of "G-d d-n me," which in England does not seem to mean more mischief
or harm than any of our or their common expletives in conversation,
such as "O gemini!" or "The deuce take me!" ... I am almost ashamed
to own, that next morning, when I awoke, I had got so dreadful a
headache from the copious and numerous toasts of my jolly and reverend
friends that I could not possibly get up.
--_Travels in England in 1782_, by C. P. Moritz, p. 123.
[Footnote 3: No such person appears in the _Catalogue of Graduates_.]
_Dr. Lettsom_.
(Vol. in, p. 68.)
Boswell in an _Ode to Mr. Charles Dilly_, published in the _Gent.
Mag._ for 1791, p. 367, says that Dr. Lettsom 'Refutes pert Priestley's
nonsense.'
_William Vachell_.
(Vol. iii, p. 83, n. 3.)
Mr. George Parker of the Bodleian Library informs me that William
Vachell had been tutor to Prince Esterhazy, and that for many years
he held the appointment of 'Pumper,' or Lessee of the baths at Bath.
In 1776 and 1777 he paid as rental for them to the Corporation L525.
He died on November 26, 1789. According to Mr. Ivor Vachell (_Notes
and Queries_, 6th S. vii. 327), it was his eldest son who signed the
Round Robin.
_Johnson and Baretti_.
(Vol. iii, p. 96, n. 1.)
Baretti in his _Tolondron_, p. 145, gives an account of a difference
between himself and Johnson. Johnson sent to ask him to call on him,
but Baretti was leaving town. When he returned the time for a
reconciliation had passed, for Johnson was dead.
_English pulpit eloquence_.
(Vol. iii, p. 248.)
'Upon the whole, which is preferable, the philosophic method of the
English, or the rhetoric of the French preachers? The first (though
less glorious) is certainly safer for the preacher. It is difficult
for a man to make himself ridiculous, who proposes only to deliver
plain sense on a subject he has thoroughly studied. But the instant
he discovers the least pretensions towards the sublime or the pathetic,
there is no medium; we must either admire or laugh; and there are so
many various talents requisite to form the character of an orator that
it is more than probable we shall laugh.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 118.
_Bishop Percy's communications to Boswell relative to Johnson_.
(Vol. iii, p. 278, n. 1.)
'JAMES BOSWELL TO BISHOP PERCY.
"9 April, 1790.
"As to suppressing your Lordship's name when relating the very few
anecdotes of Johnson with which you have favoured me, I will do anything
to oblige your Lordship but that very thing. I owe to the authenticity
of my work, to its respectability, and to the credit of my illustrious
friends [? friend] to introduce as many names of eminent persons as I
can... Believe me, my Lord, you are not the only bishop in the number
of great men with which my pages are graced. I am quite resolute as to
this matter."
'--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 313.
_Sir Thomas Brown's remark 'Do the devils lie? No; for then Hell could
not subsist._'
(Vol. iii, p. 293.)
This remark, whether it is Brown's or not, may have been suggested by
Milton's lines in _Paradise Lost_, ii. 496-9, or might have suggested
them:--
'O shame to men! devil with devil damn'd
Firm concord holds, men only disagree
Of creatures rational.'
_Johnson on the advantages of having a profession or business_.
(Vol. iii, p. 309, n. 1.)
'Dr. Johnson was of opinion that the happiest as well as the most
virtuous persons were to be found amongst those who united with a
business or profession a love of literature.'
--Seward's _Biographiana_, p. 599.
_Johnson's trips to the country_.
(Vol. iii, p. 453.)
I have omitted to mention Johnson's visit to 'Squire Dilly's mansion
at Southill in June, 1781 (_ante_, iv. 118-132).
_Citations of living authors in Johnson's Dictionary_.
(Vol. iv, p. 4, n. 3.)
Johnson cites _Irene_ under _impostures_, and Lord Lyttelton under
_twist_.
_Dr. Parrs evening with Dr. Johnson_.
(Vol. iv, p. 15.)
The Rev. John Rigaud, B.D., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, has
kindly sent me the following anecdote of the meeting of Johnson and
Parr:--
'I remember Dr. Routh, the old President of Magdalen, telling me of an
interview and conversation between Dr. Johnson and Dr. Parr, in the
course of which the former made use of some expression respecting the
latter, which considerably wounded and offended him. "Sir," he said
to Dr. Johnson, "you know that what you have just said will be known
in four-and-twenty hours over this vast metropolis." Upon which Dr.
Johnson's manner altered, his eye became calm, and he put out his hand,
and said, "Forgive me, Parr, I didn't quite mean it." "But," said the
President, with an amused and amusing look, "_I never could get him to
tell me what it was Dr. Johnson had said!_" He spoke of seeing Dr.
