约翰逊4-6-43

_You will become an able negotiator--a very pretty rascal_. No one inIreland wears even the mask of incorruption; no one professes to do forsixpence what he can get a shilling for doing. Set sail, and see wherethe winds and the waves will carry you. Every day will improve another._Dies diem docet_, by observing at night where you failed in the day,and by resolving to fail so no more.' CROKER. The Whigs thought he made'a very pretty rascal' in a very different way. On his opposition toWhitbread's bill for establishing parochial schools, Romilly wrote(_Life_, ii. 2l6), 'that a man so enlightened as Windham should take thesame side (which he has done most earnestly) would excite greatastonishment, if one did not recollect his eager opposition a few monthsago to the abolition of the slave trade.' He was also 'most strenuous inopposition' to Romilly's bill for repealing the act which made it acapital offence to steal to the amount of forty shillings in adwelling-house, _Ib_. p. 316.[629] We accordingly carried our scheme into execution, in October,1792; but whether from that uniformity which has in modern times, in agreat degree, spread through every part of the Metropolis, or from ourwant of sufficient exertion, we were disappointed. BOSWELL.[630] Piozzi's _Anecdotes_, p. 193. See _post_, under June 30, 1784.[631] Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 139-143) says that the picture,which was execrable beyond belief, was exhibited in an empty room. Lowe,in 1769 (not in 1771 as Northcote says), gained the gold medal of theAcademy for the best historical picture. (_Gent. Mag_. 1770, p. 587.)Northcote says that the award was not a fair one. He adds that Lowe,being sent to Rome by the patronage of the Academy, was dissatisfiedwith the sum allowed him. 'When Sir Joshua said that he knew fromexperience that it was sufficient, Lowe pertly answered "that it waspossible for a man to live on guts and garbage."' He died at an obscurelodging in Westminster, in 1793. There is, wrote Miss Burney, 'a certainpoor wretch of a villainous painter, one Mr. Lowe, whom Dr. Johnsonrecommends to all the people he thinks can afford to sit for theirpicture. Among these he applied to Mr. Crutchley [one of Mr. Thrale'sexecutors]. "But now," said Mr. Crutchley to me, "I have not a notion ofsitting for my picture--for who wants it? I may as well give the manthe money without; but no, they all said that would not do so well, andDr. Johnson asked me to give _him_ my picture." "And I assure you, Sir,"says he, "I shall put it in very good company, for I have portraits ofsome very respectable people in my dining-room." After all I could say Iwas obliged to go to the painter's. And I found him in such a condition!a room all dirt and filth, brats squalling and wrangling... "Oh!" saysI, "Mr. Lowe, I beg your pardon for running away, but I have justrecollected another engagement; so I poked three guineas in his hand,and told him I would come again another time, and then ran out of thehouse with all my might."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii.41. Acorrespondent of the _Examiner_ writing on May 28, 1873, said that hehad met one of Lowe's daughters, 'who recollected,' she told him, 'whena child, sitting on Dr. Johnson's knee and his making her repeat theLord's Prayer.' She was Johnson's god-daughter. By a committeeconsisting of Milman, Thackeray, Dickens, Carlyle and others, an annuityfund for her and her sister was raised. Lord Palmerston gave a largesubscription.[632] See _post_, May 15, 1783.[633] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, _post_, v. 48.[634] See _ante_, p. 171.[635] Quoted by Boswell, _ante_, iii. 324.[636] It is suggested to me by an anonymous Annotator on my Work, thatthe reason why Dr. Johnson collected the peels of squeezed oranges maybe found in the 58th [358th] Letter in Mrs. Piozzi's _Collection_, whereit appears that he recommended 'dried orange-peel, finely powdered,' asa medicine. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 330.[637] There are two mistakes in this calculation, both perhaps due toBoswell. _Eighty-four_ should be _eighty-eight_, and square-yards shouldbe _yards square_. 