take off any person unless he is strongly marked, such as George Faulkner. He is like a painter who can draw the portrait of a man who has a wen upon his face, and who therefore is easily known. If a man hops upon one leg, Foote can hop upon one leg. But he has not that nice discrimination which your friend seems to possess. Foote is, however, very entertaining with a kind of conversation between wit and buffoonery." easily supported.” BOSWELL. Perhaps, to consider that the manner and some parsir, it might be done by the respect belonging ticular phrases of a person do much to imto office, as among the Romans, where the press you with an idea of him, and you are dress, the toga, inspired reverence." JOHN- not sure that he would say what the mimSON. "Why, we know very little about the ick says in his character." BOSWELL. "I Romans. But, surely, it is much easier to don't think Foote a good mimick, sir." respect a man who has always had respect, JOHNSON. "No, sir; his imitations are not than to respect a man who we know was like. He gives you something different from last year no better than ourselves, and will himself, but not the character which he be no better next year. In republicks there is means to assume. He goes out of himself, no respect for authority, but a fear of pow-without going into other people. He cannot er." BOSWELL. "At present, sir, I think riches seem to gain most respect." JOHNSON. "No, sir, riches do not gain hearty respect; they only procure external attention. A very rich man, from low beginnings, may buy his election in a borough; but, cæteris paribus, a man of family will be preferred. People will prefer a man for whose father their fathers have voted, though they should get no more money, or even less. That shows that the respect for family is not merely fanciful, but has an actual operation. If gentlemen of family would allow the rich upstarts to spend their money profusely, which they are ready enough to do, and not vie with them in expense, the upstarts would soon be at an end, and the gentlemen would remain; but if the gentlemen will vie in expense with the upstarts, which is very foolish, they must be ruined. Piozzi, p. 236. [Indeed, though a man of obscure birth himself, Dr. Johnson's partiality to people of family was visible on every occasion; his zeal for subordination warm even to bigotry; his hatred to innovation, and reverence for the old feudal times, apparent, whenever any possible manner of showing them occurred.] I gave him an account of the excellent mimickry of a friend1 of mine in Scotland; observing, at the same time, that some people thought it a very mean thing. JOHNWhy, sir, it is making a very mean use of man's powers. But to be a good mimick requires great powers, great acuteness of observation, great retention of what is observed, and great pliancy of organs to represent what is observed. I remember a lady of quality in this town, Lady SON. -2, who was a wonderful mimick, and used to make me laugh immoderately. I have heard she is now gone mad." BosWELL. "It is amazing how a mimick can not only give you the gestures and voice of a person whom he represents; but even what a person would say on any particular subject." JOHNSON. Why, sir, you are '[This friend was Mr. Cullen, advocate, son of the celebrated physician, afterwards a judge, by the name of Lord Cullen. [The melancholy circumstance stated as to the lady, induces the editor to refrain from attempting to fill up this blank.-ED.] On Monday, March 23, I found him busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary. Mr. Peyton, one of his original amanuenses, was writing for him. I put him in mind of a meaning of the word side, which he had omitted, viz. relationship; as father's side, mother's side. He inserted it. I asked him if humiliating was a good word. He said he had seen it frequently used, but he did not know it to be legitimate English. He would not admit civilization, but only civility. With great deference to him I thought civilization, from to civilize, better in the sense opposed to barbarity than civility; as it is better to have a distinct word for each sense, than one word with two senses, which civility is, in his way of using it. He seemed also to be intent on some sort of chymical operation. I was entertained by observing how he contrived to send Mr. Peyton on an errand, without seeming to degrade him:-" Mr. Peyton, Mr. Peyton, will you be so good as to take a walk to Temple-Bar? You will there see a chymist's shop, at which you will be pleased to buy for me an ounce of oil of vitriol; not spirit of vitriol, but oil of vitriol. It will cost three half-pence." Peyton immediately went, and returned with it, and told him it cost but a penny. [Of the death of this poor labourer in literature, of whom Mrs. Piozzi says that he had considerable talents, and knew many modern languages, Johnson gave himself the following pathetic account, in a letter to that lady: 66 but almost motionless, condemned by poverty | that my cousin, Colonel Graham, of the to personal attendance, and by the necessi- Royal Highlanders, whom I met at Droghety of such attendance chained down to pov- da, told me they did. JOHNSON. Sir, if erty-he probably thought