Boswell's Life of Johnson
a science to learn, he must regularly and resolutely advance. He added,
'what we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If
we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the
attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.' He
told us, he read Fielding's Amelia through without stopping. He
said, 'if a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an
inclination to go on, let him not quit it, to go to the beginning. He
may perhaps not feel again the inclination.'
Soon after this day, he went to Bath with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. I had
never seen that beautiful city, and wished to take the opportunity of
visiting it, while Johnson was there.
On the 26th of April, I went to Bath; and on my arrival at the Pelican
inn, found lying for me an obliging invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Thrale,
by whom I was agreeably entertained almost constantly during my stay.
They were gone to the rooms; but there was a kind note from Dr. Johnson,
that he should sit at home all the evening. I went to him directly, and
before Mr. and Mrs. Thrale returned, we had by ourselves some hours of
tea-drinking and talk.
I shall group together such of his sayings as I preserved during the few
days that I was at Bath.
It having been mentioned, I know not with what truth, that a certain
female political writer, whose doctrines he disliked, had of late become
very fond of dress, sat hours together at her toilet, and even put on
rouge:--Johnson. 'She is better employed at her toilet, than using
her pen. It is better she should be reddening her own cheeks, than
blackening other people's characters.'
He would not allow me to praise a lady then at Bath; observing, 'She
does not gain upon me, Sir; I think her empty-headed.' He was, indeed,
a stern critick upon characters and manners. Even Mrs. Thrale did not
escape his friendly animadversion at times. When he and I were one day
endeavouring to ascertain, article by article, how one of our friends
could possibly spend as much money in his family as he told us he did,
she interrupted us by a lively extravagant sally, on the expence of
clothing his children, describing it in a very ludicrous and fanciful
manner. Johnson looked a little angry, and said, 'Nay, Madam, when you
are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate.' At
another time, when she said, perhaps affectedly, 'I don't like to fly.'
JOHNSON. 'With YOUR wings, Madam, you MUST fly: but have a care, there
are CLIPPERS abroad.'
On Monday, April 29, he and I made an excursion to Bristol, where I was
entertained with seeing him enquire upon the spot, into the authenticity
of 'Rowley's Poetry,' as I had seen him enquire upon the spot into the
authenticity of 'Ossian's Poetry.' George Catcot, the pewterer, who was
as zealous for Rowley, as Dr. Hugh Blair was for Ossian, (I trust my
Reverend friend will excuse the comparison,) attended us at our inn, and
with a triumphant air of lively simplicity called out, 'I'll make Dr.
Johnson a convert.' Dr. Johnson, at his desire, read aloud some of
Chatterton's fabricated verses, while Catcot stood at the back of his
chair, moving himself like a pendulum, and beating time with his feet,
and now and then looking into Dr. Johnson's face, wondering that he was
not yet convinced. We called on Mr. Barret, the surgeon, and saw some
of the ORIGINALS as they were called, which were executed very
artificially; but from a careful inspection of them, and a consideration
of the circumstances with which they were attended, we were quite
satisfied of the imposture, which, indeed, has been clearly demonstrated
from internal evidence, by several able criticks.
Honest Catcot seemed to pay no attention whatever to any objections, but
insisted, as an end of all controversy, that we should go with him to
the tower of the church of St. Mary, Redcliff, and VIEW WITH OUR OWN
EYES the ancient chest in which the manuscripts were found. To this, Dr.
Johnson good-naturedly agreed; and though troubled with a shortness of
breathing, laboured up a long flight of steps, till we came to the place
where the wonderous chest stood. 'THERE, (said Cateot, with a bouncing
confident credulity,) THERE is the very chest itself.' After this
OCULAR DEMONSTRATION, there was no more to be said. He brought to my
recollection a Scotch Highlander, a man of learning too, and who had
seen the world, attesting, and at the same time giving his reasons for
the authenticity of Fingal:--'I have heard all that poem when I was
young.'--'Have you, Sir? Pray what have you heard?'--'I have heard
Ossian, Oscar, and EVERY ONE OF THEM.'
Johnson said of Chatterton, 'This is the most extraordinary young man
that has encountered my knowledge. It is wonderful how the whelp has
written such things.'
We were by no means pleased with our inn at Bristol. 'Let us see
now, (said I,) how we should describe it.' Johnson was ready with his
raillery. 'Describe it, Sir?--Why, it was so bad that Boswell wished to
be in Scotland!'
After Dr. Johnson's return to London, I was several times with him
at his house, where I occasionally slept, in the room that had
been assigned to me. I dined with him at Dr. Taylor's, at General
Oglethorpe's, and at General Paoli's. To avoid a tedious minuteness, I
shall group together what I have preserved of his conversation during
this period also, without specifying each scene where it passed, except
one, which will be found so remarkable as certainly to deserve a very
particular relation.
'Garrick (he observed,) does not play the part of Archer in The Beaux
Stratagem well. The gentleman should break out through the footman,
which is not the case as he does it.'
'That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief
from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is
a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.'
'Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son, I think, might be made a very
pretty book. Take out the immorality, and it should be put into the
hands of every young gentleman. An elegant manner and easiness of
behaviour are acquired gradually and imperceptibly. No man can say "I'll
be genteel." There are ten genteel women for one genteel man, because
they are more restrained. A man without some degree of restraint is
insufferable; but we are all less restrained than women. Were a woman
sitting in company to put out her legs before her as most men do, we
should be tempted to kick them in.'
No man was a more attentive and nice observer of behaviour in those in
whose company he happened to be, than Johnson; or, however strange it
may seem to many, had a higher estimation of its refinements. Lord
Eliot informs me, that one day when Johnson and he were at dinner at
a gentleman's house in London, upon Lord Chesterfield's Letters being
mentioned, Johnson surprized the company by this sentence: 'Every man
of any education would rather be called a rascal, than accused of
deficiency in THE GRACES.' Mr. Gibbon, who was present, turned to a
lady who knew Johnson well, and lived much with him, and in his quaint
manner, tapping his box, addressed her thus: 'Don't you think, Madam,
(looking towards Johnson,) that among ALL your acquaintance, you could
find ONE exception?' The lady smiled, and seemed to acquiesce.
The uncommon vivacity of General Oglethorpe's mind, and variety of
knowledge, having sometimes made his conversation seem too desultory,
Johnson observed, 'Oglethorpe, Sir, never COMPLETES what he has to say.'
He on the same account made a similar remark on Patrick Lord Elibank:
'Sir, there is nothing CONCLUSIVE in his talk.'
When I complained of having dined at a splendid table without hearing
one sentence of conversation worthy of being remembered, he said, 'Sir,
there seldom is any such conversation.' BOSWELL. 'Why then meet at
table?' JOHNSON. 'Why, to eat and drink together, and to promote
kindness; and, Sir, this is better done when there is no solid
conversation; for when there is, people differ in opinion, and get
into bad humour, or some of the company who are not capable of such
conversation, are left out, and feel themselves uneasy. It was for this
reason, Sir Robert Walpole said, he always talked bawdy at his table,
because in that all could join.'
Being irritated by hearing a gentleman* ask Mr. Levett a variety of
questions concerning him, when he was sitting by, he broke out, 'Sir,
you have but two topicks, yourself and me. I am sick of both.' 'A
man, (said he,) should not talk of himself, nor much of any particular
person. He should take care not to be made a proverb; and, therefore,
should avoid having any one topick of which people can say, "We shall
hear him upon it." There was a Dr. Oldfield, who was always talking of
the Duke of Marlborough. He came into a coffee-house one day, and told
that his Grace had spoken in the House of Lords for half an hour.
"Did he indeed speak for half an hour?" (said Belehier,
the surgeon,)--"Yes."--"And what did he say of Dr.
Oldfield?"--"Nothing"--"Why then, Sir, he was very ungrateful; for Dr.
Oldfield could not have spoken for a quarter of an hour, without saying
something of him."'
* Most likely Boswell himself.--HILL.
I am now to record a very curious incident in Dr. Johnson's Life, which
fell under my own observation; of which pars magna fui, and which I am
persuaded will, with the liberal-minded, be much to his credit.
My desire of being acquainted with celebrated men of every description,
had made me, much about the same time, obtain an introduction to Dr.
Samuel Johnson and to John Wilkes, Esq. Two men more different could
perhaps not be selected out of all mankind. They had even attacked one
another with some asperity in their writings; yet I lived in habits of
friendship with both. I could fully relish the excellence of each; for
I have ever delighted in that intellectual chymistry, which can separate
good qualities from evil in the same person.
Sir John Pringle, 'mine own friend and my Father's friend,' between
whom and Dr. Johnson I in vain wished to establish an acquaintance, as I
respected and lived in intimacy with both of them, observed to me once,
very ingeniously, 'It is not in friendship as in mathematicks, where two
things, each equal to a third, are equal between themselves. You agree
with Johnson as a middle quality, and you agree with me as a middle
quality; but Johnson and I should not agree.' Sir John was not
sufficiently flexible; so I desisted; knowing, indeed, that the
repulsion was equally strong on the part of Johnson; who, I know
not from what cause, unless his being a Scotchman, had formed a very
erroneous opinion of Sir John. But I conceived an irresistible wish, if
possible, to bring Dr. Johnson and Mr. Wilkes together. How to manage
it, was a nice and difficult matter.
My worthy booksellers and friends, Messieurs Dilly in the Poultry, at
whose hospitable and well-covered table I have seen a greater number of
literary men, than at any other, except that of Sir Joshua Reynolds, had
invited me to meet Mr. Wilkes and some more gentlemen on Wednesday, May
15. 'Pray (said I,) let us have Dr. Johnson.'--'What with Mr. Wilkes?
not for the world, (said Mr. Edward Dilly:) Dr. Johnson would never
forgive me.'--'Come, (said I,) if you'll let me negotiate for you, I
will be answerable that all shall go well.' DILLY. 'Nay, if you will
take it upon you, I am sure I shall be very happy to see them both
here.'
Notwithstanding the high veneration which I entertained for Dr. Johnson,
I was sensible that he was sometimes a little actuated by the spirit of
contradiction, and by means of that I hoped I should gain my point. I
was persuaded that if I had come upon him with a direct proposal, 'Sir,