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

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[839] He left London in 1751 and returned to it in 1760. _Memoirs of Dr.
Barney_, i. 85, 133.

[840] See _ante_, p. 183, note 2.

[841] Sir John Hawkins, p. 341, inserts two notes as having passed
formally between Andrew Millar and Johnson, to the above effect. I am
assured this was not the case. In the way of incidental remark it was a
pleasant play of raillery. To have deliberately written notes in such
terms would have been morose. BOSWELL.

[842] 'Talking one day of the patronage the great sometimes affect to
give to literature and literary men, "Andrew Millar," says Johnson, "is
the Maecenas of the age."' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 200. Horace
Walpole, writing on May 18, 1749 (_Letters_ ii. 163), says:--'Millar the
bookseller has done very generously by Fielding; finding _Tom Jones_,
for which he had given him six hundred pounds, sell so greatly, he has
since given him another hundred.' Hume writing on July 6, 1759,
says:--'Poor Andrew Millar is declared bankrupt; his debts amount to
above L40,000, and it is said his creditors will not get above three
shillings in the pound. All the world allows him to have been diligent
and industrious; but his misfortunes are ascribed to the extravagance of
his wife, a very ordinary case in this city.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii.
64. He must soon have recovered his position, for Dr. A. Carlyle (Auto.
p. 434) met Millar at Harrogate in 1763. In the inn were several
baronets, and great squires, members of parliament, who paid Millar
civility for the use of his two newspapers which came to him by every
post. 'Yet when he appeared in the morning, in his well-worn suit of
clothes, they could not help calling him Peter Pamphlet; for the
generous patron of Scotch authors, with his city wife and her niece,
were sufficiently ridiculous when they came into good company.' Mr.
Croker (_Boswell_, p. 630) says that Millar was the bookseller described
by Johnson, _post_, April 24, 1779. as 'habitually and equably drunk.'
He is, I think, mistaken.

[843] His _Dictionary_. BOSWELL.

[844] 'A translation of Apollonius Rhodius was now intended by Mr.
Warton.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.

[845] Kettel Hall is an ancient tenement built about the year 1615 by
Dr. Ralph Kettel, President of Trinity College, for the accommodation of
commoners of that Society. It adjoins the College; and was a few years
ago converted into a private house. MALONE.

[846] 'At Ellsfield, a village three miles from Oxford.'
WARTON.--BOSWELL.

[847] It was published on April 15, 1755, in two vols. folio, price L4
10_s_. bound. Johnson's _Works_, v. 51.

[848] 'Booksellers concerned in his _Dictionary_.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.
'June 12, Mr. Paul Knapton, bookseller. June 18, Thos. Longman, Esq.,
bookseller.' _Gent. Mag_., xxv. 284. The 'Esq.' perhaps is a sign that
even so early as 1755 the Longmans ranked higher than most of
their brethren.

[849] 1. _Own_ not in the original. Johnson's _Works_, v. 36.

[850] 'I have not always executed my own scheme, or satisfied my own
expectations.' Johnson's _Works_, p. 41.

[851] In the _Plan of an English Dictionary_ (_ib_. p. 16) Johnson,
writing of 'the word _perfection_' says:--'Though in its philosophical
and exact sense it can be of little use among human beings, it is often
so much degraded from its original signification, that the academicians
have inserted in their work, _the perfection of a language_, and, with a
little more licentiousness, might have prevailed on themselves to have
added _the perfection of a Dictionary_.' In the Preface to the fourth
edition he writes:--'He that undertakes to compile a Dictionary
undertakes that, which if it comprehends the full extent of his design,
he knows himself unable to perform.' _Ib_. p. 52.

[852] _Ib_. p. 51.

[853] See _post_, under May 19, 1777.

[854] See _ante_, p. 186, note 5.

[855] He defines both _towards the wind_. The definitions remain
unchanged in the fourth edition, the last corrected by Johnson, and also
in the third edition of the abridgment, though this abridgment was made
by him. _Pastern_ also remains unaltered in this latter edition. In the
fourth edition he corrected it. 'The drawback of his character,' wrote
Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'is entertaining prejudices on very slight
foundations; giving an opinion, perhaps, first at random, but from its
being contradicted he thinks himself obliged always to support it, or,
if he cannot support, still not to acquiesce. Of this I remember an
instance of a defect or forgetfulness in his _Dictionary_. I asked him
how he came not to correct it in the second edition. "No," says he,
"they made so much of it that I would not flatter them by altering it."'
Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 461.

