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

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[396] _Gent. Mag_. viii. 210, and Johnson's _Works_, i. 170.

[397] What these verses are is not clear. On p. 372 there is an epigram
_Ad Elisam Popi Horto Lauras carpentem_, of which on p. 429 there are
three translations. That by Urbanus may be Johnson's.

[398] _Ib_. p. 654, and Johnson's _Works_, i. 170. On p. 211 of this
volume of the _Gent. Mag_. is given the epigram 'To a lady who spoke in
defence of liberty.' This was 'Molly Aston' mentioned _ante_, p. 83.

[399] To the year 1739 belongs _Considerations on the Case of Dr.
T[rapp]s Sermons. Abridged by Mr. Cave, 1739_; first published in the
_Gent. Mag_. of July 1787. (See _post_ under Nov. 5, 1784, note.) Cave
had begun to publish in the _Gent. Mag_. an abridgment of four sermons
preached by Trapp against Whitefield. He stopped short in the
publication, deterred perhaps by the threat of a prosecution for an
infringement of copy-right. 'On all difficult occasions,' writes the
Editor in 1787, 'Johnson was Cave's oracle; and the paper now before us
was certainly written on that occasion.' Johnson argues that abridgments
are not only legal but also justifiable. 'The design of an abridgment is
to benefit mankind by facilitating the attainment of knowledge ... for
as an incorrect book is lawfully criticised, and false assertions justly
confuted ... so a tedious volume may no less lawfully be abridged,
because it is better that the proprietors should suffer some damage,
than that the acquisition of knowledge should be obstructed with
unnecessary difficulties, and the valuable hours of thousands thrown
away.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 465. Whether we have here Johnson's own
opinion cannot be known. He was writing as Cave's advocate. See also
Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 20, 1773.

[400] In his _Life of Thomson_ Johnson writes:--'About this time the act
was passed for licensing plays, of which the first operation was the
prohibition of _Gustavus Vasa_, a tragedy of Mr. Brooke, whom the public
recompensed by a very liberal subscription; the next was the refusal of
_Edward and Eleonora_, offered by Thomson. It is hard to discover why
either play should have been obstructed.' Johnson's Works, viii. 373.

[401] The Inscription and the Translation of it are preserved in the
_London Magazine_ for the year 1739, p. 244. BOSWELL. See Johnson's
_Works_, vi. 89.

[402] It is a little heavy in its humour, and does not compare well with
the like writings of Swift and the earlier wits.

[403] Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 72.

[404]

'Sic fatus senior, telumque imbelle sine ictu Conjecit.' 'So spake the
elder, and cast forth a toothless spear and vain.'

Morris, _AEneids_, ii. 544.

[405]

'Get all your verses printed fair,
Then let them well be dried;
And Curll must have a special care
To leave the margin wide.
Lend these to paper-sparing Pope;
And when he sits to write,
No letter with an envelope
Could give him more delight.'

_Advice to the Grub Street Verse-Writers_. (Swift's _Works_, 1803, xi
32.) Nichols, in a note on this passage, says:--'The original copy of
Pope's _Homer_ is almost entirely written on the covers of letters, and
sometimes between the lines of the letters themselves.' Johnson, in his
_Life of Pope_, writes:--'Of Pope's domestic character frugality was a
part eminently remarkable.... This general care must be universally
approved; but it sometimes appeared in petty artifices of parsimony,
such as the practice of writing his compositions on the back of letters,
as may be seen in the remaining copy of the _Iliad_, by which perhaps in
five years five shillings were saved.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 312.

[406] See note, p. 132. BOSWELL.

[407] The _Marmor Norfolciense_, price one shilling, is advertised in
the _Gent. Mag_. for 1739 (p. 220) among the books for April.

[408] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 8. BOSWELL.

