intoxication flash'd, And all my frame was in a blaze. But not a brilliant blaze I own, Of the dull smoke I'm yet asham'd; I was a dreary ruin grown, And not enlighten'd though inflam'd. Victim at once to wine and love, I hope, MARIA, you'll forgive; While I invoke the powers above, That henceforth I may wiser live.'

The lady was generously forgiving, returned me an obliging answer, and I thus obtained an Act of Oblivion, and took care never to offend again. BOSWELL.

[362] See ante, iii. 314.

[366]

Witness, ye chosen train Who breathe the sweets of his Saturnian reign; Witness ye Hills, ye Johnsons, Scots, Shebbeares, Hark to my call, for some of you have ears.'

Heroic Epistle. See post, under June 16, 1784.

'No muse will cheer with renovating smile, The paralytic puling of Carlisle.'

In a note Byron adds:—'The Earl of Carlisle has lately published an eighteen-penny pamphlet on the state of the stage, and offers his plan for building a new theatre. It is to be hoped his lordship will be permitted to bring forward anything for the stage—except his own tragedies.' In the third canto of Childe Harold Byron makes amends. In writing of the death of Lord Carlisle's youngest son at Waterloo, he says:—

'Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine; Yet one I would select from that proud throng, Partly because they blend me with his line, And partly that I did his Sire some wrong.'

For his lordship's tragedy see post, under Nov. 19, 1783.

'Men of pleasant conversation (at least esteemed so) and endued with a trifling kind of fancy, perhaps helped out by [with] a smattering of Latin, are ambitious to distinguish themselves from the herd of gentlemen, by their poetry:

"Rarus enim fermè sensus communis in ilia Fortuna,"——[Juvenal, viii. 73.]

And is not this a wretched affectation, not to be contented with what fortune has done for them, and sit down quietly with their estates, but they must call their wits in question, and needlessly expose their nakedness to publick view? Not considering that they are not to expect the same approbation from sober men, which they have found from their flatterers after the third bottle: If a little glittering in discourse has passed them on us for witty men, where was the necessity of undeceiving the world? Would a man who has an ill title to an estate, but yet is in possession of it, would he bring it of his own accord to be tried at Westminster? We who write, if we want the talents [talent], yet have the excuse that we do it for a poor subsistence; but what can be urged in their defence, who, not having the vocation of poverty to scribble, out of mere wantonness take pains to make themselves ridiculous? Horace was certainly in the right where he said, "That no man is satisfied with his own condition." A poet is not pleased, because he is not rich; and the rich are discontented because the poets will not admit them of their number.' BOSWELL. Boswell, it should seem, had followed Swift's advice:—

'Read all the prefaces of Dryden, For these our critics much confide in; Though merely writ at first for filling, To raise the volume's price a shilling.'

Swift's Works, ed. 1803, xi. 293.

'Johnson shall teach me how to place In fairest light each borrow'd grace; From him I'll learn to write; Copy his clear familiar style, And by the roughness of his file Grow, like himself, polite.'

I know not whether Johnson ever saw the poem, but I had occasion to find that as Dr. Barnard and he knew each other better, their mutual regard increased. BOSWELL. See Appendix A.

[387]

... 'Vivendi recte qui prorogat horam, Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis; at ille Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum.' 'And sure the man who has it in his power To practise virtue, and protracts the hour, Waits like the rustic till the river dried; Still glides the river, and will ever glide.'

FRANCIS. Horace, Epist. i. 2. 41.

382.

[418]

'The formal process shall be turned to sport, And you dismissed with honour by the Court.' FRANCIS. Horace, Satires, ii.i.86.

[435]

'Content thyself to be obscurely good.'

Addisons Cato, act. iv. sc. 4.

'And Labour steals an hour to die.'

But he afterwards altered it to the present reading. BOSWELL. This poem is printed in the Ann. Reg. for 1783, p. 189, with the following variations:—l. 18, for 'ready help' 'useful care': l. 28, 'His single talent,' 'The single talent'; l. 33, 'no throbs of fiery pain,' 'no throbbing fiery pain'; l. 36, 'and freed,' 'and forced.' On the next page it is printed John Gilpin.

'You will easily believe with what gladness I read that you had heard once again that voice to which we have all so often delighted to attend. May you often hear it. If we had his mind, and his tongue, we could spare the rest.

'I am not vigorous, but much better than when dear Dr. Lawrence held my pulse the last time. Be so kind as to let me know, from one little interval to another, the state of his body. I am pleased that he remembers me, and hope that it never can be possible for me to forget him. July 22, 1782.'

'I am much delighted even with the small advances which dear Dr. Lawrence makes towards recovery. If we could have again but his mind, and his tongue in his mind, and his right hand, we should not much lament the rest. I should not despair of helping the swelled hand by electricity, if it were frequently and diligently supplied.

'Let me know from time to time whatever happens; and I hope I need not tell you, how much I am interested in every change. Aug. 26, 1782.'

'Though the account with which you favoured me in your last letter could not give me the pleasure that I wished, yet I was glad to receive it; for my affection to my dear friend makes me desirous of knowing his state, whatever it be. I beg, therefore, that you continue to let me know, from time to time, all that you observe.

'Many fits of severe illness have, for about three months past, forced my kind physician often upon my mind. I am now better; and hope gratitude, as well as distress, can be a motive to remembrance. Bolt-court, Fleet-street, Feb. 4, 1783.' BOSWELL.

'I prized every hour that went by, Beyond all that had pleased me before; But now they are gone [past] and I sigh, I grieve that I prized them no more.'

J. BOSWELL, JUN.

[460] 'Dr. Johnson gave a very droll account of the children of Mr. Langton, "who," he said, "might be very good children, if they were let alone; but the father is never easy when he is not making them do something which they cannot do; they must repeat a fable, or a speech, or the Hebrew alphabet, and they might as well count twenty for what they know of the matter; however, the father says half, for he prompts every other word."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i. 73. See ante, p. 20, note 2.

[463] This letter cannot belong to this year. In it Johnson says of his health, 'at least it is not worse.' But 1782 found him in very bad health; he passed almost the whole of the year 'in a succession of disorders' (post, p. 156). What he says of friendship renders it almost certain that the letter was written while he had still Thrale; and him he lost in April, 1781. Had it been written after June, 1779, but before Thrale's death, the account given of health would have been even better than it is (ante, iii. 397). It belongs perhaps to the year 1777 or 1778.

3.

