end: Not many had been dispersed, before Lord North ordered the sale to stop. His reasons I do not distinctly know. You may try to find them in the perusal.* Before his order, a sufficient number were dispersed to do all the mischief, though, perhaps, not to make all the sport that might be expected from it. Soon after your departure, I had the pleasure of finding all the danger past with which your navigation was threatened. I hope nothing happens at home to abate your satisfaction; but that Lady Rothes, and Mrs. Langton, and the young ladies, are all well. "I was last night at THE CLUB. Dr. "Your most humble servant, "March 20, 1771." Mr. Strahan, the printer, who had been long in intimacy with Johnson, in the course of his literary labours; who was at once his friendly agent in receiving his pension for him, and his banker in supplying him with money when he wanted it; who was himself now a Member of Parliament, and who loved much to be employed in political negotiation; thought he should do eminent service, both to government and Johnson, if he could be the means of his getting a seat in the House of Commons. With this view, he wrote a letter to one of the Secretaries of the Treasury, of which he gave me a copy in his own hand-writing, which is as follows: "SIR, traordinary sense and unimpeached virtue would secure him the attention of the House, and could not fail to give him a proper weight there. "He is capable of the greatest application, and can undergo any degree of labour, where he sees it necessary, and where his heart and affections are strongly engaged. His Majesty's ministers might, therefore, securely depend on his doing, upon every proper occasion, the utmost that could be expected from him. They would find him ready to vindicate such measures as tended to promote the stability of government, and resolute and steady in carrying them into execution. Nor is any thing to be appre hended from the supposed impetuosity of his temper. To the friends of the King, you will find him a lamb; to his enemies, a lion. "For these reasons, I humbly apprehend that he would be a very able and useful member. And I will venture to say, the employment would not be disagreeable to him; and knowing, as I do, his strong affection to the King, his ability to serve him in that capacity, and the extreme ardour with which I am convinced he would engage in that service, I must repeat, that I wish most heartily to see him in the House. If his "If you think this worthy of attention, you will be pleased to take a convenient opportunity of mentioning it to Lord North. lordship should happily approve of it, I shall have the satisfaction of having been, in some degree, the humble instrument of doing my country, in my opinion, a very and your zeal for the public welfare, will essential service. I know your good-nature, plead my excuse for giving you this trouble. I am, with the greatest respect, Sir, "Your most obedient and humble servant, " WILLIAM STRAHAN. New-street, "You will easily recollect, when I had the honour of waiting upon you some time ago, I took the liberty to observe to you, This recommendation, we know, was not that Dr. Johnson would make an excellent effectual; but how, or for what reason, can figure in the House of Commons, and hear-only be conjectured. It is not to be believed tily wished he had a seat there. My reasons that Mr. Strahan would have applied, unless are briefly these: Johnson had approved of it. I never heard him mention the subject; but at a later period of his life, when Sir Joshua Reynolds told him that Mr. Edmund Burke had said, that if he had come early into Parliament, he certainly would have been the greatest speaker that ever was there, Johnson exclaimed, "I should like to try my hand "I know his perfect good affection to his Majesty, and his government, which I am certain he wishes to support by every means in his power. "He possesses a great share of manly, nervous, and ready eloquence; is quick in discerning the strength and weakness of an argument; can express himself with clearness and precision, and fears the face of no man alive. "His known character, as a man of ex By comparing the first with the subsequent editions, this curious circumstance of ministerial authorship may be discovered. [It can only be discovered (as Mr. Bindley observes to me) by him who possesses a copy of the first edition issued out before the sale was stopped. M.] now." It has been much agitated among his friends and others, whether he would have been a powerful speaker in Parliament, had he been brought in when advanced in life. I am inclined to think, that his extensive knowledge, his quickness and force of mind, his vivacity and richness of expression, his wit and humour, and above all his poignancy of sarcasm, would have had great effect in a popular assembly; and that the magnitude | of his figure, and striking peculiarity of his manner, would have aided the effect. But I remember it was observed by Mr. Flood, that Johnson having been long used to sententious brevity and the short flights of conversation, might have failed in that continued and expanded kind of argument, which is requisite in stating complicated matters in public speaking; and, as a proof of this, he mentioned the supposed speeches in Parliament written by him for the magazine, none of which, in his opinion, were at all like real debates. The opinion of one who was himself so eminent an orator, must be allowed to have great weight. It was confirmed by Sir William Scott, who mentioned, that Johnson had told him, that he had several times tried to speak in the Society of Arts and Sciences, but "had found