[409] According to Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'Every person who knew Dr.
Johnson must have observed that the moment he was left out of the
conversation, whether from his deafness or from whatever cause, but a
few minutes without speaking or listening, his mind appeared to be
preparing itself. He fell into a reverie accompanied with strange antic
gestures; but this he never did when his mind was engaged by the
conversation. These were therefore improperly called convulsions, which
imply involuntary contortions; whereas, a word addressed to him, his
attention was recovered. Sometimes, indeed, it would be near a minute
before he would give an answer, looking as if he laboured to bring his
mind to bear on the question' (Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 456). 'I still,
however, think,' wrote Boswell, 'that these gestures were involuntary;
for surely had not that been the case, he would have restrained them in
the public streets' (Boswell's _Hebrides_, under date of Aug. 11, 1773,
note). Dr. T. Campbell, in his _Diary of a Visit to England_, p. 33,
writing of Johnson on March 16, 1775, says:--'He has the aspect of an
idiot, without the faintest ray of sense gleaming from any one
feature--with the most awkward garb, and unpowdered grey wig, on one
side only of his head--he is for ever dancing the devil's jig, and
sometimes he makes the most driveling effort to whistle some thought in
his absent paroxysms.' Miss Burney thus describes him when she first saw
him in 1778:--'Soon after we were seated this great man entered. I have
so true a veneration for him that the very sight of him inspires me with
delight and reverence, notwithstanding the cruel infirmities to which he
is subject; for he has almost perpetual convulsive movements, either of
his hands, lips, feet, or knees, and sometimes of all together.' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 63. See _post_, under March 30, 1783, Boswell's
note on Johnson's peculiarities.

[410] 'Solitude,' wrote Reynolds, 'to him was horror; nor would he ever
trust himself alone but when employed in writing or reading. He has
often begged me to go home with him to prevent his being alone in the
coach. Any company was better than none; by which he connected himself
with many mean persons whose presence he could command.' Taylor's
_Reynolds_, ii. 455. Johnson writing to Mrs. Thrale, said:--'If the
world be worth winning, let us enjoy it; if it is to be despised, let us
despise it by conviction. But the world is not to be despised but as it
is compared with something better. Company is in itself better than
solitude, and pleasure better than indolence.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 242.
In _The Idler_, No. 32, he wrote:--'Others are afraid to be alone, and
amuse themselves by a perpetual succession of companions; but the
difference is not great; in solitude we have our dreams to ourselves,
and in company we agree to dream in concert. The end sought in both is
forgetfulness of ourselves.' In _The Rambler_, No. 5, he wrote:--'It may
be laid down as a position which will seldom deceive, that when a man
cannot bear his own company, there is something wrong. He must fly from
himself, either because he feels a tediousness in life from the
equipoise of an empty mind ... or he must be afraid of the intrusion of
some unpleasing ideas, and, perhaps, is struggling to escape from the
remembrance of a loss, the fear of a calamity, or some other thought of
greater horror.'

Cowper, whose temperament was in some respects not unlike Johnson's,
wrote:--'A vacant hour is my abhorrence; because, when I am not
occupied, I suffer under the whole influence of my unhappy temperament.'
Southey's _Cowper_, vi. 146.

[411] Richardson was of the same way of thinking as Hogarth. Writing of
a speech made at the Oxford Commemoration of 1754 by the Jacobite Dr.
King (see _post_, Feb. 1755), he said:--'There cannot be a greater
instance of the lenity of the government he abuses than his pestilent
harangues so publicly made with impunity furnishes (_sic_) all his
readers with.'--_Rich. Corresp_. ii. 197.

[412] Impartial posterity may, perhaps, be as little inclined as Dr.
Johnson was to justify the uncommon rigour exercised in the case of Dr.
Archibald Cameron. He was an amiable and truly honest man; and his
offence was owing to a generous, though mistaken principle of duty.
Being obliged, after 1746, to give up his profession as a physician, and
to go into foreign parts, he was honoured with the rank of Colonel, both
in the French and Spanish service. He was a son of the ancient and
respectable family of Cameron, of Lochiel; and his brother, who was the
Chief of that brave clan, distinguished himself by moderation and
humanity, while the Highland army marched victorious through Scotland.
It is remarkable of this Chief, that though he had earnestly
remonstrated against the attempt as hopeless, he was of too heroick a
spirit not to venture his life and fortune in the cause, when personally
asked by him whom he thought his prince. BOSWELL.

