[681] Not the very tavern, which was burned down in the great fire. P.CUNNINGHAM.[682] I do not see why I might not have been of this club withoutlessening my character. But Dr. Johnson's caution against supposingone's self concealed in London, may be very useful to prevent somepeople from doing many things, not only foolish, but criminal. BOSWELL.[683] See _ante_, iii. 318.[684] Johnson defines _airy_ as _gay, sprightly, full of mirth_, &c.[685] 'A man would be drowned by claret before it made him drunk.'_Ante_, iii. 381.[686] _Ante_, p. 137.[687] See _ante_ ii. 261.[688] Lord Chesterfield wrote in 1747 (_Misc. Works_, iv. 231):--Drinking is a most beastly vice in every country, but it is really aruinous one to Ireland; nine gentlemen in ten in Ireland areimpoverished by the great quantity of claret, which from mistakennotions of hospitality and dignity, they think it necessary should bedrunk in their houses. This expense leaves them no room to improve theirestates by proper indulgence upon proper conditions to their tenants,who must pay them to the full, and upon the very day, that they may paytheir wine-merchants.' In 1754 he wrote (_ib._p.359):--If it would butplease God by his lightning to blast all the vines in the world, and byhis thunder to turn all the wines now in Ireland sour, as I mostsincerely wish he would, Ireland would enjoy a degree of quiet andplenty that it has never yet known.'[689] See _ante_, p. 95.[690] 'The sea being broken by the multitude of islands does not roarwith so much noise, nor beat the storm with such foamy violence as Ihave remarked on the coast of Sussex. Though, while I was in theHebrides, the wind was extremely turbulent, I never saw very highbillows.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 65.[691] Johnson this day thus wrote of Mr. M'Queen to Mrs. Thrale:--'Youfind that all the islanders even in these recesses of life are notbarbarous. One of the ministers who has adhered to us almost all thetime is an excellent scholar.' _Piozzi Letters,_ i. 157.[692] See _post_, Nov. 6.[693] This was a dexterous mode of description, for the purpose of hisargument; for what he alluded to was, a Sermon published by the learnedDr. William Wishart, formerly principal of the college at Edinburgh, towarn men _against_ confiding in a death-bed _repentance_ of theinefficacy of which he entertained notions very different from those ofDr. Johnson. BOSWELL.[694] The Rev. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 441) thus writes of theEnglish clergy whom he met at Harrogate in 1763:--'I had never seen somany of them together before, and between this and the following year Iwas able to form a true judgment of them. They are, in general--I meanthe lower order--divided into bucks and prigs; of which the first,though inconceivably ignorant, and sometimes indecent in their morals,yet I held them to be most tolerable, because they were unassuming, andhad no other affectation but that of behaving themselves like gentlemen.The other division of them, the prigs, are truly not to be endured, forthey are but half learned, are ignorant of the world, narrow-minded,pedantic, and overbearing. And now and then you meet with a _rara avis_who is accomplished and agreeable, a man of the world withoutlicentiousness, of learning without pedantry, and pious withoutsanctimony; but this _is_ a _rara avis_'.[695] See _ante_, i. 446, note 1.[696] Johnson defines _manage_ in this sense _to train a horse tograceful action_, and quotes Young:--'They vault from hunters to the managed steed.'[697] Of Sir William Forbes of a later generation, Lockhart (_Life ofScott_, ix. 179) writes as follows:--'Sir William Forbes, whosebanking-house was one of Messrs. Ballantyne's chief creditors, crownedhis generous efforts for Scott's relief by privately paying the whole ofAbud's demand (nearly L2000) out of his own pocket.'[698] This scarcity of cash still exists on the islands, in several ofwhich five shilling notes are necessarily issued to have somecirculating medium. If you insist on having change, you must purchasesomething at a shop. WALTER SCOTT.[699] 'The payment of rent in kind has been so long disused in Englandthat it is totally forgotten. It was practised very lately in theHebrides, and probably still continues, not only in St. Kilda, wheremoney is not yet known, but in others of the smaller and remoterislands.