'In walking among the tents, and observing the difference between those of the officers and private men, he said, that the superiority of accommodation of the better conditions of life, to that of the inferior ones, was never exhibited to him in so distinct a view. The civilities paid to him in the camp were from the gentlemen of the Lincolnshire regiment, one of the officers of which accommodated him with a tent in which he slept; and from General Hall who very courteously invited him to dine with him, where he appeared to be very well pleased with this entertainment, and the civilities he received on the part of the General;* the attention likewise of the General's aide-de-camp, Captain Smith, seemed to be very welcome to him, as appeared by their engaging in a great deal of discourse together. The gentlemen of the East York regiment likewise, on being informed of his coming, solicited his company at dinner; but by that time he had fixed his departure, so that he could not comply with the invitation,"

'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "SIR, London, July 3, 1778. "I have received two letters from you, of which the second complains of the neglect shown to the first. You must not tie your friends to such punctual correspondence. You have all possible assurances of my affection and esteem; and there ought to be no need of reiterated professions. When it may happen that I can give you either counsel or comfort, I hope it will never happen to me that I should neglect you; but you must not think me criminal or cold, if I say nothing when I have nothing to say.

"You are now happy enough. Mrs. Boswell is recovered; and I congratulate you upon the probability of her long life. If general approbation will add anything to your enjoyment, I can tell you that I have heard you mentioned as a man whom everybody likes. I think life has little more to give.

[Langton] has gone to his regiment. He has laid down his coach, and talks of making more contractions of his expense; how he will succeed I know not. It is difficult to reform a household gradually; it may be better done by a system totally new. I am afraid he has always something to hide. When we pressed him to go to, he objected the necessity of attending his navigation; yet he could talk of going to Aberdeen, a place not much nearer his navigation. I believe he cannot bear the thought of living at [Langton] in a state of diminution; and of appearing among the gentlemen of the neighbour hood shorn of his beams. This is natural, but it is cowardly. What I told him of the increasing expense of a growing family seems to have struck him. He certainly had gone on with very confused views, and we have, I think, shown him that he is wrong; though, with the common deficience of advisers, we have not shown him how to do right.

• When I one day at Court expressed to General Hall my sense of the honour he had done my friend, he politely answered, "Sir, I did myself honour."-BOS

WELL

"I wish you would a little correct or restrain your imagination, and imagine that happiness, such as life admits, may be had at other places as well as London. Without asserting* Stoicism, it may be said, that it is our business to exempt ourselves as much as we can from the power of external things. There is but one solid basis of happiness, and that is, the reasonable hope of a happy futurity. This may be had everywhere. I do not blame your preference of London to other places, for it is really to be preferred, if the choice is free; but few have the choice of their place, or their manner of life; and mere pleasure ought not to be the prime motive of action.

Mrs. Thrale, poor thing, has a daughter. Mr. Thrale dislikes the times, like the rest of us. Mrs. Williams is sick; Mrs. Desmoulins is poor. I have miserable nights. Nobody is well but Mr. Levett. "I am, dear Sir, your most, &c., SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO CAPTAIN LANGTON,* WARLEY

САМР.

"DEAR SIR, October 31, 1778. "When I recollect how long ago I was received with so much kindness at Warley Common, I am ashamed that I have not made some inquiries after my friends.

Pray how many sheep-stealers did you convict? and how did you punish them? When are you to be cantoned in better habitations? The air grows cold, and the ground damp. Longer stay in the camp cannot be without much danger to the health of the common men, if even the officers can escape.

"You see that Dr. Percy is now Dean of Carlisle; about five hundred a year, with a power of presenting himself to some good living. He is provided for.

"The session of the CLUB is to commence with that of the Parliament. Mr. Bankst desires to be admitted; he will be a very honourable acces"Did the king please you? The Coxheath men, I think, have some reason to complain: Reynolds says your camp is better than theirs.

sion.

I hope you find yourself able to encounter this weather. Take care of own health; and, as you can, of your men, Be pleased to make my compliments to all the gentlemen whose notice I have had, and whose kindness I have experienced. "I am, dear Sir, "Your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

I wrote to him on the 18th of August, the 18th of September, and the 6th of November; informing him of my having another son born, whom I had called James; that I had passed some time at Auchinleck; that the Countess of Loudoun, now in her ninety-ninth year, was as fresh as when he saw her, and remembered him with respect; and that his mother by adoption, the Countess of Eglintoune, had said to me, 'Tell Mr. Johnson I love him exceedingly; that I had again suffered much from bad spirits; and that, as it was very long since I heard from him, I was not a little uneasy."

