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 Red Letter Library 
 
 JOHNSON'S TABLE TALK
 
 3w ?s'2- 
 Introduction 
 
 The most famous biography in the English 
 language has been subjected to more than one 
 essay in condensation : that recently introduced 
 to the world by Mr. Chesterton is only the 
 latest of a long series of abridgments. An 
 endeavour has even been made — an endeavour 
 countenanced by no less acute a critic than 
 George Henry Lewes — to wrest from their 
 setting the various anecdotes and conversa- 
 tions recorded by Boswell, and to constitute 
 them the basis of a new and much shorter 
 Life of Johnson. But, so far as I know, Bos- 
 well's great work is still awaiting what Richard- 
 son would call its "Index Historical and 
 Characteristical ". The present volume will 
 perhaps obviate the necessity of preparing such 
 an index ; at any rate it may claim to rank 
 unique among books derived from Boswell as 
 being one in which an attempt is made to 
 disentangle the great moralist's utterances from 
 the disciple's narrative, and to arrange them in 
 such a synthesis as shall afford something 
 iii 
 
 <! <r>.'i o '■■>'-'■<•!
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 approaching to a true conspectus of Johnsonian 
 opinion. When all allowances have been made, 
 and all compliments paid, when the standard 
 Life of Johnson has been praised for its piquant 
 and malicious "Ana" of distinguished persons, 
 for its Pepys-like revelation of its author's 
 vanities and foibles, as well as for its invalu- 
 able view of late eighteenth-century literature 
 and literary men, it must be admitted to base 
 its surest title to immortality on that marvel- 
 lous collection of its subject's conversations 
 and correspondence which it incorporates. 
 True, Johnson's philosophy is expressed in 
 more formal and deliberate fashion in his 
 satires and in his essays. But London is a 
 mere academic exercise in sava indignatio ; The 
 Vanity of Human M-^iskes, for all its intensity of 
 moral fervour, retains many crabbed and many 
 commonplace lines. In both poems, indeed, 
 Johnson falls as far behind Pope in pungency 
 as he sinks below Goldsmith in pathos : he is 
 pompous rather than majestic, aiFected instead 
 of being affecting, and his " constant epithets " 
 are the least of his offences. The Rambler and 
 The Idler afford a mass of sound morality and 
 of weighty common sense, but their declama- 
 tory periods, their cumbrous and inelastic dic- 
 tion, their exhibition of "humours", and their 
 reliance on the convention of classical or of 
 iv
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Eastern allegory, render them desperately alien 
 from modern taste and sympathy. While Ras- 
 selas — a romance which has neither story to 
 tell nor characters to develop — contains such 
 a definitive statement of Johnson's manly but 
 melancholy creed as makes it little better than 
 a sermon in disguise. No doubt, then, that 
 he who would know Johnson's view of the 
 eternal verities must listen to the discourses 
 of The Idler and of The Rambler, and make the 
 acquaintance of Rasselas, of Imlac, and of 
 Nekayah. But he who seeks no solution of 
 the riddle of the painful earth, he who merely 
 looks for counsel on the conduct of this pre- 
 sent life, will turn from the history of Prince 
 Rasselas to the Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., 
 and so turning, will find in the unflagging wit 
 and vivacity of James Boswell's " Real Conver- 
 sations" ample recompense for their avoid- 
 ance of reasoned philosophy and of gnomic 
 solemnity. 
 
 About these conversations two questions 
 will naturally be asked : Are they typical of 
 the average talk of Johnson ? Do they fairly 
 represent the topics on which he was wont to 
 discourse ? Or are they mere records of his 
 deliverances on subjects carefully introduced 
 by Boswell ? The second question is : How 
 explain the fact that of a society which con- 
 y
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 tained men of such intellectual eminence as 
 Burke, Fox, Gibbon, Sjieridan, and Goldsmith, 
 the minutes should show Johnson absolutely 
 predominant in conversation, and every other 
 person merely making up his audience ? Neither 
 question allows of a very conclusive answer. 
 It must be remembered that though Boswell's 
 intimacy with Johnson extended over a period 
 of nearly twenty- two years — from 1763 to 
 1784, — during eight of these years master and 
 disciple never met. Boswell's visits to John- 
 son were generally paid in the spring vacation 
 of the Scotch courts, which lasted from March 
 1 2th to June 12th. All these spring meetings 
 — which took place in 1763, 1766, 1768, 1772, 
 
 1773, I775> 1776, 1778, I779» 1781, 1783, 
 and 1784, — as well as the autumn meetings of 
 1769 and 1779, occurred in London. But 
 in the autumn of 1773 Boswell met Johnson 
 in Edinburgh and conducted him on the 
 famous tour to the Flebrides, while in Sep- 
 tember, 1777, the two men came together at 
 Ashbourne, where they had visited Johnson's 
 old friend. Dr. Taylor, in the previous year. It 
 seems, then, not unreasonable to hold that the 
 interrupted character of this intimacy — an in- 
 timacy which Croker estimates at a total inter- 
 course of only 276 days — tells somewhat against 
 the view that regards the conversations as ab-
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 both by Gibbon and by Johnson. Gibbon 
 remarks " that Mr. Fox could not be afraid 
 of Mr. Johnson, yet he certainly was very shy 
 of saying anything in Dr. Johnson's presence". 
 Johnson himself throws out two rather contra- 
 dictory suggestions on this subject. In one 
 place he expresses his acquiescence in an ap- 
 plication to Fox of what was said of Alcibiades 
 by Eupolis : " True, he can talk, and yet he is 
 no speaker", and at a later date he says that 
 " Fox never talks in private company because 
 he has not the first motion. A man who is 
 used to the applause of the House of Commons 
 has no wish for that of a private company." 
 The only occasion on which Burke is copiously 
 represented in Boswell's pages is recorded in 
 the account of the Club meeting of April 3rd, 
 1778, at which the subjects discussed are Sculp- 
 ture, Emigration, and Parliamentary speaking ; 
 and the sole explanation of the great orator's 
 general silence is that which he himself has 
 afforded. Rennet Langton, in that collection 
 of Johnson's sayings for 1780 with which he 
 supplied Boswell, says that he " recollects hav- 
 ing passed an evening with both Burke and 
 Johnson, when Mr. Burke repeatedly entered 
 upon topics which it was evident he would 
 have illustrated with extensive knowledge and 
 richness of expression " had not " Johnson
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 always seized upon the conversation". On 
 the way home Burke observed that " Johnson 
 had been very great that night". Langton 
 agreed, but added he could have wished to hear 
 more from another person, plainly intimating 
 that he meant Mr. Burke. *' Oh, no," said 
 Mr. Burke, " it is enough for me to have rung 
 the bell to him!" 
 
 The problem of Johnson's absolute monarchy 
 at the Club we may then resolve somewhat as 
 follows. His venerable age and his reputation 
 as a moralist — founded on The Rambler and on 
 Rasselas — gave him the initial advantage in con- 
 versation, and this advantage he maintained 
 and increased by an unrivalled fertility, elo- 
 quence, and humour. Utterly unscrupulous 
 in enforcing and strengthening a position, 
 Johnson would play the bully, the cynic, the 
 derisive laugher, or the sophist, just as occa- 
 sion required. In his early life he had often 
 resorted to the argumentiim ad baculum, he had 
 walked the streets all night with the ruffianly 
 Savage, he had interviewed street-walkers and 
 drunk with them, he had rubbed shoulders 
 with Covent Garden porters, and bandied ob- 
 scene retorts with bargees. So that he was 
 not the man, once his blood was up, who 
 could be expected to pay a tender regard to 
 an opponent's feelings. Utterly courageous
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and thick-skinned himself, Johnson could make 
 no allowance for the absence of these qualities 
 in other persons, and in any public discussion 
 he talked solely with a view to victory. What 
 was the good of men who had daily occupa- 
 tions to mind attempting to compete with a 
 rival who, during the last years of his life, 
 practically devoted his whole time to talking ? 
 Accessible to any decently-bred and properly- 
 introduced person, ready indeed as he was to 
 break down all formal barriers of social inter- 
 course, Johnson may be described as the 
 Hackenschmidt of conversation, prepared to 
 take on all comers at a moment's notice. 
 "Inspired idiots" like Goldsmith and Boswell 
 fell an easy prey to such a gladiator. Famous 
 authors and learned professors were too wise 
 to risk their reputations in a combat with him. 
 And even orators like Fox and Burke, bishops 
 such as Percy and Barnard, were shy of engag- 
 ing in a second tussle with so redoubtable a 
 champion. For Johnson's very defects helped 
 him to maintain his supremac}'. He was blind 
 of one eye and short-sighted of the other, so the 
 beauties of nature and of art were nothing to 
 him. "Never heed such nonsense", he would 
 say, " as this cant about prospects and charms 
 of nature ; a blade of grass is always a blade 
 of grass, whether in one country or another."
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 And his "scorn of painting was such", says 
 Mrs. Thrale, " that I liave heard him say that 
 he would sit very quietly in a room hung 
 round with the works of the greatest masters, 
 and never feel the slightest disposition to turn 
 them if their backs were outermost, unless it 
 might be for the sake of telling Sir Joshua that 
 he had turned them". His hearing was so bad 
 that for quite a dozen years before his death 
 he could take not the slightest pleasure in the 
 playhouse, while for music he had so little 
 taste that he would sooner have heard Roswell 
 whistle a Scotch tune than have sat through 
 one of Handel's oratorios. To the higher 
 harmonies of prose and of poetry he was 
 equally deaf. He liked Shakespeare, not for 
 his poetry, but for his knowledge of human 
 nature. He alleged that Milton could not 
 write a sonnet, and condemned Lycidas and 
 Samson Agonistes. He failed to appreciate either 
 the satire of Swift or the irony of Fielding ; 
 and for the soaring eloquence of Burke he 
 seems to have cared as little as for the stately 
 periods of Gibbon. Hume he confessed that 
 he had never read. With Johnson, indeed, 
 everything must needs be measured by the 
 rule of accepted convention and of common 
 sense. The result was that anything strange 
 or out of the common in any department of 
 xiv
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 life or of letters, anything signifying revolt or 
 tinged with rapture or with enthusiasm, was 
 to him anathema. The great Methodist move- 
 ment, the humour oiTristram Shandy, the "good- 
 ness of heart" preached in Tom Jones, the be- 
 ginnings of the romantic revival foreshadowed 
 by Ossian and by Gray, the efforts of " an op- 
 pressed nation bravely struggling to be free" 
 — the words are Boswell's, not Gladstone's, — 
 all these signs of the coming liberation of the 
 human spirit were regarded with the gravest 
 suspicion by a man who, entertaining more than 
 the average Tory's objection to chatter about 
 abstract principles and capital-lettered virtues, 
 was up in arms at the slightest motion to 
 impugn the settled order of things human or 
 things divine. 
 
 Johnson, indeed, it must be confessed, was 
 neither more nor less than a Philistine. Yet 
 in his conversations with men of finer taste 
 and of more extended views this very Philis- 
 tinism must have helped in no small measure 
 to secure him victory. Even the limitations 
 of a man of genius and of strong convictions 
 are impressive. And Johnson's unique power 
 of ridiculing anything he disliked — sheer blud- 
 geon-work, as it must be called — was always 
 used to its utmost strength. It performed a 
 double function, it both amused and bemused 
 
 XV
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 his opponents. . . . Hawkins had written a 
 History of the Science and Practice of Music (like 
 Boswell, he quotes himself in his Life of John- 
 son) ; Burney was both an historian of music 
 and a musical composer ; Burke had published 
 an Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sub- 
 lime and Beautiful; Gibbon had, in his Decline 
 and Fall, given to history just that colouring 
 and philosophic idea which Johnson so in- 
 tolerantly pooh-poohed ; and Goldsmith, Avho 
 had the audacity to pen a glowing appreciation 
 of the " infidel " Voltaire, had expounded in 
 The Bee and in The Citizen of the World many 
 of those liberal ideas, of the solid good sense 
 of the "people", of the comparative unim- 
 portance of religious dogma, which his friend 
 consistently attacked as no less nonsensical 
 than anarchical. When we add to such names 
 those of Beauclerk, a connoisseur, and of Rey- 
 nolds, a great practitioner of the arts, we have 
 furnished a list of men who, if they had been 
 ready enough, or rough enough, could have 
 given Johnson many a mauvais quart d''heure on 
 the subject of his aesthetic heresies. But just 
 as the average decently -bred man shuns a 
 quarrel with a cabman or a collision with a 
 chimney-sweep — Johnson admitted that he 
 had no such qualms — so these younger and 
 more cultured members of the Club were men 
 
 Xvi- ( B 212 )
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of too fastidious a taste and of too timid a 
 spirit to challenge Johnson on these questions 
 of music and of the arts. They did not care 
 to talk on favourite topics to one who would 
 probably have ridiculed or browbeaten them. 
 They knew that "a man may be in as just 
 possession of truth as of a city, and yet be 
 forced to surrender " ; and they seem to have 
 agreed with Dr. Browne that it was "far better 
 to enjoy truth with peace than to hazard her 
 on a battle ". Johnson, indeed, on all ques- 
 tions of conversation and of social intercourse, 
 must be allowed to claim the benefit of his 
 own merciful judgment on inconsistency of 
 "Precept and Practice". He started talking, 
 it may be presumed, with a resolve to conform 
 to his own not-too-exalted standards of courtesy 
 and of good-breeding. But his schoolmaster's 
 experience and his Grub-Street training both 
 militated against the carrying out of such a re- 
 solve ; while his cold and insolent incredulity, 
 and his lack of that Whitmanesque respect for 
 men qua men which is one of the charmingly 
 modern traits in Goldsmith's character, caused 
 him to act on many occasions with a brutality 
 that might easily be mistaken for stark insensi- 
 bility. A disputant who could tell the ami- 
 able and dignified Sir Joshua that he was 
 drunk, who retorted with almost equal insolence 
 5^j (b 212) xvii B
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 on such mild-mannered men as Dr. Burney 
 and Dr. Barnard, who repaid Mrs. Tlirale for 
 twenty years of kindness with the astounding 
 letter he wrote her in the matter of Piozzi, 
 and who, when he was called a puppy by his 
 mother, was guilty of the appalling impietas 
 of asking her if she knew what they called a 
 puppy's mother — a disputant of this sort may 
 fairly be said to have been liable at times to 
 forget moral responsibility and common decency. 
 And when wc remember, too, how addicted 
 Johnson was (despite his denunciation of it 
 in other persons) to the practice of "talking 
 to make people stare ", how fond he ever 
 showed himself of the trick of uttering uncom- 
 fortable truths and of condemning conventional 
 white lies ; how, for all his invectives against 
 lying and exaggeration, he was never so pleased 
 as when enunciating some disconcerting but 
 carefully -guarded paradox, we are bound to 
 conclude that the "scrupulous politeness" 
 which he claimed as his own was practically 
 indistinguishable from another man's shocking 
 rudeness. 
 
 Much, however, can be said in palliation 
 of this roughness. His native irritability, his 
 constitutional melancholy, his insomnia which 
 only opium could alleviate, his long struggle 
 with poverty, his conflict with his own indo-
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 lence, his exposure as one of the admitted 
 " sights of London " to the impertinent curi- 
 osity of any presentable fool who chose to 
 make his acquaintance — all these are factors 
 which must be taken into consideration in any 
 judgment we pass on Johnson's conversa- 
 tional methods. And on the other hand we 
 must set his lofty independence, his ardent 
 love of truth, his lambent play of humour, 
 his deep knowledge of men and women, his 
 persistent intellectual curiosity, and his tender 
 and Christ-like humanity. Johnson was indeed 
 a great Christian, a very reasonable and a truly 
 charitable Christian. He was a " man of the 
 world " in the true sense of that much-abused 
 phrase. Severe in scrutinizing his own life, 
 he had no notion of rendering virtue too hard 
 for other persons. Vows and scruples he 
 abhorred, and he was never tired of urging 
 his friends to keep the balance even between 
 lax conduct and sheer methodism. Fond, too, 
 as he was of venting a certain humorous dislike 
 of excisemen and of attorneys, of players and 
 of Scotchmen, the sweeping condemnation of 
 whole classes of the community generally 
 stirred his disgust ; and Swift's bitter gibes 
 at doctors and at servants may perhaps be 
 held responsible for a good deal of that ani- 
 mosity which Johnson always displayed in
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 speaking of the Dean. There is a passage in 
 The Rambler dealing with servants which should 
 be placed side by side with part of an essay in 
 Hazlitt's Tabk-Talk concerned with the same 
 theme. Johnson, who hated low life and coarse 
 expressions, is resolute in declaring that " the 
 highest panegyrick that private virtue can re- 
 ceive is the praise of servants". While Hazlitt, 
 just because he repudiates the Johnsonian doc- 
 trine of " subordination ", and wishes to " level " 
 society up and down, can find in servants no 
 traits of common humanity, and with a morbid 
 and almost diabolical ingenuity charges on them 
 all the meannesses and dishonesties that can 
 disgrace our nature. Johnson, in fact, though 
 he loved to use the microscope on his friends, 
 was averse from probing deep into men and 
 women just to see what was inside them. He 
 admired Richardson, but he had probably little 
 sympathy with that feminist's use of the 
 " human document " ; and his own knowledge 
 of humanity was derived not from vivisection 
 but from sympathy. His religious belief was, 
 however, fixed not on men but on God ; the 
 bare notion of trusting in the " people ", or 
 of respecting the " people ", would have struck 
 him as sheer Rousseauistic cant. Yet his 
 character bears no trace of the misanthrope, 
 and even his Toryism seems to have been
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 almost as much a matter of sentiment as of 
 political faith. He loathed the Whigs in great 
 measure because he thought them systematic- 
 ally cruel to the poor. He hated the Americans 
 as being nigger-drivers who had the effrontery 
 to " yelp for liberty ". (Perhaps the great 
 preacher's condonation of slavery was one of 
 Johnson's reasons for belittling Whitefield.) 
 And when the Irish Corn Laws were in agi- 
 tation, and a friend ventured to observe that 
 these laws — which enabled the Irish to feed 
 thernselves — might be prejudicial to the Eng- 
 lish corn trade, he denounced his language as 
 worthy only of a savage. The truth is that 
 Johnson — who cared not a straw for the rights 
 OF MAN — who, indeed, may be said to have 
 originated that Calvinistic contempt for man 
 as a weak, feckless, unhappy creature, which 
 Carlyle was never tired of expressing — was 
 ever most ready to lend an attentive ear to 
 the claims of humanity, — so long as he was 
 asked to relieve material and not merely sen- 
 timental distress. Never lived there a man 
 of letters who was so prepared to give assist- 
 ance to his fellow-workers, whether it were a 
 matter of revising poems or of writing pre- 
 faces, of procuring work or of lending money. 
 Never was there a benefactor so kind and 
 patient to those he benefited as Dr. Johnson,
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 witness his treatment of the quaint menagerie 
 he kept at Bolt Court. The stories told of 
 him by Boswell, of his going out himself to 
 buy oysters for his cat Hodge, of his custom 
 when he dined out of always sending i« some 
 delicacy for Miss Williams, of his carrying 
 home on his back and taking care of a poor 
 woman of the town whom he found ill in the 
 street — these stories have made Johnson's un- 
 conquerable humanity as famous as his retorts 
 and repartees. To him, indeed, nothing that 
 God had made was common or unclean. And 
 if he was constantly imposed on, as Sir John 
 Hawkins gleefully declares, what matters that ? 
 Sir John, indeed, is singularly unfortunate in 
 his comments on Johnson's beneficence. Will- 
 ing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, he has 
 in one memorable sentence at once gibbeted 
 his own savagery and raised an eternal monu- 
 ment to Johnson's tenderness of heart. " He 
 had a natural imbecility about him," says the 
 Pharisaic Hawkins, "arising from humanity and 
 pity to the sufferings of his fellow-creatures, 
 that was prejudicial to his interests." "Natural 
 imbecility"! Doubtless Judas, who kept the 
 bag, must often have deplored his Master's 
 " natural imbecility ", and have regarded it 
 as deeply prejudicial to the Messiah's best 
 interests. . . . Johnson's "natural imbecility"! 
 xxii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Let us accept the phrase : for Johnson, in an 
 impartial view, was in truth burdened with not 
 a single but a double portion of ' natural im- 
 becility', with a weakness for talking brutally 
 and for acting tenderly. He had early made it 
 his concern to pierce through fallacies and to 
 grasp realities ; and in a v/orld that lov'es to 
 hover between shallow cynicism and flabby 
 sentimentalism his Vv^hole life was one long 
 struggle to maintain a fitting equipoise of in- 
 tellect and of emotion. Neither in his personal 
 experience nor in his religious creed could he 
 discover any justification for that vague and 
 comfortable optimism which Sterne and Gold- 
 smith professed. Wherefore, finding life in- 
 evitably unhappy and man incurably frail, he 
 conceived his business of moralist to consist in 
 two contrary but not contradictory duties, that 
 of exposing the weakness and of denouncing 
 the sin, that of sheltering the weak and of 
 succouring the sinner. These twin duties — 
 to his eternal credit be it said — Samuel John- 
 son scrupulously and unremittingly fulfilled, 
 for while he was ever ready to mitigate the 
 asperity of his tongue by the liberality of his 
 hand, he was equally prepared, as the following 
 pages will abundantly demonstrate, to com- 
 pound, as it were, for performing a kindly 
 action by following it with a scathing retort.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION : 
 Johnson's Precept- - - - . i^o 
 
 Johnson's Practice : 
 
 His Manner and Method - - - 190 
 His Information and Zeal tor Know- 
 ledge ------ 200 
 
 His Dexterity and Brutality of Retort- 215 
 His Irritability and Quarrels - - 228 
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH - - - 242 
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE AGAINST 
 
 THE SCOTS - - - - - 264 
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT: 
 
 Freedom of Conscience - - . 307 
 
 Whig versus Torv - - - - 316 
 
 The American Colonists and Slavery 328 
 
 Jacobitism ------ 339 
 
 Subordination ----- 352 
 
 LlBERTi- AND SEDITION - - - - 371 
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE AGAINST 
 
 THE player's , - - - 396 
 
 (B312)
 
 The Importance of 
 Truthfulness 
 
 INACCURACY OF NARRATION 
 
 In the Preface [to his Abridgment and 
 Translation of Lobe's Foyage to Jbyssiitia] 
 the Johnsonian style begins to appear ; and 
 though use had not yet taught his wing a 
 permanent and equable flight, there are parts 
 of it which exhibit his best manner in full 
 vigour. I had once the pleasure of examining 
 it with Mr. Edmund Burke, who confirmed me 
 in this opinion, by his superior critical saga- 
 city, and was, I remember, much delighted 
 with the following specimen : — 
 
 " The Portuguese traveller, contrary to the 
 general vein of his countrymen, has amused 
 his reader with no romantic absurdity, or in- 
 credible fictions; whatever he relates, whether 
 true or not, is at least probable; and he who 
 tells nothing exceeding the bounds of proba- 
 bility, has a right to demand that they should 
 believe him who cannot contradict him. 
 
 (B2I2) I C
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 " He appears by his modest and unaffected 
 narration to have described things as he saw 
 them, to have copied nature from the life, and 
 to have consulted his senses, not his imagina- 
 tion. He meets with no basilisks that destroy 
 with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their 
 prey without tears, and his cataracts fall from 
 the rocks without deafening the neighbouring 
 inhabitants. 
 
 " The reader will here find no regions cursed 
 with irremediable barrenness, or blest with 
 spontaneous fecundity; no perpetual gloom, or 
 unceasing sunshine; nor are the nations here 
 described, either devoid of all sense of hu- 
 manity, or consummate in all private or social 
 virtues. Here are no Hottentots without re- 
 ligious policy or inarticulate language; no 
 Chinese perfectly polite, and completely skilled 
 in all sciences; he will discover, what will 
 always be discovered by a diligent and impar- 
 tial enquirer, that wherever human nature is to 
 be found there is a mixture of vice and virtue, 
 a contest of passion and reason; and that the 
 Creator doth not appear partial in his distri- 
 butions, but has balanced, in most countries, 
 their particular inconveniences by particular 
 favours." 
 
 Here we have an early example of that 
 brilliant and energetic expression, which, upon 
 innumerable occasions in his subsequent life, 
 justly impressed the world with the highest 
 admiration. — The Life. 1735. 
 
 One evening at Mrs. Montagu's, where a
 
 INACCURACY OF NARRATION 
 
 splendid company was assembled, consisting o 
 the most eminent literary characters, I thought 
 he seemed highly pleased with the respect and 
 attention that were shown him, and asked him, 
 on our return home, if he was not highly grati- 
 fied by his visit: "No, Sir," said he, "not highly 
 gratified; yet I do not recollect to have passed 
 many evenings with fewer objections.'''' 
 — The Lije. 1770. Dr. Maxwell's Collectanea. 
 
 On Thursday, April 8, I sat a good part of 
 the evening with him, but he was very silent. 
 He said, " Burnet's History of his Oiun Times is 
 very entertaining. The style, indeed, is mere 
 chit-chat. I do not believe that Burnet inten- 
 tionally lied; but he was so much prejudiced 
 that he took no pains to find out the truth. 
 He was like a man who resolves to regulate 
 his time by a certain watch, but will not en- 
 quire whether the watch is right or not." 
 
 — The Life. 1773, /»pril S?th. 
 