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 110.[700] 'A place where the imagination is more amused cannot easily befound. The mountains about it are of great height, with waterfallssucceeding one another so fast, that as one ceases to be heard anotherbegins.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 157.[701] See _ante_, i. 159.[702] Johnson seems to be speaking of Hailes's _Memorials and Lettersrelating to the History of Britain in the reign of James I and ofCharles I_.[703] See _ante_, ii. 341.[704] See _ante_, iii. 91.[705] 'In all ages of the world priests have been enemies to liberty,and it is certain that this steady conduct of theirs must have beenfounded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition. Liberty of thinkingand of expressing our thoughts is always fatal to priestly power, and tothose pious frauds on which it is commonly founded.... Hence it musthappen in such a government as that of Britain, that the establishedclergy, while things are in their natural situation, will always be ofthe _Court_-party; as, on the contrary, dissenters of all kinds will beof the _Country_-party.' Hume's _Essays_, Part 1, No. viii.[706] In the original _Every island's but a prison._ The song is by aMr. Coffey, and is given in Ritson's _English Songs_ (1813), ii. 122.It begins:--'Welcome, welcome, brother debtor,To this poor but merry place,Where no bailiff, dun, nor setter,Dares to show his frightful face.'See _ante_, iii. 269.[707] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale the day before (perhaps it was this day,and the copyist blundered):--' I am still in Sky. Do you rememberthe song--We have at one time no boat, and at another may have too much wind; butof our reception here we have no reason to complain.' _PiozziLetters_, i. 143.[708] My ingenuously relating this occasional instance of intemperancehas I find been made the subject both of serious criticism and ludicrousbanter. With the banterers I shall not trouble myself, but I wonder thatthose who pretend to the appellation of serious criticks should not havehad sagacity enough to perceive that here, as in every other part of thepresent work, my principal object was to delineate Dr. Johnson's mannersand character. In justice to him I would not omit an anecdote, which,though in some degree to my own disadvantage, exhibits in so strong alight the indulgence and good humour with which he could treat thoseexcesses in his friends, of which he highly disapproved.In some other instances, the criticks have been equally wrong as to thetrue motive of my recording particulars, the objections to which I sawas clearly as they. But it would be an endless task for an authour topoint out upon every occasion the precise object he has in view,Contenting himself with the approbation of readers of discernment andtaste, he ought not to complain that some are found who cannot or willnot understand him. BOSWELL.[709] In the original, 'wherein is excess.'[710] See Chappell's _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, i. 231.[711] See _ante_, iii. 383.[712] see _ante_, p. 184.[713] See _ante_, ii. 120, where he took upon his knee a young woman whocame to consult him on the subject of Methodism.[714] See _ante_, pp. 215, 246.[715] See _ante_, iv. 176.[716]'If ev'ry wheel of that unwearied millThat turned ten thousand verses now stands still.'_Imitations of Horace, 2 Epis._ ii. 78.[717] _Ante_, p. 206.[718]'Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine captosDucit.'--Ovid, _Ex Pont_. i. 3. 35.[719] Lift up your hearts.[720] Mr. Croker prints the following letter written to Macleod the daybefore:--'Ostig, 28th Sept. 1773.'DEAR SIR,--We are now on the margin of the sea, waiting for a boat anda wind. Boswell grows impatient; but the kind treatment which I findwherever I go, makes me leave, with some heaviness of heart, an islandwhich I am not very likely to see again. Having now gone as far ashorses can carry us, we thankfully return them. My steed will, I hope,be received with kindness;--he has borne me, heavy as I am, over groundboth rough and steep, with great fidelity; and for the use of him, asfor your other favours, I hope you will believe me thankful, andwilling, at whatever distance we may be placed, to shew my sense of yourkindness, by any offices of friendship that may fall within my power.'Lady Macleod and the young ladies have, by their hospitality andpoliteness, made an impression on my mind, which will not easily beeffaced. Be pleased to tell them, that I remember them with greattenderness, and great respect.