'Since you will not inform us where you are, or how you live, I know not whether you desire to know anything of us. However, I will tell you that THE CLUB subsists; but we have the loss of Burke's company since he has been engaged in public business, in which he has gained more reputation than perhaps any man at his [first] appearance ever gained before. He made two speeches in the House for repealing the Stamp Act, which were publicly commended by Mr. Pitt, and have filled the town with wonder. think she was. But as we advance in the jour-spondence I did not wonder, but hoped that it ney of life we drop some of the things which would be renewed at your recovery. have pleased us; whether it be that we are fatigued and don't choose to carry so many things any further, or that we find other things which we like better.' BOSWELL: 'But, sir, why don't you give us something in some other way?' GOLDSMITH: 'Ay, sir, we have a claim upon you.' JOHNSON: 'No, sir, I am not obliged to do any more. No man is obliged to do as much as. he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself. If a soldier has fought a good many campaigns, he is not to be blamed if he retires to ease and tranquillity. A physician who has practised long in a great city, may be excused if he retires to a small town and takes less practice. Now, sir, the good I can do by my conversation bears the same proportion to the good I can do by my writings, that the practice of a physician retired to a small town does to his practice in a great city.' BOSWELL: But I wonder, sir, you have not more pleasure in writing than in not writing.' JOHNSON: 'Sir, you may wonder.' He talked of making verses, and observed, 'The great difficulty is to know when you have made good ones. When composing, I have generally had them in my mind perhaps fifty at a time, walking up and down in my room; and then I have written them down, and often from laziness have written only half lines. I have written a hundred lines in a day. I remember I wrote a hundred lines of The Vanity of Human Wishes in a day. Doctor (turning to. Goldsmith), I am not quite idle; I made one line t'other day, but I made no more.' GOLDSMITH: 'Let us hear it: we'll put a bad one to it.' JOHNSON: 'No, sir; I have forgot it.' Such specimens of the easy and playful conversation of the great Dr. Samuel Johnson are I think to be prized, as exhibiting the little varieties of a mind so enlarged and so powerful when objects of consequence required its exertions, and as giving us a minute knowledge of his character and modes of thinking, 'TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. 'March 9, 1766. 'JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET. 'DEAR SIR,-What your friends have done, that from your departure till now nothing has been heard of you, none of us are able to inform the rest; but as we are all neglected alike, no one thinks himself entitled to the privilege of complaint. 'I should have known nothing of you or of Langton, from the time that dear Miss Langton left us, had not I met Mr. Simpson of Lincoln one day in the street, by whom I was informed that Mr. Langton, your mamma, and yourself, had been all ill, but that you were all recovered. "That sickness should suspend your corre 'Burke is a great man by nature, and is expected soon to attain civil greatness. I am grown greater too, for I have maintained the newspapers these many weeks; and what is greater still, I have risen every morning since New-year's day at about eight: when I was up, I have indeed done but little; yet it is no slight advancement to obtain for so many hours more the consciousness of being. 'I wish you were in my new study; I am now writing the first letter in it; I think it looks very pretty about me. 'Dyer' is constant at THE CLUB ; Hawkins is remiss; I am not over-diligent. Dr. Nugent, Dr. Goldsmith, and Mr. Reynolds are very constant. Mr. Lye is printing his Saxon and Gothic Dictionary; all THE CLUB subscribes. 'You will pay my best respects to all my Lincolnshire friends.-I am, dear sir, most affectionately yours, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 'TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. 'May 10, 1766. 'JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET. 'DEAR SIR,-In supposing that I should be more than commonly affected by the death of Peregrine Langton you were not mistaken; he was one of those whom I loved at once by instinct and by reason. I have seldom indulged more hope of anything than of being able to improve our acquaintance to friendship. Many a time have I placed myself again at Langton, and imagined the pleasure with which I should walk to Partney 3 in a summer morning; but this is no longer possible. We must now endeavour to preserve what is left us-his example 1 Samuel Dyer, Esq, a most learned and ingenious member of the Literary Club, for whose understanding and attainments Dr. Johnson had great respect. He died Sept. 14, 1772. A more particular account of this gentleman may be found in a note on the Life of Dryden, p. 186, prefixed to the edition of that great writer's Prose Works, in four volumes 8vo, 1800; in which his character is vindicated, and the very unfavourable and unjust representation of it given by Sir John Hawkins in his Life of Johnson, pp. 222-232, is minutely examined.