[856] In his Preface (_Works_, v. 50) he anticipated errors and
laughter. 'A few wild blunders and risible absurdities, from which no
work of such multiplicity was ever free, may for a time furnish folly
with laughter and harden ignorance into contempt' In a letter written
nearly thirty years later he said:--'Dictionaries are like watches, the
worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite
true.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 406.

[857] See _post_, under July 20, 1762.

[858] 'Network. Anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances,
with interstices between the intersections.' Reticulated is defined
'Made of network; formed with interstitial vacuities.'

[859] 'That part of my work on which I expect malignity most frequently
to fasten is the _Explanation_.... Such is the fate of hapless
lexicography, that not only darkness, but light, impedes and distresses
it; things may be not only too little, but too much known, to be happily
illustrated.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 34.

[860] In the original, 'to admit _a_ definition.' _Ib_.

[861] In the original, '_drier.' Ib_. 38.

[862] 'Tory. (A cant term derived, I suppose, from an Irish word
signifying a savage.) One who adheres to the ancient constitution of the
state, and the apostolical hierarchy of the Church of England: opposed
to a _whig_.'

[863] 'Whig. The name of a faction.' Lord Marchmont (_post_, May 12,
1778) said that 'Johnson was the first that brought Whig and Tory into a
dictionary.' In this he was mistaken. In the fourth edition of Dr. Adam
Littleton's _Linguae Latinae Liber Dictionarius_, published in 1703,
_Whig_ is translated _Homo fanaticus, factiosus; Whiggism, Enthusiasmus,
Perduellio; Tory, bog-trotter or Irish robber, Praedo Hibernicus; Tory_
opposed to whig, _Regiarum partium assertor_. These definitions are not
in the first edition, published in 1678. _A pensioner_ or _bride_
[bribed] _person_ is rendered _Mercenarius.

[864] 'Pension. An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In
England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling
for treason to his country.' _Pensioner_ is defined as 'One who is
supported by an allowance paid at the will of another; a dependant.'
These definitions remain in the fourth edition, corrected by Johnson
in 1773.

[865] 'Oats. A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but
in Scotland supports the people.' See _post_, March 23, 1776, and March
21, 1783. 'Did you ever hear,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'of Lord
Elibank's reply when Johnson's famous definition of oats was pointed out
first to him. "Very true, and where will you find such _men_ and such
_horses_?"' Croker's _Carres_, ii. 35.

[866] He thus defines Excise: 'A hateful tax levied upon commodities,
and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by
those to whom Excise is paid.' The Commissioners of Excise being
offended by this severe reflection, consulted Mr. Murray, then Attorney
General, to know whether redress could be legally obtained. I wished to
have procured for my readers a copy of the opinion which he gave, and
which may now be justly considered as history; but the mysterious
secrecy of office, it seems, would not permit it. I am, however,
informed, by very good authority, that its import was, that the passage
might be considered as actionable; but that it would be more prudent in
the board not to prosecute. Johnson never made the smallest alteration
in this passage. We find he still retained his early prejudice against
Excise; for in _The Idler_, No. 65, there is the following very
extraordinary paragraph: 'The authenticity of _Clarendon's_ history,
though printed with the sanction of one of the first Universities of the
world, had not an unexpected manuscript been happily discovered, would,
with the help of factious credulity, have been brought into question by
the two lowest of all human beings, a Scribbler for a party, and a
Commissioner of Excise.'--The persons to whom he alludes were Mr. John
Oldmixon, and George Ducket, Esq. BOSWELL. Mr. Croker obtained a copy
of the case.

'_Case for the opinion of Mr. Attorney-General_.

'Mr. Samuel Johnson has lately published "A Dictionary of the English
Language," in which are the following words:--

'"EXCISE, _n.s_. A hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged not
by the common judges of property, but by wretches hired by those to whom
excise is paid."

'_The author's definition being observed by the Commissioners of Excise,
they desire the favour of your opinion_. "Qu. Whether it will not be
considered as a libel, and if so, whether it is not proper to proceed
against the author, printers, and publishers thereof, or any and which
of them, by information, or how otherwise?"

'I am of opinion that it is a libel. But under all the circumstances, I
should think it better to give him an opportunity of altering his
definition; and, in case he do not, to threaten him with an information.

'29th Nov. 1755. W. Murray.' In one of the Parl. Debates of 1742 Johnson
makes Pitt say that 'it is probable that we shall detect bribery
descending through a long subordination of wretches combined against the
public happiness, from the prime minister surrounded by peers and
officers of state to the exciseman dictating politics amidst a company
of mechanics whom he debauches at the public expense, and lists in the
service of his master with the taxes which he gathers.' _Parl. Hist_.,
xii. _570_. See _ante_, p. 36, note 5.

