what air will do. The country is all a plain, and the house in which I am, so far as I can judge from my window, for I write before I have left my chamber, is sufficiently pleasant. "Be so kind as to continue your attention to Mrs. Williams; it is great consolation to the well, and still greater to the sick, that they find themselves not neglected; and I know that you will be desirous of giving comfort, even where you have no great hope of giving help. "Since I wrote the former part of the letter, I find that by the course of the post I cannot send t before the thirty-first. "I am, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." While he was here, he had a letter from Dr. Brocklesby, acquainting him of the death of Mrs. Williams,* which affected him a good deal. Though for several years her temper had not been complacent, she had valuable qualities, and her departure left a blank in his house. Upon this occasion he, according to his habitual course of piety, composed a prayer.t I shall here insert a few particulars concerning him, with which I have been favoured by one of his friends. a quantity of REAL FICTION there is in the world; "His thoughts, in the latter part of his life, were frequently employed on his decessed friends. He often muttered these, or such like sentences ⚫ 'Poor man! and then he died.' "Speaking of a certain literary friend, 'He is a very pompous puzzling fellow,' said he; 'he lent me a letter once that somebody had written to him, no matter what it was about; but he wanted to have the letter back, and expressed a mighty value for it; he hoped it was to be met with again, he would not lose it for a thousand pounds. I laid my hand upon it soon afterwards, and gave it him. I believe I said I was very glad to have met with it. Oh, then he did not know that it signified anything. So you see, when the letter was lost it was worth a thousand pounds, and when it was found it was not worth a farthing.' "The style and character of his conversation is pretty generally known; it was certainly conducted in conformity with a precept of Lord Bacon, but it is not clear, I apprehend, that this conformity was either perceived or intended by Johnson. The precept alluded to is as follows:"He had once conceived the design of writingIn all kinds of speech, either pleasant, gravę, the Life of Oliver Cromwell, saying, that he severe, or ordinary, it is convenient to speak thought it must be highly curious to trace his leisurely, and rather drawlingly than hastily; beextraordinary rise to the supreme power, from so cause hasty speech confounds the memory, and obscure a beginning. He at length laid aside his oftentimes, besides the unseemliness, drives a man scheme, on discovering that all that can be told either to stammering, a nonplus, or harping on of him is already in print; and that it is imprac- that which should follow; whereas a slow speech ticable to procure any authentic information in confirmeth the memory, addeth a conceit of wisdom addition to what the world is already possessed to the hearers, besides a seemliness of speech and of." countenance,' * Dr. Johnson's method of conversation was certainly calculated to excite attention, and to amuse and instruct (as it happened), without wearying or confusing his company. He was always most perfectly clear and perspicuous; and his language was so accurate, and his sentences so neatly constructed, that his conversation might have been all printed without any correction. At the same time, it was easy and natural; the accuracy of it had no appearance of labour, constraint, or stiffness; he seemed more correct than others, by the force of habit, and the customary exercises of his powerful mind." e had likewise projected, but at what part of hi life is not known, a work to show how small In his letter to Miss Susanna Thrale, Sept. 9, 1783, he thus writes: "Pray show Mamma this passage of a letter from Dr. Brocklesby. 'Mrs. Williams, from mere inanition, has at length paid the great debt to nature about three o'clock this morning. (Sept. 6.) She died without a struggle, retaining her faculties to the very last, and, as she expressed it, having set her house in order, was prepared to leave it, at the last summons of nature."" In his letter to Mrs. Thrale, Sept. 22, he adds, "Poor Williams has, I hope, seen the end of lier afflictions. She acted with prudence, and she bore with fortitude. She has left me. 'Thou thy weary task hast done, Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.' Had she had good humour and prompt elocution, her universal curiosity and comprehensive knowledge would have made her the delight of all that knew her. She has left her little to your charity school."