I told him that our friend Goldsmith had said to me that he had come too late into the world, for that Pope and other poets had taken up the places in the Temple of Fame; so that as but a few at any period can possess poetical reputation, a man of genius can now hardly acquire it. JOHNSON. "That is one of the most sensible things I have ever heard of Goldsmith. It is difficult to get literary fame, and it is every day growing more difficult. Ah, Sir, that should make a man think of securing happiness in another world, which all who try sincerely for it may attain. In comparison of that, how little are all other things! The belief of immortality is impressed upon all men, and all men act under an impression of it, however they may talk, and though, perhaps, they may be scarcely sensible of it." I said, it appeared to me that some people had not the least notion of immortality; and I mentioned a distinguished gentleman of our acquaintance. JOHNSON. "Sir, if it were not for the notion of immortality, he would cut a throat to fill his pockets." When I quoted this to Beauclerk, who knew much more of the gentleman than we did, he said, in his acid manner, "He would cut a throat to fill his pockets, if it were not for fear of being hanged."2 Dr. Johnson proceeded: "Sir, there is a great cry about infidelity but there are, in reality, very few infidels. I have heard a person, originally a Quaker, but now, I am afraid, a Deist, say, that he did not believe there were, in all England, above two hundred infidels." He was pleased to say, "If you come to settle here, we will have one day in the week on which we will meet by ourselves. That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments." In his private register this evening is thus marked: "Boswell sat with me till night; we had some serious talk." 3 It also appears from the same record, that after I left him he was occupied in religious duties, in "giving Francis, his servant, some directions for preparation to communicate; in reviewing his life, and resolving on better conduct." 1 Goldsmith, who read a great deal of light French literature, probably borrowed this from La Bruyère. "Les anciens ont tout dit; on vient aujourd'hui trop tard pour dire les choses nouvelles."- Vigneul-Marvilliana, i. 336. But Johnson's assertion may surely be questioned. Literary fame (whether always deserved or not) was, I believe, never more cheaply earned than in the last half of the 18th century; and when Johnson complained that it is difficult to get, he should rather have recollected that if it were not difficult it would not have been fame. And after all, did not Goldsmith himself gain a great reputation at an easy rate?-C. 1831. Let me add, that since this complaint that the fountains of novelty and fame had run dry, we have had, in the poetical line alone, Cowper and Crabbe, Scott and Byron, each creating a great name by a style entirely original. — CROKER, 1846. 2 All this seems so extravagantly abusive, that I shall be forgiven for not venturing a surmise as to the name of the "distinguished gentleman," so ill, and it is to be hoped so unjustly, treated by his friends. - CROKER. "Easter Eve, April 15. 1775.- I rose more early than is common, after a night disturbed by flatulencies, though I had taken so little. I prayed, but my mind was unsettled, and I did not fix upon the book. After the bread and tea, I trifled, and I find more faintness and uneasiness in fasting than about three ordered coffee and buns for my dinner. I did formerly. While coffee was preparing, Collier came in, a man whom I had not seen for more than twenty years, but whom I consulted about Macky's books. We talked of old friends and past occurrences, and eat and drank together. I then read a little in the Testament, and tried Fiddes's Body of Divinity, but did not settle. I then went to evening prayer, and was tolerably composed." The humility and piety which he discovers on such occasions is truly edifying. No saint, however, in the course of his religious warfare, was more sensible of the unhappy failure of pious resolves than Johnson. He said one day, talking to an acquaintance on the subject, Sir, hell is paved with good intentions." 5 On Sunday, 16th April, being Easter-day, after having attended the solemn service at St. Paul's, I dined with Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Williams. I maintained that Horace was wrong in placing happiness in Nil admirari, for that I thought admiration one of the most agreeable of all our feelings; and I regretted that I had lost much of my disposition to admire, which people generally do as they advance in life. JOHNSON. "Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better than admiration, judgment, to estimate things at their true value." I still insisted that admiration was more pleasing than judgment, as love is more pleasing than friendship. The feeling of friendship is like that of being com fortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne. JOHNSON. No, Sir; admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment and friendship like being enlivened. Waller has hit upon the same thought with you: but I don't believe you have borrowed from Waller. I wish you would enable yourself to borrow more. 46 Take equal quantities of flour of sulphur and flour of mustard-seed, make them an electuary with honey or treacle; and take a bolus as big as a nutmeg several times a day, as you can bear it; drinking after it a quarter of a pint of the infusion of the root of lovage. Johnson was in such good spirits, that every thing seemed to please him as we drove along. Our conversation turned on a variety of subjects. He thought portrait-painting an improper employment for a woman. "Public practice of any art," he observed, “and staring in men's faces, is very indelicate in a female." I happened to start a question, whether when a man knows that some of his intimate friends are invited to the house of another friend, with whom they are all equally intimate, he may join them without an invitation. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; he is not to go when he is not invited. They may be invited on purpose to abuse him," smiling. As a curious instance how little a man in the world, or rather as a convincing proof knows, or wishes to know, his own character that Johnson's roughness was only external, and did not proceed from his heart, I insert the following dialogue. JOHNSON. "It is wonderful, Sir, how rare a quality good humour is in life. We meet with very few goodhumoured men." I mentioned four of our friends, none of whom he would allow to be "Lovage, in Ray's Nomenclature,' is levisticum: perhaps the botanists may know the Latin name. Of this medicine I pretend not to judge. There is all the appearance of its efficacy, which a single in-good-humoured. One was acid, another was stance can afford: the patient was very old, the pain very violent, and the relief, I think, speedy and lasting. My opinion of alterative medicine is not high, but quid tentasse nocebit? if it does harm, or does no good, it may be omitted; but that it may do good, you have, I hope, reason to think is desired by, Sir, your most affectionate, humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." muddy, and to others he had objections which have escaped me. Then shaking his head and stretching himself at ease in the coach, and smiling with much complacency, he turned to me and said, "I look upon myself as a goodhumoured fellow." The epithet fellow, applied to the great lexicographer, the stately moralist, the masterly critic, as if it had been Sam Johnson, a mere pleasant companion, was highly diverting; and this light notion of himself struck me with wonder. I answered, also smiling, "No, no, Sir; that will not do. You are good-natured, but not good-humoured; you are irascible. You have not patience with folly and absurdity. I believe you would pardon them, if there were time to deprecate your vengeance; but punishment follows so quick after sentence, that they cannot escape." I had brought with me a great bundle of Scotch magazines and newspapers, in which his "Journey to the Western Islands" was attacked in every mode; and I read a great part of them to him, knowing they would afford him entertainment. I wish the writers of them had been present; they would have been sufficiently vexed. One ludicrous imitation of his style, by Mr. Maclaurin, now one of the Scotch judges, with the title of Lord Dreghorn, was distinguished by him from the rude mass. "This," said he, "is the best. But I could caricature my own style much better myself." 3 He defended his remark upon the general insufficiency of education in Scotland; and confirmed to me the authenticity of his witty saying on the learning of the Scotch-"Their learning is like bread in a into any subject, the first thing we have to do besieged town; every man gets a little, but no is to know what books have treated of it. man gets a full meal." "There is," said he, This leads us to look at catalogues, and the "in Scotland, a diffusion of learning, a certain backs of books in libraries.” Sir Joshua obportion of it widely and thinly spread. A served to me the extraordinary promptitude merchant has as much learning as one of their with which Johnson flew upon an argument. clergy." "Yes," said I, "he has no formal preparation, no flourishing with his sword; he is through your body in an instant." 4 He talked of "Isaac Walton's Lives," which was one of his most favourite books. Dr. Donne's life, he said, was the most perfect of them. He observed, that "it was wonderful that Walton, who was in a very low situation of life, should have been familiarly received by so many great men, and that at a time when the ranks of society were kept more separate than they are now." He supposed that Walton had then given up his business as a linendraper and sempster, and was only an author; and added, "that he was a great panegyrist." BOSWELL. No quality will get a man more friends than a disposition to admire the qualities of others. I do not mean flattery, but a sincere admiration." JOHNSON. Nay, Sir, flattery pleases very generally. In the first place, the flatterer may think what he says to be true; but, in the second place, whether he thinks so or not, he certainly thinks those whom he flatters of consequence enough to be flattered." 66 No sooner had we made our bow to Mr. Cambridge, in his library, than Johnson ran eagerly to one side of the room, intent on poring over the backs of the books.3 Sir Joshua observed (aside), "He runs to the books as I do to the pictures; but I have the advantage. I can see much more of the pictures than he can of the books." Mr. Cambridge, upon this, politely said, "Dr. Johnson, I am going, with your pardon, to accuse myself, for I have the same custom which I perceive you have. But it seems odd that one should have such a desire to look at the backs of books." Johnson, ever ready for contest, instantly started from his reverie, wheeled about and answered, "Sir, the reason is very plain. Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we inquire 1 Mrs. Piozzi tells this story, probably more truly and more forcibly, though with rather less delicacy of expression" Every man gets a mouthful, but no man a bellyful." Johnson added, that some oflicious friend had repeated it to Lord Bute while the question of his pension was afloat, and that Lord Bute only replied, "He will have the pension nevertheless."— Anecdotes. I suspect that Home was the "officious friend," and that hence may have arisen Johnson's evident dislike of the author of Douglas.- CROKER. 2 Johnson's conjecture was erroneous. Walton did not retire from business till 1643. But in 1664, Dr. King, Bishop of Chichester, in a letter prefixed to his "Lives," mentions his having been familiarly acquainted with him for forty years; and in 1631 he was so intimate with Dr. Donne, that he was one of the friends who attended him on his deathbed.-J. BOSWELL, jun. And, as Mr. Markland observes to me, Walton's condition in life was not very low; he was in a respectable line of business, and was well descended, and well allied: his mother was niece to Archbishop Cranmer, and his wife was the sister of Bishop Ken. But it seems to me that Johnson confounds distinction with separation of ranks. Literature has always been a passport into higher society. Walton was received, as Johnson himself was Johnson was here solaced with an elegant entertainment, a very accomplished family, and much good company; among whom was Mr. Harris of Salisbury, who paid him many compliments on his "Journey to the Western Islands." 66 The common remark as to the utility of reading history being made;-JOHNSON. "We must consider how very little history there is; I mean real authentic history. That certain kings reigned, and certain battles were fought, we can depend upon as true; but all the colouring, all the philosophy of history is conjecture." BOSWELL. Then, Sir, you would reduce all history to no better than an almanac, a mere chronological series of remarkable events." Mr. Gibbon, who must at that time have been employed upon his history, of which he published the first volume in the following year, was present; but did not step forth in defence of that species of writing. He probably did not like to trust himself with Johnson.6 995 Johnson observed, that the force of our early habits was so great, that though reason approved, nay, though our senses relished a different course, almost every man returned to them. I do not believe there is any observation upon human nature better founded than this; and in many cases, it is a very painful truth; for where early habits have been mean and wretched, the joy and elevation resulting from better modes of life must be damped by the gloomy consciousness of being under an almost inevitable doom to sink back into a situation which we recollect with disgust. It surely may be prevented, by constant attention and unremitting exertion to establish contrary habits of superior efficacy. a century later, not on a footing of personal or political 4 Mrs. Piozzi describes Johnson's promptitude of thought and expression on such occasions by a happy classical allsion: "His notions rose up like the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus, all ready clothed, and in bright armour, âît for battle."-CROKER. 5 Mr. (afterwards Lord) Plunket made a great sensation in the House of Commons (Feb. 28. 1825), by saying that history if not judiciously read was no better than an onl almanack," which Mercier had already said in his NureZA Tableau de Paris" Malet du Pau's and such-like histories of the revolution are no better than an old almanacs.” Boswell, we see, had anticipated both. — CROKER. 6 See antè, p. 445, n. 4. — C. "The Beggar's Opera," and the common question, whether it was pernicious in it effects, having been introduced;-JOHNSON. "As to this matter, which has been very much contested, I myself am of opinion, that more influence has been ascribed to 'The Beggar's Opera' than it in reality ever had; for I do not believe that any man was ever made a rogue by being present at its representation. At the same time I do not deny that it may have some influence, by making the character of a rogue familiar, and in some degree pleasing." Then collecting himself, as it were, to give a heavy stroke: "There is in it such a labefactation of all principles as may be injurious to morality." While he pronounced this response, we sat in a comical sort of restraint, smothering a laugh, which we were afraid might burst out. In his Life of Gay, he has been still more decisive as to the inefficiency of "The Beggar's Opera" in corrupting society. But I have ever thought somewhat differently; for, indeed, not only are the gaiety and heroism of a highwayman very captivating to a youthful imagination, but the arguments for adventurous depredation are so plausible, the allusions so lively, and the contrasts with the ordinary and more painful modes of acquiring property are so artfully displayed, that it requires a cool and strong judgment to resist so imposing an aggregate: yet, I own, I should be very sorry to have "The Beggar's Opera" suppressed; for there is in it so much of real London life, so