visits. Whither I shall fly is matter of no importance. A man unconnected is at home every where; unless he may be said to be at home no where. I am sorry, dear sir, that where you have parents, a man of your merits should not have, a home. I wish I could give it you. I am, my dear sir, affectionately yours, "SAM. JOHNSON." He now refreshed himself by an excursion to Oxford, of which the following short characteristical notice, in his own words, is preserved: 1785. p. 288. is now making tea for Gent. Mag. me. I have been in my gown ever since I came here!. It was, at my first coming, quite new and handsome. I have swum thrice, which I had disused for many years. I have proposed to Vansittart climbing over the wall, but he has refused me. And I have clapped my hands till they are sore, at Dr. King's speech3," His negro servant, Francis Barber, having left him, and been some time at sea, not pressed as has been supposed, but with his own consent, it appears from a letter to John Wilkes, Esq. from Dr. Smollett, that his master kindly interested himself in procuring his release from a state of life of which Johnson always expressed the utmost abhorrence. He once said, "No Aug. 31, man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned." And at another time, "A man in a jail Sept. 23, has more room, better food, and commonly better company." The letter was as follows: 1773. 1773. "Chelsea, 16th March, 1759. DEAR SIR, I am again your petitioner, in behalf of that great CHAM4 of literature, 1 [Lord Stowell informs me that he prided himself in being, during his visits to Oxford, accurately academic in all points; and he wore his gown almost ostentatiously.-ED.] 2 See ante, p. 136, and post, vol. ii. p. 000 ED.] Samuel Johnson. His black servant, whose name is Francis Barber, has been pressed on board the Stag frigate, Captain Angel, and our lexicographer is in great distress. He says the boy is a sickly lad, of a delicate frame, and particularly subject to a malady in his throat, which renders him very unfit for his majesty's service. You know what matter of animosity the said Johnson has against you: and I dare say you desire no other opportunity of resenting it, than that of laying him under an obligation. He was humble enough to desire my assistance on this occasion, though he and I were never cater-cousins; and I gave him to understand that I would make application to my friend Mr. Wilkes, who, perhaps, by his interest with Dr. Hay and Mr. Elliot, might be able to procure the discharge of his lacquey. It would be superfluous to say more on the subject, which I leave to your own consideration; but I cannot let slip this opportunity of declaring that I am, with the most inviolable esteem and attachment, dear sir, your affectionate, obliged, humble servant, "T. SMOLLETT." Mr. Wilkes, who upon all occasions has acted, as a private gentleman, with most polite liberality, applied to his friend Sir George Hay, then one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty; and Francis Barber was discharged5, as he has told me, without any wish of his own. He found his old master in Chambers in the Inner temple, and returned to his service, Ed. [The date of Dr. Johnson's first acquaintance with Mrs. Montagu is not ascertained, but it probably began about this period. We find, in this year, the first of the many applications which he is known to have made to the extensive and unwearied charity of that excellent woman.] Smollett. See "Roderick Random," chap. 56. For this correction I am indebted to Lord Palmerston, whose talents and literary acquirements accord well with his respectable pedigree of Temple.-BOSWELL. After the publication of the second edition of this work, the authour was furnished by Mr. Abercrombie, of Philadelphia, with the copy of a letter written by Dr. John Armstrong, the poet, to Dr. Smollett, at Leghorn, containing the fol 3 [Dr. King's speech at the installation of the Earl of Westmoreland as chancellor of the uni-lowing paraghraph: versity.-ED.] In my first edition this word was printed Chum, as it appears in one of Mr. Wilkes's Miscellanies, and I animadverted on Dr. Smollett's ignorance; for which let me propitiate the manes of that ingenious and benevolent gentleman. CHUM was certainly a mistaken reading for CHAM, the title of the Sovereign of Tartary, which is well applied "Johnson, the Monarch of Literature ;" and was an epithet familiar to "As to the K. Bench patriot, it is hard to say from what motive he published a letter of yours asking some trifling favour of him in behalf of somebody for whom the great CHAM of literature, Mr. Johnson, had interested himself.”