which that great man tells him, "That for two years after he came to the inn of court, he studied sixteen hours a day; however (his Lordship added) that by this intense application he almost brought himself to his grave, though he were of a very strong constitution, and after reduced himself to eight hours; but that he would not advise any body to so much; that he thought six hours a day, with attention and constancy was sufficient; that a man must use his body as he would his horse, and his stomach; not tire him at once, but rise with an appetite." On Wednesday, June 19, Dr. Johnson and I returned to London; he was not well to-day, and said very little, employing himself chiefly in reading Euripides. He expressed some displeasure at me, for not observing sufficiently the various objects upon the road. "If I had your eyes, Sir, (said he) I should count the passengers." It was wonderful how accurate his observations of visual objects was, notwithstanding his imperfect eyesight, owing to a habit of attention. That he was much satisfied with the respect paid to him at Dr. Adams's, is thus attested by himself: "I returned last night from Oxford, after a fortnight's abode with Dr. Adams, who treated me as well as I could expect or wish; and he that contents a sick man, a man whom it is impossible to please, has surely done his part well." a After his return to London from this excursion, I saw him frequently, but have few memorandums; I shall therefore here insert some particulars which I collected at various times." a "Letters to Mrs. Thrale," Vol. II. page 372. b Having unexpectedly by the favour of Mr. Stone, of London-Field, Hackney, seen the original in Johnson's hand-writing, of "The Petition of the City of London to his Majesty, in favour of Dr. Dodd," I now present it to my readers, with such passages as were omitted, inclosed in crotchets, and the additions or variations marked in Italicks. 66 That William Dodd, Doctor of Laws, now lying under sentence of death in your Majesty's gaol of Newgate, for the crime of forgery, has for a great part of his life set an useful and laudable example of diligence in his calling, [and as we have reason to believe, has exercised his ministry with great fidelity and effacacy,] which in many instances has produced the most happy effect. "That he has been the first institutor, [or] and a very earnest and active promoter of several modes of useful charity, and [that] therefore [he] may be considered as having been on many occasions a benefactor to the publick. "[That when they consider his past life, they are willing to suppose his late crime to have been not the consequence of habitual depravity, but the suggestion of some sudden and violent temptation.] "[That] Your Petitioners, therefore considering his case as in some of its circumstances unprecedented and peculiar, and encouraged by your Majesty's known clemency [they] most humbly recommend the said William Dodd to [his] your Majesty's most gracious consideration, in hope that he will be found not altogether [unfit] unworthy to stand an example of royal mercy." Second Edition.-Above note shifted back to p. 198, Vol. II., and put on the words "they mended it. The Reverend Mr. Astle, of Ashbourne in Derbyshire, brother to the learned and ingenious Thomas Astle, Esq. was from his early years known to Dr. Johnson, who obligingly advised him as to his studies, and recommended to him the following books, of which a list which he has been pleased to communicate, lyes before me in Johnson's own hand-writing.—Universal History (ancient).—Rollin's Ancient History.-Puffendorf's Introduction to History.-Vertot's History of Knights of Malta.-Vertot's Revolution of Portugal.Vertot's Revolutions of Sweden.-Carte's History of England.-Present State of England.-Geographical Grammar.-Prideaux's Connection.-Nelson's Feasts and Fasts.-Duty of Man.-Gentleman's Religion.-Clarendon's History.-Watts's Improvement of the Mind.Watts's Logick.-Nature Displayed.-Lowth's English Grammar.Blackwal on the Classicks.-Sherlock's Sermons.-Burnet's Life of Hale-Dupin's History of the Church.-Shuckford's Connections.-Law's Serious Call.-Walton's Complete Angler.-Sandys's Travels. -Sprat's History of the Royal Society.-England's Gazetteer.-Goldsmith's Roman History.