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thing new to be done, and a different system | exalt you in his estimation. You must of thoughts rises in the mind. I wish I now do the same for me. We must all could gather currants in your garden. help one another, and you must now consid Now fit up a little study, and have your er me as, dear madam, your most obliged books ready at nand: do not spare a little and most humble servant, money, to make your habitation pleasing "SAM. JOHNSON." to yourself.

"I have dined lately with poor dear 1. I do not think he goes on well. His table is rather coarse, and he has his children too much about him 2. But he is a very good man.

"Mrs. Williams is in the country, to try if she can improve her health: she is very ill. Matters have come so about, that she is in the country with very good accommodation; but age, and sickness, and pride, have made her so peevish, that I was forced to bribe the maid to stay with her by a secret stipulation of half-a-crown a week over her wages.

"Our club ended its session about six weeks ago. We now only meet to dine once a fortnight. Mr. Dunning, the great lawyer 3, is one of our members. Thrales are well.

The

"I long to know how the negro's cause will be decided. What is the opinion of Lord Auchinleck, or Lord Hailes, or Lord Monboddo? I am, dear sir, your most affectionate, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON,"

"DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. BOSWELL. "22d July, 1777.

By

"MADAM,-Though I am well enough pleased with the taste of sweetmeats, very little of the pleasure which I received at the arrival of your jar of marmalade arose from eating it. I received it as a token of friendship, as a proof of reconciliation, things much sweeter than sweetmeats, and upon this consideration I return you, dear madam, my sincerest thanks. having your kindness I think I have a double security for the continuance of Mr. Boswell's, which it is not to be expected that any man can long keep, when the influence of a lady so highly and so justly valued operates against him. Mr. Boswell will tell you that I was always faithful to your interest, and always endeavoured to

[Mr. Langton.-ED.]

2 This very just remark I hope will be constantly held in remembrance by parents, who are in general too apt to indulge their own fond feelings for their children at the expense of their friends. The common custom of introducing them after dinner is highly injudicious. It is agreeable enough that they should appear at any other time; but they should not be suffered to poison the moments of festivity by attracting the attention of the company, and in a manner compelling them from politeness to say what they do not think.

BOSWELL.

3 [Created in 1782 Lord Ashburton.--ED.]

"MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. "Edinburgh, 28th July, 1777 "MY DEAR SIR,-This is the day on which you were to leave London, and I have been amusing myself in the intervals of my law-drudgery with figuring you in the Oxford post-coach. I doubt, however, if you have had so merry a journey as you and I had in that vehicle last year, when you made so much sport with Gwyn, the architect. Incidents upon a journey are recollected with peculiar pleasure: they are preserved in brisk spirits, and come up again in our minds, tinctured with that gaiety, or at least that animation, with which we first perceived them."

(I added, that something had occurred which I was afraid might prevent me from meeting him; and that my wife had been affected with complaints which threatened a consumption, but was now better.)

["DR. JOHNSON TO MR. THRALE. "[Oxford], 4th Aug. 1777. "Boswell's project is disconcerted by a visit from a relation of Yorkshire, whom he mentions as the head of his clan. Bozzy, you know, makes a huge bustle about all his own motions and all mine. I have enclosed a letter to pacify him, and reconcile him to the uncertainties of human life."]

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"Oxford, 4th Aug. 1777. "DEAR SIR,-Do not disturb yourself about our interviews; I hope we shall have many nor think it any thing hard or unusual that your design of meeting me is interrupted. We have both endured greater evils, and have greater evils to expect.

"Mrs. Boswell's illness makes a more serious distress. Does the blood rise from her lungs or from her stomach? From little vessels broken in the stomach there is lieve, alway, frothy, as mixed with wind. no danger. Blood from the lungs is, I beYour physicians know very well what is to be done. The loss of such a lady would, indeed, be very afflictive, and I hope she is in no danger. Take care to keep her mind as easy as possible.

"I have left Langton in London. He has been down with the militia, and is again quiet at home, talking to his litte people, as I suppose you do sometimes

Make my compliments to Miss Veronica 1. |
The rest are too young for ceremony.

