: they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end." BOSWELL: "It may come to the door and when once an account is at all varied in one circumstance, it may by degrees be varied so as to be totally different from what really happened." Our lively hostess, whose fancy was impatient of the rein, fidgeted at this, and ventured to say, "Nay, this is too much. If Mr. Johnson should forbid me to drink tea, I would comply, as I should feel the restraint only twice a day; but little variations in narrative must happen a thousand times a day, if one is not perpetually watching." JOHNSON: "Well, Madam, and you ought to be perpetually watching. It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world." In his review of Dr. Warton's "Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope," Johnson has given the following salutary caution upon this subject: "Nothing but experience could evince the frequency of false information, or enable any man to conceive that so many groundless reports should be propagated, as every man of eminence may hear of himself. Some men relate what they think, as what they know; some men of confused memories and habitual inaccuracy, ascribe to one man what belongs to another; and some talk on, without thought or care. A few men are sufficient to broach falsehoods, which are afterwards innocently diffused by successive relaters." * Had he lived to read what Sir John Hawkins and Mrs. Piozzi have related concerning himself, how much would he have found his observation illustrated. He was indeed so much impressed with the prevalence of falsehood, voluntary or unintentional, that I never knew any person who, upon hearing an extraordinary circumstance told, discovered more of the incredulus odi. He would say, with a significant look and decisive tone, " It is not so. Do not tell this again."† He inculcated upon all his friends the importance of perpetual vigilance against the slightest degrees of falsehood; the effect of which, as Sir Joshua Reynolds observed to me, has been, that all who were of his school are distinguished for a love of truth and accuracy, which they would not have possessed in the same degree if they had not been acquainted with Johnson. Talking of ghosts, he said, "It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it, but all belief is for it." He said, "John Wesley's conversation is good, but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have out his talk, as I do." On Friday, April 3, I dined with him in London, in a company where were present several eminent men, whom I shall not name, but distinguish their parts in the conversation by different letters. ‡ *Literary Magazine, 1756, p. 37. The following plausible but over-prudent counsel on this subject is given by an Italian writer, quoted by Rhedi de generatione insectarum," with the epithet of divini poeta." [The Club. “Sempre à quel ver ch'a faccia di menzogna This seems to be the only instance in which Boswell has ventured to give in any detail that society, and we see that on this occasion he has not mentioned the names, but has disguised the members under what look like initials. All these letters, however, even with the names of the company before us—it is not easy to appropriate. It appears by the books of the Club, as Mr. Hatchette informed me, that the company on that evening consisted of Dr. Johnson, president, Mr. Burke, M. Boswell, Dr. George Fordyce, Mr. Gibbon, Dr. Johnson (again named), Sir Joshua Reynolds Lord 66 753 F. "I have been looking at this famous antique marble dog of Mr. Jennings, valued at a thousand guineas, said to be Alcibiades' dog." JOHNSON : His tail then must be docked. That was the mark of Alcibiades' dog." E.: "A thousand guineas! The representation of no animal whatever is worth so much. At this rate a dead dog would indeed be better than a living lion." JOHNSON: "Sir, it is not the worth of the thing, but of the skill in forming it, which is so highly estimated. Every thing that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable. The first man who balanced a straw upon his nose; Johnson, who rode upon three horses at a time; in short, all such men deserved the applause of mankind, not on account of the use of what they did, but of the dexterity which they exhibited." BosWELL: "Yet a misapplication of time and assiduity is not to be encouraged. Addison, in one of his Spectators, commends Upper Ossory, and Mr. R. B. Sheridan. In Boswell's account the letter E, no doubt stands for Edmund Burke; F, in allusion to his family name Fitzpatrick, probably means Lord Upper Ossory; but the appropriation of the other names is very difficult. The medical observations and the allusions to Holland, made by C, suggest that Dr.George Fordyce, a physician who was educated in Holland, was meant, although why he should have been designated by C, I cannot guess. R. may mean Richard B. Sheridan, then a young man not yet in Parliament. The story of Sir Godfrey Kneller made me doubt whether P was not Sir Joshua, President of the Royal Academy, but the initial J., as well as the style of observations made by him, seem to indicate Sir Joshua. If this be so, then P. would be Gibbon, who, perhaps, from Johnson's coming late, or some accidental cause, may have acted as president of the night, and it is to be observed that P puts the question.-Croker.] 