'If a wall cost L1000 a mile, L100 would build 176yards of wall, which would form a square of 44 yards, and enclose anarea of 1936 square yards; and L200 would build 352 yards of wall, whichwould form a square of 88 yards, and inclose an area of 7744 squareyards. The cost of the wall in the latter case, as compared with thespace inclosed, would therefore be reduced to one half.' _Notes andQueries_, 1st S. x. 471.[638] See _ante_, i. 318.[639] 'Davies observes, in his account of Ireland, that no Irishman hadever planted an orchard.' Johnson's _Works_, ix.7. 'At Fochabars [in theHighlands] there is an orchard, which in Scotland I had never seenbefore.' _Ib._ p. 21.[640] Miss Burney this year mentions meeting 'Mr. Walker, the lecturer.Though modest in science, he is vulgar in conversation.' Mme. D'Arblay's_Diary_, ii. 237. Johnson quotes him, _Works_, viii. 474.[641] 'Old Mr. Sheridan' was twelve years younger than Johnson. For hisoratory, see _ante_, i. 453, and _post_, April 28 and May 17, 1783.[642] See _ante_, i. 358, when Johnson said of Sheridan:--'His voicewhen strained is unpleasing, and when low is not always heard.'[643] See _ante_, iii. 139.[644] 'A more magnificent funeral was never seen in London,' wroteMurphy (_Life of Garrick_, p. 349). Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii.169), wrote on the day of the funeral:--'I do think the pomp ofGarrick's funeral perfectly ridiculous. It is confounding the immensespace between pleasing talents and national services.' He added, 'atLord Chatham's interment there were not half the noble coaches thatattended Garrick's.' _Ib_. p. 171. In his _Journal of the Reign ofGeorge III_ (ii. 333), he says:--'The Court was delighted to see a morenoble and splendid appearance at the interment of a comedian than hadwaited on the remains of the great Earl of Chatham.' Bishop Horne(_Essays and Thoughts_, p. 283) has some lines on 'this grand parade ofwoe,' which begin:--'Through weeping London's crowded streets,As Garrick's funeral passed,Contending wits and nobles strove,Who should forsake him last.Not so the world behaved to _him_Who came that world to save,By solitary Joseph borneUnheeded to his grave.'Johnson wrote on April 30, 1782: 'Poor Garrick's funeral expenses areyet unpaid, though the undertaker is broken.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 239.Garrick was buried on Feb. 1, 1779, and had left his widow a largefortune. Chatham died in May, 1778.[645] Boswell had heard Johnson maintain this; _ante_, ii. 101.[646] See _post_, p. 238, note 2.[647] This duel was fought on April 21, between Mr. Riddell of theHorse-Grenadiers, and Mr. Cunningham of the Scots Greys. Riddell had thefirst fire, and shot Cunningham through the breast. After a pause of twominutes Cunningham returned the fire, and gave Riddell a wound of whichhe died next day. _Gent. Mag._ 1783, p. 362. Boswell's grandfather'sgrandmother was a Miss Cunningham. Rogers's _Boswelliana_, p. 4. I donot know that there was any nearer connection. In Scotland, I suppose,so much kindred as this makes two men 'near relations.'[648] 'Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also theother.' _St. Luke_, vi. 29. Had Miss Burney thought of this text, shemight have quoted it with effect against Johnson, who, criticising her_Evelina_, said:--'You write Scotch, you say "the one,"--my dear,that's not English. Never use that phrase again.' Mme. D'Arblay's_Diary_, i. 84.[649] 'Turn not thou away.' _St. Matthew_, v. 42.[650] I think it necessary to caution my readers against concluding thatin this or any other conversation of Dr. Johnson, they have his seriousand deliberate opinion on the subject of duelling. In my _Journal of aTour to the Hebrides_, 3 ed. p. 386 [p. 366, Oct. 24], it appears thathe made this frank confession:--'Nobody at times, talks more laxly thanI do;' and, _ib_. p. 231 [Sept. 19, 1773], 'He fairly owned he could notexplain the rationality of duelling.' We may, therefore, infer, that hecould not think that justifiable, which seems so inconsistent with thespirit of the Gospel. At the same time it must be confessed, that fromthe prevalent notions of honour, a gentleman who receives a challenge isreduced to a dreadful alternative. A remarkable instance of this isfurnished by a clause in the will of the late Colonel Thomas, of theGuards, written the night before he fell in a duel, Sept. 3, 1783:--'Inthe first place, I commit my soul to Almighty GOD, in hopes of his mercyand pardon for the irreligious step I now (in compliance with theunwarrantable customs of this wicked world) put myself under thenecessity of taking.' BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 179.