"I cannot but hope that you have taken
your country-house at very seasonable
time, and that it may conduce to restore or
establish Mrs. Boswell's health, as well as
provide room and exercise for the young
ones. That you and your lady may both be
happy, and long enjoy your happiness, is the
sincere and earnest wish of, dear sir, your
most, &c.
"SAM. JOHNSON."

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66 TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"Ashbourne, 1st Sept. 1777. "DEAR SIR,-On Saturday I wrote a very short letter, immediately upon my arival hither, to show you that I am not .ess desirous of the interview than yourself. Life admits not of delays; when pleasure tan be had, it is fit to catch it: every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased. When I came to Lichfield, I found my old friend Harry Jackson dead 2. It was a loss, and a loss not to be repaired, as he was one of the companions of my childhood. I hope we may long continue to gain friends; but the friends which merit or usefulness can procure us are not able to supply the place of old acquaintance, with whom the days of youth may be retraced, and those images revived which gave the

This young lady, the authour's eldest daughter, and at this time about five years old, died in London, of a consumption, four months after her father, Sept. 26, 1795.-MALONE.

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earliest delight. If you and I live to b much older, we shall take great delight in talking over the Hebridean Journey.

"In the mean time it may not be amiss to contrive some other little adventure, but what it can be I know not; leave it, as Sidney says,

To virtue, fortune, time, and woman's breast";' for I believe Mrs. Boswell must have some part in the consultation.

"One thing you will like. The Doctor, so far as I can judge, is likely to leave us enough to ourselves. He was out to-day before I came down, and, I fancy, will stay out to dinner. I have brought the papers

3 By an odd mistake, in the first three editions we find a reading in this line to which Dr. Johnson would by no means have subscribed, wine having been substituted for time. That errour probably was a mistake in the transcript of Johnson's original letter, his hand-writing being often very difficult to read. The other deviation in the beginning of the line (virtue instead of nature) must be attributed to his memory having deceived him; and therefore has not been disturbed. The verse quoted is the concluding line of a sonnet of Sidney's, of which the earliest copy, I believe, is found in Harrington's translation of Ariosto, 1591, in the notes on the eleventh book:-" And therefore," says he, "that excellent verse of Sir Philip Sydney, in his first Arcadia (which I know not by what mishap is left out in the printed booke) [4to. 1590,] is in mine opinion worthie to be praised and followed, to make a true and virtuous wife :.

"Who doth desire that chast his wife should bee,
First be he true, for truth does truth deserve;
Then be he such, as she his worth may see,
And, alwaies one, credit with her preserve:
Not toying kynd, nor causelessly unkynd,

Not stirring thoughts, nor yet denying right,
Not spying faults, nor in plaine errors blind,
Never hard hand, nor ever rayns (reins) too light
As far from want, as far from vaine expence,
Th' one doth enforce, the t'other doth entice:
Allow good companie, but drive from thence
All filthie mouths that glorie in their vice:
This done, thou hast no more but leave the rest

To nature, fortune, time, and woman's breast."

I take this opportunity to add, that in England's Parnassus, a collection of poetry printed in 1600, the second couplet of this sonnet is thus corruptly

exhibited:

"Then he be such as he his words may see,

And alwaies one credit which her preserve:"

a variation which I the rather mention, because the readings of that book have been triumphantly quoted, when they happened to coincide with the sophistications of the second folio edition of Shakspeare's plays in 1632, as adding I know not what degree of authority and authenticity to the latter: [See ante, p. 43. He says in a letter to as if the corruptions of one book (and that aboundMrs. Thrale, “Lichfield, 7th August, 1777.-Ating with the grossest falsifications of the authour Birmingham I heard of the death of an old friend, and at Lichfield of the death of another. Anni prædantur euntes. One was a little older, and the other a little younger than myself." The atter probably was Jackson.-ED.]

from whose works its extracts are made) could give any kind of support to another, which in every page is still more adulterated and unfaithful. See Mr. Steevens's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 97, fifth edit. 1803.-MALONE.

about poor Dodd, to show you, but you | 5s. 1d. but it sold for no less than 5,540. will soon have despatched them.

"Before I came away, I sent poor Mrs. Williams into the country, very ill of a pituitous defluxion, which wastes her gradually away, and which her physician dec.ares himself unable to stop. I supplied her as far as could be desired with all conveniences to make her excursion and abode pleasant and useful. But I am afraid she can only linger a short time in a morbid state of weakness and pain.

