On Thursday, 1st April, he commended one of the Dukes of Devonshire for "s dogged veracity 1." 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 Lon-our friends, a very worthy man, I, by way don: 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 wellfurnished apartments, and elegant dress, without any meat in her kitchen."

ther business nor pleasure; much intended, | with him. Mr. Allen the printer was also and little done. My health is much broken; his guest. He was uncommonly silent; and my nights afford me little rest. I have tried. I have not written down any thing, except opium, but its help is counterbalanced with a single curious fact, which, having the great disturbance; it prevents the spasms, sanction of his inflexible veracity, may be but it hinders sleep. O God, have mercy on received as a striking instance of human insensibility and inconsideration. As he was passing by a fishmonger who was skinning an eel alive, he heard him "curse it, be cause it would not lie still."

me.

Last week I published (the first part of) the Lives of the Poets, written, I hope, in such a manner as may tend to the promotion of piety.

In this last year I have made little acquisition; I have scarcely read any thing. I maintain Mrs. 1 and her daughter. Other good of myself I know not where to find, except a little charity.

On Wednesday, 7th April, I'dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's. I have not marked what company was there. Johnson harangued upon the qualities of different liquors; and spoke with great contempt of claret, as so weak, that "a man would be drowned by it before it made him drunk." He was persuaded to drink one glass of it, that he might judge, not from recollection, which might be dim, but from immediate sensation. He shook his head, and said,

But I am now in my seventieth year; what can be done, ought not to be delayed. April 3, 1779, 11 P. M.-Easter-eve.This is the time of my annual review, and annual resolution. The review is comfortless; little done. Part of the Life of Dry-"Poor stuff! No, sir, claret is the liquor den and the Life of Milton have been written; but my mind has neither been improved nor enlarged. I have read little, almost nothing. And I am not conscious that I have gained any good, or quitted any evil habits.

for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero (smiling) must drink brandy. In the first place, the flavour of brandy is most grateful to the palate; and then brandy will do soonest for a man what drinking can do for him. There are, indeed, few who are able to drink brandy. That is a power rather to be wished for than attain

April 4, 1779, Easter-day.-I rose about half an hour after nine, transcribed the prayer written last night; and by neglected. And yet," proceeded he, "as in all ing to count time sat too long at breakfast, so that I came to church at the first lesson. I attended the Litany pretty well; but in the pew could not hear the communion service, and missed the prayer for the church militant. Before I went to the altar, I prayed the occasional prayer. At the altar I commended my 2, and again prayed the prayer; I then prayed the collects, and again my own prayer by memory. I left out a clause. I then received, I hope with earnestness; and while others received sat down; but thinking that posture, though usual, improper, I rose and stood. I prayed again, in the pew, but with what prayer I have forgotten.

When I used the occasional prayer at the altar, I added a general purpose,-To avoid idleness.

I gave two shillings to the plate. Before I went I used, I think, my prayer, and endeavoured to calm my mind. After my return I used it again, and the collect for the day. Lord, have mercy upon me.

I have for some nights called Francis to prayers, and last night discoursed with him on the sacrament.]

On Easter-day, after [the] solemn service at St. Paul's, [just described], I dined

1 [No doubt Mrs. Desmoulins and her daughter. -ED.]

2 [These letters (which Dr. Strahan seems not to have understood), probably mean Ovnтo, "departed friends."-ED.]

pleasure hope is a considerable part, I know not but fruition comes too quick by brandy. Florence wine I think the worst; it is wine only to the eye; it is wine neither while you are drinking it, nor after you have drunk it; it neither pleases the taste, nor exhilarates the spirits." I reminded him how heartily he and I used to drink wine together, when we were first acquainted; and how I used to have a headache after sitting up with him. He did not like to have this recalled, or, perhaps, thinking that I boasted improperly, resolved to have a witty stroke at me; "Nay, sir, it was not the wine that made your head ache, but the sense that I put into it." BOSWELL. " What, sir! will sense make the head ache?" JOHNSON. "Yes, sir (with a smile), when it is not used to it." No man who has a true relish of pleasantry could be offended at this; especially if Johnson in a long intimacy had given him repeated proofs of his regard and good estimation. I used to say that as he had given me a thousand pounds in praise, he had a good right now and then to take a guinea from me.

On Thursday, 8th April, I dined with him at Mr. Allan Ramsay's, with Lord Graham 3 and some other company. We talked of Shakspeare's witches. JOHNSON.