. MALONE. 5 [He was not discharged till June, 1760. How the discharge (if, indeed, it was granted on this application) came to be so long delayed does not appear.-ED.] MSS. "9th June, 1759. ["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. MONTAGU1. At this time there being a competition among the architects of London to be em"MADAM.—I am desired by Mrs.ployed in the building of Blackfriars-bridge, a question was very warmly agitated whether semicircular or elliptical arches were preferable. In the design offered by Mr. Mylne, the elliptical form was adopted, and therefore it was the great object of his rivals to attack it. Johnson's regard for his friend Mr. Gwyn induced him to engage in this controversy against Mr. Mylne 3; and Montagu Williams to sign receipts with her What particular new scheme of life Johnson had in view this year, I have not discovered; but that he meditated one of some sort, is clear from his private devotions, in which we find, [24th March,]" the change of outward things which I am now to make;" and "Grant me the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that the course which I am now beginning may proceed according to thy laws, and end in the enjoyment of thy favour." But he did not, in fact, make any external or visible change. ED. 3 Sir John Hawkins has given a long detail of it, in that manner vulgarly, but significantly, called rigmarole; in which, amidst an ostentatious exhibition of arts and artists, he talks of proportions of a column being taken from that of the human figure, and adjusted by Naturemasculine and feminine-in a man, sesquioctave of the head, and in a woman sesquinonal; nor has he failed to introduce a jargon of musical terms, which do not seem much to correspond with the subject, but serve to make up the heterogeneous mass. To follow the knight through all this, would be an useless fatigue to myself, and not a little disgusting to my readers. I shall, therefore, only make a few remarks upon his statement.He seems to exult in having detected Johnson in procuring" from a person eminently [The change of life of which Mr. Boswell could discover no trace was probably the breaking up his establishment in Gough-square, where he had resided for ten years, and retiring to chambers in Sta-skilled in mathematicks and the principles of archiple-inn; while Mrs. Williams went into lodgings. This economical arrangement, as we learn from the following letter, communicated by Mrs. Pearson, through Dr. Harwood, took place just at this period. Pearson TO MRS. LUCY PORTER. "23d March, 1759. "DEAR MADAM,-I beg your pardon for having so long omitted to write. One thing or other has put me off. I have this day moved my things, and you are now to direct to me at Staple-inn, London. I hope, my dear, you are well, and Kitty mends. I wish her success in her trade. I am going to publish a little story book,2 which I will send you when it is out. Write to me, my dearest girl, for I am always glad to hear from you, am, my dear, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] tecture, answers to a string of questions drawn up by himself, touching the comparative strength of semicircular and elliptical arches." Now I cannot conceive how Johnson could have acted more wisely. Sir John complains that the opinion of that excellent mathematician, Mr. Thomas Simpson, did not preponderate in favour of the semicircular arch. But he should have known, that however eminent Mr. Simpson was in the higher parts of abstract mathematical science, he was litthe versed in mixed and practical mechanicks. Mr. Muller, of Woolwich Academy, the scholastick father of all the great engineers which this country has employed for forty years, decided the question by declaring clearly in favour of the elliptical arch. It is ungraciously suggested, that Johnson's motive for opposing Mr. Mylne's scheme may have been his prejudice against him as a native of North Britain; when in truth, as has been stated, he gave the aid of his able pen to a friend, who was one of the candidates; and so far was he from having any illiberal antipathy to Mr. Mylne, that he afterwards lived with that gentleman upon very [This and several other letters, which will agreeable terms of acquaintance, and dined with be found in the proper places, (marked in the him at his house. Sir John Hawkins, indeed, margin Montagu MSS.), the Editor owes to gives full vent to his own prejudice in abusing the kindness and liberality of the present Lord Blackfriars-bridge, calling it an edifice, in Rokeby, the nephew and heir of Mrs. Montagu, which beauty and symmetry are in vain sought and the Editor of her Letters-a work which the for; by which the citizens of London have perliterary world desires to see continued. It is ne-petuated their own disgrace, and subjected a whole cessary to request the attention of the reader to the warm terms in which Johnson so frequently expresses his admiration and esteem for Mrs. Montagu, as we shall see that he afterwards took anoth-effect, especially on approaching the capital on er tone.