دو too from Chambers: but was not so teach- | therefore would sometimes in conversation able then. One is not willing to be taught | maintain opinions which he was sensible by a young man." When I expressed a were wrong, but in supporting which, his wish to know more about Mr. Ballow, reasoning and wit would be most conspicuJohnson said, "Sir, I have seen him but ous. He would begin thus: "Why, sir, once these twenty years. The tide of life as to the good or evil of card-playinghas driven us different ways." I was sorry "Now," said Garrick, "he is thinking at the time to hear this; but whoever quits which side he shall take." He appeared to the creeks of private connexions, and fairly have a pleasure in contradiction, especially gets into the great ocean of London, will, when any opinion whatever was delivered by imperceptible degrees, unavoidably ex- with an air of confidence; so that there was perience such cessations of acquaintance. hardly any topick, if not one of the great My knowledge of physick," he added, "I truths of religion and morality, that he learnt from Dr. James, whom I helped in might not have been incited to argue, either writing the proposals for his Dictionary, for or against. Lord Elibank had the and also a little in the Dictionary itself, highest admiration of his powers. He once I also learnt from Dr. Lawrence, but was observed to me, "Whatever opinion Johnthen grown more stubborn." son maintains, I will not say that he convinces me; but he never fails to show me, that he had good reasons for it." I have heard Johnson pay his lordship this high compliment "I never was in Lord Elibank's company without learning something." A curious incident happened to-day, while Mr. Thrale and I sat with him. Francis announced that a large packet was brought to him from the post-office, said to have come from Lisbon, and it was charged seven pounds ten shillings. He would not receive it, supposing it to be some trick, nor did he even look at it. But upon inquiry afterwards he found that it was a real packet for him, from that very friend in the East Indies of whom he had been speaking; and the ship which carried it having come to Portugal, this packet with others had been put into the post-office at Lisbon. I mentioned a new gaming club, of which Mr. Beauclerk had given me an account, where the members played to a desperate extent. JOHNSON. 66 Depend upon it, sir, this is mere talk. Who is ruined by gaming? You will not find six instances in an age. There is a strange rout made about deep play; whereas you have many more people ruined by adventurous trade, and yet we do not hear such an outcry against it." THRALE. "There may be few absolutely ruined by deep play; but very many are much hurt in their circumstances by it." JOHNSON. "Yes, sir, and So are very many by other kinds of expense." I had heard him talk once before in the same manner; and at Oxford, he said " he wished he had learned to play at cards 3." The truth, however, is, that he loved to display his ingenuity in argument; and his knowledge of the old philosophy."-MA LONE. 1 I have in vain endeavoured to find out what parts Johnson wrote for Dr. James; perhaps medical men may.-BOSWELL. 2 аеер [Lord Lauderdale informed the Editor that Mr. Fox (a great authority on this as well as op more important subjects) to a nim, toat tne est play he had ever known was between the year 1772 and the beginning of the American war. Lord Lauderdale instanced 50001. being naked on a single card at faro.-ED.] 2 [See ante, v. i. p. 466 —ED.] 8 VOL. II. We sat together till it was too late for the afternoon service. Thrale said, he had come with intention to go to church with us. We went at seven to evening prayers at St. Clement's church, after having drunk coffee; an indulgence which I understand Johnson yielded to on this occasion, in com pliment to Thrale. [This day he himself thus records, ED. "Though for the past week I have had an anxious design of communicating today, I performed no particular act of devo tion, till on Friday I went to church. "I fasted, though less rigorously than at other times. I, by negligence, poured milk into the tea, and, in the afternoon, drank one dish of coffee with Thrale; yet at night, after a fit of drowsiness, I felt myself very much disordered by emptiness, and called for tea, with peevish and impatient eagerness. My distress was very great."] On Sunday, April 7, Easter-day, after having been at St. Paul's cathedral, I came to Dr. Johnson, according to my usual custom. It seemed to me, that there was always something particularly mild and placid in his manner upon this holy festival, the commemoration of the most joyful event in the history of our world, the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, who, having triumphed over death and the grave, proclaimed immortality to mankind. [Yet with what different colours he paints his own state at this moment! ED. "The tiae is again [come] at which, since the death of my poor dear Tetty, on whom God have mercy, I have annually commemorated the mystery of redemption 4 Patrick, Lord Elibank, who died in 1775 (ante, v. 1. D. 277).