There was here, moft certainly, an affectation of more Jacobitifm than he really had, and indeed an intention of admitting, for the moment, in a much greater extent than it really existed, the charge of difaffection imputed to him by the world, merely for the purpose of fhewing how dexterously he could repel an attack, even though he were placed in the most disadvantageous pofition; for I have heard him declare, that if holding up his right hand would have secured victory at Culloden to Prince Charles's army, he was not fure he would have held it up; fo little confidence had he in the right claimed by the house of Stuart, and so fearful was he of the confequences of another revolution on the throne of Great-Britain; and Mr. Topham Beauclerk affured. he had heard him say this before he had his penfion. At another time he faid to Mr. Langton, "Nothing has ever offered that has made it worth my while to confider the queftion fully." He, however, alfo faid to the fame gentleman, talking of King James the Second, "It was become impoffible' for him to reign any longer in this country." He no doubt had an early attachment to the house of Stuart; but his zeal had cooled as his reason strengthened.. Indeed I heard him once fay, that "after the death of a violent Whig, with whom he used to contend with great eagerness, he felt his Toryism much abated." I fuppofe he meant Mr. Walmsley. me, He advised me, when abroad, to be as much as I could with the Profeffors in the Universities, and with the Clergy; for from their converfation I might expect the best accounts of every thing in whatever country I should be, with. the additional advantage of keeping my learning alive. It will be obferved, that when giving me advice as to my travels, Dr.. Johnfon did not dwell upon cities, and palaces, and pictures, and fhews, and. Arcadian scenes. He was of Lord Effex's opinion, who advises his kinfmán Roger Earl of Rutland, " rather to go an hundred miles to speak with one wife man, than five miles to fee a fair town 4." I described to him an impudent fellow from Scotland, who affected to be a favage, and railed at all established fyftems. JOHNSON. "There is nothing. furprizing in this, Sir. He wants to make himself confpicuous. He would tumble in a hog-ftye, as long as you looked at him and called to him to come out. But let him alone, never mind him, and he'll foon give it over." I added, that the fame perfon maintained that there was no diftinction between virtue and vice.. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, if the fellow does not think as he Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 402. Letter to Rutland on Travel, 1596. fpeaks, 1763. fpeaks, he is lying; and I fee not what honour he can propofe to himself from having the character of a lyar. But if he does really think that there is Etat. 54. no diftinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses, let us count our spoons." Sir David Dalrymple, now one of the Judges of Scotland by the title of Lord Hailes, had contributed much to increase my high opinion of Johnfon, on account of his writings, long before I attained to a perfonal acquaintance with him; I, in return, had informed Johnson of Sir David's eminent character for learning and religion; and Johnson was fo much pleased, that at one of our evening meetings he gave him for his toaft. I at this time kept up a very frequent correspondence with Sir David; and I read to Dr. Johnfon to-night the following paffage from the letter which I had laft received from him: "It gives me pleasure to think that you have obtained the friendship of Mr. Samuel Johnson. He is one of the best moral writers which England has produced. At the fame time, I envy you the free and undisguised converse with fuch a man. May I beg you to prefent my best respects to him, and to affure him of the veneration which I entertain for the authour of the Rambler and of Raffelas? Let me recommend this laft work to you; with the Rambler you certainly are acquainted. In Raffelas you will fee a tenderhearted operator, who probes the wound only to heal it. Swift, on the contrary, mangles human nature. He cuts and flashes, as if he took pleasure in the operation, like the tyrant who faid, Ita feri ut fe fentiat emori." Johnson feemed to be much gratified by this just and well-turned compliment. He recommended to me to keep a journal of my life, full and unreserved. He faid it would be a very good exercife, and would yield me great fatisfaction when the particulars were faded from my remembrance. I was uncommonly fortunate in having had a previous coincidence of opinion with him upon this fubject, for I had kept fuch a journal for fome time; and it was no finall pleasure to me to have this to tell him, and to receive his approbation. He counselled me to keep it private, and said I might surely have a friend who would burn it in cafe of my death. From this habit I have been enabled to give the world fo many anecdotes, which would otherwise have been loft to pofterity. I mentioned that I was afraid I put into my journal too many little incidents. JOHNSON. "There is nothing, Sir, too little for fo little a creature as man. It is by ftudying little things that we attain the great art of having as little mifery and as much happiness as poffible." 1763. Etat. 54. Next morning Mr. Dempfter happened to call on me, and was fo much struck even with the imperfect account which I gave him of Dr. Johnson's converfation, that to his honour be it recorded, when I complained that drinking port and fitting up late with him, affected my nerves for fome time after, he faid, "One had better be palfied at eighteen, than not keep company with fuch a man." On Tuesday, July 18, I found tall Sir Thomas Robinfon fitting with Johnfon. Sir Thomas faid, that the King of Pruffia valued himself upon three things;-upon being a hero, a mufician, and an authour. JOHNSON. "Pretty well, Sir, for one man. As to his being an authour, I have not looked at his poetry; but his profe is poor ftuff. He writes just as you might fuppofe Voltaire's footboy to do, who has been his amanuenfis. He has fuch parts as the valet might have, and about as much of the colouring of the style as might be got by tranfcribing his works." When I was at Ferney, I repeated this to Voltaire, in order to reconcile him fomewhat to Johnson; whom he, in affecting the English mode of expreffion, had previously characterised as "a fuperftitious dog;" but after hearing fuch a criticism on Frederick the Great, with whom he was then on bad terms, he exclaimed, "An honeft fellow !" But I think the criticifin much too fevere; for the "Memoirs of the Houfe of