'Exercise cannot secure us from that dissolution to which we are decreed: but while the soul and body continue united, it can make the association pleasing, and give probable hopes that they shall be disjoined by an easy separation. It was a principle among the ancients, that acute diseases are from Heaven, and chronical from ourselves; the dart of death, indeed, falls from Heaven, but we poison it by our own misconduct: to die is the fate of man; but to die with lingering anguish is generally his folly.' [The Rambler, No. 85.] BOSWELL.

[503] Markland was born 1693, died 1776. His notes on some of Euripides' Plays were published at the expense of Dr. Heberden. Markland had previously destroyed a great many other notes; writing in 1764 he said:—'Probably it will be a long time (if ever) before this sort of learning will revive in England; in which it is easy to foresee that there must be a disturbance in a few years, and all public disorders are enemies to this sort of literature.' Gent. Mag. 1778, P. 3l0. 'I remember,' writes Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 252), 'when lamentation was made of the neglect shown to Jeremiah Markland, a great philologist, as some one ventured to call him: "He is a scholar undoubtedly, Sir," replied Dr. Johnson, "but remember that he would run from the world, and that it is not the world's business to run after him. I hate a fellow whom pride, or cowardice, or laziness drives into a corner, and [who] does nothing when he is there but sit and growl; let him come out as I do, and bark"' A brief account of him is given in the Ann. Reg. xix. 45.

[504] Nichols published in 1784 a brief account of Thirlby, nearly half of it being written by Johnson. Thirlby was born in 1692 and died in 1753. 'His versatility led him to try the round of what are called the learned professions.' His life was marred by drink and insolence.' His mind seems to have been tumultuous and desultory, and he was glad to catch any employment that might produce attention without anxiety; such employment, as Dr. Battie has observed, is necessary for madmen.' Gent. Mag. 1784, pp. 260, 893.

All dinner time he hardly opened his mouth but to repeat to me:—"Ah! you little know how ill I am." He was excessively kind to me in spite of all his pain.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 228. Cecilia was the name of her second novel (post, May 26, 1783). On Jan. 10 he thus ended a letter to Mr. Nichols:—'Now I will put you in a way of shewing me more kindness. I have been confined by ilness (sic) a long time, and sickness and solitude make tedious evenings. Come sometimes and see, Sir,

'Your humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

MS. in the British Museum.

30.

[532]

'See nations, slowly wise and meanly just, To buried merit raise the tardy bust.' Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes.

[546]

'I paint the cot, As truth will paint it, and as Bards will not. Nor you, ye Poor, of lettered scorn complain, To you the smoothest song is smooth in vain; O'ercome by labour, and bowed down by time, Feel you the barren flattery of a rhyme? Can poets soothe you, when you pine for bread, By winding myrtles round your ruined shed? Can their light tales your weighty griefs o'erpower, Or glad with airy mirth the toilsome hour?' The Village, book i.

See Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 6.

'In fairer scenes, where peaceful pleasures spring, Tityrus, the pride of Mantuan swains, might sing: But charmed by him, or smitten with his views, Shall modern poets court the Mantuan muse? From Truth and Nature shall we widely stray, Where Fancy leads, or Virgil led the way?' 'On Mincio's banks, in Caesar's bounteous reign, If Tityrus found the golden age again, Must sleepy bards the flattering dream prolong, Mechanick echoes of the Mantuan song? From Truth and Nature shall we widely stray, Where Virgil, not where Fancy, leads the way?.

Here we find Johnson's poetical and critical powers undiminished. I must, however, observe, that the aids he gave to this poem, as to The Traveller and Deserted Village of Goldsmith, were so small as by no means to impair the distinguished merit of the authour. BOSWELL.

[561]

'Charged with light summer-rings his fingers sweat, Unable to support a gem of weight.' DRYDEN. Juvenal, Satires, i. 29.

[565] Miss Burney mentions meeting Dr. Harington at Bath in 1780. 'It is his son,' she writes, 'who published those very curious remains of his ancestor [Sir John Harington] under the title Nugae Antiquae which my father and all of us were formerly so fond of.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i. 341.

[566]

'For though they are but trifles, thou Some value didst to them allow.' Martin's Catullus, p. 1.

[567]

—Underneath this rude, uncouth disguise, A genius of extensive knowledge lies.' FRANCIS. Horace, Satires, i. 3. 33.

'The above scrap was found in the hand-writing of a suicide of fashion, Sir D. O., some years ago, lying on the table of the room where he had destroyed himself. The suicide was a man of classical acquirements: he left no other paper behind him.'

Another of these proverbial sayings,

Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim,

I, in a note on a passage in The Merchant of Venice [act iii. sc. 5], traced to its source. It occurs (with a slight variation) in the Alexandreis of Philip Gualtier (a poet of the thirteenth century), which was printed at Lyons in 1558. Darius is the person addressed:—

—Quò tendis inertem, Rex periture, fugam? nescis, heu! perdite, nescis Quern fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem; Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim.

A line not less frequently quoted was suggested for enquiry in a note on The Rape of Lucrece:—

Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris—:

But the author of this verse has not, I believe, been discovered. MALONE. The 'Greek lambick' in the above note is not Greek. To a learned friend I owe the following note. 'The Quem Jupiter vult perdere, &c., is said to be a translation of a fragment of Euripides by Joshua Barnes. There is, I believe, no such fragment at all. In Barnes's Euripides, Cantab. 1694, fol. p. 515, is a fragment of Euripides with a note which may explain the muddle of Boswell's correspondent:—

"[Greek: otau de daimonn handri porsunae kaka ton noun heblapse proton,]"

on which Barnes writes:—"Tale quid in Franciados nostrae [probably his uncompleted poem on Edward III.] l. 3. Certe ille deorum Arbiter ultricem cum vult extendere dextram Dementat prius."' See ante, ii. 445, note 1. Sir D. O. is, perhaps, Sir D'Anvers Osborne, whose death is recorded in the Gent. Mag. 1753, p. 591. 'Sir D'Anvers Osborne, Bart., Governor of New York, soon after his arrival there; in his garden.' Solamen miseris, &c., is imitated by Swift in his Verses on Stella's Birthday, 1726-7:—

'The only comfort they propose, To have companions in their woes.'

Swift's Works, ed. 1803, xi. 22. The note on Lucrece was, I conjecture, on line 1111:—

'Grief best is pleased with grief's society.'

[571]

'FAUSTUS— "Tu quoque, ut hîc video, non es ignarus amorum." 'FORTUNATUS— "Id commune malum; semel insanivimus omnes."'

