pease melancholy reflections, Johnson took her home to his house in Gough-square. In 1755, Garrick gave her a benefit-play, which produced two hundred pounds. In 1766, she published, by subscription, a quarto volume of Miscella nies, and increased her little stock to three hundred pounds. That fund, with Johnson's protection, supported her through the remainder of her life. our final sentence, then prayers for the dead, be- | ing visibly fruitless, can be regarded only as the vain oblations of superstition. But of all superstitions this, perhaps, is one of the least unamiable, and most incident to a good mind. If our sensations of kindness be intense, those, whom we have revered and loved, death cannot wholly seclude from our concern. It is true, for the reason just mentioned, such evidences of our surviving affection may be thought ill-judged; but During the two years in which the Rambler surely they are generous, and some natural ten- was carried on, the Dictionary proceeded by slow derness is due even to a superstition, which thus degrees. In May 1752, having composed a originates in piety and benevolence." These prayer preparatory to his return from tears and sentences, extracted from the Rev. Mr. Strahan's sorrow to the duties of life, he resumed his grand preface, if they are not a full justification, are, design, and went on with vigour, giving, howat least, a beautiful apology. It will not be im- ever, occasional assistance to his friend Dr. proper to add what Johnson himself has said on Hawkesworth in the Adventurer, which began the subject. Being asked by Mr. Boswell,* soon after the Rambler was laid aside. Some what he thought of purgatory as believed by the of the most valuable essays in that collection Roman Catholics? His answer was, "It is a were from the pen of Johnson. The Dictionary very harmless doctrine. They are of opinion, was completed towards the end of 1754; and, that the generality of mankind are neither so ob- Cave being then no more, it was a mortification stinately wicked as to deserve everlasting pu- to the author of that noble addition to our lannishment; nor so good as to merit being admit-guage, that his old friend did not live to see the ted into the society of blessed spirits; and, there- triumph of his labours. In May 1755, that fore, that God is graciously pleased to allow a great work was published. Johnson was demiddle state, where they may be purified by cer- sirous that it should come from one who had obtain degrees of suffering. You see there is no-tained academical honours; and for that pur thing unreasonable in this; and if it be once established that there are souls in purgatory, it is as proper to pray for them, as for our brethren of mankind who are yet in this life." This was Dr. Johnson's guess into futurity; and to guess is the utmost that man can do. "Shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it." pose his friend, the Rev. Thomas Wharton, ob tained for him, in the preceding month of February, a diploma for a master's degree from the University of Oxford. Garrick, on the publication of the Dictionary, wrote the following lines; toil, That one English soldier can beat ten of France, ours. It is, perhaps, needless to mention, that Forty was the number of the French academy, at the time when their Dictionary was published to settle their language. Mrs. Johnson left a daughter, Lucy Porter, by her first husband. She had contracted a friendship with Mrs. Anne Williams, the daughter of Zachary Williams, a physician of eminence in South Wales, who had devoted more than thirty years of a long life to the study of the longitude, and was thought to have made great advances towards that important discovery: His letters to Lord Halifax, and the Lords of the Admiralty, partly corrected and partly written by Dr. Johnson, are still extant in the hands of Mr. Nichols. We there find Dr. Williams, in the eighty-third year of his age, stating, that he had prepared an instrument, which might be called an epitome or miniature of the terraqueous globe, showing, with the assistance of tables constructed by himself, the variations of the magnetic needle, and ascertaining the longitude for the safety of navigation. It appears that In the course of the winter preceding this grand this scheme had been referred to Sir Isaac New-publication, the late Earl of Chesterfield gave ton; but that great philosopher excusing himself two essays in the periodical paper called The on account of his advanced age, all applications World, dated November 28, and December 5, were useless till 1751, when the subject was re1754, to prepare the publie for so important a ferred, by order of Lord Anson, to Dr. Bradley, work. The original plan, addressed to his the celebrated professor of astronomy. His re- Lordship in the year 1747, is there mentioned in port was unfavourable, though it allows that a terms of the highest praise; and this was underconsiderable progress had been made. Dr. stood, at the time, to be a courtly way of soliWilliams, after all his labour and expense, died citing a dedication of the Dictionary to himself. in a short time after, a melancholy instance of Johnson treated this civility with disdain. He unrewarded merit. His daughter possessed un- said to Garrick and others, "I have sailed a common talents, and, though blind, had an ala- long and painful voyage round the world of the crity of mind that made her conversation agree-cock-boats to tow me into harbour?" He had English language, and does he now send out two able, and even desirable. To relieve and ap * Life of Johnson, vol. i. p. 328. 