_Legitimas faciunt pura labella preces._
That line was erased, and the line as it stands in the _Works_ is
substituted in Mr. Langton's hand, as is also an alteration in the 16th
line, _velit_ into _jubet_.' _Jubet_ however is in the copy as printed
by Boswell. Mr. Langton edited some, if not all, of Johnson's Latin
poems. (_Ante_, iv. 384.)
[878] 'Boswell, who is very pious, went into the chapel at night to
perform his devotions, but came back in haste for fear of spectres.'
_Piozzi Letters_, i. 173.
[879] _Ante_ p. 169.
[880] John Gerves, or John the Giant, of whom Dr. Johnson relates a
curious story; _Works_ ix. 119.
[881] Lord Chatham in the House of Lords, on Nov. 22, 1770, speaking of
'the honest, industrious tradesman, who holds the middle rank, and has
given repeated proofs that he prefers law and liberty to gold,' had
said:--'I love that class of men. Much less would I be thought to
reflect upon the fair merchant, whose liberal commerce is the prime
source of national wealth. I esteem his occupation, and respect his
character.' _Parl. Hist._ xvi. 1107.
[882] See _ante_, iii. 382.
[883] He was born in Nordland in Sweden, in 1736. In 1768 he and Mr.
Banks accompanied Captain Cook in his first voyage round the world. He
died in 1782. Knight's _Eng. Cyclo._ v. 578. Miss Burney wrote of him in
1780:--'My father has very exactly named him, in calling him a
philosophical gossip.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 305. Horace Walpole
the same year, just after the Gordon Riots, wrote (_Letters_, vii.
403):--'Who is secure against Jack Straw and a whirlwind? How I
abominate Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, who routed the poor Otaheitans out
of the centre of the ocean, and carried our abominable passions amongst
them! not even that poor little speck could escape European
restlessness.' See _ante_ ii. 148.
[884] Boswell tells this story again, _ante_, ii. 299. Mrs. Piozzi's
account (_Anec_. p. 114) is evidently so inaccurate that it does not
deserve attention; she herself admits that Beauclerk was truthful. In a
marginal note on Wraxall's _Memoirs_, she says:--'Topham Beauclerk
(wicked and profligate as he wished to be accounted), was yet a man of
very strict veracity. Oh Lord! how I did hate that horrid Beauclerk!'
Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 348. Johnson testified to 'the correctness of
Beauclerk's memory and the fidelity of his narrative.' _Ante_, ii. 405.
[885] 'Mr. Maclean of Col, having a very numerous family, has for some
time past resided at Aberdeen, that he may superintend their education,
and leaves the young gentleman, our friend, to govern his dominions with
the full power of a Highland chief.' _Johnson's Works_, ix. 117.
[886] This is not spoken of hare-coursing, where the game is taken or
lost before the dog gets out of wind; but in chasing deer with the great
Highland greyhound, Col's exploit is feasible enough. WALTER SCOTT.
[887] See _ante_, pp. 45, III, for Monboddo's notion.
[888] Mme. Riccoboni in 1767 wrote to Garrick of the French:--'Un
mensonge grossier les revolte. Si on voulait leur persuader que les
Anglais vivent de grenouilles, meurent de faim, que leurs femmes sont
barbouillees, et jurent par toutes les lettres de l'alphabet, ils
leveraient les epaules, et s'ecriraient, _quel sot ose ecrire ces
miseres-la?_ mais a Londres, diantre cela prend!' _Garrick Corres_.
ii. 524.
[889] Just opposite to M'Quarrie's house the boat was swamped by the
intoxication of the sailors, who had partaken too largely of M'Quarrie's
wonted hospitality. WALTER SCOTT. Johnson wrote from Lichfield on June
13, 1775;--'There is great lamentation here for the death of Col. Lucy
[Miss Porter] is of opinion that he was wonderfully handsome.' _Piozzi
Letters_, i. 235. See ante, ii. 287.
[890] Iona.
[891] See _ante_, p. 237.
[892] See _ante_, 111. 229.
[893] Sir James Mackintosh says (_Life_, ii. 257):--'Dr. Johnson visited
Iona without looking at Staffa, which lay in sight, with that
indifference to natural objects, either of taste or scientific
curiosity, which characterised him.' This is a fair enough sample of
much of the criticism under which Johnson's reputation has suffered.
[894] Smollett in _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of Sept. 3) describes a
Highland funeral. 'Our entertainer seemed to think it a disparagement to
his family that not above a hundred gallons of whisky had been drunk
upon such a solemn occasion.
[895] 'We then entered the boat again; the night came upon us; the wind
rose; the sea swelled; and Boswell desired to be set on dry ground: we,
however, pursued our navigation, and passed by several little islands in
the silent solemnity of faint moon-shine, seeing little, and hearing
only the wind and water.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 176.
