Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 by Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

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_BOSWELL'S_

_LIFE OF JOHNSON_

_INCLUDING BOSWELL'S JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES

AND JOHNSON'S DIARY OF A JOURNEY INTO NORTH WALES_

EDITED BY

GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L.

PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD

IN SIX VOLUMES

VOLUME I.--LIFE (1709-1765)

M DCCC LXXXVII

THE

LIFE

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

COMPREHENDING

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STUDIES
AND NUMEROUS WORKS,
IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER;

A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE
AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS;

AND

VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,
NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED:

THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND
LITERARY MEN IN GREAT-BRITAIN, FOR NEAR
HALF A CENTURY, DURING WHICH
HE FLOURISHED.

_BY JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ_.

--_Quo fit ut_ OMNIS
_Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella_
VITA SENIS.--

HORAT.

THE THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND AUGMENTED,
IN FOUR VOLUMES.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY H. BALDWIN AND SON,
FOR CHARLES DILLY, IN THE POULTRY.

* * * * *

M DCC XCIX.

TO

THE REVEREND BENJAMIN JOWETT, M.A.,

MASTER OF BALLIOL COLLEGE

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

HONORARY LL.D. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

HONORARY D.D. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN

WHO IS NOT ONLY

'AN ACUTE AND KNOWING CRITIC'

BUT ALSO

'JOHNSONIANISSIMUS'

IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT

OF THE

KINDLY INTEREST THAT HE HAS THROUGHOUT TAKEN

IN THE PROGRESS OF THIS WORK

This Edition

OF

BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON

Is Dedicated

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

PAGE

DEDICATION TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOGUE OF THE PROSE WORKS OF
SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON (SEPT. 18, 1709-OCTOBER 1765) . . . . 1-500

APPENDICES

A. JOHNSON'S DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

B. JOHNSON'S LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER AND MISS PORTER
IN 1759 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512

C. JOHNSON AT CAMBRIDGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

D. JOHNSON'S LETTER TO DR. LELAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

E. JOHNSON'S 'ENGAGING IN POLITICKS WITH H----N'. . . . . . 518

F. JOHNSON'S FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE THRALES
AND HIS SERIOUS ILLNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, &c.

1. SAMUEL JOHNSON, after the Picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the
National Gallery
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ to VOL. I.

2. FACSIMILE OF JOHNSON'S HANDWRITING IN HIS 20TH YEAR
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. I, p. 60.

3. FACSIMILE OF A LETTER OF JOHNSON relating to _Rasselas_
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. I, p. 340.

4. SAMUEL JOHNSON, from the Portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
1756
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. I, p. 392.

5. SAMUEL JOHNSON, after the Bust by Nollekens
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ to VOL. II.

6. FACSIMILE OF JOHNSON'S HANDWRITING IN HIS 54TH YEAR
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. II, _to follow Frontispiece_.

7. SAMUEL JOHNSON, after the Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1770
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece to_ VOL. III.

8. FACSIMILE OF THE ROUND ROBIN ADDRESSED TO DR. JOHNSON
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. III, p. 82.

9. OPIE'S PORTRAIT OF JOHNSON, from the Engraving in the Common
Room of University College
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. III, _to face_ p. 245.

10. FACSIMILE OF DR. JOHNSON'S HANDWRITING A MONTH BEFORE
HIS DEATH
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. IV, _to face_ p. 377.

11. JAMES BOSWELL OF AUCHINLECK, Esq., from the painting by Sir
Joshua Reynolds
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece to_ VOL. V.

12. FACSIMILE OF BOSWELL'S HANDWRITING, 1792, from a Letter in the
Bodleian Library
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. V, _to follow Frontispiece_.

13. MAP OF JOHNSON AND BOSWELL'S TOUR THROUGH SCOTLAND AND
THE HEBRIDES
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. V, _to face_ p. 5.

14. CHART OF JOHNSON'S CONTEMPORARIES
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece to VOL. VI.

PREFACE.