he could not get on." From Mr. William Gerrard Hamilton I have heard, that Johnson, when observing to him that it was prudent for a man who had not been accustomed to speak in public, to begin his speech in as simple a manner as possible, acknowledged that he rose in that society to deliver a speech which he had prepared; "but, (said he) all my flowers of oratory forsook me." I however cannot help wishing, that he had "tried his hand" in Parliament; and I wonder that ministry did not make the experiment. I at length renewed a correspondence which had been too long discontinued: "TO DR. JOHNSON. "I CAN now fully understand those intervals of silence in your correspondence with me, which have often given me anxiety and uneasiness; for although I am conscious that my veneration and love for Mr. Johnson have never in the least abated, yet I have deferred for almost a year and a half to write to him.” *** "Compliments to Miss Reynolds." Edinburgh, July 27, 1771. "THE bearer of this, Mr. Beattie, ProIn the subsequent part of this letter, I fessor of Moral Philosophy at Aberdeen, is gave him an account of my comfortable life desirous of being introduced to your acas a married man, and a lawyer in practice quaintance. His genius and learning, and at the Scotch bar; invited him to Scotland, labours in the service of virtue and religion, and promised to attend him to the High-render him very worthy of it; and as he lands, and Hebrides. "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. ** DEAR SIR, "If you are now able to comprehend that I might neglect to write without diminution of affection, you have taught me, likewise, how that neglect may be uneasily felt without resentment. I wished for your letter a long time, and, when it came, it amply recompensed the delay. I never was so much pleased as now, with your account of yourself; and sincerely hope, that between public business, improving studies, and domestic pleasures, neither melancholy nor caprice will find any place for entrance. What has a high esteem of your character, I hope you will give him a favourable reception. "I ever am, &c. "JAMES BOSWELL." "TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. DEAR SIR, "I AM lately returned from Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The last letter mentions two others which you have written to me since you received my pamphlet. Of these two I never had but one, in which you mentioned a design of visiting Scotland, and, *Horat. Carm. 1. i. od. 26. by consequence, put my journey to Lang-| choice, but once or twice at Edial, and two ton out of my thoughts. My summer wanderings are now over, and I am engaging in a very great work, the revision of my Dictionary; from which, I know not, at present, how to get loose. "If you have observed, or been told, any errors or omissions, you will do me a great favour by letting me know them. 66 Lady Rothes, I find, has disappointed you and herself. Ladies will have these tricks. The Queen and Mrs. Thrale, both ladies of experience, yet both missed their reckoning this summer. I hope, a few months will recompense your uneasiness. "Please to tell Lady Rothes how highly I value the honour of her invitation, which it is my purpose to obey as soon as I have disengaged myself. In the mean time, I shall hope to hear often of her ladyship, and every day better news and better, till I hear that you have both the happiness, which to both is very sincerely wished, by, Sir, your most affectionate and "Most humble servant, " August 29, 1771." In October, I again wrote to him, thanking him for his last letter, and his obliging reception of Mr. Beattie; informing him that I had been at Alnwick lately, and had good accounts of him from Dr. Percy. He In his religious record of this year we observe that he was better than usual, both in body and mind, and better satisfied with the regularity of his conduct. But he is still"trying his ways" too rigorously. charges himself with not rising early enough; yet he mentions what was surely a sufficient excuse for this, supposing it to be a duty seriously required, as he all his life appears to have thought it. "One great hinderance is want of rest; my nocturnal complaints grow less troublesome towards morning; and I am tempted to repair the deficiencies of the night.' Alas! how hard would it be, if this indulgence were to be imputed to a sick man as a crime. In his retrospect on the following Easter-eve, he says, "When I review the last year, I am able to recollect so little done, that shame and sorrow, though perhaps too weakly, come upon me." Had he been judging of any one else in the same circumstances, how clear would he have been on the favourable side. How very difficult, and, in my opinion, almost constitutionally impossible it was for him to be raised early, even by the strongest resolutions, appears from a note in one of his little paper-books, (containing words arranged for his Dictionary,) written, I suppose, about 1753: "I do not remember that, since I left Oxford, I ever rose early, by mere Prayers and Meditations, p. 101. or three times for the Rambler." I think he had fair ground enough to have quieted his mind on the subject, by concluding that he was physically incapable of what is at best but a commodious regulation. In 1772, he was altogether quiescent as an author; but it will be found, from the various evidences which I shall bring toge ther, that his mind was acute, lively, and vigorous. "TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. "DEAR SIR, "BE pleased to send to Mr. Banks, whose place of residence I do not know, this note, which I have sent open, that, if you please, you may read it. "When you send it, do not use your own seal. "I am, Sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON. "Feb. 27, 1772." "TO JOSEPH BANKS, ESQ. "Perpetua ambita bis terra præmia lactis Hæc habet altrici Capra secunda Jovis.”