Boswell's Life of Johnson
notice of this hint; but in a little while, he called to Mr. Dilly,
'Pray, Sir, be so good as to send a set of my Lives to Mr. Wilkes, with
my compliments.' This was accordingly done; and Mr. Wilkes paid Dr.
Johnson a visit, was courteously received, and sat with him a long time.
The company gradually dropped away. Mr. Dilly himself was called down
stairs upon business; I left the room for some time; when I returned,
I was struck with observing Dr. Samuel Johnson and John Wilkes, Esq.,
literally tete-a-tete; for they were reclined upon their chairs, with
their heads leaning almost close to each other, and talking earnestly,
in a kind of confidential whisper, of the personal quarrel between
George the Second and the King of Prussia. Such a scene of perfectly
easy sociality between two such opponents in the war of political
controversy, as that which I now beheld, would have been an excellent
subject for a picture. It presented to my mind the happy days which are
foretold in Scripture, when the lion shall lie down with the kid.
After this day there was another pretty long interval, during which Dr.
Johnson and I did not meet. When I mentioned it to him with regret, he
was pleased to say, 'Then, Sir, let us live double.'
About this time it was much the fashion for several ladies to have
evening assemblies, where the fair sex might participate in conversation
with literary and ingenious men, animated by a desire to please. These
societies were denominated Blue-stocking Clubs, the origin of which
title being little known, it may be worth while to relate it. One of the
most eminent members of those societies, when they first commenced, was
Mr. Stillingfleet, whose dress was remarkably grave, and in particular
it was observed, that he wore blue stockings. Such was the excellence of
his conversation, that his absence was felt as so great a loss, that
it used to be said, 'We can do nothing without the blue stockings;'
and thus by degrees the title was established. Miss Hannah More has
admirably described a Blue-stocking Club, in her Bas Bleu, a poem in
which many of the persons who were most conspicuous there are mentioned.
Johnson was prevailed with to come sometimes into these circles, and
did not think himself too grave even for the lively Miss Monckton (now
Countess of Corke), who used to have the finest BIT OF BLUE at the house
of her mother, Lady Galway. Her vivacity enchanted the Sage, and they
used to talk together with all imaginable ease. A singular instance
happened one evening, when she insisted that some of Sterne's writings
were very pathetick. Johnson bluntly denied it. 'I am sure (said she,)
they have affected ME.' 'Why, (said Johnson, smiling, and rolling
himself about,) that is, because, dearest, you're a dunce.' When she
some time afterwards mentioned this to him, he said with equal truth
and politeness; 'Madam, if I had thought so, I certainly should not have
said it.'
Another evening Johnson's kind indulgence towards me had a pretty
difficult trial. I had dined at the Duke of Montrose's with a very
agreeable party, and his Grace, according to his usual custom, had
circulated the bottle very freely. Lord Graham and I went together to
Miss Monckton's, where I certainly was in extraordinary spirits, and
above all fear or awe. In the midst of a great number of persons of the
first rank, amongst whom I recollect with confusion, a noble lady of
the most stately decorum, I placed myself next to Johnson, and thinking
myself now fully his match, talked to him in a loud and boisterous
manner, desirous to let the company know how I could contend with Ajax.
I particularly remember pressing him upon the value of the pleasures
of the imagination, and as an illustration of my argument, asking him,
'What, Sir, supposing I were to fancy that the ----- (naming the most
charming Duchess in his Majesty's dominions) were in love with me,
should I not be very happy?' My friend with much address evaded my
interrogatories, and kept me as quiet as possible; but it may easily be
conceived how he must have felt. However, when a few days afterwards I
waited upon him and made an apology, he behaved with the most friendly
gentleness.
While I remained in London this year, Johnson and I dined together at
several places. I recollect a placid day at Dr. Butter's, who had
now removed from Derby to Lower Grosvenor-street, London; but of his
conversation on that and other occasions during this period, I neglected
to keep any regular record, and shall therefore insert here some
miscellaneous articles which I find in my Johnsonian notes.
His disorderly habits, when 'making provision for the day that was
passing over him,' appear from the following anecdote, communicated to
me by Mr. John Nichols:--'In the year 1763, a young bookseller, who was
an apprentice to Mr. Whiston, waited on him with a subscription to his
Shakspeare: and observing that the Doctor made no entry in any book of
the subscriber's name, ventured diffidently to ask, whether he would
please to have the gentleman's address, that it might be properly
inserted in the printed list of subscribers. "I shall print no list
of subscribers;" said Johnson, with great abruptness: but almost
immediately recollecting himself, added, very complacently, "Sir, I have
two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers;--one,
that I have lost all the names,--the other, that I have spent all the
money."
Johnson could not brook appearing to be worsted in argument, even when
he had taken the wrong side, to shew the force and dexterity of his
talents. When, therefore, he perceived that his opponent gained ground,
he had recourse to some sudden mode of robust sophistry. Once when I was
pressing upon him with visible advantage, he stopped me thus:--'My dear
Boswell, let's have no more of this; you'll make nothing of it. I'd
rather have you whistle a Scotch tune.'
