This evening I set out for Scotland. ["TO MRS. ASTON. "4th May, 1779. "DEAR MADAM,-When I sent Pemb ordship answered, "That if the conversation did not take something of a lively or epigrammatick turn, he fell asleep, or, perhaps, pretended to be so."] When we came out, I said to Johnson," that, considering his lordship's civility, I should have you the little books, I was not sure MSS. been vexed if he had again failed to come." that you were well enough to take "Sir," said he, "I would rather have given the trouble of reading them, but have lately ." heard from Mr. Greeves that you are much twenty pounds than not to have come." I accompanied him to Streatham, where we recovered. I hope you will gain more and dined, and returned to town in the even- more strength, and live many and many ing. years, and I shall come again to Stowhill, and live as I used to do, with you and dear Mrs. Gastrel. On Monday, May 3, I dined with him at Mr. Dilly's. I pressed him this day for his opinion on the passage in Parnell, concerning which I had in vain questioned him in several letters, and at length obtained it in due form of law. "CASE FOR DR. JOHNSON'S OPINION; "3d of May, 1779. "Parnell, in his 'Hermit,' has the following passage: To clear this doubt, to know the world by sight, To find if books and swains report it right (For yet by swains alone the world he knew, Whose feet came wand'ring o'er the nightly dew).' "I am not well: my nights are very troublesome, and my breath is short; but I know not that it grows much worse. I wish to see you. Mrs. Harvey has just sent to me to dine with her, and I have promised to wait on her to-morrow. "Mr. Green comes home loaded with curiosities 2, and will be able to give his friends new entertainment. When I come, it will be great entertainment to me if I can find you and Mrs. Gastrel well, and willing to receive me. I am, dearest madamı, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] Is there not a contradiction in its being first supposed that the Hermit knew both what" TO MRS. LUCY PORTÉR, IN LICHFIELD books and swains reported of the world; yet afterwards said, that he knew it by swains alone?" "I think it an inaccuracy. He mentions two instructers in the first line, and says he had only one in the next1." "I do not," says Mr. Malone, "see any difficulty in this passage, and wonder that Dr. Johnson should have acknowledged it to be inaccurate. The Hermit, it should be observed, had no actual experience of the world whatsoever all his knowledge concerning it had been obtained in two ways; from books, and from the relations of those country swains who had seen a little of it. The plain meaning, therefore, is, To clear his doubts concerning. Providence, and to obtain some knowledge of the world by actual experience; to see whether the accounts furnished by books, or by the oral communications of swains, were just representations of it;' [I say swains,] for his oral or viva voce information had been obtained from that part of mankind alone, &c. The word alone here does not relate to the whole of the preceding line, as has been supposed, but, by a common license, to the words, of all mankind, which are understood, and of which it is restrictive." Mr. Malone, it must be owned, has shown much critical ingenuity in his explanation of this passage. His interpretation, however, seems to me much too recondite. The meaning of the passage may be certain enough; but surely the expression is confused, and one part of it contradictory to the other.-BosWELL. But why too recondite? When a meaning is given to a passage by understanding words in an uncommon sense, the interpretation may be said to be recon "4th May, 1779, MS. "DEAR MADAM,-Mr. Green has informed me that you are much Pearson. better; I hope I need not tell you that I am glad of it. I cannot boast of be ing much better; my old nocturnal com plaint still pursues me, and my respiration is difficult, though much easier than when I left you the summer before last. Mr. and Mrs. Thrale are well; miss has been a little indisposed; but she is got well again. They have, since the loss of their boy, had two daughters; but they seem likely to want a son. dite, and, however ingenious, may be suspected not to be sound; but when words are explained in their ordinary acceptation, and the explication which is fairly deduced from them, without any force or constraint, is also perfectly justified by the context, it surely may be safely accepted; and the calling such an explication recondite, when nothing else can be said against it, will not make it the less just.-MALONE. [It is odd enough that these critics did not think it worth their while to consult the original for the exact words on which they were exercising their ingenuity. Parnell's words are not "if books AND swains," but "if books on swains,' " which might mean, not that books and swains agreed, but that they differed, and that the Hermit's doubt was excited by the difference between his authorities. This, however, would make no great alteration in the question, on which Dr. Johnson's decision seems just.-ED.] 2 [Mr. Green, it will be recollected, had a museum at Lichfield.