-ED.] [Johnson here alludes to his "Rasselas." HARWOOD.] 66 nation to the reproach of foreigners." Whoever has contemplated placido lumine, this stately, elegant, and airy structure, which has so fine an that quarter, must wonder at such unjust and illtempered censure; and I appeal to all foreigners of good taste, whether this bridge be not one of the after being at considerable pains to study struggles with great industry for the sup the subject, he wrote three several letters port of eight children, hopes by a benefit in the Gazetteer, in opposition to his plan. concert to set herself free from a few debts, If it should be remarked that this was a which she cannot otherwise discharge. She controversy which lay quite out of John-has, I know not why, so high an opinion of son's way, let it be remembered, that after all, his employing his powers of reasoning and eloquencce upon a subject which he had studied on the moment, is not more strange than what we often observe in lawyers, who, as Quicquid agunt homines is the matter of lawsuits, are sometimes obliged to pick up a temporary knowledge of an art or science, of which they understood nothing till their brief was delivered, and appear to be much masters of it. In like manner, members of the legislature frequently introduce and expatiate upon subjects of which they have informed themselves for the occasion. Pearson ["DR. JOHNSON TO MISS LUCY PORter. "10th May, 1759. "DEAR MADAM,-I am almost ashamed to tell you that all your letters came safe, and that I have been always very well, but hindered, I hardly know how, from writing. Isent, last week, some of my works, one for you, one for your aunt Hunter, who was with my poor dear mother when she died, one for Mr. Howard, and one for Kitty. "I beg you, my dear, to write often to me, and tell me how you like my little book. I am, dear love, your affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] Montagu "DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. MONTAGU. "Gray's-inn, 17th Dec. 1759. "MADAM,-Goodness so conspicuous as yours will be often solicited, and perhaps sometimes solicited by those who have little pretension to your favour. It is now my turn to introduce a petitioner, but such as I have reason to believe you will think worthy of your notice. Mrs. Ogle, who kept the musick-room in Soho-square, a woman who most distinguished ornaments of London. As to the stability of the fabrick, it is certain that the city of London took every precaution to have the best Portland stone for it; but as this is to be found in the quarries belonging to the public, under the direction of the lords of the treasury, it so happened that parliamentary interest, which is often the bane of fair pursuits, thwarted their endeavours Notwithstanding this disadvantage, it is well known that not only has Blackfriars-bridge never sunk either in its foundation or in its arches, which were so much the subject of contest, but any injuries which it has suffered from the effects of severe frosts have been already, in some measure, repaired with sounder stone, and every necessary renewal can be completed at a moderate expense.-BOSWELL. me as to believe that you will pay less re- In 1760, he wrote "an Address of the Painters to George III. on his Accession to the Throne of these Kingdoms †," which no monarch ever ascended with more sincere congratulations from his people. Two generations of foreign princes had prepared their minds to rejoice in having again a king, who gloried in being "born a Briton." He also wrote for Mr. Baretti the Dedicationt of his Italian and English Dictionary, to the Marquis of Abreu, then envoy-extraordinary from Spain at the court of Great Britain. Johnson was now either very idle, or very busy with his Shakspeare; for I can find no other publick composition by him except an Introduction to the proceedings of the Committee for clothing the French Prisoners*; one of the many proofs that he was ever awake to the calls of humanity; and an account