I did not seek much after him. ever sought much after any body." Lord Orrery, I suppose." JOHNNo, Sir; I never went to him but e sent for me." BOSWELL. "RichardJOHNSON. "Yes, Sir: but I sought er George Psalmanszar the most. I used sad sit with im at an alehouse in the

am happy to mention another instance ca I discovered of his seeking after a man 9. merit. Soon after the Honourable Daines Barrington had published his excellent "Observations on the Statutes,” ," Johnson waited on that worthy and learned gentleman; and, having told him his name, courteously said, I have read your book, Sir, with great pleasure, and wish to be better known to you." laus began an acquaintance, which was continued with mutual regard as long as Johnson lived.

Talking of a recent seditious delinquent, he said, "They should set him in the pillory, that he may be punished in a way that would disgrace him." I observed, that the pillory does not always disgrace. And I mentioned an instance of a gentleman, who I thought was not dishonoured by it. JOHNSON. "Ay, but he was, Sir. He could not mouth and strut about as he used to do, after having been there. People are not willing to ask a man to their tables, who has stood in the pillory."

The gentleman who had dined with us at Dr. Percy's came in. Johnson attacked the Americans with intemperate vehemence of abuse. I said something in their favour; and added, that I was always sorry when he talked on that subject. This, it seems, exasperated him; though he said nothing at the time. The cloud was charged with sulphureous vapour, which was afterwards to burst in thunder. We talked of a gentleman [Mr. Langton], who was running out his fortune in London; and I said, "We must get him out of it. All his friends must quarrel with him, and that will soon drive him away." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, we'll send you to him. If your company does not drive a man out of his house, nothing will.” This was a horrible

1 "This extraordinary person." says Mrs. Piozzi, "lived and died at a house in Old Street, where Dr. Johnson was witness to his talents and virtues, and to his final preference of the Church of England, after having studied, disgraced, and adorned so many modes of worship. The name he went by was not supposed by his friend to be that of his family, but all inquiries were vain: his reasons for concealing his original were penitentiary; he deserved no other nam than that of the impostor, he said. His pious and patient endurance of a tedious illness, ending in an exemplary death (1763), confirmed the strong impression his merit had made The Memoir upon the mind of Dr. Johnson."-CROKER.

of Psalmanazar, written by himself, and published in 1764, though now a neglected piece of biography, will well repay the reader, as it affords much curious information. [See also Smollett's account of him in Humphrey Clinker.] MARK

LAND.

2 Quarto, 1766. The worthy author died March 13. 1800, aged about 74.- MALONE.

Mr. Horne Tooke, who had been in July 1777 (Gent. The sentence-proMag.) convicted of a seditious libel. nounced 23d November,-was a year's imprisonment, and 2007.

shock, for which there was no visible cause. I afterwards asked him, why he had said so harsh a thing. JOHNSON. "Because, Sir, you made me angry about the Americans." BOSWELL. "But why did you not take your revenge directly?" JOHNSON (smiling). Because, Sir, I had nothing ready. A man cannot strike till he has his weapons." a candid and pleasant confession.

This was

He showed me to-night his drawing-room, very genteelly fitted up, and said, "Mrs. Thrale sneered, when I talked of my having asked you and your lady to live at my house. I was obliged to tell her, that you would be in as respectable a situation in my house as in hers. Sir, the insolence of wealth will creep out." BOSWELL. "She has a little both of the insolence of wealth and the conceit of parts." JOHNSON. "The insolence of wealth is a wretched thing; but the conceit of parts has some foundation. To be sure, it should not be. But who is without it?" BOSWELL "Yourself, Sir." JOHNSON. "Why, I play no tricks: I lay no traps." BOSWELL. "No, Sir. You are six feet high, and you only do not stoop."

We talked of the numbers of people that sometimes have composed the household of great families. I mentioned that there were a hundred in the family of the present Earl of Eglingtoune's father. Dr. Johnson seeming to doubt it, I began to enumerate; "Let us see, my lord and my lady, two." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, if you are to count by twos, yon may be long enough." BOSWELL. Well, but now I add two sons and seven daughters, and a servant for each; that will make twenty; so we have the fifth part already." JOHNSON. "Very true. You get at twenty pretty readily; but you will not so easily get further

66

on.

We grow to five feet pretty readily; but it is not so easy to grow to seven."

["Yesterday (18th of April) I rose late, having not slept ill. Having promised a dedication, I thought it necessary to write, but for some time neither wrote nor read. Langton came in and talked. After dinner I wrote. At tea Boswell came in. He stayed till near twelve." - Pr. and Med., p. 163.]

fine. It seems strange that Johnson should, in April, 1778, have spoken conjecturally and prospectively of a sentence passed six months before; but this, perhaps, may be accounted for by Tooke's having obtained a writ of error, which suspended the execution of the sentence. — Croker. 4 Probably Dr. Shebbeare. It was Shebbeare's exposure on the pillory which suggested the witty allusion of the Hero Epistle,

Does envy doubt? Witness, ye chosen train,
Who breathe the sweets of his Saturnian reign;
Witness, ye Hills. ye Johnsons, Scots, Shebbeares,
Hark to my call, for some of you have ears!"'

