Chapter XVI: Part 16

[75] This letter, though shattered by the sharp shot of Dr. _Horne_ of _Oxford's_ wit, in the character of _One of the People called Christians_, is still prefixed to Mr. Hume's excellent _History of England_, like a poor invalid on the piquet guard, or like a list of quack medicines sold by the same bookseller, by whom a work of whatever nature is published; for it has no connection with his _History_, let it have what it may with what are called his _Philosophical_ Works. A worthy friend of mine in London was lately consulted by a lady of quality, of most distinguished merit, what was the best History of England for her son to read. My friend recommended Hume's. But, upon recollecting that its usher was a superlative panegyrick on one, who endeavoured to sap the credit of our holy religion, he revoked his recommendation. I am really sorry for this ostentatious _alliance_; because I admire _The Theory of Moral Sentiments_, and value the greatest part of _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_. Why should such a writer be so forgetful of human comfort, as to give any countenance to that dreary infidelity which would make us poor indeed?' ['makes me poor indeed.' _Othello_, act iii. sc.3]. BOSWELL. Dr. Horne's book is entitled, _A Letter to Adam Smith, LL.D., On the Life, Death, and Philosophy of his Friend David Hume, Esq. By one of the People called Christians_. Its chief wit is in the Preface. The bookseller mentioned in this note was perhaps Francis Newbery, who succeeded his father, Goldsmith's publisher, as a dealer in quack medicines and books. They dealt in 'over thirty different nostrums,' and published books of every nature. Of the father Johnson said:--'Newbery is an extraordinary man, for I know not whether he has read or written most books.' He is the original of 'Jack Whirler' in _The Idler_, No. 19. _A Bookseller of the Last Century_, pp. 22, 73.

[76] Hume says that his first work, his _Treatise of Human Nature_, 'fell _dead-born from the press.' Auto._ p.3. His _Enquiry concerning Human Understanding_ 'was entirely overlooked and neglected.' _Ib_. p.4. His _Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals_ 'came unnoticed and unobserved into the world.' _Ib_. p.5. The first volume of his _History of England_ certainly met with numerous assailants; but 'after the first ebullitions of their fury were over, what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sink into oblivion. Mr. Millar told me,' he continues, 'that in a twelvemonth he sold only forty-five copies of it...I was I confess, discouraged, and had not the war at that time been breaking out between France and England, I had certainly retired to some provincial town of the former kingdom, have changed my name, and never more have returned to my native country.' _Ib_. p.6. Only one of his works, his _Political Discourses_, was 'successful on the first publication.' _Ib_. p.5. By the time he was turned fifty, however, his books were selling very well, and he had become 'not only independent but opulent.' Ib. p. 8. A few weeks before he died he wrote: 'I see many symptoms of my literary reputation's breaking out at last with additional lustre.' _Ib_. p.10.

[77] _Psalms_, cxix. 99.

[78] We learn, _post_, Oct. 29, that Robertson was cautious in his talk, though we see here that he had much more courage than the professors of Aberdeen or Glasgow.

[79] This was one of the points upon which Dr. Johnson was strangely heterodox. For, surely, Mr. Burke, with his other remarkable qualities, is also distinguished for his wit, and for wit of all kinds too: not merely that power of language which Pope chooses to denominate wit:--

(True wit is Nature to advantage drest;
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest.)

[Pope's Essay on Criticism, ii. 297.] but surprising allusions, brilliant sallies of vivacity, and pleasant conceits. His speeches in parliament are strewed with them. Take, for instance, the variety which he has given in his wide range, yet exact detail, when exhibiting his Reform Bill. And his conversation abounds in wit. Let me put down a specimen. I told him, I had seen, at a _Blue stocking_ assembly, a number of ladies sitting round a worthy and tall friend of ours, listening to his literature. 'Ay, (said he) like maids round a May-pole.' I told him, I had found out a perfect definition of human nature, as distinguished from the animal. An ancient philosopher said, Man was 'a two-legged animal without feathers,' upon which his rival Sage had a Cock plucked bare, and set him down in the school before all the disciples, as a 'Philosophick Man.' Dr. Franklin said, Man was 'a tool-making animal,' which is very well; for no animal but man makes a thing, by means of which he can make another thing. But this applies to very few of the species. My definition of _Man_ is, 'a Cooking animal.' The beasts have memory, judgment, and all the faculties and passions of our mind in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook. The trick of the monkey using the cat's paw to roast a chestnut, is only a piece of shrewd malice in that _turpissima bestia_, which humbles us so sadly by its similarity to us. Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats. Your definition is good, said Mr. Burke, and I now see the full force of the common proverb, 'There is _reason_ in roasting of eggs.' When Mr. Wilkes, in his days of tumultuous opposition, was borne upon the shoulders of the mob, Mr. Burke (as Mr. Wilkes told me himself, with classical admiration,) applied to him what _Horace_ says of _Pindar_,

..._numeris_que fertur
LEGE _solutis_. [_Odes_, iv. 2. 11.]