-MALONE. "Prayers and Meditations," p. 226. £ This, however, was entirely a mistake, as appears from the Memoirs published by Mr. Noble. Had John son been furnished with the materials which the industry of that gentleman has procured, and with others which, it is believed, are yet preserved in manuscript, he would, without doubt, have produced a most valuable and curious history of Cromwell's life. I may add, that, had Johnson given us a Life of Cromwell, we should not have been disgusted in numberless instances with-"My Lord Protector" and "My Lady Protectress;" and certainly the brutal ruffian who presided in the bloody assembly that murdered their sove. reign would have been characterised by very different epithets than those which are applied to him in this work, where we find him described as "the bold and determined Bradshaw."-MALONE. "He spoke often in praise of French literature. "The French are excellent in this,' he would say; they have a book on every subject.' From what he had seen of them he denied them the praise of superior politeness, and mentioned, with very visible disgust, the custom they have of spitting on the floors of their apartments. This,' said the Doctor, 'is as gross a thing as can well be done; and one wonders how any man, or set of men, can persist in so offensive a practice for a whole day together; one should expect that the first effort towards civilisation would remove it even among savages. 666 Baxter's Reasons of the Christian Religion,' he thought contained the best collection of the evidences of the divinity of the Christian system." Chemistry was always an interesting pursuit • Hints for Civil Conversation.-Bacon's Works, 4to., vol. i, p. 571.-MALONE, with Dr. Johnson. Whilst he was in Wiltshi:e he attended some experiments that were made by a physician at Salisbury, on the new kinds of air. In the course of the experiments, frequent mention being made of Dr. Priestley, Dr. Johnson knit his brows, and in a stern manner inquired, 'Why do we hear so much of Dr. Priestley? He was very properly answered, 'Sir, because we are indebted to him for these important discoveries.' On this Dr. Johnson appeared well content, and replied, 'Well, well, I believe we are; and let every man have the honour he has merited."" * "A friend was one day, about two years before his death, struck with some instance of Dr. Johnson's great candour. 'Well, Sir,' said he, I will always say that you are a very candid man.''Will you?' replied the Doctor; I doubt then you will be very singular. But indeed, Sir,' continued he, 'I look upon myself to be a man very much misunderstood. I am not an uncandid, nor am I a severe man. I sometimes say more than I mean, in jest: and people are apt to believe me serious: however, I am more candid than I was when I was younger. As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly. I do not wonder at Johnson's displeasure when the name of Dr. Priestley was mentioned; for I know no writer who has been suffered to publish more pernicious doctrines. I shall instance only three. First, Material ism; by which mind is denied to human nature, which, if believed, must deprive us of every elevated principle. Secondly, Necessity; or the doctrine that every action, whether good or bad, is included in an unchangeable and unavoidable system; a notion utterly subversive of moral government. Thirdly, that we have no reason to think that the future world (which, as he is pleased to inform us, will be adapted to our merely improved nature), will be materially different from this; which, if believed, would sink wretched mortals into despair, as they could no longer hope for the "rest that remaineth for the people of GOD," or for that happiness which is revealed to us as something beyond our present conceptions; but would feel themselves doomed to a continuation of the uneasy state under which they now groan. I say nothing of the petulant intemperance with which he dares to insult the venerable establishments of his country. As a specimen of his writings, I shall quote the following passage, which appears to me equally absurd and inpious, and which might have been retorted upon him by the men who were prosecuted for burning his house. " cannot," says he, "as a necessarian (meaning necessitarian), hate any man; because I consider him as being, in all respects, just what GOD has made him to be; and also as doing, with respect to me, nothing but what he was expressly designed and appointed to do; GOD being the only cause, and men nothing more than the instruments in his hands to execute all his pleasure."