common-room, we spied a fine large print of Johnson, hung up that verymorning, with this motto:--_And is not Johnson ours, himself a host?_Under which stared you in the face--_From Miss More's "Sensibility_."This little incident amused us; but, alas! Johnson looks very illindeed--spiritless and wan. However, he made an effort to be cheerful.'Miss Adams wrote on June 14, 1782:--'On Wednesday we had here adelightful blue-stocking party. Dr. and Mrs. Kennicott and Miss More,Dr. Johnson, Mr. Henderson, &c., dined here. Poor Dr. Johnson is in verybad health, but he exerted himself as much as he could, and being veryfond of Miss More, he talked a good deal, and every word he says isworth recording. He took great delight in showing Miss More every partof Pembroke College, and his own rooms, &c., and told us many thingsabout himself when here. .. June 19, 1782. We dined yesterday for thelast time in the company with Dr. Johnson; he went away to-day. A warmdispute arose; it was about cider or wine freezing, and all the spiritretreating to the center.' _Pemb. Coll. MSS._[476] 'I never retired to rest without feeling the justness of theSpanish proverb, "Let him who sleeps too much borrow the pillow of adebtor."' Johnson's _Works_, iv. 14.[477] See _ante_, i. 441.[478] Which I celebrated in the Church of England chapel at Edinburgh,founded by Lord Chief Baron Smith, of respectable and piousmemory. BOSWELL.[479] See _ante_, p. 80.[480] The Reverend Mr. Temple, Vicar of St. Gluvias, Cornwall. BOSWELL.See _ante_, i. 436, and ii. 316.[481] 'He had settled on his eldest son,' says Dr. Rogers(_Boswelliana_, p. 129), 'the ancestral estate, with an unencumberedrental of Ll,600 a year.' That the rental, whatever it was, was notunencumbered is shewn by the passage from Johnson's letter, _post_, p.155, note 4. Boswell wrote to Malone in 1791 (Croker's _Boswell_, p.828):--'The clear money on which I can reckon out of my estate isscarcely L900 a year.'[482] Cowley's _Ode to Liberty_, Stanza vi.[483] 'I do beseech all the succeeding heirs of entail,' wrote Boswellin his will, 'to be kind to the tenants, and not to turn out oldpossessors to get a little more rent.' Rogers's _Boswelliana, p. 186.[484] Macleod, the Laird of Rasay. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 8.[485] A farm in the Isle of Skye, where Johnson wrote his Latin Ode toMrs. Thrale. _Ib._ Sept. 6.[486] Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor on Oct. 4:--'Boswel's (sic) father isdead, and Boswel wrote me word that he would come to London for myadvice. [The] advice which I sent him is to stay at home, and [busy]himself with his own affairs. He has a good es[tate], considerablyburthened by settlements, and he is himself in debt. But if his wifelives, I think he will be prudent.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S.v. 462.[487] Miss Burney wrote in the first week in December:--'Dr. Johnson wasin most excellent good humour and spirits.' She describes later on abrilliant party which he attended at Miss Monckton's on the 8th, wherethe people were 'superbly dressed,' and where he was 'environed withlisteners.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 186, and 190. See _ante_, p.108, note 4.[488] See _ante,_, iii. 337, where Johnson got 'heated' when Boswellmaintained this.[489] See _ante_, in. 395.[490] The greatest part of the copy, or manuscript of _The Lives of thePoets_ had been given by Johnson to Boswell (_ante_, iv. 36).[491] Of her twelve children but these three were living. She wasforty-one years old.[492] 'The family,' writes Dr. Burney, 'lived in the library, which usedto be the parlour. There they breakfasted. Over the bookcases were hungSir Joshua's portraits of Mr. Thrale's friends--Baretti, Burke, Burney,Chambers, Garrick, Goldsmith, Johnson, Murphy, Reynolds, Lord Sandys,Lord Westcote, and in the same picture Mrs. Thrale and her eldestdaughter.' Mr. Thrale's portrait was also there. Dr. Burney's _Memoirs_,ii. 80, and Prior's _Malone_, p. 259.[493] _Pr. and Med._ p. 214. BOSWELL.[494] Boswell omits a line that follows this prayer:--'O Lord, so faras, &c.,--Thrale.' This means, I think, 'so far as it might be lawful,I prayed for Thrale.' The following day Johnson entered:--'I was calledearly. I packed up my bundles, and used the foregoing prayer with mymorning devotions, somewhat, I think, enlarged. Being earlier than thefamily, I read St. Paul's farewell in the _Acts_ [xx. 17-end], and thenread fortuitously in the gospels, which was my parting use ofthe library.'