Sir Joshua Reynolds, who agrees with me entirely as to Mr. Burke's. fertility of wit, said, that this was 'dignifying a pun.' He also observed, that he has often heard Burke say, in the course of an evening, ten good things, each of which would have served a noted wit (whom he named) to live upon for a twelvemonth. I find, since the former edition, that some persons have objected to the instances which I have given of Mr. Burke's wit, as not doing justice to my very ingenious friend; the specimens produced having, it is alleged, more of conceit than real wit, and being merely sportive sallies of the moment, not justifying the encomium which, they think with me, he undoubtedly merits. I was well aware, how hazardous it was to exhibit particular instances of wit, which is of so airy and spiritual a nature as often to elude the hand that attempts to grasp it. The excellence and efficacy of a _bon mot_ depend frequently so much on the occasion on which it is spoken, on the particular manner of the speaker, on the person to whom it is applied, the previous introduction, and a thousand minute particulars which cannot be easily enumerated, that it is always dangerous to detach a witty saying from the group to which it belongs, and to set it before the eye of the spectator, divested of those concomitant circumstances, which gave it animation, mellowness, and relief. I ventured, however, at all hazards, to put down the first instances that occurred to me, as proofs of Mr. Burke's lively and brilliant fancy; but am very sensible that his numerous friends could have suggested many of a superior quality. Indeed, the being in company with him, for a single day, is sufficient to shew that what I have asserted is well founded; and it was only necessary to have appealed to all who know him intimately, for a complete refutation of the heterodox opinion entertained by Dr. Johnson on this subject. _He_ allowed Mr. Burke, as the reader will find hereafter [_post_. Sept.15 and 30], to be a man of consummate and unrivalled abilities in every light except that now under consideration; and the variety of his allusions, and splendour of his imagery, have made such an impression on _all the rest_ of the world, that superficial observers are apt to overlook his other merits, and to suppose that _wit_ is his chief and most prominent excellence; when in fact it is only one of the many talents that he possesses, which are so various and extraordinary, that it is very difficult to ascertain precisely the rank and value of each. BOSWELL. For Malone's share in this note, see _ante_, iii. 323, note 2. For Burke's Economical Reform Bill, which was brought in on Feb. 11, 1780, see Prior's _Burke_, p.184. For _Blue Stocking_, see _ante_, iv. 108. The 'tall friend of ours' was Mr. Langton (_ante_, i. 336). For Franklin's definition, see _ante_, iii. 245, and for Burke's classical pun, _ib_. p. 323. For Burke's 'talent of wit,' see _ante_, i. 453, iii. 323, iv. May 15, 1784, and _post_, Sept. 15.

[80] See _ante_, iv. 27, where Burke said:--'It is enough for me to have rung the bell to him [Johnson].'

[81] See _ante_, vol. iv, May 15, 1784.

[82] Prior (_Life of Burke_, pp.31, 36) says that 'from the first his destination was the Bar.' His name was entered at the Middle Temple in 1747, but he was never called. Why he gave up the profession his biographer cannot tell.

[83] See _ante_, ii. 437, note 2.

[84] See _ante_, i. 78, note 2.

[85] That cannot be said now, after the flagrant part which Mr. _John Wesley_ took against our American brethren, when, in his own name, he threw amongst his enthusiastick flock, the very individual combustibles of Dr. _Johnson's Taxation no Tyranny_; and after the intolerant spirit which he manifested against our fellow-christians of the Roman Catholick Communion, for which that able champion, Father _O'Leary_, has given him so hearty a drubbing. But I should think myself very unworthy, if I did not at the same time acknowledge Mr. John Wesley's merit, as a veteran 'Soldier of Jesus Christ' [2 _Timothy_, ii. 3], who has, I do believe, 'turned many from darkness into light, and from the power of _Satan_ to the living GOD' [_Acts_, xxvi. 18]. BOSWELL. Wesley wrote on Nov. 11, 1775 (_Journal_, iv. 56), 'I made some additions to the _Calm Address to our American Colonies_. Need any one ask from what motive this was wrote? Let him look round; England is in a flame! a flame of malice and rage against the King, and almost all that are in authority under him. I labour to put out this flame.' He wrote a few days later:--'As to reviewers, news-writers, _London Magazines_, and all that kind of gentlemen, they behave just as I expected they would. And let them lick up Mr. Toplady's spittle still; a champion worthy of their cause.' _Journal_, p. 58. In a letter published in Jan. 1780, he said:--'I insist upon it, that no government, not Roman Catholic, ought to tolerate men of the Roman Catholic persuasion. They ought not to be tolerated by any government, Protestant, Mahometan, or Pagan.' To this the Rev. Arthur O'Leary replied with great wit and force, in a pamphlet entitled, _Remarks on the Rev. Mr. Wesley's Letters_. Dublin, 1780. Wesley (_Journal_, iv. 365) mentions meeting O'Leary, and says:--'He seems not to be wanting either in sense or learning.' Johnson wrote to Wesley on Feb. 6, 1776 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 475), 'I have thanks to return you for the addition of your important suffrage to my argument on the American question. To have gained such a mind as yours may justly confirm me in my own opinion. What effect my paper has upon the public, I know not; but I have no reason to be discouraged. The lecturer was surely in the right, who, though he saw his audience slinking away, refused to quit the chair while Plato staid.'

[86] 'Powerful preacher as he was,' writes Southey, 'he had neither strength nor acuteness of intellect, and his written compositions are nearly worthless.' Southey's _Wesley,_ i. 323. See _ante_, ii. 79.

[87] Mr. Burke. See _ante_, ii. 222, 285, note 3, and iii. 45.

[88] If due attention were paid to this observation, there would be more virtue, even in politicks. What Dr. Johnson justly condemned, has, I am sorry to say, greatly increased in the present reign. At the distance of four years from this conversation, 21st February, 1777, My Lord Archbishop of York, in his 'sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,' thus indignantly describes the then state of parties:--'Parties once had a _principle_ belonging to them, absurd perhaps, and indefensible, but still carrying a notion of _duty_, by which honest minds might easily be caught. 'But there are now _combinations_ of _individuals_, who, instead of being the sons and servants of the community, make a league for advancing their _private interests_. It is their business to hold high the notion of _political honour_. I believe and trust, it is not injurious to say, that such a bond is no better than that by which the lowest and wickedest combinations are held together; and that it denotes the last stage of political depravity.' To find a thought, which just shewed itself to us from the mind of _Johnson_, thus appearing again at such a distance of time, and without any communication between them, enlarged to full growth in the mind of _Markham_, is a curious object of philosophical contemplation.--That two such great and luminous minds should have been so dark in one corner,--that _they_ should have held it to be 'Wicked rebellion in the British subjects established in America, to resist the abject condition of holding all their property at the mercy of British subjects remaining at home, while their allegiance to our common Lord the King was to be preserved inviolate,--is a striking proof to me, either that 'He who sitteth in Heaven' [_Psalms_, ii.4] scorns the loftiness of human pride,--or that the evil spirit, whose personal existence I strongly believe, and even in this age am confirmed in that belief by a _Fell_, nay, by a _Hurd_, has more power than some choose to allow. BOSWELL. Horace Walpole writing on June 10, 1778, after censuring Robertson for sneering at Las Casas, continues:--'Could Archbishop Markham in a Sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel by fire and sword paint charity in more contemptuous terms? It is a Christian age.' _Letters_, vii.81. It was Archbishop Markham to whom Johnson made the famous bow; _ante_, vol. iv, just before April 10, 1783. John Fell published in 1779 _Demoniacs; an Enquiry into the Heathen and Scripture Doctrine of Daemons_. For Hurd see _ante_, under June 9,1784.

