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)

He thus characterised the Duke of Devonshire, grandfather of the present _777

•
representative of that very respectable family: “ He was not a man of fuperiour Ætat. 68.
abilities, but he was a man strictly faithful to his word. If, for instance, he
had promised you an acorn, and none had grown that year in his woods, he

,
would not have contented hiinfelf with that excufe; he would have sent to
Denmark for it. So unconditional was he in keeping his word; so high as
to the point of honour.” This was a liberal testimony from the Tory Johnson
to the virtue of a great Whig nobleman.

Mr. Burke's “ Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, on the affairs of America,”
being mentioned, Johnson censured the composition much, and he ridiculed
the definition of a free government, viz. “ For any practical purpose, it is
what the people think so?.”_“I will let the King of France govern me on
those conditions, (faid he,) for it is to be governed just as I please.” And
when Dr. Taylor talked of a girl being sent to a parish workhouse, and asked
how much she could be obliged to work.“ Why, (said Johnson,) as much as
is reasonable: and what is that? as much as she thinks reasonable.”

Dr. Johnson obligingly proposed to carry me to fee Ilam, a romantick scene, now belonging to a family of the name of Port, but formerly the feat of the Congreves. I suppose it is well described in some of the Tours, . Johnson described it distinctly and vividly, at which I could not but express to him my wonder; because, though my eyes, as he observed, were better than his, I could not by any means equal him in representing visible objects. I said, the difference between us in this respect was as that between a man who has a bad instrument, but plays well on it, and a man who has a good instrument, on which he can play very imperfectly.

I recollect a very fine amphitheatre, surrounded with hills covered with
wood, and walks neatly formed along the side of a rocky steep, on the
quarter next the house, with recesses under projections of rock, over-
shadowed with trees; in one of which recesses, we were told, Congreve
wrote his « Old Bachelor.” We viewed a remarkable natural curiosity at
Islam; two rivers bursting near each other from the rock, not from immediate
springs, but after having run for many miles under ground. Plott, in his
“History of Staffordshire 5,” gives an account of this curiosity; but Johnson

8
would not believe it, though we had the attestation of the gardener, who said,
he had put in corks, where the river Manyfold sinks into the ground, and had
catched them in a net, placed before one of the openings where the water

8 )

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1777.

bursts out. Indeed, such subterraneous courses of water are found in various Etat. 68. parts of our globe ?

Talking of Dr. Johnson's unwillingness to believe extraordinary things, I ventured to say, “Sir, you come near Hume's argument against miracles, · That it is more probable witnesses should lie, or be mistaken, than that they should happen.” JOHNSON. Why, Sir, Hume, taking the proposition fimply, is right. But the Christian revelation is not proved by the miracles alone, but as connected with prophecies, and with the doctrines in confirmation of which the miracles were wrought.”

He repeated his observation, that the differences among Christians are really of no consequence. “ For instance, (said he,) if a Protestant objects to a Papist, “You worship images ;' the Papist can answer, I do not insist on your doing it; you may be a very good Papist without it: I do it only as a help to my devotion.” I said, the great article of Christianity is the revelation of immortality, Johnson admitted it was.

In the evening, a gentleman-farmer, who was on a visit at Dr. Taylor's, attempted to dispute with Johnson in favour of Mungo Campbell, who shot Alexander, Earl of Eglintoune, upon his having fallen, when retreating from his Lordship, who he believed was about to seize his gun, as he had threatened to do. He said, he should have done just as Campbell did. Johnson. “ Whoever would do as Campbell did, deserves to be hanged; not that I could, as a juryman, have found him legally guilty of murder; but I am glad they found means to convict him.” The gentleman-farmer said, “A poor man has as much honour as a rich man; and Campbell had that to defend.” Johnson exclaimed, " A poor man has no honour.” The English yeoman, not dismayed, proceeded: “Lord Eglintoune was a damned fool to run on upon Campbell, after being warned that Campbell would shoot him if he did.” Johnson, who could not bear any thing like swearing, angrily replied, “ He was not a darnned fool: he only thought too well of Campbell. He did not believe Campbell would be such a damned scoundrel, as to do so damned a thing." His emphasis on damned, accompanied with frowning looks, reproved his opponent's want of decorum in his presence.