-MALONE. 2 Mr. Langton's uncle.-Boswell. 3 The place of residence of Mr. Peregrine Langton.BOSWELL. of piety and economy. I hope you make what inquiries you can, and write down what is told you. The little things which distinguish domestic characters are soon forgotten: if you delay to inquire, you will have no information; if you neglect to write, information will be vain. 'His art of life certainly deserves to be known and studied. He lived in plenty and elegance upon an income which to many would appear indigent, and to most scanty. How he lived, therefore, every man has an interest in knowing. His death, I hope, was peaceful; it was surely happy. 'I wish I had written sooner, lest, writing now, I should renew your grief; but I would not forbear saying what I have now said. "This loss is, I hope, the only misfortune of a family to whom no misfortune at all should happen, if my wishes could avert it. Let me know how you all go on. Has Mr. Langton got him the little horse that I recommended? It would do him good to ride about his estate in fine weather. 'Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Langton, and to dear Miss Langton, and Miss Di, and Miss Juliet, and to everybody else. 'THE CLUB holds very well together. Monday is my night. I continue to rise tolerably well, and read more than I did. I hope something will yet come on it.-I am, sir, your most affectionate servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' CHAPTER XVIII. 1765-1767. I AFTER I had been some time in Scotland, I mentioned to Johnson in a letter, that on my first return to my native country, after some years of absence, I was told of a vast number of my acquaintance who were all gone to the land of forgetfulness, and I found myself like a man stalking over a field of battle, who every moment perceives some one lying dead.' complained of irresolution, and mentioned my having made a vow as a security for good conduct. I wrote to him again, without being able to move his indolence; nor did I hear from him till he had received a copy of my inaugural Exercise, or Thesis in Civil Law, which I published at my admission as an Advocate, as is the custom in Scotland. He then wrote to me as follows: TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 'LONDON, Aug. 21, 1766. 'DEAR SIR,-The reception of your Thesis put me in mind of my debt to you. Why did you .2. I will punish you for it, by 1 Of his being in the chair of THE LITERARY CLUB, which at this time met once a week in the evening.BOSWELL. 2 The passage omitted alluded to a private transaction.-BOSWELL. telling you that your Latin wants correction.' In the beginning, Spei alteræ, not to urge that it should be primæ, is not grammatical: alteræ should be alteri. In the next line you seem to use genus absolutely, for what we call family, that is, for illustrious extraction, I doubt without authority. Homines nullius originis for Nullis orti majoribus, or Nullo loco nati, is, as I am afraid, barbarous,-Ruddiman is dead. 'I have now vexed you enough, and will try to please you. Your resolution to obey your father I sincerely approve; but do not accustom yourself to enchain your volatility by vows: they will sometimes leave a thorn in your mind, which you will perhaps never be able to extract or eject. Take this warning; it is of great importance. 'The study of the law is, what you very justly term it, copious and generous; and in adding your name to its professors, you have done exactly what I always wished, when I wished you best. I hope that you will continue to pursue it vigorously and constantly. You gain, at least, what is no small advantage, security from those troublesome and wearisome discontents which are always obtruding themselves upon a mind vacant, unemployed, and undetermined. 'You ought to think it no small inducement to diligence and perseverance that they will please your father. We all live upon the hope of pleasing somebody; and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest, and at last always will be greatest, when our endeavours are exerted in consequence of our duty. 'Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent deliberation which those who begin it by prudence, and continue it with subtilty, must, after long expense of thought, conclude by chance. To prefer one future mode of life which it has not pleased our Creator to give us. to another, upon just reasons, requires faculties 'If, therefore, the profession you have chosen 1 This censure of my Latin relates to the Dedication, which was as follows: 'Viro nobilissimo, ornatissimo, Joanni Vicecomiti Mounstuart, atavis edito regibus excelsæ familiæ de Bute spei altera; labente seculo, quum homines nullius originis genus æquare opibus aggrediuntur, sanguinis antiqui et illustris semper memori, natalium splendorem virtutibus augenti: ad publica populi comitia jam legato; in optimatium vero magnæ Britanniæ senatu, jure hæreditario, olim consessuro: vim insitam varia doctrina promovente, nec tamen se venditante, prædito: prisca fide animo liberrimo, et morum elegantia insigni; in Italiæ visitanda itinere, socio suo honoratissimo, hasce jurisprudentiæ primitias devinctissimæ amicitiæ et observantiæ, monumentum, D. D. C. Q. JACOBUS BOSWELL.' 