erable credit, who have given importance | he once said to me, in a pleasant humour, to their own private history by an intermix- Sir, if Robertson's style be faulty, he owes ture of literary anecdotes, and the occur- it to me; that is, having too many words, rences of their own times: the celebrated and those too big ones." Huetius 1 has published an entertaining vol-1 ume upon this plan, De rebus ad eum pertinentibus. In the fourth class we have the journalist, temporal and spiritual: Elias Ashmole, William Lilly, George Whitefield, John Wesley, and a thousand other old women and fanatick writers of memoirs and meditations." I mentioned to him that Dr. Hugh Blair, in his Lectures on Rhetorick and Belles Lettres, which I heard him deliver at Edinburgh, had animadverted on the Johnsonian style as too pompous; and attempted to imitate it, by giving a sentence of Addison in "The Spectator," No. 411, in the manner of Johnson. When treating of the utility of the pleasures of imagination in preserving us from vice, it is observed of those "who know not how to be idle and innocent," that, "their very first step out of business is into vice or folly;" which Dr. Blair supposed would have been expressed in "The Rambler" thus: "their very first step out of the regions of business is into the perturbation of vice, or the vacuity of folly 2." JOHNSON. "Sir, these are not the words I should have used. No, sir; the imitators of my style have not hit it. Miss Aikin has done it the best; for she has imitated the sentiment as well as the diction 3." I intend, before this work is concluded, to exhibit specimens of imitation of my friend's style in various modes; some caricaturing or mimicking it, and some formed upon it, whether intentionally, or with a degree of similarity to it, of which perhaps the writers were not conscious. In Baretti's Review, which he published in Italy, under the title of " FRUSTA LETTERARIA," it is observed, that Dr. Robertson the historian had formed his style upon that of "Il celebre Samuele Johnson." My friend himself was of that opinion; for 1 [Huet, Bishop of Avranches.-See ante, v. i. p. 32.-ED.] When Dr. Blair published his "Lectures," he was invidiously attacked for having omitted his censure on Johnson's style, and, on the contrary, praising it highly. But before that time Johnson's "Lives of the Poets" had appeared, in which his style was considerably easier than when he wrote "The Rambler." It would; therefore, have been uncandid in Blair, even supposing his criticism to have been just, to have preserved it. BOSWELL. 3 [Probably in an essay "Against Inconsistency in our Expectations," by Miss Aikin, afterwards Mrs. Barbauld, in a volume of miscellaneous pieces published by her and her brother, Dr. Aikin, in 1773.-E.] 16 VOL. II. I read to him a letter which Lord Monboddo had written to me, containing some critical remarks upon the style of his "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland." His lordship praised the very fine passage upon landing at Icolmkill 4: but his own style being exceedingly dry and hard, he disapproved of the richness of Johnson's language, and of his frequent use of metaphorical expressions. JOHNSON. Why, sir, this criticism would be just, if, in my style, superfluous words, or words too big for the thoughts, could be pointed out; but this I do not believe can be done. For instance, in the passage which Lord Monboddo admires, 'We were now treading that illustrious region,' the word illustrious contributes nothing to the mere narration; for the fact might be told without it: but it is not, therefore, superfluous; for it wakes the mind to peculiar attention, where something of more than usual importance is to be presented. Illustrious!'-for what? and then the sentence proceeds to expand the circumstances connected with Iona. And, sir, as to metaphorical expression, that is a great excellence in style, when it is used with propriety, for it gives you two ideas for one;-conveys the meaning more luminously, and generally with a perception of delight." He told me, that he had been asked to undertake the new edition of the " Biographia Britannica," but had declined it; which he afterwards said to me he regretted. In this regret many will join, because it would have procured us more of Johnson's most delightful species of writing; and although my friend Dr. Kippis 5 has hitherto discharged the task judiciously, distinctly, and with more impartially than might have been expected from a separatist, it were to have been wished that the superintendence of this literary Temple of Fame had been assigned to" a friend to the constitution in church. and state." We should not then have had it too much crowded with obscure dissenting teachers, doubtless men of merit and worth, but not quite to be numbered amongst "the most eminent persons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland 6." [See ante, v. i. p. 440.-ED.] 5 After having given to the publick the first five volumes of a new edition of the BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA, between the years 1778 and 1793, Dr. Kippis died, October 8, 1795; and the work is not likely to be soon completed.