Etat. 54.] THE LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. siderable time; and I complained to him that my love of London and of his company was such, that I shrunk almost from the thought of going away even to travel, which is generally so much desired by He roused me by manly and young men. He advised me, spirited conversation. when settled in any place abroad, to study with an eagerness after knowledge, and to apply to Greek an hour every day; and when I was moving about, to read diligently the great book of mankind. to be idle. He then came to London, where he has been very idle; and now he is going to Utrecht, where he will be as idle as JOHNSON: "Poh, poh! ever." I asked him privately how he could expose me so. In the after(said he) they knew nothing about you, and will think of it no more.' noon the gentlewoman talked violently against the Roman Catholics, and of the horrors of the Inquisition. To the utter astonishment of all the passengers but myself, who knew that he could talk upon any side of a question, he defended the InquiOn Wednesday, August 3, we had our last social evening at the Turk's Head sition, and maintained, that "false doctrine coffee-house, before my setting out for should be checked on its first appearance; foreign parts. I had the misfortune, before that the civil power should unite with the we parted, to irritate him unintentionally. church in punishing those who dared to attack the established religion, and that such I mentioned to him how common it was in the world to tell absurd stories of him, and only were punished by the Inquisition." He had in his pocket "Pomponius Mela de to ascribe to him very strange sayings. Situ Orbis," in which he read occasionally, JOHNSON: "What do they make me say, Sir?" BOSWELL: "Why, Sir, as an in- and seemed very intent upon ancient geostance very strange indeed (laughing hearti-graphy. Though by no means niggardly, his attention to what was generally right ly as I spoke,) David Hume told me, you was so minute, that having observed at one said that you would stand before a battery of cannon to restore the Convocation to its of the stages that I ostentatiously gave a full powers."--Little did I apprehend that shilling to the coachman, when the custom was for each passenger to give only sixhe had actually said this: but I was soon convinced of my error; for, with a de. pence, he took me aside and scolded me, termined look, he thundered out-" And saying, that what I had done would make would I not, Sir? Shall the Presbyterian the coachman dissatisfied with all the rest of the passengers, who gave him no more Kirk of Scotland have its General Assemthan his due. This was a just reprimand; bly, and the Church of England be denied for in whatever way a man may indulge his He was walking up its Convocation ?" and down the room, while I told him the generosity or his vanity in spending his anecdote; but when he uttered this explo- money, for the sake of others he ought not to raise the price of any article for which sion of high-church zeal, he had come close there is a constant demand. to my chair, and his eyes flashed with indignation. I bowed to the storm, and diverted the force of it, by leading him to expatiate on the influence which religion derived from maintaining the church with great external respectability. I must not omit to mention that he this year wrote "The Life of Ascham,"[+] and the Dedication to the Earl of Shaftesbury,[+] prefixed to the edition of that writer's English works, published by Mr. Bennet. On Friday, August 5, we set out early in the morning in the Harwich stage-coach. A fat elderly gentlewoman and a young Dutchman, seemed the most inclined among us to conversation. At the inn where we dined, the gentlewoman said that she had done her best to educate her children; and, particularly, that she had never suffered them to be a moment idle. JOHNSON: "I wish, Madam, you would educate me too: for I have been an idle fellow all my life." "I am sure, Sir, (said she,) you 66 JOHNSON: Nay, have not been idle." Madam, it is very true; and that gentleman there (pointing to me) has been idle. He was idle at Edinburgh. His father sent him to Glasgow, where he continued He talked of Mr. Blacklock's poetry, so far as it was descriptive of visible objects; and observed, that "as its author had the misfortune to be blind, we may be absolutely sure that such passages are combinations of what he has remembered of the works of That foolish other writers who could see. fellow, Spence, has laboured to explain philosophically how Blacklock may have done, by means of his own faculties, what it is impossible he should do. The solution, as I have given it, is plain. Suppose, I know a man to be so lame that he is absolutely incapable to move himself, and I find him in a different room from that in which I left him; shall I puzzle myself with idle conjectures, that, perhaps, his