Boswell's Life of Johnson
that 'Mr. Young, son of Dr. Young, the authour of Night Thoughts, whom
I had just left, desired to have the honour of seeing him at the house
where his father lived.' Dr. Johnson luckily made no inquiry how this
invitation had arisen, but agreed to go, and when we entered Mr.
Young's parlour, he addressed him with a very polite bow, 'Sir, I had
a curiosity to come and see this place. I had the honour to know that
great man, your father.' We went into the garden, where we found a
gravel walk, on each side of which was a row of trees, planted by Dr.
Young, which formed a handsome Gothick arch; Dr. Johnson called it a
fine grove. I beheld it with reverence.
We sat some time in the summer-house, on the outside wall of which was
inscribed, 'Ambulantes in horto audiebant vocem Dei;' and in reference
to a brook by which it is situated, 'Vivendi recte qui prorogat horam,'
&c. I said to Mr. Young, that I had been told his father was cheerful.
'Sir, (said he,) he was too well-bred a man not to be cheerful in
company; but he was gloomy when alone. He never was cheerful after my
mother's death, and he had met with many disappointments.' Dr. Johnson
observed to me afterwards, 'That this was no favourable account of Dr.
Young; for it is not becoming in a man to have so little acquiescence in
the ways of Providence, as to be gloomy because he has not obtained as
much preferment as he expected; nor to continue gloomy for the loss
of his wife. Grief has its time.' The last part of this censure was
theoretically made. Practically, we know that grief for the loss of a
wife may be continued very long, in proportion as affection has been
sincere. No man knew this better than Dr. Johnson.
Upon the road we talked of the uncertainty of profit with which authours
and booksellers engage in the publication of literary works. JOHNSON.
'My judgement I have found is no certain rule as to the sale of a book.'
BOSWELL. 'Pray, Sir, have you been much plagued with authours sending
you their works to revise?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; I have been thought
a sour, surly fellow.' BOSWELL. 'Very lucky for you, Sir,--in that
respect.' I must however observe, that notwithstanding what he now
said, which he no doubt imagined at the time to be the fact, there was,
perhaps, no man who more frequently yielded to the solicitations even
of very obscure authours, to read their manuscripts, or more liberally
assisted them with advice and correction.
He found himself very happy at 'Squire Dilly's, where there is always
abundance of excellent fare, and hearty welcome.
On Sunday, June 3, we all went to Southill church, which is very near
to Mr. Dilly's house. It being the first Sunday of the month, the holy
sacrament was administered, and I staid to partake of it. When I came
afterwards into Dr. Johnson's room, he said, 'You did right to stay and
receive the communion; I had not thought of it.' This seemed to
imply that he did not choose to approach the altar without a previous
preparation, as to which good men entertain different opinions, some
holding that it is irreverent to partake of that ordinance without
considerable premeditation.
Although upon most occasions I never heard a more strenuous advocate for
the advantages of wealth, than Dr. Johnson: he this day, I know not from
what caprice, took the other side. 'I have not observed (said he,) that
men of very large fortunes enjoy any thing extraordinary that
makes happiness. What has the Duke of Bedford? What has the Duke of
Devonshire? The only great instance that I have ever known of the
enjoyment of wealth was, that of Jamaica Dawkins, who, going to visit
Palmyra, and hearing that the way was infested by robbers, hired a troop
of Turkish horse to guard him.'
Dr. Gibbons, the Dissenting minister, being mentioned, he said, 'I took
to Dr. Gibbons.' And addressing himself to Mr. Charles Dilly, added, 'I
shall be glad to see him. Tell him, if he'll call on me, and dawdle over
a dish of tea in an afternoon, I shall take it kind.'
The Reverend Mr. Smith, Vicar of Southill, a very respectable man,
with a very agreeable family, sent an invitation to us to drink tea. I
remarked Dr. Johnson's very respectful politeness. Though always fond of
changing the scene, he said, 'We must have Mr. Dilly's leave. We cannot
go from your house, Sir, without your permission.' We all went, and were
well satisfied with our visit.
When I observed that a housebreaker was in general very timorous;
JOHNSON. 'No wonder, Sir; he is afraid of being shot getting INTO a
house, or hanged when he has got OUT of it.'
He told us, that he had in one day written six sheets of a translation
from the French, adding, 'I should be glad to see it now. I wish that I
had copies of all the pamphlets written against me, as it is said Pope
had. Had I known that I should make so much noise in the world, I should
have been at pains to collect them. I believe there is hardly a day in
which there is not something about me in the newspapers.'
On Monday, June 4, we all went to Luton-Hoe, to see Lord Bute's
magnificent seat, for which I had obtained a ticket. As we entered
the park, I talked in a high style of my old friendship with Lord
Mountstuart, and said, 'I shall probably be much at this place.' The
Sage, aware of human vicissitudes, gently checked me: 'Don't you be too
sure of that.' He made two or three peculiar observations; as when shewn
the botanical garden, 'Is not EVERY garden a botanical garden?' When
told that there was a shrubbery to the extent of several miles: 'That is
making a very foolish use of the ground; a little of it is very well.'
