upon you!_'
[47] Wesley, when at Edinburgh in May, 1761, writes:--'How can it be
suffered that all manner of filth should still be thrown even into this
street [High Street] continually? How long shall the capital city of
Scotland, yea, and the chief street of it, stink worse than a common
sewer?' Wesley's _Journal_, iii. 52. Baretti (_Journey from London to
Genoa_, ii.255) says that this was the universal practice in Madrid in
1760. He was driven out of that town earlier than he had intended to
leave it by the dreadful stench. A few years after his visit the King
made a reform, so that it became 'one of the cleanest towns in Europe.'
_Ib_. p 258. Smollett in _Humphry Clinker_ makes Matthew Bramble say
(Letter of July 18):--'The inhabitants of Edinburgh are apt to imagine
the disgust that we avow is little better than affectation.'
[48] 'Most of their buildings are very mean; and the whole town bears
some resemblance to the old part of Birmingham.' _Piozzi
Letters_, i. 109.
[49] See _ante_, i. 313.
[50] Miss Burney, describing her first sight of Johnson, says:--'Upon
asking my father why he had not prepared us for such uncouth, untoward
strangeness, he laughed heartily, and said he had entirely forgotten
that the same impression had been at first made upon himself; but had
been lost even on the second interview.' _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, ii.91.
[51] See _post_, Aug. 22.
[52] see _ante_, iii. 216.
[53] Boswell writes, in his _Hypochondriacks_:--'Naturally somewhat
singular, independent of any additions which affectation and vanity may
perhaps have made, I resolved to have a more pleasing species of
marriage than common, and bargained with my bride that I should not be
bound to live with her longer than I really inclined; and that whenever
I tired of her domestic society I should be at liberty to give it up.
Eleven years have elapsed, and I have never yet wished to take advantage
of my stipulated privilege.' _London Mag_. 1781, p.136. See _ante_, ii.
140, note 1.
[54] Sir Walter Scott was two years old this day. He was born in a house
at the head of the College Wynd. When Johnson and Boswell returned to
Edinburgh Jeffrey was a baby there seventeen days old. Some seventeen or
eighteen years later 'he had the honour of assisting to carry the
biographer of Johnson, in a state of great intoxication, to bed. For
this he was rewarded next morning by Mr. Boswell clapping his head, and
telling him that he was a very promising lad, and that if "you go on as
you've begun, you may live to be a Bozzy yourself yet."' Cockburn's
_Jeffrey_, i. 33.
[55] He was one of Boswell's executors, and as such was in part
responsible for the destruction of his manuscripts. _Ante_, iii. 301,
note i. It is to his _Life of Dr. Beattie_ that Scott alludes in the
Introduction to the fourth Canto of _Marmion_:--
'Scarce had lamented Forbes paid
The tribute to his Minstrel's shade;
The tale of friendship scarce was told,
Ere the narrator's heart was cold--
Far may we search before we find
A heart so manly and so kind.'
It is only of late years that _Forbes_ has generally ceased to be a
dissyllable.
[56] The saint's name of _Veronica_ was introduced into our family
through my great grandmother Veronica, Countess of Kincardine, a Dutch
lady of the noble house of Sommelsdyck, of which there is a full account
in Bayle's _Dictionary_. The family had once a princely right in
Surinam. The governour of that settlement was appointed by the States
General, the town of Amsterdam, and Sommelsdyck. The States General have
acquired Sommelsdyck's right; but the family has still great dignity and
opulence, and by intermarriages is connected with many other noble
families. When I was at the Hague, I was received with all the affection
of kindred. The present Sommelsdyck has an important charge in the
Republick, and is as worthy a man as lives. He has honoured me with his
correspondence for these twenty years. My great grandfather, the husband
of Countess Veronica, was Alexander, Earl of Kincardine, that eminent
_Royalist_ whose character is given by Burnet in his _History of his own
Times_. From him the blood of _Bruce_ flows in my veins. Of such
ancestry who would not be proud? And, as _Nihil est, nisi hoc sciat
alter_, is peculiarly true of genealogy, who would not be glad to seize
a fair opportunity to let it be known. BOSWELL. Boswell visited Holland
in 1763. _Ante_, i. 473. Burnet says that 'the Earl was both the wisest
and the worthiest man that belonged to his country, and fit for
governing any affairs but his own; which he by a wrong turn, and by his
love for the public, neglected to his ruin. His thoughts went slow and
his words came much slower; but a deep judgment appeared in everything
he said or did. I may be, perhaps, inclined to carry his character too
far; for he was the first man that entered into friendship with me.'
