228 may attend wholly to the salvation of our | You may shoot a man through the head, own souls. A youthful passion for abstracted devotion should not be encouraged." I introduced the subject of second sight, and other mysterious manifestations; the fulfilment of which, I suggested, might happen by chance. JOHNSON. "Yes, sir, but they have happened so often 1, that mankind have agreed to think them not fortuitous." I talked to him a great deal of what I had seen in Corsica, and of my intention to publish an account of it. He encouraged me by saying, "You cannot go to the bottom of the subject; but all that you tell us will be new to us. Give us as many anecdotes as you can." Our next meeting at the Mitre was on Saturday the 15th of February, when I presented to him my old and most intimate friend, the Rev. Mr. Temple, then of Cambridge. I having mentioned that I had passed some time with Rousseau in his wild retreat, and having quoted some remark made by Mr. Wilkes, with whom I had spent many pleasant hours in Italy, Johnson said (sarcastically), “It seems, sir, you have kept very good company abroad, Rousseau and Wilkes!" Thinking it enough to defend one at a time, I said nothing as to my gay friend, but answered with a smile, "My dear sir, you don't call Rousseau bad company. Do you really think him a bad man?" JOHNSON. Sir, if you are talking jestingly of this, I don't talk with you. If you mean to be serious, I think him one of the worst of men; a rascal, who ought to be hunted out of society, as he has been. Three or four nations have expelled him: and it is a shame that he is protected in this country." BOSWELL. "I don't deny, sir, but that his novel2 may, perhaps, do harm; but I cannot think his intention was bad." JOHNSON. "Sir, that will not do. We cannot prove any man's intention to be bad. 66 have lived our whole duration, and shall never die."-Holy Dying, c. i. s. 3. Neither the bishop nor Dr. Johnson could mean that youth and manhood should not be religious, but that they should not be religious to the exclusion of the social duties of industry, prudence, &c. See post, 19th August, 1773, where Johnson quotes from Hesiod, a line which Bishop Taylor had probably in his mind.-ED.] and say you intended to miss him; but the This violence seemed very strange to me, who had read many of Rousseau's animated writings with great pleasure, and even edification; had been much pleased with his society, and was just come from the Continent, where he was very generally admired. Nor can I yet allow that he deserves the very severe censure which Johnson pronounced upon him. His absurd preference of savage to civilized life, and other singularities, are proofs rather of a defect in his understanding, than of any depravity in his heart3. And notwithstanding the unfavourable opinion which many worthy men have expressed of his "Profession de Foi du Vicaire Savoyard," I cannot help admiring it as the performance of a man full of sincere reverential submission to Divine Mystery, though beset with perplexing doubts: a state of mind to be viewed with pity rather than with anger. On his favourite subject of subordination, Johnson said, "So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, and no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other 4." I mentioned the advice given us by philosophers, to console ourselves, when distressed or embarrassed, by thinking of those who are in a worse situation than ourselves. This, I observed, could not apply to all, for [The Confessions of this miserable man had not been at this time published. If we are to admit Mr. Boswell's distinction between the understanding and the heart, it would seem that his judgment on this point should be reversed, for Rousseau's understanding was sound enough when the folly and turpitude of his heart did not disorder it.—ED.] 1 [The fact seems rather to be, that they have happened so seldom that (however general superstition may be) there does not seem to be on 4 [No mistake was ever greater, in terms or in record in the profane history of the world, one substance, than that which affirms the natural single well authenticated instance of such a mani-equality of mankind. Men, on the contrary, are festation-not one such instance as could command the full belief of rational men. Although Dr. Johnson generally leaned to the superstitious side of this question, it will be seen that he occasionally took a different and more rational view of it.-ED.] 2 [La Nouvelle Heloise.-ED.] born so very unequal in capacities and powers, mental and corporeal, that it requires laws and the institutions of civil society to bring them to a state of moral equality. Social equality—that is, equality in property, power, rank, and respectif it were miraculously established, could not maintain itself a week.