other great benefactions to the University of Oxford, 'L600 yearly to
two persons, when they are Masters of Arts and entered on the
physic-line, for their maintenance for the space of ten years; the half
of which time at least they are to travel in parts beyond sea for their
better improvement.' _Radcliffe's Life and Will_, p. 123. Pope mentions
them in his _Imitations of Horace, Epistles_, ii. i. 183:--
'E'en Radcliffe's doctors travel first to France,
Nor dare to practise till they've learned to dance.'
[901] What risks were run even by inoculation is shewn in two of Dr.
Warton's letters. He wrote to his brother:--'This moment the dear
children have all been inoculated, never persons behaved better, no
whimpering at all, I hope in God for success, but cannot avoid being in
much anxiety.' A few days later he wrote:--'You may imagine I never
passed such a day as this in my life! grieved to death myself for the
loss of so sweet a child, but forced to stifle my feelings as much as
possible for the sake of my poor wife. She does not, however, hit on, or
dwell on, that most cutting circumstance of all, poor Nanny's dying, as
it were by our own means, tho' well intended indeed.' Wooll's _Warton_,
i. 289. Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, i. 155), on the other hand, bitterly
regretted that he had not had a child inoculated, whom he lost by
small-pox.
[902] See _post_, before Nov. 17, and under Dec. 9, 1784.
[903] 'I am the vilest of sinners and the worst of men.' Taylor's
_Works_ (ed. 1864), iii. 31. 'The best men deserve not eternal life, and
I who am the worst may have it given me.' _Ib_. p. 431--'He that hath
lived worst, even I.' _Ib_. vii. 241. 'Behold me the meanest of thy
creatures.' _Ib_. p. 296.
[904] 'You may fairly look upon yourself to be the greatest sinner that
you know in the world. First, because you know more of the folly of your
own heart than you do of other people's; and can charge yourself with
various sins that you only know of yourself, and cannot be sure that
other people are guilty of them.' Law's _Serious Call_, chap. 23.
[905] 1 _Timothy_, i. 15.
[906] See _post_, v. 68, note 4.
[907] 'Be careful thou dost not speak a lie in thy prayers, which though
not observed is frequently practised by careless persons, especially in
the forms of confession, affirming things which they have not thought,
professing sorrow which is not, making a vow they mean not.' Taylor's
_Works_, ed. 1865, vii. 622.
[908] Reynolds wrote:--'As in Johnson's writings not a line can be found
which a saint would wish to blot, so in his life he would never suffer
the least immorality or indecency of conversation, [or anything]
contrary to virtue or piety to proceed without a severe check, which no
elevation of rank exempted them from.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 458. See
_ante_, iii. 41.
[909] No doubt Mr. Langton.
[910] Dr. Sheridan tells how Swift overheard a Captain Hamilton say to a
gentleman at whose house he had arrived 'that he was very sorry he had
chosen that time for his visit. "Why so?" "Because I hear Dean Swift is
with you. He is a great scholar, a wit; a plain country squire will have
but a bad time of it in his company, and I don't like to be laughed at."
Swift then stepped up and said, "Pray, Captain Hamilton, do you know how
to say _yes_ or _no_ properly?" "Yes, I think I have understanding
enough for that." "Then give me your hand--depend upon it, you and I
will agree very well."' 'The Captain told me,' continues Sheridan, 'that
he never passed two months so pleasantly in his life.' Swift's _Works_,
ed. 1803, ii. 104.
[911] Gibbon wrote on Feb. 21, 1772 (_Misc. Works_, ii. 78):--'To day
the House of Commons was employed in a very odd way. Tommy Townshend
moved that the sermon of Dr. Nowell, who preached before the House on
the 30th of January (_id est_, before the Speaker and four members),
should be burnt by the common hangman, as containing arbitrary, Tory,
high-flown doctrines. The House was nearly agreeing to the motion, till
they recollected that they had already thanked the preacher for his
excellent discourse, and ordered it to be printed.'
[912]
'Although it be not _shined_ upon.'
_Hudibras_, iii. 2, 175.
