[408] In the first two editions _formal_.
[409] Johnson maintains this in _The Idler_, No. 74. 'Few,' he says,
'have reason to complain of nature as unkindly sparing of the gifts of
memory ... The true art of memory is the art of attention.' See
_ante_, iii. 191.
[410]The first of the definitions given by Johnson of _to remember_ is
_to bear in mind anything; not to forget. To recollect_ he defines _to
recover to memory_. We may, perhaps, assume that Boswell said, 'I did
not recollect that the chair was broken;' and that Johnson replied, 'you
mean, you did not remember. That you did not remember is your own fault.
It was in your mind that it was broken, and therefore you ought to have
remembered it. It was not a case of recollecting; for we recollect, that
is, recover to memory, what is not in our mind.' In the passage _ante_,
i. 112, which begins, 'I indeed doubt if he could have remembered,' we
find in the first two editions not _remembered_, but _recollected_.
Perhaps this change is due to euphony, as _collected_ comes a few lines
before. Horace Walpole, in one of his _Letters_ (i. 15), distinguishes
the two words, on his revisiting his old school, Eton:--'By the way, the
clock strikes the old cracked sound--I recollect so much, and remember
so little.'
[411] He made the same boast at St. Andrews. See Boswell's _Hebrides_,
Aug. 19. He was, I believe, speaking of his translation of Courayer's
_Life of Paul Sarpi and Notes_, of which some sheets were printed off.
_Ante_, i. 135.
[412] Horace Walpole, after mentioning that George III's mother, who
died in 1772, left but L27,000 when she was reckoned worth at least
L300,000, adds:--'It is no wonder that it became the universal belief
that she had wasted all on Lord Bute. This became still more probable as
he had made the purchase of the estate at Luton, at the price of
L114,000, before he was visibly worth L20,000; had built a palace there,
another in town, and had furnished the former in the most expensive
manner, bought pictures and books, and made a vast park and lake.'
_Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 19.
[413] To him Boswell dedicated his _Thesis_ as _excelsae familiae de
Bute spei alterae_ (_ante_, ii. 20). In 1775, he wrote of him:--'He is
warmly my friend and has engaged to do for me.' _Letters of Boswell_,
p. 186
[414] He was mistaken in this. See _ante_, i. 260; also iii. 420.
[415] In England in like manner, and perhaps for the same reason, all
Attorneys have been converted into Solicitors.
[416] 'There is at Edinburgh a society or corporation of errand boys,
called Cawdies, who ply in the streets at night with paper lanthorns,
and are very serviceable in carrying messages.' _Humphrey Clinker_.
Letter of Aug. 8.
[417] Their services in this sense are noticed in the same letter.
[418]
'The formal process shall be turned to sport,
And you dismissed with honour by the Court.'
FRANCIS. Horace, _Satires_, ii.i.86.
[419] Mr. Robertson altered this word to _jocandi_, he having found in
Blackstone that to irritate is actionable. BOSWELL.
[420] Quoted by Johnson, _ante_, ii. l97.
[421] His god-daughter. See _post_ May 10, 1784.
[422] See _post_, under Dec. 20, 1782
[423] See _ante_, i. 155
[424] The will of King Alfred, alluded to in this letter, from the
original Saxon, in the library of Mr. Astle, has been printed at the
expense of the University of Oxford. BOSWELL.
[425] He was a surgeon in this small Norfolk town. Dr. Burney's
_Memoirs_, i. 106.
[426] Burney visited Johnson first in 1758, when he was living in Gough
Square. _Ante_, i. 328.
[427] Mme. D'Arblay says that Dr. Johnson sent them to Dr. Burney's
house, directed 'For the Broom Gentleman.' Dr. Burney's _Memoirs_,
ii. 180.
[428] 'Sept. 14, 1781. Dr. Johnson has been very unwell indeed. Once I
was quite frightened about him; but he continues his strange
discipline--starving, mercury, opium; and though for a time half
demolished by its severity, he always in the end rises superior both to
the disease and the remedy, which commonly is the most alarming of the
two.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 107. On Sept. 18, his birthday, he
wrote:--'As I came home [from church], I thought I had never begun any
period of life so placidly. I have always been accustomed to let this
day pass unnoticed, but it came this time into my mind that some little
festivity was not improper. I had a dinner, and invited Allen and
Levett.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 199.
[429] This remark, I have no doubt, is aimed at Hawkins, who (_Life_, p.
553) pretends to account for this trip.
[430] _Pr. and Med._ p. 201. BOSWELL.
