L200 to L50 per annum.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 188. The place was
more profitable than Johnson thought. 'It was worth having from the
harvest it brought in by the multiplication of the faces of King and
Queen as presents for ambassadors and potentates.' This is shewn by the
following note in Sir Joshua's price-book:--'Nov. 28, 1789, remain in
the Academy five Kings, four Queens; in the house two Kings and one
Queen.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 449.
[1137] Mr. Nichols published in 1782 _Anecdotes of William Bowyer,
Printer_. In 1812-15 he brought out this work, recast and enlarged,
under the title of _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_. See
_ante_, p. 161.
[1138] In the original (which is in the British Museum) not _hints_ but
_names_.
[1139] On Nov. 4, he wrote to Mr. Ryland:--'I have just received a
letter in which you tell me that you love to hear from me, and I value
such a declaration too much to neglect it. To have a friend, and a
friend like you, may be numbered amongst the first felicities of life;
at a time when weakness either of body or mind loses the pride and the
confidence of self-sufficiency, and looks round for that help which
perhaps human kindness cannot give, and which we yet are willing to
expect from one another. I am at this time very much dejected.... I am
now preparing myself for my return, and do not despair of some more
monthly meetings [_post_, Appendix C]. To hear that dear Payne is better
gives me great delight. I saw the draught of the stone [over Mrs.
Johnson's grave, _ante_, p. 351]. Shall I ever be able to bear the sight
of this stone? In your company I hope I shall.' Mr. Morrison's
_Autographs_, vol. ii.
[1140] To him as a writer might be generally applied what he said of
Rochester:--'His pieces are commonly short, such as one fit of
resolution would produce.' _Works_, vii. 159.
[1141] _Odes_, iv.7. _Works_, i. 137.
[1142] _Against inqitisitive and perplexing thoughts_. 'O LORD, my Maker
and Protector, who hast graciously sent me into this world to work out
my salvation, enable me to drive from me all such unquiet and perplexing
thoughts as may mislead or hinder me in the practice of those duties
which Thou hast required. When I behold the works of thy hands, and
consider the course of thy providence, give me grace always to remember
that thy thoughts are not my thoughts, nor thy ways my ways. And while
it shall please Thee to continue me in this world, where much is to be
done, and little to be known, teach me by thy Holy Spirit, to withdraw
my mind from unprofitable and dangerous enquiries, from difficulties
vainly curious, and doubts impossible to be solved. Let me rejoice in
the light which Thou hast imparted, let me serve Thee with active zeal
and humble confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in
which the soul which Thou receivest shall be satisfied with knowledge.
Grant this, O LORD, for JESUS CHRIST'S sake. Amen.' BOSWELL. _Pr. and
Med._ p. 219.
[1143] _Life of Johnson_, p. 599.
[1144] Porson with admirable humour satirised Hawkins for his attack on
Barber. _Gent. Mag._ 1787, p. 752, and _Porson Tracts_, p. 358. Baretti
in his _Tolondron_, p. 149, says that 'Barber from his earliest youth
served Johnson with the greatest affection and disinterestedness.'
[1145] Vol. ii. p. 30. BOSWELL.
[1146] I shall add one instance only to those which I have thought it
incumbent on me to point out. Talking of Mr. Garrick's having signified
his willingness to let Johnson have the loan of any of his books to
assist him in his edition of Shakspeare [_ante_, ii. 192]; Sir John
says, (p. 444,) 'Mr. Garrick knew not what risque he ran by this offer.
Johnson had so strange a forgetfulness of obligations of this sort, that
few who lent him books ever saw them again.' This surely conveys a most
unfavourable insinuation, and has been so understood. Sir John mentions
the single case of a curious edition of Politian [_ante_, i. 90], which
he tells us, 'appeared to belong to Pembroke College, and which,
probably, had been considered by Johnson as his own, for upwards of
fifty years.' Would it not be fairer to consider this as an
inadvertence, and draw no general inference? The truth is, that Johnson
was so attentive, that in one of his manuscripts in my possession, he
has marked in two columns, books borrowed, and books lent.
In Sir John Hawkins's compilation, there are, however, some passages
concerning Johnson which have unquestionable merit. One of them I shall
transcribe, in justice to a writer whom I have had too much occasion to
censure, and to shew my fairness as the biographer of my illustrious
friend: 'There was wanting in his conduct and behaviour, that dignity
which results from a regular and orderly course of action, and by an
irresistible power commands esteem. He could not be said to be a stayed
man, nor so to have adjusted in his mind the balance of reason and
passion, as to give occasion to say what may be observed of some men,
that all they do is just, fit, and right.' [Hawkins's _Johnson_, p.
