_You will become an able negotiator--a very pretty rascal_. No one in
Ireland wears even the mask of incorruption; no one professes to do for
sixpence what he can get a shilling for doing. Set sail, and see where
the winds and the waves will carry you. Every day will improve another.
_Dies diem docet_, by observing at night where you failed in the day,
and by resolving to fail so no more.' CROKER. The Whigs thought he made
'a very pretty rascal' in a very different way. On his opposition to
Whitbread's bill for establishing parochial schools, Romilly wrote
(_Life_, ii. 2l6), 'that a man so enlightened as Windham should take the
same side (which he has done most earnestly) would excite great
astonishment, if one did not recollect his eager opposition a few months
ago to the abolition of the slave trade.' He was also 'most strenuous in
opposition' to Romilly's bill for repealing the act which made it a
capital offence to steal to the amount of forty shillings in a
dwelling-house, _Ib_. p. 316.
[629] We accordingly carried our scheme into execution, in October,
1792; but whether from that uniformity which has in modern times, in a
great degree, spread through every part of the Metropolis, or from our
want of sufficient exertion, we were disappointed. BOSWELL.
[630] Piozzi's _Anecdotes_, p. 193. See _post_, under June 30, 1784.
[631] Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 139-143) says that the picture,
which was execrable beyond belief, was exhibited in an empty room. Lowe,
in 1769 (not in 1771 as Northcote says), gained the gold medal of the
Academy for the best historical picture. (_Gent. Mag_. 1770, p. 587.)
Northcote says that the award was not a fair one. He adds that Lowe,
being sent to Rome by the patronage of the Academy, was dissatisfied
with the sum allowed him. 'When Sir Joshua said that he knew from
experience that it was sufficient, Lowe pertly answered "that it was
possible for a man to live on guts and garbage."' He died at an obscure
lodging in Westminster, in 1793. There is, wrote Miss Burney, 'a certain
poor wretch of a villainous painter, one Mr. Lowe, whom Dr. Johnson
recommends to all the people he thinks can afford to sit for their
picture. Among these he applied to Mr. Crutchley [one of Mr. Thrale's
executors]. "But now," said Mr. Crutchley to me, "I have not a notion of
sitting for my picture--for who wants it? I may as well give the man
the money without; but no, they all said that would not do so well, and
Dr. Johnson asked me to give _him_ my picture." "And I assure you, Sir,"
says he, "I shall put it in very good company, for I have portraits of
some very respectable people in my dining-room." After all I could say I
was obliged to go to the painter's. And I found him in such a condition!
a room all dirt and filth, brats squalling and wrangling... "Oh!" says
I, "Mr. Lowe, I beg your pardon for running away, but I have just
recollected another engagement; so I poked three guineas in his hand,
and told him I would come again another time, and then ran out of the
house with all my might."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii.41. A
correspondent of the _Examiner_ writing on May 28, 1873, said that he
had met one of Lowe's daughters, 'who recollected,' she told him, 'when
a child, sitting on Dr. Johnson's knee and his making her repeat the
Lord's Prayer.' She was Johnson's god-daughter. By a committee
consisting of Milman, Thackeray, Dickens, Carlyle and others, an annuity
fund for her and her sister was raised. Lord Palmerston gave a large
subscription.
[632] See _post_, May 15, 1783.
[633] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, _post_, v. 48.
[634] See _ante_, p. 171.
[635] Quoted by Boswell, _ante_, iii. 324.
[636] It is suggested to me by an anonymous Annotator on my Work, that
the reason why Dr. Johnson collected the peels of squeezed oranges may
be found in the 58th [358th] Letter in Mrs. Piozzi's _Collection_, where
it appears that he recommended 'dried orange-peel, finely powdered,' as
a medicine. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 330.
[637] There are two mistakes in this calculation, both perhaps due to
Boswell. _Eighty-four_ should be _eighty-eight_, and square-yards should
be _yards square_. 'If a wall cost L1000 a mile, L100 would build 176
yards of wall, which would form a square of 44 yards, and enclose an
area of 1936 square yards; and L200 would build 352 yards of wall, which
would form a square of 88 yards, and inclose an area of 7744 square
yards. The cost of the wall in the latter case, as compared with the
space inclosed, would therefore be reduced to one half.' _Notes and
Queries_, 1st S. x. 471.