Baptistae Mantuani Carmelitae Adolescentia, seu Bucolica. Ecloga I, published in 1498. 'Scaliger,' says Johnson (Works, viii. 391), 'complained that Mantuan's Bucolicks were received into schools, and taught as classical. ... He was read, at least in some of the inferiour schools of this kingdom, to the beginning of the present [eighteenth] century.'

'Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more: I mourn, but, ye woodlands, I mourn not for you; For morn is approaching, your charms to restore, Perfumed with fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew; Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn; Kind Nature the embryo blossom will save: But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn? O when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?'

[606]

'Hic manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi, Quique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat, Quique pii vates et Phoebo digna locuti, Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes.' Aeneid, vi. 660. 'Lo, they who in their country's fight sword-wounded bodies bore; Lo, priests of holy life and chaste, while they in life had part; Lo, God-loved poets, men who spake things worthy Phoebus' heart, And they who bettered life on earth by new-found mastery.'

MORRIS. Virgil, Aeneids, vi. 660. The great Twalmley might have justified himself by The Rambler, No. 9:—'Every man, from the highest to the lowest station, ought to warm his heart and animate his endeavours with the hopes of being useful to the world, by advancing the art which it is his lot to exercise; and for that end he must necessarily consider the whole extent of its application, and the whole weight of its importance.... Every man ought to endeavour at eminence, not by pulling others down, but by raising himself, and enjoy the pleasure of his own superiority, whether imaginary or real, without interrupting others in the same felicity.' All this is what Twalmley did. He adorned an art, he endeavoured at eminence, and he inoffensively 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.

[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.

[633] See Boswell's Hebrides, post, v. 48.

'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.

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

"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.

[662]

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

'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.

'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.

'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.

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.

[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.

"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.

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.

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.

[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.

[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.

'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.

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.'

[821] See ante, iii. 104.

'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.

"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.

[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.

[844] Boswell himself, likely enough.

[854] Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, third edition, p. 20 [post, v. 32.] BOSWELL. See also ante, i. 453, and iii. 323.

[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.

'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.

'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.

[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.

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.

'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.

'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.

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. xxiv. 9, translated by Francis,—

How did the good, the virtuous mourn.'

For Dr. Hurd see ante, p. 189.

'E'en Radcliffe's doctors travel first to France, Nor dare to practise till they've learned to dance.'

[912]

'Although it be not shined upon.' Hudibras, iii. 2, 175.

'Scripture is still a trumpet to his fears.'

The Task: The Winter Morning Walk, 1. 611. See ante, iii. 294.

'The chief part of what I have to observe is contained in the following transcript from a letter to a friend, which, with his concurrence, I copied for this purpose; and, whatever may be the merit or justness of the remarks, you may be sure that being written to a most intimate friend, without any intention that they ever should go further, they are the genuine and undisguised sentiments of the writer:—

'Jan. 6, 1792.

'Last week, I was reading the second volume of Boswell's Johnson, with increasing esteem for the worthy authour, and increasing veneration of the wonderful and excellent man who is the subject of it. The writer throws in, now and then, very properly some serious religious reflections; but there is one remark, in my mind an obvious and just one, which I think he has not made, that Johnson's "morbid melancholy," and constitutional infirmities, were intended by Providence, like St. Paul's thorn in the flesh, to check intellectual conceit and arrogance; which the consciousness of his extraordinary talents, awake as he was to the voice of praise, might otherwise have generated in a very culpable degree. Another observation strikes me, that in consequence of the same natural indisposition, and habitual sickliness, (for he says he scarcely passed one day without pain after his twentieth year,) he considered and represented human life, as a scene of much greater misery than is generally experienced. There may be persons bowed down with affliction all their days; and there are those, no doubt, whose iniquities rob them of rest; but neither calamities nor crimes, I hope and believe, do so much and so generally abound, as to justify the dark picture of life which Johnson's imagination designed, and his strong pencil delineated. This I am sure, the colouring is far too gloomy for what I have experienced, though as far as I can remember, I have had more sickness (I do not say more severe, but only more in quantity,) than falls to the lot of most people. But then daily debility and occasional sickness were far overbalanced by intervenient days, and, perhaps, weeks void of pain, and overflowing with comfort. So that in short, to return to the subject, human life, as far as I can perceive from experience or observation, is not that state of constant wretchedness which Johnson always insisted it was; which misrepresentation, (for such it surely is,) his Biographer has not corrected, I suppose, because, unhappily, he has himself a large portion of melancholy in his constitution, and fancied the portrait a faithful copy of life.'

The learned writer then proceeds thus in his letter to me:—

'I have conversed with some sensible men on this subject, who all seem to entertain the same sentiments respecting life with those which are expressed or implied in the foregoing paragraph. It might be added that as the representation here spoken of, appears not consistent with fact and experience, so neither does it seem to be countenanced by Scripture. There is, perhaps, no part of the sacred volume which at first sight promises so much to lend its sanction to these dark and desponding notions as the book of Ecclesiastes, which so often, and so emphatically, proclaims the vanity of things sublunary. But the design of this whole book, (as it has been justly observed,) is not to put us out of conceit with life, but to cure our vain expectations of a compleat and perfect happiness in this world; to convince us, that there is no such thing to be found in mere external enjoyments;—and to teach us to seek for happiness in the practice of virtue, in the knowledge and love of God, and in the hopes of a better life. For this is the application of all; Let us hear, &c. xii. 13. Not only his duty, but his happiness too; _For_ GOD, &c. ver. 14.--See _Sherlock on Providence, p. 299.

'The New Testament tells us, indeed, and most truly, that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof;" and, therefore, wisely forbids us to increase our burden by forebodings of sorrows; but I think it no where says that even our ordinary afflictions are not consistent with a very considerable degree of positive comfort and satisfaction. And, accordingly, one whose sufferings as well as merits were conspicuous, assures us, that in proportion "as the sufferings of Christ abounded in them, so their consolation also abounded by Christ." 2 Cor. i. 5. It is needless to cite, as indeed it would be endless even to refer to, the multitude of passages in both Testaments holding out, in the strongest language, promises of blessings, even in this world, to the faithful servants of GOD. I will only refer to St. Luke, xviii. 29, 30, and 1 Tim. iv. 8.