Johnson going up the steps into University College, dressed, I think,
in a snuff-coloured coat.'
Dr. Martin Joseph Routh, who was President of Magdalen College for
sixty-four years, was born in 1755 and died on December 22, 1854.
'_Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris_.'
(Vol. iv, p. 181, n. 3.)
Malone's note on _The Rape of Lucrece_ must have been, not as I
conjectured on line 1111, but on lines 1581-2:--
'It easeth some, though none it ever cured,
To think their dolour others have endured.'
With these lines may be compared Satan's speech in _Paradise Regained_,
Book i, lines 399-402:--
'Long since with woe
Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof,
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load.'
_Richard Baxter's rule of preaching_.
(Vol. iv, p. 185.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies [See _ante_, p. xlix.] has furnished me
with the following extract from _Reliquiae Baxterianae_, ed. 1696, p. 93,
in illustration of Johnson's statement:--
'And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above
their own discovery, and which they had not known before; and this I
did, that they might be kept humble, and still perceive their ignorance,
and be willing to keep in a learning state. (For when Preachers tell
their People of no more than they know, and do not shew that they excel
them in knowledge, and easily overtop them in Abilities, the People
will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves, and think that they have
learnt all that the Ministers can teach them, and are as wise as
they------). And this I did also to increase their knowledge; and
also to make Religion pleasant to them, by a daily addition to their
former Sight, and to draw them on with desire and Delight.'
_Opposition to Sir Joshua Reynolds in the Royal Academy_.
(Vol. iv, p. 219, n. 4.)
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO BISHOP PERCY.
'12 March, 1790.
'Sir Joshua has been shamefully used by a junto of the Academicians.
I live a great deal with him, and he is much better than you would
suppose.'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 313.
_Richard Baxter on the possible salvation of a Suicide_.
(Vol. iv, p. 225.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies writes to me that 'Dr. Johnson's quotation
about suicide must surely be wrong. I have no recollection in any of
Baxter's _Works_ of such a statement, and it is in direct contradiction
to all that is known of his sentiments. 'Mr. Davies sends me the following
passage, which possibly Johnson might have very imperfectly remembered:--
'The commonest cause [of suicide] is melancholy, &c. Though there
be much more hope of the salvation of such as want the use of their
understandings, because so far it may be called involuntary, yet it
is a very dreadful case, especially so far as reason remaineth in any
power.'
--Baxter's _Christian Directory, edited by Orme, part iv, p. 138.
_Haslitt's report of Baxter's Sermon_.
(Vol. iv, p. 226, n. 2.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies tells me that he 'entirely disbelieves that
Baxter said, "Hell was paved with infants' skulls." The same thing, or
something very like it, has been said of Calvin, but I could never,'
Mr. Davies continues, 'find it in his Works.' He kindly sends me the
following extract from _Reliquiae Baxterianae_, ed. 1696, p. 24:--
'Once all the ignorant Rout were raging mad against me for preaching
the Doctrine of Original Sin to them, and telling them that Infants
before Regeneration had so much Guilt and Corruption, as made them
loathsome in the Eyes of God: whereupon they vented it abroad in the
Country, That I preached that God hated, or loathed Infants; so that
they railed at me as I passed through the streets. The next Lord's Day,
I cleared and confirmed it, and shewed them that if this were not true,
their Infants had no need of Christ, of Baptism, or of Renewing by the
Holy Ghost. And I asked them whether they durst say that their Children
were saved without a Saviour, and were no Christians, and why they
baptized them, with much more to that purpose, and afterwards they
were ashamed and as mute as fishes.'
_Johnson on an actor's transformation_.
(Vol. iv, p. 244.)
Boswell in his _Remarks on the Profession of a Player_ (Essay ii),
first printed in the _London Magazine_ for 1770, says:--
'I remember to have heard the most illustrious authour of this age say:
"If, Sir, Garrick believes himself to be every character that he
represents he is a madman, and ought to be confined. Nay, Sir, he is a
villain, and ought to be hanged. If, for instance, he believes himself
to be Macbeth he has committed murder, he is a vile assassin who, in
violation of the laws of hospitality as well as of other principles,
has imbrued his hands in the blood of his King while he was sleeping
under his roof. If, Sir, he has really been that person in his own mind,
he has in his own mind been as guilty as Macbeth."
'--Nichols's _Literary History_, ed. 1848, vii. 373.
_Sir John Flayer 'On the Asthma_.'
(Vol. iv, p. 353.)