4to edition. said, in the last number of the Rambler, that "having laboured to maintain the dignity of virtue, I will not now degrade it by the meanness of dedication." Such a man, when he had finished his Dictionary, "not," as he says himself, "in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow, and without the patronage of the Great," was not likely to be caught by the lure thrown out by Lord Chesterfield. He had in vain sought the patronage of that nobleman; and his pride, exasperated by disappointment, drew from him the following letter, dated in the month of February, 1755. "To the Right Hon. the Earl of CHESTERFIELD. "MY LORD, "I have been lately informed, by the proprietors of The World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honour which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. It is said, upon good authority, that Jolmsononce received from Lord Chesterfield the sum of ten pounds. It were to be wished that the secret had never transpired. It was mean to receive it, and meaner to give it. It may be imagined, that for Johnson's ferocity, as it has been called, there was some foundation in his finances; and, as his Dictionary was brought to a conclusion, that money was now to flow in upon him. The reverse was the case. For his subsistence, during the progress of the work, he had received at different times the amount of his contract; and when his receipts were produced to him at a tavern dinner, given by the booksellers, it appeared that he had been paid a hundred pounds and upwards more than his due. The author of a book, called Lexiphanes* written by a Mr. Campbell, a Scotchman, and purser of a man of war, endeavoured to blast his laurels, but in vain. The world applauded, and Johnson never replied. "Abuse," he said, "is often of service: there is nothing so dangerous to an "When, upon some slight encouragement, I author as silence; his name, like a shuttlecock, first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, must be beat backward and forward, or it falls like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of to the ground." Lexiphanes professed to be an your address, and could not forbear to wish, imitation of the pleasant manner of Lucian; but that I might boast myself le vainqueur du vain-humour was not the talent of the writer of Lexiqueur de la terre; that I might obtain that regard phanes. As Dryden says, "He had too much for which I saw the world contending. But I horse-play in his raillery." found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing, which a retired and uncourtly scho-"Mr. Murphy being engaged in a periodical lar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little. "Seven years, my Lord, have now passed since I waited in your outward room, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before. "The Shepherd in Virgil grew acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks. "Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind: but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received; or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as owing that to a patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. It was in the summer of 1754, that the present writer became acquainted with Dr. Johnson. The cause of his first visit is related by Mrs. Piozzi nearly in the following manner: paper, the Gray's-Inn Journal, was at a friend's house in the country, and not being disposed to lose pleasure for business, wished to content his bookseller by some unstudied essay. He therefore took up a French Journal Littéraire, and translating something he liked, sent it away to town. Time, however discovered that he translated from the French a Rambler, which had been taken from the English without acknowledgment. Upon this discovery, Mr. Murphy thought it right to make his excuses to Dr. John son. He went next day, and found him covered with soot, like a chimney-sweeper, in a little room, as if he had been acting Lungs in the Alchymist, making ather. This being told by Mr.. Murphy in company, Come, come,' said Dr. Johnson, 'the story is black enough; but it was a happy day that brought you first to my house."" After this first visit, the author of this narrative by degrees grew intimate with Dr. Johnson. The first striking sentence, that he heard from him, was in a few days after the publication of Lord Bolingbroke's posthumous works. Mr. Garrick asked him, "If he had seen them?" "Yes, I have seen them." "What do you think of them?" "Think of them!" He made a long pause, and then replied: "Think of them! A scoundrel and a coward! A scoun"Having carried on my work thus far with drel, who spent his life in charging a gun against so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I Christianity; and a