GENERAL APPENDIX. No. I. paternal affection (particularly for two of them, RECOLLECTIONS of Dr. Johnson by Miss Miss Carter and Miss Mulso, now Mrs. Chapone), Reynolds. previous to their acquaintance with Richardson, and it was said that he thought himself neglected by them on his account. "Dr. Johnson set a higher value upon female friendship than perhaps most men 3, which may reasonably be supposed was not a little enhanced by his acquaintance with those ladies, if it was not originally derived from them. To their society, doubtless, Richardson owed that delicacy of sentiment, that feminine excellence, as I may say, that so peculiarly distinguishes his writings from those of his own sex in general, how high soever they may soar above the other in the more dignified paths of literature, in scientific investigations, and abstruse inquiries. "Dr. Johnson used to repeat, with very apparent delight, some lines of a poem written by Miss Mulso: MR. PALMER'S contain two manupapers scripts of Miss Reynolds's Recollections, both in her own handwriting, nearly the same in substance, but differing a good deal as to the order, and something as to the handling, of the various topics. Miss Reynolds's best style was, as Dr. Johnson himself hinted to her, not a clear one, and in those rambling Recollections scattered over separate sheets of paper, there is a good deal of tautology and confusion, through which the Editor has had some difficulty in discovering any thing like order. He has, however, made an arrangement which, if not quite satisfactory, is at least intelligible. These Recollections tell little that is new, but they confirm and explain, and occasionally throw a useful light on some interesting points of Dr. Johnson's manners and character: and although they have not the advantage of having been written while the matters memory for every thing that appeared to him were quite fresh in Miss Reynolds's worthy of observation. Whatever he met with mind, the long and cordial intimacy be-in reading, particularly poetry, I believe he seldom tween her and Dr. Johnson entitles them to as much confidence as can be placed in Recollections.-ED. "THE first time I was in company with Dr. Johnson, which was at Miss Cotterel's, I well remember the flattering notice he took of a lady present, on her saying that she was inclined to estimate the morality of every person according as they liked or disliked Clarissa Harlowe. He was a great admirer of Richardson's works in general, but of Clarissa he always spoke with the highest enthusiastic praise. He used to say that it was the first book in the world for the knowledge it displays of the human heart. Yet of the author I never heard him speak with any degree of cordiality, but rather as if impressed with some cause of resentment against him; and this has been imputed to something of jealousy, not to say envy, on account of Richardson's having engrossed the attentions and affectionate assiduities of several very ingenious literary ladies, whom he used to call his adopted daughters, and for whom Dr. Johnson had conceived a 1 [Mr. Gwatkin's copy of these Recollections seems to have been extracted and abridged from the originals by another hand.-Ep.) 2 See ante, vol. i. p. 245-ED. 'Say, Stella, what is love, whose cruel power The smiling babe on beds of roses lay: His infant beauties open'd ou the day 4' required a revisal to be able to repeat verbatim. If not literally so, his deviations were generally improvements. This was the case, in some respects, in Shenstone's poem of the Inn,' which I learned from hearing Dr. Johnson repeat it; and I was surprised, on seeing it lately among the authour's works for the first time, to find it so different. One stanza he seems to have extemporized himself: 'And once again I shape my wa Through rain, through shine, through thick and thin, Secure to meet, at close of day, A kind reception at an inn.' "He always read amazingly quick, glancing 3 [In his conversation with ladies, he had such a feof the female mind he conceived a higher opinion than licity as would put vulgar gallantry out of countenance. many men, and, though he was never suspected of a blamable intimacy with any individual of them (see The defect ante, p. 432, had a great esteem for the sex. in his powers of sight rendered him totally insensible to the charms of beauty; but he knew that beauty was the attribute of the sex, and treated all women with such an equable complacency as flattered every one into a belief dowment. In his discourses with them his compliments had ever a neat and elegant turn: they were never direct, but always implied the merit they were intended to attest"-Hawkins's Life, p. 309.-ED.] that she had her share of that or some more valuable en 4 [Johnson paid the first of those stanzas the great and undeserved compliment of quoting it in his Dictionary. under the word "QUATRAIN."