Care, however, must be taken to distinguish between Johnson when he
'talked for victory,' and Johnson when he had no desire but to inform
and illustrate. 'One of Johnson's principal talents (says an eminent
friend of his) was shewn in maintaining the wrong side of an argument,
and in a splendid perversion of the truth. If you could contrive to
have his fair opinion on a subject, and without any bias from personal
prejudice, or from a wish to be victorious in argument, it was wisdom
itself, not only convincing, but overpowering.'
He had, however, all his life habituated himself to consider
conversation as a trial of intellectual vigour and skill; and to this, I
think, we may venture to ascribe that unexampled richness and brilliancy
which appeared in his own. As a proof at once of his eagerness for
colloquial distinction, and his high notion of this eminent friend,
he once addressed him thus:-- '-----, we now have been several hours
together; and you have said but one thing for which I envied you.'
Goldsmith could sometimes take adventurous liberties with him, and
escape unpunished. Beauclerk told me that when Goldsmith talked of a
project for having a third Theatre in London, solely for the exhibition
of new plays, in order to deliver authours from the supposed tyranny
of managers, Johnson treated it slightingly; upon which Goldsmith said,
'Ay, ay, this may be nothing to you, who can now shelter yourself behind
the corner of a pension;' and that Johnson bore this with good-humour.
Johnson had called twice on the Bishop of Killaloe before his Lordship
set out for Ireland, having missed him the first time. He said, 'It
would have hung heavy on my heart if I had not seen him. No man ever
paid more attention to another than he has done to me; and I have
neglected him, not wilfully, but from being otherwise occupied. Always,
Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination
prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love
you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.'
I asked him if he was not dissatisfied with having so small a share
of wealth, and none of those distinctions in the state which are the
objects of ambition. He had only a pension of three hundred a year. Why
was he not in such circumstances as to keep his coach? Why had he not
some considerable office? JOHNSON. 'Sir, I have never complained of the
world; nor do I think that I have reason to complain. It is rather to
be wondered at that I have so much. My pension is more out of the usual
course of things than any instance that I have known. Here, Sir, was
a man avowedly no friend to Government at the time, who got a pension
without asking for it. I never courted the great; they sent for me; but
I think they now give me up. They are satisfied; they have seen enough
of me.'
Strange, however, it is, to consider how few of the great sought his
society; so that if one were disposed to take occasion for satire on
that account, very conspicuous objects present themselves. His noble
friend, Lord Elibank, well observed, that if a great man procured an
interview with Johnson, and did not wish to see him more, it shewed a
mere idle curiosity, and a wretched want of relish for extraordinary
powers of mind. Mrs. Thrale justly and wittily accounted for such
conduct by saying, that Johnson's conversation was by much too strong
for a person accustomed to obsequiousness and flattery; it was mustard
in a young child's mouth!
On Saturday, June 2, I set out for Scotland, and had promised to pay a
visit in my way, as I sometimes did, at Southill, in Bedfordshire, at
the hospitable mansion of 'Squire Dilly, the elder brother of my worthy
friends, the booksellers, in the Poultry. Dr. Johnson agreed to be of
the party this year, with Mr. Charles Dilly and me, and to go and see
Lord Bute's seat at Luton Hoe. He talked little to us in the carriage,
being chiefly occupied in reading Dr. Watson's second volume of Chemical
Essays, which he liked very well, and his own Prince of Abyssinia, on
which he seemed to be intensely fixed; having told us, that he had not
looked at it since it was first published. I happened to take it out of
my pocket this day, and he seized upon it with avidity.
We stopped at Welwyn, where I wished much to see, in company with Dr.
Johnson, the residence of the authour of Night Thoughts, which was then
possessed by his son, Mr. Young. Here some address was requisite, for
I was not acquainted with Mr. Young, and had I proposed to Dr. Johnson
that we should send to him, he would have checked my wish, and perhaps
been offended. I therefore concerted with Mr. Dilly, that I should steal
away from Dr. Johnson and him, and try what reception I could procure
from Mr. Young; if unfavourable, nothing was to be said; but if
agreeable, I should return and notify it to them. I hastened to Mr.
Young's, found he was at home, sent in word that a gentleman desired to
wait upon him, and was shewn into a parlour, where he and a young lady,
his daughter, were sitting. He appeared to be a plain, civil, country
gentleman; and when I begged pardon for presuming to trouble him, but
that I wished much to see his place, if he would give me leave; he
behaved very courteously, and answered, 'By all means, Sir; we are just
going to drink tea; will you sit down?' I thanked him, but said, that
Dr. Johnson had come with me from London, and I must return to the inn
and drink tea with him; that my name was Boswell, I had travelled with
him in the Hebrides. 'Sir, (said he,) I should think it a great honour
to see Dr. Johnson here. Will you allow me to send for him?' Availing
myself of this opening, I said that 'I would go myself and bring him,
when he had drunk tea; he knew nothing of my calling here.' Having been
thus successful, I hastened back to the inn, and informed Dr. Johnson