"The Thrales, little and great, are all well, and purpose to go to Brighthelmstone at Michaelmas. They will invite me to go with them, and perhaps I may go, but I hardly think I shall like to stay the whole time; but of futurity we know but little.

"Mrs. Porter is well; but Mrs. Aston, one of the ladies at Stow-hill, has been struck with a palsy, from which she is not likely ever to recover. How soon may such a stroke fall upon us!

"Write to me, and let us know when we may expect you. I am, dear sir, vour most humble servant,

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"I have a present for you from Lord Hailes; the fifth book of Lactantius,' which he has published with Latin notes. He is also to give you a few anecdotes for your Life of Thomson,' who I find was private tutor to the present Earl of Hadington, Lord Hailes's cousin, a circumstance not mentioned by Dr. Murdoch. I have keen expectations of delight from your edition of the English Poets.

The other third of Ulva, with the island of
Staffa, belonged to Macquarry of Ormaig
Its rent, including that of Staffa, 831. 128.
24d.-set up at 2,178l. 16s. 4d.-sold for
no less than 3,540l. The Laird of Col
wished to purchase Ulva, but he thought
the price too high. There may, indeed,
be great improvements made there, both in
fishing and agriculture; but the interest of
the purchase-money exceeds the rent so
very much, that I doubt if the bargain will
be profitable. There is an island called
Little Colonsay, of 101. yearly rent, which
I am informed has belonged to the Mac-
quarrys of Ulva for many ages, but which
was lately claimed by the Presbyterian
Synod of Argyll, in consequence of a grant
made to them by Queen Anne. It is be-
lieved that their claim will be dismissed,
and that Little Colonsay will also be sold
for the advantage of Macquarry's creditors.
What think you of purchasing this island,
and endowing a school or college there, the
master to be a clergyman of the Church of
England? How venerable would such an
institution make the name of Dr. SAMUEL
JOHNSON in the Hebrides! I have, like
yourself, a wonderful pleasure in recollect-
ing our travels in those islands.
pleasure is, I think, greater than it reasona-
bly should be, considering that we had not
much either of beauty or elegance to charm
our imaginations, or of rude novelty to as
tonish. Let us, by all means, have another
expedition. I shrink a little from our
scheme of going up the Baltick. I am
sorry you have already been in Wales; for
I wish to see it. Shall we go to Ireland,
of which I have seen but little? We shall
try to strike out a plan when we are as
Ashbourne.-I am ever your most faithfu.
humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL."

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

The

"I am sorry for poor Mrs. Williams's situation. You will, however, have the comfort of reflecting on your kindness to "Ashbourne, 11th Sept. 1777. her. Mr. Jackson's death, and Mrs. Aston's "DEAR SIR,-I write to be left at Carpalsy, are gloomy circumstances. Yet hisle, as you direct me; but you cannot surely we should be habituated to the un- have it. Your letter, dated Sept. 6th, was certainty of life and health. When my not at this place till this day, Thursday, mind is unclouded by melancholy, I consid- Sept. 11th; and I hope you will be here er the temporary distresses of this state of before this is at Carlisle1. However, what being as light afflictions,' by stretching you have not going, you may have returnmy mental view into that glorious after-ex-ing; and as I believe I shall not love you istence, when they will appear to be as nothing. But present pleasures and present pains must be felt. I lately read Rasselas' over again with satisfaction.

"Since you are desirous to hear about Macquarry's sale, I shall inform you particularly. The gentleman who purchased Ulva is Mr. Campbell of Auchnaba: our friend Macquarry was proprietor of twothirds of it, of which the rent was 1567. 58. 13d. This parcel was set up at 4,0691.

less after our interview, it will then be as true as it is now, that I set a very high. value upon your friendship, and count your kindness as one of the chief felicities of my life. Do not fancy that an intermission of writing is a decay of kindness. No man is always in a disposition to write; nor haa any man at all times something to say.

It so happened. The letter was forwarded to my house at Edinburgh.-BOSWELL.

"That distrust which intrudes so often in your mind is a mode of melancholy, which, if it be the business of a wise man to be happy, it is foolish to indulge; and, if it be a duty to preserve our faculties entire for their proper use, it is criminal. Suspicion is very often an useless pain. From that, and all other pains, I wish you free and safe; for I am, dear sir, most affectionately yours, "SAM. JOHNSON."

