1775.

Etat. 66.

furnish; for one half of what he faid was oaths." He, however, allowed confiderable merit to fome of his comedies, and faid there was no reason to believe that "The Careless Hufband" was not written by himself. Davies faid, he was the first dramatick writer who introduced genteel ladies upon the stage. Johnson refuted this obfervation by inftancing feveral fuch characters in comedies before his time. DAVIES. (trying to defend himself from a charge of ignorance,)" I mean genteel moral characters." "I think (faid Hicky,) gentility and morality are infeparable." BOSWELL. "By no means, Sir. The genteeleft characters are often the moft immoral. Does not Lord Chesterfield give precepts for uniting wickedness and the graces? A man, indeed, is not genteel when he gets drunk; but moft vices may be cominitted very genteely: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteely: he may cheat at cards genteely." HICKY. "I do not think that is genteel." BOSWELL. "Sir, it may not be like a gentleman, but it may be genteel." JOHNSON. "You are meaning two different things. One means exteriour grace; the other honour. It is certain, that a man may be very immoral with exteriour grace. Lovelace, in Clariffa,' is a very genteel and a very wicked character. Tom Hervey, who died t'other day, though a vicious man, was one of the genteeleft men that ever lived." Tom Davies instanced Charles the Second. JOHNSON, (taking fire at any attack upon this Prince, for whom he had an extraordinary partiality,) "Charles the Second was licentious in his practice; but he always had a reverence for what was good. Charles the Second knew his people, and rewarded merit. The Church was at no time better filled than in his reign. He was the best King we have had from his time till the reign of his prefent Majefty, except James the Second, who was a very good King, but unhappily believed that it was neceffary for the falvation of his fubjects that they should be Roman Catholicks. He had the merit of endeavouring to do what he thought was for the falvation of the fouls of his fubjects, till he loft a great empire. We, who thought that we should not be faved if we were Roman Catholicks, had the merit of maintaining our religion, at the expence of fubmitting ourfelves to the government of King William, (for it could not be done otherwife,)-to the government of one of the most worthlefs fcoundrels that ever exifted. No; Charles the Second was not fuch a man as George 2 (naming another King). He did not destroy his father's will. He took money, indeed, from France: but he did not betray thofe over whom he ruled: he did not let the French fleet pafs ours. George the First knew nothing, and defired to know nothing; did nothing, and defired to do nothing and the only good thing that is told of him is, that he wished to reftore the crown to its hereditary fucceffor." He roared with prodigious violence

2

violence against George the Second. When he ceafed, Moody interjected, in an Irish tone, and with a comick look, "Ah! poor George the Second.”

I mentioned that Dr. Thomas Campbell had come from Ireland to London, principally to fee Dr. Johnson. He feemed angry at this obfervation. DAVIES. "Why, you know, Sir, there came a man from Spain to fee Livy'; and Corelli came to England to fee Purcell, and, when he heard he was dead, went directly back again to Italy." JOHNSON. "I fhould not have wifhed to be dead to disappoint Campbell, had he been fo foolish as you reprefent him; but I fhould have wifhed to have been a hundred miles off." This was apparently perverse; and I do believe it was not his real way of thinking: he could not but like a man who came fo far to fee him. He laughed with fome complacency, when I told him Campbell's odd expreffion to me concerning him: "That having feen fuch a man, was a thing to talk of a century hence;"-as if he could live fo long.