The continuance of his regard for his friend Dr. Burney appears from the following letters :

"TO THE REVEREND DR. WHEELER, OXFORD.

"DEAR SIR, London, November 2, 1778. "Dr. Burney, who brings this paper, is engaged in a History of Music; and having been told by Dr. Markham of some MSS. relating to his subject, which are in the library of your College, is desirous to examine them. He is my friend, and therefore I take the liberty of entreating your favour and assistance in his inquiry; and can assure you, with great confidence, that if you

• Dr. Johnson here addresses his worthy friend, Bennet Langton, Esq., by his title as Captain of the Lincolnshire militia, in which he has since been most deservedly raised

to the rank of Major.-BOSWELL.

† Afterwards Sir Joseph Banks, the distinguished President of the Royal Society.

knew him he would not want any intervenient solicitation to obtain the kindness of one who loves learning and virtue as you love them.

"I have been flattering myself all the summer with the hope of paying my annual visit to my friends, but something has obstructed me; I still hope not to be long without seeing you. I should be glad of a little literary talk, and glad to show you, by the frequency of my visits, how eagerly I love it, when you talk it.

"I am, dear Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO THE REVEREND DR. EDWARDS, OXFORD.

'SIR,

London, November 2, 1778.

"The bearer, Dr. Burney, has had some account of a Welsh manuscript in the Bodleian library, from which he hopes to gain some mateof the language, is at a loss where to find assistrials for his History of Music; but being ignorant I make no doubt but you, Sir, can help ance. liberty of recommending him to your favour, as I him through his difficulties, and therefore take the

civility that can be shown, and every benefit that am sure you will find him a man worthy of every

can be conferred.

"But we must not let Welsh drive us from not like the trouble of publishing the book, do not Greek. What comes of Xenophon? If you do let your commentaries be lost. Contrive that they may be published somewhere.

"I am, Sir, your humble servant,
"SAM. JOHNSON."

These letters procured Dr. Burney great kindness and friendly offices from both of these gentlemen, not only on that occasion but in future visits to the university. The same year Dr. Johnson not only wrote to Dr. Joseph Warton in favour of Dr. Burney's younger son, who was to be placed in the College of Winchester, but accompanied him when he went thither.

exertions of this great and good man, especially We surely cannot but admire the benevolent when we consider how grievously he was afflicted with bad health, and how uncomfortable his home was made by the perpetual jarring of those whom he charitably accommodated under his roof. He has sometimes suffered me to talk jocularly of his group of females, and call them his Seraglio. He thus mentions them, together with honest Levett, in one of his letters to Mrs. hates Desmoulins, and does not love Williams; Thrale:-" Williams hates everybody; Levett Desmoulins hates them both; Poll* loves none of them."

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR,

November 21, 1778.

think you must have some reason to complain: "It is indeed a long time since I wrote, and I however, you must not let small things disturb you when you have such a fine addition to your happiness as a new boy, and I hope your lady's

* Miss Carmichael.-BOSWELL

"When any fit of anxiety, or gloominess, or perversion of mind, lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints, but exert your whole care to hide it. By endeavouring to hide it you will drive it away. Be always busy. "The CLUB is to meet with the Parliament; we talk of electing Banks, the traveller; he will be a reputable member.

Langton has been encamped with his company of militia on Warley Common; I spent five days amongst them. He signalised himself as a diligent officer, and has very high respect in the regiment. He presided when was there at a court-martial; he is now quartered in Hertford shire; his lady and little ones are in Scotland. Paoli came to the camp, and commended the soldiers.

"Of myself I have no great matters to say; my health is not restored; my nights are restless and tedious. The best night that I have had these twenty years was at Fort Augustus.

"I hope soon to send you a few Lives to read. "I am, dear Sir, your most affectionate, "SAM. JOHNSON."

About this time the Rev. Mr. John Hussey, who had been some time in trade, and was then a clergyman of the Church of England, being about to undertake a journey to Aleppo and other parts of the East, which he accomplished, Dr. Johnson (who had long been in habits of intimacy with him), honoured him with the following letter:

"TO MR. JOHN HUSSEY. "DEAR SIR, December 29, 1778. "I have sent you the 'Grammar,' and have left you two books more, by which I'hope to be remembered. Write my name in them: we may perhaps see each other no more. You part with my good wishes, nor do I despair of seeing you return. Let no opportunities of vice corrupt you; let no bad example seduce you; let the blindness of Mahometans confirm you in Christianity. God bless you.