Sir Walter Scott states, in his Introduction to _Redgauntlet_, that the
government of George II were in possession of sufficient evidence that
Dr. Cameron had returned to the Highlands, _not_, as he alleged on his
trial, for family affairs merely, but as the secret agent of the
Pretender in a new scheme of rebellion: the ministers, however,
preferred trying this indefatigable partisan on the ground of his
undeniable share in the insurrection of 1745, rather than rescuing
themselves and their master from the charge of harshness, at the expense
of making it universally known, that a fresh rebellion had been in
agitation so late as 1752. LOCKHART. He was executed on June 7, 1753.
_Gent. Mag_. xxiii. 292. Lord Campbell (_Lives of the Chancellors_, v.
109) says:--'I regard his execution as a wanton atrocity.' Horace
Walpole, however, inclined to the belief that Cameron was engaged in a
new scheme of rebellion. Walpole's _Memoirs of George II_, i. 333.

[413] Horace Walpole says that towards convicts under sentence of death
'George II's disposition in general was merciful, if the offence was not
murder.' He mentions, however, a dreadful exception, when the King sent
to the gallows at Oxford a young man who had been 'guilty of a most
trifling forgery,' though he had been recommended to mercy by the Judge,
who 'had assured him his pardon.' Mercy was refused, merely because the
Judge, Willes, 'was attached to the Prince of Wales.' It is very likely
that this was one of Johnson's 'instances,' as it had happened about
four years earlier, and as an account of the young man had been
published by an Oxonian. Walpole's _Memoirs of the Reign of George
II_, i. 175.

[414] It is strange that when Johnson had been sixteen years in London
he should not be known to Hogarth by sight. 'Mr. Hogarth,' writes Mrs.
Piozzi, 'was used to be very earnest that I should obtain the
acquaintance, and if possible, the friendship of Dr. Johnson, "whose
conversation was to the talk of other men, like Titian's painting
compared to Hudson's," he said.... Of Dr. Johnson, when my father and he
were talking together about him one day, "That man," says Hogarth, "is
not contented with believing the Bible, but he fairly resolves, I think,
to believe nothing _but_ the Bible."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 136.

[415] On October 29 of this year James Boswell was born.

[416] In this preface is found the following lively passage:--'The Roman
Gazetteers are defective in several material ornaments of style. They
never end an article with the mystical hint, _this occasions great
speculation_. They seem to have been ignorant of such engaging
introductions as, _we hear it is strongly reported_; and of that
ingenious, but thread-bare excuse for a downright lie, _it wants
confirmation_.'

[417] The _Lives_ of Blake and Drake were certainly written with a
political aim. The war with Spain was going on, and the Tory party was
doing its utmost to rouse the country against the Spaniards. It was 'a
time,' according to Johnson, 'when the nation was engaged in a war with
an enemy, whose insults, ravages, and barbarities have long called for
vengeance.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 293.

[418] Barretier's childhood surpassed even that of J. S. Mill. At the
age of nine he was master of five languages, Greek and Hebrew being two
of them. 'In his twelfth year he applied more particularly to the study
of the fathers.' At the age of fourteen he published _Anti-Artemonius;
sive initium evangelii S. Joannis adversus Artemonium vindicatum_. The
same year the University of Halle offered him the degree of doctor in
philosophy. 'His theses, or philosophical positions, which he printed,
ran through several editions in a few weeks.' He was a deep student of
mathematics, and astronomy was his favourite subject. His health broke
down under his studies, and he died in 1740 in the twentieth year of his
age. Johnson's _Works_, vi. 376.

[419] He wrote also in 1756 _A Dissertation on the Epitaphs written by
Pope_.

[420] See _post_, Oct. 16, 1769.

[421] In the original _and_. _Gent. Mag_. x. 464. The title of this poem
as there given is:--'An epitaph upon the celebrated Claudy Philips,
Musician, who died very poor.'