—ED.] there must be some who have nobody worse than they are. JOHNSON. "Why, to be sure, sir, there are; but they don't know it. There is no being so poor and so contemptible, who does not think there is somebody still poorer and still more contemptible." As my stay in London at this time was very short, I had not many opportunities of being with Dr. Johnson; but I felt my veneration for him in no degree lessened, by my having seen multorum hominum mores et urbes. On the contrary, by having it in my power to compare him with many of the most celebrated persons of other countries, my admiration of his extraordinary mind was increased and confirmed. we cannot have the big man 2 with us." Johnson then called for a bottle of port, of which Goldsmith and I partook, while our friend, now a water drinker, sat by us. GOLDSMITH. "I think, Mr. Johnson, you don't go near the theatres now. You give yourself no more concern about a new play, than if you had never had any thing to do with the stage." JOHNSON. Why, sir, our tastes greatly alter. The lad does not care for the child's rattle, and the old man does not care for the young man's prostitute." GOLDSMITH, Nay, sir; but your Muse was not a prostitute." JOHNSON. "I do not think she was. But as we advance in the journey of life we drop some of the things which have pleased us; whether it be that we are fatigued and don't choose to 66 The roughness, indeed, which sometimes appeared in his manners, was more striking to me now, from my having been accustom-carry so many things any farther, or that ed to the studied smooth complying habits of the Continent; and I clearly recognized in him, not without respect for his honest conscientious zeal, the same indignant and sarcastical mode of treating every attempt to unhinge or weaken good principles. One evening when a young gentleman teased him with an account of the infidelity of his servant, who, he said, would not believe the scriptures, because he could not read them in the original tongues, and be sure that they were not invented: "Why, foolish fellow," said Johnson, " has he any better authority for almost every thing that he believes?" BOSWELL. "Then the vulgar, sir, never can know they are right, but must submit themselves to the learned." JOHNSON."To be sure, sir. The vulgar are the children of the state, and must be taught like children." BosWELL. "Then, sir, a poor Turk must be a Mahometan, just as a poor Englishman must be a Christian?" JOHNSON. Why, yes, sir; and what then? This now is such stuff as used to talk to my mother, when I first began to think myself a clever fellow; and she ought to have whipt me for it." Another evening Dr. Goldsmith and I called on him, with the hope of prevailing on him to sup with us at the Mitre. We found him indisposed, and resolved not to go abroad. "Come then," said Goldsmith, "we will not go to the Mitre to-night, since 66 we find other things which we like better." BOSWELL." But, sir, why don't you give us something in some other way? "GOLDSMITH. "Ay, sir, we have a claim upon you." JOHNSON. "No, sir, I am not obliged to do any more. No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself. If a soldier has fought a good many campaigns, he is not to be blamed if he retires to ease and tranquillity. A physician who has practised long in a great city, may be excused, if he retires to a small town, and takes less practice. Now, sir, the good I can do by my conversation bears the same proportion to the good I can do by my writings, that the practice of a physician, retired to a small town, does to his practice in a great city." BOSWELL. "But I wonder, sir, you have not more pleasure in writing than in not writing." JOHNSON. “Sir, you may wonder 3!" He talked of making verses, and observed, "The great difficulty is, to know when you have made good ones. When composing, I have generally had them in my mind, perhaps fifty at a time, walking up and down in my room, and then I have written them down, and often, from laziness, have written only half lines. I have written a hundred lines in a day. I remember I wrote 2 [These two little words may be observed as marks of Mr. Boswell's accuracy in reporting the expressions of his personages. It is a jocular Irish phrase, which, of all Johnson's acquaintances, no one, probably, but Goldsmith could have used.— ED.] [It may be suspected that Dr. Johnson called his childish stuff," somewhat hastily, and from a desire, of evading the subject; for, no doubt, the principle involved in Mr. Boswell's inquiries is one of very high importance, and of very 3 [This is another amusing trait of Mr. Bosgreat difficulty-difficulty so great, that Johnsonwell's accuracy and bonne foi. Can any thing himself, though, indeed (as we shall see, post, be more comic than Johnson's affectation of su7th May, 1773), sometimes led to talk seriously, periority, even to the degree of supposing that and even warmly on the subject, seems unable to Boswell would not dare to wonder without his maintain the full extent of his principles by solid special sanction, and the deference with which reason, and therefore ends the discussion either Boswell receives and records such gracious conby ridicule or violence.-ED.] descension?