Majesty, and had written in support of the measures of government. As a mortification to such impotent malice, of which there are so many instances towards men of eminence, I am happy to relate, that this telum imbelle did not reach its exalted object, till about a year after it thus appeared, when I mentioned it to him, supposing that he knew of the republication. To my surprise, he had not yet heard of it. He requested me to go directly and get it for him, which I did. He looked at it and laughed, and seemed to be much diverted with the feeble efforts of his unknown adversary, who, I hope, is alive to read this account. "Now," said he, "here is somebody who thinks he has vexed me sadly; yet, if it had not been for you, you rogue, I should probably never have seen it." (1) (1) These two satirical pamphlets were, in some degree, prompted by the principle which Johnson frequently declared to be the only true genuine motive to writing, namely, pecuniary profit. This principle was not only avowed by Johnson, but seems to have been wrought by him into a habit. He was never greedy of money, but without money could not be stimulated to write. Yet was he not so indifferent to the subjects that he was requested to write on, as at any time to abandon either his religious or political principles. He would no more have put his name to an Arian or Socinian tract than to a defence of Atheism. At the time when "Faction Detected" came out, a pamphlet of which the late Lord Egmont is now generally understood to have been the author, Osborne, the bookseller, held out to him a strong temptation to answer it, which he refused, being convinced, as he assured me, that the charge contained in it was made good, and that the argument grounded thereon was unanswerable. The truth is, that Johnson's political prejudices were a mist that the eye of his judg ment could not penetrate: in all the measures of Walpole's government he could see nothing right; nor could he be convinced, in his invectives against a standing army, as the Jacobites affected to call it, that the peasantry of a country was not an adequate defence against an invasion of it by an armed force. As Mr. Pope's note concerning Johnson, alluded to in a former page, refers both to his " London," and his "Marmor Norfolciense," I have deferred inserting it till now. I am indebted for it to Dr. Percy, the bishop of Dromore, who permitted me. to copy it from the original in his possession. It was presented to his lordship by Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom it was given by the son of Mr. Richardson the painter, the person to whom it is addressed. I have transcribed it with minute exactness, that the peculiar mode of writing, and imperfect spelling of that celebrated poet, may be exhibited to the curious in literature. It justifies Swift's epithet of "paper-sparing Pope (1)," for it is written on a slip no larger than a common message-card, and was sent to Mr. Richardson, along with the imitation of Juvenal. He almost asserted in terms, that the succession to the crown had been illegally interrupted, and that from whig politics none of the benefits of government could be expected. From hence it appears, and to his honour be it said, that his principles cooperated with his necessities, and that prostitution of his talents could not, in justice, be imputed to him. - HAWKINS. (1) ["Get all your verses printed fair, Then let them well be dried; And Curll must have a special care Lend these to paper-sparing Pope; Advice to the Grub-Street The original MS. of Pope's Homer (preserved in the British Museum) is almost entirely written on the covers of letters, and sometimes between the lines of the letters themselves. NICHOLS.] "This is imitated by one Johnson who put in for a Publick-school in Shropshire, but was disappointed. He has an infirmity of the convulsive kind, that attacks him sometimes, so as to make Him a sad Spectacle. (1) Mr. P. from the merit of This Work which was all the knowledge he had of Him endeavour'd to serve Him without his own application ; & wrote to my Ld. gore, but he did not succeed. Mr. Johnson published afterwds. another Poem in Latin with Notes the whole very Humerous call'd the Norfolk Prophecy. P." Johnson had been told of this note; and Sir Joshua Reynolds informed him of the compliment which it contained, but, from delicacy, avoided showing him the paper itself. When Sir Joshua observed to Johnson that he seemed very desirous to see Pope's note, he answered, "Who would not be proud to have such a man as Pope so solicitous in inquiring about him?” The infirmity to which Mr. Pope alludes, appeared to me also, as will be hereafter observed, to be of the convulsive kind, and of the nature of that distemper called St. Vitus's dance (2); and in this opinion I am confirmed by the description which Sydenham gives of that disease. "This disorder is (1) It is clear that, as Johnson advanced in life, these convulsive infirmities, though never entirely absent, were so far subdued, that he could not be called a sad spectacle. We have seen that he was rejected from two schools on account of these distortions, which in his latter years were certainly not violent CROKER. enough to excite disgust.. (2) [Dr. Reid says, it is remarkable that St. Vitus is no where to be found in the Roman Kalendar; and he supposes, that, from "some misunderstanding or inaccuracy of manuscript, chorea invita, the original and genuine name of the disease called St. Vitus's dance, was read and copied chorea St. Viti." This is very probable. SOUTHEY, Omniana, vol. i. p. 325.] a kind of convulsion. It manifests itself by halting or unsteadiness of one of the legs, which the patient draws after him like an idiot. If the hand of the same side be applied to the breast, or any other part of the body, he cannot keep it a moment in the same posture, but it will be drawn into a different one by a convulsion, notwithstanding all his efforts to the contrary." Sir Joshua Reynolds, however, was of a different opinion, and favoured me with the following Paper. "Those motions or tricks of Dr. Johnson are improperly called convulsions. He could sit motionless, when he was told so to do, as well as any other man. My opinion is, that it proceeded from a habit (1) which he had indulged himself in, of accompanying his thoughts with certain untoward actions; and those actions always appeared to me as if they were meant to reprobate some part of his past conduct. Whenever he was not engaged in conversation, such thoughts were sure to rush into his mind; and, for this reason, any company, any employment whatever, he preferred to being alone. The great business of his life (he said) was to escape from himself. This disposition he considered as the disease of his mind, which nothing cured but company. "One instance of his absence and particularity, as it is characteristic of the man, may be worth relating. When he and I took a journey together into the West, we visited the late Mr. Bankes, of Dorsetshire (2) ; (1) Sir Joshua Reynolds's notion on this subject is confirmed by what Johnson himself said to a young lady, the niece of his friend Christopher Smart. See a note by Mr. Boswell on some particulars communicated by Reynolds, under March 30. 1783. . MALONE. (2) [The then representative of the family of Bankes of the conversation turning upon pictures, which Johnson could not well see, he retired to a corner of the room, stretching out his right leg as far as he could reach before him, then bringing up his left leg, and stretching his right still further on. The old gentleman observing him, went up to him, and in a very courteous manner assured him, though it was not a new house, the flooring was perfectly safe. The Doctor started from his reverie, like a person waked out of his sleep, but spoke not a word." While we are on this subject, my readers may not be displeased with another anecdote, communicated to me by the same friend, from the relation of Mr. Hogarth. Johnson used to be a pretty frequent visitor at the house of Mr. Richardson, author of Clarissa, and other novels of extensive reputation. Mr. Hogarth came one day to see Richardson, soon after the execution of Dr. Cameron for having taken arms for the house of Stuart in 1745-6; and being a warm partisan of George the Second, he observed to Richardson, that certainly there must have been some very unfavourable circumstances lately discovered in this particular case, which had induced the King to approve of an execution for rebellion so long after the time when it was committed, as this had the appearance of putting a man to death in cold Corfe Castle for the gallant defence of which mansion by Lady Bankes, during the great civil war, see Clarendon, vol. iv. The present representative of this distinguished family is William John Bankes, Esq., the well-known Oriental traveller, and late M. P. for Dorsetshire. 1835.] |