It appears that Johnson, now in his sixty-eighth year, was seriously inclined to realize the project of our going up the Baltick, which I had started when we were in the Isle of Sky; for he thus writes to Mrs. Thrale:

p. 366.

“Ashbourne, 13th Sept. 1777. Letters, "Boswell, I believe, is coming. vol. i. He talks of being here to-day: I shall be glad to see him: but he shrinks from the Baltick expedition, which, I think, is the best scheme in our power: what we shall substitute, I know not. He wants to see Wales; but, except the woods of Bachycraigh, what is there in Wales, that can fill the hunger of ignorance, or quench the thirst of curiosity? We may, perhaps, form some scheme or other; but, in the phrase of Hockley in the Hole, it is pity he has not a better bottom."

Such an ardour of mind, and vigour of enterprise, is admirable at any age; but more particularly so at the advanced period at which Johnson was then arrived. I am sorry now that I did not insist on our executing that scheme. Besides the other objects of curiosity and observation, to have seen my illustrious friend received, as he probably would have been, by a prince so eminently distinguished for his variety of talents and acquisitions as the late King of Sweden, and by the Empress of Russia, whose extraordinary abilities information, and magnanimity, astonish the world, would have afforded a noble subject for contemplation and record. This reflection may possibly be thought too visionary by the more sedate and cold-blooded part of my readers; yet I own, I frequently indulge it with an earnest, unavailing regret.

Pemb. MS.

["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. ASTON.

"Ashbourne, 13th Sept. 1777.

"DEAR MADAM,-As I left you so much disordered, a fortnight is a long time to be without any account of your health. I am willing to flatter myself that you are better, though you gave me no reason to believe that you intended to use any means for your recovery. Nature often performs wonders, and will, I hope, do for you more than you seem inclined to do for yourself.

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"In this weakness of body, with which it has pleased God to visit you, he has given you great cause of thankfulness, by the total exemption of your mind from all effects of your disorder. Your memory is not less comprehensive or distinct, nor your reason less vigorous and acute, nor your imagination less active and sprightly than in any former time of your life. This is a great blessing, as it respects enjoyment of the present; and a blessing yet far greater, as it bestows power and opportunity to prepare for the future. But as you

"All sickness is a summons.

do not want exhortations, I will send you only my good wishes, and exhort you to believe the good wishes very sincere, of, dear madam, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."]

On Sunday evening, Sept. 14, I arrived at Ashbourne, and drove directly up to Dr. Taylor's door. Dr. Johnson and he ap peared before I had got out of the post chaise, and welcomed me cordially.

I told them that I had travelled all the preceding night, and gone to bed at Leek, in Staffordshire; and that when I rose to go to church in the afternoon, I was informed there had been an earthquake, of which, it seems, the shock had been felt in some be gree at Ashbourne. JOHNSON. "Sir, it will be much exaggerated in publick talk: for, in the first place, the common people do not accurately adapt their thoughts to the objects; nor, secondly, do they accurately adapt their words to their thoughts: they do not mean to lie; but, taking no pains to be exact, they give you very false accounts. A great part of their language is proverbial. If any thing rocks at all, they say it rocks like a cradle; and in this way they go on."

The subject of grief for the loss of relations and friends being introduced, I observed that it was strange to consider how soon it in general wears away. Dr. Taylor mentioned a gentleman of the neighbourhood as the only instance he had ever known of a person who had endeavoured to retain grief. He told Dr. Taylor, that after his lady's death, which affected him deeply, he resolved that the grief, which he cherished with a kind of sacred fondness, should be lasting; but that he found he could not keep it long. JOHNSON. "All grief for what cannot in the course of nature be helped soon wears away; in some sooner, indeed, in some later; but it never continues very long, unless where there is madness, such as will make a man have pride so fixed in his mind as to imagine Iimself a king; or any other passion in an un reasonable way: for all unnecessary grief is unwise, and therefore will not be long retained by a sound mind. If, indeed, the

cause of our grief is occasioned by our own misconduct, if grief is mingled with remorse of conscience, it should be lasting." BosWELL. "But, sir, we do not approve of a man who very soon forgets the loss of a wife or a friend." JOHNSON. "Sir, we disapprove of him, not because he soon forgets his grief, for the sooner it is forgotten the better; but because we suppose, that if he forgets his wife or his friend soon, he has not had much affection for them."

