for Johnson's retentive mind being enrich- ward the wind] 1; as to which inconsideraed with a very large and various store of ble specks it is enough to observe, that his knowledge and imagery, must have occu- Preface announces that he was aware there pied several years. The Preface furnishes might be many such in so immense a work; an eminent instance of a double talent, of nor was he at all disconcerted when an inwhich Johnson was fully conscious. Sir stance was pointed out to him. A lady Joshua Reynolds heard him say, "There once asked him how he came to define Pasare two things which I am confident I can tern the knee of a horse: instead of making do very well: one is an introduction to any an elaborate defence, as she expected, he at literary work, stating what it is to contain, once answered, "Ignorance, madam, pure and how it should be executed in the most ignorance." His definition of Networkperfect manner: the other is a conclusion, [any thing reticulated or decussated at equal showing from various causes why the ex-distances, with interstices between the inecution has not been equal to what the au- tersections]-has been often quoted with thour promised to himself and to the pub- sportive malignity, as obscuring a thing in lick." itself very plain. But to these frivolous censures no other answer is necessary than that with which we are furnished by his own Preface. "To explain, requires the use of terms less abstruse than that which is to be explained, and such terms cannot always be found. For as nothing can be proved but by supposing something intuitively known, and evident without proof, so nothing can be defined but by the use of words too plain to admit of definition. Sometimes easier words are changed into harder; as burial, into sepulture or interment; dry, into desiccative; dryness into siccity or aridity; fit, into paroxysm; for the easiest word, whatever it be, can never be translated into one more easy." His introducing his own opinions, and even prejudices, under general definitions of words, while at the same time the original meaning of the words is not explained, and a few more, cannot be fully defended, and must be placed to the account of capricious and humorous indulgence. Such are How should puny scribblers be abashed and disappointed, when they find him displaying a perfect theory of lexicographical excellence, yet at the same time candidly and modestly allowing that he "had not satisfied his own expectations." Here was a fair occasion for the exercise of Johnson's modesty, when he was called upon to compare his own arduous performance, not with those of other individuals (in which case his inflexible regard to truth would have been violated had he affected diffidence), but with speculative perfection; as he, who can outstrip all his competitors in the race, may yet be sensible of his deficiency when he runs against time. Well might he say, that "the English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned;" for he told me, that the only aid which he received was a paper containing twenty etymologies, sent to him by a person then unknown, who he was afterwards informed was Dr. Pearce, Bishop of Rochester. The etymologies, though they exhibit learning and judgement, are not, I think, entitled to the first praise amongst the various parts of this immense work. The definitions have always appeared to me such astonishing proofs of acuteness of intellect aud precision of language, as indicate a genius of the highest rank. This it is which marks the superiour excellence of Johnson's Dictionary over others equally or even more voluminous, and must have made it a work of much greater mental labour than mere Lexicons, or Word-Books, as the Dutch call them. They, who will make the experiment of trying how they can define a few words of whatever nature, will soon be EXCISE [a hateful tax levied upon comsatisfied of the unquestionable justice of this modities, and adjudged not by the common observation, which I can assure my read-judges of properly, but by WRETCHES hired ers is founded upon much study, and up- by those to whom excise is paid 2]. on communication with more minds than my own. A few of his definitions must be admitted to be erroneous. Thus Windward and Leeward, though directly of opposite meaning, are defined identically the same way-[to TORY [a cant term, derived, I suppose, from an Irish word signifying a savage. One who adheres to the ancient constitu tion of the state and the apostolic hierarchy of the church of England: opposed to a Whig]. WHIG [the name of a faction]. PENSION [an allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country]. PENSIONER [a slave of state hired by a stipend to obey his master]. OATS [a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people]. He owns in his Preface the deficiency of the be much obliged to me for definitions of musical technical part of his work; and he said he should terms for his next edition, which he did not live to superintend.