But his ears were not endangered; indeed he was so favoNTably treated, being allowed to stand on, and not re, the viliory, and to have certain other indulgences, that the sheriff was afterwards prosecuted for partiality towards him. — CHOKER. 5 He means, that if it had not been in performance of a promise, he would not have done any worldly bueness of Easter eve. What the dedication was does not appear. — CROKER.

66

On Sunday, 19th April, being Easter-day, after the solemnities of the festival in St. Paul's church, I visited him, but could not stay to dinner. I expressed a wish to have the arguments for Christianity always in readiness, that my religious faith might be as firm and clear as any proposition whatever; so that I need not be under the least uneasiness when it should be attacked. JOHNSON. Sir, you cannot answer all objections. You have demonstration for a first cause: you see he must be good as well as powerful, because there is nothing to make him otherwise, and goodness of itself is preferable. Yet you have against this, what is very certain, the unhappiness of human life. This, however, gives us reason to hope for a future state of compensation, that there may be a perfect system. But of that we were not sure, till we had a positive revelation." I told him, that his "Rasselas" had often made me unhappy; for it represented the misery of human life so well, and so convincingly to a thinking mind, that if at any time the impression wore off, and I felt myself easy, I began to suspect some delusion.

[“ In reviewing my time from Easter, 1777, I found a very melancholy and shameful blank. So little has been done, that days and months are without any trace. My health has, indeed, been very much interrupted. My nights have been commonly, not only restless, but painful and fatiguing. My respiration was once so difficult, that an asthma was suspected. I could not walk, but with great difficulty, from Stowhill to Greenhill. Some relaxation of my breast has been procured, I think, by opium, which, though it never gives me sleep, frees my breast from spasms. I have written a little of the Lives of the Poets. I think with all my usual vigour. I have made sermons, perhaps as readily as formerly. My memory is less faithful in retaining names, and, I am afraid, in retain ing occurrences. Of this vacillation and vagrancy of mind, I impute a great part to a fortuitous and unsettled life, and therefore purpose to spend my p. 167.]

time with more method."— Pr. and Med.,

On Monday, 20th April, I found him at home in the morning. We talked of a gentleman [Mr. Langton] who we apprehended was gradually involving his circumstances by bad management. JOHNSON. "Wasting a fortune is evaporation by a thousand imperceptible means. If it were a stream, they'd stop it. You must speak to him. It is really miserable. Were he a gamester, it could be said he had hopes of winning. Were he a bankrupt in trade, he might have grown rich; but he has neither spirit to spend, nor resolution to

The sermons were probably those which were lift for publication by Dr. Taylor, some written, perhaps, at Ashburne in the preceding summer. Hall. See ante, p. 553, and a. 3.-CROKER.

2 Samuel Musgrave, M. D., editor of the Euripides, and author of Dissertations on the Grecian Mythology," &c., published in 1782, after his death, by the learned Mr. Tyrwhitt. - MALONE.

3" The Project," a poem (published anonymously in

spare. He does not spend fast enough to have pleasure from it. He has the crime of prodigality, and the wretchedness of parsimony. If a man is killed in a duel, he is killed as many a one has been killed; but it is a sad thing for a man to lie down and die; to bleed to death, because he has not fortitude enough to sear the wound, or even to stitch it up." I cannot but pause a moment to admire the fecundity of fancy, and choice of language, which in this instance, and, indeed, on almost all occasions, he displayed. It was well observed by Dr. Percy (afterwards Bishop of Dromore), "The conversation of Johnson is strong and clear, and may be compared to an antique statue, where every vein and muscle is distinct and bold. Ordinary conversation resembles an inferior cast."

"On Saturday, 25th April, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, with the learned Dr. Musgrave'; Counsellor Leland of Ireland, son to the historian; Mrs. Cholmondeley, [p. 349.] and some more ladies. “The Project," a new poem, was read to the company by Dr. Musgrave. JOHNSON. "Sir, it has no power. Were it not for the well-known names with which it is filled, it would be nothing: the names carry the poet, not the poet the names." MUSGRAVE.

"A temporary poem always entertains us." JOHNSON. "So does an account of the criminals hanged yesterday entertain us.”