often how light- the Highlanders understood Irish, why ly he should tread the path of life without translate the New Testament into Erse, as his burthen. Of this thought the admis- was lately done at Edinburgh, when there sion was unavoidable, and the indulgence is an Irish translation?" BOSWELL. “Almight be forgiven to frailty and distress. though the Erse and Irish are both dialects His wife died at last, and before she was of the same language, there may be a good buried, he was seized by a fever, and is deal of diversity between them, as benow going to the grave. tween the different dialects in Italy." The Swede went away, and Dr. Johnson continued his reading of the papers. I said, "I am afraid, sir, it is troublesome." "Why, sir," said he, "I do not take much delight in it; but I'll go through it." "Such miscarriages, when they happen to those on whom many eyes are fixed, fill histories and tragedies; and tears have been shed for the sufferings, and wonder excited by the fortitude of those who neither did nor suffered more than Peyton."] We went to the Mitre, and dined in the room where he and I first supped together. He gave me great hopes of my cause. I then reminded him of the schoolmaster's cause, and proposed to read to him" Sir," said he, "the government of a the printed papers concerning it. "No, sir," said he, "I can read quicker than 1 can hear." So he read them to himself. After he had read for some time, we were interrupted by the entrance of Mr. Kristrom, a Swede, who was tutor to some young gentlemen in the city. He told me that there was a very good History of Sweden, by Dalin. Having at that time an intention of writing the history of that country, I asked Dr. Johnson whether one might write a history of Sweden without going thither. "Yes, sir," said he, "one for common use." We talked of languages. Johnson observed that Leibnitz had made some progress in a work, tracing all languages up to the Hebrew. "Why, sir," said he, "you would not imagine that the French jour, day, is derived from the Latin dies, and yet nothing is more certain; and the intermediate steps are very clear. From dies, comes diurnus. Diu is, by inaccurate ears, or inaccurate pronunciation, easily confounded with giu; then the Italians form a substantive of the ablative of an adjective, and thence giurno, or, as they make it, giorno; which is readily contracted into giour, or jour." He observed, that the Bohemian language was true Sclavonick. The Swede said, it had some similarity with the German. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, to be sure, such parts of Sclavonia as confine with Germany will borrow German words; and such parts as confine with Tartary will borrow Tartar words." He said, he never had it properly ascertained that the Scotch Highlanders and the Irish understood each other. I told him 1 [In Mr. Anderson's Historical Sketches of the Native Irish, we find the following observations "The Irish and Gaelic languages are the same, and formerly what was spoken in the Highlands schoolmaster is somewhat of the nature of military government; that is to say, it must be arbitrary, it must be exercised by the will of one man, according to particular circumstances. You must show some learning upon this occasion. You must show, that a schoolmaster has a prescriptive right to beat; and that an action of assault and of Scotland was generally called Irish. Those who have attended to the subject must have observed, that the word Irish was gradually changed into Erse, denoting the language that is now generally called Gaelic." Mr. Anderson states that, when he was in Galway, in Ireland, in 1814, he found a vessel there from Lewis, one of the Hebrides, the master of which remarked to him that the people here spoke curious Gaelic, but he understood them easily, and commerce is actually carried on between the Highlanders and the Irish through the medium of their common language."-P. 133. My friend, Colonel Meyrick Shawe, who pointed out Mr. Anderson's work to me, adds, “I can venture to say from my own experience, that were it not for the difference of pronunciation, the Irish and the Highlanders would be perfectly intelligible to each other; and even with that disadvantage, they become so in a short time. I have indeed met some Highlanders whom I could not understand at all; but there was a Captain Cameron in the same regiment with me (76th), who spoke with an accent more like the Irish than usual, whom I could understand perfectly when he spoke slow. There are, I am told, few words in Irish that are not intelligible to the Highlanders, but there are many in the Gaelic which an Irishman cannot understand. The Scotch, as I am told, and as is natural from their position, have many Pictish and other foreign words. The Irish have no Pictish words, but many Latin." Sir Walter Scott also informs me, that "there is no doubt the languages are the same, and the difference in pronunciation and construction not very considerable. The Erse or Earish is the Irish; and the race called Scots came originally from Ulster."