n the afternoon, and then returned and rank tea and coffee in Mrs. Williams's room; Mrs. Desmoulins doing the honours of the tea-table. I observed that he would not even look at a proof-sheet of his "Life of Waller " on Good-Friday. undoubtedly stupendous examples; and with regard to true Christian_perfection, I have heard Johnson say, "That George Psalmanazar's piety, penitence, and virtue, exceeded almost what we read as wonderful even in the lives of saints." This extraordinary person lived and died at a house in Old-street, where Dr. Johnson was witness to his talents and virtues, and to his final preference of the church of England, after having studied, disgraced, and adorned so many modes of worship. The name he went by was not supposed by his friend to be that of his family; but all inquiries were vain; his reasons for concealing his original were penitentiary; he deserved no other name than that of the Im Mr. Allen, the printer, brought a book on agriculture, which was printed, and was soon to be published1. It was a very strange performance, the authour having mixed in it his own thoughts upon various topicks, along with his remarks on ploughing, sowing, and other farming operations. He seemed to be an absurd profane fellow, and had introduced in his books many sneers at religion, with equal ignorance and conceit. Dr. Johnson permitted me to read some passages aloud. One was that he re-postor, he said. That portion of the Unisolved to work on Sunday, and did work, but he owned he felt some weak compunction; and he had this very curious reflection: "I was born in the wilds of Christianity, and the briers and thorns still hang about me." Dr. Johnson could not help laughing at this ridiculous image, yet was very angry at the fellow's impiety. However," said he, "the reviewers will make him hang himself." He, however, observed, "that formerly there might have been a dispensation obtained for working on Sunday in the time of harvest." Indeed in ritual observances, were all the ministers of religion what they should be, and what many of them are, such a power might be wisely and safely lodged with the church. 66 versal History which was written by him does not seem to me to be composed with peculiar spirit; but all traces of the wit and the wanderer were probably worn out before he undertook the work. His pious and patient endurance of a tedious illness, end ing in an exemplary death, confirmed the strong impression his merit had made upon the mind of Dr. Johnson.] Hawk Apoph. p. 206. He had never, he said, seen the close of the life of any one that he wished so much his own to resemble, as that of Psalmanazar, for its purity and devotion. He told many anecdotes of him; and said, he was supposed, by his accent, to have been a Gascon; but that he spoke English with the city accent, and coarse On Saturday, 18th April, I drank tea enough. He for some years spent his evenwith him. He praised the late Mr. Dun-ings at a publick-house near Old-street, combe 2, of Canterbury, as a pleasing man. "He used to come to me; I did not seek much after him. Indeed I never sought much after any body." BosWELL. "Lord Orrery, I suppose.' "JOHNSON. "No, sir; I never went to him but when he sent for " BoswELL. "Richardson?" JOHNSON. "Yes, sir: but I sought after George Psalmanazar the most. I used to go and sit with him at an ale-house in the city." Piozzi, me. p. 134, 135. where many persons went to talk with him. When Dr. Johnson was asked whether he ever contradicted Psalmanazar; "I should as soon," said, "have thought of contradicting a bishop:" so high did he hold his. character in the latter part of his life. When he was asked whether he ever mentioned Formosa before him, he said, "he was afraid to mention even China."] I am happy to mention another instance which I discovered of his seeking after a man of merit. Soon after the Honourable Daines Barrington had published his excel"Observations on the Statutes 3," Johnson waited on that worthy and learned gentleman; and, having told him his name,. courteously said, "I have read your book, sir, with great pleasure, and wish to be better known to you." Thus began an ac-quaintance, which was continued with mutual regard as long as Johnson lived. [When Mrs. Piozzi asked Dr. Johnson who was the best man he had ever known? "Psalmanazar" was the unexpected reply. He said, like-lent wise," that though a native of France, as his friend imagined, he possessed more of the English language than any other foreigner who had fallen in his way." Though there was much esteem, however, there was I believe but little confidence between them; they conversed merely about general topics, religion and learning, of which both were Talking of a recent seditious delinquent 4,. 3 4to. 1766. The worthy authour died many years after Johnson, March 13, 1800, aged about 74.-MALONE. 