[495] Johnson, no doubt, was leaving Streatham because Mrs. Thrale wasleaving it. 'Streatham,' wrote Miss Burney, on Aug. 12 of this year, 'myother home, and the place where I have long thought my residencedependent only on my own pleasure, is already let for three years toLord Shelburne.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii.151. Johnson was not yetleaving the Thrale family, for he joined them at Brighton, and he wasliving with them the following spring in Argyll-street. Nevertheless,if, as all Mrs. Thrale's friends strongly held, her second marriage wasblameworthy, Boswell's remark admits of defence. Miss Burney in herdiary and letters keeps the secret which Mrs. Thrale had confided to herof her attachment to Mr. Piozzi; but in the _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_,which, as Mme. D'Arblay, she wrote long afterwards, she leaves littledoubt that Streatham was given up as a step towards the second marriage.In 1782, on a visit there, she found that her father 'and allothers--Dr. Johnson not excepted--were cast into the same gulf ofgeneral neglect. As Mrs. Thrale became more and more dissatisfied withher own situation, and impatient for its relief, she slighted Johnson'scounsel, and avoided his society.' Mme. D'Arblay describes a strikingscene in which her father, utterly puzzled by 'sad and alteredStreatham,' left it one day with tears in his eyes. Another day, Johnsonaccompanied her to London. 'His look was stern, though dejected, butwhen his eye, which, however shortsighted, was quick to mentalperception, saw how ill at ease she appeared, all sternness subsidedinto an undisguised expression of the strongest emotion, while, with ashaking hand and pointing finger, he directed her looks to the mansionfrom which they were driving; and when they faced it from thecoach-window, as they turned into Streatham Common, tremulouslyexclaimed, "That house ...is lost to _me_... for ever."' Johnson'sletter to Langton of March 20, 1782 (_ante_, p. 145), in which he saysthat he was 'musing in his chamber at Mrs. Thrale's,' shews that soearly as that date he foresaw that a change was coming. Boswell'sstatement that 'Mrs. Thrale became less assiduous to please Johnson,'might have been far more strongly worded. See Dr. Burney's _Memoirs_,ii. 243-253. Lord Shelburne, who as Prime Minister was negotiating peacewith the United States, France, and Spain, hired Mrs. Thrale's house 'inorder to be constantly near London.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_,iii. 242.[496] Mr. Croker quotes the following from the _Rose MSS_.:--'Oct. 6,Die Dominica, 1782. Pransus sum Streathamiae agninum crus coctum cumherbis (spinach) comminutis, farcimen farinaceum cum uvis passis, lumbosbovillos, et pullum gallinae: Turcicae; et post carnes missas, ficus,uvas, non admodum maturas, ita voluit anni intemperies, cum malisPersicis, iis tamen duris. Non laetus accubui, cibum modice sumpsi, neintemperantia ad extremum peccaretur. Si recte memini, in mentemvenerunt epulae in exequiis Hadoni celebratae. Streathamiamquando revisam?'[497] 'Mr. Metcalfe is much with Dr. Johnson, but seems to have taken anunaccountable dislike to Mrs. Thrale, to whom he never speaks.... He isa shrewd, sensible, keen, and very clever man.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_,ii. 172, 174. He, Burke, and Malone were Sir Joshua's executors.Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 293.[498] Boswell should have shown, for he must have known it, that Johnsonwas Mrs. Thrale's guest at Brighton. Miss Burney was also of the party.Her account of him is a melancholy one:--'Oct. 28. Dr. Johnsonaccompanied us to a ball, to the universal amazement of all who saw himthere; but he said he had found it so dull being quite alone thepreceding evening, that he determined upon going with us; "for," saidhe, "it cannot be worse than being alone."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii.161. 'Oct. 29. Mr. Pepys joined Dr. Johnson, with whom he entered intoan argument, in which he was so roughly confuted, and so severelyridiculed, that he was hurt and piqued beyond all power of disguise,and, in the midst of the discourse, suddenly turned from him, and,wishing Mrs. Thrale goodnight, very abruptly withdrew. Dr. Johnson wascertainly right with respect to the argument and to reason; but hisopposition was so warm, and his wit so satirical and exulting, that Iwas really quite grieved to see how unamiable he appeared, and howgreatly he made himself dreaded by all, and by many abhorred.' _Ib_. p.163. 