[89] See Forster's _Essays_, ii 304-9. Mr. Forster often quotes Cooke in his _Life of Goldsmith_. He describes him (i. 58) as 'a _young_ Irish law student who had chambers near Goldsmith in the temple.' Goldsmith did not reside in the temple till 1763 (_ib_. p.336), and Cooke was old enough to have published his _Hesiod_ in 1728, and to have found a place in _The Dunciad_ (ii. 138). See Elwin and Courthope's _Pope_, x. 212, for his correspondence with Pope.

[90] It may be observed, that I sometimes call my great friend, _Mr_. Johnson, sometimes _Dr_. Johnson: though he had at this time a doctor's degree from Trinity College, Dublin. The University of Oxford afterwards conferred it upon him by a diploma, in very honourable terms. It was some time before I could bring myself to call him Doctor; but, as he has been long known by that title, I shall give it to him in the rest of this Journal. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 488, note 3, and ii. 332, note I.

[91] In _The Idler_, No. viii, Johnson has the following fling at tragedians. He had mentioned the terror struck into our soldiers by the Indian war-cry, and he continues:--'I am of opinion that by a proper mixture of asses, bulls, turkeys, geese, and tragedians a noise might be procured equally horrid with the war-cry.' See _ante_, ii.92.

[92] _Tom Jones_, Bk. xvi. chap. 5. Mme. Necker in a letter to Garrick said:--'Nos acteurs se métamorphosent assez bien, mais Monsieur Garrick fait autre chose; il nous métamorphose tous dans le caractère qu'il a revêtu; _nous sommes remplis de terreur avec Hamlet_,' &c. _Garrick Corres_. ii. 627.

[93] See _ante_, i. 432, and ii. 278.

[94] See _ante_, ii. 11.

[95] Euphan M'Cullan (not Eupham Macallan) is mentioned in Dalrymple's [Lord Hailes] _Remarks on the History of Scotland_, p. 254. She maintained that 'she seldom ever prayed but she got a positive answer.' The minister of her parish was ill. 'She prayed, and got an answer that for a year's time he should be spared; and after the year's end he fell sick again.' 'I went,' said she, 'to pray yet again for his life; but the Lord left me not an mouse's likeness (a proverbial expression, meaning _to reprove with such severity that the person reproved shrinks and becomes abashed_), and said, 'Beast that thou art! shall I keep my servant in pain for thy sake?' And when I said, 'Lord, what then shall I do?' He answered me, 'He was but a reed that I spoke through, and I will provide another reed to speak through.' Dalrymple points out that it was a belief in these 'answers from the Lord' that led John Balfour and his comrades to murder Archbishop Sharp.

[96] R. Chambers, in his _Traditions_, speaking of the time of Johnson's visit, says (i. 21) on the authority of 'an ancient native of Edinburgh that people all knew each other by sight. The appearance of a new face upon the streets was at once remarked, and numbers busied themselves in finding out who and what the stranger was.'

[97] It was on this visit to the parliament-house, that Mr. Henry Erskine (brother of Lord Erskine), after being presented to Dr. Johnson by Mr. Boswell, and having made his bow, slipped a shilling into Boswell's hand, whispering that it was for the sight of his _bear_. WALTER SCOTT.

[98] This is one of the Libraries entitled to a copy of every new work published in the United Kingdom. Hume held the office of librarian at a salary of £40 a year from 1752 to 1757. J.H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 367, 373.

[99] The Edinburgh oyster-cellars were called _laigh shops_. Chambers's _Traditions_, ii. 268.

[100] This word is commonly used to signify _sullenly, gloomily_; and in that sense alone it appears in Dr. Johnson's _Dictionary_. I suppose he meant by it, 'with an _obstinate resolution_, similar to that of a sullen man.' BOSWELL. Southey wrote to Scott:--'Give me more lays, and correct them at leisure for after editions--not laboriously, but when the amendment comes naturally and unsought for. It never does to sit down doggedly to _correct_.' Southey's _Life_, iii. 126. See _ante_, i. 332, for the influence of seasons on composition.

[101] Boswell, _post_, Nov. 1, writes of '_old Scottish_ enthusiasm,' again italicising these two words.

[102] See _ante_, iii. 410.

[103] See _ante_, i. 354.

[104] Cockburn (_Life of Jeffrey_, i. 182) writing of the beginning of this century, describes how the General Assembly 'met in those days, as it had done for about 200 years, in one of the aisles of the then grey and venerable cathedral of St. Giles. That plain, square, galleried apartment was admirably suited for the purpose; and it was more interesting from the men who had acted in it, and the scenes it had witnessed, than any other existing room in Scotland. It had beheld the best exertions of the best men in the kingdom ever since the year 1640. Yet was it obliterated in the year 1830 with as much indifference as if it had been of yesterday; and for no reason except a childish desire for new walls and change.'

[105] I have hitherto called him Dr. William Robertson, to distinguish him from Dr. James Robertson, who is soon to make his appearance. But _Principal_, from his being the head of our college, is his usual designation, and is shorter: so I shall use it hereafter. BOSWELL.

