Boswell's Life of Johnson
to say, the less occasion is there for investigating principles.' SIR A.
'I have been correcting several Scotch accents in my friend Boswell.
I doubt, Sir, if any Scotchman ever attains to a perfect English
pronunciation.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, few of them do, because they do not
persevere after acquiring a certain degree of it. But, Sir, there can
be no doubt that they may attain to a perfect English pronunciation, if
they will. We find how near they come to it; and certainly, a man
who conquers nineteen parts of the Scottish accent, may conquer the
twentieth. But, Sir, when a man has got the better of nine tenths he
grows weary, he relaxes his diligence, he finds he has corrected his
accent so far as not to be disagreeable, and he no longer desires his
friends to tell him when he is wrong; nor does he choose to be told.
Sir, when people watch me narrowly, and I do not watch myself, they will
find me out to be of a particular county. In the same manner, Dunning
may be found out to be a Devonshire man. So most Scotchmen may be
found out. But, Sir, little aberrations are of no disadvantage. I never
catched Mallet in a Scotch accent; and yet Mallet, I suppose, was past
five-and-twenty before he came to London.'
I again visited him at night. Finding him in a very good humour, I
ventured to lead him to the subject of our situation in a future state,
having much curiosity to know his notions on that point. . . .
BOSWELL. 'I do not know whether there are any well-attested stories
of the appearance of ghosts. You know there is a famous story of the
appearance of Mrs. Veal, prefixed to Drelincourt on Death.' JOHNSON. 'I
believe, Sir, that is given up. I believe the woman declared upon her
death-bed that it was a lie.' BOSWELL. 'This objection is made against
the truth of ghosts appearing: that if they are in a state of happiness,
it would be a punishment to them to return to this world; and if they
are in a state of misery, it would be giving them a respite.' JOHNSON.
'Why, Sir, as the happiness or misery of embodied spirits does not
depend upon place, but is intellectual, we cannot say that they are less
happy or less miserable by appearing upon earth.'
We went down between twelve and one to Mrs. Williams's room, and drank
tea. I mentioned that we were to have the remains of Mr. Gray, in prose
and verse, published by Mr. Mason. JOHNSON. 'I think we have had enough
of Gray. I see they have published a splendid edition of Akenside's
works. One bad ode may be suffered; but a number of them together makes
one sick.' BOSWELL. 'Akenside's distinguished poem is his Pleasures of
Imagination; but for my part, I never could admire it so much as most
people do.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I could not read it through.' BOSWELL. 'I
have read it through; but I did not find any great power in it.'
On Tuesday, March 31, he and I dined at General Paoli's.
Dr. Johnson went home with me to my lodgings in Conduit-street and drank
tea, previous to our going to the Pantheon, which neither of us had seen
before.
He said, 'Goldsmith's Life of Parnell is poor; not that it is poorly
written, but that he had poor materials; for nobody can write the
life of a man, but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social
intercourse with him.'
I said, that if it was not troublesome and presuming too much, I would
request him to tell me all the little circumstances of his life; what
schools he attended, when he came to Oxford, when he came to London, &c.
&c. He did not disapprove of my curiosity as to these particulars; but
said, 'They'll come out by degrees as we talk together.'
We talked of the proper use of riches. JOHNSON. 'If I were a man of a
great estate, I would drive all the rascals whom I did not like out of
the county at an election.'
We then walked to the Pantheon. The first view of it did not strike us
so much as Ranelagh, of which he said, the 'coup d'oeil was the finest
thing he had ever seen.' The truth is, Ranelagh is of a more beautiful
form; more of it or rather indeed the whole rotunda, appears at once,
and it is better lighted. However, as Johnson observed, we saw the
Pantheon in time of mourning, when there was a dull uniformity; whereas
we had seen Ranelagh when the view was enlivened with a gay profusion
of colours. Mrs. Bosville, of Gunthwait, in Yorkshire, joined us, and
entered into conversation with us. Johnson said to me afterwards, 'Sir,
this is a mighty intelligent lady.'
I said there was not half a guinea's worth of pleasure in seeing this
place. JOHNSON. 'But, Sir, there is half a guinea's worth of inferiority
to other people in not having seen it.' BOSWELL. 'I doubt, Sir, whether
there are many happy people here.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, there are many
happy people here. There are many people here who are watching hundreds,
and who think hundreds are watching them.'
Happening to meet Sir Adam Fergusson, I presented him to Dr. Johnson.
Sir Adam expressed some apprehension that the Pantheon would encourage
luxury. 'Sir, (said Johnson,) I am a great friend to publick amusements;
for they keep people from vice. You now (addressing himself to me,)
would have been with a wench, had you not been here.--O! I forgot you
were married.'
Sir Adam suggested, that luxury corrupts a people, and destroys the
spirit of liberty. JOHNSON. 'Sir, that is all visionary. I would not
give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than
another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual. Sir, the
danger of the abuse of power is nothing to a private man. What Frenchman
is prevented from passing his life as he pleases?' SIR ADAM. 'But, Sir,
in the British constitution it is surely of importance to keep up a
spirit in the people, so as to preserve a balance against the crown.'