[913] According to Mr. Croker, this was the Rev. Henry Bate, of the
_Morning Post_, who in 1784 took the name of Dudley, was created a
baronet in 1815, and died in 1824. Horace Walpole wrote on Nov. 13, 1776
(_Letters_, vi. 39l):--'Yesterday I heard drums and trumpets in
Piccadilly: I looked out of the window and saw a procession with
streamers flying. At first I thought it a press-gang, but seeing the
corps so well-drest, like Hussars, in yellow with blue waistcoats and
breeches, and high caps, I concluded it was some new body of our allies,
or a regiment newly raised, and with new regimentals for distinction. I
was not totally mistaken, for the Colonel is _a new ally_. In short,
this was a procession set forth by Mr. Bate, Lord Lyttelton's chaplain,
and author of the old _Morning Post_, and meant as an appeal to the town
against his antagonist, the new one.' In June, 1781, Bate was sentenced
to a year's imprisonment 'for an atrocious libel on the Duke of
Richmond. He was the worst of all the scandalous libellers that had
appeared both on private persons as well as public. His life was
dissolute, and he had fought more than one duel. Yet Lord Sandwich had
procured for him a good Crown living, and he was believed to be
pensioned by the Court.' Walpole's _Journal of the Reign of George
III_, ii. 464.
[914] See _ante_, ii. 339, and iii. 265.
[915] Three days earlier, in the debate on the Westminster Scrutiny, Fox
accused 'a person of great rank in this House'--Pitt I believe--'of
adding pertness and personal contumely to every species of rash and
inconsiderate violence.' _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 924. Pitt, in reply,
classed Fox among 'political apostates,' _ib_. p. 929. Burke, the same
evening, 'sat down saying, "he little minded the ill-treatment of a
parcel of boys."' When he was called to order, he said:--'When he used
the term "a parcel of boys," he meant to apply it to the ministry, who,
he conceived, were insulting him with their triumph; a triumph which
grey hairs ought to be allowed the privilege of expressing displeasure
at, when it was founded on the rash exultation of mere boys.' _Ib_. p.
939. Pitt, Prime-Minister though he was, in the spring of the same year,
was called to order by the Speaker, for charging a member with using
'language the most false, the most malicious, and the most slanderous.'
_Ib_. p. 763.
[916] _Epistles to Mr. Pope_, ii. 165.
[917] See an account of him, in a sermon by the Reverend Mr. Agutter.
BOSWELL. This sermon was published in 1788. In Hannah More's _Memoirs_
(i. 217), Henderson is described as 'a mixture of great sense, which
discovered uncommon parts and learning, with a tincture of nonsense of
the most extravagant kind. He believes in witches and apparitions, as
well as in judicial astronomy.' Mrs. Kennicott writes (_ib_. p.
220):--'I think if Dr. Johnson had the shaking him about, he would shake
out his nonsense, and set his sense a-working. 'He never got out into the
world, says Dr. Hall, the Master of Pembroke College, having died in
College in 1788.
[918] This was the second Lord Lyttelton, commonly known as 'the wicked
Lord Lyttelton.' Fox described him to Rogers as 'a very bad
man--downright wicked.' Rogers's _Table Talk_, p. 95. He died Nov. 27,
1779. Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 292) wrote to Mason on Dec. 11
of that year:--'If you can send us any stories of ghosts out of the
North, they will be very welcome. Lord Lyttelton's vision has revived
the taste; though it seems a little odd that an apparition should
despair of being able to get access to his Lordship's bed in the shape
of a young woman, without being forced to use the disguise of a
robin-red-breast.' In the _Gent. Mag._ 1815, i. 597, and 1816, ii. 421,
accounts are given of this vision. In the latter account it is said that
'he saw a bird fluttering, and afterwards a woman appeared in white
apparel, and said, "Prepare to die; you will not exist three days."'
Mrs. Piozzi also wrote a full account of it. Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 332.
[919] See _ante_, ii. 150, and iii. 298, note 1.
[920] See _ante_, p. 278.