[106] The dirtiness of the Scotch churches is taken off in _The Tale of a Tub_, sect. xi:--'Neither was it possible for the united rhetoric of mankind to prevail with Jack to make himself clean again.' In _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of Aug. 8) we are told that 'the good people of Edinburgh no longer think dirt and cobwebs essential to the house of God.' Bishop Horne (_Essays and Thoughts_, p. 45) mentioning 'the maxim laid down in a neighbouring kingdom that _cleanliness is not essential to devotion_,' continues, 'A Church of England lady once offered to attend the Kirk there, if she might be permitted to have the pew swept and lined. "The pew swept and lined!" said Mess John's wife, "my husband would think it downright popery."' In 1787 he wrote that there are country churches in England 'where, perhaps, three or four noble families attend divine service, which are suffered year after year to be in a condition in which not one of those families would suffer the worst room in their house to continue for a week.' _Essays and Thoughts_, p. 271.

[107] 'Hume recommended Fergusson's friends to prevail on him to suppress the work as likely to be injurious to his reputation.' When it had great success he said that his opinion remained the same. He had heard Helvetius and Saurin say that they had told Montesquieu that he ought to suppress his _Esprit des Lois_. They were still convinced that their advice was right. J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 385-7. It was at Fergusson's house thirteen years later that Walter Scott, a lad of fifteen, saw Burns shed tears over a print by Bunbury of a soldier lying dead on the snow. Lockhart's _Scott_, i. 185. See _ib_. vii. 61, for an anecdote of Fergusson.

[108] They were pulled down in 1789. Murray's _Handbook for Scotland_, ed. 1883, p. 60.

[109] See _ante_, ii. 128.

[110] See _ante_, iii. 357, and _post_, Johnson's _Tour into Wales_, Aug. 1, 1774.

[111]

'There where no statesman buys,
no bishop sells;
A virtuous palace where no
monarch dwells.'

_An Epitaph_. Hamilton's Poems, ed. 1760, p. 260. See _ante_, iii. 150.

[112] The stanza from which he took this line is,

'But then rose up all Edinburgh,
They rose up by thousands three;
A cowardly Scot came John behind,
And ran him through the fair body!'

[113] Johnson described her as 'an old lady, who talks broad Scotch with a paralytick voice, and is scarce understood by her own countrymen.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.109. Lord Shelburne says that 'her husband, the last Duke, could neither read nor write without great difficulty.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 11. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 107) says that in 1745 he heard her say:--'I have sworn to be Duchess of Douglas or never to mount a marriage bed.' She married the Duke in 1758. R. Chambers wrote in 1825:--'It is a curious fact that sixty years ago there was scarcely a close in the High Street but what had as many noble inhabitants as are at this day to be found in the whole town.' _Traditions of Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, i. 72.

[114] See ante, ii. 154, note 1.

[115] Lord Chesterfield wrote from London on Dec. 16, 1760 (_Misc. Works_, iv. 291):--'I question whether you will ever see my friend George Faulkner in Ireland again, he is become so great and considerable a man here in the republic of letters; he has a constant table open to all men of wit and learning, and to those sometimes who have neither. I have been able to get him to dine with me but twice.'

[116] Dr. Johnson one evening roundly asserted in his rough way that "Swift was a shallow fellow; a very shallow fellow." Mr. Sheridan replied warmly but modestly, "Pardon me, Sir, for differing from you, but I always thought the Dean a very clear writer." Johnson vociferated "All shallows are clear."' _Town and Country Mag_. Sept. 1769. _Notes and Queries_, Jan. 1855, p. 62. See _ante_, iv. 61.

[117] '_The Memoirs of Scriblerus_,' says Johnson (_Works_, viii. 298), 'seem to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches, perhaps, by Pope.' Swift also was concerned in it. Johnson goes on to shew why 'this joint production of three great writers has never obtained any notice from mankind.' Arbuthnot was the author of _John Bull_. Swift wrote to Stella on May 10, 1712:--'I hope you read _John Bull_. It was a Scotch gentleman, a friend of mine, that wrote it; but they put it upon me.' See _ante_, i. 425.

[118] See _ante_, i. 452, and ii. 318.

[119] Horace, _Satires_. I. iii. 19.

[120] See _ante_, i. 396, and ii. 298.

[121] See _ante_, ii. 74.

[122] 'At supper there was such conflux of company that I could scarcely support the tumult. I have never been well in the whole journey, and am very easily disordered.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 109.

[123] See _ante_, iv. 17, and under June 9, 1784.

[124] Johnson was thinking of Sir Matthew Hale for one.

[125] 'It is supposed that there were no executions for witchcraft in England subsequently to the year 1682; but the Statute of I James I, c. 12, so minute in its enactments against witches, was not repealed till the 9 Geo. II, c. 5. In Scotland, so late as the year 1722, when the local jurisdictions were still hereditary [see _post_, Sept. 11], the sheriff of Sutherlandshire condemned a witch to death.' _Penny Cyclo_. xxvii. 490. In the Bishopric of Wurtzburg, so late as 1750, a nun was burnt for witchcraft: 'Cette malheureuse fille soutint opiniâtrément qu'elle était sorcière.... Elle était folle, ses juges furent imbécilles et barbares.' Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, xxvi. 285.

[126] A Dane wrote to Garrick from Copenhagen on Dec. 23, 1769:--'There is some of our retinue who, not understanding a word of your language, mimic your gesture and your action: so great an impression did it make upon their minds, the scene of daggers has been repeated in dumb show a hundred times, and those most ignorant of the English idiom can cry out with rapture, "A horse, a horse; my kingdom for a horse!"' _Garrick Corres._ i. 375. See _ante_, vol. iv. under Sept. 30, 1783

[127] See _ante_, i. 466.

[128] Johnson, in the preface to his _Dictionary_ (_Works_, v. 43), after stating what he had at first planned, continues:--'But these were the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer.' See _ante_, i. 189, note 2, and May I, 1783.

[129] See his letter on this subject in the APPENDIX. BOSWELL. He had been tutor to Hume's nephew and was one of Hume's friends. J.H Burton's _Hume_, ii. 399.

[130] By the Baron d'Holbach. Voltaire (_Works_, xii. 212) describes this book as 'Une _Philippique_ contre Dieu.' He wrote to M. Saurin:--'Ce maudit livre du Système de la Nature est un péché contre nature. Je vous sais bien bon gré de réprouver l'athéisme et d'aimer ce vers: "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer." Je suis rarement content de mes vers, mais j'avoue que j'ai une tendresse de père pour celui-là.' _Ib_. v. 418.