--ED.] battery cannot be admitted against him unless there is some great excess, some barbarity. This man has maimed none of his boys. They are all left with the full exercise of their corporeal faculties. . In our schools in England many boys have been maimed; yet I never heard of an action against a schoolmaster on that account. Puffendorf, I think, maintains the right of a schoolmaster to beat his scholars." On Saturday, March 27, I introduced to him Sir Alexander Macdonald, with whom he had expressed a wish to be acquainted. He received him very courteously. Sir Alexander observed, that the chancellors in England are chosen from views much inferiour to the office, being chosen from temporary political views. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, in such a government as ours, no man is appointed to an office because he is the fittest for it, nor hardly in any other government; because there are so many connexions and dependencies to be studied. A despotick prince may choose a man to an office, merely because he is the fittest for it. The king of Prussia may do it." Sir A. "I think, sir, almost all great lawyers, such at least as have written upon law, have known only law, and nothing else." JOHNSON. "Why, no, sir; Judge Hale was a great lawyer, and wrote upon law; and yet he knew a great many other things, and has written upon other things. Selden too." Sir A. "Very true, sir; and Lord Bacon. But was not Lord Coke a mere lawyer?" JOHNSON. "Why, I am afraid (See [Next brother of Sir James Macdonald, whom Mr. Boswell calls the Marcellus of Scotland, and whom the concurrent testimony of his contemporaries proves to have been a very extraordinary young man. He died at Rome in 1766. post, 5th Sept, 1773.) Sir Alexander succeeded his brother as eighth baronet, and was created an Irish baron, by the title of Lord Macdonald, in 1776. The late chief baron of the exchequer, Sir Archibald Macdonald, was their youngest brothWe shall see more of Sir Alexander under the year 1773, during the Tour to the Hebrides. -ED.] er. [This, no doubt, may occasionally happen, and a lord chancellor sometimes disappoints the expectations not only of the country, but of those who make him; yet on the whole, it seems hard to discover how chancellors can be selected without some attention to political interests. A party coming into power generally makes the ablest and most prominent lawyer of its principles chancellor. There is reason to suppose that a man thus selected in the face of the public, and from an eminence to which he has raised himself, will be better fitted to discharge the various duties of that great office, than if chancellors were to be chosen by some other standard. What, however, that other standard should or could be, Sir Alexander Macdonald did not suggest, and probably never considered.-ED.] he was, but he would have taken it very ill if you had told him so. He would have prosecuted you for scandal." BosWELL. "Lord Mansfield is not a mere lawyer." JOHNSON. "No, sir, I never was in Lord Mansfield's company; but Lord Mansfield was distinguished at the university. Lord Mansfield, when he first came to town, 'drank champagne with the wits,' as Prior says. He was the friend of Pope 3." Sir A. "Barristers, I believe, are not so abusive now as they were formerly 4. I fancy they had less law long ago, and so were obliged to take to abuse to fill up the time. Now they have such a number of precedents, they have no occasion for abuse." JOHNSON. "Nay, sir, they had more law long ago than they have now. As to precedents, to be sure they will increase in course of time; but the more precedents there are, the less occasion is there for law; that is to say, the less occasion is there for investigating principles." Sir A. have been correcting several Scotch accents in my friend Boswell. I doubt, sir, if any Scotchman ever attains to a perfect English pronunciation." JOHNSON. "Why, sir, few of them do, because they do not persevere after acquiring a certain degree of it. But, sir, there can be no doubt that they may attain to a perfect English pronunciation, if they will. We find how near they come to it; and certainly, a man who conquers nineteen parts of the Scotch accent, may conquer the twentieth. But, sir, when a man has got the better of nine-tenths he grows weary, he relaxes his diligence, he finds he has corrected his accent so far as not to be disagreeable, and he no longer desires his friends to tell him when he is wrong, nor "I 3 [He was one of his executors. The large space which (thanks to Mr. Boswell) Dr. Johnson occupies in our estimate of the society of his day, makes it surprising that he should never have been in company with Lord Mansfield; but Boswell was disposed to overrate the extent and rank of Johnson's acquaintance. It is proper here to correct an error relative to Lord Mansfield and Dr. Johnson, which has found its way into print. In Miss Hawkins's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 218, she gives the following anecdote on the authority of her brother, who states that, "calling upon Dr. Johnson shortly after the death of Lord Mansfield, and mentioning the event, Johnson answered, Ah, sir; there was little learning and less virtue." " ly for the accuracy of this anecdote, that Lord It happens, unluckiMansfield survived Dr. Johnson full ten years.