rant relaters of your bon mots do?" JOHNSON. "No, sir, there will always be some truth mixed with the falsehood, and how can it be ascertained how much is true and how much is false? Besides, sir, what damages would a jury give me for having been represented as swearing?" BoswELL. "I think, sir, you should at least disavow such a publication, because the world and posterity might with much plausible foundation say, Here is a volume which was publickly advertised and came out in Dr. Johnson's own name, and, by his silence, was admitted by him to be genuine."" JOHNSON. "I shall give myself no trouble about the matter." He was, perhaps, above suffering from such spurious publications; but I could not help thinking, that many men would be much injured in their reputation, by having absurd and vicious sayings imputed to them; and that redress ought in such cases to be given. Piozzi, He said, "The value of every story depends on its being true. A story is a picture either of an individual or of human nature in general: if it be false, it is a picture of nothing. For instance: suppose a man should tell that Johnson, before setting out for Italy, as he had to cross the Alps, sat down to make himself wings. This many people would believe: but it would be a picture of nothing. ******* (naming a worthy friend of ours), used to think a story, a story, till I showed him that truth was essential to it." [On another occasion p. 89. he said, "A story is a specimen of human manners, and derives its sole value from its truth. When Foote has told me something, I dismiss it from my mind, like a passing shadow; when Reynolds tells me something, I consider myself as possessed of an idea the more."] I observed, that Foote entertained us with stories which were not true; but that, indeed, it was properly not as narratives that Foote's stories pleased us, but as collections of ludicrous images. JOHNSON. "Foote is quite impartial, for he tells lies of every body.' [Mr. Cradock 2 relates that a gentleman sitting next to Johnson at a p. 98. table where Foote was entertaining company with some exaggerated recitals, whispered his neighbour, "Why, Dr. Crad. Mem. the 99 [Although Mr. Langton was a man of strict and accurate veracity, the Editor suspects, from the term worthy friend, which Boswell generally appropriates to Mr. Langton, as well as the number of asterisks (See ante, vol. i. p. 522, n.), that he was here meant; if so, the opinion which Johnson corrected was probably one stated by Mr. Langton in very early life, for he knew Johnson when he was only fifteen years of age.-ED.] 2 [See post, 12 April, 1776.-ED.] Johnson, it is impossible that this impudent fellow should know the truth of half what he has told us." "Nay, sir," replied Johnson, hastily, "if we venture to come into company with Foote, we have no right, I think, to look for truth."] p. 88. The importance of strict and scrupulous. veracity cannot be too often inculcated. Johnson was known to be so rigidly attentive to it, that even in his common conversation, the slightest circumstance was mentioned with exact precision. [Indeed one reason why his memory Piozzi, was so particularly exact might be derived from his rigid attention to veracity; being always resolved to relate every fact as it stood, he looked even on the smaller parts of life with minute attention, and remembered such passages as escape cursory and common observers. His p. 234. veracity was indeed, from the most trivial to the most solemn occasions, strict even to severity; he scorned to embellish a story with fictitious circumstances, which (he used to say) took off from its real value. "A story," said Johnson, "should be a specimen of life and manners; but if the surrounding circumstances are false, as it is no more a representation of reality, it is no longer worthy our attention."] The knowledge of his having such a principle and habit made his friends have a perfect reliance on the truth of every thing that he told, however it might have been doubted if told by many others. As an instance of this, I may mention an odd incident which he related as having happened to him one night in Fleet-street. "A gentlewoman," said he, "begged I would give her my arm to assist her in crossing the street, which I accordingly did; upon which she offered me a shilling, supposing me to be the watchman. I perceived that she was somewhat in liquor." This, if told by most people, would have been thought an invention; when told by Johnson, it was believed by his friends as much as if they had seen what passed 3. p. 176. [Mrs. Piozzi relates some very similar instances, which he himself Piozzi, told her. As he was walking along the Strand, a gentleman stepped out of some neighbouring tavern, with his napkin in his hand and no hat, and stopping him as civilly as he could: "I beg your pardon, sir, but you are Dr. Johnson, I believe." Yes, sir." "We have a wager depending on your reply: pray, sir, is it irreparable, or irrepairable that one should say?" "The last, I think, sir," answered Dr. Johnson, 66 1 [Miss Reynolds says, in her Recollections, that she wonders why Mr. Boswell should think this anecdote so surprising; for Johnson's dress was so mean (until his pension) that he might have been easily mistaken for a beggar.