-BURNEY. 2 The Commissioners of Excise being offended Let it, however, be remembered, that this indulgence does not display itself only in sarcasm towards others, but sometimes in playful allusion to the notions commonly entertained of his own laborions task. Thus: "Grub-street, the name of a street in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called Grubstreet."-" Lexicographer, a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge 2." Talking to me upon this subject when we | this work, than any now to be found in it. were at Ashbourne in 1777, he mentioned "You know, sir, Lord Gower forsook the old a still stronger instance of the predominance Jacobite interest. When I came to the word of his private feelings in the composition of Renegado, after telling that it meant 'one who deserts to the enemy, a revolter,' I by this severe reflection, consulted Mr. Murray, added Sometimes we say a GowER1. Thus then Attorney-General, to know whether redress it went to the press: but the printer had could be legally obtained. I wished to have pro- more wit than I, and struck it out." cured for my readers a copy of the opinion which he gave, and which may now be justly considered as history; but the mysterious secrecy of office it seems would not permit it. I am, however, informed, by very good authority, that its import was, that the passage might be considered as actionable; but that it would be more prudent in the board not to prosecute. Johnson never made the smallest alteration in this passage. We find he still retained his early prejudice against Excise; for in "The Idler, No. 65," there is the following very extraordinary paragraph: "The authenticity of Clarendon's history, though printed with the sanction of one of the first Universities of the world, had not an unexpected manuscript been happily discovered, would, with the help of factious credulity, have been brought into question, by the two lowest of all human beings, a Scribbler for a party, and a Commissioner of Excise." The persons to whom he alludes were Mr. John Oldmixon, and George Ducket, Esq.-BoswELL. [The present Editor is more fortunate than Mr. Boswell, in being able (through the favour of Sir. F. H. Doyle, now Deputy-Chairman of the Excise Board) to present the reader with a copy of the case submitted to Lord Mansfield and his opinion: At the time when he was concluding his very eloquent Preface, Johnson's mind appears to have been in such a state of depression, that we cannot contemplate without wonder the vigorous and splendid thoughts which so highly distinguish that performance. "I (says he) may surely be contented without the praise of perfection, Which if I could obtain in this gloom of solitude, what would it avail me? I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave; and success and miscarriage are empty sounds. I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise." That this thereof, or any and which of them by information, or how otherwise? Whether any such step was taken, Sir Francis Doyle has not been able to discover: probably not; but Johnson, in his own octavo abridgment of the Dictionary, had the good sense to omit the more offensive parts of the definitions of both ExCISE and PENSION. We have already seen (ante, p. 12) the probable motive of the attack on the Excise.-ED.] [Lord Gower, after a long opposition to the whig ministry (which was looked upon as equivalent to Jacobitism), accepted, in 1742, the office of Privy-Seal, and was the object of much censure both with Whigs and Tories. Sir Charles H. Williams ironically calls him "Hanoverian Gower;" but it is probable that Johnson's aversion to Lord Gower arose out of something more personal; perhaps the disappointment about Ap pleby school. see ante, p. 51.-ED.] [A writer of dictionaries, who should admit such reflections as those on the Excise, Lord Gower, &c., could hardly hope to pass as a harmless drudge.