Fielding, it is said, drank confusion to the man who invented the fifth
act of a play. He who has edited an extensive work, and has concluded
his labours by the preparation of a copious index, might well be
pardoned, if he omitted to include the inventor of the Preface among the
benefactors of mankind. The long and arduous task that years before he
had set himself to do is done, and the last thing that he desires is to
talk about it. Liberty is what he asks for, liberty to range for a time
wherever he pleases in the wide and fair fields of literature. Yet with
this longing for freedom comes a touch of regret and a doubt lest the
'fresh woods and pastures new' may never wear the friendly and familiar
face of the plot of ground within whose narrower confines he has so long
been labouring, and whose every corner he knows so well. May-be he finds
hope in the thought that should his new world seem strange to him and
uncomfortable, ere long he may be called back to his old task, and in
the preparation of a second edition find the quiet and the peace of mind
that are often found alone in 'old use and wont.'

With me the preparation of these volumes has, indeed, been the work of
many years. Boswell's _Life of Johnson_ I read for the first time in my
boyhood, when I was too young for it to lay any hold on me. When I
entered Pembroke College, Oxford, though I loved to think that Johnson
had been there before me, yet I cannot call to mind that I ever opened
the pages of Boswell. By a happy chance I was turned to the study of the
literature of the eighteenth century. Every week we were required by the
rules of the College to turn into Latin, or what we called Latin, a
passage from _The Spectator_. Many a happy minute slipped by while, in
forgetfulness of my task, I read on and on in its enchanting pages. It
was always with a sigh that at last I tore myself away, and sat
resolutely down to write bad Latin instead of reading good English. From
Addison in the course of time I passed on to the other great writers of
his and the succeeding age, finding in their exquisitely clear style,
their admirable common sense and their freedom from all the tricks of
affectation, a delightful contrast to so many of the eminent authors of
our own time. Those troublesome doubts, doubts of all kinds, which since
the great upheaval of the French Revolution have harassed mankind, had
scarcely begun to ruffle the waters of their life. Even Johnson's
troubled mind enjoyed vast levels of repose. The unknown world alone was
wrapped in stormy gloom; of this world 'all the complaints which were
made were unjust[1].' Though I was now familiar with many of the great
writers, yet Boswell I had scarcely opened since my boyhood. A happy day
came just eighteen years ago when in an old book-shop, almost under the
shadow of a great cathedral, I bought a second-hand copy of a somewhat
early edition of the _Life_ in five well-bound volumes. Of all my books
none I cherish more than thesc. In looking at them I have known what it
is to feel Bishop Percy's 'uneasiness at the thoughts of leaving his
books in death[2].' They became my almost inseparable companions. Before
long I began to note the parallel passages and allusions not only in
their pages, but in the various authors whom I studied. Yet in these
early days I never dreamt of preparing a new edition. It fell to my lot
as time went on to criticise in some of our leading publications works
that bore both on Boswell and Johnson. Such was my love for the subject
that on one occasion, when I was called upon to write a review that
should fall two columns of a weekly newspaper, I read a new edition of
the _Life_ from beginning to end without, I believe, missing a single
line of the text or a single note. At length, 'towering in the
confidence'[3] of one who as yet has but set his foot on the threshold
of some stately mansion in which he hopes to find for himself a home, I
was rash enough more than twelve years ago to offer myself as editor of
a new edition of Boswell's _Life of Johnson_. Fortunately for me another
writer had been already engaged by the publisher to whom I applied, and
my offer was civilly declined. From that time on I never lost sight of
my purpose but when in the troubles of life I well-nigh lost sight of
every kind of hope. Everything in my reading that bore on my favourite
author was carefully noted, till at length I felt that the materials
which I had gathered from all sides were sufficient to shield me from a
charge of rashness if I now began to raise the building. Much of the
work of preparation had been done at a grievous disadvantage. My health
more than once seemed almost hopelessly broken down. Nevertheless even
then the time was not wholly lost. In the sleepless hours of many a
winter night I almost forgot my miseries in the delightful pages of
Horace Walpole's Letters, and with pencil in hand and some little hope
still in heart, managed to get a few notes taken. Three winters I had to
spend on the shores of the Mediterranean. During two of them my malady
and my distress allowed of no rival, and my work made scarcely any
advance. The third my strength was returning, and in the six months that
I spent three years ago in San Remo I wrote out very many of the notes
which I am now submitting to my readers.

