procured him a sufficient salary on the Irish establishment.' Goldsmith,
in his review of Van Egmont's _Travels in Asia_, says:--'Could we see a
man set out upon this journey [to Asia] not with an intent to consider
rocks and rivers, but the manners, and the mechanic inventions, and the
imperfect learning of the inhabitants; resolved to penetrate into
countries as yet little known, and eager to pry into all their secrets,
with an heart not terrified at trifling dangers; if there could be found
a man who could unite this true courage with sound learning, from such a
character we might hope much information.' Goldsmith's _Works_, ed.
1854, iv. 225. Johnson would have gone to Constantinople, as he himself
said, had he received his pension twenty years earlier. _Post_, p. 27.
[77] It should be remembered, that this was said twenty-five or thirty
years ago, [written in 1799,] when lace was very generally worn. MALONE.
'Greek and Latin,' said Porson, 'are only luxuries.' Rogers's _Table
Talk_, p. 325.
[78] See _ante_, iii. 8.
[79] Dr. Johnson, in his _Life of Cowley_, says, that these are 'the
only English verses which Bentley is known to have written.' I shall
here insert them, and hope my readers will apply them.
'Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill,
And thence poetick laurels bring,
Must first acquire due force and skill,
Must fly with swan's or eagle's wing.
Who Nature's treasures would explore,
Her mysteries and arcana know;
Must high as lofty Newton soar,
Must stoop as delving Woodward low.
Who studies ancient laws and rites,
Tongues, arts, and arms, and history;
Must drudge, like Selden, days and nights,
And in the endless labour die.
Who travels in religious jars,
(Truth mixt with errour, shades with rays;)
Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars,
In ocean wide or sinks or strays.
But grant our hero's hope, long toil
And comprehensive genius crown,
All sciences, all arts his spoil,
Yet what reward, or what renown?
Envy, innate in vulgar souls,
Envy steps in and stops his rise,
Envy with poison'd tarnish fouls
His lustre, and his worth decries.
He lives inglorious or in want,
To college and old books confin'd;
Instead of learn'd he's call'd pedant,
Dunces advanc'd, he's left behind:
Yet left content a genuine Stoick he,
Great without patron, rich without South Sea.' BOSWELL.
In Mr. Croker's octavo editions, _arts_ in the fifth stanza is
changed into _hearts_. J. Boswell, jun., gives the following reading of
the first four lines of the last stanza, not from _Dodsley's
Collection_, but from an earlier one, called _The Grove_.
'Inglorious or by wants inthralled,
To college and old books confined,
A pedant from his learning called,
Dunces advanced, he's left behind.'
[80] Bentley, in the preface to his edition of _Paradise Lost_, says:--
'Sunt et mihi carmina; me quoque dicunt
Vatem pastores: sed non ego credulus illis.'
[81] The difference between Johnson and Smith is apparent even in this
slight instance. Smith was a man of extraordinary application, and had
his mind crowded with all manner of subjects; but the force, acuteness,
and vivacity of Johnson were not to be found there. He had book-making
so much in his thoughts, and was so chary of what might be turned to
account in that way, that he once said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he
made it a rule, when in company, never to talk of what he understood.
Beauclerk had for a short time a pretty high opinion of Smith's
conversation. Garrick, after listening to him for a while, as to one of
whom his expectations had been raised, turned slyly to a friend, and
whispered him, 'What say you to this?--eh? _flabby_, I think.' BOSWELL.
Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 279), says:--'Smith's voice was harsh and
enunciation thick, approaching to stammering. His conversation was not
colloquial, but like lecturing. He was the most absent man in company
that I ever saw, moving his lips, and talking to himself, and smiling in
the midst of large companies. If you awaked him from his reverie and
made him attend to the subject of conversation, he immediately began a
harangue, and never stopped till he told you all he knew about it, with
the utmost philosophical ingenuity.' Dugald Stewart (_Life of Adam
Smith_, p. 117) says that 'his consciousness of his tendency to absence
rendered his manner somewhat embarrassed in the company of strangers.'
But 'to his intimate friends, his peculiarities added an inexpressible
charm to his conversation, while they displayed in the most interesting
light the artless simplicity of his heart.' _Ib_. p. 113. See also
Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 302, and _ante_, ii. 430, note 1.
[82] Garrick himself was a good deal of an infidel: see _ante_, ii. 85,
note 7.
[83] _Ante_, i. 181.
[84] The Tempest, act iv. sc. i. In _The Rambler_, No. 127, Johnson
writes of men who have 'borne opposition down before them, and left
emulation panting behind.' He quotes (_Works_, vii. 261) the following
couplet by Dryden:--
'Fate after him below with pain did move,
And victory could scarce keep pace above.'
