I again wrote to Dr. Johnson on the 21st of October, informing him, that my father had, in the most liberal manner, paid a large debt for me, and that I had now the happiness of being upon very good terms with him; to which he returned the following answer. "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR, "I HAD great pleasure in hearing that you are at last on good terms with your father. Cultivate his kindness by all honest and manly means. Life is but short; no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real sorrow, or contests upon questions seriously momentous. Let us not throw away any of our days upon useless resentment, or contend who shall hold out longest in stubborn malignity. It is best not to be angry; and best, in the next place, to be quickly reconciled. May you and your father pass the remainder of your time in reciprocal benevolence! "Do you ever hear from Mr. Langton? I visit him sometimes, but he does not talk. I do not like his scheme of life; but as I am not permitted to understand it, I cannot set any thing right that is wrong. His children are sweet babies. "I hope my irreconcileable enemy, Mrs. Boswell, is well. Desire her not to transmit her malevolence to the young people. Let me have Alexander, and Veronica, and Euphemia, for my friends. "Mrs. Williams, whom you may reckon as one of your well-wishers, is in a feeble and languishing state, with little hopes of growing better. She went for some part of the autumn into the country, but is little benefited; and Dr. Lawrence confesses that his art is at end. Death is, however, at a distance: and what more than that can we say of ourselves? I am sorry for her pain, and more sorry for her decay. Mr. Levet is sound, wind and limb. "I was some weeks this autumn at Brighthelmstone. The place was very dull, and I was not well; the expedition to the Hebrides was the most pleasant journey that I ever made. Such an effort annually would give the world a little diversification. "Every year, however, we cannot wander, and must therefore endeavour to spend our time at home as well as we can. I believe it is best to throw life into a method, that every hour may bring its employment, and every employment have its hour. Xenophon observes, in his Treatise of Economy, that if every thing be kept in a certain place, when any thing is worn out or consumed, the whose collection of medals would do credit to persons of greater opulence. Mr. Nathaniel Thomas, who was many years Editor of the St. James's Chronicle, died March 1, 1795. M.] | vacuity which it leaves will shew what is wanting; so if every part of time has its duty, the hour will call into remembrance its proper engagement. "I have not practised all this prudence myself, but I have suffered much for want of it; and I would have you, by timely recollection and steady resolution, escape from those evils which have lain heavy upon me. I am, my dearest Boswell, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON "Bolt-court, Nov. 16, 1776." On the 16th of November I informed him that Mr. Strahan had sent me twelve copies of the " Journey to the Western Islands," handsomely bound, instead of the twenty copies which were stipulated; but which, I supposed, were to be only in sheets; requested to know how they should be distributed and mentioned that I had another son born to me, who was named David, and was a sickly infant. "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR, "I HAVE been for some time ill of a cold, which, perhaps, I made an excuse to myself for not writing, when in reality I knew not what to say. "The books you must at last distribute as you think best, in my name, or your own, as you are inclined, or as you judge most proper. Every body cannot be obliged; but I wish that nobody may be offended. Do the best you can. "I congratulate you on the increase of your family, and hope that little David is by this time well, and his mamma perfectly recovered. I am much pleased to hear of the re-establishment of kindness between you and your father. Cultivate his paternal tenderness as much as you can. To live at variance at all is uncomfortable; and variance with a father is still more uncomfortable. Besides that, in the whole dispute, you have the wrong side; at least you gave the first provocations, and some of them very offensive. Let it now be all over. As you have no reason to think that your w mother has shown you any foul play, treat her with respect, and with some degree of confidence; this will secure your father. When once a discordant family has felt the pleasure of peace they will not willingly lose it. If Mrs. Boswell would but be friends with me, we might now shut the temple of Janus. "What came of