coward, who was afraid of shall not be disappointed, though I should con-hearing the report of his own gun; but left halfclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, My Lord, your Lordship's most humble, a-crown to a hungry Scotchman to draw the trigger after his death." His mind, at this time strained and over-laboured by constant exertion, *This work was not published until the year 1767, when Dr. Johnson's Dictionary was fully established in reputation. C. called for an interval of repose and indolence. But indolence was the time of danger; it was then that his spirits, not employed abroad, turned with inward hostility against himself. His reflections on his own life and conduct were always severe and, wishing to be immaculate, he destroyed his own peace by unnecessary scruples. He tells us, that when he surveyed his past life, he discovered nothing but a barren waste of time, with some disorders of body, and disturbances of mind, very near to madness. Elis life, he says, from his earliest youth, was wasted in a morning bed; and his reigning sin was a general sluggishness, to which he was always inclined, and in part of his life, almost compelled, by morbid melancholy, and weariness of mind. This was his constitutional malady; derived, perhaps, from his father, who was, at times, overcast with a gloom that bordered on insanity. When to this it is added, that Johnson, about the age of twenty, drew up a description of his infirmities, for Dr. Swinfen, at that time an eminent physician in Staffordshire; and received an answer to his letter, importing, that the symptoms indicated a future privation of reason; who can wonder that he was troubled with melancholy and dejection of spirit? An apprehension of the worst calamity that can befall human nature hung over him all the rest of his life, like the sword of the tyrant suspended over his guest. In his sixtieth year he had a mind to write the history of his melancholy; but he desisted, not knowing, whether it would not too much disturb him. In a Latin Poem, however, to which he has prefixed as a title, гN2O1 EEAYTON, he has left a picture of himself, drawn with as much truth, and as firm a hand, as can be seen in the portraits of Hogarth or Sir Joshua Reynolds. The learned reader will find the original Poem in this volume, and it is hoped that a translation, or rather imitation, of so curious a piece will not be improper in this place. KNOW YOURSELF. (AFTER REVISING AND ENLARGING THE ENGLISH WHEN Scaliger, whole years of labour past, Yes, you had canse, great Genius, to repent; To learn whate'er the Sage, with virtue fraught, Yet warn'd by me, ye pigmy Wits, beware, Though for the maze of words his native skies For me what lot has Fortune now in store! A form to rugged stone when Phidias gives, Remove his marble, and his genius dies; With nature, then, no breathing statue vies. Beneath his touch a new creation lives. By Fortune's frown and penury of mind. I boast no knowledge glean'd with toil and strife, What then remains? Must I in slow decline Such is the picture for which Dr. Johnson sat to himself. He gives the prominent features of his character; his lassitude, his morbid me. lancholy, his love of fame, his dejection, his tavern parties, and his wandering reveries, Vacua mala somnia mentis, about which so much has been written; all are painted in miniature, but And amidst rolling worlds the Great First Cause ex- in vivid colours, by his own hand. His idea of plore; To fix the eras of recorded time, And live in every age and every clime, writing more dictionaries was not merely said in verse. Mr. Hamilton, who was at that time an eminent printer, and well acquainted with Dr. Johnson, remembers that he engaged in a Commercial Dictionary, and, as appears by the receipts in his possession, was paid his price for several sheets; but he soon relinquished the un dertaking. It is probable that he found himself In the margin of this letter there is a memorandum in these words: "March 16, 1756, Sent six guineas. Witness, Wm. Richardson." For the honour of an admired writer it is to be regretted, that we do not find a more liberal entry. To his friend in distress he sent eight shillings more than was wanted. Had an incident of this kind occurred in one of his Romances, Richardson would have known how to grace his hero; but in fictitious scenes, generosity costs the writer nothing. The proposal for a new edition of Shakspeare, which had formerly miscarried, was resumed in the year 1756. The booksellers readily agreed to his terms; and subscription-tickets were issued out. For undertaking this work, money, he confessed was the inciting motive. His friends exerted themselves to promote his interest; and, in the mean time, he engaged in a new periodical production called "The Idler." The first number appeared on Saturday, April 15, 1758; and the last, April 5, 1760. The profits of this work, and the subscriptions for the new edition of Shakspeare, were the means by which he supported himself for four or five years. In 1759 was published "Rasselas, Prince of Abys sinia." His translation of Lobo's voyage to Abyssinia seems to have pointed out that country for the scene of