been retorted upon him by the men who were prosecuted for burning hishouse. 'I cannot, (says he,) as a _necessarian_, [meaning_necessitarian_] hate _any man_; because I consider him as _being_, inall respects, just what GOD has _made him to be_; and also as _doingwith respect to me_, nothing but what he was _expressly designed_ and_appointed_ to do; GOD being the _only cause_, and men nothing more thanthe _instruments_ in his hands to _execute all his pleasure_.'--_Illustrations of Philosophical Necessity_, p. 111.The Reverend Dr. Parr, in a late tract, appears to suppose that _'Dr.Johnson not only endured, but almost solicited, an interview with Dr.Priestley_. In justice to Dr. Johnson, I declare my firm belief that henever did. My illustrious friend was particularly resolute in not givingcountenance to men whose writings he considered as pernicious tosociety. I was present at Oxford when Dr. Price, even before he hadrendered himself so generally obnoxious by his zeal for the FrenchRevolution, came into a company where Johnson was, who instantly leftthe room. Much more would he have reprobated Dr. Priestley. Whoeverwishes to see a perfect delineation of this _Literary Jack of allTrades_, may find it in an ingenious tract, entitled, 'A SMALLWHOLE-LENGTH OF DR. PRIESTLEY,' printed for Rivingtons, in St. Paul'sChurch-Yard. BOSWELL. See Appendix B.[740] Burke said, 'I have learnt to think _better_ of mankind.' _Ante_,iii.236.[741] He wrote to his servant Frank from Heale on Sept. l6:--'AsThursday [the 18th] is my birthday I would have a little dinner got, andwould have you invite Mrs. Desmoulins, Mrs. Davis that was about Mrs.Williams, and Mr. Allen, and Mrs. Gardiner.' Croker's _Boswell_, p.739.See _ante_, iii.157, note 3.[742] Dr. Burney had just lost Mr. Bewley, 'the Broom Gentleman'(_ante_, p. 134), and Mr. Crisp. Dr. Burney's _Memoirs_, ii.323, 352.For Mr. Crisp, see Macaulay's _Review_ of Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary.Essays_, ed. 1874, iv.104.[743] He wrote of her to Mrs. Montagu:--'Her curiosity was universal,her knowledge was very extensive, and she sustained forty years ofmisery with steady fortitude. Thirty years and more she had been mycompanion, and her death has left me very desolate.' Croker's _Boswell_,p. 739. This letter brought to a close his quarrel with Mrs. Montagu(_ante_, p. 64).[744] On Sept. 22 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'If excision should bedelayed, there is danger of a gangrene. You would not have me for fearof pain perish in putrescence. I shall, I hope, with trust in eternalmercy, lay hold of the possibility of life which yet remains.' _PiozziLetters_, ii.312.[745] Rather more than seven years ago. _Ante_, ii.82, note 2.[746] Mrs. Anna Williams. BOSWELL.[747] See _ante_, p. 163, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov 2.[748] Dated Oct. 27. _Piozzi Letters_, ii.321.[749] According to Mrs. Piozzi (_Letters_, ii.387), he said to Mrs.Siddons:--'You see, Madam, wherever you go there are no seats to begot.' Sir Joshua also paid her a fine compliment. 'He never marked hisown name [on a picture],' says Northcote, 'except in the instance ofMrs. Siddons's portrait as the Tragic Muse, when he wrote his name uponthe hem of her garment. "I could not lose," he said, "the honour thisopportunity offered to me for my name going down to posterity on the hemof your garment."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 246. In Johnson's _Works_,ed. 1787, xi. 207, we read that 'he said of Mrs. Siddons that sheappeared to him to be one of the few persons that the two greatcorrupters of mankind, money and reputation, had not spoiled.'[750] 'Indeed, Dr. Johnson,' said Miss Monckton, 'you _must_ see Mrs.Siddons.' 'Well, Madam, if you desire it, I will go. See her I shallnot, nor hear her; but I'll go, and that will do.' Mme. D'Arblay's_Diary_, ii. 198.[751] 'Mrs. Porter, the tragedian, was so much the favourite of hertime, that she was welcomed on the stage when she trod it by the help ofa stick.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 319.[752] He said:--'Mrs. Clive was the best player I ever saw.' Boswell's_Hebrides, post_, v. 126. See _ante_, p. 7. She was for many years theneighbour and friend of Horace Walpole.[753] She acted the heroine in _Irene. Ante_, i. 197. 'It is wonderfulhow little mind she had,' he once said. _Ante_, ii. 348. See Boswell's_Hebrides, post_, v. 126.[754] See _ante_, iii. 183.[755] See ante, iii. 184.[756] 'Garrick's great distinction is his universality,' Johnson said.'He can represent all modes of life, but that of an easy, fine-bredgentleman.' Boswell's _Hebrides, post_, v. 126. See _ante_, iii. 35.Horace Walpole wrote of Garrick in 1765 (_Letters_, iv. 335):--'Severalactors have pleased me more, though I allow not in so many parts. Quinin Falstaff was as excellent as Garrick in _Lear_. Old Johnson far morenatural in everything he attempted; Mrs. Porter surpassed him inpassionate tragedy. Cibber and O'Brien were what Garrick could neverreach, coxcombs and men of fashion. Mrs. Clive is at least as perfect inlow comedy.'