-ED] 1 his eye from the top to the bottom of the page in an instant. If he made any pause, it was a compliment to the work; and after seesawing over it a few minutes, generally repeated the passage, especially if it was poetry. "One day, on taking up Pope's Essay on Man,' a particular passage seemed more than ordinary to engage his attention; so much so indeed that, contrary to his usual custom, after he had left the book and the seat in which he was sitting, he returned to revise it, turning over the pages with anxiety to find it, and then repeated, Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair, its first coming out, to testify her admiration of it. exclaimed, 'I never more shall think Dr. Goldsmith ugly.' In having thought so, however, she was by no means singular; an instance of which I am rather inclined to mention, because it involves a remarkable one of Dr. Johnson's ready wit: for this lady, one evening being in a large party, was called upon after supper for her toast, and seeming embarrassed, she was desired to give the ugliest man she knew; and she immediately named Dr. Goldsmith, on which a lady on the other side of the table rose up and reached across to shake hands with her, expressing some desire of being better acquainted with her, it being the first time they had met; on which Dr. Johnson said, 'Thus the ancients, on the commencement of their friendships, used to sacrifice a beast be His task, probably, was the whole paragraph, but twixt them.' these lines only were audible. "He seemed much to delight in reciting verses, particularly from Pope. Among the many I have had the pleasure of hearing him recite, the conclusion of the Dunciad;' and his Epistle to Jervas, seemed to claim his highest admiration. Led by some rule that guides, but not constrains, 'And binding Nature fast in fate, "Some lines also he used to repeat in his best manner, written in memory of Bishop Boulter 3, which I believe are not much known. 'Some write their wrongs in marble; he, more just, And grieved they could not 'scape the Almighty's eye.' [A lady said pleasantly of Dr. Johnson's strange movement, or oscillation while reading, that "his head swung seconds.”—Miss Hawkins's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 216.-ED.] 2 Epistle to Jervas.-Miss REYNOLDS. 3 [By Dr. Madden. See ante, v. i. p. 137.-ED.] 4 They are so. We see in this case, and that of Miss Mulso (ante, p. 491), that Dr. Johnson's personal partialities induced him to quote in his Dictionary authours who "had no business there." See ante, v. i. p. 137, the motive of his gratitude to Madden.-ED.] 5 [Miss Reynolds herself.-ED.] 6 "Sir Joshua, I have often thought, never gave a more striking proof of his excellence in portraitpainting, than in giving dignity to Dr. Goldsmith's countenance, and yet preserving a strong likeness. But he drew after his mind, or rather his genics, if I may be allowed to make that distinction, assimilating the one with his conversation, the other with his works. "Dr. Goldsmith's cast of countenance, and indeed his whole figure from head to foot, impressed every one at first sight with an idea of his being a low mechanic-particularly, I believe, a journey. man tailor. A little concurring instance of this I well remember. One day at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, in company with some gentlemen and ladies, he was relating with great indignation an insult he had just received from some gentle man he had accidentally met (I think at a coffeehouse). "The fellow,' he said, 'took me før a tailor!' on which all the party either laughed aloud or showed they suppressed a laugh. "Dr. Johnson seemed to have much more kindness for Goldsmith, than Goldsmith had for him. He always appeared to be overawed by Johnson, particularly when in company with people of any consequence, always as if impressed with some fear of disgrace, and indeed well be might. I have been witness to many mortifications he has suffered in Dr. Johnson's company. one day in particular, at Sir Joshua's table, gentleman to whom he was talking his best stopped him, in the midst of his discourse, with Hush hush! Dr. Johnson is going to say something." "At another time, a gentleman who was sil ting between Dr. Johnson and Dr. Goldsmith, and with whom he had been disputing, remarked to another, loud enough for Goldsmith to bear him, That he had a fine time of it, between Ursa major and Ursa minor" !' "Mr. Baretti used to remark (with a smile) that Dr. Johnson always talked his best to the ladies. But indeed that was his general practice to Mrs. Cholmondely.-Miss REYNOLDS. 7 [The Editor has preserved this specimen, as a striking instance of the easy fabrication of what are called met dotes, and of how little even the best authorities can be relied on in such matters. The real anecdote was of Doctor Major and Doctor Minor (see ante, vol. 353, by no means so happy as the fabrication, and the title of Ursa Major was applied to Johnson by eld Lord Auchinlech (ante, p. 459). pleasant fallacy quoted by Miss Reynolds was no doubt compounded.-ED.] From these two facts the all who would furnish him with a subject worthy of his discussion; for, what was very singular in him, he would rarely, if ever, begin any subject himself, but would sit silent till something was particularly addressed to him, and if that happened to lead to any scientific or moral inquiry, his benevolence, I believe, more immediately incited him to expatiate on it for the edification of the ignorant than for any other motive whatever. attended, or rather constituted his mental malady, which, I have observed, might probably have incited him so often to pray; and I impute it to the same cause, that he so frequently, with great earnestness, desired his intimate acquaintance to pray for him, apparently on very slight occasions of corporeal disorder. [Here followed an expression of surprise at his having desired a prayer from Dr. Dodd, and several particulars of that story, already amply told ante, pp. 104 et seq., and 118.] "And another axiom of