[867] He defined _Favourite_ as 'One chosen as a companion by a
superiour; a mean wretch, whose whole business is by any means to
please:' and _Revolution_ as 'change in the state of a government or
country. It is used among us _kat hexochaen_ for the change produced by
the admission of King William and Queen Mary.' For these definitions
Wilkes attacked him in _The North Briton_, No. xii. In the fourth
edition Johnson gives a second definition of _patriot_:--'It is
sometimes used for a factious disturber of the government.' Premier and
_prime minister_ are not defined. _Post_, April 14, 1775. See also
_ante_, p. 264 note, for the definition of _patron_; and _post_, April
28, 1783 for that of _alias_.

[868] 'There have been great contests in the Privy Council about the
trial of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford [on a charge of Jacobitism]: Lord
Gower pressed it extremely. He asked the Attorney-General his opinion,
who told him the evidence did not appear strong enough. Lord Gower
said:--"Mr. Attorney, you seem to be very lukewarm for your party." He
replied:--"My Lord, I never was lukewarm for my party, _nor ever was but
of one party_!"' Walpole's _Letters_, ii. 140. Mr. Croker assumes that
Johnson here 'attempted a pun, and wrote the name (as pronounced) Go'er.
Johnson was very little likely to pun, for 'he had a great contempt for
that species of wit.' _Post_, April 30, 1773.

[869] Boswell omits the salutation which follows this definition:

Chair Ithakae met haethla, met halgea pikra Haspasios teon oudas
ikanomai.

'Dr. Johnson,' says Miss Burney, 'inquired if I had ever yet visited
_Grub-street_, but was obliged to restrain his anger when I answered
"No;" because he had never paid his respects to it himself. "However,"
says he, "you and I, Burney, will go together; we have a very good right
to go, so we'll visit the mansions of our progenitors, and take up our
own freedom together."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 415.

[870] Lord Bolingbroke had said (_Works_, in. 317): 'I approve 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. These men
court fame, as well as their betters, by such means as God has given
them to acquire it. They deserve encouragement while they continue to
compile, and neither affect wit, nor presume to reason.' Johnson himself
in _The Adventurer_, No. 39, had in 1753 described a class of men who
'employed their minds in such operations as required neither celerity
nor strength, in the low drudgery of collating copies, comparing
authorities, digesting dictionaries,' &c. Lord Monboddo, in his _Origin
of Language_, v. 273, says that 'J. C. Scaliger called the makers of
dictionaries _les portefaix de la republique des lettres_.'

[871] Great though his depression was, yet he could say with truth in
his Preface:--'Despondency has never so far prevailed as to depress me
to negligence.' _Works_, v. 43.

[872] _Ib_. p. 51. 'In the preface the author described the difficulties
with which he had been left to struggle so forcibly and pathetically
that the ablest and most malevolent of all the enemies of his fame,
Horne Tooke, never could read that passage without tears.' Macaulay's
_Misc. Writings_, p. 382. It is in _A Letter to John Dunning, Esq_. (p.
56) that Horne Tooke, or rather Horne, wrote:--'I could never read his
preface without shedding a tear.' See _post_, May 13, 1778. On Oct. 10,
1779, Boswell told Johnson, that he had been 'agreeably mistaken' in
saying:--'What would it avail me in this gloom of solitude?'

[873] It appears even by many a passage in the Preface--one of the
proudest pieces of writing in our language. 'The chief glory,' he
writes, 'of every people arises from its authors: whether I shall add
anything by my own writings to the reputation of English literature must
be left to time.' 'I deliver,' he says, 'my book to the world with the
spirit of a man that has endeavoured well.... In this work, when it
shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much
likewise is performed; and though no book was ever spared out of
tenderness to the author, and the world is little solicitous to know
whence proceeded the faults of that which it condemns; yet it may
gratify curiosity to inform it, that the _English Dictionary_ was
written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage
of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the
shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction,
in sickness and in sorrow.' _Works_, v. pp. 49-51. Thomas Warton wrote
to his brother:--'I fear his preface will disgust by the expressions of
his consciousness of superiority, and of his contempt of patronage.'
Wooll's _Warton_, p. 231.

[874] That praise was slow in coming is shown by his letter to Mr.
Burney, written two years and eight months after the publication of the
_Dictionary_. 'Your praise,' he wrote, 'was welcome, not only because I
believe it was sincere, but because praise has been very scarce....
Yours is the only letter of good-will that I have received; though,
indeed, I am promised something of that sort from Sweden.' _Post_,
Dec. 24, 1757.