much brilliant wit, and such a variety of airs, which, from early association of ideas, engage, soothe, and enliven the mind, that no perform ance which the theatre exhibits delights me more. The late " "worthy" Duke of Queensbury 3, as Thomson, in his "Seasons," justly characterises him, told me, that when Gay showed him "The Beggar's Opera," his Grace's observation was, "This is a very odd thing, Gay; I am satisfied that it is either a very good thing, or a very bad thing." It proved A very eminent physician, whose discernment is as acute and penetrating in judging of the human character as it is in his own profession, remarked once at a club where I was, that a lively young man, fond of pleasure, and without money, would hardly resist a solicitation from his mistress to go upon the highway, immediately after being present at the representation of "The Beggar's Opera." I have been told of an ingenious observation by Mr. Gibbon, that "The Beggar's Opera may, perhaps, have sometimes increased the number of highwaymen; but that it has had a beneficial effect in refining that class of men, making them less ferocious, more polite, in short, more like gentlemen." Upon which Mr. Courtenay said, that " Gay was the Orpheus of highwaymen."-BOSWELL. These are probably scraps of the Club conversation, and the physician was perhaps Dr. Fordyce. CROKER. Mr. Burke, however, thought the literary merit of the Beggar's Opera small, and its social effect injarious. Bisset's Life, i. 249. MARKLAND. 2 This word is not to be found in Johnson's Dictionary but "LABEFY, to weaken, to impair," is; from which he probably coined at the moment" labefactation," without attending to etymological analogies, for such verbs as signity, verify, become nouns by the addition of cation; and satisfy produces satisfaction; but I remember no instance of the declension of fy into factation. - CROKER, 1846. The third Duke of Queensbury, and second Duke of the former, beyond the warmest expectations of the author, or his friends. Mr. Cambridge, however, showed us to-day, that there was good reason enough to doubt concerning its success. He was told by Quin, that during the first night of its appearance it was long in a very dubious state; that there was a disposition to damn it, and that it was saved by the song, "Oh ponder well! be not severe !" the audience being much affected by the innocent looks of Polly, when she came to those two lines, which exhibit at once a painful and ridiculous image, " "For on the rope that hangs my dear, Depends poor Polly's life.' Quin himself had so bad an opinion of it, that he refused the part of Captain Macheath, and gave it to Walker, who acquired great celebrity by his grave yet animated performance of it. We talked of a young gentleman's marriage5 with an eminent singer, and his determination that she should no longer sing in public, though his father was very earnest she should, because her talents would be liberally rewarded, so as to make her a good fortune. It was questioned whether the young gentleman, who had not a shilling in the world, but was blest with very uncommon talents, was not foolishly delicate or foolishly proud, and his father truly rational without being mean. Johnson, with all the high spirit of a Roman senator, exclaimed, "He resolved wisely and nobly, to be sure. He is a brave man. Would not a gentleman be disgraced by having his wife singing publicly for hire? No, Sir, there can be no doubt here." 6 Johnson arraigned the modern politics of this country, as entirely devoid of all principle of whatever kind. Politics," said he, "are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it. How different in that respect is the state Dover; the patron of Gay and Thomson. He died in 1778, in the 80th year of his age.- CROKER. 4 The gravity of the performance of Macheath seems a strange merit. CROKER. 5 Richard Brinsley Sheridan's with Miss Linley, which took place 13th April, 1773. At the time of the marriage she was under an engagement to the Worcester Music Meeting, which Sheridan was, with great difficulty, persuaded by the Directors to allow her to fulfil; but the sum she received was given to the charity. Her singing at Oxford, at the installation of Lord North, as Chancellor, in 1773, was, as Dr. Hall told me, put on the footing of obliging his Lordship and the University; and when, on that occasion, several degrees were conferred, in the academic form of "honoris causa," Lord North slyly observed, that Sheridan should have a degree" uzoris causá," but he had not. CROKER. 6 A few words are here omitted. See antè, p. 176. n.6. CROKER. 