-BoswELL. and annually purposed to amend my life. I their fortunes for high annuities, which My reigning sin, to which perhaps many after a few years, ceased to be paid, in con others are appendant, is waste of time, and sequence of the ruined circumstances of the general sluggishness, to which I was al- borrower." ways inclined, and, in part of my life, have been almost compelled by morbid melancholy and disturbance of mind. Melancholy has had in me its paroxysms and remissions, but I have not improved the intervals, nor sufficiently resisted my natural inclination, or sickly habits." He adds, however: p. 145. "In the morning I had at church some radiations of comfort."] licacy of persons of nice sensations. Mrs. Williams was very peevish2; and I wondered at Johnson's patience with her now, as I had often done on similar occasions. The truth is, that his humane consideration of the forlorn and indigent state in which this lady was left by her father induced him to treat her with the utmost tenderness, and even to be desirous of procuring her amusement, so as sometimes to incommode many of his friends, by carrying I repeated to him an argument of a lady her with him to their houses, where, from of my acquaintance, who maintained, that her manner of eating, in consequence of her her husband's having been guilty of num-blindness, she could not but offend the deberless infidelities, released her from conjugal obligations, because they were reciprocal. JOHNSON. "This is miserable stuff, sir. To the contract of marriage, besides the man and wife, there is a third partysociety; and if it be considered as a vowGod: and, therefore, it cannot be dissolved by their consent alone. Laws are not made for particular cases, but for men in general. A woman may be unhappy with her hus band; but she cannot be freed from him without the approbation of the civil and ecclesiastical power. A man may be unhappy, because he is not so rich as another; but he is not to seize upon another's proper ty with his own hand." BOSWELL. "But, sir, this lady does not want that the contract should be dissolved; she only argues that she may indulge herself in gallantries with equal freedom as her husband does, provided she takes care not to introduce a spurious issue into his family. You know, sir, what Macrobius has told of Julia." JOHNSON. "This lady of yours, sir, I think, is very fit for a brothel." After coffee, we went to afternoon service in St. Clement's church. Observing some beggars in the street as we walked along, I said to him, I supposed there was no civilized country in the world where the misery of want in the lowest classes of the people was prevented. JOHNSON. "I believe, sir, there is not; but it is better that some should be unhappy, than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality." When the service was ended, I went home with him, and we sat quietly by our selves. He recommended Dr. Cheyne's books. I said, I thought Cheyne had been reckoned whimsical. "So he was," said he," in some things; but there is no end of objections. There are few books to which some objection or other may not be made.” He added, "I would not have you read any thing else of Cheyne, but his book on Health, and his English Malady."" C Upon the question whether a man who had been guilty of vicious actions would do well to force himself into solitude and sad ness? JOHNSON. "No, sir, unless it pre vent him from being vicious again. With some people, gloomy penitence is only madness turned upside down. A man may be gloomy, till, in order to be relieved from gloom, he has recourse again to criminal Mr. Macbean, author of the "Dictionary of Ancient Geography," came in. He mentioned that he had been forty years absent from Scotland, "Ah, Boswell!" said Johnson smiling, "what would you give to be forty years from Scotland?" I said, "I should not like to be so long absent from the seat of my ancestors." This gentle-indulgencies." man, Mrs. Williams, and Mr. Levett, dined with us. Dr. Johnson made a remark, which both Mr. Macbean and I thought new. It was this: that "the law against usury is for the protection of creditors as well as debtors; for if there were no such check, people would be apt, from the temptation of great interest, to lend to desperate persons, by whom they would lose their money. Accordingly, there are instances of ladies beng ruined, by having injudiciously sunk 1 "Nunquam enim nisi navi plenâ tollo vectoom "-Lib. ii. c. vi.