I was somewhat disappointed in finding that the edition of the "English Poets," for which he was to write prefaces and lives, was not an undertaking directed by him, but that he was to furnish a preface and life to any poet the booksellers pleased. I asked him if he would do this to any dunce's works, if they should ask him. JOHNSON. Yes, sir; and say he was a dunce." My friend seemed now not much to relish talking of this edition.

Letters,

p. 369.

On Monday, September 15, Dr. vol. i. Johnson [wrote to Mrs. Thrale: "Last night came Boswell. I am glad that he is come, and seems to be very brisk and lively, and laughs a little at- 1. I told him something of the scene at Richmond 2."]

He observed, that every body commended such parts of his "Journey to the Western Islands" as were in their own way. "For instance," said he, " Mr. Jackson (the allknowing) told me there was more good sense upon trade in it, than he should hear in the house of commons in a year, except from Burke. Jones commended the part which treats of language; Burke that which describes the inhabitants of mountainous countries."

After breakfast, Johnson carried me to see the garden belonging to the school of Ashbourne, which is very prettily formed upon a bank, rising gradually behind the house, The Rev. Mr. Langley, the headmaster, accompanied us.

While we sat basking in the sun upon a seat here, I introduced a common subject of complaint, the very small salaries which many curates have; and I maintained, that no man should be invested with the character of a clergyman, unless he has a security for such an income as will enable him to appear respectable; that, therefore, a clergyman should not be allowed to have a curate, unless he gives

[Probably his host, Dr. Taylor-between

whom and Boswell there seems to have been no

great cordiality, and it may be suspected that Boswell does not take much power [pains?] to set Dr. Taylor's merits in the best light. He was Johnson's earliest and most constant friend, and read

the funeral service over him.-ED.]

2 [This refers to some occurrence (probably at Sir Joshua's) now forgotten.-ED.]

him a hundred pounds a year; if he cannot do that, let him perform the duty himself. JOHNSON. "To be sure, sir, it is wrong that any clergyman should be without a reasonable income; but as the church revenues were sadly diminished at the refor mation, the clergy who have livings cannot afford, in many instances, to give good sal aries to curates, without leaving themselves too little; and, if no curate were to be permit ted unless he had a hundred pounds a year, their number would be very small, which would be a disadvantage, as then there would not be such choice in the nursery for the church, curates being candidates for the higher ecclesiastical offices, according to their merit and good behaviour." He explained the system of the English hierarchy exceedingly well. "It is not thought fit," said he, "to trust a man with the care of a parish till he has given proof as a curate that he shall deserve such a trust." This is an excellent theory; and if the practice were according to it, the church of Eng land would be admirable indeed. However, as I have heard Dr. Johnson observe as to the universities, bad practice does not infer that the constitution is bad.

We had with us at dinner several of Dr. Taylor's neighbours, good civil gentlemen, who seemed to understand Dr. Johnson very well, and not to consider him in the light that a certain person3 did, who being struck, or rather stunned by his voice and manner, when he was afterwards asked what he thought of him, answered, “ He's a tremendous companion."

Johnson told me, that "Taylor was a very sensible acute man, and had a strong mind: that he had great activity in some respects, and yet such a sort of indolence, that if you should put a pebble upon his chimney-piece, you would find it there, in the same state, a year afterwards."

And here is a proper place to give an account of Johnson's humane and zealous interference in behalf of the Reverend Dr. William Dodd, formerly Prebendary of Brecon, and chaplain in ordinary to his majesty; celebrated as a very popular preacher, an encourager of charitable institutions, and authour of a variety of works, chiefly theological. Having unhappily contracted expensive habits of living, partly occasioned by licentiousness of manners, he in an evil hour, when pressed by want of money, and dreading an exposure of his circumstances, forged a bond, of which he attempted to avail himself to support his credit, flattering himself with hopes that he might be able to repay its amount without being detected. The person whose name he thus rashly and criminally presumed to falsify was the Eart

[Mr. George Garrick.-ED.]

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