[921] 'If he who considers himself as suspended over the abyss of
eternal perdition only by the thread of life, which must soon part by
its own weakness, and which the wing of every minute may divide, can
cast his eyes round him without shuddering with horror, or panting for
security; what can he judge of himself, but that he is not yet awakened
to sufficient conviction? &c.' _The Rambler_, No. 110. In a blank leaf
in the book in which Johnson kept his diary of his journey in Wales is
written in his own hand, 'Faith in some proportion to Fear.' Duppa's
Johnson's _Diary of a Journey &c_., p. 157. See _ante_, iii. 199.
[922] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on March 20:--'Write to me no more about
_dying with a grace_; when you feel what I have felt in approaching
eternity--in fear of soon hearing the sentence of which there is no
revocation, you will know the folly.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 354. Of him
it might have been said in Cowper's words:--
'Scripture is still a trumpet to his fears.'
_The Task: The Winter Morning Walk_, 1. 611. See _ante_, iii. 294.
[923] The Reverend Mr. Ralph Churton, Fellow of Brazen-Nose College,
Oxford, has favoured me with the following remarks on my Work, which he
is pleased to say, 'I have hitherto extolled, and cordially approve.'
'The chief part of what I have to observe is contained in the following
transcript from a letter to a friend, which, with his concurrence, I
copied for this purpose; and, whatever may be the merit or justness of
the remarks, you may be sure that being written to a most intimate
friend, without any intention that they ever should go further, they are
the genuine and undisguised sentiments of the writer:--
'Jan. 6, 1792.
'Last week, I was reading the second volume of Boswell's _Johnson_, with
increasing esteem for the worthy authour, and increasing veneration of
the wonderful and excellent man who is the subject of it. The writer
throws in, now and then, very properly some serious religious
reflections; but there is one remark, in my mind an obvious and just
one, which I think he has not made, that Johnson's "morbid melancholy,"
and constitutional infirmities, were intended by Providence, like St.
Paul's thorn in the flesh, to check intellectual conceit and arrogance;
which the consciousness of his extraordinary talents, awake as he was to
the voice of praise, might otherwise have generated in a very culpable
degree. Another observation strikes me, that in consequence of the same
natural indisposition, and habitual sickliness, (for he says he scarcely
passed one day without pain after his twentieth year,) he considered and
represented human life, as a scene of much greater misery than is
generally experienced. There may be persons bowed down with affliction
all their days; and there are those, no doubt, whose iniquities rob them
of rest; but neither calamities nor crimes, I hope and believe, do so
much and so generally abound, as to justify the dark picture of life
which Johnson's imagination designed, and his strong pencil delineated.
This I am sure, the colouring is far too gloomy for what I have
experienced, though as far as I can remember, I have had more sickness
(I do not say more severe, but only more in quantity,) than falls to the
lot of most people. But then daily debility and occasional sickness were
far overbalanced by intervenient days, and, perhaps, weeks void of pain,
and overflowing with comfort. So that in short, to return to the
subject, human life, as far as I can perceive from experience or
observation, is not that state of constant wretchedness which Johnson
always insisted it was; which misrepresentation, (for such it surely
is,) his Biographer has not corrected, I suppose, because, unhappily, he
has himself a large portion of melancholy in his constitution, and
fancied the portrait a faithful copy of life.'
The learned writer then proceeds thus in his letter to me:--
'I have conversed with some sensible men on this subject, who all seem
to entertain the same sentiments respecting life with those which are
expressed or implied in the foregoing paragraph. It might be added that
as the representation here spoken of, appears not consistent with fact
and experience, so neither does it seem to be countenanced by Scripture.
There is, perhaps, no part of the sacred volume which at first sight
promises so much to lend its sanction to these dark and desponding
notions as the book of _Ecclesiastes_, which so often, and so
emphatically, proclaims the vanity of things sublunary. But the design
of this whole book, (as it has been justly observed,) is not to put us
out of conceit with life, but to cure our vain expectations of a
compleat and perfect happiness in this world; to convince us, that there
is no such thing to be found in mere external enjoyments;--and to teach
us to seek for happiness in the practice of virtue, in the knowledge and
love of God, and in the hopes of a better life. For this is the
application of all; _Let us hear_, &c. xii. 13. Not only his duty, but
his happiness too; _For_ GOD, &c. ver. 14.--See _Sherlock on
Providence_, p. 299.