48 (2279) From a mezzotint engraving after a painting by J. Faber JOHN BOYLE, FIFTH EARL OF ORRERY AND CORK (b. 1707, d. 1762) He was the intimate friend of Pope and Swift, and on the life of the latter he wrote some "Remarks still remembered for their unpleasing picture of the great Dean. He also translated the "Letters of Pliny." the judgment of a king, who as a suitable reward to a man that by long perseverance had attained to the art of throwing a barley-corn through the eye of a needle, gave him a bushel of barley." JOHNSON: "He must have been a king of Scotland, where barley is scarce.' F. "One of the most remarkable antique figures of an animal is the boar at Florence." JOHNSON: "The first boar that is well made in marble, should be preserved as a wonder. When men arrive at a facility of making boars well, then the workmanship is not of such value, but they should however be preserved as examples, and as a greater security for the restoration of the art, should it be lost." 66 66 66 E. "We hear prodigious complaints at present of emigration. I am convinced that emigration makes a country more populous." J.: That sounds very much like a paradox." E.: "Exportation of men, like exportation of all other commodities, makes more be produced." JOHNSON : But there would be more people were there not emigration, provided there were food for more." E.: No; leave a few breeders, and you'll have more people than if there were no emigration." JOHNSON: "Nay, Sir, it is plain there will be more people if there are more breeders. Thirty cows in good pasture will produce more calves than ten cows, provided they have good bulls." E.: "There are bulls enough in Ireland." JOHNSON (Smiling): "So, Sir, I should think from your argument." BOSWELL: "You said, exportation of men, like exportation of other commodities, makes more be produced. But a bounty is given to encourage the exportation of corn, and no bounty is given for the exportation of men, though, indeed, those who go, gain by it." R.: "But the bounty on the exportation of corn is paid at home." E.: That's the same thing." JOHNSON: "No, Sir." R.: “A man who stays at home gains nothing by his neighbour's emigrating." BOSWELL : I can understand that emigration may be the cause that more people may be produced in a country; but the country will not therefore be the more populous; for the people issue from it. It can only be said that there is a flow of people. It is an encouragement to have children to know that they can get a living by emigration." R.: "Yes, if there were an emigration of children under six years of age. But they don't emigrate till they could earn their livelihood in some way at home." C.: "It is remarkable that the most unhealthy countries, where there are the most destructive diseases, such as Egypt and Bengal, are the most populous." JOHNSON: "Countries which are the most populous have the most destructive diseases. That is the true state of the proposition.' C. "Holland is very unhealthy, yet it is exceedingly populous." JOHNSON: "I know not that Holland is unhealthy. But its populousness is owing to an influx of people from all other countries. Disease cannot be the cause of populousness, for it not only carries off a great proportion of the people; but those who are left are weakened, and unfit for the purposes of increase." : R.: "Mr. E., I don't mean to flatter, but when posterity reads one of your speeches in Parliament, it will be difficult to believe that you took so much pains, knowing with certainty that it could produce no effect, that not one vote would be gained by it." E.: "Waiving your compliment to me, I shall say in general that it is very well worth while for a man to take pains to speak well in Parliament. A man, who has vanity, speaks to display his talents; and if a man speaks well he gradually establishes a certain reputation and consequence in the general opinion, which sooner or later will have its political reward. Besides, though not one vote is gained, a good speech has its effect. Though an act which has been ably opposed passes into a law, yet in its progress it is modelled, it is softened in such a manner. that we see plainly the Minister has been told that the members attached to him Etat. 69] THICKNESSE'S "TRAVELS" 755 are so sensible of its injustice or absurdity from what they have heard, that it must be altered." JOHNSON: "And, Sir, there is a gratification of pride. Though we cannot out-vote them, we will out-argue them. They shall not do wrong without its being shown, both to themselves and to the world." E.: "The House of Commons is a mixed body (I except the minority, which I hold to be pure [smiling,] but I take the whole House). It is a mass by no means pure; but neither is it wholly corrupt, though there is a large proportion of corruption in it. There are many honest, well-meaning country gentlemen who are in Parliament only to keep up the consequence of their families. Upon most of these a good speech will have influence." JOHNSON: "We are all, more or less, governed by interest. But interest will not make us do everything. In a case which admits of doubt, we try to think on the side which is for our interest, and generally bring ourselves to act accordingly. But the subject must admit of diversity of colouring; it must receive a colour on that side. In the House of Commons there are members enough who will not vote what is grossly unjust or absurd. No, Sir, there must always be right enough, or appearance of right, to keep wrong in countenance." BOSWELL: BOSWELL: "There is surely always a majority in Parliament who have places, or who want to have them, and who therefore will be generally ready to support government without requiring any pretext." E.: 'True, Sir that majority will always follow 'Quo clamor vocat et turba faventium.'" I BOSWELL: "Well now, let us take the common phrase, Place-hunters. thought they had hunted without regard to any thing, just as their huntsman, the Minister, leads, looking only to the prey."