-ED.] a hundred lines of The Vanity of Human | Wishes' in a day. Doctor (turning to Goldsmith), I am not quite idle; I made one line t'other day: but I made no more." GOLDSMITH. "Let us hear it; we'll put a bad one to it." JOHNSON. "No, sir, I have forgot it." Such specimens of the easy and playful conversation of the great Dr. Samuel Johnson are, I think, to be prized; as exhibiting the little varieties of a mind so enlarged and so powerful when objects of consequence required its exertions, and as giving us a minute knowledge of his character and modes of thinking. "TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. AT LANGTON. "Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, 9th March, 1766. "DEAR SIR,-What your friends have done, that from your departure till now nothing has been heard of you, none of us are able to inform the rest; but as we are all neglected alike, no one thinks himself entitled to the privilege of complaint. "I should have known nothing of you or of Langton, from the time that dear Miss Langton left us, had not I met Mr. Simpson, of Lincoln, one day in the street, by whom I was informed that Mr. Langton, your mamma, and yourself, had been all ill, but that you were all recovered. "That sickness should suspend your correspondence, I did not wonder; but hoped that it would be renewed at your recovery. "Since you will not inform us where you are, or how you live, I know not whether you desire to know any thing of us. However, I will tell you that THE CLUB subsists; but we have the loss of Burke's company since he has been engaged in publick business 2 in which he has gained more reputation than perhaps any man at his (first) appearance ever gained before. He made two speeches in the house for repealing the stamp-act, which were publickly commended by Mr. Pitt, and have filled the town with wonder. "Burke is a great man by nature, and is expected soon to attain civil greatness. I am grown greater too, for I have maintained the newspapers these many weeks 3; and what is greater still, I have risen every morning since New-year's day, at about eight: when I was up, I have indeed done but little yet it is no slight advancement to obtain for so many hours more the consciousness of being. am now writing the first letter in it. I think it looks very pretty about me. "Dyer is constant at THE CLUB; Hawkins is remiss; I am not over diligent. Dr. Nugent, Dr. Goldsmith, and Mr. Reynolds, are very constant. Mr. Lye5 is printing his Saxon aud Gothick Dictionary: all THE CLUB subscribes. "You will pay my respects to all my Lincolnshire friends. I am, dear sir, most affectionately yours, "SAM. JOHNSON." "TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. AT LANGTON. "Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, 10th May, 1766. "DEAR SIR,-In supposing that I should be more than commonly affected by the death of Peregrine Langton6, you were not mistaken; he was one of those whom I loved at once by instinct and by reason. I have seldom indulged more hope of any thing than of being able to improve our acquaintance to friendship. Many a time have I placed myself again at Langton, imagined the pleasure with which I should walk to Partney in a summer morning; but this is no longer possible. We must now endeavour to preserve what is left us his example of piety and economy. I hope you make what inquiries you can, and write down what is told you. The little things which distinguish domestick characters are soon forgotten: if you delay to inquire, you will have no information; if you neglect to write, information will be vain 8. this kind in the prayer composed" on entering Novum Museum,' ," two days previous to the date of this letter. Prayers and Meditations, 68.-HALL.] 5 [Edward Lye is stated, in the Biographical Dictionary, to have been born in 1704, probably by mistake for 1694. He was of Hart Hall, A. He published B. in 1716, and A. M. in 1722. the Etymologicum Anglicanum of Junius. His great work is that referred to above, the AngloSaxon and Gothic Dictionary, which he had finished, and it seems was printing, but he did not live to see the publication. He died in 1767, and the Dictionary was published by the Rev. Owen Manning in 1772.-ED.] 6 Mr. Langton's uncle. 7 The place of residence of Mr. Peregrine Langton. 8 Mr. Langton did not disregard this counsel, but wrote the following account, which he has been pleased to communicate to me: "I wish you were in my new study 4; hundred pounds per annum. [Mr. Langton's eldest sister.-ED.] 2 [Mr. Burke came into parliament under the auspices of the Marquis of Rockingham, in the year 1765.-ED.] [Probably with criticisms on his Shakspeare. -ED.] 4 [He refers to some new accommodations of "The circumstances of Mr. Peregrine Langton were these. He had an annuity for life of two He resided in a village in Lincolnshire: the rent of his house, with two or three small fields, was twenty-eight pounds; the county he lived in was not more than moderately cheap: his family consisted of a sister, who paid him eighteen pounds annually for her board, and a niece. The servants were two maids, and two men in livery. His common way of living, at his table, was three or four dishes; "His art of life certainly deserves to be known and studied. He lived in plenty and elegance upon an income which to many the appurtenances to his table were neat and handsome; he frequently entertained company at dinner, and then his table was well served with as many dishes as were usual at the tables of the other gentlemen in the neighbourhood. His own appearance, as to clothes, was genteelly neat and plain. He had always a postchaise, and kept three horses. "Such, with the resources I have mentioned, was his way of living, which he did not