[757] See _ante_, ii. 465.[758] Mr. Kemble told Mr. Croker that 'Mrs. Siddons's pathos in the lastscene of _The Stranger_ quite overcame him, but he always endeavoured torestrain any impulses which might interfere with his previous study ofhis part.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 742. Diderot, writing of thequalifications of a great actor, says:--'Je lui veux beaucoup dejugement; je le veux spectateur froid et tranquille de la naturehumaine; qu'il ait par consequent beaucoup de finesse, mais nullesensibilite, ou, ce qui est la meme chose, l'art de tout imiter, et uneegale aptitude a toutes sortes de caracteres et de roles; s'il etaitsensible, il lui serait impossible de jouer dix fois de suite le memerole avec la meme chaleur et le meme succes; tres chaud a la premiererepresentation, il serait epuise et froid comme le marble a latroisieme,' &c. Diderot's _Works_ (ed. 1821), iii. 274. See Boswell's_Hebrides, post_, v. 46.[759] My worthy friend, Mr. John Nichols, was present when Mr.Henderson, the actor, paid a visit to Dr. Johnson; and was received in avery courteous manner. See _Gent. Mag_. June, 1791.I found among Dr. Johnson's papers, the following letter to him, fromthe celebrated Mrs. Bellamy [_ante_, i. 326]:--'To DR. JOHNSON.'SIR,'The flattering remembrance of the partiality you honoured me with, someyears ago, as well as the humanity you are known to possess, hasencouraged me to solicit your patronage at my Benefit.'By a long Chancery suit, and a complicated train of unfortunate events,I am reduced to the greatest distress; which obliges me, once more, torequest the indulgence of the publick.'Give me leave to solicit the honour of your company, and to assure you,if you grant my request, the gratification I shall feel, from beingpatronized by Dr. Johnson, will be infinitely superiour to any advantagethat may arise from the Benefit; as I am, with the profoundestrespect, Sir,'Your most obedient, humble servant, G. A. BELLAMY. No. 10 Duke-street,St. James's, May 11, 1783.'I am happy in recording these particulars, which prove that myillustrious friend lived to think much more favourably of Players thanhe appears to have done in the early part of his life. BOSWELL. Mr.Nichols, describing Henderson's visit to Johnson, says:--'Theconversation turning on the merits of a certain dramatic writer, Johnsonsaid: "I never did the man an injury; but he would persist in readinghis tragedy to me."' _Gent. Mag_: 1791, p. 500.[760] _Piozzi Letters_, vol. ii. p. 328. BOSWELL.[761] _Piozzi Letters_, vol. ii. p. 342. BOSWELL. The letter to MissThrale was dated Nov. 18. Johnson wrote on Dec. l3:--'You must all guessagain at my friend. It was not till Dec. 31 that he told the name.[762] Miss Burney, who visited him on this day, records:--'He was, ifpossible, more instructive, entertaining, good-humoured, and exquisitelyfertile than ever.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 284. The day before hewrote to one of Mrs. Thrale's little daughters:--'I live here by my ownself, and have had of late very bad nights; but then I have had a pig todinner which Mr. Perkins gave me. Thus life is chequered.' _PiozziLetters_, ii. 327.[763] See _ante_, i. 242.[764] See _ante_, i. 242.[765] Nos. 26 and 29.[766] _Piozzi Letters_, i. 334. See _ante_, p. 75.[767] He strongly opposed the war with America, and was one of Dr.Franklin's friends. Franklin's _Memoirs_, ed. 1818, iii. 108.[768] It was of this tragedy that the following story is told inRogers's _Table-Talk_, p. 177:--'Lord Shelburne could say the mostprovoking things, and yet appear quite unconscious of their being so. Inone of his speeches, alluding to Lord Carlisle, he said:--"The nobleLord has written a comedy." "No, a tragedy." "Oh, I beg pardon; Ithought it was a comedy."' See _ante_, p. 113. Pope, writing to Mr.Cromwell on Aug. 19, 1709, says:--'One might ask the same question of amodern life, that Rich did of a modern play: "Pray do me the favour,Sir, to inform me is this your tragedy or your comedy?"' Pope's _Works_,ed. 1812, vi. 81.[769] Mrs. Chapone, when she was Miss Mulso, had written 'four billetsin _The Rambler_, No. 10.' _Ante_, i. 203. She was one of the literaryladies who sat at Richardson's feet. Wraxall (_Memoirs_, ed. 1815, i.155) says that 'under one of the most repulsive exteriors that any womanever possessed she concealed very superior attainments and extensiveknowledge.' Just as Mrs. Carter was often called 'the learned Mrs.Carter,' so Mrs. Chapone was known as 'the admirable Mrs. Chapone.'[770] See _ante_, iii. 373.