Aetat. 71.] Adam Smith's conversation. 29 Johnson however added, "Yes, they are very well, Sir; but you may observe in what manner they are well. They are the forcible verses of a man of a strong mind, but not accustomed to write verse'; for there is some uncouthness in the expression'." 'Drinking tea one day at Garrick's with Mr. Langton, he was questioned if he was not somewhat of a heretick as to Shakspeare; said Garrick, "I doubt he is a little of an 1 'Inglorious or by wants inthralled, To college and old books confined, Bentley, in the preface to his edition of Paradise Lost, says :- Vatem pastores: sed non ego credulus illis.' 2 The difference between Johnson and Smith is apparent even in this slight instance. Smith was a man of extraordinary application, and had his mind crowded with all manner of subjects; but the force, acuteness, and vivacity of Johnson were not to be found there. He had book-making so much in his thoughts, and was so chary of what might be turned to account in that way, that he once said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he made it a rule, when in company, never to talk of what he understood. Beauclerk had for a short time a pretty high opinion of Smith's conversation. Garrick, after listening to him for a while, as to one of whom his expectations had been raised, turned slyly to a friend, and whispered him, 'What say you to this?—eh ? flabby, I think.' BOSWELL. Dr. A. Carlyle (Auto. p. 279), says:— 'Smith's voice was harsh and enunciation thick, approaching to stammering. His conversation was not colloquial, but like lecturing. He was the most absent man in company that I ever saw, moving his lips, and talking to himself, and smiling in the midst of large companies. If you awaked him from his reverie and made him attend to the subject of conversation, he immediately began a harangue, and never stopped till he told you all he knew about it, with the utmost philosophical ingenuity.' Dugald Stewart (Life of Adam Smith, p. 117) says that 'his consciousness of his tendency to absence rendered his manner somewhat embarrassed in the company of strangers.' But 'to his intimate friends, his peculiarities added an inexpressible charm to his conversation, while they displayed in the most interesting light the artless simplicity of his heart.' Ib. p. 113. See also Walpole's Letters, vi. 302, and ante, ii. 492, note 1. infidel." 30 Shakspeare and panting Time.' [A.D. 1780. infidel'."—" Sir, (said Johnson,) I will stand by the lines I have written on Shakspeare in my Prologue at the opening of your Theatre'." Mr. Langton suggested, that in the line "And panting Time toil'd after him in vain," Johnson might have had in his eye the passage in The Tempest, where Prospero says of Miranda, Johnson said nothing. Garrick then ventured to observe, "I do not think that the happiest line in the praise of Shakspeare." Johnson exclaimed, (smiling,) "Prosaical rogues! next time I write, I'll make both time and space pant'."' 'It is well known that there was formerly a rude custom 'Garrick himself was a good deal of an infidel: see ante, ii. 98, note. 2 See ante, i. 209. 3 The Tempest, act iv. sc. 1. writes of men who have 'borne left emulation panting behind.' lowing couplet by Dryden : In The Rambler, No. 127, Johnson opposition down before them, and He quotes (Works, vii. 261) the fol 'Fate after him below with pain did move, And victory could scarce keep pace above.' Young in The Last Day, book 1, had written : 'Words all in vain pant after the distress.' * I am sorry to see in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. ii., An Essay on the Character of Hamlet, written, I should suppose, by a very young man, though called 'Reverend;' who speaks with presumptuous petulance of the first literary character of his age. Amidst a cloudy confusion of words, (which hath of late too often passed in Scotland for Metaphysicks,) he thus ventures to criticise one of the noblest lines in our language :-' Dr. Johnson has remarked, that "time toil'd after him in vain." But I should apprehend, that this is entirely to mistake the character. Time toils after every great man, as well as after Shakspeare. The workings of an ordinary mind keep pace, indeed, with time; they move no faster; they have their beginning, their middle, and their end; but superiour natures can reduce these into a point. They do not, indeed, suppress them; but they suspend, or they lock them up in the breast.' The learned Society, under whose sanction such gabble is ushered into the world, would do well to offer a premium to any one who will discover its meaning. Bos WELL. for Aetat. 71.] Johnson's admirable scolding. 31 for those who were sailing upon the Thames, to accost each other as they passed, in the most abusive language they could invent, generally, however, with as much satirical humour as they were capable of producing. Addison gives a specimen of this ribaldry, in Number 383 of The Spectator, when Sir Roger de Coverley and he are going to Springgarden'. Johnson was once eminently successful in this species of contest; a fellow having attacked him with some coarse raillery, Johnson answered him thus, "Sir, your wife, under pretence of keeping a bawdy-house, is a receiver of stolen goods'." One evening when he and Mr. Burke and Mr. Langton were in company together, and the admirable scolding of Timon of Athens was mentioned, this instance of Johnson's was quoted, and thought to have at least equal excellence.' 