4 [Mr. Horne Tooke, who had been in the preceding July convicted of a seditious libel. The he said, "They should set him in the pillo- | my house. I was obliged to tell her that ry, that he may be punished in a way that you would be in as respectable a situation would disgrace him." I observed, that the in my house as in her's. "Sir, the insopillory does not always disgrace. And I lence of wealth will creep out." Boswell. mentioned an instance of a gentleman 1," She has a little both of the insolence of who I thought was not dishonoured by it. wealth and the conceit of parts." JOHN"The insolence of wealth is a wretchJOHNSON. Ay, but he was, sir. He SON. could not mouth and strut as he used to do, ed thing; but the conceit of parts has some after having been there. People are not foundation. To be sure, it should not be BOSWELL. willing to ask a man to their tables who But who is without it?" has stood in the pillory." "Yourself, sir." JOHNSON. Why, I play no tricks: I lay no traps." BOSWELL. "No, sir. You are six feet high, and you only do not stoop." The gentleman who had dined with us at Dr. Percy's 2 came in. Johnson attacked the Americans with intemperate vehemence of abuse. I said something in their favour; and added, that I was always sorry when he talked on that subject. This, it seems,. exasperated him; though he said nothing at the time. The cloud was charged with sulphureous vapour, which was afterwards to burst in thunder. We talked of a gentleman 3 who was running out his fortune in London; and I said, "We must get him out of it. All his friends must quarrel with him, and that will soon drive him away." JOHNSON. Nay, sir, we'll send you to him. If your company does not drive a man out of his house, nothing will." This was a horrible shock, for which there was no visible cause. I afterwards asked him why he had said so harsh a thing. JOHNSON. "Because, sir, you made me angry about the Americans." BOSWELL. "But why did you not take your revenge directly?" JOHNSON (smiling). "Because, sir, I had nothing ready. A man cannot strike till he has his weapons. This was a candid and pleasant confession. He showed me to-night his drawingroom, very genteelly fitted up, and said, Mrs. Thrale sneered when I talked of my having asked you and your lady to live at sentence-pronounced in November, 1777-was a year's imprisonment, and 2007. fine; but it seems strange that Johnson should, in April, 1778, have spoken conjecturally of a sentence passed six months before. Perhaps the conversation occurred at Ashbourn in the preceding autumn, when the sentence was a subject of much conJecture and curiosity, and that, by some mistake in arranging his notes, Mr. Boswell has misplaced it here.-ED.] [Probably Dr. Shebbeare. It was Shebbeare's exposure which suggested the witty allusion of the Heroick Epistle, 'Does envy doubt? Witness, ye chosen train, Who breathe the sweets of his Saturnian reign; Witness, ye Hills, ye Johnsons, Scotts, Shebbeares, Hark to my call, for some of you have ears!" But his ears were not endangered; indeed he was so favourably treated, being allowed to stand on, and not in, the pillory, and to have certain other indulgencies, that the sheriff was afterwards prosecuted for partiality towards him.—ED.] 2 See p. 162, of this volume.-BOSWELL. ? [Mr. Langton.-ED.] We talked of the numbers of people that sometimes have composed the household of great families. I mentioned that there were a hundred in the family of the present Earl of Eglintoune's father. Dr. Johnson seeming to doubt it, I began to enumerate; "Let us see, my lord and my lady, two." JOHNSON. Nay, sir, if you are to count by twos, you may be long enough." BosWELL. "Well, but now I add two sons and seven daughters, and a servant for each, that will make twenty; so we have the fifth JOHNSON. part already.” "Very true. You get at twenty pretty readily; but you 4 Prayers & Med. p. 163. [Yesterday (18th) I rose late, having not slept ill. Having promised a dedication, I thought it necessary to write; but for some time neither wrote nor read. Langton came in and talked. After dinner I wrote. At tea Boswell came in. He staid till near twelve.] On Sunday, 19th April, being Easterday, after the solemnities of the festival in St. Paul's church, I visited him, but could not stay to dinner. I expressed a wish to have the arguments for Christianity always in readiness, that my religious faith might be as firm and clear as any proposition whatever; so that I need not be under the least uneasiness when it should be attacked. JOHNSON. "Sir, you cannot answer all objections. You have demonstration for a first cause: you see he must be good as well as powerful, because there is nothing to make him otherwise, and goodness of itself is preferable. Yet you have against this, what is very certain, the unhappiness of human life. This, however, gives us reason to hope for a future state of compensation, that there may be a perfect system. But of that we were not sure till we had a posi tive revelation." I told him that his "Ras selas" had often made me unhappy; for it represented the misery of human life so well, 4 [He means that if it had not been in performance of a promise, he would not have done any worldly business on Easter eve. What the dedication was does not appear.