Young in _The Last Day_, book I, had written:--
'Words all in vain pant after the distress.'
[85] I am sorry to see in the _Transactions of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh_, vol. ii, _An Essay on the Character of Hamlet_, written, I
should suppose, by a very young man, though called 'Reverend;' who
speaks with presumptuous petulance of the first literary character of
his age. Amidst a cloudy confusion of words, (which hath of late too
often passed in Scotland for _Metaphysicks_,) he thus ventures to
criticise one of the noblest lines in our language:--'Dr. Johnson has
remarked, that "time toil'd after him in vain." But I should apprehend,
that this is _entirely to mistake the character_. Time toils after
_every great man_, as well after Shakspeare. The _workings_ of an
ordinary mind _keep pace_, indeed, with time; they move no faster; _they
have their beginning, their middle, and their end_; but superiour
natures can _reduce these into a point_. They do not, indeed, _suppress_
them; but they _suspend_, or they _lock them up in the breast_.' The
learned Society, under whose sanction such gabble is ushered into the
world, would do well to offer a premium to any one who will discover its
meaning. BOSWELL.
[86] 'May 29, 1662. Took boat and to Fox-hall, where I had not been a
great while. To the old Spring Garden, and there walked long.' Pepys's
_Diary_, i. 361. The place was afterwards known as Faux-hall and
Vauxhall. See _ante_, iii. 308.
[87] 'One that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service and art nothing
but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar.' _King Lear_,
act ii. sc. 2.
[88] Yet W.G. Hamilton said:--'Burke understands everything but gaming
and music. In the House of Commons I sometimes think him only the second
man in England; out of it he is always the first.' Prior's _Burke_, p.
484. See _ante_, ii. 450. Bismarck once 'rang the bell' to old Prince
Metternich. 'I listened quietly,' he said, 'to all his stories, merely
jogging the bell every now and then till it rang again. That pleases
these talkative old men.' DR. BUSCH, quoted in Lowe's _Prince
Bismarck_, i. 130.
[89] See _ante_, i. 470, for his disapproval of 'studied behaviour.'
[90] Johnson had perhaps Dr. Warton in mind. _Ante_, ii. 41, note 1.
[91] See _ante_, i. 471, and iii. 165.
[92] 'Oblivion is a kind of annihilation.' Sir Thomas Browne's
_Christian Morals_, sect. xxi.
[93] 'Nec te quaesiveris extra.' Persius, _Sat_. i. 7. We may compare
Milton's line,
'In himself was all his state.'
_Paradise Lost_, v. 353.
[94] See _ante,_ iii. 269.
[95] 'A work of this kind must, in a minute examination, discover many
imperfections; but West's version, so far as I have considered it,
appears to be the product of great labour and great abilities.'
Johnson's _Works,_ viii. 398.
[96] See Boswell's _Hebrides,_ Aug. 25, 1773.
[97] See _ante,_ i. 82, and ii. 228.
[98] See _ante,_ i. 242.
[99] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, under Nov. 11.
[100] A literary lady has favoured me with a characteristick anecdote of
Richardson. One day at his country-house at Northend, where a large
company was assembled at dinner, a gentleman who was just returned from
Paris, willing to please Mr. Richardson, mentioned to him a very
flattering circumstance,--that he had seen his _Clarissa_ lying on the
King's brother's table. Richardson observing that part of the company
were engaged in talking to each other, affected then not to attend to
it. But by and by, when there was a general silence, and he thought that
the flattery might be fully heard, he addressed himself to the
gentleman, 'I think, Sir, you were saying something about,--' pausing in
a high flutter of expectation. The gentleman provoked at his inordinate
vanity, resolved not to indulge it, and with an exquisitely sly air of
indifference answered, 'A mere trifle Sir, not worth repeating.' The
mortification of Richardson was visible, and he did not speak ten words
more the whole day. Dr. Johnson was present, and appeared to enjoy it
much. BOSWELL.
[101]
'E'en in a bishop I can spy desert;
Seeker is decent, Rundel has a heart.'
Pope, _Epil. to Sat_. ii. 70. Horace Walpole wrote on Aug. 4,1768
(Letters, v. 115):--'We have lost our Pope. Canterbury [Archbishop
Seeker] died yesterday. He had never been a Papist, but almost
everything else. Our Churchmen will not be Catholics; that stock seems
quite fallen.'
[102] Perhaps the Earl of Corke. _Ante_, iii. 183.
