333. Burke, in 1792, said in Parliament that 'Dr. Johnson's virtues were
equal to his transcendent talents, and his friendship he valued as the
greatest consolation and happiness of his life.' _Parl. Debates_,
xxx. 109.
[1240] On the same undoubted authority, I give a few articles, which
should have been inserted in chronological order; but which, now that
they are before me, I should be sorry to omit:--
'In 1736, Dr. Johnson had a particular inclination to have been engaged
as an assistant to the Reverend Mr. Budworth, then head master of the
Grammar-school, at Brewood, in Staffordshire, "an excellent person, who
possessed every talent of a perfect instructor of youth, in a degree
which, (to use the words of one of the brightest ornaments of
literature, the Reverend Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester,) has been rarely
found in any of that profession since the days of Quintilian." Mr.
Budworth, "who was less known in his life-time, from that obscure
situation to which the caprice of fortune oft condemns the most
accomplished characters, than his highest merit deserved," had been bred
under Mr. Blackwell [Blackwall], at Market Bosworth, where Johnson was
some time an usher [_ante_, i. 84]; which might naturally lead to the
application. Mr. Budworth was certainly no stranger to the learning or
abilities of Johnson; as he more than once lamented his having been
under the necessity of declining the engagement, from an apprehension
that the paralytick affection, under which our great Philologist
laboured through life, might become the object of imitation or of
ridicule, among his pupils.' Captain Budworth, his grandson, has
confirmed to me this anecdote.
'Among the early associates of Johnson, at St. John's Gate, was Samuel
Boyse [G-1], well known by his ingenious productions; and not less noted
for his imprudence. It was not unusual for Boyse to be a customer to the
pawnbroker. On one of these occasions, Dr. Johnson collected a sum of
money to redeem his friend's clothes, which in two days after were
pawned again. "The sum, (said Johnson,) was collected by sixpences, at a
time when to me sixpence was a serious consideration [G-2]."
'Speaking one day of a person for whom he had a real friendship, but in
whom vanity was somewhat too predominant, he observed, that "Kelly [G-3]
was so fond of displaying on his side-board the plate which he possessed,
that he added to it his spurs. For my part, (said he,) I never was
master of a pair of spurs, but once; and they are now at the bottom of
the ocean. By the carelessness of Boswell's servant, they were dropped
from the end of the boat, on our return from the Isle of Sky [G-4]."'
The late Reverend Mr. Samuel Badcock [G-5], having been introduced to Dr.
Johnson, by Mr. Nichols, some years before his death, thus expressed
himself in a letter to that gentleman:--
'How much I am obliged to you for the favour you did me in introducing
me to Dr. Johnson! _Tantum vidi Virgilium_ [G-6]. But to have seen him,
and to have received a testimony of respect from him, was enough. I
recollect all the conversation, and shall never forget one of his
expressions. Speaking of Dr. P---- [Priestley], (whose writings, I
saw, he estimated at a low rate,) he said, "You have proved him as
deficient in _probity_ as he is in learning [G-7]." I called him an
"Index-scholar [G-8];" but he was not willing to allow him a claim even
to that merit. He said, that "he borrowed from those who had been
borrowers themselves, and did not know that the mistakes he adopted had
been answered by others." I often think of our short, but precious,
visit to this great man. I shall consider it as a kind of an _aera_ in
my life.' BOSWELL. [Note: See Appendix G for notes on this footnote.]
[1241] See _ante_, i. 152, 501.
[1242] He wrote to Dr. Taylor on Feb. 17, 1776:--'Keep yourself
cheerful. Lie in bed with a lamp, and when you cannot sleep and are
beginning to think, light your candle and read. At least light your
candle; a man is perhaps never so much harrassed (_sic_) by his own mind
in the light as in the dark.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 423.
[1243] Mr. Croker records 'the following communication from Mr. Hoole
himself':--'I must mention an incident which shews how ready Johnson was
to make amends for any little incivility. When I called upon him, the
morning after he had pressed me rather roughly to read _louder_, he
said, "I was peevish yesterday; you must forgive me: when you are as old
and as sick as I am, perhaps you may be peevish too." I have heard him
make many apologies of this kind.'
