useful to the publick, I hope you will not ["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, Pearson MSS. from answering your last kind let ter, is a tedious and painful rheumatism, that has afflicted me for many weeks, and still continues to molest me. I hope you are well, and will long keep your health and your cheerfulness." "One reason why I delayed to write was, my uncertainty how to answer your letter. I like the thought of giving away the money very well; but when I consider that Tom Johnson is my nearest relation, and that he is now old and in great want; that he was my playfellow in childhood, and has never done any thing to of fend me; I am in doubt whether I ought not rather give it him than any other. "Of this, my dear, I would have your opinion. I would willingly please you, and I know that you will be pleased best with what you think right. "Tell me your mind, and do not learn of me to neglect writing; for it is a very sorry trick, though it be mine. "Your brother is well, I saw him today; and thought it long since I saw him before: it seems he has called often and could not find me. I am, my dear, your affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] great care of them, especially by candle light. Mine continue pretty good, but they are sometimes a little dim. My rheu matism grows gradually better. "I have considered your letter, and am willing that the whole money should go where you, my dear, originally intended. I hope to help Tom some other way. So that matter is over. "Dr. Taylor has invited me to pass some time with him at Ashbourne; if I come, you may be sure that I shall take you and Lichfield in my way. When I am nearer coming, I will send you word. "Of Mr. Porter I have seen very little, but I know not that it is his fault, for he says that he often calls, and never finds me; I am sorry for it, for I love him. "Mr. Mathias has lately had a great deal of money left him, of which you have probably heard already. I am, my dearest, your most affectionate servant, "SAM, JOHNSON"] "TO THE REVEREND MR. THOMAS WARTON. "London, 23d June, 1770. "DEAR SIR,The readiness with which you were pleased to promise me some notes on Shakspeare, was a new instance of your friendship. I shall not hurry you; but am desired by Mr. Steevens, who helps me in this edition, to let you know, that we shall print the tragedies first, and shall therefore want first the notes which belong to them. We think not to incommode the readers with a supplement; and therefore, what we cannot put into its proper place, will do We shall not begin to print us no good. before the end of six weeks, perhaps not so &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." soon. I am, ["TO MRS. THRALE. "Lichfield, 7th July, 1770. "I thought I should have heard Letters, something to-day about Streatham; vol. i. but there is no letter; and I need p. 86, &c some consolation, for rheumatism is come again, though in a less degree than formerly. I reckon to go next week to Ashbourne, and will try to bring you the dimensions of the great bull. The skies and the ground are all so wet, that I have been very little abroad; and Mrs. Aston is from home, so that I have no motive to walk. When she is at home, she lives on the top of Stowhill, and I commonly climb up to see her once a day. There is nothing there now but the empty nest. "To write to you about Lichfield is of no use, for you never saw Stow-pool, nor Borowcop-hill. I believe you may find Borow or Boroughcop-hill in my Dictiona ry, under cop or cob. Nobody here knows what the name imports." Lichfield, 11th July, 1770. "Mr. Greene1, the apothecary, has found a book which tells who paid levies in our parish, and how much they paid above an hundred years ago. Do you not think we study this book hard? Nothing is like going to the bottom of things. Many families that paid the parish rates are now extinct, like the race of Hercules. Pulvis et umbra sumus. What is nearest us touches us most. The passions rise higher at domestick than at imperial tragedies. I am not wholly unaffected by the revolutions of Sadler-street; nor can forbear to mourn a little when old names vanish away, and new come into their place.” "Ashbourne, 20th July, 1770. "I came hither on Wednesday, having staid one night at a lodge in the forest of Nedewood. Dr. Taylor's is a very pleasant house, with a lawn and a lake, and twenty deer and five fawns upon the lawn. Whether I shall by any light see Matlock I do not yet know. "That Baretti's book would please you all I made no doubt. I know not whether the world has ever seen such Travels before. Those whose lot it is to ramble can seldom write, and those who know how to write very seldom ramble. If Sidney had gone, as he desired, the great voyage with Drake, there would probably have been such a narrative as would have equally satisfied the poet and the philosopher." "Ashbourne, 23d July, 1770. "I have seen the great bull2; and very great he is. I have seen likewise his heir apparent, who promises to inherit all the bulk and all the virtues of his sire. I have seen the man who offered an hundred guineas for the young bull, while he was yet little better than a calf. Matlock, I ain afraid, I shall not see, but I purpose to see Dovedale; and, after all this seeing, I hope to see you."] "TO THE REV. DR. JOSEPH WARTON. "21st Sept. 1770. "DEAR SIR,-I am revising my edition of Shakspeare, and remember that I formerly misrepresented your opinion of Lear. Be pleased to write the paragraph as you would have it, and send it. If you have any remarks of your own upon that or any other play, I shall gladly receive them. "Make my compliments to Mrs. Warton. I sometimes think of wandering for a 1 [See post, 23d March, 1776.