Dr. [Memis's cause? Is the question about the negro determined? Has Sir Allan any reasonable hopes? What is become of poor Macquarry? Let me know the event of all these litigations. I wish particularly well to the negro and Sir Alian "Mrs. Williams has been much out of order; and though she is something better, is likely, in her physician's opinion, to endure | "Dec. 21, 1776." volume, they gave him at once 3007. being in all 5001. by an agreement to which I am a subscribing witness; and now, for a third octavo volume, he has received no less than 6007. In 1777, it appears, from his "Prayers and Meditations," that Johnson suffered much from a state of mind" unsettled and perplexed," and from that constitutional gloom, which, together with his extreme humility and anxiety with regard to his religious state, made him contemplate himself through too dark and unfavourable a medium. It may be said of him, that he " saw GOD in clouds." Certain we may be of his injustice to himself in the following lamentable paragraph, which it is painful to think came from the contrite heart of this great man, to whose labours the world is so much indebted: "When I survey my past life, I discover nothing but a barren waste of time, with some disorders of body, and disturbances of the mind, very near to madness, which I hope He that made me will suffer to extenuate many faults, and excuse many deficiencies."+ But we find his devotions in this year eminently fervent; and we are comforted by observing intervals of quiet, composure, and gladness. The Reverend Dr. Hugh Blair, who had On Easter-day we find the following emlong been admired as a preacher at Edin-phatic prayer: Almighty and most merburgh, thought now of diffusing his excel. ciful Father, who seest all our miseries, and lent sermons more extensively, and increas- knowest all our necessities, look down upon ing his reputation, by publishing a collec-me, and pity me. Defend me from the viotion of them. He transmitted the manu- lent incursion of evil thoughts, and enable script to Mr. Strahan, the printer, who, af- me to form and keep such resolutions as may ter keeping it for some time, wrote a letter conduce to the discharge of the duties which to him, discouraging the publication. Such thy providence shall appoint me; and so at first was the unpropitious state of one of help me, by thy Holy Spirit, that my heart the most successful theological books that may surely there be fixed, where true joys has ever appeared. Mr. Strahan, however, are to be found, and that I may serve thee had sent one of the sermons to Dr. John- with pure affection and a cheerful mind. son for his opinion; and after his unfavour- Have mercy upon me, O God, have mercy able letter to Dr. Blair had been sent off, he upon me; years and infirmities oppress me, received from Johnson, on Christmas-eve, terror and anxiety beset me. Have mercy a note in which was the following para- upon me, my Creator and my Judge. In all graph: perplexities relieve and free me; and so help me by thy Holy Spirit, that I may now so commemorate the death of thy Son our Saviour JESUS CHRIST, as that, when this short and painful life shall have an end, I may, for his sake, be received to everlasting happiness. Amen."‡ "I have read over Dr. Blair's first sermon with more than approbation; to say it is good, is to say too little." I believe Mr Strahan had very soon after this time a conversation with Dr. Johnson concerning them; and then he very candidly wrote again to Dr. Blair, enclosing Johnson's note, and agreeing to purchase the volume, for which he and Mr. Cadell gave 100%. The sale was so rapid and extensive, and the approbation of the public so high, that to their honour be it recorded, the proprietors made Dr. Blair a present first of one sum, and afterwards of another, of 50%, thus voluntarily doubling the stipulated price; and when he prepared another [It turned out, however, a very fortunate bargain, for Foote, though not then fifty-six, died at an inn in While he was at church, the agreeable impressions upon his mind are thus com. memorated: "I was for some time distressed; but at last obtained, I hope from the GoD of Peace, more quiet than I have enjoyed for a long time. I had made no resolution; but as my heart grew lighter, my hopes revived, and my courage increased; and I wrote with my pencil in my Common Prayer Book, Dover, in less than a year, Oct. 21, 1777. M.) t Prayers and Meditations, p. 155. #Ibid. p. 158. Vita ordinanda. Biblia legenda. Theologiæ opera danda. Serviendum et lætandum.'" Mr. Steevens, whose generosity is well known, joined Dr. Johnson in kind assistance to a female relation of Dr. Goldsmith, and desired that on her return to Ireland she would procure authentic particulars of the life of her celebrated relation. Concerning her is the following letter: "TO GEORGE STEEVENS, ESQ. "DEAR SIR, "You will be glad to hear that from Mrs. Goldsmith, whom we lamented as drowned, I have received a letter full of gratitude to us all, with promises to make the inquiries which we recommended to her. "I would have had the honour of conveying this intelligence to Miss Caulfield, but that her letter is not at hand, and I know not the direction. You will tell the good news. I am Sir, your most, &c. "February 25, 1777." "SAM. JOHNSON. 