An interval of some years of comparative health that I enjoyed between
my two severest illnesses allowed me to try my strength as a critic and
an editor. In _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and his Critics_, which I
published in the year 1878, I reviewed the judgments passed on Johnson
and Boswell by Lord Macaulay and Mr. Carlyle, I described Oxford as it
was known to Johnson, and I threw light on more than one important
passage in the _Life_. The following year I edited Boswell's _Journal of
a Tour to Corsica_ and his curious correspondence with the Hon. Andrew
Erskine. The somewhat rare little volume in which are contained the
lively but impudent letters that passed between these two friends I had
found one happy day in an old book-stall underneath the town hall of
Keswick. I hoped that among the almost countless readers of Boswell
there would be many who would care to study in one of the earliest
attempts of his joyous youth the man whose ripened genius was to place
him at the very head of all the biographers of whom the world can boast.
My hopes were increased by the elegance and the accuracy of the
typography with which my publishers, Messrs. De La Rue & Co., adorned
this reprint. I was disappointed in my expectations. These curious
Letters met with a neglect which they did not deserve. Twice, moreover,
I was drawn away from the task that I had set before me by other works.
By the death of my uncle, Sir Rowland Hill, I was called upon to edit
his _History of the Penny Postage_, and to write his _Life_. Later on
General Gordon's correspondence during the first six years of his
government of the Soudan was entrusted to me to prepare for the press.
In my _Colonel Gordon in Central Africa_ I attempted to do justice to
the rare genius, to the wise and pure enthusiasm, and to the exalted
beneficence of that great man. The labour that I gave to these works
was, as regards my main purpose, by no means wholly thrown away. I was
trained by it in the duties of an editor, and by studying the character
of two such men, who, though wide as the poles asunder in many things,
were as devoted to truth and accuracy as they were patient in their
pursuit, I was strengthened in my hatred of carelessness and error.

With all these interruptions the summer of 1885 was upon me before I was
ready for the compositors to make a beginning with my work. In revising
my proofs very rarely indeed have I contented myself in verifying my
quotations with comparing them merely with my own manuscript. In almost
all instances I have once more examined the originals. 'Diligence and
accuracy,' writes Gibbon, 'are the only merits which an historical
writer may ascribe to himself; if any merit indeed can be assumed from
the performance of an indispensable duty[4].' By diligence and accuracy
I have striven to win for myself a place in Johnson's _school_--'a
school distinguished,' as Sir Joshua Reynolds said, 'for a love of truth
and accuracy[5].' I have steadily set before myself Boswell's example
where he says:--'Let me only observe, as a specimen of my trouble, that
I have sometimes been obliged to run half over London, in order to fix a
date correctly; which, when I had accomplished, I well knew would obtain
me no praise, though a failure would have been to my discredit[6].' When
the variety and the number of my notes are considered, when it is known
that a great many of the authors I do not myself possess, but that they
could only be examined in the Bodleian or the British Museum, it will be
seen that the labour of revising the proofs was, indeed, unusually
severe. In the course of the eighteen months during which they have been
passing through the press, fresh reading has given fresh information,
and caused many an addition, and not a few corrections moreover to be
made, in passages which I had previously presumed to think already
complete. Had it been merely the biography of a great man of letters
that I was illustrating, such anxious care would scarcely have been
needful. But Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, as its author with just pride
boasts on its title-page, 'exhibits a view of literature and literary
men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which Johnson
flourished.' Wide, indeed, is the gulf by which this half-century is
separated from us. The reaction against the thought and style of the age
over which Pope ruled in its prime, and Johnson in its decline,--this
reaction, wise as it was in many ways and extravagant as it was perhaps
in more, is very far from having spent its force. Young men are still
far too often found in our Universities who think that one proof of
their originality is a contempt of authors whose writings they have
never read. Books which were in the hands of almost every reader of the
_Life_ when it first appeared are now read only by the curious.
Allusions and quotations which once fell upon a familiar and a friendly
ear now fall dead. Men whose names were known to every one, now often
have not even a line in a Dictionary of Biography. Over manners too a
change has come, and as Johnson justly observes, 'all works which
describe manners require notes in sixty or seventy years, or less[7].'
But it is not only Boswell's narrative that needs illustration. Johnson
in his talk ranges over a vast number of subjects. In his capacious
memory were stored up the fruits of an almost boundless curiosity, and a
wide and varied reading. I have sought to follow him wherever a remark
of his required illustration, and have read through many a book that I
might trace to its source a reference or an allusion. I have examined,
moreover, all the minor writings which are attributed to him by Boswell,
but which are not for the most part included in his collected works. In
some cases I have ventured to set my judgment against Boswell's, and
have refused to admit that Johnson was the author of the feeble pieces
which were fathered on him. Once or twice in the course of my reading I
have come upon essays which had escaped the notice of his biographer,
but which bear the marks of his workmanship. To these I have given a
reference. While the minute examination that I have so often had to make
of Boswell's narrative has done nothing but strengthen my trust in his
statements and my admiration of his laborious truthfulness, yet in one
respect I have not found him so accurate as I had expected. 'I have,' he
says, 'been extremely careful as to the exactness of my quotations[8].'
Though in preparing his manuscript he referred in each case 'to the
originals,' yet he did not, I conjecture, examine them once more in
revising his proof-sheets. At all events he has allowed errors to slip
in. These I have pointed out in my notes, for in every case where I
could I have, I believe, verified his quotations.