[422] The epitaph of Phillips is in the porch of Wolverhampton Church.
The prose part of it is curious:--

'Near this place lies
Charles Claudius Phillips,
Whose absolute contempt of riches
and inimitable performances upon the
violin
made him the admiration of all that
knew him.
He was born in Wales,
made the tour of Europe,
and, after the experience of both
kinds of fortune,
Died in 1732.'

Mr. Garrick appears not to have recited the verses correctly, the
original being as follows:--

'Exalted soul, _thy various sounds_ could please
The love-sick virgin and the gouty ease;
Could jarring _crowds_, like old Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love;
Rest here in peace, till Angels bid thee rise,
And meet thy Saviour's _consort_ in the skies.' BLAKEWAY.

_Consort_ is defined in Johnson's _Dictionary_ as _a number of
instruments playing together_.

[423] I have no doubt that it was written in 1741; for the second line
is clearly a parody of a line in the chorus of Cibber's _Birthday Ode_
for that year. The chorus is as follows:

'While thou our Master of the Main
Revives Eliza's glorious reign,
The great Plantagenets look down,
And see _your_ race adorn your crown.'

_Gent. Mag_. xi. 549.

In the _Life of Barretier_ Johnson had also this fling at George
II:--'Princes are commonly the last by whom merit is distinguished.'
Johnson's _Works_, vi. 381.

[424] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 23 and Nov. 21, 1773.

[425] Hester Lynch Salusbury, afterwards Mrs. Thrale, and later on Mrs.
Piozzi, was born on Jan. 27, 1741.

[426] This piece is certainly not by Johnson. It contains more than one
ungrammatical passage. It is impossible to believe that he wrote such a
sentence as the following:--'Another having a cask of wine sealed up at
the top, but his servant boring a hole at the bottom stole the greatest
part of it away; sometime after, having called a friend to taste his
wine, he found the vessel almost empty,' &c.

[427] Mr. Carlyle, by the use of the term 'Imaginary Editors'
(_Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_, iii. 229), seems to imply that he
does not hold with Boswell in assigning this piece to Johnson. I am
inclined to think, nevertheless, that Boswell is right. If it is
Johnson's it is doubly interesting as showing the method which he often
followed in writing the Parliamentary Debates. When notes were given
him, while for the most part he kept to the speaker's train of thoughts,
he dealt with the language much as it pleased him. In the _Gent. Mag_.
Cromwell speaks as if he were wearing a flowing wig and were addressing
a Parliament of the days of George II. He is thus made to conclude
Speech xi:--'For my part, could I multiply my person or dilate my power,
I should dedicate myself wholly to this great end, in the prosecution of
which I shall implore the blessing of God upon your counsels and
endeavours.' _Gent. Mag_. xi. 100. The following are the words which
correspond to this in the original:--'If I could help you to many, and
multiply myself into many, that would be to serve you in regard to
settlement.... But I shall pray to God Almighty that He would direct you
to do what is according to His will. And this is that poor account I am
able to give of myself in this thing.' Carlyle's _Cromwell_, iii. 255.

[428] See Appendix A.

[429] Lord Chesterfield.

[430] Duke of Newcastle.

[431] I suppose in another compilation of the same kind. BOSWELL.

[432] Doubtless, Lord Hardwick. BOSWELL.

[433] The delivery of letters by the penny-post 'was originally confined
to the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark and
the respective suburbs thereof.' In 1801 the postage was raised to
twopence. The term 'suburbs' must have had a very limited signification,
for it was not till 1831 that the limits of this delivery were extended
to all places within three miles of the General Post Office. _Ninth
Report of the Commissioners of the Post Office_, 1837, p. 4.

[434] Birch's _MSS. in the British Museum_, 4302. BOSWELL.

[435] See _post_, Dec. 1784, in Nichols's _Anecdotes_. If we may trust
Hawkins, it is likely that Johnson's 'tenderness of conscience' cost
Cave a good deal; for he writes that, while Johnson composed the
_Debates_, the sale of the _Magazine_ increased from ten to fifteen
thousand copies a month. 'Cave manifested his good fortune by buying an
old coach and a pair of older horses.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, P. 123.

