"Poh, poh!" said he, "they knew nothing about you, and will think of it no more.'

"Some people,"

He had in his pocket "Pomponius Mela de Situ Orbis," in which he read occasionally, and seemed very intent upon ancient geography.

Though by no means niggardly, his attention to what was generally right was so minute, that having observed at one of the stages that I ostentatiously gave a shilling to the coachman, when the custom was for each passenger to give only sixpence, he took me aside and scolded me, saying that what I had done would make the coachman dissatisfied with all the rest of the passengers, who gave him no more than his due. This was a just reprimand; for in whatever way a man may indulge his generosity or his vanity in spending his money, for the sake of others he ought not to raise the price of any article for which there is a constant demand.

He talked of Mr. Blacklock's poetry, so far as it was descriptive of visible objects; and observed that "as its author had the misfortune to be blind, we may be absolutely sure that such passages are combinations of what he has remembered of the works of other writers who could see. That foolish fellow Spence has laboured to explain philosophically how Blacklock may have done, by means of his own faculties, what it is impossible he should do. The solution, as I have given it, is plain. Suppose, I know a man to be so lame that he is absolutely incapable to move himself, and I find him in a different room from that in which I left him; shall I puzzle myself with idle conjectures that, perhaps, his nerves have by some unknown change all at once become effective? No, Sir, it is clear how he got into a different room: he was carried."

Having stopped a night at Colchester, Johnson talked of that town with veneration, for having stood a siege for Charles the First. The Dutch man alone now remained with us. He spoke English tolerably well; and thinking to recommend himself to us by expatiating on the superiority of the criminal jurisprudence of this country over that of Holland, he inveighed against the barbarity of putting an accused person to the torture, in order to force a confession. But Johnson was as ready for this as for the Inquisition. "Why, Sir, you do not, I find, understand the law of your own country. To torture in Holland is considered as a favour to an accused person; for no man is put to the torture there, unless there is as much evidence against him as would amount to conviction in England. An accused person among you, therefore, has one chance more to escape punishment than those who are tried among us."

At supper this night, he talked of good eating

but vehement. Yet I have heard him, upon other occasions, talk with great contempt of people who were anxious to gratify their palates; and the 206th number of his 'Rambler" is a masterly essay against gulosity. His practice, indeed, must acknowledge, may be considered as casting the balance of his different opinions upon this subject; for I never knew any man who relished good eating more than he did. When at table he was totally absorbed in the business of the moment: his looks seemed riveted to his plate; nor would he, unless when in very high company, say one word, or even pay the least attention to what was said by others, till he had satisfied his appetite, which was so fierce, and indulged with such intenseness, that while in the act of eating, the veins of his forehead swelled, and generally a strong perspiration was visible. To those whose sensations were delicate, this could not but be disgusting; and it was doubtless not very suitable to the character of a philosopher, who should be distinguished by self-command. But it must be owned that Johnson, though he could be rigidly abstemious, was not a temperate man either in eating or drinking. He could refrain, but he could not use moderately. He told me that he had fasted two days without inconvenience, and that he had never been hungry but once. They who beheld with wonder how much he ate upon all occasions, when his dinner was to his taste, could not easily conceive what he must have meant by hunger; and not only was he remarkable for the extraordinary quantity which he ate, but he was, or affected to be, a man of very nice discernment in the science of cookery. He used to descant critically on the dishes which had been at table where he had dined or supped, and to recollect very minutely what he had liked. I remember when he was in Scotland, his praising "Gordon's palates" (a dish of palates at the Honourable Alexander Gordon's) with a warmth of expression which might have done honour to more important subjects. "As for Maclaurin's imitation of a made dish, it was a wretched attempt.' about the same time, was so much displeased with the performances of a nobleman's French cook, that he exclaimed with vehemence, "I'd throw such a rascal into the river;" and he then proceeded to alarm a lady at whose house he was to sup, by the following manifesto of his skill:"I, Madam, who live at a variety of good tables, am a much better judge of cookery, than any person who has a very tolerable cook, but lives much at home; for his palate is gradually adapted to the taste of his cook; whereas, Madam, in trying by a wider range, I can more exquisitely judge." When invited to dine, even with an intimate friend, he was not pleased if something better than a plain dinner was not prepared for him. I have heard him say, on such an occasion, "This was a good dinner enough to be sure; but

He

I teased him with fanciful apprehensions of unhappiness. A moth having fluttered round the candle, and burnt itself, he laid hold of this little incident to admonish me; saying, with a sly look, and in a solemn but a quiet tone, was its own tormentor, and I believe its name was BOSWELL."