Brandenburgh" are written as well as many works of that kind. His poetry, for the ftyle of which he himself makes a frank apology, "Jargonnant un François barbare," though fraught with pernicious ravings of infidelity, has, in many places, great animation, and in fome a pathetick tenderness. Upon this contemptuous animadverfion on the King of Prussia, I observed to Johnfon, "It would feem then, Sir, that much lefs parts are neceffary to make a King, than to make an Authour; for the King of Pruffia is confeffedly the greatest King now in Europe, yet you think he makes a very poor figure as an Authour." Mr. Levet this day fhewed me Dr. Johnfon's library, which was contained in two garrets over his Chambers, where Lintot, fon of the celebrated bookfeller of that name, had formerly his printing-houfe. I found a number of good books, but very dufty and in great confufion. The floor was strewed with manufcript leaves, in Johnfon's own hand-writing, which I beheld with a degree of veneration, fuppofing they perhaps might contain portions of the Rambler, or of Raffelas. I obferved an apparatus for chymical experiments, of which Johnson was all his life very fond. The place feemed to be very favourable for retirement and meditation. Johnfon told me, that he went up thither 1763. thither without mentioning it to his servant, when he wanted to study, secure from interruption; for he would not allow his fervant to fay he was not at Atat. 54. home when he really was. "A fervant's ftrict regard for truth, (faid he) must be weakened by fuch a practice. A philofopher may know that it is merely a form of denial; but few fervants are fuch nice distinguishers. If I accustom a fervant to tell a lye for me, have I not reafon to apprehend that he will tell many lies for himself?" I am, however, fatisfied that every fervant, of any degree of intelligence, understands faying his mafter is not at home, not at all as the affirmation of a fact, but as cuftomary words, intimating that his master wishes not to be feen; fo that there can be no bad effect from it. Mr. Temple, now vicar of St. Gluvias, Cornwall, who had been my intimate friend for many years, had at this time chambers in Farrar's-buildings, at the bottom of Inner Temple-lane, which he kindly lent me upon my quitting my lodgings, he being to return to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. I found them particularly convenient for me, as they were fo near Dr. Johnfon's. On Wednesday, July 20, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Dempfter, and my uncle Dr. Bofwell, who happened to be now in London, fupped with me at these Chambers. JOHNSON. "Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneafy fenfations frorn feeing a creature in diftrefs, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them. When I am on my way to dine with a friend, and finding it late, have bid the coachman make hafte, if I happen to attend when he whips his horses, I may feel unpleasantly that the animals are put to pain, but I do not wifh him to defift. No, Sir, I wish him to drive on." Mr. Alexander Donaldfon, bookfeller of Edinburgh, had for fome time opened a shop in London, and fold his cheap editions of the most popular English books, in defiance of the fuppofed common-law right of Literary Property. Johnson, though he concurred in the opinion which was afterwards fanctioned by a decree from the House of Lords, that there was no fuch right, was at this time very angry that the book fellers of London, for whom he uniformly profeffed much regard, fhould fuffer from an invafion of what they had ever confidered to be fecure, and he was loud and violent against Mr. Donaldfon. "He is a fellow who takes advantage of the law to injure his brethren; for, notwithstanding that the ftatute fecures only fourteen years of exclufive right, it has always been understood by the trade, that he, who buys the copy-right of a book from the authour, obtains a perpetual property; and upon 1763. Etat. 54. upon that belief, numberless bargains are made to transfer that property after the expiration of the statutory term. Now Donaldfon, I fay, takes advantage here, of people who have really an equitable title from ufage; and if we confider how few of the books, of which they buy the property, fucceed fo well as to bring profit, we should be of opinion that the term of fourteen years is too short; it should be fixty years." DEMPSTER. "Donaldson, Sir, is anxious for the encouragement of literature. He reduces the price of books, fo that poor ftudents may buy them." JOHNSON, (laughing.). "Well, Sir, allowing that to be his motive, he is no better than Robin Hood, who robbed the rich in order to give to the poor." It is remarkable, that when the great queftion concerning Literary Property came to be ultimately tried before the fupreme tribunal of this country, in confequence of the very spirited exertions of Mr. Donaldson, Dr. Johnson was zealous against a perpetuity; but he thought that the term of the exclufive right of authours fhould be confiderably enlarged. He was then for granting a hundred years. The converfation now turned upon Mr. David Hume's style. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, his ftyle is not English; the ftructure of his fentences is French. Now the French ftructure and the English ftructure may, in the nature of things, be equally good. But if you allow that the English language is established, he is wrong. My name might originally have been Nicholson, as well as Johnson; but were you to call me Nicholson now, you would call me very abfurdly." Rouffeau's treatise on the inequality of mankind was at this time a fashionable topick. It gave rife to an obfervation by Mr. Dempfter, that the advantages of fortune and rank were nothing to a wife man, who ought to value only merit. JOHNSON. "If man were a favage, living in the woods by himself, this might be true; but in civilifed fociety we all depend upon each other, and our happiness is very much owing to the good opinion of mankind. Now, Sir, in civilifed fociety, external advantages make us more refpected. A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one. Sir, you may analyse this, and say what is there in it? But that will avail you nothing, for it is a part of a general fyftem. Pound St. Paul's church into atoms, and confider any fingle atom; it is, to be fure, good for nothing: but, put all these atoms together, and have St. Paul's church. So it is with human felicity, which is made up of many ingredients, each of which may be fhewn to be very infignificant. In civilifed fociety, perfonal merit will not ferve you fo much as money will. Sir, you 4. |