-Some Commentaries on the Bible. It having been mentioned to Dr. Johnson that a gentleman who had a son whom he imagined to have an extreme degree of timidity, resolved to send him to a public school, that he might acquire confidence. "Sir, (said Johnson) this is a preposterous expedient for removing his infirmity; such a disposition should be cultivateu in the shade. Placing him at a publick school is forcing an owl upon day." Speaking of a gentleman whose house was much frequented by low company; "Rags, sir, (said he,) will always make their appearance where they have a right to do it." Of the same gentleman's mode of living, he said, "Sir, the servants, instead of doing what they are bid, stand round the table in idle clusters, gaping upon the guests; and seem as unfit to attend a company, as to steer a man of war." A dull country magistrate gave Johnson a long tedious account of his exercising his criminal jurisdiction, the result of which was his having sentenced four convicts to transportation. Johnson, in an agony of impatience to get rid of such a companion, exclaimed, "I heartily wish, Sir, that I were a fifth." Johnson was present when a tragedy was read, in which there occurred this line : "Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free." The company having admired it much, "I cannot agree with you (said Johnson): It might as well be said, 'Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat."" He was pleased with the kindness of Mr. Cator, who was joined with him in Mr. Thrale's important trust, and thus describes him : a "There is much good in his character, and much usefulness in his knowledge." He found a cordial solace at that gentleman's seat of Beckenham, in Kent, which is indeed one of the finest places at which I ever was a guest. Johnson seldom encouraged general censure of any profession; but he was willing to allow a due share of merit to the various departments necessary in civilized life. In a splenetick, sarcastical, or jocular frame, however, he would sometimes utter a pointed saying of that nature. One instance has been mentioned, where he gave a sudden satirical stroke to the character of an attorney. The too indiscriminate admission to that employment, which requires both abilities and integrity, has given rise to injurious reflections, which are totally inapplicable to many very respectable men who exercise it with reputation and honour. Johnson having argued for some time with a pertinacious gentleman; his opponent, who had talked in a very puzzling manner, happened to say, "I don't understand you, Sir:" upon which Johnson observed, "Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding." Talking to me of Horry Walpole, (as the Honourable Horace Walpole is often called,) Johnson allowed that he got together a great many curious little things, and told them in an elegant manner. Mr. Walpole thought Johnson a more amiable character after reading his Letters to Mrs. Thrale; but never was one of the true admirers of that great man. We may suppose a prejudice conceived, if he ever heard Johnson's account to Sir George Staunton, that when he made the speeches in Parliament for the Gentleman's Magazine, "he always took care to put Sir Robert Walpole in the wrong, and to say everything he could against the electorate of Hanover." The celebrated Heroick Epistle, in which Johnson is satyrically introduced, has been ascribed both to Mr. Walpole and Mr. Mason. One day at Mr. Courtenay's, when a gentleman expressed his opinion that there was more energy in that poem than could be expected from Mr. Walpole; Mr. Warton, the late Laureat observed, "It may have been written by Walpole, and buckram'd by Mason." a "Letters to Mrs. Thrale," Vol. II. p. 284. 1 Yet see a curious story of him in the Maloniana, where he is described as a money-lender, b See Vol. I. p. 396. He disapproved of Lord Hailes for having modernised the language of the ever-memorable John Hailes of Eton, in an edition which his Lordship published of that writer's works. "An authour's language, Sir, (said he,) is a characteristical part of his composition, and is also characteristical of the age in which he writes. Besides, Sir, when the language is changed we are not sure that the sense is the same. No, Sir; I am sorry Lord Hailes has done this." Here it may be observed, that his frequent use of the expression, No, Sir, was not always to intimate contradiction; for he would say so, when he was about to enforce an affirmative proposition which had not been denied, as in the instance last mentioned. I used to consider it as a kind of flag of defiance; as if he had said, "Any argument you may offer against this is not just. No, Sir, it is not." It was like Falstaff's "I deny your Major." 