—Illustrations of Philosophical Necessity, p. III. The Rev. Dr. Parr, in a late tract, appears to suppose that Dr. Johnson not only endured, but almost solicited, an interview with Dr. Priestley. In justice to Dr. Johnson, I declare my firm belief that he never did. My illustrious friend was particularly resolute in not giving countenance to men whose writings he considered as pernicious to society. I was present at Oxford when Dr. Price, even before he had rendered himself so generally obnoxious by his zeal for the French revolution, came into a company where Johnson was, who instantly left the room. Much more would he have reprobated Dr. Priestley. Whoever wishes to see a perfect delineation of this literary fack of all trades, may find it in an ingenious tract, entitled, "A small Whole-length of Dr. Priestley," printed for Rivingtons, in St. Paul's-churchyard.-BOSWELL.. CHAPTER LIII.—1783. ON his return from Heale he wrote to Dr. Burney: "I came home on the 18th of September, at noon, to a very disconsolate house. You and I have lost our friends; but you have more friends at home. My domestic companion is taken from me. She is much missed, for her acquisitions were many, and her curiosity universal; so that she partook of every conversation. I am not well enough to go much out; and to sit, and eat, or fast alone, is very wearisome. I always mean to send my compliments to all the ladies.' His fortitude and patience met with severe trials during this year. The stroke of the palsy has been related circumstantially; but he was also afflicted with the gout, and was, besides, troubled with a complaint which not only was attended with immediate inconvenience, but threatened him with a chirurgical operation, from which most men would shrink. The complaint was a sarcocele, which Johnson bore with uncommon firmness, and was not at all frightened while he looked forward to amputation. He was attended by Mr. Pott and Mr. Cruikshank. I have before me a letter of the 30th of July this year, to Mr. Cruikshank, in which he says: "I am going to put myself into your hands:" and another accompanying a set of his "Lives of the Poets," in which he says, "I beg your acceptance of these volumes, as an acknowledgment of the great favours which you have bestowed on, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant." I have in my possession several more letters from him to Mr. Cruikshank, and also to Dr. Mudge, at Plymouth, which it would be improper to insert, as they are filled with unpleasing technical details. I shall, however, extract from his letters to Dr. Mudge such passages as show either a felicity of expression or the undaunted state of his mind. "My conviction of your skill, and my belief of your friendship, determine me to entreat your opinion and advice.' "In this state I with great earnestness desire you to tell me what is to be done. Excision is doubtless necessary to the cure, and I know not any means of palliation. The operation is doubtless painful; but is it dangerous? The pain I hope to endure with decency; but I am loath to put life into much hazard." Mr. Kemble has favoured me with the following minute of what passed at this visit : Rothes, since I have suffered so much time to brother Kemble calls on me, and pleases me very pass without paying any acknowledgment. I well. Mrs. Siddons and I talked of plays; and now, at last, return my thanks; and why I did she told me her intention of exhibiting this winter it not sooner I ought to tell you. I went into the characters of Constance, Catherine, and Wiltshire as soon as I well could, and was there Isabella, in Shakspeare." much employed in palliating my own malady. Disease produces much selfishness. A man in pain is looking after ease; and lets most other things go as chance shall dispose of them. In the meantime I have lost a companion,* to 'whom I have had recourse for domestic amusement for thirty years, and whose variety of knowledge never was exhausted; and now return to a habitation vacant and desolate. I carry about a very troublesome and dangerous complaint which admits no cure but by the chirurgical knife. Let me have your prayers. &c., "I am,, SAM. JOHNSON." Happily the complaint abated without his being put to the torture of amputation. But we must surely admire the manly resolution which he discovered, while it hung over him. In a letter to the same gentleman he writes, "The gout has, within these four days, come upon me with a violence which I never experienced before. It made me helpless as an infant." And in another, having mentioned Mrs. Williams, he says, "Whose death following that of Levett, has now made my house a solitude. She left her little substance to a charity-school. She is, I hope, where there is neither darkness, nor want, nor sorrow. I wrote to him, begging to know the state of his health, and mentioned that "Baxter's Anacreon, which is in the library at Auchinleck, was, I find, collated by my father in 1727, with the MS. belonging to the University of Leyden, and he has made a number of notes upon it. Would you advise me to publish a new edition of it?" His answer was dated September 30.