'Upon the whole, setting aside instances of great and lasting bodily pain, of minds peculiarly oppressed by melancholy, and of severe temporal calamities, from which extraordinary cases we surely should not form our estimate of the general tenour and complexion of life; excluding these from the account, I am convinced that as well the gracious constitution of things which Providence has ordained, as the declarations of Scripture and the actual experience of individuals, authorize the sincere Christian to hope that his humble and constant endeavours to perform his duty, checquered as the best life is with many failings, will be crowned with a greater degree of present peace, serenity, and comfort, than he could reasonably permit himself to expect, if he measured his views and judged of life from the opinion of Dr. Johnson, often and energetically expressed in the Memoirs of him, without any animadversion or censure by his ingenious Biographer. If he himself, upon reviewing the subject, shall see the matter in this light, he will, in an octavo edition, which is eagerly expected, make such additional remarks or correction as he shall judge fit; lest the impressions which these discouraging passages may leave on the reader's mind, should in any degree hinder what otherwise the whole spirit and energy of the work tends, and, I hope, successfully, to promote,—pure morality and true religion.'

Though I have, in some degree, obviated any reflections against my illustrious friend's dark views of life, when considering, in the course of this Work, his Rambler [ante, i. 213] and his Rasselas [ante, i. 343], I am obliged to Mr. Churton for complying with my request of his permission to insert his Remarks, being conscious of the weight of what he judiciously suggests as to the melancholy in my own constitution. His more pleasing views of life, I hope, are just. Valeant quantum valere possunt.

Mr. Churton concludes his letter to me in these words:—'Once, and only once, I had the satisfaction of seeing your illustrious friend; and as I feel a particular regard for all whom he distinguished with his esteem and friendship, so I derive much pleasure from reflecting that I once beheld, though but transiently near our College gate, one whose works will for ever delight and improve the world, who was a sincere and zealous son of the Church of England, an honour to his country, and an ornament to human nature.'

His letter was accompanied with a present from himself of his Sermons at the Bampton Lecture, and from his friend, Dr. Townson, the venerable Rector of Malpas, in Cheshire, of his Discourses on the Gospels, together with the following extract of a letter from that excellent person, who is now gone to receive the reward of his labours:—'Mr. Boswell is not only very entertaining in his works, but they are so replete with moral and religious sentiments, without an instance, as far as I know, of a contrary tendency, that I cannot help having a great esteem for him; and if you think such a trifle as a copy of the Discourses, ex dono authoris, would be acceptable to him, I should be happy to give him this small testimony of my regard.'

Such spontaneous testimonies of approbation from such men, without any personal acquaintance with me, are truly valuable and encouraging.

BOSWELL.

[924]

'Tout se plaint, tout gémit en cherchant le bien-etre; Nul ne voudrait mourir, nul ne voudrait renaitre.'

Voltaire, Le désastre de Lisbonne. Works, ed. 1819, x. 124. 'Johnson said that, for his part, he never passed that week in his life which he would wish to repeat, were an angel to make the proposal to him.' Ante, ii. 125. Yet Dr. Franklin, whose life overlapped Johnson's at both ends, said:-'I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end, requesting only the advantage authors have of correcting in a second edition the faults of its first. So would I also wish to change some incidents of it for others more favourable Notwithstanding, if this condition was denied, I should still accept the offer of re-commencing the same life.' Franklin's Memoirs, i. 2.

'I'm tired with waiting for this chemic gold Which fools us young, and beggars us when old.'

[929]

'—to thee I call But with no friendly voice, and add thy name O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams.'

Milton's Paradise Lost, iv. 35.

['Sporting the lion ramped, and in his paw Dandled the kid.' Paradise Lost, iv. 343.]

[941] Lewis's Verses addressed to Pope were first published in a Collection of Pieces on occasion of The Dunciad, 8vo., 1732. They do not appear in Lewis's own Miscellany, printed in 1726.—Grongar Hill was first printed in Savage's Miscellanies as an Ode, and was reprinted in the same year in Lewis's Miscellany, in the form it now bears.

In his Miscellanies, 1726, the beautiful poem,—'Away, let nought to love displeasing,'—reprinted in Percy's Reliques, vol. i. book iii. No. 13, first appeared. MALONE.

[946]

'—quae mollissima fandi Tempora.' '—time wherein the word May softliest be said.' MORRIS. Virgil, Aeneids, iv. 293.

'I shall henceforth seek For other lights to truth; for righteous monarchs, Justly to judge, with their own eyes should see; To rule o'er freemen should themselves be free.' Notes and Queries, 5th S. viii. 456.

The play was acted at Drury Lane Theatre, old Mr. Sheridan taking the chief part. He it was who, in admiration, repeated the passage to Johnson which provoked the parody. Murphy's Garrick, p. 234.

[975]

Search then the ruling passion: There alone The wild are constant, and the cunning known; The fool consistent, and the false sincere; Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here.' Pope, Moral Essays, i. 174.

'The publick pleasures of far the greater part of mankind are counterfeit.' The Idler, No. 18.

[982]

'Who'er offends, at some unlucky time Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme.'

Pope, Imitations of Horace, 2 Satires, i. 78.

[985]

'Sis pecore et multa dives tellure licebit, Tibique Pactolus fluat.' 'Though wide thy land extends, and large thy fold, Though rivers roll for thee their purest gold.'

FRANCIS. Horace, Epodes, xv. 19.

[987] See ante, ii. 168.

'Soft-eyed compassion with a look benign, His fervent vows he offered at thy shrine; To guilt, to woe, the sacred debt was paid, And helpless females blessed his pious aid; Snatched from disease, and want's abandoned crew, Despair and anguish from their victims flew; Hope's soothing balm into their bosoms stole, And tears of penitence restored the soul.'

'This morning the Right Hon. the Speaker was convicted of keeping a disorderly house. Whereas the said barn was set on fire by an incendiary letter dropped early in the morning. By order of the Commissioners for Paving An infallible remedy for the stone and gravel. The sword of state was carried before Sir John Fielding and committed to Newgate.'

The New Foundling Hospital for Wit, i. 129. According to Northcote (Life of Reynolds, i. 217), 'Dr. Goldsmith declared, in the heat of his admiration of these Cross Readings, it would have given him more pleasure to have been the author of them than of all the works he had ever published of his own.' Horace Walpole (Letters, v. 30) writes:— 'Have you seen that delightful paper composed out of scraps in the newspapers? I laughed till I cried. I mean the paper that says:—

"This day his Majesty will go in great state to fifteen notorious common prostitutes."'

'While o'er the deep in many a dreadful form, The giant Danger howls along the storm, Furling the iron sails with numbed hands, Firm on the deck the great Adventurer stands; Round glitt'ring mountains hear the billows rave, And the vast ruin thunder on the wave.'