We got into an argument whether the Judges who went to India might with propriety engage in trade. Johnson warmly maintained that they might. "For why (he urged) fhould not Judges get riches, as well as those who deferve them lefs." I faid, they fhould have fufficient falaries, and have nothing to take off their attention from the affairs of the publick. JOHNSON. "No Judge, Sir, can give his whole attention to his office; and it is very proper that he fhould employ what time he has to himself, for his own advantage, in the most profitable manner." "Then, Sir, (faid Davies, who enlivened the difpute by making it fomewhat dramatick,) he may become an infurer; and when he is going to the bench, he may be stopped,- Your LordÏhip cannot go yet: here is a bunch of invoices: feveral fhips are about to fail." JOHNSON. "Sir, you may as well fay a judge fhould not have a houfe; for they may come and tell him, Your Lordship's houfe is on fire;' and fo, instead of minding the business of his Court, he is to be occupied in getting the engine with the greatest speed. There is no end of this. Every Judge who has land, trades to a certain extent in corn or in cattle; and in the land itself, undoubtedly. His steward acts for him, and fo do clerks for a great merchant. A Judge may be a farmer; but he is not to geld his own pigs. A Judge may play a little at cards for his amufement; but he is not to play at marbles, or at chuck-farthing in the Piazza. No, Sir; there is no profeffion to which a man gives a very great proportion of his time. It is wonderful when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the difcharge of

1775.

Etat. 66.

1775.

any profeffion. No man would be a Judge, upon the condition of being Atat, 66. obliged to be totally a Judge. The best employed lawyer has his mind at work but for a small proportion of his time: a great deal of his occupation is merely mechanical.-I once wrote for a magazine: I made a calculation, that if I should write but a page a day, at the fame rate, I fhould, in ten years, write nine volumes in folio, of an ordinary fize and print." BOSWELL. "Such as Carte's History?" JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir. When a man writes from his own mind, he writes very rapidly'. The greateft part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book."

I argued warmly against the Judges trading, and mentioned Hale as an inftance of a perfect Judge, who devoted himfelf entirely to his office. JOHNSON. "Hale, Sir, attended to other things befide law: he left a great eftate." BOSWELL. "That was, because what he got, accumulated without any exertion and anxiety on his part."

While the difpute went on, Moody once tried to fay fomething upon our fide. Tom Davies clapped him on the back, to encourage him. Beauclerk, to whom I mentioned this circumftance, faid, that "he could not conceive a more humiliating situation than to be clapped on the back by Tom Davies."

We spoke of Rolt, to whofe Dictionary of Commerce,. Dr. Johnfon wrote: the Preface. JOHNSON. "Old Gardner the bookfeller employed Rolt and Smart to write a monthly mifcellany, called The Vifitor. There was a formal written contract, which Allen the printer faw. Gardner thought as you do of the Judge. They were bound to write nothing else. They were to have, I think, a third of the profits of this fixpenny pamphlet; and the contract was. for ninety-nine years. I wish I had thought of giving this to Thurlow, in the cause about Literary Property. What an excellent instance would it have been of the oppreffion of booksellers towards poor authours!" (fmiling). Davies, zealous for the honour of the Trade, said, Gardner was not properly, a bookfeller. JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir; he certainly was a bookfeller. He had served. his time regularly, was a member of the Stationers' company, kept a fhop in, the face of mankind, purchased copy-right, and was a bibliopole, Sir, in every fenfe. I wrote for fome months in The Vifitor,' for poor Smart, while he was mad, not then knowing the terms on which he was engaged to write, and thinking I was doing him good. I hoped his wits would foon return to him.. Mine returned to me, and I wrote in The Vifitor' no longer..

Johnfon certainly did, who had a mind stored with knowledge, and teeming with imagery :. but the obfervation is not applicable to writers in general.

Friday,

1775

Friday, April 7, I dined with him at a tavern, with a numerous company. JOHNSON. "I have been reading Twifs's Travels in Spain,' which are just Etat. 66. come out. They are as good as the first book of travels that you will take up. They are as good as those of Keysler or Blainville; nay, as Addison's, if you except the learning. They are not fo good as Brydone's, but they are better than Pococke's. I have not, indeed, cut the leaves yet; but I have read in them where the pages are open, and I do not fuppofe that what is in the pages which are closed is worfe than what is in the open pages. It would feem (he added,) that Addison had not acquired much Italian learning, for we do not find it introduced into his writings. The only inftance that I recollect, is his quoting Stavo bene. Per ftar meglio, fto qui."