3 [The present [third] Duke of Montrose, born in 1755. He succeeded to the dukedom in 1790.-ED.]

This day a violent altercation arose between Johnson and Beauclerk, which having made much noise at the time, I think it proper, in order to prevent any future misrepresentation, to give a minute account of it,

"They are beings of his own creation; they | passed, and particularly with his prayer for are a compound of malignity and meanness, the mercy of Heaven. He said, in a solwithout any abilities; and are quite differ-emn fervid tone, "I hope he shall find ent from the Italian magician. King mercy 4." James says in his Dæmonology,' ' Magicians command the devils: witches are their servants.' The Italian magicians are elegant beings." RAMSAY. "Opera witches, not Drury-lane witches." Johnson observed, that abilities might be employed in a narrow sphere, as in getting money, which he said he believed no man could do without vigorous parts, though concentrated to a point. RAMSAY. "Yes, like a strong horse in a mill; he pulls better." Lord Graham, while he praised the beauty of Lochlomond, on the banks of which is his family seat, complained of the climate, and said he could not bear it. JOHNSON. Nay, my lord, don't talk so; you may bear it well enough. Your ancestors have borne it more years than I can tell." This was a handsome compliment to the antiquity of the house of Montrose. His lordship told me afterwards that he had only affected to complain of the climate, lest, if he had spoken as favourably of his country as he really thought, Dr. Johnson might have attacked it. Johnson was very courteous to Lady Margaret Macdonald. "Madam," said he, "when I was in the Isle of Sky1, I heard of the people running to take the stones off the road, lest Lady Margaret's horse should stumble."

Lord Graham commended Dr. Drummond at Naples as a man of extraordinary talents; and added, that he had a great love of liberty. JOHNSON. "He is young 2, my lord (looking to his lordship with an arch smile), all boys love liberty, till experience convinces them they are not so fit to govern themselves as they imagined. We are all agreed as to our own liberty; we would have as much of it as we can get; but we are not agreed as to the liberty of others: for in proportion as we take, others must lose. I believe we hardly wish that the mob should have liberty to govern When that was the case some time ago, no man was at liberty not to have candles in his windows." RAMSAY. "The result is, that order is better than confusion." JOHNSON. "The result is, that order cannot be had but by subordination." On Friday, 16th April, I had been present at the trial of the unfortunate Mr. Hackman, who, in a fit of frantick jealous love, had shot Miss Ray, the favourite of a nobleman 3. Johnson, in whose company I dined to-day with some other friends, was much interested by an account of what

us.

In talking of Hackman, Johnson argued, as Judge Blackstone had done, that his being furnished with two pistols was a proof that he meant to shoot two persons. Mr. Beauclerk said, " No; for that every wise man who intended to shoot himself took two pistols, that he might be sure of doing it at once. Lord -'s cook shot himself with one pistol, and lived ten days in great agony. Mr. -5, who loved buttered muffins, but durst not eat them because they disagreed with his stomach, resolved to shoot himself; and then he ate three buttered muffins for breakfast, before shooting himself, knowing that he should not be troubled with indigestion; he had two charged pistols; one was found lying charged upon the table by him, after he had shot himself with the other."—" Well," said Johnson, with an air of triumph, "you see here one pistol was sufficient." Beauclerk replied smartly, "Because it happened to kill him." And either then or a very little afterwards, being piqued at Johnson's triumphant remark, added, "This is what you don't know, and I do." There was then a cessation of the dispute; and some. minutes intervened, during which, dinner and the glass went on cheerfully; when' Johnson suddenly and abruptly exclaimed, "Mr. Beauclerk, how came you to talk so petulantly to me, as This is what you don't know, but what I know?' Öne thing I know, which you don't seem to know, that you are very uncivil." BEAUCLERK. "Because you began by being uncivil (which you always are)." The words in parentheses were, I believe, not heard by Dr. Johnson. Here again there was a cessation of arms. Johnson told me,

4

5

[See ante, vol. i. pp. 32, 33.-ED.]