-ED.] "I hope you had some books which I sent you. I was sorry for poor Mrs. Adey's death, and am afraid you will be sometimes solitary; but endeavour, whether alone or in company, to keep yourself cheerful. My friends likewise die very fast; but such is the state of man. I am, dear love, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." He had, before I left London, resumed the conversation concerning the appearance of a ghost at Newcastle upon Tyne, which Mr. John Wesley believed, but to which Johnson did not give credit. I was, however, desirous to examine the question closely, and at the same time wished to be made acquainted with Mr. John Wesley; for though I differed from him in some points, I admired his various, talents and loved his pious zeal. At my request, therefore, Dr. Johnson gave me a letter of introduction to him. Letters, vol. ii. p. 45. "Lichfield, 29th May, 1779. "I have now been here a week, and will try to give you my journal, or such parts of it as are fit, in my mind, for communication. "On Friday, We set out about twelve, and lay at Daventry. "On Saturday, We dined with Rann at Coventry. He intercepted us at the town's end. I saw Tom Johnson, who had hardly life to know that I was with him. I hear he is since dead. In the evening I came to Lucy, and walked to Stowhill. Mrs. Aston was gone or going to bed. I did not see her.. "Sunday. After dinner I went to Stow hill, and was very kindly received. At night I saw my old friend Brodhurst-you know him-the playfellow of my infancy, and gave him a guinea. "Monday.-Dr. Taylor came, and we went with Mrs. Cobb to Greenhill Bower. I had not seen it, perhaps, for fifty years. It is much degenerated. Every thing grows old. Taylor is to fetch me next Saturday. "Mr. Green came to see us, and I ordered some physick. "Tuesday.-Physick, and a little company. I dined, I think, with Lucy both Monday and Tuesday. "Wednesday, Thursday.-I had a few visits, from Peter Garrick among the rest, and dined at Stowhill. My breath very short. "Friday.-I dined at Stowhill. I have taken physick four days together. "Saturday.-Mrs. Aston took me out in her chaise, and was very kind. I dined with Mrs. Cobb, and came to Lucy, with whom I found, as I had done the first day, Lady Smith and Miss Vyse."] ["TO MRS. THRALE. "Ashbourne, 14th June, 1779 "Your account of Mr. Thrale's Letters, illness is very terrible; but vol. i. when I remember that he seems p. 47, 51, 54. to have it peculiar to his constitution-that whatever distemper he has, he always has his head affected-I am less frighted. The seizure was, I think, not apoplectical, but hysterical, and therefore not dangerous to life. I would have you, however, consult such physicians as you think you can best trust. Bromfield seems to have done well, and, by his practice, seems not to suspect an apoplexy. That is a solid and fundamental comfort. I remember Dr. Marsigli, an Italian physician, whose seizure was more violent than Mr. Thrale's, for he fell down helpless; but his case was not considered as of much danger, and he went safe home, and is now a professor at Padua. His fit was considered as only hysterical."] can he add to his regularity and temperance? | am, madam, your most affectionate and He can only sleep less. We will do, how. most humble servant, ever, all we can. row, with intent to hasten to Streatharn. I go to Lichfield to-mor "Both Mrs. Aston and Dr. Taylor have had strokes of the palsy. The lady was sixty-eight, and at that age has gained ground upon it; the doctor is, you know, not young, and he is quite well, only suspicious of every sensation in the peccant arm. I hope my dear master's case is yet slighter, and that, as his age is less, his recovery will be more perfect. Let him keep his thoughts diverted and his mind easy."] ["TO HENRY THRALE, ESQ. "Lichfield, 23d June, 1779. "DEAR SIR,-To show you how well I think of your health, I have sent you an hundred pounds to keep for me. It will come within one day of quarter day, and that day you must give me. I came by it in a very uncommon manner, and would not confound it with the rest. "My wicked mistress talks as if she thought it possible for me to be indifferent or negligent about your health or hers. If I could have done any good, I had not delayed an hour to come to you, and I will come very soon to try if my advice can be of any use, or my company of any entertainment. "What can be done, you must do for yourself. Do not let any uneasy thought settle in your mind. Cheerfulness and exercise are your great remedies. Nothing is for the present worth your anxiety. Vivere læt is one of the great rules of health. I believe it will be good to ride often, but never to weariness; for weariness is itself a temporary resolution of the nerves, and is therefore to be avoided. Labour is exercise continued to fatigue; exercise is labour used only while it produces plea sure. "Above all, keep your mind quiet. Do not think with earnestness even of your health, but think on such things as may please without too much agitation; among which, I hope, is, dear sir, your, &c."] MS. I ["DR. JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS. "27th July, 1779. "DEAR MADAM,-I have sent what Reyn. I can for your German friend1. At this time it is very difficult to get any money, and I cannot give much. 1 [It is due to the memory of Dr. Johnson's inexhaustible charity to insert this otherwise insignificant note. When he says that he cannot give much, let it be recollected, that his only fixed income was his pension of 3001. a year, and that he had four or five eleemosynary inmates in his house.-ED.]