[131] One of Garrick's correspondents speaks of 'the sneer of one of Johnson's ghastly smiles.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 334. 'Ghastly smile' is borrowed from _Paradise Lost_, ii. 846.

[132] See _ante_, iii. 212. In Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_, ii. 158, is given a comic poem entitled _The Court of Session Garland_, written by Boswell, with the help, it was said, of Maclaurin.

[133] Dr. John Gregory, Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, died on Feb. 10 of this year. It was his eldest son James who met Johnson. 'This learned family has given sixteen professors to British Universities.' Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._ xvi. 289.

[134] See _ante_, i. 257, note 3.

[135] See _ante_, i. 228.

[136] See _ante_, ii. 196.

[137] In the original, _cursed the form that_, &c. Johnson's _Works_, i. 21.

[138] Mistress of Edward IV. BOSWELL.

[139] Mistress of Louis XIV. BOSWELL. Voltaire, speaking of the King and Mlle. de La Vallière (not Valiere, as Lord Hailes wrote her name), says:--'Il goûta avec elle le bonheur rare d'être aimé uniquement pour lui-même.' _Siècle de Louis XIV_, ch. 25. He describes her penitence in a fine passage. _Ib._ ch. 26.

[140] Malone, in a note on the _Life of Boswell_ under 1749, says that 'this lady was not the celebrated Lady Vane, whose memoirs were given to the public by Dr. Smollett [in _Peregrine Pickle_], but Anne Vane, who was mistress to Frederick Prince of Wales, and died in 1736, not long before Johnson settled in London.' She is mentioned in a note to Horace Walpole's _Letters_, 1. cxxxvi.

[141] Catharine Sedley, the mistress of James II, is described by Macaulay, _Hist of Eng._ ed. 1874, ii. 323.

[142] Dr. A Carlyle (_Auto._ p. 114) tells how in 1745 he found 'Professor Maclaurin busy on the walls on the south side of Edinburgh, endeavoring to make them more defensible [against the Pretender]. He had even erected some small cannon.' See _ante_, iii, 15, for a ridiculous story told of him by Goldsmith.

[143]

'Crudelis ubique
Luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima
mortis imago:'
'grim grief on every side,
And fear on every side there is,
and many-faced is death.'

Morris, Virgil _Aeneids_, ii. 368.

[144] Mr. Maclaurin's epitaph, as engraved on a marble tomb-stone, in the Grey-Friars church-yard, Edinburgh:--

Infra situs est
COLIN MACLAURIN,
Mathes. olim in Acad. Edin. Prof.
Electus ipso Newtono suadente.
H.L.P.F.
Non ut nomini paterno consulat,
Nam tali auxilio nil eget;
Sed ut in hoc infelici campo,
Ubi luctus regnant et pavor,
Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium;
Hujus enim scripta evolve,
Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem
Corpori caduco superstitem crede.

BOSWELL.

[145] See _ante_, i. 437, and _post_, p. 72.

[146]

'What is't to us, if taxes rise or fall,
Thanks to our fortune we pay none at all.

No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains
To tax our labours and excise our brains.
Burthens like these vile earthly buildings bear,
No tribute's laid on _Castles_ in the _Air_'

Churchill's _Poems, Night,_ ed. 1766, i. 89.

[147] Pitt, in 1784, laid a tax of ten shillings a year on every horse 'kept for the saddle, or to be put in carriages used solely for pleasure.'_Parl. Hist._ xxiv. 1028.

[148] In 1763 he published the following description of himself in his _Correspondence with Erskine_, ed. 1879, p.36. 'The author of the _Ode to Tragedy_ is a most excellent man; he is of an ancient family in the west of Scotland, upon which he values himself not a little. At his nativity there appeared omens of his future greatness. His parts are bright; and his education has been good. He has travelled in post-chaises miles without number. He is fond of seeing much of the world. He eats of every good dish, especially apple-pie. He drinks old hock. He has a very fine temper. He is somewhat of an humorist, and a little tinctured with pride. He has a good manly countenance, and he owns himself to be amorous. He has infinite vivacity, yet is observed at times to have a melancholy cast. He is rather fat than lean, rather short than tall, rather young than old.' He is oddly enough described in Arighi's _Histoire de Pascal Paoli_, i. 231, 'En traversant la Mediterranée sur de frêles navires pour venir s'asseoir au foyer de la nationalité Corse, des hommes _graves_ tels que Boswel et Volney obéissaient sans doute à un sentiment bien plus élevé qu'au besoin vulgaire d'une puérile curiosité'

[149] See _ante_, i. 400.

[150] For _respectable_, see _ante_, iii. 241, note 2.

[151] Boswell, in the last of his _Hypochondriacks_, says:--'I perceive that my essays are not so lively as I expected they would be, but they are more learned. And I beg I may not be charged with excessive arrogance when I venture to say that they contain a considerable portion of original thinking.'_London Mag_. 1783, p. 124.

[152] Burns, in _The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer_, says:--

'But could I like Montgomeries fight,
Or gab like Boswell.'

Boswell and Burns were born within a few miles of each other, Boswell being the elder by eighteen years.

[153]
'For pointed satire I would Buckhurst choose,
The best good man, with the worst-natured muse.'

Rochester's _Imitations of Horace, Sat_. i. 10.

[154] Johnson's _Works_, ix. i. See _ante_, ii. 278, where he wrote to Boswell:--'I have endeavoured to do you some justice in the first paragraph [of the _Journey_].' The day before he started for Scotland he wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'Mr. Boswell, an active lively fellow, is to conduct me round the country.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 422. 'His inquisitiveness,' he said, 'is seconded by great activity.' _Works_, ix. 8. On Oct. 7 he wrote from Skye:--'Boswell will praise my resolution and perseverance; and I shall in return celebrate his good humour and perpetual cheerfulness.... It is very convenient to travel with him, for there is no house where he is not received with kindness and respect.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 198. He told Mrs. Knowles that 'Boswell was the best travelling companion in the world.' _Ante_, iii. 294. Mr. Croker says (_Croker's Boswell_, p. 280):--'I asked Lord Stowell in what estimation he found Boswell amongst his countrymen. "Generally liked as a good-natured jolly fellow," replied his lordship. "But was he respected?" "Well, I think he had about the proportion of respect that you might guess would be shown to a jolly fellow." His lordship thought there was more regard than respect.' _Hebrides,_ p. 40.