[651] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 24 and Sept. 20. Dr. Franklin(_Memoirs_, i. 177) says that when the assembly at Philadelphia, themajority of which were Quakers, was asked by New England to supplypowder for some garrison, 'they would not grant money to buy powder,because that was an ingredient of war; but they voted an aid of L3000 tobe appropriated for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat, or _othergrain_.' The Governor interpreted _other grain_ as gunpowder, withoutany objection ever being raised.[652] 'A gentleman falling off his horse brake his neck, which suddenhap gave occasion of much speech of his former life, and some in thisjudging world judged the worst. In which respect a good friend made thisgood epitaph, remembering that of Saint Augustine, _Misericordia Dominiinter pontem et fontem_."My friend judge not me,Thou seest I judge not thee;Betwixt the stirrop and the ground,Mercy I askt, mercy I found."'_Camden's Remains_, ed. 1870, p. 420.[653] 'In sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life.'_Prayer-book._[654] Upon this objection the Reverend Mr. Ralph Churton, Fellow ofBrazennose College, Oxford, has favoured me with the followingsatisfactory observation:--'The passage in the Burial-service does notmean the resurrection of the person interred, but the generalresurrection; it is in sure and certain hope of _the_ resurrection; not_his_ resurrection. Where the deceased is really spoken of, theexpression is very different, "as our hope is this our brother doth"[rest in Christ]; a mode of speech consistent with every thing butabsolute certainty that the person departed doth _not_ rest in Christ,which no one can be assured of, without immediate revelation fromHeaven. In the first of these places also, "eternal life" does notnecessarily mean eternity of bliss, but merely the eternity of thestate, whether in happiness or in misery, to ensue upon theresurrection; which is probably the sense of "the life everlasting," inthe Apostles' Creed. See _Wheatly and Bennet on the CommonPrayer_.' BOSWELL.[655] Six days earlier the Lord-Advocate Dundas had brought in a billfor the Regulation of the Government of India. Hastings, he said, shouldbe recalled. His place should be filled by 'a person of independentfortune, who had not for object the repairing of his estate in India,that had long been the nursery of ruined and decayed fortunes.' _Parl.Hist_. xxiii. 757. Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor on Nov. 22 of thisyear:--'I believe corruption and oppression are in India at an enormousheight, but it has never appeared that they were promoted by theDirectors, who, I believe, see themselves defrauded, while the countryis plundered; but the distance puts their officers out of reach.' _Notesand Queries_, 6th S. v. 482. See _ante_, p. 66.[656] See _ante_, p. 113.[657] Stockdale (_Memoirs_, ii. 57) says that, in 1770, the payment towriters in the _Critical Review_ was two guineas a sheet, but that someof the writers in _The Monthly Review_ received four guineas a sheet. Asthese Reviews were octavos, each sheet contained sixteen pages. LordJeffrey says that the writers in the _Edinburgh Review_ were at firstpaid ten guineas a sheet. 'Not long after the _minimum_ was raised tosixteen guineas, at which it remained during my reign, though two-thirdsof the articles were paid much higher--averaging, I should think, fromtwenty to twenty-five guineas a sheet on the whole number.' Cockburn's_Jeffrey_, i. 136.[658] See ante, ii. 344.[659] See _ante_, iii.32.[660] See _ante_, p. 206.[661] _Monday_ is no doubt put by mistake for _Tuesday_, which was the29th. Boswell had spent a considerable part of Monday the 28th withJohnson (_ante_, p. 211).