I have not thought that it was my duty as an editor to attempt to refute
or even to criticise Johnson's arguments. The story is told that when
Peter the Great was on his travels and far from his country, some
members of the Russian Council of State in St. Petersburgh ventured to
withstand what was known to be his wish. His walking-stick was laid upon
the table, and silence at once fell upon all. In like manner, before
that editor who should trouble himself and his readers with attempting
to refute Johnson's arguments, paradoxical as they often were, should be
placed Reynolds's portrait of that 'labouring working mind[9].' It might
make him reflect that if the mighty reasoner could rise up and meet him
face to face, he would be sure, on which ever side the right might be,
even if at first his pistol missed fire to knock him down with the
butt-end of it[10]. I have attempted therefore not to criticise but to
illustrate Johnson's statements. I have compared them with the opinions
of the more eminent men among his contemporaries, and with his own as
they are contained in other parts of his _Life_, and in his writings. It
is in his written works that his real opinion can be most surely found.
'He owned he sometimes talked for victory; he was too conscientious to
make error permanent and pernicious by deliberately writing it[11].' My
numerous extracts from the eleven volumes of his collected works will, I
trust, not only give a truer insight into the nature of the man, but
also will show the greatness of the author to a generation of readers
who have wandered into widely different paths.

In my attempts to trace the quotations of which both Johnson and Boswell
were somewhat lavish, I have not in every case been successful, though I
have received liberal assistance from more than one friend. In one case
my long search was rewarded by the discovery that Boswell was quoting
himself. That I have lighted upon the beautiful lines which Johnson
quoted when he saw the Highland girl singing at her wheel[12], and have
found out who was 'one Giffard,' or rather Gifford, 'a parson,' is to me
a source of just triumph. I have not known many happier hours than the
one in which in the Library of the British Museum my patient
investigation was rewarded and I perused _Contemplation_.

Fifteen hitherto unpublished letters of Johnson[13]; his college
composition in Latin prose[14]; a long extract from his manuscript
diary[15]; a suppressed passage in his _Journey to the Western
Islands_[16]; Boswell's letters of acceptance of the office of Secretary
for Foreign Correspondence to the Royal Academy[17]; the proposal for
the publication of a _Geographical Dictionary_ issued by Johnson's
beloved friend, Dr. Bathurst[18]; and Mr. Recorder Longley's record of
his conversation with Johnson on Greek metres[19], will, I trust, throw
some lustre on this edition.