-ED.] [Dr. Taylor had a remarkable fine breed of cattle; and one bull, in particular, was of celebrated beauty and size.-ED.] 66 TO MR. FRANCIS BARBER, "At Mrs. Clapp's, Bishopstortford, Hertfordshire. "London, 25th Sept. 1770. "DEAR FRANCIS,-I am at last sat down to write to you, and should very much blame myself for having neglected you so long, if I did not impute that and many other failings to want of health. I hope not to be so long silent again. I am very well satisfied with your progress, if you can really perform the exercises which you are set; and I hope Mr. Ellis does not suffer you to impose on him, or on yourself. "Make my compliments to Mr. Ellis, and to Mrs. Clapp, and Mr. Smith. "Let me know what English books you read for your entertainment. You can never be wise unless you love reading. "Do not imagine that I shall forget or forsake you; for if, when I examine you, I find that you have not lost your time, you shall want no encouragement from yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON." During this year there was a total cessation of all correspondence between Dr. Johnson and me, without any coldness on either side, but merely from procrastination, continued from day to day; and as I was not in London, I had no opportunity of enjoying his company and recording his conversation 3. In 1771 he published another political pamphlet, entitled "Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands," in which, upon materials furnished to him by ministry, and upon general topicks expanded in his rich style, he successfully endeavoured to persuade the nation that it was wise and laudable to suffer the question of right to remain undecided, rather than involve our country in another war. It has been suggested by some, with what 3 [Here Mr. Boswell had placed Dr. Maxwell's "Collectanea," which the editor has removed to p. 166.-ED.] "Soon after your departure, I had the pleasure of finding all the danger pass with which your navigation3 was threatened I hope nothing happens at home to abate your satisfaction; but that Lady Rothes 4, and Mrs. Langton, and the young ladies, are all well. truth I shall not take upon me to decide, | ly know. You may try to find them in the that he rated the consequence of those perusal 2. Before his order, a sufficient islands to Great Britain too low. But number were dispersed to do all the mishowever this may be, every humane mind chief, though, perhaps, not to make all the must surely applaud the earnestness with sport that might be expected from it. which he averted the calamity of war; calamity so dreadful, that it is astonishing how civilised, nay, christian nations, can deliberately continue to renew it, His description of its miseries in this pamphlet is one of the finest pieces of eloquence in the English language. Upon this occasion, too, we find Johnson lashing the party in opposition with unbounded severity, and making the fullest use of what he ever reckoned a most effectual argumentative instrument-contempt. His character of their very able mysterious champion, Junius, is executed with all the force of his genius, and finished with the highest care. He seems to have exulted in sallying forth to single combat against the boasted and formidable hero, who bade defiance to "principalities and powers, and the rulers of this world.” p. 31. [He often delighted his imaginaPiozzi, tion with the thoughts of having destroyed Junius. One day, Mrs. Thrale had received a remarkably fine Stilton cheese as a present from some person who had packed and directed it carefully, but without mentioning whence it came. Mr. Thrale, desirous to know who they were obliged to, asked every friend as they came in, but nobody owned it. Dr. Johnson at last excited a general laugh, by saying, "Depend upon it, sir, it was sent by Junius."] This pamphlet, it is observable, was softened in one particular, after the first edition; for the conclusion of Mr. George Grenville's character stood thus: "Let him not, however, be depreciated in his grave. He had powers not universally possessed; could he have enforced payment of the Manilla ransom, he could have counted it." Which, instead of retaining its sly sharp point, was reduced to a mere flat unmeaning expression, or, if I may use the word-truism: "He had powers not universally possessed: and if he sometimes erred, he was likewise sometimes right," "DR. JOHNSON TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. "March 20, 1771. "I was last night at the Club. Dr. Per cy has written a long ballad in many fits: it is pretty enough. He has printed, and will soon publish it. Goldsmith is at Bath, with Lord Clare. At Mr. Thrale's, where I am now writing, all are well. I am, dear sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON," [One evening in the oratorio season of the year 1771, Dr. Johnson went with Mrs. By comparing the first with the subsequent editions, this curious circumstance of ministerial authourship may be discovered.-BOSWELL. It can only be discovered (as Mr. Bindley observes to me) by him who possesses a copy of the first edition issued out before the sale was stopped.-MALONE. 3 [Probably some canal or work of a similar nature in which Mr. Langton was interested in Lincolnshire. What the danger was which threatened it is not now recollected.