66 MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. "MY DEAR SIR, I am Edinburgh, Feb. 14, 1777. "My state of epistolary accounts with you at present is extraordinary. The balance, as to number, is on your side. indebted to you for two letters; one dated the 16th of November, upon which very day I wrote to you, so that our letters were exactly exchanged, and one dated the 21st of December last. "My heart was warmed with gratitude by the truly kind contents of both of them; and it is amazing and vexing that I have allowed so much time to elapse without writing to you. But delay is inherent in me, by nature or by bad habit. I waited till I should have an opportunity of paying you my compliments on a new year. I have procrastinated till the new year is no longer new. * ** "Dr. Memis's cause was determined against him, with 401. costs. The Lord President, and two other of the Judges, dissented from the majority, upon this ground; that although there may have been no intention to injure him by calling him Doctor of Medicine, instead of Physician, yet, as he remonstrated against the designation before the charter was printed off, and represented that it was disagreeable, and even hurtful to him, it was ill-natured to refuse to alter it, and let him have the designation to which he was certainly entitled. My own opinion is, that our court has judged wrong. The defendants were in mala fide, to persist in naming him in a way that he disliked. remember poor Goldsmith, when he grew important, and wished to appear Doctor MaJor, could not bear your calling him Goldy. Would it not have been wrong to have You named him so in your Preface to Shakspeare,' or in any serious permanent writing of any sort? The difficulty is, whether an action should be allowed on such petty wrongs. De minimis non curat lex. "The negro cause is not yet decided. A memorial is preparing on the side of slavery. I shall send you a copy as soon as it is printed. Maclaurin is made happy by your approbation of his memorial for the black. 66 Macquarry was here in the winter, and we passed an evening together. The sale of his estate cannot be prevented. "Sir Allan Maclean's suit against the Duke of Argyle, for recovering the ancient inheritance of his family, is now fairly before all our judges. I spoke for him yesterday, and Maclaurin to-day; Crosbie spoke to-day against him. Three more counsel are to be heard, and next week the cause will be determined. I send you the Informations, or Cases, on each side, which I hope you will read. You said to me, when we were under Sir Allan's hospitable roof, I will help him with my pen.' You said it with a generous glow; and though his Grace of Argyle did afterwards mount you upon an excellent horse, upon which ‘you looked like a Bishop,' you must not swerve from your purpose at Inchkenneth. I wish you may understand the points at issue, amidst our Scotch law principles and phrases. [Here followed a full state of the case, in which I endeavoured to make it as clear as could to an Englishman who had no knowledge of the formularies and technical language of the law of Scotland.] I "I shall inform you how the cause is decided here. But as it may be brought under the review of our Judges, and is certainly to be carried by appeal to the House of Lords, the assistance of such a mind as yours will be of consequence. Your paper on Vicious Intromission is a noble proof of what you can do even in Scotch law. "I have not yet distributed all your books Lord Hailes and Lord Monboddo have each received one, and return you thanks. Monboddo dined with me lately, and having drank tea, we were a good while by ourselves, and as I knew thathe had read the Journey' superficially, he did not talk of it as I wished, I brought it to him, and read aloud severa! passages; and then he talked so, that I told him he was to have a copy from the author. He begged that might be marked on it. write something to me next post. When you sent your last letter, every thing seemed to be mending; I hope nothing has lately grown worse. I suppose young Alexander continues to thrive, and Veronica is now very pretty