In many notes I have been able to clear up statements in the text which
were not fully understood even by the author, or were left intentionally
dark by him, or have become obscure through lapse of time. I would
particularly refer to the light that I have thrown on Johnson's engaging
in politics with William Gerard Hamilton[20], and on Burke's 'talk of
retiring[21].' In many other notes I have established Boswell's accuracy
against attacks which had been made on it apparently with success. It
was with much pleasure that I discovered that the story told of
Johnson's listening to Dr. Sacheverel's sermon is not in any way
improbable[22], and that Johnson's 'censure' of Lord Kames was quite
just[23]. The ardent advocates of total abstinence will not, I fear, be
pleased at finding at the end of my long note on Johnson's wine-drinking
that I have been obliged to show that he thought that the gout from
which he suffered was due to his temperance. 'I hope you persevere in
drinking,' he wrote to his friend, Dr. Taylor. 'My opinion is that I
have drunk too little[24].'

In the Appendices I have generally treated of subjects which demanded
more space than could be given them in the narrow limits of a foot-note.
In the twelve pages of the essay on Johnson's _Debates in
Parliament_[25] I have compressed the result of the reading of many
weeks. In examining the character of George Psalmanazar[26] I have
complied with the request of an unknown correspondent who was naturally
interested in the history of that strange man, 'after whom Johnson
sought the most[27].' In my essay on Johnson's Travels and Love of
Travelling[28] I have, in opposition to Lord Macaulay's wild and wanton
rhetoric, shown how ardent and how elevated was the curiosity with which
Johnson's mind was possessed. In another essay I have explained, I do
not say justified, his strong feelings towards the founders of the
United States[29]; and in a fifth I have examined the election of the
Lord Mayors of London, at a time when the City was torn by political
strife[30]. To the other Appendices it is not needful particularly to
refer.

In my Index, which has cost me many months' heavy work, 'while I bore
burdens with dull patience and beat the track of the alphabet with
sluggish resolution[31],' I have, I hope, shown that I am not unmindful
of all that I owe to men of letters. To the dead we cannot pay the debt
of gratitude that is their due. Some relief is obtained from its
burthen, if we in our turn make the men of our own generation debtors to
us. The plan on which my Index is made will, I trust, be found
convenient. By the alphabetical arrangement in the separate entries of
each article the reader, I venture to think, will be greatly facilitated
in his researches. Certain subjects I have thought it best to form into
groups. Under America, France Ireland, London, Oxford, Paris, and
Scotland, are gathered together almost all the references to those
subjects. The provincial towns of France, however, by some mistake I did
not include in the general article. One important but intentional
omission I must justify. In the case of the quotations in which my notes
abound I have not thought it needful in the Index to refer to the book
unless the eminence of the author required a separate and a second
entry. My labour would have been increased beyond all endurance and my
Index have been swollen almost into a monstrosity had I always referred
to the book as well as to the matter which was contained in the passage
that I extracted. Though in such a variety of subjects there must be
many omissions, yet I shall be greatly disappointed if actual errors are
discovered. Every entry I have made myself, and every entry I have
verified in the proof-sheets, not by comparing it with my manuscript,
but by turning to the reference in the printed volumes. Some indulgence
nevertheless may well be claimed and granted. If Homer at times nods, an
index-maker may be pardoned, should he in the fourth or fifth month of
his task at the end of a day of eight hours' work grow drowsy. May I
fondly hope that to the maker of so large an Index will be extended the
gratitude which Lord Bolingbroke says was once shown to lexicographers?
'I approve,' writes his Lordship, 'the devotion of a studious man at
Christ Church, who was overheard in his oratory entering into a detail
with God, and acknowledging the divine goodness in furnishing the world
with makers of dictionaries[32].'

In the list that I give in the beginning of the sixth volume of the
books which I quote, the reader will find stated in full the titles
which in the notes, through regard to space, I was forced to compress.

The Concordance of Johnson's sayings which follows the Index[33] will be
found convenient by the literary man who desires to make use of his
strong and pointed utterances. Next to Shakespeare he is, I believe,
quoted and misquoted the most frequently of all our writers. 'It is not
every man that can _carry_ a _bon-mot_[34].' Bons-mots that are
miscarried of all kinds of good things suffer the most. In this
Concordance the general reader, moreover, may find much to delight him.
Johnson's trade was wit and wisdom[35], and some of his best wares are
here set out in a small space. It was, I must confess, with no little
pleasure that in revising my proof-sheets I found that the last line in
my Concordance and the last line in my six long volumes is Johnson's
quotation of Goldsmith's fine saying; 'I do not love a man who is
zealous for nothing.'