Boswell's Life of Johnson
you will be pleased to recollect, that you set out with attacking the
Scotch; so you got a whole nation for your enemies.' JOHNSON. 'Why, I
own, that by my definition of OATS I meant to vex them.' BOSWELL. 'Pray,
Sir, can you trace the cause of your antipathy to the Scotch?' JOHNSON.
'I cannot, Sir.' BOSWELL. 'Old Mr. Sheridan says, it was because they
sold Charles the First.' JOHNSON. 'Then, Sir, old Mr. Sheridan has found
out a very good reason.'
I had paid a visit to General Oglethorpe in the morning,* and was told
by him that Dr. Johnson saw company on Saturday evenings, and he would
meet me at Johnson's that night. When I mentioned this to Johnson,
not doubting that it would please him, as he had a great value for
Oglethorpe, the fretfulness of his disease unexpectedly shewed itself;
his anger suddenly kindled, and he said, with vehemence, 'Did not you
tell him not to come? Am I to be HUNTED in this manner?' I satisfied him
that I could not divine that the visit would not be convenient, and that
I certainly could not take it upon me of my own accord to forbid the
General.
* March 22.--Ed.
I found Dr. Johnson in the evening in Mrs. Williams's room, at tea and
coffee with her and Mrs. Desmoulins, who were also both ill; it was a
sad scene, and he was not in very good humour. He said of a performance
that had lately come out, 'Sir, if you should search all the madhouses
in England, you would not find ten men who would write so, and think it
sense.'
I was glad when General Oglethorpe's arrival was announced, and we
left the ladies. Dr. Johnson attended him in the parlour, and was as
courteous as ever.
On Sunday, March 23, I breakfasted with Dr. Johnson, who seemed much
relieved, having taken opium the night before. He however protested
against it, as a remedy that should be given with the utmost reluctance,
and only in extreme necessity. I mentioned how commonly it was used
in Turkey, and that therefore it could not be so pernicious as he
apprehended. He grew warm and said, 'Turks take opium, and Christians
take opium; but Russel, in his Account of Aleppo, tells us, that it is
as disgraceful in Turkey to take too much opium, as it is with us to get
drunk. Sir, it is amazing how things are exaggerated. A gentleman was
lately telling in a company where I was present, that in France as soon
as a man of fashion marries, he takes an opera girl into keeping; and
this he mentioned as a general custom. "Pray, Sir, (said I,) how many
opera girls may there be?" He answered, "About fourscore." "Well then,
Sir, (said I,) you see there can be no more than fourscore men of
fashion who can do this."'
Mrs. Desmoulins made tea; and she and I talked before him upon a
topick which he had once borne patiently from me when we were by
ourselves,--his not complaining of the world, because he was not called
to some great office, nor had attained to great wealth. He flew into a
violent passion, I confess with some justice, and commanded us to have
done. 'Nobody, (said he,) has a right to talk in this manner, to bring
before a man his own character, and the events of his life, when he does
not choose it should be done. I never have sought the world; the world
was not to seek me. It is rather wonderful that so much has been done
for me. All the complaints which are made of the world are unjust. I
never knew a man of merit neglected: it was generally by his own fault
that he failed of success. A man may hide his head in a hole: he may go
into the country, and publish a book now and then, which nobody reads,
and then complain he is neglected. There is no reason why any person
should exert himself for a man who has written a good book: he has
not written it for any individual. I may as well make a present to the
postman who brings me a letter. When patronage was limited, an authour
expected to find a Maecenas, and complained if he did not find one. Why
should he complain? This Maecenas has others as good as he, or others
who have got the start of him.'
On the subject of the right employment of wealth, Johnson observed, 'A
man cannot make a bad use of his money, so far as regards Society, if he
does not hoard it; for if he either spends it or lends it out, Society
has the benefit. It is in general better to spend money than to give it
away; for industry is more promoted by spending money than by giving it
away. A man who spends his money is sure he is doing good with it: he is
not so sure when he gives it away. A man who spends ten thousand a year
will do more good than a man who spends two thousand and gives away
eight.'
In the evening I came to him again. He was somewhat fretful from his
illness. A gentleman asked him, whether he had been abroad to-day.
'Don't talk so childishly, (said he.) You may as well ask if I hanged
myself to-day.' I mentioned politicks. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I'd as soon have
a man to break my bones as talk to me of publick affairs, internal or
external. I have lived to see things all as bad as they can be.'
He said, 'Goldsmith's blundering speech to Lord Shelburne, which has
been so often mentioned, and which he really did make to him, was only a
blunder in emphasis: "I wonder they should call your Lordship Malagrida,
for Malagrida was a very good man;" meant, I wonder they should use
Malagrida as a term of reproach.'
Soon after this time I had an opportunity of seeing, by means of one of
his friends, a proof that his talents, as well as his obliging service
to authours, were ready as ever. He had revised The Village, an
admirable poem, by the Reverend Mr. Crabbe. Its sentiments as to
the false notions of rustick happiness and rustick virtue were quite
congenial with his own; and he had taken the trouble not only to suggest
slight corrections and variations, but to furnish some lines, when he
thought he could give the writer's meaning better than in the words of
the manuscript.
