Boswell's Life of Johnson
servant, when he wanted to study, secure from interruption; for he would
not allow his servant to say he was not at home when he really was. 'A
servant's strict regard for truth, (said he) must be weakened by such a
practice. A philosopher may know that it is merely a form of denial; but
few servants are such nice distinguishers. If I accustom a servant to
tell a lie for ME, have I not reason to apprehend that he will tell many
lies for HIMSELF.'
Mr. Temple, now vicar of St. Gluvias, Cornwall, who had been my intimate
friend for many years, had at this time chambers in Farrar's-buildings,
at the bottom of Inner Temple-lane, which he kindly lent me upon my
quitting my lodgings, he being to return to Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
I found them particularly convenient for me, as they were so near Dr.
Johnson's.
On Wednesday, July 20, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Dempster, and my uncle Dr.
Boswell, who happened to be now in London, supped with me at these
Chambers. JOHNSON. 'Pity is not natural to man. Children are always
cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the
cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a
creature in distress, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish
to relieve them. When I am on my way to dine with a friend, and finding
it late, have bid the coachman make haste, if I happen to attend when
he whips his horses, I may feel unpleasantly that the animals are put to
pain, but I do not wish him to desist. No, Sir, I wish him to drive on.'
Rousseau's treatise on the inequality of mankind was at this time a
fashionable topick. It gave rise to an observation by Mr. Dempster, that
the advantages of fortune and rank were nothing to a wise man, who ought
to value only merit. JOHNSON. 'If man were a savage, living in the woods
by himself, this might be true; but in civilized society we all depend
upon each other, and our happiness is very much owing to the good
opinion of mankind. Now, Sir, in civilized society, external advantages
make us more respected. A man with a good coat upon his back meets with
a better reception than he who has a bad one. Sir, you may analyse this,
and say what is there in it? But that will avail you nothing, for it
is a part of a general system. Pound St. Paul's Church into atoms, and
consider any single atom; it is, to be sure, good for nothing: but, put
all these atoms together, and you have St. Paul's Church. So it is with
human felicity, which is made up of many ingredients, each of which may
be shewn to be very insignificant. In civilized society, personal
merit will not serve you so much as money will. Sir, you may make the
experiment. Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality,
and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most. If you wish
only to support nature, Sir William Petty fixes your allowance at three
pounds a year; but as times are much altered, let us call it six pounds.
This sum will fill your belly, shelter you from the weather, and even
get you a strong lasting coat, supposing it to be made of good bull's
hide. Now, Sir, all beyond this is artificial, and is desired in order
to obtain a greater degree of respect from our fellow-creatures. And,
Sir, if six hundred pounds a year procure a man more consequence, and,
of course, more happiness than six pounds a year, the same proportion
will hold as to six thousand, and so on as far as opulence can be
carried. Perhaps he who has a large fortune may not be so happy as he
who has a small one; but that must proceed from other causes than from
his having the large fortune: for, coeteris paribus, he who is rich in
a civilized society, must be happier than he who is poor; as riches, if
properly used, (and it is a man's own fault if they are not,) must be
productive of the highest advantages. Money, to be sure, of itself is of
no use; for its only use is to part with it. Rousseau, and all those who
deal in paradoxes, are led away by a childish desire of novelty. When I
was a boy, I used always to choose the wrong side of a debate, because
most ingenious things, that is to say, most new things, could be said
upon it. Sir, there is nothing for which you may not muster up more
plausible arguments, than those which are urged against wealth and
other external advantages. Why, now, there is stealing; why should it
be thought a crime? When we consider by what unjust methods property has
been often acquired, and that what was unjustly got it must be unjust to
keep, where is the harm in one man's taking the property of another from
him? Besides, Sir, when we consider the bad use that many people make of
their property, and how much better use the thief may make of it, it may
be defended as a very allowable practice. Yet, Sir, the experience of
mankind has discovered stealing to be so very bad a thing, that they
make no scruple to hang a man for it. When I was running about this town
a very poor fellow, I was a great arguer for the advantages of poverty;
but I was, at the same time, very sorry to be poor. Sir, all the
arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil, shew it to
be evidently a great evil. You never find people labouring to convince
you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful fortune.--So you
hear people talking how miserable a King must be; and yet they all wish
to be in his place.'
It was suggested that Kings must be unhappy, because they are deprived
of the greatest of all satisfactions, easy and unreserved society.
JOHNSON. 'That is an ill-founded notion. Being a King does not exclude a
man from such society. Great Kings have always been social. The King
of Prussia, the only great King at present, is very social. Charles the
Second, the last King of England who was a man of parts, was social; and
our Henrys and Edwards were all social.'
