men prefer animal pleasure. So there are men who have preferred living among sa

who is content with such conversation as can be had among savages! You may remember, an officer at Fort Augustus, who had served in America, told us of a woman whom they were obliged to bind, in order to get her back from savage life." BoSWELL: She must have been an animal, a beast.” JOHNSON: "She was a speaking cat."

WELL: "Mr. Harrris, who was present, agreed with her." JOHNSON: "Harris was laughing at her, Sir. Harris is a sound sul-vages. Now what a wretch must he he, len scholar; he does not like interlopers. Harris, however, is a prig, and a bad prig." I looked into his book, and thought he did not understand his own system." BoSWELL: "He says plain things in a formal and abstract way, to be sure; but his method is good for to have clear notions upon any subject, we must have recourse to analytic arrangement." JOHNSON: "Sir, it is what every body does, whether they will or no. But sometimes things may be made darker by definition. I see a cow. I define her, Animal quadrupes ruminans cornutum. But a goat ruminates, and a cow may have no horns. Cow is plainer." BOSWELL: "I think Dr. Franklin's definition of Man a good one-A tool-making animal.'" JOHNSON: "But many a man never made a tool: and suppose a man without arms, he could not make a tool."

Talking of drinking wine, he said, "I did not leave off wine, because I could not bear it! I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worse for it. University College has witnessed this." BOSWELL: "Why then, Sir, did you leave it off?" JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, because it is so much better for a man to be sure that he is never to be intoxicated, never to lose the power over himself. I shall not begin to drink wine till I grow old and want it." BOSWELL: "I think, Sir, you once said to me, that not to drink wine was a great deduction from life." JOHNSON: "It is a diminution of pleasure, to be sure: but I do not say a diminution of happiness. There is more happiness in being rational." BOSWELL: "But if we could have pleasure always, should not we be happy? The greatest part of men would compound for pleasure." JOHNSON: "Supposing we could have pleasure always, an intellectual man would not compound for it. The greatest part of men would compound, because the greatest part of men are gross.' BOSWELL: "I allow there may be greater pleasure than from wine. I have had more pleasure from your conversation. I have indeed; I assure you I have." JOHNSON: "When we talk of pleasure, we mean sensual pleasure. When a man says, he had pleasure with a woman, he does not mean conversation, but something of a very different nature. Philosophers tell you, that pleasure is contrary to happiness. Gross

What my friend meant by these words concerning the amiable philosopher of Salisbury, I am at a loss to understand. A friend suggests, that Johnson thought his manner as a writer affected, while at the same time the matter did not compensate for that fault. In short, that he meant to make a remark quite different from that which a celebrated gentleman made on a very eminent physician: "He is a coxcomb, but a satisfactory

cozcomb."

[The celebrated gentleman here alluded to, was the late Right Honourable William Gerard Hamilton. M.]

66

I mentioned to him that I had become very weary in a company where I heard not a single intellectual sentence, except that a man who had been settled ten years in Minorca was become a much inferior man to what he was in London, because a man's mind grows narrow in a narrow place." JoнxSON: A man's mind grows narrow in a narrow place, whose mind is enlarged only because he has lived in a large place: but what is got by books and thinking is preserved in a narrow place as well as in a large place. A man cannot know modes of life as well in Minorca as in London; but he may study mathematics as well in Minorca." BoSWELL: "I don't know, Sir: if you had remained ten years in the Isle of Čol, you would not have been the man you now are." JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir, if I had been there from fifteen to twenty-five; but if not from twenty-five to thirty-five." BOSWELL: “I own, Sir, the spirits which I have in London make me do every thing with more readiness and vigour. I can talk twice as much in London as any where else."

Of Goldsmith, he said, "He was not an agreeable companion, for he talked always for fame. A man who does so, never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unbur then his mind, is the man to delight you An eminent friend of ours is not so agreeable as the variety of his knowledge would otherwise make him, because he talks partly from ostentation."

Soon after our arrival at Thrale's, I heard one of the maids calling eagerly on another to go to Dr. Johnson. I wondered what this could mean. I afterwards learnt, that it was to give her a Bible, which he had brought from London as a present to her.

He was for a considerable time occupied in reading," Memoires de Fontenelle," leaning and swinging upon the low gate into the court, without his hat.