Talking of the danger of being mortified by rejection, when making approaches to the acquaintance of the great, I observed, “ I am, however, generally for trying, - Nothing venture, nothing have.” Johnson. “ Very true, Sir; but I have always been more afraid of failing, than hopeful of

See Plott's “ Hiftory of Staffordshire," p. 88, and the authorities referred to by him.
4

success.”

1777.

Ætat. 68.

success.” And, indeed, though he had all just respect for rank, no man
ever less courted the favour of the great.

.
During this interview at Ashbourne, Johnson seemed to be more uniformly
social, cheerful, and alert, than I had almost ever seen him. He was prompt
on great occasions and on small. Taylor, who praised every thing of his own
to excess, in short, “ whose geese were all swans,” as the proverb says,
expatiated on the excellence of his bull-dog, which he told us was “perfectly
well shaped.” Johnson, after examining the animal attentively, thus repressed
the vain-glory of our host :-"No, Sir, he is not well shaped; for there is
not the quick transition from the thickness of the fore-part to the tenuity—the
thin part—behind, which a bull-dog ought to have.” This tenuity, was the only
hard word that I heard him use during this interview, and it will be observed,
he instantly put another expresion in its place. Taylor said, a small bull-
dog was as good as a large one. Johnson. “ No, Sir; for,. in

proportion
to his size, he has strength : and your argument would prove, that a good
bull-dog may be as finall as a mouse.” It was amazing how he entered with
perspicuity and keenness upon every thing that occurred in conversation. Most
men, whom I know, would no more think of discussing a question about a
bull-dog, than of attacking a bull.

I cannot allow any fragment whatever that Aoats in my memory concerning
the great subject of this work to be loft. Though a small particular may
appear trifling to some, it will be relished by others; while every little spark
adds something to the general blaze : and to please the true, candid, warm
admirers of Johnson, and in any degree increase the splendour of his reputa-
tion, I bid defiance to the shafts of ridicule, or even of malignity. Showers of
them have been discharged at my “ Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides ;” yet
it still fails unhurt along the stream of time, and, as an attendant upon Johnson,

“ Pursues the triumph, and partakes the gale.”
One morning after breakfast, when the fun shone bright, we walked out
together, and “ pored” for some time with placid indolence upon an artificial
water-fall, which Dr. Taylor had made by building a strong dyke of stone
across the river behind his garden. It was now somewhat obstructed by
branches of trees and other rubbish, which had come down the river and settled
close to it. Johnson, partly from a desire to see it play more freely, and partly
from that inclination to activity which will animate, at times, the most inert and
Nuggih mortal, took a long pole which was lying on the bank, and pushed
down several parcels of this wreck with painful assiduity, while I stood quietly
by, wondering to behold the fage thus curiously employed, and smiling with an

humorous

1777. humorous satisfaction each time when he carried his point. He worked till Arat. 78. he was quite out of breath ; and having found a large dead cat so heavy that 68

; he could not move it after several efforts, “ Come, (said he, throwing down the pole,) you shall take it now;" which I accordingly did, and being a fresh man, foon made the cat tumble over the cascade. This may be laughed at as too trifling to record; but it is a small characteristick trait in the Flemish picture which I give of my friend, and in which, therefore, I mark the most minute particulars. And let it be remembered, that “ Æfop at play” is one of the instructive apologues of antiquity.

I mentioned an old gentleman of our acquaintance whose memory was beginning to fail.—Johnson. “ There must be a diseased mind, where there is a failure of memory at seventy. A man's head, Sir, must be morbid if he fails so soon.” My friend, being now himself sixty-eight, might think thus: but I imagine, that threescore and ten, the Psalmist's period of found human life, in later ages may have a failure, though there be no disease in the constitution.