He proceeded; "Demosthenes Taylor, as he was called (that is, the editor of Demosthenes), was the most silent man, the merest statue of a man, that I have ever seen. I once dined in company with him, and all he said during the whole time was no more than Richard. How a man should say only Richard, it is not easy to imagine. But it was thus: Dr. Douglas was talking of Dr. Zachary Grey, and ascribing to him something that was written by Dr. Richard Grey. So, to correct him, Taylor said, Richard."

Mrs. Cholmondeley, in a high flow of spirits, exhibited some lively sallies of hyperbolical compliment to Johnson, with whom she had been long acquainted, and was very easy. He was quick in catching the manner of the moment, and answered her somewhat in the style of the hero of a romance, "Madam, you crown me with unfading laurels.”

I happened, I know not how, to say that a pamphlet meant a prose piece. JOHNSON. "No, Sir. A few sheets of poetry unbound are a pamphlet, as much as a few sheets of prose." MUSGRAVE. "A pamphlet may be understood to mean a poetical piece in West

It was observed, that avarice was inherent in some dispositions. JOHNSON. "No man was born a miser, because no man was born to possession. Every man is born cupidus desirous of getting; but not avarus-desirous of keeping." BOSWELL. "I have heard old Mr. Sheridan maintain, with much ingenuity, that a complete miser is a happy man: a miser who gives himself wholly to the one passion of saving." JOHNSON. "That is flying in the face of all the world, who have called an avaricious man a miser, because he is miserable.' No, Sir; a man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments.'

The conversation having turned on bon-mots, he quoted, from one of the Ana, an exquisite instance of flattery in a maid of honour in France, who being asked by the queen what o'clock it was, answered, "What your majesty pleases." He admitted that Mr. Burke's classical pun [p.273.] upon Mr. Wilkes's being carried on the shoulders of the mob,

was admirable; and though he was strangely unwilling to allow to that extraordinary man the talent of wit 3, he also laughed with approbation at another of his playful conceits; which was, that "Horace has in one line given a description of a good desirable manor: —

'Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines;' that is to say, a modus as to the tithes and certain fines.' "4

He observed, " a man cannot with propriety speak of himself, except he relates simple facts: as, 'I was at Richmond:' or what depends on mensuration; as, 'I am six feet high.' He is sure he has been at Richmond; he is sure he is six feet high; but he cannot be sure he is wise, or that he has any other excellence. Then, all censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare. It has all the invidiousness of selfpraise, and all the reproach of falsehood." BOSWELL. "Sometimes it may proceed from

Ipi domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca.'

"I'm hissed in public: but, in secret blest,

I count my money and enjoy my chest.'

"

Hor. 1. Sat. 1. 70.— Francis. - CROKER, 1847. The anecdote is told in " Menagiana," vol. iii. p. 104.. but not of a "maid of honour," nor as an instance of “ erquisite flattery. "M. d'Uzès était chevalier d'honneur de la reine. Cette princesse lui demanda un jour quelle heure Il était; il répondit, Madame, l'heure qu'il plaira à votre majesté." Menage tells it as a pleasantry of M. d'Uzès; but M. de la Monnoye says, that this duke was remarkable for naivetés and blunders, and was a kind of butt, to whom the wits of the court used to attribute all manner of absurdities. CROKER.

3 See this question fully investigated in the notes upon the "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," ante, p. 273 n. 1 et seq. And here, as a lawyer mindful of the maxim Suum cuique tribuito, I cannot forbear to mention, that the ad

ON Tuesday, April 28., he was engaged to dine at General Paoli's, where, as I have already observed, I was still entertained in elegant hospitality, and with all the ease and comfort of a home. I called on him, and accompanied him in a hackney-coach. We stopped first at the bottom of Hedge Lane, into which he went to leave a letter, "with good news for a poor man in distress," as he fold me. I did not question him particularly as to this. He himself often resembled Lady Bolingbroke's lively description of Pope: that "he was un politique aux choux et aux raves." He would say, dine to-day in Grosvenorsquare; this might be with a duke; or, perhaps, "I dine to-day at the other end of the town;" or, "A gentleman of great eminence called on me yesterday." He loved thus to keep things floating in conjecture: Onne ignotum pro magnifico est. I believe I ventured to dissipate the cloud, to unveil the mystery, more freely and frequently than any of his friends. We stopped again at Wirgman's, the well-known toy-shop in St. James's Street, at

66

ditional note, beginning with "I find since the former edition," is not mine, but was obligingly furnished by Mr. Malone, who was so kind as to superintend the press while I was in Scotland, and the first part of the second edition was printing. He would not allow me to ascribe it to its proper author; but, as it is exquisitely acute and elegant. I take this opportunity, without his knowledge, to do him justice.— BOSWELL.

4 This, as both Mr. Bindley and Dr. Kearney have observed to me, is the motto to " An Inquiry into Customary Estates and Tenants' Rights, &c.; with some Considerations for restraining excessive Fines," by Everard Fleetwood, Esq. 8vo. 1731. But it is, probably, a mere coincidence. Mr. Burke, perhaps, never saw that pamphlet. MALONE.

