"When you send it, do not use your own seal. "I RETURN thanks to you and to Dr. Solander for the pleasure which I received in yesterday's conversation. I could not recollect a motto for your Goat, but have given her one. You, sir, may perhaps have an epick poem from some happier pen than, SIR, "Your most humble servant, "It is hard that I cannot prevail on you to write to me oftener. But I am convinced that it is in vain to expect from you a private correspondence with any regularity. I must, therefore, look upon you as a fountain of wisdom, from whence few rills are communicated to a distance, and which must be approached at its source to partake fully of its virtues. 4 Thus translated by a friend: "In fame scarce second to the nurse of Jove, This Goat, who twice the world had traversed round, Ease and perpetual pasture now has found." "I am coming to London soon, and am to appear in an appeal from the Court of Session in the House of Lords. A schoolmaster in Scotland was, by a court of inferiour jurisdiction, deprived of his office, for being somewhat severe in the chastisement of his scholars. The Court of Session, considering it to be dangerous to the interest of learning and education to lessen the dignity of teachers, and make them afraid of too indulgent parents instigated by the complaints of their children, restored him. His enemies have appealed to the House of Lords, though the salary is only twenty pounds a year. I was counsel for him here. I hope there will be little fear of a reversal; but I must beg to have your aid in my plan of supporting the decree. It is a general question, and not a point of particular law. "I am, &c. "JAMES BOSWELL." "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 66 DEAR SIR, "THAT you are coming so soon to town I am very glad; and still more glad that you are coming as an advocate. I think nothing more likely to make your life pass happily away than that consciousness of your own value, which eminence in your profession will certainly confer. If I can give you any collateral help, I hope you do not suspect that it will be wanting. My kindness for you has neither the merit of singular virtue, nor the reproach of singular prejudice. Whether to love you be right or wrong, I have many on my side: Mrs. Thrale loves you, and Mrs. Williams loves you, and what would have inclined me to love you, if I had been neutral before, you are a great favourite of Dr. Beattie. "Of Dr. Beattie I should have thought much, but that his lady puts him out of my head: she is a very lovely woman. "The ejection which you come hither to oppose appears very cruel, unreasonable, and oppressive. I should think there could not be much doubt of your success. "My health grows better, yet I am not fully recovered. I believe it is held, that men do not recover very fast after threescore. I hope yet to see Beattie's College: and have not given up the western voyage. But however all this may be or not, let us try to make each other happy when we meet, and not refer our pleasure to distant times or distant places. "How comes it that you tell me nothing of your lady? I hope to see her some time, and till then shall be glad to hear of her. "March 14, 1772." 66 I am, DEAR SIR, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." "TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. NEAR SPILSBY, LIN DEAR SIR, COLNSHIRE. "I CONGRATULATE you and Lady Rothes' on your little man, and hope you will all be many years happy together. "Poor Miss Langton can have little part in the joy of her family. She this day called her aunt Langton to receive the sacrament with her; and made me talk yesterday on such subjects as suit her condition. It will probably be her viaticum. 5 [Mr. Langton married, May 24, 1770, Jane, the daughter of Lloyd, Esq. and widow of John Earl of Rothes, many years Commander in Chief of the Forces in Ireland, who died in 1767. M.] I surely need not mention again that she wishes to see her mother. I am, SIR, "Your most humble servant, "March 14, 1772." On the 21st of March, I was happy to find myself again in my friend's study, and was glad to see my old acquaintance, Mr. Francis Barber, who was now returned home. Dr. Johnson received me with a hearty welcome; saying,. “I am glad you are come, and glad you are come upon such an errand:" (alluding to the cause of the schoolmaster). BOSWELL. "I hope, sir, he will be in no danger. It is a very delicate matter to interfere between a master and his scholars: nor do I see how you can fix the degree of severity that a master may use. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, till you can fix the degree of obstinacy and negligence of the scholars, you cannot fix the degree of severity of the master. Severity must be continued until obstinacy be subdued, and negligence be cured." He mentioned the severity of Hunter, his own master. "Sir (said I), Hunter is a Scotch name: so it should seem this schoolmaster who beat you so severely was a Scotchman. I can now account for your prejudice against the Scotch." JOHNSON. "Sir, he was not Scotch; and, abating his brutality, he was a very good master." We talked of his two political pamphlets, "The False Alarm," and "Thoughts concerning Falkland's Islands." JOHNSON. "Well, sir, which of them did you think the best?" BOSWELL. “I liked the second best." JOHNSON. "Why, sir, I liked the first best; and Beattie liked the first best. Sir, there is a subtlety of disquisition in the first that is worth all the fire of the second." BOSWELL. "Pray, sir, is it true that Lord North paid you a visit, and that you got two hundred a year in addition to your pension?" "No, sir. Except what I had from the bookseller, I did not get a farthing by them. And, between you and me, I believe Lord North is no friend to me." BOSWELL. 66 How so, sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, sir, you cannot account for the fancies of men.-Well, how does Lord Elibank? and how does Lord Monboddo?" BOSWELL. BOSWELL. "Very well, sir. Lord Monboddo still maintains the superiority of the savage life." JOHNSON. "What strange narrowness of mind now is that, to think the things we have not known are better than the things which we have known." BosWELL. "Why, sir, that is a common prejudice." JOHNSON. "Yes, sir, but a common prejudice should not be found in one whose trade it is to rectify errour.' A gentleman having come in who was to go as a mate in the ship along with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, Dr. Johnson asked what were the names of the ships destined for the expedition. The gentleman answered, they were once to be called the Drake and the Ralegh, but now they were to be called the Resolution and the Adventure. JOHNSON. "Much better; for had the Ralegh returned without going round the world, it would have been ridiculous. To give them the names of the Drake and the Ralegh was laying a trap for satire." BOSWELL. "Had not you some desire to go upon this expedition, sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, yes, but I soon laid it aside. Sir, there is very little of intellectual in the course. Besides, I see but at a small distance. So it was not worth my while to go to see birds fly which I should not have seen fly; and fishes swim which I should not have seen swim." The gentleman being gone, and Dr. Johnson |