-ED.] and so convincingly to a thinking mind, that if at any time the impression wore off, and I felt myself easy, I began to suspect some delusion. the well-known names with which it is fill- land of Ireland, son to the historian, Mrs. Cholmondeley, and some more ladies. "The Project," a new poem, was read to the company by Dr. Musgrave. JOHNSON. [In reviewing my time from Easter," Sir, it has no power. Were it not for 1777, I found a very melancholy and shameful blank. So little has been done, that days and months are without any trace. My health has, indeed, been very much interrupted. My nights have been commonly, not only restless, but painful and fatiguing. My respiration was once so difficult, that an asthma was suspected. I could not walk, but with great difficulty, from Stowhill to Greenhill. Some relaxation of my breast has been procured, I think, by opium, which, though it never gives me sleep, frees my breast from spasms. I have written a little of the Lives of the Poets. I think with all my usual vigour. I have made sermons, perhaps as readily as formerly. My memory is less faithful in retaining names, and, I am afraid, in retaining occurrences.、 Of this vacillation and vagrancy of mind, I impute a great part to a fortuitous and unsettled life, and therefore purpose to spend my time with more method.] On Monday, 20th April, I found him at home in the morning. We talked of a gentleman who we apprehended was gradually involving his circumstances by bad management. JOHNSON. "Wasting a fortune is evaporation by a thousand imperceptible means. If it were a stream, they 'd stop it. You must speak to him. It is really miserable. Were he a gamester, it could be said he had hopes of winning. Were he a bankrupt in trade, he might have grown rich; but he has neither spirit to spend, nor resolution to spare. He does not spend fast enough to have pleasure from it. He has the crime of prodigality, and the wretchedness of parsimony. If a man is killed in a duel, he is killed as many a one has been killed; but it is a sad thing for a man to lie down and die; to bleed to death, because he has not fortitude enough to sear the wound, or even to stitch it up." I cannot but pause a moment to admire the fecundity of fancy, and choice of language, which in this instance, and, indeed, on almost all occasions, he displayed. It was well observed by Dr. Percy, (afterwards Bishop of Dromore), "The conversation of Johnson is strong and clear, and may be compared to an antique statue, where every vein and muscle is distinct and bold. Ordinary conversation resembles an inferiour cast." On Saturday, 25th April, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, with the Learned Dr. Musgrave 2, Counsellor Le count of the criminals hanged yesterday entertain us." He proceeded;-" Demosthenes Taylor, as he was called (that is, the editor of Demosthenes), was the most silent man, the merest statue of a man, that I have ever seen. I once dined in company with him, and all he said during the whole time was no more than Richard. How a man should say only Richard, it is not easy to imagine. But it was thus: Dr. Douglas was talking of Dr. Zachary Grey, and ascribing to him something that was written by Dr. Richard Grey. So, to correct him, Taylor said Richard.'" Mrs. Cholmondeley, in a high flow of spirits, exhibited some lively sallies of hyperbolical compliment to Johnson, with whom she had been long acquainted, and was very easy. He was quick in catching the manner of the moment, and answered her somewhat in the style of the hero of a romance, "Madam, you crown me with unfading laurels." Murph. Essay, p. 137. [Sitting at table one day with Mrs. Cholmondeley, he took hold of her hand in the middle of dinner, and held it close to his eye, wondering at the delicacy and whiteness, till, with a smile, she asked, "Will he give it to me again when he has done with it?"] I happened, I know not how, to say that a pamphlet meant a prose piece. JOHNSon. "No, sir. A few sheets of poetry unbound are a pamphlet 3, as much as a few sheets of prose." MUSGRAVE. "A pamphlet may be understood to mean a poetical piece in Westminster-hall, that is, in formal language; but in common language it is understood to mean prose." JOHNSON. (And here was one of the many instances of his knowing clearly and telling exactly how a thing is), ides, and authour of "Dissertations on the Grecian Mythology," &c. published in 1782, after his death, by the learned Mr. Tyrwhitt.-MALONE. [I suppose this is the same who was made Radcliffe's travelling fellow in 1760. He was of C. C. C. M. A. 1756. B. and D. M. 1775.-Hall.] " 3 Dr. Johnson is here perfectly correct, and is supported by the usage of preceding writers. So in Musarum Delicia, collection of poems, 8vo. 1656, (the writer is speaking of Suckling's play entitled Aglaura, printed in folio): "This great voluminous pamphlet may be said, "A pamphlet is understood in common language to mean prose, only from this, that there is so much more prose written than poetry; as when we say a book, prose is understood for the same reason, though a book may as well be in poetry as in prose. We understand what is most general, and we name what is less frequent.' 