-ED.] 2 Cindifference was rather a temporary than an habitual feeling, appears, I think, from his letters to Mr. Warton; and however he may have been affected for the moment, certain it is that the honours which his great work procured him, both at home and abroad, were very grateful to him. His friend the Earl of Corke and Orrery, being at Florence, presented it to the Academia della Crusca. That Academy sent Johnson their Vocabolario, and the French Academy sent him their Dictionnaire, which Mr. Langton had the pleasure to convey to him. It must undoubtedly seem strange, that the conclusion of his Preface should be expressed in terms so desponding, when it is considered that the authour was then only in his forty-sixth year. But we must ascribe its gloom to that miserable dejection of spirits to which he was constitutionally subject, and which was aggravated by the death of his wife two years before. I have heard it ingeniously observed by a lady of rank and elegance, that "his melancholy was then at its meridian." It pleased GOD to grant him almost thirty years of life after this time; and once when he was in a placid frame of mind, he was obliged to own to me that he had enjoyed happier days, and had many more friends, since that gloomy hour, than before. It is a sad saying, that "most of those whom he wished to please had sunk into the grave;" and his case at forty-five was singularly unhappy, unless the circle of his friends was very narrow. I have often thought, that as longevity is generally desired, and I believe generally expected, it would be wise to be continually adding to the number of our friends, that the loss of some may be supplied by others. Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be thus continually renewed; and it is consolatory to think, that although we can seldom add what will equal the generous first growths of our youth, yet friendship becomes insensibly old in much less time than is commonly imagined, and not many years are required to make it very mellow and pleasant. Warmth will, no doubt, make a considerable difference. Men of affectionate temper and bright fancy will coalesce a great deal sooner than those who are cold and dull. tions and habits of life were very opposite to his, but who was ever eminent for literature and vivacity, sallied forth with a little jeu d'esprit upon the following passage in his Grammar of the English Tongue, prefixed to the Dictionary: "H seldom, perhaps never, begins any but the first syllable." In an essay printed in "the Publick Advertiser," this lively writer enumerated many instances in opposition to this remark; for example: "The authour of this observation must be a man of a quick appre-hension, and of a most compre-hensive genius." The position is undoubtedly expressed with too much latitude. This light sally, we may suppose, made no great impression on our Lexicographer; for we find that he did not alter the passage till many years afterwards2. He had the pleasure of being treated in a very different manner by his old pupil Mr. Garrick, in the following complimentary Epigram: ON JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY. "Talk of war with a Briton, he'll boldly advance, That one English soldier will beat ten of France; Would we alter the boast from the sword to the pen, Our odds are still greater, still greater our men; In the deep mines of science though Frenchmen may toil, Can their strength be compared to Locke, Newton, and Boyle? Let them rally their heroes, send forth all their pow'rs, Their verse-men and prose-men, then match them with ours! First Shakspeare and Milton, like gods in the fight, Have put their whole drama and epick to flight; In satires, epistles, and odes, would they cope, 'Their numbers retreat before Dryden and Pope; And Johnson, well-arm'd like a hero of yore, Has beat forty French 3, and will beat forty more 1!” Johnson this year gave at once a proof of his benevolence, quickness of apprehension, and admirable art of composition, in the assistance which he gave to Mr. Zachariah Williams, father of the blind lady 2 In the third edition, published iu 1773, he left out the words perhaps never, and added the following paragraph: "It sometimes begins middle or final syllables from the Latin, as compre-hended.'-BOSWELL. in words compounded, as block-head, or derived 3 The number of the French Academy em ployed in settling their language.-BOSWELL. The proposition which I have now endeavoured to illustrate was, at a subsequent period of his life, the opinion of Johnson himself. He said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, [This compliment is creditable to Garrick's "If a man does not make new acquain-placability, if we are to believe that he took to tance as he advances through life, he will himself the character of Prospero in the Rambler soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, of the 15th Feb. 1752 (see ante, p. 88); but it should keep his friendship in constant re- surely is not a very happy effort of wit. "Well pair." arm'd like a hero of yore," and "will beat forty more," have little meaning, and are awkward expletives, added, it would seem, merely because they rhymed.—ED.] The celebrated Mr. Wilkes, whose no 1 [See ante, p. 102.