[896] Cicero _De Finibus_, ii. 32.
[897] I have lately observed that this thought has been elegantly
expressed by Cowley:--
'Things which offend when present, and affright,
In memory, well painted, move delight.'
BOSWELL.
The lines are found in the _Ode upon His Majesty's Restoration and
Return_, stanza 12. They may have been suggested by Virgil's lines--
'Revocate animos, maestumque timorem
Mittite; forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.'
Aeneid, i. 202.
[898] Had our Tour produced nothing else but this sublime passage, the
world must have acknowledged that it was not made in vain. The present
respectable President of the Royal Society was so much struck on reading
it, that he clasped his hands together, and remained for some time in an
attitude of silent admiration, BOSWELL. Boswell again quotes this
passage (which is found in Johnson's _Works_, ix. 145), _ante_, iii.
173. The President was Sir Joseph Banks, Johnson says in _Rasselas_, ch.
xi:--'That the supreme being may be more easily propitiated in one place
than in another is the dream of idle superstition; but that some places
may operate upon our own minds in an uncommon manner is an opinion which
hourly experience will justify. He who supposes that his vices may be
more successfully combated in Palestine will, perhaps, find himself
mistaken, yet he may go thither without folly; he who thinks they will
be more freely pardoned dishonours at once his reason and religion.'
[899] 'Sir Allan went to the headman of the island, whom fame, but fame
delights in amplifying, represents as worth no less than fifty pounds.
He was, perhaps, proud enough of his guests, but ill prepared for our
entertainment; however he soon produced more provision than men not
luxurious require.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 146.
[900] _An Account of the Isle of Man. With a voyage to I-Columb-Kill_.
By W. Sacheverell, Esq., late Governour of Man. 1702.
[901] 'He that surveys it [the church-yard] attended by an insular
antiquary may be told where the kings of many nations are buried, and if
he loves to soothe his imagination with the thoughts that naturally rise
in places where the great and the powerful lie mingled with the dust,
let him listen in submissive silence; for if he asks any questions his
delight is at an end.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 148.
[902] On quitting the island Johnson wrote: 'We now left those
illustrious ruins, by which Mr. Boswell was much affected, nor would I
willingly be thought to have looked upon them without some emotion.'
_Ib_. p. 150.
[903] Psalm xc. 4.
[904] Boswell wrote on Nov. 9, 1767:--'I am always for fixing some
period for my perfection as far as possible. Let it be when my account
of Corsica is published; I shall then have a character which I must
support.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 122. Five weeks later he wrote:--'I
have been as wild as ever;' and then comes a passage which the Editor
has thought it needful to suppress. _Ib_.p.128.
[905] Boswell here speaks as an Englishman. He should have written '_a_
M'Ginnis.' See _ante_, p. 135, note 3.
[906] 'The fruitfulness of Iona is now its whole prosperity. The
inhabitants are remarkably gross, and remarkably neglected; I know not
if they are visited by any minister. The island, which was once the
metropolis of learning and piety, has now no school for education, nor
temple for worship, only two inhabitants that can speak English, and not
one that can write or read.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 149. Scott, who
visited it in 1810, writes:--'There are many monuments of singular
curiosity, forming a strange contrast to the squalid and dejected
poverty of the present inhabitants.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iii.
285. In 1814, on a second visit, he writes:--'Iona, the last time I saw
it, seemed to me to contain the most wretched people I had anywhere
seen. But either they have got better since I was here, or my eyes,
familiarized with the wretchedness of Zetland and the Harris, are less
shocked with that of Iona.' He found a schoolmaster there. _Ib_.
iv. 324.
[907] Johnson's Jacobite friend, Dr. King (_ante_, i. 279), says of
Pulteney, on his being made Earl of Bath:--'He deserted the cause of
his country; he betrayed his friends and adherents; he ruined his
character, and from a most glorious eminence sunk down to a degree of
contempt. The first time Sir Robert (who was now Earl of Orford) met him
in the House of Lords, he threw out this reproach:--"My Lord Bath, you
and I are now two as insignificant men as any in England." In which he
spoke the truth of my Lord Bath, but not of himself. For my Lord Orford
was consulted by the ministers to the last day of his life.' King's
_Anec_. p. 43.
[908] See _ante_, i. 431, and iii. 326.
[909] 'Sir Robert Walpole detested war. This made Dr. Johnson say of
him, "He was the best minister this country ever had, as, if _we_ would
have let him (he speaks of his own violent faction), he would have kept
the country in perpetual peace."' Seward's _Biographiana_, p. 554. See
_ante_, i. 131.
[910] See _ante_, iii. Appendix C.