[1244] 'To his friend Dr. Burney he said a few hours before he died,
taking the Doctor's hands within his, and casting his eyes towards
Heaven with a look of the most fervent piety, "My dear friend, while you
live do all the good you can." Seward's _Biographiana,_ p. 601
[1245] Mr. Hoole, senior, records of this day:--'Dr. Johnson exhorted me
to lead a better life than he had done. "A better life than you, my dear
Sir:" I repeated. He replied warmly, "Don't compliment not." Croker's
_Boswell_, p. 844
[1246] See _ ante_, p. 293
[1247] The French historian, Jacques-Auguste de Thou, 1553-1617, author
of _Historia sui Temporis_ in 138 books.
[1248] See _ante,_ ii. 42, note 2.
[1249] Mr. Hutton was occasionally admitted to the royal breakfast-table.
"Hutton," said the King to him one morning, "is it true that you
Moravians marry without any previous knowledge of each other?" "Yes, may
it please your majesty," returned Hutton; "our marriages are quite
royal" Hannah More's _Memoirs_, i. 318. One of his female-missionaries
for North American said to Dr. Johnson:--'Whether my Saviour's service
may be best carried on here, or on the coast of Labrador, 'tis Mr.
Hutton's business to settle. I will do my part either in a brick-house
or a snow-house with equal alacrity.' Piozzi's _Synonymy_, ii. 120. He
is described also in the _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. 251, 291.
[1250] _Ante_, ii. 402.
[1251] Burke said of Hussey, who was his friend and correspondent, that
in his character he had made 'that very rare union of the enlightened
statesman with the ecclesiastic.' Burke's _Corres_. iv. 270.
[1252] Boswell refers, I believe, to Fordyce's epitaph on Johnson in the
_Gent. Mag._ 1785, p. 412, or possibly to an _Ode_ on p. 50 of
his poems.
[1253] 'Being become very weak and helpless it was thought necessary
that a man should watch with him all night; and one was found in the
neighbourhood for half a crown a night.' Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_,
p. 589.
[1254] It was on Nov. 30 that he repeated these lines. See Croker's
_Boswell_, p. 843.
[1255] _British Synonymy_, i. 359. Mrs. Piozzi, to add to the wonder,
says that these verses were 'improviso,' forgetting that Johnson wrote
to her on Aug 8, 1780 (_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 175):--'You have heard in
the papers how --- is come to age. I have enclosed a short song of
congratulation which you must not shew to anybody. It is odd that it
should come into anybody's head. I hope you will read it with candour;
it is, I believe, one of the author's first essays in that way of
writing, and a beginner is always to be treated with tenderness.' That
it was Sir John Lade who had come of age is shewn by the entry of his
birth, Aug. 1, 1759, in the _Gent. Mag._ 1759, p. 392. He was the nephew
and ward of Mr. Thrale, who seemed to think that Miss Burney would make
him a good wife. (Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 79.) According to Mr.
Hayward (_Life of Piozzi_, i. 69) it was Lade who having asked Johnson
whether he advised him to marry, received as answer: 'I would advise no
man to marry, Sir, who is not likely to propagate understanding.' See
_ante_, ii. 109, note 2. Mr. Hayward adds that 'he married a woman of
the town, became a celebrated member of the Four-in-Hand Club, and
contrived to waste the whole of a fine fortune before he died.' In
Campbell's _Chancellors_ (ed. 1846, v. 628) a story is told of Sir John
Ladd, who is, I suppose, the same man. The Prince of Wales in 1805 asked
Lord Thurlow to dinner, and also Ladd. 'When "the old Lion" arrived the
Prince went into the ante-room to meet him, and apologised for the party
being larger than he had intended, but added, "that Sir John was an old
friend of his, and he could not avoid asking him to dinner," to which
Thurlow, in his growling voice, answered, "I have no objection, Sir, to
Sir John Ladd in his proper place, which I take to be your Royal
Highness's coach-box, and not your table."'
[1256] _British Synonymy_ was published in 1794, later therefore than
Boswell's first and second editions. In both these the latter half of
this paragraph ran as follows:--"From the specimen which Mrs. Piozzi has
exhibited of it (_Anecdotes_, p. 196) it is much to be wished that the
world could see the whole. Indeed I can speak from my own knowledge; for
having had the pleasure to read it, I found it to be a piece of
exquisite satire conveyed in a strain of pointed vivacity and humour,
and in a manner of which no other instance is to be found in Johnson's
writings. After describing the ridiculous and ruinous career of a wild
spendthrift he _consoles_ him with this reflection:--
"You may hang or drown at last."'
[1257] Sir John.