1 66 66 1 Mr. Croker also heard, from Sir J. Mackintosh, that Burke had described Johnson as using this familiar Why no, Sir," as preface to an assent." Both Boswell and Burke seem to have misunderstood the matter. "Boswell," writes Mr. Elwin, "reports these phrases with scrupulous fidelity, and we have the same materials upon which to found our judgment as he had himself. Now in all the instances, so far as I can remember, in which Johnson prefaces his assent with a 'No, Sir,' he and the person with whom he agrees are negativing some proposition, and the 'No, Sir' is a negative applied to the thing of which they are talking. At p. 491, (Croker) for example, Boswell says, "When you get to them [the Thrales] the pain will be so far abated that they will be capable of being consoled by you, which in the first violence of it, I believe, would not be the case.' Johnson replies, "No, Sir; violent pain of mind, like violent pain of body, must be severely felt,' where the meaning evidently is 'No, as you justly remark, they would not be consoled in the first violence of grief.' Boswell continues, I own, Sir, I have not so much feeling for the distress of others as some people have, or pretend to have, but I know this, that I would do all in my power to relieve them.' 'Sir,' said Johnson, assenting, 'it is affectation to pretend to feel the distress of others as much as they do themselves. No, Sir; you have expressed the rational and just nature of sympathy.' Here the 'No, Sir,' simply means, No; people have It not the feeling they often pretend to have.' So in the instance of the antiquated language which Lord Hailes had modernised in his reprint, and which was the occasion for what I think is Boswell's erroneous view of Johnson's phrase, the 'No, Sir,' signifies 'No, the language ought not to have been changed.' appears to remove all doubt on the point that Boswell has recorded numerous cases in which Johnson assents to an affirmative proposition, and then his phrase, I believe, is invariably Yes, Sir.' His 'No, Sir,' is confined to his concurrence in negative propositions. Take one or two examples out of many of the affirmative kind. At p. 229, (ibid.) Boswell says that respect for old families is one more incitement to do well, and Johnson replies, 'Yes, Sir, and it is a matter of opinion very necessary to keep society together.' At p. 263, Boswell observes that Goldsmith had a great deal of gold in his cabinet, but, not content with that, was always taking out his purse,' and Johnson answers, 'Yes, Sir, and that so often an empty purse.' At p. In 285, Boswell says, 'We have all observed Sir Joshua Reynolds having said that he took the altitude of a man's taste by his stories and his wit, and of his understanding by the remarks which he repeated; being always sure that he must be a weak man who quotes common things with an emphasis as if they were oracles. Johnson agreed with him; and Sir Joshua having also observed that the real character of a man was found out by his amusements-JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures." Had Johnson treated at large De Claris Oratoribus, he might have given us an admirable work. When the Duke of Bedford attacked the ministry as vehemently as he could, for having taken upon them to extend the time for the importation of corn, Lord Chatham, in his first speech in the House of Lords, boldly avowed himself to be an adviser of that measure. "My colleagues, (said he,) as I was confined by indisposition, did me the signal honour of coming to the bed-side of a sick man, to ask his opinion. But, had they not thus condescended, I should have taken up my bed and walked, in order to have delivered that opinion at the Council Board." Mr. Langton, who was present, mentioned this to Johnson, who observed, "Now, Sir, we see that he took these words as he found them; without considering, that though the expression in Scripture, take up thy bed and walk, strictly suited the instance of the sick man restored to health and strength, who would of course be supposed to carry his bed with him, it could not be proper in the case of a man who was lying in a state of feebleness, and who certainly would not add to the difficulty of moving at all, that of carrying his bed." When I pointed out to him in the news-paper one of Mr. Grattan's animated and glowing speeches, in favour of the freedom of Ireland, in which this expression occurred, (I know not if accurately taken): "We will persevere, till there is not one link of the English chain left to clank upon the rags of the meanest beggar in Ireland.” Cor. et Ad.-After line 8 read:-"I have mentioned Johnson's general aversion to a pun. He once, however, endured one of mine. When we were talking of a numerous company in which he had distinguished himself highly, I said, 'Sir, you were a COD surrounded by smelts. Is not this enough for you? at a time too when you were not fishing for a compliment?' He laughed at this with a complacent approbation. Old Mr. Sheridan observed, upon my mentioning it to him, ' He liked your compliment so well, he was willing to take it with pun sauce.' For my own part I think no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed: and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation." |