5 Mr. P. Cunningham has, I think, enabled us to clear up Boswell's mystery, by finding in the Garrick correspondence (i. 305.), May. 1778, that Johnson's por friend, Mauritius Lowe, the painter, lived at No. 3. Hedge Line, in a state of extreme distress; and I have little doubt hat the good news was that a picture o his was (as I find in the catalogue of that year) admitted to the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, then in the point of opening. Johnson's good offices were similarly exerted on Lowe's beba'f at the Exhibition of 1783. See post, sub 12th April. — Croker, 1847.

66

minster-hall, that is, in formal lar in common language it is underst prose." JOHNSON. (And here wa many instances of his knowing telling exactly how a thing is.) is understood in common langua prose, only from this, that there more prose written than poetry; say a book, prose is understood reason, though a book may as well as in prose. We understand w general, and we name what is less

We talked of a lady's verses MISS REYNOLDS. "Have you seen JOHNSON. "No, Madam; I h translation from Horace, by daughters. She showed it me." NOLDS. "And how was it, Si SON. "Why, very well, for a y verses; that is to say, compared lence, nothing; but very well, for who wrote them. I am vexed at verses in that manner." MISS "But if they should be good, w them hearty praise?" JOHNSO Madam, because I have not then g of my bad humour from having them. You must consider, Ma hand, they may be bad as well as body has a right to put another difficulty, that he must either hurt by telling the truth, or hurt himsel what is not true."

BOSWELL.

often shows his writings to peo P

nence, to obtain from them, eithe

good-nature, or from their not be=

tell the truth firmly, a commendatio

he may afterwards avail himself."

66

Very true, Sir. Therefore, the

asked by an author, what he th

work, is put to the torture, and is

to speak the truth; so that what not considered as his opinion; yet

1

it, and cannot retract it; and this a ho

mankind are hunting him with a his tail. can say, 'I would not have had not Johnson, or Reynolds, or or some other good judge, com n work.' Yet I consider it as a ve question in conscience, whether advise a man not to publish a workbe his object; for a man may say,

Pul 1

been for you, I should have had the

one

Had

Day REYN Bave

of

Now you cannot be sure; for you your own opinion, and the public very differently.'

66

SIR JOSHUA

You must upon such an occasion judgments; one as to the real vale

work, the other as to what may Please

general taste at the time"

you can be sure

should ser

the corner of St. James's Place, to wh
had been directed, but not clearly,
searched about some time, and could

it at first; and said, "To direct one of
corner shop is toying with one." I s
he meant this as a play upon the word
was the first time that I knew him stoop
sport. After he had been some tim
shop, he sent for me to come out of th
and help him to choose a pair
buckles, as those he had were too smal
bably this alteration in dress had b
gested by Mrs. Thrale, by associat
whom, his external appearance was
proved. He got better clothes; and
colour, from which he never devia
enlivened by metal buttons. His
were much better; and, during the
in France, he was furnished with a P
wig, of handsome construction.'

This choosing of silver buckles wa
tiation: "Sir," said he, "I will no
ridiculous large ones now in fashi
will give no more than a guinea f
Such were the principles of the busi
after some examination, he was fitte
drove along, I found him in a talkin
of which I availed myself. BoswE
this morning in Ridley's shop, Si
told, that the collection called John
479.] had sold very much." JOHN
the Journey to the Hebrides' ha
great sale."
JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; for in that
BOSWELL. "That
told the world a great deal that t
know before."

SON. "

BOSWELL. "I drank chocolate, Si ing with Mr. Eld; and, to my no sm found him to be a Staffordshire W which I did not believe had existe BOSWELL."Eld said, a Tory wa Sir, there are rascals in all generated between a nonjuring one's grandmother." always said, the first Whig was BOSWELL. "He certainly was, Sir. JOHNSON. was impatient of subordination; first who resisted power:

Better to reign in hell, than serve i
At General Paoli's were Sir J

In general his wigs were very shabby, and th were burned away by the near approach of the c his short-sightedness rendered necessary in Streatham, Mr. Thrale's butler always kept a in his own hands, with which he met Johnson at t door, when the bell had called him down to dinne ludicrous ceremony was

Here he either was mistake differ

an extensive sale from what is generally entertaine fact is, that four thousand

sold very quickly. A new edition has excellent w

death, besides that in the collection of his works. I Another edition has been printed since Mr. Boswe the above, besides repeate l editions in the general co been printed of his works during the last twenty years. MALO Hannah More says, that" Cadell the publisher told h he had sold 4000 the first week." Life, vol. i. p. 39. nous sale at first, made Johnson think perhaps th aty.-CROKER, 1835.