["The Honourable [John Damer], son to the Lord [Milton, afterwards Earl of Dorchester], Bedford Arms, in Covent Garden. He was heir shot himself at three o'clock this morning, at the centric to be confined within the limits of any to 30,000l. a year, but of a turn rather too ecfortune. Coroner's verdict, Lunacy.”—Gent. Mag. 15th Aug. 1776.-Though the editor was assured, from what he thought good authority, that Mr. Damer was here alluded to, he has since reason to suppose that another and more respectable name was meant, which, however, without more certainty, he does not venture to mention. -ED.]

about the world with my wits ready to observe, and my tongue ready to talk. A man is seldom in a humour to unlock his bookcase, set his desk in order, and betake himself to serious study; but a retentive memory will do something, and a fellow shall have strange credit given him, if he can but recollect striking passages from different books, keep the authors separate in his head, and bring his stock of knowledge artfully into play: how else," added he, "do the gamesters manage when they play for more money than they are worth?" His Dictionary, however, could not, one would think, have been written by running up and down; but he really did not consider it as a great performance; and used to say, "That he might have done it easily in two years, had not his health received several shocks during the time."

that the reason why he waited at first some time without taking any notice of what Mr. Beauclerk said, was because he was thinking whether he should resent it. But when he considered that there were present a young lord and an eminent traveller, two men of the world, with whom he had never dined before, he was apprehensive that they might think they had a right to take such liberties with him as Beauclerk did, and therefore resolved he would not let it pass; adding, "that he would not appear a coward." A little while after this, the conversation turned on the violence of Hackman's temper. Johnson then said, " It was his business to command his temper, as my friend, Mr. Beauclerk, should have done some time ago." BEAUCLERK. "I should learn of you, sir." JOHNSON. "Sir, you have given me opportunities enough of learning, when I have been in your company. No man loves to be treated with contempt." BEAUCLERK (with a polite inclination towards Johnson). "Sir, you have known me twenty years, and however I may have treated others, you may be sure I could never treat you with contempt." JOHNSON. "Sir, you have said more than was necessary." Thus it ended; and Beauclerk's coach not having come for him till very late, Dr. Johnson and another gentle-booksellers set him about it, however, man sat with him a long time after the rest of the company were gone; and he and I dined at Beauclerk's on the Saturday se'n night following.

After this tempest had subsided, I recollect the following particulars of his conver

sation:

When Mr. Thrale, in consequence of this declaration, teased him in the year 1769 to give a new edition of it, because, said he, there are four or five gross faults: "Alas, sir!" replied Johnson, "there are four or five hundred faults, instead of four or five; but you do not consider that it would take me up three whole months' labour, and when the time was expired the work would not be done." When the

some years after, he went cheerfully to the business, said he was well paid, and that they deserved to have it done carefully.]

"Mallet, I believe, never wrote a single line of his projected life of the Duke of Marlborough. He groped for materials, and thought of it, till he had exhausted his mind. Thus it sometimes happens that Imen entangle themselves in their own schemes."

"I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning; for that is a sure good. would let him at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention; because you have done a great deal, when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He'll get better books afterwards."

Hawk.

"To be contradicted in order to force you to talk is mighty unpleasing. You shine, indeed; but it is by being ground."

Of a gentleman who made some figure among the literati of his time (Mr. Fitzherbert 1), he said, "What eminence he had was by a felicity of manner: he had no more learning than what he could not help."

["I would never," said he, on Apoph. another occasion, "desire a young p. 204. man to neglect his business for the purpose of pursuing his studies, because it On Saturday, April 24, I dined with him is unreasonable; I would only desire him to at Mr. Beauclerk's, with Sir Joshua Reyread at those hours when he would other-nolds, Mr. Jones (afterwards Sir William), wise be unemployed. I will not promise that he will be a Bentley; but if he be a lad of any parts, he will certainly make a sensible man."]

Piozzi,

[Dr. Johnson had never, by his p. 40, 41. own account, been a close student, and used to advise young people never to be without a book in their pocket, to be read at by-times when they had nothing else to do. "It has been by that means," said he one day to a boy at Mr. Thrale's, "that all my_knowledge has been gained, except what I have picked up by running

Mr. Langton, Mr. Steevens, Mr. Paradise and Dr. Higgins. I mentioned that Mr. Wilkes had attacked Garrick to me, as a man who had no friend. JOHNSON. "I believe he is right, sir. O, oiñol, ou piños-He had friends, but no friend 2. Garrick was so diffused, he had no man to whom he wished to unbosom himself. He found people always ready to applaud him, and that al

1 [See ante, p. 109.-ED.]

2 See vol. i. p. 83. and p. 168 of this vol. BosWELL.

pleasure is in general dangerous, and per nicious to virtue; to be able therefore to furnish pleasure that is harmless, pleasure pure and unalloyed, is as great a power as man can possess." This was, perhaps, as ingenious a defence as could be made; still, however, I was not satisfied 1.