-ED.] 4 Mr. Langton married, May 24, 1770, Jane, the daughter of Lloyd, Esq. and widow of John, eighth Earl of Rothes, many years commander in chief of the forces in Ireland, who died in 1767:-MALONE. [It was, as Mr. Chalmers observes, a saying about that time, “ Married a Countess Dowager of Rothes! Why, every body marries a Countess Dowager of Rothes!" And there were, in fact, about 1772, three ladies. of that name married to second husbands. Mary Lloyd married to Mr. Langton; Jane Maitland, widow of John, ninth Earl of Rothes, married the Earl of Lauderdale, and Lady Jane Leslie, CounHonourable P. Maitland, seventh son of the fifth tess of Rothes, widow of John Raymond Evelyn Esq. remarried to Sir Lucas Pepys.—ED.] 5 married (the second of three wives) the sister and [Robert Nugent, an Irish gentleman, who heiress of Secretary Craggs, by whom he acquired a considerable fortune. He was created, in 1767, Baron Nugent and Viscount Clare, and in 1777, Earl Nugent: His only daughter married the first Marquis of Buckingham, on whose second son the title of Baron Nugent devolved. Lord Nugent wrote some odes and light pieces, which had some merit and a great vogue. He died in 1788. Goldsmith addressed to him his lively verses called "DEAR SIR,-After much lingering of my own, and much of the ministry, I have, at length, got out my paper. But delay is not yet at an end: Not many had been dispersed, before Lord North ordered the sale to stop. His reasons I do not distinct-hibited in this piece are very comic, and were no "The Haunch of Venison." The characters ex doubt drawn from nature; but Goldsmith ought to have confessed that he had borrowed the idea and some of the details from Boileau.-ED.] Piozzi, p. 55, 56. Piozzi to Covent-garden theatre; | find him a seat; but, whether upon con and though he was for the most versation he doubted his fitness for his part an exceeding bad playhouse purpose, or that he thought himself in no companion, as his person drew people's need of his assistance, the project failed.] eyes upon the box, and the loudness of his voice made it difficult to hear any body but himself, he sat surprisingly quiet, and Mrs. Piozzi flattered herself that he was listen-friendly agent in receiving his pension for ing to the musick. When they got home, however, he repeated these verses, which he said he had made at the oratorio: Hawk. p. 512, 513, [The publication of Johnson's tracts exhibited him to the world in a new character: he ceased now to be considered as one who, having been occupied in literary studies, and more conversant with books than with men, knew little of active life, the views of parties, or the artifices of designing men: on the contrary, they discovered that he had, by the force of his own genius, and the observations he had made on the history of our own and other countries, attained to such skill in the grand leading principles of political science, as are seldom acquired by those in the most active and important stations, even after long experience; and that, whatever opinions he might have formed on this subject, he had ability by strong reasoning to defend, and by a manly and convincing eloquence to enforce. Mr. Strahan, the printer, who had been long in intimacy with Johnson, in the course of his literary labours, who was at once his him, and his banker in supplying him with money when he wanted it; who was himself now a member of parliament, and who loved much to be employed in political negotiation; thought he should do eminent service, both to government and Johnson, if he could be the means of his getting a seat in the house of commons. With this view, he wrote a letter to one of the secretaries of the treasury, of which he gave me a copy in his own handwriting, which is as follows: New-street, March 30, 1771. "SIR,-You will easily recollect, when I had the honour of waiting upon you some time ago, I took the liberty to observe to you, that Dr. Johnson would make an excellent figure in the house of commons, and heartily wished he had a seat there. My reasons are briefly these: I know his perfect good affection to his majesty and his government, which I am certain he wishes to support by every means in his power. "He possesses a great share of manly, nervous, and ready eloquence; is quick in discerning the strength and weakness of an argument; can express himself with clearness and precision, and fears the face of no man alive. "His known character as a man of extraordinary sense and unimpeached virtue would secure him the attention of the house, and could not fail to give him a proper weight there. ut "He is capable of the greatest application, and can undergo any degree of labour, where he sees it necessary, and where his heart and affections are strongly engaged. His majesty's ministers might therefore securely depend on his doing, upon every proper occasion, the most that could be expected from him. They would find him ready to vindicate such measures as tended to promote the stability of government, and resolute and steady in carrying them into execution. Nor is any thing to be apprehended from the supposed impetuosity of his temper. To the friends of the king you will find him a lamb, to his enemies a lion. Mr. Thrale, a man of slow conceptions, but of a sound judgment, was not one of the last that discerned in his friend this talent, and believing that the exercise of it might redound to the benefit of the publick, entertained a design of bringing Johnson into parliament. We must suppose that he had previously determined to furnish him with a legal qualification, and