"I am, dear Sir,

"Your affectionate, humble servant,
"SAM. JOHNSON."

Johnson this year expressed great satisfaction at the publication of the first volume of "Discourses to the Royal Academy," by Sir Joshua Reynolds, whom he always considered as one of his literary school. Much praise indeed is due to those excellent Discourses which are so universally admired, and for which the author received from the Empress of Russia a gold snuffbox, adorned with her profile in bas relief set in diamonds; and containing, what is infinitely more valuable, a slip of paper, on which are written, with her Imperial Majesty's own hand, the

following words :-"Pour le Chevalier Reynolds, en temoignage du contentement que j'ai ressentie à la lecture de ses excellens discours sur la Peinture"

wwww

CHAPTER XLII.-1779.

THIS year Johnson gave the world a luminous proof that the vigour of his mind, in all its faculties, whether memory, judgment, or imagination, was not in the least abated; for this year came out the first four volumes of his "Prefaces, biographical and critical, to the most eminent of the English Poets," published by the booksellers of London. The remaining volumes came out in the year 1780. The Poets were selected by the several booksellers who had the honorary copyright, which is still preserved among them by mutual compact, notwithstanding the decision of the House of Lords against the perpetuity of Literary Property. We have his own authority,* that by his recommendation the poems of Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden, were added to the collection. Of this work I shall speak more particularly hereafter.

On the 22nd of January I wrote to him on several topics, and mentioned, that, as he had been so good as to permit me to have the proof sheets of his "Lives of the Poets," I had written to his servant Francis to take care of them for

me.

'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. Edinburgh, Feb. 2, 1779.

"MY DEAR SIR, "Garrick's death is a striking event; not that we should be surprised with the death of any man who has lived sixty-two years,f but because there was a vivacity in our late celebrated friend, which drove away the thoughts of death from any association with him. I am sure you will be tenderly affected with his departure; and I would obliged to him in my days of effervescence in wish to hear from you upon the subject. I was and since that time I received many civilities London, when poor Derrick was my governor; from him. Do you remember how pleasing it was, when I received a letter from him at Inverary, upon our first return to civilised living,

* Life of Watts.-BOSWELL.

† On Mr. Garrick's monument, in Lichfield Cathedral, he is said to have died, "aged 64 years." But it is a mistake, and Mr. Boswell is perfectly correct. Garrick was baptized at Hereford, Feb. 28, 1716-17, and died at lapidary inscriptions is well known.--MALONE. his house in London, Jan. 20, 1779. The inaccuracy of

The following is a copy of the inscription on Garrick's monument, the figures 64, referred to by Malone, having been altered to 63.

and

EVA MARIA, relict of DAVID GARRICK, ESQ., raised this monument to the memory of her beloved husband, who died the 20th of January, 1779, aged 63 years.

He had not only the amiable qualities of private life, but such astonishing dramatic talents, as to well verify the observation of his friend, impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure." "His death eclipsed the gaiety of nations,

after our Hebridean journey? I shall always remember him with affection as well as admiration. "On Saturday last, being the 30th of January, I drank coffee and old port, and had solemn conversation with the Reverend Mr. Falconer, a nonjuring bishop, a very learned and worthy man. He gave two toasts, which you will believe I drank with cordiality-Dr. Samuel Johnson, and Flora Macdonald. I sat about four hours with him, and it was really as if I had been living in the last century. The Episcopal Church of Scotland, though faithful to the royal house of Stuart, has never accepted of any congé d'étire, since the Revolution; it is the only true Episcopal Church in Scotland, as it has its own succession of bishops. For as to the episcopal clergy, who take the oaths to the present government, they indeed follow the rites of the Church of England; but, as Bishop Falconer observed, 'they are not Episcopals; for they are under no bishop, as a bishop cannot have authority beyond his diocese.' This venerable gentleman did me the honour to dine with me yesterday, and he laid his hands upon the heads of my little ones. We had a good deal of curious literary conversation, particularly about Mr. Thomas Ruddiman, with whom he lived in great friendship.

"6 Any fresh instance of the uncertainty of life makes one embrace more closely a valuable friend. My dear and much respected Sir, may GOD preserve you long in this world while I am

in it.

