'In France, to which my ideas [in the _Essay on the Study of Literature_]
were confined, the learning and language of Greece and Rome were
neglected by a philosophic age. The guardian of those studies, the
Academy of Inscriptions, was degraded to the lowest rank among the
three royal societies of Paris; the new appellation of _Erudits_ was
contemptuously applied to the successors of Lipsius and Casaubon; and
I was provoked to hear (see M. d'Alembert, _Discours preliminaire a
l'Encyclopedie_) that the exercise of the memory, their sole merit,
had been superseded by the nobler faculties of the imagination and the
judgment.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 104.
_A Synod of Cooks_.
(Vol. i, p. 470.)
When Johnson spoke of 'a Synod of Cooks' he was, I conjecture, thinking
of Milton's 'Synod of Gods,' in Beelzebub's speech in Paradise Lost,
book ii. line 391.
_Johnson and Bishop Percy_.
(Vol. i, p. 486.)
Bishop Percy in a letter to Boswell says: 'When in 1756 or 1757 I
became acquainted with Johnson, he told me he had lived twenty years
in London, but not very happily.'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 307.
_Barclay's Answer to Kenrick's Review of Johnson's
'Shakespeare.'_
(Vol. i, p. 498.)
Neither in the British Museum nor in the Bodleian have I been able to
find a copy of this book. _A Defence of Mr. Kenricks Review_, 1766,
does not seem to contain any reply to such a work as Barclay's.
_Mrs. Piozzi's 'Collection of Johnson s Letters.'_
(Vol. ii, p. 43, n. 2.)
MR. BOSWELL TO BISHOP PERCY.
'Feb. 9, 1788.
'I am ashamed that I have yet seven years to write of his life. ... Mrs.
(Thrale) Piozzi's Collection of his letters will be out soon. ... I saw
a sheet at the printing-house yesterday... It is wonderful what avidity
there still is for everything relative to Johnson. I dined at Mr.
Malone's on Wednesday with Mr. W. G. Hamilton, Mr. Flood, Mr. Windham, Mr.
Courtenay, &c.; and Mr. Hamilton observed very well what a proof it was
of Johnson's merit that we had been talking of him all the afternoon.'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 309.
_Johnson on romantic virtue_.
(Vol. ii, P. 76.)
'Dr. Johnson used to advise his friends to be upon their guard against
romantic virtue, as being founded upon no settled principle. "A plank,"
said he, "that is tilted up at one end must of course fall down on the
other."
'--William Seward, _Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons_, ii. 461.'
_'Old' Baxter on toleration_.
(Vol. ii, p. 253.)
The Rev. John Hamilton Davies, B.A., F.R.H.S., Rector of St. Nicholas's,
Worcester, and author of _The Life of Richard Baxter of Kidderminster,
Preacher and Prisoner_ (London, Kent & Co., 1887), kindly informs me,
in answer to my inquiries, that he believes that Johnson may allude
to the following passage in the fourth chapter of Baxter's Reformed
Pastor:--
'I think the Magistrate should be the hedge of the Church. I am against
the two extremes of universal license and persecuting tyranny. The
Magistrate must be allowed the use of his reason, to know the cause,
and follow his own judgment, not punish men against it. I am the less
sorry that the Magistrate doth so little interpose.'
_England barren in good historians_.
(Vol. ii, p. 236, n. 2.)
Gibbon, writing of the year 1759, says:
'The old reproach that no British altars had been raised to the muse of
history was recently disproved by the first performances of Robertson
and Hume, the histories of Scotland and of the Stuarts.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 103.
_An instance of Scotch nationality_.
(Vol. ii, p. 307.)
Lord Camden, when pressed by Dr. Berkeley (the Bishop's son) to appoint
a Scotchman to some office, replied: 'I have many years ago sworn that
I never will introduce a Scotchman into any office; for if you introduce
one he will contrive some way or other to introduce forty more cousins
or friends.'
--G. M. _Berkeley's Poems_, p. ccclxxi.
_Mortality in the Foundling Hospital of London_.
(Vol. ii, p. 398.)
'From March 25, 1741, to December 31, 1759, the number of children
received into the Foundling Hospital is 14,994, of which have died
to December 31, 1759, 8,465.'--_A Tour through the Whole Island of
Great Britain_, ed. 1769, vol. ii, p. 121. A great many of these died,
no doubt, after they had left the Hospital.
_Mr. Planta_.
(Vol. ii, p. 399, n. 2.)
The reference is no doubt to Mr. Joseph Planta, Assistant-Librarian
of the British Museum 1773, Principal Librarian 1799-1827. See Edwards'
_Lives of the Founders of the British Museum_, pp. 517 sqq.; and
Nichols's _Illustrations of Literature_, vol. vii, pp. 677-8.
'_Unitarian_'.
(Vol. ii, p. 408, n. 1.)
John Locke in his _Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of
Christianity_ quotes from Mr. Edwards whom he answers:--'This gentleman
and his fellows are resolved to be Unitarians; they are for one article
of faith as well as One person in the Godhead.'
--Locke's _Works_, ed. 1824, vi, 200.
_The proposed Riding School for Oxford_.