-BosWELL. On Wednesday, 10th April, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, where were Mr. Murphy and some other compану. Before dinher, Dr. Johnson and I passed some time by ourselves. I was sorry to find it was now resolved that the proposed journey to Italy should not take place this year. He said, "I am disappointed, to be sure; but it is 2 [Boswell was not partial to Mrs. Williams. Peevish she probably was; but let it be remembered that she was old, blind, peor, and a dependant. And see ante, vol. i. p. 101, a more favourable account from Malone and Miss Haw kins.-ED.] ED. Letters, [TO MRS. THrale. "9th April, 1776. "Mr. Thrale's alteration of purv. i. p. pose is not weakness of resolution; $14. it is a wise man's compliance with the change of things, and with the new duties which the change produces. Whoever expects me to be angry will be disappointed. I do not even grieve at the effect; I only grieve for the cause."] p. 211. not a great disappointment." I wondered [ I said, I disliked the custom which some to see him bear, with a philosophical calm- people had of bringing their children intc ness, what would have made most people company, because it in a manner forced us peevish and fretful. [But he cordially to pay foolish compliments to please their assented to the reasons which operated parents. JOHNSON. "You are right, sir 3. on the minds of Mr. and Mrs. Thrale to We may be excused for not caring much postpone the journey, as appears from his about other people's children, for there are letter to the lady.] many who care very little about their own children. It may be observed, that men who, from being engaged in business, or from their course of life in whatever way, seldom see their children, do not care much about them. I myself should not have had much fondness for a child of my own." MRS. THRALE 4. "Nay, sir, how can you talk so?" JOHNSON. "At least, I never wished to have a child." [On another occasion, when Mrs. Thrale Piozzi, was relating to him that Dr. Collier (of the commons) had observed, that the love one bore to children was from the anticipation one's mind made while one contemplated them: "We hope," says he, "that they will some time make wise men, or amiable women; and we suffer them to take up our affection beforehand. cannot love lumps of flesh, and little infants are nothing more." "On the contrary," said Johnson, "one can scarcely help wishing, while one fondles a baby, that it may never live to become a man; for it is so probable that when he becomes a man, he should be sure to end in a scoundrel." Girls were less displeasing to him; "for as their temptations were fewer," he said, "their virtue in this life, and happiness in the next, were less improbable; and he loved," he said, " to see a knot of little misses dearly."] Piozzi, p. 130. [His desire, however, to go abroad was very great; and he had a longing wish, too, to leave some Latin verses at the Grand Chartreux.] I perceived that he had so warmly cherished the hope of enjoying classical scenes, that he could not easily part with the scheme; for he said, "I shall probably contrive to get to Italy some other way 1. But I won't mention it to Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, as it might vex them." I suggested that going to Italy might have done Mr. and Mrs. Thrale good. JOHNSON. "I rather believe not, sir. While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it." At dinner, Mr. Murphy entertained us with the history of Mr. Joseph Simpson, a schoolfellow of Dr. Johnson's, a barrister at law, of good parts, but who fell into a dissipated course of life, incompatible with that success in his profession which he once had, and would otherwise have deservedly maintained; yet he still preserved a dignity in his deportment. He wrote a tragedy on the story of Leonidas, entitled "The Patriot." He read it to a company of lawyers, who found so many faults that he wrote it over again: so then there were two tragedies on the same subject and with the same title. Dr. Johnson told us, that one of them was still in his possession. This very piece was, after his death, published by some person who had been about him, and, for the sake of a little hasty profit, was fallaciously advertised so as to make it be behieved to have been written by Johnson himself. [He probably may have had some idea of accompanying his friend Mr. Saunders Welsh, who, in fact, went to Italy about the 14th May of this year. See post, Feb. 1778.-ED.] 2 [See ante, v. i. p. 150, his letter to this gentleman.-ED.] One Mr. Murphy mentioned Dr. Johnson's having a design to publish an edition of Cowley. Johnson said, he did not know but he should; and he expressed his disapprobation of Dr. Hurd, for having published a mutilated edition under the title of "Select Works of Abraham Cowley." Mr. Murphy thought it a bad precedent; observing, that any authour might be used in the same manner: and that it was pleasing to see the variety of an authour's compositions at different periods. We talked of Flatman's Poems; and 3 [Yet he was always kind to children, even when he blamed the parents for obtruding them. Miss Hawkins tells us that "Johnson was kind, in his way, to children: my father seldom observed me with him without recollecting the lion dandling the kid."