1768.

Etat. 59.

certain would not expose them to the sword of Goliah; fuch was their anxiety for their fame when in the prefence of Johnfon. He was this evening in remarkable vigour of mind, and eager to exert himself in converfation, which he did with great readinefs and fluency; but I am forry to find that I have preserved but a fmall part of what paffed.

He allowed high praise to Thomson as a poet; but when one of the company faid he was also a very good man, our moralift contefted this with great warmth, accusing him of grofs fenfuality and licentiousness of manners. I was very much afraid that in writing Thomfon's life, Dr. Johnfon would have' treated his private character with a stern severity, but I was agreeably difappointed; and I may claim a little merit in it, from my having been at pains to fend him authentick accounts of the affectionate and generous conduct of that poet to his fifters, one of whom, the wife of Mr. Thomson, schoolmaster at Lanark, I knew, and was prefented by her with three of his letters, one of which Dr. Johnfon has inferted in his life.

He was vehement against old Dr. Mounfey, of Chelfea College, as "a fellow who fwore and talked bawdy." "I have been often in his company, (faid Dr. Percy,) and never heard him fwear or talk bawdy." Mr. Davies, who fat next to Dr. Percy, having after this had fome converfation aside with him, made a difcovery which, in his zeal to pay court to Dr. Johnson, he eagerly proclaimed aloud from the foot of the table: "O, Sir, I have found out a very good reason why Dr. Percy never heard Mounsey swear or talk bawdy; for he tells me, he never faw him but at the Duke of Northumberland's table." "And fo, Sir, (faid Johnfon loudly, to Dr. Percy,) you would fhield this man from the charge of fwearing and talking bawdy, because he did not do fo at the Duke of Northumberland's table. Sir, you might as well tell us that you had seen him hold up his hand at the Old Bailey, and he neither fwore nor talked bawdy; or that you had feen him in the cart at Tyburn, and he neither fwore nor talked bawdy. And is it thus, Sir, that you prefume to controvert what I have related?" Dr. Johnfon's animadverfion was uttered in fuch a manner, that Dr. Percy feemed to be difpleased, and foon afterwards left the company, of which Johnfon did not at that time take any notice.

Swift having been mentioned, Johnfon, as ufual, treated him with little respect as an authour. Some of us endeavoured to fupport the Dean of St. Patrick's, by various arguments. One in particular praised his "Conduct of the Allies." JOHNSON. "Sir, his Conduct of the Allies' is a performance of very little ability." "Surely, Sir, (faid Dr. Douglas,) you must allow it

has

has strong facts." JOHNSON. JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; but what is that to the merit 1768. of the composition? In the Seffions-paper of the Old Bailey there are strong Etat. 59. facts. Housebreaking is a strong fact; robbery is a strong fact; and murder is a mighty strong fact: but is great praife due to the hiftorian of those strong facts? No, Sir. Swift has told what he had to tell distinctly enough, but that is all. He had to count ten, and he has counted it right."-Then recollecting that Mr. Davies, by acting as an informer, had been the occafion of his talking fomewhat too harfhly to his friend Dr. Percy, for which, probably, when the first ebullition was over, he felt fome compunction, he took an opportunity to give him a hit; fo added, with a preparatory laugh, "Why, Sir, Tom Davies might have written the Conduct of the Allies." Poor Tom being thus fuddenly dragged into ludicrous notice in prefence of the Scottish Doctors, to whom he was ambitious of appearing to advantage, was grievously mortified. Nor did his punishment reft here; for upon fubfequent occafions, whenever he, "statesman all o'er," affumed a ftrutting importance, I used to hail him—" the Authour of the Conduct of the Allies."

When I called upon Dr. Johnson next morning, I found him highly fatiffied with his colloquial prowess the preceding evening. "Well, (faid he,) we had good talk." BOSWELL. "Yes, Sir; you toffed and gored several perfons."

The late Alexander Earl of Eglintoune, who loved wit more than wine, and men of genius more than fycophants, had a great admiration of Johnson; but from the remarkable elegance of his own manners, was, perhaps, too delicately fenfible of the roughness which fometimes appeared in Johnson's behaviour. One evening about this time, when his Lordship did me the honour to fup at my lodgings with Dr. Robertson and several other men of literary distinction, he regretted that Johnson had not been educated with more refinement, and lived more in polished society. "No, no, my Lord, (faid Signor Baretti,) do with him what you would, he would always have been a bear.” "True, (answered the Earl, with a smile,) but he would have been a dancing bear."

To obviate all the reflections which have gone round the world to Johnson's prejudice, by applying to him the epithet of a bear, let me imprefs upon my readers a just and happy faying of my friend Goldfmith, who knew him well: "Johnson, to be fure, has a roughness in his manner; but no man alive has a more tender heart. He has nothing of the bear but his skin."

In 1769, fo far as I can discover, the publick was favoured with nothing of 1769. his compofition, either for himself or any of his friends. His "Meditations"

1769.

too strongly prove that he suffered much both in body and mind; yet was he Atat. 60. perpetually striving against evil, and nobly endeavouring to advance his intellectual and devotional improvement. Every generous and grateful heart must feel for the diftreffes of fo eminent a benefactor to mankind; and now that his unhappiness is certainly known, must respect that dignity of character which prevented him from complaining.