† SIR, I RETURN thanks to you and to Dr. So lander for the pleasure which I received in yesterday's conversation. I could not recollect a motto for your Goat, but have given her one. You, Sir, may perhaps have an epic poem from some happier pen than, Sir, Your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON. "Johnson's-court Fleet-street, Feb. 27, 1772." "TO DR. JOHNSON. "MY DEAR SIR, "IT is hard that I cannot prevail on you to write to me oftener. But I am convinced that it is in vain to expect from you a pri vate correspondence with any regularity. I must, therefore, look upon you as a founcommunicated to a distance, and which must tain of wisdom, from whence few rills are be approached at its source, to partake fully of its virtues. "I am coming to London soon, and am to appear in an appeal from the Court of Session in the House of Lords. A schoolmaster in Scotland was, by a court of inferior juris diction, deprived of his office, for being somewhat severe in the chastisement of his scholars. The Court of Session considering it to be dangerous to the interest of learning and education, to lessen the dignity of teach ers, and make them afraid of too indulgent parents, instigated by the complaints of ↑ Thus translated by a friend: "In fame scarce second to the nurse of Jove, their children, restored him. His enemies | led her aunt Langton to receive the sacrahave appealed to the House of Lords, ment with her; and made me talk yesterthough the salary is only twenty pounds day on such subjects as suit her condition. a year. I was Counsel for him here. I It will probably be her viaticum. I surely hope there will be little fear of a reversal; need not mention again, that she wishes to but I must beg to have your aid in my plan see her mother. of supporting the decree. It is a general question, and not a point of particular law. "I am, &c. "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR, "THAT you are coming so soon to town, I am very glad; and still more glad that you are coming as an advocate. I think nothing more likely to make your life pass happily away, than the consciousness of your own value, which eminence in your profession will certainly confer. If I can give you any collateral help, I hope you do not suspect that it will be wanting. My kindness for you has neither the merit of singular virtue, nor the reproach of singular prejudice. Whether to love you be right or wrong, I have many on my side: Mrs. Thrale loves you, and Mrs. Williams loves you, and what would have inclined me to love you, if I had been neutral before, you are a great favourite of Dr. Beattie. “Of Dr. Beattie I should have thought much, but that his lady puts him out of my head; she is a very lovely woman. "The ejection which you come hither to oppose, appears very cruel, unreasonable, aud oppressive. I should think there could not be much doubt of your success. 66 My health grows better, yet I am not fully recovered. I believe it is held, that men do not recover very fast after threescore. I hope yet to see Beattie's College: and have not given up the western voyage. But however all this may be, or not, let us try to make each other happy when we meet, and not refer our pleasure to distant times or distant places. "How comes it that you tell me nothing of your lady? I hope to see her, some time, and till then shall be glad to hear of her. "I am, dear Sir, &c. "March 15, 1772." "SAM. JOHNSON. "TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. NEAR "I CONGRATULATE you and Lady Mr. Langton married, May 24, 1770, Jane, the daughter of -Lloyd, Esq. and widow of John, Earl of Rothes, many years Commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland, who died in 1767. M.] "I am, Sir, your most humble servant, On the 21st of March, I was happy to We talked of his two political pamphlets, "The False Alarm," and "Thoughts concerning Falkland's Islands." JOHNSON: "Well, Sir, which of them did you think the best?" BOSWELL: "I liked the second best." JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, I liked the first best; and Beattie liked the first best. Sir, there is a subtlety of disquisition in the first, that is worth all the fire of the second." BOSWELL: "Pray, Sir, is it true, that Lord North paid you a visit, and that you got two hundred a year in addition to your pension?" JOHNSON: "No, Sir. Except what I had from the bookseller, I did not get a farthing by them. And, between you and me, I believe Lord North is no friend to me." BOSWELL: "How so, Sir?" JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, you cannot account for the fancies of men.Well, how does Lord Elibank? and how does Lord Monboddo ?" BOSWELL: "Very well, Sir. Lord Monboddo still maintains the superiority of the savage life." JOHNSON: "What strange narrowness of mind, now, is that, to think the things we have not known, are better than the things which we have known." BOSWELL: "Why, Sir, that is a common prejudice." JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir, but a common prejudice should not be found in one whose trade it is to rectify error." A gentleman having come in who was to go as a mate in the ship along with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, Dr. Johnson asked what were the names of the ships destined for the expedition. The gentleman answered, they were once to be called the Drake and the Ralegh, but now they were