Boswell's Life of Johnson
whom your Laws and Judges have condemned to the horrour and ignominy of
a publick execution. . . .'
Subjoined to it was written as follows:--
'TO DR. DODD.
'SIR,--I most seriously enjoin you not to let it be at all known that I
have written this letter, and to return the copy to Mr. Allen in a cover
to me. I hope I need not tell you, that I wish it success.--But do not
indulge hope.--Tell nobody.'
It happened luckily that Mr. Allen was pitched on to assist in this
melancholy office, for he was a great friend of Mr. Akerman, the keeper
of Newgate. Dr. Johnson never went to see Dr. Dodd. He said to me, 'it
would have done HIM more harm, than good to Dodd, who once expressed a
desire to see him, but not earnestly.'
All applications for the Royal Mercy having failed, Dr. Dodd prepared
himself for death; and, with a warmth of gratitude, wrote to Dr. Johnson
as follows:--
'June 25, Midnight.
'Accept, thou GREAT and GOOD heart, my earnest and fervent thanks and
prayers for all thy benevolent and kind efforts in my behalf--Oh! Dr.
Johnson! as I sought your knowledge at an early hour in life, would
to heaven I had cultivated the love and acquaintance of so excellent
a man!--I pray GOD most sincerely to bless you with the highest
transports--the infelt satisfaction of HUMANE and benevolent
exertions!--And admitted, as I trust I shall be, to the realms of bliss
before you, I shall hail YOUR arrival there with transports, and rejoice
to acknowledge that you was my Comforter, my Advocate and my FRIEND! GOD
BE EVER WITH YOU!'
Dr. Johnson lastly wrote to Dr. Dodd this solemn and soothing letter:--
'TO THE REVEREND DR. DODD.
'DEAR SIR,--That which is appointed to all men is now coming upon you.
Outward circumstances, the eyes and the thoughts of men, are below
the notice of an immortal being about to stand the trial for eternity,
before the Supreme Judge of heaven and earth. Be comforted: your crime,
morally or religiously considered, has no very deep dye of turpitude.
It corrupted no man's principles; it attacked no man's life. It involved
only a temporary and reparable injury. Of this, and of all other sins,
you are earnestly to repent; and may GOD, who knoweth our frailty, and
desireth not our death, accept your repentance, for the sake of his SON
JESUS CHRIST our Lord.
'In requital of those well-intended offices which you are pleased so
emphatically to acknowledge, let me beg that you make in your devotions
one petition for my eternal welfare. I am, dear Sir, your affectionate
servant,
'June 26, 1777.'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
Under the copy of this letter I found written, in Johnson's own hand,
'Next day, June 27, he was executed.'
Tuesday, September 16, Dr. Johnson having mentioned to me the
extraordinary size and price of some cattle reared by Dr. Taylor, I rode
out with our host, surveyed his farm, and was shown one cow which he had
sold for a hundred and twenty guineas, and another for which he had
been offered a hundred and thirty. Taylor thus described to me his old
schoolfellow and friend, Johnson: 'He is a man of a very clear head,
great power of words, and a very gay imagination; but there is no
disputing with him. He will not hear you, and having a louder voice than
you, must roar you down.'
In the evening, the Reverend Mr. Seward, of Lichfield, who was passing
through Ashbourne in his way home, drank tea with us. Johnson described
him thus:--'Sir, his ambition is to be a fine talker; so he goes to
Buxton, and such places, where he may find companies to listen to him.
And, Sir, he is a valetudinarian, one of those who are always mending
themselves. I do not know a more disagreeable character than a
valetudinarian, who thinks he may do any thing that is for his ease, and
indulges himself in the grossest freedoms: Sir, he brings himself to the
state of a hog in a stye.'
Dr. Taylor's nose happening to bleed, he said, it was because he had
omitted to have himself blooded four days after a quarter of a year's
interval. Dr. Johnson, who was a great dabbler in physick, disapproved
much of periodical bleeding. 'For (said he,) you accustom yourself to
an evacuation which Nature cannot perform of herself, and therefore she
cannot help you, should you, from forgetfulness or any other cause,
omit it; so you may be suddenly suffocated. You may accustom yourself to
other periodical evacuations, because should you omit them, Nature can
supply the omission; but Nature cannot open a vein to blood you.'--'I
do not like to take an emetick, (said Taylor,) for fear of breaking some
small vessels.'--'Poh! (said Johnson,) if you have so many things that
will break, you had better break your neck at once, and there's an end
on't. You will break no small vessels:' (blowing with high derision.)
The horrour of death which I had always observed in Dr. Johnson,
appeared strong to-night. I ventured to tell him, that I had been,
for moments in my life, not afraid of death; therefore I could suppose
another man in that state of mind for a considerable space of time. He
said, 'he never had a moment in which death was not terrible to him.' He
added, that it had been observed, that scarce any man dies in publick,
but with apparent resolution; from that desire of praise which never
quits us. I said, Dr. Dodd seemed to be willing to die, and full of
hopes of happiness. 'Sir, (said he,) Dr. Dodd would have given both his
hands and both his legs to have lived. The better a man is, the more
afraid he is of death, having a clearer view of infinite purity.' He
owned, that our being in an unhappy uncertainty as to our salvation, was
mysterious; and said, 'Ah! we must wait till we are in another state of
being, to have many things explained to us.' Even the powerful mind of
Johnson seemed foiled by futurity.