his, of the same tendency, was, that the pains and miseries incident to human life far outweighed its happiness and good. [Vol. i. p. 521 2.] "But indeed much may be said in Dr. Johnson's justification, supposing this notion should not meet with universal approbation, having, it is probable, imbibed them in the early part of his life when under the pressure of adverse fortune, and in every period of it under the still heavier pressure and more adverse influence of Nature herself; for I have often heard him lament that he inherited from his father a morbid disposition both of body and of mind-an oppressive melancholy, which robbed him of the common en "One day, on a lady's telling him that she had read Parnell's Hermit' with dissatisfaction, for she could not help thinking that thieves and murderers, who were such immediate ministers from heaven of good to man, did not deserve such punishments as our laws inflict, Dr. Johnson spoke such an eloquent oration, so deeply philosophical, as indeed afforded a most striking instance of the truth of Baretti's observation, but of which, to my great regret, I can give no corroborating proof, ny memory furnishing me with nothing more than barely the general tendency of his arguments, which was to prove, that though it might be said that wicked men, as well as the good, were ministers of God, because in the moral sphere the good we enjoy and the evil we suffer are administered to us by man, yet, as infinite goodness could not inspire or influence man to act wicked-joyments of life3. ly, but, on the contrary, it was his divine property to produce good out of evil, and as man was endowed with free-will to act, or to refrain from acting wickedly, with knowledge of good and evil, with conscience to admonish and to direct him to choose the one and to reject the other, he was, therefore, as criminal in the sight of God and of man, and as deserving punishment for his evil deeds, as if no good had resulted from them. "And yet, though, to the best of my remembrance, this was the substance of Dr. Johnson's discourse in answer to the lady's observation, I am rather apprehensive that in some respects it may be thought inconsistent with his general assertions, that man was by nature much more inclined to evil than to good. But it would ill become me to expatiate on such a subject. "Yet what can be said to reconcile his opinion of the natural tendency of the human heart to evil with his own zealous virtuous propensions? Nothing perhaps, at least by me, but that this opinion, I believe, was founded upon religious principles relating to original sin; and I well remember that, when disputing with a person on this subject, who thought that nature, reason, and virtue were the constituent principles of humanity, he would say, Nay, nay, if man is by nature prompted to act virtuously, all the divine precepts of the gospel, all its denunciations, all the laws enacted by inan to restrain man from evil, had been needless.' "It is certain that he would scarcely allow any one to feel much for the distresses of others; or whatever he thought they might feel, he was very apt to impute to causes that did no honour to human nature. Indeed I thought him rather too fond of Rochefoucault maxims. "The very strict watch he apparently kept over his mind seems to correspond with his thorough conviction of nature's evil propensions; but it might be as likely in consequence of his dread of those peculiar ones, whatever they were, which [See ante, vol. i. p. 345.-ED.] Indeed he seemed to struggle almost incessantly with some mental evil, and often by the expression of his countenance and the motion of his lips appeared to be offering up some ejaculation to Heaven to remove it. But in Lent, or near the approach of any great festival, he would generally retire from the company to a corner of the room, but most commonly behind a windowcurtain, to pray, and with such energy, and in so loud a whisper, that every word was heard distinctly, particularly the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, with which he constantly concluded his devotions. Sometimes some words would emphatically escape him in his usual tone of voice 4. "At these holy seasons he secluded himself more from society than at other times, at least from general and mixed society; and on a gentleman's sending him an invitation to dinner on Easter Eve he was highly offended, and expressed himself so in his answer. 66 Probably his studious attention to the secret workings of his peculiar mental infirmity, together with his experience of divine assistance cooperating with his reasoning faculties, to repel its force, may have proved in the highest degree conducive to the exaltation of his piety, and the pre-eminence of his wisdom. And I think it equally probable, that all his natural defects were conducive to that end; for being so peculiarly debarred from the enjoyment of those amusements which the eye and the ear afford, doubtless he sought more assiduously for those gratifications which scientific pursuits or philosophic meditation bestow. 2 [Where passages from these "Recollections" have been introduced in the text of the preceding volume, these marks refer to the places where they are to be found.-ED.] 3 [This last paragraph was originally written, "terrifying melancholy, which he was sometimes apprehensive bordered on insanity." This Miss Reynolds softened into the remark as it stands above.-ED.] 4 [See ante, vol. i. p. 333.-ED.] |