[771] A few copies only of this tragedy have been printed, and given tothe authour's friends. BOSWELL.[772] Dr. Johnson having been very ill when the tragedy was first sentto him, had declined the consideration of it. BOSWELL.[773] Johnson refers, I suppose, to a passage in Dryden which he quotesin his _Dictionary_ under _mechanick_:--'Many a fair precept in poetryis like a seeming demonstration in mathematicks, very specious in thediagram, but failing in the mechanick operation.'[774]'I could have borne my woes; that stranger JoyWounds while it smiles:--The long imprison'd wretch,Emerging from the night of his damp cell,Shrinks from the sun's bright beams; and that which flingsGladness o'er all, to him is agony.' BOSWELL.[775] Lord Cockburn (_Life of Lord Jeffrey_, i. 74) describing therepresentation of Scotland towards the close of last century, and infact till the Reform Bill of 1832, says:--'There were probably not above1500 or 2000 county electors in all Scotland; a body not too large to beheld, hope included, in Government's hand. The election of either thetown or the county member was a matter of such utter indifference to thepeople, that they often only knew of it by the ringing of a bell, or byseeing it mentioned next day in a newspaper.'[776] Six years later, when he was _Praeses_ of the Quarter-Sessions, hecarried up to London an address to be presented to the Prince of Wales.'This,' he wrote, 'will add something to my _conspicuousness_. Will thatword do?' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 295.[777] This part of this letter was written, as Johnson goes on to say, aconsiderable time before the conclusion. The Coalition Ministry, whichwas suddenly dismissed by the King on Dec. 19, was therefore still inpower. Among Boswell's 'friends' was Burke. See _ante_, p. 223.[778] On Nov. 22 he wrote to Dr. Taylor:-'I feel the weight of solitudevery pressing; after a night of broken and uncomfortable slumber I riseto a solitary breakfast, and sit down in the evening with no companion.Sometimes, however, I try to read more and more.' _Notes and Queries_,6th S. v. 482. On Dec. 27 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'You have more thanonce wondered at my complaint of solitude, when you hear that I amcrowded with visits. _Inopem me copia fecit_. Visitors are no propercompanions in the chamber of sickness. They come when I could sleep orread, they stay till I am weary.... The amusements and consolations oflangour and depression are conferred by familiar and domestickcompanions, which can be visited or called at will.... Such society Ihad with Levett and Williams; such I had where I am never likely to haveit more.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 341.[779] The confusion arising from the sudden dismissal of a Ministrywhich commanded a large majority in the House of Commons had beenincreased by the resignation, on Dec. 22, of Earl Temple, three daysafter his appointment as Secretary of State. _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 238.[780] 'News I know none,' wrote Horace Walpole on Dec. 30, 1783(_Letters_, viii. 447), 'but that they are crying Peerages about thestreets in barrows, and can get none off.' Thirty-three peerages weremade in the next three years. (_Whitaker's Almanac_, 1886, p. 463.)Macaulay tells how this December 'a troop of Lords of the Bedchamber, ofBishops who wished to be translated, and of Scotch peers who wished tobe reelected made haste to change sides.' Macaulay's _Writings andSpeeches_, ed. 1871, p. 407.[781] See _ante_, ii. 182. He died Oct. 28, 1788.[782]'Prince Henry was the first encourager of remote navigation. Whatmankind has lost and gained by the genius and designs of this prince itwould be long to compare, and very difficult to estimate. Much knowledgehas been acquired, and much cruelty been committed; the belief ofreligion has been very little propagated, and its laws have beenoutrageously and enormously violated. The Europeans have scarcelyvisited any coast but to gratify avarice, and extend corruption; toarrogate dominion without right, and practise cruelty without incentive.Happy had it then been for the oppressed, if the designs of Henry hadslept in his bosom, and surely more happy for the oppressors.' Johnson's_Works_, v. 219. See _ante_, ii. 478.[783] 'The author himself,' wrote Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, i. 220), 'isthe best judge of his own performance; no one has so deeply meditated onthe subject; no one is so sincerely interested in the event.'[784] Mickle, speaking in the third person as the Translator, says:--'He is happy to be enabled to add Dr. Johnson to the number of thosewhose kindness for the man, and good wishes for the Translation, callfor his sincerest gratitude.' Mickle's _Lusiad_, p. ccxxv.[785] A brief record, it should seem, is given, _ante_, iii. 37.