—MALONE. In this censure, which has been carelessly uttered, I carelessly joined. But in justice to Dr. Kippis, who, with that manly candid good temper which marks his character, set me right, I now On Saturday, September 20, after break- | with people whom he fears; not as a dog fast, when Taylor was gone out to his farm, fears the lash: but of whom he stands in Dr. Johnson and I had a serious conversa- awe." I was struck with the justice of this tion by ourselves on melancholy and mad- observation. To be with those of whom a ness; which he was, I always thought, er-person, whose mind is wavering and dejectroneously inclined to confound together. ed, stands in awe, represses and composes Melancholy, like great wit," may be an uneasy tumult of spirits 2, and consoles "near allied to madness;" but there is, in my him with the contemplation of something opinion, a distinct separation between them. steady, and at least comparatively great. When he talked of madness, he was to be understood as speaking of those who were in any great degree disturbed, or as it is commonly expressed, "troubled in mind." Some of the ancient philosophers held, that all deviations from right reason were mad-grow very ill, pleasure is too weak for them, ness; and whoever wishes to see the opinions both of ancients and moderns upon this subject, collected and illustrated with a variety of curious facts, may read Dr. Arnold's very entertaining work 1. Johnson said, "A madman loves to be He added, "Madmen are all sensual in the lower stages of the distemper. They are eager for gratifications to soothe their minds and divert their attention from the misery which they suffer; but when they and they seek for pain 3. Employment, sir, and hardships, prevent melancholy. Í suppose, in all our army in America, there was not one man who went mad." ED. ["He was," says Sir. J. Haw- Hawk. kins, "a great enemy to the pres- Apoph. ent fashionable way of supposing p. 203. with pleasure retract it; and I desire it may be worthless and infamous persons mad."] particularly observed, as pointed out by him to [This probably meant that he disme, that "The new lives of dissenting divines, in approved of the degree of impunity the first four volumes of the second edition of the which is sometimes afforded to crime, unBiographia Britannica,' are those of John Abernethy, Thomas Amory, George Benson, Hugh der the plea of insanity, for it seems almost Broughton, the learned puritan, Simon Browne, certain that he thought (and perhaps felt) Joseph Boyse, of Dublin, Thomas Cartwright, the that the exercises of piety, and the restraints learned puritan, and Samuel Chandler. The of conscience, might repress a tendency only doubt I have ever heard suggested is, towards insanity. So at least Miss Reywhether there should have been an article of Dr.nolds believed.] ["It was doubtAmory. But I was convinced, and am still con- less," she says, vinced, that he was entitled to one, from the reality of his learning, and the excellent and candid nature of his practical writings. "The new lives of clergymen of the church of England, in the same four volumes, are as follows: John Balguy, Edward Bentham, George Berkley, Bishop of Cloyne, William Berriman, Thomas Birch, William Borlase, Thomas Bott, James Bradley, Thomas Broughton, John Browne, John Burton, Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, Thomas Carte, Edmund Castell, Edmund Chishull, Charles Churchill, William Clarke, Robert Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, John Conybeare, Bishop of Bristol, George Castard, and Samuel Croxall. I am not conscious,' says Dr. Kippis, of any partiality in conducting the work. I would not willingly insert a dissenting minister that does not justly "deserve to be noticed, or omit an established clergyman that does. At the same time, I shall not be deterred from introducing dissenters into the Biographia, when I am satisfied that they are entitled to that distinction, from their writings, learning, and merit.'"' Let me add that the expression "A friend to the constitution in church and state," was not meant by me as any reflection upon this reverend gentleman, as if he were an enemy to the political constitution of his country, as established at the Revolution, but, from my steady and avowed predilection for a tory, was quoted from "Johnson's Dictionary," where that distinction is so defined.-BOSWELL. 66 Reyn. Recoll. very natural for so good a man to keep a strict watch over his mind; but one so very strict as Dr. Johnson kept may, perhaps, in some measure, be attributed to his dread of its hereditary tendencies, which, I had reason to believe, he was very apprehensive bordered upon insanity. Probably his studious 2 Cardan composed his mind tending to madness (or rather actually mad, for such he seems in his writings, learned as they are), by exciting voluntary pain. V. Card., Op. et Vit.-KEARNEY. 