Johnson's letter of condolence to Mrs. Thrale. Cibber's Lives of the Poets (note by Boswell, with the LIST OF ENGRAVINGS IN VOLUME II. DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, from a picture formerly in the pos session of Archdeacon Cambridge. JOHNSON'S HOUSE, in Johnson's Court, Fleet Street RICHARD OWEN CAMBRIDGE THOMAS WARTON, from a painting by Sir J. Reynolds AUTOGRAPH OF THOMAS WARTON Frontispiece to face page 114 188 262 264 THE LIFE ON OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. N the 21st of March, I was happy to find myself again in my friend's study, and was glad to see my old acquaintance, Mr. Francis Barber, who was now returned home. Dr. Johnson received me with a hearty welcome; saying, "I am glad you are come, and glad you are come upon such an errand:" (alluding to the cause of the schoolmaster.) BOSWELL. "I hope, Sir, he will be in no danger. It is a very delicate matter to interfere between a master and his scholars: nor do I see how you can fix the degree of severity that a master may use." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, till you can fix the degree of obstinacy and negligence of the scholars, you cannot fix the degree of severity of the master. Severity must be continued until obstinacy be subdued, and negligence be cured." He mentioned the severity of Hunter, his own master. "Sir," said I, "Hunter is a Scotch name: so it should seem this schoolmaster, who beat you so severely was a Scotchman. I can now account for your prejudice against the Scotch." JOHNSON. "Sir, he was not Scotch; and, abating his brutality, he was a very good master." We talked of his two political pamphlets, "The False Alarm," and "Thoughts concerning Falkland's Islands." JOHNSON. "Well, Sir, which of them did you think the best?" BOSWELL. "I liked the second best." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I liked the first best; and Beattie liked the first best. Sir, there is a subtlety of disquisition in the first, that is worth all the fire of the second." BOSWELL. "Pray, Sir, is it true that Lord North paid you a visit, and that you got two hundred a year in addition to your pension?" JOHNSON. "No, Sir. Except what I had from the bookseller, I did not get a farthing by them. And, between you and me, I believe Lord North is no friend to me." BOSWELL. "How so, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, you cannot account for the fancies of men. Well, how does Lord Elibank? and how does Lord Monboddo?" BOSWELL. "Very well, Sir. Lord Monboddo still maintains the superiority of the savage life." JOHNSON. "What strange narrowness of mind now is that, to think the things we have not known, are better than the things which we have known." BOSWELL. "Why, Sir, that is a common prejudice." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, but a common prejudice should not be found in one whose trade it is to rectify error." A gentleman having come in who was to go as a mate in the 1 James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, descended from an old Scottish family, was born at Monboddo, the family seat, in October or November, 1714. He received the rudiments of his education at the parish school of Laurence Kirk, of which Ruddiman, when a young man, had been the master. In due time he was sent to the University of Aberdeen, and afterwards to Groningen to study civil law. On his return to Scotland he was called to the Scottish bar, and practised as an advocate with distinguished success. In 1767 he was raised to the Bench, and took the title of Lord Monboddo. The recesses of the Court of Session he devoted to the earnest study of Greek literature, and especially of Greek philosophy. During a series of years, 1779-1799, he published six quarto volumes entitled, "Antient Metaphysics." His more known work, "The Origin and Progress of Language," appeared at Edinburgh, the first volume in 1773, the last in 1792. He died, much loved and respected, at his house in Edinburgh, 1799. During his Edinburgh winter Burns the poet was a frequent visitor at Lord Monboddo's, and writes of the beauty of his daughter in rapturous terms "Fair Burnett strikes the adoring eye." In a letter to Mr. Chalmers, December, 1786, he describes her as the heavenly Miss Burnett :-"There has not been anything nearly like her in all the combinations of beauty, grace, and goodness the great Creator has formed, since Milton's Eve on the first day of her existence." The fair Burnett, alas! died of consumption in 1790.-Editor. |