-"You should not make your letters such rarities, when you know, or might know, the uniform state of my health. It is very long since I heard from you; and that I have not answered is a very insufficient reason for the silence of a friend. Your Anacreon is a very uncommon book; neither London nor Cambridge can supply a copy of that edition. Whether it should be reprinted, you cannot do better than consult Lord Hailes. Besides my constant and radical disease, I have been for these ten days much harassed with the gout; but that has now remitted. I hope GOD will yet grant me a little longer life, and make me less unfit to appear before him." He this autumn received a visit from the celebrated Mrs. Siddons. He gives this account of it in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, October 27: "Mrs. Siddons, in her visit to me, behaved with great modesty and propriety, and left nothing behind her to be censured or despised. Neither praise nor money, the two powerful corruptors of mankind, seemed to have depraved her. I shall be glad to see her again. Her Mrs. Anna Williams.-BOSWELL. "When Mrs. Siddons came into the room, there happened to be no chair ready for her, which he observing, said with a smile, Madam, you who so often occasion a want of seats to other people, will the more easily excuse the want of one yourself.' "Having placed himself by her, he with great good humour entered upon a consideration of the English drama; and, among other inquiries, particularly asked her which of Shakspeare's characters she was most pleased with. Upon her answering that she thought the character of Queen Catherine in Henry the Eighth the most natural:-'I think so, too, Madam,' said he; and whenever you perform it, I will once more hobble out to the theatre myself.' Mrs. Siddons promised she would do herself the honour of acting his favourite part for him; but many circumstances happened to prevent the representation of King Henry the Eighth during the Doctor's life. his "In the course of the evening he thus gave opinion upon the merits of some of the principal performers whom he remembered to have seen upon the stage. 'Mrs. Porter in the vehemence of rage, and Mrs. Clive in the sprightliness of humour, I have never seen equalled. What Clive did best, she did better than Garrick; but could not do half so many things well; she was a better romp than any I ever saw in nature.Pritchard, in common life, was a vulgar idiot.; she would talk of her gownd; but, when she appeared upon the stage, seemed to be inspired by gentility and understanding.-I once talked with Colley Cibber, and thought him ignorant of the principles of his art.-Garrick, Madam, was no declaimer; there was not one of his own sceneshifters who could not have spoken To be, or not to be, better than he did; yet he was the only actor I ever saw, whom I could call a master both in tragedy and comedy; though I liked him best in comedy. A true conception of character, and natural expression of it, were his distinguished excellencies.' Having expatiated, with his usual force and eloquence, on Mr. Garrick's extraordinary eminence as an actor, he concluded with this compliment to his social talents: 'And after all, Madam, I thought him less to be envied on the stage than at the head of a table.'” Johnson, indeed, had thought more upon the subject of acting than might be generally sup posed. Talking of it one day to Mr. Kemble, he said, "Are you, Sir, one of those enthusiasts who believe yourself transformed into the very cha racter you represent?" Upon Mr. Kemble's answering that he had never felt so strong a persuasion himself: "To be sure not, Sir," said Johnson, "the thing is impossible. And if Gar rick really believed himself to be that monster Richard the Third, he deserved to be hanged him, having no need to borrow." And afterevery time he performed it." * TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD. "Bolt-court, Fleet-street, "DEAR MADAM, Nov. 10, 1783. "The death of poor Mr. Porter, of which your maid has sent an account, must have very much surprised you. The death of a friend is almost always unexpected: we do not love to think of it, and therefore are not prepared for its coming. He was, I think, a religious man, and therefore that his end was happy. "Death has likewise visited my mournful habitation. Last month died Mrs. Williams, who had been to me for thirty years in the place of a sister: her knowledge was great, and her conversation pleasing. I now live in cheerless solitude. "My two last years have passed under the pressure of successive diseases. I have lately had the gout with some severity. But I wonderfully escaped the operation which I mentioned, and am upon the whole restored to health beyond my own expectation. "As we daily see our friends die round us, we that are left must cling closer, and, if we can do nothing more, at least pray for one another; and remember, that as others die we must die too, and prepare ourselves diligently for the last great trial. I am; Madam, Yours affectionately, SAM. JOHNSON." A pleasing instance of the generous attention of one of his friends has been discovered by 'the publication of Mrs. Thrale's collection of Letters. In a letter to one of the Miss Thrales, he writes, "A friend, whose name I will tell, when your mamma has tried to guess it, sent to my physician to inquire whether this long train of illness had brought me into difficulties for want of money, with an invitation to send to him for what occasion required. I shall write this night to thank My worthy friend, Mr. John Nichols, was present when Mr. Henderson, the actor, paid a visit to Dr. Johnson, and was received in a very courteous manner.