L 1763. paffes a church without pulling off his hat. This fhews that he has good principles. I used to go Eat. 54 pretty often to Campbell's on a Sunday evening, till I began to confider that the fhoals of Scotchmen who flocked about him might probably fay, when any thing of mine was well done, Ay, ay, he has learnt this of CAWMELL!" He talked very contemptuously of Churchill's poetry, obferving, that "it had a temporary currency, only from its audacity of abuse, and being filled with living names, and that it would fink into oblivion." I ventured to hint that he was not quite a fair judge, as Churchill had attacked him violently. JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, I am a very fair judge. He did not attack me violently till he found I did not like his poetry; and his attack on me fhall not prevent me from continuing to fay what I think of him, from an apprehenfion that it may be ascribed to refentment. No, Sir, I called the fellow a blockhead at firft, and I will call him a blockhead ftill. However, I will acknowledge that I have a better opinion of him now, than I once had; for he has fhewn more fertility than I expected. To be fure, he is a tree that cannot produce good fruit: he only bears crabs. But, Sir, a tree that produces a great many crabs is better than a tree which produces only a few." In this depreciation of Churchill's poetry I could not agree with him. It is very true that the greatest part of it is upon the topicks of the day, on which account, as it brought him great fame and profit at the time, it must proportionally flide out of the publick attention as other occafional objects fuc ceed. 1763. Etat. 54 ceed. But Churchill had extraordinary vigour both of thought and expreffion. His portraits of the players will ever be valuable to the true lovers of the drama; and his ftrong caricatures of several eminent men of his age, will not be forgotten by the curious. Let me add, that there are in his work's many paffages which are of a general nature; and his " Prophecy of Famine" is a poem of no ordinary merit. It is, indeed, falfely injurious to Scotland; but therefore may be allowed a greater fhare of invention. Bonnel Thornton had just published a burlesque "Ode on St. Cecilia's day, adapted to the ancient British mufick, viz. the falt-box, the Jew's-harp, the marrow-bones and cleaver, the hum-ftrum or hurdy-gurdy, &c." Johnfon praised its humour, and feemed much diverted with it. He repeated the following paffage : "In ftrains more exalted the falt-box shall join, "With a rap and a tap, while the hollow fide founds, Up and down leaps the flap, and with rattling rebounds." I mentioned the periodical paper called "THE CONNOISSEUR." He faid it wanted matter.-No doubt it has not the deep thinking of Johnson's writings. But furely it has juft views of the furface of life, and a very sprightly manner. His opinion of THE WORLD was not much higher than of the Connoiffeur. Let 1763 Let me here apologize for the imperfect manner in which I am obliged to exhibit Johnson's Etat. 54% converfation at this period. In the early part of my acquaintance with him, I was fo wrapt in admiration of his extraordinary colloquial talents, and fo little accustomed to his peculiar mode of expreffion, that I found it extremely difficult to recollect and record his converfation with its genuine vigour and vivacity. In progrefs of time, when my mind was, as it were, ftrongly impregnated with the Johnfonian æther, I could, with much more facility and exactnefs, carry in my memory and commit to paper the exuberant variety of his wisdom and wit. At this time Mifs Williams, as fhe was then called, though fhe did not refide with him in the Temple under his roof, but had lodgings in Boltcourt, Fleet-treet, had fo much of his attention, that he every night drank tea with her before he went home, however late it might be, and she always fat up for him. This, it may be fairly conjectured, was not alone a proof of his regard for ber, but of his own unwillingness to go into folitude before that unfeasonable hour at which he had habituated himself to expect the oblivion of repofe. Dr. Goldsmith, being a privileged man, went with him this night, ftrutting away, and calling to me with an air of fuperiority, like that of an esoterick over an exoterick difciple of a fage of antiquity, "I go to Mifs Williams." I confess, I then envied him this mighty privilege, of which he seemed so proud; but it was not long before I obtained the fame mark of diftinction. VOL. I. Сс On 1763.1 Exat, 54 C On Tuefday the 5th of July, I again vifited Johnfon. He told me he had looked into the poems of a pretty voluminous writer, Mr. (now Dr.) John Ogilvie, one of the Prefbyterian ministers of Scotland, which had lately come out, but could find no thinking in them. BosWELL. "Is there not imagination in them, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, there is in them what was imagination, but it is no more imagination in him, than found is found in the echo. And his diction too is not his own. We have long ago feen white-robed innocence, and flower-befpangled meads." Talking of London, he obferved, "Sir, if you wish to have a juft notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but muft furvey the innume rable little lanes and courts. It is not in the fhowy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crouded together, that the wonderful immenfity of London confifts."-I have often amufed myself with thinking how different a place London is to different people. They, whofe narrow minds are contracted to the confideration of fome one particular purfuit, view it only through that medium. A politician thinks of it merely as the feat of government in its different departments; a grazier, as a vast market for cattle; a mercantile man, as a place where a prodigious deal of business is done upon 'Change; a dramatick enthusiast, as the grand scene of theatrical entertainments; a man of pleasure, as an affemblage of taverns, and the great emporium for ladies of eafy virtue. But the intellectual man is ftruck with it, as compre hending hending the whole of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible. On Wednesday, July 6, he was engaged to fup with me at my lodgings in Downing-street, Weftminster. But on the preceding night my Landlord having behaved very rudely to me and fome company who were with me, I had refolved not to remain another night in his house. ́ I was exceedingly uneafy at the aukward appearance I supposed I fhould make to Johnfon and the other gentlemen whom I had invited, not being able to receive them at home, and being obliged to order fupper at the Mitre. I went to Johnfon in the morning, and talked of it as of a ferious diftrefs. He laughed, and faid, "Confider, Sir, how infignificant this will appear a twelvemonth hence."-Were this confideration to be applied to most of the little vexatious incidents of life, by which our quiet is too often difturbed, it would prevent many painful fenfations. I have tried it frequently, with good effect. "There is nothing (continued he) in this mighty misfortune; nay, we fhall be better at the Mitre." I told him that I had been at Sir John Fielding's office, complaining of my landlord, and had been informed, that though I had taken my lodgings for a year, I might, upon proof of his bad behaviour, quit them when I pleafed, without being under an obligation to pay rent for any longer time than while I poffeffed them. The fertility of Johnson's mind could fhew itself even upon so small a matter as this. "Why, Sir, (faid he,) I fuppofe this must be the law, fince you have been told fo in Bowftreet. But, if your landlord could hold you to Cc 2 your 1763. Etat. 54 |