66 of Wakefield' I myself did not think woul have had much success. It was written and sold to a bookseller before his Travel ler,' but published after; so little expecta tion had the bookseller from it. Had it been sold after 'The Traveller,' he might have had twice as much money for it, though sixty guineas was no mean price. The bookseller had the advantage of Goldsmith's reputation from The Traveller ' in the sale, though Goldsmith had it not in selling the copy." SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. "The Beggar's Opera affords a proof how strangely people will differ in opinion about a literary performance. Burke thinks it has no merit." JOHNSON. "It was refused by one of the houses; but I should have thought it would succeed, not from any great excellence in the writing, but from the novelty, and the general spirit and gaiety of the piece, which keeps the audience always attentive, and dismisses them in good humour." We went to the drawing-room, where was a considerable increase of company. Several of us got round Dr. Johnson, and complained that he would not give us an exact catalogue of his works, that there might be a complete edition. He smiled, and evaded our entreaties. That he intend We talked of a lady's verses on Ireland. MISS REYNOlds. "Have you seen them, sir?" JOHNSON. "No, madam; I have seen a translation from Horace, by one of her daughters. She showed it me." Miss REYNOLDS. "And how was it, sir?" JOHNSON. Why, very well, for a young miss's verses; that is to say, compared with excellence, nothing; but very well, for the person who wrote them. I am vexed at being shown verses in that manner." Miss REYNOLDS. "But if they should be good, why not give them hearty praise?" JOHNSON. Why, madam, because I have not then got the better of my bad humour from having been shown them. You must consider, madam, beforehand they may be bad as well as good, Nobody has a right to put another under such a difficulty, that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth, or hurt himself by telling what is not true." Boswell. "A man often shows his writings to people of eminence, to ob-ed to do it, I have no doubt, because I have tain from them, either from their good-na- heard him say so; and I have in my posture, or from their not being able to tell the session an imperfect list, fairly written out, truth firmly, a commendation, of which he which he entitles Historia Studiorum. may afterwards avail himself." JOHNSON. I once got from one of his friends a list, "Very true, sir. Therefore, the man who is which there was pretty good reason to supasked by an authour, what he thinks of his pose was accurate, for it was written down work, is put to the torture, and is not in his presence by this friend, who enumer obliged to speak the truth; so that what he ated each article aloud, and had some of says is not considered as his opinion; yet them mentioned to him by Mr. Levett, in he has said it, and cannot retract it; and concert with whom it was made out; and this authour, when mankind are hunting Johnson, who heard all this, aid not con him with a canister at his tail, can say, 'Itradict it. But when I showed a copy of would not have published, had not Johnson, or Reynolds, or Musgrave, or some other good judge commended the work.' Yet I consider it as a very difficult question in conscience, whether one should advise a man not to publish a work, if profit be his object; for the man may say, Had it not been for you, I should have had the money.' Now you cannot be sure; for you have only your own opinion, and the publick may think very differently." SIR JOSHUA REY NOLDS. "You must upon such an occasion have two judgments; one as to the real value of the work, the other as to what may please the general taste at the time." JOHN SON. "But you can be sure of neither; and therefore I should scruple much to give a suppressive vote. Both Goldsmith's comedies were once refused; his first by Garrick, his second by Colman, who was prevailed on at last by much solicitation, nay, a kind of force, to bring it on. His Vicar 66 this list to him, and mentioned the evidence for its exactness, he laughed, and said, “ I was willing to let them go on as they pleas ed, and never interfered." Upon which I read it to him, article by article, and got him positively to own or refuse; and then, having obtained certainty so far, I got some other articles confirmed by him directly, and, afterwards, from time to time, made additions under his sanction. His friend, Edward Cave, having been mentioned, he told us, "Cave used to sell ten thousand of The Gentleman's Magazine;' yet such was then his minute attention and anxiety that the sale should not suffer the smallest decrease, that he would name a particular person who he heard had talked of leaving off the Magazine, and would say, 'Let us have something good next month.'”