When it was proposed that we should walk on the pleasure-ground; 'Don't
let us fatigue ourselves. Why should we walk there? Here's a fine
tree, let's get to the top of it.' But upon the whole, he was very much
pleased. He said, 'This is one of the places I do not regret having come
to see. It is a very stately place, indeed; in the house magnificence
is not sacrificed to convenience, nor convenience to magnificence. The
library is very splendid: the dignity of the rooms is very great; and
the quantity of pictures is beyond expectation, beyond hope.'
It happened without any previous concert, that we visited the seat of
Lord Bute upon the King's birthday; we dined and drank his Majesty's
health at an inn, in the village of Luton.
In the evening I put him in mind of his promise to favour me with a copy
of his celebrated Letter to the Earl of Chesterfield, and he was at last
pleased to comply with this earnest request, by dictating it to me from
his memory; for he believed that he himself had no copy. There was an
animated glow in his countenance while he thus recalled his high-minded
indignation.
On Tuesday, June 5, Johnson was to return to London. He was very
pleasant at breakfast; I mentioned a friend of mine having resolved
never to marry a pretty woman. JOHNSON. 'Sir it is a very foolish
resolution to resolve not to marry a pretty woman. Beauty is of itself
very estimable. No, Sir, I would prefer a pretty woman, unless there are
objections to her. A pretty woman may be foolish; a pretty woman may be
wicked; a pretty woman may not like me. But there is no such danger in
marrying a pretty woman as is apprehended: she will not be persecuted if
she does not invite persecution. A pretty woman, if she has a mind to be
wicked, can find a readier way than another; and that is all.'
At Shefford I had another affectionate parting from my revered friend,
who was taken up by the Bedford coach and carried to the metropolis. I
went with Messieurs Dilly, to see some friends at Bedford; dined with
the officers of the militia of the county, and next day proceeded on my
journey.
Johnson's charity to the poor was uniform and extensive, both from
inclination and principle. He not only bestowed liberally out of his
own purse, but what is more difficult as well as rare, would beg from
others, when he had proper objects in view. This he did judiciously as
well as humanely. Mr. Philip Metcalfe tells me, that when he has asked
him for some money for persons in distress, and Mr. Metcalfe has offered
what Johnson thought too much, he insisted on taking less, saying, 'No,
no, Sir; we must not PAMPER them.'
I am indebted to Mr. Malone, one of Sir Joshua Reynolds's executors, for
the following note, which was found among his papers after his death,
and which, we may presume, his unaffected modesty prevented him from
communicating to me with the other letters from Dr. Johnson with which
he was pleased to furnish me. However slight in itself, as it does
honour to that illustrious painter, and most amiable man, I am happy to
introduce it.
'TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
'DEAR SIR,--It was not before yesterday that I received your splendid
benefaction. To a hand so liberal in distributing, I hope nobody will
envy the power of acquiring. I am, dear Sir, your obliged and most
humble servant,
'June 23, 1781.'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
The following curious anecdote I insert in Dr. Burney's own words:--
'Dr. Burney related to Dr. Johnson the partiality which his writings had
excited in a friend of Dr. Burney's, the late Mr. Bewley, well known
in Norfolk by the name of the Philosopher of Massingham: who, from the
Ramblers and Plan of his Dictionary, and long before the authour's
fame was established by the Dictionary itself, or any other work, had
conceived such a reverence for him, that he urgently begged Dr. Burney
to give him the cover of the first letter he had received from him, as
a relick of so estimable a writer. This was in 1755. In 1760, when Dr.
Burney visited Dr. Johnson at the Temple in London, where he had then
chambers, he happened to arrive there before he was up; and being shewn
into the room where he was to breakfast, finding himself alone,
he examined the contents of the apartment, to try whether he could
undiscovered steal anything to send to his friend Bewley, as another
relick of the admirable Dr. Johnson. But finding nothing better to his
purpose, he cut some bristles off his hearth-broom, and enclosed them
in a letter to his country enthusiast, who received them with due
reverence. The Doctor was so sensible of the honour done him by a man
of genius and science, to whom he was an utter stranger, that he said to
Dr. Burney, "Sir, there is no man possessed of the smallest portion of
modesty, but must be flattered with the admiration of such a man. I'll
give him a set of my Lives, if he will do me the honour to accept
of them." In this he kept his word; and Dr. Burney had not only the
pleasure of gratifying his friend with a present more worthy of his
acceptance than the segment from the hearth-broom, but soon after of
introducing him to Dr. Johnson himself in Bolt-court, with whom he had
the satisfaction of conversing a considerable time, not a fortnight
before his death; which happened in St. Martin's-street, during his
visit to Dr. Burney, in the house where the great Sir Isaac Newton had
lived and died before.'
In one of his little memorandum-books is the following minute:--
'August 9, 3 P.M., aetat. 72, in the summer-house at Streatham.
'After innumerable resolutions formed and neglected, I have retired
hither, to plan a life of greater diligence, in hope that I may yet be
useful, and be daily better prepared to appear before my Creator and
my Judge, from whose infinite mercy I humbly call for assistance and
support.
'My purpose is,
'To pass eight hours every day in some serious employment.
'Having prayed, I purpose to employ the next six weeks upon the Italian
language, for my settled study.'
In autumn he went to Oxford, Birmingham, Lichfield, and Ashbourne, for
which very good reasons might be given in the conjectural yet positive