[662]'A fugitive from Heaven and prayer,I mocked at all religious fear.'FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, i.34. 1.[663] He told Boswell (_ante_, i. 68) that he had been a sort of laxtalker against religion for some years before he went to Oxford, butthat there he took up Law's _Serious Call_ and found it quite anovermatch for him. 'This,' he said, 'was the first occasion of mythinking in earnest of religion after I became capable of rationalenquiry.' During the vacation of 1729 he had a serious illness (_ante_,i. 63), which most likely was 'the sickness that brought religion back.'[664] See _ante_, i. 93, 164, and _post_, under Dec. 2, 1784.[665] Mr. Langton. See _ante_, ii. 254.[666] See _ante_, ii. 249.[667] Malloch continued to write his name thus, _after he came toLondon_. His verses prefixed to the second edition of Thomson's _Winter_are so subscribed. MALONE. 'Alias. A Latin word signifying otherwise;as, Mallet, _alias_ Malloch; that is _otherwise_ Malloch.' The mentionof Mallet first comes in Johnson's own abridgment of his _Dictionary_.In the earlier unabridged editions the definition concludes, 'often usedin the trials of criminals, whose danger has obliged them to changetheir names; as Simpson _alias_ Smith, _alias_ Baker, &c.' For Mallet,see _ante_, i. 268, and ii. 159.[668] Perhaps Scott had this saying of Johnson's in mind when he madeEarl Douglas exclaim:--'At first in heart it liked me ill,When the King praised his clerkly skill.Thanks to St. Bothan, son of mine,Save Gawain, ne'er could pen a line.'_Marmion_, canto vi. 15.[669] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 10.[670] Johnson often maintained this diffusion of learning. Thus hewrote:--'The call for books was not in Milton's age what it is in thepresent. To read was not then a general amusement; neither traders, noroften gentlemen, thought themselves disgraced by ignorance. The womenhad not then aspired to literature nor was every house supplied with acloset of knowledge.' _Works_, vii. 107. He goes on to mention 'thatgeneral literature which now pervades the nation through all its ranks.'_Works_, p. 108. 'That general knowledge which now circulates in commontalk was in Addison's time rarely to be found. Men not professinglearning were not ashamed of ignorance; and, in the female world, anyacquaintance with books was distinguished only to be censured.' _Ib_.p.470. 'Of the _Essay on Criticism_, Pope declared that he did notexpect the sale to be quick, because "not one gentleman in sixty, evenof liberal education, could understand it." The gentlemen, and theeducation of that time, seem to have been of a lower character than theyare of this.' _Ib_. viii. 243. See _ante_, iii. 3, 254. Yet hemaintained that 'learning has decreased in England, because learningwill not do so much for a man as formerly.' Boswell's _Hebrides,post_, v. 80.[671] Malone describes a call on Johnson in the winter of this year:--'Ifound him in his arm-chair by the fire-side, before which a few appleswere laid. He was reading. I asked him what book he had got. He said the_History of Birmingham_. Local histories, I observed, were generallydull. "It is true, Sir; but this has a peculiar merit with me; for Ipassed some of my early years, and married my wife there." [See _ante_,i. 96.] I supposed the apples were preparing as medicine. "Why, no, Sir;I believe they are only there because I want something to do. These aresome of the solitary expedients to which we are driven by sickness. Ihave been confined this week past; and here you find me roasting apples,and reading the _History of Birmingham_."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 92.[672] On April 19, he wrote:--'I can apply better to books than I couldin some more vigorous parts of my life--at least than I _did_; and Ihave one more reason for reading--that time has, by taking away mycompanions, left me less opportunity of conversation.' Croker's_Boswell_, p. 727.[673] He told Mr. Windham that he had never read the _Odyssey_ throughin the original. Windham's _Diary_, p. 17. 