1770. life planned by choice, but as he is reftrained from deviation by fome exterAtat. 61. nal power. He who may live as he will, feldom lives long in the obfervation of his own rules"." Of this year I have obtained the following letters: ec SIR, To the Reverend Dr. FARMER, Cambridge. "AS no man ought to keep wholly to himself any poffeffion that may be useful to the publick, I hope you will not think me unreasonably intrufive, if I have recourse to you for fuch information as you are more able to give me than any other man. "In support of an opinion which you have already placed above the need of any more fupport, Mr. Steevens, a very ingenious gentleman, lately of King's College, has collected an account of all the tranflations which Shakspeare might have feen and used. He wishes his catalogue to be perfect, and therefore intreats that you will favour him by the infertion of such additions as the accuracy of your inquiries has enabled you to make. To this request, I take the liberty of adding my own folicitation. "We have no immediate ufe for this catalogue, and therefore do not defire that it should interrupt or hinder your more important employments. But it will be kind to let us know that you receive it. "Johnfon's-court, Fleet-ftreet, March 21, 1770. "I am, Sir, &c. SAM. JOHNSON." To the Reverend Mr. THOMAS WARTON. " DEAR SIR, "THE readiness with which you were pleased to promife me fome notes on Shakspeare, was a new inftance of your friendship. I fhall not hurry you; but am defired by Mr. Steevens, who helps me in this edition, to let you know, that we shall print the tragedies first, and shall therefore want first the notes which belong to them. We think not to incommode the readers with a supplement; and therefore, what we cannot put into its proper place, will do us no good. We fhall not begin to print before the end of fix weeks, perhaps not fo foon. 1770. Etat. 61. "I am, &c. "London, June 23, 1770. SAM. JOHNSON." "DEAR SIR, To the Reverend Dr. JOSEPH WARTON. "I AM revising my edition of Shakspeare, and remember that I formerly misrepresented your opinion of Lear. Be pleased to write the paragraph as you would have it, and fend it. If you have any remarks of your own upon that or any other play, I fhall gladly receive them. "Make my compliments to Mrs. Warton. I fometimes think of wandering for a few days to Winchester, but am apt to delay. I am, Sir, "Your most humble fervant, "Sept. 27, 1770. SAM. JOHNSON." To Mr. FRANCIS BARBER, at Mrs. CLAPP's, Bishop-Stortford, Hertfordshire. "DEAR FRANCIS, "I AM at last fat down to write to you, and fhould very much blame myself for having neglected you fo long, if I did not impute that and many other failings to want of health. I hope not to be so long filent again. I am very well fatisfied with your progress, if you can really perform the exercises which you are fet; and I hope Mr. Ellis does not fuffer you to impose on him, or on yourself. "Make my compliments to Mr. Ellis, and to Mrs. Clapp, and Mr. Smith. "Let me know what English books you read for your entertainment. You can never be wife unless you love reading. "Do not imagine that I fhall forget or forfake you; for if, when I examine you, I find that you have not loft your time, you shall want no encouragement from " I HOPE you mind your business. I defign you shall stay with Mrs. Clapp these holidays. If you are invited out you may go, if Mr. Ellis gives leave. I have ordered you fome cloaths, which you will receive, I believe, next week. My compliments to Mrs. Clapp and to Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Smith, &c. I am December 7, 1770. "Your affectionate SAM. JOHNSON." During this year there was a total ceffation of all correfpondence between Dr. Johnson and me, without any coldness on either fide, but merely from procrastination, continued from day to day; and as I was not in London, I had no opportunity of enjoying his company and recording his converfation. To supply this blank, I shall present my readers with fome Collectanea, obligingly furnished to me by the Reverend Dr. Maxwell, of Falkland, in Ireland, fome time assistant preacher at the Temple, and for many years the focial friend of Johnson, who spoke of him with a very kind regard. "My acquaintance with that great and venerable character commenced in the year 1754. I was introduced to him by Mr. Grierfon, his Majesty's printer at Dublin, a gentleman of uncommon learning, and great wit and vivacity. Mr. Grierfon died in Germany, at the age of twenty-feven. Dr. Johnson highly refpected his abilities, and often obferved, that he poffeffed more extensive knowledge than any man of his years he had ever known. His industry was equal to his talents; and he particularly excelled in every species of philological learning, and was, perhaps, the best critick of the age he lived in. "I must always remember with gratitude my obligation to Mr. Grierson, for the honour and happiness of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance and friendship, which continued uninterrupted and undiminished to his death: a connection, that was at once the pride and happiness of my life. "What pity it is, that fo much wit and good fenfe as he continually exhibited in converfation, fhould perish unrecorded! Few perfons quitted his 7 Son of the learned Mrs. Grierfon, who was patronifed by the late Lord Granville, and was the editor of several of the clafficks. company. 