7 In those troublesome times men were contending for fundamental principles, and were always zealous, and sometimes disinterested, in proportion to the greatness of the public stake; but since the Revolution, and the extinction of the claims of the house of Stuart, the principles of our constitution are so generally admitted, that little is left to be contested for, except the hands by which affairs shall be ad of the nation now from what it was in the time of Charles the First, during the Usurpation, and after the Restoration, in the time of Charles the Second. Hudibras affords a strong proof how much hold political principles had then upon the minds of men. There is in Hudibras a great deal of bullion which will always last. But, to be sure, the brightest strokes of his wit owed their force to the impression of the characters, which was upon men's minds at the time; to their knowing them, at table and in the street; in short, being familiar with them; and above all, to his satire being directed against those whom a little while before they had hated and feared. The nation in general has ever been loyal, has been at all times attached to the monarch, though a few daring rebels have been wonderfully powerful for a time. The murder of Charles the First was undoubtedly not com mitted with the approbation or consent of the people. Had that been the case, parliament would not have ventured to consign the regicides to their deserved punishment. And we know what exuberance of joy there was when Charles the Second was restored. If Charles the Second had bent all his mind to it, had made it his sole object, he might have been as absolute as Louis the Fourteenth." 2 A gentleman observed, he would have done no harm if he had. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, absolute princes seldom do any harm. But they who are governed by them are governed by chance. There is no security for good government." CAMBRIDGE. "There have been many sad victims to absolute government." JOHNSON. "So, Sir, have there been to popular factions." BOSWELL. "The question is, which is worst, one wild beast or many?" Johnson praised "The Spectator," particularly the character of Sir Roger de Coverley. He said, "Sir Roger did not die a violent death, as has been generally fancied. He was not killed; he died only because others were to die, and because his death afforded an opportunity to Addison for some very fine writing. We have the example of Cervantes making Don Quixote die. I never could see why Sir Roger is represented as a little cracked. It appears to me that the story of the widow was intended to have something ministered: in such circumstances, politics must become more of a profession in which men will seek personal advancement, than when their private feelings were mixed up with questions of vital public importance. - CROKER, 1831. I fear that the Reform Bill, and other political events which have occurred since the foregoing note was written, have again brought fundamental principles into question, and that our children, if not ourselves, are likely to see a perilous renewal of the old contest between monarchy and democracy. CROKER, 1846 I concur in Johnson's opinion as to the fact, but it seems to me, that the proof adduced is very inconclusive; for if the execution of the regicides proves one state of the public mind, surely the execution of the king himself might be adduced to prove another. - CROKER. 2 Did Dr. Johnson forget the power of the public purse, placed in the hands of the House of Commons, and all the arts, intrigues, and violence which Charles and his ministers tried, and tried in vain, to evade or resist that control? Did he also forget that there were juries in that reign? a superinduced upon it; but the superstructure did not come." Somebody found fault with writing verses in a dead language, maintaining that they were merely arrangements of so many words, and laughed at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, for sending forth collections of them, not only in Greek and Latin, but even in Syriac, Arabic, and other more unknown tongues.3 JOHNSON. "I would have as many of these as possible; I would have verses in every language that there are the means of acquiring. Nobody imagines that an university is to have at once two hundred poets: but it should be able to show two hundred scholars. Peiresc's death was lamented, I think, in forty languages. And I would bave had at every coronation, and every death of a king, every Gaudium, and every Luctus, university-verses, in as many languages as can be acquired. I would have the world be thus told, Here is a school where every thing may be learnt.'” Having set out next day on a visit to the Earl of Pembroke, at Wilton, and to my friend Mr. Temple, at Mamhead, in Devonshire, and not having returned to town till the 2d of May, I did not see Dr. Johnson for a considerable time, and during the remaining part of my stay in London kept very imperfect notes of his conversation, which had I according to my usual custom written out at large soon after the time, much might have been preserved, which is now irretrievably lost. I can now only record some particular scenes, and a few fragments of his memorabilia. But to make some amends for my relaxation of diligence in one respect, I can present my readers with arguments upon two law cases, with which he favoured me. On Saturday, the 6th of May, we dined by ourselves at the Mitre, and he dictated to me what follows, to obviate the complaint already mentioned [p. 428.], which had been made in the form of an action in the Court of Session by Dr. Memis, of Aberdeen, that in the same translation of a charter in which physicians were mentioned, he was called doctor of medi cine. "There are but two reasons for which a physi cian can decline the title of doctor of medicine jury might occasionally be packed or intimidated, but there still were juries! — CROKER. 3 "In foreign universities, When a king's born, or weds, or dies, Some write in Hebrew, some in Greek, And seem more learnedish than those 4 This learned Frenchman was born in 1580, and died 1637. His Life, written in Latin by Gassendi, was translated into English by Dr. Rand, and dedicated to Evelyn.WRIGHT. |