Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 65

[843] See _ante,_ p. 197.

[844] Boswell himself, likely enough.

[845] Verses on the death of Mr. Levett. BOSWELL. _Ante,_ p. 138

[846] If it was Boswell to whom this advice was given, it is not unlikely that he needed it. The meagreness of his record of Johnson's talk at this season may have been due, as seems to have happened before, to too much drinking. _Ante,_ p.88, note 1.

[847] _Ante,_ ii. 100.

[848] George Steevens. See _ante,_ iii. 281.

[849] Forty-six years earlier Johnson wrote of this lady:-'I have composed a Greek epigram to Eliza, and think she ought to be celebrated in as many different languages as Lewis le Grand.' _Ante_, i. 122. Miss Burney described her in 1780 as 'really a n.o.ble-looking woman; I never saw age so graceful in the female s.e.x yet; her whole face seems to beam with goodness, piety, and philanthropy.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 373.

[850] 'Mrs. Thrale says that though Mrs. Lennox's books are generally approved, n.o.body likes her.' _Ib._ p. 91. See _ante_, i. 255, and iv. 10.

[851] 'Sept. 1778. MRS. THRALE. "Mrs. Montagu is the first woman for literary knowledge in England, and if in England, I hope I may say in the world." DR. JOHNSON. "I believe you may, Madam. She diffuses more knowledge in her conversation than any woman I know, or, indeed, almost any man." MRS. THRALE. "I declare I know no man equal to her, take away yourself and Burke, for that art."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 118. It is curious that Mrs. Thrale and Boswell should both thus instance Burke.

Miss Burney writes of her in much more moderate terms:--'Allowing a little for parade and ostentation, which her power in wealth and rank in literature offer some excuse for, her conversation is very agreeable; she is always reasonable and sensible, and sometimes instructive and entertaining.' _Ib._ p. 325. See _ante_, ii. 88, note 3. These five ladies all lived to a great age. Mrs. Montagu was 80 when she died; Mrs.

Lennox, 83; Miss Burney (Mme. D'Arblay), 87; Miss More and Mrs. (Miss) Carter, 88. Their hostess, Mrs. Garrick, was 97 or 98.

[852] Miss Burney, describing how she first saw Burke, says:--'I had been told that Burke was not expected; yet I could conclude this gentleman to be no other. There was an evident, a striking superiority in his demeanour, his eye, his motions, that announced him no common man.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 145. See _ante_, ii. 450, where Johnson said of Burke:--'His stream of mind is perpetual;' and Boswell's _Hebrides post,_, v. 32, and Prior's _Life of Burke_, fifth edition, p. 58.

[853] _Kennel_ is a strong word to apply to Burke; but, in his jocularity, he sometimes 'let himself down' to indelicate stories. In the House of Commons he had told one--and a very stupid one too--not a year before. _Parl. Hist_, xxiii. 918. Horace Walpole speaks of Burke's 'pursuit of wit even to puerility.' _Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 443. He adds (_ib_. ii. 26):--'Burke himself always aimed at wit, but was not equally happy in public and private. In the former, nothing was so luminous, so striking, so abundant; in private, it was forced, unnatural, and bombast.' See _ante_, p. 104, where Wilkes said that in his oratory 'there was a strange want of taste.'

[854] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, third edition, p. 20 [_post_, v. 32.] BOSWELL. See also _ante_, i. 453, and iii. 323.

[855] I have since heard that the report was not well founded; but the elation discovered by Johnson in the belief that it was true, shewed a n.o.ble ardour for literary fame. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote on Feb. 9:--'One thing which I have just heard you will think to surpa.s.s expectation. The chaplain of the factory at Petersburgh relates that the _Rambler_ is now, by the command of the Empress, translating into Russian, and has promised, when it is printed, to send me a copy.' _Piozzi Letters,_ ii.

349. Stockdale records (_Memoirs,_ ii. 98) that in 1773 the Empress of Russia engaged 'six English literary gentlemen for instructors of her young n.o.bility in her Academy at St. Petersburgh.' He was offered one of the posts. Her zeal may have gone yet further, and she may have wished to open up English literature to those who could not read English.

Beauclerk's library was offered for sale to the Russian Amba.s.sador.

_Ante,_ iii. 420. Miss Burney, in 1789, said that a newspaper reported that 'Angelica Kauffmann is making drawings from _Evelina_ for the Empress of Russia.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary,_ v. 35.

[856]

'--me peritus Disect Iber, Rhodanique potor.'

'To him who drinks the rapid Rhone Shall Horace, deathless bard, be known.'

FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, ii. 20. 19.

[857] See _ante_, iii. 49.

[858] See _post_, June 12, 1784.

[859] See _ante_, p. 126.

[860] H. C. Robinson (_Diary_, i. 29) describes him as 'an author on an infinity of subjects; his books were on Law, History, Poetry, Antiquities, Divinity, Politics.' He adds (_ib_. p. 49l):--'G.o.dwin, Lofft, and Thelwall are the only three persons I know (except Hazlitt) who grieve at the late events'--the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. He found long after his death 'a MS. by him in these words:--"Rousseau, Euripides, Ta.s.so, Racine, Cicero, Virgil, Petrarch, Richardson. If I had five millions of years to live upon this earth, these I would read daily with increasing delight."' _Ib_. iii. 283.

[861] Dunciad, iv. 394, note.