--Ev.l "for the adverb [adjective] ought to follow the verb; but you had better consult my Dictionary than me, for that was the result of more thought than you will now give me time for." No, no," replied the gentleman, gaily, "the book I have no certainty at all of; but here is the author, to whoin I referred: I have won my twenty guineas quite fairly, and am much obliged to you, sir;" so shaking Dr. Johnson kindly by the hand, he went back to finish his dinner or dessert. He also once told Mrs. Piozzi that a young gentleman called on him one morning, and told him that, having dropped suddenly into an ample fortune, he was willing to qualify himself for genteel society by adding some literature to his other endowments, and wished to be put in an easy way of obtaining it. Johnson recommended the University; "for you read Latin, sir, with facility." "I read it a little, to be sure, sir." "But do you read it with facility, I say?" "Upon my word, sir, I do not very well know, but I rather believe not." Dr. Johnson now began to recommend other branches of science; and, advising him to study natural history, there arose some talk about animals, and their divisions into oviparous and viviparous: "And the cat here, sir," said the youth who wished for instruction, "pray in which class is she?" The Doctor's patience and desire of doing good began now to give way. "You would do well," said he, " to look for some person to be always about you, sir, who is capable of explaining such matters, and not come to us to know whether the cat lays eggs or not: get a discreet man to keep you company; there are many who would be glad of your table and fity pounds a year." The young gentleman retired, and in less than a week informed his friends, that he had fixed on a preceptor to whom no objections could be made; but when he named as such one of the most distinguished characters 1 in our age or nation, Dr. Johnson fairly gave himself up to an honest burst of laughter, at seeing this youth at such a surprising distance from common knowledge of the world. We landed at the Temple-stairs, where we parted. liams's room. power to steal, yet he may all nis ife be thief in his heart. So when a man has once become a Carthusian, he is obliged to continue so, whether he chooses it or not. Their silence, too, is absurd. We read in the Gospel of the apostles being sent to preach, but not to hold their tongues. All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle. I said to the Lady Abbess of a convent, 'Madam, you are here, not for the love of virtue, but the fear of vice.' She said, She should remember this as long as she lived."" I thought it hard to give her this view of her situation when she could not help it; and, indeed, I wondered at the whole of what he now said; because, both in his "Rambler" and Idler," he treats religious austerities with much solemnity of respect. Finding him still persevering in his abstinence from wine, I ventured to speak tc him of it. JOHNSON. "Sir, I have no objection to a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences. One of the fathers tells us, he found fasting nade him so peevish that he did not practise it." Though he often enlarged upon the evil of intoxication, he was by no means harsh and unforgiving to those who indulged in occasional excess in wine. One of his friends 2, I wil remember, came to sup at a tavern with him and some other gentlemen, and too plainly discovered that he had drunk too much at dinner. When one who loved mischief, hinking to produce a severe censure, asked Johnson, a few days afterwards, "Well, sir, what did your friend say to you, as an apology for being in such a situation?" Johnson answered, Sir, he said all that a man should say he said he was sorry for it." I heard him once give a very judicious practical advice upon the subject: A man who has been drinking wine at all freely should never go into a new company With those who have partaken of wine with him, he may be pretty well in unison; but he will probably be offensive, or appear ridiculous, to other people.' I found him in the evening in Mrs. WilWe talked of religious orders. He said, "It is as unreasonable for a He allowed very great influence to eduman to go into a Carthusian convent for cation. "I do not deny, sir, but there is fear of being immoral, as for a man to cut some orginal difference in minds; but it is off his hands for fear he should steal. nothing in comparison of what is formed by There is, indeed, great resolution in the education. We may instance the science immediate act of dismembering himself; of numbers, which all minds are equally cabut when that is once done, he has no lon-pable of attaining 3: yet we find a prodr ger any merit: for though it is out of his 2 [Probably Mr. Boswell himself.