Boswell's Life of Johnson
man who works at any particular trade, but you may know him from his
appearance to do so. One part or other of his body being more used than
the rest, he is in some degree deformed: but, Sir, that is not luxury.
A tailor sits cross-legged; but that is not luxury.' GOLDSMITH. 'Come,
you're just going to the same place by another road.' JOHNSON. 'Nay,
Sir, I say that is not LUXURY. Let us take a walk from Charing-cross to
White-chapel, through, I suppose, the greatest series of shops in the
world; what is there in any of these shops (if you except gin-shops,)
that can do any human being any harm?' GOLDSMITH. 'Well, Sir, I'll
accept your challenge. The very next shop to Northumberland-house is a
pickle-shop.' JOHNSON. 'Well, Sir: do we not know that a maid can in one
afternoon make pickles sufficient to serve a whole family for a year?
nay, that five pickle-shops can serve all the kingdom? Besides, Sir,
there is no harm done to any body by the making of pickles, or the
eating of pickles.'
We drank tea with the ladies; and Goldsmith sung Tony Lumpkin's song in
his comedy, She Stoops to Conquer, and a very pretty one, to an Irish
tune, which he had designed for Miss Hardcastle; but as Mrs. Bulkeley,
who played the part, could not sing, it was left out. He afterwards
wrote it down for me, by which means it was preserved, and now appears
amongst his poems. Dr. Johnson, in his way home, stopped at my lodgings
in Piccadilly, and sat with me, drinking tea a second time, till a late
hour.
I told him that Mrs. Macaulay said, she wondered how he could reconcile
his political principles with his moral; his notions of inequality and
subordination with wishing well to the happiness of all mankind, who
might live so agreeably, had they all their portions of land, and none
to domineer over another. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I reconcile my principles
very well, because mankind are happier in a state of inequality and
subordination. Were they to be in this pretty state of equality,
they would soon degenerate into brutes;--they would become Monboddo's
nation;--their tails would grow. Sir, all would be losers were all
to work for all--they would have no intellectual improvement. All
intellectual improvement arises from leisure; all leisure arises from
one working for another.'
Talking of the family of Stuart, he said, 'It should seem that the
family at present on the throne has now established as good a right
as the former family, by the long consent of the people; and that to
disturb this right might be considered as culpable. At the same time I
own, that it is a very difficult question, when considered with respect
to the house of Stuart. To oblige people to take oaths as to the
disputed right, is wrong. I know not whether I could take them: but I
do not blame those who do.' So conscientious and so delicate was he upon
this subject, which has occasioned so much clamour against him.
On Thursday, April 15, I dined with him and Dr. Goldsmith at General
Paoli's.
I spoke of Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, in the Scottish dialect, as
the best pastoral that had ever been written; not only abounding with
beautiful rural imagery, and just and pleasing sentiments, but being
a real picture of manners; and I offered to teach Dr. Johnson to
understand it. 'No, Sir, (said he,) I won't learn it. You shall retain
your superiority by my not knowing it.'
It having been observed that there was little hospitality in
London;--JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, any man who has a name, or who has the
power of pleasing, will be very generally invited in London. The
man, Sterne, I have been told, has had engagements for three months.'
GOLDSMITH. 'And a very dull fellow.' JOHNSON. 'Why, no, Sir.'
Martinelli told us, that for several years he lived much with Charles
Townshend, and that he ventured to tell him he was a bad joker. JOHNSON.
'Why, Sir, thus much I can say upon the subject. One day he and a few
more agreed to go and dine in the country, and each of them was to bring
a friend in his carriage with him. Charles Townshend asked Fitzherbert
to go with him, but told him, "You must find somebody to bring you
back: I can only carry you there." Fitzherbert did not much like this
arrangement. He however consented, observing sarcastically, "It will
do very well; for then the same jokes will serve you in returning as in
going."'
An eminent publick character being mentioned;--JOHNSON. 'I remember
being present when he shewed himself to be so corrupted, or at least
something so different from what I think right, as to maintain, that a
member of parliament should go along with his party right or wrong. Now,
Sir, this is so remote from native virtue, from scholastick virtue, that
a good man must have undergone a great change before he can reconcile
himself to such a doctrine. It is maintaining that you may lie to the
publick; for you lie when you call that right which you think wrong,
or the reverse. A friend of ours, who is too much an echo of that
gentleman, observed, that a man who does not stick uniformly to a party,
is only waiting to be bought. Why then, said I, he is only waiting to be
what that gentleman is already.'
We talked of the King's coming to see Goldsmith's new play.--'I wish he
would,' said Goldsmith; adding, however, with an affected indifference,
'Not that it would do me the least good.' JOHNSON. 'Well then, Sir, let
us say it would do HIM good, (laughing.) No, Sir, this affectation will
not pass;--it is mighty idle. In such a state as ours, who would not
wish to please the Chief Magistrate?' GOLDSMITH. 'I DO wish to please
him. I remember a line in Dryden,--
"And every poet is the monarch's friend."
It ought to be reversed.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, there are finer lines in Dryden
on this subject:--
"For colleges on bounteous Kings depend,
And never rebel was to arts a friend."'
General Paoli observed, that 'successful rebels might.' MARTINELLI.