. It was observed, that avarice was inhe rent in some dispositions. JOHNSON. "No man was born a miser, because no man was born to possession. Every man is born cupidus-desirous of getting; but not avarus-desirous of keeping." BOSWELL. "I have heard old Mr. Sheridan maintain, with much ingenuity, that a complete miser is a happy man: a miser who gives himself wholly to the one passion of saving." JOHNSON. "That is flying in the face of all the world, who have called an avaricious man a miser, because he is miserable. No, sir; a man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments." that is to say, a modus as to the tithes and certain fines." He observed, "A man cannot with propriety speak of himself, except he relates simple facts; as, 'I was at Richmond:' or what depends on mensuration; as, 'I am six feet high.' He is sure he has been at Richmond; he is sure he is six feet high; but he cannot be sure he is wise, or that he has any other excellence. Then, all censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise and all the reproach of falsehood." BOSWELL. strong consciousness of his faults being observed. He knows that others would throw him down, and therefore he had better lie down softly of his own accord." The conversation having turned on bon-"Sometimes it may proceed from a man's mots, he quoted, from one of the Ana, an exquisite instance of flattery in a maid of honour in France, who being asked by the queen what o'clock it was, answered, "What your majesty pleases 1." He admitted that Mr. Burke's classical pun 2 upon Mr. Wilkes's being carried on the shoulders of the mob, numerisque fertur On Tuesday, April 28, he was engaged to dine at General Paoli's, where, as I have already observed, I was still entertained in elegant hospitality, and with all the ease and comfort of a home. I called on him, Lege solutis," and accompanied him in a hackney-coach. We stopped first at the bottom of Hedgewas admirable; and though he was strange- lane, into which he went to leave a letter, ly unwilling to allow to that extraordinary" with good news for a poor man in disman the talent of wit3, he also laughed with approbation at another of his playful conceits; which was, that "Horace has in one line given a description of a good desirable ma nour: 1 [The anecdote is told in "Menagiana," vol. iii. p. 104, but not of a "maid of honour,' nor as an instance of “exquisite flattery." "M. de Uzès était chevalier d'honneur de la reine. Cette princesse lui demanda un jour quelle heure il était; il répondit, Madame, l'heure qu'il plaira à votre majesté.'" Menage tells it as a pleasantry of M. de Uzès; but M. de la Monnoye says, that this duke was remarkable for naïvetés and blunders, and was a kind of butt, to whom the wits of the court used to attribute all manner of absurdities.-ED.] [See ante, vol. i. p. 330.-ED.] 3 See this question fully investigated in the notes upon the " Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," ante, v. i. p. 330, et seq. And here, as a lawyer mindful of the maxim Suum cuique tribuito, I cannot forbear to mention, that the additional note, beginning with "I find since the former edition," is not mine, but was obligingly furnished by Mr. Malone, who was so kind as to superintend the press while I was in Scotland, and the first part of the second edition was printing. He would not allow me to ascribe it to its proper authour; but, as it is exquisitely acute and elegant, I take this opportunity, without his knowledge, to do him justice. BoswELL. ور tress," as he told me. I did not question him particularly as to this. He himself often resembled Lady Bolingbroke's lively description of Pope: that "he was un politique aux choux et aux raves." He would say, "I dine to-day in Grosvenor-square; " this might be with a duke; or, perhaps, "I dine to-day at the other end of the town; or, "A gentleman of great eminence called on me yesterday." He loved thus to keep things floating in conjecture: Omne ignotum pro magnifico est. I believe I ventured to dissipate the cloud, to unveil the mystery, more freely and frequently than any of his friends. We stopped again at Wirgman's, the well-known toy-shop in St. James'sstreet, at the corner of St. James's-place, to which he had been directed, but not clearly, for he searched about some time, and could not find it at first; and said, "To direct one only to a corner shop is toying with one." I supposed he meant this as a play upon the word toy; it was the first time that I knew him stoop to such sport. After he had been some time in the shop, he sent for me to come out of the coach, and help him to choose a pair of silver buckles, as those he had were too small. Probably this alteration in dress had been suggested by Mrs. Thrale, by associating with whom, his external appearance was much improved. He got better clothes; and the dark colour, from which he never deviated, was enliven ♦ This, as both Mr. Bindley and Dr. Kearney cessive Fines," by Everard Fleetwood, Esq. 8vo have observed to me, is the motto to "An Inqui- 1731. But it is, probably, a mere coincidence ry into Customary Estates and Tenants' Rights, Mr. Burke, perhaps, never saw that pamphlet.-... &c.; with some Considerations for restraining ex-MALONE. |