(Vol. ii, p. 424.)
My friend, Mr. C. E. Doble, has pointed out to me the following passage
in _Collectanea_, First Series, edited by Mr. C. R. L. Fletcher, Fellow
of All Souls College, and printed for the Oxford Historical Society,
Oxford, 1885.
'The _Advertisement to Religion and Policy, by Edward Earl of Clarendon_,
runs as follows:--
"Henry Viscount Cornbury, who was called up to the House of Peers
by the title of Lord Hyde, in the lifetime of his father, Henry Earl
of Rochester, by a codicil to his will, dated Aug. 10, 1751, left
divers MSS. of his great grandfather, Edward Earl of Clarendon, to
Trustees, with a direction that the money to arise from the sale or
publication thereof, should be employed as a beginning of a fund for
supporting a Manage or Academy for riding and other useful exercises
in Oxford; a plan of this sort having been also recommended by Lord
Clarendon in his Dialogue on Education. Lord Cornbury dying before
his father, this bequest did not take effect. But Catharine, one of
the daughters of Henry Earl of Rochester, and late Duchess Dowager
of Queensbury, whose property these MSS. became, afterwards by deed
gave them, together with all the monies which had arisen or might arise
from the sale or publication of them, to [three Trustees] upon trust
for the like purposes as those expressed by Lord Hyde in his codicil."
'The preface to the _Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, written by
himself_., has words to the same effect. (See also _Notes and Queries_,
Ser. I. x. 185, and xi. 32.)
'From a letter in _Notes and Queries_, Ser. II. x. p. 74, it appears
that in 1860 the available sum, in the hands of the Trustees of the
Clarendon Bequest, amounted to L10,000. The University no longer needed
a riding-school, and the claims of Physical Science were urgent; and in
1872 the announcement was made, that by the liberality of the Clarendon
Trustees an additional wing had been added to the University Museum,
containing the lecture-rooms and laboratories of the department of
Experimental Philosophy.' Vol. i. p. 305.
_Boswell and Mrs. Rudd._
(Vol. ii, p. 450, n. 1.)
In Mr. Alfred Morrison's _Collection of Autographs_, vol. i. p. 103,
mention is made among Boswell's autographs of verses entitled _Lurgan
Clanbrassil_, a supposed Irish song.'
I have learnt, through Mr. Morrison's kindness, that 'on the document
itself there is the following memorandum, signed, so far as can be made
out, H. W. R.:--
"The enclosed song was written and composed by James Boswell, the
biographer of Johnson, in commemoration of a tour he made with Mrs.
Rudd whilst she was under his protection, for living with whom he
displeased his father so much that he threatened to disinherit him.
"Mrs. Rudd had lived with one of the Perreaus, who were tried and
executed for forgery. She was tried at the same time and acquitted.
"My father having heard that Boswell used to sing this song at the Home
Circuit, requested it of him, and he wrote it and gave it him. H.W. R."'
"Feb. 1828."
Christopher Smart.
(Vol. ii, p. 454, n. 3.)
Mr. Robert Browning, in his Parleyings with Christopher Smart, under
the similitude of 'some huge house,' thus describes the general run of
that unfortunate poet's verse:--
'All showed the Golden Mean without a hint
Of brave extravagance that breaks the rule.
The master of the mansion was no fool
Assuredly, no genius just as sure!
Safe mediocrity had scorned the lure
Of now too much and now too little cost,
And satisfied me sight was never lost
Of moderate design's accomplishment
In calm completeness.'
Mr. Browning goes on to liken one solitary poem to a Chapel in the house,
in which is found--
'from floor to roof one evidence
Of how far earth may rival heaven.'
_Parleyings with certain People of Importance in their Day_ (pp. 80-82),
London, 1887.
_Johnsons discussion on baptism--with Mr. Lloyd, the Birmingham Quaker_.
(Vol. ii, p. 458.)
In _Farm and its Inhabitants_ (_ante_, p. xlii), a further account is
given of the controversy between Johnson and Mr. Lloyd the Quaker, on
the subject of Barclay's _Apology_.
'Tradition states that, losing his temper, Dr. Johnson threw the volume
on the floor, and put his foot on it, in denunciation of its statements.
The identical volume is now in the possession of G. B. Lloyd, of Edgbaston
Grove.
'At the dinner table he continued the debate in such angry tones, and
struck the table so violently that the children were frightened, and
desired to escape.
'The next morning Dr. Johnson went to the bank [Mr. Lloyd was a banker]
and by way of apology called out in his stentorian voice, "I say, Lloyd,
I'm the best theologian, but you are the best Christian.'" p. 41. It
could not have been 'the next morning' that Johnson went to the bank,
for he left for Lichfield on the evening of the day of the controversy
(_ante_, ii. 461). He must have gone in the afternoon, while Boswell
was away seeing Mr. Boulton's great works at Soho (ib. p. 459).
Mr. G. B. Lloyd, the great-grandson of Johnson's host, in a letter
written this summer (1886), says: 'Having spent much of my boyhood
with my grandfather in the old house, I have heard him tell the story
of the stamping on the broad volume.'