Talking of Rochester's Poems, he said, he had given them to Mr. Steevens to castrate for the edition of the Poets, to which he was to write Prefaces. Dr. Taylor (the only time I ever heard him say any thing witty') observed, that “if Rochester had been castrated himself, his exceptionable poems would not have been written.” I asked if Burnet had not given a good Life of Rochester. Johnson. “ We have a good Death: there is not much Life.” I asked whether Prior's Poems were to be printed entire: Johnson faid they

I mentioned Lord Hailes's censure of Prior, in his Preface to a collection of “ Sacred Poems,” by various hands, published by him at Edinburgh a great many years ago, where he mentions, “ those impure tales which will be the eternal opprobrium of their ingenious authour.” Johnson. “Sir, Lord Hailes has forgot. There is nothing in Prior that will excite to lewdness. If Lord Hailes thinks there is, he must be more combustible than other people.” I instanced the tale of “ Paulo Purganti and his Wife.” Johnson. “Sir, there is nothing there, but that his wife wanted to be kissed, when poor Paulo was out of pocket.. No, Sir, Prior is a lady's book. No lady is ashamed to have it standing in her library.”

The hypochondriack disorder being mentioned, Dr. Johnson did not think it so common as I supposed." Dr. Taylor (faid he) is the same one day as another. Burke and Reynolds are the same. Beauclerk, except when in pain, is the same. I am not so myself; but this I do not mention commonly.”

were.

a

· I am told, that the Honourable Horace Walpole has a collection of Bon Mots by persons who never said but one,

I complained 1777. Ærat. 68.

a

I complained of a wretched changefulness, so that I could not preserve, for any long continuance, the fame views of any thing. It was most comfortable , to me to experience, in Dr. Johnson's company, a relief from this uneasiness.

His steady vigorous mind held firm before me those objects which my own feeble and tremulous imagination frequently presented, in such a wavering state, that my reason could not judge well of them.

Dr. Johnson advised me to-day, to have as many books about me as I could ; that I might read upon any subject upon which I had a desire for instruction at the time. “ What you read then (said he) you will remember; but if you have not a book immediately ready, and the subject moulds in your mind, it is a chance if you again have a desire to study it.” He added, “ If a man never has an eager desire for instruction, he should prescribe a task for himself. But it is better when a man reads from immediate inclination."

He repeated a good many lines of Horace's Odes, while we were in the chaise. I remember particularly the Ode “ Eheu fugaces.”

He said, the dispute as to the comparative excellence of Homer or Virgil ? was inaccurate. “ We must consider (faid he) whether Homer was not the greatest poet, though Virgil may have produced the finest poem. Virgil was indebted to Homer for the whole invention of the structure of an epick poem, and for many of his beauties.”

He told me, that Bacon was a favourite authour with him; but he had never read his works till he was compiling the English Dictionary, in which, he said, I might see Bacon very often quoted. Mr. Seward recollects his having mentioned, that a Dictionary of the English language might be compiled from Bacon's writings alone, and that he had once an intention of giving an edition of Bacon, at least of his English works, and writing the Life of that great man. Had he executed this intention, there can be no doubt that he would have done it in a most masterly manner.

Mallet's Life of Bacon has no inconsiderable merit as an acute and elegant dissertation relative to its subject; but Mallet's mind was not comprehensive enough to embrace the vast extent of Lord Verulam's genius and research. Dr. Warburton therefore

2

· I am informed by Mr. Langton, that a great many years ago he was present when thus question was agitated between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Burke ; and, to use Johnson's phrase, thera “ talked their best ;" Johnson for Homer, Burke for Virgil. It may well be supposed to have been one of the ableft and most brilliant contests that ever was exhibited. Ilow much mult we regret that it has not been preserved. Vol. II,

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obferved,