* J.: "But taking your metaphor, you know that in hunting there are few so desperately keen as to follow without reserve. Some do not choose to leap ditches and hedges and risk their necks, or gallop over steeps, or even to dirty themselves in bogs and mire." BOSWELL: "I am glad there are some good, quiet, moderate political hunters." E.: "I believe in any body of men in England I should have been in the minority; I have always been in the minority." P.: "The House of Commons resembles a private company. How seldom is any man convinced by another's argument; passion and pride rise against it." R.: "What would be the consequence, if a Minister, sure of a majority in the House of Commons, should resolve that there should be no speaking at all upon his side." E.: "He must soon go out. That has been tried: but it was found it would not do.". E.: “The Irish language is not primitive; it is Teutonic, a mixture of the northern tongues; it has much English in it." JOHNSON: "It may have been radically Teutonic; but the English and High Dutch have no similarity to the eye, though radically the same. Once, when looking into Low Dutch, I found, in a whole page, only one word similar to English; stroem, like stream, and it signified tide." E.: "I remember having seen a Dutch Sonnet, in which I found this word, roesnopies. Nobody would at first think that this could be English; but, when we inquire, we find roes, rose, and nopie, knob; so we have rosebuds." JOHNSON: "I have been reading Thicknesse's 'Travels,' which I think are entertaining." BOSWELL: "What, Sir, a good book?" JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir, to read once; I do not say you are to make a study of it, and digest it; and I Lord Bolingbroke, who, however, detestable as a metaphysician, must be allowed to have had admirable talents as a political writer, thus describes the House of Commons, in his Letter to Sir William Wyndham :-"You know the nature of that assembly; they grow, like hounds, fond of the man who shows them game, and by whose halloo they are used to be encouraged." believe it to be a true book in his intention. All travellers generally mean to tell truth; though Thicknesse observes, upon Smollet's account of his alarming a whole town in France by firing a blunderbuss, and frightening a French nobleman till he made him tie on his portmanteau, that he would be loath to say Smollet had told two lies in one page; but he had found the only town in France where these things could have happened. Travellers must often be mistaken. In everything, except where mensuration can be applied, they may honestly differ. There has been, of late, a strange turn in travellers to be displeased." . E. "From the experience which I have had-and I have had a great deal-I have learnt to think better of mankind." JOHNSON: "From my experience I have found them worse in commercial dealings, more disposed to cheat, than I had any notion of; but more displeased to do one another good than I had conceived." J. "Less just and more beneficent." JOHNSON: "And really it is wonderful, considering how much attention is necessary for men to take care of themselves, and ward off immediate evils which press upon them, it is wonderful how much they do for others. As it is said of the greatest liar, that he tells more truth than falsehood; so it may be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil." BOSWELL: "Perhaps from experience men may be found happier than we suppose." JOHNSON: "No, Sir; the more we inquire we shall find men less happy." P.: "As to thinking better or worse of mankind from experience, some cunning people will not be satisfied unless they have put men to the test, as they think. There is a very good story told of Sir Godfrey Kneller, in his character of a justice of the peace. A gentleman brought his servant before him, upon an accusation of having stolen some money from him; but it having come out that he had laid it purposely in the servant's way, in order to try his honesty, Sir Godfrey sent the master to prison." JOHNSON: "To resist temptation once, is not a sufficient proof of honesty. If servant, indeed, were to resist the continued temptation of silver lying in a window as some people let it lie, when he is sure his master does not know how much there is of it, he would give a strong proof of honesty. But this is a proof to which you have no right to put a man. You know, humanly speaking, there is a certain degre of temptation, which will overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a man, you do him an injury; and, if he is overcome, you share hi guilt." P.: “And, when once overcome, it is easier for him to be got the better o again." BOSWELL : BOSWELL: "Yes, you are his seducer; you have debauched him. have known a man resolved to put friendship to the test, by asking a friend to len him money, merely with that view, when he did not want it." JOHNSON: "The is very wrong, Sir. Your friend may be a narrow man, and yet have many goo qualities narrowness may be his only fault. Now you are trying his gener character as a friend, by one particular singly, in which he happens to be defectiv when, in truth, his character is composed of many particulars.' E.: “I understand the hogshead of claret, which this society was favoured wit by our friend the Dean,† is nearly out; I think he should be written to, to ser another of the same kind. Let the request be made with a happy ambiguity expression, so that we may have the chance of his sending it also as a present * Pope thus introduces this story: "Faith, in such case if you should prosecute "Imitations of Horace," book ii, epist. 2. |