[875] In the _Edinburgh Review_ (No. 1, 1755)--a periodical which only
lasted two years--there is a review by Adam Smith of Johnson's
_Dictionary_. Smith admits the 'very extraordinary merit' of the author.
'The plan,' however, 'is not sufficiently grammatical.' To explain what
he intends, he inserts 'an article or two from Mr. Johnson, and opposes
to them the same articles, digested in the manner which we would have
wished him to have followed.' He takes the words _but_ and _humour_. One
part of his definition of humour is curious--'something which comes upon
a man by fits, which he can neither command nor restrain, and which is
not perfectly consistent with true politeness.' This essay has not, I
believe, been reprinted.

[876] She died in March 1752; the _Dictionary_ was published in April
1755.

[877] In the Preface he writes (_Works_, v. 49):--'Much of my life has
been lost under the pressures of disease; much has been trifled away;
and much has always been spent in provision for the day that was passing
over me.' In his fine Latin poem [Greek: Inothi seauton] 'he has left,'
says Mr. Murphy (_Life_, p. 82), 'a picture of himself drawn with as
much truth, and as firm a hand, as can be seen in the portraits of
Hogarth or Sir Joshua Reynolds.' He wrote it after revising and
enlarging his _Dictionary_, and he sadly asks himself what is left for
him to do.

Me, pensi immunis cum jam mihi reddor, inertis
Desidiae sors dura manet, graviorque labore
Tristis et atra quies, et tardae taedia vitae.
Nascuntur curis curae, vexatque dolorum
Importuna cohors, vacuae mala somnia mentis.
Nunc clamosa juvant nocturnae gaudia mensae,
Nunc loca sola placent; frustra te, somne, recumbens,
Alme voco, impatiens noctis, metuensque diei.
Omnia percurro trepidus, circum omnia lustro,
Si qua usquam pateat melioris semita vitae,
Nec quid agam invenio....
Quid faciam? tenebrisne pigram damnare senectam
Restat? an accingar studiis gravioribus audax?
Aut, hoc si nimium est, tandem nova lexica poscam?

Johnson's _Works_, i. 164.

[878] A few weeks before his wife's death he wrote in _The Rambler_ (No.
196):--'The miseries of life would be increased beyond all human power
of endurance, if we were to enter the world with the same opinions as we
carry from it.' He would, I think, scarcely have expressed himself so
strongly towards his end. Though, as Dr. Maxwell records, in his
_Collectanea_ (_post_, 1770), 'he often used to quote with great pathos
those fine lines of Virgil:--

'Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
Prima fugit, &c.'

yet he owned, and the pages of Boswell amply testify, that it was in the
latter period of his life that he had his happiest days.

[879] _Macbeth_, Act ii. sc. 3.

[880] In the third edition, published in 1773, he left out the words
_perhaps never_, and added the following paragraph:--

'It sometimes begins middle or final syllables in words compounded, as
_block-head_, or derived from the Latin, as _compre-hended_.' BOSWELL.
In the _Abridgment_, which was published some years earlier, after
_never_ is added 'except in compounded words.'

[881] It was published in the _Gent. Mag_. for April, 1755 (xxv. 190),
just below the advertisement of the _Dictionary_.

[882] In the original, 'Milton and Shakespeare.'

[883] The number of the French Academy employed in settling their
language. BOSWELL.

[884] The maximum reward offered by a bill passed in 1714 was L20,000
for a method that determined the longitude at sea to half a degree of a
great circle, or thirty geographical miles. For less accuracy smaller
rewards were offered. _Ann. Reg_. viii. 114. In 1765 John Harrison
received L7,500 for his chronometer; he had previously been paid L2,500;
_ib_. 128. In this Act of Parliament 'the legislature never contemplated
the invention of a _method_, but only of the means of making existing
methods accurate.' _Penny Cyclo_. xiv. 139. An old sea-faring man wrote
to Swift that he had found out the longitude. The Dean replied 'that he
never knew but two projectors, one of whom ruined himself and his
family, and the other hanged himself; and desired him to desist lest one
or other might happen to him.' Swift's _Works_ (1803), xvii. 157. In
_She Stoops to Conquer_ (Act i. sc. 2), when Tony ends his directions to
the travellers by telling them,--'coming to the farmer's barn you are to
turn to the right, and then to the left, and then to the right about
again, till you find out the old mill;' Marlow exclaims: 'Zounds, man!
we could as soon find out the longitude.'