"I am ever your much obliged

(6 And affectionate humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL.'

On the 23rd of February I wrote to him again, complaining of his silence, as I had heard he was ill, and had written to Mr. Thrale for information concerning him; and I announced my intention of soon being again in London.

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR,

March 13, 1779. 'Why should you take such delight to make a bustle, to write to Mr. Thrale that I am negligent, and to Francis to do what is so very unnecessary. Thrale, you may be sure, cared not about it; and I shall spare Francis the trouble, by ordering a set both of the Lives and Poets to dear Mrs. Boswell,* in acknowledgment of her marmalade. Persuade her to accept them, and accept them kindly. If I thought she would receive them scornfully, I would send them to Miss Boswell, who, I hope, has yet none of her mamma's ill-will to me.

"I would send sets of Lives, four volumes, to some other friends, to Lord Hailes first. His second volume lies by my bed-side; a book surely of great labour, and to every just thinker of great delight. Write me word to whom I shall send besides would it please Lord Auchinleck? Mrs. Thrale waits in the coach.

"I am, dear Sir, &c.,

SAM. JOHNSON."

He sent a set elegantly bound and gilt, which was received as a very handsome present.-BOSWELL.

This letter crossed me on the road to London, where I arrived on Monday, March 15; and next morning, at a late hour, found Dr. Johnson sitting over his tea, attended by Mrs. Desmoulins, Mr. Levett, and a clergyman, who had come to submit some poetical pieces to his revision. It is wonderful what a number and variety of writers, some of them even unknown to him, prevailed on his good-nature to look over their works, and suggest corrections and improvements. My arrival interrupted for a little while the important business of this true representative of Bayes. Upon its being resumed, I found that the subject under immediate consideration was a translation yet in manuscript, of the "Carmen Seculare" of Horace, which had this year been set to music, and performed as a public entertainment in London, for the joint benefit of Monsieur Philidor* and Signor Baretti. When Johnson had done reading, the author asked him bluntly, "If, upon the whole, it was a good translation?" Johnson, whose regard for truth was uncommonly strict, seemed to be puzzled for a moment what answer to make; as he certainly could not honestly commend the performance, with exquisite address he evaded the question, thus, “Šir, I do not say that it may not be made a very good translation." Here nothing whatever in favour of the performance was affirmed, and yet the writer was not shocked. A printed "Ode to the Warlike Genius of Britain came next in review. The bard was a lank bony figure, with short black hair; he was writhing himself in agitation while Johnson read, and showing his teeth in a grin of earnestness, exclaimed in broken sentence, and in a keen, sharp tone, Is that poetry, Sir? Is it Pindar?" JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, there is a great deal of what is called poetry.' Then turning to me, the poet cried, "My muse has not been long upon the town, and (pointing to the Ode) it trembles under the hand of the great critic." Johnson in a tone of displeasure asked him, "Why do you praise Anson?" I did not trouble him by asking his reason for this question. He proceeded, "Here is an error, Sir; you have made Genius feminine."-" Palpable, Sir," cried the enthusiast; "I know it. But (in a lower tone) it was to pay a compliment to the Duchess of Devonshire, with which her Grace was pleased. She is walking across Coxheath, in the military uniform, and I suppose her to be the Genius of Britain." JOHNSON: "Sir, you are giving a reason for it; but that will not make it right. You may have a reason why two and two should make five; but they will still make but four."

"

"

Although I was several times with him in the course of the following days, such it seems were my occupations, or such my negligence, that I have preserved no memorial of his conversation till Friday, March 26, when I visited him. said he expected to be attacked on account of his

He

Andrew Philidor is celebrated as the most skilful chess-player of his age. His "Analysis of Chess," pub. lished in 1777, still retains its value as an authority. He was a member of the chess-club thirty years; and of his skill in that game a stronger proof could not be given than that of his defeating blindfolded, at the same time, two of the best players of the club. He was born at Dreux, in France, in 1726, and died in 1795.

"Lives of the Poets." "However," said he, "I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works. An assault upon a town is a bad thing; but starving it is still worse; an assault may be unsuccessful; you may have more men killed than you kill; but if you starve the town, you are sure of victory.

