Boswell's Life of Johnson
(said Mr. Burke,) let me have claret: I love to be a boy; to have the
careless gaiety of boyish days.' JOHNSON. 'I should drink claret too, if
it would give me that; but it does not: it neither makes boys men, nor
men boys. You'll be drowned by it, before it has any effect upon you.'
I ventured to mention a ludicrous paragraph in the newspapers, that Dr.
Johnson was learning to dance of Vestris. Lord Charlemont, wishing to
excite him to talk, proposed in a whisper, that he should be asked,
whether it was true. 'Shall I ask him?' said his Lordship. We were, by
a great majority, clear for the experiment. Upon which his Lordship very
gravely, and with a courteous air said, 'Pray, Sir, is it true that
you are taking lessons of Vestris?' This was risking a good deal, and
required the boldness of a General of Irish Volunteers to make the
attempt. Johnson was at first startled, and in some heat answered, 'How
can your Lordship ask so simple a question?' But immediately recovering
himself, whether from unwillingness to be deceived, or to appear
deceived, or whether from real good humour, he kept up the joke: 'Nay,
but if any body were to answer the paragraph, and contradict it, I'd
have a reply, and would say, that he who contradicted it was no friend
either to Vestris or me. For why should not Dr. Johnson add to his
other powers a little corporeal agility? Socrates learnt to dance at an
advanced age, and Cato learnt Greek at an advanced age. Then it might
proceed to say, that this Johnson, not content with dancing on the
ground, might dance on the rope; and they might introduce the elephant
dancing on the rope.'
On Sunday, April 1, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, with Sir Philip
Jennings Clerk and Mr. Perkins, who had the superintendence of Mr.
Thrale's brewery, with a salary of five hundred pounds a year. Sir
Philip had the appearance of a gentleman of ancient family, well
advanced in life. He wore his own white hair in a bag of goodly size,
a black velvet coat, with an embroidered waistcoat, and very rich laced
ruffles; which Mrs. Thrale said were old fashioned, but which, for that
reason, I thought the more respectable, more like a Tory; yet Sir Philip
was then in Opposition in Parliament. 'Ah, Sir, (said Johnson,) ancient
ruffles and modern principles do not agree.' Sir Philip defended the
Opposition to the American war ably and with temper, and I joined him.
He said, the majority of the nation was against the ministry. JOHNSON.
'I, Sir, am against the ministry; but it is for having too little of
that, of which Opposition thinks they have too much. Were I minister, if
any man wagged his finger against me, he should be turned out; for that
which it is in the power of Government to give at pleasure to one or to
another, should be given to the supporters of Government. If you will
not oppose at the expence of losing your place, your opposition will
not be honest, you will feel no serious grievance; and the present
opposition is only a contest to get what others have. Sir Robert Walpole
acted as I would do. As to the American war, the SENSE of the nation is
WITH the ministry. The majority of those who can UNDERSTAND is with it;
the majority of those who can only HEAR, is against it; and as those
who can only hear are more numerous than those who can understand,
and Opposition is always loudest, a majority of the rabble will be for
Opposition.'
This boisterous vivacity entertained us; but the truth in my opinion
was, that those who could understand the best were against the American
war, as almost every man now is, when the question has been coolly
considered.
Mrs. Thrale gave high praise to Mr. Dudley Long, (now North). JOHNSON.
'Nay, my dear lady, don't talk so. Mr. Long's character is very SHORT.
It is nothing. He fills a chair. He is a man of genteel appearance, and
that is all. I know nobody who blasts by praise as you do: for whenever
there is exaggerated praise, every body is set against a character. They
are provoked to attack it. Now there is Pepys; you praised that man with
such disproportion, that I was incited to lessen him, perhaps more than
he deserves. His blood is upon your head. By the same principle,
your malice defeats itself; for your censure is too violent. And yet,
(looking to her with a leering smile,) she is the first woman in the
world, could she but restrain that wicked tongue of hers;--she would be
the only woman, could she but command that little whirligig.'
Upon the subject of exaggerated praise I took the liberty to say, that I
thought there might be very high praise given to a known character which
deserved it, and therefore it would not be exaggerated. Thus, one might
say of Mr. Edmund Burke, He is a very wonderful man. JOHNSON. 'No,
Sir, you would not be safe if another man had a mind perversely to
contradict. He might answer, "Where is all the wonder? Burke is, to be
sure, a man of uncommon abilities, with a great quantity of matter in
his mind, and a great fluency of language in his mouth. But we are not
to be stunned and astonished by him." So you see, Sir, even Burke would
suffer, not from any fault of his own, but from your folly.'
Mrs. Thrale mentioned a gentleman who had acquired a fortune of four
thousand a year in trade, but was absolutely miserable, because he could
not talk in company; so miserable, that he was impelled to lament his
situation in the street to ******, whom he hates, and who he knows
despises him. 'I am a most unhappy man, (said he). I am invited
to conversations. I go to conversations; but, alas! I have no
conversation.' JOHNSON. 'Man commonly cannot be successful in different
ways. This gentleman has spent, in getting four thousand pounds a year,
the time in which he might have learnt to talk; and now he cannot talk.'