 Johnson : " Nay, don't give us India. That 
 puts me in mind of Montesquieu, who is really 
 a fellow of genius too in many respects; when- 
 ever he wants to support a strange opinion, he 
 quotes you the practice of Japan or of some 
 other distant country, of which he knows no- 
 thing. To support polygamy, he tells you of the 
 island of Formosa, where there are ten women 
 born for one man. He had but to suppose 
 another island, where there are ten men born 
 for one woman, and so make a marriage be- 
 tween them." — The Totir. 1773, Sept. 14th. 
 
 3
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 We were shown, in a corner of this vault, 
 a hole, into which Col said greater criminals 
 used to be put. It was now filled up with 
 rubbish of different kinds. He said, it was 
 of a great depth. " Ay," said Dr. Johnson, 
 smiling, " all such places, that are filled up, 
 were of a great depth." He is very quick in 
 showing that he does not give credit to care- 
 less or exaggerated accounts of things. After 
 seeing the castle, we looked at a small hut 
 near it. It is called Teigh Franckick, i.e. the 
 Frenchman's House. Col could not tell us 
 the history of it. A poor man with a wife 
 and children now lived in it. We went into 
 it, and Dr. Johnson gave them some charity. 
 There was but one bed for all the family, and 
 the hut was very smoky. When he came out, he 
 said to me, " Et hoc secundum sententiam philoso- 
 phorum est esse beatusJ^ Boswei.l: "The philoso- 
 phers, when they placed happiness in a cottage, 
 supposed cleanliness and no smoke". Johnson: 
 " Sir, they did not think about either". 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 6th. 
 
 I mentioned that I had heard Dr. Solander 
 say he was a Swedish Laplander. Johnson: 
 " Sir, I don't believe he is a Laplander. The 
 Laplanders are not much above four feet high. 
 He is as tall as you; and he has not the copper 
 colour of a Laplander." Boswell: "But what 
 motive could he have to make himself a Lap- 
 lander ?" Johnson: "Why, Sir, he must either 
 mean the word Laplander in a very extensive 
 sense, or may mean a voluntary degradation of 
 4
 
 INACCURACY OF NARRATION 
 
 himself. ' For all my being the great man that 
 you see m.e now, I was originally a Barbarian'; 
 as if Burke should say, ' I came over a wild 
 Irishman', — which he might say in his present 
 state of exaltation." 
 
 — T/ie Tour. 1773, Oct. iSth. 
 
 He said, " The value of every story depends 
 on its being true. A story is a picture either 
 of an individual or of human nature in general; 
 if it be false, it is a picture of nothing. For 
 instance: suppose a man should tell that John- 
 son, before setting out for Italy, as he had to 
 cross the Alps, sat down to make himself wings. 
 This many people would believe; but it would 
 be a picture of nothing. * * * * (naming a 
 worthy friend of ours) used to think a story a 
 story, till I showed him that truth was essential 
 to it." I observed, that Foote entertained us 
 with stories which were not true; but that, 
 indeed, it was properly not as narratives that 
 Foote's stories pleased us, but as collections of 
 ludicrous images. Johnson : " Foote is quite 
 impartial, for he tells lies of everybody ". 
 
 The importance of strict and scrupulous 
 veracity cannot be too often inculcated. John- 
 son was known to be so rigidly attentive to 
 it, that even in his common conversation the 
 slightest circumstance was mentioned with 
 *cact precision. The knowledge of his having 
 such a principle and habit made his friends 
 have a perfect reliance on the truth of every- 
 thing that he told, however it might have been 
 doubted if told by many others. As an in- 
 5
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 stance of this, 1 may mention an odd incident 
 which he related as having happened to him 
 one night in Fleet Street: " A gentlewoman," 
 said he, " begged I would give her my arm to 
 assist her in crossing the street, which I ac- 
 cordingly did ; upon which she offered me a 
 shilling, supposing me to be the watchman. 
 I perceived that she was somewhat in liquor." 
 This, if told by most people, would have been 
 thought an invention; when told by Johnson, 
 it was believed by his friends as much as if 
 they had seen what passed. 
 
 — The Lije. 1776, March 16th. 
 
 I gave him an account of a conversation 
 which had passed between me and Captain 
 Cook, the day before, at dinner, at Sir John 
 Pringle's; and he was much pleased with the 
 conscientious accuracy of that celebrated cir- 
 cumnavigator, who set me right as to many of 
 the exaggerated accounts given by Dr. Hawkes- 
 worth of his voj-ages. I told him that while I 
 was with the Captain I catch'd the enthusiasm 
 of curiosity and adventure, and felt a strong 
 inclination to go with him on his next voyage. 
 Johnson: " Why, Sir, a man does feel so, till he 
 considers how very little he can learn from 
 such voyages". Boswell: "But one is carried 
 away with the general grand and indistinct 
 notion of A Voyage round the World ". 
 Johnson: "Yes, Sir; but a man is to guard 
 himself against taking a thing in general ". I 
 said I was certain that a great part of what v/e 
 are told by travellers to the South Sea might 
 6
 
 INACCURACY OF NARRATION 
 
 be conjecture, because they had not enough of 
 the language of those countries to understand 
 so much as they have related. Objects falling 
 under the observation of the senses must be 
 clearly known ; but everything intellectual, 
 everything abstract — politics, morals, and re- 
 ligion — must be darkly guessed. Dr. Johnson 
 was of the same opinion. He, upon another 
 occasion, when a friend mentioned to him 
 several extraordinary facts, as communicated 
 to him by the circumnavigators, slily observed, 
 " Sir, I never before knew how much I was 
 respected by these gentlemen; they told me 
 none of these things." 
 
 — The Life. 1776, April 3rd. 
 
 He would not allow me to praise a lady 
 then at Bath; observing, " She does not gain 
 upon me, Sir ; I think her empty-headed." 
 He was, indeed, a stern critic upon characters 
 and manners. Even Mrs. Thrale did not 
 escape his friendly animadversion at times. 
 When he and I were one day endeavouring 
 to ascertain, article by article, how one of our 
 friends could possibly spend as much money 
 in his family as he told us he did, she inter- 
 rupted us by a lively extravagant sally, on the 
 expense of clothing his children, describing it 
 in a very ludicrous and fanciful manner. John- 
 son looked a little angry, and said, " Nay, 
 Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim ; 
 and when you are calculating, calculate." At 
 another time, when she said, perhaps affectedly, 
 "I don't like to fly." — Johnson: "With your 
 7
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 wings, Madam, you must iiy: but have a cave, 
 there are clippers abroad". How very well was 
 this said, and how fully has experience proved 
 the truth of it; but have they not dipped ra.\.h.Qr 
 rudely, and gone a great deal closer than was 
 necessary? — The Life. 1776, April 26th. 
 
 On Sunday evening, Sept. 14, I arrived at 
 Ashbourne, and drove directly up to Dr. Tay- 
 lor's door; Dr. Johnson and he appeared before 
 I got out of the post-chaise, and welcomed me 
 cordially. 
 
 I told them that I had travelled all the 
 preceding night, and gone to bed at Leek in 
 Staffordshire; and that when I rose to go to 
 church in the afternoon I was informed there 
 had been an earthquake, of which, it seems, 
 the shock had been felt in some degree at 
 Ashbourne. Johnson: " Sir, it will be much 
 exaggerated in popular talk: for, in the first 
 place, the common people do not accurately 
 adapt their thoughts to the objects ; nor, 
 secondly, do they accurately adapt their words 
 to their thoughts: they do not mean to lie; 
 but, taking no pains to be exact, they give you 
 very false accounts. A great part of their lan- 
 guage is proverbial. If anything rocks at all, 
 they say it rocks like a cradle; and in this way 
 they go on." — The Life. ijJT, Sept. 14th. 
 
 I had before dinner repeated a ridiculous 
 
 story told me by an old man, who had been 
 
 a passenger with me in the stage-coach to-day. 
 
 Mrs. Thrale having taken occasion to allude to 
 
 8
 
 INACCURACY OF NARRATION 
 
 it, in talicing to me, called it "The story told 
 you by the old zi-oman" . — "Now, Madam," 
 said I, "give me leave to catch you in the fact: 
 it was not an old woman, but an old man, whom 
 I mentioned as having told me this." I pre- 
 sumed to take an opportunity, in presence of 
 Johnson, of showing this lively lady how ready 
 she was, unintentionally, to deviate from exact 
 authenticity of narration. 
 
 — The Lije. 1778, March 30th. 
 
 Next morning, while we were at breakfast, 
 Johnson gave a very earnest recommendation 
 of what he himself practised with the utmost 
 conscientiousness : I mean a strict attention 
 to truth, even in the most minute particulars. 
 " Accustom your children," said he, "constantly 
 to this ; if a thing happened at one window, 
 and they, when relating it, say that it happened 
 at another, do not let it pass, but instantly 
 check them; you do not know where deviation 
 from truth will end." Boswell : " It may 
 come to the door : and when once an account 
 is at all varied in one circumstance, it may by 
 degrees be varied so as to be totally different 
 from what really happened". Our lively 
 hostess, whose fancy was impatient of the rein, 
 fidgeted at this, and ventured to say, " Nay, 
 this is too much. If Mr. Johnson should for- 
 bid me to drink tea, I would comply, as I 
 should feel the restraint only twice a day ; but 
 little variations in narrative must happen a 
 thousand times a day, if one is not perpetually 
 watching." Johnson: "Well, Madam, and 
 9
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 you ought to be perpetually watching. It is 
 more from carelessness about truth than t'rom 
 intentional lying, that there is so much false- 
 hood in the world." 
 
 In his review of Dr. Warton's " Essay on 
 the Writings and Genius of Pope", Johnson 
 has given the following salutary caution upon 
 this subject : — " Nothing but experience could 
 evince the frequency of false information, or 
 enable any man to conceive that so many 
 groundless reports should be propagated, as 
 every man of eminence may hear of himself. 
 Some men relate what they think, as what they 
 know ; some men of confused memories and 
 habitual inaccuracy, ascribe to one man what 
 belongs to another ; and some talk on, without 
 thought or care. A few men are sufficient to 
 broach falsehoods, which are afterwards inno- 
 cently diffused by successive relaters." Had 
 he lived to read what Sir John Hawkins and 
 Mrs. Piozzi have related concerning himself, 
 how much would he have found his observation 
 illustrated. He was indeed so much impressed 
 with the prevalence of falsehood, voluntary or 
 unintentional, that I never knew any person 
 who, upon hearing an extraordinary circum- 
 stance told, discovered more of the incredulus 
 od'i. He would say, with a significant look 
 and decisive tone, " It is not so. Do not tell 
 this again." He inculcated upon all his friends 
 the importance of perpetual vigilance against 
 the slightest degrees of falsehood ; the effect 
 of which, as Sir Joshua Reynolds observed to 
 me, has been, that all who were of his uhool
 
 INACCURACY OF NARRATION 
 
 are distinguished for a love of truth and ac- 
 curacy, which they would not have possessed 
 in the same degree, if they had not been ac- 
 quainted with Johnson. 
 
 — The Lije. 1778, March 31st. 
 
 / Johnson : " I have been reading Thicknesse's 
 'Travels', which I think are entertaining". 
 BoswELL : "What, Sir, a good book?" John- 
 son : "Yes, Sir, to read once; I do not say you 
 are to make a study of it, and digest it ; and 
 I believe it to be a true book in his intention. 
 All travellers generally mean to tell truth ; 
 though Thicknesse observes, upon Smollett's 
 account of his alarming a whole town in France 
 by firing a blunderbuss, and frightening a 
 French nobleman till he made him tie on his 
 portmanteau, that he would be loth to say 
 Smollett had told two lies in one page ; but he 
 had found the only town in France where 
 these things could have happened. Travellers 
 must often be mistaken. In everything, except 
 where mensuration can be applied, they may 
 honestly differ. There has been, of late, a 
 strange turn in travellers to be displeased." 
 — The Life. 1778, April 3rd. 
 
 / He talked to me with serious concern of a 
 certain female friend's " laxity of narration, and 
 inattention to truth". — " I am as much vexed," 
 said he, "at the ease with which she hears it 
 mentioned to her, as at the thing itself. I told 
 her, ' Madam, you are contented to hear every 
 day sa'd to you, what the highest of mankind
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 have died for, rather than bear.' You know. 
 Sir, the highest of mankind have died rather 
 than bear to be told they have uttered a false- 
 hood. Do talk to her of it: I am weary." 
 
 BoswELL : " Was not Dr. John Campbell a 
 very inaccurate man in his narrative. Sir ? He 
 once told me, that he drank thirteen bottles of 
 port at a sitting." Johnson : " Why, Sir, I do 
 not know that Campbell ever lied with pen 
 and ink ; but you could not entirely depend 
 on anything that he told you in conversation, 
 if there was fact mixed with it. However, I 
 loved Campbell ; he was a solid orthodox man; 
 he had a reverence for religion. Though de- 
 fective in practice, he was religious in principle; 
 and he did nothing grossly wrong that I have 
 heard." — The Life. 1778, April 7th. 
 
 I read him a letter from Dr. Hugh Blair 
 concerning Pope, in writing whose life he was 
 now employed. 
 
 Johnson : " Depend upon it. Sir, this is too 
 strongly stated. Pope may have had from 
 Bolingbroke the philosophic stamina of his 
 Essay ; and admitting this to be true. Lord 
 Bathurst did not intentionally falsify. But the 
 thing is not true in the latitude that Blair 
 seems to imagine ; we are sure that the poetical 
 imagery, which makes a great part of the poem, 
 was Pope's own. It is amazing. Sir, what 
 deviations there are from precise truth, in the 
 account which is given of almost everything. 
 I told Mrs. Thrale, ' You have so little anxiety 
 about truth, that you never tax your memory
 
 INACCURACY OF NARRATION 
 
 with the exact thing.' Now, what is the use 
 of the memory to truth, if one is careless of 
 exactness ? Lord Hailes's Annals of Scotland 
 are very exact ; but they contain mere dry 
 particulars. They are to be considered as a 
 Dictionary. You know such things are there; 
 and may be looked at when you please. Robert- 
 son paints; but the misfortune is, you are sure 
 he does not know the people whom he paints; 
 so you cannot suppose a likeness. Characters 
 should never be given by an historian, unless 
 he knew the people whom he describes, or 
 copies from those who knew them." 
 
 — The Life. 1779, Oct. loth. 
 
 Mrs. Thrale gave high praise to Mr. Dudley 
 Long (now North). Johnson : " Nay, my dear 
 lady, don't talk so. Mr. Long's character is 
 very short. It is nothing. He fills a chair. 
 He is a man of genteel appearance, and that 
 is all. I know nobody who blasts by praise 
 as you do : for whenever there is exaggerated 
 praise, everybody is set against a character. 
 They are provoked to attack it. Now there 
 is Pepys ; you praised that man with such dis- 
 proportion, that I was incited to lessen him, 
 perhaps more than he deserves. His blood is 
 upon your head. By the same principle, your 
 malice defeats itself; for your censure is too 
 violent. And yet," looking to her with a leer- 
 ing smile, " she is the first woman in the 
 world, could she but restrain that wicked 
 tongue of hers; she would be the only woman, 
 could she but command that little whirligig." 
 13
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 Upon the subject of exaggerated praise I 
 took the liberty to say, that I thought there 
 might be vcr}' high praise given to a known 
 character which deserved it, and therefore it 
 would not be exaggerated. Thus, one might 
 say of Mr. Edmund Burke, he is a very wonder- 
 ful man. Johnson : " No, Sir, you would not 
 be safe, if another man had a mind perversely 
 to contradict. He might answer, ' Where is all 
 the wonder r Burke is, to be sure, a man of 
 uncommon abilities, with a great quantity of 
 matter in his mind, and a great fluency of 
 language in his mouth. But we are not to be 
 stunned and astonished by him.' So you see. 
 Sir, even Burke would sufter, not from any 
 fault of his own, but from your folly." 
 
 — The Life. 1781, April ist. 
 
 On Sunday, March 23, I breakfasted with 
 Dr. Johnson, who seemed much relieved, having 
 taken opium the night before. He, however, 
 protested against it, as a remedy that should be 
 given with the utmost reluctance, and only in 
 extreme necessity. I mentioned how commonly 
 it was used in Turkey, and that therefore it 
 could not be so pernicious as he apprehended. 
 He grew warm, and said, "Turks take opium, 
 and Christians take opium ; but Russel, in his 
 account of Aleppo, tells us, that it is as disgrace- 
 ful in Turkey to take too much opium, as it is 
 with us to get drunk. Sir, it is amazing how 
 things are exaggerated. A gentleman was lately 
 telling, in a company where I was present, that 
 in France, as soon as a man of fashion marries, 
 14
 
 INACCURACY OF NARRATION 
 
 he takes an opera girl into iceeping ; and this he 
 mentioned as a general custom. ' Pray, Sir,' 
 said I, 'how many opera girls may there be?' 
 He answered, 'about fourscore'. 'Well then. 
 Sir,' said I, ' you see there can be no more than 
 fourscore men of fashion who can do this.'" 
 — The Life. 1783, March 23rd. 
 
 Talking of an acquaintance of ours, whose 
 narratives, which abounded in curious and in- 
 teresting topics, were unhappily found to be 
 very fabulous, I mentioned Lord Mansfield's 
 having said to me, " Suppose we believe one 
 half of what he tells." Johnson : " Ay ; but 
 we don't know which half to believe. By his 
 lying we lose not only our reverence for him, 
 but all comfort in his conversation." Boswell : 
 "May we not take it as amusing fiction?" 
 Johnson : " Sir, the misfortune is, that you will 
 insensibly believe as much of it as you incline 
 to believe". — The Lije. 1783, March 30th. 
 
 On April 1 8 (being Good Friday) I found him 
 at breakfast, in his usual manner upon that day, 
 drinking tea without milk, and eating a cross-bun 
 to prevent faintncss. We went to St. Clement's 
 church, as formerly. When we came home from 
 church, he placed himself on one of the stone 
 seats at his garden door, and I took the other, 
 and thus in the open air, and in a placid frame 
 of mind, he talked away very easily. Johnson : 
 " Were I a country gentleman, I should not be 
 very hospitable ; I should not have crowds in 
 my house". Boswell: "Sir Alexander Dick 
 15
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 tells me, that he remembers having a thousand 
 people in a year to dine at his house ; that is, 
 reckoning each person as one, each time that he 
 dined there". Johnson: "That, Sir, is about 
 three a day ". Boswell : " How your state- 
 ment lessens the idea ". Johnson : " That, 
 Sir, is the good of counting. It brings every- 
 thing to a certainty, which before floated in the 
 mind indefinitely." Boswell : " But Omne 
 tgnotum pro ningnifico est; one is sorry to have 
 this diminished". Johnson: "Sir, you should 
 not allow yourself to be delighted with error ". 
 — The Life. 1783, April 18th. 
 
 Mr. Walker, the celebrated master of elocu- 
 tion, came in, and then we went upstairs into 
 the study. Walker : " Do you think. Sir, 
 that there are any perfect synonyms in any 
 language?" Johnson: " Originally there were 
 not ; but by using words negligently, or in 
 poetry, one word comes to be confounded with 
 another". The Life. 1783, April i8th. 
 
 He censured a writer of entertaining travels 
 for assuming a feigned character, saying (in his 
 sense of the word), " he carries out one lie ; we 
 know not how many he brings back". At another 
 time, talking of the same person, he observed, 
 " Sir, your assent to a man whom you have 
 never known to falsify, is a debt : but after you 
 have known a man to falsify, your assent to 
 him then is a favour." — The Life. 1784. 
 
 16
 
 AFFECTATION OF FEELING 
 
 " That your book has been delayed I am 
 glad, since you have gained an opportunity of 
 being more exact. Of the caution necessary in 
 adjusting narratives there is no end. Some tell 
 what they do not know, that they may not seem 
 ignorant, and others from mere indifference 
 about truth. All truth is not, indeed, of equal 
 importance ; but, if little violations are allowed, 
 every violation will in time be thought little ; 
 and a writer should keep himself vigilantly on 
 his guard against the first temptations to negli- 
 gence or supineness." 
 
 — The Life. 1784, Nov. ist. 
 
 AFFECTATION OF FEELING 
 
 / When Johnson lived in Castle Street, Caven- 
 dish Square, he used frequently to visit two 
 ladies who lived opposite to him. Miss Cotter- 
 ells, daughters of Admiral Cotterell. Reynolds 
 used also to visit there, and thus they met. 
 Mr. Reynolds, as I have observed above, had, 
 from the first reading of his "Life of Savage", 
 conceived a very high admiration of Johnson's 
 powers of writing. His conversation no less 
 delighted him ; and he cultivated his acquaint- 
 ance with the laudable zeal of one who was 
 ambitious of general improvement. Sir Joshua, 
 indeed, was lucky enough, at their very first 
 meeting, to make a remark, which was so much 
 above the commonplace style of conversation, 
 that Johnson at once perceived that Re) nolds 
 had the habit of thinking for himself. The 
 (B212) 17 D
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 ladies were regretting the death of a friend, to 
 whom they owed great obligations ; upon which 
 Reynolds observed, " You have, however, the 
 comfort of being relieved from a burthen of 
 gratitude." They were shocked a little at this 
 alleviating suggestion, as too selfish ; but John- 
 son defended it in his clear and forcible man- 
 ner, and was much pleased with the mind, the 
 fair view of human nature, vi^hich it exhibited, 
 like some of the reliections of Rochefoucault. 
 The consequence was, that he went home with 
 Reynolds, and supped with him. 
 
 — The Lije. 1752. 
 
 " There are," said he, " inexcusable lies and 
 consecrated lies. For instance we are told that 
 on the arrival of the news of the unfortunate 
 battle of Fontenoy, every heart beat, and every 
 eye was in tears. Now we know that no man 
 ate his dinner the worse, but there should have 
 been all this concern : and to say there was 
 (smiling), may be reckoned a consecrated lie." 
 — The Life. 1760. 
 
 " I will not trouble you with speculations 
 about peace and war. The good or ill success 
 of battles and embassies extends itself to a very 
 small part of domestic life : we all have good 
 and evil, which we feel more sensibly than our 
 petty part of public miscarriage or prosperity. 
 I am sorry for your disappointment, with 
 which you seem more touched than I should 
 expect a man of your resolution and experience 
 to have been, did I not know that general 
 iS
 
 AFFECTATION OF FEELING 
 
 truths are seldom applied to particular occa- 
 sions, and that the fallacy of our self-love 
 extends itself as wide as our interest or affec- 
 tions. Every man believes that mistresses are 
 unfaithful, and patrons capricious; but he 
 excepts his own mistress and his own patron. 
 We have all learned that greatness is negligent 
 and contemptuous, and that in courts life is 
 often lavished away in ungratified expectation ; 
 but he that approaches greatness, or glitters in 
 a court, imagines that destiny has at last ex- 
 empted him from the common lot." 
 
 — The Life. 1762, Dec. 21st. 
 
 •'' On Wednesday, July 6, he was engaged to 
 sup with me at my lodgings in Downing Street, 
 Westminster. But on the preceding night my 
 landlord having behaved very rudely to me and 
 some company who were with me, I had re- 
 solved not to remain another night in his 
 house. I was exceedingly uneasy at the awk- 
 ward appearance I supposed I should make to 
 fohnson and the other gentlemen whom I had 
 invited, not being able to receive them at home, 
 and being obliged to order supper at the Mitre. 
 I went to Johnson in the morning, and talked 
 of it as of a serious distress. He laughed, and 
 said, " Consider, Sir, how insignificant this will 
 appear a twelvemonth hence." Were this con- 
 sideration to be applied to most of the little 
 vexatious incidents of life, by which our quiet 
 is too often disturbed, it would prevent many 
 painful sensations. I have tried it frequently 
 with good effect. "There is nothing," con- 
 19
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 tinued he, "in this mighty misfortune; nay, 
 we shall be better at the Mitre." 
 
 — The Lije. 1763, July 6th. 
 
 On Wednesday, July 20, Dr. Johnson, Mr. 
 Dempster, and my uncle. Dr. Boswell, who 
 happened to be now in London, supped with 
 me at these chambers. Johnson : " Pity is not 
 natural to man. Children are always cruel. 
 Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and 
 improved by the cultivation of reason. vVe 
 may have uneasy sensations from seeing a 
 creature in distress, without pity : for we have 
 not pity unless we wish to relieve them. 
 When I am on my way to dine with a friend, 
 and finding it late, have bid the coachman 
 make haste, if I happen to attend when he 
 whips his horses, I may feel unpleasantly that 
 the animals are put to pain, but I do not wish 
 him to desist. No, Sir, I wish him to drive 
 on." — The Life. 1763, July 20th. 
 
 Next day we got to Plarwich, to dinner ; and 
 my passage in the packet-boat to Helvoctsluys 
 being secured, and my baggage put on board, 
 we dined at our inn by ourselves. I happened 
 to say it would be terrible if he should not find 
 a speedy opportunity of returning to London, 
 and be confined in so dull a place. Johnson : 
 " Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words 
 for little matters. It would tiot be terrible, 
 though I tvere to be detained some time here." 
 The practice of using words of disproportionate 
 magnitude, is, no doubt, too frequent every-
 
 AFFECTATION OF FEELING 
 
 where : but, I think, most remarkable among 
 the French, of which all who have travelled in 
 France must have been struck with innumerable 
 instances. — The Life. 1763, Aug. 6th. 
 