3 We read in the gospels, that those unfortunate persons, who were possessed with evil spirits (which, after all, I think is the most probable cause of madness, as was first suggested to me by my respectable friend Sir John Pringle), had recourse to pain, tearing themselves, and jumping sometimes into the fire; sometimes into the water. Mr. Seward has furnished me with a remarkable anecdote in confirmation of Dr. Johnson's observation. A tradesman who had acquired a large fortune in London retired from business, and went to live at Worcester. His mind, being without its usual occupation, and having nothing else to supply its place, preyed upon itself, so that existence was a torment to him. At last he was seized with the stone; and a friend who found him.. in one of its severest fits, having expressed his concern, "No, no, sir," said he," don't pity me; what I now feel is ease, compared with that torture of mind from which it relieves me."BOSWELL. "That Dr. Johnson's mind was preserved from insanity by his devotional aspirations, may surely be reasonably supposed. No man could have a firmer reliance on the efficacy of prayer; and he would often, with a solemn earnestness, beg of his intimate friends to pray for him, and apparently on very slight occasions of corporeal indisposition."] . chinleck now is not near so great a man as the Laird of Auchinleck was a hundred years ago." I told him, that one of my ancestors never. went from houfe without being attended by thirty men on horseback. Johnson's shrewdness and spirit of inquiry were exerted upon every occasion." Pray," said he, "how did your ancestor support his thirty men and thirty horses when he went at a distance from home, in an age when there was hardly any money in circulation?" I suggested the same difficulty to a friend who mentioned Douglas's going to the Holy Land with a numerous train of followers1. Douglas could, no doubt, maintain followers enough while living upon his own lands, the produce of which supplied them with food; but he could not carry that food to the. Holy Land; and as there was no commerce by which he could be supplied with money, how could he maintain them in foreign countries? I suggested a doubt, that if I were to reside in London, the exquisite zest with which I relished it in occasional, visits might go off, and I might grow tired of it. JOHNSON, "Why, sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." We entered seriously upon a question of much importance to me, which Johnson was pleased to consider with friendly at• tention. I had long complained to him that I felt myself discontented in Scotland, as too narrow a sphere, and that I wished to make my chief residence in London, the great scene of ambition, instruction, and amusement;, a scene, which was to me, comparatively speaking, a heaven upon earth. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, I never knew any one who had such a gust for London as you have: and I cannot blame you for your wish to live there; yet, sir, were I in your father's place, I should not consent to your settling there; for I have the old feudal notions, and I should be afraid that Auchinleck would be deserted, as you would soon find it more desirable to have a country-seat in a better climate. I own, however, that to consider it as a duty to reside on a family estate is a prejudice; for we must consider, that working-people get employment equally, and the produce of land is sold equally, whether a great family resides at home or not; and if the rents of an estate be carried to London, they return again in the circulation of commerce; nay, sir, we must perhaps allow, that carrying the rents to a distance is a good, because it contributes to that circulation. We must, however, allow, that a well-regulated great family may improve a neighbourhood in civility and elegance, and give an example of good order, virtue, and piety; and so its residence at home may be of much advantage. But if a great family be disorderly and vicious, its residence at home is very pernicious to a neighbourhood. There is not now the same inducement to live in the country as formerly; the pleasures of social life are much ["James de Duglas was requested by King better enjoyed in town; and there is no Robert Brace in his last hours to repair with his longer in the country that power and influ- heart to Jerusalem, and humbly to deposit it at ence in proprietors of land which they had the sepulchre of our Lord;" which he did in 1330. in old times, and which made the country Hailes's Ann. 2. 146. Hence the crowned so agreeable to them. The Laird of Au-heart in the arms of Douglas.--ED.] · To obviate his apprehension, that by settling in London I might desert the seat of my ancestors, I assured him that I had old feudal principles to a degree of enthusiasm; and that I felt all the dulcedo of the natale solum. I reminded him, that the Laird of Auchinleck had an elegant house, in front of which he could ride ten miles forward upon his own territories, upon which he had upwards of six hundred people attached to him; that the family seat was rich in natural romantick beauties of rock, wood, and water, and that in my "morn of life" I had appropriated the finest descriptions in the aucient classicks to certain scenes there, which were thus associated in my mind. That when all this was considered, I should certianly pass a part of the year at home, and