On Sunday, March 30, I found him at home in the evening, and had the
pleasure to meet with Dr. Brocklesby, whose reading, and knowledge
of life, and good spirits, supply him with a never-failing source of
conversation.
I shall here insert a few of Johnson's sayings, without the formality of
dates, as they have no reference to any particular time or place.
'The more a man extends and varies his acquaintance the better.' This,
however, was meant with a just restriction; for, he on another occasion
said to me, 'Sir, a man may be so much of every thing, that he is
nothing of any thing.'
'It is a very good custom to keep a journal for a man's own use; he may
write upon a card a day all that is necessary to be written, after
he has had experience of life. At first there is a great deal to be
written, because there is a great deal of novelty; but when once a man
has settled his opinions, there is seldom much to be set down.'
Talking of an acquaintance of ours, whose narratives, which abounded
in curious and interesting topicks, were unhappily found to be very
fabulous; I mentioned Lord Mansfield's having said to me, 'Suppose we
believe one HALF of what he tells.' JOHNSON. 'Ay; but we don't know
WHICH half to believe. By his lying we lose not only our reverence for
him, but all comfort in his conversation.' BOSWELL. 'May we not take
it as amusing fiction?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, the misfortune is, that you will
insensibly believe as much of it as you incline to believe.'
It is remarkable, that notwithstanding their congeniality in politicks,
he never was acquainted with a late eminent noble judge, whom I have
heard speak of him as a writer, with great respect. Johnson, I know not
upon what degree of investigation, entertained no exalted opinion of
his Lordship's intellectual character. Talking of him to me one day, he
said, 'It is wonderful, Sir, with how little real superiority of mind
men can make an eminent figure in publick life.' He expressed himself to
the same purpose concerning another law-Lord, who, it seems, once took a
fancy to associate with the wits of London; but with so little success,
that Foote said, 'What can he mean by coming among us? He is not only
dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.' Trying him by the
test of his colloquial powers, Johnson had found him very defective. He
once said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'This man now has been ten years about
town, and has made nothing of it;' meaning as a companion. He said
to me, 'I never heard any thing from him in company that was at all
striking; and depend upon it, Sir, it is when you come close to a man in
conversation, that you discover what his real abilities are; to make
a speech in a publick assembly is a knack. Now I honour Thurlow, Sir;
Thurlow is a fine fellow; he fairly puts his mind to yours.'
After repeating to him some of his pointed, lively sayings, I said, 'It
is a pity, Sir, you don't always remember your own good things, that you
may have a laugh when you will.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, it is better that
I forget them, that I may be reminded of them, and have a laugh on their
being brought to my recollection.'
When I recalled to him his having said as we sailed up Loch-lomond,
'That if he wore any thing fine, it should be VERY fine;' I observed
that all his thoughts were upon a great scale. JOHNSON. 'Depend upon
it, Sir, every man will have as fine a thing as he can get; as a large
diamond for his ring.' BOSWELL. 'Pardon me, Sir: a man of a narrow mind
will not think of it, a slight trinket will satisfy him:
"Nec sufferre queat majoris pondera gemmae."'
I told him I should send him some Essays which I had written, which
I hoped he would be so good as to read, and pick out the good ones.
JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, send me only the good ones; don't make ME pick
them.'
As a small proof of his kindliness and delicacy of feeling, the
following circumstance may be mentioned: One evening when we were in the
street together, and I told him I was going to sup at Mr. Beauclerk's,
he said, 'I'll go with you.' After having walked part of the way,
seeming to recollect something, he suddenly stopped and said, 'I cannot
go,--but I do not love Beauclerk the less.'
On the frame of his portrait, Mr. Beauclerk had inscribed,--
'-------- Ingenium ingens
Inculto latet hoc sub corpore.'
After Mr. Beauclerk's death, when it became Mr. Langton's property, he
made the inscription be defaced. Johnson said complacently, 'It was kind
in you to take it off;' and then after a short pause, added, 'and not
unkind in him to put it on.'
He said, 'How few of his friends' houses would a man choose to be at
when he is sick.' He mentioned one or two. I recollect only Thrale's.
He observed, 'There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an
old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle-aged man, when
leaving a company, does not recollect where he laid his hat, it is
nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people
will shrug up their shoulders, and say, "His memory is going."'
Sir Joshua Reynolds communicated to me the following particulars:--
Johnson thought the poems published as translations from Ossian had so
little merit, that he said, 'Sir, a man might write such stuff for ever,
if he would ABANDON his mind to it.'
He said, 'A man should pass a part of his time with THE LAUGHERS,
by which means any thing ridiculous or particular about him might be
presented to his view, and corrected.' I observed, he must have been a
bold laugher who would have ventured to tell Dr. Johnson of any of his
particularities.*
* I am happy, however, to mention a pleasing instance of his
enduring with great gentleness to hear one of his most
striking particularities pointed out:--Miss Hunter, a niece
of his friend Christopher Smart, when a very young girl,