Mr. Perkins made a shrewd and droll remark: 'If he had got his four
thousand a year as a mountebank, he might have learnt to talk at the
same time that he was getting his fortune.'
Some other gentlemen came in. The conversation concerning the person
whose character Dr. Johnson had treated so slightingly, as he did not
know his merit, was resumed. Mrs. Thrale said, 'You think so of him,
Sir, because he is quiet, and does not exert himself with force. You'll
be saying the same thing of Mr. ***** there, who sits as quiet--.' This
was not well-bred; and Johnson did not let it pass without correction.
'Nay, Madam, what right have you to talk thus? Both Mr. ***** and I have
reason to take it ill. You may talk so of Mr. *****; but why do you make
me do it? Have I said anything against Mr. *****? You have set him, that
I might shoot him: but I have not shot him.'
One of the gentlemen said, he had seen three folio volumes of Dr.
Johnson's sayings collected by me. 'I must put you right, Sir, (said I,)
for I am very exact in authenticity. You could not see folio volumes,
for I have none: you might have seen some in quarto and octavo. This is
inattention which one should guard against.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is a want
of concern about veracity. He does not know that he saw any volumes. If
he had seen them he could have remembered their size.'
Mr. Thrale appeared very lethargick to-day. I saw him again on Monday
evening, at which time he was not thought to be in immediate danger; but
early in the morning of Wednesday, the 4th, he expired. Johnson was in
the house, and thus mentions the event: 'I felt almost the last flutter
of his pulse, and looked for the last time upon the face that for
fifteen years had never been turned upon me but with respect and
benignity.' Upon that day there was a Call of The LITERARY CLUB; but
Johnson apologised for his absence by the following note:--
'MR. JOHNSON knows that Sir Joshua Reynolds and the other gentlemen
will excuse his incompliance with the call, when they are told that Mr.
Thrale died this morning.--Wednesday.'
Mr. Thrale's death was a very essential loss to Johnson, who, although
he did not foresee all that afterwards happened, was sufficiently
convinced that the comforts which Mr. Thrale's family afforded him,
would now in a great measure cease. He, however, continued to shew a
kind attention to his widow and children as long as it was acceptable;
and he took upon him, with a very earnest concern, the office of one of
his executors, the importance of which seemed greater than usual to him,
from his circumstances having been always such, that he had scarcely
any share in the real business of life. His friends of THE CLUB were in
hopes that Mr. Thrale might have made a liberal provision for him for
his life, which, as Mr. Thrale left no son, and a very large fortune, it
would have been highly to his honour to have done; and, considering Dr.
Johnson's age, could not have been of long duration; but he bequeathed
him only two hundred pounds, which was the legacy given to each of his
executors. I could not but be somewhat diverted by hearing Johnson talk
in a pompous manner of his new office, and particularly of the concerns
of the brewery, which it was at last resolved should be sold. Lord Lucan
tells a very good story, which, if not precisely exact, is certainly
characteristical: that when the sale of Thrale's brewery was going
forward, Johnson appeared bustling about, with an ink-horn and pen in
his button-hole, like an excise-man; and on being asked what he really
considered to be the value of the property which was to be disposed of,
answered, 'We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the
potentiality of growing rich, beyond the dreams of avarice.'
On Friday, April 6, he carried me to dine at a club, which, at his
desire, had been lately formed at the Queen's Arms, in St. Paul's
Church-yard. He told Mr. Hoole, that he wished to have a City Club, and
asked him to collect one; but, said he, 'Don't let them be PATRIOTS.'
The company were to-day very sensible, well-behaved men.
On Friday, April 13, being Good-Friday, I went to St. Clement's church
with him as usual. There I saw again his old fellow-collegian, Edwards,
to whom I said, 'I think, Sir, Dr. Johnson and you meet only at
Church.'--'Sir, (said he,) it is the best place we can meet in, except
Heaven, and I hope we shall meet there too.' Dr. Johnson told me, that
there was very little communication between Edwards and him, after their
unexpected renewal of acquaintance. 'But, (said he, smiling), he met me
once, and said, "I am told you have written a very pretty book called
The Rambler." I was unwilling that he should leave the world in total
darkness, and sent him a set.'
Mr. Berrenger visited him to-day, and was very pleasing. We talked of
an evening society for conversation at a house in town, of which we were
all members, but of which Johnson said, 'It will never do, Sir. There is
nothing served about there, neither tea, nor coffee, nor lemonade, nor
any thing whatever; and depend upon it, Sir, a man does not love to
go to a place from whence he comes out exactly as he went in.' I
endeavoured, for argument's sake, to maintain that men of learning and
talents might have very good intellectual society, without the aid of
any little gratifications of the senses. Berrenger joined with Johnson,
and said, that without these any meeting would be dull and insipid. He
would therefore have all the slight refreshments; nay, it would not be
amiss to have some cold meat, and a bottle of wine upon a side-board.
'Sir, (said Johnson to me, with an air of triumph,) Mr. Berrenger
knows the world. Every body loves to have good things furnished to them
without any trouble. I told Mrs. Thrale once, that as she did not choose
to have card tables, she should have a profusion of the best sweetmeats,
and she would be sure to have company enough come to her.'
On Sunday, April 15, being Easter-day, after solemn worship in St.