Boswell's Life of Johnson
the country, are FIT for the country.'
Talking of various enjoyments, I argued that a refinement of taste was
a disadvantage, as they who have attained to it must be seldomer pleased
than those who have no nice discrimination, and are therefore satisfied
with every thing that comes in their way. JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir; that is a
paltry notion. Endeavour to be as perfect as you can in every respect.'
I accompanied him in Sir Joshua Reynolds's coach, to the entry of
Bolt-court. He asked me whether I would not go with him to his house;
I declined it, from an apprehension that my spirits would sink. We bade
adieu to each other affectionately in the carriage. When he had got
down upon the foot-pavement, he called out, 'Fare you well;' and without
looking back, sprung away with a kind of pathetick briskness, if I may
use that expression, which seemed to indicate a struggle to conceal
uneasiness, and impressed me with a foreboding of our long, long
separation.
I remained one day more in town, to have the chance of talking over
my negociation with the Lord Chancellor; but the multiplicity of his
Lordship's important engagements did not allow of it; so I left the
management of the business in the hands of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Soon after this time Dr. Johnson had the mortification of being informed
by Mrs. Thrale, that, 'what she supposed he never believed,' was true;
namely, that she was actually going to marry Signor Piozzi, an Italian
musick-master. He endeavoured to prevent it; but in vain. If she would
publish the whole of the correspondence that passed between Dr.
Johnson and her on the subject, we should have a full view of his
real sentiments. As it is, our judgement must be biassed by that
characteristick specimen which Sir John Hawkins has given us: 'Poor
Thrale! I thought that either her virtue or her vice would have
restrained her from such a marriage. She is now become a subject for
her enemies to exult over; and for her friends, if she has any left, to
forget, or pity.'
It must be admitted that Johnson derived a considerable portion of
happiness from the comforts and elegancies which he enjoyed in Mr.
Thrale's family; but Mrs. Thrale assures us he was indebted for these to
her husband alone, who certainly respected him sincerely.
Having left the PIOUS NEGOCIATION, as I called it, in the best hands,
I shall here insert what relates to it. Johnson wrote to Sir Joshua
Reynolds on July 6, as follows:--
'I am going, I hope, in a few days, to try the air of Derbyshire, but
hope to see you before I go. Let me, however, mention to you what I have
much at heart. If the Chancellor should continue his attention to Mr.
Boswell's request, and confer with you on the means of relieving my
languid state, I am very desirous to avoid the appearance of asking
money upon false pretences. I desire you to represent to his
Lordship, what, as soon as it is suggested, he will perceive to be
reasonable,--That, if I grow much worse, I shall be afraid to leave
my physicians, to suffer the inconveniences of travel, and pine in the
solitude of a foreign country; That, if I grow much better, of which
indeed there is now little appearance, I shall not wish to leave my
friends and my domestick comforts; for I do not travel, for pleasure
or curiosity; yet if I should recover, curiosity would revive. In my
present state, I am desirous to make a struggle for a little longer
life, and hope to obtain some help from a softer climate. Do for me what
you can.'
By a letter from Sir Joshua Reynolds I was informed, that the Lord
Chancellor had called on him, and acquainted him that the application
had not been successful; but that his Lordship, after speaking highly
in praise of Johnson, as a man who was an honour to his country, desired
Sir Joshua to let him know, that on granting a mortgage of his pension,
he should draw on his Lordship to the amount of five or six hundred
pounds; and that his Lordship explained the meaning of the mortgage to
be, that he wished the business to be conducted in such a manner, that
Dr. Johnson should appear to be under the least possible obligation. Sir
Joshua mentioned, that he had by the same post communicated all this to
Dr. Johnson.
How Johnson was affected upon the occasion will appear from what he
wrote to Sir Joshua Reynolds:--
'Ashbourne, Sept. 9. Many words I hope are not necessary between you
and me, to convince you what gratitude is excited in my heart by the
Chancellor's liberality, and your kind offices. . . .
'I have enclosed a letter to the Chancellor, which, when you have read
it, you will be pleased to seal with a head, or any other general seal,
and convey it to him: had I sent it directly to him, I should have
seemed to overlook the favour of your intervention.'
'TO THE LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR.
'MY LORD,--After a long and not inattentive observation of mankind, the
generosity of your Lordship's offer raises in me not less wonder than
gratitude. Bounty, so liberally bestowed, I should gladly receive, if my
condition made it necessary; for, to such a mind, who would not be proud
to own his obligations? But it has pleased GOD to restore me to so
great a measure of health, that if I should now appropriate so much of
a fortune destined to do good, I could not escape from myself the charge
of advancing a false claim. My journey to the continent, though I once
thought it necessary, was never much encouraged by my physicians; and I
was very desirous that your Lordship should be told of it by Sir Joshua
Reynolds, as an event very uncertain; for if I grew much better,
I should not be willing, if much worse, not able, to migrate. Your
Lordship was first solicited without my knowledge; but, when I was told
that you were pleased to honour me with your patronage, I did not expect
to hear of a refusal; yet, as I have had no long time to brood hope,
and have not rioted in imaginary opulence, this cold reception has been
scarce a disappointment; and, from your Lordship's kindness, I have
received a benefit, which only men like you are able to bestow. I shall
now live mihi carior, with a higher opinion of my own merit. I am,
my Lord, your Lordship's most obliged, most grateful, and most humble
servant,
'September, 1784.'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
Upon this unexpected failure I abstain from presuming to make any
remarks, or to offer any conjectures.