'The New Testament tells us, indeed, and most truly, that "sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof;" and, therefore, wisely forbids us to
increase our burden by forebodings of sorrows; but I think it no where
says that even our ordinary afflictions are not consistent with a very
considerable degree of positive comfort and satisfaction. And,
accordingly, one whose sufferings as well as merits were conspicuous,
assures us, that in proportion "as the sufferings of Christ abounded in
them, so their consolation also abounded by Christ." 2 _Cor_. i. 5. It
is needless to cite, as indeed it would be endless even to refer to, the
multitude of passages in both Testaments holding out, in the strongest
language, promises of blessings, even in this world, to the faithful
servants of GOD. I will only refer to _St. Luke_, xviii. 29, 30, and 1
_Tim_. iv. 8.
'Upon the whole, setting aside instances of great and lasting bodily
pain, of minds peculiarly oppressed by melancholy, and of severe
temporal calamities, from which extraordinary cases we surely should not
form our estimate of the general tenour and complexion of life;
excluding these from the account, I am convinced that as well the
gracious constitution of things which Providence has ordained, as the
declarations of Scripture and the actual experience of individuals,
authorize the sincere Christian to hope that his humble and constant
endeavours to perform his duty, checquered as the best life is with many
failings, will be crowned with a greater degree of present peace,
serenity, and comfort, than he could reasonably permit himself to
expect, if he measured his views and judged of life from the opinion of
Dr. Johnson, often and energetically expressed in the Memoirs of him,
without any animadversion or censure by his ingenious Biographer. If he
himself, upon reviewing the subject, shall see the matter in this light,
he will, in an octavo edition, which is eagerly expected, make such
additional remarks or correction as he shall judge fit; lest the
impressions which these discouraging passages may leave on the reader's
mind, should in any degree hinder what otherwise the whole spirit and
energy of the work tends, and, I hope, successfully, to promote,--pure
morality and true religion.'
Though I have, in some degree, obviated any reflections against my
illustrious friend's dark views of life, when considering, in the course
of this Work, his _Rambler_ [_ante_, i. 213] and his _Rasselas_ [_ante_,
i. 343], I am obliged to Mr. Churton for complying with my request of
his permission to insert his Remarks, being conscious of the weight of
what he judiciously suggests as to the melancholy in my own
constitution. His more pleasing views of life, I hope, are just.
_Valeant quantum valere possunt_.
Mr. Churton concludes his letter to me in these words:--'Once, and only
once, I had the satisfaction of seeing your illustrious friend; and as I
feel a particular regard for all whom he distinguished with his esteem
and friendship, so I derive much pleasure from reflecting that I once
beheld, though but transiently near our College gate, one whose works
will for ever delight and improve the world, who was a sincere and
zealous son of the Church of England, an honour to his country, and an
ornament to human nature.'
His letter was accompanied with a present from himself of his _Sermons
at the Bampton Lecture_, and from his friend, Dr. Townson, the venerable
Rector of Malpas, in Cheshire, of his _Discourses on the Gospels_,
together with the following extract of a letter from that excellent
person, who is now gone to receive the reward of his labours:--'Mr.
Boswell is not only very entertaining in his works, but they are so
replete with moral and religious sentiments, without an instance, as far
as I know, of a contrary tendency, that I cannot help having a great
esteem for him; and if you think such a trifle as a copy of the
_Discourses, ex dono authoris_, would be acceptable to him, I should be
happy to give him this small testimony of my regard.'
Such spontaneous testimonies of approbation from such men, without any
personal acquaintance with me, are truly valuable and encouraging.
BOSWELL.
[924]
'Tout se plaint, tout gemit en cherchant le bien-etre;
Nul ne voudrait mourir, nul ne voudrait renaitre.'