That creature

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 yonrself to use big words for little matters. 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 everywhere; 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 ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that everything 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."* This was a stout exemplification of the first truths of Père Bouffier, or the original principles of Reid and

Dr. Johnson seems to have been imperfectly ac quainted 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.

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 of the present age, had not politics "turned him from calm philosophy aside. What an admirable display of subtilty, 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,

"Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind!"

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

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.

"A. M. M. BOSWELL, A LA COUR
DE L'EMPEREUR, UTRECHT.
"DEAR SIR,

London, Dec. 8, 1763. "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, 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

tion. His friend, Bennet Langton, it will not be doubted, did everything in his power to make the place agreeable to so illustrious a guest; and the elder Mr. Langton and his lady, being fully capable of understanding his value, were not wanting in attention. He, however, told me that old Mr. Langton, though a man of considerable learning, had so little allowance to make for his occasional "laxity of talk," that because, in the course of discussion, he sometimes mentioned what might be said in favour of the peculiar tenets of the Romish church, he went to his grave believing him to be of that communion.

Johnson, during his stay at Langton, had the advantage of a good library, and saw several gentlemen of the neighbourhood. I have obtained from Mr. Langton, the following particulars of this period.

He was now fully convinced that he could not have been satisfied with a country living: for, talking of a respectable clergyman in Lincolnshire, he observed, This man, Sir, fills up the duties of his life well. I approve of him, but could not imitate him.'

To a lady who endeavoured to vindicate herself from blame for neglecting social attention to worthy neighbours, by saying, "I would go to them if it would do them any good;" he said, "What good, Madam, do you expect to have in your power to do them? It is showing them respect, and that is doing them good."

So socially accommodating was he, that once, when Mr. Langton and he were driving together in a coach, and Mr. Langton complained of being sick, he insisted that they should go out, and sit on the back of it in the open air, which they did; and being sensible how strange the appearance must be, observed that a countryman whom they saw in a field would probably be thinking, "If these two madmen should come down, what would become of me!"

Soon after his return to London, which was in February, was founded that club which existed long without a name, but at Mr. Garrick's funeral became distinguised by the title of THE LITERARY CLUB. Sir Joshua Reynolds had the merit of being the first proposer of it, to which Johnson acceded; and the original members were, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Edmund Burke, Dr. Nugent, Mr. Beauclerk, Mr. Langton, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. Chamier, and Sir John Hawkins. They met at the Turk's Head, in Gerrard-street, Soho, one evening in every week, at seven, and generally continued their conversation till a pretty late hour. This club has been gradually increased to its present number, thirty

five.

After about ten years, instead of supping weekly, it was resolved to dine together once a fortnight during the meeting of Parliament. Their original tavern having been converted into a private house, they moved first to Prince's, in Sackville-street, then to Le Telier's, in Doverstreet, and now meet at Parsloe's, St. James's street. Between the time of its formation, and the time at which the work is passing through the press June, 1792),* the following persons, now dead, were members of it: Mr. Dunning

• The second edition is here spoken of.-MALONE.

(afterwards Lord Ashburton), Mr. Samuel Dyer, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Shipley (Bishop of St. Asaph), Mr. Vesey, Mr. Thomas Warton, and Dr. Adam Smith. The present members are, Mr. Burke, Mr. Langton, Lord Charlemont, Sir Rober Chambers, Dr. Percy (Bishop of Dromore), Dr. Barnard (Bishop of Killaloe), Dr. Marlay (Bishop of Clonfert), Mr. Fox, Dr. George Fordyce, Sír William Scott, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Charles Bunbury, Mr. Windham of Norfolk, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Gibbon, Sir William Jones, Mr. Colman, Mr. Steevens, Dr. Burney, Dr. Joseph Warton, Mr. Malone, Lord Ossory, Lord Spencer, Lord Lucan, Lord Palmerston, Lord Eliot, Lord Macartney, Mr. Richard Burke junior, Sir William Hamilton, Dr. Warren, M. Courtenay, Dr. Hinchliffe (Bishop of Peterborough), the Duke of Leeds, Dr. Douglas (Bishop of Salisbury), and the writer of this account.*