JOHNSON. 'Sir, I perceive you are a vile Whig. Why all this childish
jealousy of the power of the crown? The crown has not power enough. When
I say that all governments are alike, I consider that in no government
power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it. If a sovereign
oppresses his people to a great degree, they will rise and cut off his
head. There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep
us safe under every form of government. Had not the people of France
thought themselves honoured as sharing in the brilliant actions of Lewis
XIV, they would not have endured him; and we may say the same of the
King of Prussia's people.' Sir Adam introduced the ancient Greeks and
Romans. JOHNSON. 'Sir, the mass of both of them were barbarians. The
mass of every people must be barbarous where there is no printing, and
consequently knowledge is not generally diffused. Knowledge is diffused
among our people by the news-papers.' Sir Adam mentioned the orators,
poets, and artists of Greece. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I am talking of the mass
of the people. We see even what the boasted Athenians were. The little
effect which Demosthenes's orations had upon them, shews that they were
barbarians.'
On Sunday, April 5, after attending divine service at St. Paul's church,
I found him alone.
He said, he went more frequently to church when there were prayers
only, than when there was also a sermon, as the people required more
an example for the one than the other; it being much easier for them to
hear a sermon, than to fix their minds on prayer.
On Monday, April 6, I dined with him at Sir Alexander Macdonald's, where
was a young officer in the regimentals of the Scots Royal, who talked
with a vivacity, fluency, and precision so uncommon, that he attracted
particular attention. He proved to be the Honourable Thomas Erskine,
youngest brother to the Earl of Buchan, who has since risen into such
brilliant reputation at the bar in Westminster-hall.
Fielding being mentioned, Johnson exclaimed, 'he was a blockhead;' and
upon my expressing my astonishment at so strange an assertion, he said,
'What I mean by his being a blockhead is that he was a barren rascal.'
BOSWELL. 'Will you not allow, Sir, that he draws very natural pictures
of human life?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, it is of very low life. Richardson
used to say, that had he not known who Fielding was, he should have
believed he was an ostler. Sir, there is more knowledge of the heart in
one letter of Richardson's, than in all Tom Jones. I, indeed, never read
Joseph Andrews.' ERSKINE. 'Surely, Sir, Richardson is very tedious.'
JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your
impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself. But
you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only
giving occasion to the sentiment.'
We talked of gaming, and animadverted on it with severity. JOHNSON.
'Nay, gentlemen, let us not aggravate the matter. It is not roguery to
play with a man who is ignorant of the game, while you are master of it,
and so win his money; for he thinks he can play better than you, as you
think you can play better than he; and the superiour skill carries it.'
ERSKINE. 'He is a fool, but you are not a rogue.' JOHNSON. 'That's much
about the truth, Sir. It must be considered, that a man who only does
what every one of the society to which he belongs would do, is not a
dishonest man. In the republick of Sparta, it was agreed, that stealing
was not dishonourable, if not discovered. I do not commend a society
where there is an agreement that what would not otherwise be fair,
shall be fair; but I maintain, that an individual of any society, who
practises what is allowed, is not a dishonest man.' BOSWELL. 'So then,
Sir, you do not think ill of a man who wins perhaps forty thousand
pounds in a winter?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest
man; but I call him an unsocial man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a
mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.
Trade gives employment to numbers, and so produces intermediate good.'
On Thursday, April 9, I called on him to beg he would go and dine with
me at the Mitre tavern. He had resolved not to dine at all this day, I
know not for what reason; and I was so unwilling to be deprived of his
company, that I was content to submit to suffer a want, which was at
first somewhat painful, but he soon made me forget it; and a man is
always pleased with himself when he finds his intellectual inclinations
predominate.
He observed, that to reason philosophically on the nature of prayer, was
very unprofitable.
Talking of ghosts, he said, he knew one friend, who was an honest man
and a sensible man, who told him he had seen a ghost, old Mr. Edward
Cave, the printer at St. John's Gate. He said, Mr. Cave did not like to
talk of it, and seemed to be in great horrour whenever it was mentioned.
BOSWELL. 'Pray, Sir, what did he say was the appearance?' JOHNSON. 'Why,
Sir, something of a shadowy being.'
On Friday, April 10, I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, where we
found Dr. Goldsmith.
I started the question whether duelling was consistent with moral
duty. The brave old General fired at this, and said, with a lofty
air, 'Undoubtedly a man has a right to defend his honour.' GOLDSMITH.
(turning to me,) 'I ask you first, Sir, what would you do if you were
affronted?' I answered I should think it necessary to fight. 'Why then,
(replied Goldsmith,) that solves the question.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, it
does not solve the question. It does not follow that what a man would
do is therefore right.' I said, I wished to have it settled, whether
duelling was contrary to the laws of Christianity. Johnson immediately
entered on the subject, and treated it in a masterly manner; and so far
as I have been able to recollect, his thoughts were these: 'Sir, as men
become in a high degree refined, various causes of offence arise; which