[155] See _ante_, ii. 103, 411.

[156] There were two quarto volumes of this Diary; perhaps one of them Johnson took with him. Boswell had 'accidently seen them and had read a great deal in them,' as he owned to Johnson (_ante_, under Dec. 9, 1784), and moreover had, it should seem, copied from them (_ante_, i. 251). The 'few fragments' he had received from Francis Barber (_ante_, i. 27).

[157] In the original 'how much we lost _at separation_' Johnson's _Works_, ix. I. Mr. William Nairne was afterwards a Judge of the Court of Sessions by the title of Lord Dunsinnan. Sir Walter Scott wrote of him:--'He was a man of scrupulous integrity. When sheriff depute of Perthshire, he found upon reflection, that he had decided a poor man's case erroneously; and as the only remedy, supplied the litigant privately with money to carry the suit to the supreme court, where his judgment was reversed.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 280.

[158]

'Non illic urbes, non tu mirabere silvas:
Una est injusti caerula forma maris.

_Ovid. Amor._ L. II. El. xi.

Nor groves nor towns the ruthless ocean shows;
Unvaried still its azure surface flows.

BOSWELL.

[159] See _ante_. ii. 229.

[160] My friend, General Campbell, Governour of Madras, tells me, that they made _speldings_ in the East-Indies, particularly at Bombay, where they call them _Bambaloes_. BOSWELL. Johnson had told Boswell that he was 'the most _unscottified_ of his countrymen.'_Ante_, ii. 242.

[161] 'A small island, which neither of my companions had ever visited, though, lying within their view, it had all their lives solicited their notice.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 1.

[162] 'The remains of the fort have been removed to assist in constructing a very useful lighthouse upon the island. WALTER SCOTT.

[163]

'Unhappy queen!
Unwilling I forsook your friendly state.'

Dryden. [_Aeneid_, vi. 460.] BOSWELL.

[164] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 331) says of his journey to London in 1758:--'It is to be noted that we could get no four-wheeled chaise till we came to Durham, those conveyances being then only in their infancy. Turnpike roads were only in their commencement in the north.' 'It affords a southern stranger,' wrote Johnson (_Works_ ix. 2), 'a new kind of pleasure to travel so commodiously without the interruption of toll-gates.'

[165] See _ante_, iii. 265, for Lord Shelburne's statement on this subject.

[166] See _ante_, ii. 339, and iii. 205, note 4.

[167] See _ante_, iii. 46.

[168] The passage quoted by Dr. Johnson is in the _Character of the Assembly-man_; Butler's _Remains_, p. 232, edit. 1754:--'He preaches, indeed, both in season and out of season; for he rails at Popery, when the land is almost lost in Presbytery; and would cry Fire! Fire! in Noah's flood.'

There is reason to believe that this piece was not written by Butler, but by Sir John Birkenhead; for Wood, in his _Athenae Oxonienses_, vol. ii. p. 640, enumerates it among that gentleman's works, and gives the following account of it:

_'The Assembly-man_ (or the character of an assembly-man) written 1647, _Lond._ 1662-3, in three sheets in qu. The copy of it was taken from the author by those who said they could not rob, because all was theirs; so excised what they liked not; and so mangled and reformed it, that it was no character of an Assembly, but of themselves. At length, after it had slept several years, the author published it to avoid false copies. It is also reprinted in a book entit. _Wit and Loyalty revived_, in a collection of some smart satyrs in verse and prose on the late times. _Lond._ 1682, qu. said to be written by Abr. Cowley, Sir John Birkenhead, and Hudibras, alias Sam. Butler.'--For this information I am indebted to Mr. Reed, of Staple Inn. BOSWELL. This tract is in the _Harleian Misc_., ed. 1810, vi. 57. Mr. Reed's quotation differs somewhat from it.

[169] 'When a Scotchman was talking against Warburton, Johnson said he had more literature than had been imported from Scotland since the days of Buchanan. Upon the other's mentioning other eminent writers of the Scotch; "These will not do," said Johnson, "Let us have some more of your northern lights; these are mere farthing candles."' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 208. Dr. T. Campbell records (_Diary_, p. 61) that at the dinner at Mr. Dilly's, described _ante_, ii. 338, 'Dr. Johnson compared England and Scotland to two lions, the one saturated with his belly full, and the other prowling for prey. He defied any one to produce a classical book written in Scotland since Buchanan. Robertson, he said, used pretty words, but he liked Hume better; and neither of them would he allow to be more to Clarendon than a rat to a cat. "A Scotch surgeon may have more learning than an English one, and all Scotland could not muster learning enough for Lowth's _Prelections_."' See _ante_, ii. 363, and March 30, 1783.

[170] The poem is entitled _Gualterus Danistonus ad Amicos_. It begins:--

'Dum studeo fungi fallentis munere vitae'

Which Prior imitates:--

'Studious the busy moments to deceive.'

Sir Walter Scott thought that the poem praised by Johnson was 'more likely the fine epitaph on John, Viscount of Dundee, translated by Dryden, and beginning _Ultime Scotoruml_' Archibald Pitcairne, M.D., was born in 1652, and died in 1713.

[171] My Journal, from this day inclusive, was read by Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL. It was read by Johnson up to the second paragraph of Oct. 26. Boswell, it should seem, once at least shewed Johnson a part of the Journal from which he formed his _Life_. See _ante_, iii. 260, where he says:--'It delighted him on a review to find that his conversation teemed with point and imagery.'

[172] See _ante_, ii. 20, note 4.