[1258]'"Les morts n'ecrivent point," says Madame de Maintenon.' Hannah
More's _Memoirs_, i. 233. The note that Johnson received 'was,' says Mr.
Hoole, 'from Mr. Davies, the bookseller, and mentioned a present of some
pork; upon which the Doctor said, in a manner that seemed as if he
thought it ill-timed, "too much of this," or some such expression.'
Croker's _Boswell_, p. 844.
[1259] Sir Walter Scott says that 'Reynolds observed the charge given
him by Johnson on his death-bed not to use his pencil of a Sunday for a
considerable time, but afterwards broke it, being persuaded by some
person who was impatient for a sitting that the Doctor had no title to
exact such a promise.' Croker's _Corres_. ii. 34. 'Reynolds used to say
that "the pupil in art who looks for the Sunday with pleasure as an idle
day will never make a painter."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 119. 'Dr.
Johnson,' said Lord Eldon, 'sent me a message on his death-bed, to
request that I would attend public worship every Sunday.' Twiss's
_Eldon_, i. 168. The advice was not followed, for 'when a lawyer, a warm
partisan of the Chancellor, called him one of the pillars of the Church;
"No," said another lawyer, "he may be one of its buttresses; but
certainly not one of its pillars, for he is never found within it."'
_Ib_. iii. 488. Lord Campbell (_Lives of the Chancellors_, vii. 716)
says:--Lord Eldon was never present at public worship in London from one
year's end to the other. Pleading in mitigation before Lord Ellenborough
that he attended public worship in the country, he received the rebuke,
"as if there were no God in town.'"
[1260] Reynolds records:--'During his last illness, when all hope was at
an end, he appeared to be quieter and more resigned. His approaching
dissolution was always present to his mind. A few days before he died,
Mr. Langton and myself only present, he said he had been a great sinner,
but he hoped he had given no bad example to his friends; that he had
some consolation in reflecting that he had never denied Christ, and
repeated the text, "Whoever denies me, &c." [_St. Matthew_ x. 33.] We
were both very ready to assure him that we were conscious that we were
better and wiser from his life and conversation; and that so far from
denying Christ, he had been, in this age, his greatest champion.'
Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 459.
[1261] Hannah More (_Memoirs_ i. 393) says that Johnson, having put up a
fervent prayer that Brocklesby might become a sincere Christian, 'caught
hold of his hand with great earnestness, and cried, "Doctor, you do not
say _Amen_." The Doctor looked foolishly, but after a pause cried
"_Amen_"' Her account, however, is often not accurate.
[1262] Windham records (_Diary_, p. 30) that on the night of the 12th he
urged him to take some sustenance, 'and desisted only upon his
exclaiming, "It is all very childish; let us hear no more of it."' On
his pressing him a second time, he answered that 'he refused no
sustenance but inebriating sustenance.' Windham thereupon asked him to
take some milk, but 'he recurred to his general refusal, and begged that
there might be an end of it. I then said that I hoped he would forgive
my earnestness; when he replied eagerly, "that from me nothing would be
necessary by way of apology;" adding with great fervour, in words which
I shall (I hope) never forget--"God bless you, my dear Windham, through
Jesus Christ;" and concluding with a wish that we might meet in some
humble portion of that happiness which God might finally vouchsafe to
repentant sinners. These were the last words I ever heard him speak. I
hurried out of the room with tears in my eyes, and more affected than I
had been on any former occasion.' It was at a later hour in this same
night that Johnson 'scarified himself in three places. On Mr. Desmoulins
making a difficulty of giving him the lancet he said, "Don't you, if you
have any scruples; but I will compel Frank," and on Mr. Desmoulins
attempting to prevent Frank from giving it to him, and at last to
restrain his hands, he grew very outrageous, so much so as to call Frank
"scoundrel" and to threaten Mr. Desmoulins that he would stab him.'
_Ib_. p. 32.
[1263] Mr. Strahan, mentioning 'the anxious fear', which seized Johnson,
says, that 'his friends who knew his integrity observed it with equal
astonishment and concern.' He adds that 'his foreboding dread of the
Divine justice by degrees subsided into a pious trust and humble hope in
the Divine mercy.' _Pr. and Med._ preface, p. xv.