-See "The Gentleman's Magazine," June, 1791. I found, among Dr. Johnson's papers, the following letter to him, from the celebrated Mrs. Bellamy : "TO DR. JOHNSON. "No. 10, Duke-street, St. James's, May 11, 1783"SIR,-The flattering remembrance of the partiality you honoured me with, some years ago, as well as the humanity you are known to possess, has encouraged me to solicit your patronage at my benefit. "By a long Chancery suit, and a complicated train of unfortunate events, I am reduced to the greatest distress, which obliges me once more to request the indulgence of the public. "Give me leave to solicit the honour of your company and to assure you, if you grant my request, the gratification I shall feel, from being patronised by Dr. Johnson, will be infinitely superior to any advantage that may arise from the benefit: as I am, with the profoundest respect, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, "G. A. BELLAMY." I am happy in recording these particulars, which prove that my illustrious friend lived to think much more favourably of players than he appears to have done in the early part of his life.-BOSWELL. wards, in a letter to Mrs. Thrale, "Since you cannot guess, I will tell you, that the generous man was Gerard Hamilton. I returned him a very thankful and respectful letter." I applied to Mr. Hamilton, by a common friend, and he has been so obliging as to let me have Johnson's letter to him upon this occasion, to adorn my collection. 66 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM GERARD HAMILTON. "DEAR SIR, November 19, 1783. "Your kind inquiries after my affairs, and your generous offers, have been communicated to me by Dr. Brocklesby. I return thanks with great sincerity, having lived long enough to know what gratitude is due to your friendship; and entreat that my refusal may not be imputed to sullenness or pride. I am, indeed, in no want. Sickness is, by the generosity of my physicians, of little expense to me. But if any unexpected exigence should press me, you shall see, dear Sir, how cheerfully I can be obliged to so much liberality. "I am, Sir, "Your most obedient and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." I find in this, as in former years, notices of his kind attention to Mrs. Gardiner, who, though in the humble station of a tallow-chandler upon Snow Hill, was a woman of excellent good sense, pious and charitable. She told me, she had been introduced to him by Mrs. Masters, the poetess, whose volumes he revised, and, it is said, illuminated here and there with a ray of his own genius. Mrs. Gardiner was very zealous for the support of the Ladies' Charity-school, in the parish of St. Sepulchre. It is confined to females; and, I am told, it afforded a hint for the story of Betty Broom, in "The Idler." Johnson this year, I find, obtained for it a sermon from the late Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Shipley, whom he, in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, characterises as "knowing and conversable;" and whom all who knew his Lordship, even those who differed from him in politics, remember with much respect. The Earl of Carlisle having written a tragedy, entitled "THE FATHER'S REVENGE," some of his Lordship's friends applied to Mrs. Chapone, to prevail on Dr. Johnson to read and give his opinion of it, which he accordingly did, in a letter to that lady. Sir Joshua Reynolds having informed me that this letter was in Lord, Carlisle's possession, though I was not fortunate enough to have the honour of being known to his Lordship, trusting to the general courtesy of literature, I wrote to him, requesting the favour in my life of Dr. Johnson. His Lordship was so of a copy of it, and to be permitted to insert it good as to comply with my request, and has thus enabled me to enrich my work with a very fine piece of writing, which displays both the critical skill and politeness of my illustrious friend; and perhaps the curiosity which it will excite may In his will, Dr. Johnson left her a book "at her elec tion, to keep as a token of remembrance."