action; and Rassila Christos, the General of Sultan Segued, mentioned in that work, most probably suggested the name of the prince. The author wanted to set out on a journey to Litchfield, in order to pay the last offices of filial piety to his mother, who, at the age of ninety, was then near her dissolution; but money was necessary. Mr. Johnston, a booksel ler, who has long since left off business, gave one hundred pounds for the copy. With this supply Johnson set out for Litchfield; but did not arrive in time to close the eyes of a parent whom he loved. He attended the funeral, which, as appears among his memorandums, was on the 23d of January, 1759. Johnson now found it necessary to retrench his expenses. He gave up his house in Gough square. Mrs. Williams went into lodgings. He retired to Gray's-Inn, and soon removed to chambers in the Inner-Temple-lane, where he lived in poverty, total idleness, and the pride of About this time Johnson contributed several literature. Magni stat nominis umbra. Mr. papers to a periodical Miscellany, called "The Fitzherbert (the father of Lord St. Helens, the VISITOR," from motives which are highly ho- present minister at Madrid,) a man distinnourable to him, a compassionate regard for the guished through life for his benevolence and late Mr. Christopher Smart. The Criticism on other amiable qualities, used to say, that he paid Pope's Epitaphs appeared in that work. In a a morning visit to Johnson, intending from his short time after he became a reviewer in the chambers to send a letter into the City; but, to Literary Magazine, under the auspices of the his great surprise, he found an author by prolate Mr. Newberry, a man of a projecting head, fession without pen, ink, or paper. The late good taste, and great industry. This employ- Dr. Douglas, bishop of Salisbury, was also ment engrossed but little of Johnson's time among those who endeavoured, by constant atHe resigned himself to indolence, took no exer- tention, to soothe the cares of a mind which he cise, rose about two, and then received the visits knew to be afflicted with gloomy apprehensions. of his friends. Authors long since forgotten, At one of the parties made at his house, Boscowaited on him as their oracle, and he gave re- vich, the Jesuit, who had then lately introduced sponses in the chair of criticism. He listened the Newtonian philosophy at Rome, and, after to the complaints, the schemes, and the hopes publishing an elegant Latin poem on the suband fears, of a crowd of inferior writers, "who." ject, was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, he said, in the words of Roger Ascham, "lived, was one of the company invited to meet Dr. men knew not how, and died obscure, men marked Johnson. The conversation at first was mostly not when." He believed that he could give a in French. Johnson, though thoroughly versed better history of Grub-street than any man liv- in that language, and a professed admirer of ing. His house was filled with a succession of Boileau and La Bruyere, did not understand its visitors till four or five in the evening. During pronunciation, nor could he speak it himself the whole time he presided at his tea-table. Tea with propriety. For the rest of the evening the was his favourite beverage; and, when the late talk was in Latin. Boscovich had a ready Jonas Hanway pronounced his anathema against current flow of that flimsy phraseology with the use of tea, Johnson rose in defence of his ha- which a priest may travel through Italy, Spain, bitual practice, declaring himself" in that article and Germany. Johnson scorned what he called a hardened sinner, who had for years diluted his colloquial barbarisms. It was his pride to speak meals with the infusion of that fascinating plant; his best. He went on, after a little practice, whose tea-kettle had no time to cool: who with with as much facility as if it was his native tea solaced the midnight hour, and with tea wel-tongue. One sentence his writer well rememcomed the morning." Observing that Fontenelle at first op bers. * posed the Newtonian philosophy, and embraced Being now in the possession of a regular init afterwards, his words were: Fontenellus, ni come, Johnson left his chambers in the Temple, fallor in extrem senectute, fuit transfuga ad and once more became master of a house in castra Newtoniana. Johnson's-court, Fleet-street. Dr. Levet, his We have now travelled through that part of friend and physician in ordinary, paid his daily Dr. Johnson's life which was a perpetual strug-visits with assiduity; made tea all the morning, gle with difficulties. Halcyon days are now to talked what he had to say, and did not expect open upon him. In the month of May 1762, an answer. Mrs. Williams had her apartment his Majesty, to reward literary merit, signified in the house, and entertained her benefactor his pleasure to grant to Johnson a pension of with more enlarged conversation. Chemistry three hundred pounds a year. The Earl of was part of Johnson's amusement. For this Bute was minister. Lord Loughborough, who, love of experimental philosophy, Sir John perhaps, was originally a mover in the business, Hawkins thinks an apology necessary. He had