I looked into Lord Kaimes' "Sketches of the History of Man ;" and mentioned to Dr. Johnson his censure of Charles the Fifth, for celebrating his funeral obsequies in his life-time, which, I told him, I had been used to think a solemn and affecting act. Jons Why, Sir, a man may dispose his mind to think so of that act of Charles; but it is so liable to ridicule, that if one man out of ten thousand laughs at it, he'll make the other nine thousand nine hundred and

SON:

66

ninety-nine laugh too." I could not agree | disgrace, for a Churchill had beat the with him in this.

French;-that he had been satirized as "mouthing a sentence as curs mouth a bone," but he was now glad of a bone to pick. "Nay, (said Johnson,) I would have him to say,

'Mad Tom is come to see the world again." " He and I returned to town in the even

SON:

Sir John Pringle had expressed a wish that I would ask Dr. Johnson's opinion what were the best English sermons for style. I took an opportunity to-day of mentioning several to him. Atterbury ?" JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir, one of the best." BOSWELL: Tillotson?" JOHNSON: " Why, not now. I should not advise a preacher at this day to imitate Tiling. Upon the road, I endeavoured to lotson's style; though I don't know; I should be cautious of objecting to what has been applauded by so many suffrages.-South is one of the best, if you except his peculiarities, and his violence, and sometimes coarseness of language.-Seed has a very fine style; but he is not very theological.- Jortin's sermons are very elegant. Sherlock's style too is very elegant, though he has not made it his principal study. And you may add Smallridge. All the latter preachers have a good style. Indeed, nobody now talks much of style: every body composes pretty well. There are no such inharmonious periods as there were a hundred years ago. I should recommend Dr. Clarke's sermons, were he orthodox. However, it is very well known where he is not orthodox, which was upon the doctrine of the Trinity, as to which

tleman is not under any obligation to reside maintain, in argument, that a landed genupon his estate; and that by living in London he does no injury to his country. JOHNWhy, Sir, he does no injury to his he draws from it gets back again in circulacountry in general, because the money which tion; but to his particular district, his particular parish, he does an injury. All that he has to give away is not given to those who have the first claim to it. And though I have said that the money circulates back, it is a long time before that happens. Then, Sir, a man of family and estate ought to consider himself as having the charge of a district, over which he is to diffuse civility and happiness.'

Next day I found him at home in the morning. He praised Delany's "Observations on Swift ;" said that his book and Lord Orrery's might both be true, though one

self the use of wine, from moral and religi Talking of a man's resolving to deny himdoubt about it. When one doubts as to pleaous considerations, he said, "He must not sure we know what will be the conclusion. horse does. The wine upon the table is no now no more think of drinking wine, than a more for me, than for the dog that is under the table."

I

he is a condemned heretic: so one is aware of it." BOSWELL: "I like Ogden's Ser-vourably; and that, between both, we might viewed Swift more, and the other less, famons on Prayer very much, both for neat- have a complete notion of Swift. ness of style and subtilty of reasoning." JOHNSON: "I should like to read all that Ogden has written." BOSWELL: "What I wish to know is, what sermons afford the best specimen of English pulpit eloquence." JOHNSON: "We have no sermons addressed to the passions, that are good for any thing; if you mean that kind of eloquence." "A CLERGYMAN: (whose name I do not recollect.) "Were not Dodd's sermons addressed to the passions?" JOHNSON: "They were nothing, Sir, be they addressed to what they may."

At dinner Mrs. Thrale expressed a wish to go and see Scotland. JoHNSON: "Seeing Scotland, Madam, is only seeing a worse England. It is seeing the flower gradually fade away to the naked stalk. Seeing the Hebrides, indeed, is seeing quite a different

scene."

Our poor friend, Mr. Thomas Davies, was soon to have a benefit at Drury-lane theatre, as some relief to his unfortunate circumstances. We were all warmly interested for his success, and had contributed to it. However, we thought there was no harm in having our joke, when he could not be hurt by it. I proposed that he should be brought on to speak a Prologue upon the occasion; and I began to mutter fragments of what it might be: as, that when now grown old, he was obliged to cry," Poor Tom's a-cold;" -that he owned he had been driven from the stage by a Churchill, but that was no

at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, with the Bishop
On Thursday, April 9, I dined with him
of St. Asaph, (Dr. Shipley,) Mr Allan Ram-
Langton. Mr. Ramsay had lately returned
say, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Cambridge, and Mr.
from Italy, and entertained us with his ob-
had examined with great care.
servations upon Horace's villa, which he
I relished
what I had viewed with great pleasure thir-
this much, as it brought fresh into my mind
teen years before. The Bishop, Dr. John-
Ramsay, in recollecting the various lines in
son, and Mr. Cambridge, joined with Mr.
Horace relating to the subject.

mentioned, Johnson observed, that the brook
Horace's journey to Brundusium being
which he describes is to be seen now, ex-
actly as at that time; and that he had often
wondered how it happened, that small
brooks, such as this, kept the same situation
which even mountains have been changed,
for ages, notwithstanding earthquakes, by

368

-immota labescunt;

Et quæ perpetuo sunt agitata manent.""