His Majefty having this year inftituted the Royal Academy, Johnson had the honour of being appointed Profeffor of Ancient Literature. In the courfe of the year he wrote fome letters to Mrs. Thrale, paffed fome part of the fummer at Oxford and at Lichfield, and when at Oxford wrote the following letter:

To the Reverend Mr. THOMAS WARTON.

"DEAR SIR,

"MANY years ago, when I used to read in the library of your College, I promised to recompence the College for that permiffion, by adding to their books a Baskerville's Virgil. I have now fent it, and defire you to repofit it on the shelves in my name'.

"If you will be pleased to let me know when you have an hour of leisure, I will drink tea with you. I am engaged for the afternoon, to-morrow and on Friday all my mornings are my own3.

"May 31, 1769.

"I am, &c.

SAM. JOHNSON."

I came to London in the autumn, and having informed him that I was going to be married in a few months, I wished to have as much of his converfation as I could before engaging in a ftate of life which would probably keep me more in Scotland, and prevent my seeing him fo often as when I was a single man; but I found he was at Brighthelmstone with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. I was very forry that I had not his company with me at the Jubilee, in honour of Shakspeare, at Stratford-upon-Avon, the great poet's native

"It has this infcription in a blank leaf: Hunc librum D. D. Samuel Johnson, eò quòd hie loci ftudiis interdum vacaret.' Of this library, which is an old Gothick room, he was very fond. On my obferving to him that fome of the modern libraries of the Univerfity were more commodious and pleasant for ftudy, as being more fpacious and airy, he replied, Sir, if a man has a mind to prance, he muft ftudy at Chrift-Church and All-Souls."

3 66 During this vifit he feldom or never dined out. He appeared to be deeply engaged in fome literary work. Mifs Williams was now with him at Oxford."

town

1769.

town. Johnson's connection both with Shakspeare and Garrick founded a double claim to his presence; and it would have been highly gratifying to Etat, 60. Mr. Garrick. Upon this occafion I particularly lamented that he had not that warmth of friendship for his brilliant pupil, which we may suppose would have had a benignant effect on both. When almost every man of eminence in the literary world was happy to partake in this feftival of genius, the absence of Johnfon could not but be wondered at and regretted. The only trace of him there, was in the whimfical advertisement of a haberdafher, who fold Shaksperian ribbands of various dyes; and, by way of illustrating their appropriation to the bard, introduced a line from the celebrated Prologue at the opening of Drury-lane theatre:

"Each change of many-colour'd life he drew."

From Brighthelmftone Dr. Johnson wrote me the following letter, which they who may think that I ought to have fuppreffed, must have less ardent feelings than I have always avowed.

"DEAR SIR,

To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq.

"WHY do you charge me with unkindness? I have omitted nothing that could do you good, or give you pleasure, unless it be that I have forborne to tell you my opinion of your account of Corfica. I believe my opinion, if you think well of my judgement, might have given you pleafure; but when it is confidered how much vanity is excited by praise, I am not sure that it would have done you good. Your Hiftory is like other histories, but your Journal is in a very high degree curious and delightful. There is between the hiftory and the journal that difference which there will always be found between notions borrowed from without, and notions generated within. Your hiftory was copied from books; your journal rofe out of your own experience and obfervation. You exprefs images which operated ftrongly upon yourself, and you have impreffed them with great force upon your readers. I know not whether I could name any narrative by which curiofity is better excited, or better gratified.

"I am glad that you are going to be married; and as I wish you well in things of less importance, wish you well with proportionate ardour in this crisis of your life. What I can contribute to your happiness, I should be very unwilling to with-hold; for I have always loved and valued you, and fhall love

you

1769.

you and value you fiill more, as you become more regular and useful: effects Etat. 60. which a happy marriage will hardly fail to produce.

"I do not find that I am likely to come back very foon from this place. I fhall, perhaps, ftay a fortnight longer; and a fortnight is a long time to a lover absent from his mistress. Would a fortnight ever have an end ? "I am, dear Sir,

After his return to town, we met frequently, and I continued the practice of making notes of his converfation, though not with fo much affiduity as I wish I had done. At this time, indeed, I had a fufficient excufe for not being able to appropriate fo much time to my journal; for General Paoli, after Corfica had been overpowered by the monarchy of France, was now no longer at the head of his brave countrymen, but having with difficulty escaped from his native island, had fought an afylum in Great-Britain; and it was my duty, as well as my pleasure, to attend much upon him. Such particulars of Johnson's converfation at this period as I have committed to writing, I fhall here introduce, without any strict attention to methodical arrangement. Sometimes short notes of different days fhall be blended together, and fometimes a day may feem important enough to be separately distinguished.

He faid, he would not have Sunday kept with rigid feverity and gloom, but with a gravity and fimplicity of behaviour.

I told him that David Hume had made a fhort collection of Scotticifins. "I wonder, (faid Johnfon,) that he fhould find them."

He would not admit the importance of the queftion concerning the legality of general warrants. "Such a power (he observed,) must be vested in every government, to answer particular cafes of neceffity; and there can be no just complaint but when it is abufed, for which those who administer government must be anfwerable. It is a matter of fuch indifference, a matter about which the people care fo very little, that were a man to be fent over Britain to offer them an exemption from it at a halfpenny a piece, very few would purchase it." This was a fpecimen of that laxity of talking, which I have heard him fairly acknowledge; for, furely, while the power of granting general warrants was fuppofed to be legal, and the apprehenfion of them hung over our heads, we did not poffefs that fecurity of freedom, congenial to our happy

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