2 This alludes to the first sentence of the Proemium of my Thesis. JURISPRUDENTIÆ, studio nullum uberius, nullum generosius: in legibus enim agitandis, populorum mores, variasque fortunæ vices ex quibus leges oriuntur, contemplari simul solemus.'--BoswELL. TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. 'AUCHINLECK, Nov. 6, 1766. 'MUCH ESTEEMED AND DEAR SIR,-I plead not guilty to...1 'Having thus, I hope, cleared myself of the charge brought against me, I presume you will not be displeased if I escape the punishment which you have decreed for me unheard. If you have discharged the arrows of criticism against an innocent man, you must rejoice to find they have missed him, or have not been pointed so as to wound him. 'To talk no longer in allegory, I am, with all deference, going to offer a few observations in defence of my Latin, which you have found fault with. 'You think I should have used spei prima instead of spei alteræ. Spes is, indeed, often used to express something on which we have a future dependence, as in Virg. Eclog. i. 1. 14: modo namque gemellos 66 Spem gregis, ah! silice in nudâ connxia reliquit;" and in Georg. iii. 1. 473, "Spemque gregemque simul," for the lambs and the sheep. Yet it is also used to express anything on which we have a present dependence, and is well applied to a man of distinguished influence,-our support, our refuge, our præsidium, as Horace calls Mæcenas. So Eneid, xii. 1. 57, Queen Amata addresses her son-in-law Turnus: "Spes tu nunc una : " and he was then no future hope, for she adds, 1. 168, after having mentioned Pater Æneas, who was the present spes, the reigning spes, as my German friends would say, the spes prima, the poet adds: "Et juxta Ascanius, magnæ spes altera Romæ." 'You think alterce ungrammatical, and you tell me it should have been alteri. You must recollect that in old times alter was declined regularly; and when the ancient fragments preserved in the Juris Civilis Fontes were written, it was certainly declined in the way that I use it. This, I should think, may protect a lawyer who writes alteræ in a dissertation upon part of his own science. But as I could hardly venture to quote fragments of old law to so classical a man as Mr. Johnson, I have not made an accurate search into these remains, to find examples of what I am able to produce in poetical composition. We find in Plaut. Rudens, Act iii. scene 4, "Nam huic altero patria quæ sit profecto nescio." Plautus is, to be sure, an old comic writer; but in the days of Scipio and Lelius, we find Terent. Heautontim. Act ii. scene 3, hoc ipsa in itinere alteræ Dum narrat, forte audivi." 'You doubt my having authority for using is, for illustrious extraction. Now I take genus genus absolutely, for what we call family, that in Latin to have much the same signification with birth in English: both in their primary meaning expressing simply descent, but both made to stand xar' oxny, for noble descent. Genus is thus used in Hor. lib. ii. Sat. v. 1. 8: "Et genus et virtus, nisi cum re, vilior alga est." And in lib. i. Epist. vi. 1. 37 : "Et genus et formam Regina pecunia donat.” And in the celebrated contest between Ajax and Ulysses, Ovid's Metamorph. lib. xiii. 1. 140: "Nam genus et proavos, et quæ non fecimus ipsi, Vix ea nostra voco." 66 ""Homines nullius originis," for "nullis orti majoribus," or nullo loco nati," is, you are afraid, "barbarous." 'Origo is used to signify extraction, as in Virg. Æneid, i. 286, "Nascetur pulchra Trojanus origine Cæsar." And in Eneid, x. 1. 618, " "Ille tamen nostrâ deducit origine nomen; and as nullus is used for obscure, is it not in the genius of the Latin language to write nullius originis for obscure extraction? 'I have defended myself as well as I could. 'Might I venture to differ from you with regard to the utility of vows? I am sensible that it would be very dangerous to make vows rashly, and without a due consideration. But I cannot help thinking that they may often be of great advantage to one of a variable judgment and irregular inclinations. I always remember a passage in one of your letters to our Italian friend Baretti; where, talking of the monastic life, you say you do not wonder that serious men should put themselves under the protection of a religious order when they have found how unable they are to take care of themselves. For my own part, without affecting to be a Socrates, I am sure I have a more than ordinary struggle to maintain with the Evil principle; and all the methods I can devise are little enough to keep me tolerably steady in the paths of réctitude. 'Reflections on a Grave digging in Westminster Abbey.' There is in this collection a poem, 'On the Death of Stephen Grey, the Electrician' [*], which, on reading it, appeared to me to be undoubtedly Johnson's. I asked Mrs. Williams whether it was not his. 