authority to mention it. He was well ac- tells us, with great gravity, that curiosity was quainted with Johnson; but, having heard the only object in view; not an intention to much of his independent spirit, and of the grow suddenly rich by the philosopher's stone, downfall of Osborne the bookseller, he did not or the transmutation of metals. To enlarge his know but his benevolence might be rewarded circle, Johnson once more had recourse to a with a folio on his head. He desired the au- literary club. This was at the Turk's Head, thor of these memoirs to undertake the task. in Gerard-street, Soho, on every Tuesday This writer thought the opportunity of doing so evening through the year. The members much good the most happy incident in his life. were, besides himself, the Right Hon. Edmund He went, without delay, to the chambers in Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Nugent, Dr. the Inner Temple-lane, which, in fact, were the Goldsmith, the late Mr. Topham Beauclerk, abode of wretchedness. By slow and studied Mr. Langton, Mr. Chamier, Sir John Hawapproaches the message was disclosed. Johnson kins, and some others. Johnson's affection for made a long pause: he asked if it was seriously Sir Joshua was founded on a long acquaintance, intended? He fell into a profound meditation, and a thorough knowledge of the virtues and and his own definition of a pensioner occurred amiable qualities of that excellent artist. He to him. He was told, "That he, at least, did delighted in the conversation of Mr. Burke. not come within the definition." He desired to He met him for the first time at Mr. Garrick's, meet next day and dine at the Mitre Tavern. several years ago. On the next day he said, “I At that meeting he gave up all his scruples. On suppose, Murphy, you are proud of your counthe following day Lord Loughborough conduct- tryman. CUM TALIS SIT UTINAM NOSTER ESed him to the Earl of Bute. The conversation SET?" From that time his constant observation that passed was in the evening related to this was, "That a man of sense could not meet Mr. writer by Dr. Johnson. He expressed his Burke by accident, under a gateway to avoid a sense of his Majesty's bounty, and thought shower, without being convinced that he was himself the more highly honoured, as the favour the first man in England." Johnson felt not was not bestowed on him for having dipped his only kindness, but zeal and ardour for his pen in faction. "No, Sir," said Lord Bute, friends. He did every thing in his power to "it is not offered to you for having dipped your advance the reputation of Dr. Goldsmith. He pen in faction, nor with a design that you ever loved him, though he knew his failings, and should." Sir John Hawkins will have it, that particularly the leaven of envy, which corroded after this interview, Johnson was often pressed the mind of that elegant writer, and made him to wait on Lord Bute: but with a sullen spirit impatient, without disguise, of the praises berefused to comply. However that be, Johnson stowed on any person whatever. Of this inwas never heard to utter a disrespectful word of firmity, which marked Goldsmith's character, that nobleman. The writer of this essay re-Johnson gave a remarkable instance. It hapmembers a circumstance which may throw some pened that he went with Sir Joshua Reynolds light on this subject. The late Dr. Rose, of and Goldsmith to see the Fantoccini, which Chiswick, whom Johnson loved and respected, were exhibited some years ago in or near the contended for the pre-eminence of the Scotch Haymarket. They admired the curious_mewriters; and Ferguson's book on Civil Society, chanism by which the puppets were made to then on the eve of publication, he said, would walk the stage, draw a chair to the table, sit give the laurel to North Britain. "Alas! what down, write a letter, and perform a variety of can he do upon that subject ?" said Johnson: other actions, with such dexterity, that "though "Aristotle, Polybius, Grotius, Puffendorf, and Nature's journeymen made the men, they imiBurlemaqui, have reaped in that field before tated humanity" to the astonishment of the him." "He will treat it," said Dr. Rose, "in spectator. The entertainment being over, the a new mannner." "A new manner! Buck-three friends retired to a tavern. Johnson and inger had no hands, and he wrote his name with his toes at Charing-cross, for half-a-crowna-piece; that was a new manner of writing!" Dr. Rose replied, "If that will not, satisfy you, I will name a writer, whom you must allow to be the best in the kingdom." Who is that?" "The Earl of Bute, when he wrote an order for your pension." There, Sir," said Johnson, "you have me in the toil to Lord Bute I must allow whatever praise you may claim for him." Ingratitude was no part of Johnson's character. (c) Sir Joshua talked with pleasure of what they had seen; and says Johnson, in a tone of admiration, "How the little fellow brandished his spontoon!" "There is nothing in it," replied Goldsmith, starting up with impatience; "give me a spontoon; I can do it as well myself." Enjoying his amusements at his weekly club, and happy in a state of independence, Johnson * See Johnson's Epitaph on him. |