1763. ornaments of the Johnfonian school. Goldfimith's refpectful attachment to Etat. 54. Johnson was then at its height; for his own literary reputation had not yet distinguished him so much as to excite a vain defire of competition with his great master. He had increased my admiration of the goodness of Johnson's heart, by incidental remarks in the course of conversation, fuch as, when I mentioned Mr. Levet, whom he entertained under his roof, "He is poor and honest, which is recommendation enough to Johnfon ;" and when I wondered that he was very kind to a man of whom I had heard a very bad character, "He is now become miferable, and that infures the protection of Johnson." Goldfinith attempted this evening to maintain, I fuppofe from an affectation of paradox, that knowledge was not defirable on its own account, for it often was a fource of unhappiness. JOHNSON. " JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, that knowledge may in fome cafes produce unhappiness, I allow. But, upon the whole, knowledge per fe is certainly an object which every man would wish to attain, although, perhaps, he may not take the trouble neceffary for attaining it." Dr. John Campbell, the celebrated political and biographical writer, being mentioned, Johnson faid, "Campbell is a man of much knowledge, and has a good share of imagination. His Hermippus Redivivus' is very entertaining, as an account of the Hermetick philofophy, and as furnishing a curious history of the extravagancies of the human mind. If it were merely imaginary, it would be nothing at all. Campbell is not always rigidly careful of truth in his conversation; but I do not believe there is any thing of this careleffness in his books. Campbell is a good man, a pious man. I am afraid he has not been in the infide of a church for many years'; but he never paffes a church without pulling off his hat. This fhews that he has good principles. I used to go pretty often to Campbell's on a Sunday evening, till I began to confider that the fhoals of Scotchmen who flocked about I am inclined to think that he was mifinformed as to this circumftance. I own I am jealous for my worthy friend Dr. John Campbell. For though Milton could without remorse absent himfelf from publick worship, I cannot. On the contrary, I have the same habitual impreffions upon my mind, with thofe of a truly venerable Judge, who faid to Mr. Langton, "Friend Langton, if I have not been at church on Sunday, I do not feel my felf eafy." Dr. Campbell was a fincerely religious man. Lord Macartney, who is eminent for his variety of knowledge, and attention to men of talents, and knew him well, told me, that when he called on him in a morning, he found him reading a chapter in the Greek New Teftament, which he informed his Lordfhip was his conftant practice. The quantity of Dr. Campbell's compofition is almost incredible, and his labours brought him large profits. Dr. Jofeph Warton told me that Johnson said of him, "He is the richeft authour that ever grazed the common of literature." ་ him might probably fay, when any thing of mine was well done, Ay, ay, he has learnt this of CAWMELL!" He talked very contemptuously of Churchill's poetry, obferving, that "it had a temporary currency, only from its audacity of abuse, and being filled with living names, and that it would fink into oblivion." I ventured to hint that he was not quite a fair judge, as Churchill had attacked him violently. JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, I am a very fair judge. He did not attack me violently till he found I did not like his poetry; and his attack on me fhall not prevent me from continuing to say what I think of him, from an apprehenfion that it may be ascribed to refentment. No, Sir, I called the fellow a blockhead at first, and I will call him a blockhead ftill. However, I will acknowledge that I have a better opinion of him now, than I once had; for he has fhewn more fertility than I expected. To be fure, he is a tree that cannot produce good fruit: he only bears crabs. But, Sir, a tree that produces a great many crabs is better than a tree which produces only a few." In this depreciation of Churchill's poetry I could not agree with him. It is very true that the greatest part of it is upon the topicks of the day, on which account, as it brought him great fame and profit at the time, it must proportionally slide out of the publick attention as other occafional objects fucceed. But Churchill had extraordinary vigour both of thought and expreffion. His portraits of the players will ever be valuable to the true lovers of the drama; and his ftrong caricatures of feveral eminent men of his age, will not be forgotten by the curious. Let me add, that there are in his works many paffages which are of a general nature; and his "Prophecy of Famine" is a poem of no ordinary merit. It is, indeed, falfely injurious to Scotland; but therefore may be allowed a greater share of invention. Bonnel Thornton had just published a burlesque "Ode on St. Cecilia's day, adapted to the ancient British mufick, viz. the falt-box, the Jew's-harp, the marrow-bones and cleaver, the hum-strum or hurdy-gurdy, &c." Johnson praised its humour, and feemed much diverted with it. He repeated the following paffage: "In ftrains more exalted the falt-box fhall join, "And clattering and battering and clapping combine; 1763. Etat. 54. I mentioned the periodical paper called THE CONNOISSEUR. He faid it wanted matter.-No doubt it has not the deep thinking of Johnson's writings. But furely it has juft views of the surface of life, and a very sprightly manHis opinion of THE WORLD was not much higher than of the Con ner. noiffeur. Let me here apologize for the imperfect manner in which I am obliged to exhibit Johnson's converfation at this period. In the early part of my acquaintance with him, I was fo wrapt in admiration of his extraordinary colloquial talents, and fo little accustomed to his peculiar mode of expreffion, that I found it extremely difficult to recollect and record his converfation with its genuine vigour and vivacity. In progrefs of time, when my mind was, at it were, ftrongly impregnated with the Johnfonian æther, I could, with much more facility and exactnefs, carry in my memory and commit to paper the exuberant variety of his wisdom and wit. At this time Mifs Williams, as fhe was then called, though fhe did not refide with him in the Temple under his roof, but had lodgings in Bolt-court, Fleet-street, had so much of his attention, that he every night drank tea with her before he went home, however late it might be, and fhe always fat up for him. This, it may be fairly conjectured, was not alone a proof of his regard for her, but of his own unwillingness to go into folitude before that unfeasonable hour at which he had habituated himself to