[173] Goldsmith, in his _Present State of Polite Learning_, published in 1759, says, (ch. x):--'When the great Somers was at the helm, patronage was fashionable among our nobility ... Since the days of a certain prime minister of inglorious memory [Sir Robert Walpole] the learned have been kept pretty much at a distance. ... The author, when unpatronised by the Great, has naturally recourse to the bookseller. There cannot be perhaps imagined a combination more prejudicial to taste than this. It is the interest of the one to allow as little for writing, and of the other to write as much as possible; accordingly tedious compilations and periodical magazines are the result of their joint endeavours.'

[174] In the first number of _The Rambler_, Johnson shews how attractive to an author is the form of publication which he was himself then adopting:--'It heightens his alacrity to think in how many places he shall have what he is now writing read with ecstacies to-morrow.'

[175] Yet he said 'the inhabitants of Lichfield were the most sober, decent people in England.' _Ante_, ii. 463.

[176] At the beginning of the eighteenth century, says Goldsmith, 'smoking in the rooms [at Bath] was permitted.' When Nash became King of Bath he put it down. Goldsmith's _Works_, ed. 1854, iv. 51. 'Johnson,' says Boswell (_ante_, i. 317), 'had a high opinion of the sedative influence of smoking.'

[177] Dr. Johnson used to practise this himself very much. BOSWELL.

[178] In _The Tatler_, for May 24, 1709, we are told that 'rural esquires wear shirts half a week, and are drunk twice a day.' In the year 1720, Fenton urged Gay 'to sell as much South Sea stock as would purchase a hundred a year for life, "which will make you sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day."' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 65. In _Tristram Shandy_, ii. ch. 4, published in 1759, we read:--'It was in this year [about 1700] that my uncle began to break in upon the daily regularity of a clean shirt.' In _the Spiritual Quixote_, published in 1773 (i. 51), Tugwell says to his master:--'Your Worship belike has been used to shift you twice a week.' Mrs. Piozzi (_Journey_, i. 105, date of 1789) says that she heard in Milan 'a travelled gentleman telling his auditors how all the men in London, _that were noble_, put on a clean shirt every day.' Johnson himself owned that he had 'no passion for clean linen.' _Ante_, i. 397.

[179] Scott, in _Old Mortality_, ed. 1860, ix. 352, says:--'It was a universal custom in Scotland, that, when the family was at dinner, the outer-gate of the court-yard, if there was one, and if not, the door of the house itself, was always shut and locked.' In a note on this he says:--'The custom of keeping the door of a house or chateau locked during the time of dinner probably arose from the family being anciently assembled in the hall at that meal, and liable to surprise.'

[180] Johnson, writing of 'the chapel of the alienated college,' says:--'I was always by some civil excuse hindered from entering it.' _Works_, ix. 4.

[181] George Marline's _Reliquiae divi Andreae_ was published in 1797.

[182] See _ante_, ii. 171, and iv. 75.

[183] Mr. Chambers says that Knox was buried in a place which soon after became, and ever since has been, a high-way; namely, the old church-yard of St. Giles in Edinburgh. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 283.

[184] In _The Rambler_, No. 82, Johnson makes a virtuoso write:--'I often lamented that I was not one of that happy generation who demolished the convents and monasteries, and broke windows by law.' He had in 1754 'viewed with indignation the ruins of the Abbeys of Oseney and Rewley near Oxford.' Ante, i. 273. Smollett, in _Humphry Clinker_ (Letrer of Aug. 8), describes St. Andrews as 'the skeleton of a venerable city.'

[185] 'Some talked of the right of society to the labour of individuals, and considered retirement as a desertion of duty. Others readily allowed that there was a time when the claims of the publick were satisfied, and when a man might properly sequester himself to review his life and purify his heart.' _Rasselas_, ch. 22.

[186] See _ante_, ii. 423.

[187] See _ante_, iv. 5, note 2, and v. 27.

[188] 'He that lives well in the world is better than he that lives well in a monastery. But, perhaps, every one is not able to stem the temptations of publick life, and, if he cannot conquer, he may properly retreat.' _Rasselas_, ch. 47. See _ante_, ii. 435.

[189] 'A youthful passion for abstracted devotion should not be encouraged.' _Ante_, ii. 10. The hermit in _Rasselas_ (ch. 21) says:--'The life of a solitary man will be certainly miserable, but not certainly devout.' In Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 203, we read that 'Johnson thought worse of the vices of retirement than of those of society.' Southey (_Life of Wesley_, i. 39) writes:--'Some time before John Wesley's return to the University, he had travelled many miles to see what is called "a serious man." This person said to him, "Sir, you wish to serve God and go to heaven. Remember, you cannot serve Him alone; you must therefore find companions or make them; the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion." Wesley never forgot these words.'

[190] [Erga neon, boulai de meson euchai de gerunton. _Hesiodi Fragmenta_, Lipsiae 1840, p. 371]

Let youth in deeds, in counsel man engage;
Prayer is the proper duty of old age.

BOSWELL.

[191] One 'sorrowful scene' Johnson was perhaps too late in the year to see. Wesley, who visited St. Andrews on May 27, 1776, during the vacation, writes (_Journal_, iv. 75):--'What is left of St. Leonard's College is only a heap of ruins. Two colleges remain. One of them has a tolerable square; but all the windows are broke, like those of a brothel. We were informed the students do this before they leave the college.'

[192] 'He was murdered by the ruffians of reformation, in the manner of which Knox has given what he himself calls a merry narrative.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 3. In May 1546 the Cardinal had Wishart the Reformer killed, and at the end of the same month he got killed himself.

[193] Johnson says (_Works_, ix. 5):--'The doctor, by whom it was shown, hoped to irritate or subdue my English vanity by telling me that we had no such repository of books in England.' He wrote to Mrs. Thrale (_Piozzi Letters_, i. 113):--'For luminousness and elegance it may vie at least with the new edifice at Streatham.' 'The new edifice' was, no doubt, the library of which he took the touching farewell. _Ante_, iv. 158.

