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town. Johnson's connection both with Shakspeare and Garrick founded a 1769. double claim to his prefence; and it would have been highly gratifying to Etat. 6. Mr. Garrick. Upon this occafion I particularly lamented that he had not that warmth of friendship for his brilliant pupil, which we may fuppofe would have had a benignant effect on both. When almost every man of eminence in the literary world was happy to partake in this feftival of genius, the abfence of Johnfon could not but be wondered at and regretted. The only trace of him there, was in the whimsical advertisement of a haberdafher, who fold Shaksperian ribbands of various dyes; and, by way of illuftrating their appropriation to the bard, introduced a line from the celebrated Prologue at the opening of Drury-lane theatre :

"Each change of many-colour'd life he drew."

From Brighthelmstone Dr. Johnson wrote me the following letter, which they who may think that I ought to have fuppreffed, muft have lefs ardent feelings than I have always avowed.

"DEAR SIR,

To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq.

"WHY do you charge me with unkindness? I have omitted nothing that could do you good, or give you pleasure, unless it be that I have forborne to tell you my opinion of your account of Corfica. I believe my opinion, if you think well of my judgement, might have given you pleafure; but when it is confidered how much vanity is excited by praise, I am not fure that it would have done you good. Your History is like other histories, but your Journal is in a very high degree curious and delightful. There is between the history and the journal that difference which there will always be found between notions borrowed from without, and notions generated within. Your history was copied from books; your journal rose out of your own experience and obfervation. You exprefs images which operated ftrongly upon yourself, and you have impreffed them with great force upon your readers. I know not whether I could name any narrative by which curiofity is better excited, or better gratified.

"I am glad that you are going to be married; and as I wish you well in things of lefs importance, wish you well with proportionate ardour in this crifis of your life. What I can contribute to your happiness, I fhould be very unwilling to with-hold; for I have always loved and valued you, and shall love

you

1769.

Etat, 60.

and value

you
you still more, as you become more regular and useful: effects
which a happy marriage will hardly fail to produce.

"I do not find that I am likely to come back very foon from this place.
I fhall, perhaps, stay a fortnight longer; and a fortnight is a long time to
a lover abfent from his mistress. Would a fortnight ever have an end?
"I am, dear Sir,

"Brighthelmftone,
Sept. 9, 1769.

"Your most affectionate humble fervant,

SAM. JOHNSON."

After his return to town, we met frequently, and I continued the practice of making notes of his converfation, though not with fo much affiduity as I wish I had done. At this time, indeed, I had a sufficient excuse for not being able to appropriate fo much time to my journal; for General Paoli, after Corfica had been overpowered by the monarchy of France, was now no longer at the head of his brave countrymen, but having with difficulty escaped from his native ifland, had fought an afylum in Great-Britain; and it was my duty, as well as my pleasure, to attend much upon him. Such particulars of Johnson's conversation at this period as I have committed to writing, I fhall here introduce, without any strict attention to methodical arrangement. Sometimes short notes of different days fhall be blended together, and fometimes a day may seem important enough to be separately distinguished.

He faid, he would not have Sunday kept with rigid feverity and gloom, but with a gravity and simplicity of behaviour.

I told him that David Hume had made a fhort collection of Scotticifms. "I wonder, (faid Johnson,) that be fhould find them."

He would not admit the importance of the queftion concerning the legality of general warrants. "Such a power (he obferved,) must be vested in every government, to answer particular cafes of neceffity; and there can be no just complaint but when it is abufed, for which those who administer government must be answerable. It is a matter of fuch indifference, a matter about which the people care fo very little, that were a man to be fent over Britain to offer them an exemption from it at a halfpenny a piece, very few would purchase it." This was a fpecimen of that laxity of talking, which I have heard him fairly acknowledge; for, furely, while the power of granting general warrants was supposed to be legal, and the apprehension of them hung over our heads, we did not poffefs that fecurity of freedom, congenial to our happy

4

happy conftitution, and which, by the intrepid exertions of Mr. Wilkes, has been happily established.

He faid, "The duration of Parliament, whether for seven years or for the life of the King, appears to me fo immaterial, that I would not give half a crown to turn the scale the one way or the other. The habeas corpus is the fingle advantage which our government has over that of other countries."

On the 30th of September we dined together at the Mitre. I attempted to argue for the fuperiour happiness of the favage life, upon the ufual fanciful topicks. JOHNSON. "Sir, there can be nothing more falfe. The favages have no bodily advantages beyond those of civilifed men. They have not better health; and as to care or mental uneafinefs, they are not above it, but below it, like bears. No, Sir; you are not to talk fuch paradox: let me have no more of't. It cannot entertain, far lefs can it inftruct. Lord Monboddo, one of your Scotch Judges, talked a great deal of fuch nonfenfe. I fuffered him; but I will not fuffer you."-BOSWELL. "But, Sir, does not Rouffeau talk fuch nonfenfe?" JOHNSON. "True, Sir; but Rouffeau knows he is talking nonsense, and laughs at the world for ftaring at him." Boswell. "How fo, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, a man who talks nonsense so well, must know that he is talking nonsense. But I am afraid, (chuckling and laughing,) Monboddo does not know that he is talking nonfenfe "." Boswell. "Is it wrong then, Sir, to affect fingularity, in order to make people ftare ?" JOHNSON. "Yes, if you do it by propagating errour: and, indeed, it is wrong in any way. There is in human nature a general inclination to make people stare; and every wife man has himself to cure of it, and does cure himself. If you wifh to make people ftare by doing better than others, why, make them ftare till they ftare their eyes out. But confider how eafy it is to make people ftare, by being abfurd. I may do it by going into a drawing-room without my fhoes. You remember the gentleman in "The Spectator," who had a commiffion of lunacy taken out against him for his extreme fingularity, fuch as never wearing a wig, but a night-cap. Now, Sir, abftractedly, the night-cap was beft; but, relatively, the advantage was overbalanced by his making the boys run after him.”