-MALONE. "MADAM, Nov. 28, 1783. "By sending the tragedy to me a second time, t I think that a very honourable distinction has been shown me, and I did not delay the perusal, of which I am now to tell the effect. The construction of the play is not completely regular; the stage is too often vacant, and the scenes are not sufficiently connected. This, however, would be called by Dryden only mechanical defect; which takes away little from the power of the poem, and which is seen rather than felt. a land in the election of the representatives of the Commons, by means of fictitious qualifications, ought not to be resisted ;-the other, What in propriety and humanity, should be done with old horses unable to labour. I gave him some account of my life at Auchinleck; and expressed my satisfaction that the gentlemen of the county had, at two public meetings, elected me their Præses, or Chairman. "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, Dec. 24, 1783. "DEAR SIR, "Like all other men who have great friends, you begin to feel the pangs of neglected merit; and all the comfort that I can give you is, by telling you that you have probably more pangs to feel, and more neglect to suffer. You have, indeed, begun to complain too soon; and I hope I am the only confidant of your discontent. Your friends have not yet had leisure to gratify perThe general form and force of the dialogue is sonal kindness; they have hitherto been busy in of more importance. It seems to want that quick-strengthening their ministerial interest. If a ness of reciprocation which characterises the English drama, and is not always sufficiently fervid or animated. "A rigid examiner of the diction might, perhaps, wish some words changed, and some lines more vigorously terminated. But from such petty imperfections what writer was ever free? "Of the sentiments, I remember not one that I wish omitted. In the imagery I cannot forbear to distinguish the comparison of joy succeeding grief to light rushing on the eye accustomed to darkness. It seems to have all that can be desired to make it please. It is new, just, and delightful. "With the characters, either as conceived or preserved, I have no fault to find; but was much inclined to congratulate a writer, who, in defiance of prejudice and fashion, made the Archbishop a good man, and scorned all thoughtless applause, which a vicious churchman would have brought him. The catastrophe is affecting. The Father and Daughter, both culpable, both wretched, and both penitent, divide between them our pity and our sorrow. vacancy happens in Scotland, give them early intelligence; and as you can serve Government as powerfully as any of your probable competitors, you may make in some sort a warrantable claim. "Of the exaltations and depressions of your mind you delight to talk, and I hate to hear. Drive all such fancies from you. "On the day when I received your letter, I think, the foregoing page was written, to which one disease or another has hindered me from making any additions. I am now a little better. But sickness and solitude press me very heavily. I could bear sickness better, if I were relieved from solitude. "The present dreadful confusion of the public ought to make you wrap yourself up in your hereditary possessions, which, though less than you may wish, are more than you can want; and in an hour of religious retirement, return thanks to GOD, who has exempted you from any strong temptation to faction, treachery, plunder, and "Thus, Madam, I have performed what I did not willingly undertake, and could not decently refuse. The noble writer will be pleased to re-disloyalty. member that sincere criticism ought to raise no resentment, because judgment is not under the control of will; but involuntary criticism, as it has still less of choice, ought to be more remote from possibility of offence. "I am, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." "As your neighbours distinguish you by such honours as they can bestow, content yourself with your station, without neglecting your profession. Your estate and the courts will find you full employment, and your mind well occupied will be quiet. "The usurpation of the nobility, for they apparently usurp all the influence they gain by fraud and misrepresentation, I think it certainly lawful, perhaps your duty, to resist. What is not their own, they have only by robbery. "Your question about the horses gives me more perplexity. I know not well what advice to give you. I can only recommend a rule which you do not want ;-give as little pain as you can. I suppose that we have a right to their service while their strength lasts; what we can do with them afterwards, I cannot so easily determine. But let us consider. Nobody denies, that man has a right first to milk the cow, and to shear the sheep, and then to kill them for his table. May hę not, by parity of reason, first work a horse |