In the Gent. Mag. 1793, p. 197, were given extracts abusive of Johnson from some foolish letters that passed between Miss Seward and Hayley, a poet her equal in feebleness. Boswell, in his Corrections and Additions to the First Edition (ante, i.10), corrected an error into which he had been led by Miss Seward (ante, i.92, note 2). She, in the Gent. Mag. for 1793, p.875, defended herself and attacked him. His reply is found on p.1009. He says:—'As my book was to be a real history, and not a novel, it was necessary to suppress all erroneous particulars, however entertaining.' (Ante, ii 467, note 4.) He continues:—'So far from having any hostile disposition towards this Lady, I have, in my Life of Dr. Johnson...quoted a compliment paid by him to one of her poetical pieces; and I have withheld his opinion of herself, thinking that she might not like it. I am afraid it has reached her by some other means; and thus we may account for various attacks by her on her venerable townsman since his decease...What are we to think of the scraps of letters between her and Mr. Hayley, impotently attempting to undermine the noble pedestal on which the publick opinion has placed Dr. Johnson?'

Horace Walpole wrote on Aug. 4 of that year (ib. p. 235):—'Well! adieu to Houghton! about its mad master I shall never trouble myself more. From the moment he came into possession, he has undermined every act of my father that was within his reach, but, having none of that great man's sense or virtues, he could only lay wild hands on lands and houses; and since he has stript Houghton of its glory, I do not care a straw what he does with the stone or the acres.'

Pope, Moral Essays, iii. 39.

[1065] Johnson's Works, i. 152, 3.

[1089] Printed in his Works [i. 150]. BOSWELL. See ante, i. 241, note 2.

'Fate wings with every wish the afflictive dart.'

Vanity of Human Wishes, l. 15.

[1101]

Quid te exempta levat spinis de pluribus una? 'Pluck out one thorn to mitigate thy pain, What boots it while so many more remain?'

FRANCIS. Horace, 2 Epistles, ii. 212.

[1106]

'Micat inter omnes Julium sidus, velut inter ignes Luna minores.' 'And like the Moon, the feebler fires among, Conspicuous shines the Julian star.' FRANCIS. Horace, Odes, i. 12. 46.

[1108]

'The little blood that creeps within his veins Is but just warmed in a hot fever's pains.' DRYDEN. Juvenal, Satires, x. 217.

Once, upon reading that line in the curious epitaph quoted in The Spectator;

'Born in New-England, did in London die;'

he laughed and said, 'I do not wonder at this. It would have been strange, if born in London, he had died in New-England.' BOSWELL. Mrs. Smart was in Dublin when Johnson wrote to her. After the passage quoted by Boswell he continued:—'I think, Madam, you may look upon your expedition as a proper preparative to the voyage which we have often talked of. Dublin, though a place much worse than London, is not so bad as Iceland.' Smart's Poems, i. xxi. For Iceland see ante, i. 242. The epitaph, quoted in The Spectator, No. 518, begins—

Here Thomas Sapper lies interred. Ah why! Born in New-England, did in London die.'

'Seen him I have but in his happier hour Of social pleasure, ill-exchanged for power.' Satires. Epilogue, i. 29.

In Sir John Hawkins's compilation, there are, however, some passages concerning Johnson which have unquestionable merit. One of them I shall transcribe, in justice to a writer whom I have had too much occasion to censure, and to shew my fairness as the biographer of my illustrious friend: 'There was wanting in his conduct and behaviour, that dignity which results from a regular and orderly course of action, and by an irresistible power commands esteem. He could not be said to be a stayed man, nor so to have adjusted in his mind the balance of reason and passion, as to give occasion to say what may be observed of some men, that all they do is just, fit, and right.' [Hawkins's Johnson, p. 409.] Yet a judicious friend well suggests, 'It might, however, have been added, that such men are often merely just, and rigidly correct, while their hearts are cold and unfeeling; and that Johnson's virtues were of a much higher tone than those of the stayed, orderly man, here described.' BOSWELL.

'Quando vivea più glorioso, disse, Liberamente nel campo di Siena, Ogni vergogna deposta, s'affisse.' '"When at his glory's topmost height," said he, "Respect of dignity all cast aside, Freely he fix'd him on Sienna's plain."' CARY. Dante, Purgatory. Cant. xi. l. 133.

[1152]

'How instinct varies in the grovelling swine, Compared, half-reasoning elephant, with thine.' Pope, Essay on Man, i. 221.

[1155]

'atrocem animum Catonis.' 'Cato— Of spirit unsubdued.' FRANCIS. Horace, 2 Odes, i. 24.

'Let priestly S—h—n in a godly fit The tale relate, in aid of Holy Writ; Though candid Adams, by whom David fell [A], Who ancient miracles sustained so well, To recent wonders may deny his aid, Nor own a pious brother of the trade.'

[A] The Rev. Dr. Adams of Oxford, distinguished for his answer to David Hume's Essay on Miracles.

'DIVINITY.

'A small book of precepts and directions for piety; the hint taken from the directions in Morton's exercise.

'PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY, and LITERATURE in general.

'History of Criticism, as it relates to judging of authours, from Aristotle to the present age. An account of the rise and improvements of that art; of the different opinions of authours, ancient and modern.

'Translation of the History of Herodian.

'New edition of Fairfax's Translation of Tasso, with notes, glossary, &c.

'Chaucer, a new edition of him, from manuscripts and old editions, with various readings, conjectures, remarks on his language, and the changes it had undergone from the earliest times to his age, and from his to the present: with notes explanatory of customs, &c., and references to Boccace, and other authours from whom he has borrowed, with an account of the liberties he has taken in telling the stories; his life, and an exact etymological glossary.

'Aristotle's Rhetorick, a translation of it into English.

'A Collection of Letters, translated from the modern writers, with some account of the several authours.

'Oldham's Poems, with notes, historical and critical.

'Roscommon's Poems, with notes.

'Lives of the Philosophers, written with a polite air, in such a manner as may divert as well as instruct.

'History of the Heathen Mythology, with an explication of the fables, both allegorical and historical; with references to the poets.

'History of the State of Venice, in a compendious manner.

'Aristotle's Ethicks, an English translation of them, with notes.

'Geographical Dictionary, from the French.

'Hierocles upon Pythagoras, translated into English, perhaps with notes. This is done by Norris.

'A book of Letters, upon all kinds of subjects.

'Claudian, a new edition of his works, cum notis variorum, in the manner of Burman.