which he gave in the Gentleman's Magazine of Mr. Tytler's acute and able vindication of Mary, Queen of Scots*. The generosity of Johnson's feelings shine forth in the following sentence: It has now been fashionable, for near half a century, to defame and vilify the house of Stuart, and to exalt and magnify the reign of Elizabeth. The Stuarts have found few apologists, for the dead cannot pay for praise; and who will, without reward, opYet there repose the tide of popularity? mains still among us, not wholly extinguished, a zeal for truth, a desire of establishing right in opposition to fashion." [The following memorandum, made on his birth-day in this year, ED. ['This sentence may be generous, but it is not very logical. Elizabeth was surely as dead as the Stuarts, and could no more pay for praise than they could.—ED.] may be quoted as an example of the rules compliments Johnson in a just and elegant and resolutions which he was in the habit manner: of making, for the guidance of his moral conduct and literary studies: the fourth item seems obscure and strange: "Sept. 18. "Resolved, D. (eo) j (uvante), "To combat notions of obligation. "To apply to study. "To reclaim imaginations, Ne'er knew the frigid poet's toil and pain; With so much grace, such energy of thought, "To consult the resolves on Tetty's Her innocence exchanged for guilty state; coffin. "To keep a journal. · Whate'er you write, in every golden line Thy nervous phrase impresses every soul, Again, towards the conclusion: "To oppose lainess, by doing what is Thou then, my friend, who see'st the dang'rous to be done tomorrow. "Rise as early as I can. "Send for books for Hist. of War. In this year I have not discovered a single private letter written by him to any of his friends. It should seem that he had at this period a floating intention of writing a history of the recent and wonderful succeses of the British arms in all quarters of the globe; for among the [foregoing] resolutions or memorandums, there is, "Send for books for Hist. of War." How much is it to be regretted that this intention was not fulfilled. His majestick expression would have carried down to the latest posterity the glorious achievements of his country, with the same fervent glow which they produced on the mind at the time. He would have been under no temptation to deviate in any degree from truth, which he held very sacred, or to take a licence, which a learned divine told me he once seemed, in a conversation, jocularly to allow to historians, "There are (said he) inexcusable lies, and consecrated lies. For instance, we are told that on the arrival of the news of the unfortunate battle of Fontenoy, every heart beat, and every eye was in tears. Now we know that no man eat his dinner the worse, but there should have been all this concern; and to say there was (smiling), may be reckoned a consecrated lie." This year Mr Murphy, having thought himself ill-treated by the Reverend Dr. Franklin, who was one of the writers of "The Critical Review," published an indignant vindication in "A Poetical Epistle to Samuel Johnson, A. M. 1." in which he 1 [It seems strange and very uncandid that Mr. Murphy did not acknowledge that this poetical epistle was an imitation of Boileau's Epitre à Moliere. I subjoin a few couplets from both strife In which some demon bids me plunge my life, I take this opportunity to relate the man- Quand je veux dire blanc, la quinteuse dit noir. And when I would say black, rhyme answers white. lated into the French magazine. Mr. Murphy then waited upon Johnson, to explain this curious incident. His talents, literature, and gentleman-like manners, were soon perceived by Johnson, and a friendship was formed, which was never broken1. 1 When Mr. Murphy first became acquainted with Dr. Johnson, he was about thirty-one years old. He died at Knightsbridge, June 18, 1805, it is believed in his eighty-second year. "DEAR SIR,-You that travel about the world have more materials for letters than I who stay at home; and should, therefore, write with frequency equal to your opportunities. I should be glad to have all England surveyed by you, if you would impart your observations in narratives as agreeable as your last. Knowledge is always to be wished to those who can communicate it well. While you have been riding and running, and seeing the tombs of the learned, and the camps of the valiant, I have only staid at home, and intended to do great things, which I have not done. Beau? went away to Cheshire, and has not yet found his way back. Chambers passed the vacation at