Boswell's Life of Johnson
his brother David, he might have equally excelled in it. He was to-day
quite a London narrator, telling us a variety of anecdotes with that
earnestness and attempt at mimicry which we usually find in the wits
of the metropolis. Dr. Johnson went with me to the cathedral in the
afternoon. It was grand and pleasing to contemplate this illustrious
writer, now full of fame, worshipping in the 'solemn temple' of his
native city.
I returned to tea and coffee at Mr. Peter Garrick's, and then found Dr.
Johnson at the Reverend Mr. Seward's, Canon Residentiary, who inhabited
the Bishop's palace, in which Mr. Walmsley lived, and which had been the
scene of many happy hours in Johnson's early life.
On monday, March 25, we breakfasted at Mrs. Lucy Porter's. Johnson
had sent an express to Dr. Taylor's, acquainting him of our being at
Lichfield, and Taylor had returned an answer that his postchaise should
come for us this day. While we sat at breakfast, Dr. Johnson received a
letter by the post, which seemed to agitate him very much. When he
had read it, he exclaimed, 'One of the most dreadful things that has
happened in my time.' The phrase my time, like the word age, is usually
understood to refer to an event of a publick or general nature. I
imagined something like an assassination of the King--like a gunpowder
plot carried into execution--or like another fire of London. When asked,
'What is it, Sir?' he answered, 'Mr. Thrale has lost his only son!' This
was, no doubt, a very great affliction to Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, which
their friends would consider accordingly; but from the manner in which
the intelligence of it was communicated by Johnson, it appeared for
the moment to be comparatively small. I, however, soon felt a sincere
concern, and was curious to observe, how Dr. Johnson would be affected.
He said, 'This is a total extinction to their family, as much as if
they were sold into captivity.' Upon my mentioning that Mr. Thrale had
daughters, who might inherit his wealth;--'Daughters, (said Johnson,
warmly,) he'll no more value his daughters than--' I was going to
speak.--'Sir, (said he,) don't you know how you yourself think? Sir, he
wishes to propagate his name.' In short, I saw male succession strong in
his mind, even where there was no name, no family of any long standing.
I said, it was lucky he was not present when this misfortune happened.
JOHNSON. 'It is lucky for ME. People in distress never think that you
feel enough.' BOSWELL. 'And Sir, they will have the hope of seeing you,
which will be a relief in the mean time; and when you get to them, the
pain will be so far abated, that they will be capable of being consoled
by you, which, in the first violence of it, I believe, would not be the
case.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; violent pain of mind, like violent pain of
body, MUST be severely felt.' BOSWELL. 'I own, Sir, I have not so much
feeling for the distress of others, as some people have, or pretend to
have: but I know this, that I would do all in my power to relieve them.'
JOHNSON. 'Sir it is affectation to pretend to feel the distress of
others, as much as they do themselves. It is equally so, as if one
should pretend to feel as much pain while a friend's leg is cutting off,
as he does. No, Sir; you have expressed the rational and just nature
of sympathy. I would have gone to the extremity of the earth to have
preserved this boy.'
He was soon quite calm. The letter was from Mr. Thrale's clerk, and
concluded, 'I need not say how much they wish to see you in London.' He
said, 'We shall hasten back from Taylor's.'
Mrs. Lucy Porter and some other ladies of the place talked a great
deal of him when he was out of the room, not only with veneration but
affection. It pleased me to find that he was so much BELOVED in his
native city.
Mrs. Aston, whom I had seen the preceding night, and her sister, Mrs.
Gastrel, a widow lady, had each a house and garden, and pleasure-ground,
prettily situated upon Stowhill, a gentle eminence, adjoining to
Lichfield. Johnson walked away to dinner there, leaving me by myself
without any apology; I wondered at this want of that facility of
manners, from which a man has no difficulty in carrying a friend to a
house where he is intimate; I felt it very unpleasant to be thus left in
solitude in a country town, where I was an entire stranger, and began to
think myself unkindly deserted; but I was soon relieved, and convinced
that my friend, instead of being deficient in delicacy, had conducted
the matter with perfect propriety, for I received the following note in
his handwriting: 'Mrs. Gastrel, at the lower house on Stowhill, desires
Mr. Boswell's company to dinner at two.' I accepted of the invitation,
and had here another proof how amiable his character was in the opinion
of those who knew him best. I was not informed, till afterwards,
that Mrs. Gastrel's husband was the clergyman who, while he lived at
Stratford upon Avon, where he was proprietor of Shakspeare's garden,
with Gothick barbarity cut down his mulberry-tree, and, as Dr. Johnson
told me, did it to vex his neighbours. His lady, I have reason to
believe, on the same authority, participated in the guilt of what the
enthusiasts for our immortal bard deem almost a species of sacrilege.
After dinner Dr. Johnson wrote a letter to Mrs. Thrale on the death of
her son. I said it would be very distressing to Thrale, but she would
soon forget it, as she had so many things to think of. JOHNSON. 'No,
Sir, Thrale will forget it first. SHE has many things that she MAY think
of. HE has many things that he MUST think of.' This was a very just
remark upon the different effect of those light pursuits which occupy
a vacant and easy mind, and those serious engagements which arrest
attention, and keep us from brooding over grief.