'Tully's Tusculan Questions, a translation of them.

'Tully's De Naturâ Deorum, a translation of those books.

'Benzo's New History of the New World, to be translated.

'Machiavel's History of Florence, to be translated.

'History of the Revival of Learning in Europe, containing an account of whatever contributed to the restoration of literature; such as controversies, printing, the destruction of the Greek empire, the encouragement of great men, with the lives of the most eminent patrons and most eminent early professors of all kinds of learning in different countries.

'A Body of Chronology, in verse, with historical notes.

'A Table of the Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians, distinguished by figures into six degrees of value, with notes, giving the reasons of preference or degradation.

'A Collection of Letters from English authours, with a preface giving some account of the writers; with reasons for selection, and criticism upon styles; remarks on each letter, if needful.

'A Collection of Proverbs from various languages. Jan. 6,—53.

'A Dictionary to the Common Prayer, in imitation of Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible. March, 52.

'A Collection of Stories and Examples, like those of Valerius Maximus. Jan. 10,—53.

'From Aelian, a volume of select Stories, perhaps from others. Jan.

28,-53.

'Collection of Travels, Voyages, Adventures, and Descriptions of Countries.

'Dictionary of Ancient History and Mythology.

'Treatise on the Study of Polite Literature, containing the history of learning, directions for editions, commentaries, &c.

'Maxims, Characters, and Sentiments, after the manner of Bruyère, collected out of ancient authours, particularly the Greek, with Apophthegms.

'Classical Miscellanies, Select Translations from ancient Greek and Latin authours.

'Lives of Illustrious Persons, as well of the active as the learned, in imitation of Plutarch.

'Judgement of the learned upon English authours.

'Poetical Dictionary of the English tongue.

'Considerations upon the present state of London.

'Collection of Epigrams, with notes and observations.

'Observations on the English language, relating to words, phrases, and modes of Speech.

'Minutiae Literariae, Miscellaneous reflections, criticisms, emendations, notes.

'History of the Constitution.

'Comparison of Philosophical and Christian Morality, by sentences collected from the moralists and fathers.

'Plutarch's Lives, in English, with notes.

'POETRY and works of IMAGINATION.

'Hymn to Ignorance.

'The Palace of Sloth,—a vision.

'Coluthus, to be translated.

'Prejudice,—a poetical essay.

'The Palace of Nonsense,—a vision.'

Johnson's extraordinary facility of composition, when he shook off his constitutional indolence, and resolutely sat down to write, is admirably described by Mr. Courtenay, in his Poetical Review, which I have several times quoted:

'While through life's maze he sent a piercing view, His mind expansive to the object grew. With various stores of erudition fraught, The lively image, the deep-searching thought, Slept in repose;—but when the moment press'd, The bright ideas stood at once confess'd; Instant his genius sped its vigorous rays, And o'er the letter'd world diffus'd a blaze: As womb'd with fire the cloud electrick flies, And calmly o'er th' horizon seems to rise; Touch'd by the pointed steel, the lightning flows, And all th' expanse with rich effulgence glows.'

We shall in vain endeavour to know with exact precision every production of Johnson's pen. He owned to me, that he had written about forty sermons; but as I understood that he had given or sold them to different persons, who were to preach them as their own, he did not consider himself at liberty to acknowledge them. Would those who were thus aided by him, who are still alive, and the friends of those who are dead, fairly inform the world, it would be obligingly gratifying a reasonable curiosity, to which there should, I think, now be no objection. Two volumes of them, published since his death, are sufficiently ascertained; see vol. iii. p. 181. I have before me, in his hand-writing, a fragment of twenty quarto leaves, of a translation into English of Sallust, De Bella Catilinario. When it was done I have no notion; but it seems to have no very superior merit to mark it as his. Beside the publications heretofore mentioned, I am satisfied, from internal evidence, to admit also as genuine the following, which, notwithstanding all my chronological care, escaped me in the course of this work:

'Considerations on the Case of Dr. Trapp's Sermons,' + published in 1739, in the Gentleman's Magazine. [These Considerations were published, not in 1739, but in 1787. Ante, i. 140, note 5.] It is a very ingenious defence of the right of abridging an authour's work, without being held as infringing his property. This is one of the nicest questions in the Law of Literature; and I cannot help thinking, that the indulgence of abridging is often exceedingly injurious to authours and booksellers, and should in very few cases be permitted. At any rate, to prevent difficult and uncertain discussion, and give an absolute security to authours in the property of their labours, no abridgement whatever should be permitted, till after the expiration of such a number of years as the Legislature may be pleased to fix.

But, though it has been confidently ascribed to him, I cannot allow that he wrote a Dedication to both Houses of Parliament of a book entitled The Evangelical History Harmonized. He was no croaker; no declaimer against the times. [See ante, ii. 357.] He would not have written, 'That we are fallen upon an age in which corruption is not barely universal, is universally confessed.' Nor 'Rapine preys on the publick without opposition, and perjury betrays it without inquiry.' Nor would he, to excite a speedy reformation, have conjured up such phantoms of terrour as these: 'A few years longer, and perhaps all endeavours will be in vain. We may be swallowed by an earthquake: we may be delivered to our enemies.' This is not Johnsonian.

There are, indeed, in this Dedication, several sentences constructed upon the model of those of Johnson. But the imitation of the form, without the spirit of his style, has been so general, that this of itself is not sufficient evidence. Even our newspaper writers aspire to it. In an account of the funeral of Edwin, the comedian, in The Diary of Nov. 9, 1790, that son of drollery is thus described: 'A man who had so often cheered the sullenness of vacancy, and suspended the approaches of sorrow.' And in The Dublin Evening Post, August 16, 1791, there is the following paragraph: 'It is a singular circumstance, that, in a city like this, containing 200,000 people, there are three months in the year during which no place of publick amusement is open. Long vacation is here a vacation from pleasure, as well as business; nor is there any mode of passing the listless evenings of declining summer, but in the riots of a tavern, or the stupidity of a coffee-house.'

I have not thought it necessary to specify every copy of verses written by Johnson, it being my intention to, publish an authentick edition of all his Poetry, with notes. BOSWELL. This Catalogue, as Mr. Boswell calls it, is by Dr. Johnson intitled Designs. It seems from the hand that it was written early in life: from the marginal dates it appears that some portions were added in 1752 and 1753. CROKER.