Johnson, it is certain, was willing to accept the trust. [The secretaries of the treasury, at this time, Mr. Thrale had two meetings with the were Sir Grey Cooper and James West, Esq.minister, who, at first, seemed inclined to | ED.] "For these reasons, I humbly apprehend that he would be a very able and useful member. And I will venture to say, the employment would not be disagreeable to him; and knowing, as I do, his strong affection to the king, his ability to serve him in that capacity, and the extreme ardour with which I am convinced he would engage in that service, I must repeat, that I wish most heartily to see him in the house. "If you think this worthy of attention, you will be pleased to take a convenient opportunity of mentioning it to Lord North. If his lordship should happily approve of it, I shall have the satisfaction of having been, in some degree, the humble instrument of doing my country, in my opinion, a very essential service. I know your good-nature, and your zeal for the publick welfare, will plead my excuse for giving you this trouble. I am, with the greatest respect, sir, your most obedient and humble servant, "WILLIAM STRAHAN." This recommendation, we know, was not effectual; but how, or for what reason, can only be conjectured. It is not to be believed that Mr. Strahan would have ap plied, unless Johnson had approved of it. never heard him mention the subject; but at a later period of his life, when Sir Joshua Reynolds told him that Mr. Edmund Burke had said, that if he had come early into parliament, he certainly would have been the greatest speaker that ever was there, Johnson exclaimed, "I should like to try my hand now." proof of this he mentioned the supposed speeches in parliament written by him for the magazine, none of which, in his opinion, were at all like real debates. The opinion of one who was himself so eminent an orator, must be allowed to have great weight. It was confirmed by Sir Willam Scott [Lord Stowell], who mentioned that Johnson had told him, that he had several times tried to speak in the society of Arts and Manufactures, but " had found he could not get on." From Mr. William Gerard Hamilton I have heard, that Johnson, when observing to him that it was prudent for a man who had not been accustomed to speak in publick, to begin his speech in as simple a manner as possible, acknowledged that he rose in that society to deliver a speech which he had prepared; "but," said he, "all my flowers of oratory forsook me." I however cannot help wishing that he had " tried his hand," in parliament; and I wonder that ministry did not make the experiment. [Johnson himself was, in Sir J. Hawk. Hawkins's opinion, a little soured by P. 513 this disappointment; and he afterwards spoke of Lord North in terms of asperity.] [It was, says Mrs. Piozzi, in 1775 Piozzi, p. 32. 33. the house, I would have answered thus: "Suppose, Mr. Speaker, that to Wharton, or to Marlborough, or to any of the eminent whigs of the last age, the Devil that Mr. Burke made the famous speech 3, in parliament, that struck even foes with admiration, and friends with delight. Among the nameless thousands who are contented to echo those praises they have not skill to invent, I ventured, It has been much agitated among his before Dr. Johnson himself, to applaud, friends and others, whether he would have with rapture, the beautiful passage in it been a powerful speaker in parliament, had concerning Lord Bathurst and the angel ; he been brought in when advanced in life." which," said the doctor, "had I been in I am inclined to think, that his extensive knowledge, his quickness and force of mind, his vivacity and richness of expression, his wit and humour, and above all, his poignancy of sarcasm, would have had great effect in a popular assembly; and that the magDr. Kippis, however (Biograph. Britan. nitude of his figure, and striking peculiari-article " J. Gilbert Cooper," p. 266, n. new ty of his manner, would have aided the ef- edit.), says, that he "once heard Dr. Johnson fect. But I remember it was observed by speak in the Society of Arts and Manufactures, Mr. Flood, that Johnson, having been long upon a subject relative to mechanicks, with a proused to sententious brevity, and the short priety, perspicuity, and energy, which excited flights of conversation, might have failed in general admiration."-MALONE. [We cannot that continued and expanded kind of argu- son's own statement vouched by Lord Stowell give credit to Dr. Kippis's account against Johnment, which is requisite in stating compli- and Mr. Hamilton; but even if we could, one cated matters in publick speaking; and as a speech in the Society of Arts was no test of what Johnson might have been able to do in parliament; and it may be suspected that at the age of sixtytwo he, with all his talents, would have failed to acquire that peculiar tact and dexterity, without which even great abilities do not succeed in that very fastidious assembly. Lord St. Helens has since confirmed to the editor, on the authority of his father, an eye-witness, Dr. Johnson's failure at the Society of Arts.-ED.] 1 [Lord Stowell has told the editor, that it was understood amongst Johnson's friends that "Lord North was afraid that Johnson's help, (as he himself said of Lord Chesterfield's) might have been sometimes embarrassing." "He perhaps thought, and not unreasonably," added Lord Stowell, that, like the elephant in the battle, he was quite as likely to trample down his friends as his foes."-ED.] 3 [On the 22d March, 1775.-ED.] |