1768. Etat. 59. after diffecting a fcorpion upon whom the experiment had been tried, fhould certify that its fting had penetrated into its head. He seemed pleased to talk of natural philofophy. "That woodcocks, (faid he,) fly over to the northern countries, is proved, because they have been obferved at fea. Swallows certainly fleep all the winter. A number of them conglobulate together, by flying round and round, and then all in a heap throw themselves under water, and lye in the bed of a river." He told us, one of his first effays was a Latin poem upon the glow-worm. I am forry I did not afk where it was to be found. Talking of the Ruffians and the Chinese, he advised me to read Bell's travels. I asked him whether I fhould read Du Halde's account of China. "Why yes, (faid he,) as one reads fuch a book; that is to fay, confult it." He talked of the heinousness of the crime of adultery, by which the peace of families was destroyed. He faid, "Confusion of progeny constitutes the effence of the crime; and therefore a woman who breaks her marriage vows is much more criminal than a man who does it. A man, to be fure, is criminal in the fight of GoD: but he does not do his wife a very material injury, if he does not infult her; if, for inftance, from mere wantonness of appetite, he steals privately to her chambermaid. Sir, a wife ought not greatly to refent this. I would not receive home a daughter who had run from her husband on that account. A wife should study to reclaim her husband by more attention to please him. Sir, a man will not, once in a hundred inftances, leave his wife and go to a harlot, if his wife has not been negligent of pleafing." away I asked him if it was not hard that one deviation from chastity fhould fo abfolutely ruin a young woman. JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir; it is the great principle which she is taught. When fhe has given up that principle, fhe has given up every notion of female honour and virtue, which are all included in chastity." A gentleman talked to him of a lady whom he greatly admired and wished to marry, but was afraid of her fuperiority of talents. Sir, (faid he,) you need not be afraid; marry her. Before a year goes about, you'll find that reafon much weaker, and that wit not fo bright." Yet the gentleman may be juftified in his apprehenfion by one of Dr. Johnson's admirable fentences in his life of Waller: "He doubtless praised many whom he would have been afraid to marry; and, perhaps, married one whom he would have been afhamed to praise. Many qualities contribute to domestick happiness, upon which poetry has no colours to bestow; and many airs and fallies may delight imagination, which he who flatters them never can approve." He He praised Signor Baretti. "His account of Italy is a very entertaining book; and, Sir, I know no man who carries his head higher in converfation than Baretti. There are strong powers in his mind. He has not, indeed, many hooks; but with what hooks he has he grapples very forcibly.” At this time I obferved upon the dial-plate of his watch a fhort Greek infcription, taken from the New Testament, Nu EpxETα, being the first words of our Saviour's folemn admonition to the improvement of that time which is allowed us to prepare for eternity; "the night cometh when no man can work." He fome time afterwards laid afide this dial-plate; and when I asked him the reason, he faid, "It might do very well upon a clock which a man keeps in his clofet; but to have it upon his watch which he carries about with him, and which is often looked at by others, might be cenfured as oftentatious." Mr. Steevens is now poffeffed of the dial-plate inscribed as above. He remained at Oxford a confiderable time; I was obliged to go to London, where I received his letter, which had been returned from Scotland. To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq. "MY DEAR BOSWELL, "I HAVE omitted a long time to write to you, without knowing very well why. I could now tell why I fhould not write, for who would write to men who publish the letters of their friends without their leave? Yet I write to you in fpite of my caution, to tell you that I fhall be glad to see you, and that I wish you would empty your head of Corfica, which I think has filled it rather too long. But, at all events, I fhall be glad, very glad to fee you. I am, Sir, 1768. Etat. 59. "Yours affectionately, Oxford, March 23, 1768. SAM. JOHNSON." I answered thus: To Mr. SAMUEL JOHNSON. London, 26th April, 1768. "MY DEAR SIR, "I HAVE received your last letter, which, though very fhort, and by no means complimentary, yet gave me real pleasure, because it contains these words, I fhall be glad, very glad to fee you.'-Surely, you have no reason to complain of my publishing a fingle paragragh of one of your letters; the 1768. Etat. 59. the temptation to it was fo ftrong. An irrevocable grant of your friendship, and your dignifying my defire of vifiting Corfica with the epithet of a wife and noble curiofity,' are to me more valuable than many of the grants of kings. "But how can you bid me empty my head of Corfica?' My nobleminded friend, do you not feel for an oppreffed nation bravely ftruggling to be free? Confider fairly what is the cafe. The Corficans never received any kindnefs from the Genoefe. They never agreed to be fubject to them. They owe them nothing; and when reduced to an abject state of flavery, by force, fhall they not rife in the great caufe of liberty, and break the galling yoke? And fhall not every liberal foul be warm for them? Empty my head of Corfica! Empty it of honour, empty it of humanity, empty it of friendfhip, empty it of piety. No! while I live, Corfica and the cause of the brave islanders fhall ever employ much of my attention, fhall ever interest me in the fincereft manner. "I am, &c. JAMES BOSWELL." Upon his arrival in London in May, he furprized me one morning with a vifit at my lodgings in Half-Moon-ftreet, was quite fatisfied with my explanation, and was in the kindest and most agreeable frame of mind. As he had objected to a part of one of his letters being