Boswell mentions (ib. p. 457) that 'Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd, like their
Majesties, had been blessed with a numerous family of fine children,
their numbers being exactly the same.' The author of _Farm and its
Inhabitants_ says (p. 46): 'There is a tradition that when Sampson
Lloyd's wife used to feel depressed by the care of such a large family
(they had sixteen children) he would say to her, "Never mind, the
twentieth will be the most welcome."' His fifteenth child Catharine
married Dr. George Birkbeck, the founder of the Mechanics' Institutes
(ib. p. 48).
A story told (p. 50) of one of Mr. Lloyd's sons-in-law, Joseph Biddle,
is an instance of that excess of forgetfulness which Johnson called
'morbid oblivion' (_ante_, v. 68). 'He went to pay a call in Leamington.
The servant asked him for his name, he could not remember it; in
perplexity he went away, when a friend in the street met him and
accosted him, "How do you do, Mr. Biddle?" "Oh, Biddle, Biddle, Biddle,
that's the name," cried he, and rushed off to pay his call.'
The editor is in error in stating (p. 45, n. 1) that a very poor poem
entitled _A bone for Friend Mary to pick_, is by Johnson. It may be
found in the _Gent. Mag._ for 1791, p. 948.
_Lichfield in 1783._
(Vol. ii, p. 461.)
C. P. Moritz, a young Prussian clergyman who published an account of
a pedestrian tour that he made in England in the year 1782, thus describes
Lichfield as he saw it on a day in June:--
'At noon I got to Lichfield, an old-fashioned town with narrow dirty
streets, where for the first time I saw round panes of glass in the
windows. The place to me wore an unfriendly appearance; I therefore
made no use of my recommendation, but went straight through and only
bought some bread at a baker's, which I took along with me.'--_Travels
in England in 1782_, p. 140, by C. P. Moritz. Cassell's National Library,
1886.
The 'recommendation' was an introduction to an inn given him by the
daughter of his landlord at Sutton, who told him 'that the people in
Lichfield were, in general, very proud.' Travelling as he did, on foot
and without luggage, he was looked upon with suspicion at the inns,
and often rudely refused lodging.
_Richard Baxter's doubt_.
(Vol. ii, p. 477.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies [See _ante_, p. xlix. 1] informs me that
there can be no doubt that Johnson referred to the following passage
in _Reliquiae Baxterianae_, folio edition of 1696, p. 127:--
'This is another thing which I am changed in; that whereas in my
younger days I was never tempted to doubt of the Truth of Scripture
or Christianity, but all my Doubts and Fears were exercised at home,
about my own Sincerity and Interest in Christ--since then my sorest
assaults have been on the other side, and such they were, that had I
been void of internal Experience, and the adhesion of Love, and the
special help of God, and had not discerned more Reason for my Religion
than I did when I was younger, I had certainly apostatized to Infidelity,'
&c.
Johnson, the day after he recorded his 'doubt,' wrote that he was
'troubled with Baxter's _scruple_' (_ante_, ii. 477). The 'scruple'
was, perhaps, the same as the 'doubt.' In his _Dictionary_ he defines
_scruple_ as _doubt; difficulty of determination; perplexity; generally
about minute things_.
_Oxford in 1782_.
(Vol. iii, p. 13, n. 3.)
The Rev. C. P. Moritz (_ante_, p. liv) gives a curious account of
his visit to Oxford. On his way from Dorchester on the evening of
a Sunday in June, he had been overtaken by the Rev. Mr. Maud, who seems
to have been a Fellow and Tutor of Corpus College[3], and who was
returning from doing duty in his curacy. It was late when they arrived
in the town. Moritz, who, as I have said, more than once had found
great difficulty in getting a bed, had made up his mind to pass the
summer night on a stonebench in the High Street. His comrade would not
hear of this, but said that he would take him to an ale-house where
'it is possible they mayn't be gone to bed, and we may yet find company.'
This ale-house was the Mitre.
'We went on a few houses further, and then knocked at a door. It was
then nearly twelve. They readily let us in; but how great was my
astonishment when, on being shown into a room on the left, I saw
a great number of clergymen, all with their gowns and bands on, sitting
round a large table, each with his pot of beer before him. My travelling
companion introduced me to them as a German clergyman, whom he could not
sufficiently praise for my correct pronunciation of the Latin, my
orthodoxy, and my good walking.
'I now saw myself in a moment, as it were, all at once transported
into the midst of a company, all apparently very respectable men, but
all strangers to me. And it appeared to me extraordinary that I should
thus at midnight be in Oxford, in a large company of Oxonian clergy,
without well knowing how I had got there. Meanwhile, however, I took
all the pains in my power to recommend myself to my company, and in the
course of conversation I gave them as good an account as I could of
our German universities, neither denying nor concealing that now and
then we had riots and disturbances. "Oh, we are very unruly here,
too," said one of the clergymen, as he took a hearty draught out of his
pot of beer, and knocked on the table with his hand. The conversation
now became louder, more general, and a little confused. ... At last,
when morning drew near, Mr. Maud suddenly exclaimed, "D-n me, I must
read prayers this morning at All Souls!" "D-n me" is an abbreviation