 Talking of our feeling for the distress of others 
 — Johnson : " Why, Sir, there is much noise 
 made about it, but it is greatly exaggerated. 
 No, Sir, we have a certain degree of feeling to 
 prompt us to do good ; more than that, provi- 
 dence does not intend. It would be misery to 
 no purpose." Boswell : " But suppose now. 
 Sir, that one of your intimate friends were 
 apprehended for an offence for which he might 
 be hanged". Johnson: "I should do what I 
 could to bail him, and give him any other 
 assistance ; but if he were once fairly hanged, 
 I should not suffer". Boswell: "Would you 
 eat your dinner that day, Sir?" Johnson: 
 " Yes, Sir, and eat it as if he were eating with 
 me. Why, there's Baretti, who is to be tried 
 for his life to-morrow ; friends have risen up 
 for him on every side ; yet if he should be 
 hanged, none of them will eat a slice of plum 
 pudding the less. Sir, that sympathetic feeling 
 goes a very little way in depressing the 
 mind." 
 
 I told him that I had dined lately at Foote's, 
 who showed me a letter which he had received 
 from Tom Davies, telling him that he had not 
 been able to sleep from the concern he felt on 
 account oi " tAis sad affair of Baretti''\ begging 
 of him to try if he could suggest anything that 
 might be of service ; and, at the same time,
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 recommending to him an industrious young 
 man who kept a pickle shop. Johnson: "Ay, 
 Sir, here you have a specimen of human 
 sympathy: a friend hanged, and a cucumber 
 pickled. We know not whether Baretti or the 
 pickle-man has kept Davies from sleep : nor 
 does he know himself And as to his not sleep- 
 ing. Sir, Tom Davies is a very great man ; Tom 
 has been upon the stage, and knows how to do 
 those things : I have not been upon the stage, 
 and cannot do those things." Boswell : " I 
 have often blamed myself. Sir, for not feeling for 
 others as sensibly as many say they do". John- 
 son : " Sir, don't be duped by them any more. 
 You will find these very feeling people are not 
 very ready to do you good. They pay you by 
 feeling^ — The Life. 1769, Oct. 19th. 
 
 Talking of trade, he observed, " It is a mis- 
 taken notion that a vast deal of money is brought 
 into a nation by trade. It is not so. Com- 
 modities come from commodities ; but trade 
 produces no capital accession of wealth. How- 
 ever, though there should be little profit in 
 money, there is a considerable profit in pleasure, 
 as it gives to one nation the productions of 
 another ; as we have wines and fruits, and many 
 other foreign articles brought to us." Boswell : 
 " Yes, Sir, and there is a profit in pleasure, by 
 its furnishing occupation to such numbers of 
 mankind". Johnson : " Why, Sir, you cannot 
 call that pleasure to v/hich all are averse, and 
 which none begin but with the hope of leav- 
 ing off; a thing which men dislike before they
 
 AFFECTATION OF FEELING 
 
 have tried it, and when they have tried it". 
 BoswELL : " But, Sir, the mind must be em- 
 ployed, and we grow weary when idle". John- 
 son : " That is. Sir, because others being busy, 
 we want company ; but if we were all idle, 
 there would be no growing weary ; we should 
 all entertain one another. There is, indeed, 
 this in trade : — it gives men an opportunity of 
 improving their situation. If there were no 
 trade, many who are poor would always remain 
 poor. But no man loves labour for itself." 
 Bosv.ELL : " Yes, Sir, I know a person who 
 does. He is a very laborious judge, and he 
 loves the labour." Johnson : " Sir, that is 
 because he loves respect and distinction. Could 
 he have them without labour, he would like it 
 less." BoswELL : *' He tells me he likes it for 
 itself". — " Why, Sir, he fancies so, because he 
 is not accustomed to abstract." 
 
 — The Life. 1769, Oct. 26th. 
 
 On Monday, March 25, we breakfasted at 
 Mrs. Lucy Porter's. Johnson had sent an 
 express to Dr. Taylor's, acquainting him of our 
 being at Lichfield, and Taylor had returned an 
 answer that his post-chaise should come for us 
 this day. While we sat at breakfast. Dr. John- 
 son received a letter by the post, which seemed 
 to agitate him very much. When he read it, he 
 exclaimed, " One of the most dreadful things 
 that has happened in my time." The phrase 
 OTV time, like the word age, is usually understood 
 to refer to an event of a public or general nature. 
 I imagined something like an assassination of 
 23
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 the King — like a gunpowder plot carried into 
 execution — or like another fire of London. 
 When asked, "What is it, Sir?" he answered, 
 " Mr. Thralc has lost his only son !" This was, 
 no doubt, a very great affliction to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Thrale, which their friends would consider 
 accordingly ; but from the manner in which the 
 intelligence of it was communicated by Johnson, 
 it appeared for the moment to be comparatively 
 small. I, however, soon felt a sincere concern, 
 and was curious to observe how Dr. Johnson 
 would be affected. He said, " This is a total 
 extinction to their family, as much as if they 
 were sold into captivity." Upon my mentioning 
 that Mr. Thralc had daughters, who might 
 inherit his wealth, " Daughters," said Johnson, 
 warmly, " he'll no more v^alue his daughters 
 than — " I was going to speak. " Sir," said he, 
 "don't you know how you yourself think? Sir, 
 he wishes to propagate his name." In short, I 
 saw male succession strong in his mind, even 
 where there was no name, no family of any long 
 standing. I said, it was lucky he was not present 
 when this misfortune happened. Johnson : 
 " It is lucky for me. People in distress never 
 think that you feel enough." Boswell : " And, 
 Sir, they will have the hope of seeing you, which 
 will be a relief in the meantime ; and when you 
 get to them, the pain will be so far abated, that 
 they will be capable of being consoled by you, 
 which, in the first violence of it, I believe would 
 not be the case". Johnson : "No, Sir; violent 
 pain of mind, like violent pain of body, must be 
 severely felt ". Boswell : " I ov/n, Sir, I have 
 24
 
 AFFECTATION OF FEELING 
 
 not so much feeling for the distress of others as 
 some people have, or pretend to have ; but I 
 know rhis, that I would do all in my power to 
 relieve them ". Johnson : " Sir, it is affec- 
 tation to pretend to feel the distress of others 
 as much as they do themselves. It is equally 
 so, as if one should pretend to feel as much pain 
 while a friend's leg is cutting off, as he does. 
 No, Sir ; you have expressed the rational and 
 just nature of sympathy. I would have gone to 
 the extremity of the earth to have preserved this 
 boy." — The Life. 1776, March 25th. 
 
 In the evening we went to the Town 
 Hall, which was converted into a temporary 
 theatre, and saw Theodosius, with The Stratford 
 Jubilee. I was happy to see Dr. Johnson 
 sitting in a conspicuous part of the pit, and 
 receiving affectionate homage from all his ac- 
 quaintance. We were quite gay and merry. 
 I afterwards mentioned to him that I con- 
 demned myself for being so when poor Mr. 
 and Mrs. Thrale were in such distress. John- 
 son: "You are wrong, Sir; twenty years hence 
 Mr. and Mrs. Thrale will not suffer much 
 pain from the death of their son. Now, Sir, 
 you are to consider that distance of place, as 
 well as distance of time, operates upon the 
 human feelings. I would not have you be gay 
 in the presence of the distressed, because it 
 would shock them; but you may be gay at a 
 distance. Pain for the loss of a friend, or of a 
 relation whom we love, is occasioned by the 
 want which we feel. In time the vacuity is
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 filled with something else ; or sometimes the 
 vacuity closes up of itself." 
 
 — The Life. 1776, March 26th. 
 
 The subject of grief for the loss of relations 
 and friends being introduced, I observed that 
 it was strange to consider how soon it in 
 general wears away. Dr. Taylor mentioned a 
 gentleman of the neighbourhood as the only 
 instance he had ever known of a person who 
 had endeavoured to retain grief. He told Dr. 
 Taylor that after his lady's death, which 
 affected him deeply, he resolved that the grief, 
 which he cherished with a kind of sacred fond- 
 ness, should be lasting; but that he found he 
 could not keep it long. Johnson : " All grief 
 for what cannot in the course of nature be 
 helped soon wears away ; in some sooner in- 
 deed, in some later ; but it never continues 
 very long, unless where there is madness, such 
 as will make a man have pride so fixed in his 
 mind, as to imagine himself a king ; or any 
 other passion in an unreasonable way: for all 
 unnecessary grief is unwise, and, therefore, 
 will not long be retained by a sound mind. If, 
 indeed, the cause of our grief is occasioned by 
 our own misconduct, if grief is mingled with 
 remorse of conscience, it should be lasting." 
 BoswELL : " But, Sir, we do not approve of a 
 man who very soon forgets the loss of a wife or 
 a friend ". Johnson : " Sir, we disapprove of 
 him, not because he soon forgets his grief; for 
 the sooner it is forgotten the better, but because 
 we suppose, that if he forgets his wife or his 
 26
 
 AFFECTATION OF FEELING 
 
 friend soon, he has not had much afFection for 
 them". — The Life. 1777, Sept. 14th. 
 
 A gentleman was making an affected rant, 
 as many people do, of great feelings about "his 
 dear son", who was at school near London; 
 how anxious he was lest he might be ill, and 
 what he would give to see him. " Can't you," 
 said Fitzherbert, " take a postchaise and go to 
 him?" This, to be snrt, Jinisked the affected 
 man, but there was not much in it. 
 
 — The Life. 1777, Sept. 15th. 
 
 Dr. Johnson told us at tea, that when some 
 of Dr. Dodd's pious friends were trying to con- 
 sole him by saying that he v/as going to leave 
 " a wretched world ", he had honesty enough 
 not to join in the cant : " No, no," said he, 
 " it has been a very agreeable world to me." 
 Johnson added, " I respect Dodd for thus 
 speaking the truth; for, to be sure, he had for 
 several years enjoyed a lite of great voluptuous- 
 ness." — The Lije. 1777, Sept. 19th. 
 
 Wishing to be satisfied what degree of truth 
 there was in a story which a friend of Johnson's 
 and mine had told me to his disadvantage, I 
 mentioned it to him in direct terms ; and it 
 was to this effect : that a gentleman who had 
 lived in great intimacy with him, shown him 
 much kindness, and even relieved him from a 
 spunging-house, having afterwards fallen into 
 bad circumstances, was one day, when Johnson 
 was at dinner with him, seized for debt, and 
 27
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 carried to prison ; that Johnson sat still, un- 
 disturbed, and went on eating and drinking; 
 upon which the gentleman's sister, who was 
 present, could not suppress her indignation : 
 " What, Sir," said she, "' are you so unfeeling 
 as not even to ofter to go to my brother in 
 his distress; you who have been so much ob- 
 liged to him?" And that Johnson answered, 
 " Madam, I owe him no obligation ; what he 
 did for me, he would have done for a dog." 
 
 Johnson assured me, that the story was ab- 
 solutely false; but like a man conscious of being 
 in the right, and desirous of completely vindi- 
 cating himself from such a charge, he did not 
 arrogantly rest on a mere denial, and on his 
 general character, but proceeded thus : — " Sir, 
 1 was very intimate with that gentleman, and 
 was once relieved by him from an arrest; but I 
 never was present when he was arrested, never 
 knew that he was arrested, and I believe he 
 never was in difficulties after the time when he 
 relieved me. I loved him much; yet, in talking 
 of his general character, I may have said, though 
 I do not remember that I ever did say so, that 
 as his generosity proceeded from no principle, 
 but was a part of his profusion, he would do 
 for a dog, what he would do for a friend ; but 
 I never applied this remark to any particular 
 instance, and certainly not to his kindness to 
 me. If a profuse man, who does not value his 
 money, and gives a large sum to a whore, gives 
 half as much, or an equally large sum, to relieve 
 a friend, it cannot be esteemed as virtue. This 
 was all that I could say of that gentleman; and, 
 28
 
 AFFECTATION OF FEELING 
 
 if said at all, it must have been said after his 
 death. Sir, I would have gone to the world's 
 end to relieve him. The remark about the dog, 
 if made by me, was such a sally as might escape 
 one when painting a man highly." 
 
 — The Life. \1']l, Sept. 27.nd. 
 
 He had an abhorrence of affectation. Talk- 
 ing of old Mr. Langton, of whom he said, " Sir, 
 you will seldom see such a gentleman, such are 
 his stores of literature, such his knowledge in 
 divinity, and such his exemplary life;" he added, 
 " and, Sir, he has no grimace, no gesticulation, 
 no bursts of admiration on trivial occasions; 
 he never embraces you with an overacted cor- 
 diality." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 JohHSoniaiia. 
 
 " Depend upon it," said he, " that if a man 
 talks of his misfortunes, there is something in 
 them that is not disagreeable to him; for where 
 there is nothing but pure misery, there never is 
 any recourse to the mention of it." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 'Johnsoniana. 
 
 Mrs. Burney wondered that some very beau- 
 tiful new buildings should be erected in Moor- 
 fields, in so shocking a situation as between 
 Bedlam and St. Luke's Hospital; and said she 
 could not live there. Johnson: "Nay, Mladam, 
 you see nothing there to hurt you. You no 
 more think of madness by having windows that 
 look to Bedlam, than you think of death by 
 29
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 having windows that look to a churchyard." 
 Mrs. Burney: "We may look to a churchyard, 
 Sir; for it is right that we should be kept in 
 mind of death". Johnson: "Nay, Madam, if 
 you go to that, it is right that we should be 
 kept in mind of madness, which is occasioned 
 by too much indulgence of imagination. I think 
 a very moral use may be made of these new 
 buildings; I would have those who have heated 
 imaginations live there, and take warning." 
 Mrs. Burney: "But, Sir, many of the poor 
 people that are mad, have become so from dis- 
 ease, or from distressing events. It is, there- 
 fore, not their fault, but their misfortune, and 
 therefore to think of them is a melancholy con- 
 sideration." — The Life. 1783, April i8th. 
 
 " It has been said there is pleasure in writ- 
 ing, particularly in writing verses. I allow 
 you may have pleasure from writing, after it is 
 over, if you have written well ; but you don't 
 go willingly to it again, I know, when I 
 have been writing verses, I have run my finger 
 down the margin, to see how many I had 
 made, and how few I had to make." 
 
 — The Lije. 1783, May ist. 
 
 I have no minute of any interview with John- 
 son till Thursday, May 15th, when I find what 
 follows : — BoswELL : " I wish much to be in 
 Parliament, Sir". Johnson: " Why, Sir, unless 
 you come resolved to support any administration, 
 you would be the worse for being in Parliament, 
 because you would be obliged to live more ex- 
 30
 
 AFFECTATION OF FEELING 
 
 pensively". Boswell: "Perhaps, Sir, I should 
 be the less happy for being in Parliament. I 
 never would sell my vote, and I should be vexed 
 if things went wrong." Johnson: "That's cant, 
 Sir. It would not vex you more in the house 
 th.-'n in the gallery: public affairs vex no man." 
 Boswell : " Have not they vexed yourself a 
 little, Sir? Have not you been vexed by all the 
 turbulence of this reign, and by that absurd 
 vote of the House of Commons, ' That the 
 influence of the Crown has increased, is increas- 
 ing, and ought to be diminished'?" Johnson: 
 " Sir, I have never slept an hour less, nor eat 
 an ounce less meat. I would have knocked the 
 factious dogs on the head, to be sure; but I was 
 not vexed." Boswell : " I declare, Sir, upon 
 my honour, I did imagine I was vexed, and took 
 a pride in it; but it zvas, perhaps, cant; for I 
 own I neither eat less, nor slept less ". John- 
 son: " My dear friend, clear your /«/W of cant. 
 You may talk as other people do ; you may say 
 to a man, ' Sir, I am your most humble servant.' 
 You are not his most humble servant. You may 
 say, ' These are bad times ; it is a melancholy 
 thing to be reserved to such times.' You don't 
 mind the times. You tell a man, ' I am sorry 
 you had such bad weather the last day of your 
 journey, and were so much wet.' You don't 
 care sixpence whether he is wet or dry. You 
 may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking 
 in society: but don't t/mik foolishly." 
 
 —The Life. 1783, May i cth. 
 
 I mentioned Jeremy Taylor's using, in his 
 31
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 forms of prayer, " I am the chief of sinners ", 
 and other such self-condemning expressions. 
 "Now," said I, "this cannot be said with truth 
 by every man, and therefore is improper for a 
 general printed form. I myself cannot say that 
 I am the worst of men ; I mil not say so." 
 Johnson : " A man may know, that physically, 
 that is, in the real state of things, he is not the 
 worst man ; but that morally he may be so. 
 Law observes, that * every man knows some- 
 thing worse of himself, than he is sure of in 
 others '. You may not have committed such 
 crimes as some men have done, but you do not 
 know against what degree of light they have 
 sinned. Besides, Sir, ' the chief of sinners ' is 
 a mode of expression for * I am a great sinner'. 
 So St. Paul, speaking of our Saviour's having 
 died to save sinners, says, 'of whom I am the 
 chief : yet he certainly did not think himself 
 so bad as Judas Iscariot." Boswell : " But, 
 Sir, Taylor means it literally, for he founds a 
 conceit upon it. When praying for the conver- 
 sion of sinners, and of himself in particular, he 
 says, ' Lord, thou wilt not leave thy chief work 
 undone '." Johnson : " I do not approve of 
 figurative expressions in addressing the Supreme 
 Being ; and I never use them. Taylor gives a 
 very good advice: 'Never lie in your prayers: 
 never confess more than you really believe ; 
 never promise more than you mean to per- 
 form'." I recollected this precept in his 
 Golden Grove ; but his example for prayer con- 
 tradicts his precept. 
 
 — The Life. 1784, June iith. 
 32
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 In Cases of Interrogation 
 
 He now relieved the drudgery of his Dic- 
 tionary and the melancholy of his grief by 
 taking an active part in the composition ot 
 The Adventurer, in which he began to write, 
 April lo, marking his essays with the signa- 
 ture T., by which most of his papers in 
 that collection are distinguished : those, how- 
 ever, which have that signature, and also that 
 of M\sargyrus, were not written by him, but, 
 as I suppose, by Dr. Bathurst. 
 
 Johnson's saying, " I have no part in the 
 paper, beyond now and then a motto," may 
 seem inconsistent with his being the author of 
 the papers marked T. But he had at this time 
 written only one number ; and, besides, even 
 at any after period he might have used the 
 same expression, considering it as a point of 
 honour not to own them ; for Mrs. Williams 
 told me that, " as he had gheit those essays to 
 Dr. Bathurst, who sold them at two guineas 
 each, he never would own them ; nay, he used 
 to say he did not write them ; but the fact was, 
 that he dictated them while Bathurst wrote ". 
 I read to him Mrs. Williams's account : he 
 smiled, and said nothing. 
 
 I am not quite satisfied with the casuistry 
 by which the productions of one person are 
 thus passed upon the world for the productions 
 of another. I allow that not only knowledge, 
 
 (B2I2 33 E
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 but powers and qualities of mind may be com- 
 municated, but the actual effect of individual 
 exertion never can be transferred, with truth, 
 to any other than its own original cause. One 
 person's child may be made the child of another 
 person by adoption, as among the Romans, or 
 by the ancient Jewish mode of a wife having 
 children born to her upon her knees, by her 
 handmaid. But these were children in a differ- 
 ent sense from that of nature. It was clearly 
 understood that they were not of the blood of 
 their nominal parents. So in literary children, 
 an author may give the profits and fame of his 
 composition to another man, but cannot make 
 that other the real author. 
 
 — The Life. 1753, March. 
 
 Mr. Levett this day showed me Dr. John- 
 son's library, which was contained in two 
 garrets over his chambers, where Lintot, son 
 of the celebrated bookseller of that name, had 
 formerly his warehouse. I found a number of 
 good books, but very dusty and in great con- 
 fusion. The floor was strewed with manu- 
 script leaves, in Johnson's own handwriting, 
 which I beheld with a degree of veneration, 
 supposing they perhaps might contain portion-s 
 of the Rambler or of Rasselas. I observed an 
 apparatus for chemical experiments, of which 
 Johnson was all his life very fond. The place 
 seemed to be very favourable for retirement 
 and meditation. Johnson told me that he 
 went up thither without mentioning it to his 
 servant when he wanted to study, secure from 
 34
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 interruption ; for he would not allow his 
 servant to say he was not at home when he 
 really was. " A servant's strict regard for 
 truth," said he, " must be weakened by such 
 a practice. A philosopher may know that it 
 is merely a form of denial : but few servants 
 are such nice distinguishers. If I accustom a 
 servant to tell a lie for me, have I not reason 
 to apprehend that he will tell m.any lies for 
 himself V I am, however, satisfied that every 
 servant, of any degree of intelligence, under- 
 stands saying his master is not at home, not 
 at all as the affirmation of a fact, but as 
 customary words, intimating that his master 
 wishes not to be seen ; so that there can be 
 no bad effect from it. 
 
 —The Life. 1763, July iSth. 
 
 We got up between seven and eight, and 
 found Mr. Boyd in the dining-room, with tea 
 and coffee before him, to give us breakfast. 
 We were in an admirable humour. Lady Errol 
 had given each of us a copy of an ode by Beattie, 
 on the birth of her son, Lord Hay. Mr. Boyd 
 asked Dr. Johnson how he liked it. Dr. John- 
 son, who did not admire it, got off very well, 
 by taking it out, and reading the second and 
 third stanzas of it with much melody. This, 
 without his saying a word, pleased Mr. Boyd. 
 He observed, however, to Dr. Johnson, that 
 the expression as to the family of Errol, 
 
 '■'■A thouiand years have seen it shine" 
 35
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 compared with what went before, was an anti- 
 climax, and that it would have been better 
 
 "Ages have seen", &c. 
 
 Dr. Johnson said, " So great a number as a 
 thousand is better. Dolus latet in universalihus. 
 Ages might be only two ages." 
 
 -^The Tour. 1773, Aug. 25th. 
 
 I stated to him this case : — " Suppose a 
 man has a daughter, who he knows has been 
 seduced, but her misfortune is concealed from 
 the world ; should he keep her in his house \ 
 Would he not, b)' doing so, be accessory to 
 imposition ? And, perhaps, a worthy, un- 
 suspecting man might come and marry this 
 woman, unless the father inform him of the 
 truth." Johnson : " Sir, he is accessory to no 
 imposition. His daughter is in his house ; 
 and if a man courts her, he takes his chance. 
 If a friend, or, indeed, if any man, asks his 
 opinion whether he should marry her, he ought 
 to advise him against it, without telling why, 
 because his real opinion is then required. Or, 
 'f he has other daughters who know of her 
 frailty, he ought not to keep her in his house. 
 You are to consider the state of life is this : 
 we are to judge of one another's characters as 
 well as we can ; and a man is not bound in 
 honesty or honour to tell us the faults of his 
 daughter or of himself A man who has de- 
 bauched his friend's daughter is not obliged 
 to say to everybody — * Take care of me ; don't 
 let me enter your house without suspicion. 
 36
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 1 once debauched a. friend's daughter ; I may 
 debauch yours.' " 
 
 — T/ie Life. 1776, April 5th. 
 
 Friday, September 19, after breakfast, Dr. 
 Johnson and I set out in Dr. Taylor's chaise 
 to go to Derby. The day was fine, and we 
 resolved to go by Keddlestone, the seat of Lord 
 Scarsdale, that I mighi see his Lordship's fine 
 house. I was struck with the magnificence of 
 the building; and the extensive park, with the 
 finest verdure, covered with deer, and cattle, 
 and sheep, delighted me. 
 
 Our names were sent up, and a well-dressed 
 elderly housekeeper, a most distinct articulator, 
 showed us the house ; which I need not de- 
 scribe, as there is an account of it published 
 in Adams' M'^orks in Architecture. Dr. Johnson 
 thought better of it to-day than when he saw 
 it before; for he had lately attacked it violently, 
 saying, " It would do excellently for a town 
 hall. The large room with the pillars," said 
 he, " would do for the judges to sit in at the 
 assizes; the circular room tor a jury-chamber; 
 and the room above for prisoners." Still he 
 thought the large room ill-lighted, and of no 
 use but for dancing in; and the bed-chambers 
 but indifferent rooms; and that the immense 
 sum which it cost was injudiciously laid out. 
 Dr. Taylor had put him in mind of his appear- 
 ing pleased with the house. " But," said he, 
 " that was when Lord Scarsdale was present. 
 Politeness obliges us to appear pleased with a 
 man's works when he is present. No man 
 37
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 will be so ill-bred as to question you. You 
 may therefore pay compliments without saying 
 what is not true. I should say to Lord Scars- 
 dale of his large room, ' My Lord, this is the 
 most costly room that I ever saw;' which is 
 true." — The Life. 1777, Sept. 19th. 
 
 Johnson disapproved of Dr. Dodd's leaving 
 the world persuaded that The Convici^s Address 
 to his unhappy Brethren was of his own writing. 
 "But, Sir," said L "you contributed to the 
 deception; for when Mr. Seward expressed a 
 doubt to you that it was not Dodd's own, be- 
 cause it had a great deal more force of mind in 
 it than anything known to be his, )ou answered, 
 *Why should you think so.? Depend upon it. 
 Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in 
 a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonder- 
 fully.'" Johnson: " Sir, as Dodd got it from 
 me to pass as his own, while that could do him 
 any good, that was an implied promise that I 
 should not own it. To own it, therefore, 
 would have been telling a lie, with the addition 
 of breach of promise, which was worse than 
 simply telling a lie to make it be believed it 
 was Dodd's. Besides, Sir, I did not directly 
 tell a lie; I left the matter uncertain. Perhaps 
 I thought that Seward would not believe it the 
 less to be mine for what I said; but I would 
 not put it in his power to say I had owned it." 
 — The Life. ^TT], Sept. 19th. 
 