'Oct. 30. In the evening we all went to Mrs. Hatsel's. Dr. Johnsonwas not invited.' _Ib_. p. 165. 'Oct. 31. A note came to invite us all,except Dr. Johnson, to Lady Rothes's.' _Ib_. p. 168. 'Nov. 2. We went toLady Shelley's. Dr. Johnson again excepted in the invitation. He isalmost constantly omitted, either from too much respect or too muchfear. I am sorry for it, as he hates being alone.' _Ib_. p. 160. 'Nov.7. Mr. Metcalfe called upon Dr. Johnson, and took him out an airing. Mr.Hamilton is gone, and Mr. Metcalfe is now the only person out of thishouse that voluntarily communicates with the Doctor. He has been in aterrible severe humour of late, and has really frightened all thepeople, till they almost ran from him. To me only I think he is nowkind, for Mrs. Thrale fares worse than anybody.' _Ib_. p. 177.[499] '"Dr. Johnson has asked me," said Mr. Metcalfe, "to go with him toChichester, to see the cathedral, and I told him I would certainly go ifhe pleased; but why I cannot imagine, for how shall a blind man see acathedral?" "I believe," quoth I [i.e. Miss Burney] "his blindness is asmuch the effect of absence as of infirmity, for he sees wonderfully attimes."' _Ib_. p. 174. For Johnson's eyesight, see _ante_, i. 41.[500] The second letter is dated the 28th. Johnson says:--'I have looked_often_,' &c.; but he does not say 'he has been _much_ informed,' butonly 'informed.' Both letters are in the _Gent. Mag._ 1784, p. 893.[501] The reference is to Rawlinson's MS. collections for a continuationof Wood's _Athenae_ (Macray's _Annals of the Bodleian_, p. 181).[502] Jortin's sermons are described by Johnson as 'very elegant.'_Ante_, in. 248. He and Thirlby are mentioned by him in the _Life ofPope. Works_, viii. 254.[503] Markland was born 1693, died 1776. His notes on some of Euripides'_Plays_ were published at the expense of Dr. Heberden. Markland hadpreviously destroyed a great many other notes; writing in 1764 hesaid:--'Probably it will be a long time (if ever) before this sort oflearning will revive in England; in which it is easy to foresee thatthere must be a disturbance in a few years, and all public disorders areenemies to this sort of literature.' _Gent. Mag._ 1778, P. 3l0. 'Iremember,' writes Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 252), 'when lamentation wasmade of the neglect shown to Jeremiah Markland, a great philologist, assome one ventured to call him: "He is a scholar undoubtedly, Sir,"replied Dr. Johnson, "but remember that he would run from the world, andthat it is not the world's business to run after him. I hate a fellowwhom pride, or cowardice, or laziness drives into a corner, and [who]does nothing when he is there but sit and _growl_; let him come out as Ido, and _bark_"' A brief account of him is given in the _Ann. Reg._xix. 45.[504] Nichols published in 1784 a brief account of Thirlby, nearly halfof it being written by Johnson. Thirlby was born in 1692 and died in1753. 'His versatility led him to try the round of what are called thelearned professions.' His life was marred by drink and insolence.' Hismind seems to have been tumultuous and desultory, and he was glad tocatch any employment that might produce attention without anxiety; suchemployment, as Dr. Battie has observed, is necessary for madmen.' _Gent.Mag._ 1784, pp. 260, 893.[505] He was attacked, says Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 131), 'bya slight paralytic affection, after an almost uninterrupted course ofgood health for many years.' Miss Burney wrote on Dec. 28 to one of hersisters:--'How can you wish any wishes [matrimonial wishes] about SirJoshua and me? A man who has had two shakes of the palsy!' Mme.D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 218.[506] Dr. Patten in Sept. 1781 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 699) informedJohnson of Wilson's intended dedication. Johnson, in his reply,said:--'What will the world do but look on and laugh when one scholardedicates to another?'[507] On the same day he wrote to Dr. Taylor:-'This, my dear Sir, is thelast day of a very sickly and melancholy year. Join your prayers withmine, that the next may be more happy to us both. I hope the happinesswhich I have not found in this world will by infinite mercy be grantedin another.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 462.