— ED.] ་ 4 [The general tone of society is probably improved in this respect, and barristers are more men of the world, and mix more in polite company than at the times Sir A. Macdonald alluded to.-ED.] Upon another occasion I talked to him on this subject, having myself taken some pains to improve my pronunciation, by the aid of the late Mr. Love2, of Drury-lane theatre, when he was a player at Edinburgh, and also of old Mr. Sheridan. Johnson said to me, "Sir, your pronunciation is not offensive." With this concession I was pretty well satisfied; and let me give my countrymen of North-Britain an advice not to aim at absolute perfection in this respect; not to speak high English, as we are apt to call what is far removed from the Scotch, but which is by no means good English, and makes" the fools who use it" truly ridiculous. Good English is plain, easy, and smooth in the mouth of an unaffected English gentleman. A studied and factitious pronunciation, which requires perpetual attention, and imposes perpetual constraint, is exceedingly disgusting. A small intermixture of provincial peculiarities may, perhaps, have an agreeable effect, as the notes of different birds concur in the harmony of the grove, and please more than if they were all exactly alike. I could name some gentlemen of Ireland 3, to whom a slight proportion of the accent and recitative of that country is an advantage. The same observation will apply to the gentlemen of Scotland. I do not mean that we should speak as broad as a certain prosperous member 4 of parliament from that country; though it has been well observed, that it has been of no small use to him; as it rouses the at [He says, in the Lives of the Poets, that "of Mallet he had a very slight personal knowledge." Mallet came to England in 1723, when he was about twenty-five years of age.-ED.] 2 [Love was an assumed name. He was the son of Mr. Dance, the architect. He resided many years at Edinburgh as manager of the theatre of that city; he removed in 1762 to Drurylane, and died in 1771. He wrote some theatrical pieces of no reputation.-ED.] [Mr. Boswell probably included, in this observation, Mr. Burke; who, to the last, retained more of the Irish accent than was agreeable to less indulgent ears.-ED.] tention of the house by its uncommonness; and is equal to tropes and figures in a good English speaker." I would give as an instance of what I mean to recommend to my countrymen, the pronunciation of the late Sir Gilbert Elliots; and may I presume to add that of the present Earl of Marchmont 6, who told me, with great good-humour, that the master of a shop in London where he was not known, said to him, "I suppose, sir, you are an American." Why so, sir?" said his lordship. "Because, sir," replied the shopkeeper," you speak neither English nor Scotch, but something different from both, which I conclude is the language of America." 66 BOSWELL. "It may be of use, sir, to have a dictionary to ascertain the pronunciation." JOHNSON. " Why, sir, my Dictionary shows you the accent of words, if you can but remember them." BOSWELL. But, sir, we want marks to ascertain the pronunciation of the vowels. Sheridan, I believe, has finished such a work." JOHNSON. Why, sir, consider how much easier it is to learn a language by the ear, than by any marks. Sheridan's Dictionary may do very well; but you cannot always carry it about with you: and, when you want the word, you have not the dictionary. It is like a man who has a sword that will not draw. It is an admirable sword, to be sure: but while your enemy is cutting your throat, you are unable to use it. Besides, sir, what entitles Sheridan to fix the pronunciation of English? He has, in the first place, the disadvantage of being an Irishman: and if he says he will fix it after the example of the best company, why, they differ among themselves. I remember an instance: when I published the Plan for my Dictionary, Lord Chesterfield told me that the word great should be pronounced so as to rhyme to state; and Sir William Yonge sent me word that it should be pronounced so as to rhyme to seat, and that none but an Irishman would pronounce it grait. Now here [Third baronet, father of the first Lord Minto; a gentleman of distinction in the political, and not unknown in the poetical world he died in 1777. Is it not, however, rather Hibernian to recommend as a model of pronunciation, one who was already dead?-ignotum per ignotius. |-ED.] 6 [Hugh, fourth Earl of Marchmont, the friend and executor of Pope; born in 1708, died in 1794. |-ED.] [Sir W. Yonge, fourth baronet, K. B. and secretary at war in Sir Robert Walpole's administration; he died in 1755. See ante, p. [Mr. Dundas, successively lord advocate, sec- 79, where the editor has inadvertently stated retary of state, first lord of the admiralty, and that Sir W. Yonge told, instead of sent word to Viscount Melville, whose accent, and many Johnson how great should be pronounced. The of whose phrases, were to the last peculiarly na-pronunciation is now settled, beyond question, tional.-ED.] in the mode stated by Lord Chesterfield.