The Bishop said, it appeared from Horace's writings that he was a cheerful conJOHNSON: tented man. "We have no reason to believe that, my Lord. Are we to think Pope was happy, because he says so in his writings? We see in his writings what he wished the state of his mind to appear. Dr. Young, who pined for preferment, talks with contempt of it in his writings, and affects to despise every thing that he did not despise." BISHOP OF SAINT ASAPH: "He was like other chaplains, looking for vacancies: but that is not peculiar to the clergy. I remember when I was with the army, after the battle of Lafeldt, the officers seriously grumbled that no general was killed." CAMBRIDGE: "We may believe Horace more, when he says,

'Romæ Tibur amem ventosus, Tibure Romam ;' than when he boasts of his consistency: Me constare mihi scis, et discedere tristem, Quandocunque trahunt invisa negotia Romam.'"t BOSWELL: "How hard is it that man can "It is not in RAMSAY: never be at rest." his nature to be at rest. When he is at rest, he is in the worst state that he can be in; for he has nothing to agitate him. He is then like the man in the Irish song,

'There liv'd a young man in Ballinacrazy, Who wanted a wife for to make him unaisy.' Goldsmith being mentioned, Jonson observed, that it was long before his merit came to be acknowledged: that he once complained to him, in ludicrous terms of dis. tress, "Whenever I write any thing, the public make a point to know nothing about it:" but that his "Traveller" brought him into high reputation. LANGTON:

แ

There

is not one bad line in that poem; no one of Dryden's careless verses." SIR JOSHUA: "I was glad to hear Charles Fox say, it was one of the finest poems in the English language." LANGTON: "Why were you glad? You surely had no doubt of this before." JOHNSON: "No; the merit of The Traveller' is so well established, that Mr. Fox's praise cannot augment it, nor his censure diminish it." SIR JOSHUA : "But his friends may suspect they had too great a

He

partiality for him." JOHNSON: "Nay, Sir,
the partiality of his friends was always
against him. It was with difficulty we could
give him a hearing. Goldsmith had no set-
tled notions upon any subject; so he talked
always at random. It seemed to be his in-
tention to blurt out whatever was in his
mind, and see what would become of it.
was angry, too, when catched in an absurdity;
but it did not prevent him from falling into
another the next minute. I remember Cha-
mier,§_after_talking with him some time,
said,Well, I do believe he wrote this poem
himself: and, let me tell you, that is belier-
ing a great deal.' Chamier once asked him,
what he meant by slow, the last word in the
first line of The Traveller,'

'Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow,'

Did he mean tardiness of locomotion? Goldsmith, who would say something without consideration, answered, 'Yes.' I was sitting by, and said, No, Sir; you do not mean tardiness of locomotion; you mean, that sluggishness of mind which comes upon a man in solitude.' Chamier believed then that I had written the line, as much as if he had seen me write it. Goldsmith, however, was a man, who, whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do. He deserved a place in Westminster-Abbey; and every year he lived, would have deserved it better. He had indeed, been at no pains to fill his mind with knowledge. He trans planted it from one place to another; and it did not settle in his mind; so he could not tell what was in his own books."

6

We talked of living in the country JOHNSGN: "No wise man will go to live in the country, unless he has something to do which can be better done in the country. For instance: if he is to shut himself up for a year to study a science, it is better to look out to the fields, than to an opposite wall. Then, if a man walks out in the country, there is nobody to keep him from walking in again; but if a man walks out in London, he is not sure when he shall walk in again. A grea city is, to be sure, the school for studying life; and The proper study of mankind is man, as Pope observes." BOSWELL: "I fancy London is the best place for society; though I have heard that the very first society of Paris is still beyond any thing that we have Sir, I question if in here." JOHNSON: Paris such a company as is sitting round this table could be got together in less than half a year. They talk in France of the felicity of men and women living together: the truth is, that there the men are not higher than the women, they know no more than the women do, and they are not hell down in their conversation by the presence of women." RAMSAY: "Literature is upon

the growth, it is in its spring in France; here it is rather passée. JOHNSON. "Literature was in France long before we had it. Paris was the second city for the revival of What letters: Italy had it first, to be sure. have we done for literature, equal to what was done by the Stephani and others in France? Our literature came to us through France. Caxton printed only two books, Chaucer, and Gower, that were not translations from the French; and Chaucer, we know, took much from the Italians. No, Sir, if literature be in its spring in France, it is a second spring; it is after a winter. We are now before the French in literature; but we had it long after them in England, any man who wears a sword and a powdered it is not so in France. Yet there is, probably, wig, is ashamed to be illiterate. I believe a great deal of learning in France, because they have such a number of religious establishments; so many men who have nothing else to do put to study. I do not know this; but I take it upon the common principles of chance. Where there are many shooters,

some will hit."

