Boswell's Life of Johnson
me, with solemn earnestness, a very remarkable circumstance which had
happened in the course of his illness, when he was much distressed by
the dropsy. He had shut himself up, and employed a day in particular
exercises of religion--fasting, humiliation, and prayer. On a sudden
he obtained extraordinary relief, for which he looked up to Heaven with
grateful devotion. He made no direct inference from this fact; but from
his manner of telling it, I could perceive that it appeared to him as
something more than an incident in the common course of events. For my
own part, I have no difficulty to avow that cast of thinking, which by
many modern pretenders to wisdom is called SUPERSTITIOUS. But here
I think even men of dry rationality may believe, that there was an
intermediate interposition of Divine Providence, and that 'the fervent
prayer of this righteous man' availed.
On Saturday, May 15, I dined with him at Dr. Brocklesby's, where were
Colonel Vallancy, Mr. Murphy, and that ever-cheerful companion Mr.
Devaynes, apothecary to his Majesty. Of these days, and others on which
I saw him, I have no memorials, except the general recollection of his
being able and animated in conversation, and appearing to relish
society as much as the youngest man. I find only these three small
particulars:--When a person was mentioned, who said, 'I have lived
fifty-one years in this world without having had ten minutes of
uneasiness;' he exclaimed, 'The man who says so, lies: he attempts to
impose on human credulity.' The Bishop of Exeter in vain observed, that
men were very different. His Lordship's manner was not impressive, and
I learnt afterwards that Johnson did not find out that the person who
talked to him was a Prelate; if he had, I doubt not that he would have
treated him with more respect; for once talking of George Psalmanazar,
whom he reverenced for his piety, he said, 'I should as soon think of
contradicting a BISHOP.' One of the company* provoked him greatly by
doing what he could least of all bear, which was quoting something of
his own writing, against what he then maintained. 'What, Sir, (cried the
gentleman,) do you say to
"The busy day, the peaceful night,
Unfelt, uncounted, glided by?"'--
Johnson finding himself thus presented as giving an instance of a man
who had lived without uneasiness, was much offended, for he looked upon
such a quotation as unfair. His anger burst out in an unjustifiable
retort, insinuating that the gentleman's remark was a sally of ebriety;
'Sir, there is one passion I would advise you to command: when you have
drunk out that glass, don't drink another.' Here was exemplified what
Goldsmith said of him, with the aid of a very witty image from one of
Cibber's Comedies: 'There is no arguing with Johnson; for if his pistol
misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.' Another was
this: when a gentleman of eminence in the literary world was violently
censured for attacking people by anonymous paragraphs in news-papers;
he, from the spirit of contradiction as I thought, took up his defence,
and said, 'Come, come, this is not so terrible a crime; he means only
to vex them a little. I do not say that I should do it; but there is a
great difference between him and me; what is fit for Hephaestion is not
fit for Alexander.' Another, when I told him that a young and handsome
Countess had said to me, 'I should think that to be praised by Dr.
Johnson would make one a fool all one's life;' and that I answered,
'Madam, I shall make him a fool to-day, by repeating this to him,' he
said, 'I am too old to be made a fool; but if you say I am made a fool,
I shall not deny it. I am much pleased with a compliment, especially
from a pretty woman.'
* Boswell himself, likely enough.--HILL.
On the evening of Saturday, May 15, he was in fine spirits, at our
Essex-Head Club. He told us, 'I dined yesterday at Mrs. Garrick's, with
Mrs. Carter, Miss Hannah More, and Miss Fanny Burney. Three such women
are not to be found: I know not where I could find a fourth, except Mrs.
Lennox, who is superiour to them all.' BOSWELL. 'What! had you them all
to yourself, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'I had them all as much as they were had;
but it might have been better had there been more company there.'
BOSWELL. 'Might not Mrs. Montagu have been a fourth?' JOHNSON. 'Sir,
Mrs. Montagu does not make a trade of her wit; but Mrs. Montagu is a
very extraordinary woman; she has a constant stream of conversation, and
it is always impregnated; it has always meaning.' BOSWELL. 'Mr. Burke
has a constant stream of conversation.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; if a man
were to go by chance at the same time with Burke under a shed, to shun a
shower, he would say--"this is an extraordinary man." If Burke should go
into a stable to see his horse drest, the ostler would say--"we have had
an extraordinary man here."' BOSWELL. 'Foote was a man who never failed
in conversation. If he had gone into a stable--' JOHNSON. 'Sir, if he
had gone into a stable, the ostler would have said, "here has been a
comical fellow"; but he would not have respected him.' BOSWELL. 'And,
Sir, the ostler would have answered him, would have given him as good
as he brought, as the common saying is.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; and Foote
would have answered the ostler.--When Burke does not descend to be
merry, his conversation is very superiour indeed. There is no proportion
between the powers which he shews in serious talk and in jocularity.
When he lets himself down to that, he is in the kennel.' I have in
another place opposed, and I hope with success, Dr. Johnson's very
singular and erroneous notion as to Mr. Burke's pleasantry. Mr. Windham
now said low to me, that he differed from our great friend in this
observation; for that Mr. Burke was often very happy in his merriment.