—ED.] whom he had humanely received under his roof. Mr. Williams had followed the profession of physick in Wales; but having a very strong propensity to the study of natural philosophy, had made many ingenious advances towards a discovery of the longitude, and repaired to London in hopes of obtaining the great parliamentary reward 1. He failed of success; but Johnson having made himself master of his principles and experiments, wrote for him a pamphlet, published in quarto, with the following title: "An Account of an Attempt to ascertain the Longitude at Sea, by an exact Theory of the Variation of the Magnetical Needle; with a Table of the Variations at the most remarkable Cities in Europe, from the year 1660 to 1860 f." To diffuse it more extensively, it was accompanied with an Italian translation on the opposite page, which it is supposed was the work of Signor Baretti 2, an Italian of considerable literature, who having come to England a few years before, had been employed in the capacity both of a language master and an authour, and formed an intimacy with Dr. Johnson. This pamphlet Johnson presented to the Bodleian Library 3. On a blank leaf of it is pasted a paragraph cut out of 1 [Mr. Williams, as early as 1721, persuaded himself that he had discovered the means of ascertaining the longitude, and he seems to have passed a long life in that delusion.-ED.] This ingenious foreigner, who was a native of Piedmont, came to England about the year 1753, and died in London, May 5, 1789. A very candid and judicious account of him and his works, beginning with the words, "So much asperity," and written, it is believed, by a distinguished dignitary in the church, [Dr. Vincent, Dean of Westminster], may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for that year, p. 469.-MALONE, 3 When Dr. Johnson was with me at Oxford, in 1755, he gave to the Bodleian Library a thin quarto of twenty-one pages, a work in Italian, with an English translation on the opposite page. The English title-page is this: "An Account of an Attempt to ascertain the Longitude at Sea, by an exact Variation of the Magnetical Needle, &c. By Zachariah Williams. London, printed for Dodsley, 1755." The English translation, from the strongest internal marks, is unquestionably the work of Johnson. In a blank leaf, Johnson has written the age, and time of death, of the authour Z. Williams, as I have said above. On another blank leaf is pasted a paragraph from a newspaper, of the death and character of Williams, which is plainly written by Johnson. He was very anxious about placing this book in the Bodleian; and, for fear of any omission or mistake, he entered, in the great Catalogue, the title-page of it with his own hand.-WARTON. In this statement there is a slight mistake. The English account, which was written by Johnson, was the original; the Italian was a translation, done by Baretti.-MALONE. 17 VOL. I a newspaper, containing an account of the death and character of Williams, plainly written by Johnson 4. In July this year he had formed some scheme of mental improvement, the particular purpose of which does not appear. But we find in his "Prayers and Meditations," p. 25, a prayer entitled "On the Study of Philosophy, as an instrument of living;" and after it follows a note, "This study was not pursued.” On the 13th of the same month he wrote in his Journal the following scheme of life, for Sunday: "Having lived" (as he with tenderness of conscience expresses himself) "not without an habitual reverence for the Sabbath, yet without that attention to its religious duties which Christianity requires:" "1. To rise early, and in order to it, to go to sleep early on Saturday. "2. To use some extraordinary devotion in the morning. "3. To examine the tenour of my life, and particularly the last week; and to mark my advances in religion, or recession from it. "4. To read the Scriptúre methodically with such helps as are at hand. 5. To go to church twice. "6. To read books of Divinity, either speculative or practical. "7. To instruct my family. "S. To wear off by meditation any worldly soil contracted in the week 5." In 1756 Johnson found that the great fame of his Dictionary had not set him above the necessity of "making provision for the day that was passing over him." No royal or noble patron extended a munificent hand to give independence to the man. who had conferred stability on the language of his country. We may feel indignant that there should have been such unworthy neglect; but we must, at the same time, congratulate ourselves, when we consider, that to this very neglect, operating to rouse the natural indolence of his constitution, we owe many valuable produc 4 "On Saturday the 12th [July, 1755], about twelve at night, died Mr. Zachariah Williams, in his eighty-third year, after an illness of eight months, in full possession of his mental faculties. He has been long known to philosophers and seamen for his skill in magnetism, and his proposal to ascertain the longitude by a peculiar system of the variation of the compass. He was a man of industry indefatigable, of conversation inoffensive, patient of adversity and disease, eminently sober, temperate, and pious; and worthy to have ended life with better fortune." 