[103] Garrick perhaps borrowed this saying when, in his epigram on
Goldsmith, speaking of the ideas of which his head was full, he said:--
'When his mouth opened all were in a pother,
Rushed to the door and tumbled o'er each other,
But rallying soon with all their force again,
In bright array they issued from his pen.'
Fitzgerald's _Garrick_, ii. 363. See _ante_, ii. 231.
[104] See _ante_, i. 116, and ii. 52.
[105] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, ix. 318) writes of Boswell's _Life of
Johnson:_--'Dr. Blagden says justly, that it is a new kind of libel, by
which you may abuse anybody, by saying some dead person said so and so
of somebody alive.'
[106] See _ante_, ii. III. In the _Gent. Mag._ 1770, p. 78, is a review
of _A Letter to Samuel Johnson, LL.D._, 'that is generally imputed to
Mr. Wilkes.'
[107] 'Do you conceive the full force of the word CONSTITUENT? It has
the same relation to the House of Commons as Creator to creature.' _A
Letter to Samuel Johnson, LL.D._, p. 23.
[108] His profound admiration of the GREAT FIRST CAUSE was such as to
set him above that 'Philosophy and vain deceit' [_Colossians_, ii. 8]
with which men of narrower conceptions have been infected. I have heard
him strongly maintain that 'what is right is not so from any natural
fitness, but because GOD wills it to be right;' and it is certainly so,
because he has predisposed the relations of things so as that which he
wills must be right. BOSWELL. Johnson was as much opposed as the Rev.
Mr. Thwackum to the philosopher Square, who 'measured all actions by the
unalterable rule of right and the eternal fitness of things.' _Tom
Jones_, book iii. ch. 3.
[109] In _Rasselas_ (ch. ii.) we read that the prince's look 'discovered
him to receive some solace of the miseries of life, from consciousness
of the delicacy with which he felt, and the eloquence with which he
bewailed them.' See _ante_, April 8, 1780.
[110] I hope the authority of the great Master of our language will stop
that curtailing innovation, by which we see _critic, public_, &c.,
frequently written instead of _critick, publick_, &c. BOSWELL. Boswell
had always been nice in his spelling. In the Preface to his _Corsica_,
published twenty-four years before _The Life of Johnson_, he defends his
peculiarities, and says:--'If this work should at any future period be
reprinted, I hope that care will be taken of my orthography.' Mr. Croker
says that in a memorandum in Johnson's writing he has found
'_cubic_ feet.'
[111] 'Disorders of intellect,' answered Imlac, 'happen much more often
than superficial observers will easily believe. Perhaps, if we speak
with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state.'
_Rasselas_, ch. 44.
[112] See _ante_, i. 397, for Kit Smart's madness in praying.
[113] Yet he gave lessons in Latin to Miss Burney and Miss Thrale. Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 243. In Skye he said, 'Depend upon it, no woman
is the worse for sense and knowledge.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 19.
[114] See _ante_, iii, 240.
[115] Nos. 588, 601, 626 and 635. The first number of the _Spectator_
was written by Addison, the last by Grove. See _ante_, iii. 33, for
Johnson's praise of No. 626.
[116] Sterne is of a direct contrary opinion. See his _Sentimental
Journey_, Article, 'The Mystery.' BOSWELL. Sterne had been of the same
opinion as Johnson, for he says that the beggar he saw 'confounded all
kind of reasoning upon him.' 'He passed by me,' he continues, 'without
asking anything--and yet he did not go five steps farther before he
asked charity of a little woman--I was much more likely to have given of
the two. He had scarce done with the woman, when he pulled his hat off
to another who was coming the same way.--An ancient gentleman came
slowly--and, after him, a young smart one--He let them both pass, and
asked nothing; I stood observing him half an hour, in which time he had
made a dozen turns backwards and forwards, and found that he invariably
pursued the same plan.' _Sentimental Journey_, ed. 1775, ii. 105.
[117] Very likely Dr. Warton. _Ante_, ii. 41.
[118] I differ from Mr. Croker in the explanation of this ill-turned
sentence. The _shield_ that Homer may hold up is the observation made by
Mrs. Fitzherbert. It was this observation that Johnson respected as a
very fine one. For his high opinion of that lady's understanding, see
_ante_, i. 83.
[119] In _Boswelliana_ (p. 323) are recorded two more of Langton's
Anecdotes. 'Mr. Beauclerk told Dr. Johnson that Dr. James said to him he
knew more Greek than Mr. Walmesley. "Sir," said he, "Dr. James did not
know enough of Greek to be sensible of his ignorance of the language.