On Wednesday, September 17, Dr. Butter, physician at Derby, drank tea
with us; and it was settled that Dr. Johnson and I should go on Friday
and dine with him. Johnson said, 'I'm glad of this.' He seemed weary of
the uniformity of life at Dr. Taylor's.
Talking of biography, I said, in writing a life, a man's peculiarities
should be mentioned, because they mark his character. JOHNSON. 'Sir,
there is no doubt as to peculiarities: the question is, whether a man's
vices should be mentioned; for instance, whether it should be mentioned
that Addison and Parnell drank too freely: for people will probably more
easily indulge in drinking from knowing this; so that more ill may be
done by the example, than good by telling the whole truth.' Here was an
instance of his varying from himself in talk; for when Lord Hailes and
he sat one morning calmly conversing in my house at Edinburgh, I well
remember that Dr. Johnson maintained, that 'If a man is to write A
Panegyrick, he may keep vices out of sight; but if he professes to write
A Life, he must represent it really as it was:' and when I objected to
the danger of telling that Parnell drank to excess, he said, that 'it
would produce an instructive caution to avoid drinking, when it was
seen, that even the learning and genius of Parnell could be debased by
it.' And in the Hebrides he maintained, as appears from my Journal,
that a man's intimate friend should mention his faults, if he writes his
life.
Thursday, September 18. Last night Dr. Johnson had proposed that the
crystal lustre, or chandelier, in Dr. Taylor's large room, should be
lighted up some time or other. Taylor said, it should be lighted up
next night. 'That will do very well, (said I,) for it is Dr. Johnson's
birth-day.' When we were in the Isle of Sky, Johnson had desired me not
to mention his birth-day. He did not seem pleased at this time that I
mentioned it, and said (somewhat sternly,) 'he would not have the lustre
lighted the next day.'
Some ladies, who had been present yesterday when I mentioned his
birth-day, came to dinner to-day, and plagued him unintentionally,
by wishing him joy. I know not why he disliked having his birth-day
mentioned, unless it were that it reminded him of his approaching nearer
to death, of which he had a constant dread.
I mentioned to him a friend of mine who was formerly gloomy from low
spirits, and much distressed by the fear of death, but was now uniformly
placid, and contemplated his dissolution without any perturbation. 'Sir,
(said Johnson,) this is only a disordered imagination taking a different
turn.'
He observed, that a gentleman of eminence in literature had got into a
bad style of poetry of late. 'He puts (said he,) a very common thing
in a strange dress till he does not know it himself, and thinks other
people do not know it.' BOSWELL. 'That is owing to his being so much
versant in old English poetry.' JOHNSON. 'What is that to the purpose,
Sir? If I say a man is drunk, and you tell me it is owing to his taking
much drink, the matter is not mended. No, Sir, ------ has taken to an
odd mode. For example, he'd write thus:
"Hermit hoar, in solemn cell,
Wearing out life's evening gray."
Gray evening is common enough; but evening gray he'd think
fine.--Stay;--we'll make out the stanza:
"Hermit hoar, in solemn cell,
Wearing out life's evening gray;
Smite thy bosom, sage, and tell,
What is bliss? and which the way?"'
BOSWELL. 'But why smite his bosom, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'Why, to shew he
was in earnest,' (smiling.)--He at an after period added the following
stanza:
'Thus I spoke; and speaking sigh'd;
--Scarce repress'd the starting tear;--
When the smiling sage reply'd--
--Come, my lad, and drink some beer.'
I cannot help thinking the first stanza very good solemn poetry, as
also the three first lines of the second. Its last line is an excellent
burlesque surprise on gloomy sentimental enquirers. And, perhaps,
the advice is as good as can be given to a low-spirited dissatisfied
being:--'Don't trouble your head with sickly thinking: take a cup, and
be merry.'
Friday, September 19, after breakfast Dr. Johnson and I set out in Dr.
Taylor's chaise to go to Derby. The day was fine, and we resolved to
go by Keddlestone, the seat of Lord Scarsdale, that I might see his
Lordship's fine house. I was struck with the magnificence of the
building; and the extensive park, with the finest verdure, covered with
deer, and cattle, and sheep, delighted me. The number of old oaks, of an
immense size, filled me with a sort of respectful admiration: for one
of them sixty pounds was offered. The excellent smooth gravel roads; the
large piece of water formed by his Lordship from some small brooks, with
a handsome barge upon it; the venerable Gothick church, now the family
chapel, just by the house; in short, the grand group of objects agitated
and distended my mind in a most agreeable manner. 'One should think
(said I,) that the proprietor of all this MUST be happy.'--'Nay, Sir,
(said Johnson,) all this excludes but one evil--poverty.'
Our names were sent up, and a well-drest elderly housekeeper, a most
distinct articulator, shewed us the house; which I need not describe, as
there is an account of it published in Adam's Works in Architecture. Dr.
Johnson thought better of it to-day than when he saw it before; for he
had lately attacked it violently, saying, 'It would do excellently for
a town-hall. The large room with the pillars (said he,) would do for the
Judges to sit in at the assizes; the circular room for a jury-chamber;
and the room above for prisoners.' Still he thought the large room ill
lighted, and of no use but for dancing in; and the bed-chambers
but indifferent rooms; and that the immense sum which it cost was
injudiciously laid out. Dr. Taylor had put him in mind of his APPEARING