Voltaire, _Le desastre de Lisbonne. Works_, ed. 1819, x. 124. 'Johnson
said that, for his part, he never passed that week in his life which he
would wish to repeat, were an angel to make the proposal to him.'
_Ante_, ii. 125. Yet Dr. Franklin, whose life overlapped Johnson's at
both ends, said:-'I should have no objection to go over the same life
from its beginning to the end, requesting only the advantage authors
have of correcting in a second edition the faults of its first. So would
I also wish to change some incidents of it for others more favourable
Notwithstanding, if this condition was denied, I should still accept the
offer of re-commencing the same life.' Franklin's _Memoirs_, i. 2.
[925] Mackintosh thus sums up this question:--'The truth is, that
endless fallacies must arise from the attempt to appreciate by
retrospect human life, of which the enjoyments depend on hope.' _Life of
Mackintosh_, ii. 160. See _ante_, ii. 350.
[926] In the lines on Levett. _Ante_, p. 137.
[927] AURENGZEBE, act iv. sc. 1. BOSWELL. According to Dr. Maxwell
(_ante_, ii. 124), Johnson frequently quoted the fourth couplet of these
lines. Boswell does not give the last--
'I'm tired with waiting for this chemic gold
Which fools us young, and beggars us when old.'
[928] Johnson, speaking of the companions of his college days, said:--
'It was bitterness which they mistook for frolick.' _Ante_, i. 73.
[929]
'--to thee I call
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams.'
Milton's _Paradise Lost_, iv. 35.
[930] Yet there is no doubt that a man may appear very gay in company
who is sad at heart. His merriment is like the sound of drums and
trumpets in a battle, to drown the groans of the wounded and
dying. BOSWELL.
[931] Mme. D'Arblay (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, ii. 103) tells how Johnson
was one day invited to her father's house at the request of Mr.
Greville, 'the finest gentleman about town,' as she earlier described
him (_ib_. i. 25), who desired to make his acquaintance. This 'superb'
gentleman was afraid to begin to speak. 'Assuming his most supercilious
air of distant superiority he planted himself, immovable as a noble
statue, upon the hearth, as if a stranger to the whole set.' Johnson,
who 'never spoke till he was spoken to' (_ante_, in. 307)--this habit
the Burneys did not as yet know--'became completely absorbed in silent
rumination; very unexpectedly, however, he shewed himself alive to what
surrounded him, by one of those singular starts of vision, that made him
seem at times, though purblind to things in common, gifted with an eye
of instinct for espying any action that he thought merited reprehension;
for all at once, looking fixedly on Mr. Greville, who without much
self-denial, the night being very cold, kept his station before the
chimney-piece, he exclaimed:--"If it were not for depriving the ladies
of the fire, I should like to stand upon the hearth myself." A smile
gleamed upon every face at this pointed speech. Mr. Greville tried to
smile himself, though faintly and scoffingly. He tried also to hold his
post; and though for two or three minutes he disdained to move, the
awkwardness of a general pause impelled him ere long to glide back to
his chair; but he rang the bell with force as he passed it to order his
carriage.'
[932] Page 139. BOSWELL.
[933] On this same day Miss Adams wrote to a friend:--'Dr. Johnson, tho'
not in good health, is in general very talkative and infinitely
agreeable and entertaining.' _Pemb. Coll. MSS_.
[934] Johnson said 'Milton was a _Phidias_, &c.' _Ante_, p. 99, note 1.
In his _Life of Milton_ (_Works, vii. 119) he writes:--'Milton never
learnt the art of doing little things with grace; he overlooked the
milder excellence of suavity and softness; he was a _Lion_ that had no
skill _in dandling the kid_.'
['Sporting the lion ramped, and in his paw
Dandled the kid.'
_Paradise Lost_, iv. 343.]
[935] Cardinal Newman (_History of my Religious Opinions_, ed. 1865, p.
361) remarks on this:--'As to Johnson's case of a murderer asking you
which way a man had gone, I should have anticipated that, had such a