--I am, Sir, your most obliged and mosthumble servant,'SAM. JOHNSON.''P.S.--We passed two days at Talisker very happily, both by thepleasantness of the place and elegance of our reception.'[721] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 409), after describing how Shenstone laidout the Leasowes, continues:--'Whether to plant a walk in undulatingcurves, and to place a bench at every turn where there is an object tocatch the view; to make water run where it will be heard, and tostagnate where it will be seen; to leave intervals where the eye will bepleased, and to thicken the plantation where there is something to behidden, demands any great powers of mind, I will not inquire: perhaps asurly and sullen speculator may think such performances rather the sportthan the business of human reason.'[722] Johnson quotes this and the two preceding stanzas as 'a passage,to which if any mind denies its sympathy, it has no acquaintance withlove or nature.' _Ib_. p. 413.[723] 'His mind was not very comprehensive, nor his curiosity active; hehad no value for those parts of knowledge which he had not himselfcultivated.' _Ib._ p. 411.[724] In the preface to vol. iii. of Shenstone's _Works_, ed. 1773, aquotation is given (p. vi) from one of the poet's letters in which hecomplains of this burning. He writes:--'I look upon my Letters as some ofmy _chef-d'auvres_.' On p. 301, after mentioning _Rasselas_, hecontinues:--'Did I tell you I had a letter from Johnson, inclosingVernon's _Parish-clerk_?'[725] 'The truth is these elegies have neither passion, nature, normanners. Where there is fiction, there is no passion: he that describeshimself as a shepherd, and his Neaera or Delia as a shepherdess, andtalks of goats and lambs, feels no passion. He that courts his mistresswith Roman imagery deserves to lose her; for she may with good reasonsuspect his sincerity.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 91. See _ante_, iv. 17.[726] His lines on Pulteney, Earl of Bath, still deserve some fame:--'Leave a blank here and there in each pageTo enrol the fair deeds of his youth!When you mention the acts of his age,Leave a blank for his honour and truth.'From _The Statesman_, H. C. Williams's _Odes_, p. 47.[727] Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2.[728] He did not mention the name of any particular person; but thosewho are conversant with the political world will probably recollect morepersons than one to whom this observation may be applied. BOSWELL. Mr.Croker thinks that Lord North was meant. For his ministry Johnsoncertainly came to have a great contempt (_ante_, iv. 139). If Johnsonwas thinking of him, he differed widely in opinion from Gibbon, whodescribes North as 'a consummate master of debate, who could wield withequal dexterity the arms of reason and of ridicule.' Gibbon's _Misc.Works_, i. 221. On May 2, 1775, he wrote:--' If they turned out LordNorth to-morrow, they would still leave him one of the best companionsin the kingdom.' _Ib._ ii. 135.[729] Horace Walpole is speaking of this work, when he wrote on May 16,1759 (_Letters_, iii. 227):--'Dr. Young has published a new book, onpurpose, he says himself, to have an opportunity of telling a story thathe has known these forty years. Mr. Addison sent for the young LordWarwick, as he was dying, to shew him in what peace a Christian coulddie--unluckily he died of brandy--nothing makes a Christian die inpeace like being maudlin! but don't say this in Gath, where you are.'[730] 'His [Young's] plan seems to have started in his mind at thepresent moment; and his thoughts appear the effect of chance, sometimesadverse, and sometimes lucky, with very little operation of judgment....His verses are formed by no certain model; he is no more like himself inhis different productions than he is like others. He seems never to havestudied prosody, nor to have had any direction but from his own ear. Butwith all his defects, he was a man of genius and a poet.' Johnson's_Works_, viii. 458, 462. Mrs. Piozzi (_Synonymy_, ii. 371) tells why'Dr. Johnson despised Young's quantity of common knowledge ascomparatively small. 