enjoy it the more from variety, and from bringing with me a share of the intellectual stores of the metropolis. He listened to all this, and kindly "hoped it might be as I now supposed." He said, a country gentleman should bring his lady to visit London as soon as he can, that they may have agreeable topicks for conversation when they are by them-sets me before him; for he makes me turn selves. As I meditated trying my fortune in Westminster Hall, our conversation turned upon the profession of the law in England. JOHNSON. "You must not indulge too sanguine hopes, should you be called to our bar. I was told, by a very sensible lawyer, that there are a great many chances against any man's success in the profession of the law; the candidates are so numerous, and those who get large practice so few. He said, it was by no means true that a man of good parts and application is sure of having business, though he, indeed, allowed that if such a man could but appear in a few causes, his merit would be known, and he would get forward; but that the great risk was, that a man might pass half a life-time in the courts, and never have an opportunity of showing his abilities 1," We talked of employment being absolutely necessary to preserve the mind from wearying and growing fretful, especially in those who have a tendency to melancholy; and I mentioned to him a saying which somebody had related of an American savage, who, when an European was expatiating on all the advantages of money, put this question: "Will it purchase occupation?" JOHNSON. "Depend upon it, sir, this saying is too refined for a savage. And, sir, money will purchase occupation; it will purchase all the conveniences of life; it will purchase variety of company; it will purchase all sorts of entertainment 2." over many leaves at a time." On Sunday, September 21, we went to the church of Ashbourne, which is one of the largest and most luminous that I have seen in any town of the same size. I felt great satisfaction in considering that I was supported in my fondness for solemn publick worship by the general concurrence and munificence of mankind. Johnson and Taylor were so different from each other, that I wondered at their preserving an intimacy. Their having been at school and college together might, in some degree, account for this; but Sir Joshua Reynolds has furnished me with a stronger reason; for Johnson mentioned to him, that he had been told by Taylor he was to be his heir. I shall not take upon me to animadvert upon this; but certain it is that Johnson paid great attention, to Taylor. He now, however, said to me, "Sir, I love him; but I do not love him more; my regard for him does not increase. As it is said in the Apocrypha, his talk is of bullocks 3. I do not suppose he is very fond of my company. His habits are by no means sufficiently clerical: this he knows that I see; and no man likes to live under the eye of perpetual disapprobation." I have no doubt that a good many sermons were composed for Taylor by Johnson. At this time I found upon his table a part of one which he had newly begun to write: and Concio pro Tayloro appears in one of his diaries. When to these circumI talked to him of Forster's "Voyage to stances we add the internal evidence from the South Seas," which pleased me; but I the power of thinking and style, in the colfound he did not like it. "Sir," said he,lection which the Reverend Mr. Hayes had "there is a great affectation of fine writing in it." BosWELL. "But he carries you along with him." JOHNSON. "No, sir; he does not carry me along with him; he leaves me behind him; or rather, indeed, he Now, at the distance of fifteen years since this conversation passed, the observation which I have had an opportunity of making in Westminster Hall has convinced me, that, however true the opinion of Dr. Johnson's legal friend may have been some time ago, the same certainty of success cannot now be promised to the same display of merit. The reasons, however, of the rapid rise of some, and disappointment of others equally respectable, are such as it might seem invidious to mention, and would require a longer detail than would be proper for this work.-BOSWELL. [Mr. Boswell's personal feelings here have clouded his perception, for Johnson's friend was far from holding out any thing like a certainty of success -Nay, he seems to have scarcely allowed a probability.-ED.] 2 [Nay, it may be said to purchase or rather to create occupation too. No man can have riches without the trouble that in different degrees must accompany them.-ED.] published, with the significant title of "Sermons left for Publication, by the Reverend John Taylor, LL. D.," our conviction will be complete. I, however, would not have it thought that Dr. Taylor, though he could not write like Johnson (as, indeed, who could?), did not sometimes compose sermons as good as those which we generally have from very respectable divines. He showed me one with notes on the margin in Johnson's hand-writing; and I was present when he read another to Johnson, that he might have his opinion of it, and Johnson said it was very well," These, we may be sure, were not Johnson's; for he was above little arts, or tricks of deception. Johnson was by no means of opinion that every man of a learned profession should consider it as incumbent upon him, or as necessary to his credit, to appear as an au 3 Ecclesiasticus, chap. xxxviii. v. 25. The whole chapter may be read as an admirable illustration of the superiority of cultivated minds over the gross and illiterate.