409.] Yet a judicious friend well suggests, 'It might, however, have
been added, that such men are often merely just, and rigidly correct,
while their hearts are cold and unfeeling; and that Johnson's virtues
were of a much higher tone than those of the _stayed, orderly man_, here
described.' BOSWELL.
[1147] 'Lich, a dead carcase; whence Lichfield, the field of the dead, a
city in Staffordshire, so named from martyred Christians. _Salve magna
parens.'_ It is curious that in the Abridgment of the _Dictionary_ he
struck out this salutation, though he left the rest of the article.
_Salve magna parens_, (Hail, mighty parent) is from Virgil's _Georgics_,
ii. 173. The Rev. T. Twining, when at Lichfield in 1797, says:--'I
visited the famous large old willow-tree, which Johnson, they say, used
to kiss when he came to Lichfield.' _Recreations and Studies of a
Country Clergyman of the XVIII Century_, p. 227.
[1148] The following circumstance, mutually to the honour of Johnson,
and the corporation of his native city, has been communicated to me by
the Reverend Dr. Vyse, from the Town-Clerk:--'Mr. Simpson has now before
him, a record of the respect and veneration which the Corporation of
Lichfield, in the year 1767, had for the merits and learning of Dr.
Johnson. His father built the corner-house in the Market-place, the two
fronts of which, towards Market and Broad-market-street, stood upon
waste land of the Corporation, under a forty years' lease, which was
then expired. On the 15th of August, 1767, at a common-hall of the
bailiffs and citizens, it was ordered (and that without any
solicitation,) that a lease should be granted to Samuel Johnson, Doctor
of Laws, of the encroachments at his house, for the term of ninety-nine
years, at the old rent, which was five shillings. Of which, as
Town-Clerk, Mr. Simpson had the honour and pleasure of informing him,
and that he was desired to accept it, without paying any fine on the
occasion, which lease was afterwards granted, and the Doctor died
possessed of this property.' BOSWELL.
[1149] See vol. i. p. 37. BOSWELL.
[1150] According to Miss Seward, who was Mr. White's cousin, 'Johnson
once called him "the rising strength of Lichfield."' Seward's
_Letters_, i. 335.
[1151] The Rev. R. Warner, who visited Lichfield in 1801, gives in his
_Tour through the Northern Counties_, i. 105, a fuller account. He is
clearly wrong in the date of its occurrence, and in one other matter,
yet his story may in the main be true. He says that Johnson's friends at
Lichfield missed him one morning; the servants said that he had set off
at a very early hour, whither they knew not. Just before supper he
returned. He informed his hostess of his breach of filial duty, which
had happened just fifty years before on that very day. 'To do away the
sin of this disobedience, I this day went,' he said, 'in a chaise
to--, and going into the market at the time of high business uncovered
my head, and stood with it bare an hour, before the stall which my
father had formerly used, exposed to the sneers of the standers-by, and
the inclemency of the weather.' This penance may recall Dante's lines,--
'Quando vivea piu glorioso, disse,
Liberamente nel campo di Siena,
Ogni vergogna deposta, s'affisse.'
'"When at his glory's topmost height," said he,
"Respect of dignity all cast aside,
Freely he fix'd him on Sienna's plain."'
CARY. Dante, _Purgatory_. Cant. xi. l. 133.
[1152]
'How instinct varies in the grovelling swine,
Compared, half-reasoning elephant, with thine.'
Pope, _Essay on Man_, i. 221.
[1153] See _ante_, iii. 153, 296.
[1154] Mr. Burke suggested to me as applicable to Johnson, what Cicero,
in his CATO MAJOR, says of _Appius:--'Intentum enim animum tanquam arcum
habebat, nec languescens succumbebat senectuti_;' repeating, at the same
time, the following noble words in the same passage:--_'Ita enim
senectus honesta est, si se ipsa defendit, si jus suum retinet, si
nemini emancipata est, si usque ad extremum vitae spiritum vindicet jus
suum_.' BOSWELL. The last line runs in the original:-'si usque ad
ultimum spiritum dominatur in suos.' _Cato Major_, xi. 38.
[1155]
'_atrocem_ animum Catonis.'
'Cato--
Of spirit unsubdued.'
FRANCIS. Horace, 2 _Odes_, i. 24.
[1156] Yet Baretti, who knew Johnson well, in a MS. note on _Piozzi
Letters_, i.315, says:--'If ever Johnson took any delight in anything it
was to converse with some old acquaintance. New people he never loved to
be in company with, except ladies, when disposed to caress and
flatter him.'