'If e'er my fingers touch'd the lyre, In satire fierce, in pleasure gay; Shall not my THRALIA'S smiles inspire? Shall Sam refuse the sportive lay? My dearest Lady! view your slave, Behold him as your very Scrub; Eager to write, as authour grave, Or govern well, the brewing-tub. To rich felicity thus raised, My bosom glows with amorous fire; Porter no longer shall be praised, 'Tis I MYSELF am Thrale's Entire'

'Hodge-podge,—A culinary mixture of heterogeneous ingredients: applied metaphorically to all discordant combinations.

'Tit for Tat,—Adequate retaliation.

'Shilly Shally,—Hesitation and irresolution.

'Fee! fau! fum!—Gigantic intonations.

Rigmarole,-Discourse, incoherent and rhapsodical.

'Crincum-crancum,—Lines of irregularity and involution.

'Dingdong—Tintinabulary chimes, used metaphorically to signify dispatch and vehemence.' BOSWELL. In all the editions that I have examined the sentence in the text beginning with 'annexed,' and ending with 'concatenation,' is printed as if it were Boswell's. It is a quotation from vol. ii. p. 93 of Colman's book. For Scrub, see ante, iii. 70, note 2.

BOSWELL.

MICHAEL JOHNSON,

Vir impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum patientissimus; fiducia christiana fortis, fervidusque; paterfamilias apprime strenuus; bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et negotiis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi nec suis defuerit; lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel pias, vel castas laesisset, aut dolor, vel voluptas unquam expresserit.

Natus Cubleiae, in agro Derbiensi,

Anno MDCLVI.

Obiit MDCCXXXI.

Apposita est SARA, conjux,

Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate praecellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem: aeternitati semper attentam, omne fere virtutis nomen commendavit.

Nata Nortoniae Regis, in agro Varvicensi, Anno MDCLXIX;

Obiit MDCCLIX.

Cum NATHANAELE, illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII, cum vires et animi et corporis multa pollicerentur, anno MDCCXXXVII, vitam brevem pia morte finivit. Johnson's Works, i. 150.

BOSWELL.

BOSWELL.

[1224] Mr. Green related that when some of Johnson's friends desired that Dr. Warren should be called in, he said they might call in whom they pleased; and when Warren was called, at his going away Johnson said, 'You have come in at the eleventh hour, but you shall be paid the same with your fellow-labourers. Francis, put into Dr. Warren's coach a copy of the English Poets.' CROKER. Dr. Warren ten years later attended Boswell in his last illness. Letters of Boswell, p. 355. He was the great-grandfather of Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., F.R.S., Chief Commissioner of Police.

"Ay, but to die and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clot; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods."

And from Milton [Paradise Lost, ii. 146]:—

"Who would lose Though full of pain this intellectual being?"'

Johnson, the year before, at a time when he thought that he must submit to the surgeon's knife (ante, p. 240), wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—'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. Hawkins records (Life, p. 588) that one day Johnson said to his doctor:—'How many men in a year die through the timidity of those whom they consult for health! I want length of life, and you fear giving me pain, which I care not for.' Another day, 'when Mr. Cruikshank scarified his leg, he cried out, "Deeper, deeper. I will abide the consequence; you are afraid of your reputation, but that is nothing to me." To those about him, he said, "You all pretend to love me, but you do not love me so well as I myself do." 'Ib. p. 592. Windham (Diary, p. 32) says that he reproached Heberden with being timidorum timidissimus. Throughout he acted up to what he had said:—'I will be conquered, I will not capitulate.' Ante, P. 374.

'Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind, Obedient passions and a will resigned.'

'Sam Johnson, (L.S.)

'Signed, scaled, published, declared, and delivered, by the said testator, as his last will and testament, in the presence of us, the word two being first inserted in the opposite page. 'GEORGE STRAHAN 'JOHN DESMOULINS

'By way of Codicil to my last Will and Testament, I, SAMUEL JOHNSON, give, devise, and bequeath, my messuage or tenement situate at Litchfield, in the county of Stafford, with the appertenances, in the tenure or occupation of Mrs. Bond, of Lichfield aforesaid, or of Mr. Hinchman, her under-tenant, to my executors, in trust, to sell and dispose of the same; and the money arising from such sale I give and bequeath as follows, viz. to Thomas and Benjamin, the sons of Fisher Johnson, late of Leicester, and ——- Whiting, daughter of Thomas Johnson [F-1], late of Coventry, and the grand-daughter of the said Thomas Johnson, one full and equal fourth part each; but in case there shall be more grand-daughters than one of the said Thomas Johnson, living at the time of my decease, I give and bequeath the part or share of that one to and equally between such grand-daughters. I give and bequeath to the Rev. Mr. Rogers, of Berkley, near Froom, in the county of Somerset, the sum of one hundred pounds, requesting him to apply the same towards the maintenance of Elizabeth Herne, a lunatick [F-2]. I also give and bequeath to my god-children, the son and daughter of Mauritius Lowe [F-3], painter, each of them, one hundred pounds of my stock in the three per cent, consolidated annuities, to be applied and disposed of by and at the discretion of my Executors, in the education or settlement in the world of them my said legatees. Also I give and bequeath to Sir John Hawkins, one of my Executors, the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius, and Holinshed's and Stowe's Chronicles, and also an octavo Common Prayer-Book. To Bennet Langton, Esq. I give and bequeath my Polyglot Bible. To Sir Joshua Reynolds, my great French Dictionary, by Martiniere, and my own copy of my folio English Dictionary, of the last revision. To Dr. William Scott, one of my Executors, the Dictionnaire de Commerce, and Lectius's edition of the Greek poets. To Mr. Windham [F-4], Poetae Graeci Heroici per Henricum Stephanum. To the Rev. Mr. Strahan, vicar of Islington, in Middlesex, Mill's Greek Testament, Beza's Greek Testament, by Stephens, all my Latin Bibles, and my Greek Bible, by Wechelius. To Dr. Heberden, Dr. Brocklesby, Dr. Butter, and Mr. Cruikshank, the surgeon who attended me, Mr. Holder, my apothecary, Gerard Hamilton, Esq., Mrs. Gardiner [F-5], of Snow-hill, Mrs. Frances Reynolds, Mr. Hoole, and the Reverend Mr. Hoole, his son, each a book at their election, to keep as a token of remembrance. I also give and bequeath to Mr. John Desmoulins [F-6], two hundred pounds consolidated three per cent, annuities: and to Mr. Sastres, the Italian master [F-7], the sum of five pounds, to be laid out in books of piety for his own use. And whereas the said Bennet Langton hath agreed, in consideration of the sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds, mentioned in my Will to be in his hands, to grant and secure an annuity of seventy pounds payable during the life of me and my servant, Francis Barber, and the life of the survivor of us, to Mr. George Stubbs, in trust for us; my mind and will is, that in case of my decease before the said agreement shall be perfected, the said sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds, and the bond for securing the said sum, shall go to the said Francis Barber; and I hereby give and bequeath to him the same, in lieu of the bequest in his favour, contained in my said Will. And I hereby empower my Executors to deduct and retain all expences that shall or may be incurred in the execution of my said Will, or of this Codicil thereto, out of such estate and effects as I shall die possessed of. All the rest, residue, and remainder, of my estate and effects, I give and bequeath to my said Executors, in trust for the said Francis Barber, his Executors and Administrators. Witness my hand and seal, this ninth day of December, 1784.