'Twas only because, speaking once upon the subjectof metrical composition, he seemed totally ignorant of what are calledrhopalick verses, from the Greek word, a club--verses in which each wordmust be a syllable longer than that which goes before, such as:Spes deus aeternae stationis conciliator.'[731] He had said this before. _Ante_, ii. 96.[732]'Brunetta's wise in actions great and rare,But scorns on trifles to bestow her care.Thus ev'ry hour Brunetta is to blame,Because th' occasion is beneath her aim.Think nought a trifle, though it small appear;Small sands the mountains, moments make the year,And trifles life. Your care to trifles give,Or you may die before you truly live.'_Love of Fame_, Satire vi. Johnson often taught that life is made up oftrifles. See _ante_, i. 433.[733]"But hold," she cries, "lampooner, have a care;Must I want common sense, because I'm fair?"O no: see Stella; her eyes shine as bright,As if her tongue was never in the right;And yet what real learning, judgment, fire!She seems inspir'd, and can herself inspire:How then (if malice rul'd not all the fair)Could Daphne publish, and could she forbear?We grant that beauty is no bar to sense,Nor is't a sanction for impertinence._Love of Fame_, Satire v.[734] Johnson called on Young's son at Welwyn in June, 1781. _Ante_, iv.119. Croft, in his _Life of Young_ (Johnson's _Works_, viii. 453), saysthat 'Young and his housekeeper were ridiculed with more ill-nature thanwit in a kind of novel published by Kidgell in 1755, called _The Card_,under the name of Dr. Elwes and Mrs. Fusby.'[735] _Memoirs of Philip Doddridge_, ed. 1766, p. 171.[736] So late as 1783 he said 'this Hanoverian family is isolee here.'_Ante_, iv. 165.[737] See _ante_, ii. 81, where he hoped that 'this gloom of infidelitywas only a transient cloud.'[738] Boswell has recorded this saying, _ante_, iv. 194.[739] In 1755 an English version of this work had been published. _Gent.Mag_. 1755, p. 574. In the Chronological Catalogue on p. 343 in vol. 66of Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, it is entered as _'Histoire de laGuerre de_ 1741, fondue en partie dans le _Precis du siecle deLouis XV_.'[740] Boswell is here merely repeating Johnson's words, who on April 11of this year, advising him to keep a journal, had said, 'The great thingto be recorded is the state of your own mind.' _Ante_, ii. 217.[741] This word is not in his _Dictionary_.[742] See _ante_, i. 498.[743] See _ante_, ii. 61, 335; iii. 375, and _post_, under Nov. 11.[744] Beattie had attacked Hume in his _Essay on Truth_ (_ante_, ii. 201and v. 29). Reynolds this autumn had painted Beattie in his gown of anOxford Doctor of Civil Law, with his _Essay_ under his arm. 'The angelof Truth is going before him, and beating down the Vices, Envy,Falsehood, &c., which are represented by a group of figures falling athis approach, and the principal head in this group is made an exactlikeness of Voltaire. When Dr. Goldsmith saw this picture, he was veryindignant at it, and said:--"It very ill becomes a man of your eminenceand character, Sir Joshua, to condescend to be a mean flatterer, or towish to degrade so high a genius as Voltaire before so mean a writer asDr. Beattie; for Dr. Beattie and his book together will, in the space often years, not be known ever to have been in existence, but yourallegorical picture and the fame of Voltaire will live for ever to yourdisgrace as a flatterer."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 300. Another ofthe figures was commonly said to be a portrait of Hume; but Forbes(_Life of Beattie_, ed. 1824, p. 158) says he had reason to believe thatSir Joshua had no thought either of Hume or Voltaire. Beattie's _Essay_is so much a thing of the past that Dr. J. H. Burton does not, Ibelieve, take the trouble ever to mention it in his _Life of Hume_.Burns did not hold with Goldsmith, for he took Beattie's side:--'Hence sweet harmonious Beattie sungHis _Minstrel_ lays;Or tore, with noble ardour stung,The _Sceptic's_ bays.'(_The Vision_, part ii.)[745] See _ante_, ii. 441.[746] William Tytler published in 1759 an _Examination of the Historiesof Dr. Robertson and Mr. Hume with respect to Mary Queen of Scots_. Itwas reviewed by Johnson. _Ante_, i. 354.[747] Johnson's _Rasselas_ was published in either March or April, andGoldsmith's _Polite Learning_ in April of 1759.I do not find that theypublished any other works at the same time. If these are the worksmeant, we have a proof that the two writers knew each other earlier than