that the contract should be dissolved; he only argues that she may indulge 1776.
herself in gallantries with equal freedom as her husband does, provided the Etat. 67.
takes care not to introduce a spurious issue into his family. You know, Sir,
what Macrobius has told us of Julia'.” Johnson. “ This lady of yours,
Sir, I think, is very fit for a brothel.”

Mr. Macbean, authour of the Distionary of ancient Geography,” came
in. He mentioned, that he had been forty years absent from Scotland. “ Ali,
Boswell! (said Johnson, smiling,) what would you give to be forty years from
Scotland ?” I said, “ I should not like to be so long absent from the seat of
my ancestors.”

This gentleman, Mrs. Williams, and Mr. Levett, dined with us.

Dr. Johnson made a remark, which both Mr. Macbean and I thought new. It was this : that “ the law against usury is for the protection of creditors as well as of debtors; for if there were no such check, people would be apt, from the temptation of great interest, to lend to desperate persons, by whom they would lose their money. Accordingly there are instances of ladies being ruined, by having injudiciously funk their fortunes for high annuities, which, after a few years, ceased to be paid, in consequence of the ruined circumstances of the borrower."

Mrs. Williams was very peevish ; and I wondered at Johnson's patience with her now, as I had often done on similar occasions. The truth is, that his humane consideration of the forlorn and indigent state in which this lady was left by her father, induced him to treat her with the utmost tenderness, and even to be desirous of procuring her amusement, so as sometimes to incommode many of his friends, by carrying her with him to their houses, where, from her manner of eating, in consequence of her blindness, she could not but offend the delicacy of persons of nice sensations.

After coffee, we went to afternoon service in St. Clement's church. Observing some beggars in the street as we walked along, I said to him I supposed there was no civilised country in the world, where the misery of want in the lowest classes of the people was prevented. Johnson. “ I believe, Sir, there is not ; but it is better that some should be unhappy, than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.”

When the service was ended, I went home with him, and we fat quietly by ourselves. He recommended Dr. Cheyne's books. I said, I thought Cheyne

"“ Nunquam enim nisi navi plena tollo veflorem." Lib. ii. c. vi.

VOL, II,

I

had

1776.

Etat. 67.

had been reckoned whimsical.-" So he was, (said he,) in some things; but
there is no end of objections. There are few books to which some objection
or other may not be made."

Upon the question whether a man who had been guilty of vicious actions
would do well to force himself into solitude and sadness ; Johnson. “No,
Sir, unless it prevent him from being vicious again. With some people, gloomy
penitence is only madness turned upside down. A man may be gloomy, till,
in order to be relieved from gloom, he has recourse again to criminal
indulgences.”

On Wednesday, April 10, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, where were
Mr. Murphy and some other company. Before dinner, Dr. Johnson and I
passed some time by ourselves. I was sorry to find it was now resolved that the
proposed journey to Italy should not take place this year. He said, “I am
disappointed, to be sure ; but it is not a great disappointment.” I wondered
to see him bear, with a philosophical calmness, what would have made most
people peevish and fretful. I perceived, however, that he had so warmly
cherished the hope of enjoying classical scenes, that he could not easily part
with the scheme; for he said, “ I shall probably contrive to get to Italy some
other way. But I won't mention it to Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, as it might vex
them.” I suggested, that going to Italy might have done Mr. and Mrs.
Thrale good. Johnson. “ I rather believe not, Sir. While grief is fresh,
every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested,
and then amusement will disipate the remains of it.”

"At dinner, Mr. Murphy entertained us with the history of Mr. Joseph
Simpson, a schoolfellow of Dr. Johnson's, a barrister at law, of good parts,
but who fell into a dissipated course of life, incompatible with that success in
his profession which he once had, and would otherwise have deservedly main-
tained; yet he still preserved a dignity in his deportment. He wrote a tragedy
on the story of Leonidas, entitled “ The Patriot,” He read it to a company
of lawyers, who found so many faults, that he wrote it over again: so then
there were two tragedies on the same fubject, and with the same title. Dr.
Johnson told us, that one of them was still in his poffeffion. This very
piece was, after his death, published by some person who had been about him,
and, for the sake of a little hasty profit, was positively averred to have been
written by Johnson himself.

I faid, I disiked the custom which some people had of bringing their
children into company, because it in a manner forced us to pay foolish com-
pliments to please their parents. Johnson. “ You are right, Sir. We may
be excused for not caring much about other people's children, for there are

1776.

Ætat, 67.

a

many who care very little about their own children. It may be observed,
that men, who from being engaged in business, or from their course of life in
whatever way, feldom see their children, do not care much about them. I
myself should not have had much fondness for a child of my own.”

.”

MRS. THRALE. « Nay, Sir, how can you talk so?” Johnson. “At least, I never wished to have a child."

Mr. Murphy mentioned Dr. Johnson's having a design to publish an edition of Cowley. Johnson said, he did not know but he should ; and he expressed his disapprobation of Dr. Hurd, for having published a mutilated edition under the title of “ Select Works of Abraham Cowley.” Mr. Murphy thought it a bad precedent; observing, that any authour might be used in the same manner; and that it was pleasing to see the variety of an authour's compositions, at different periods.

We talked of Flatman's Poems; and Mrs. Thrale observed, that Pope had partly borrowed from him, “ The dying Christian to his Soul.” Johnson repeated Rochester's verses upon Flatman, which, I think, by much too severe :

I like to recollect all the passages that I heard Johnson repeat : it stamps a
value on them.