nerves have by some unknown change all at once become effective? No, Sir, it is clear how he got into a different room: he was carried." Having stopped a night at Colchester, Johnson talked of that town with veneration, for having stood a siege for Charles the First. The Dutchman alone now reHe spoke English tolemained with us. rably well; and thinking to recommend himself to us by expatiating on the superiority of the criminal jurisprudence of this dined or supped, and to recollect very minutely what he had liked. I remember, when he was in Scotland, his praising“ Gordon's palates" (a dish of palates at the Honourable Alexander Gordon's), with a warmth of expression which might have done honour to more important subjects. "As for Maclaurin's imitation of a made dish, it was a wretched attempt." He about the same time was so much displeased with the performance of a nobleman's French cook, that he exclaimed with vehe country over that of Holland, he inveighed | against the barbarity of putting an accused person to the torture, in order to force a confession. But Johnson was as ready for this, as for the Inquisition. "Why, Sir, you do not, I find, understand the law of your own country. To torture, in Holland, is considered as a favour to an accused person; for no man is put to the torture there, unless there is as much evidence against him as would amount to conviction in England. An accused person among you, therefore, has one chance more to escape punish-mence, "I'd throw such a rascal into the ment, than those who are tried among us." At supper this night he talked of good eating with uncommon satisfaction. "Some people (said he) have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind any thing else." He now appeared to me Jean Bull philosophe. and he was, for the moment, not only serious but vehement. Yet I have heard him, upon other occasions, talk with great contempt of people who were anxious to gratify their palates; and the 206th number of his Rambler is a masterly essay against gulosity. His practice, indeed, I must acknowledge, may be considered as casting the balance of his different opinions upon this subject; for I never knew any man who relished good eating more than he did. When at table, he was totally absorbed in the business of the moment; his looks seemed rivetted to his plate; nor would he, unless when in very high company, say one word, or even pay the least attention to what was said by others, till he had satisfied his appetite; which was so fierce, and indulged with such intenseness, that while in the act of eating, the veins of his forehead swelled, and generally a strong perspiration was visible. To those whose sensations were delicate, this could not but be disgusting; and it was doubtless not very suitable to the character of a philosopher, who should be distinguished by self command. But it must be owned, that Johnson, though he could be rigidly abstemious, was not a temperate man either in eating or drinking. He could refrain, but he could not use moderately. He told me, that he had fasted two days without inconvenience, and that he had never been hungry but once. They who beheld with wonder how much he eat upon all occasions when his dinner was to his taste, could not easily conceive what he must have meant by hunger; and not only was he remarkable for the extraordinary quantity which he eat, but he was, or affected to be, a man of very nice discernment in the science of cookery. He used to descant critically on the dishes which had been at table where he had river;" and he then proceeded to alarm a lady at whose house he was to sup, by the following manifesto of his skill: "I, Madam, who live at a variety of good tables, am a much better judge of cookery, than any person who has a very tolerable cook, but lives much at home; for his palate is gradually adapted to the taste of his cook; whereas, Madam, in trying by a wider range, I can more exquisitely judge.”— When invited to dine, even with an intimate friend, he was not pleased if something better than a plain dinner was not prepared for him. I have heard him say on such an occasion, "This was a good dinner enough, to be sure; but it was not a dinner to ask a man to." On the other hand, he was wont to express, with great glee, his satisfaction when he had been entertained quite to his mind. One day, when he had dined with his neighbour and landlord in Bolt-court, Mr. Allen, the printer, whose old housekeeper had studied his taste in every thing, he pronounced this eulogy; "Sir, we could not have had a better dinner had there been a Synod of Cooks." While we were left by ourselves, after the Dutchman had gone to bed, Dr. Johnson talked of that studied behaviour which many have recommended and practised. He disapproved of it: and said, "I never considered whether I should be a grave man, or a merry man, but just let inclination, for