-Mem. 1-23. See also post, circa 9th April, 1783.-ED.] 4 [It seems not easy to account for Mrs Thrale's presence in London on the 10th April. She appears by the correspondence with Johnson to have been at Bath, to which place Johnson addressed a letter to her on the 9th p. 59-EL ] See ante, Mrs Thrale observed, that Pope had part- | ly borrowed from him "The Dying Christian to his Soul." Johnson repeated Rochester's verses upon Flatman, which I think by much too severe: "Nor that slow drudge in swift Pindarick strains, Flatman, who Cowley imitates with pains, And rides a jaded muse, whipt with loose reins." I like to recollect all the passages that I heard Johnson repeat: it stamps a value on them. He told us that the book entitled "The Lives of the Poets," by Mr. Cibber, was entirely compiled by Mr. Shiels 1, a Scotch 1 [Here followed, in the former editions, a note containing a long extract from the Monthly Review for 1792, controverting the above assertion, which, on account of its length, the Editor has thrown into the Appendix; but he must observe, with more immediate reference to the statement in the text, that notwithstanding the weight which must be given to Dr. Johnson's repeated assertions on a subject in which he alleged that he had indisputable evidence in his own possession, yet there are some circumstances which seem at variance with his statements. It is true that the title-page of the first volume says, "compiled by Mr. Cibber," but all the other volumes have "compiled by Mr. Cibber and other hands; so that Johnson was certainly mistaken in representing that Cibber was held out as the sole author. In the third vol., p. 156, the life of Betterton, the actor, is announced as "written by R. S." no doubt Robert Shiels, and to it is appended the following note, "As Mr. Theophilus Cibber is publishing (in another work) the Lives and Character of eminent Actors,' he leaves to other gentlemen concerned in this work the account of some players, who could not be omitted herein as poets." A similar notice accompanies the Life of Booth, v. iv. p. 178; and again, in a note on the "Life of Thomson," vol. v. p. 211, Theophilus Cibber, in his own name, states, that he read the tragedy of Agamemnon to the theatrical synod with so much applause, that he was selected to play the part of Melisander. These circumstances prove that "a Cibber" had some share in the work,-that there was no intention to conceal that it was Theophilus,—and that Robert Shiels and others were avowed assistants. Mr. Boswell, in a former passage, (see ante, vol. i. p. 75.) intimated that "some choice passages of these lives were written by Johnson himself." That opinion the Editor thought that Johnson's own assertion sufficiently negatived; but he must admit, on reconsideration, that there is some colour for Mr. Boswell's suspicion; for it appears that Johnson was at one time employed to contribute to that work the lives of, at least, Shakspeare and Dryden (see ante, v. i. p. 222, and post, 15th May, 1776), and though he certainly did not write those lives, yet several passages throughout the work are much in his style. That, however, might arise from the imitation of Shiels; but what is most important is, that the plan in which these lives are written is substantially the same as Mr. Murphy said, that "The Memoirs of Gray's Life set him much higher in his estimation than his poems did: for you there saw a man constantly at work in literature." Johnson acquiesced in this; but depreciated the book, I thought, very unreasonably. For he said, "I forced myself to read it, only because it was a common topic of conversation. I found it mighty dull; and, as to the style, it is fit for the second table." Why he thought so I was at a loss to conceive. He now gave it as his opinion, that " Akenside was a superiour poet both to Gray and Mason." Talking of the Reviews, Johnson said, "I think them very impartial: I do not know an instance of partiality." He mentioned what had passed upon the subject of the Monthly and Critical Reviews, in the conversation with which his Majesty had honoured him. He expatiated a little more on them this evening. "The Monthly Reviewers," said he, "are not Deists; but they are Christians with as little Christianity as may be; and are for pulling down all establishments. The Critical Reviewers church and state. The Critical Reviewers, are for supporting the constitution both in I believe, often review without reading the books through; but lay hold of a topick, and write chiefly from their own minds. The Monthly Reviewers are duller men, and are glad to read the books through." He talked of Lord Lyttelton's extreme anxiety as an authour; observing, that " he was thirty years in preparing his history, and that he employed a man to point it for him; as if (laughing) another man could point his sense better than himself 2" Mr. Murphy said, he understood his history was kept back several years for fear of Smollett. JOHNSON. "This seems strange to Murphy and me, who never felt that anxiety, but sent what he wrote to the press, and that which Johnson adopted in his own beautiful work.