Walmesley did."' See _ante_, i. 81. 'A certain young clergyman used to
come about Dr. Johnson. The Doctor said it vexed him to be in his
company, his ignorance was so hopeless. "Sir," said Mr. Langton, "his
coming about you shows he wishes to help his ignorance." "Sir," said the
Doctor, "his ignorance is so great, I am afraid to show him the
bottom of it."'
[120] Dr. Francklin. See _ante_, iii. 83, note 3. Churchill attacked him
in _The Rosciad_ (Poems, ii. 4). When, he says, it came to the choice
of a judge,
'Others for Francklin voted; but 'twas known,
He sickened at all triumphs but his own.'
[121] See _ante_, iii. 241, note 2.
[122] _Pr. and Med_. p.190. BOSWELL.
[123] _Ib_. 174. BOSWELL.
[124] 'Mr. Fowke once observed to Dr. Johnson that, in his opinion, the
Doctor's literary strength lay in writing biography, in which he
infinitely exceeded all his contemporaries. "Sir," said Johnson, "I
believe that is true. The dogs don't know how to write trifles with
dignity."'--R. Warner's _Original Letters_, p. 204.
[125] His design is thus announced in his _Advertisement_: 'The
Booksellers having determined to publish a body of English Poetry, I was
persuaded to promise them a Preface to the works of each authour; an
undertaking, as it was then presented to my mind, not very tedious or
difficult.
'My purpose was only to have allotted to every poet an Advertisement,
like that [in original _those_] which we find in the French
Miscellanies, containing a few dates, and a general character; but I
have been led beyond my intention, I hope by the honest desire of giving
useful pleasure.' BOSWELL.
[126] _Institutiones_, liber i, Prooemium 3.
[127] 'He had bargained for two hundred guineas, and the booksellers
spontaneously added a third hundred; on this occasion Dr. Johnson
observed to me, "Sir, I always said the booksellers were a generous set
of men. Nor, in the present instance, have I reason to complain. The
fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but that I have written
too much." The _Lives_ were soon published in a separate edition; when,
for a very few corrections, he was presented with another hundred
guineas.' Nichols's _Lit. Anec._ viii. 416. See _ante_, iii. 111. In Mr.
Morrison's _Collection of Autographs_ &c., vol. ii, 'is Johnson's
receipt for 100_l_., from the proprietors of _The Lives of the Poets_
for revising the last edition of that work.' It is dated Feb. 19, 1783.
'Underneath, in Johnson's autograph, are these words: "It is great
impudence to put _Johnson's Poets_ on the back of books which Johnson
neither recommended nor revised. He recommended only Blackmore on the
Creation, and Watts. How then are they Johnson's? This is indecent."'
The poets whom Johnson recommended were Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and
Yalden. _Ante_, under Dec. 29, 1778.
[128] Gibbon says of the last five quartos of the six that formed his
_History_:--'My first rough manuscript, without any intermediate copy,
has been sent to the press.' _Misc. Works_, i. 255. In the _Memoir of
Goldsmith_, prefixed to his _Misc. Works_, i. 113, it is said:--'In
whole quires of his _Histories_, _Animated Nature_, &c., he had seldom
occasion to correct or alter a single word.' See _ante_, i. 203.
[129] From Waller's _Of Loving at First Sight_. Waller's _Poems,
Miscellanies_, xxxiv.
[130] He trusted greatly to his memory. If it did not retain anything
exactly, he did not think himself bound to look it up. Thus in his
criticism on Congreve (_Works_, viii. 31) he says:--'Of his plays I
cannot speak distinctly; for since I inspected them many years have
passed.' In a note on his _Life of Rowe_, Nichols says:--'This _Life_
is a very remarkable instance of the uncommon strength of Dr. Johnson's
memory. When I received from him the MS. he complacently observed that
the criticism was tolerably well done, considering that he had not read
one of Rowe's plays for thirty years.' _Ib_. vii. 417.
[131] Thus:--'In the _Life of Waller_, Mr. Nichols will find a reference
to the _Parliamentary History_ from which a long quotation is to be
inserted. If Mr. Nichols cannot easily find the book, Mr. Johnson will
send it from Streatham.'
'Clarendon is here returned.'
'By some accident, I laid _your_ note upon Duke up so safely, that I
cannot find it. Your informations have been of great use to me. I must
beg it again; with another list of our authors, for I have laid that
with the other. I have sent Stepney's Epitaph. Let me have the revises
as soon as can be. Dec. 1778.'
'I have sent Philips, with his Epitaphs, to be inserted. The fragment of
a preface is hardly worth the impression, but that we may seem to do