the time, have its course.” He flattered me with some hopes that he would, in the course of the following summer, come over to Holland, and accompany me in a tour through the Netherlands." I teased him with fanciful apprehensions of unhappiness. A moth having fluttered round the candle, and burnt itself, he laid hold of this little incident to admonish me; saying, with a sly look, and in a solemn but a quiet tone," That creature was its own tormentor, and I believe its name was BOSWELL." Next day we got to Harwich to dinner; and my passage in the packet-boat to Helvoetsluys being secured, and my baggage put on board, we dined at our inn by ourselves. I happened to say it would be terrible if he should not find a speedy oppor tunity of returning to London, and be confined in so dull a place. JOHNSON: "Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here. The practice of using words of disproportionate magnitude is, no doubt, too frequent every where; but I think most remarkable among the French, of which, all who have travelled in France must have been struck with innumerable instances. We went and looked at the church, and having gone into it, and walked up to the altar, Johnson, whose piety was constant and fervent, sent me to my knees, saying, "Now that you are going to leave your native country, recommend yourself to the protection of your CREATOR and REDEEMER.' 99 After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus." This was a stout exemplification of the first truths of Pere Bouffier, or the original principles of Reid and of Beattie; without admitting which, we can no more argue in metaphysics, than we can argue in mathematics without axioms. To me it is not conceivable how Berkeley can be answered by pure reasoning; but I know that the nice and difficult task was to have been undertaken by one of the most luminous minds of the present age, had not politics “turned him from calm philosophy aside." What an admirable display of subtilty, united with brilliance, might his contending with Berkeley have afforded us! How must we, when we reflect on the loss of such an intellectual feast, regret that he should be characterized as the man, "Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind ?” My revered friend walked down with me to the beach, where we embraced and parted with tenderness, and engaged to correspond by letters. I said, "I hope, Sir, you will not forget me in my absence." JOHNSON: "Nay, Sir, it is more than likely you should ⚫ [Dr. Johnson seems to have been imperfectly acquainted with Berkeley's doctrine; as his experiment only proves that we have the sensation of solidity, which Berkeley did not deny. He admitted that we had sensations or ideas that are usually called sensible qualities, one of which is solidity: he only denied the existence of matter, i. e. an inert senseless substance, in which they are supposed to subsist.-Johnson's exempli ication concurs with the vulgar notion, that solidity is matter. K.] | forget me, than that I should forget you." As the vessel put out to sea, I kept my eyes upon him for a considerable time, while he remained rolling his majestic frame in his usual manner; and at last I perceived him walk back into the town, and he disappeared. Utrecht seeming at first very dull to me, after the animated scenes of London, my spirits were grievously affected; and I wrote to Johnson a plaintive and desponding letter, to which he paid no regard. Afterwards, when I had acquired a firmer tone of mind, I wrote him a second letter, expressing much anxiety to hear from him. At length I received the following epistle, which was of important service to me, and, I trust, will be so to many others. "A Mr. Mr. BOSWELL, à la Cour de l'Empereur, Utrecht.. "DEAR SIR, "You are not to think yourself forgotten, or criminally neglected, that you have had yet no letter from me. I love to see my friends, to hear from them, to talk to them, and to talk of them; but it is not without a considerable effort of resolution that I prevail upon myself to write. I would not, however, gratify my own indolence by the omission of any important duty, or any office of real kindness. "To tell you that I am or am not well, that I have or have not been in the country, that I drank your health in the room in which we last sat together, and that your acquaintance continue to speak of you with their former kindness, topics with which those letters are commonly filled which are written only for the sake of writing, I seldom shall think worth communicating; but if I can have it in my power to calm any harassing disquiet, to excite any virtuous desire, to rectify any important opinion, or fortify any generous resolution, you need not doubt but I shall at least wish to prefer the pleasure of gratifying a friend much less esteemed than yourself, before the gloomy calm of idle vacancy. Whether I shall easily arrive at an