In the evening we went to the Town-hall, which was converted into a
temporary theatre, and saw Theodosius, with The Stratford Jubilee. I was
happy to see Dr. Johnson sitting in a conspicuous part of the pit, and
receiving affectionate homage from all his acquaintance. We were quite
gay and merry. I afterwards mentioned to him that I condemned myself for
being so, when poor Mr. and Mrs. Thrale were in such distress. JOHNSON.
'You are wrong, Sir; twenty years hence Mr. and Mrs. Thrale will not
suffer much pain from the death of their son. Now, Sir, you are to
consider, that distance of place, as well as distance of time, operates
upon the human feelings. I would not have you be gay in the presence
of the distressed, because it would shock them; but you may be gay at a
distance. Pain for the loss of a friend, or of a relation whom we love,
is occasioned by the want which we feel. In time the vacuity is filled
with something else; or sometimes the vacuity closes up of itself.'
Mr. Seward and Mr. Pearson, another clergyman here, supt with us at our
inn, and after they left us, we sat up late as we used to do in London.
Here I shall record some fragments of my friend's conversation during
this jaunt.
'Marriage, Sir, is much more necessary to a man than to a woman; for he
is much less able to supply himself with domestick comforts. You will
recollect my saying to some ladies the other day, that I had often
wondered why young women should marry, as they have so much more
freedom, and so much more attention paid to them while unmarried, than
when married. I indeed did not mention the STRONG reason for their
marrying--the MECHANICAL reason.' BOSWELL. 'Why, that IS a strong one.
But does not imagination make it much more important than it is in
reality? Is it not, to a certain degree, a delusion in us as well as
in women?' JOHNSON. 'Why yes, Sir; but it is a delusion that is always
beginning again.' BOSWELL. 'I don't know but there is upon the whole
more misery than happiness produced by that passion.' JOHNSON. 'I don't
think so, Sir.'
'Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and
may be offensive.'
'Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen. It is
assuming a superiority, and it is particularly wrong to question a man
concerning himself. There may be parts of his former life which he may
not wish to be made known to other persons, or even brought to his own
recollection.'
'A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own
disadvantage. People may be amused and laugh at the time, but they
will be remembered, and brought out against him upon some subsequent
occasion.'
'Much may be done if a man puts his whole mind to a particular object.
By doing so, Norton has made himself the great lawyer that he is allowed
to be.'
On Tuesday, March 26, there came for us an equipage properly suited to a
wealthy well-beneficed clergyman;--Dr. Taylor's large roomy post-chaise,
drawn by four stout plump horses, and driven by two steady jolly
postillions, which conveyed us to Ashbourne; where I found my friend's
schoolfellow living upon an establishment perfectly corresponding
with his substantial creditable equipage: his house, garden,
pleasure-grounds, table, in short every thing good, and no scantiness
appearing. Every man should form such a plan of living as he can execute
completely. Let him not draw an outline wider than he can fill up. I
have seen many skeletons of shew and magnificence which excite at once
ridicule and pity. Dr. Taylor had a good estate of his own, and good
preferment in the church, being a prebendary of Westminster, and rector
of Bosworth. He was a diligent justice of the peace, and presided over
the town of Ashbourne, to the inhabitants of which I was told he was
very liberal; and as a proof of this it was mentioned to me, he had the
preceding winter distributed two hundred pounds among such of them as
stood in need of his assistance. He had consequently a considerable
political interest in the county of Derby, which he employed to support
the Devonshire family; for though the schoolfellow and friend of
Johnson, he was a Whig. I could not perceive in his character much
congeniality of any sort with that of Johnson, who, however, said to
me, 'Sir, he has a very strong understanding.' His size, and figure, and
countenance, and manner, were that of a hearty English 'Squire, with the
parson super-induced: and I took particular notice of his upper servant,
Mr. Peters, a decent grave man, in purple clothes, and a large white
wig, like the butler or major domo of a Bishop.
Dr. Johnson and Dr. Taylor met with great cordiality; and Johnson soon
gave him the same sad account of their school-fellow, Congreve, that he
had given to Mr. Hector; adding a remark of such moment to the rational
conduct of a man in the decline of life, that it deserves to be
imprinted upon every mind: 'There is nothing against which an old
man should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.
Innumerable have been the melancholy instances of men once distinguished
for firmness, resolution, and spirit, who in their latter days have been
governed like children, by interested female artifice.
Dr. Taylor commended a physician who was known to him and Dr. Johnson,
and said, 'I fight many battles for him, as many people in the country
dislike him.' JOHNSON. 'But you should consider, Sir, that by every
one of your victories he is a loser; for, every man of whom you get the
better, will be very angry, and resolve not to employ him; whereas
if people get the better of you in argument about him, they'll think,
"We'll send for Dr. ****** nevertheless."' This was an observation deep
and sure in human nature.
Next day, as Dr. Johnson had acquainted Dr. Taylor of the reason for
his returning speedily to London, it was resolved that we should set out
after dinner. A few of Dr. Taylor's neighbours were his guests that day.