[638] See _ante_, i. 318.
[639] 'Davies observes, in his account of Ireland, that no Irishman had
ever planted an orchard.' Johnson's _Works_, ix.7. 'At Fochabars [in the
Highlands] there is an orchard, which in Scotland I had never seen
before.' _Ib._ p. 21.
[640] Miss Burney this year mentions meeting 'Mr. Walker, the lecturer.
Though modest in science, he is vulgar in conversation.' Mme. D'Arblay's
_Diary_, ii. 237. Johnson quotes him, _Works_, viii. 474.
[641] 'Old Mr. Sheridan' was twelve years younger than Johnson. For his
oratory, see _ante_, i. 453, and _post_, April 28 and May 17, 1783.
[642] See _ante_, i. 358, when Johnson said of Sheridan:--'His voice
when strained is unpleasing, and when low is not always heard.'
[643] See _ante_, iii. 139.
[644] 'A more magnificent funeral was never seen in London,' wrote
Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p. 349). Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii.
169), wrote on the day of the funeral:--'I do think the pomp of
Garrick's funeral perfectly ridiculous. It is confounding the immense
space between pleasing talents and national services.' He added, 'at
Lord Chatham's interment there were not half the noble coaches that
attended Garrick's.' _Ib_. p. 171. In his _Journal of the Reign of
George III_ (ii. 333), he says:--'The Court was delighted to see a more
noble and splendid appearance at the interment of a comedian than had
waited on the remains of the great Earl of Chatham.' Bishop Horne
(_Essays and Thoughts_, p. 283) has some lines on 'this grand parade of
woe,' which begin:--
'Through weeping London's crowded streets,
As Garrick's funeral passed,
Contending wits and nobles strove,
Who should forsake him last.
Not so the world behaved to _him_
Who came that world to save,
By solitary Joseph borne
Unheeded to his grave.'
Johnson wrote on April 30, 1782: 'Poor Garrick's funeral expenses are
yet unpaid, though the undertaker is broken.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 239.
Garrick was buried on Feb. 1, 1779, and had left his widow a large
fortune. Chatham died in May, 1778.
[645] Boswell had heard Johnson maintain this; _ante_, ii. 101.
[646] See _post_, p. 238, note 2.
[647] This duel was fought on April 21, between Mr. Riddell of the
Horse-Grenadiers, and Mr. Cunningham of the Scots Greys. Riddell had the
first fire, and shot Cunningham through the breast. After a pause of two
minutes Cunningham returned the fire, and gave Riddell a wound of which
he died next day. _Gent. Mag._ 1783, p. 362. Boswell's grandfather's
grandmother was a Miss Cunningham. Rogers's _Boswelliana_, p. 4. I do
not know that there was any nearer connection. In Scotland, I suppose,
so much kindred as this makes two men 'near relations.'
[648] 'Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the
other.' _St. Luke_, vi. 29. Had Miss Burney thought of this text, she
might have quoted it with effect against Johnson, who, criticising her
_Evelina_, said:--'You write Scotch, you say "the one,"--my dear,
that's not English. Never use that phrase again.' Mme. D'Arblay's
_Diary_, i. 84.
[649] 'Turn not thou away.' _St. Matthew_, v. 42.
[650] I think it necessary to caution my readers against concluding that
in this or any other conversation of Dr. Johnson, they have his serious
and deliberate opinion on the subject of duelling. In my _Journal of a
Tour to the Hebrides_, 3 ed. p. 386 [p. 366, Oct. 24], it appears that
he made this frank confession:--'Nobody at times, talks more laxly than
I do;' and, _ib_. p. 231 [Sept. 19, 1773], 'He fairly owned he could not
explain the rationality of duelling.' We may, therefore, infer, that he
could not think that justifiable, which seems so inconsistent with the
spirit of the Gospel. At the same time it must be confessed, that from
the prevalent notions of honour, a gentleman who receives a challenge is
reduced to a dreadful alternative. A remarkable instance of this is
furnished by a clause in the will of the late Colonel Thomas, of the
Guards, written the night before he fell in a duel, Sept. 3, 1783:--'In
the first place, I commit my soul to Almighty GOD, in hopes of his mercy
and pardon for the irreligious step I now (in compliance with the
unwarrantable customs of this wicked world) put myself under the
necessity of taking.' BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 179.