 Garrick: "Of all the translations that ever 
 were attempted, I think Elphinston's Martial 
 38
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 the most extraordinary. He consulted me upon 
 it, who am a little of an epigrammatist myself, 
 you know. I told him freely, ' You don't seem 
 to have that turn.' I asked him if he was 
 serious; and finding he was, I advised him 
 against publishing. Why, his translation is 
 more difficult to understand than the original. 
 I thought him a man of some talents; but he 
 seems crazy in this." Johnson: " Sir, you have 
 done what I had not courage to do. But he 
 did not ask my advice, and I did not force it 
 upon him to make him angry with me." Gar- 
 rick: " But as a friend. Sir — " Johnson: "Why, 
 such a friend as I am with him — no." Garrick: 
 " But if you see a friend going to tumble over 
 a precipice?" Johnson: "That is an extra- 
 vagant case, Sir. You are sure a friend will 
 thank you for hindering him from tumbling 
 over a precipice; but, in the other case, I 
 should hurt his vanity, and do him no good. 
 He would not take my advice. His brother- 
 in-law, Strahan, sent him a subscription of ^^50, 
 and said he would send him ^^50 more, if he 
 would not publish." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 9th. 
 
 We talked of a lady's verses on Ireland. 
 Miss Reynolds: " Have you seen them, Sir?" 
 Johnson: " No, Madam; I have seen a transla- 
 tion 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, com- 
 pared with excellence, nothing; but very well 
 39
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 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 diffi- 
 culty 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 
 obtain from them, either from their good-nature, 
 or from their not being able to tell the truth 
 firmly, a commendation, of which he may after- 
 wards avail himself". Johnson: "Very true, 
 Sir. Therefore the man who is asked by an 
 author what he thinks of his work is put to the 
 torture, and is not obliged to speak the truth; 
 so that what he says is not considered as his 
 opinion; yet he has said it, and cannot retract 
 it; and this author, when mankind arc hunting 
 him with a canister at his tail, can say, ' I would 
 not have published had not Johnson, or Rey- 
 nolds, 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 opinion, and the public 
 may think very differently." Sir Joshua Rey- 
 40
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 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 of the time". Johnson: "But 
 you can be sure of neither; and therefore I 
 should scruple much to give a suppressive vote ". 
 — The Life. 1778, April 25th. 
 
 I arrived on Monday, March 1 5 ; and next 
 morning, at a late hour, found Dr. Johnson 
 sitting over his tea, attended by Mrs. Desmou- 
 lins, Mr. Levett, and a clergyman, who had 
 come to submit some poetical pieces to his 
 revision. It is wonderful what a number and 
 variety of writers, some of them even unknown 
 to him, prevailed on his good-nature to look 
 over their works, and suggest corrections and 
 improvements. My arrival interrupted for a 
 little while the important business of this true 
 representative of Bayes. Upon its being re- 
 sumed, I found that the subject under immediate 
 consideration was a translation yet in manu- 
 script, of the Carmen Seculare of Horace, which 
 had this year been set to m.usic, and performed 
 as a public entertainment in London, for the 
 joint benefit of Monsieur Philidor and Signor 
 Baretti. When Johnson had done reading, the 
 author asked him bluntly, " If, upon the whole, 
 it was a good translation?" Johnson, whose 
 regard for truth was uncommonly strict, seemed 
 to be puzzled for a moment what answer to 
 make; as he certainly could not honestly com- 
 mend the performance, with exquisite address 
 he evaded the question, thus, " Sir, I do not 
 41
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 say that it may not be made a very good trans- 
 lation." Here nothing whatever in favour of 
 the performance was affirmed, and yet the writer 
 was not shocked. A printed Ode to the H'arlike 
 Genius oj Britain came next in review. The 
 bard was a lank bony figure, with short black 
 hair; he was writhing himself in agitation while 
 Johnson read, and showing his teeth in a grin 
 of earnestness, exclaimed in broken sentence, 
 and in a keen, sharp tone, " Is that poetry. 
 Sir? Is it Pindar?" Johnson: "Why, Sir, 
 there is a great deal of what is called poetry". 
 Then turning to me, the poet cried, " My muse 
 has not been long upon the town, and (point- 
 ing to the Ode) it trembles under the hand of 
 a great critic." Johnson in a tone of displeasure 
 asked him, "Why do you praise Anson?" I 
 did not trouble him by asking his reason for 
 this question. He proceeded, "Here is an 
 error, Sir; you have made Genius feminine." — 
 " Palpable, Sir," cried the enthusiast; " I know 
 it. But (in a lower tone) it was to pay a com- 
 pliment to the Duchess of Devonshire, with 
 which her Grace was pleased. She is walking 
 across Coxheath, in the military uniform, and 
 I suppose her to be the Genius of Britain." 
 Johnson: "Sir, you are giving a reason for it; 
 but that will not make it right. You may have 
 a reason why two and two should make five; 
 but they will still make but four." 
 
 — The Life. 1779, March 15th. 
 
 Talking of the wonderful concealment of the 
 author of the celebrated letters signed Jimius, 
 42
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 he said, " I should have believed Burke to be 
 Junius, because I know no man but Burke who 
 is capable of writing these letters; but Burke 
 spontaneously denied it to me. The case would 
 have been different, had I asked him if he was 
 the author; a man so questioned, as to an 
 anonymous publication, may think he has a 
 right to deny it." 
 
 — The Life. 1779, March 26th 
 
 " Richard Baxter believes that a suicide may 
 be saved. * If, says he, ' it should be objected 
 that what I maintain may encourage suicide, 1 
 answer, 1 am not to tell a lie to prevent it.'" 
 —The Life. 1783, May 29th. 
 
 We talked of the casuistical question, whether 
 it was allowable at any time to depart from 
 Trutht Johnson: "The general rule is, that 
 truth should never be violated, because it is of 
 the utmost importance to the comfort of life, 
 that we should have a full security by mutual 
 faith; and occasional inconveniences should be 
 willingly suffered, that we may preserve it. 
 There must, however, be some exceptions. If, 
 for instance, a murderer should ask you which 
 way a man is gone, you may tell him what is 
 not true, because you are under a previous ob- 
 ligation not to betray a man to a murderer." 
 Boswell: " Supposing the person who wrote 
 "Junius were asked whether he was the author, 
 might he deny it?" Johnson: "I don't know 
 what to say to this. If you were sure that he 
 43
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 wrote Junius, would you, if he denied it, thinlc 
 as well of him afterwards? Yet it may be urged, 
 that what a man has no right to ask, you may 
 refuse to communicate; and there is no other 
 effectual mode of preserving a secret and an 
 important secret, the discovery of which may be 
 very hurtful to you, but a flat denial; for if you 
 are silent, or hesitate, or evade, it will be held 
 equivalent to a confession. But stay. Sir, here 
 is another case. Supposing the author had told 
 me confidentially that he had written yunius, 
 and I were asked if he had, I should hold my- 
 self at liberty to deny it, as being under a 
 previous promise, express or implied, to conceal 
 it. Now what I ought to do for the author, 
 may I not do for myself? But I deny the law- 
 fulness of telling a lie to a sick man, for fear of 
 alarming him. You have no business with con- 
 sequences; you are to tell the truth. Besides, 
 you are not sure what effect your telling him 
 that he is in danger may have. It may bring 
 his distemper to a crisis, and that may cure 
 him. Of all lying, I have the greatest abhorrence 
 of this, because I believe it has been frequently 
 practised on myself." 
 
 — The Life. 1784, June 13th. 
 
 In Cases of Ad\'ocacy 
 
 I asked him whether, as a moralist, he did 
 not think that the practice of the law, in some 
 degree, hurt the nice feeling of honesty. John- 
 son : " Why no. Sir, if you act properly. You 
 
 44
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 are not to deceive your clients with false repre- 
 sentations of your opinion ; you are not to tell 
 lies to a judge." Boswell : " But what do you 
 think of supporting a cause which you know to 
 be bad ?'' Johnson : " Sir, you do not know it 
 to be good or bad till the judge determines it. 
 I have said that you are to state facts fairly ; so 
 that your thinking, or what you call knowing, 
 a cause to be bad, must be from reasoning, 
 must be from your supposing your arguments 
 to be weak and inconclusive. But, Sir, that is 
 not enough. An argument which does not 
 convince yourself may convince the judge to 
 whom you urge it ; and if it does convince 
 him, why, then. Sir, you are wrong, and he is 
 right. It is his business to judge ; and you are 
 not to be confident in your own opinion that a 
 cause is bad, but to say all you can for your 
 client, and then hear the judge's opinion." 
 Boswell : " But, Sir, does not affecting a warmth 
 when you have no warmth, and appearing to be 
 clearly of one opinion when you are in reality 
 of another opinion, does not such dissimula- 
 tion impair one's honesty ? Is there not some 
 danger that a lawyer may put on the same 
 mask in common life in the intercourse with 
 his friends ?" Johnson : " Why no. Sir. Every- 
 body knows you are paid for affecting warmth 
 for your client ; and it is, therefore, properly 
 no dissimulation : the moment you come tVom 
 the bar you resume your usual behaviour. Sir, 
 a man v/ill no more carry the artifice of the bar 
 into the common intercourse of society, than a 
 man who is paid for tumbling upon his hands 
 45
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 will continue to tumble upon his hands when 
 he should walk on his feet." 
 
 — The Life. 1768, Spring. 
 
 In Archbishop Laud's Diary, I found the 
 following passage, which I read to Dr. John- 
 son : — 
 
 " 1623, February i, Sunday. I stood by 
 the most illustrious Prince Charles, at dinner. 
 He was then very merry, and talked occasion- 
 ally of many things with his attendants. 
 •\mong other things, he said, that if he were 
 necessitated to take any particular profession 
 of life, he could not be a lawyer, adding his 
 reason : ' I cannot,' said he, * defend a bad, nor 
 yield in a good cause.'" Johnson : "Sir, this is 
 false reasoning ; because every cause has a bad 
 side : and a lawyer is not overcome, though the 
 cause which he has endeavoured to support be 
 determined against him ". 
 
 — The Life. 1773, April 9th. 
 
 Goldsmith having said that Garrick's com- 
 pliment to the Queen, which he introduced 
 into the play of The Chances, which he had 
 altered and revised this year, was mean and 
 gross flattery. Johnson : " Why, Sir, I would 
 not write, I would not give solemnly under my 
 hand, a character beyond what I thought really 
 true ; but a speech on the stage, let it flatter 
 ever so extravagantly, is formular. It has always 
 been formular to flatter kings and queens ; so 
 much so, that even in our church-service we 
 have ' our most religious king ', used indiscri- 
 46
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 minately, whoever is king. Nay, they even 
 flatter themselves — * we have been graciously 
 pleased to grant '. No modern flattery, how- 
 ever, is ?o gross as that of the Augustan age, 
 where the emperor was deified. ' Fr^esens Divus 
 habcbiiur Augustui.^ And as to meanness (rising 
 into warmth), how is it mean in a player — a 
 showman — a fellow who exhibits himself for 
 a shilling, to flatter his queen ? The attempt, 
 Indeed, was dangerous ; for if it had missed, 
 what became of Garrick, and what became of 
 the queen ? As Sir William Temple says of a 
 great general, it is necessary not only that his 
 designs be formed in a masterly manner, but 
 that they should be attended with success. Sir, 
 it is right, at a time when the royal family is 
 not generally liked, to let it be seen that the 
 people like at least one of them." 
 
 — The Life. 1773, April 29th. 
 
 We talked of the practice of the law. Sir 
 William Forbes said, he thought an honest 
 lawyer should never undertake a cause which 
 he was satisfied was not a just one. " Sir," 
 said Mr. Johnson, '* a lawyer has no business 
 with the justice or injustice of the cause which 
 he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, 
 and then he is bound to give it honestly. The 
 justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided 
 by the judge. Consider, Sir; what 's the pur- 
 pose of courts of justice ? It is, that every man 
 may have his cause fairly tried, by men appointed 
 to try causes. A lawyer is not to tell what he 
 knows to be a lie : he is not to produce what 
 47
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 he knows to be a false deed ; but he is not to 
 usurp the province of the jury and of the judge, 
 and determine what shall be the effect of evi- 
 dence, what shall be the result of legal argument. 
 As it rarely happens that a man is fit. to plead 
 his own cause, lawyers are a class of the com- 
 munity, who, by study and experience, have 
 acquired the art and power of arranging evi- 
 dence, and of applying to the points at issue 
 what the law has settled. A lawyer is to do 
 for his client all that his client might fairly do 
 for himself, if he could. If, by a superiority of 
 attention, of knowledge, of skill, and a better 
 method of communication, he has the advan- 
 tage of his adversary, it is an advantage to 
 which he is entitled. There must always be 
 some advantage, on one side or other ; and it is 
 better that advantage should be had by talents, 
 than by chance. If lawyers were to undertake 
 no causes till they were sure they were just, a 
 man might be precluded altogether from a trial 
 of his claim, though, were it judicially examined, 
 it might be found a very just claim." — This 
 was sound practical doctrine, and rationally re- 
 pressed a too refined scrupulosity of conscience. 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 15th. 
 
 There were some books on the board which 
 served as a chimney-piece. Dr. Johnson took 
 up Burnet'3 History of his Own Times. He said, 
 " The first part of it is one of the most enter- 
 taining books in the English language ; it is 
 quite dramatic : while he went about every- 
 where, saw everywhere, and heard everywhere.
 
 THE QUESTION OF CASUISTRY 
 
 By the first part, I mean so far as it appears 
 that Burnet himself was actually engaged in 
 what he has told ; and this may be easily dis- 
 tinguished." Captain M'Lean censured Burnet 
 for his high praise of Lauderdale in a dedica- 
 tion, when he shows him in his history to have 
 been so bad a man. Johnson : " I do not my- 
 self think that a man should say in a dedication 
 what he could not say in a history. However, 
 allowance should be made ; for there is a great 
 difference. The known style of a dedication is 
 flattery : it professes to flatter. There is the 
 same difference between what a man says in a 
 dedication, and what he says in a history, as 
 between a lawyer's pleading a cause, and re- 
 porting it." —The Tour. 1773, Oct. +th. 
 
 " The writer of an epitaph should not be 
 considered as saying nothing but what is strictly 
 true. Allowance must be made for some degree 
 of exaggerated praise. In lapidary inscriptions 
 a man is not upon oath." 
 
 — The Life. 1775. Dr. Burney's Collection. 
 
 I have preserved no more of his conversation 
 at the times when I saw him during the rest of 
 this month, till Sunday, the 30th of May, when 
 I met him in the evening at Mr. Hoole's, where 
 there was a large company of ladies and gentle- 
 men. Sir James Johnstone happened to say, 
 that he paid no regard to the arguments of 
 counsel at the bar of the House of Commons, 
 because they were paid for speaking. John- 
 son : " Nay, Sir, argument is argument. You 
 ( B 212 ) 49 F
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 cannot help paying regard to their arguments, if 
 they are good. If it were testimony, you might 
 disregard it, if you knew that it were purchased. 
 There is a beautiful image in Bacon upon this 
 subject : testimony is like an arrow shot from 
 a long bow; the force of it depends on the 
 strength of the hand that draws it. Argument 
 is like an arrow from a cross-bow, which has 
 equal force though shot by a child." 
 
 — The Lije. 1784, May 30th. 
 
 VARIOUS DEPARTURES FROM 
 VERACITY 
 
 Literary Forgeries, (i) Macpherson and 
 OssiAN 
 
 At this time the controversy concerning the 
 pieces published by Mr. James Macpherson, 
 as translations of Ossian, was at its height. 
 Johnson had all along denied their authenticity; 
 and, what was still more provoking to their 
 admirers, maintained that they had no merit. 
 The subject having been introduced by Dr. 
 Fordyce, Dr. Blair, relying on the internal 
 evidence of their antiquity, asked Dr. Johnson 
 whether he thought any man of a modern age 
 could have written such poems ? Johnson re- 
 plied, " Yes, Sir, many men, many women, 
 and many children." Johnson, at this time, 
 did not know that Dr. Blair had just published 
 a Dissertation, not only defending their authen- 
 ticity, but seriously ranking them with the 
 poems of Homer and Virgil; and when he 
 so
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 was afterwards informed of this circumstance, 
 he expressed some displeasure at Dr. Fordyce's 
 having suggested the topic, and said, " I am 
 not sorry that they got thus much for their 
 pains. Sir, it was like leading one to talk of 
 a book, when the author is concealed behind 
 the door." — The Lije. 1763, May 24th. 
 
 The poem of Fingal, he said, was a mere 
 unconnected rhapsody, a tiresome repetition of 
 the same images. " In vain shall we look for 
 the lucidus ordo, where there is neither end nor 
 object, design or moral, vcc ccrta recurrit imago.^^ 
 — The Life. 1770. Dr. Maxwell's Collectanea. 
 
 We spoke of Fingal. Dr. Johnson said 
 calmly, " If the poems were really translated, 
 they were certainly first written down. Let 
 Mr. Macpherson deposit the manuscript in 
 one of the colleges at Aberdeen, where there 
 are people who can judge ; and, if the pro- 
 fessors certify- the authenticity, then there will 
 be an end of the controversy. If he does not 
 take this obvious and easy method, he gives 
 the best reason to doubt; considering too, how 
 much is against it a priori T 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. zjrd. 
 
 Dr. Johnson asked him as to Fingal. He 
 said he could repeat some passages in the 
 original, that he heard his grandfather had a 
 copy of it ; but that he could not affirm that 
 Ossian composed all that poem as it is now 
 published. This came pretty much to what 
 SI
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 Dr. Johnson had maintained ; though he goes 
 farther, and contends that it is no better than 
 such an epic poem as he could make from the 
 song of Robin Hood ; that is to say, that, 
 except a few passages, there is nothing truly 
 ancient but the names and some vague tra- 
 ditions. Mr. M'Queen alleged that Homer 
 was made up of detached fragments. Dr. 
 Johnson denied this ; observing, that it had 
 been one work originally, and that you could 
 not put a book of the Iliad out of its place ; 
 and he believed the same might be said of 
 the Odyssey. — The Tour. 177-?, Sept. 8th. 
 
 His notion as to the poems published by 
 Mr. Macpherson, as the works of Ossian, was 
 not shaken here. Mr. M'Queen always evaded 
 the point of authenticity, saying only that Mr. 
 Macpherson's pieces fell far short of those he 
 knew in Erse, which were said to be Ossian's. 
 Johnson : " I hope they do. I am not dis- 
 puting that you may have poetry of great merit; 
 but that Macpherson's is not a translation from 
 ancient poetry. You do not believe it. I say 
 before you, you do not believe it, though you 
 arc very willing that the world should believe 
 it." Mr. M'Queen made no answer to this. Dr. 
 Johnson proceeded. I look upon Macpherson's 
 F'lngal to be as gross an imposition as ever the 
 world was troubled with. Had it been really 
 an ancient work, a true specimen how men 
 thought at that time, it would have been a curi- 
 osity of the first rate. As a modern production, 
 it is nothing. He said, he could never get
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 the meaning of an Erse song explained to him. 
 They told him, the chorus was generally un- 
 meaning. " I take it," said he, " Erse songs 
 are like a song which I remember : it was 
 composed in Queen Elizabeth's time, on the 
 Earl of Essex ; and the burthen was : 
 
 ' Radaratoo, radarate, radara tadara tandore '". 
 
 " But surely," said Mr. M'Queen, " there 
 were words to it, which had meaning." John- 
 son : " Why, }-es, Sir ; I recollect a stanza, and 
 you shall have it : 
 
 'O! then bespoke the prentices all, 
 Living in London, both proper and tall, 
 For Essex's sake they would fight all. 
 Radaratoo, radarate, radara tadara tandore.'" 
 
 When Mr. M'Queen began again to ex- 
 patiate on the beauty of Ossian's poetry. Dr. 
 Johnson entered into no further controversy, 
 but, with a pleasant smile, only cried, " Ay, 
 ay ; Radaratoo, radarate." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Sept. 22ntl. 
 
 1 took Fingal down to the parlour in the 
 morning, and tried a test proposed by Mr. 
 Roderick M'Leod, son to Ulinish. Mr. 
 M'Queen had said he had some of the poem 
 in the original. I desired him to mention any 
 passage in the printed book, of which he could 
 repeat the original. He pointed out one in 
 page 50 of the quarto edition, and read the 
 Erse, while Mr. Roderick M'Leod and I looked 
 53
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 on the English ; and Mr. M'Leod said, that 
 it was pretty like what Mr. M'Queen had 
 recited. But when Mr. M'Queen read a 
 description of Cuchullin's sword in Erse, to- 
 gether with a translation of it in English verse, 
 by Sir James Foulis, Mr. M'Leod said, that 
 was much more like than Mr. Macpherson's 
 translation of the former passage. Mr. M'Queen 
 then repeated in Erse a description of one of 
 the horses in Cuchullin's car. Mr. M'Leod 
 said, Mr. Macpherson's English was nothing 
 like it. 
 
 When Dr. Johnson came down, I told him 
 that I had now obtained some evidence con- 
 cerning Fingal ; for that Mr. M'Queen had 
 repeated a passage in the original Erse, which 
 Mr. Macpherson's translation was pretty like ; 
 and reminded him that he himself had once 
 said, he did not require Mr. Macpherson's 
 Ossian to be more like the original than Pope's 
 Homer. Johnson: "Well, Sir, this is just 
 what I always maintained. He has found 
 names, and stories, and phrases, nay passages 
 in old songs, and with them has blended his 
 own compositions, and so made what he gives 
 to the world as the translation of an ancient 
 poem." If this was the case, I observed, it 
 was wrong to publish it as a poem in six books. 
 Johnson : " Yes, Sir ; and to ascribe it to a 
 time too when the Highlanders knew nothing 
 of books, and nothing of six ; — or perhaps were 
 got the length of counting six. We have been 
 told, by Condamine, of a nation that could 
 count no more than four. This should be 
 54
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 told to Monboddo ; it would help him. There 
 is as much charity in helping a man downhill, 
 as in helping him uphill." Boswell : " I 
 don't think there is as much cliarity". John- 
 son : " Yes, Sir, if his tendency be do^vnwards. 
 Till he is at the bottom, he flounders ; get 
 him once there, and he is quiet. Swift tells, 
 that Stella had a trick, which she learned from 
 Addison, of encouraging a man in absurdity, 
 instead of endeavouring to extricate him." 
 
 Mr. M'Queen's answers to the enquiries 
 concerning Ossian were so unsatisfactory, that 
 I could not help observing that, were he ex- 
 amined in a court of justice, he would find him- 
 self under a necessity of being more explicit. 
 Johnson : " Sir, he has told BLiir a little too 
 much, which is published ; and he sticks to it. 
 He is so much at the head of things here, that 
 he has never been accustomed to be closely 
 examined ; and so he goes on quite smoothly." 
 Boswell : " He has never had anybody to 
 work him". Johnson: "No, Sir; and a man 
 is seldom disposed to work himself; though 
 he ought to work himself, to be sure". Mr. 
 M'Queen made no reply. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Sept. 23nl. 
 
 Fingal being talked of, Dr. Johnson, who 
 used to boast that he had, from the first, re- 
 sisted both Ossian and the Giants of Patagonia, 
 averred his positive disbelief of its authenti- 
 city. Lord Elibank said, "I am sure it is not 
 Macpherson's. Mr. Johnson, I keep company 
 a great deal with you; it is known I do. I may 
 55
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 borrow from you better things than I can say 
 myself, and give them as my own; but, if I 
 should, everybody will know whose they are." 
 The Doctor was not softened by this compli- 
 ment. He denied merit to Fingal, supposing 
 it to be the production of a man who has had 
 the advantages that the present age affords; 
 and said, " Nothing is more easy than to write 
 enough in that style if once you begin." One 
 gentleman in company expressing his opinion 
 " that Fingal was certainly genuine, for that 
 he had heard a great part of it repeated in the 
 original". Dr. Johnson indignantly asked him, 
 whether he understood the original; to which 
 an answer being given in the negative, " Why 
 then," said Dr. Johnson, " we see to what this 
 testimony comes: — thus it is." 
 
 I mentioned this as a remarkable proof how- 
 liable the mind of man is to credulity, when 
 not guarded by such strict examination as that 
 which Dr. Johnson habitually practised. The 
 talents and integrity of the gentleman who 
 made the remark are unquestionable; yet, had 
 not Dr. Johnson made him advert to the con- 
 sideration, that he who does not understand a 
 language, cannot know that something which 
 is recited to him is in that language, he might 
 have believed, and reported to this hour, that 
 he had "heard a great part of Fingal repeated 
 in the original ". 
 
 For the satisfaction of those on the north of 
 the Tweed, who may think Dr. Johnson's ac- 
 count of Caledonian credulity and inaccuracy 
 too strong, it is but fair to add, that he ad- 
 56
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 mitted the same kind of ready belief might be 
 found in his own country. " He would under- 
 take," he said, " to write an epic poem on the 
 story of ' Robin Hood ', and half England, to 
 whom the names and places he should mention 
 in it are familiar, would believe and declare they 
 had heard it from their earliest years." 
 