-ED] 3 [This appears to be an ill-chosen illustration gious difference in the powers of different | fixed for our proposed jaunt, we met in the men, in that respect, after they are grown up, because their minds have been more or less exercised in it: and I think the same cause will explain the difference of excellence in other things, gradations admitting always some difference in the first principles." This is a difficult subject; but it is best to hope that diligence may do a great deal. We are sure of what it can do, in increasing our mechanical force and dexterity. I again visited him on Monday. He took occasion to enlarge, as he often did, upon the wretchedness of a sea-life. "A ship is worse than a gaol. There is, in a gaol, better air, better company, better conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of being in danger. When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land." "Then," said I, "it would be cruel in a father to breed his son to the sea." JOHNSON. "It would be cruel in a father who thinks as I do. Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it, they cannot escape from it, because it is then too late to choose another profession; as indeed is generally the case with men, when they have once engaged in any particular way of life." p. 220. morning at the Somerset coffee-house in the Strand, where we were taken up by the Oxford coach. He was accompanied by Mr. Gwyn, the architect; and a gentleman of Merton college, whom he did not know, had the fourth seat. We soon got into conversation; for it was very remarkable of Johnson, that the presence of a stranger had no restraint upon his talk. I observed that Garrick, who was about to quit the stage, would soon have an easier life. JOHNSON. "I doubt that, sir." BoswELL. Why, sir, he will be Atlas with the burthen off his back." JOHNSON. "But I know not, sir, if he will be so steady without his load. However, he should never play any more, but be entirely the gentleman, and not partly the player: he should no longer subject himself to be hissed by a mob, or to be insolently treated by performers, whom he used to rule with a high hand, and who would gladly retaliate." BOSWELL. "I think he should play once a year for the benefit of decayed actors, as it has been said he means to do." JOHNSON "Alas, sir! he will soon be a decayed actor himself." Johnson expressed his disapprobation of ornamental architecture, such as magnifi cent columns supporting a portico, or ex pensive pilasters supporting merely their Piozzi, [On another occasion, he said, own capitals, "because it consumes labour "The life of a sailor was also a con- disproportionate to its utility." For the tinued scene of danger and exertion; and same reason he satirized statuary. "Paintthe manner in which time was spent on ing," said he, "consumes labour not disshipboard would make all who saw a cabin proportionate to its effect; but a fellow will envy a gaol." The roughness of the lan-hack half a year at a block of marble to guage used on board a man of war, where he passed a week on a visit to Captain Knight, disgusted him terribly. He asked an officer what some place was called, and received for answer, that it was where the loplolly-man kept his loplolly; a reply he considered, not unjustly, as disrespectful, gross, and ignorant.] 2 On Tuesday, 19th March, which was It seems, on the contrary, that there are few powers of mind so unequally given as those connected with numbers. The few who have them in any extraordinary degree, like Jedediah Buxton, and like the boys Bidder and Colborne, of our times, seem to have little other intellectual power. See accounts of Buxton in Gent. Mag. v. xxi. p. 61, and v. xxiv. p. 251.-ED.] [It is not likely that he ever spent a week on shipboard. As the exact date of his excursion into the West with the Reynoldses (ante, v. i. p. 163.) is not given, it cannot be ascertained whether it was then that he visited Captain (efterwards Sir Joseph) Knight who lay, in the Belleisle, in Plymouth Sound, a couple of months of the years 1762 and 1763.-ED.] 2 [The loplolly-boy is the surgeon's attendant. - ED.] make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot." Here he seemed to me to be strangely deficient in taste 3; for surely statuary is a noble art of [Dr. Johnson does not seem to nave objected to ornamental architecture or statuary per se, but to labour disproportionate to its utility or effect. In this view, his criticisms are just. The late style of building introduced into London, of colonnades and porticos, without any regard to aspect, climate, or utility, is so absurd to reason, so offensive to taste, and so adverse to domestic comfort, that it reconciles us to the short-lived materials of which these edifices are composed. It would have been well if we had, according to Johnson's sober advice, thought it necessary that the “ magnificence of porticos," and the "expense of pilasters," should have borne some degree of proportion to their utility. With regard to "statuary," when it does preserve the varieties of the human frame," it deserves all that Mr. Boswell says for it: but Johnson's ob jection was that it more frequently produced abortive failures," hardly resembling man." ED.] mitation, and preserves a wonderful ex-ments for himself? Would it not, for mpression of the varieties of the human stance, be right for him to take a course of frame; and although it must be allowed chymistry?" JOHNSON. "Let him take that the circumstances of difficulty enhance a course of chymistry, or a course of rope the value of a marble head, we should con- dancing, or a course of any thing to which sider, that if it requires a long time in the he is inclined at the time. Let him conperformance, it has a proportionate value in trive to have as many retreats for his mind durability as he can, as many things to which it can fly from itself. Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy' is a valuable work. It is, perhaps, overloaded with quotation. But there is a great spirit and great power in what Burton says, when he writes from his own mind.' Gwyn was a fine lively rattling fellow. Dr. Johnson kept him in subjection, but with a kindly authority. The spirit of the artist, however, rose against what he thought a Gothick attack, and he made a risk defence. "What, sir, you will allow no value to beauty in architecture or in tatuary? Why should we allow it then in writing? Why do you take the trouble to give us so many fine allusions, and bright images, and elegant phrases? You might convey all your instruction without these ornaments." Johnson smiled with com placency; but said, "Why, sir, all these ornaments are useful, because they obtain an easier reception for truth; but a building is not at all more convenient for being decorated with superfluous carved work." Gwyn at last was lucky enough to make one reply to Dr. Johnson, which he allowed to be excellent. Johnson censured him for taking down a church which might have stood for many years, and building a new one at a different place, for no other reason but that there might be a direct road to a new bridge; and his expression was, "You are taking a church out of the way, nat the people may go in a straight line to the bridge." "No, sir," said Gwyn, "I am putting the church in the way, that the people may not go out of the way." JOHNSON (with a hearty loud laugh of approbation). "Speak no more. Rest your colloquial fame upon this." Upon our arrival at Oxford, Dr. Johnson and I went directly to University college, but were disappointed on finding that one of the fellows, his friend Mr. Scott, who accompanied him from Newcastle to Edinburgh, was gone to the country. We put up at the Angel inn, and passed the evening by ourselves in easy and familiar conversation. Talking of constitutional melancholy, he observed, " A man so afflicted, sir, must divert distressing thoughts, and not combat with them." BOSWELL. May not he think them down, sir?" JOHNSON. "No, sir. To attempt to think them down is madness. He should have a lamp constantly burning in his bedchamber during the night, and if wakefully disturbed, take a book, and read, and compose himself to rest. To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise." BOSWELL. "Should not he provide amuse Next morning [Wednesday, 20th March] we visited Dr. Wetherell, master of University college, with whom Dr. Johnson conferred on the most advantageous mode of disposing of the books printed at the Clarendon press, on which subject his letter has been inserted in a former page. I often had occasion to remark, Johnson loved business, loved to have his wisdom actually operate on real life. Dr. Wetherell and I talked of him without reserve in his own presence. WETHERELL. "I would have given him a hundred guineas if he would have written a preface to his Political Tracts,' by way of a discourse on the British constitution." BOSWELL. "Dr. Johnson, though in his writings, and upon all occasions, a great friend to the constitution, both in church and state, has never written expressly in support of either. There is really a claim upon him for both. I am sure he could give a volume of nc great bulk upon each, which would comprise all the substance, and with his spirit would effectually maintain them. should erect a fort on the confines of each." I could perceive that he was displeased with this dialogue. He burst out, "Why should I be always writing?" I hoped he was conscious that the debt was just, and meant to discharge it, though he disliked being dunned. He Be We then went to Pembroke College, and waited on his old friend Dr. Adams, the master of it, whom I found to be a most polite, pleasing, communicative man. fore his advancement to the headship of his college, I had intended to go and visit him at Shrewsbury, where he was rector of St. Chad's, in order to get from him what particulars he could recollect of Johnson's academical life. He now obligingly gave me part of that authentick information, which, with what I afterwards owed to his kindness, will be found incorporated in its proper place in this work. Dr. Adams had distinguished himself by an able answer to David Hume's "Essay on Miracles." He told me he had once dined in company with Hume in London. that Hu hands with him, and said "They are in the gnt, sir: there can oe no real conversation, no fair exertion of mind amongst them, if the young men are by; for a man who has a character does not choose to stake it in their presence." BOSWELL. "But, sir, may there not be very good