-BaswELL. p. 134, 142. He, indeed, well deserves his hire." [" Foote's happiness of manner in relating was such," Johnson Piozzi, said, " as subdued arrogance and roused stupidity: his stories were truly like those of Biron, in Love's Labour Lost, so very attractive thour. When, in the ardour of ambition | ny. "That aged ears play'd truant with his tales, I mentioned to Johnson a respectable And younger hearings were quite ravished, So sweet and voluble was his discourse.'", person of a very strong mind?, who had little of that tenderness which is common to "Of all conversers, however," added he, human nature; as an instance of which," the late Hawkins Browne was the most when I suggested to him that he should in- delightful with whom I ever was in compavite his son, who had been settled ten years ny; his talk was at once so elegant, so apin foreign parts, to come home and pay him parently artless, so pure, and so pleasing, it .a visit, his answer was, "No, no, let him seemed a perpetual stream of sentiment, enmind his business." JOHNSON. "I do not livened by gaiety, and sparkling with imaagree with him, sir, in this. Getting mo-ges.". Mrs. Piozzi used to think Mr. Johnney is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life." In the evening, Johnson, being in very good spirits, entertained us with several characteristical portraits; I regret that any of them escaped my retention and diligence. I found from experience, that to collect my friend's conversation so as to exhibit it with any degree of its original flavour, it was necessary to write it down without delay. To record his sayings, after some distance of time, was like preserving or pickling longkept and faded fruits, or other vegetables, which, when in that state, have little or nothing of their taste when fresh. I shall present my readers with a series of what I gathered this evening from the Johnsonian garden. "My friend, the late Earl of Corke, had a great desire to maintain the literary character of his family: he was a genteel man, but did not keep up the dignity of his rank. He was so generally civil, that nobody thanked him for it." son's determined preference of a cold, monotonous talker over an emphatical and violent one, would make him quite a favourite among the men of ton, whose insensibility, or affectation of perpetual calmness, certainly did not give to him the offence it does to many. He loved "conversation without effort," he said; and the encomiums which he so often pronounced on the manners of Topham Beauclerc in society constantly ended in that peculiar praise, that" it was without effort."], "Colley Cibber once consulted me as to one of his birthday odes, a long time before it was wanted. I objected very freely to several passages. Cibber lost patience, and would not read his ode to an end. When we had done with criticism we walked over to Richardson's, the authour of Clarissa,' and I wondered to find Richardson displeased that I did not treat Cibber with more respect.' Now, sir, to talk of respect for a player 4!" (smiling disdainfully.) BosWELL. "There, sir, you are always heretical: you never will allow merit to a "Did we not hear so much said of Jack player." JOHNSON. "Merit, sir! what Wilkes, we should think more highly of his merit? Do you respect a rope-dancer or conversation. Jack has a great variety of a ballad-singer?" BOSWELL. "No, sir; talk, Jack is a scholar, and Jack has the but we respect a great player, as a man manners of a gentleman. But after hear- who can conceive lofty sentiments, and ing his name sounded from pole to pole, as can express them gracefully." JOHNSON. the phoenix of convivial felicity, we are dis- "What, sir, a fellow who claps a hump on appointed in his company. He has always his back, and a lump on his leg, and cries, been at me: but I would do. Jack a kind-I am Richard the Third?' Nay, sir, a ness, rather than not 3. The contest is now over." "Garrick's gaiety of conversation has delicacy and elegance; Foote makes you laugh more; but Foote has the air of a buffoon paid for entertaining the compa 1 [Probably Lord Mansfield.-ED.] 2 [He means his father, old Lord Auchinleck; and the absent son was David, who spent so many years in Spain.-Er.] 3 [See post, 21st May, 1783.-ED.] ballad-singer is a higher man, for he does two things; he repeats and he sings: there is both recitation and musick in his perform 4 [Perhaps Richardson's displeasure was created Cibber, who was almost old enough to have been by Johnson's paying no respect to the age of his grandfather. Cibber had left the stage, and ceased to be a player before Johnson left Oxford; so that he had no more reason to despise Cibber for that profession, than Cibber would have had if he had recalled to him the days when he was usher at a school.--ED.] |