'As Johnson always allowed the extraordinary talents of Mr. Burke, so Mr. Burke was fully sensible of the wonderful powers of Johnson. Mr. Langton recollects having passed an evening with both of them, when Mr. Burke repeatedly entered upon topicks which it was evident he would have illustrated with extensive knowledge and richness of expression; but Johnson always seized upon the conversation, in which, however, he acquitted himself in a most masterly manner. As Mr. Burke and Mr. Langton were walking home, Mr. Burke observed that Johnson had been very great that night, Mr. Langton joined in this, but added, he could have wished to hear more from another person; (plainly intimating that he meant Mr. Burke.) "O, no, (said Mr. Burke,) it is enough for me to have rung the bell to him"."" 'May 29, 1662. Took boat and to Fox-hall, where I had not been a great while. To the old Spring Garden, and there walked long.' Pepys's Diary, i. 361. The place was afterwards known as Faux-hall and Vauxhall. See ante, iii. 350. ''One that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar.' King Lear, act ii. sc. 2. 'Yet W. G. Hamilton said:-'Burke understands everything but gaming and music. In the House of Commons I sometimes think him only the second man in England; out of it he is always the first.' 'Beauclerk 32 Goldsmith's chambers in the Temple. [A.D. 1780. 'Beauclerk having observed to him of one of their friends, that he was aukward at counting money, "Why, Sir, said Johnson, I am likewise aukward at counting money. But then, Sir, the reason is plain; I have had very little money to count." 'He had an abhorrence of affectation'. Talking of old Mr. Langton, of whom he said, “Sir, you will seldom see such a gentleman, such are his stores of literature, such his knowledge in divinity, and such his exemplary life;" he added, "and Sir, he has no grimace, no gesticulation, no bursts of admiration on trivial occasions; he never embraces you with an overacted cordiality'."' 'Being in company with a gentleman who thought fit to maintain Dr. Berkeley's ingenious philosophy, that nothing exists but as perceived by some mind'; when the gentleman was going away, Johnson said to him, "Pray, Sir, don't leave us; for we may perhaps forget to think of you, and then you will cease to exist"." 'Goldsmith, upon being visited by Johnson one day in the Temple, said to him with a little jealousy of the appearance of his accommodation, " I shall soon be in better chambers than these." Johnson at the same time checked him and paid him a handsome compliment, implying that a man of his talents should be above attention to such distinctions, -"Nay, Sir, never mind that. Nil te quæsiveris extra"."' Prior's Burke, p. 484. See ante, ii. 515. Bismarck once 'rang the bell' to old Prince Metternich. I listened quietly,' he said, 'to all his stories, merely jogging the bell every now and then till it rang again. That pleases these talkative old men.' DR. BUSCH, quoted in Lowe's Prince Bismarck, i. 130. 2 1 See ante, i. 544, for his disapproval of 'studied behaviour.' Johnson had perhaps Dr. Warton in mind. See ante, ii. 47, note. * See ante, i. 545, and iii. 187. 4 'Oblivion is a kind of annihilation.' Sir Thomas Browne's Christian Morals, sect. xxi. 5 Nec te quæsiveris extra.' Persius, Sat. i. 7. We may compare Milton's line, 'In himself was all his state.' Paradise Lost, v. 353. Aetat. 71.] Richardson's conversation. 33 'At the time when his pension was granted to him, he said, with a noble literary ambition, "Had this happened twenty years ago, I should have gone to Constantinople to learn Arabick, as Pococke did'."' 'As an instance of the niceness of his taste, though he praised West's translation of Pindar, he pointed out the following passage as faulty, by expressing a circumstance so minute as to detract from the general dignity which should prevail : "Down then from thy glittering nail, Take, O Muse, thy Dorian lyre'."' 'When Mr. Vesey' was proposed as a member of the LITERARY CLUB, Mr. Burke began by saying that he was a man of gentle manners. "Sir, (said Johnson,) you need say no more. When you have said a man of gentle manners; you have said enough."' 'The late Mr. Fitzherbert' told Mr. Langton that Johnson said to him, "Sir, a man has no more right to say an uncivil thing, than to act one; no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down."' 'My dear friend Dr. Bathurst', (said he with a warmth of approbation,) declared he was glad that his father, who was a West-Indian planter, had left his affairs in total ruin, because having no estate, he was not under the temptation of having slaves.' 'Richardson had little conversation, except about his own works, of which Sir Joshua Reynolds said he was always willing to talk, and glad to have them introduced. Johnson when he carried Mr. Langton to see him, professed that he could bring him out into conversation, and used this 1 See ante, iii. 305. A work of this kind must, in a minute examination, discover many imperfections; but West's version, so far as I have considered it, appears to be the product of great labour and great abilities.' Johnson's Works, viii. 398. * See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 25, 1773. * See ante, i. 96, and ii. 262. • See Boswell's Hebrides, under Nov. 11. IV.-3 See ante, i. 280. allusive |