[1264] The change of his sentiments with regard to Dr. Clarke, is thus
mentioned to me in a letter from the late Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke
College, Oxford:--'The Doctor's prejudices were the strongest, and
certainly in another sense the weakest, that ever possessed a sensible
man. You know his extreme zeal for orthodoxy. But did you ever hear what
he told me himself? That he had made it a rule not to admit Dr. Clarke's
name in his _Dictionary_. This, however, wore off. At some distance of
time he advised with me what books he should read in defence of the
Christian Religion. I recommended Clarke's _Evidences of Natural and
Revealed Religion_, as the best of the kind; and I find in what is
called his _Prayers and Meditations_, that he was frequently employed in
the latter part of his time in reading Clarke's _Sermons_. BOSWELL. See
_ante_, i. 398.
[1265] The Reverend Mr. Strahan took care to have it preserved, and has
inserted it in _Prayers and Meditations_, p. 216. BOSWELL.
[1266] See _ante_, iii. 433.
[1267] The counterpart of Johnson's end and of one striking part of his
character may be found in Mr. Fearing in _The Pilgrim's Progress_, part
ii. '"Mr. Fearing was," said Honesty, "a very zealous man. Difficulty,
lions, or Vanity Fair he feared not at all; it was only sin, death, and
hell that were to him a terror, because he had some doubts about his
interest in that celestial country." "I dare believe," Greatheart
replied, "that, as the proverb is, he could have bit a firebrand, had it
stood in his way; but the things with which he was oppressed no man ever
yet could shake off with ease."' See _ante_, ii. 298, note 4.
[1268] Her sister's likeness as Hope nursing Love was painted by
Reynolds. Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 185.
[1269] The following letter, written with an agitated hand, from the
very chamber of death, by Mr. Langton, and obviously interrupted by his
feelings, will not unaptly close the story of so long a friendship. The
letter is not addressed, but Mr. Langton's family believe it was
intended for Mr. Boswell.
'MY DEAR SIR,--After many conflicting hopes and fears respecting the
event of this heavy return of illness which has assailed our honoured
friend, Dr. Johnson, since his arrival from Lichfield, about four days
ago the appearances grew more and more awful, and this afternoon at
eight o'clock, when I arrived at his house to see how he should be going
on, I was acquainted at the door, that about three quarters of an hour
before, he breathed his last. I am now writing in the room where his
venerable remains exhibit a spectacle, the interesting solemnity of
which, difficult as it would be in any sort to find terms to express, so
to you, my dear Sir, whose own sensations will paint it so strongly, it
would be of all men the most superfluous to attempt to--.'--CROKER.
The interruption of the note was perhaps due to a discovery made by
Langton. Hawkins says, 'at eleven, the evening of Johnson's death, Mr.
Langton came to me, and in an agony of mind gave me to understand that
our friend had wounded himself in several parts of the body.' Hawkins's
_Life_, p. 590. To the dying man, 'on the last day of his existence on
this side the grave the desire of life,' to use Murphy's words (_Life_,
p. 135), 'had returned with all its former vehemence.' In the hope of
drawing off the dropsical water he gave himself these wounds (see
_ante_, p. 399). He lost a good deal of blood, and no doubt hastened his
end. Langton must have suspected that Johnson intentionally
shortened his life.
[1270] Servant to the Right Honourable William Windham. BOSWELL.
[1271] Sir Joshua Reynolds and Paoli were among the mourners. Among the
Nichols papers in the British Museum is preserved an invitation card to
the funeral.
[1272] Dr. Burney wrote to the Rev. T. Twining on Christmas Day,
1784:--'The Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey lay all the blame on
Sir John Hawkins for suffering Johnson to be so unworthily interred. The
Knight's first inquiry at the Abbey in giving orders, as the most acting
executor, was--"What would be the difference in the expense between a
public and private funeral?" and was told only a few pounds to the
prebendaries, and about ninety pairs of gloves to the choir and
attendants; and he then determined that, "as Dr. Johnson had no music in
him, he should choose the cheapest manner of interment." And for this
reason there was no organ heard, or burial service sung; for which he
suffers the Dean and Chapter to be abused in all the newspapers, and
joins in their abuse when the subject is mentioned in conversation.'
Burney mentions a report that Hawkins had been slandering Johnson.
_Recreations and Studies of a Country Clergyman of the XVIII Century_,
p. 129. Dr. Charles Burney, jun., had written the day after the
funeral:--'The executor, Sir John Hawkins, did not manage things well,
for there was no anthem or choir service performed--no lesson--but
merely what is read over every old woman that is buried by the parish.