conversation without a contest for superiority? JOHNSON. "No animated conversation, sir; for it cannot be but one or other will come off superiour. I do not mean that the victor must have the better of the argument, for he may take the weak side; but his superiority of parts and knowledge will necessarily appear; and he to whom he thus shows himself superiour is lessened in the eyes of the young men. You know it was said, Mallem cum Scaligero errare quam cum Clavio recte sapere.' In the same manner take Bentley's and Jason de Nores' Comments upon Horace 2, you will admire Bentley more when wrong, than Jason when right." You have treated me much better than 1 deserve; " and that they exchanged visits. I took the liberty to object to treating an infidel writer with smooth civility. Where there is a controversy concerning a passage in a classick authour, or concerning a question in antiquities, or any other subject in which human happiness is not deeply in terested, a man may treat his antagonist with politeness and even respect. But where the controversy is concerning the truth of religion, it is of such vast importance to him who maintains it, to obtain the victory, that the person of an opponent ought not to be spared. If a man firmly believes that religion is an invaluable treasure, he will consider a writer who endeavours to deprive mankind of it as a robber; he will look upon him as odious, though the infidel might think himself in the right. A robber who reasons as the gang do in the "Beggar's Opera," who call themselves We walked with Dr. Adams into the practical philosophers, and may have as much sincerity as pernicious speculative master's garden, and into the common room. philosophers, is not the less an object of JOHNSON (after a reverie of meditation). just indignation. An abandoned profligate " Ay! here I used to play at draughts with may think that it is not wrong to debauch Phil. Jones and Fludyer 3. Jones loved my wife, but shall I, therefore. not detest beer, and did not get very forward in the him? And if I catch him in making an at- church. Fludyer turned out a scoundrel 4, tempt, shall I treat him with politeness? a whig, and said he was ashamed of having No, I will kick him down stairs, or run him been bred at Oxford. He had a living at through the body; that is, if I really love Putney; and got under the eye of some remy wife, or have a true rational notion of tainers to the court at that time, and so behonour. An infidel then should not be came a violent whig; but he had been a treated handsomely by a Christian, merely scoundrel all along, to be sure." Boswell. because he endeavours to rob with ingenui-"Was he a scoundrel, sir, in any other way ty. I do declare, however, that I am exceedingly unwilling to be provoked to anger, and could I be persuaded that truth would not suffer from a cool moderation in its defenders, I should wish to preserve good humour, at least, in every controversy; nor, indeed, do I see why a man should lose his temper while he does all he can to refute an opponent. I think ridicule may be fairly used against an infidel; for instance, if he be an ugly fellow, and yet absurdly vain of his person, we may contrast his appearance with Cicero's beautiful image of Virtue, could she be seen. Johnson coincided with me and said, "when a man voluntarily engages in an important controversy, he is to do all he can to lessen his antagonist, because authority from personal respect has much weight with most people, and often more than reasoning. If my antagonist writes bad language, though that may not be essential to the question, I will attack him for his bad language." ADAMS. You would not jostle a chimney-sweeper." JOHNSON. "Yes, sir, if it were necessary to jostle him down." Dr. Adams told us, that in some of the colleges at Oxford, the fellows had excluded he students from social intercourse with them n the common room. JOHNSON than that of being a political scoundrel? Did he cheat at draugnts?" JOHNSON. "Sir, we never played for money." He then carried me to visit Dr. Bentham, Canon of Christ-Church, and divinity professor, with whose learned and lively conversation we were much pleased. He gave us an invitation to dinner, which Dr. Johnson told me was a high honour. "Sir, it is a great thing to dine with the canons of Christ-Church." We could not accept his invitation, as we were engaged to dine at University College. We had an excellent dinner there, with the masters and fellows, it being St. Cuthbert's day, which is kept by them as a festival, as he was a saint o! [See post, sub 30th March, 1783, his distinction between talk and conversation.-ED.] 2 [A learned Cypriot, who, when the Turks took Cyprus in 1570, retired into Italy, where he published several Italian and Latin works; among the latter was a "Commentary on Horace's Art of Poetry."-ED.] 3 [Fludyer was the immediate contemporary of Johnson, having entered (scholar) within a month of Johnson's entrance, fellow before th end of the year; M. A. April, 1735. Phil. Jone must have been about a year their senior, having become M. A. March, 1734.-HALL.] 4 [See post 27th March, 1776, n.—Ev.] |