Talking of a friend of ours associating with persons of very discordant principles and characters, I said he was a very universal man, quite a man of the world. JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir; but one may be so much a man of the world, as to be nothing in the world. I remember a passage in Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield,' which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge-'I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.' BosWELL: "That was a fine passage." JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir; there was another fine passage, too, which he struck out: When I was a young man, being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. But I soon gave this over; for I found that generally what was new was false."" I said I did not like to sit with people of whom I had not a good opinion. JOHNSON: "But you must not indulge your delicacy too much; or you will be a téte-à-tête man all your life."

During my stay in I.ondon this spring, I find I was unaccountably negligent in preserving Johnson's sayings, more so than at any time when I was happy enough to have an opportunity of hearing his wisdom and wit. There is no help for it now. I must content myself with presenting such scraps as I have. But I am nevertheless ashamed and vexed to think how much has been lost. It is not that there was a bad crop this year; but that I was not sufficiently careful in gathering it in. I therefore, in some instances, can only exhibit a few detached fragments.

Talking of the wonderful concealment of the author of the celebrated letters signed Junius, he said, "I should have believed Burke to be Junius, because I know no man but Burke who is capable of writing these letters; but Burke spontaneously denied it to me. The case would have been different, had I asked him if he was the author; a man so questioned, as to an anonymous publication, may think he has a right to deny it." He observed that his old friend, Mr. Sheridan, had been honoured with extraordinary attention in his own country, by having had an exception made in his favour in an Irish act of Parliament concerning insolvent debtors. "Thus to be singled out," said he, "by Legislature, as an object of public consideration and kindness, is a proof of no common merit."

At Streatham, on Monday March 29, at breakfast, he maintained that a father had no right to control the inclinations of his daughters in marriage.

* Dr. Burney, in a note introduced in a former page, has mentioned this circumstance concerning Goldsmith, as communicated to him by Dr. Johnson, not recollecting that it occurred here. His remark, however, is not wholly superfluous, as it ascertains that the words which Goldsmith had put into the mouth of a fictitious character in "The Vicar of Wakefield," and which, as we learn from Dr. Johnson, he afterwards expunged, related, like many other passages in his novel, to himself.-MALONE.

On Wednesday, March 31, when I visited him, and confessed an excess of which I had very seldom been guilty-that I had spent a whole night in playing at cards, and that I could not look back on it with satisfaction-instead of a harsh animadversion, he mildly said, "Alas, Sir, on how few things can we look back with satisfaction."

On Thursday, April 1, he commended one of the Dukes of Devonshire for "a dogged veracity." He said too, "London is nothing to some people; but to a man whose pleasure is intellectual, London is the place. And there is no place where economy can be so well practised as in London: more can be had here for the money, even by ladies, than any where else. You cannot play tricks with your fortune in a small place; you must make an uniform appearance. Here a lady may have well-furnished apartments, an elegant dress, without any meat in her kitchen."

I was amused by considering with how much ease and coolness he could write or talk to a friend, exhorting him not to suppose that happiness was not to be found as well in other places as in London; when he himself was at all times sensible of its being, comparatively speaking, a heaven upon earth. The truth is, that by those who from sagacity, attention, and experience, have learnt the full advantage of London, its preeminence over every other place, not only for variety of enjoyment, but for comfort, will be felt with a philosophical exultation. The freedom from remark and petty censure, with which life may be passed there, is a circumstance which a man who knows the teasing restraint of a narrow circle must relish highly. Mr. Burke, whose orderly and amiable domestic habits might make the eye of observation less irksome to him than to most men, said once very pleasantly in my hearing, "Though I have the honour to represent Bristol, I should not like to live there; I should be obliged to be so much upon my good behaviour." In London, a man may live in splendid society at one time, and in frugal retirement at another, without animadversion. There, and there alone, a man's own house is truly his castle, in which he can be in perfect safety from intrusion whenever he pleases. I never shall forget how well this was expressed to me one day by Mr. Meynell: "The chief advantage of Lond" said he, "is, that a man is always so near his burrow.”

He said of one of his old acquaintances, "He is very fit for a travelling governor. He knows French very well. He is a man of good principles; and there would be no danger that a young gentleman should catch his manner; for it is so very bad, that it must be avoided. In that respect he would be like the drunken Helot."

A gentleman has informed me, that Johnson said of the same person, "Sir, he has the most inverted understanding of any man whom I have ever known."

On Friday, April 2, being Good-Friday, I visited him in the morning as usual; and finding that we insensibly fell into a train of ridicule upon the foibles of one of our friends, a very worthy man, I, by way of a check, quoted some good admonition from "The Government of the Tongue "that very pious book. It happened also remark