Dr. Taylor read the service but so-so.' Johnstone's _Parr_, i. 535.
[1273] Pope's _Essay on Man_, iv. 390. See _ante_, iii. 6, and iv. 122.
[1274] On the subject of Johnson I may adopt the words of Sir John
Harrington, concerning his venerable Tutor and Diocesan, Dr. John Still,
Bishop of Bath and Wells; 'who hath given me some helps, more hopes, all
encouragements in my best studies: to whom I never came but I grew more
religious; from whom I never went, but I parted better instructed. Of
him therefore, my acquaintance, my friend, my instructor, if I speak
much, it were not to be marvelled; if I speak frankly, it is not to be
blamed; and though I speak partially, it were to be pardoned.' _Nugoe
Antiquoe_, vol. i. p. 136. There is one circumstance in Sir John's
character of Bishop Still, which is peculiarly applicable to Johnson:
'He became so famous a disputer, that the learnedest were even afraid to
dispute with him; and he finding his own strength, could not stick to
warn them in their arguments to take heed to their answers, like a
perfect fencer that will tell aforehand in which button he will give the
venew, or like a cunning chess-player that will appoint aforehand with
which pawn and in what place he will give the mate.' _Ibid_. BOSWELL.
[1275] The late Right Hon. William Gerard Hamilton. MALONE.
[1276] 'His death,' writes Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 394), 'makes a
kind of era in literature.' 'One who had long known him said of
him:--'In general you may tell what the man to whom you are speaking
will say next. This you can never do of Johnson.' Johnson's _Works_
(1787), xi. 211.
[1277] Beside the Dedications to him by Dr. Goldsmith [_ante_, ii. 216],
the Reverend Dr. Francklin [_ante_, iv. 34], and the Reverend Mr. Wilson
[_ante_, iv. 162], which I have mentioned according to their dates,
there was one by a lady, of a versification of _Aningait and Ajut_, and
one by the ingenious Mr. Walker [_ante_, iv. 206], of his _Rhetorical
Grammar_. I have introduced into this work several compliments paid to
him in the writings of his contemporaries; but the number of them is so
great, that we may fairly say that there was almost a general tribute.
Let me not be forgetful of the honour done to him by Colonel Myddleton,
of Gwaynynog, near Denbigh; who, on the banks of a rivulet in his park,
where Johnson delighted to stand and repeat verses, erected an urn with
the following inscription:
'This spot was often dignified by the presence of
SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
Whose moral writings, exactly conformable to the
precepts of Christianity,
Gave ardour to Virtue and confidence to Truth [H-1].'
As no inconsiderable circumstance of his fame, we must reckon the
extraordinary zeal of the artists to extend and perpetuate his image. I
can enumerate a bust by Mr. Nollekens, and the many casts which are made
from it; several pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds, from one of which, in
the possession of the Duke of Dorset, Mr. Humphry executed a beautiful
miniature in enamel; one by Mrs. Frances Reynolds, Sir Joshua's sister;
one by Mr. Zoffani; and one by Mr. Opie [H-2]; and the following
engravings of his portrait: 1. One by Cooke, from Sir Joshua, for the
Proprietors' edition of his folio _Dictionary_.--2. One from ditto, by
ditto, for their quarto edition.--3. One from Opie, by Heath, for
Harrison's edition of his _Dictionary_.--4. One from Nollekens' bust of
him, by Bartolozzi, for Fielding's quarto edition of his
_Dictionary_.--5. One small, from Harding, by Trotter, for his
_Beauties_.--6. One small, from Sir Joshua, by Trotter, for his _Lives
of the Poets_.--7. One small, from Sir Joshua, by Hall, for _The
Rambler_.--8. One small, from an original drawing, in the possession of
Mr. John Simco, etched by Trotter, for another edition of his _Lives of
the Poets_.--9. One small, no painter's name, etched by Taylor, for his
_Johnsoniana_.--10. One folio whole-length, with his oak-stick, as
described in Boswell's _Tour_, drawn and etched by Trotter.--11. One
large mezzotinto, from Sir Joshua, by Doughty [H-3].--l2. One large Roman
head, from Sir Joshua, by Marchi.--13. One octavo, holding a book to his
eye, from Sir Joshua, by Hall, for his _Works_.--14. One small, from a
drawing from the life, and engraved by Trotter, for his _Life_ published
by Kearsley.--15. One large, from Opie, by Mr. Townley, (brother of Mr.
