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With you I'll live and learn; and thenInstead of books I shall read men,_So_ lend me your assistance. ToDear Knight of Plympton[1301], teach me howunclouded To suffer with _unruffled_ brow,as And smile serene _like_ thine,and The jest uncouth _or_ truth severe,Like thee to turn _To such apply_ my deafest ear, To suchAnd calmly drink my wine. I'll turnThou say'st, not only skill is gain'd,attained But genius too may be _obtain'd_, attainedinvitation By studious _imitation_;Thy temper mild, thy genius fine,study I'll _copy_ till I make _them_ mine, theemeditation By constant _application_.Thy art of pleasing teach me, Garrick,reverest (_sic_) Thou who _reversest_ odes Pindarick[1302],A second time read o'er;Oh! could we read thee backwards too,Past _Last_ thirty years thou shouldst review,And charm us thirty more.If I have thoughts and can't express 'em,Gibbon shall teach me how to dress 'emIn terms select and terse;Jones teach me modesty--and Greek;Smith how to think; _Burke_ how to speak, BurkAnd Beauclerk to converse.Let Johnson teach me how to placeIn fairest light each borrowed grace,From him I'll learn to write;free and easy Copy his _clear and easy_ style, clearAnd from the roughness of his file, familiarlike Grow _as_ himself--polite.' likeHorace Walpole, on Dec. 27, 1775, speaks of these verses as if they werefresh. 'They are an answer,' he writes, 'to a gross brutality of Dr.Johnson, to which a properer answer would have been to fling a glass ofwine in his face. I have no patience with an unfortunate monstertrusting to his helpless deformity for indemnity for any impertinencethat his arrogance suggests, and who thinks that what he has read is anexcuse for everything he says.' Horace Walpole's _Letters,_ vi. 302. Itis strange that Walpole should be so utterly ignorant of Johnson'scourage and bodily strength. The date of Walpole's letter makes mesuspect that Richard Burke dated his Jan. 6, 1775 (he should havewritten 1776), and that the blunder of a copyist has changed 1775into 1773.APPENDIX B.(_Page_ 238.)Had Boswell continued the quotation from Priestley's _Illustrations ofPhilosophical Necessity_ he would have shown that though Priestley couldnot _hate_ the rioters, he could very easily _prosecute_ them.He says:--'If as a Necessarian I cease to _blame_ men for their vices in theultimate sense of the word, though, in the common and proper sense ofit, I continue to do as much as other persons (for how necessarilysoever they act, they are influenced by a base and mischievousdisposition of mind, against which I must guard myself and others inproportion as I love myself and others),' &c. Priestley's_Works_, iii. 508.Of his interview with Johnson, Priestley, in his _Appeal to the Public_,part ii, published in 1792 (_Works_, xix. 502), thus writes, answering'the impudent falsehood that when I was at Oxford Dr. Johnson left acompany on my being introduced to it':--'In fact we never were at Oxford at the same time, and the onlyinterview I ever had with him was at Mr. Paradise's, where we dinedtogether at his own request. He was particularly civil to me, andpromised to call upon me the next time he should go through Birmingham.He behaved with the same civility to Dr. Price, when they suppedtogether at Dr. Adams's at Oxford. Several circumstances show that Dr.Johnson had not so much of bigotry at the decline of life as haddistinguished him before, on which account it is well known to all ourcommon acquaintance, that I declined all their pressing solicitations tobe introduced to him.'Priestley expresses himself ill, but his meaning can be made out. Parranswered Boswell in the March number of the _Gent. Mag._ for 1795, p.179. But the evidence that he brings is rendered needless by Priestley'spositive statement. May peace henceforth fall on 'Priestley's injuredname.' (Mrs. Barbauld's _Poems_, ii. 243.)When Boswell asserts that Johnson 'was particularly resolute in notgiving countenance to men whose writings he considered as pernicious tosociety,' he forgets that that very summer of 1783 he had been willingto dine at Wilkes's house (_ante_, p. 224, note 2).Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, ed. 1833, iii. 157) wrote to Dr. Price in1784:--'It is said that scarce anybody but yourself and Dr. Priestleypossesses the art of knowing how to differ decently.' Gibbon (_Misc.Works_, i. 304), describing in 1789 the honestest members of the FrenchAssembly, calls them 'a set of wild visionaries, like our Dr. Price, whogravely debate, and dream about the establishment of a pure and perfectdemocracy of five and twenty millions, the virtues of the golden age,and the primitive rights and equality of mankind.' Admiration of Pricemade Samuel Rogers, when a boy, wish to be a preacher. 'I thought therewas nothing on earth so _grand_ as to figure in a pulpit. Dr. Pricelived much in the society of Lord Lansdowne [Earl of Shelburne] andother people of rank; and his manners were extremely polished. In thepulpit he was great indeed.' Rogers's _Table Talk_, p. 3.The full title of the tract mentioned by Boswell is, _A smallWhole-Length of Dr. Priestley from his Printed Works_. It was publishedin 1792, and is a very poor piece of writing.Johnson had refused to meet the Abbe Raynal, the author of the _HistoirePhilosophique et Politique du Commerce des Deux Indes_, when he wasover in England in 1777. Mrs. Chapone, writing to Mrs. Carter on June 15of that year, says:--'I suppose you have heard a great deal of the Abbe Raynal, who is inLondon. I fancy you would have served him as Dr. Johnson did, to whomwhen Mrs. Vesey introduced him, he turned from him, and said he had readhis book, and would have nothing to say to him.' Mrs. Chapone's_Posthumous Works_, i. 172.See Walpole's _Letters_, v. 421, and vi. 444. His book was burnt by thecommon hangman in Paris. Carlyle's _French Revolution_, ed. 1857, i. 45.APPENDIX C.(_Page 253_.)Hawkins gives the two following notes:--'DEAR SIR,'As Mr. Ryland was talking with me of old friends and past times, wewarmed ourselves into a wish, that all who remained of the club shouldmeet and dine at the house which once was Horseman's, in Ivy-lane. Ihave undertaken to solicit you, and therefore desire you to tell on whatday next week you can conveniently meet your old friends.'I am, Sir,'Your most humble servant,'SAM. JOHNSON.''Bolt-court, Nov. 22, 1783.''DEAR SIR,'In perambulating Ivy-lane, Mr. Ryland found neither our landlordHorseman, nor his successor. The old house is shut up, and he liked notthe appearance of any near it; he therefore bespoke our dinner at theQueen's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-yard, where, at half an hour afterthree, your company will be desired to-day by those who remain of ourformer society.'Your humble servant,'SAM. JOHNSON.''Dec. 3.'Four met--Johnson, Hawkins, Ryland, and Payne (_ante_, i. 243).'We dined,' Hawkins continues, 'and in the evening regaled with coffee.At ten we broke up, much to the regret of Johnson, who proposedstaying; but finding us inclined to separate, he left us with a sighthat seemed to come from his heart, lamenting that he was retiring tosolitude and cheerless meditation.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 562.Hawkins is mistaken in saying that they had a second meeting at a tavernat the end of a month; for Johnson, on March 10, 1784, wrote:--'I have been confined from the fourteenth of December, and know not whenI shall get out.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 351.He thus describes these meetings:--'Dec. 13. I dined about a fortnight ago with three old friends; we hadnot met together for thirty years, and one of us thought the other grownvery old. In the thirty years two of our set have died; our meeting maybe supposed to be somewhat tender.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 339.'Jan. 12, 1784. I had the same old friends to dine with me on Wednesday,and may say that since I lost sight of you I have had one pleasant day.'Ib. p. 346.'April 15, 1784. Yesterday I had the pleasure of giving another dinnerto the remainder of the old club. We used to meet weekly, about the yearfifty, and we were as cheerful as in former times; only I could not makequite so much noise, for since the paralytick affliction my voice issometimes weak.' Ib. p. 361.'April 19, 1784. The people whom I mentioned in my letter are theremnant of a little club that used to meet in Ivy-lane about three andthirty years ago, out of which we have lost Hawkesworth and Dyer; therest are yet on this side the grave. Our meetings now are serious, and Ithink on all parts tender.' Ib. 363.See _ante_, i. 191, note 5.APPENDIX D.