[1157] Johnson, thirty-four years earlier, wrote:--'I think there is
some reason for questioning whether the body and mind are not so
proportioned that the one can bear all that can be inflicted on the
other; whether virtue cannot stand its ground as long as life, and
whether a soul well principled will not be separated sooner than
subdued.' _The Rambler_, No. 32. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Aug. 14,
1780:--'But what if I am seventy-two; I remember Sulpitius says of Saint
Martin (now that's above your reading), _Est animus victor annorum, et
senectuti cedere nescius_. Match me that among your young folks.'
_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 177. On Sept. 2, 1784, he wrote to Mr. Sastres the
Italian master:--'I have hope of standing the English winter, and of
seeing you, and reading _Petrarch_ at Bolt-court.' _Ib_. p. 407.
[1158] _Life of Johnson_, p. 7.
[1159] It is a most agreeable circumstance attending the publication of
this Work, that Mr. Hector has survived his illustrious schoolfellow so
many years; that he still retains his health and spirits; and has
gratified me with the following acknowledgement: 'I thank you, most
sincerely thank you, for the great and long continued entertainment your
_Life of Dr. Johnson_ has afforded me, and others, of my particular
friends.' Mr. Hector, besides setting me right as to the verses on a
sprig of Myrtle, (see vol. i. p. 92, note,) has favoured me with two
English odes, written by Dr. Johnson, at an early period of his life,
which will appear in my edition of his poems. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i.
16, note 1.
[1160] The editor of the _Biographia Britannica. Ante_, iii. 174.
[1161] On Dec. 23, Miss Adams wrote to a friend:--'We are all under the
sincerest grief for the loss of poor Dr. Johnson. He spent three or four
days with my father at Oxford, and promised to come again; as he was, he
said, nowhere so happy.' _Pemb. Coll. MSS._
[1162] See _ante_, p. 293.
[1163] Mr. Strahan says (Preface, p. iv.) that Johnson, being hindered
by illness from revising these prayers, 'determined to give the MSS.,
without revision, in charge to me. Accordingly one morning, on my
visiting him by desire at an early hour, he put these papers into my
hands, with instructions for committing them to the press, and with a
promise to prepare a sketch of his own life to accompany them.' Whatever
Johnson wished about the prayers, it passes belief that he ever meant
for the eye of the world these minute accounts of his health and his
feelings. Some parts indeed Mr. Strahan himself suppressed, as the Pemb.
Coll. MSS. shew (_ante_, p. 84, note 4). It is curious that one portion
at least fell into other hands (_ante_, ii. 476). There are other
apparent gaps in the diary which raise the suspicion that it was only
fragments that Mr. Strahan obtained. On the other hand Mr. Strahan had
nothing to gain by the publication beyond notoriety (see his Preface, p.
vi.). Dr. Adams, whose name is mentioned in the preface, expressed in a
letter to the _Gent. Mag._ 1785, p. 755, his disapproval of the
publication. Mr. Courtenay (_Poetical Review_, ed. 1786, p. 7), thus
attacked Mr. Strahan:--
'Let priestly S--h--n in a godly fit
The tale relate, in aid of Holy Writ;
Though candid Adams, by whom David fell [A],
Who ancient miracles sustained so well,
To recent wonders may deny his aid,
Nor own a pious brother of the trade.'
[A] The Rev. Dr. Adams of Oxford, distinguished for his answer to David
Hume's _Essay on Miracles_.
[1164] Johnson once said to Miss Burney of her brother Charles:--'I
should be glad to see him if he were not your brother; but were he a
dog, a cat, a rat, a frog, and belonged to you, I must needs be glad to
see him.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 233. On Nov. 25 she called on
him. 'He let me in, though very ill. He told me he was going to try what
sleeping out of town might do for him. "I remember," said he, "that my
wife, when she was near her end, poor woman, was also advised to sleep
out of town; and when she was carried to the lodgings that had been
prepared for her, she complained that the staircase was in very bad
condition, for the plaster was beaten off the walls in many places."
"Oh!" said the man of the house, "that's nothing but by the knocks
against it of the coffins of the poor souls that have died in the
lodgings." He laughed, though not without apparent secret anguish, in
telling me this.' Miss Burney continues:--'How delightfully bright are
his faculties, though the poor and infirm machine that contains them
seems alarmingly giving way. Yet, all brilliant as he was, I saw him
growing worse, and offered to go, which, for the first time I ever
remember, he did not oppose; but most kindly pressing both my hands, "Be
not," he said, in a voice of even tenderness, "be not longer in coming
again for my letting you go now." I assured him I would be the sooner,
and was running off, but he called me back in a solemn voice, and in a
manner the most energetic, said:--"Remember me in your prayers."' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 327. See _ante_, iii. 367, note 4.
