was its own tormentor, and I believe its name was BOSWELL."

Next day we got to Harwich to dinner; and my passage in the packet-boat to Helvoetsluys being secured, and my baggage put on board, we dined at our inn by ourselves. I happened to say, it would be terrible if he should not find a speedy opportunity of returning to London, and be confined in so dull a place. JOHNSON. "Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. (1) It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here." The practice of using words of disproportionate magnitude is, no doubt, too frequent every where; but, I think, most remarkable among the French, of which, all who have travelled in France must have been struck with innumerable instances.

We went and looked at the church, and having gone into it and walked up to the altar, Johnson, whose piety was constant and fervent, sent me to my knees, saying, "Now that you are going to leave your native country, recommend yourself to the protection of your CREATOR and REDEEMER."

After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's

(1) This advice comes drolly from the writer, who makes a young lady talk of "the cosmetic discipline," "a regular lustration with bean-flower water, and the use of a pommade to discuss pimples and clear discoloration” (Rambler, No. 130.); while a young gentleman tells us of "the flaccid sides of a football having swelled out into stiffness and extension." (No. 117.) And it is equally amusing to find Mr. Boswell, after his various defences of Johnson's grandiloquence, attacking the little inflations of French conversation; straining at a gnat, after having swallowed a camel, C,

ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus." (1) This was a stout exemplification of the first truths of Père Bouffier, or the original principles of Reid and of Beattie ; without admitting which, we can no more argue in metaphysics, than we can argue in mathematics without axioms. To me it is not conceivable how Berkeley can be answered by pure reasoning; but I know that the nice and difficult task was to have been undertaken by one of the most luminous minds (2) of the present age, had not politics "turned him from calm philosophy aside." What an admirable display of subtlety, united with brilliance, might his contending with Berkeley have afforded us! How must we, when we reflect on the loss of such an intellectual feast, regret that he should be characterised as the man,

(1) Dr. Johnson seems to have been imperfectly acquainted with Berkeley's doctrine; as his experiment only proves that we have the sensation of solidity, which Berkeley did not deny. He admitted that we had sensations or ideas that are usually called sensible qualities, one of which is solidity: he only denied the existence of matter, i. e. an inert senseless substance, in which they are supposed to subsist. Johnson's exemplification concurs with the vulgar notion, that solidity is matter. — - KEARNEY.- [When Zeno argued, that there was no such thing as motion, Diogenes walked across the room. Johnson's argu ment is in the same style, but not so satisfactory.- FONNEREAU,] (2) Mr. Burke. C.

"Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind,

And to party gave up what was meant for mankind?" (1) My revered friend walked down with me to the beach, where we embraced and parted with tenderness, and engaged to correspond by letters. I said, "I hope, Sir, you will not forget me in my absence." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, it is more likely you should forget me, than that I should forget you." As the vessel put out to sea, I kept my eyes upon him for a considerable time, while he remained rolling his majestic frame in his usual manner; and at last I perceived him walk back into the town, and he disappeared.

(1) In the latter years of his life, Mr. Burke reversed the conduct which Goldsmith so elegantly reprehends, and gave up party for what he conceived to be the good of mankind.

-C

265

CHAPTER IX.

1763-1765.

Boswell at Utrecht.

Letter from Johnson. The

Frisick Language. - Johnson's Visit to Langton.Institution of" The Club.".

66

Reynolds. Garrick. Dr. Nugent. Granger's Sugar Cane.". Hypochondriac Attack. - Days of Abstraction. Odd Habits. · Visit to Dr. Percy. - Letter to Reynolds. Visit to Cambridge. - Self-examination. Letter to, and from, Garrick. · Johnson created LL.D. by Dublin University.-Letter to Dr. Leland. 66 Prayer on Engaging in Politics." William Gerard Hamilton.

UTRECHT seeming at first very dull to me, after the animated scenes of London, my spirits were grievously affected; and I wrote to Johnson a plaintive and desponding letter, to which he paid no regard. Afterwards, when I had acquired a firmer tone of mind, I wrote him a second letter, expressing much anxiety to hear from him. At length I received the following epistle, which was of important service to me, and, I trust, will be so to many others.

LETTER 87.

À M. M. BOSWELL,

A la Cour de l'Empéreur, Utrecht.

"London, Dec. 8. 1763.

"DEAR SIR,-You are not to think yourself forgotten, or criminally neglected, that you have had yet no

letter from me.

I love to see my friends, to hear from them, to talk to them, and to talk of them; but it is not without a considerable effort of resolution that I

prevail upon myself to write. I would not, however, gratify my own indolence by the omission of any important duty, or any office of real kindness.

"To tell you that I am or am not well, that I have or have not been in the country, that I drank your health in the room in which we last sat together, and that your acquaintance continue to speak of you with their former kindness, topics with which those letters are commonly filled which are written only for the sake of writing, I seldom shall think worth communicating; but if I can have it in my power to calm any harassing disquiet, to excite any virtuous desire, to rectify any important opinion, or fortify any generous resolution, you need not doubt but I shall at least wish to prefer the pleasure of gratifying a friend much less esteemed than yourself, before the gloomy calm of idle vacancy. Whether I shall easily arrive at an exact punctuality of correspondence, I cannot tell. I shall, at present, expect that you will receive this in return for two which I have had from you. The first, indeed, gave me an account so hopeless of the state of your mind, that it hardly admitted or deserved an answer; by the second I was much better pleased; and the pleasure will still be increased by such a narrative of the progress of your studies, as may evince the continuance of an equal and rational application of your mind to some useful inquiry.

"You will, perhaps, wish to ask, what study I would recommend. I shall not speak of theology, because it ought not to be considered as a question whether you shall endeavour to know the will of God.

"I shall, therefore, consider only such studies as we are at liberty to pursue or to neglect; and of these I know not how you will make a better choice, than by