1763. Etat. 54. This is to me a memorable year; for in it I had the happiness to obtain the acquaintance of that extraordinary man whofe memoirs I am now writing; an acquaintance which I fhall ever efteem ast one of the most fortunate circumftances in my life. Though then but two-and-twenty, I had for feveral years read his works with delight and inftruction, and had the highest reverence for their authour, which had grown up in my fancy into a kind of mysterious veneration, by figuring to myself a state of folemn elevated abstraction, in which I fuppofed him to live in the immenfe metropolis of London. Mr. Gentleman, a native of Ireland, who paffed fome years in Scotland as a player, and as an inftructor in the English language, a man whofe talents and worth were depreffed by misfortunes, had given me a representation of the figure and manner of DICTIONARY JOHNSON! as he was then generally called; and during my first vifit to which once hardly procured to its authour the countenance of the Princes of Ferrara, has attracted to its tranflator the favourable notice of a BRITISH QUEEN. Had this been the fate of TASSO, he would have been able to have celebrated the condefcenfion of YOUR MAJESTY in nobler language, but could not have felt it with more ardent gratitude than MADAM, YOUR MAJESTY'S Moft faithful and devoted fervant, 5 As great men of antiquity fuch as Scipio Africanus had an epithet added to their names, in confequence of fome celebrated action, fo my illuftrious friend was called DICTIONARY JOHNSON, from that wonderful atchievement of genius and labour his "Dictionary of the English Language;" the merit of which contemplate with more and more admiration. London London, which was for three months in 1760, Mr. Derrick the poet, who was Gentleman's friend and countryman, flattered me with hopes that he would introduce me to Johnson, an honour of which I was very ambitious. But he never found an opportunity; which made me doubt that he had promifed to do what was not in his power; till Johnfon some years afterwards told me, «Derrick, Sir, might very well have introduced you. I had a kindness for Derrick, and am forry he is dead." In the fummer of 1761 Mr. Thomas Sheridan was at Edinburgh, and delivered lectures upon the English Language and Publick Speaking to large and refpectable audiences. I was often in his company, and heard him frequently expatiate upon Johnson's extraordinary knowledge, talents, and virtues, repeat his pointed fayings, defcribe his particularities, and boaft of his being his gueft fometimes till two or three in the morning. At his houfe I hoped to have many opportunities of feeing the fage, as Mr. Sheridan obligingly affured me I fhould not be disappointed. When I returned to London in the end of 1762, to my furprise and regret I found an irreconcileable difference had taken place between Johnfon and Sheridan. A penfion of two hundred pounds a year had been given to Sheridan. Johnfon, who, as has been already mentioned, thought flightingly of Sheridan's art, upon hearing that he was also penfioned, exclaimed, "What! have they given bim a penfion? Then it is time for me to give up mine." Whether this proceeded from a momentary indignation, as if it were an affront to his ex alted 17633 Ætat. 54 Ætat. 54 1763. alted merit that a player fhould be rewarded in the fame manner with him, or was the fudden effect of a fit of peevishness, it was unluckily faid, and, indeed, cannot be juftified. Mr. Sheridan's penfion was granted to him not as a player, but as a fufferer in the cause of government, when he was manager of the Theatre Royal in Ireland, when parties ran high in 1753. And it muft alfo be allowed that he was a man of literature, and had confiderably improved the arts of reading and fpeaking with diftin&tnefs and propriety. Befides, Johnfon fhould have recollected that Mr. Sheridan taught pronunciation to Mr. Alexander Wedderburne, whose fifter was married to Sir Harry Erfkine, an intimate friend of Lord Bute, who was the favourite of the King; and furely the most outrageous Whig will not maintain, that, whatever ought to be the principle in the difpofal of offices, a penfion ought never to be granted from any bias of court connection. Mr. Macklin, indeed, fhared with Mr. Sheridan the honour of inftructing Mr. Wedderburne; and though it was too late in life for a Caledonian to acquire the genuine English cadence, yet so successful were Mr. Wedderburne's inftructors, and his own unabating endeavours, that he got rid of the coarse part of his Scotch accent, retaining only as much of the "native wood-note wild," as to mark his country; which, if any Scotchman fhould affect to forget, I fhould heartily despise him. Notwithstanding the difficulties which are to be encountered by thofe who have not had the advantage of an English education, he by degrees formed a mode of speaking, to to which Englishmen do not deny the praife of elegance. Hence his diftinguished oratory, which he exerted in his own country as an advocate in the Court of Seffion, and a ruling elder of the Kirk, has had its fame and ample reward, in much higher fpheres. When I look back on this noble perfon at Edinburgh, in fituations fo unworthy of his brilliant powers, and behold LORD LOUGHBOROUGH at London, the change feems almost like one of the metamorphofes in Ovid; and as his two preceptors, by refining his utterance, gave currency to his talents, we may say in the words of that poet, "Nam vos mulaftis." I have dwelt the longer upon this remarkable instance of fuccessful parts and affiduity; because it affords animating encouragement to other gentlemen of North-Britain to try their fortunes in the fourthern part of the Ifland, where they may hope to gratify their utmost ambition; and now that we are one people by the Union, it would furely be illiberal to maintain, that they have not an equal title with the natives of any other part of his Majesty's dominions. Johnson complained that a man who disliked him repeated his farcasm to Mr. Sheridan, without telling him what followed, which was, that after a pause he added, "However, I am glad that Mr. Sheridan has a penfion, for he is a very good man." Sheridan could never forgive this hafty contemptuous expreffion. It rankled in his inind; and though I informed him of all that Johnfon faid, and that he would be very glad to meet him amicably, he pofitively declined repeated offers which Etat. 54 1763. I made, and once went off abruptly from a house where he and I were engaged to dine, because he was told that Dr. Johnson was to be there. I have no fympathetick feeling with such persevering refentment. It is painful when there is a breach between those who have lived together socially and cordially; and I wonder that there is not, in all such cases, a mutual wish that it fhould be healed. I could perceive that Mr. Sheridan was by no means fatisfied with Johnson's acknowledging him to be a good man, That could not footh his injured vanity. I could not but smile, at the fame time that I was offended, to obferve Sheridan in the Life of Swift, which he afterwards published, attempting, in the writhings of his refentment, to depreciate Johnfon, by characterifing him as "A writer of gigantick fame in these days of little men;" that very Johníon whom he once fo highly admired and venerated. This rupture with Sheridan deprived Johnson of one of his most agreeable refources for amusement in his lonely evenings; for Sheridan's well-informed, animated, and bustling mind never fuffered converfation to ftagnate; and Mrs. Sheridan was a most agreeable companion to an intellectual man. She was fenfible, ingenious, unaffuming, yet communicative. I recollect, with fatisfaction, many pleasing hours which I paffed with her under the hofpitable roof of her husband, who was to me a very kind friend. Her novel, entitled "Memoirs of Mifs Sydney Biddulph," contains an excellent 3 P. 447. moral |