Sir John Hawkinst represents himself as a seceder" from this society, and assigns as the reason of his "withdrawing" himself from it, that its late hours were inconsistent with his domestic arrangements. In this he is not accurate; for the fact was that he one evening attacked Mr. Burke in so rude a manner that all the company testified their displeasure, and at their next meeting his reception was such that he never came again.‡

He is equally inaccurate with respect to Mr. Garrick, of whom he says, "he trusted that the least intimation of a desire to come among us death, of Dr. Hinchliffe (Bishop of Peterborough), Mr. * The Literary Club has since been deprived, by Gibbon, Sir William Jones, Mr. Richard Burke, Mr. Colman, Mr. Boswell (the author of this work), the Marquis of Bath, Dr. Warren, Mr. Burke, the Rev. Dr. Farmer, the Duke of Leeds, the Earl of Lucan, James Earl of Charlemont, Mr. Steevens, Dr. Warton, Mr. Langton, Lord Palmerston, Dr. Fordyce, Dr. Marlay (Bishop of Waterford), Sir William Hamilton, Sir Robert Chambers, Lord Eliot, Lord Macartney, Dr. Barnard (Bishop of Limerick). Mr. Fox, Dr. Horsley (Bishop of St. Asaph), Dr. Douglas (Bishop of Salisbury), and Dr. French Lawrence. Its latest, and its irreparable loss, was that of the Right Hon. William Windham, the delight and admiration of this society, and of every other with whom he ever associated. Of the persons abovementioned some were chosen members of it after the acquired Sir Charles Blagden, Major Rennell, the Hon. preceding account was written. It has since that time Frederick North, the Right Hon. George Canning, Mr. Marsden, the Right Hon. J. H. Frere, the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, the Rev. Dr. Vincent, Dean of Westminster, Mr. William Lock, jun., Mr. George Ellis, Lord Minto, the Right Hon. Sir William Grant (Master of the Rolls), Sir George Staunton, Bart., Mr. Charles Wilkins, the Right Honourable Sir William Drummond, Sir Henry Halford, M.D., Sir Henry Englefield, Bart, Henry Lord Holland, John Earl of Aberdeen, Mr. Charles Hatchett, Mr. Charles Vaughan, Mr. Humphrey Davy, and the Rev. Dr. Burney. The club, some years after Mr. Boswell's death, removed (in 1799) from Parsloe's to the Thatched House, in St. James's-street, where they still continue to meet.

The total number of those who have been members of this club, from its foundation to the present time (October, 1810), is seventy-six, of whom fifty-five have been authors. Of the seventy-six members above-mentioned, forty-three are dead; thirty-three living.-MA

LONE.

† Life of Johnson, p, 425.-BOSWELL.

From Sir Joshua Reynolds.-BOSWELL. The knight having refused to pay his portion of the reckoning for supper, because he usually eat no supper at home, John son observed, "Sir John, Sir, is a very unclubable man." -BURNEY.

་

would procure him a ready admission; but in this he was mistaken. Johnson consulted me upon it, and when I could find no objection to receive him, exclaimed, 'He will disturb us by his buffoonery;' and afterwards so managed matters that he was never formally proposed, and, by consequence, never admitted."*

In justice both to Mr. Garrick and Dr. Johnson, I think it necessary to rectify this mis-statement. The truth is, that not very long after the institution of our club, Sir Joshua Reynolds was speaking of it to Garrick. I like it much," said he, "I think I shall be of you." When Sir Joshua mentioned this to Dr. Johnson, he was much displeased with the actor's conceit. "He'll be of us," said Johnson, "how does he know we will permit him? The first duke in England has no right to hold such language." However, when Garrick was regulariy proposed some time afterwards, Johnson, though he had taken a momentary offence at his arrogance, warmly and kindly supported him, and he was accordingly elected,† was a most agreeable member, and continued to attend our meetings to the time of his death.