[651] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 24 and Sept. 20. Dr. Franklin
(_Memoirs_, i. 177) says that when the assembly at Philadelphia, the
majority of which were Quakers, was asked by New England to supply
powder for some garrison, 'they would not grant money to buy powder,
because that was an ingredient of war; but they voted an aid of L3000 to
be appropriated for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat, or _other
grain_.' The Governor interpreted _other grain_ as gunpowder, without
any objection ever being raised.
[652] 'A gentleman falling off his horse brake his neck, which sudden
hap gave occasion of much speech of his former life, and some in this
judging world judged the worst. In which respect a good friend made this
good epitaph, remembering that of Saint Augustine, _Misericordia Domini
inter pontem et fontem_.
"My friend judge not me,
Thou seest I judge not thee;
Betwixt the stirrop and the ground,
Mercy I askt, mercy I found."'
_Camden's Remains_, ed. 1870, p. 420.
[653] 'In sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life.'
_Prayer-book._
[654] Upon this objection the Reverend Mr. Ralph Churton, Fellow of
Brazennose College, Oxford, has favoured me with the following
satisfactory observation:--'The passage in the Burial-service does not
mean the resurrection of the person interred, but the general
resurrection; it is in sure and certain hope of _the_ resurrection; not
_his_ resurrection. Where the deceased is really spoken of, the
expression is very different, "as our hope is this our brother doth"
[rest in Christ]; a mode of speech consistent with every thing but
absolute certainty that the person departed doth _not_ rest in Christ,
which no one can be assured of, without immediate revelation from
Heaven. In the first of these places also, "eternal life" does not
necessarily mean eternity of bliss, but merely the eternity of the
state, whether in happiness or in misery, to ensue upon the
resurrection; which is probably the sense of "the life everlasting," in
the Apostles' Creed. See _Wheatly and Bennet on the Common
Prayer_.' BOSWELL.
[655] Six days earlier the Lord-Advocate Dundas had brought in a bill
for the Regulation of the Government of India. Hastings, he said, should
be recalled. His place should be filled by 'a person of independent
fortune, who had not for object the repairing of his estate in India,
that had long been the nursery of ruined and decayed fortunes.' _Parl.
Hist_. xxiii. 757. Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor on Nov. 22 of this
year:--'I believe corruption and oppression are in India at an enormous
height, but it has never appeared that they were promoted by the
Directors, who, I believe, see themselves defrauded, while the country
is plundered; but the distance puts their officers out of reach.' _Notes
and Queries_, 6th S. v. 482. See _ante_, p. 66.
[656] See _ante_, p. 113.
[657] Stockdale (_Memoirs_, ii. 57) says that, in 1770, the payment to
writers in the _Critical Review_ was two guineas a sheet, but that some
of the writers in _The Monthly Review_ received four guineas a sheet. As
these Reviews were octavos, each sheet contained sixteen pages. Lord
Jeffrey says that the writers in the _Edinburgh Review_ were at first
paid ten guineas a sheet. 'Not long after the _minimum_ was raised to
sixteen guineas, at which it remained during my reign, though two-thirds
of the articles were paid much higher--averaging, I should think, from
twenty to twenty-five guineas a sheet on the whole number.' Cockburn's
_Jeffrey_, i. 136.
[658] See ante, ii. 344.
[659] See _ante_, iii.32.
[660] See _ante_, p. 206.
[661] _Monday_ is no doubt put by mistake for _Tuesday_, which was the
29th. Boswell had spent a considerable part of Monday the 28th with
Johnson (_ante_, p. 211).