 One of his objections to the authenticity of 
 Finga/, during the conversation at Ulinish, is 
 omitted in my Journal, but I perfectly recollect 
 it. "Why is not the original deposited in some 
 public library, instead of exhibiting attestations 
 of its existence ? Suppose there were a question 
 in a court of justice, whether a man be dead 
 or alive: You aver he is alive, and you bring 
 fifty witnesses to swear it : I answer, ' Why do 
 you not produce the man ?'" This is an argu- 
 ment founded on one of the first principles of 
 the lazv of evidence, which Gilbert would have 
 held to be irrefragable. 
 
 I do not think it incumbent on me to give any 
 precise decided opinion upon this question, as 
 to which I believe more than some, and less 
 than others. The subject appears to have now 
 become very uninteresting to the public. That 
 F'lngal is not from beginning to end a trans- 
 lation from the Gaelic, but that some passages 
 have been supplied by the editor to connect 
 the whole, I have heard admitted by very warm 
 advocates for Its authenticity. If this be the 
 case, why are not these distinctly ascertained ? 
 Antiquaries, and admirers of the work, may 
 complain, that they are in a situation similar to 
 that of the unhappy gentleman whose wife in-
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 formed him, on her death-bed, that one of their 
 reputed children was not his; and, when he 
 eagerly begged her to declare which of them 
 it was, she answered, " That you shall never 
 know"; and expired, leaving him in irremedi- 
 able doubt as to them all. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Nov. loth. 
 
 " I am surprised that, knowing, as you do, the 
 disposition of your countrymen to tell lies in 
 favour of each other, you can be at all affected 
 by any reports that circulate among them. 
 Macpherson never in his life offered me a sight 
 of any original, or of any evidence of any kind; 
 — but thought only of intimidating me by noise 
 and threats, till my last answer, — that I would 
 not be deterred from detecting what I thought 
 a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian, — put an 
 end to our correspondence. 
 
 " The state of the question is this. He and 
 Dr. Blair, whom I consider as deceived, say 
 that he copied the poem from old manuscripts. 
 His copies, if he had them, and I believe him to 
 have none, are nothing. Where are the manu- 
 scripts .'' They can be shown if they exist, but 
 they were never shown. ' De non existentlbus 
 et non apparentlbus ', says our law, ' eadem est 
 ratio.'' No man has a claim to credit upon his 
 own word, when better evidence, if he had it, 
 may be easily produced. But so far as we can 
 find, the Erse language was never written till 
 very lately for the purposes of religion. A 
 nation that cannot write, or a language that 
 never was written, has no manuscripts. 
 58
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 " But whatever he has he never oftered to 
 show. If old manuscripts should now be men- 
 tioned, I should, unless there were more evi- 
 dence than can be easily had, suppose them 
 another proof of Scotch conspiracy in national 
 falsehood. 
 
 " Do not censure the expression ; you know 
 it to be true." 
 
 What words were used by Mr. Macpherson 
 in his letter to the venerable sage, I have never 
 heard; but they are generally said to have been 
 of a nature very different from the language of 
 literary contest. Dr. Johnson's answer appeared 
 in the newspapers of the day, and has since been 
 frequently republished ; but not with perfect 
 accuracy. I give it as dictated to me by him- 
 self, written down in his presence, and authen- 
 ticated by a note in his own handwriting, " This, 
 1 thill k, is a true cop^i ". 
 
 " Mr. Ja.mes Macpherson, 
 
 "I received your foolish and impudent letter. 
 Any violence offered me I shall do my best to 
 repel; and what I cannot do for myself, the law 
 shall do for me. I hope I shall never be de- 
 terred from detecting what I think a cheat, by 
 the menaces of a ruffian. 
 
 "What would you have me retract ? I thought 
 your book an imposture; I think it an imposture 
 still. For this opinion I have given my reasons 
 to the public, which I here dare you to refute. 
 Your rage I defy. Your abilities, since your 
 59
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 Homer, are not so formidable; and what I hear 
 of your morals inclines me to pay regard not to 
 what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. 
 You may print this if you will. 
 
 " Sam. Johnson." 
 
 — The Lije. 1775, Feb. 7th. 
 
 That he [Johnson] was to some degree of 
 excess a true-born Engliskman, so as to have en- 
 tertained an undue prejudice against both the 
 country and the people of Scotland, must be 
 allowed. But it was a prejudice of the head, 
 and not of the heart. He had no ill-will to 
 the Scotch; for, if he had been conscious of 
 that, he would never have thrown himself into 
 the bosom of their country, and trusted to the 
 protection of its remote inhabitants with a fear- 
 Lss confidence. His remark upon the naked- 
 ness of the country, from its being denuded 
 of trees, was made after having travelled two 
 hundred miles along the Eastern coast, where 
 certainly trees are not to be found near the 
 road; and he said it was "a map of the road " 
 which he gave. His disbelief of the authen- 
 ticity of the poems ascribed to Ossian, a High- 
 land bard, was confirmed in the course of his 
 journey, by a very strict examination of the 
 evidence offered for it ; and although their 
 authenticity was made too much a national 
 point by the Scotch, there were many respect- 
 able persons in that country who did not con- 
 cur in this ; so that his judgment upon the 
 question ought not to be decried, even by 
 60
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 those who differ from him. As to myself, I 
 can only say, upon a subject now become very 
 uninteresting, that when the fragments of High- 
 land poetry first came out, I was much pleased 
 with their wild peculiarity, and was one of 
 those who subscribed to enable their editor, 
 Mr. Macpherson, then a young man, to make 
 a search in the Highlands and Hebrides for a 
 long poem in the Erse language, which was 
 reported to be preserved somewhere in those 
 regions. But when there came forth an Epic 
 Poem in six books, with all the common cir- 
 cumstances of former compositions of that 
 nature; and when, upon an attentive examina- 
 tion of it, there was found a perpetual recur- 
 rence of the same images which appear in the 
 fragments; and when no ancient manuscript, to 
 authenticate the work, was deposited in any 
 public library, though that was insisted on as a 
 reasonable proof, who could forbear to doubt ? 
 — The Life. 1775. 
 
 " You then are going wild about Ossian. 
 Why do you think any part can be proved? 
 The dusky manuscript of Egg is probably 
 not fifty years old ; if it be an hundred it 
 proves nothing. The tale of Clanranald is 
 no proof Has Clanranald told it ? Can he 
 prove it ? There are, I believe, no Erse manu- 
 scripts. None of the old families had a single 
 letter in Erse that we heard of You say it is 
 likely that they could write. The learned, if 
 any learned there were, could ; but knowing, 
 by that learning, some written language, in that 
 61
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 language they wrote, as letters bad never been 
 applied to their own. If there are manuscripts, 
 let them be shown, with some proof that they 
 are not forged for the occasion. You say many 
 can remember parts of Ossian. I believe all 
 those parts are versions of the English; at least 
 there is no proof of their antiquity. 
 
 " Macpherson is said to have made some 
 translations himself; and having taught a boy 
 to write it, ordered him to say that he had 
 learned it of his grandmother. The boy, when 
 he grew up, told the story. This Mrs. Williams 
 heard at Mr. Strahan's table. Don't be credu- 
 lous; you know how little a Highlander can be 
 trusted. Macpherson is, so far as I know, very 
 quiet. Is not that proof enough ? Everything 
 is against him. No visible manuscript: no in- 
 scription in the language : no correspondence 
 among friends : no transaction of business, of 
 which a single scrap remains in the ancient 
 families. Macpherson's pretence is, that the 
 character was Saxon. If he had not talked un- 
 skilfully of manuKripts, he might have fought with 
 oral tradition much longer. As to Mr. Grant's 
 information, I suppose he knows much less of 
 the matter than ourselves." 
 
 — The Life. i^JS^ Veh. 25th. 
 
 On Tuesday, March 21, I arrived in London; 
 and on repairing to Dr. Johnson's, before dinner, 
 found him in his study, sitting with Mr. Peter 
 Garrick, the elder brother of David, strongly 
 resembling him in countenance and voice, but 
 of more sedate and placid manners. Johnson 
 62
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 informed mc, that though Mr. Beauclerk was in 
 great pain, it was hoped he was not in danger, 
 and that he now wished to consult Dr. Heber- 
 den, to try the effect of a " new understandhig^'' . 
 Both at this interview, and in the evening at Mr. 
 Thrale's, where he and Mr. Peter Garricic and 
 1 met again, he was vehement on the subject of 
 the Ossian controversy ; observing, " We do not 
 know that there are any ancient Erse manu- 
 scripts : and we have no other reason to dis- 
 believe that there are men with three heads, 
 but that we do not know that there are any 
 such men." He also was outrageous upon his 
 supposition that my countrymen " loved Scot- 
 land better than truth ", saying, " All of them — 
 nay, not all, but droves of them — would come 
 up, and attest any thing for the honour of 
 Scotland." He also persevered in his wild 
 allegation, that he questioned if there was a 
 tree between Edinburgh and the English bor- 
 der older than himself. I assured him he was 
 mistaken, and suggested that the proper punish- 
 ment would be, that he should receive a stripe 
 at every tree above a hundred years old, that 
 was found within that space. He laughed, and 
 said, " I believe I might submit to it for a 
 baiibeeV — The Life. 1775, March 2 ist. 
 
 Ossian oeing mentioned — Johnson : " Sup- 
 posing the Irish and Erse languages to be the 
 same, which I do not believe, yet as there is no 
 reason to suppose that the inhabitants of the 
 Highlands and Hebrides ever wrote their native 
 language, it is not to be credited that a long 
 63
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 poem was preserved among them. If we had no 
 evidence of the art of \\Titing being practised in 
 one of the counties of England, we should not 
 believe that a long poem was preserved there, 
 though in the neighbouring counties, where the 
 same language was spoken, the inhabitants could 
 write." Beauclerk : "The ballad of Lilli- 
 burlero was once in the mouths of all the people 
 of this country, and is said to have had a great 
 effect in bringing about the Revolution. Yet I 
 question whether anybody can repeat it now ; 
 which shows how improbable it is that much 
 poetry should be preserved by tradition." 
 
 One of the company suggested an internal 
 objection to the antiquity of the poetry said to 
 be Ossian's, that we do not find the wolf in it, 
 which must have been the case had it been of 
 that age. — The Life. 1775, April 7th. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds communicated to me 
 the following particulars : — 
 
 Johnson thought the poems, published as 
 translations from Ossian, had so little merit, 
 thr.t he said, " Sir, a man might write such 
 stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to 
 it." —The Uje. 1783. 
 
 I shall here mention what, in strict chrono- 
 logical arrangement, should have appeared in 
 my account of last year ; but may more properly 
 be introduced here, the controversy having not 
 been closed till this. The Rev. Mr. Shaw, a 
 native of one of the Hebrides, having entertained 
 doubts of the authenticity of the poems ascribed 
 64
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 to Ossian, divested himself of n.uional bigotry; 
 and having travelled in the Highlands and Is- 
 lands of Scotland, and also in Irelan-d, in order 
 to furnish himself with materials for a Gaelic 
 Dictionary, which he afterwards compiled, was 
 so fully satisfied that Dr. Johnson was in the 
 right upon the question, that he candidly pub- 
 lished a pamphlet, stating his conviction, and 
 the proofs and reasons on which it was founded. 
 A person at Edinburgh, of the name of Clark, 
 answered this pamphlet with much zeal, and 
 much abuse of its author. Johnson took Mr. 
 Shaw under his protection, and gave him his 
 assistance in writing a reply, which has been 
 admired by the best judges, and by many been 
 considered as conclusive. A few paragraphs, 
 which sufficiently mark their great author, shall 
 be selected. 
 
 " My assertions are, for the most part, purely 
 negative: I deny the existence of Fivgal, because 
 in a long and curious peregrination through the 
 Gaelic regions I have never been able to find 
 it. What I could not see myself I suspect to be 
 equally invisible to others ; and I suspect with 
 the more reason, as among all those who have 
 seen it no man can show it. 
 
 " Mr. Clark compares the obstinacy of those 
 who disbelieve the genuineness of Ossiatt to a 
 blind man, who should dispute the reality of 
 colours, and deny that the British troops are 
 clothed in red. The blind man's doubt v/ould 
 be rational, if he did not know by experience 
 that others have a power which he himself 
 wants : but what perspicacity has Mr. Clark 
 
 (B2I2) 65 G
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 which Nature has withheld from me or the rest 
 of mankind ; 
 
 " The true state of the parallel must be this. 
 Suppose a man, with eyes like his neighbours, 
 was told by a boasting corporal, that the troops, 
 indeed, wore red clothes for their ordinary dress, 
 but that every soldier had likewise a suit of black 
 velvet, which he put on when the King reviews 
 them. This he thinks strange, and desires to 
 see the fine clothes, but finds nobody in forty 
 thousand men that can produce either coat or 
 waistcoat. One, indeed, has left them in his 
 chesl at Port Mahon ; another has always heard 
 that he ought to have velvet clothes somewhere ; 
 and a third has heard somebody say, that 
 soldiers ought to wear velvet. Can the enquirer 
 be blamed if he goes away believing that a 
 soldier's red coat is all that he has ? 
 
 "But the most obdurate incredulity may be 
 shamed or silenced by facts. To overpower 
 contradictions, let the soldier show his velvet 
 coat, and the Fingalist the original of Ossian. 
 
 " The difference between us and the blind 
 
 man is this : — the blind man is unconvinced, 
 
 because he cannot see ; and we, because, though 
 
 we can see, we find that nothing can be shown." 
 
 — The Ltfe. 1783. 
 
 LiTEKARY Forgeries. (2) Chatterton 
 AND Rowley 
 
 On Monday, April 29th, he and I made an 
 excursion to Bristol, where I was entertained 
 with seeing him enquire upon the spot into the 
 66
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 authenticity of '■'■ Rozv/ey'' s poetry", as I had 
 seen him enquire upon the spot into the authen- 
 ticity of" Ossian's poetry". George Catcot, the 
 pewterer, who was as zealous for Rowley as 
 Hugh Blair was for Ossian (I trust my reverend 
 friend will excuse the comparison), attended us 
 at our inn, and with a triumphant air of lively 
 simplicity, called out, " I'll make Dr. Johnson a 
 convert." Dr. Johnson, at his desire, read aloud 
 some of Chatterton's fabricated verses, while 
 Catcot stood at the back of his chair, moving 
 himself like a pendulum, and beating time with 
 his feet, and now and then looking into Dr. 
 Johnson's face, wondering that he was not yet 
 convinced. We called on Mr. Barret, the sur- 
 geon, and saw some of the originals, as they 
 were called, which were executed very artificially; 
 but from a careful inspection of them, and a 
 consideration of the circumstances with which 
 they were attended, we were quite satisfied of 
 the imposture, which, indeed, has been clearly 
 demonstrated, from internal evidence, by several 
 able critics. 
 
 Honest Catcot seemed to pay no attention 
 whatever to any objections, but insisted, as an 
 end of all controversy, that we should go with 
 him to the tower of the church of St. Mary 
 RedclifF, and view with our own eyes the ancient 
 ■ chest in which the manuscripts were found. To 
 this, Dr. Johnson good-naturedly agreed ; and 
 though troubled with a shortness of breathing, 
 laboured up a long flight of steps till we came 
 to the place where the wondrous chest stood. 
 " There^' said Catcot, with a bouncing confident 
 67
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 credulity, '■'■there is the very chest itself." After 
 this ocular- demonstration^ there was no more to 
 be said. He brought to my recollection a 
 Scotch Highlander, a man of learning too, and 
 who had seen the world, attesting, and at the 
 same time giving his reasons for the authen- 
 ticity of Fingal: — *' I have heard all that poem 
 when I was young." — " Have you. Sir ? Pray 
 what have you heard?" — "I have heard 
 Ossian, Oscar, and every one of them.'''' 
 
 Johnson said of Chatterton, " This is the 
 most extraordinary young man that has en- 
 countered my knowledge. It is wonderful how 
 the whelp has written such things." 
 
 — The Life. 1776, April 291)1. 
 
 I ihink this wild adherence to Chatterton 
 more unaccountable than the obstinate de- 
 fence of Ossian. In Ossian there is a national 
 pride, which may be forgiven, though it cannot 
 be applauded. In Chatterton there is nothing 
 but the resolution to say again what has once 
 been said. — The Lfe. 1782, March zm!. 
 
 Literary Forgeries. (3) The Duke ok 
 Berwick's "Memoirs" 
 
 Johnson : " Oh ! Mr. Dilly — you must know 
 that an English Benedictine monk at Paris has 
 translated The Duke of Berwick^s Memoirs, 
 from the original French, and has sent them to 
 me to sell. I offered them to Strahan, who 
 sent them back with this answer: — 'That the 
 68
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 first book he had published was the Duke oj 
 Bencick's Life, by which he had lost : and he 
 hated the name.' — Now I honestly tell you that 
 Strahan has refused them ; but I also honestly 
 tell you, that he did it upon no principle, for he 
 never looked into them." Dilly : " Are they 
 well translated. Sir?" Johnson: " Wh)-, Sir, 
 very well — in a style very current and very clear. 
 I have written to the Benedictine to give me an 
 answer upon two points : — What evidence is 
 there that the letters are authentic ? (for if they 
 are not authentic they are nothing) ; — And how 
 long will it be before the original French is 
 published ? For if the French edition is not to 
 appear for a considerable time, the translation 
 will be almost as valuable as an original book. 
 They will make two volumes in octavo ; and I 
 have undertaken to correct every sheet as it 
 comes from the press." Mr. Dilly desired to 
 see them, and said he would send for them. 
 He asked Dr. Johnson if he would write a 
 preface for them. Johnson : " No, Sir. The 
 Benedictines were very kind to me, and I'll do 
 what I undertook to do ; but I will not mingle 
 my name vviih them. I am to gain nothing by 
 them. Til turn them loose upon the world, and 
 let them take their chance." Dr. Mayo : " Pray, 
 Sir, are Ganganelli's letters authentic?" John- 
 son : " No, Sir. Voltaire put the same question 
 to the editor of them that I did to Macpherson 
 — Where are the originals?" 
 
 —The Life. 1778, April 15th.
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 Biographical Gi.ossf.s 
 
 And he [Johnson] will be seen as he really 
 was; for I profess to write, not his panegyric, 
 which must be all praise, but his Life ; which, 
 great and good as he was, must not be sup- 
 posed to be entirely perfect. To be as he was, 
 is indeed subject of panegyric enough to any 
 man in this state of being; but in every picture 
 there should be shade as well as light, and 
 when I delineate him without reserve, I do 
 what he himself recommended, both by his 
 precept and his example. 
 
 " If the biographer writes from personal know- 
 ledge, and makes haste to gratify the public 
 curiosity, there is danger lest his interest, his 
 fear, his gratitude, or his tenderness, overpower 
 his fidelity, and tempt him to conceal, if not to 
 invent. There are many who think it an act 
 of piety to hide the faults or failings of their 
 friends, even when they can no longer suffer by 
 their detection ; we therefore see whole ranks 
 of characters adorned with uniform panegyric, 
 and not to be known from one another but by 
 extrinsic and casual circumstances. ' Let me 
 remember,' says Hale, ' when I find myself in- 
 clined to pity a criminal, that there is likewise 
 a pity due to the country.' If we owe regard 
 to the memory of the dead, there is yet more 
 respect to be paid to knowledge, to virtue, and 
 to truth." — The Life. Introduction. 
 
 "The business of the biographer is often to 
 pass slightly over those performances and inci- 
 70
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 dents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead 
 the thoughts into domestic privacies, and dis- 
 play the minute details of daily life, where 
 exterior appendages are cast aside, and men 
 excel each other only by prudence and by virtue. 
 The account of Thuanus is with great propriety 
 said by its author to have been written, that it 
 might lay open to posterity the private and 
 fiuniliar character of that man, cujus ingenium et 
 candorem ex ipsius scr'iptis sunt olini semper miraturi, 
 — whose candour and genius will to the end of 
 time be by his writings preserved in admira- 
 tion. 
 
 " There are many invisible circumstances, 
 which, whether we read as enquirers alter natural 
 or moral knowledge, whether v/e intend to en- 
 large our science or increase our virtue, are more 
 important than public occurrences. Thus Sal- 
 lust, the great master of nature, has not forgot 
 in his account of Catiline, to remark, that his 
 walk was now quick, and again s/otv, as an indi- 
 cation of a mind revolving something with 
 violent commotion. Thus the story of Me- 
 lanchthon affords a striking lecture on the value 
 of time, by informing us, that when he had 
 made an appointment, he expected not only 
 the hour but the minute to be fixed, that the 
 day might not run out in the idleness of sus- 
 pense ; and all the plans and enterprises of De 
 Witt are now of less importance to the world 
 than that part of his personal character, which 
 represents him as careful of his health, and negli- 
 gent of his life. 
 
 " But biography has often been allotted to 
 71
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 writers, who seem very little acquainted with 
 the nature of their task, or very negligent about 
 the performance. They rarely aftbrd any other 
 .account than might be collected from public 
 papers, but imagine themselves writing a life, 
 when they exhibit a chronological series of 
 actions or preferments; and have so little regard 
 to the manners or behaviour of their heroes, 
 that more knowledge may be gained of a man's 
 real character, by a short conversation with one 
 of his servants, than from a formal and studied 
 narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended 
 with his funeral. 
 
 " There are, indeed, some natural reasons 
 why these narratives are often written by such 
 as were not likely to give much instruction or 
 delight, and why most accounts of particular 
 persons are barren and useless. If a life be 
 delayed till interest and envy are at an end, we 
 may hope for impartiality, but must expect little 
 intelligence; for the incidents which give excel- 
 lence to biography are of a volatile and evanescent 
 kind, such as soon escape the memory, and are 
 rarely transmitted by tradition. We know how 
 few can portray a living acquaintance, except 
 by his most prominent and observable particu- 
 larities, and the grosser features of his mind; 
 and it may be easily imagined how much of 
 this little knowledge may be lost in imparting 
 it, and how soon a succession of copies will 
 lose all resemblance of the original." 
 
 — The Life. Introduction (quotation from The 
 Rambler. No. 60). 
 
 72
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 He said, "Goldsmith's Life of Parnellx?, poor; 
 not that it is poorly written, but that he had 
 poor materials; for nobody can write the life of 
 a man, but those who have eat and drunk and 
 lived in social intercourse with him." 
 
 — The Life. 1772, March 31st. 
 
 We had a very cheerful evening, and Dr. 
 Johnson talked a good deal on the subject of 
 literature. Speaking of the noble fimiiy of 
 Boyle, he said, that all the Lord Orrerys, till 
 the present, had been writers. The first wrote 
 several pla)s; the second was Bentley's antago- 
 nist ; the third wrote the Life of Szvift, and 
 several other things ; his son Hamilton wrote 
 some papers in the Adventurer and 14'orld. He 
 told us, he was well acquainted vvith Swift's 
 Lord Orrery. He said, he was a feeble-minded 
 man ; that, on the publication of Dr. Delany's 
 Remarks on his book, he was so much alarmed 
 that he was afraid to read them. Dr. Johnson 
 comforted him, by telling him they were both 
 in the right; that Delany had seen most of the 
 good side of Swift, Lord Orrery most of the 
 bad. M'Leod asked, if it was not wrong in 
 Orrery to expose the defects of a man with 
 whom he lived in intimacy. Johnson: "Why, 
 no. Sir, after the man is dead ; for then it is 
 done historically ". He added, " If Lord Orrery 
 hat been rich, he would have been a very liberal 
 patron. His conversation was like his writings, 
 neat and elegant, but without strength. He 
 grasped at more than his abilities could reach; 
 tried to pass for a better talker, a better writer, 
 73
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 and a better thinker than he was. There was 
 a quarrel between him and his father, in which 
 his father was to blame ; because it arose from 
 the son's not allowing his wife to keep company 
 with his father's mistress. The old lord showed 
 his resentment in his will, — leaving his library 
 from his son, and assigning, as his reason, that 
 he could not make use of it." 
 
 — The Tour, lyjiy Sept. 2 2n(l. 
 
 Talking of biograph}-, he said he did not 
 think that the life of any literary man in Eng- 
 land had been well written. Beside the com- 
 mon incidents of life, it should tell us his 
 studies, his mode of living, the means by which 
 he attained to excellence, and his opinion of 
 his own works. He told us, he had sent Der- 
 rick to Dryden's relations, to gather materials 
 for his life; and he believed Derrick had got all 
 that he himself should have got ; but it was 
 nothing. He added he had a kindness for 
 Derrick, and was sorry he was dead. 
 
 — The Tour. i-TJl, Sept. zznd. 
 
 ■ Dr. Johnson did not talk much to-day, but 
 seemed intent In listening to the schemes of 
 future excursion, planned by Col. Dr. Birch, 
 however, being mentioned, he said, he had more 
 anecdotes than any man. I said, Percy had a 
 great many; that he flowed with them like one 
 of the brooks here. Johnson: " If Percy is like 
 one of the brooks here, Birch was like the river 
 Thames. Birch excelled Percy in that, as much 
 as Percy excels Goldsmith." I mentioned Lord 
 74
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 Hailes as a man of anecdote. He was not 
 pleased with him, for publishing only such 
 memorials and letters as were unfavourable for 
 the Stuart family. " If," said he, " a man fairly 
 warns you, ' I am to give all the ill ; do you 
 find the good;' he may: but if the object which 
 he professes be to give a view of a reign, let him 
 tell all the truth. I would tell truth of the two 
 Georges, or of that scoundrel, King William. — 
 Granger's BiograpJncal History is full of curious 
 anecdote, but might have been better done. 
 The dog is a Whig. I do not like much to see 
 a Whig in any dress; but I hate to see a Whig 
 in a parson's gown." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Sept. 24th. 
 