I mentioned Addifon's having borrowed many of his claffical remarks from Leandro Alberti. Mr. Beauclerk faid, "It was alledged that he had borrowed alfo from another Italian authour." JOHNSON. Why, Sir, all who go to look for what the Clafficks have faid of Italy muft find the fame paffages; and I should think it would be one of the first things the Italians would do on the revival of learning, to collect all that the Roman authours had faid of their country."

Offian being mentioned ;-JOHNSON. "Suppofing the Irish and Erfe languages to be the fame, which I do not believe, yet as there is no reason to suppose that the inhabitants of the Highlands and Hebrides ever wrote their native language, it is not to be credited that a long poem was preferved among them. If we had no evidence of the art of writing being practifed in one of the counties of England, we should not believe that a long poem was preferved there, though in the neighbouring counties, where the fame language was spoken, the inhabitants could write." BEAU CLERK. "The ballad of Lullabalero was once in the mouths of all the people of this country, and is faid to have had a great effect in bringing about the Revolution. Yet I question whether any body can repeat it now; which fhews how improbable it is that much poetry should be preferved by tradition."

One of the company suggested an internal objection to the antiquity of the poetry faid to be Offian's, that we do not find the wolf in it, which must have been the case had it been of that age.

The mention of the wolf had led Johnson to think of other wild beasts; and while Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Langton were carrying on a dialogue about fomething which engaged them earnestly, he, in the midst of it, broke out, "Pennant tells of Bears-" [what he added, I have forgotten.] They went on, which he being dull of hearing, did not perceive, or, if he did, was

not

1775.

not willing to break off his talk; fo he continued to vociferate his remarks, Etat. 66, and Bear (“like a word in a catch," as Beauclerk faid,) was repeatedly heard at intervals, which coming from him who, by thofe who did not know him, had been fo often affimilated to that ferocious animal, while we who were fitting around could hardly ftifle laughter, produced a very ludicrous effect. Silence having enfued, he proceeded: "We are told, that the black bear is innocent; but I fhould not like to truft myself with him." Mr. Gibbon muttered, in a low tone of voice, "I fhould not like to truft myself with you." This piece of farcaftick pleafantry was a prudent refolution, if applied to a competition of abilities.

Patriotifin having become one of our topicks, Johnson fuddenly uttered, in a ftrong determined tone, an apothegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But let it be confidered, that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which fo many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for felf-intereft. I maintained, that certainly all patriots were not fcoundrels. Being urged (not by Johnfon,) to name one exception, I mentioned an eminent perfon, whom we all greatly admired. JOHNSON. "Sir, I do not fay that he is not honest; but we have no reafon to conclude from his political conduct that he is honeft. Were he to accept of a place from this ministry, he would lofe that character of firmness which he has, and might be turned out of his place in a year. This miniftry is neither ftable, nor grateful to their friends, as Sir Robert Walpole was fo that he may think it more for his intereft to take his chance of his party coming in."

Mrs. Pritchard being mentioned, he faid, "Her playing was quite mechanical. It is wonderful how little mind fhe had. Sir, fhe had never read the tragedy of Macbeth all through. She no more thought of the play out of which her part was taken, than a fhoemaker thinks of the fkin, out of which the piece of leather, of which he is making a pair of fhoes, is cut.

On Saturday, May 8, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, where we met the Irish Dr. Campbell. Johnfon had fupped the night before at Mrs. Abington's, with fome fashionable people whom he named; and he feemed much pleased with having made one in fo elegant a circle.

Mrs. Thrale, who frequently practifed a coarse mode of flattery, by repeating his bon mots in his hearing, told us that he had faid, a certain celebrated actor was just fit to ftand at the door of an auction-room, with a long pole, and cry, Pray, gentlemen, walk in ;" and that a certain authour, upon hearing this, had faid, that another ftill more celebrated actor was fit for nothing better than

that,