Burnet's _History_, ed. 1818, i. III. 'The ninth Earl succeeded as fifth
Earl of Elgin and thus united the two dignities.' Burke's _Peerage_.
Boswell's quotation is from Persius, _Satires_, i. 27: 'Scire tuum nihil
est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter.' It is the motto to _The
Spectator_, No. 379.
[57] She died four months after her father. I cannot find that she
received this additional fortune.
[58] See _ante_, ii. 47.
[59] See _ante_, iv. 5, note 2.
[60] See _ante_, iii. 231. Johnson (_Works_, ix. 33) speaks of 'the
general dissatisfaction which is now driving the Highlanders into the
other hemisphere.' This dissatisfaction chiefly arose from the fact that
the chiefs were 'gradually degenerating from patriarchal rulers to
rapacious landlords.' _Ib._ p. 86. 'That the people may not fly from the
increase of rent I know not whether the general good does not require
that the landlords be, for a time, restrained in their demands, and kept
quiet by pensions proportionate to their loss.... It affords a
legislator little self-applause to consider, that where there was
formerly an insurrection there is now a wilderness.' _Ib._ p. 94. 'As
the world has been let in upon the people, they have heard of happier
climates and less arbitrary government.' _Ib._ p. 128.
[61] 'To a man that ranges the streets of London, where he is tempted to
contrive wants for the pleasure of supplying them, a shop affords no
image worthy of attention; but in an island it turns the balance of
existence between good and evil. To live in perpetual want of little
things is a state, not indeed of torture, but of constant vexation. I
have in Sky had some difficulty to find ink for a letter; and if a woman
breaks her needle, the work is at a stop.' _Ib._ p. 127.
[62] 'It was demolished in 1822.' Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_,
i. 215.
[63] 'The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of
isles be glad thereof.' _Psalms_, xcvii.1.
[64] A brief memoir of Mr. Carre is given in Forbes's _Life of Beattie_,
Appendix Z.
[65] It was his daughter who gave the name to the new street in which
Hume had taken a house by chalking on his wall ST. DAVID STREET. 'Hume's
"lass," judging that it was not meant in honour or reverence, ran into
the house much excited, to tell her master how he was made game of.
"Never mind, lassie," he said; "many a better man has been made a saint
of before."' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 436.
[66] The House of Lords reversed the decision of the Court of Session in
this cause. See _ante_, ii.50, 230.
[67] Ogden was Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge. The sermons were
published in 1770. Boswell mentions them so often that in Rowlandson's
caricatures of the tour he is commonly represented as having them in his
hand or pocket. See _ante_, iii. 248.
[68] 'Talking of the eminent writers in Queen Anne's reign, Johnson
observed, "I think Dr. Arbuthnot the first man among them.'" _Ante_,
i. 425.
[69] 'We found that by the interposition of some invisible friend
lodgings had been provided for us at the house of one of the professors,
whose easy civility quickly made us forget that we were strangers.'
_Works_, ix. 3.
[70] He is referring to Beattie's _Essay on Truth_. See _post_, Oct. 1,
and _ante_, ii. 201.
[71] See _ante_, ii. 443, where Johnson, again speaking of Hume, and
perhaps of Gibbon, says:--'When a man voluntarily engages in an
important controversy, he is to do all he can to lessen his antagonist,
because authority from personal respect has much weight with most
people, and often more than reasoning.'
[72] Johnson, in his Dictionary, calls _bubble_ 'a cant [slang] word.'