-ED.] were two men of the highest rank, the one, the best speaker in the house of lords, the other, the best speaker in the house of commons, differing entirely." SON. Why, sir, we must either suppose that passage to be metaphorical, or hold with many divines, and all the Purgatorians, that departed souls do not all at once arrive at the utmost perfection of which they are capable." BOSWELL. "I think, sir, that is a very rational supposition." JOHNSON. "Why, yes, sir; but we do not know it is a true one. There is no harm in believing it: but you must not compel others to make it an article of faith; for it is not revealed." BOSWELL. "Do you think, sir, it is wrong in a man who holds the doctrine of purgatory, to pray for the souls of his deceased friends?"" JOHNSON. been told, that in the liturgy of the episcopal church of Scotland, there was a form of prayer for the dead." JOHNSON. "Sir, it is not in the liturgy which Laud framed for the episcopal church of Scotland: if there is a liturgy older than that, I should be glad to see it." BOSWELL. "As to our employment in a future state, the sacred writings say little. The Revelation, however, of St. John gives us many ideas, and particularly mentions musick. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, ideas must be given you by means of something which you know: and as to musick, there are some philosophers and divines who have maintained that we shall not be spiritualized to such a degree, but that something of matter, very much refined, will remain. In that case, musick may make a part of our future felicity 3." I again visited him at night. Finding him in a very good humour, I ventured to lead him to the subject of our situation in a future state, having much curiosity to know his notions on that point. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, the happiness of an unembodied spirit will consist in a consciousness of the favour of GOD, in the contemplation of truth, and in the possession of felicitating ideas." BOSWELL. "But, sir, is there any harm in our forming to ourselves conjectures as to the particulars of our happi-" Why no, sir." BOSWELL. "I have ness, though the scripture has said but very little on the subject? We know not what we shall be."" JOHNSON. "Sir, there is no harm. What philosophy suggests to us on this topick is probable: what scripture tells us is certain. Dr. Henry More has carried it as far as philosophy can. You may buy both his theological and philosophical works in two volumes folio, for about eight shillings. BOSWELL. "One of the most pleasing thoughts is, that we shall see our friends again 2." JOHNSON. "Yes, sir; but you must consider, that when we are become purely rational, many of our friendships will be cut off. Many friendships are formed by a community of sensual pleasures; all these will be cut off. We form many friendships with bad men, because they have agreeable qualities, and they can be useful to us; but, after death, they can no longer be of use to us. We form many friendships by mistake, imagining people to be different from what they really are. After death, we shall see every one in a true light. Then, sir, they talk of our meeting our relations: but then all relationship is dissolved: and we shall have no regard for one person more than another, but for their real value. However, we shall either have the satisfaction of meeting our friends, or be satisfied without meeting them." BoSWELL. "Yet, sir, we see in scripture, that Dives still retained an anxious concern about his brethren." JOHN BOSWELL. "I do not know whether there are any well-attested stories of the appearance of ghosts. You know there is a famous story of the appearance of Mrs. Veal, prefixed to Drelincourt on Death."" JOHNsoN. "I believe, sir, that is given up 4; I believe the woman declared upon her deathbed that it was a lie 5." BOSWELL. "This objection is made against the truth of ghosts appearing: that if they are in a state of happiness, it would be a punishment to them to return to this world; and if they are in a state of misery, it would be giving 3 [See ante, p. 58.-ED.] [It may be inferred from this that Dr. Johrson, notwithstanding his assertion, that apparitions are frequent, (ante, p. 228), was not able to produce one authentic instance of such an appearance. We shall find, in the course of his conversation, a statement, that old Cave had seen a spirit, and some other similar stories, but nothing which, as it would seem, Johnson himself could [Called the Platonist, on account of his voluminous efforts to blend the platonic philosophy with christianity. He, Van Helmot, and Valentine Greatrakes, all mystics in their several professions, were patronized by Anne Finch, Lady Conway (herself a mystic), and all resided for some time in her house at Ragley, where there is a portrait of Van Helmot, and where were found by Mr. Walpole several letters of Dr. More.-believe.-ED.] ED.] Bishop Hall, in his Epistle, "discoursing of the different degrees of heavenly glory, and of our mutual knowledge of each other above," holds the affirmative on both these questions.-MA[See ante, p. 227.—ED.] LONE. 5 This fiction is known to have been invented by Daniel Defoe, and was added to the second edition of the English translation of Drelincourt's work (which was originally written in French), to make it sell. The first edition had it not.MALONE. |