1770. company without perceiving themselves wifer and better than they were before. On ferious fubjects he flashed the most interesting conviction upon Etat. 61. his auditors; and upon lighter topicks, you might have fuppofed-Albano mufas de monte locutas. "Though I can hope to add but little to the celebrity of fo exalted a character, by any communications I can furnish, yet out of pure respect to his memory, I will venture to transmit to you fome anecdotes concerning him, which fell under my own obfervation. The very minutie of fuch a character must be interesting, and may be compared to the filings of diamonds. "In politicks he was deemed a Tory, but certainly was not fo in the obnoxious or party sense of the term; for while he afferted the legal and falutary prerogatives of the crown, he no less respected the constitutional liberties of the people. Whiggism, at the time of the Revolution, he said, was accompanied with certain principles; but latterly, as a mere party diftinction under Walpole and the Pelhams, was no better than the politicks of stock-jobbers, and the religion of infidels. A "He detefted the idea of governing by parliamentary corruption, and afferted most strenuously, that a prince steadily and confpicuously pursuing the interests of his people, could not fail of parliamentary concurrence. prince of ability, he contended, might and should be the directing foul and spirit of his own administration; in short, his own minister, and not the mere head of a party: and then, and not till then, would the royal dignity be fincerely respected. Johnson feemed to think, that a certain degree of crown influence over the Houses of Parliament, (not meaning a corrupt and shameful dependence,) was very falutary, nay even neceffary, in our mixed government. For, (faid he,) if the members were under no crown influence, and disqualified from receiving any gratification from Court, and resembled, as they poffibly might, Pym and Haflerig, and other stubborn and fturdy members of the long Parliament, the wheels of government would be totally obftructed. Such men would oppofe, merely to fhew their power, from envy, jealoufy, and perversity of difpofition; and not gaining themselves, would hate and oppofe all who did not loving the perfon of the prince, and conceiving they owed him little gratitude, from the mere spirit of insolence and contradiction, they would oppofe and thwart him upon all occafions.' "The infeparable imperfection annexed to all human governments, consisted, he faid, in not being able to create a fufficient fund of virtue and principle to carry the laws into due and effectual execution. Wisdom might plan, but virtue X X 1770. virtue alone could execute. And where could fufficient virtue be found? Atat. 61. A variety of delegated, and often difcretionary powers must be entrusted somewhere; which, if not governed by integrity and confcience, would neceffarily be abused, till at last the constable would fell his for a fhilling. "This excellent perfon was fometimes charged with abetting flavish and arbitrary principles of government. Nothing in my opinion could be a groffer calumny and mifreprefentation; for how can it be rationally fuppofed, that he fhould adopt fuch pernicious and abfurd opinions, who fupported his philofophical character with fo much dignity, was extremely jealous of his perfonal liberty and independence, and could not brook the finallest appearance of neglect or infult, even from the highest personages? "But let us view him in fome inftances of more familiar life. "His general mode of life, during my acquaintance, feemed to be pretty uniform. About twelve o'clock I commonly' vifited him, and frequently found him in bed, or declaiming over his tea, which he drank very plentifully. He generally had a levee of morning visitors, chiefly men of letters; Hawkfworth, Goldsmith, Murphy, Langton, Steevens, Beauclerk, &c. &c. and fometimes learned ladies, particularly I remember a French lady of wit and fashion doing him the honour of a visit. He seemed to me to be considered as a kind of publick oracle, whom every body thought they had a right to vifit and confult; and doubtless they were well rewarded. I never could difcover how he found time for his compofitions. He declaimed all the morning, then went to dinner at a tavern, where he commonly staid late, and then drank his tea at fome friend's house, over which he loitered a great while, but feldom took fupper. I fancy he must have read and wrote chiefly in the night, for I can scarely recollect that he ever refused going with me to a tavern, and he often went to Ranelagh, which he deemed a place of innocent recreation. "He frequently gave all the filver in his pocket to the poor, who watched Though the most acceffible and communicative man alive, yet when he 4 |