-ED.] 2 [It may be doubted whether Johnson's dislike of Lord Lyttelton did not here lead him into an error. Persons not so habituated with the details of printing as he was may have been less expert at the use of these conventional signs. Lord Byron wrote to Mr. Murray: "Do you know any one who can stop?-I mean point, commas, and so forth, for I am, I fear, a sad hand at your punctuation.”—Mog's Life of Byron, vol. i. p. 417.—ED.] case." Talking of "The Spectator," he said, "It is wonderful that there is such a proportion of bad papers, in the half of the work which was not written by Addison; for there was all the world to write that half, yet not a half of that half is good. One of the finest pieces in the English language is the paper on Novelty, yet we do not hear it talked of. It was written by Grove, a dissenting teacher." He would not, I perceived, call him a clergyman, though he was candid enough to allow very great merit to his composition. Mr. Murphy said, he remembered when there were several people alive in London, who enjoyed a considerable reputation merely from having written a paper in "The Spectator." He mentioned particularly Mr. Ince, who used to frequent Tom's coffee-house. "But," said Johnson, "you must consider how highly Steele speaks of Mr. Ince 2." He would not allow that the paper on carrying a boy to travel, signed Philip Homebred, which was reported to be written by the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, had merit. He said, "it was quite vulgar, and had nothing luminous." will be always very contrary to my intention. That I staid away was merely accidental. I have seldom dined from home; and I did not think my opinion necessary to your information in any proprieties of behaviour. "The poor parents of the child are much grieved, and much dejected. The journey to Italy is put off, but they go to Bath on Monday. A visit from you will be wel taken, and I think your intimacy is such that you may very properly pay it in a morning. I am sure that it will be thought seasonable and kind, and I wish you not to omit it. I am, dear madam, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] On Thursday, April 11, I dined with him at General Paoli's, in whose house I now resided, and where I had ever afterwards the honour of being entertained with the kindest attention as his constant guest, while I was in London, till I had a house of my own there. I mentioned my having that morning introduced to Mr. Garrick, Count Neni, a Flemish nobleman of great rank and fortune, to whom Garrick talked of Abel Drugger as a small part; and related, with pleasant vanity, that a Frenchman, who had seen him in one of his low characters, exclaimed," Comment! je ne le crois pas. Ce n'est pas Monsieur Garrick. Johnson mentioned Dr. Barry's3 System ce grand homme!" Garrick added, with of Physick. "He was a man," said he, an appearance of grave recollection, "If I "who had acquired a high reputation in were to begin life again, I think I should Dublin, came over to England, and brought not play those low characters." Upon his reputation with him, but had not great which I observed, 'Sir, you would be in success. His notion was, that pulsation the wrong, for your great excellence is your occasions death by attrition; and that, variety of playing, your representing so well, therefore, the way to preserve life is to re- characters so very different." JOHNSON. tard pulsation. But we know that pulsa-" Garrick, sir, was not in earnest in what tion is strongest in infants, and that we increase in growth while it operates in its regular course; so it cannot be the cause of destruction." Soon after this, he said something very flattering to Mrs. Thrale, which I do not recollect; but it concluded with wishing her long life. "Sir," said I, "if Dr. Barry's system be true, you have now shortened Mrs. Thrale's life, perhaps some minutes, by accelerating her pulsation." he said: for, to be sure, his peculiar excel- Of a nobleman raised at a very early period to high office, he said, "His parts, sir, are pretty well for a lord; but would not be distinguished in a man who had nothing else but his parts 4." A journey to Italy was still in his thoughts. He said, "A man who has not been in Italy 4 [Obvious as this allusion must have been at the time, neither the editor, nor any of the numerous persons who have favoured him with assistance and information, can satisfactorily designate the nobleman here meant.-ED.] |