Mr. Dempster having endeavoured to maintain that intrinsick merit
OUGHT to make the only distinction amongst mankind. JOHNSON. 'Why,
Sir, mankind have found that this cannot be. How shall we determine the
proportion of intrinsick merit? Were that to be the only distinction
amongst mankind, we should soon quarrel about the degrees of it. Were
all distinctions abolished, the strongest would not long acquiesce, but
would endeavour to obtain a superiority by their bodily strength. But,
Sir, as subordination is very necessary for society, and contentions
for superiority very dangerous, mankind, that is to say, all civilized
nations, have settled it upon a plain invariable principle. A man is
born to hereditary rank; or his being appointed to certain offices,
gives him a certain rank. Subordination tends greatly to human
happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other
enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.'
He took care to guard himself against any possible suspicion that his
settled principles of reverence for rank and respect for wealth were
at all owing to mean or interested motives; for he asserted his own
independence as a literary man. 'No man (said he) who ever lived by
literature, has lived more independently than I have done.' He said
he had taken longer time than he needed to have done in composing
his Dictionary. He received our compliments upon that great work with
complacency, and told us that the Academia della Crusca could scarcely
believe that it was done by one man.
At night* Mr. Johnson and I supped in a private room at the Turk's Head
coffee-house, in the Strand. 'I encourage this house (said he;) for the
mistress of it is a good civil woman, and has not much business.'
* July 21.
'Sir, I love the acquaintance of young people; because, in the first
place, I don't like to think myself growing old. In the next place,
young acquaintances must last longest, if they do last; and then,
Sir, young men have more virtue than old men: they have more generous
sentiments in every respect. I love the young dogs of this age: they
have more wit and humour and knowledge of life than we had; but then the
dogs are not so good scholars. Sir, in my early years I read very hard.
It is a sad reflection, but a true one, that I knew almost as much at
eighteen as I do now. My judgement, to be sure, was not so good; but I
had all the facts. I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old
gentleman said to me, "Young man, ply your book diligently now, and
acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will
find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task."'
He again insisted on the duty of maintaining subordination of rank.
'Sir, I would no more deprive a nobleman of his respect, than of
his money. I consider myself as acting a part in the great system of
society, and I do to others as I would have them to do to me. I would
behave to a nobleman as I should expect he would behave to me, were I a
nobleman and he Sam. Johnson. Sir, there is one Mrs. Macaulay* in this
town, a great republican. One day when I was at her house, I put on
a very grave countenance, and said to her, "Madam, I am now become a
convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind are
upon an equal footing; and to give you an unquestionable proof, Madam,
that I am in earnest, here is a very sensible, civil, well-behaved
fellow-citizen, your footman; I desire that he may be allowed to sit
down and dine with us." I thus, Sir, shewed her the absurdity of the
levelling doctrine. She has never liked me since. Sir, your levellers
wish to level DOWN as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling
UP to themselves. They would all have some people under them; why not
then have some people above them?' I mentioned a certain authour who
disgusted me by his forwardness, and by shewing no deference to noblemen
into whose company he was admitted. JOHNSON. 'Suppose a shoemaker should
claim an equality with him, as he does with a Lord; how he would stare.
"Why, Sir, do you stare? (says the shoemaker,) I do great service to
society. 'Tis true I am paid for doing it; but so are you, Sir: and I
am sorry to say it, paid better than I am, for doing something not so
necessary. For mankind could do better without your books, than
without my shoes." Thus, Sir, there would be a perpetual struggle for
precedence, were there no fixed invariable rules for the distinction of
rank, which creates no jealousy, as it is allowed to be accidental.'
* This ONE Mrs. Macaulay was the same personage who
afterwards made herself so much known as the celebrated
female historian.'--BOSWELL.
He said he would go to the Hebrides with me, when I returned from my
travels, unless some very good companion should offer when I was absent,
which he did not think probable; adding, 'There are few people to whom
I take so much to as you.' And when I talked of my leaving England, he
said with a very affectionate air, 'My dear Boswell, I should be very
unhappy at parting, did I think we were not to meet again.' I cannot too
often remind my readers, that although such instances of his kindness
are doubtless very flattering to me; yet I hope my recording them
will be ascribed to a better motive than to vanity; for they afford
unquestionable evidence of his tenderness and complacency, which some,
while they were forced to acknowledge his great powers, have been so
strenuous to deny.
He maintained that a boy at school was the happiest of human beings. I
supported a different opinion, from which I have never yet varied, that
a man is happier; and I enlarged upon the anxiety and sufferings which
are endured at school. JOHNSON. 'Ah! Sir, a boy's being flogged is not
so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him.'
On Tuesday, July 26, I found Mr. Johnson alone. It was a very wet day,
and I again complained of the disagreeable effects of such weather.