It would not have been right for either of us to have contradicted
Johnson at this time, in a Society all of whom did not know and value
Mr. Burke as much as we did. It might have occasioned something more
rough, and at any rate would probably have checked the flow of Johnson's
good-humour. He called to us with a sudden air of exultation, as the
thought started into his mind, 'O! Gentlemen, I must tell you a very
great thing. The Empress of Russia has ordered the Rambler to be
translated into the Russian language: so I shall be read on the banks of
the Wolga. Horace boasts that his fame would extend as far as the banks
of the Rhone; now the Wolga is farther from me than the Rhone was
from Horace.' BOSWELL. 'You must certainly be pleased with this, Sir.'
JOHNSON. 'I am pleased, Sir, to be sure. A man is pleased to find he has
succeeded in that which he has endeavoured to do.'
One of the company mentioned his having seen a noble person driving in
his carriage, and looking exceedingly well, notwithstanding his great
age. JOHNSON. 'Ah, Sir; that is nothing. Bacon observes, that a stout
healthy old man is like a tower undermined.'
On Sunday, May 16, I found him alone; he talked of Mrs. Thrale with much
concern, saying, 'Sir, she has done every thing wrong, since
Thrale's bridle was off her neck;' and was proceeding to mention some
circumstances which have since been the subject of publick discussion,
when he was interrupted by the arrival of Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of
Salisbury.
In one of his little manuscript diaries, about this time, I find a
short notice, which marks his amiable disposition more certainly than
a thousand studied declarations.--'Afternoon spent cheerfully and
elegantly, I hope without offence to GOD or man; though in no holy duty,
yet in the general exercise and cultivation of benevolence.'
On Monday, May 17, I dined with him at Mr. Dilly's, where were Colonel
Vallancy, the Reverend Dr. Gibbons, and Mr. Capel Lofft, who, though a
most zealous Whig, has a mind so full of learning and knowledge, and so
much exercised in various departments, and withal so much liberality,
that the stupendous powers of the literary Goliath, though they did not
frighten this little David of popular spirit, could not but excite his
admiration. There was also Mr. Braithwaite of the Post-office, that
amiable and friendly man, who, with modest and unassuming manners, has
associated with many of the wits of the age. Johnson was very quiescent
to-day. Perhaps too I was indolent. I find nothing more of him in my
notes, but that when I mentioned that I had seen in the King's library
sixty-three editions of my favourite Thomas a Kempis, amongst which
it was in eight languages, Latin, German, French, Italian, Spanish,
English, Arabick, and Armenian, he said, he thought it unnecessary to
collect many editions of a book, which were all the same, except as
to the paper and print; he would have the original, and all the
translations, and all the editions which had any variations in the text.
He approved of the famous collection of editions of Horace by Douglas,
mentioned by Pope, who is said to have had a closet filled with them;
and he added, every man should try to collect one book in that manner,
and present it to a publick library.'
On Wednesday, May 19, I sat a part of the evening with him, by
ourselves. I observed, that the death of our friends might be a
consolation against the fear of our own dissolution, because we might
have more friends in the other world than in this. He perhaps felt this
as a reflection upon his apprehension as to death; and said, with heat,
'How can a man know WHERE his departed friends are, or whether they will
be his friends in the other world? How many friendships have you known
formed upon principles of virtue? Most friendships are formed by caprice
or by chance, mere confederacies in vice or leagues in folly.'
We talked of our worthy friend Mr. Langton. He said, 'I know not who
will go to Heaven if Langton does not. Sir, I could almost say, Sit
anima mea cum Langtono.' I mentioned a very eminent friend as a virtuous
man. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; but ------ has not the evangelical virtue of
Langton. ------, I am afraid, would not scruple to pick up a wench.'
He however charged Mr. Langton with what he thought want of judgment
upon an interesting occasion. 'When I was ill, (said he,) I desired he
would tell me sincerely in what he thought my life was faulty. Sir, he
brought me a sheet of paper, on which he had written down several texts
of Scripture, recommending christian charity. And when I questioned him
what occasion I had given for such an animadversion, all that he
could say amounted to this,--that I sometimes contradicted people in
conversation. Now what harm does it do to any man to be contradicted?'
BOSWELL. 'I suppose he meant the MANNER of doing it; roughly,--and
harshly.' JOHNSON. 'And who is the worse for that?' BOSWELL. 'It hurts
people of weak nerves.' JOHNSON. 'I know no such weak-nerved people.'
Mr. Burke, to whom I related this conference, said, 'It is well, if
when a man comes to die, he has nothing heavier upon his conscience than
having been a little rough in conversation.'
Johnson, at the time when the paper was presented to him, though at
first pleased with the attention of his friend, whom he thanked in an
earnest manner, soon exclaimed, in a loud and angry tone, 'What is your
drift, Sir?' Sir Joshua Reynolds pleasantly observed, that it was a
scene for a comedy, to see a penitent get into a violent passion and
belabour his confessor.
He had dined that day at Mr. Hoole's, and Miss Helen Maria Williams
being expected in the evening, Mr. Hoole put into his hands her
beautiful Ode on the Peace: Johnson read it over, and when this elegant
and accomplished young lady was presented to him, he took her by the
hand in the most courteous manner, and repeated the finest stanza of her