 We drank tea with Dr. Home, late President 
 of Magdalen College, and Bishop of Norwich, 
 of whose abilities, in different respects, the 
 public has had eminent proofs, and the esteem 
 annexed to whose character was increased by 
 knowing him personally. He had talked of 
 publishing an edition of Walton's Lives, but had 
 laid aside that design, upon Dr. Johnson's tell- 
 ing him, from mistake, that Lord Hailes in- 
 tended to do it. I had wished to negotiate 
 between Lord Hailes and him, that one or other 
 should periorm so good a work. Johnson: "In 
 order to do it well, it would be necessary to 
 collect all the editions of Walton's Lives. By 
 way of adapting the book to the taste of the 
 present age, thev have, in a late edition, left out 
 a vision which he relates Dr. Donne had, but 
 it should be restored ; and there should be a 
 75
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 critical catalogue given of the Vv'orks of the 
 different persons whose lives were written by 
 Walton, and therefore their works must be 
 carefully read by the editor." 
 
 We then went to Trinity College, where he 
 introduced me to Mr. Thoma-s Warton, with 
 whom we passed a part of the evening. We 
 talked of biography. Johnson : " It is rarely 
 well executed. They only, who live with a 
 man, can write his life with any genuine exact- 
 ness and discrimination ; and few people who 
 have lived with a man know what to remark 
 about him. The chaplain of a late bishop, 
 whom I was to assist in writing some memoirs 
 of his lordship, could tell me scarcely anything." 
 
 I said Mr. Robert Dodsley's life should be 
 written, as he had been so much connected 
 with the wits of his time, and by his literary 
 merit had raised himself from the station of a 
 footman. Mr. Warton said, he had published 
 a little volume under the title of The Mine in 
 Lwe7j. Johnson: "I doubt whether Dodsley's 
 brother would thank a man who should write 
 his life; yet Dodsley himself was not unwilling 
 that his original low condition should be recol- 
 lected. When Lord Lyttelton's Dialogues of the 
 Dead ca,me out, one of which is between Apicius, 
 an ancient epicure, and Dartineuf, a modern 
 epicure, Dodsley said to me, ' I knew Dartineuf 
 well, for I was once his footman.'" 
 
 — T/ie Life. 1776, March aotli. 
 
 I mentioned Mr. Maclaurin's uneasiness on 
 account of a degree of ridicule carelessly thrown 
 76
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 on his deceased father, in Goldsmith's Histor'^ 
 oj Aniniiited "Nature, in which that celebrated 
 mathematician is represented as being subject 
 to fits of yawning so violent as to render him 
 incapable of proceeding in his lecture; a story 
 altogether unfounded, but for the publication of 
 which the law would give no reparation. This 
 led us to agitate the question, whether legal 
 redress could be obtained, even when a m.an's 
 deceased relation was calumniated in a publica- 
 tion. Mr. Murray maintained there should be 
 reparation, unless the author could justify him- 
 self by proving the fact. Johnson : " Sir, it is 
 of so much more consequence that truth should 
 be told, than that individuals should not be 
 made uneasy, that it is much better that the 
 law does not restrain writing freely concerning 
 the characters of the dead. Damages will be 
 given to a man who is calumniated in his life- 
 time, because he may be hurt in his worldly 
 interest, or at least hurt in his mind ; but the 
 law does not regard that uneasiness which a 
 man feels on having his ancestor calumniated. 
 That is too nice. Let him deny what is said, 
 and let the matter have a fair chance by dis- 
 cussion. But if a man could say nothing against 
 a character but what he can prove, history could 
 not be written ; for a great deal is known of 
 men of which proof cannot be brought. A 
 minister may be notoriously known to take 
 bribes, and yet you may not be able to prove 
 it." Mr. Murray suggested that the author 
 should be obliged to show some sort of evi- 
 dence, though he would not require a strict 
 77
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 legal proof; but Johnson firmly and rcbolutely 
 opposed any restraint whatever, as adverse to a 
 free investigation of the characters of mankind. 
 — The Life. 1776, April 3rd. 
 
 / Talking of biography, I said, in writing a 
 life, a man's peculiarities should be mentioned, 
 because they mark his character. Johnson : 
 "Sir, there is no doubt as to peculiarities: 
 the question is, whether a man's vices should 
 be mentioned ; for instance, whether it should 
 be mentioned that Addison and Parnell drank 
 too freely; for people will probably more easily 
 indulge in drinking from knowing this; so 
 that more ill may be done by the example, 
 than good by telling the whole truth". Here 
 was an instance of his varying from himself in 
 talk ; for when Lord Hailes and he sat one 
 morning calmly conversing in my house at 
 Edinburgh, I well remember that Dr. Johnson 
 maintained, that " if a man is to write A 
 Pane^ric, he may keep vices out of sight : but 
 if he professes to write A Life, he must re- 
 present it really as it was": and when I 
 objected to the danger of telling that Parnell 
 drank to excess, he said, that " it would pro- 
 duce an instructive caution to avoid drinking, 
 when it was seen that even the learning and 
 genius of Parnell could be debased by it". And 
 in the Hebrides he maintained, as appears from 
 my Journal, that a man's intimate friend should 
 mention his faults, if he writes his life. 
 
 — The Life. 1777, Sept. 17th. 
 
 78
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 Next day I found him at home in the morn- 
 ing. He praised Delany's Observations on Szvift: 
 said that his book and Lord Orrery's might 
 both be true, though one viewed Swift more, 
 and the other less favourably ; and that, be- 
 tween both, we might have a complete notion 
 of Swift. —The Life. 1778, April 8th. 
 
 Logical Fallaciks 
 
 I mentioned Mallet's tragedy of Elvira, 
 which had been acted the preceding winter at 
 Drury Lane, and that the Honourable Andrew 
 Erskine, Mr. Dempster, and myself, had joined 
 in writing a pamphlet, entitled Critical Stric- 
 tures, against it. That the mildness of 
 Dempster's disposition had, however, relented; 
 and he had candidly said, " We have hardly 
 a right to abuse this tragedy ; for, bad as it is, 
 how vain should either of us be to write one 
 not near so good !" Johnson: "Why, no, Sir; 
 this is not just reasoning. You may abuse a 
 tragedy, though you cannot write one. You 
 may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad 
 table, though you cannot make a table. It is 
 not your trade to make tables." 
 
 — T//e Life. 1763, June .^. 5th. 
 
 Talking of those who denied the truth of 
 Christianity, he said, " It is always easy to be 
 on the negative side. If a man were now to 
 deny that there is salt upon the table, you could 
 not reduce him to an absurdity. Come, let 
 us try this a little further. I deny that Canada 
 79
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 is taken, and I can support my denial by pretty 
 good arguments. The French are a much 
 more numerous people than we ; and it is not 
 likely that they would allow us to take it. 
 * But the ministry have assured us, in all the 
 formality of the Gazette, that it is taken.' — 
 Very true. But the ministry have put us to an 
 enormous expense by the war in America, and 
 it is their interest to persuade us that we have 
 got something for our money. — ' But the fact 
 is confirmed by thousands of men who were 
 at the taking of it.' — Ay, but these men have 
 still more interest in deceiving us. They 
 don't want that you should think the French 
 have beat them, but that they have beat the 
 French. Now suppose you should go over 
 and find that it really is taken, that would only 
 satisfy yourself; for when you come home we 
 will not believe you. We will say, you have 
 been bribed. — Yet, Sir, notwithstanding all 
 these plausible objections, we have no doubt 
 that Canada is really ours. Such is the weight 
 of common testimony. How much stronger 
 are the evidences of the Christian religion?" 
 — The Life. 1763, July 14th. 
 
 One evening, when a young gentleman teased 
 him with an account of the infidelity of his 
 servant, who, he said, would not believe the 
 Scriptures, because he could not read them in 
 the original tongues, and be sure that they 
 were not invented: — "Why, foolish fellow," 
 said Johnson, " has he any better authority for 
 almost everything that he believes?" Bos- 
 80
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 WELL : " Then the vulgar, Sir, never can know 
 they are right, but must submit themselves to 
 the learned ". Johnson : " To be sure. Sir. 
 The vulgar are the children of the State, and 
 must be taught like children." Boswell : 
 " Then, Sir, a poor Turk must be a Moham- 
 metan, just as a poor Englishman must be a 
 Christian?" Johnson: "Why, yes. Sir; and 
 what then ? This, now, is such stuff as I used 
 to talk to my mother, when I first began to 
 think myself a clever fellow; and she ought to 
 have whipt me for it." 
 
 — The Life. 1766, February. 
 
 I spoke of Mr. Harris, of Salisbury, as being 
 a very learned man, and in particular an eminent 
 Grecian. Johnson : " I am not sure of that. 
 His friends gave him out as such, but I know 
 not who of his t"riends are able to judge of it." 
 Goldsmith : " He is what is much better : he 
 is a worthy humane man". Johnson: "Nay, 
 Sir, that is not to the purpose of our argument; 
 that will as much prove that he can play the 
 fiddle as well as Giardini, as that he is an 
 eminent Grecian". Goldsmith: "The greatest 
 musical performers have but small emolu- 
 ments. Giardini, I am told, does not get above 
 seven hundred a year." Johnson : " That is 
 indeed but little for a man to get, who does 
 best that which so many endeavour to do. 
 There is nothing, I think, in which the power 
 of art is shown so much as in playing on the 
 fiddle. In all other things we can do some- 
 thing at first. Any man will forge a bar of 
 (B212) 81 H
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 iron if you give him a hammer ; not so well 
 as a smith, but tolerably. A man will saw 
 a piece of wood, and make a box, though a 
 clumsy one; but give him a fiddle and a fiddle- 
 stick, and he can do nothing." 
 
 — T/ie Life. 1773, April 29th. 
 
 On one of the evenings at my house, when 
 he told that Lord Lovat boasted to an English 
 nobleman, that though he had not his wealth, 
 he had two thousand men whom he could at 
 any time call into the field, the Honourable 
 Alexander Gordon observed, that those two 
 thousand men brought him to the block. 
 " True, Sir," said Dr. Johnson : " but you 
 may just as well argue concerning a man who 
 has fallen over a precipice to which he has 
 walked too near, — ' His two legs brought him 
 to that,' is he not the better for having two 
 legs? ' — T/ie Tour. 1773, November. 
 
 I visited him by appointment in the evening, 
 and we drank tea with Mrs. Williams. He 
 told me that he had been in the company of a 
 gentleman, whose extraordinary travels had been 
 much the subject of conversation. But I found 
 he had not listened to him with that full con- 
 fidence, without which there is little satisfaction 
 in the society of travellers. I was curious to 
 hear what opinion so able a judge as Johnson 
 had formed of his abilities, and I asked if he 
 was not a man of sense. Johnson: "Why, Sir, 
 he is not a distinct relater; and I should say, 
 82
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 he Is neither abounding nor deficient in sense. 
 I did not perceive any superiority of under- 
 standing." Boswell: " But will you not allow 
 him a nobleness of resolution, in penetrating 
 into distant regions?" Johnson: "That, Sir, 
 is not to the present purpose. We are talking 
 of sense. A fighting cock has a nobleness of 
 resolution." — The Lije. 1775, April ist. 
 
 I mentioned Dr. Adam Smith's book on The 
 Wealth of Nations, which was just published, 
 and that Sir John Pringle had observed to me, 
 that Dr. Smith, who had never been in trade, 
 could not be expected to write well on that 
 subject any more than a lawyer upon physic. 
 Johnson : " He is mistaken. Sir ; a man who 
 has never been engaged in trade himself may 
 undoubtedly write well upon trade, and there 
 is nothing which requires more to be illustrated 
 by philosophy than trade does. As to mere 
 wealth, that is to say, money, it is clear that 
 one nation or one ind.ividual cannot increase 
 its store but by making another poorer ; but 
 trade procures what is more valuable, the recip- 
 rocation of the peculiar advantages of different 
 countries. A merchant seldom thinks but of 
 his own particular trade. To write a good book 
 upon it, a man must have extensive views. It 
 is not necessary to have practised, to write well 
 upon a subject." I mentioned law as a subject 
 on which no man could write well without 
 practice. Johnson : " Why, Sir, in England, 
 where so much money is to be got by the 
 practice of the law, most of our writers upon 
 83
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 it have been in practice ; though Blackstone 
 had not been much in practice when he pub- 
 lished his Cohimeritaries. But upon the Conti- 
 nent, the great v> riters on law have not all been 
 in practice; Grotius, indeed, was; but Puften- 
 dorff was not, Burlamaqui was not." 
 
 — Hie Life. 1776, March 15th. 
 
 I told him that when I objected to keeping 
 company with a notorious infidel, a celebuUed 
 friend of ours said to me, "I do not think that 
 men who live laxly in the world, as you and I 
 do, can with propriety assume such an au- 
 thority ; Dr. Johnson may, who is uniformly 
 exemplary in his conduct. But it is not very 
 consistent to shun an infidel to-day, and get 
 drunk to-morrow." Johnson: "Nay, Sir, this 
 is sad reasoning. Because a man cannot be 
 right in all things, is he to be right in 
 nothing? Because a man sometimes gets 
 drunk, is he therefore to steal 'i This doctrine 
 would very soon bring a man to the gallows." 
 — The Life. 1779, October. 
 
 "On occasion of Dr. Johnson's publishing 
 his pamphlet of ' The False Alarm ', there 
 came out a very angry answer (by man}' sup- 
 posed to be by Mr. Wilkes). Dr. Johnson 
 determined on not answering it ; but, in con- 
 versation with Mr. Langton, mentioned a 
 particular or two, which, if he had replied to 
 it, he might perhaps have inserted. In the 
 answerer's pamphlet, it had been said with 
 solemnity, ' Do you consider, Sir, that a House 
 84
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 of Commons is to the people as a creature is 
 to its Creator?' 'To this question', said Dr. 
 Johnson, ' I could have replied that, in the 
 first place, the idea of a Creator must be such 
 as that he has a power to unmake or annihi- 
 late his creature.' 
 
 " * Then it cannot be conceived that a crea- 
 ture can make laws for its Creator.' " 
 
 — The Life. 1788. Mr. Bennet I.angton's 
 "''Johnsonian a. 
 
 Logical Fallacies — Precept Versus 
 Practice 
 
 Dr. John Campbell, the celebrated political 
 and biographical writer, being mentioned, John- 
 son said : " Campbell is a man of much know- 
 ledge, and has a good share of imagination. 
 His Hermippus Rediv'ivus is very entertaining, 
 as an account of the Hermetic philosophy, and 
 as furnishing a curious history of the extrava- 
 gances of the human mind. If it were merely 
 imaginary, it would be nothing at all. Camp- 
 bell is not always rigidly careful of truth in his 
 conversation: but I do not believe there is any- 
 thing of this carelessness in his books. Camp- 
 bell is a good man, a pious man. I am afraid 
 he has not been in the inside of a church for 
 many years ; but he never passes a church 
 without pulling off his hat. This shows that 
 he has good principles. I used to go pretty 
 often to Campbell's on a Sunday evening till 
 I began to consider that the shoals of Scotch 
 men who flocked about him might probably 
 8s
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 say when anything of mine was well done, 
 * Ay, ay, he has learnt this ot CAWMELL !'" 
 — The Life. 1763, July ist. 
 
 Of Dr. John Campbell, the author, he said, 
 " He is a very inquisitive and a very able man, 
 and a man of good religious principles, though 
 I am afraid he has been deficient in practice. 
 Campbell is radically right ; and we may hope 
 that in time there will be good practice." 
 
 — The Life. ijTi, April nth. 
 
 At supper. Lady MacLeod mentioned Dr. 
 Cadogan's book on the gout. Johnson: "It is 
 a good book in general, but a foolish one in 
 particulars. It is good in general, as recom- 
 mending temperance and exercise, and cheerful- 
 ness. In that respect it is only Dr. Cheyne's 
 book told in a new way; and there should come 
 out such a book every thirty years, dressed in 
 the mode of the times. It is foolish, in main- 
 taining that the gout is not hereditary, and 
 that one fit of it, when gone, is like a fever 
 when gone." — Lady MacLeod objected that the 
 author does not practice what he teaches. John- 
 son: "I cannot help that, Madam. That does 
 not make his book the worse. People are in- 
 fluenced more by what a man says, if his practice 
 is suitable to it, — because they are blockheads. 
 The more intellectual people are, the readier 
 will they attend to what a man tells them. If 
 it is just, they will follow it, be his practice 
 what it will. No man practises so well as he 
 86
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 writes. I have, all my life long, been lying till 
 noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them 
 with great sincerity, that nobody who does not 
 rise early will ever do any good. Only con- 
 sider! You read a book; you are convinced by 
 it; you do not know the author. Suppose you 
 afterwards know him, and find that he does not 
 practise what he teaches; are you to give up 
 your former conviction? At this rate you would 
 be kept in a state of equilibrium, when reading 
 every book, till you knew how the author prac- 
 tised." "But," said Lady MacLeod, "you 
 would think better of Dr. Cadogan, if he acted 
 according to his principles." Johnson : " Why, 
 Madam, to be sure, a man who acts in the face 
 ot light, is worse than a man who does not 
 know so much; yet I think no man should be 
 the worse thought of for publishing good prin- 
 ciples. There is something noble in publishing 
 truth, though it condemns one's self" 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Sept. 14th. 
 
 Mr. John M'Aulay passed the evening with 
 us at our inn. When Dr. Johnson spoke of 
 people whose principles were good, but whose 
 practice was faulty, Mr. M'Aulay said, he had 
 no notion of people being in earnest in their 
 good professions, whose practice was not suit- 
 able to them. The Doctor grew warm, and 
 said, " Sir, you are so grossly ignorant of human 
 nature, as not to know that a man may be very 
 sincere in good principles, without having good 
 practice?" 
 
 Dr. Johnson was unquestionably in the right; 
 87
 
 Importance of truthfulness 
 
 ind whoever examines himself candidly, will 
 jje satisfied of it, though the inconsistency be- 
 tween principles and practice is greater in some 
 men than in others. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 25th. 
 
 On Thursday, April 6, I dined with him at 
 Mr. Thomas Davies's, with Mr. Hickey, the 
 painter, and my old acquaintance, Mr. Moody, 
 the player. Johnson: " It is certain that a man 
 may be very immoral with exterior grace. Love- 
 lace, in Clarissa, is a very genteel and a very 
 wicked character. Tom Hcrvey, who died 
 t'other day, though a vicious man, was one of 
 the genteelest men that ever lived." Tom Davies 
 instanced Charles the Second. Johnson (taking 
 fire at any attack upon that Prince, for whom 
 he had an extraordinary partiality): "Charles 
 the Second was licentious in his practice; but 
 he always had a reverence for what was good. 
 Charles the Second knew his people, and re- 
 warded merit. The Church was at no time 
 better filled than in his reign. He was the 
 best King we have had from his time till the 
 reign of his present Majesty, except James the 
 Second, who was a very good King, but un- 
 happily believed that it was necessary for the 
 salvation of his subjects that they should be 
 Roman Catholics. He had the merit of endea- 
 vouring to do what he thought was for the sal- 
 vation of the souls of his subjects, till he lost a 
 great empire. We, who thought that we should 
 not be saved if we were Roman Catholics, had 
 the merit of maintaining our religion, at the
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 expense of submitting ourselves to the govern- 
 ment of King William (for it could not be done 
 otherwise), to the government of one of the 
 most worthless scoundrels that ever existed. 
 No; Charles the Second was not such a man as 
 (naming another King). He did not de- 
 stroy his father's will. He took money, indeed, 
 from France: but he did not betray those over 
 whom he ruled: he did not let the French fleet 
 pass ours. George the First knew nothing, 
 and desired to know nothing: did nothing, and 
 desired to do nothing; and the only good thing 
 that is told of him is, that he wished to restore 
 the crown to its hereditary successor." He 
 roared with prodigious violence against George 
 the Second. When he ceased, Moody inter- 
 jected, in an Irish tone, and with a comic look, 
 "Ah! poor George the Second." 
 
 — The Life. 1775, April 6th. 
 
 Other Deviations, due to Exaggeration, 
 Non-Verification, Loose Talking 
 
 An animated debate took place whether Mar- 
 tinelli should continue his History of England to 
 the present day. Goldsmith: "To be sure he 
 should". Johnson: "No, Sir; he would give 
 great offence. He would have to tell of almost 
 all the living great what they do not wish told." 
 Goldsmith: "It may, perhaps, be necessary 
 for a native to be more cautious; but a foreigner 
 who comes among us without prejudice may be 
 considered as holding the place of a judge, and
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 may speak his mind freely". Johnson: "Sir, 
 a foreigner, when he sends a work from the 
 press, ought to be on his guard against catching 
 the error and mistaken enthusiasm of the people 
 among whom he happens to be". Goldsmith: 
 " Sir, he wants only to sell his history, and to 
 tell truth; one an honest the other a laudable 
 motive". Johnson: "Sir, they are both laud- 
 able motives. It is laudable in a man to wish 
 to live by his labours; but he should write so 
 as he may live by them, not so as he may be 
 knocked on the head. I would advise him to 
 be at Calais before he publishes his history of 
 the present age. A foreigner who attaches him- 
 self to a political party in this country, is in the 
 worst state that can be imagined : he is looked 
 upon as a mere intermeddler. A native may do 
 it from interest." Boswell: "Or principle". 
 Goldsmith: "There are people who tell a 
 hundred political lies every day, and are not 
 hurt by it. Surely, then, one may tell truth 
 with safety." Johnson: " Why, Sir, in the first 
 place, he who tells a hundred lies has disarmed 
 the force of his lies. But besides, a man had 
 rather have a hundred lies told of him than one 
 truth which he does not wish should be told." 
 Goldsmith: "For my part, I'd tell truth, and 
 shame the devil". Johnson: "Yes, Sir; but 
 the devil will be angry. I wish to shame the 
 devil as much as you do, but I should choose 
 to be out of the reach of his claws." Gold- 
 smith: " His claws can do you no harm, when 
 you have the shield of truth". 
 
 — T/ie Life. 1773, April 15th. 
 90
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 The custom of eating dogs at Otaheite being 
 mentioned, Goldsmith observed that this was 
 also a custom in China; that a dog-butcher is 
 as common there as any other butcher; and 
 that when he walks abroad all the dogs fall on 
 him. Johnson : " That is not owing to his 
 killing dogs, sir. I remember a butcher at 
 Lichfield, whom a dog, that was in the house 
 where I lived, always attacked. It is the smell 
 of carnage which provokes this, let the animals 
 he has killed be what they may." Goldsmith : 
 " Yes, there is a general abhorrence in animals 
 at the signs of massacre. If you put a tub full 
 of blood into a stable, the horses are like to 
 go mad". Johnson: " I doubt that". Gold- 
 smith : " Nay, Sir, it is a fact well authenti- 
 cated". Thrale : "You had better prove it 
 before you put it into your book on natural 
 history. You may do it in my stable if you 
 will." Johnson : " Nay, Sir, I would not have 
 him prove it. If he is content to take his 
 information from others, he may get through 
 his book with little trouble, and without much 
 endangering his reputation. But if he makes 
 experiments for so comprehensive a book as 
 his, there would be no end to them ; his 
 erroneous assertions would then fall upon him- 
 self; and he might be blamed for not having 
 made experiments as to every particular." 
 
 — The Life. 1773, April 29th. 
 
 Dr. Gerard told us that an eminent printer 
 was very intimate with Warburton. Johnson: 
 "Why, Sir, he has printed some of his works, 
 91
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 and perhaps bought the property of some of 
 them. The intimacy is such as one of the Pro- 
 fessors here may have with one of the carpenters 
 who is repairing the college." " But," said Gerard, 
 " I saw a letter from him to his printer, in which 
 he says, that the one half of the clergy of the 
 church of Scotland are fanatics, and the other 
 half infidels." Johnson : " Warburton has 
 accustomed himself to write letters just as he 
 speaks, without thinking any more of what he 
 throws out. When I read Warburton first, and 
 observed his force, and his contempt of man- 
 kind, I thought he had driven the world before 
 him; but I soon found that was not the case; 
 for Warburton, by extending his abuse, rendered 
 it ineffectual." 
 
 He told me, when we were by ourselves, that 
 he thought it very wrong in the printer to show 
 Warburton's letter, as it was raising a body of 
 enemies against him. He thought it foolish 
 in Warburton to write so to the printer; and 
 added, " Sir, the worst way of being intimate, 
 is by scribbling." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 23rd. 
 
 We reposed ourselves a little in Mr. Feme's 
 house. He had everything in neat order as in 
 England; and a tolerable collection of books. 
 I looked into Pennant's Tour hi Scotland. He 
 says little of this fort; but that "the bar- 
 racks, &c., form several streets ". This is 
 aggrandising. Mr. Feme observed, if he had 
 said they form a square, with a row of buildings 
 before it, he would have given a juster descrip- 
 92
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 tion. Dr. Johnson remarked, " how seldom 
 descriptions correspond with realities; and the 
 reason is, that people do not write them till 
 some time after, and then their imagination has 
 added circumstances ". 
 
 — The Tour. I'jJi, -*"^ug. 28th. 
 