'Fox,' said Rogers (_TableTalk_, p. 92), 'used to read Homer through once every year. On my askinghim, "Which poem had you rather have written, the _Iliad_ or the_Odyssey_?" he answered, "I know which I had rather read" (meaning the_Odyssey_).'[674] 'Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligenceand steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity orresolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting tomore delightful amusements.' Johnson's _Works_, iv. 145. Of Pope Johnsonwrote (_ib_. viii. 321):--'To make verses was his first labour, and tomend them was his last. ... He was one of those few whose labour istheir pleasure.' Thomas Carlyle, in 1824, speaking of writing, says:--'Ialways recoil from again engaging with it.' Froude's _Carlyle_, i. 213.Five years later he wrote:--'Writing is a dreadful labour, yet not sodreadful as _idleness_.' _Ib_. ii. 75. See _ante_, iii. 19.[675] See _ante_, ii. 15.[676] Miss Burney wrote to Mrs. Thrale in 1780:--'I met at Sir Joshua'syoung Burke, who is made much ado about, but I saw not enough of him toknow why.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 416. Mrs. Thrale replied:--'Icongratulate myself on being quite of your opinion concerning Burke theminor, whom I once met and could make nothing of.' _Ib_. p. 418. MissHawkins (_Memoirs_, i. 304) reports, on Langton's authority, that Burkesaid:--'How extraordinary it is that I, and Lord Chatham, and LordHolland, should each have a son so superior to ourselves.'[677] Cruikshank, not Cruikshanks (see _post_, under Sept. 18, 1783, andSept. 4 1784). He had been Dr. Hunter's partner; he was not elected(_Gent. Mag._ 1783, p. 626). Northcote, in quoting this letter, saysthat 'Sir Joshua's influence in the Academy was not always answerable tohis desire. "Those who are of some importance everywhere else," he said,"find themselves nobody when they come to the Academy."' Northcote's_Reynolds_, ii. 145.[678] William Hunter, scarcely less famous as a physician than hisyoungest brother, John Hunter, as a surgeon.[679] Let it be remembered by those who accuse Dr. Johnson ofilliberality that both were _Scotchmen_. BOSWELL.[680] The following day he dined at Mrs. Garrick's. 'Poor Johnson,'wrote Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 280), 'exerted himself exceedingly, buthe was very ill and looked so dreadfully, that it quite grieved me. Heis more mild and complacent than he used to be. His sickness seems tohave softened his mind, without having at all weakened it. I was struckwith the mild radiance of this setting sun.'[681] In the winter of 1788-9 Boswell began a canvass of his own county,He also courted Lord Lonsdale, in the hope of getting one of the seatsin his gift, who first fooled him and then treated him with greatbrutality, _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 270, 294, 324.[682] On April 6, 1780--'a day,' wrote Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii.345), 'that ought for ever to be a red-lettered day'--Mr. Dunning madethis motion. It was carried by 233 to 215. _Parl. Hist._ xxi. 340-367.[683] See _ante_, i. 355, and ii. 94 for Johnson's appeal to meals as ameasure of vexation.[684] Johnson defines _cant_ as '1. A corrupt dialect used by beggarsand vagabonds. 2. A particular form of speaking peculiar to some certainclass or body of men. 3. A whining pretension to goodness in formal andaffected terms. 4. Barbarous jargon. 5. Auction.' I have noted thefollowing instances of his use of the word:--'I betook myself to acoffee-house frequented by wits, among whom I learned in a short timethe _cant_ of criticism.' _The Rambler_, No.123. 'Every class of societyhas its _cant_ of lamentation.' _Ib_. No.128. 'Milton's inventionrequired no assistance from the common _cant_ of poetry.' _Ib_. No.140.'We shall secure our language from being overrun with _cant_, from beingcrowded with low terms, the spawn of folly or affectation.' _Works_, v.II. 'This fugitive _cant_, which is always in a state of increase ordecay, cannot be regarded as any part of the durable materials of alanguage.' _Ib_. p.45. In a note on I _Henry VI_, act iii. sc.1, hesays: 'To _roam_ is supposed to be derived from the _cant_ of vagabonds,who often pretended a pilgrimage to Rome.' See _ante_, iii. 197, for