He told us, that the book entitled “ The Lives of the Poets, by Mr.
Cibber," was entirely compiled by Mr. Shiels, a Scotchman, one of his
amanuenses. “ The booksellers (said he,) gave Theophilus Cibber, who was
then in prison, ten guineas, to allow Mr. Cibber to be put upon the title-page,
as the authour; by this, a double imposition was intended: in the first place,
that it was the work of a Cibber at all; and, in the second place, that it
was the work of old Cibber."

Mr. Murphy said, that “ The Memoirs of Gray's Life set him much
higher in his estimation than his poems did; for you there saw a man con-
ftantly at work in literature.” Johnson acquiefced in this, but depreciated the
book, I thought, very unreasonably. For he said, “ I forced myself to read
it, only because it was a common topick of conversation. I found it mighty
dull; and, as to the style, it is fit for the second table.” Why he thought so,
I was at a loss to conceive. He now gave it as his opinion, that “ Akenside
was a superiour poet both to Gray and Mason.”
. I 2

Talking

Stat. 67.

1

1776 · Talking of the Reviews, Johnson said, “ I think them very impartial :

I do not know an instance of partiality.” He mentioned what had passed
upon the subject of the Monthly and Critical Reviews, in the conversation
with which his Majesty had honoured hiin. He expatiated a little more on
them this evening “ The Monthly Reviewers (said he) are not Deifts; but
they are Christians with as little christianity as may be; and are for pulling
down all establishments. The Critical Reviewers are for supporting the con-

stitution, both in church and state. The Critical Reviewers, I believe, often
: review without reading the books through; but lay hold of a topick, and write

chiefly from their own minds. The Monthly Reviewers are duller men, and
are glad to read the books through."

He talked of Lord Lyttelton's extreme anxiety as an authour ; observing,
that “ he was thirty years in preparing his History, and that he employed a
man to point it for him; as if (laughing) another man could point his sense
better than himself.” Mr. Murphy faid, he understood his History was kept
back several years for fear of Smollet. Johnson. “ This seems strange to
Murphy and me, who never felt that anxiety, but sent what we wrote to the
press, and let it take its chance.” Mrs. THRALE. “ The time has been,
Sir, when you felt it.” Johnson. “ Why really, Madam, I do not recollect
a time when that was the case."

Talking of “ The Spectator,” he said, “ It is wonderful that there is such a proportion of bad papers, in the half of the work which was not written by Addison; for there was all the world to write that half, yet not a half of that haif is good. One of the finest pieces in the English language is the paper on Novelty, yet we do not hear it talked of. It was written by Grove, a diffenting teacher.” He would not, I perceived, call him a clergyman, though he was candid enough to allow very great merit to his composition. Mr. Murphy faid, he remembered when there were several people alive in London, who enjoyed a considerable reputation merely from having written a paper in “The Spectator.” He mentioned particularly Mr. Ince, who used to frequent Tom's coffee-house. “But (faid Johnson,) you must consider how highly Steele speaks of Mr. Ince.” He would not allow that the paper on carrying a boy to travel, figned Philip Homebred, which was written by the Lord Chancellor Hardwick, had merit. He said, “ it was quite vulgar, and had nothing luminous.”

Johnson mentioned Dr. Barry's “ System of Physick.” “He was a man. (faid he,) who had acquired a high reputation in Dublin, came over to England, and brought his reputation with him, but had not great success. His notion

a

was, that pulsation occasions death by attrition; and that, therefore, the way 1976.
to preserve life is to retard pulsation. But we know that pulsation is strongest Ætat. 67.
in infants, and that we increase in growth while it operates in its regular
course; so it cannot be the cause of destruction.” Soon after this, he said
something very Aattering to Mrs. Thrale, which I do not recollect; but it
concluded with wifhing her long life. “ Sir, (faid 1,) if Dr. Barry's system
be true, you have now shortened Mrs. Thrale's life, perhaps, some minutes,
by accelerating her pulsation.”

On Thursday, April 11, I dined with him at General Paoli's, in whose
house I now resided, and where I had ever afterwards the honour of being enter-
tained with the kindest attention as his constant guest, while I was in London,
till I had a house of my own there. I mentioned my having that morning
introduced to Mr. Garrick, Count Neni, a Flemish nobleman of

great

rank and fortune, to whom Garrick talked of Abel Drugger as a small part; and related, with pleasant vanity, that a Frenchman who had seen him in one of his low characters, exclaimed, “ Comment ! je ne le crois pas. Ce n'est pas, Monsieur Garrick, ce Grand Homme !” Garrick added, with an appearance of grave recollection, “If I were to begin life again, I think I should not play those low characters." Upon which I observed, “Sir, you would be in the wrong;

for your great excellence is your variety of playing, your representing
so well, characters so very different. Johnson. “ Garrick, Sir, was not in
earnest in what he said; for, to be sure, his peculiar excellence is his variety:
and, perhaps, there is not any one character which has not been as well
acted by somebody else, as he could do it.” Boswell. “ Why then, Sir,
did he talk fo?” Johnson. “ Why, Sir, to make you answer as you did.”

?
Boswell. “ I don't know, Sir; he seemed to dip deep into his mind for the
reflection.” Johnson. “He had not far to dip, Sir: he had said the same
thing, probably, twenty times before.”

Of a nobleman raised at a very early period to high office, he said, “ His
parts, Sir, are pretty well for a Lord, but would not be distinguished in a man.
who had nothing else but his parts.

A journey to Italy was still in his thoughts. He said, “A man who has
not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority,—from his not having
feen what it is expected a man should see. The grand object of travelling is
to see the shores of the Mediterrannean. On those shores were the four great
empires of the world; the Affyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the
Roman. --All our religion, almost all our law, almost all our arts, almost all
that sets us above savages, has come to us from the shores of

Mediter-
ranean.'