(_Page 254_.)It is likely that Sir Joshua Reynolds refused to join the Essex HeadClub because he did not wish to meet Barry. Not long before this time hehad censured Barry's delay in entering upon his duties as Professorof painting.'Barry answered:--"If I had no more to do in the composition of mylectures than to produce such poor flimsy stuff as your discourses, Ishould soon have done my work, and be prepared to read." It is said thisspeech was delivered with his fist clenched, in a menacing posture.'(Northcote's _Life of Reynolds_, ii. 146.)The Hon. Daines Barrington was the author of an _Essay on the Migrationof Birds_ (_ante_, ii. 248) and of _Observations on the Statutes_(_ante_, iii. 314). Horace Walpole wrote on Nov. 24, 1780 (_Letters_,vii. 464):--'I am sorry for the Dean of Exeter; if he dies I conclude the leadenmace of the Antiquarian Society will be given to Judge Barrington.' (Hewas 'second Justice of Chester.')For Dr. Brocklesby see _ante_, pp. 176, 230, 338, 400.Of Mr. John Nichols, Murphy says that 'his attachment to Dr. Johnson wasunwearied.' _Life of Johnson_, p. 66. He was the printer of _The Livesof the Poets_ (_ante_, p. 36), and the author of _Biographical andLiterary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, Printer_, 'the last of the learnedprinters,' whose apprentice he had been (_ante_, p. 369). Horace Walpole(_Letters_, viii. 259) says:--'I scarce ever saw a book so correct as Mr. Nichols's _Life of Mr.Bowyer_. I wish it deserved the pains he has bestowed on it every way,and that he would not dub so many men _great_. I have known several ofhis _heroes_, who were very _little_ men.'The _Life of Bowyer_ being recast and enlarged was republished under thetitle of _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_. From 1778 tillhis death in 1826 the _Gentleman's Magazine_ was in great measure in hishands. Southey, writing in 1804, says:--'I have begun to take in here at Keswick the _Gentleman's Magazine_,_alias_ the _Oldwomania_, to enlighten a Portuguese student among themountains; it does amuse me by its exquisite inanity, and the gloriousand intense stupidity of its correspondents; it is, in truth, a disgraceto the age and the country.' Southey's _Life and Correspondence_,ii. 281.Mr. William Cooke, 'commonly called Conversation Cooke,' wrote _Lives ofMacklin and Foote_. Forster's _Essays_, ii. 312, and _Gent. Mag._ 1824,p. 374. Mr. Richard Paul Joddrel, or Jodrell, was the author of _ThePersian Heroine, a Tragedy_, which, in Baker's _Biog. Dram._ i. 400, iswrongly assigned to Sir R.P. Jodrell, M.D. Nichols's _Lit. Anec._ ix. 2.For Mr. Paradise see _ante_, p. 364, note 2.Dr. Horsley was the controversialist, later on Bishop of St. David's andnext of Rochester. Gibbon makes splendid mention of him (_Misc. Works_,i. 232) when he tells how 'Dr. Priestley's Socinian shield hasrepeatedly been pierced by the mighty spear of Horsley.' Windham,however, in his _Diary_ in one place (p. 125) speaks of him as havinghis thoughts 'intent wholly on prospects of Church preferment;' and inanother place (p. 275) says that 'he often lays down with greatconfidence what turns out afterwards to be wrong.' In the House ofLords he once said that 'he did not know what the mass of the people inany country had to do with the laws but to obey them.' _Parl. Hist_.xxxii. 258. Thurlow rewarded him for his _Letters to Priestley_ by astall at Gloucester, 'saying that "those who supported the Church shouldbe supported by it."' Campbell's _Chancellors_, ed. 1846, v. 635.For Mr. Windham, see _ante_, p. 200.Hawkins (_Life of Johnson_, p. 567) thus writes of the formation of theClub:--'I was not made privy to this his intention, but all circumstancesconsidered, it was no matter of surprise to me when I heard that thegreat Dr. Johnson had, in the month of December 1783, formed a sixpennyclub at an ale-house in Essex-street, and that though some of thepersons thereof were persons of note, strangers, under restrictions, forthree pence each night might three nights in a week hear him talk andpartake of his conversation.'Miss Hawkins (_Memoirs_, i. 103) says:--'Boswell was well justified in his resentment of my