5 [In 1755 Johnson seems to have written for Mrs. Lenox the dedication to the Duke of Newcastle of her Translation of Sully's Memoirs. -ED.] tions, which otherwise, perhaps, might never have appeared. "I am, with respect, which I neither owe nor pay to any other, madam, your most obedient and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] On the first day of this year we find, from his private devotions, that he had then recovered from sickness, and in February that his eye was restored to its use. The pious gratitude with which he acknowledges mercies upon every occasion is very edifying; as is the humble submission which he breathes, when it is the will of his heav He had spent, during the progress of the work, the money for which he had contracted to write his Dictionary. We have seen that the reward of his labour was only fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds; and when the expense of amanuenses and paper, and other articles, are deducted, his clear profit was very inconsiderable. I once said to him, "I am sorry, sir, you did not get more for your Dictionary." His answer was, "I am sorry too. But it was very well. The booksellers are generous, liber-enly Father to try him with afflictions. al-minded men." He, upon all occasions, did ample justice to their character in this respect. He considered them as the patrons of literature; and, indeed, although they have eventually been considerable gainers by his Dictionary, it is to them that we owe its having been undertaken and carried through at the risk of great expense, for they were not absolutely sure of being indemnified. "Gough-square, 14th Jan. 1756. "MADAM,-From the liberty of writing to you, if I have hitherto been deterred from the fear of your understanding, I am now encouraged to it from the confidence of your goodness. As such dispositions become the state of man here, and are the true effect of religious discipline, we cannot but venerate in Johnson one of the most exercised minds that our holy religion hath ever formed. If there be any thoughtless enough to suppose such exercise the weakness of a great understanding, let them look up to Johnson, and be convinced that what he so earnestly practised must have a rational foundation. ED. [The two next letters are melancholy evidence of the pecuniary distress in which he was at this period involved. It is afflicting to contemplate the authour of the Rambler and the Dictionary reduced to such precarious means of existence as the casual profits from magazines and reviews, and subjected to all the evils and affronts of a state of penury; but it, at the same time, raises our admiration and esteem to recollect that even in this season of distress he continued to share his mite with Miss Williams, Mr. Levett, and the other objects of his charitable regard.] ["DR. JOHNSON TO MR. RICHARDSON. "Tuesday, 19th Feb. 1758. vol. 5. "DEAR SIR, I return you my Rich. Cor. sincerest thanks for the favour2 which you were pleased to do p. 285. me two nights ago. "I am soliciting a benefit for Miss Williams, and beg that if you can by letters influence any in her favour (and who is there whom you cannot influence?) you will be pleased to patronize her on this occasion. "Be pleased to accept of this little book 3, Yet, for the time is short, and as you were which is all that I have published this winnot in town, I did not till this day remem-ter. The inflammation is come again into ber that you might help us, and recollect my eye, so that I can write very little. I how widely and how rapidly light is diffused. am, sir, your most obliged and most hum"To every joy is appended a sorrow. ble servant, The name of Miss Carter introduces the memory of Cave. Poor dear Cave! I owed him much; for to him I owe that I have known you. He died, I am afraid, unex pectedly to himself, yet surely unburthened with any great crime, and for the positive duties of religion I have yet no right to condemn him for neglect. "SAM. JOHNSON."] 2 ["This letter was written in consequence of Mr. Richardson's having given bail for Dr. Johnson." The foregoing note is from Richardson's Correspondence; but there must be some mistake in the date of the letter itself. The 19th Feb. 1756, fell on a Thursday. As Johnson's handwriting is not easily read, perhaps the transcriber mistook Thursday for Tuesday. -ED.] 3 [No work of Johnson's appears to have been published separately about this time, except Williams's Account of the Longitude.-ED.] |