[508] 'Jan. 4, 1783. Dr. Johnson came so very late that we had all givenhim up; he was very ill, and only from an extreme of kindness did hecome at all. When I went up to him to tell how sorry I was to find himso unwell, "Ah," he cried, taking my hand and kissing it, "who shall ailanything when Cecilia is so near? Yet you do not think how poorly I am."All dinner time he hardly opened his mouth but to repeat to me:--"Ah!you little know how ill I am." He was excessively kind to me in spite ofall his pain.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 228. _Cecilia_ was the nameof her second novel (_post_, May 26, 1783). On Jan. 10 he thus ended aletter to Mr. Nichols:--'Now I will put you in a way of shewing me morekindness. I have been confined by ilness (sic) a long time, and sicknessand solitude make tedious evenings. Come sometimes and see, Sir,'Your humble servant,'SAM. JOHNSON.'_MS_. in the British Museum.[509] 'Dr. Johnson found here [at Auchinleck] Baxter's Anacreon, whichhe told me he had long inquired for in vain, and began to suspect therewas no such book.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov.2. See _post_, underSept. 29, 1783.[510] 'The delight which men have in popularity, fame, honour,submission, and subjection of other men's minds, wills, or affections,although these things may be desired for other ends, seemeth to be athing in itself, without contemplation of consequence, grateful andagreeable to the nature of man.' Bacon's _Nat. Hist._ Exper. No. 1000.See _ante_, ii. 178.[511] In a letter to Dr. Taylor on Jan. 21 of this year, he attacked thescheme of equal representation.' Pitt, on May 7, 1782, made his firstreform motion. Johnson thus ended his letter:--'If the scheme were morereasonable, this is not a time for innovation. I am afraid of a civilwar. The business of every wise man seems to be now to keep his ground.'_Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 481.[512] See _ante_, i. 429, _post_, 170, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept.30.[513] The year after this conversation the General Election of 1784 washeld, which followed on the overthrow of the Coalition Ministry and theformation of the Pitt Ministry in December, 1783. The 'King's friends'were in a minority of one in the last great division in the oldParliament; in the motion on the Address in the new Parliament they hada majority of 168. _Parl. Hist._ xxiv. 744, 843. Miss Burney, writing inNov. 1788, when the King was mad, says that one of his physicians 'movedme even to tears by telling me that none of their own lives would besafe if the King did not recover, so prodigiously high ran the tide ofaffection and loyalty. All the physicians received threatening lettersdaily, to answer for the safety of their monarch with their lives! SirG. Baker had already been stopped in his carriage by the mob, to give anaccount of the King; and when he said it was a bad one, they hadfuriously exclaimed, "The more shame for you."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_,iv. 336. Describing in 1789 a Royal tour in the West of England, shewrites of 'the crowds, the rejoicings, the hallooing and singing, andgarlanding and decorating of all the inhabitants of this old city[Exeter], and of all the country through which we passed.' _Ib._ v. 48.[514] Miss Palmer, Sir Joshua's niece, 'heard Dr. Johnson repeat theseverses with the tears falling over his cheek.' Taylor's _Reynolds_,ii. 417.[515] Gibbon remarked that 'Mr. Fox was certainly very shy of sayinganything in Johnson's presence.' _Ante_, iii. 267. See _post_, underJune 9, 1784, where Johnson said 'Fox is my friend.'[516] Mr. Greville (_Journal_, ed. 1874, ii. 316) records the followingon the authority of Lord Holland:--'Johnson liked Fox because hedefended his pension, and said it was only to blame in not being largeenough. "Fox," he said, is a liberal man; he would always be _aut Caesaraut nullus_; whenever I have seen him he has been _nullus_. Lord Hollandsaid Fox made it a rule never to talk in Johnson's presence, because heknew all his conversations were recorded for publication, and he did notchoose to figure in them.' Fox could not have known what was not thefact. When Boswell was by, he had reason for his silence; but otherwisehe might have spoken out. 'Mr. Fox,' writes Mackintosh (_Life_, i. 322)'united, in a most remarkable degree, the seemingly repugnant charactersof the mildest of men and the most vehement of orators. In private lifehe was so averse from parade and dogmatism as to be somewhat inactive inconversation.' Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, i. 283) tells how Fox spent a daywith him at Lausanne:--'Perhaps it never can happen again, that I shouldenjoy him as I did that day, alone from ten in the morning till ten atnight. Our conversation never flagged a moment.' 'In London mixedsociety,' said Rogers (_Table-Talk_, p. 74), 'Fox conversed little; butat his own house in the country, with his intimate friends, he wouldtalk on for ever, with all the openness and simplicity of a child.'[517] Sec _ante_, ii. 450.[518] Most likely 'Old Mr. Sheridan.'[519] See _ante_, ii. 166.[520] Were I to insert all the stories which have been told of contestsboldly maintained with him, imaginary victories obtained over him, ofreducing him to silence, and of making him own that his antagonist hadthe better of him in argument, my volumes would swell to an immoderatesize. One instance, I find, has circulated both in conversation and inprint; that when he would not allow the Scotch writers to have merit,the late Dr. Rose, of Chiswick, asserted, that he could name one Scotchwriter, whom Dr. Johnson himself would allow to have written better thanany man of the age; and upon Johnson's asking who it was, answered,'Lord Bute, when he signed the warrant for your pension.' Upon whichJohnson, struck with the repartee, acknowledged that this _was_ true.When I mentioned it to Johnson, 'Sir, (said he,) if Rose said this, Inever heard it.' BOSWELL.[521] This reflection was very natural in a man of a good heart, who wasnot conscious of any ill-will to mankind, though the sharp sayings whichwere sometimes produced by his discrimination and vivacity, which heperhaps did not recollect, were, I am afraid, too often remembered withresentment. BOSWELL. When, three months later on, he was struck withpalsy, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'I have in this still scene of lifegreat comfort in reflecting that I have given very few reason to hateme. I hope scarcely any man has known me closely but for his benefit, orcursorily but to his innocent entertainment. Tell me, you that know mebest, whether this be true, that according to your answer I may continuemy practice, or try to mend it.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 287. See _post_,May 19, 1784. Passages such as the two following might have shewn himwhy he had enemies. 'For roughness, it is a needless cause ofdiscontent; severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth hate.'Bacon's _Essays_, No. xi. ''Tis possible that men may be as oppressiveby their parts as their power.' _The Government of the Tongue_, sect.vii. See _ante_, i. 388, note 2.[522] 'A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but inScotland supports the people.' _Ante_, i. 294. Stockdale records(_Memoirs_, ii. 191) that he heard a Scotch lady, after quoting thisdefinition, say to Johnson, 'I can assure you that in Scotland we giveoats to our horses as well as you do to yours in England.' Hereplied:--'I am very glad, Madam, to find that you treat your horses aswell as you treat yourselves.'[523] Sir Joshua Reynolds wrote:--'The prejudices he had to countriesdid not extend to individuals. The chief prejudice in which he indulgedhimself was against Scotland, though he had the most cordial friendshipwith individuals. This he used to vindicate as a duty. ... Against theIrish he entertained no prejudice; he thought they united themselvesvery well with us; but the Scotch, when in England, united and made aparty by employing only Scotch servants and Scotch tradesmen. He held itright for Englishmen to oppose a party against them.' Taylor's_Reynolds_, ii. 460. See _ante_, ii. 242, 306, and Boswell's _Hebrides,post_, v. 20.[524] _Ante_, ii. 300.[525] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 85) says that 'Dr. Johnson, commonlyspending the middle of the week at our house, kept his numerous familyin Fleet-street upon a settled allowance; but returned to them everySaturday to give them three good dinners and his company, before he cameback to us on the Monday night.'[526] Lord North's Ministry lasted from 1770, to March, 1782. It wasfollowed by the Rockingham Ministry, and the Shelburne Ministry, whichin its turn was at this very time giving way to the Coalition Ministry,to be followed very soon by the Pitt Ministry.
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