father's designationof this club as a sixpenny club, meeting at an ale-house. ... Honestlyspeaking, I dare say my father did not like being passed over.'Sir Joshua Reynolds, writing of the club, says:--'Any company was better than none; by which Johnson connected himselfwith many mean persons whose presence he could command. For this purposehe established a club at a little ale-house in Essex-street, composed ofa strange mixture of very learned and very ingenious odd people. Of theformer were Dr. Heberden, Mr. Windham, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Steevens, Mr.Paradise. Those of the latter I do not think proper to enumerate.'Taylor's _Life of Reynolds_, ii. 455.It is possible that Reynolds had never seen the Essex Head, and that theterm 'little ale-house' he had borrowed from Hawkins's account. Possiblytoo his disgust at Barry here found vent. Murphy (_Life of Johnson_, p.124) says:--'The members of the club were respectable for their rank, their talents,and their literature.'The 'little ale-house' club saw one of its members, Alderman Clarke(_ante_, p. 258), Lord Mayor within a year; another, Horsley, a Bishopwithin five years; and a third, Windham, Secretary at War within tenyears. Nichols (_Literary Anecdotes_, ii. 553) gives a list of the'constant members' at the time of Johnson's death.APPENDIX E.(Page 399.)Miss Burney's account of Johnson's last days is interesting, but herdates are confused more even than is common with her. I have correctedthem as well as I can.'Dec. 9. He will not, it seems, be talked to--at least very rarely. Attimes indeed he re-animates; but it is soon over and he says ofhimself:--"I am now like Macbeth--question enrages me."''Dec. 10. At night my father brought us the most dismal tidings of dearDr. Johnson. He had thanked and taken leave of all his physicians. Alas!I shall lose him, and he will take no leave of me. My father was deeplydepressed. I hear from everyone he is now perfectly resigned to hisapproaching fate, and no longer in terror of death.''Dec. 11. My father in the morning saw this first of men. He was up andvery composed. He took his hand very kindly, asked after all his family,and then in particular how Fanny did. "I hope," he said, "Fanny did nottake it amiss that I did not see her. I was very bad. Tell Fanny to prayfor me." After which, still grasping his hand, he made a prayer forhimself, the most fervent, pious, humble, eloquent, and touching, myfather says, that ever was composed. Oh! would I had heard it! He endedit with Amen! in which my father joined, and was echoed by all present;and again, when my father was leaving him, he brightened up, somethingof his arch look returned, and he said: "I think I shall throw the ballat Fanny yet."''Dec. 12. [Miss Burney called at Bolt-court.] All the rest went away buta Mrs. Davis, a good sort of woman, whom this truly charitable soul hadsent for to take a dinner at his house. [See _ante_, p. 239, note 2.]Mr. Langton then came. He could not look at me, and I turned away fromhim. Mrs. Davis asked how the Doctor was. "Going on to death very fast,"was his mournful answer. "Has he taken," said she, "anything?" "Nothingat all. We carried him some bread and milk--he refused it, andsaid:--'The less the better.'"''Dec. 20. This day was the ever-honoured, ever-lamented Dr. Johnsoncommitted to the earth. Oh, how sad a day to me! My father attended. Icould not keep my eyes dry all day; nor can I now in the recollectingit; but let me pass over what to mourn is now so vain.' Mme. D'Arblay's_Diary_, ii. 333-339.APPENDIX F.(_Notes on Boswell's note on pages 403-405_.)[F-1] In a letter quoted in Mr. Croker's Boswell, p. 427, Dr. Johnsoncalls Thomas Johnson 'cousin,' and says that in the last sixteen monthshe had given him L40. He mentions his death in 1779. _PiozziLetters_, ii. 45.[F-2] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 603) says that Elizabeth Herne was Johnson'sfirst-cousin, and that he had constantly--how long he does notsay--contributed L15 towards her maintenance.[F-3] For Mauritius Lowe, see _ante_, iii. 324, and iv. 201.[F-4] To Mr. Windham, two days earlier, he had given a copy of the _NewTestament_, saying:--'Extremum hoc munus morientis habeto.' Windham's_Diary_, p. 28.[F-5] For Mrs. Gardiner see _ante_, i. 242.