[436] I am assured that the editor is Mr. George Chalmers, whose
commercial works are well known and esteemed. BOSWELL.

[437] The characteristic of Pulteney's oratory is thus given in Hazlitts
_Northcole's Conversations_ (p. 288):--'Old Mr. Tolcher used to say of
the famous Pulteney--"My Lord Bath always speaks in blank verse."'

[438] Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_, p. 100. BOSWELL.

[439] A bookseller of London. BOSWELL

[440] Not the Royal Society; but the Society for the encouragement of
learning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading member. Their object was to
assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735
to 1746, when having incurred a considerable debt, it was
dissolved. BOSWELL.

[441] There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may
be an exercise for ingenious conjecture. BOSWELL.

[442] Johnson, writing to Dr. Taylor on June 10, 1742, says:--'I propose
to get _Charles of Sweden_ ready for this winter, and shall therefore,
as I imagine, be much engaged for some months with the dramatic writers
into whom I have scarcely looked for many years. Keep _Irene_ close, you
may send it back at your leisure.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 303.
_Charles of Sweden_ must have been a play which he projected.

[443] The profligate sentiment was, that 'to tell a secret to a friend
is no breach of fidelity, because the number of persons trusted is not
multiplied, a man and his friend being virtually the same.'
_Rambler_, No. 13.

[444] _Journal of a tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 167. [Sept. 10,
1773.] BOSWELL.

[445] This piece contains a passage in honour of some great critic. 'May
the shade, at least, of one great English critick rest without
disturbance; and may no man presume to insult his memory, who wants his
learning, his reason, or his wit.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 182. Bentley
had died on July 14 of this year, and there can be little question that
Bentley is meant.

[446] See _post_, end of 1744.

[447] 'There is nothing to tell, dearest lady, but that he was insolent
and I beat him, and that he was a blockhead and told of it, which I
should never have done.... I have beat many a fellow, but the rest had
the wit to hold their tongues.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 233. In the _Life of
Pope_ Johnson thus mentions Osborne:--'Pope was ignorant enough of his
own interest to make another change, and introduced Osborne contending
for the prize among the booksellers [_Dunciad_, ii. 167]. Osborne was a
man entirely destitute of shame, without sense of any disgrace but that
of poverty.... The shafts of satire were directed equally in vain
against Cibber and Osborne; being repelled by the impenetrable impudence
of one, and deadened by the impassive dulness of the other.' Johnson's
_Works_, viii. 302.

[448] In the original _contentions_.

[449] 'Dec. 21, 1775. In the Paper Office there is a wight, called
Thomas Astle, who lives like moths on old parchments.' Walpole's
_Letters_, vi. 299.

[450] Savage died on Aug. 1, 1743, so that this letter is misplaced.

[451] The Plain Dealer was published in 1724, and contained some account
of Savage. BOSWELL.

[452] In the _Gent. Mag_. for Sept. 1743 (p. 490) there is an epitaph on
R----d S----e, Esq., which may perhaps be this inscription. 'His life
was want,' this epitaph declares. It is certainly not the Runick
Inscription in the number for March 1742, as Malone suggests; for the
earliest possible date of this letter is seventeen months later.

[453] I have not discovered what this was. BOSWELL.

[454] The _Mag.-Extraordinary_ is perhaps the Supplement to the December
number of each year.

[455] This essay contains one sentiment eminently Johnsonian. The writer
had shown how patiently Confucius endured extreme indigence. He
adds:--'This constancy cannot raise our admiration after his former
conquest of himself; for how easily may he support pain who has been
able to resist pleasure.' _Gent. Mag_. xii. 355.

[456] In this Preface there is a complaint that has been often
repeated--'All kinds of learning have given way to politicks.'