[662]
'A fugitive from Heaven and prayer,
I mocked at all religious fear.'
FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, i.34. 1.
[663] He told Boswell (_ante_, i. 68) that he had been a sort of lax
talker against religion for some years before he went to Oxford, but
that there he took up Law's _Serious Call_ and found it quite an
overmatch for him. 'This,' he said, 'was the first occasion of my
thinking in earnest of religion after I became capable of rational
enquiry.' During the vacation of 1729 he had a serious illness (_ante_,
i. 63), which most likely was 'the sickness that brought religion back.'
[664] See _ante_, i. 93, 164, and _post_, under Dec. 2, 1784.
[665] Mr. Langton. See _ante_, ii. 254.
[666] See _ante_, ii. 249.
[667] Malloch continued to write his name thus, _after he came to
London_. His verses prefixed to the second edition of Thomson's _Winter_
are so subscribed. MALONE. 'Alias. A Latin word signifying otherwise;
as, Mallet, _alias_ Malloch; that is _otherwise_ Malloch.' The mention
of Mallet first comes in Johnson's own abridgment of his _Dictionary_.
In the earlier unabridged editions the definition concludes, 'often used
in the trials of criminals, whose danger has obliged them to change
their names; as Simpson _alias_ Smith, _alias_ Baker, &c.' For Mallet,
see _ante_, i. 268, and ii. 159.
[668] Perhaps Scott had this saying of Johnson's in mind when he made
Earl Douglas exclaim:--
'At first in heart it liked me ill,
When the King praised his clerkly skill.
Thanks to St. Bothan, son of mine,
Save Gawain, ne'er could pen a line.'
_Marmion_, canto vi. 15.
[669] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 10.
[670] Johnson often maintained this diffusion of learning. Thus he
wrote:--'The call for books was not in Milton's age what it is in the
present. To read was not then a general amusement; neither traders, nor
often gentlemen, thought themselves disgraced by ignorance. The women
had not then aspired to literature nor was every house supplied with a
closet of knowledge.' _Works_, vii. 107. He goes on to mention 'that
general literature which now pervades the nation through all its ranks.'
_Works_, p. 108. 'That general knowledge which now circulates in common
talk was in Addison's time rarely to be found. Men not professing
learning were not ashamed of ignorance; and, in the female world, any
acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be censured.' _Ib_.
p.470. 'Of the _Essay on Criticism_, Pope declared that he did not
expect the sale to be quick, because "not one gentleman in sixty, even
of liberal education, could understand it." The gentlemen, and the
education of that time, seem to have been of a lower character than they
are of this.' _Ib_. viii. 243. See _ante_, iii. 3, 254. Yet he
maintained that 'learning has decreased in England, because learning
will not do so much for a man as formerly.' Boswell's _Hebrides,
post_, v. 80.
[671] Malone describes a call on Johnson in the winter of this year:--'I
found him in his arm-chair by the fire-side, before which a few apples
were laid. He was reading. I asked him what book he had got. He said the
_History of Birmingham_. Local histories, I observed, were generally
dull. "It is true, Sir; but this has a peculiar merit with me; for I
passed some of my early years, and married my wife there." [See _ante_,
i. 96.] I supposed the apples were preparing as medicine. "Why, no, Sir;
I believe they are only there because I want something to do. These are
some of the solitary expedients to which we are driven by sickness. I
have been confined this week past; and here you find me roasting apples,
and reading the _History of Birmingham_."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 92.
[672] On April 19, he wrote:--'I can apply better to books than I could
in some more vigorous parts of my life--at least than I _did_; and I
have one more reason for reading--that time has, by taking away my
companions, left me less opportunity of conversation.' Croker's
_Boswell_, p. 727.
[673] He told Mr. Windham that he had never read the _Odyssey_ through
in the original. Windham's _Diary_, p. 17. 'Fox,' said Rogers (_Table
Talk_, p. 92), 'used to read Homer through once every year. On my asking
him, "Which poem had you rather have written, the _Iliad_ or the
_Odyssey_?" he answered, "I know which I had rather read" (meaning the
_Odyssey_).'