[431] He wrote from Lichfield on the previous Oct. 27:--'All here is
gloomy; a faint struggle with the tediousness of time; a doleful
confession of present misery, and the approach seen and felt of what is
most dreaded and most shunned. But such is the lot of man.' _Piozzi
Letters_, ii. 209.
[432] The truth of this has been proved by sad experience. BOSWELL. Mrs.
Boswell died June 4, 1789. MALONE.
[433] See account of him in the _Gent. Mag_. Feb. 1785. BOSWELL, see
ante, i. 243, note 3.
[434] Mrs. Piozzi (_Synonymy_, ii. 79), quoting this verse, under
_Officious_, says;--'Johnson, always thinking neglect the worst
misfortune that could befall a man, looked on a character of this
description with less aversion than I do.'
[435]
'Content thyself to be _obscurely good_.'
Addisons _Cato_, act. iv. sc. 4.
[436] In both editions of Sir John Hawkins's _Life of Dr. Johnson_,
'letter'd _ignorance_' is printed. BOSWELL. Mr. Croker (_Boswell_, p. I)
says that 'Mr. Boswell is habitually unjust to Sir J. Hawkins.' As some
kind of balance, I suppose, to this injustice, he suppresses this note.
[437] Johnson repeated this line to me thus:--
'And Labour steals an hour to die.'
But he afterwards altered it to the present reading. BOSWELL. This poem
is printed in the _Ann. Reg_. for 1783, p. 189, with the following
variations:--l. 18, for 'ready help' 'useful care': l. 28, 'His single
talent,' 'The single talent'; l. 33, 'no throbs of fiery pain,' 'no
throbbing fiery pain'; l. 36, 'and freed,' 'and forced.' On the next
page it is printed _John Gilpin_.
[438] Mr. Croker says that this line shows that 'some of Gray's happy
expressions lingered in Johnson's memory' He quotes a line that comes at
the end of the _Ode on Vicissitude_--'From busy day, the peaceful
night.' This line is not Gray's, but Mason's.
[439] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Aug. 14, 1780:--'If you want
events, Here is Mr. Levett just come in at fourscore from a walk to
Hampstead, eight miles, in August.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 177.
[440] In the original, _March_ 20. On the afternoon of March 20 Lord
North announced in the House of Commons 'that his Majesty's Ministers
were no more.' _Parl. Hist_. xxii. 1215.
[441] _Pr. and Med_. p. 209 [207]. BOSWELL.
[442] See _ante_, ii. 355, iii. 46, iv. 81, 100. Mr. Seward records in
his _Biographiana_, p. 600--without however giving the year--that
'Johnson being asked what the Opposition meant by their flaming speeches
and violent pamphlets against Lord North's administration, answered:
"They mean, Sir, rebellion; they mean in spite to destroy that country
which they are not permitted to govern."'
[443] In the previous December the City of London in an address, writes
Horace Walpole, 'besought the King to remove both his public and
_private_ counsellors, and used these stunning and memorable
words:--_"Your armies are captured; the wonted superiority of your
navies is annihilated, your dominions are lost."_ Words that could be
used to no other King; no King had ever lost so much without losing all.
If James II. lost his crown, yet the crown lost no dominions.' _Journal
of the Reign of George III_, ii. 483. The address is given in the _Ann.
Reg._ xxiv. 320. On Aug. 4 of this year Johnson wrote to Dr.
Taylor:--'Perhaps no nation not absolutely conquered has declined so
much in so short a time. We seem to be sinking. Suppose the Irish,
having already gotten a free trade and an independent Parliament, should
say we will have a King and ally ourselves with the House of Bourbon,
what could be done to hinder or overthrow them?' Mr. Morrison's
_Autographs_, vol. ii.
[444] In February and March, 1771, the House of Commons ordered eight
printers to attend at the bar on a charge of breach of privilege, in
publishing reports of debates. One of the eight, Miller of the _Evening
Post_, when the messenger of the House tried to arrest him, gave the man
himself into custody on a charge of assault. The messenger was brought
before Lord Mayor Crosby and Aldermen Wilkes and Oliver, and a warrant
was made out for his commitment. Bail was thereupon offered and accepted
for his appearance at the next sessions. The Lord Mayor and Oliver were
sent to the Tower by the House. Wilkes was ordered to appear on April 8;
but the Ministry, not daring to face his appearance, adjourned the House
till the 9th. A committee was appointed by ballot to inquire into the
late obstructions to the execution of the orders of the House. It
recommended the consideration of the expediency of the House ordering
that Miller should be taken into custody. The report, when read, was
received with a roar of laughter. Nothing was done. Such was, to quote
the words of Burke in the _Annual Register_ (xiv. 70), 'the miserable
result of all the pretended vigour of the Ministry.' See _Parl. Hist._
xvii. 58, 186.