 He [Johnson] said, " he thought very highly 
 of Bentley; that no man now went so far in 
 the kinds of learning that he cultivated ; that 
 the many attacks on him were owing to envy, 
 and to a desire of being known, by being in 
 competition with such a man; that it was safe 
 to attack him, because he never answered his 
 opponents, but let them die away. It was at- 
 tacking a man who would not beat them, be- 
 cause his beating them would make them live 
 the longer. And he was right not to answer; 
 for, in his hazardous method of writing, he 
 could not but be often enough wrong; so it was 
 better to leave things to their general appear- 
 ance, than own himself to have erred in par- 
 ticulars." — The Tour. 1773, Sept. loth. 
 
 In the dispute about Anaitis, Mr. M'Queen 
 said, Asia Minor was peopled by Scythians, 
 and, as they were the ancestors of the Celts, 
 the same religion might be in Asia Minor and 
 Sky. Johnson: "Alas! Sir, what can a nation 
 that has not letters tell of its original? I have 
 always difficulty to be patient when I hear 
 authors gravely quoted, as giving accounts of 
 savage nations, which accounts they had from 
 the savages themselves. What can the M'Craas 
 93
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 tell about themselves a thousand years ago? 
 There is no tracing the connection of ancient 
 nations, but by language; and therefore I am 
 always sorry when any language is lost, because 
 languages are the pedigree of nations. If you 
 find the same language in distant countries, you 
 may be sure that the inhabitants of each have 
 been the same people; that is to say, if you find 
 the languages a good deal the same; for a word 
 here and there being the same will not do." 
 — The Tour. 1773, Sept. i8th. 
 
 We had this morning a singular proof of Dr. 
 Johnson's quick and retentive memory. Hay's 
 translation oi Martial was lying in a window. I 
 said, I thought it was pretty well done, and 
 showed him a particular epigram, I think, of 
 ten, but am certain of eight, lines. He read it, 
 and tossed away the book, saying — " No, it is 
 not pretty well." As I persisted in my opinion, 
 he said, " Why, Sir, the original is thus" — (and 
 he repeated it), " and this man's translation is 
 thus," — and then he repeated that also, exactly, 
 though he had never seen it before, and read it 
 over only once, and that too, without any inten- 
 tion of getting it by heart. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Oct. zSth. 
 
 On Thursday, April 4, having called on Dr. 
 Johnson, I said, it was a pity that truth was not 
 so firm as to bid defiance to all attacks, so that 
 it might be shot at as much as people chose to 
 attempt, and yet remain unhurt. Johnson : 
 " Then, Sir, it would not be shot at. Nobody 
 94
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 attempts to dispute that two and two make four: 
 but with contests concerning moral truth, human 
 passions are generally mixed, and therefore it 
 must ever be liable to assault and misrepresen- 
 tation." — The Lije. 1776, April 4th. 
 
 He found fault with me for using the phrase, 
 to make money. " Don't you see," said he, 
 " the impropriety of it ? To make money is to 
 coin it ; you should say ^^/ money." The phrase, 
 however, is, I think, pretty current. But 
 Johnson was at all times jealous of infrac- 
 tions upon the genuine English Language, and 
 prompt to repress colloquial barbarisms ; such 
 as pledging myself, for undertaking; line, for 
 department or branch, as the civil line, the 
 banking line. He was particularly indignant 
 against the almost universal use of the word 
 idea in the sense of notion or opinion, when it is 
 clear that idea can only signify something of 
 which an image can be formed in the mind. 
 We may have an idea or image of a mountain, 
 a tree, a building ; but we cannot surely have 
 an idea or image of an argument or proposition. 
 Yet we hear the sages of the law " delivering 
 their ideas upon the question under considera- 
 tion"; and the first speakers in Parliament 
 "entirely coincided in the idea which has been 
 ably stated by an honourable member"; — or 
 "reprobating an idea unconstitutional, and 
 fraught with the most dangerous consequences 
 to a great and free country". Johnson called 
 this "modern cant". 
 
 — The Life. 1777, Sept. z->,n\. 
 9S
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHFULNESS 
 
 He thus defined the difterence between phy- 
 sical and moral truth: " Physical truth is, when 
 you tell a thing as it actually is. Moral truth is, 
 when you tell a thing sincerely and precisely as 
 it appears to you. I say such a one walked 
 across the street : if he really did so, I told a 
 physical truth. If I thought so, though I should 
 have been mistaken, I told a moral truth." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 It is remarkable, that in the Life of Broome, 
 Johnson takes notice of Dr. Warburton using a 
 mode of expression which he himcelf used, and 
 that not seldom, to the great offence of those 
 who did not know him. Having occasion to 
 mention a note, stating the different parts which 
 were executed by the associated translators of 
 The Odyssey, he says, " Dr. Warburton told 
 me, in his warm language, that he thought the 
 relation given in the note a lie. The language 
 is warm indeed ; and, I must own, cannot be 
 justified in consistency with a decent regard 
 to the established forms of speech." Johnson 
 had accustomed himself to use the word lie, to 
 express a mistake or an error in relation ; in 
 short, when the tlntig was not so as told, though 
 the relator did not mean to deceive. When he 
 thought the^-e was intentional falsehood in the 
 relator his expression was, " He lies, and he 
 krotcs he lies." — The Life. 1781. 
 
 Johnson's attention to precision and clearness 
 in expression was very remarkable. He dis- 
 g6
 
 DEPARTURES FROM VERACITY 
 
 approved of a parenthesis; and I believe, in all 
 his voluminous writings, not half a dozen of 
 them will be found. He never used the phrases 
 the former and the latter, having observed that 
 they often occasioned obscurity ; he therefore 
 contrived to construct his sentences so as not to 
 have occasion for them, and would even rather 
 repeat the same words, in order to avoid them. 
 Nothing is more common than to mistake sur- 
 names, when we hear them carelessly uttered 
 for the first time. To prevent this, he used not 
 only to pronounce them slowly and distinct!) , 
 but to take the trouble of spelling them— a 
 practice which I have often followed, and which 
 I wish were general. — The Life. 1783. 
 
 ( K 212 ) 97
 
 The State of Marriage 
 
 " Of your love I know not the propriety, nor 
 can estimate the power ; but in love, as in 
 every other passion of which hope is the 
 essence, we ought always to remember the un- 
 certainty of events. There is, indeed, nothing 
 that so much seduces reason from vigilance as 
 the thought of passing life with an amiable 
 woman ; and if all would happen that a lover 
 fancies, I know not what other terrestrial happi- 
 ness would deserve pursuit. But love and mar- 
 riage are different states. Those who are to suffer 
 the evils together, and to suffer often for the 
 sake of one another, soon lose that tenderness 
 of look and that benevolence of mind which 
 arose from the participation of unmingled plea- 
 sure and successive amusement. A woman, we 
 are sure, will not be always fair — we are not 
 sure she will always be virtuous ; and a man 
 cannot retain through life that respect and 
 assiduity by which he pleases for a day or for a 
 month. I do not, however, pretend to have 
 discovered that life has anything more to be 
 desired than a prudent and virtuous marriage, 
 therefore know not what counsel to give you." 
 — The Life. 1762, Dec. 21st.
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 A gentleman talked to him of a lady whom he 
 greatly admired and wished to marry, but was 
 afraid of her superiority of talents. "Sir," said 
 he, " you need not be afraid ; marry her. Before 
 a year goes about, you'll find that reason much 
 weaker, and that wit not so bright." Yet the 
 gentleman may be justified in his apprehension 
 hy one of Dr. Johnson's admirable sentences 
 in his life of Waller : " He doubtless praised 
 many whom he would have been afraid to marry; 
 and, perhaps, married one whom he would have 
 been ashamed to praise. Many qualities con- 
 tribute to domestic happiness, upon which 
 poetry has no colours to bestow : and many 
 airs and sallies may delight imagination, which 
 he who flatters them never can approve." 
 
 — T/ie Life. 1768, Spring. 
 
 Although I had promised myself a great deal 
 of instructive conversation with him on the con- 
 duct of the married state, of which I had then a 
 near prospect, he did not sa}' much upon that 
 topic. Mr. Seward heard him once say, that " a 
 man has a very bad chance for happiness in that 
 state, unless he marries a woman of very strong 
 and fixed principles of religion". He maintained 
 to me, contrary to the common notion, that a 
 woman would not be the worse wife for being 
 learned ; in which, from all that I have observed 
 of Jriemisias, I humbl}- differed from him. 
 That a woman should be sensible and well in- 
 formed, I allow to be a great advantage ; and 
 think that Sir Thomas Ovcrbury, in his rude 
 versification, has very judiciously pointed out 
 99
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 that degree of intelligence which is to be desired 
 in a female companion : — 
 
 " Give me, next good, an understanding ivife. 
 By nature ivise, not learned by much art, 
 
 Some knowledge on her side, will all my life 
 More scope of conversation impart : 
 
 Besides, her inborne virtue fortifie. 
 
 They are most firmly good, that best know v.hy." 
 
 When I censured a gentlemen of my acquaint- 
 ance for marrying a second time, as it showed 
 a disregard of his first wife, he said, " Not at all. 
 Sir. On the contrary, were he not to marry 
 again, it might be concluded that his first wife 
 had given him a disgust to marriage ; but by 
 talcing a second wife he pays the highest com- 
 pliment to the first, by showing that she made 
 him so happy as a married man, that he wishes 
 to be so a second time." So ingenious a turn 
 did he give to this delicate question. And yet, 
 on another occasion, he owned that he once had 
 almost asked a promise of Mrs. Johnson that she 
 would not marry again, but had checked him- 
 self. Indeed, I cannot help thinking, that in 
 his case the request would have been unreason- 
 able ; for if Mrs. Johnson forgot, or thought it 
 no injury to the mem.ory of her first love — the 
 husband of her youth and the father of her 
 children^ to make a second marriage, why 
 should she be precluded from a third, should 
 she be so inclined ? In Johnson's persevering 
 fond appropriation of his Tetty, even after her 
 decease, he seems totally to have overlooked 
 the prior claim of the honest Birmingham trader. 
 I presume that her having been married before 
 
 lOO
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 had, at times, given him some uneasiness ; for 
 I remember his observing upon the marriage of 
 one of our common friends, " He has done a 
 very foolish thing ; he has married a widow, 
 when he might have had a maid." 
 
 — The Life. 1769, Sept. 30th. 
 
 I was detained in town till it was too late on 
 the 9th, so went to him early in the morning of 
 the I oth of November. " Now," said he, " that 
 you are going to marry, do not expect more 
 from life than life will aflbrd. You may often find 
 yourself out of humour, and you may often think 
 your wife not studious enough to please you; and 
 yet you may have reason to consider yourself as 
 upon the whole very happily married." 
 
 Talking of marriage in general, he observed, 
 " Our marriage service is too refined. It is 
 calculated only for the best kind of marriages ; 
 whereas, we should have a form for matches of 
 convenience, of which there are many." He 
 agreed with me that there was no absolute 
 necessity for having the marriage ceremony per- 
 formed by a regular clergyman, for this was not 
 commanded in Scripture. 
 
 I was volatile enough to repeat to him a little 
 epigrammatic song of mine, on matrimony, which 
 Mr. Garrick had a few days before procured to be 
 set to music by the very ingenious Mr. Dibdin. 
 
 A MATRIMONIAL THOUGHT 
 
 " In the blythe days of honeymoon, 
 Witli Kate's allurements smitten, 
 I loved her late, I loved her soon, 
 And call'd her dearest kitten.
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 " But now my kitten's grown a cat. 
 And cross like other wives, 
 Oh ! by my soul, my honest Mat, 
 1 fear she has nine lives." 
 
 My illustrious friend said, " It is very well, Sir ; 
 but you should not swear." Upon which I 
 altered " Oh ! by my soul," to " Alas, alas ! " 
 — The Life. 1769, Nov. loth. 
 
 A gentleman who had been very unhappy 
 in marriage, married immediately after his wife 
 died: Johnson said, it was the triumph of hope 
 over experience. 
 
 He observed, that a man of sense and educa- 
 tion should meet a suitable companion in a wife. 
 It was a miserable thing when the conversation 
 could only be such as, whether the mutton should 
 be boiled or roasted, and probably a dispute 
 about that. 
 
 He did not approve of late marriages, ob- 
 serving, that more was lost in point of time, than 
 compensated for by any possible advantages. 
 Even ill assorted marriages were preferable to 
 cheerless celibacy. 
 — The Life. 1770. Dr. Maxwell's Co//ir/i2«t't?. 
 
 On Tuesday, March 31, he and I dined at 
 General Paoli's. A question was started whether 
 the state of marriage was natural to man. 
 Johnson : " Sir, it is so far from being natural 
 for a man and woman to live in a state of 
 marriage, that we find all the motives which 
 they have for remaining in that connection, 
 102
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 and the restraints which civilized society im- 
 poses to prevent separation, are hardly suffi- 
 cient to keep them together". The General 
 said, " that in a state of nature a man and woman 
 uniting together, would form a strong and con- 
 stant affection, by the mutual pleasure each 
 would receive ; and that the same causes of 
 dissension would not arise between them, as 
 occur between husband and wife in a civilized 
 state." Johnson : " Sir, they would have dis- 
 sensions enough, though ot another kind. One 
 would choose to go a-hunting in this wood, 
 the other in that ; one would choose to go 
 a-fishing in this lake, the other in that ; or 
 perhaps one would choose to go a-hunting, 
 when the other would choose to go a-fishing ; 
 and so they would part. Besides, Sir, a savage 
 man and a savage woman meet by chance ; and 
 when the man sees another woman that pleases 
 him better, he will leave the first." 
 
 — The Life. 1772, March 31st 
 
 Happening to meet Sir Adam Ferguson, I 
 presented him to Dr. Johnson. Sir Adam 
 expressed some apprehension that the Pantheon 
 would encourage luxury. " Sir," said Johnson, 
 " I am a great friend to public amusements ; 
 for they keep people from vice. You now 
 (addressing himself to me), would have been 
 with a wench, had you not been here. Oh ! 
 I forgot you were married." 
 
 —The Life. \y%z, March 31st. 
 
 103
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 It was rather worse weather than any that 
 we had yet. At breakfast Dr. Johnson said, 
 " Some cunning men choose fools for their 
 wives, thinking to manage them, but they al- 
 ways fail. There is a spaniel fool and a mule 
 fool. The spaniel fool may be made to do by 
 beating. The mule fool will neither do by 
 words or blows ; and the spaniel fool often 
 turns mule at last : and suppose a fool to be 
 made do pretty well, you must have the con- 
 tinual trouble of making her do. Depend 
 upon it, no woman is the worse for sense and 
 knowledge." Whether afterwards he meant 
 merely to say a polite thing, or to give his 
 opinion, I could not be sure ; but he added, 
 " Men know that women are an over-match 
 for them, and therefore they choose the weakest 
 or most ignorant. If they did not think so, 
 they never could be afraid of women knowing 
 as much as themselves." In justice to the sex, 
 I think it but candid to acknowledge, that, in 
 a subsequent conversation, he told me that he 
 was serious in what he had said. 
 
 — -The Tour. 1775, Sept. 19th. 
 
 A young lady who had married a man much 
 her inferior in rank being mentioned, a question 
 arose how a woman's relations should behave 
 to her in such a situation ; and, while I re- 
 capitulate the debate, and recollect what has 
 since happened, I cannot but be struck in a 
 manner that delicacy forbids me to express. 
 While I contended that she ought to be treated 
 with an Inflexible steadiness of displeasure, 
 104
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 Mrs. Thrale was all for mildness and forgive- 
 ness, and, according to the vulgar phrase, 
 "making the best of a bad bargain". John- 
 son : " Madam, we must distinguish. Were 
 I a man of rank, I would not let a daughter 
 starve who had made a mean marriage ; tut 
 having voluntarily degraded herself from the 
 station v/hich she was originally entitled to 
 hold, I would support her only in that which 
 she herself had chosen ; and would not put 
 her on a level with my other daughters. 
 You are to consider. Madam, that it is our 
 duty to maintain the subordination of civilized 
 society ; and when there is a gross and shame- 
 ful deviation from rank, it should be punished 
 so as to deter others from the same perver- 
 sion." — The Life. 1775, March 28th. 
 
 We talked of a young gentleman's marriage 
 with an eminent singer, and his determination 
 that she should no longer sing in public, though 
 his father was very earnest she should, because 
 her talents would be liberally rewarded, so as 
 to make her a good fortune. It was questioned 
 whether the young gentleman, who had not a 
 shilling in the world, but was blessed with 
 very uncommon talents, was not foolishly deli- 
 cate, or foolishly proud, and his father truly 
 rational, without being mean. Johnson, with 
 all the high spirit of a Roman senator, ex- 
 claimed, " He resolved wisely and nobly, to 
 be sure. He is a brave man. Would not a 
 gentleman be disgraced by having his wife 
 singing publicly for hire? No, Sir, there can 
 105
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 be no doubt here. I know not if I should not 
 prepare myself ^ox a public singer, as readily as 
 let my wife be one." 
 
 — The Life. 1775, April i ith. 
 
 I talked of legitimation by subsequent mar- 
 riage, which obtained in the Roman law, and 
 still obtains in the law of Scotland. Johnson : 
 , " I think it a bad thing ; because the chastity 
 / of women being of the utmost importance, as 
 all property depends upon it, they who forfeit 
 it should not have any possibility of being re- 
 stored to good character ; nor should the chil- 
 dren by illicit connection attain the full right 
 of lawful children, by the posterior consent of 
 the offending parties". His opinion upon this 
 subject deserves consideration. Upon his prin- 
 ciple there may at times be a hardship, and 
 seemingly a strange one, upon individuals; but 
 the general good of society is better secured. 
 And, after all, it is unreasonable in an individual 
 to repine that he has not the advantage of a 
 state which is made different from his own by 
 the social institution under which he is born. 
 A woman does not complain that her brother 
 who is younger than her gets their common 
 father's estate. Why, then, should a natural 
 son complain that a younger brother, by the 
 same parents lawfully begotten, gets it ? The 
 operation of law is similar in both cases. Be- 
 sides, an illegitimate son, who has a younger 
 legitimate brother by the same father and 
 mother, has no stronger claim to the father's 
 estate, than if that legitimate brother had only 
 106
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 the same father, from whom alone the estate 
 descends. 
 
 Mr. Lloyd joined us in the street, and in a 
 little while we met Friend Hector, as Mr. Lloyd 
 called him. It gave me pleasure to observe the 
 joy which Johnson and he expressed on seeing 
 each other again. Mr. Lloyd and I left them 
 together, while he obligingly showed me some 
 of the manufactures of this verj' curious assem- 
 blage of artificers. We all met at dinner at 
 Mr. Lloyd's, where we were entertained with 
 great hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd had 
 been married the same year with their Ma- 
 jesties, and like them, had been blessed with 
 a numerous family of fine children, their num- 
 bers being exactly the same. Johnson said, 
 " Marriage is the best state for a man in general; 
 and every man is a worse man in proportion 
 as he is unfit for the married state." 
 
 —The Life. 1776, March aznd. 
 
 Dr. Johnson said to me in the morning, 
 " You will see, Sir, at Mr. Hector's, his sister, 
 Mrs. Careless, a clergyman's widow. She was 
 the first woman with whom I was in love. It 
 dropt out of my head imperceptibly : but she 
 and I shall always have a kindness for each 
 other." He laughed at the notion that a man 
 can never be really in love but once, and con- 
 sidered it as a mere romantic fancy. 
 
 On our return from Mr. Boulton's, Mr. 
 
 Hector took me to his house, where we found 
 
 Johnson sitting placidly at tea, with his first 
 
 love ; who though now advanced in years, was 
 
 107
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 a genteel woman, very agreeable and well bred. 
 When he again talked of Mrs. Careless to- 
 night, he seemed to have had his affection 
 revived ; for he said, " If I had married her, it 
 might have been as happy for me." Boswell : 
 " Pray, Sir, do you not suppose that there are 
 fifty women in the world, with any one of 
 whom a man may be as happy as with any one 
 woman in particular". Johnson: "Ay, Sir, 
 fifty thousand". Boswell: "Then, Sir, you 
 are not of opinion with some who imagine 
 that certain men and certain women are made 
 for each other ; and that they cannot be happy 
 if they miss their counterparts". Johnson: 
 " To be sure not, Sir. I believe marriages 
 would in general be as happy, and often more 
 so, if they were all made by the Lord Chan- 
 cellor, upon a due consideration of the char- 
 acters and circumstances, without the parties 
 having any choice in the matter." 
 
 — The Life. 1776, March 22nd. 
 
 Johnson : " Marriage, Sir, is much more 
 necessary to a man than to a woman : for he 
 is much less able to supply himself with do- 
 mestic comforts. You will recollect my saying 
 to some ladies the other day, that I had often 
 wondered why young women should marry, 
 as they have so much more freedom, and so 
 much more attention paid to them while un- 
 married than when married. I indeed did not 
 mention the stro72g reason for their marrying — 
 the mechanical reason." Boswell : " Why that 
 is a strong one. Bui; does not imagination 
 108
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 make it much more important than it is in 
 reality? Is it not, to a certain degree, a delu- 
 sion in us as well as in women?" Johnson: 
 " Why yes, Sir ; but it is a delusion that is 
 always beginning again". Boswell : "I don't 
 know but there is upon the whole more misery 
 than happiness produced by that passion". 
 Johnson : " I don't think so. Sir". 
 
 — The Life. 1776, March 25th. 
 
 He said, " It is commonly a weak man who 
 marries for love." We then talked of marrying 
 women of fortune; and I mentioned a common 
 remark, that a man may be, upon the whole, 
 richer by marrying a woman with a very small 
 portion, because a woman of fortune will be 
 proportionally expensive ; whereas a woman 
 who brings none will be very moderate in ex- 
 penses. Johnson : " Depend upon it, Sir, this 
 is not true. A woman of fortune, being used 
 to the handling of money, spends it judiciously; 
 but a woman who gets the command of money 
 for the first time upon her marriage, has such 
 a gust in spending it, that she throws it away 
 with great profusion." 
 
 — The Life. \'j'j6, March 28th. 
 
 At Streatham, on Monday March 29, at 
 breakfast, he maintained that a father had no 
 right to control the inclinations of his daughters 
 in marriage. 
 
 — The Life. 1779, March 29th. 
 
 109
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 " The loss, dear Sir, which you have lately 
 suffered, I felt many years ago, and know, there- 
 fore, how much has been taken from you, and 
 how little help can be had from consolation. 
 He that outlives a wife whom he has loved, sees 
 himself disjointed from the only mind that has 
 the same hopes, and fears, and interest ; from 
 the only companion with whom he has shared 
 much good or evil ; and with whom he could 
 set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or 
 anticipate the future. The continuity of being 
 is lacerated ; the settled course of sentiment 
 and action is stopped: and life stands suspended 
 and motionless, till it is driven by external 
 causes into a new channel. But the time of 
 suspense is dreadful. 
 
 " Our first recourse, in this distressed soli- 
 tude, is, perhaps for want of habitual piety, to 
 a gloomy acquiescence in necessity. Of two 
 mortal beings, one must lose the other ; but 
 surely there is a higher and better comfort to 
 be drawn from the consideration of that Provi- 
 dence which watches over all, and a belief that 
 the living and the dead are equally in the hands 
 of God, who will reunite those whom he has 
 separated; or who sees that it is best not to re- 
 unite." — The Life. 1780, Jan. 20th. 
 
 On Tuesday, June 15th, Johnson was to 
 return to London. He was very pleasant at 
 breakfast. I mentioned a friend of mine having 
 resolved never to marry a pretty woman. John- 
 son : " Sir, it is a very foolish resolution to 
 resolve not to marry a pretty woman. Beauty
 
 THE STATE OF AURRIAGE 
 
 is of itself very estimable. No, Sir, I would 
 prefer a pretty woman, unless there are objec- 
 tions to her. A pretty woman may be foolish; 
 a pretty woman may be wicked ; a pretty 
 woman may not like me. But there is no such 
 danger in marrying a pretty woman as is ap- 
 prehended ; she will not be persecuted if she 
 does not invite persecution. A pretty woman, 
 if she has a mind to be wicked, can find a 
 readier way than another : and that is all." 
 — The Life. 1781, June 5th. 
 
 I praised the accuracy of an account-book of 
 a lady whom I mentioned. Johnson : " Keep- 
 ing accounts, Sir, is of no use when a man is 
 spending his own money, and has nobody to 
 whom he is to account. You won't eat less 
 beef to-day, because you have written down 
 what it cost yesterday." I mentioned another 
 lady who thought as he did, so that her hus- 
 band could not get her to keep an account of 
 the expense of the family, as she thought it 
 enough that she never exceeded the sum allowed 
 her. Johnson : " Sir, it is fit she should keep 
 an account, because her husband wishes it ; 
 but I do not see its use." I maintained that 
 keeping an account had this advantage, that it 
 satisfies a man that his money has not been 
 lost or stolen, which he might sometimes be 
 apt to imagine, were there no written state 
 of his expense ; and besides, a calculation of 
 economy, so as not to exceed one's income, 
 cannot be made without a view of the different 
 articles in figures, that one may see how to re- 
 in
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 irench in some particulars less necessary than 
 others. This he did not attempt to answer. 
 — The Life. 1783. 
 