[862] The King opened Parliament this day. Hannah More during the election found the mob favourable to Fox. One night, in a Sedan chair, she was stopped with the news that it was not safe to go through Covent Garden. 'There were a hundred armed men,' she was told, 'who, suspecting every chairman belonged to Brookes's, would fall upon us. A vast number of people followed me, crying out "It is Mrs. Fox; none but Mr. Fox's wife would dare to come into Covent Garden in a chair; she is going to canvas in the dark."' H. More's _Memoirs_, i. 316. Horace Walpole wrote on April 11:--'In truth Mr. Fox has all the popularity in Westminster.'

_Letters_, viii. 469.

[863] See _post_, under June 9, 1784, where Johnson describes Fox as 'a man who has divided the kingdom with Caesar.'

[864] See _ante_, p. 111.

[865] See _ante_, ii. 162.

[866] Boswell twice speaks of W. G. Hamilton as 'an eminent friend' of Johnson. He was not Boswell's friend. (Ante, p. 111, and _post_, under Dec. 20, 1784.) But Boswell does not here say 'a friend _of ours_.' By 'eminent friend' Burke is generally meant, and he, possibly, is meant here. Boswell, it is true, speaks of his 'orderly and amiable domestic habits' (_ante_, iii. 378); but then Boswell mentions the person here 'as a virtuous man.' If Burke is meant, Johnson's suspicions would seem to be groundless.

[867] See _ante_, p. 168, where Johnson 'wonders why he should have any enemies.'

[868] After all, I cannot but be of opinion, that as Mr. Langton was seriously requested by Dr. Johnson to mention what appeared to him erroneous in the character of his friend, he was bound, as an honest man, to intimate what he really thought, which he certainly did in the most delicate manner; so that Johnson himself, when in a quiet frame of mind, was pleased with it. The texts suggested are now before me, and I shall quote a few of them. 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.' _Mat._ v. 5.--'I therefore, the prisoner of the LORD, beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called; with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.' _Ephes._ v. [iv.] 1, 2.--'And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.' _Col._ iii.

14.--'Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up: doth not behave itself unseemly, is not easily provoked.' 1 _Cor._ xiii. 4, 5. BOSWELL. Johnson, in _The Rambler,_ No. 28, had almost foretold what would happen. 'For escaping these and a thousand other deceits many expedients have been proposed.

Some have recommended the frequent consultation of a wise friend, admitted to intimacy and encouraged by sincerity. But this appears a remedy by no means adapted to general use; for, in order to secure the virtue of one, it pre-supposes more virtue in two than will generally be found. In the first, such a desire of rect.i.tude and amendment as may incline him to hear his own accusation from the mouth of him whom he esteems, and by whom therefore he will always hope that his faults are not discovered; and in the second, such zeal and honesty as will make him content for his friend's advantage to lose his kindness.'

[869] Member for Dumfries.

[870] Malone points out that the pa.s.sage is not in Bacon, but in Boyle, and that it is quoted in Johnson's _Dictionary_ (in the later editions only), under _cross-bow._ It is as follows:--'Testimony is like the shot of a long-bow, which owes its efficacy to the force of the shooter; argument is like the shot of the cross-bow, equally forcible whether discharged by a giant or a dwarf.' See Smollett's _Works_, ed. 1797, i.

cliv, for a somewhat fuller account by Dr. Moore of what was said by Johnson this evening.

[871] The Peace made by that very able statesman, the Earl of Shelburne, now Marquis of Lansdown, which may fairly be considered as the foundation of all the prosperity of Great Britain since that time.

BOSWELL. In the winter of 1782-83, preliminary treaties of peace were made with the United States, France, and Spain; and a suspension of arms with Holland. The Ode is made up of such lines as the following:--

'While meek philosophy explores Creation's vast stupendous round, With piercing gaze sublime she soars, And bursts the system's distant bound.'

_Gent. Mag._; 1783. p. 245.

[872] In the first edition of my Work, the epithet _amiable_ was given.

I was sorry to be obliged to strike it out; but I could not in justice suffer it to remain, after this young lady had not only written in favour of the savage Anarchy with which France has been visited, but had (as I have been informed by good authority), walked, without horrour, over the ground at the Thuillieries, when it was strewed with the naked bodies of the faithful Swiss Guards, who were barbarously ma.s.sacred for having bravely defended, against a crew of ruffians, the Monarch whom they had taken an oath to defend. From Dr. Johnson she could now expect not endearment but repulsion. BOSWELL.

[873] Rogers (_Table-Talk_, p. 50) described her as 'a very fascinating person,' and narrated a curious anecdote which he heard from her about the Reign of Terror.

[874] This year, forming as it did exactly a quarter of a century since Handel's death, and a complete century since his birth, was sought, says the _Gent. Mag._ (1784, p. 457) as the first public periodical occasion for bringing together musical performers in England. Dr. Burney writes (_Ann. Reg._ 1784, p. 331):--'Foreigners must have been astonished at so numerous a band, moving in such exact measure, without the a.s.sistance of a Coryphaeus to beat time. Rousseau says that "the more time is beaten, the less it is kept."' There were upwards of 500 performers.

[875] See _ante_, iii. 242.

[876] Lady Wronghead, whispers Mrs. Motherly, pointing to Myrtilla.

'_Mrs. Motherly_. Only a niece of mine, Madam, that lives with me; she will be proud to give your Ladys.h.i.+p any a.s.sistance in her power.

'_Lady Wronghead_. A pretty sort of a young woman--Jenny, you two must be acquainted.

'_Jenny_. O Mamma! I am never strange in a strange place. _Salutes Myrtilla_.' _The Provoked Husband; or, A Journey to London_, act ii. sc.

1, by Vanbrugh and Colley Gibber. It was not therefore Squire Richard whom Johnson quoted, but his sister.

[877] See _ante_, p. 191.

[878] See Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 353, for his application of this story.