company. I do not suppose the lady is yet reconciled to me, yet let her know that I love her very well, and value her very much. "Dr. Blair is printing some sermons. If they are like the first, which I have read, they are all sermones aurei, ac auro magis aurei. t is excellently written, both as to doctrine and language. Mr. Watson's book‡ seems to be much esteemed. "Poor Beauclerk still continues very ill. Langton lives on as he used to do. His children are very pretty, and, I think, his lady loses her Scotch. Paoli I never see. "I have been so distressed by difficulty of breathing, that I lost, as was computed, sixand-thirty ounces of blood in a few days. I am better, but not well. 66 · wish you would be vigilant and get me Graham's Telemachus' that was printed at Glasgow, a very little book; and Johnstoni Poemata,' another little book, printed at Middleburgh. ing your book of your Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland,' which you was so good as to send me by the hands of our mutual friend, Mr. Boswell, of Auchinleck; for which I return you my most hearty thanks; and after carefully reading it over again, shall deposit it in my little collection of choice books, next our worthy friend's Journey to Corsica.' As there are many things to admire in both performances, I have often wished that no Travels or Journey should be published but those undertaken by persons of integrity and capacity, to judge well, and describe faithfully, and in good language, the situation, condition, and manners of the countries past through. Indeed, our country of Scotland, in spite of the union of the crowns, is still in most places so devoid of clothing, or cover from hedges and plantations, that it was well you gave your readers a sound Monitoire with respect to that circumstance. The truths you have told, and the purity of the language in which they are expressed, as your Journey' is universally read, may, and already appear to, have a very good effect. For a man of my acquaintance, who has the largest nursery for trees and hedges in the country, tells me, that of late the demand upon him for these articles is doubled, and sometimes tripled. I have, therefore, listed Dr. Samuel Johnson, in some of my memorandums of the principal planters and favourers of the enclosures, under a name which I took the liberty to invent from the Greek, Papadendrion. Lord Auchinleck and some few more "My dear Boswell, do not neglect to are of the list. I am told that one gentle- write to me, for your kindness is one of the man in the shire of Aberdeen, viz. Sir Ar-pleasures of my life, which I should be sorry chibald Grant, has planted above fifty mil- to lose. I am, Sir, lions of trees on a piece of very wild ground at Monimusk: I must inquire if he has fenced them well, before he enters my list; for that is the soul of enclosing. I began myself to plant a little, our ground being too valuable for much, and that is now fifty years ago; and the trees, now in my seventy-fourth year, I look up to with reverence, and shew them to my eldest son, now in his fifteenth year, and they are full the height of my country-house here, where I had the pleasure of receiving you, and hope again to have that satisfaction with our mutual friend, Mr. Boswell. I shall always continue, with the truest esteem, dear Doctor, your most obliged "And obedient humble servant, "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. " DEAR SIR, "IT is so long since I heard any thing from you,t that I am not easy about it; For a character of this very amiable man, see ** Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," 3d. edit. p 36. By the then course of the post, my long letter of the 14th had not yet reached him. "Mrs. Williams sends her compliments, and promises that when you come hither, she will accommodate you as well as ever she can in the old room. She wishes to know whether you sent her book to Sir Alexander Gordon. "Your humble servant, "February 18, 1777.” "SAM. JOHNSON. "TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. "DEAR SIR, Edinburgh, Feb. 24, 1777. "YOUR letter dated the 18th instant, I had the pleasure to receive last post Although my late long neglect, or rather delay, was truly culpable, I am temptea not to regret it, since it has produced me so valuable a proof of your regard. I did, indeed, during that inexcusable silence, sometimes divert the reproaches of my own mind, by fancying that I should hear again from you, inquiring with some anxiety about me, because, for aught you knew, I might have been ill. "You are pleased to shew me, that my kindness is of some consequence to you. My heart is elated at the thought. Be assured, my dear Sir, that my affection and