Mrs. Piozzit has also given a similar misrepresentation of Johnson's treatment of Garrick in this particular, as if he had used these contemptuous expressions :-"If Garrick does apply, I'll black-ball him.-Surely, one ought to sit in a society like ours,

Unelbow'd by a gamester, pimp, or player.'"

I am happy to be enabled by such unquestionable authority as that of Sir Joshua Reynolds, as well as from my own knowledge, to vindicate at once the heart of Johnson and the social merit of Garrick.

In this year, except what he may have done in revising Shakspeare, we do not find that he laboured much in literature. He wrote a review of Grainger's "Sugar Cane," a poem, in the 'London Chronicle.' He told me, that Dr. Percy wrote the greatest part of this review; but, I imagine, he did not recollect it distinctly, for it appears to be mostly, if not altogether, his own. He also wrote in the "Critical Review," an account of Goldsmith's excellent poem, "The Traveller."

The ease and independence to which he had at last attained by royal munificence, increased his natural indolence. In his "Meditations," he thus accuses himself:-"Good Friday, April 20, 1764. I have made no reformation: I have lived totally useless, more sensual in thought, and more addicted to wine and meat."§ And next morning he thus feelingly complains: 'My indolence, since my last reception of the sacrament, has sunk into grosser sluggishness, and my dissipation spread into wilder negligence. My thoughts have been clouded with sensuality; and, except that from the beginning of this year I have, in some measure, forborne excess of strong drinks, my appetites have predominated over my reason. A kind of strange oblivion has overspread me, so

• Life of Johnson, p. 425.-BOSWELL.

Mr. Garrick was elected in March, 1773.-MALONE. Letters to and from Dr. Johnson, vol. ii. p. 278.BOSWELL.

Prayers and Meditations, p. 53.—BOSWELL.

that I know not what has become of the last year, and perceive that incidents and intelligence pass over me without leaving any impression." He then solemnly says, "This is not the life to which heaven is promised;"* and he earnestly resolves an amendment.

It was his custom to observe certain days with, a pious abstraction: viz., New-year's day, the day of his wife's death, Good Friday, Easter-day and his own birthday. He this year says, have now spent fifty-five years in resolving: having, from the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming schemes of a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short. O God, grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen."t Such a tenderness of conscience, such a fervent desire of improvement, will rarely be found. It is, surely, not decent in those who are hardened in indifference to spiritual improvement, to treat this pious anxiety of Johnson with contempt.

About this time he was afflicted with a very severe return of the hypochondriac disorder, which was ever lurking about him. He was so ill, as, notwithstanding his remarkable love of company, to be entirely averse to society, the most fatal symptom of that malady. Dr. Adams told me, that, as an old friend he was admitted to visit him, and that he found him in a deplorable state, sighing, groaning, talking to himself, and restlessly walking from room to room. He then used this emphatical expression of the misery which he felt: "I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits."

Talking to himself was, indeed, one of his singularities ever since I knew him. I was certain that he was frequently uttering pious ejaculations; for fragments of the Lord's Prayer have been dis tinctly overheard. His friend, Mr. Thomas Davies, of whom Churchill says,

"That Davies hath a very pretty wife,-" when Dr. Johnson muttered-"lead us not into temptation," used, with waggish and gallant humour, to whisper Mrs. Davies, "You, my dear, are the cause of this.'

He had another particularity, of which none of his friends ever ventured to ask an explanation. It appeared to me some superstitious habit, which he had contracted early, and from which he had never called upon his reason to disentangle him. This was his anxious care to go out or in at a * Prayers and Meditations, p. 1. + Ibid. p. 584.

It used to be imagined at Mr. Thrale's, when Johnson retired to a window or corner of the room, by perceiving his lips in motion, and hearing a murmur without audible articulation, that he was praying; but this was ceived by him, writing at a table, so near the place of his not always the case, for I was once, perhaps unperretreat, that I heard him repeating some lines in an ode of Horace, over and over again, as if by iteration to exer. cise the organs of speech, and fix the ode in his memory: Audiet cives acuisse ferrum,

Quo graves Persæ melius perirent
Audiet pugnas.

"Our sons shail hear, shall hear to latest times,
Of Roman arms with civil gore imbued,
Which better had the Persian foe subdued."-
FRANCIS

It was during the American war.—EURNEY,