Johnson, writing from Ashbourne to Dr. Brocklesby on July 20, 1784, says:
'I am now looking into Floyer who lived with his asthma to almost his
ninetieth year.' Mr. Samuel Timmins, the author of _Dr. Johnson in
Birmingham_, informs me that he and two friends of his lately found
in Lichfield a Lending Book of the Cathedral Library. Among the entries
for 1784 was: '_Sir John Floyer on the Asthma_, lent to Dr. Johnson.'
Johnson, no doubt, had taken the book with him to Ashbourne.
Mr. Timmins says that the entries in this Lending Book unfortunately
do not begin till about 1760 (or later). 'If,' he adds, 'the earlier
Lending Book could be found, it would form a valuable clue to books
which Johnson may have borrowed in his youth and early manhood.'
_Boswell's expectations from Burke_.
(Vol. iv, p. 223, n. 2; and p. 258, n. 2.)
Boswell, in May 1783, mentioned to Johnson his 'expectations from the
interest of an eminent person then in power.' The two following extracts
from letters written by him show what some of these expectations had been.
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. TO JAMES ABERCROMBIE, ESQ., of Philadelphia.
'July 28,1793.
'I have a great wish to see America; and I once flattered myself that
I should be sent thither in a station of some importance.'
Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 317.
Boswell had written to Burke on March 3, 1778: 'Most heartily do I
rejoice that our present ministers have at last yielded to conciliation
(_ante_, iii. 221). For amidst all the sanguinary zeal of my countrymen,
I have professed myself a friend to our fellow-subjects in America, so
far as they claim an exemption from being taxed by the representatives
of the King's British subjects. I do not perfectly agree with you; for I
deny the declaratory act, and I am a warm Tory in its true constitutional
sense. I wish I were a commissioner, or one of the secretaries of the
commission for the grand treaty. I am to be in London this spring, and
if his Majesty should ask me what I would choose, my answer will be to
assist at the compact between Britain and America.'
--_Burke's Correspondence_, ii. 209.
_Boswelf's intention to attend on Johnson in his illness, and to publish
'Praises' of him._
(Vol. iv, p. 265.)
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO BISHOP PERCY.
'Edinburgh, 8 March, 1784.
"...I intend to be in London about the end of this month, chiefly to
attend upon Dr. Johnson with respectful affection. He has for some time
been very ill...I wish to publish as a regale [_ante_, iii. 308, n. 2;
v. 347, n. 1] to him a neat little volume, _The Praises of Dr. Johnson,
by contemporary Writers_. ...Will your Lordship take the trouble to
send me a note of the writers you recollect having praised our much
respected friend?...An edition of my pamphlet [_ante_, iv. 258] has been
published in London."'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 302.
_The reported Russian version of the 'Rambler'_.
(Vol. iv, p. 277, n. 1.)
I am informed by my friend, Mr. W. R. Morfill, M.A., of Oriel College,
Oxford, who has, I suppose, no rival in this country in his knowledge of
the Slavonic tongues, that no Russian translation of the Rambler has
been published. He has given me the following title of the Russian
version of _Rasselas_, which he has obtained for me through the kindness
of Professor Grote, of the University of Warsaw:--
'Rasselas, printz Abissinskii, Vostochnaya Poviest Sochinenie Doktora
Dzhonsona Perevod s'angliiskago. 3 chasti, Moskva. 1795.
'Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia, An Eastern Tale, by Doctor Johnson.
Translated from the English. 2 parts, Moscow, 1795.'
'_It has not wit enough to keep it sweet_.'
(Vol. iv, p. 320.)
'Heylyn, in the Epistle to his _Letter-Combate_, addressing Baxter,
and speaking of such "unsavoury pieces of wit and mischief" as "the
_Church-historian_" asks, "Would you not have me rub them with a little
salt to keep them sweet?" This passage was surely present in the mind
of Dr. Johnson when he said concerning _The Rehearsal_ that "it had not
wit enough to keep it sweet."'
--J. E. Bailey's _Life of Thomas Fuller_, p. 640.
_Pictures of Johnson_.
(Vol. iv, p. 421, n. 2.)
In the Common Room of Trinity College, Oxford, there is an interesting
portrait of Johnson, said to be by Romney. I cannot, however, find
any mention of it in the _Life_ of that artist. It was presented to
the College by Canon Duckworth.
_The Gregory Family_.
(Vol. v, p. 48, n. 3.)
Mr. P. J. Anderson (in _Notes and Queries_, 7th S. iii. 147) casts some
doubt on Chalmers' statement. He gives a genealogical table of the
Gregory family, which includes thirteen professors; but two of these
cannot, from their dates, be reckoned among Chalmers' sixteen.
_The University of St. Andrews in 1778_.
(Vol. v, p. 63, n. 2.)