exact punctuality of correspondence, I cannot tell. I shall, at present, expect that you will receive this in return for two which I have had from you. The first, indeed, gave me an account so hopeless of the state of your mind, that it hardly admitted or deserved an answer; by the second I was much better pleased; and the pleasure will still be increased by such a narrative of the progress of your studies, as may evince the continuance of an equal and rational application of your mind to some useful inquiry. "You will, perhaps, wish to ask, what study I would recommend. I shall not speak of theology, because it ought not to be considered as a question whether you structive, be banished henceforward from your thoughts for ever. Resolve, and keep your resolution; choose, and pursue your choice. If you spend this day in study, you will find yourself still more able to study to-morrow; not that you are to expect that you shall at once obtain a complete victory. Depravity is not very easily overcome. Resolution will sometimes relax, and diligence will sometimes be interrupted; but let no accidental surprise or deviation, whether short or long, dispose you to despondency. Consider these failings as incident to all mankind. Begin again where you left off, and endeavour to avoid the seducements that prevailed over you before. "This, my dear Boswell, is advice which, perhaps, has been often given you, and given you without effect. But this advice, if you will not take from others, you must take from your own reflections, if you propose to do the duties of the station to which the bounty of Providence has called you. "Let me have a long letter from you as soon as you can. I hope you continue your journal, and enrich it with many observations upon the country in which you reside. It will be a favour if you can get me any books in the Frisick language, and can inquire how the poor are maintained in the Seven Provinces. I am, "Dear Sir, your most affectionate servant, "SAM. JOHNSON. "London, Dec. 8, 1763." I am sorry to observe, that neither in my own minutes, nor in my letters to Johnson which have been preserved by him, can I find any information how the poor are maintained in the Seven Provinces. But I shall extract from one of my letters what I learnt concerning the other subject of his curiosity. "There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe, that nature has given him something peculiar to himself. This vanity makes one mind nurse aversion, and another actuate desires, till they rise by art much above their original state of power; and as affectation in time improves to habit, they at last tyrannize over him who at first encouraged them only for show. Every desire is a viper in the bosom, who, while he was chill, was harmless; but when warmth gave him strength, exerted it in poison. You know a gentleman, who, when first he set his foot in the gay world, as he prepared himself to whirl in the vortex of pleasure, imagined a total indifference and universal negligence to be the most agreeable concomitants of youth, and the strongest in- I have made all possible inquiry with dication of an airy temper and a quick ap- respect to the Frisick language, and find prehension. Vacant to every object, and that it has been less cultivated than any sensible of every impulse, he thought that other of the northern dialects; a certain all appearance of diligence would deduct proof of which is their deficiency of books. something from the reputation of genius; Of the old Frisick there are no remains, exand hoped that he should appear to attain, cept some ancient laws preserved by Schotaamidst all the ease of carelessness, and all nus in his Beschryvinge van die Heerlykheid the tumult of diversion, that knowledge van Friesland;' and his Historia Frisica. and those accomplishments which mortals of I have not yet been able to find these books. the common fabric obtain only by mute ab- Professor Trotz, who formerly was of the straction and solitary drudgery. He tried University of Vranyken in Friesland, and this scheme of life awhile, was made weary is at present preparing an edition of all the of it by his sense and his virtue; he then Frisick laws, gave me this information. Of wished to return to his studies; and finding the modern Frisick, or what is spoken by the long habits of idleness and pleasure harder boors of this day, I have procured a specito be cured than he expected, still willing men. It is Gisbert Japix's Rymelerie, which to retain his claim to some extraordinary is the only book that they have. It is ama prerogatives, resolved the common conse-zing that they have no translation of the quences of irregularity into an unalterable Bible, no treatises of devotion, nor even decree of destiny, and concluded that Naany of the ballads and story-books which ture had originally formed him incapable of are so agreeable to country people. You