[73] Boswell wrote to Temple in 1768:--'David [Hume] is really amiable:
I always regret to him his unlucky principles, and he smiles at my
faith; but I have a hope which he has not, or pretends not to have. So
who has the best of it, my reverend friend?' _Letters of Boswell_,
p.151. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. pp. 274-5) says:--'Mr. Hume gave both
elegant dinners and suppers, and the best claret, and, which was best of
all, he furnished the entertainment with the most instructive and
pleasing conversation, for he assembled whosoever were most knowing and
agreeable among either the laity or clergy. For innocent mirth and
agreeable raillery I never knew his match....He took much to the company
of the younger clergy, not from a wish to bring them over to his
opinions, for he never attempted to overturn any man's principles, but
they best understood his notions, and could furnish him with literary
conversation.'
[74] No doubt they were destroyed with Boswell's other papers. _Ante_,
iii.301, note 1.
[75] This letter, though shattered by the sharp shot of Dr. _Horne_ of
_Oxford's_ wit, in the character of _One of the People called
Christians_, is still prefixed to Mr. Hume's excellent _History of
England_, like a poor invalid on the piquet guard, or like a list of
quack medicines sold by the same bookseller, by whom a work of whatever
nature is published; for it has no connection with his _History_, let it
have what it may with what are called his _Philosophical_ Works. A
worthy friend of mine in London was lately consulted by a lady of
quality, of most distinguished merit, what was the best History of
England for her son to read. My friend recommended Hume's. But, upon
recollecting that its usher was a superlative panegyrick on one, who
endeavoured to sap the credit of our holy religion, he revoked his
recommendation. I am really sorry for this ostentatious _alliance_;
because I admire _The Theory of Moral Sentiments_, and value the
greatest part of _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
Nations_. Why should such a writer be so forgetful of human comfort, as
to give any countenance to that dreary infidelity which would make us
poor indeed?' ['makes me poor indeed.' _Othello_, act iii. sc.3].
BOSWELL. Dr. Horne's book is entitled, _A Letter to Adam Smith, LL.D.,
On the Life, Death, and Philosophy of his Friend David Hume, Esq. By one
of the People called Christians_. Its chief wit is in the Preface. The
bookseller mentioned in this note was perhaps Francis Newbery, who
succeeded his father, Goldsmith's publisher, as a dealer in quack
medicines and books. They dealt in 'over thirty different nostrums,' and
published books of every nature. Of the father Johnson said:--'Newbery
is an extraordinary man, for I know not whether he has read or written
most books.' He is the original of 'Jack Whirler' in _The Idler_, No.
19. _A Bookseller of the Last Century_, pp. 22, 73.
[76] Hume says that his first work, his _Treatise of Human Nature_,
'fell _dead-born from the press.' Auto._ p.3. His _Enquiry concerning
Human Understanding_ 'was entirely overlooked and neglected.' _Ib_. p.4.
His _Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals_ 'came unnoticed and
unobserved into the world.' _Ib_. p.5. The first volume of his _History
of England_ certainly met with numerous assailants; but 'after the first
ebullitions of their fury were over, what was still more mortifying, the
book seemed to sink into oblivion. Mr. Millar told me,' he continues,
'that in a twelvemonth he sold only forty-five copies of it...I was I
confess, discouraged, and had not the war at that time been breaking out
between France and England, I had certainly retired to some provincial
town of the former kingdom, have changed my name, and never more have
returned to my native country.' _Ib_. p.6. Only one of his works, his
_Political Discourses_, was 'successful on the first publication.' _Ib_.
p.5. By the time he was turned fifty, however, his books were selling
very well, and he had become 'not only independent but opulent.' Ib. p.
8. A few weeks before he died he wrote: 'I see many symptoms of my
literary reputation's breaking out at last with additional lustre.'
_Ib_. p.10.
[77] _Psalms_, cxix. 99.
[78] We learn, _post_, Oct. 29, that Robertson was cautious in his talk,
though we see here that he had much more courage than the professors of
Aberdeen or Glasgow.
[79] This was one of the points upon which Dr. Johnson was strangely
heterodox. For, surely, Mr. Burke, with his other remarkable qualities,
is also distinguished for his wit, and for wit of all kinds too: not
merely that power of language which Pope chooses to denominate wit:--
(True wit is Nature to advantage drest;
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest.)