[911] I think it incumbent on me to make some observation on this strong
satirical sally on my classical companion, Mr. Wilkes. Reporting it
lately from memory, in his presence, I expressed it thus:--'They knew he
would rob their shops, _if he durst;_ they knew he would debauch their
daughters, _if he could;_' which, according to the French phrase, may be
said _rencherir_ on Dr. Johnson; but on looking into my Journal, I found
it as above, and would by no means make any addition. Mr. Wilkes
received both readings with a good humour that I cannot enough admire.
Indeed both he and I (as, with respect to myself, the reader has more
than once had occasion to observe in the course of this Journal,) are
too fond of a _bon mot_, not to relish it, though we should be ourselves
the object of it.
Let me add, in justice to the gentleman here mentioned, that at a
subsequent period, he _was_ elected chief magistrate of London [in
1774], and discharged the duties of that high office with great honour
to himself, and advantage to the city. Some years before Dr. Johnson
died, I was fortunate enough to bring him and Mr. Wilkes together; the
consequence of which was, that they were ever afterwards on easy and not
unfriendly terms. The particulars I shall have great pleasure in
relating at large in my _Life of Dr. Johnson_. BOSWELL. In the copy of
Boswell's _Letter to the People of Scotland_ in the British Museum is
entered in Boswell's own hand--
'Comes jucundus in via pro vehiculo est.
To John Wilkes, Esq.: as pleasant a companion as ever lived. From the
Author.
--will my Wilkes retreat,
And see, once seen before, that ancient seat, etc.'
See _ante_, iii. 64, 183; iv. 101, 224, note 2.
[912] See _ante_, iv. 199.
[913] Our afternoon journey was through a country of such gloomy
desolation that Mr. Boswell thought no part of the Highlands equally
terrifick.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 150.
[914] Johnson describes Lochbuy as 'a true Highland laird, rough and
haughty, and tenacious of his dignity: who, hearing my name, inquired
whether I was of the Johnstons of Glencoe (_sic_) or of Ardnamurchan.'
_Ib_.
[915] Boswell totally misapprehended _Lochbuy's_ meaning. There are two
septs of the powerful clan of M'Donaid, who are called Mac-Ian, that is
_John's-son_; and as Highlanders often translate their names when they
go to the Lowlands,--as Gregor-son for Mac-Gregor, Farquhar-son for
Mac-Farquhar,--_Lochbuy_ supposed that Dr. Johnson might be one of the
Mac-Ians of Ardnamurchan, or of Glencro. Boswell's explanation was
nothing to the purpose. The _Johnstons_ are a clan distinguished in
Scottish _border_ history, and as brave as any _Highland_ clan that ever
wore brogues; but they lay entirely out of _Lochbuy's_ knowledge--nor
was he thinking of _them_. WALTER SCOTT.
[916] This maxim, however, has been controverted. See Blackstone's
_Commentaries_, vol. ii. p. 291; and the authorities there quoted.
BOSWELL. 'Blackstone says:--From these loose authorities, which
Fitzherbert does not hesitate to reject as being contrary to reason, the
maxim that a man shall not stultify himself hath been handed down as
settled law; though later opinions, feeling the inconvenience of the
rule, have in many points endeavoured to restrain it.' _Ib_. p. 292.
[917] Begging pardon of the Doctor and his conductor, I have often seen
and partaken of cold sheep's head at as good breakfast-tables as ever
they sat at. This protest is something in the manner of the late
Culrossie, who fought a duel for the honour of Aberdeen butter. I have
passed over all the Doctor's other reproaches upon Scotland, but the
sheep's head I will defend _totis viribus_. Dr. Johnson himself must
have forgiven my zeal on this occasion; for if, as he says, _dinner_ be
the thing of which a man thinks _oftenest during the day, breakfast_
must be that of which he thinks _first in the morning_. WALTER SCOTT. I
do not know where Johnson says this. Perhaps Scott was thinking of a
passage in Mrs. Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 149, where she writes that he said:
'A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of any thing than he does of
his dinner.'
[918] A horrible place it was. Johnson describes it (_Works_, ix. 152)
as 'a deep subterraneous cavity, walled on the sides, and arched on the
top, into which the descent is through a narrow door, by a ladder or
a rope.'
[919] See _ante_, p. 177.
[920] Sir Allan M'Lean, like many Highland chiefs, was embarrassed in
his private affairs, and exposed to unpleasant solicitations from
attorneys, called, in Scotland, _writers_ (which indeed was the chief
motive of his retiring to Inchkenneth). Upon one occasion he made a
visit to a friend, then residing at Carron lodge, on the banks of the
Carron, where the banks of that river are studded with pretty villas:
Sir Allan, admiring the landscape, asked his friend, whom that handsome
seat belonged to. 'M---, the writer to the signet,' was the reply.