[To Sir J. Hawkins he said, Hawk. "Garrick, I hear, complains that I Apoph. am the only popular author of his p. 215. time who has exhibited no praise of him in print; but he is mistaken, Akenside has forborne to mention him. Some indeed are lavish in their applause of all who come within the compass of their recollection; yet he who praises every body praises nobody; when both scales are equally loaded, neither can preponderate."]

A celebrated wit2 being mentioned, he said, "One may say of him as was said of a French wit, Il n'a de l'esprit que contre Dieu. I have been several times in company with him, but never perceived any strong power of wit. He produces a general effect by various means; he has a cheerful countenance and a gay voice. Besides, his trade is wit. It would be as wild in him to come into company without merriment, as for a highwayman to take the road without his pistols."

ways for the same thing: so he saw life with great uniformity." I took upon me, for once, to fight with Goliath's weapons, and play the sophist.-" Garrick did not need a friend, as he got from every body all he wanted. What is a friend? One who supports you and comforts you, while others do not. Friendship, you know, sir, is the cordial drop, to make the nauseous draught of life go down:' but if the draught be not nauseous, if it be all sweet, there is no occasion for that drop." JOHNSON. "Many men would not be content to live so. I hope I should not. They would wish to have an intimate friend, with whom they might compare minds, and cherish private virtues." One of the company mentioned Lord Chesterfield, as a man who had no friend. JOHNSON. "There were more materials to make friendship in Garrick, had he not been so diffused.” BOSWELL. "Garrick was pure gold, but beat out to thin leaf. Lord Chesterfield was tinsel." JOHNSON. "Garrick was a very good man, the cheerfulest man of his age; a decent liver in a profession which is supposed to give indulgence to licentiousness; and a man who gave away freely money acquired by himself. He began the world with a great hunger for money; the son of a halfpay officer, bred in a family whose study was to make four-pence do as much as others made four-pence-halfpenny do. But when he had got money, he was very liberal." I presumed to animadvert on his eulogy on Garrick, in his "Lives of the Poets." "You say, sir, his death eclipsed the gaiety of nations.". JOHNSON. "I could not have said more nor less. It is the truth; eclipsed, not extinguished; and his death did eclipse; it was like a storm." BOSWELL. "But why nations? Did his gaiety extend further than his own nation?" JOHNSON. 66 Why, sir, some exaggeration must be allowed. Besides, nations may be said, if we allow the Scotch to be a nation, and to have gaiety-which they have not. You are an exception, though. Come, gentlemen, let us candidly admit that there is one Scotchman who is cheerful." BEAUCLERK. "But he is a [Most readers will agree with Mr. Boswell very unnatural Scotchman." I, however, that this eulogium is not very happily expressed: continued to think the compliment to Gar-yet rick hyperbolically untrue. His acting had ceased some time before his death; at any rate, he had acted in Ireland but a short time, at an early period of his life, and never in Scotland. I objected also to what appears an anti-climax of praise, when contrasted with the preceding panegyrick“and diminished the publick stock of harmless pleasure!" "Is not harmless pleasure JOHNSON. very tame?" Nay, sir, harmless pleasure is the highest praise. Pleasure is a word of dubious import;

Talking of the effects of drinking, he said, "Drinking may be practised with great prudence; a man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated has not the art of getting drunk; a sober man who happens occasionally to get drunk, readily enough goes into a new company, which a man who has been drinking should never do. Such a man will undertake any thing; he is without skill in inebriation. I used to slink home when I had drunk too much. A man accustomed to self-examination will be conscious when he is drunk, though an habitual drunkard will not be conscious of it. I knew a physician, who for twenty years was not sober; yet in a pamphlet, which he wrote upon fevers, he appealed to Garrick and me for his vindication from a charge of drunkenness. A bookseller 3

appears to have been satisfactory to Garrick's immediate friends, for it is inscribed on the cenotaph erected by Mrs. Garrick to his memory in Lichfield Cathedral. Harwood's History of Lichfield, p. 86.—ED.]

George Selwyn is here meant ; but he cannot
[It has been suggested to the editor that Mr.
son.--ED.]
trace any acquaintance between Selwyn and John-

3 [This was Andrew Miller, of whom, when talking one day of the patronage the great sometimes affect to give to literature and literary men, Johnson said, Andrew Miller is the Macenas of the age."-Hawk. Apoph. p. 200.—ED.}