[457] In the _Life of Pope_ (Johnson's _Works_, viii. 287) Johnson says
that Crousaz, 'however little known or regarded here, was no mean
antagonist'

[458] It is not easy to believe that Boswell had read this essay, for
there is nothing metaphysical in what Johnson wrote. Two-thirds of the
paper are a translation from Crousaz. Boswell does not seem to have
distinguished between Crousaz's writings and Johnson's. We have here a
striking instance of the way in which Cave sometimes treated his
readers. One-third of this essay is given in the number for March, the
rest in the number for November.

[459]

Angliacas inter pulcherrima Laura puellas,
Mox uteri pondus depositura grave,
Adsit, Laura, tibi facilis Lucina dolenti,
Neve tibi noceat praenituisse Deae.

Mr. Hector was present when this Epigram was made _impromptu_. The first
line was proposed by Dr. James, and Johnson was called upon by the
company to finish it, which he instantly did. BOSWELL. Macaulay
(_Essays_, i. 364) criticises Mr. Croker's criticism of this epigram.

[460] The lines with which this poem is introduced seem to show that it
cannot be Johnson's. He was not the man to allow that haste of
performance was any plea for indulgence. They are as follows:--'Though
several translations of Mr. Pope's verses on his Grotto have already
appeared, we hope that the following attempt, which, we are assured, was
the casual amusement of half an hour during several solicitations to
proceed, will neither be unacceptable to our readers, nor (these
circumstances considered) dishonour the persons concerned by a hasty
publication.' _Gent. Mag_. xiii. 550.

[461] See _Gent. Mag_. xiii. 560. I doubt whether this advertisement be
from Johnson's hand. It is very unlikely that he should make the
advertiser in one and the same paragraph when speaking of himself use
_us_ and _mine_. Boswell does not mention the Preface to vol. iii. of
the _Harkian Catalogue_. It is included in Johnson's _Works_ (v. 198).
Its author, be he who he may, in speaking of literature, says:--'I have
idly hoped to revive a taste well-nigh extinguished.'

[462] Johnson did not speak equally well of Dr. James's morals. 'He will
not,' he wrote, 'pay for three box tickets which he took. It is a
strange fellow.' The tickets were no doubt for Miss Williams's benefit
(Croker's _Boswell_, 8vo. p. 101). See _ante_, p. 81, and _post_, March
28, 1776, end of 1780, note.

[463] See _post_, April 5, 1776.

[464] 'TO DR. MEAD.

'SIR,

'That the _Medicinal Dictionary_ is dedicated to you, is to be imputed
only to your reputation for superior skill in those sciences which I
have endeavoured to explain and facilitate: and you are, therefore, to
consider this address, if it be agreeable to you, as one of the rewards
of merit; and if, otherwise, as one of the inconveniences of eminence.

'However you shall receive it, my design cannot be disappointed; because
this publick appeal to your judgement will shew that I do not found my
hopes of approbation upon the ignorance of my readers, and that I fear
his censure least, whose knowledge is most extensive.

'I am, Sir,

'Your most obedient

'humble servant,

'R. JAMES.'

BOSWELL. See _post_, May 16, 1778, where Johnson said, 'Dr. Mead lived
more in the broad sunshine of life than almost any man.'

[465] Johnson was used to speak of him in this manner:--'Tom is a lively
rogue; he remembers a great deal, and can tell many pleasant stories;
but a pen is to Tom a torpedo, the touch of it benumbs his hand and his
brain.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 209. Goldsmith in his _Life of Nash_
(Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv. 54) says:--'Nash was not born a
writer, for whatever humour he might have in conversation, he used to
call a pen his torpedo; whenever he grasped it, it benumbed all his
faculties.' It is very likely that Nash borrowed this saying from
Johnson. In Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 24, 1773, we read:--Dr. Birch
being mentioned, Dr. Johnson said he had more anecdotes than any man. I
said, Percy had a great many; that he flowed with them like one of the
brooks here. JOHNSON. "If Percy is like one of the brooks here, Birch
was like the River Thames. Birch excelled Percy in that as much as Percy
excels Goldsmith." Disraeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, iii, 425)
describes Dr. Birch as 'one to whom British history stands more indebted
than to any superior author. He has enriched the British Museum by
thousands of the most authentic documents of genuine secret history.'