Oxford. "I am very sincerely solicitous for the preservation or curing of Mr. Langton's sight, and am glad that the chirurgeon at Coventry gives him so much hope. Mr. Sharpe is of opinion that the tedious maturation of the cataract is a vulgar errour3, and that it may be removed as soon as it is formed. This notion deserves to be considered; I doubt whether it be universally true; but if it be true in some cases, and those cases can be distinguished, it may save a long and uncomfortable delay. In an account of this gentleman, published recently after his death, he is reported to have said, that he was but twenty-one, when he had the impudence to write a periodical paper, during the time that Johnson was publishing "the Rambler."—In a subsequent page, in which Mr. Boswell gives an account of his first introduction to Johnson, will be found a striking instance of the incorrectness of Mr. Murphy's memory; and the assertion above-mentioned, if indeed he made it, which is by no means improbable, furnishes an additional proof of his inaccuracy; for both the facts asserted are unfounded. He appears to have been eight years older than twenty-one, when he began the Gray's-Inn Journal; and that paper, instead of running a race with Johnson's production, did not appear till after the closing of the Rambler, which ended March 14, 1752. The first number of the Gray's-Inn Journal made its appearance about seven months afterwards, in a newspaper of the time, called the Craftsman, October 21, 1752; and in that form the first forty-nine numbers were given to the publick. On Saturday, Sept. 29, 1755, it assumed a new form; and was published as a distinct periodical paper, and in that shape it continued to be published till the 21st of Sept. 1754, when it finally closed; forming in the whole one hundred and one Essays, in the folio copy. The extraordinary paper men"Let me hear from you again, wherever tioned in the text is No. 38 of the second series, published on June 15, 1754; which is a re-trans- you are, or whatever you are doing; whethlation from the French version of Johnson's Ram-er you wander or sit still, plant trees or bler, No. 190. It was omitted in the re-publication of these Essays in two volumes, 12mo. in which one hundred and four are found, and in which the papers are not always dated on the days when they really appeared; so that the motto prefixed to this Anglo-Gallick Eastern tale, obscuris vera involvens, might very properly have been prefixed to this work, when re-published. Mr. Murphy did not, I believe, wait on Johnson recently after the publication of this adumbration of one of his Ramblers, as seems to be stated in the text; for, in his concluding Essay, Sept. 21, 1754, we find the following paragraph: "Of dear Mrs. Langton you give me no account; which is the less friendly, as you know how highly I think of her, and how much I interest myself in her health. I suppose you told her of my opinion, and likewise suppose it was not followed; however, I still believe it to be right. make Rusticks, play with your sisters or muse alone; and in return I will tell you the success of Sheridan, who at this instant is playing Cato, and has already played Richard twice. He had more company the second than the first night, and will make, I fore, it may be presumed, did not commence till towards the end of this year 1754. Murphy, however, had highly praised Johnson in the preceding year, No. 14 of the second series, Dec. 22, 1753.-MALONE. [It seems uncandid in Mr Malone to insinuate a charge of falsehood against Mr. Murphy on the hearsay of an anonymous writer. Mr. Murphy, who in 1786 republished the Gray's-Inn Journal, with the original date of the first number, 21st Oct, 1752, never could have said that it was contemporaneous with the Rambler.-ED.] "Besides, why may not a person rather choose an air of bold negligence, than the obscure diligence of pedants and writers of affected phraseology? For my part, I have always thought an easy style more eligible than a pompous diction, lifted up by metaphor, amplified by epithet, and dignified by too frequent insertions of the Latin idiom." It is probable that the Rambler was here intended to be censured, and that the authour, when he wrote it, was not acquainted with John--ED.] son, whom, from his first introduction, he endeav- 4 Essays with that title, written about this time oured to conciliate. Their acquaintance, there- by Mr. Langton, but not published. 3 2 Mr. Beauclerk.-BOSWELL. [Mr. Sharpe seems to have once been of a different opinion on this point, See ante, p. 100. |