who he was, while Johnson returned his salutation with a courteous formality, as to a stranger. But as soon as Edwards had brought to his recollection their having been at Pembroke College together nine-and-forty years ago, he seemed much pleased, asked where he lived, and said he should be glad to see him in Bolt-court. EDWARDS. "Ah, Sir! we are old men now." JOHNSON (who never liked to think of being old). "Don't let us discourage one another." EDWARDS." Why, doctor, you look stout and hearty. I am happy to see you so; for the newspapers told us you were very ill." JOHN-. SON. "Ay, Sir, they are always telling lies of us old fellows." Wishing to be present at more of so singular a conversation as that between two fellow-collegians, who had lived forty years in London without ever having chanced to meet, I whispered to Mr. Edwards that Dr. Johnson was going home, and that he had better accompany him now. So Edwards walked along with us, I eagerly assisting to keep up the conversation. Mr. Edwards informed Dr. Johnson that he had practised long as a solicitor in Chancery, but that he now lived in the country upon a little farm, about sixty acres, just by Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, and that he came to London (to Barnard's Inn, No. 6.) generally twice a week. Johnson appearing to be in a reverie, Mr. Edwards addressed himself to me, and expatiated on the pleasure of living in the country. BOSWELL. "I have no notion of this, Sir. What you have to entertain you is, I think, exhausted in half an hour.” ED WARDS. "What! don't you love to have hope realised? I see my grass, and my corn, and my trees growing. Now, for instance, I am curious to see if this frost has not nipped my fruit trees." JOHNSON (who we did not imagine was attending). "You find, Sir, you have fears as well as hopes." So well did he see the whole, when another saw but the half of a subject. (1) When we got to Dr. Johnson's house, and were seated in his library, the dialogue went on admirably. EDWARDS." Sir, I remember you would not let us say prodigious at college. For even then, Sir, (turning to me), he was delicate in language, and we all feared him."(2) JOHNSON (to Edwards). "From your having practised the law long, Sir, I presume you must be rich." EDWARDS. "No, Sir; I got a good deal of money; but I had a number of poor relations to whom I gave a great part of it." 66 JOHNSON. Sir, you have been rich in the most valuable sense of the word." EDWARDS. But I shall not die rich." JOHNSON. "Nay, sure, Sir, it is better to live rich, than to die rich." EDWARDS. "I wish I had continued at college." JOHNSON. "Why do you wish that, Sir?" EdWARDS. "Because I think I should have had a much easier life than mine has been. I should have (1) Nay, not so. The question raised was the want of interest in a country life; and the fear was, therefore, as good as the hope.-C. (2) Johnson said to me afterwards, "Sir, they respected me for my literature; and yet it was not great but by comparison. Sir, it is amazing how little literature there is in the world." L 4 been a parson, and had a good living, like Bloxam(1) and several others, and lived comfortably." JOHNSON. "Sir, the life of a parson, of a conscientious clergyman, is not easy. I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain. I would rather have Chancery suits upon my hands than the cure of souls. No, Sir, I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life, nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life." Here taking himself up all of a sudden, he exclaimed, "O! Mr. Edwards, I'll convince you that I recollect you. Do you remember our drinking together at an alehouse near Pembroke-gate? At that time, you told me of the Eton boy, who, when verses on our Saviour's turning water into wine were prescribed as an exercise, brought up a single line, which was highly admired: Vidit et erubuit lympha pudica Deum (2); and I told you of another fine line in Camden's Remains;' an eulogy upon one of our kings, who was succeeded by his son, a prince of equal merit: (1) Matthew Bloxam entered at Pembroke College, March 25. 1729; M. A., July, 1735. — HALL. (2) This line has frequently been attributed to Dryden, when at Westminster. But neither Eton nor Westminster have in truth any claim to it, the line being borrowed from an epigram by Crashaw. The original is much more elegant than the copy, the water being personified, and the word on which the point of the epigram turns, being reserved to the close of the line: "Unde rubor vestris et non sua purpura lymphis? 'Mira cano, Sol occubuit, nox nulla secuta est.'" (1) EDWARDS. "You are a philosopher, Dr. Johnson. I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in." Mr. Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Courtenay, Mr. Malone, and, indeed, all the eminent men to whom I have mentioned this, have thought it an exquisite trait of character. The truth is, that philosophy, like religion, is too generally supposed to be hard and severe, at least so grave as to exclude all gaiety. (2) EDWARDS. "I have been twice married, doctor. You, I suppose, have never known what it was to have a wife." JOHNSON." Sir, I have known what it was to have a wife, and (in a solemn, tender, faltering tone) I have known what it was to lose a wife. It had almost broke my heart." EDWARDS. "How do you live, Sir? For my part, I must have my regular meals, and a glass of good wine. I find I require it." JOHNSON. "I now drink no wine, Sir. Early in life I drank wine; for many years I drank I then for some years drank a great deal." EDWARDS. "Some hogsheads, I warrant you." JOHNSON. "I then none. had a severe illness, and left it off, and I have never begun it again. I never felt any difference upon (1) The line (ascribed to Geraldus) was on the death of Henry II., and the accession of Richard.. (2) "How charming is divine philosophy! C. Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets." Comus. — C. myself from eating one thing rather than another, nor from one kind of weather rather than another. There are people, I believe, who feel a difference; but I am not one of them. And as to regular meals, I have fasted from the Sunday's dinner to the Tuesday's dinner without any inconvenience. I believe it is best to eat just as one is hungry: but a man who is in business, or a man who has a family, must have stated meals. I am a straggler. I may He didn't leave this town and go to Grand Cairo, without beliem it being missed here, or observed there." EDWARDS. "Don't you eat supper, Sir?" JOHNSON. "No, Sir." EDWARDS. "For my part, now, I consider supper as a turnpike through which one must pass in order to get to bed."(1) JOHNSON. "You are a lawyer, Mr. Edwards. Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with. They have what he wants." EDWARDS. "I am grown old: I am sixty-five." JOHNSON. "I shall be sixtyeight next birth-day. Come, Sir, drink water, and put in for a hundred.” Mr. Edwards mentioned a gentleman (2) who had left his whole fortune to Pembroke College. JohnSON. "Whether to leave one's whole fortune to a college be right, must depend upon circumstances. I would leave the interest of the fortune I be (1) I am not absolutely sure but this was my own suggestion, though it is truly in the character of Edwards. (2) This must have been the Rev. James Phipps, who had been a scholar of Pembroke, and who, in 1773, left his estates to the college to purchase livings for a particular foundation, and for other purposes. HALL |