published, I thought it right to take this opportunity of afking him explicitly whether it would be improper to publish his letters after his death. His anfwer was, " Nay, Sir, when I ain dead, you may do as you will." He talked in his ufual ftyle with a rough contempt of popular liberty. "They make a rout about univerfal liberty, without confidering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty. Political liberty is good only fo far as it produces private liberty. Now, Sir, there is the liberty of the prefs, which you know is a conftant topick. Suppofe you and I and two hundred more were reftrained from printing our thoughts: what then? What proportion would that restraint upon us bear to the private happiness of the nation?" This mode of representing the inconveniencies of restraint as light and infignificant, was a kind of fophiftry in which he delighted to indulge himself, in oppofition to the extreme laxity for which it has been fashionable for too many to argue, when it is evident, upon reflection, that the very effence of government is restraint; and certain it is, that as government produces rational happiness, happiness, too much restraint is better than too little. But when restraint is 1768. unneceffary, and so close as to gall those who are fubject to it, the people Etat. 59. may and ought to remonstrate; and, if relief is not granted, to resist. Of this manly and spirited principle, no man was more convinced than Johnson himself. About this time Dr. Kenrick attacked him, through my fides, in a pamphlet, entitled " An Epiftle to James Bofwell, Efq. occafioned by his having transmitted the moral Writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson to Pascal Paoli, General of the Corficans." I was at firft inclined to anfwer this pamphlet; but Johnson, who knew that my doing fo would only gratify Kenrick, by keeping alive what would foon die away of itself, would not fuffer me to take any notice of it. His fincere regard for Francis Barber, his faithful negro fervant, made him so defirous of his further improvement, that he now placed him at a school at Bishop Stortford, in Hertfordshire. This humane attention does Johnson's heart much honour. Out of many letters which Mr. Barber received from his master, he has preferved three, which he kindly gave me, and which I shall infert according to their dates. To Mr. FRANCIS BARBER. "DEAR FRANCIS, "I HAVE been very much out of order. I am glad to hear that you are well, and defign to come foon to fee you. I would have you stay at Mrs. Clapp's for the prefent, till I can determine what we shall do. Be a good boy. "My compliments to Mrs. Clapp and to Mr. Fowler. I am May 28, 1768. "Yours affectionately, SAM. JOHNSON." Soon afterwards, he fupped at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in the Strand, with a company whom I collected to meet him. They were Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore, Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of Carlisle, Mr. Langton, Dr. Robertson the Hiftorian, Dr. Hugh Blair, and Mr. Thomas Davies, who wifhed much to be introduced to thefe eminent Scotch literati; but on the prefent occafion he had very little opportunity of hearing them talk, for with an excess of prudence, for which Johnfon afterwards found fault with them, they hardly opened their lips, and that only to fay fomething which they were certain Rr 1768. Etat. 59. certain would not expose them to the fword of Goliah; fuch was their anxiety for their fame when in the prefence of Johnson. He was this evening in remarkable vigour of mind, and eager to exert himself in conversation, which he did with great readiness and fluency; but I am forry to find that I have preferved but a fmall part of what paffed. I He allowed high praise to Thomfon as a poet; but when one of the company faid he was alfo a very good man, our moralift contested this with great warmth, accufing him of grofs fenfuality and licentiousness of manners. was very much afraid that in writing Thomfon's life, Dr. Johnfon would have treated his private character with a ftern feverity, but I was agreeably difappointed; and I may claim a little merit in it, from my having been at pains to fend him authentick accounts of the affectionate and generous conduct of that poet to his fifters, one of whom, the wife of Mr. Thomfon, fchoolmaster at Lanark, I knew, and was presented by her with three of his letters, one of which Dr. Johnfon has inferted in his life. He was vehement against old Dr. Mounfey, of Chelsea College, as "a fellow who swore and talked bawdy." "I have been often in his company,. (faid Dr. Percy,) and never heard him fwear or talk bawdy." Mr. Davies, who fat next to Dr. Percy, having after this had fome converfation afide with him, made a discovery which, in his zeal to pay court to Dr. Johnson, he eagerly proclaimed aloud from the foot of the table: "O, Sir, I have found out a very good reason why Dr. Percy never heard Mounsey fwear or talk bawdy; for he tells me, he never faw him but at the Duke of Northumberland's table." "And fo, Sir, (faid Johnfon loudly, to Dr. Percy,) you would fhield this man from the charge of fwearing and talking bawdy, because he did not do fo at the Duke of Northumberland's table. Sir, you might as well tell us that you had seen him hold up his hand at the Old Bailey, and he neither swore nor talked bawdy; or that you had feen him in the cart at Tyburn, and he neither fwore nor talked bawdy. And is it thus, Sir, that you prefume to controvert what I have related?" Dr. Johnson's animadverfion was uttered in fuch a manner, that Dr. Percy seemed to be displeased, and foon afterwards left the company, of which Johnson did not at that time take any notice. Swift having been mentioned, Johnson, as ufual, treated him with little refpect as an authour. Some of us endeavoured to fupport the Dean of St. Patrick's, by various arguments. One in particular praifed his "Conduct of the Allies." JOHNSON. "Sir, his Conduct of the Allies' is a performance of very little ability." "Surely, Sir, (faid Dr. Douglas,) you must allow it has |