expect the oblivion of repofe. Dr. Goldsmith, being a privileged man, went with him this night, ftrutting away, and calling to me with an air of fuperiority, like that of an efoterick over an exoterick difciple of a fage of antiquity, "I go to Mifs Williams." I confefs, I then envied him this mighty privilege, of which he feemed fo proud; but it was not long before I obtained the fame mark of distinction. On Tuesday the 5th of July, I again visited Johnfon. He told me he had looked into the poems of a certain pretty voluminous modern writer, which had lately come out, but could find no thinking in them. BOSWELL. "Is there not imagination in them, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, there is in them what was imagination, but it is no more imagination in him, than found is found in the echo. And his diction too is not his own. We have long ago feen whiterobed innocence, and flower-befpangled meads." Talking of London, he observed, "Sir, if you wish to have a juft notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be fatisfied with feeing its great streets and squares, but muft furvey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the fhewy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations habitations which are crouded together, that the wonderful immenfity of London confifts."-I have often amufed myself with thinking how different a place London is to different people. They, whofe narrow minds are contracted to the confideration of some one particular purfuit, view it only through that medium. A politician thinks of it merely as the feat of government in its different departments; a grazier, as a vast market for cattle; a mercantile man, as a place where a prodigious deal of business is done upon 'Change; a dramatick enthusiast, as the grand scene of theatrical entertainments; a man of pleasure, as an affemblage of taverns, and the great emporium for ladies of eafy virtue. But the intellectual man is ftruck with it, as comprehending the whole of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhauftible. 1763. Etat. 54. On Wednesday, July 6, he was engaged to fup with me at my lodgings in Downing-street, Westminster. But on the preceding night my landlord having behaved very rudely to me and fome company who were with me, I had resolved not to remain another night in his house. I was exceedingly uneasy at the aukward appearance I fuppofed I fhould make to Johnson and the other gentlemen whom I had invited, not being able to receive them at home, and being obliged to order fupper at the Mitre. I went to Johnfon in the morning, and talked of it as of a serious distress. He laughed, and said, "Confider, Sir, how infignificant this will appear a twelvemonth hence.”— Were this confideration to be applied to moft of the little vexatious incidents of life, by which our quiet is too often difturbed, it would prevent many painful fenfations. I have tried it frequently, with good effect. "There is nothing (continued he) in this mighty misfortune; nay, we fhall be better at the Mitre." I told him that I had been at Sir John Fielding's office, complaining of my landlord, and had been informed, that though I had taken my lodgings for a year, I might, upon proof of his bad behaviour, quit them when I pleased, without being under an obligation to pay rent for any longer time than while I poffeffed them. The fertility of Johnson's mind could fhew itself even upon fo fmall a matter as this. "Why, Sir, (faid he,) I fuppose this must be the law, fince you have been told fo in Bow-street. But, if your landlord could hold you to your bargain, and the lodgings should be yours for a year, you may certainly use them as you think fit. So, Sir, you may quarter two life-guardmen upon him; or you may fend the greatest fcoundrel you can find into your apartments; or you may say that you want to make fome experiments in natural philofophy, and may burn a large quantity of affafoetida in his house." I cannot 1763. Atat. 54. I cannot allow any fragment whatever that floats in my memory concerning the great fubject of this work to be loft. Though a small particular may appear trifling to fome, it will be relifhed by others, while every little fpark adds fomething to the general blaze. And to please the true, candid, warm admirers of Johnson, and in any degree increase the splendour of his reputation, I bid defiance to the fhafts of ridicule, or even of malignity; thousands of them have been discharged at my "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," yet it still fails unhurt " along the stream of time," and as an attendant upon Johnfon," Purfues the triumph, and partakes the gale." I had as my guests this evening at the Mitre tavern, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. Thomas Davies, Mr. Eccles, an Irish gentleman, for whose agreeable company I was obliged to Mr. Davies, and the Reverend Mr. Ogilvie, a Scotch clergyman, authour of feveral poems, who was very defirous of being in company with my illuftrious friend, while I, in my turn, was proud to have the honour of fhewing one of my countrymen upon what easy terms Johnson permitted me to live with him. Goldsmith, as usual, endeavoured, with too much eagerness, to shine, and difputed very warmly with Johnson against the well-known maxim of the British conftitution," the King can do no wrong;" affirming, that "what was morally falfe could not be politically true; and as the King might, in the exercise of his regal power, command and cause the doing of what was wrong, it certainly might be faid, in fenfe and in reason, that he could do wrong. JOHNSON. "Sir, you are to confider, that in our conftitution, according to its true principles, the King is the head; he is fupreme; he is above every thing, and there is no power by which he can be tried. Therefore it is, Sir, that we hold the King can do no wrong, that whatever may happen to be wrong in government may not be above our reach, by being afcribed to Majesty. Redress is always to be had against oppreffion, by punishing the immediate agents. The King, though he should command, cannot force a Judge to condemn a man unjustly; therefore it is the Judge whom we prosecute and punish. Political inftitutions are formed upon the confideration of what will most frequently tend to the good of the whole, although now and then exceptions may occur. Thus it is better in general that a nation should have a fupreme legislative power, although it may at times be abufed. And then, Sir, there is this confideration, that if the abuse be enormous, Nature will rife up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political fyftem." I mark this animated fentence with peculiar pleasure, as a noble inftance of that truly dignified spirit of freedom which ever glowed in his heart, though he was charged 4 |