'Sir,' said she, with some warmth, 'I wrote that poem before I had the honour of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance.' I, however, was so much impressed with my first notion, that I mentioned it to Johnson, repeating, at the same time, what Mrs. Williams had -I am ever, with the greatest veneration, your said. His answer was, 'It is true, sir, that she affectionate humble servant, 'JAMES BOSWELL.' It appears from Johnson's diary that he was this year at Mr. Thrale's, from before midsummer till after Michaelmas, and that he afterwards passed a month at Oxford. He had then contracted a great intimacy with Mr. Chambers of that University, afterwards Sir Robert Chambers, one of the judges in India. He published nothing this year in his own name; but the noble dedication [*] to the King of Gwyn's London and Westminster Improved was written by him; and he furnished the preface, [+] and several of the pieces, which compose a volume of Miscellanies by Mrs. Anna Williams, the blind lady who had an asylum in his house. Of these, there are his Epitaph on Phillips'[*]; "Translation of a Latin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer'[+]; 'Friendship, an Ode' [*]; and The Ant' [*], a paraphrase from the Proverbs, of which I have a copy in his own handwriting; and from internal evion her dence, I ascribe to him, 'To Miss giving the Author a gold and silk network Purse of her own weaving '[t]; and 'The Happy Life'[+]. Most of the pieces in this volume have evidently received additions from his superior pen, particularly 'Verses to Mr. Richardson on his Sir Charles Grandison;' 'The Excursion ;' 1 In a paper already mentioned (near the end of the year 1736), the following account of this publication is given by a lady (Lady Knight) well acquainted with Mrs. Williams: " wrote it before she was acquainted with me; but she has not told you that I wrote it all over again, except two lines.' 'The Fountains' [+], a beautiful little fairy tale in prose, written with exquisite simplicity, is one of Johnson's productions; and I cannot withhold from Mrs. Thrale the praise of being the author of that admirable poem, "The Three Warnings.' He wrote this year a letter, not intended for publication, which has perhaps as strong marks of his sentiments and style as any of his compositions. The original is in my possession. It is addressed to the late Mr. William Drummond, bookseller in Edinburgh, a gentleman of good family but small estate, who took arms for the house of Stuart in 1745; and during his concealment in London till the act of general pardon came out, obtained the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, who justly esteemed him as a very worthy man. It seems some of the members of the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge had opposed the scheme of translating the Holy Scriptures into the Erse or Gaelic language, from political considerations of the disadvantage of keeping up the distinction between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of North Britain. Dr. Johnson being informed of this, I suppose by Mr. Drummond, wrote with a generous indignation as follows:'TO MR. WILLIAM DRUMMOND. 'JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, Aug. 13, 1766. 'SIR,-I did not expect to hear that it could 'As to her poems, she many years attempted to pub-be, in an assembly convened for the propagation lish them; the half-crowns she had got towards the publication, she confessed to me, went for necessaries, and that the greatest pain she ever felt was from the appearance of defrauding her subscribers: But what can I do? the Doctor [Johnson] always puts me off with "Well, we'll think about it," and Goldsmith says, "Leave it to me.' However, two of her friends, under her directions, made a new subscription at a crown, the whole price of the work, and in a very little time raised sixty pounds. Mrs. Carter was applied to by Mrs. Williams's desire, and she with the utmost activity and kindness procured a long list of names, At length the work was published, in which is a fine written but gloomy tale of Dr. Johnson. The money Mrs. Williams had various uses for, and a part of it was funded. BOSWELL By this publication Mrs. Williams got £150.MALONE. of Christian knowledge, a question whether any nation uninstructed in religion should receive instruction; or whether that instruction should be imparted to them by a translation of the holy books into their own language. If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness, and knowledge of his will be necessary to obedience, I know not how he that withholds this knowledge, or delays it, can be said to love his neighbour as himself. He that voluntarily continues ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces; as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a lighthouse, might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwreck. Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity; and as no man is good but as he wishes the good of others, no man can be good in the highest degree who wishes not to others the largest measures of the greatest good. To omit for a year, or for a day, the most efficacious method of advancing Christianity, in compliance with any purposes that terminate on this side of the grave, is a crime of which I know not that the world has yet had an example, except in the practice of the planters in America, a race of mortals whom, I suppose, no other man wishes to resemble. "The Papists have, indeed, denied to the laity the use of the Bible; but this prohibition, in few places now very rigorously enforced, is defended by arguments which have for their foundation the care of souls. To obscure, upon motives merely political, the light of revelation, is a practice reserved for the reformed; and surely the blackest midnight of Popery is meridian sunshine to such a reformation. I am not very willing that any language should be totally -extinguished. The similitude and derivation of languages afford the most indubitable proof of the traduction of nations and the genealogy of mankind. They add often physical certainty to historical evidence; and often supply the only evidence of ancient migrations, and of the revolutions of ages which left no written monuments behind them. Every man's opinions, at least his desires, are a little influenced by his favourite studies. My zeal for languages may seem, perhaps, rather overheated, even to those by whom I desire to be well esteemed. To those who have nothing in their thoughts but trade or policy, present power or present money, I should not think it necessary to defend my opinions; but with men of letters I would not unwillingly compound, by wishing the continuance of every language, however narrow in its extent, or however incommodious for common purposes, till it is reposited in some version of a known book, that it may be always hereafter examined and compared with other languages, and then permitting its disuse. For this purpose the translation of the Bible is most to be desired. It is not certain that the same method will not preserve the Highland language, for the purposes of learning, and abolish it from daily use. When the Highlanders read the Bible, they will naturally wish to have its obscurities cleared, and to know the history, collateral or appendant. Knowledge always desires increase; it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. When they once desire to learn, they will naturally have recourse to the nearest language by which that desire can be gratified; and one will tell another that if he would attain knowledge, he must learn English. and has not produced the consequence expected. Let knowledge, therefore, take its turn; and let the patrons of privation stand awhile aside, and admit the operation of positive principles. 'You will be pleased, sir, to assure the worthy man who is employed in the new translation,' that he has my wishes for his success; and if here or at Oxford I can be of any use, that I shall think it more than honour to promote his undertaking. 'I am sorry that I delayed so long to write. -I am, sir, your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' The opponents of this pious scheme being made ashamed of their conduct, the benevolent undertaking was allowed to go on. The following letters, though not written till the year after, being chiefly upon the same subject, are here inserted : TO MR. WILLIAM DRUMMOND. 'DEAR SIR,-That my letter should have had such effects as you mention gives me great pleasure. I hope you do not flatter me by imputing to me more good than I have really done. Those whom my arguments have persuaded to change their opinion, show such modesty and candour as deserve great praise. 'I hope the worthy translator goes diligently forward. He has a higher reward in prospect I wish I could be useful to him. than any honours which this world can bestow. 'The publication of my letter, if it could be of use in a cause to which all other causes are nothing, I should not prohibit. But first, I would have you to consider whether the publication will really do any good; next, whether by printing and distributing a very small number, you may not attain all that you propose; and what perhaps I should have said first, whether the letter, which I do not now perfectly remember, be fit to be printed. 'If you can consult Dr. Robertson, to whom I am a little known, I shall be satisfied about the propriety of whatever he shall direct. If The Rev. Mr. John Campbell, minister of the parish of Kippen, near Stirling, who has lately favoured me with a long, intelligent, and very obliging letter upon this work, makes the following remark: Dr. Johnson has alluded to the worthy man employed in the translation of the New Testament. Might not this have afforded you an opportunity of paying a proper tribute of respect to the memory of the Rev. Mr. James Stuart, late minister of Killin, distinguished by his eminent piety, learning, and taste? The amiable simplicity of his life, his warm benevolence, his indefatigable and successful exertions for civilising and improving the This speculation may perhaps be thought parish of which he was minister for upwards of fifty more subtle then the grossness of real life will easily admit. Let it, however, be remembered, that the efficacy of ignorance has long been tried, years, entitle him to the gratitude of his country and the veneration of all good men. It certainly would be a pity if such a character should be permitted to sink into oblivion.-BOSWELL. |