Talking of a London life, he faid, "The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it. I will venture to say, there

3 His Lordship having frequently spoken in an abusive manner of Dr. Johnson, in my company, I on one occafion during the life-time of my illuftrious friend could not refrain from retaliation, and repeated to him this saying.

1769.

Ætat. 60.

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1769. is more learning and science within the circumference of ten miles from where Etat. 60. we now fit, than in all the reft of the kingdom." BOSWELL. "The only difadvantage is the great distance at which people live from one another." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; but that is occafioned by the largeness of it, which is the cause of all the other advantages." BOSWELL. "Sometimes I have been in the humour of wifhing to retire to a defart." JOHNSON. "Sir, you have defart enough in Scotland."

Although I had promised myself a great deal of inftructive converfation with him on the conduct of the married state, of which I had then a near prospect, he did not fay much upon that topick. Mr. Seward heard him once fay, that "a man has a very bad chance for happiness in that ftate, unless he marries a woman of very strong and fixed principles of religion." He maintained to me, contrary to the common notion, that a woman would not be the worfe wife for being learned; in which, from all that I have observed of Artemifias, I humbly differed from him. That a woman fhould be fenfible and well informed, I allow to be a great advantage; and think that Sir Thomas Overbury, in his rude verfification, has very judiciously pointed out that degree of intelligence which is to be defired in a female companion:

"Give me, next good, an understanding wife,

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When I cenfured a gentleman of my acquaintance for marrying a fecond time, as it fhewed a disregard of his first wife, he said, "Not at all, Sir. On the contrary, were he not to marry again, it might be concluded that his first wife had given him a disgust to marriage; but by taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the firft, by fhewing that she made him fo happy as a married man, that he wishes to be fo a fecond time.” ingenious a turn did he give to this delicate question. And yet, on another occafion, he owned that he once had almost asked a promife of Mrs. Johnson that she would not marry again, but had checked himself. Indeed I cannot help thinking, that in his case the request would have been unreasonable; for

4"A Wife," a poem, 1614.

So

1769.

if Mrs. Johnson forgot, or thought it no injury to the memory of her first love, the husband of her youth and the father of her children,-to make a Etat. 6o. fecond marriage, why fhould fhe be precluded from a third, fhould she be fo inclined? In Johnson's persevering fond appropriation of his Tetty, even after her decease, he seems totally to have overlooked the prior claim of the honest Birmingham trader. I prefume that her having been married before had, at times, given him some uneasiness; for I remember his observing upon the marriage of one of our common friends, "He has done a very foolish thing, Sir; he has married a widow, when he might have had a maid.”

We drank tea with Mrs. Williams. I had last year the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Thrale at Dr. Johnson's one morning, and had converfation enough with her to admire her talents, and to fhew her that I was as Johnsonian as herself. Dr. Johnson had probably been kind enough to speak well of me, for this evening he delivered me a very polite card from Mr. Thrale and her, inviting me to Streatham.

On the 6th of October I complied with this obliging invitation, and found, at an elegant villa, fix miles from town, every circumftance that can make fociety pleafing. Johnfon, though quite at home, was yet looked up to with an awe, tempered by affection, and feemed to be equally the care of his hoft and hoftefs. I rejoiced at feeing him fo happy.

He played off his wit against Scotland with a good humoured pleasantry, which gave me, though no bigot to national prejudices, an opportunity for a little contest with him. I having faid that England was obliged to us for gardeners, almost all their good gardeners being Scotchmen,-JOHNson. "Why, Sir, that is because gardening is much more neceffary amongst you than with us, which makes fo many of your people learn it. It is all gardening with you. Things which grow wild here, must be cultivated with great care in Scotland. Pray now, (throwing himself back in his chair, and laughing,) are you ever able to bring the floe to perfection ?"

I boafted that we had the honour of being the firft to abolish the unhofpitable, troublesome, and ungracious cuftom of giving vails to fervants. JOHNSON. "Sir, you abolished vails, because you were too poor to be able to give them."

Mrs. Thrale difputed with him on the merit of Prior. He attacked him powerfully; faid, he wrote of love like a man who had never felt it: his love verfes were college verfes: and he repeated the fong, "Alexis fhunn'd his fellow fwains," &c. in fo ludicrous a manner, as to make us all wonder how any one could have been pleased with fuch fantaftical ftuff. Mrs. Thrale ftood Ss

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