'SAM. JOHNSON, (L. S.)

'Signed, sealed, published, declared, and delivered, by the said Samuel Johnson, as, and for a Codicil to his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us, who, in his presence, and at his request, and also in the presence of each other, have hereto subscribed our names as witnesses. 'JOHN COPLEY. 'WILLIAM GIBSON. 'HENRY COLE.'

Upon these testamentary deeds it is proper to make a few observations.

His express declaration with his dying breath as a Christian, as it had been often practised in such solemn writings, was of real consequence from this great man; for the conviction of a mind equally acute and strong, might well overbalance the doubts of others, who were his contemporaries. The expression polluted, may, to some, convey an impression of more than ordinary contamination; but that is not warranted by its genuine meaning, as appears from The Rambler, No. 42[F-8]. The same word is used in the will of Dr. Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln [F-9], who was piety itself.

His legacy of two hundred pounds to the representatives of Mr. Innys, bookseller, in St. Paul's Church-yard [F-10], proceeded from a very worthy motive. He told Sir John Hawkins, that his father having become a bankrupt, Mr. Innys had assisted him with money or credit to continue his business. 'This, (said he,) I consider as an obligation on me to be grateful to his descendants [F-11].'

The amount of his property proved to be considerably more than he had supposed it to be. Sir John Hawkins estimates the bequest to Francis Barber at a sum little short of fifteen hundred pounds, including an annuity of seventy pounds to be paid to him by Mr. Langton, in consideration of seven hundred and fifty pounds, which Johnson had lent to that gentleman. Sir John seems not a little angry at this bequest, and mutters 'a caveat against ostentatious bounty and favour to negroes [F-12].' But surely when a man has money entirely of his own acquisition, especially when he has no near relations, he may, without blame, dispose of it as he pleases, and with great propriety to a faithful servant. Mr. Barber, by the recommendation of his master, retired to Lichfield, where he might pass the rest of his days in comfort.

It has been objected that Johnson has omitted many of his best friends, when leaving books to several as tokens of his last remembrance. The names of Dr. Adams, Dr. Taylor [F-13], Dr. Burney, Mr. Hector, Mr. Murphy, the Authour of this Work, and others who were intimate with him, are not to be found in his Will. This may be accounted for by considering, that as he was very near his dissolution at the time, he probably mentioned such as happened to occur to him; and that he may have recollected, that he had formerly shewn others such proofs of his regard, that it was not necessary to crowd his Will with their names. Mrs. Lucy Porter was much displeased that nothing was left to her; but besides what I have now stated, she should have considered, that she had left nothing to Johnson by her Will, which was made during his life-time, as appeared at her decease.

His enumerating several persons in one group, and leaving them 'each a book at their election,' might possibly have given occasion to a curious question as to the order of choice, had they not luckily fixed on different books. His library, though by no means handsome in its appearance, was sold by Mr. Christie, for two hundred and forty-seven pounds, nine shillings [F-14]; many people being desirous to have a book which had belonged to Johnson. In many of them he had written little notes: sometimes tender memorials of his departed wife; as, 'This was dear Tetty's book:' sometimes occasional remarks of different sorts. Mr. Lysons, of Clifford's Inn, has favoured me with the two following:

In Holy Rules and Helps to Devotion, by Bryan Duppa, Lord Bishop of Winton, 'Preces quidam (? quidem) videtur diligenter tractasse; spero non inauditus (? inauditas).'

In The Rosicrucian infallible Axiomata, by John Heydon, Gent., prefixed to which are some verses addressed to the authour, signed Ambr. Waters, A.M. Coll. Ex. Oxon. 'These Latin verses were written to Hobbes by Bathurst, upon his Treatise on Human Nature, and have no relation to the book.—An odd fraud.'—BOSWELL. [Note: See Appendix F for notes on this footnote.]

"God put it in the mind to take it hence, That thou might'st win the more thy [Johnson's] love, Pleading so wisely in excuse of it."

[1236] Henry IV, act iv. sc. 5.

"Te spectem, suprema, mihi cum venerit hora, Te teneam moriens deficiente mamu. Lib. i. El. I. 73. Before my closing eyes dear Cynthia stand, Held weakly by my fainting, trembling hand."' Johnson's Works, iv. 35.

'In 1736, Dr. Johnson had a particular inclination to have been engaged as an assistant to the Reverend Mr. Budworth, then head master of the Grammar-school, at Brewood, in Staffordshire, "an excellent person, who possessed every talent of a perfect instructor of youth, in a degree which, (to use the words of one of the brightest ornaments of literature, the Reverend Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester,) has been rarely found in any of that profession since the days of Quintilian." Mr. Budworth, "who was less known in his life-time, from that obscure situation to which the caprice of fortune oft condemns the most accomplished characters, than his highest merit deserved," had been bred under Mr. Blackwell [Blackwall], at Market Bosworth, where Johnson was some time an usher [ante, i. 84]; which might naturally lead to the application. Mr. Budworth was certainly no stranger to the learning or abilities of Johnson; as he more than once lamented his having been under the necessity of declining the engagement, from an apprehension that the paralytick affection, under which our great Philologist laboured through life, might become the object of imitation or of ridicule, among his pupils.' Captain Budworth, his grandson, has confirmed to me this anecdote.

'Among the early associates of Johnson, at St. John's Gate, was Samuel Boyse [G-1], well known by his ingenious productions; and not less noted for his imprudence. It was not unusual for Boyse to be a customer to the pawnbroker. On one of these occasions, Dr. Johnson collected a sum of money to redeem his friend's clothes, which in two days after were pawned again. "The sum, (said Johnson,) was collected by sixpences, at a time when to me sixpence was a serious consideration [G-2]."