suffer to employ his whole income; for he had always a sum of money lying by him for any extraordinary expenses that might arise. Some money he put into the stocks; at his death, the sum he had there amounted to one hundred and fifty pounds. He purchased out of his income his household furniture and linen, of which latter he had a very ample store; and, as I am assured by those that had very good means of knowing, not less than the tenth part of his income was set apart for charity: at the time of his death, the sum of twenty-five pounds was found, with a direction to be employed in such uses. "He had laid down a plan of living proportioned to his income, and did not practise any extraordinary degree of parsimony, but endeavoured that in his family there should be plenty without waste. As an instance that this was his endeavour, it may be worth while to mention a method he took in regulating a proper allowance of malt liquor to be drunk in his family, that there might not be a deficiency, or any intemperate profusion: -On a complaint made that his allowance of a hogshead in a month was not enough for his own family, he ordered the quantity of a hogshead to be put into bottles, had it locked up from the servants, and distributed out, every day, eight quarts, which is the quantity each day at one hogshead in a month; and told his servants, that if that did not suffice, he would allow them more; but, by this method, it appeared at once that the allow ance was much more than sufficient for his small family; and this proved a clear conviction, that could not be answered, and saved all future dispute. He was, in general, very diligently and punctually attended and obeyed by his servants; he was very considerate as to the injunctions he gave, and explained them distinctly; and, at their first coming to his service, steadily exacted a close compliance with them, without any remission: and the servants finding this to be the case, soon grew habitually accustomed to the practice of their business, and then very little further attention was necessary. On extraordinary instances of good behaviour or diligent service, he was not wanting in particular encouragements and presents above their wages: it is remarkable that he would permit their relations to visit them, and stay at his house two or three days at a time. would appear indigent, and to most scanty. How he lived, therefore, every man has an interest in knowing. His death, I hope, was peaceful; it was surely happy. "I wish I had written sooner, lest, writing now, I should renew your grief; but I would not forbear saying what I have now said. "This loss is, I hope, the only misfortune stead of gaining any thing by their produce, I have reason to think he lost by them: however, they furnished him with no further assistance towards his housekeeping than grass for his horses (not hay, for that I know he bought), and for two cows. Every Monday morning he settled his family accounts, and so kept up a constant attention to the confining his expenses within his income; and to do it more exactly, compared those expenses with a computation he had made, how much that income would afford him every week and day of the year. One of his economical practices was, as soon as any repair was wanting in or about his house, to have it immediately performed. When he had money to spare, he chose to lay in a provision of linen or clothes, or any other necessaries; as then, he said, he could afford it, which he might not be so well able to do when the actual want came; in consequence of which method he had a considerable supply of necessary articles lying by him, beside what was in use. "But the main particular that seems to have enabled him to do so much with his income, was, that he paid for every thing as soon as he had it, except alone what were current accounts, such as rent for his house, and servants' wages; and these he paid at the stated times with the utmost exactness. He gave notice to the tradesmen of the neighbouring market-towns that they should no longer have his custom, if they let any of his servants have any thing without their paying for it. Thus he put it out of his power to commit those imprudences to which those are liable that defer their payments by using their money some other way than where it ought to go. And whatever money he had by him, he knew that it was not demanded elsewhere, but that he might safely employ it as he pleased. "His example was confined, by the sequestered place of his abode, to the observation of few, though his prudence and virtue would have made it valuable to all who could have known it. These few particulars, which I knew myself, or have obtained from those who lived with him, may afford instruction, and be an incentive to that wise art of living which he so successfully practised."-BoswELL. [With all our respect for Mr. Bennet Langton's acknowledged character for accuracy and veracity, there seems something, in the foregoing relation, absolutely incomprehensible-a house, a good table, frequent company, four servants (two of them men in livery), a carriage and three horses on 2001. a year! Economy and ready money payments will do much to diminish current expenses, but what effect can they have had on rent, taxes, wages, and other permanent charges of a respectable domestic es "The wonder, with most that hear an account of his economy, will be, how he was able, with such an income, to do so much, especially when it is considered that he paid for every thing he had. He had no land, except the two or three small fields which I have said he rented; and, in-tablishment?