[885] Joseph Baretti, a native of Piedmont, came to England in 1750 (see
Preface to his _Account of Italy_, p. ix). He died in May, 1789. In his
_Journey from London to Genoa_ (ii. 276), he says that his father was
one of the two architects of the King of Sardinia. Shortly after his
death a writer in the _Gent. Mag_. (Iix. 469, 570), who was believed to
be Vincent, Dean of Westminster, thus wrote of him:--'Though his
severity had created him enemies, his talents, conversation, and
integrity had conciliated the regard of many valuable friends and
acquaintance. His manners were apparently rough, but not unsocial. His
integrity was in every period of his distresses constant and
unimpeached. His wants he never made known but in the last extremity. He
and Johnson had been friends in distress. One evening, when they had
agreed to go to the tavern, a foreigner in the streets, by a specious
tale of distress, emptied the Doctor's purse of the last half-guinea it
contained. When the reckoning came, what was his surprise upon his
recollecting that his purse was totally exhausted. Baretti had
fortunately enough to answer the demand, and has often declared that it
was impossible for him not to reverence a man, who could give away all
that he was worth, without recollecting his own distress.' See _post_,
Oct. 20, 1769.

[886] See note by Mr. Warton, _ante_, p. 275. BOSWELL.

[887] 'On Saturday the 12th, about twelve at night, died Mr. Zachariah
Williams, in his eighty-third year, after an illness of eight months, in
full possession of his mental faculties. He has been long known to
philosophers and seamen for his skill in magnetism, and his proposal to
ascertain the longitude by a peculiar system of the variation of the
compass. He was a man of industry indefatigable, of conversation
inoffensive, patient of adversity and disease, eminently sober,
temperate, and pious; and worthy to have ended life with better
fortune.' BOSWELL.

[888] Johnson's _Works_, v. 49. Malone, in a note on this passage,
says:--'Johnson appears to have been in this year in great pecuniary
distress, having been arrested for debt; on which occasion Richardson
became his surety.' He refers to the following letter in the _Richardson
Corres_, v. 285:--

'To MR. RICHARDSON.

'Tuesday, Feb. 19, 1756.

'DEAR SIR,

'I return you my sincerest thanks for the favour which you were pleased
to do me two nights ago. Be pleased to accept of this little book, which
is all that I have published this winter. The inflammation is come again
into my eye, so that I can write very little. I am, Sir, your most
obliged and most humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

The 'little book' is not (as Mr. Croker suggests) Williams's
_Longitude_, for it was published in Jan. 1755 (_Gent. Mag_. xxv. 47);
but the _Abridgment of the Dictionary_, which was advertised in the
_Gent. Mag_. for Jan. 1756. Murphy says (_Life_, p. 86), that he has
before him a letter in Johnson's handwriting, which shows the distress
of the man who had written _The Rambler_, and finished the great work of
his _Dictionary_. It is directed to Mr. Richardson, and is as follows:--

'SIR,--I am obliged to entreat your assistance. I am now under an arrest
for five pounds eighteen shillings. Mr. Strahan, from whom I should have
received the necessary help in this case, is not at home, and I am
afraid of not finding Mr. Millar. If you will be so good as to send me
this sum, I will very gratefully repay you, and add it to all former
obligations. I am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

'SAMUEL JOHNSON.

'Gough-Square,
16 March.'

In the margin of this letter there is a memorandum in these
words:--'March 16, 1756. Sent six guineas. Witness, Win. Richardson.' In
the _European Mag_., vii. 54, there is the following anecdote recorded,
for which Steevens most likely was the authority:--'I remember writing
to Richardson' said Johnson, 'from a spunging-house; and was so sure of
my deliverance through his kindness and liberality, that before his
reply was brought I knew I could afford to joke with the rascal who had
me in custody, and did so over a pint of adulterated wine, for which at
that instant I had no money to pay.' It is very likely that this
anecdote has no other foundation than Johnson's second letter to
Richardson, which is dated, not from a spunging-house, but from his own
residence. What kind of fate awaited a man who was thrown into prison
for debt is shown by the following passage in Wesley's _Journal_ (ii.
267), dated Feb. 3, 1753:--'I visited one in the Marshalsea prison, a
nursery of all manner of wickedness. O shame to man, that there should
be such a place, such a picture of hell upon earth!' A few days later he
writes:--'I visited as many more as I could. I found some in their cells
under ground; others in their garrets, half starved both with cold and
hunger, added to weakness and pain.'

[889] In a Debate on the Copyright Bill on May 16, 1774, Governor
Johnstone said:--'It had been urged that Dr. Johnson had received an
after gratification from the booksellers who employed him to compile his
_Dictionary_. He had in his hand a letter from Dr. Johnson, which he
read, in which the doctor denied the assertion, but declared that his
employers fulfilled their bargain with him, and that he was satisfied.'
_Parl. Hist_. xvii. 1105.