[194] 'Sorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires are fixed upon the past, without looking forward to the future, an incessant wish that something were otherwise than it has been, a tormenting and harassing want of some enjoyment or possession which we have lost, and which no endeavours can possibly regain.' _The Rambler_, No. 47. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on the death of her son:--'Do not indulge your sorrow; try to drive it away by either pleasure or pain; for, opposed to what you are feeling, many pains will become pleasures.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 310.

[195] See ante, ii. 151.

[196] The Pembroke College grace was written by Camden. It was as follows:--'Gratias tibi agimus, Deus misericors, pro acceptis a tua bonitate alimentis; enixe comprecantes ut serenissimum nostrum Regem Georgium, totam regiam familiam, populumque tuum universum tuta in pace semper custodies.'

[197] Sharp was murdered on May 3, 1679, in a moor near St. Andrews. Burnet's _History of his Own time_, ed. 1818, ii. 82, and Scott's _Old Mortality_, ed, 1860, ix. 297, and x. 203.

[198] 'One of its streets is now lost; and in those that remain there is the silence and solitude of inactive indigence and gloomy depopulation.... St. Andrews seems to be a place eminently adapted to study and education.... The students, however, are represented as, at this time, not exceeding a hundred. I saw no reason for imputing their paucity to the present professors.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 4. A student, he adds, of lower rank could get his board, lodging, and instruction for less than ten pounds for the seven months of residence. Stockdale says (_Memoirs_, i. 238) that 'in St. Andrews, in 1756, for a good bedroom, coals, and the attendance of a servant I paid one shilling a week.'

[199] _The Compleat Fencing-Master_, by Sir William Hope. London, 1691.

[200] 'In the whole time of our stay we were gratified by every mode of kindness, and entertained with all the elegance of lettered hospitality' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 3.

[201] Dugald Stewart (_Life of Adam Smith_, p. 107) writes:--'Mr. Smith observed to me not long before his death, that after all his practice in writing he composed as slowly, and with as great difficulty as at first. He added at the same time that Mr. Hume had acquired so great a facility in this respect, that the last volumes of his _History_ were printed from his original copy, with a few marginal corrections.' See _ante_, iii. 437 and iv. 12.

[202] Of these only twenty-five have been published: Johnson's _Works_, ix. 289-525. See _ante_, iii. 19, note 3, and 181. Johnson wrote on April 20, 1778:--'I have made sermons, perhaps as readily as formerly.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 170. 'I should think,' said Lord Eldon, 'that no clergyman ever wrote as many sermons as Lord Stowell. I advised him to burn all his manuscripts of that kind. It is not fair to the clergymen to have it known he wrote them.' Twiss's _Eldon_, iii. 286. Johnson, we may be sure, had no copy of any of his sermons. That none of them should be known but those he wrote for Taylor is strange.

[203] He made the same statement on June 3, 1781 (_ante_, iv. 127), adding, 'I should be glad to see it [the translation] now.' This shows that he was not speaking of his translation of _Lobo_, as Mr. Croker maintains in a note on this passage. I believe he was speaking of his translation of Courayer's _Life of Paul Sarpi. Ante_, i. 135.

[204] 'As far as I am acquainted with modern architecture, I am aware of no streets which, in simplicity and manliness of style, or general breadth and brightness of effect, equal those of the New Town of Edinburgh. But, etc.' Ruskin's _Lectures on Architecture and Painting_, p. 2.

[205] Horace, _Odes_, ii. 14. 1.

[206] John Abernethy, a Presbyterian divine. His works in 7 vols. 8vo. were published in 1740-51.

[207] Leechman was principal of Glasgow University (_post_, Oct. 29). On his appointment to the Chair of Theology he had been prosecuted for heresy for having, in his _Sermon on Prayer_, omitted to state the obligation to pray in the name of Christ. Dr. A. Carlyle's _Auto_. p. 69. One of his sermons was placed in Hume's hands, apparently that the author might have his suggestions in preparing a second edition. Hume says:--'First the addressing of our virtuous withes and desires to the Deity, since the address has no influence on him, is only a kind of rhetorical figure, in order to render these wishes more ardent and passionate. This is Mr. Leechman's doctrine. Now the use of any figure of speech can never be a duty. Secondly, this figure, like most figures of rhetoric, has an evident impropriety in it, for we can make use of no expression, or even thought, in prayers and entreaties, which does not imply that these prayers have an influence. Thirdly, this figure is very dangerous, and leads directly, and even unavoidably, to impiety and blasphemy,' etc. J.H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 161.

[208] Nichols (_Lit. Anec._ ii. 555) records:--'During the whole of my intimacy with Dr. Johnson he rarely permitted me to depart without some sententious advice.... His words at parting were, "Take care of your eternal salvation. Remember to observe the Sabbath. Let it never be a day of business, nor wholly a day of dissipation." He concluded his solemn farewell with, "Let my words have their due weight. They are the words of a dying man." I never saw him more.'

[209] See _ante_, ii. 72.

[210] 'From the bank of the Tweed to St. Andrews I had never seen a single tree which I did not believe to have grown up far within the present century.... The variety of sun and shade is here utterly unknown.... A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice. At St. Andrews Mr. Boswell found only one, and recommended it to my notice: I told him that it was rough and low, or looked as if I thought so. "This," said he, "is nothing to another a few miles off." I was still less delighted to hear that another tree was not to be seen nearer. "Nay," said a gentleman that stood by, "I know but of this and that tree in the county."' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 7 'In all this journey [so far as Slains Castle] I have not travelled an hundred yards between hedges, or seen five trees fit for the carpenter.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.120. See _ante_, ii. 301.

[211] One of the Boswells of this branch was, in 1798, raised to the bench under the title of Lord Balmuto. It was his sister who was Boswell's step-mother. Rogers's _Boswelliana,_ pp. 4, 82.

[212] 'The colony of Leuchars is a vain imagination concerning a certain fleet of Danes wrecked on Sheughy Dikes.' WALTER SCOTT. 'The fishing people on that coast have, however, all the appearance of being a different race from the inland population, and their dialect has many peculiarities.' LOCKHART. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 286.

[213] 'I should scarcely have regretted my journey, had it afforded nothing more than the sight of Aberbrothick.' _Works_, ix. 9.