[445] Lord Cornwallis's army surrendered at York Town, five days before
Sir Henry Clinton's fleet and army arrived off the Chesapeak. _Ann.
Reg._ xxiv. 136.
[446] Johnson wrote on March 30:--'The men have got in whom I have
endeavoured to keep out; but I hope they will do better than their
predecessors; it will not be easy to do worse.' Croker's _Boswell_,
p. 706.
[447] This note was in answer to one which accompanied one of the
earliest pamphlets on the subject of Chatterton's forgery, entitled
_Cursory Observations on the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley_, &c. Mr.
Thomas Warton's very able _Inquiry_ appeared about three months
afterwards; and Mr. Tyrwhitt's admirable _Vindication of his Appendix_
in the summer of the same hear, left the believers in this daring
imposture nothing but 'the resolution to say again what had been said
before.' MALONE.
[448] _Pr. and Med._ p. 207. BOSWELL.
[449] He addressed to him an Ode in Latin, entitled _Ad Thomam Laurence,
medicum doctissimum, quum filium peregre agentem desiderio nimis tristi
prosequeretur. Works_, i. 165.
[450] Mr. Holder, in the Strand, Dr. Johnson's apothecary. BOSWELL.
[451] 'Johnson should rather have written "imperatum est." But the
meaning of the words is perfectly clear. "If you say yes, the messenger
has orders to bring Holder to me." Mr. Croker translates the words as
follows:-"If you consent, pray tell the messenger to bring Holder to
me." If Mr. Croker is resolved to write on points of classical learning,
we would advise him to begin by giving an hour every morning to our old
friend Corderius.' Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, i 366. In _The Answers
to Mr. Macaulay's Criticism_, prefixed to Croker's _Boswell_, p. 13, it
is suggested that Johnson wrote either _imperetur_ or _imperator_. The
letter may be translated: 'A fresh chill, a fresh cough, and a fresh
difficulty in breathing call for a fresh letting of blood. Without your
advice, however, I would not submit to the operation. I cannot well come
to you, nor need you come to me. Say yes or no in one word, and leave
the rest to Holder and to me. If you say yes, let the messenger be
bidden (imperetur) to bring Holder to me. May 1, 1782. When _you_ have
left, whither shall I turn?'
[452] Soon after the above letter, Dr. Lawrence left London, but not
before the palsy had made so great a progress as to render him unable to
write for himself. The folio wing are extracts from letters addressed by
Dr. Johnson to one of his daughters:--
'You will easily believe with what gladness I read that you had heard
once again that voice to which we have all so often delighted to attend.
May you often hear it. If we had his mind, and his tongue, we could
spare the rest.
'I am not vigorous, but much better than when dear Dr. Lawrence held my
pulse the last time. Be so kind as to let me know, from one little
interval to another, the state of his body. I am pleased that he
remembers me, and hope that it never can be possible for me to forget
him. July 22, 1782.'
'I am much delighted even with the small advances which dear Dr.
Lawrence makes towards recovery. If we could have again but his mind,
and his tongue in his mind, and his right hand, we should not much
lament the rest. I should not despair of helping the swelled hand by
electricity, if it were frequently and diligently supplied.
'Let me know from time to time whatever happens; and I hope I need not
tell you, how much I am interested in every change. Aug. 26, 1782.'
'Though the account with which you favoured me in your last letter could
not give me the pleasure that I wished, yet I was glad to receive it;
for my affection to my dear friend makes me desirous of knowing his
state, whatever it be. I beg, therefore, that you continue to let me
know, from time to time, all that you observe.
'Many fits of severe illness have, for about three months past, forced
my kind physician often upon my mind. I am now better; and hope
gratitude, as well as distress, can be a motive to remembrance.
Bolt-court, Fleet-street, Feb. 4, 1783.' BOSWELL.
[453] Mr. Langton being at this time on duty at Rochester, he is
addressed by his military title. BOSWELL.
[454] Eight days later he recorded:--'I have in ten days written to
Aston, Lucy, Hector, Langton, Boswell; perhaps to all by whom my letters
are desired.' _Pr. and Med._ 209. He had written also to Mrs. Thrale,
but her affection, it should seem from this, he was beginning to doubt.
[455] See _ante_, p. 84.
[456] See _ante_, i. 247.
[457] See _post_, p. 158, note 4.
[458] Johnson has here expressed a sentiment similar to that contained
in one of Shenstone's stanzas, to which, in his life of that poet, he
has given high praise:--
'I prized every hour that went by,
Beyond all that had pleased me before;
But now they are gone [past] and I sigh,
I grieve that I prized them no more.'