Let us now contemplate Johnson thirty years after the death of his wife,
still retaining for her all the tenderness of affection.
'TO THE REVEREND MR. BAGSHAW, AT BROMLEY.
'SIR,--Perhaps you may remember, that in the year 1753, you committed
to the ground my dear wife. I now entreat your permission to lay a stone
upon her; and have sent the inscription, that, if you find it proper,
you may signify your allowance.
'You will do me a great favour by showing the place where she lies, that
the stone may protect her remains.
'Mr. Ryland will wait on you for the inscription, and procure it to
be engraved. You will easily believe that I shrink from this mournful
office. When it is done, if I have strength remaining, I will visit
Bromley once again, and pay you part of the respect to which you have a
right from, Reverend Sir, your most humble servant,
'July 12, 1784.'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
Next day he set out on a jaunt to Staffordshire and Derbyshire,
flattering himself that he might be in some degree relieved.
During his absence from London he kept up a correspondence with several
of his friends, from which I shall select what appears to me proper for
publication, without attending nicely to chronological order.
TO DR. BROCKLESBY, he writes, Ashbourne, Sept. 9:--
'Do you know the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire? And have you ever seen
Chatsworth? I was at Chatsworth on Monday: I had indeed seen it before,
but never when its owners were at home; I was very kindly received, and
honestly pressed to stay: but I told them that a sick man is not a fit
inmate of a great house. But I hope to go again some time.'
Sept. 11. 'I think nothing grows worse, but all rather better, except
sleep, and that of late has been at its old pranks. Last evening, I
felt what I had not known for a long time, an inclination to walk for
amusement; I took a short walk, and came back again neither breathless
nor fatigued. This has been a gloomy, frigid, ungenial summer, but of
late it seems to mend; I hear the heat sometimes mentioned, but I do not
feel it:
"Praeterea minimus gelido jam in corpore sanguis
Febre calet sola.--"
I hope, however, with good help, to find means of supporting a winter at
home, and to hear and tell at the Club what is doing, and what ought to
be doing in the world. I have no company here, and shall naturally come
home hungry for conversation. To wish you, dear Sir, more leisure, would
not be kind; but what leisure you have, you must bestow upon me.'
Lichfield, Sept. 29. 'On one day I had three letters about the
air-balloon: yours was far the best, and has enabled me to impart to
my friends in the country an idea of this species of amusement. In
amusement, mere amusement, I am afraid it must end, for I do not find
that its course can be directed so as that it should serve any purposes
of communication; and it can give no new intelligence of the state of
the air at different heights, till they have ascended above the height
of mountains, which they seem never likely to do. I came hither on the
27th. How long I shall stay I have not determined. My dropsy is gone,
and my asthma much remitted, but I have felt myself a little declining
these two days, or at least to-day; but such vicissitudes must be
expected. One day may be worse than another; but this last month is far
better than the former; if the next should be as much better than this,
I shall run about the town on my own legs.'
October 25. 'You write to me with a zeal that animates, and a tenderness
that melts me. I am not afraid either of a journey to London, or a
residence in it. I came down with little fatigue, and am now not
weaker. In the smoky atmosphere I was delivered from the dropsy, which
I consider as the original and radical disease. The town is my element*;
there are my friends, there are my books, to which I have not yet bid
farewell, and there are my amusements. Sir Joshua told me long ago that
my vocation was to publick life, and I hope still to keep my station,
till God shall bid me Go in peace.'
* His love of London continually appears. In a letter from
him to Mrs. Smart, wife of his friend the Poet, which is
published in a well-written life of him, prefixed to an
edition of his Poems, in 1791, there is the following
sentence:--'To one that has passed so many years in the
pleasures and opulence of London, there are few places that
can give much delight.'
Once, upon reading that line in the curious epitaph quoted
in The Spectator,
'Born in New-England, did in London die;'
he laughed and said, 'I do not wonder at this. It would
have been strange, if born in London, he had died in
New-England.'--BOSWELL.
TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS:--
Ashbourne, Sept. 2. '. . . I still continue by God's mercy to mend. My
breath is easier, my nights are quieter, and my legs are less in bulk,
and stronger in use. I have, however, yet a great deal to overcome,
before I can yet attain even an old man's health. Write, do write to me
now and then; we are now old acquaintance, and perhaps few people have
lived so much and so long together, with less cause of complaint on
either side. The retrospection of this is very pleasant, and I hope we
shall never think on each other with less kindness.'
Sept. 9. 'I could not answer your letter before this day, because I