We talked of old age. Johnson (now in his seventieth year,) said, "It is a man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age." The Bishop asked,

if an old man does not lose faster than he

in the newspapers of applying Shakspeare's
words to describe living persons well-known
in the world; which was done under the
"Modern Characters from Shak-
title of
speare;" many of which where admirably
The fancy took so much, that
adapted.
they were afterwards collected into a pam-
phlet. Somebody said to Johnson, across
the table, that he had not been in those cha-
racters. "Yes, (said he,) I have. I should
have been sorry to be left out." He then
repeated what had been applied to him,

"You must borrow me GARAGANTUA's mouth."

Miss Reynolds not perceiving at once the
meaning of this, he was obliged to explain it
to her, which had something of an awkward
and ludicrous effect. "Why, Madam, it
which require the mouth of a giant to pro-
has a reference to me, as using big words,
nounce them. Garagantua is the name of
a giant in Rabelais." BOSWELL: "But,
Sir, there is another amongst them for you:

'He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for his power to thunder.'

JOHNSON: "There is nothing marked in
that. No, Sir; Garagantua is the best."
Notwithstanding this ease and good humour,
when I, a little while afterwards, repeated
his sarcasm on Kenrick,† which was received
with applause, he asked, "Who said that ?"

and on my suddenly answering Garagantua, gets. JOHNSON: "I think not, my Lord, he looked serious, which was a sufficient inif he exerts himself." One of the company rashly observed, that he thought it was hap-dication that he did not wish it to be kept up. py for an old man that insensibility comes upon him. JOHNSON: (with a noble elevation and disdain,) "No, Sir, I should never BISHOP be happy by being less rational." OF ST. ASAPH:

Your wish then, Sir, is, 66 Yes, γηράσκειν διδασκόμενος.” JOHNSON: my Lord." His Lordship mentioned a charitable establishment in Wales, where people were maintained, and supplied with every thing, upon the condition of their contributing the weekly produce of their labour; and he said, they grew quite torpid for want They have no of property. JOHNSON: object for hope. Their condition cannot be better. It is rowing without a port."

66

One of the company asked him the meaning of the expression in Juvenal, unius lacerte. JOHNSON: "I think it clear enough;

as

much ground as ene may have a chance to find a lizard upon."

Commentators have differed as to the exact meaning of the expression by which the Poet intended to enforce the sentiment contained in the passage where these words occur. It is enough that they mean to denote even a very small possession, provided

it be a man's own:

Est aliquid, quocunque loco, quocunque recessu,
Unius sese dominum fecisse lacertæ."
This season, there was a whimsical fashion

Sat. iii. 230.

When we went to the drawing-room, there was a rich assemblage. Besides the company who had been at dinner, there were Mr. Garrick, Mr. Harris of Salisbury, Dr. Percy, Dr. Burney, the Honourable Mrs. Cholmondeley, Miss Hannah More, &c. &c.

After wandering about in a kind of pleasing distraction for some time, I got into a corner, with Johnson, Garrick, and Harris. GARRICK: (to Harris.) "Pray, Sir, have you read Potter's Eschylus ?" HARRIS: "Yes; and think it pretty." GARRICK: (to Johnson.) "And what think you, Sir, o. it?" JOHNSON: "I thought what I read of it verbiage: but, upon Mr. Harris's recommendation, I will read a play. (To Mr. Harris.) Don't prescribe two." Mr. Harris suggested one, I do not remember which. JOHNSON: "We must try its effect as an English poem; that is the way to judge of the merit of a translation: translations are, in general, for people who cannot read the I mentioned the vulgar saying, original.' 66 Sir, that Pope's Homer was not a good representation of the original. JOHNSON: it is the greatest work of the kind that has ever been produced." BOSWELL: "The truth is, it is impossible perfectly to translate poetry. In a different language it may be the same tune, but it has not the same

↑ See p. 139.
3 B