[Pope's Essay on Criticism, ii. 297.] but surprising allusions,
brilliant sallies of vivacity, and pleasant conceits. His speeches in
parliament are strewed with them. Take, for instance, the variety which
he has given in his wide range, yet exact detail, when exhibiting his
Reform Bill. And his conversation abounds in wit. Let me put down a
specimen. I told him, I had seen, at a _Blue stocking_ assembly, a
number of ladies sitting round a worthy and tall friend of ours,
listening to his literature. 'Ay, (said he) like maids round a
May-pole.' I told him, I had found out a perfect definition of human
nature, as distinguished from the animal. An ancient philosopher said,
Man was 'a two-legged animal without feathers,' upon which his rival
Sage had a Cock plucked bare, and set him down in the school before all
the disciples, as a 'Philosophick Man.' Dr. Franklin said, Man was 'a
tool-making animal,' which is very well; for no animal but man makes a
thing, by means of which he can make another thing. But this applies to
very few of the species. My definition of _Man_ is, 'a Cooking animal.'
The beasts have memory, judgment, and all the faculties and passions of
our mind in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook. The trick of the
monkey using the cat's paw to roast a chestnut, is only a piece of
shrewd malice in that _turpissima bestia_, which humbles us so sadly by
its similarity to us. Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man
whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats. Your
definition is good, said Mr. Burke, and I now see the full force of the
common proverb, 'There is _reason_ in roasting of eggs.' When Mr.
Wilkes, in his days of tumultuous opposition, was borne upon the
shoulders of the mob, Mr. Burke (as Mr. Wilkes told me himself, with
classical admiration,) applied to him what _Horace_ says of _Pindar_,
..._numeris_que fertur
LEGE _solutis_. [_Odes_, iv. 2. 11.]
Sir Joshua Reynolds, who agrees with me entirely as to Mr. Burke's.
fertility of wit, said, that this was 'dignifying a pun.' He also
observed, that he has often heard Burke say, in the course of an
evening, ten good things, each of which would have served a noted wit
(whom he named) to live upon for a twelvemonth. I find, since the former
edition, that some persons have objected to the instances which I have
given of Mr. Burke's wit, as not doing justice to my very ingenious
friend; the specimens produced having, it is alleged, more of conceit
than real wit, and being merely sportive sallies of the moment, not
justifying the encomium which, they think with me, he undoubtedly
merits. I was well aware, how hazardous it was to exhibit particular
instances of wit, which is of so airy and spiritual a nature as often to
elude the hand that attempts to grasp it. The excellence and efficacy of
a _bon mot_ depend frequently so much on the occasion on which it is
spoken, on the particular manner of the speaker, on the person to whom
it is applied, the previous introduction, and a thousand minute
particulars which cannot be easily enumerated, that it is always
dangerous to detach a witty saying from the group to which it belongs,
and to set it before the eye of the spectator, divested of those
concomitant circumstances, which gave it animation, mellowness, and
relief. I ventured, however, at all hazards, to put down the first
instances that occurred to me, as proofs of Mr. Burke's lively and
brilliant fancy; but am very sensible that his numerous friends could
have suggested many of a superior quality. Indeed, the being in company
with him, for a single day, is sufficient to shew that what I have
asserted is well founded; and it was only necessary to have appealed to
all who know him intimately, for a complete refutation of the heterodox
opinion entertained by Dr. Johnson on this subject. _He_ allowed Mr.
Burke, as the reader will find hereafter [_post_. Sept.15 and 30], to be
a man of consummate and unrivalled abilities in every light except that
now under consideration; and the variety of his allusions, and splendour
of his imagery, have made such an impression on _all the rest_ of the
world, that superficial observers are apt to overlook his other merits,
and to suppose that _wit_ is his chief and most prominent excellence;
when in fact it is only one of the many talents that he possesses, which
are so various and extraordinary, that it is very difficult to ascertain
precisely the rank and value of each. BOSWELL. For Malone's share in
this note, see _ante_, iii. 323, note 2. For Burke's Economical Reform
Bill, which was brought in on Feb. 11, 1780, see Prior's _Burke_, p.184.
For _Blue Stocking_, see _ante_, iv. 108. The 'tall friend of ours' was
Mr. Langton (_ante_, i. 336). For Franklin's definition, see _ante_,
iii. 245, and for Burke's classical pun, _ib_. p. 323. For Burke's
'talent of wit,' see _ante_, i. 453, iii. 323, iv. May 15, 1784, and
_post_, Sept. 15.