. "SAM. JOHNSON."] I did not write to Johnson, as usual, upon my return to my family; but tried how he would be affected by my silence. Mr. Dilly sent me a copy of a note which he received from him on the 13th of July, in these words: TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "13th July, 1779. "DEAR SIR,-What can possibly have happened, that keeps us two such strangers to each other? I expected to have heard from you when you came home; I expect ed afterwards. I went into the country and returned; and yet there is no letter from Mr. Boswell. No ill, I hope, has happened; and if ill should happen, why should it be concealed from him who loves you? Is it a fit of humour, that has disposed you to try who can hold out longest without writing? If it be, you have the victory. But I am afraid of something bad; set me free from my suspicions. "My thoughts are at present employed in guessing the reason of your silence: you must not expect that I should tell you any thing, if I had any thing to tell. Write, pray write to me, and let me know what is or what has been the cause of this long interruption. I am, dear sir, your most affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." "TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. "Edinburgh, 17th July, 1779. "MY DEAR SIR,-What may be justly denominated a supine indolence of mind has been my state of existence since I last returned to Scotland. In a livelier state I had often suffered severely from long intervals of silence on your part; and I had even been chid by you for expressing my uneasiness. I was willing to take advantage of my insensibility, and while I could bear the experiment, to try whether your affection for me would, after an unusual silence on my part, make you write first. This afternoon I have had a very high satisfaction by receiving your kind letter of inquiry, for which I most gratefully thank you. doubtful if it was right to make the experi I am ment though I have gained by it. I was beginning to grow tender, and to upbraid myself, especially after having dreamt two nights ago that I was with you. I, and my wife, and my four children, are all well. I would not delay one post to answer your letter; but as it is late, I have not time to You shall soon hear from me, upon many and various particulars; and I shall never again put you to any test. I am, with veneration, my dear sir, your most obliged and faithful humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL." do more. On the 22d of July, I wrote to him again; and gave him an account of my last interview with my worthy friend, Mr. Edward Dilly, at his brother's house at Southill in Bedfordshire, where he died soon after I parted from him, leaving me a very kind remembrance of his regard. I informed him that Lord Hailes, who had promised to furnish him with some anecdotes for his "Lives of the Poets," had sent me three instances of Prior's borrowing from Gombauld, in Recueil des Poetes, tome 3. Epigram" To John I owed great obligation," p. 25. "To the Duke of Noailles," p. 32." Sauntering Jack and idle Joan," p. 25. My letter was a pretty long one, and contained a variety of particulars; but he, it should seem, had not attended to it; for his next to me was as follows: 86 TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "Streatham, 9th Sept. 1779. "MY DEAR SIR,-Are you playing the same trick again, and trying who can keep silence longest? Remember that all tricks are either knavish or childish; and that it is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife. "What can be the cause of this second fit of silence, I cannot conjecture; but after one trick, I will not be cheated by another, nor will harass my thoughts with conjectures about the motives of a man who, probably, acts only by caprice. I therefore suppose you are well, and that Mrs. Boswell is well too, and that the fine summer has restored Lord Auchinleck. I am much better than you left me; I think I am better than when I was in Scotland. put Lord Hailes's description of Dryden 2 into another edition, and, as I know his accuracy, wish he would consider the dates, which I could not always settle to my own mind. "Mr. Thrale goes to Brighthelmstone, about Michaelmas, to be jolly and ride a-hunting. I shall go to town, or perhaps to Oxford. Exercise and gaiety, or rather carelessness, will, I hope, dissipate all remains of his malady; and I likewise hope, by the change of place, to find some opportunities of growing yet better myself. I am, dear sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." 3 My readers will not be displeased at being told every slight circumstance of the manner in which Dr. Johnson contrived to amuse his solitary hours. He sometimes employed himself in chymistry, sometimes in watering and pruning a vine, sometimes in small experiments, at which those who may smile should recollect that there are moments which admit of being soothed only by trifles 3. Piozzi, p. 182-4 [Dr. Johnson was always exceeding fond of chymistry; and they made up a sort of laboratory at Streatham one summer, and diverted them selves with drawing essences and colouring liquors. But the danger in which Mr. Thrale found Dr. Johnson one day (in Mrs. Thrale's absence), with the children and servants assembled round him to see some experiments performed, put an end o all that sort of entertainment; as Mr Thrale was persuaded that his short-signt would have occasioned his destruction in a moment, by bringing him close to a fiere and violent flame. Indeed, it was a perpetual miracle that he did not set himself.n fire reading a-bed, as was his constant cuslady (post, 14th August, 1780) that her thirtyfifth and his seventieth year coincided.—ED.] ship, but it has not yet been published. I have a copy of it.-BOSWELL. The few notices concerning Dryden, which Lord Hailes had collected, the authour afterwards gave me.-MALONE. 