Deformities of Samuel Johnson, Selected from his Works Part 7

[1] Read Mr Mason's Ode to Truth, and pick out a single sentiment if you can.

[2] World, No. 100.

[3] Swift had the splendid misfortune to be a man of genius. By a very singular felicity, he excelled both in verse and prose. He boasted, that no _new_ word was to be found in his volumes; though, in glory above all writers of his time, he did not fancy _that_ ent.i.tled him to ingross or insult conversation. He was no less remarkably clean, than _some_ are remarkably dirty. His love of fame never led him into the lowest of all vices; and a sense of his own dignity made him respect the importance and the feelings of others. He often went many miles on foot, that he might be able to bestow on the poor, what a coach would have cost him.

He raised some hundreds of families from beggary, by lending them five pounds a-piece only. He inspired his footmen with Celtic attachment.

Whatever was his pride, he shewed none of it in 'the venerable presence of misery.' Though a poet he was free from vanity; though an author and a divine, his example did not fall behind his precepts; though a courtier, he disdained to fawn on his superiors; though a patriot, he never, like our successive generations of blasted orators, sacrificed his principles to his pa.s.sions. 'His meanest talent was his wit.' His learning had no pedantry, his piety no superst.i.tion; his benevolence almost no parallel. His intrepid eloquence first pointed out to his oppressed countrymen, that path to Independence, to happiness, and to glory, which their posterity, at this moment, so n.o.bly pursue. His treatise on the conduct of their foreign allies, first taught the English nation the dangers of a continental war, dispelled their delusive dreams of conquest, and stopt them in the full career to ruin.

[4] See parallel between Diogenes and Dr Johnson in Town and Country Magazine. In his life of Swift, the Doctor tells us, that 'he relieved without pity, and a.s.sisted without kindness.'

[5] Idler, No. 70.

[6] Preface to Shakespeare.

[7] Life of Pope.

[8] The following extracts from the Doctor's Dictionary are a key to his political tenets: EXCISE, a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged, not by the common judges of property, but _wretches_ hired by those to whom excise is paid. _Gazetteer_, was lately a term of the utmost infamy, being usually applied to wretches that were _hired_ to vindicate the court. _Pension_, an allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country. _Pensioner_, a slave of state, hired by a stipend to obey his master. KING, monarch, supreme governour. _Monarch_, a governour invested with _absolute_ authority, a _King_. _Whig_, 1. whey, 2. the name of a _faction_. _Tory_, one who adheres to the _antient_ const.i.tution of the state, and the apostolical hierarchy of the church of England, opposed to a _whig_. _Johnson's fol.

Dic._ The word _faction_ is always used in a _bad_ sense; though, in defining it, the Doctor did not, and, after what he had said of a whig, perhaps durst not say, that a faction is always a term for the supposed disturbers of public peace. 'The most obsequious of the slaves of pride, the most rapturous of the gazers upon wealth, the most officious of the whisperers of greatness, are collected from seminaries appropriated to the study of wisdom and of virtue;' _Rambler_, No. 180. That is to say, men of learning are a set of the most sneaking, pitiful, time-serving rascals. The reader will make his own applications.

[9] See _Political tracts by the author of the Rambler_. His character of Hambden, the reader will find in the 1st page of Waller's life. Of Milton, he says, that 'his impudence had been at least equal to his other powers. Such was his malignity, that h.e.l.l grew darker at his frown. He thought women born only for obedience, and men only for rebellion.' There is much more in the same tone; and, with what justice his epithets are applied, let Englishmen judge.

[10] Taxation no tyranny.

[11] Ibid, No. 89.

[12] Idler, No. 85.

[13] Tour, p. 59.

[14] Tour, p. 84.

[15] Idler, No. 82.

[16] He should have said _causes_, for he mentions _two_.--What is the Doctor's distinction here between habit and custom?

[17] _Quere_, Are we more accustomed to beauty than deformity? or is not the fact otherwise.--Did habit ever make a sick man fond of disease, or a poor man fond of poverty?

[18] Vide Preface to folio Dict.

[19] Dr Campbell of Aberdeen, on the use of new words, says, 'That nothing can be juster than Johnson's manner of arguing on this subject, in regard to what Swift a little chimerically proposeth, that though new words be introduced, none should be suffered to become obsolete.' This Gentleman ought to have consulted Swift himself. Let him peruse the 'petty treatise,' and then let him blush for having trusted an author void of fidelity.

[20] As the venerable and admirable father of _the_ English Dictionary has treated the names of such men as Young and Lyttleton with so little ceremony, the reader will perhaps forgive the insertion of his own character, as drawn by Chesterfield. 'I am almost in a fever, whenever I am in his company. His figure (without being deformed) seems made to disgrace or ridicule the common structure of the human body. His legs and arms are never in the position, which, according to the situation of his body, they ought to be in; but constantly employed in committing acts of hostility upon the graces. He throws any where but down his throat, whatever he means to drink; and only mangles what he means to carve. _Inattentive to all the regards of social life_, he mistimes, or misplaces every thing. He disputes with heat, and indiscriminately, mindless of the rank, character, and situation, of those with whom he disputes; absolutely ignorant of the several gradations of familiarity or respect, he is exactly the same to his superiors, his equals, and his inferiors; and therefore by a necessary consequence absurd to two of the three. Is it possible to love such a man? No. The utmost I can do for him, is to consider him as a respectable Hottentot.' Churchill's account of our hero comes nearly to the same. And I presume that the inimitable Dr Smollet, has exhibited a third picture of this ill.u.s.trious original in Humphry Clinker, Vol. 1.--Dr Johnson's letter to the Earl of Chesterfield concludes in these words: 'Whatever be the event of my endeavours, I shall _not easily_ regret an attempt which has procured me the honour of appearing thus publicly, my Lord, your Lords.h.i.+p's most obedient, and most humble servant, Sam. Johnson.' These extracts afford a striking contrast between the severity of the polite peer, and the humble politeness (for _once_) of the rugged pedant.

[21] Lives of English poets, vol. iii. p. 243 and 284. 12_mo_ edit.

[22] Vide Life of Dryden.

[23] Vid. Dict. article Blood.

[24] _Excogitation_, this combination of letters is to be found in the Doctor's works, though not in his Dictionary.

[25] Ra.s.selas, chap. vi.

[26] He meant to say _there_.

[27] Tour, p. 16. and 18. &c.

[28] Tour, p. 186.

[29] Ibid, p. 21.

[30] Rambler, No. 79.

[31] Tour, p. 369 &c.

[32] Tour, p. 373.

[33] Ibid, p. 55.

[34] Vid. folio Dictionary.

[35] Tour, p. 242.

[36] Butler's life.

[37] Rambler, No. 59.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Vid. Plutarch.

[40] Tour, p. 283.

[41] Tour, p. 124.

[42] Ibid, p. 154.

[43] The Doctor ought to have said, 'For _these reasons_,' as he mentions several.

[44] Pope's life.

[45] He should have said, _no poet_; for that was his meaning, if he had any. No _writer_, includes prose as well as verse; and this sample may give us a fair idea of the Doctor's _accuracy_ in point of style.

[46] Life of Pope.

[47] Ibid.

[48] Gray's life.

[49] Gray's life.