'Umph!' said Sir Allan, but not with an accent of assent, 'I mean that
other house.' 'Oh ! that belongs to a very honest fellow Jamie---, also
a writer to the signet.' 'Umph!' said the Highland chief of M'Lean with
more emphasis than before, 'And yon smaller house?' 'That belongs to a
Stirling man; I forget his name, but I am sure he is a writer too;
for---.' Sir Allan who had recoiled a quarter of a circle backward at
every response, now wheeled the circle entire and turned his back on the
landscape, saying, 'My good friend, I must own you have a pretty
situation here; but d--n your neighbourhood.' WALTER SCOTT.
[921] Loch Awe.
[922] 'Pope's talent lay remarkably in what one may naturally enough
term the condensation of thoughts. I think no other English poet ever
brought so much sense into the same number of lines with equal
smoothness, ease, and poetical beauty. Let him who doubts of this peruse
his _Essay on Man_ with attention.' Shenstone's _Essays on Men and
Manners. [Works_, 4th edit. ii. 159.] 'He [Gray] approved an observation
of Shenstone, that "Pope had the art of condensing a thought."'
Nicholls' _Reminiscences of Gray_, p. 37. And Swift [in his _Lines on
the death of Dr. Swift_], himself a great condenser, says--
'In Pope I cannot read a line
But with a sigh I wish it mine;
When he can in one couplet fix
More sense than I can do in six.'
P. CUNNINGHAM.
[923] He is described by Walpole in his _Letters_, viii. 5.
[924] 'The night came on while we had yet a great part of the way to go,
though not so dark but that we could discern the cataracts which poured
down the hills on one side, and fell into one general channel, that ran
with great violence on the other. The wind was loud, the rain was heavy,
and the whistling of the blast, the fall of the shower, the rush of the
cataracts, and the roar of the torrent, made a nobler chorus of the
rough musick of nature than it had ever been my chance to hear before.'
Johnson's _Works_, ix. 155. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'All the rougher
powers of nature except thunder were in motion, but there was no danger.
I should have been sorry to have missed any of the inconveniencies, to
have had more light or less rain, for their co-operation crowded the
scene and filled the mind.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 177.
[925] I never tasted whiskey except once for experiment at the inn in
Inverary, when I thought it preferable to any English malt brandy. It
was strong, but not pungent, and was free from the empyreumatick taste
or smell. What was the process I had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do
I wish to improve the art of making poison pleasant.' Johnson's _Works_,
ix. 52. Smollett, medical man though he was, looked upon whisky as
anything but poison. 'I am told that it is given with great success to
infants, as a cordial in the confluent small-pox.' _Humphry Clinker_.
Letter of Sept. 3.
[926] _Regale_ in this sense is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_. It was,
however, a favourite word at this time. Thus, Mrs. Piozzi, in her
_Journey through France_, ii. 297, says:--'A large dish of hot chocolate
thickened with bread and cream is a common afternoon's regale here.'
Miss Burney often uses the word.
[927] Boswell, in answering Garrick's letter seven months later,
improved on this comparison. 'It was,' he writes, 'a pine-apple of the
finest flavour, which had a high zest indeed among the heath-covered
mountains of Scotia.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 621.
[928] See _ante_, p. 115.
[929] See _ante_, i. 97.
[930] 'Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane.' _Macbeth_, act v. sc.
8.
[931]
'From his first entrance to the closing scene
Let him one equal character maintain.'
FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet._ l. 126.
[932] I took the liberty of giving this familiar appellation to my
celebrated friend, to bring in a more lively manner to his remembrance
the period when he was Dr. Johnson's pupil. BOSWELL.
[933] See _ante_, p. 129.
[934] Boswell is here quoting the Preface to the third edition of his
_Corsica_:--'Whatever clouds may overcast my days, I can now walk here
among the rocks and woods of my ancestors, with an agreeable
consciousness that I have done something worthy.'
[935] See _ante_, i. 148, and _post_, Nov. 21.
[936] I have suppressed my friend's name from an apprehension of
wounding his sensibility; but I would not withhold from my readers a
passage which shews Mr. Garrick's mode of writing as the Manager of a
Theatre, and contains a pleasing trait of his domestick life. His
judgment of dramatick pieces, so far as concerns their exhibition on the
stage, must be allowed to have considerable weight. But from the effect
which a perusal of the tragedy here condemned had upon myself, and from
the opinions of some eminent criticks, I venture to pronounce that it
has much poetical merit; and its authour has distinguished himself by
several performances which shew that the epithet _poetaster_ was, in the
present instance, much misapplied. BOSWELL. Johnson mentioned this
quarrel between Garrick and the poet on March 25, 1773 (_Piozzi
Letters_, i. 80). 'M---- is preparing a whole pamphlet against G----,
and G---- is, I suppose, collecting materials to confute M----.' M----