[80] See _ante_, iv. 27, where Burke said:--'It is enough for me to have
rung the bell to him [Johnson].'
[81] See _ante_, vol. iv, May 15, 1784.
[82] Prior (_Life of Burke_, pp.31, 36) says that 'from the first his
destination was the Bar.' His name was entered at the Middle Temple in
1747, but he was never called. Why he gave up the profession his
biographer cannot tell.
[83] See _ante_, ii. 437, note 2.
[84] See _ante_, i. 78, note 2.
[85] That cannot be said now, after the flagrant part which Mr. _John
Wesley_ took against our American brethren, when, in his own name, he
threw amongst his enthusiastick flock, the very individual combustibles
of Dr. _Johnson's Taxation no Tyranny_; and after the intolerant spirit
which he manifested against our fellow-christians of the Roman Catholick
Communion, for which that able champion, Father _O'Leary_, has given him
so hearty a drubbing. But I should think myself very unworthy, if I did
not at the same time acknowledge Mr. John Wesley's merit, as a veteran
'Soldier of Jesus Christ' [2 _Timothy_, ii. 3], who has, I do believe,
'turned many from darkness into light, and from the power of _Satan_ to
the living GOD' [_Acts_, xxvi. 18]. BOSWELL. Wesley wrote on Nov. 11,
1775 (_Journal_, iv. 56), 'I made some additions to the _Calm Address to
our American Colonies_. Need any one ask from what motive this was
wrote? Let him look round; England is in a flame! a flame of malice and
rage against the King, and almost all that are in authority under him. I
labour to put out this flame.' He wrote a few days later:--'As to
reviewers, news-writers, _London Magazines_, and all that kind of
gentlemen, they behave just as I expected they would. And let them lick
up Mr. Toplady's spittle still; a champion worthy of their cause.'
_Journal_, p. 58. In a letter published in Jan. 1780, he said:--'I
insist upon it, that no government, not Roman Catholic, ought to
tolerate men of the Roman Catholic persuasion. They ought not to be
tolerated by any government, Protestant, Mahometan, or Pagan.' To this
the Rev. Arthur O'Leary replied with great wit and force, in a pamphlet
entitled, _Remarks on the Rev. Mr. Wesley's Letters_. Dublin, 1780.
Wesley (_Journal_, iv. 365) mentions meeting O'Leary, and says:--'He
seems not to be wanting either in sense or learning.' Johnson wrote to
Wesley on Feb. 6, 1776 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 475), 'I have thanks to
return you for the addition of your important suffrage to my argument on
the American question. To have gained such a mind as yours may justly
confirm me in my own opinion. What effect my paper has upon the public,
I know not; but I have no reason to be discouraged. The lecturer was
surely in the right, who, though he saw his audience slinking away,
refused to quit the chair while Plato staid.'
[86] 'Powerful preacher as he was,' writes Southey, 'he had neither
strength nor acuteness of intellect, and his written compositions are
nearly worthless.' Southey's _Wesley,_ i. 323. See _ante_, ii. 79.
[87] Mr. Burke. See _ante_, ii. 222, 285, note 3, and iii. 45.
[88] If due attention were paid to this observation, there would be more
virtue, even in politicks. What Dr. Johnson justly condemned, has, I am
sorry to say, greatly increased in the present reign. At the distance of
four years from this conversation, 21st February, 1777, My Lord
Archbishop of York, in his 'sermon before the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,' thus indignantly describes
the then state of parties:--'Parties once had a _principle_ belonging
to them, absurd perhaps, and indefensible, but still carrying a notion
of _duty_, by which honest minds might easily be caught. 'But there are
now _combinations_ of _individuals_, who, instead of being the sons and
servants of the community, make a league for advancing their _private
interests_. It is their business to hold high the notion of _political
honour_. I believe and trust, it is not injurious to say, that such a
bond is no better than that by which the lowest and wickedest
combinations are held together; and that it denotes the last stage of
political depravity.' To find a thought, which just shewed itself to us
from the mind of _Johnson_, thus appearing again at such a distance of
time, and without any communication between them, enlarged to full
growth in the mind of _Markham_, is a curious object of philosophical