J. BOSWELL, JUN.
[459] She was his god-daughter. See _post_, May 10, 1784.
[460] 'Dr. Johnson gave a very droll account of the children of Mr.
Langton, "who," he said, "might be very good children, if they were let
alone; but the father is never easy when he is not making them do
something which they cannot do; they must repeat a fable, or a speech,
or the Hebrew alphabet, and they might as well count twenty for what
they know of the matter; however, the father says half, for he prompts
every other word."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 73. See _ante_, p.
20, note 2.
[461] A part of this letter having been torn off, I have, from the
evident meaning, supplied a few words and half-words at the ends and
beginnings of lines. BOSWELL.
[462] See vol. ii. p. 459. BOSWELL. She was Hector's widowed sister, and
Johnson's first love. In the previous October, writing of a visit to
Birmingham, he said:--'Mrs. Careless took me under her care, and told me
when I had tea enough.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 205.
[463] This letter cannot belong to this year. In it Johnson says of his
health, 'at least it is not worse.' But 1782 found him in very bad
health; he passed almost the whole of the year 'in a succession of
disorders' (_post_, p. 156). What he says of friendship renders it
almost certain that the letter was written while he had still Thrale;
and him he lost in April, 1781. Had it been written after June, 1779,
but before Thrale's death, the account given of health would have been
even better than it is (_ante_, iii. 397). It belongs perhaps to the
year 1777 or 1778.
[464] 'To a man who has survived all the companions of his youth ...
this full-peopled world is a dismal solitude.' _Rambler_, No. 69.
[465] See _ante_, i. 63.
[466] They met on these days in the years 1772, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 81, and
3.
[467] The ministry had resigned on the 20th. _Ante_, p. 139, note 1.
[468] Thirty-two years earlier he wrote in _The Rambler_, No. 53:-'In
the prospect of poverty there is nothing but gloom and melancholy; the
mind and body suffer together; its miseries bring no alleviation; it is
a state in which every virtue is obscured, and in which no conduct can
avoid reproach.' And again in No. 57:--'The prospect of penury in age is
so gloomy and terrifying, that every man who looks before him must
resolve to avoid it; and it must be avoided generally by the science of
sparing.' See _ante_. 441.
[469] See _ante_, p. 128.
[470] Hannah More wrote in April of this year (_Memoirs_, i.
249):--'Poor Johnson is in a bad state of health. I fear his
constitution is broken up.' (Yet in one week he dined out four times.
_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 237.) At one of these dinners, 'I urged him,' she
continues (_ib_. p. 251) 'to take a _little_ wine. He replied, "I can't
drink a _little_, child; therefore, I never touch it. Abstinence is as
easy to me as temperance would be difficult." He was very good-humoured
and gay. One of the company happened to say a word about poetry, "Hush,
hush," said he, "it is dangerous to say a word of poetry before her; it
is talking of the art of war before Hannibal."'
[471] This book was published in 1781, and, according to Lowndes,
reached its seventh edition by 1787. See _ante_, i. 214.
[472] The clergyman's letter was dated May 4. _Gent. Mag._ 1786, p. 93.
Johnson is explaining the reason of his delay in acknowledging it.
[473] What follows appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_ of May 29,
1782:--'A correspondent having mentioned, in the _Morning Chronicle_ of
December 12, the last clause of the following paragraph, as seeming to
favour suicide; we are requested to print the whole passage, that its
true meaning may appear, which is not to recommend suicide but exercise.
'Exercise cannot secure us from that dissolution to which we are
decreed: but while the soul and body continue united, it can make the
association pleasing, and give probable hopes that they shall be
disjoined by an easy separation. It was a principle among the ancients,
that acute diseases are from Heaven, and chronical from ourselves; the
dart of death, indeed, falls from Heaven, but we poison it by our own
misconduct: to die is the fate of man; but to die with lingering anguish
is generally his folly.' [_The Rambler_, No. 85.] BOSWELL.
[474] The Correspondence may be seen at length in the _Gent. Mag._ Feb.
1786. BOSWELL. Johnson, advising Dr. Taylor 'to take as much exercise as
he can bear,' says:-'I take the true definition of exercise to be labour
without weariness.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 461.
[475] Here he met Hannah More. 'You cannot imagine,' she writes
(_Memoirs_, i. 261), 'with what delight he showed me every part of his
own college. Dr. Adams had contrived a very pretty piece of gallantry.
We spent the day and evening at his house. After dinner, Johnson begged
to conduct me to see the College; he would let no one show it me but
himself. "This was my room; this Shenstone's." Then, after pointing out
all the rooms of the poets who had been of his college, "In short," said
he, "we were a nest of singing-birds." When we came into the