-ED.] altera, not to urge that it should be prima, is not grammatical; alteræ should be alteri. In the next line you seem to use genus ab of a family to whom no misfortune at all should happen, if my wishes could avert it. Let me know how you all go on. Has Mr. Langton got him the little horse that I re-solutely, for what we call family, that is, commended? It would do him good to ride about his estate in fine weather. "Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Langton, and to dear Miss Langton, and Miss Di, and Miss Juliet, and to every body else. "THE CLUB holds very well together. Monday is my night. I continue to rise tolerably well, and read more than I did. I hope something will yet come on it. I am, sir, your most affectionate servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." After I had been some time in Scotland, I mentioned to him in a letter that "On my first return to my native country, after some years of absence, I was told of a vast number of my acquaintance who were all gone to the land of forgetfulness, and I found myself like a man stalking over a field of battle, who every moment perceives some one lying dead." I complained of irresolution, and mentioned my having made a vow as a security for good conduct. I wrote to him again without being able to move his indolence: nor did I hear from him till he had received a copy of my inaugural Exercise, or Thesis in Civil Law, which I published at my admission as an advocate, as is the custom in Scotland. He then wrote to me as follows: "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, 21st August, 1766. "DEAR SIR,-The reception of your Thesis put me in mind of my debt to you. Why did you ******2. I will punish you for it, by telling you that your Latin wants correction 3. In the beginning Spei, 1 of his being in the chair of the Literary Club, which at this time met once a week in the evening.-BOSWELL. [The day was soon after changed to Friday.-ED.] 2 The passage omitted alluded to a private transaction.-BOSWELL. 3 This censure of my Latin relates to the dedication, which was as follows: "Viro nobilissimo ornatissimo, Joanni, Vicecomiti Mountstuart, atavis edito regibus, excelsæ familiæ de Bute spei altera; labente seculo, quum homines nullius originis genus æquare opibus aggrediuntur, sanguinis antiqui et illustris semper memori, natalium splendorem virtutibus augenti: ad publica populi comitia jam legato; in optimatium vero magnæ Britanniæ senatu, jure hæreditario, olim consessuro: vim insitam varià doctrinâ promovente, nec tamen se venditante, prædito: priscà fide, animo liberrimo, et morum elegantià insigni: in Italiæ visitandæ itinere socio suo honoratissimo, hasce jurisprudentiæ primitias devinctissimæ amicitiæ et observantiæ, monumentum, D. D. C. Q. Jacobus Boswell."-BOSWELL. for illustrious extraction, I doubt without authority. Homines nullius originis, for nullis orti majoribus, or nullo loco nati, is, as I am afraid, barbarous.-Ruddiman is dead 4. "I have now vexed you enough, and will try to please you. Your resolution to obey your father I sincerely approve; but do not accustom yourself to enchain your volatility by vows; they will sometimes leave a thorn in your mind, which you will, perhaps, never be able to extract or eject. Take this warning; it is of great importance. "The study of the law is what you very justly term it, copious and generous 5; and in adding your name to its professors, you have done exactly what I always wished, when I wished you best. I hope that you will continue to pursue it vigorously and constantly. You gain, at least, what is no small advantage, security from those troublesome and wearisome discontents, which are always obtruding themselves upon a mind vacant, unemployed, and undetermined. "You ought to think it no small inducement to diligence and perseverance, that they will please your father. We all live upon the hope of pleasing somebody, and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest, and at last always will be greatest, when our endeavours are exerted in consequence of our duty. "Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent: deliberation, which those who begin it by prudence, and continue it with subtilty, must, after long expense of thought, conclude by chance. To prefer one future mode of life to another, upon just reasons, requires faculties which it has not pleased our Creator to give us. "If, therefore, the profession you have chosen has some unexpected inconveniencies, console yourself by reflecting that no profession is without them; and that all the importunities and perplexities of business are softness and luxury, compared with the incessant cravings of vacancy, and the unsatisfactory expedience of idleness. [He says Ruddiman (a great grammarian) is dead-as in former days it was said that Priscian's head was broken. Ruddiman, who was born in 1644, had died in 1757. See ante, p. 86.-ED.] |