[1165] Mr. Hector's sister and Johnson's first love. _Ante_, ii. 459.
[1166] The Rev. Dr. Taylor. BOSWELL.
[1167] See _ante_, ii. 474, and iii. 180.
[1168] 'Reliquum est, _[Greek: Sphartan elaches, tahutan khusmei].'_
Cicero, _Epistolae ad Atticum_, iv. 6. 'Spartam nactus es, hanc orna.'
Erasmus, _Adagiorum Chiliades_, ed. 1559, p. 485.
[1169] Temple says of the spleen that it is a disease too refined for
this country and people, who are well when they are not ill, and pleased
when they are not troubled; are content, because they think little of
it, and seek their happiness in the common eases and commodities of
life, or the increase of riches; not amusing themselves with the more
speculative contrivances of passion, or refinements of pleasure.'
Temple's _Works_, ed. 1757, i. 170.
[1170] It is truly wonderful to consider the extent and constancy of
Johnson's literary ardour, notwithstanding the melancholy which clouded
and embittered his existence. Besides the numerous and various works
which he executed, he had, at different times, formed schemes of a great
many more, of which the following catalogue was given by him to Mr.
Langton, and by that gentleman presented to his Majesty:
'DIVINITY.
'A small book of precepts and directions for piety; the hint taken from
the directions in Morton's exercise.
'PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY, and LITERATURE in general.
'_History of Criticism_, as it relates to judging of authours, from
Aristotle to the present age. An account of the rise and improvements of
that art; of the different opinions of authours, ancient and modern.
'Translation of the _History of Herodian_.
'New edition of Fairfax's Translation of _Tasso_, with notes, glossary,
&c.
'Chaucer, a new edition of him, from manuscripts and old editions, with
various readings, conjectures, remarks on his language, and the changes
it had undergone from the earliest times to his age, and from his to the
present: with notes explanatory of customs, &c., and references to
Boccace, and other authours from whom he has borrowed, with an account
of the liberties he has taken in telling the stories; his life, and an
exact etymological glossary.
'Aristotle's _Rhetorick_, a translation of it into English.
'A Collection of Letters, translated from the modern writers, with some
account of the several authours.
'Oldham's Poems, with notes, historical and critical.
'Roscommon's Poems, with notes.
'Lives of the Philosophers, written with a polite air, in such a manner
as may divert as well as instruct.
'History of the Heathen Mythology, with an explication of the fables,
both allegorical and historical; with references to the poets.
'History of the State of Venice, in a compendious manner.
'Aristotle's _Ethicks_, an English translation of them, with notes.
'Geographical Dictionary, from the French.
'Hierocles upon Pythagoras, translated into English, perhaps with notes.
This is done by Norris.
'A book of Letters, upon all kinds of subjects.
'Claudian, a new edition of his works, _cum notis variorum_, in the
manner of Burman.
'Tully's Tusculan Questions, a translation of them.
'Tully's De Natura Deorum, a translation of those books.
'Benzo's New History of the New World, to be translated.
'Machiavel's History of Florence, to be translated.
'History of the Revival of Learning in Europe, containing an account of
whatever contributed to the restoration of literature; such as
controversies, printing, the destruction of the Greek empire, the
encouragement of great men, with the lives of the most eminent patrons
and most eminent early professors of all kinds of learning in different
countries.
'A Body of Chronology, in verse, with historical notes.
'A Table of the Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians, distinguished by
figures into six degrees of value, with notes, giving the reasons of
preference or degradation.
'A Collection of Letters from English authours, with a preface giving
some account of the writers; with reasons for selection, and criticism
upon styles; remarks on each letter, if needful.
'A Collection of Proverbs from various languages. Jan. 6,--53.
'A Dictionary to the Common Prayer, in imitation of Calmet's _Dictionary
of the Bible_. March, 52.
'A Collection of Stories and Examples, like those of Valerius Maximus.
Jan. 10,--53.
'From Aelian, a volume of select Stories, perhaps from others. Jan.
28,-53.
'Collection of Travels, Voyages, Adventures, and Descriptions of
Countries.
'Dictionary of Ancient History and Mythology.
'Treatise on the Study of Polite Literature, containing the history of
learning, directions for editions, commentaries, &c.
'Maxims, Characters, and Sentiments, after the manner of Bruyere,
collected out of ancient authours, particularly the Greek, with
Apophthegms.
'Classical Miscellanies, Select Translations from ancient Greek and
