with great sincerity I wish you happiness. I am, dear Sir, your most affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." I was detained in town till it was too late on the 9th, so went to him early in the morning of the 10th of November. "Now," said he, "that you are going to marry, do not expect more from life than life will afford. You may often find yourself out of humour, and you may often think your wife not studious enough to please you; and yet you may have reason to consider yourself as upon the whole very happily married.” Talking of marriage in general, he observed, "Our marriage service is too refined. It is calculated only for the best kind of marriages: whereas, we should have a form for matches of convenience, of which there are many."(1) He agreed with me that there was no absolute necessity for having the marriage ceremony performed by a regular clergyman, for this was not commanded in Scripture. I was volatile enough to repeat to him a little epigrammatic song of mine, on matrimony, which Mr. Garrick had, a few days before, procured to be set to music by the very ingenious Mr. Dibden. (1) It may be suspected that Mr. Boswell, in transcribing for the press, at the interval of twenty-five years, his original note, may have misrepresented Dr. Johnson's opinion. There are, no doubt, marriages of convenience, but such often turn out to be very happy marriages. Moreover, one would ask, how is the marriage ceremony too refined? and, again, if there were two services, who would ever consent to be married by that which implied some degree of degradation, or at least of inferiority? and finally, how is one to guess, beforehand, how a marriage is to turn out?-C. A Matrimonial Thought. "But now my kitten's grown a cat, My illustrious friend said, "It is very well, Sir; but you should not swear." Upon which I altered "O! by my soul," to "alas, alas!" He was so good as to accompany me to London, and see me into the post-chaise which was to carry me on my road to Scotland. And sure I am, that however inconsiderable many of the particulars recorded at this time may appear to some, they will be esteemed by the best part of my readers as genuine traits of his character, contributing together to give a full, fair, and distinct view of it. In 1770, he published a political pamphlet, entitled "The False Alarm," intended to justify the conduct of ministry and their majority in the House of Commons, for having virtually assumed it as an axiom, that the expulsion of a member of parliament was equivalent to exclusion, and thus having declared Colonel Luttrell to be duly elected for the county of Middlesex, notwithstanding Mr. Wilkes had a great majority of votes. This being justly considered as a gross violation of the right of election, an alarm for the constitution extended itself all over the kingdom. To prove this alarm to be false, purpose was the of Johnson's pamphlet; but even his vast powers were inadequate to cope with constitutional truth and reason, and his argument failed of effect; and the House of Commons have since expunged the offensive resolution from their Journals. That the House of Commons might have expelled Mr. Wilkes repeatedly, and as often as he should be re-chosen, was not denied ; but incapacitation cannot be but by an act of the whole legislature. It was wonderful to see how a prejudice in favour of government in general, and an aversion to popular clamour, could blind and contract such an understanding as Johnson's, in this particular case; yet the wit, the sarcasm, the eloquent vivacity which this pamphlet displayed, made it be read with great avidity (1) at the time, and it will ever be read with pleasure, for the sake of its composition. That it endeavoured to infuse a narcotic indifference, as to public concerns, into the minds of the people, and that it broke out sometimes into an extreme coarseness of contemptuous abuse, is but too evident. It must not, however, be omitted, that when the storm of his violence subsides, he takes a fair opportunity to pay a grateful compliment to the King, who had rewarded his merit : "These low-born rulers have endeavoured, surely without effect, to alienate the affections of the people from the only King who for almost a century has much appeared to desire, or much endeavoured to deserve them." And (1) ["The False Alarm" was published by T. Cadell, in the Strand, Jan. 16. 1770; a second edition appeared Feb. 6., and a third, March 13.] "Every honest man must lament, that the faction has been regarded with frigid neutrality by the Tories, who being long accustomed to signalise their principles by opposition to the Court, do not yet consider, that they have at last a King who knows not the name of party, and who wishes to be the common father of all his people." (1) To this pamphlet, which was at once discovered to be Johnson's, several answers came out, in which care was taken to remind the public of his former attacks upon government, and of his now being a pensioner, without allowing for the honourable terms upon which Johnson's pension was granted and accepted, or the change of system which the British court had undergone upon the accession of his present Majesty. He was, however, soothed in the highest strain of panegyric, in a poem called "The Remonstrance," by the Rev. Mr. Stockdale (2), to whom he was, upon many occasions, a kind pro tector. (1) This, his first and favourite pamphlet, was written at our house, between eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve o'clock on Thursday night: we read it to Mr. Thrale, when he canie very late home from the House of Commons. - Piozzi. (2) The Rev. Percival Stockdale, whose strange and rambling "Autobiography" was published in 1808: he was the author of several bad poems, and died in 1810, at the age of 75. He was Johnson's neighbour for some years, both in Johnson's Court and Bolt Court.-C. [ From the animated, ingenious, and eccentric Percival Stockdale, Miss Burney drew the Belfield of her 'Cecilia.' His Memoirs ' were written under the pressure of extreme debility, and nervous irritation, from the rapid increase of a disorder he inherited from his cradle. Irritability of temper was, indeed, his only fault. He has left behind him the remembrance of his charities in the breasts of the poor, and the image of his worth in the hearts of many lamenting friends. -JANE PORTER.] The following admirable minute made by him, describes so well his own state, and that of numbers to whom self-examination is habitual, that I cannot omit it: : "June 1. 1770. Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment. This opinion of our own constancy is so prevalent, that we always despise him who suffers his general and settled purpose to be overpowered by an occasional desire. They, therefore, whom frequent failures have made desperate, cease to form resolutions; and they who are become cunning, do not tell them. Those who do not make them are very few, but of their effect little is perceived; for scarcely any man persists in a course of life planned by choice, but as he is restrained from deviation by some external power. He who may live as he will, seldom lives long in the observation of his own rules. I never yet saw a regular family, unless it were that of Mrs. Harriot's, nor a regular man, except Mr. (1), whose exactness I know only by his own report, and Psalmanazer, whose I think, uniform." [Pr. and Med. p. 100.] life was, LETTER 120. TO THE REV. DR. FARMER. "Johnson's Court, March 21. 1770. "SIR,-As no man ought to keep wholly to himself any possession that may be useful to the public, I hope you will not think me unreasonably intrusive, if I have recourse to you for such information as you are more able to give me than any other man. (1) The name in the original manuscript is, as Dr. Hall informs me, Campbell. The Scotch non-juring Bishop Campbell was probably the person meant. — - C. |