'Happy rebellions.' GOLDSMITH. 'We have no such phrase.' GENERAL
PAOLI. 'But have you not the THING?' GOLDSMITH. 'Yes; all our HAPPY
revolutions. They have hurt our constitution, and will hurt it, till we
mend it by another HAPPY REVOLUTION.' I never before discovered that my
friend Goldsmith had so much of the old prejudice in him.
General Paoli, talking of Goldsmith's new play, said, 'Il a fait un
compliment tres gracieux a une certaine grande dame;' meaning a Duchess
of the first rank.
I expressed a doubt whether Goldsmith intended it, in order that I
might hear the truth from himself. It, perhaps, was not quite fair to
endeavour to bring him to a confession, as he might not wish to avow
positively his taking part against the Court. He smiled and hesitated.
The General at once relieved him, by this beautiful image: 'Monsieur
Goldsmith est comme la mer, qui jette des perles et beaucoup d'autres
belles choses, sans s'en appercevoir.' GOLDSMITH. 'Tres bien dit et tres
elegamment.'
A person was mentioned, who it was said could take down in short hand
the speeches in parliament with perfect exactness. JOHNSON. 'Sir, it
is impossible. I remember one, Angel, who came to me to write for him
a Preface or Dedication to a book upon short hand, and he professed to
write as fast as a man could speak. In order to try him, I took down
a book, and read while he wrote; and I favoured him, for I read more
deliberately than usual. I had proceeded but a very little way, when he
begged I would desist, for he could not follow me.' Hearing now for the
first time of this Preface or Dedication, I said, 'What an expense, Sir,
do you put us to in buying books, to which you have written Prefaces or
Dedications.' JOHNSON. 'Why, I have dedicated to the Royal family all
round; that is to say, to the last generation of the Royal family.'
GOLDSMITH. 'And perhaps, Sir, not one sentence of wit in a whole
Dedication.' JOHNSON. 'Perhaps not, Sir.' BOSWELL. 'What then is the
reason for applying to a particular person to do that which any one may
do as well?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, one man has greater readiness at doing
it than another.'
I spoke of Mr. Harris, of Salisbury, as being a very learned man, and
in particular an eminent Grecian. JOHNSON. 'I am not sure of that. His
friends give him out as such, but I know not who of his friends are able
to judge of it.' GOLDSMITH. 'He is what is much better: he is a worthy
humane man.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, that is not to the purpose of our
argument: that will as much prove that he can play upon the fiddle as
well as Giardini, as that he is an eminent Grecian.' GOLDSMITH. 'The
greatest musical performers have but small emoluments. Giardini, I am
told, does not get above seven hundred a year.' JOHNSON. 'That is indeed
but little for a man to get, who does best that which so many endeavour
to do. There is nothing, I think, in which the power of art is shown
so much as in playing on the fiddle. In all other things we can do
something at first. Any man will forge a bar of iron, if you give him a
hammer; not so well as a smith, but tolerably. A man will saw a piece of
wood, and make a box, though a clumsy one; but give him a fiddle and a
fiddle-stick, and he can do nothing.'
On Monday, April 19, he called on me with Mrs. Williams, in Mr.
Strahan's coach, and carried me out to dine with Mr. Elphinston, at his
academy at Kensington. A printer having acquired a fortune sufficient
to keep his coach, was a good topick for the credit of literature. Mrs.
Williams said, that another printer, Mr. Hamilton, had not waited
so long as Mr. Strahan, but had kept his coach several years sooner.
JOHNSON. 'He was in the right. Life is short. The sooner that a man
begins to enjoy his wealth the better.'
Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked
Dr. Johnson if he had read it. JOHNSON. 'I have looked into it.' 'What,
(said Elphinston,) have you not read it through?' Johnson, offended at
being thus pressed, and so obliged to own his cursory mode of reading,
answered tartly, 'No, Sir, do YOU read books THROUGH?'
On Wednesday, April 21, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's. A gentleman
attacked Garrick for being vain. JOHNSON. 'No wonder, Sir, that he
is vain; a man who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be
conceived. So many bellows have blown the fire, that one wonders he is
not by this time become a cinder.' BOSWELL. 'And such bellows too. Lord
Mansfield with his cheeks like to burst: Lord Chatham like an Aeolus. I
have read such notes from them to him, as were enough to turn his head.'
JOHNSON. 'True. When he whom every body else flatters, flatters me,
I then am truly happy.' Mrs. THRALE. 'The sentiment is in Congreve, I
think.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Madam, in The Way of the World:
"If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see
That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me."
No, Sir, I should not be surprized though Garrick chained the ocean, and
lashed the winds.' BOSWELL. 'Should it not be, Sir, lashed the ocean and
chained the winds?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, recollect the original:
"In Corum atque Eurum solitus saevire flagellis
Barbarus, Aeolia nunquam hoc in carcere passos,
Ipsum compedibus qui vinxerat Ennosigaeum."
The modes of living in different countries, and the various views
with which men travel in quest of new scenes, having been talked of, a
learned gentleman who holds a considerable office in the law, expatiated
on the happiness of a savage life; and mentioned an instance of an
officer who had actually lived for some time in the wilds of America,
of whom, when in that state, he quoted this reflection with an air of
admiration, as if it had been deeply philosophical: 'Here am I, free and
unrestrained, amidst the rude magnificence of Nature, with this Indian