2 Which I communicated to him from his lord 3 In one of his manuscript Diaries, there is the following entry, which marks his curious minute attention: July 26, 1768.-I shaved my nail by accident in whetting the knife, about an eighth of an inch from the bottom, and about a fourth from the top. This I measure that I may know the growth of nails; the whole is about five-eighths of an inch." Another of the same kind appe: rs August 7, 1779: "Partem brachii dextri curpo proximam et cutem pectoris circa mamillam dextram rasi, ut notum fieret quanto temporis pih renovarentur." And, Aug. 15, 1783: 1 [The Editor suspects that the verses on Mrs.I cut from the vine 41 leaves, which Thrale's thirty-fifth birthday, which he had placed weighed five oz. and a half, and eight scruples: I under the year 1777 (ante, p. 87), should rather lay them upon my book-case, to see what weight come in here, as he finds in Johnson's letters to that they will lose by drying.”—BoswELIA "I forgot whether I informed you that poor Thrale has been in great danger. Mrs. Thrale likewise has miscarried, and been much indisposed 1. Every body else is well. Langton is in camp. I intend to tom, when quite unable even to keep clear | neglected. I would advise you to choose of mischief with our best help; and accordingly the foretops of all his wigs were burned by the candle down to the very network. Future experiments in chymistry, however, were too dangerous, and Mr. Thrale insisted that we should do no more towards finding the philosopher's stone.] only one: let him be a man of respectable character, who, for his own credit, will do what is right; let him be a rich man, so that he may be under no temptation to take advantage; and let him be a man of business, who is used to conduct affairs with ability and expertness, to whom, therefore, the execution of the trust will not be bur densome." ["TO MRS. THRALE. "5th Oct. 1779 Letters, v. ii. p 60, 61. On the 20th of September I defended myself against his suspicion of me, which I did not deserve; and added, "Pray let us write frequently. A whim strikes me, that we should send off a sheet once a week, like a "When Mr. Boswell waited on stage-coach, whether it be full or not; nay, Mr. Thrale in Southwark, I directthough it should be empty. The very ed him to watch all appearances sight of your hand-writing would comfort with close attention, and bring me his obme; and were a sheet to be thus sent regu-servations. At his return he told me, that larly, we should much oftener convey some- without previous intelligence he should not thing, were it only a few kind words." have discovered that Mr. Thrale had been lately ill.” My friend, Colonel James Stuart 1, second son of the Earl of Bute, who had distinguished himself as a good officer of the Bedfordshire militia, had taken a publickspirited resolution to serve his country in its difficulties, by raising a regular regiment, and taking the command of it himself. This, in the heir of the immense property of Wortley, was highly honourable. Having been in Scotland recruiting, he obligingly asked me to accompany him to Leeds, then the head-quarters of his corps; from thence to London for a short time, and afterwards to other places to which the regiment might be ordered. Such an offer, at a time of the year when I had full leisure, was very pleasing; especially as I was to accompany a man of sterling good sense, information, discernment, and conviviality, and was to have a second crop, in one year, of London and Johnson. Of this I informed my illustrious friend in characteristical warm terms, in a letter dated the 30th of September, from Leeds. "On Sunday the gout left my ankles, and I went very commodiously to church. On Monday night I felt my feet uneasy. On Tuesday I was quite lame: that night I took an opiate, having first taken physick and fasted. Towards morning on Wednesday the pain remitted. Bozzy came to me, and much talk we had. I fasted another day; and on Wednesday night could walk tolerably. On Thursday, finding myself mending, I ventured on my dinner, which I think has a little interrupted my convalescence. To-day I have again taken physick, and eaten only some stewed apples. I hope to starve it away. It is now no worse than it was at Brighthelmstone."] On Sunday, October 10, we dined together at Mr. Strahan's. The conversation having turned on the prevailing practice of going to the East Indies in quest of wealth;-JOHNSON. "A man had better have ten thousand pounds at the end of ten years passed in England, than twenty thousand pounds at the end of ten years passed in India, because you must compute what you give for money; and the man who has lived ten years in India has given up ten On Monday, October 4, I called at his house before he was up. He sent for me to his bedside, and expressed his satisfaction at this incidental meeting, with as much vivacity as if he had been in the gaiety of youth. He called briskly, " Frank, go and get coffee, and let us breakfast in splendour." During this visit to London I had seve-years of social comfort, and all those advanral interviews with him, which it is unnecessary to distinguish particularly. I consulted him as to the appointment of guardians to my children in case of my death. "Sir," said he, "do not appoint a number of guardians. When there are many, they trust one to another, and the business is [Who assumed successively the names of Wortley and Mackenzie, but was best known as Mr. Stuart Wortley. He was the father of Lord Wharncliffe, and died in 1814.-ED.] tages which arise from living in England. |