reverence for you are exalted and steady. I do not believe that a more perfect attachment ever existed in the history of mankind. And "History of Philip the Second." it is a noble attachment; for the attractions are Genius, Learning, and Piety. "Your difficulty of breathing alarms me, and brings into my imagination an event, which, although in the natural course of things I must expect at some period, I cannot view with composure. "My wife is much honoured by what you say of her. She begs you may accept of her best compliments. She is to send you some marmalade of oranges, of her own making. "I ever am, my dear Sir, your most obliged "And faithful humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL." "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR, "I HAVE been much pleased with your late letter, and am glad that my old enemy, Mrs. Boswell, begins to feel some remorse. As to Miss Veronica's Scotch, I think it cannot be helped. An English maid you might easily have; but she would still imitate the greater number, as they would be likewise those whom she must most respect. Her dialect will not be gross. Her mamma has not much Scotch, and you have yourself very little. I hope she knows my name, and does not call me Johnston. • "The immediate cause of my writing is this:-One Shaw, who seems a modest and a decent man, has written an Erse Grammar, which a very learned Highlander, Macbean, has, at my request, examined and approved. "The book is very little, but Mr. Shaw has been persuaded by his friends to set it at half a guinea, though I advised only a crown, and thought myself liberal. You, whom the author considers as a great encourager of ingenious men, will receive a parcel of his proposals and receipts. I have undertaken to give you notice of them, and to solicit your countenance. You must ask no poor man, because the price is really too high. Yet such a work deserves patronage. "It is proposed to augment our club from twenty to thirty, of which I am glad; for as we have several in it whom I do not much like to consort with,† I am for reducing it to a mere miscellaneous collection of conspicuous men, without any determinate cha racter. " MR. BOSWELL TO DR JOHNSON. Edinburgh, April 4, 1777. [After informing him of the death of my little son David, and that I could not come to London this spring:-) "I THINK it hard that I should be a whole year without seeing you. May I presume to petition for a meeting with you in the autumn? You have, I believe, seen all the cathedrals in England, except that of Carlisle. If you are to be with Dr. Taylor, at Ashbourne, it would not be a great journey to come thither. We may pass a few most agreeable days there by ourselves, and I will accompany you a good part of the way to the southward again. Pray think of this. "You forget that Mr. Shaw's Erse Grammar was put into your hands by myself last year. Lord Eglintoune put it into mine. I am glad that Mr. Macbean approves of it. I have received Mr. Shaw's proposals for its publication, which I can perceive are written by the hand of a MASTER. ton's Lives.' I have a notion that the re"Pray get me all the editions of Walpublication of them with notes will fall upon me, between Dr. Horne and Lord Hailes." Mr. Shaw's [+] proposals for "An Analysis of the Scotch Celtic language," were thus illuminated by the pen of Johnson. "Though the Erse Dialect of the Celtic language has, from the earliest times, been spoken in Britain, and still subsists in the northern parts and adjacent islands, yet, by the negligence of a people rather warlike than lettered, it has hitherto been left to the caprice and judgment of every speaker, and has floated in the living voice, without the steadiness of analogy, or direction of rules. An Erse Grammar is an addition to the stores of literature; and its author hopes for the indulgence always shewn to those that attempt to do what was never done before. If his work shall be found defective, it is at least all his own: he is not, like other grammarians, a compiler or transcriber; what he delivers, he has learned by attentive observation among his countrymen, who will perhaps be themselves sur prised to see that speech reduced to principles, which they have used only by imita tion. "The use of this book will, however, not be confined to the mountains and islands; will afford a pleasing and important subject of speculation to those whose studies lead them to trace the affinity of languages, 2 the migrations of the ancient races of mas kind. None of the persons here mentioned exerted the work which they had in contemplation. Walton's ta able book, however, has been correctly repabished quarto, with notes and illustrations, by the Ret. Zouch. M.] |