[786] See _ante_, iii. 106, 214.[787] The author of _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr, Johnson_says (p. 153) that it was Johnson who determined Shaw to undertake thiswork. 'Sir,' he said, 'if you give the world a vocabulary of thatlanguage, while the island of Great Britain stands in the Atlantic Oceanyour name will be mentioned.' On p. 156 is a letter by Johnsonintroducing Shaw to a friend.[788] 'Why is not the original deposited in some publick library?' heasked. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 10.[789] See ante, i. 190.[790] See Appendix C.[791] 'Dec. 27, 1873. The wearisome solitude of the long evenings didindeed suggest to me the convenience of a club in my neighbourhood, butI have been hindered from attending it by want of breath.' _PiozziLetters_, ii. 340. 'Dec. 31. I have much need of entertainment;spiritless, infirm, sleepless, and solitary, looking back with sorrowand forward with terrour.' _Ib_, p. 343.[792] '"I think," said Mr. Cambridge, "it sounds more like some clubthat one reads of in _The Spectator_ than like a real club in thesetimes; for the forfeits of a whole year will not amount to those of asingle night in other clubs."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 290. Mr.Cambridge was thinking of the Two-penny Club. _Spectator_, No. ix.[793] I was in Scotland when this Club was founded, and during all thewinter. Johnson, however, declared I should be a member, and invented aword upon the occasion: 'Boswell (said he) is a very _clubable_ man.'When I came to town I was proposed by Mr. Barrington, and chosen. Ibelieve there are few societies where there is better conversation ormore decorum. Several of us resolved to continue it after our greatfounder was removed by death. Other members were added; and now, aboveeight years since that loss, we go on happily. BOSWELL. Mr. Croker says'Johnson had already invented _unclubable_ for Sir J. Hawkins,' andrefers to a note by Dr. Burney (_ante_, i. 480, note I), in whichJohnson is represented as saying of Hawkins, while he was still a memberof the Literary Club:--'Sir John, Sir, is a very unclubable man.' But,as Mr. Croker points out (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 164), 'Hawkins was notknighted till long after he had left the club.' The anecdote, beingproved to be inaccurate in one point, may be inaccurate in another, andmay therefore belong to a much later date.[794] See Appendix D.[795] Ben Jonson wrote _Leges Convivales_ that were 'engraven in marbleover the chimney in the Apollo of the Old Devil Tavern, Temple Bar; thatbeing his Club Room.' Jonson's _Works_, ed. 1756, vii. 291.[796] RULES.'To-day deep thoughts with me resolve to drenchIn mirth, which after no repenting draws.'--MILTON.['To-day deep thoughts _resolve with me_ to drenchIn mirth _that_, &c.' _Sonnets_, xxi.]'The Club shall consist of four-and-twenty.'The meetings shall be on the Monday, Thursday, and Saturday of everyweek; but in the week before Easter there shall be no meeting.'Every member is at liberty to introduce a friend once a week, but notoftener.'Two members shall oblige themselves to attend in their turn every nightfrom eight to ten, or to procure two to attend in their room.'Every member present at the Club shall spend at least sixpence; andevery member who stays away shall forfeit three-pence.'The master of the house shall keep an account of the absent members;and deliver to the President of the night a list of theforfeits incurred.'When any member returns after absence, he shall immediately lay downhis forfeits; which if he omits to do, the President shall require.'There shall be no general reckoning, but every man shall adjust his ownexpences.'The night of indispensable attendance will come to every member once amonth. Whoever shall for three months together omit to attend himself,or by substitution, nor shall make any apology in the fourth month,shall be considered as having abdicated the Club.'When a vacancy is to be filled, the name of the candidate, and of themember recommending him, shall stand in the Club-room three nights. Onthe fourth he may be chosen by ballot; six members at least beingpresent, and two-thirds of the ballot being in his favour; or themajority, should the numbers not be divisible by three.'The master of the house shall give notice, six days before, to each ofthose members whose turn of necessary attendance is come.'The notice may be in these words:--"Sir, On ---- the ---- of ---- --will be your turn of presiding at the Essex-Head. Your company istherefore earnestly requested."'One penny shall be left by each member for the waiter.'Johnson's definition of a Club in this sense, in his _Dictionary_, is,'An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions.' BOSWELL.[797] She had left him in the summer (_ante_, p. 233), but perhaps she