to be called the Resolution and the Adventure. JoHNSON: "Much better; for had the Ralegh returned without going round the world, it would have been ridicu lous. To give them the names of the Drake and the Ralegh was laying a trap for satire." BOSWELL: "Had not you some desire to go upon this expedition, Sir?" JOHNSON : "Why yes, but I soon laid it aside. Sir, there is very little of intellectual, in the course. Besides, I see but at a small distance. So it was not worth my while to go to see birds fly, which I should not have seen fly; and fishes swim, which I should not have seen swim." The gentleman being gone, and Dr. Johnson having left the room for some time, a debate arose between the Reverend Mr. Stockdale and Mrs. Desmoulins, whether Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander were entitled to any share of glory from their expedition. When Dr. Johnson returned to us, I told him the subject of their dispute. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, it was properly for botany that they went out: I believe they thought only of culling of simples." I thanked him for shewing civilities to Beattie. "Sir, (said he,) I should thank you We all love Beattie. Mrs. Thrale says, if ever she has another husband, she'll have Beattie. He sunk upon us* that he "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "MY DEAR SIR, "Edinburgh, May 3, 1792. "As I suppose your great work will soon be reprinted, I beg leave to trouble you with a remark on a passage of it, in which I am a little misrepresented. Be not alarmed; the misrepresentation is not imputable to you. Not having the book at hand, I cannot specify the page, but I suppose you will easily find it. Dr. Johnson says, speaking of Mrs. Thrale's family, Dr. Beattie sunk upon us that he was married,' or words to that purpose. I am not sure that I understand sunk upon us, which is a very uncommon phrase; but it seems to me to imply (and others, I find, have understood it in the same sense,) studiously concealed from us his being married. Now, Sir, this was by no means the case. I could have no motive to conceal a circumstance, of which I never was nor can be ashamed; and of which Dr. Johnson seemed to think, when he afterwards became acquainted with Mrs. Beattie, that I had, as was true, reason to be proud. So far was I from concealing her, that my wife had at that time almost as numerous an acquaintance in London as I had myself; and was, not very long after, kindly invited and ele gantly entertained at Streatham, by Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. "My request, therefore, is, that you would rectify this matter in your new edition. You are at liberty to make what use you please of this letter. was married; else we should have shewn his lady more civilities. She is a very fine woman. But how can you shew civilities to a nonentity? I did not think he had been married. Nay, I did not think about it one way or other; but he did not tell us of his lady till late." He then spoke of St. Kilda, the most remote of the Hebrides. I told him, I thought of buying it. JOHNSON: "Pray do, Sir. We will go and pass a winter amid the blasts there. We shall have fine fish, and we will take some dried tongues with us, and some books. We will have a strong-built vessel, and some Orkney men to navigate her. We must build a toler able house: but we may carry with us a wooden house ready made, and requiring nothing but to be put up. Consider, Sir, by buying St. Kilda, you may keep the people from falling into worse hands. We must give them a clergyman, and he shall be one of Beattie's choosing. He shall be educa ted at Marischal College. I'll be your Lord Chancellor, or what you please." BOSWELL: "Are you serious, Sir, in advising me to buy St. Kilda? for, if you should advise me to go to Japan, I believe I should do it." JOHNSON: "Why yes, Sir, I am serious." BOSWELL: "Why, then, I'll see what can be done." I gave him an account of the two parties in the church of Scotland, those for support. ing the rights of patrons, independent of the people, and those against it. JOHNSON: "It should be settled one way or other. I cannot wish well to a popular election of the clergy, when I consider that it occasions such animosities, such unworthy courting of the people, such slanders between the contending parties, and other disadvantages. against the nomination of a minister for solid enough to allow the people to remonstrate (I suppose he meant heresy or reasons. immorality.) It is He was engaged to dine abroad, and asked me to return to him in the evening, at nine, which I accordingly did. We drank tea with Mrs. Williams, who pened in Wales, where she was born.- He told us a story of second sight, which haplistened to it very attentively, and said he should be glad to have some instances of that faculty well authenticated. His elevated wish for more and more evidence for spirit, in opposition to the grovelling belief of materialism, led him to a love of such mysterious disquisitions. He again justly observed, that we could have no certainty of the truth of supernatural appearances, unless something was told us which we could not know My best wishes ever attend you and your family. by ordinary means, or something done which Believe me to be, with the utmost regard and esteem, dear Sir, "Your obliged and affectionate humble servant, "J BEATTIE." I have, from my respect for my friend Dr. Beattie, and regard to his extreme sensibility, inserted the fore could not be done but by supernatural power; sidering as any imputation a phrase commonly used going letter, though I cannot but wonder at his creamong the best friends. |