rational employment. shall have Japix by the first convenient op"Let all such fancies, illusive and de-portunity. I doubt not to pick up Schotanus. Etat. 55.] ance." THE LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. Early in 1764, Johnson paid a visit to the Langton family, at their seat of Lang. ton, in Lincolnshire, where he passed some time, much to his satisfaction. His friend, Bennet Langton, it will not be doubted, did every thing in his power to make the place agreeable to so illustrious a guest: and the elder Mr. Langton and his lady, being fully capable of understanding his value, were not wanting in attention. He, however, told me, that old Mr. Langton, though a man of considerable learning, had so little allowance to make for his occasional "laxity of talk," that, because in the course of discussion he sometimes mentioned what might be said in favour of the peculiar tenets of the Romish church, he went to his grave believing him to be of that communion. Johnson, during his stay at Langton, had the advantage of a good library, and saw several gentlemen of the neighbourhood. I have obtained from Mr. Langton the following particulars of this period. Mynheer Trotz has promised me his assist- | ty late hour. This club has been gradually increased to its present number, thirty-five. After about ten years, instead of supping weekly, it was resolved to dine together once a fortnight during the meeting of Parliament. Their original tavern having been converted into a private house, they moved first to Prince's in Sackville-street, then to Le Telier's in Dover-street, and now meet at Parsloe's, St. James's-street. Between the time of its formation, and the time at which this work is passing through the press (June 1792,) the following persons, now dead, were members of it: Mr. Dunning (afterwards Lord Ashburton,) Mr. Samuel Dyer, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, Mr. Vesey, Mr. Thomas Warton, and Dr. Adam Smith. The present members are, Mr. Burke, Mr. Langton, Lord Charlemont, Sir Robert Chambers, Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, Dr. Barnard, Bishop of Killaloe, Dr. Marlay, Bishop of Clonfert, Mr. Fox, Dr. John Fordyce, Sir William Scott, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Charles Bunbury, Mr. Windham of Norfolk, Mr. Sheridan, Mr Gibbon, Sir William Jones, Mr. Colman, Mr Steevens, Dr. Burney, Dr. Joseph Warton, Mr. Malone, Lord Ossory, Lord Spencer, Lord Lucan, Lord Palmerston, Lord Eliot, Lord Macartney, Mr. Richard Burke, junior, Sir William Hamilton, Dr. Warren, Mr. Courte nay, Dr. Hinchliffe, Bishop of Peterborough, the Duke of Leeds, Dr. Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury, and the writer of this account.+ He was now fully convinced that he could not have been satisfied with a country living; for talking of a respectable clergyman in Lincolnshire, he observed, "This man, Sir, fills up the duties of his life well. I approve of him, but could not imitate him.' To a lady who endeavoured to vindicate herself from blame for neglecting social attention to the worthy neighbours, by saying "I would to them if it would do them go any good;" he said, "What good, Madam, do you expect to have in your power to do them? It is shewing them respect, and that is doing them good." So socially accommodating was he, that once when Mr. Langton and he were driving together in a coach, and Mr. Langton complained of being sick, he insisted that they should go out, and sit on the back of it in the open air, which they did. And being sensible how strange the appearance must be, observed, that a countryman whom they saw in a field would probably be thinking, "If these two madmen should come down, what would become of me ?" Soon after his return to London, which was in February, was founded that CLUB which existed long without a name, but at Mr. Garrick's funeral became distinguished by the title of THE LITERARY CLUB. Sir Joshua Reynolds had the merit of being the first proposer of it, to which Johnson acceded, and the original members were, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Edmund Burke, Dr. Nugent, Mr. Beauclerk, Mr. Langton, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. Chamier, and Sir John Hawkins. They met at the Turk's Head, in Gerrard-street Soho, one evening in every week, at seven, and generally continued their conversation till a pret a Sir John Hawkins represents himself as "seceder" from this society, and assigns as the reason of his" withdrawing" himself from it, that its late hours were inconsistent with his domestic arrangements. In this he is not accurate; for, the fact was, that he one evening attacked Mr. Burke in so rude a manner, that all the company testified their displeasure; and at their next meeting his reception was such that he never came again.§ * [The second edition is here spoken of. M.] + Life of Johnson, p. 425. |