[674] 'Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence
and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or
resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to
more delightful amusements.' Johnson's _Works_, iv. 145. Of Pope Johnson
wrote (_ib_. viii. 321):--'To make verses was his first labour, and to
mend them was his last. ... He was one of those few whose labour is
their pleasure.' Thomas Carlyle, in 1824, speaking of writing, says:--'I
always recoil from again engaging with it.' Froude's _Carlyle_, i. 213.
Five years later he wrote:--'Writing is a dreadful labour, yet not so
dreadful as _idleness_.' _Ib_. ii. 75. See _ante_, iii. 19.
[675] See _ante_, ii. 15.
[676] Miss Burney wrote to Mrs. Thrale in 1780:--'I met at Sir Joshua's
young Burke, who is made much ado about, but I saw not enough of him to
know why.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 416. Mrs. Thrale replied:--'I
congratulate myself on being quite of your opinion concerning Burke the
minor, whom I once met and could make nothing of.' _Ib_. p. 418. Miss
Hawkins (_Memoirs_, i. 304) reports, on Langton's authority, that Burke
said:--'How extraordinary it is that I, and Lord Chatham, and Lord
Holland, should each have a son so superior to ourselves.'
[677] Cruikshank, not Cruikshanks (see _post_, under Sept. 18, 1783, and
Sept. 4 1784). He had been Dr. Hunter's partner; he was not elected
(_Gent. Mag._ 1783, p. 626). Northcote, in quoting this letter, says
that 'Sir Joshua's influence in the Academy was not always answerable to
his desire. "Those who are of some importance everywhere else," he said,
"find themselves nobody when they come to the Academy."' Northcote's
_Reynolds_, ii. 145.
[678] William Hunter, scarcely less famous as a physician than his
youngest brother, John Hunter, as a surgeon.
[679] Let it be remembered by those who accuse Dr. Johnson of
illiberality that both were _Scotchmen_. BOSWELL.
[680] The following day he dined at Mrs. Garrick's. 'Poor Johnson,'
wrote Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 280), 'exerted himself exceedingly, but
he was very ill and looked so dreadfully, that it quite grieved me. He
is more mild and complacent than he used to be. His sickness seems to
have softened his mind, without having at all weakened it. I was struck
with the mild radiance of this setting sun.'
[681] In the winter of 1788-9 Boswell began a canvass of his own county,
He also courted Lord Lonsdale, in the hope of getting one of the seats
in his gift, who first fooled him and then treated him with great
brutality, _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 270, 294, 324.
[682] On April 6, 1780--'a day,' wrote Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii.
345), 'that ought for ever to be a red-lettered day'--Mr. Dunning made
this motion. It was carried by 233 to 215. _Parl. Hist._ xxi. 340-367.
[683] See _ante_, i. 355, and ii. 94 for Johnson's appeal to meals as a
measure of vexation.
[684] Johnson defines _cant_ as '1. A corrupt dialect used by beggars
and vagabonds. 2. A particular form of speaking peculiar to some certain
class or body of men. 3. A whining pretension to goodness in formal and
affected terms. 4. Barbarous jargon. 5. Auction.' I have noted the
following instances of his use of the word:--'I betook myself to a
coffee-house frequented by wits, among whom I learned in a short time
the _cant_ of criticism.' _The Rambler_, No.123. 'Every class of society
has its _cant_ of lamentation.' _Ib_. No.128. 'Milton's invention
required no assistance from the common _cant_ of poetry.' _Ib_. No.140.
'We shall secure our language from being overrun with _cant_, from being
crowded with low terms, the spawn of folly or affectation.' _Works_, v.
II. 'This fugitive _cant_, which is always in a state of increase or
decay, cannot be regarded as any part of the durable materials of a
language.' _Ib_. p.45. In a note on I _Henry VI_, act iii. sc.1, he
says: 'To _roam_ is supposed to be derived from the _cant_ of vagabonds,
who often pretended a pilgrimage to Rome.' See _ante_, iii. 197, for