 After dinner, when one of us talked of 
 there being a great enmity between Whig 
 and Tory : — Johnson : " Why, not so much, 
 I think, unless when they come into com- 
 petition with each other. There is none 
 when they are only common acquaintance, 
 none when they are of ditterent sexes. A 
 Tory will marry into a Whig family, and a 
 Whig into a Tory family, without any reluc- 
 tance. But indeed, in a matter of much more 
 concern than political tenets, and that is re- 
 ligion, men and women do not concern them- 
 selves much about difference of opinion ; and 
 ladies set no value on the moral character of 
 men who pay their addresses to them ; the 
 greatest profligate will be as well received as 
 the man of the greatest virtue, and this by a 
 very good woman, by a woman who says her 
 prayers three times a day." Our ladies en- 
 deavoured to defend their sex from this charge; 
 but he roared them down ! " No, no ! a lady 
 will take Jonathan Wild as readily as St. Aus- 
 tin, if he has threepence more ; and, what is 
 worse, her parents will give her to him. Wo- 
 men have a perpetual envy of our vices ; they 
 are less vicious than we, not from choice, but 
 because we restrict them ; they are the slaves 
 of order and fashion ; their virtue is of more 
 consequence to us than our own, so far as 
 concerns this world."
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 P4iss Adams mentioned a gentleman of li- 
 centious character, and said, " Suppose I had 
 a mind to marry that gentleman, would my 
 parents consent?" Johnson: "Yes, they'd 
 consent, and you'd go. You'd go, though they 
 did not consent." Miss Adams : " Perhaps 
 their opposing might make me go". Johnson : 
 " Oh, very well ; you'd take one whom you 
 think a bad man, to have the pleasure of vexing 
 your parents. You put me in mind of Dr. 
 Barrowby, the physician, who was very fond 
 of swine's flesh. One day, when he was eating 
 it, he said, 'I wish I was a Jew.' — 'Why so?' 
 said somebody ; ' the Jews are not allowed to 
 eat your favourite meat.' — ' Because,' said he, 
 ' I should then have the gust of eating it, with 
 the pleasure of sinning.' " Johnson then pro- 
 ceeded in his declamation. 
 
 Miss Adams soon afterwards made an obser- 
 vation that I do not recollect, which pleased 
 him much ; he said, with a good-humoured 
 smile, " That there should be so much excel- 
 lence united with so much cieprazity is strange." 
 
 Indeed, this lady's good qualities, merit, and 
 accomplishments, and her constant attention to 
 Dr. Johnson, were not lost upon him. She 
 happened to tell him that a little coffee-pot, in 
 which she had made him coffee, was the only 
 thing she could call her own. He turned to 
 her with a complacent gallantry. " Don't say 
 so, my dear ; I hope you don't reckon m)' 
 heart as nothing." 
 
 — The Life. 1784, June loth. 
 
 ( K 212 ) 113 K
 
 THE STATE OF MARRIAGE 
 
 On Monday, June 14th, and Tuesday, 15th, 
 Dr. Johnson and I dined (on one ot them, I 
 forget which) with Mr. Mickle, translator of 
 The Lusiad, at Wheatley, — a very pretty coun- 
 try place a few miles from Oxford ; and on the 
 other with Dr. Wetherell, Master of University 
 College. From Dr. Wetherell's he went to 
 visit Mr. Sackville Parker, the bookseller; and 
 when he returned to us he gave the following 
 account of his visit, saying, " I have been to 
 see my old friend. Sack. Parker ; I find he has 
 married his maid ; he has done right. She had 
 lived with him many years in great confidence, 
 and they had mingled minds ; 1 do not think 
 he could have found any wife that would have 
 made him so happy. The woman was very 
 attentive and civil to me ; she pressed me to 
 fix a day for dining with them, and to say what 
 I liked, and she would be sure to get it for me. 
 Poor Sack. ! he is very ill indeed. We parted 
 as never to meet again. It has quite broken 
 me down." This pathetic narrative was 
 strangely diversified with the grave and earnest 
 defence of a man's having married his maid. 
 I could not but feel it as in some degree 
 ludicrous. — The Life. 1784, June 14th. 
 
 114
 
 The Ethics of Convivial 
 Drinking 
 
 Next morning Mr. Dempster happened to 
 call on me, and was so much struck even with 
 the imperfect account which I gave him of Dr. 
 Johnson's conversation, that to his honour be 
 it recorded, when 1 complained of drinking 
 port and sitting up late with him, aftected my 
 nerves for some time after, he said, " One had 
 better be palsied at eighteen than not keep 
 company with such a man." 
 
 — The Life. 1763, July 15th 
 
 At night I supped with him at the Mitre 
 tavern, that we might renew our social inti- 
 macy at the original place of meeting. But 
 there was now a considerable difference in his 
 way of living. Having had an illness, in which 
 he was advised to leave off wine, he had, from 
 that period, continued to abstain from it, and 
 drink only water or lemonade. 
 
 — The Life. 1766, February. 
 
 He said few people had intellectual resources 
 sufficient to forego the pleasures of wine. They 
 "5
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 could not otherwise contrive how to fill the in- 
 terval between dinner and supper. 
 
 — 'The Life. 1770. Dr. Maxwell's Collectanea. 
 
 Desirous of calling Johnson forth to talk and 
 exercise his wit, though I should myself be the 
 object of it, I resolutely ventured to undertake 
 the defence of convivial indulgence in wine, 
 though he was not to-night in the most genial 
 humour. After urging the common plausible 
 topics, I at last had recourse to the maxim in 
 vino Veritas, a man who is well warmed with 
 wine will speak truth. Johnson : " Why, Sir, 
 that may be an argument for drinking, if you 
 suppose men in general to be liars. But, Sir, 
 I would not keep company with a fellow who 
 lies as long as he is sober, and whom you must 
 make drunk before you can get a word of truth 
 out of him." 
 
 — The Life. 1772, April 15th. 
 
 A gentleman having, to some of the usual ar- 
 guments for drinking, added this : " You know, 
 Sir, drinking drives away care, and makes us 
 forget whatever is disagreeable. Would not you 
 allow a man to drink for that reason?" John- 
 son : " Yes, Sir, if he sat next 'jou ". 
 
 — The Life. 1772, April. 
 
 We talked of change of manners. Dr. John- 
 son observed, that our drinking less than our 
 ancestors was owing to the change from ale to 
 wine. " I remember," said he, " when all the 
 decent people in Lichfield got drunk every night, 
 116
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 and were not the worse thought of. Ale was 
 cheap, so you pressed strongl}'. When a man 
 must bring a bottle of wine, he is not in such 
 haste. Smoking lias gone out. To be sure, it 
 is a shocking thing, blowing smoke out of our 
 mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and 
 noses, and having the same thing done to us. 
 Yet I cannot account why a thing which re- 
 quires so little exertion, and yet preserves the 
 mind from total vacuity, should have gone out. 
 Every man has something by which he calms 
 himself: beating with his feet, or so." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, -Aujj. igtli. 
 
 After supper. Dr. Johnson told us, that Isaac 
 Hawkins Browne drank freely for thirty years, 
 and that he wrote his poem, De Jnimi Immor- 
 taliiaie, in some of the last of these years. I 
 listened to this with the eagerness of one, who, 
 conscious of being himself fond of wine, is glad 
 to hear that a man of so much genius and good 
 thinking as Browne had the same propensity. 
 — The Tour. iTJl^ Sept. 5^1. 
 
 Last night much care was taken of Dr. John- 
 son, who was still distressed by his cold. He 
 had hitherto most strangely slept without a 
 night-cap. Miss M'Leod made him a large 
 flannel one, and he was prevailed with to drink 
 a little brandy when he was going to bed. He 
 has great virtue in not drinking wine or any 
 fermented liquor, because, as he acknowledged 
 to us, he could not do it in moderation. Lady 
 M'Leod would hardly believe him, and said, " I 
 117
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 am sure, Sir, you would not carry it too far." 
 Johnson : "Nay, Madam, it carried me. I took 
 the opportunity of a long illness to leave it off. 
 It was then prescribed to me not to drink 
 wine; and having broken off the habit, I have 
 never returned to it." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Sept. 16th. 
 
 ^ As we sailed along Dr. Johnson got into one 
 of his fits of railing at the Scots. He owned 
 that they had been a very learned nation for a 
 hundred years, from about I 5 50 to about 1650; 
 but that they afforded the only instance of a 
 people among whom the arts of civil life did 
 not advance in proportion with learning ; that 
 they had hardly any trade, any money, or any 
 elegance, before the Union ; that it was strange 
 that, with all the advantages possessed by other 
 nations, they had not any of those conveniences 
 and embellishments which are the fruit of in- 
 dustry, till they came in contact with a civilized 
 people. "We have taught you," said he, " and 
 we'U do the same in time to all barbarous 
 nations, — to the Cherokees, — and at last to the 
 Orang-Outangs ;" laughing with as much glee 
 as if Monboddo had been present. Boswell : 
 " We had wine before the Union ". Johnson : 
 " No, Sir ; you had some weak stuff, the 
 refuse of France, which would not make you 
 drunk ". Boswell : " I assure you. Sir, there 
 was a great deal of drunkenness ". Johnson : 
 " No, Sir ; there were people who died of 
 dropsies, which they contracted in trying to 
 get drunk". — T/ie Tour. 1773, Sept. 23rd. 
 118
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 I awaked at noon, with a severe headache. 
 I was much vexed that I should have been 
 guilty of such a riot, and afraid of a reproof 
 from Dr. Johnson. I thought it very incon- 
 sistent with that conduct which I ought to 
 maintain, while the companion of the Ram- 
 bler. About one he came into my room, and 
 accosted me, "What, drunk yet?" His tone 
 of voice was not that of severe upbraiding; so I 
 was relieved a little. " Sir," said I, "they kept 
 me up." He answered, " No, you kept them 
 up, you drunken dog." This he said with 
 good-humoured English pleasantry. Soon after- 
 wards, Corrichatachin, Col, and other friends 
 assembled round my bed. Corri had a brandy 
 bottle and glass with him, and insisted I should 
 take a dram. " Ay," said Johnson, " fill him 
 drunk again. Do it in the morning, that we 
 may laugh at him all day. It is a poor thing 
 for a fellow to get drunk at night, and skulk to 
 bed, and let his friends have no sport." Find- 
 ing him thus jocular, I became quite easy; and 
 when I offered to get up, he very good-naturedly 
 said, " You need be in no such hurry now." I 
 took my host's advice, and drank some brandy, 
 which I found an effectual cure for my head- 
 ache. When I rose, I went into Dr. Johnson's 
 room, and taking up Mrs. M'Kinnon's Prayer- 
 book, I opened it at the twentieth Sunday after 
 Trinity, in the epistle for which I read, " And 
 be not drunk with wine, wherein there is ex- 
 cess". Some would have taken this as a divine 
 interposition. 
 
 This was another day of wind and rain; 
 119
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 but good cheer and good society helped to 
 beguile the time. I felt myself comfortable 
 enough in the afternoon. I then thought that 
 my last night's riot was no more than such a 
 social excess as may happen without much 
 moral blame ; and recollected that some phy- 
 sicians maintained that a fever produced by 
 it was, upon the whole, good for health : so 
 different are our reflections on the same sub- 
 ject, at different periods ; and such the excuses 
 with which we palliate what we know to be 
 wrong. — The Tour. 1773, Sept. 26th. 
 
 Dr. Johnson here showed so much spirit of 
 a Highlander, that he won Sir Allan's heart: 
 indeed, he has shown it during the whole of 
 our Tour. One night, in Col, he strutted 
 about the room with a broad sword and target, 
 and made a formidable appearance ; and, an- 
 other night, I took the liberty to put a large 
 blue bonnet on his head. His age, his size, 
 and his bushy gray wig, with this covering on 
 it, presented the image of a venerable ScJiachi: 
 and, however unfavourable to the Lowland 
 Scots, he seemed much pleased to assume the 
 appearance of an ancient Caledonian. We only 
 regretted that he could not be prevailed with 
 to partake of the social glass. One of his 
 arguments against drinking, appears to me not 
 convincing. He urged, that, " in proportion 
 as drinking makes a man difi"erent from what 
 he is before he has drunk, it is bad ; because 
 it has so fir affected his reason". But may it 
 not be answered, that a man may be altered by
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 it for the better; that his spirits may be exhilar- 
 ated, without his reason being affected ? On 
 the general subject of drinking, however, I do 
 not mean positivel)- to take the other side. I 
 am dubius, non improbus. 
 
 — The Tour, 1773, Oct. 17th. 
 
 The prospect of good accommodation cheered 
 us much. We supped well; and after supper, 
 Dr. Johnson, whom I had not seen taste any 
 fermented liquor during all our travels, called 
 for a gill of whisky. " Come," said he, " let 
 me know what it is that makes a Scotchman 
 happy ! " He drank it all but a drop, which I 
 begged leave to pour into my glass, that 1 might 
 say we had drunk whisky together. I proposed 
 Mrs. Thrale should be our toast. He would 
 not have her drunk in whisky, but rather "some 
 insular lady"; so we drank one of the ladies 
 whom we had lately left. He owned to-night, 
 that he got as good a room and bed as at an 
 English inn. — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 7.3 
 
 " Reynolds has taken too much to strong 
 liquor, and seems to delight in his new char- 
 acter." — The Life. 1775, Jan. ist. 
 
 Finding him still persevering in his absti- 
 nence from wine, I ventured to speak to him 
 of it. Johnson: "Sir, I have no objection to 
 a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in 
 moderation. 1 found myself apt to go to 
 excess in it, and therefore, after having been 
 for some time without it, on account of ill-
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 ness, I thought it better not to return to it. 
 Every man is to judge for himseli, according 
 to the effects which he experiences. One of 
 the Fathers tells us, he found fasting made 
 him so peevish that lie did not practise it." 
 
 Though he often enlarged upon the evil of 
 intoxication, he was by no means harsh and 
 unforgiving to those who indulged in occa- 
 sional excess in wine. One of his friends, I 
 well remember, came to sup at a tavern with 
 him and some other gentlemen, and too plainly 
 discovered that he had drunk too much at 
 dinner. When one who loved mischief, think- 
 ing to produce a severe censure, asked Johnson, 
 a few days afterwards, " Well, Sir, what did 
 your friend say to ycM, as an apology for being 
 in such a situation ?" Johnson answered: "Sir, 
 he said all that a man shu/^ say: he said he 
 was sorry for it." 
 
 I heard him once give a very judicious prac- 
 tical advice upon this subject: "A man who 
 has been drinking wine at all freely, should 
 never go into a new company. With those 
 who have partaken of wine with him he may 
 be pretty well in unison, but he will pro- 
 bably be offensive or appear ridiculous to other 
 people." —The Life. 1776, March, i6th. 
 
 Johnson and I supped this evening at the 
 Crown and Anchor Tavern, in company with 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Langton, Mr. Nairne, 
 now one of the Scotch judges, with the title of 
 Lord Dunsinan, and my very worthy friend. 
 Sir William Forbes, of Pitsligo.
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 Wc discussed the question whether drinking 
 improved conversation and benevolence. Sir 
 Joshua maintained it did. Johnson: "No, 
 Sir, before dinner men meet with great in- 
 equality of understanding; and those who are 
 conscious of their inferiority have the modesty 
 not to talk. When they have drunk wine, every 
 man feels himself happy, and loses that modesty, 
 and grows impudent and vociferous: but he is 
 not improved: he is only not sensible of his 
 defects." Sir Joshua said the Doctor was talk- 
 ing of the effects of excess in wine; but that a 
 moderate glass enlivened the mind, by giving 
 a proper circulation to the blood. " I am," 
 said fie, " in very good spirits, when I get up 
 in the morning. By dinner-time I am ex- 
 hausted ; wine puts me in the same state as 
 when I got up; and I am sure that moderate 
 drinking makes people talk better." Johnson : 
 " No, Sir, wine gives no light, gay, ideal hilarity; 
 but tumultuous, noisy, clamorous merriment. 
 I have heard none of those drunken — nay, 
 drunken is a coarse word — none of those 
 vinous flights." Sir Joshua : " Because you 
 have sat by, quite sober, and felt an envy of 
 the happiness of those who were drinking." 
 Johnson : " Perhaps contempt. And, Sir, it is 
 not necessary to be drunk one's self to relish 
 the wit of drunkenness. Do we not judge of 
 the drunken wit, and of the dialogue between 
 lago and Cassio, the most excellent in its kind, 
 when we are quite sober ? Wit is wit, by 
 whatever means it is produced : and, if good, 
 will appear so at all times. I admit that the 
 123
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 spirits are raised by drinking, as 'oy the common 
 participation of any pleasure : rock-fighting or 
 bear-baiting will raise the spirits of a company 
 as drinking does, though surely they will not 
 improve conversation. I also admit, that there 
 are some sluggish men who are improved by 
 drinking ; as there are fruits which are not 
 good till they are rotten. There are such 
 men, but they are medlars. I indeed allow 
 that there have been a very few men of talents 
 who were improved by drinking ; but I main- 
 tain that I am right as to the effects of drink- 
 ing in general: and let it be considered, that 
 there is no position, however false in its uni- 
 versality, which is not true of some particular 
 man." Sir William Forbes said, "Might not 
 a man warmed with wine be like a bottle of 
 beer, which is made brisker by being set before 
 the fire ?" " Nay," said Johnson, laughing, " I 
 cannot answer that: that is too much fo** me." 
 I observed that wine did some people harm, 
 by inflaming, confusing, and irritating their 
 minds; but that the experience of mankind had 
 declared in favour of moderate drinking. John- 
 son : " Sir, I do not say it is wrong to produce 
 self-complacency by drinking; I only deny that 
 it improves the mind. When I drank wine I 
 scorned to drink it when in company. I have 
 drunk many a bottle by myself; in the first 
 place, because I had need of it to raise my 
 spirits ; in the second place, because I would 
 have nobody to witness its effects upon me." 
 — The Life. 1776, April 12th. 
 
 124
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 "Every man is to take existence on the terms 
 on which it is given to him. To some men it is 
 given on condition of not taking liberties, which 
 other men may take without much harm. One 
 may drink w'ine, and be nothing the worse for it; 
 on another, wine may have effects so inflamma- 
 tory as to injure him both in body and mind, and 
 perhaps make him commit something for which 
 he may deserve to be hanged." 
 
 — The Lije. 1776, May. 
 
 As we drove back to Ashbourne, Dr. John- 
 son recommended to me, as he had often done, 
 to drink water only: " For," said he, "you are 
 then sure not to get drunk ; whereas, if you 
 drink wine, you are never sure." I said, drink- 
 ing wine was a pleasure which I was unwilling 
 to give up. " Why, Sir," said he, " there is no 
 doubt that not to drink wine is a great deduc- 
 tion from life: but it may be necessary." He, 
 however, owned that, in his opinion, a free use 
 of wine did not shorten life; and said, he would 
 not give less for the life of a certain Scotch 
 Lord (whom he named), celebrated for hard 
 drinking, than for that of a sober man. " But 
 stay," said he, with his usual intelligence and 
 accuracy of enquiry, "does it take much wine 
 to make him drunk?" I answered, "A great 
 deal either of w^ne or strong punch." " Then," 
 said he, " that is the worse." I presume to 
 illustrate my friend's observation thus : — " A 
 fortress which soon surrenders has its walls less 
 shattered, than when a long and obstinate re- 
 sistance is made." — The Life. 1777, Sept. 19th. 
 125
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 E. : "I understand the hogshead of claret, 
 which this society was favoured with by our 
 friend the Dean, is nearly out ; I think he 
 should be written to, to send another of the 
 same kind. Let the request be made with a 
 happy ambiguity of expression, so that we may 
 have the chance of his sending it also as a pre- 
 sent." Johnson : " I am willing to offer my ser- 
 vices as secretary on this occasion". P.: "As 
 many as are for Dr. Johnson being secretary 
 hold up your hands. — Carried unanimously." 
 BoswELL : "He will be our Dictator". John- 
 son: "No, the company is to dictate to me. I 
 am only to write for wine: and I am quite dis- 
 interested, as I drink none; I shall not be sus- 
 pected of having forged the application. I am 
 no more than humble scribe.'''' E.: "Then you 
 shall />r^-scribe". Boswell: " Very well. The 
 first play of words to-day ". J.: "No, no; the 
 bulls in Ireland". Johnson: "Were I your 
 Dictator, you should have no wine. It would 
 be my business cavere ne quid detrimenti Res- 
 publica caperet, and wine is dangerous. Rome 
 was ruined by luxury" (smiling). E.: "If you 
 allow no wine as Dictator, you shall not have 
 me for your master of horse." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 3rd. 
 
 Talking of drinking wine, he said, " I did 
 not leave off wine because I could not ber.r it ! 
 I have drunk three bottles of port without being 
 the worse for it. University College has wit- 
 nessed this." Boswell: " Vv''h}' then. Sir, did 
 you leave it off?" Johnson: "Why, Sir, bc- 
 126
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 cause it is much better for a man to be sure 
 that he is never to be intoxicated, never to lose 
 the power over himself. I shall not begin to 
 drink wine till I grow old and want it." Bos- 
 well : " I think, Sir, you once said to me, that 
 not to drink wine was a great deduction from 
 life". Johnson: " It is a diminution of pleasure, 
 to be sure; but I do not say a diminution of 
 happiness. There is more happiness in being 
 rational." Boswell : " But if we could have 
 pleasure always, should not we be happy ? The 
 greatest part of men would compound for plea- 
 sure." Johnson : " Supposing we could have 
 pleasure always, an intellectual man would not 
 compound for it. The greatest part of men 
 would compound, because the greatest part of 
 men are gross." Boswkll: "I allow there may 
 be greater pleasure than from wine. I have 
 had more pleasure from your conversation. I 
 have indeed ; I assure you I have." Johnson : 
 " When we talk of pleasure, we mean sensual 
 pleasure. When a man says, he had pleasure 
 with a woman, he does not mean conversation, 
 but something of a very different nature. Philo- 
 sophers tell )ou that pleasure is contrary to 
 happiness. Gross men prefer animal pleasure. 
 So there are men who have preferred living 
 among savages. Now what a wretch must he 
 be, who is content with such conversation as 
 can be had among savages ! You may rem.em- 
 ber an officer at Fort Augustus, who had served 
 in America, told us of a woman whom they 
 were obliged to bind, in order to get her back 
 from savage life." Boswell : " She mu;^c have 
 127
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 been an animal, a beast ". Johnson : *' Sir, she 
 was a speaking cat ". 
 
 —The Life. 1778, April 7th. 
 
 Talking of a man's resolving to deny him- 
 self the use of wine, from moral and religious 
 considerations, he said, " He must not doubt 
 about it. When one doubts as to pleasure, we 
 know what will be the conclusion. I now no 
 more think of drinking wine than a horse does. 
 The wine upon the table is no more for me 
 than for the dog that is under the table." 
 
 —The Life. 1778, April 8th. 
 
 Edwards: "How do you live, Sir? For my 
 part I must have my regular meals, and a glass 
 of good wine. I find I require it." Johnson : 
 *' I now drink no wine, Sir. Early in life I 
 drank wine : for many years I drank none. I 
 then for some years drank a great deal." 
 Edwards: "Some hogsheads, I warrant you". 
 Johnson : " I then had a severe illness, and left 
 it ofi-, and I have never begun it again. I never 
 felt any difference upon myself from eating one 
 thing rather than another. There are people, 
 I believe, who feel a difference ; but I am not 
 one of them. And as to regular meals, I have 
 fasted from the Sunday's dinner to the Tues- 
 day's dinner without any inconvenience. I be- 
 lieve it is best to eat just as one is hungry: but 
 a man who is in business, or a man who has a 
 family, must have stated meals. I am a straggler. 
 I may leave this town and go to Grand Cairo, 
 without being missed here or observed there." 
 128
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 Edwards: " Don't you eat supper, Sir ?" John- 
 son : "No, Sir". Edwards: "For my part, 
 now, I consider supper as a turnpike through 
 which one must pass, in order to get to bed". 
 |oHNSON : "You are a lawyer, Mr. Edwards. 
 Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man 
 should always have them to converse with. They 
 have what he wants." Edwards: "I am grown 
 old: I am sixty-five". Johnson: "I shall be 
 sixty-eight next birthday. Come, Sir, drink 
 water, and put in for a hundred." 
 
 — The Lije. 1778, April 17th. 
 
 We talked of drinking wine. Johnson : " I 
 require wine only when I am alone. I have 
 then often wished for it, and often taken it." 
 Spottiswoode : " What, by way of a com- 
 panion. Sir?" Johnson: "To get rid of my- 
 sclf^ — -to send myself away. Wine gives great 
 pleasure, and every pleasure is of itself a good. 
 It is a good, unless counterbalanced by evil. A 
 man may have a strong reason not to drink 
 wine ; and that may be greater than the plea- 
 sure. Wine makes a man better pleased with 
 himself. I do not say that it makes him more 
 pleasing to others. Sometimes it does. But 
 the danger is, that while a man grows better 
 pleased with himself, he may be growing less 
 pleasing to others. Wine gives a man nothing. 
 It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only 
 animates a man, and enables him to bring out 
 what a dread of the company has repressed. It 
 only puts in motion what has been locked up in 
 frost. But this may be good or it may be bad." 
 ( B 212) 129 L
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 Spottiswoode : "So, Sir, wine is a key which 
 opens a box; but this box may be either full or 
 empty?" Johnson: "Nay, Sir, conversation 
 is the key ; wine is a picklock, which forces 
 open the box, and injures it. A man should 
 cultivate his mind so as to have that confidence 
 and readiness, without wine, which wine gives." 
 BoswELL : " The great difficulty of resisting 
 wine is from benevolence. For instance, a good 
 worthy man asks you to taste his wine, which 
 he has had twenty years in his cellar." John- 
 son : " Sir, all this notion about benevolence 
 arises from a man's imagining himself to be of 
 more importance to others than he really is. 
 They don't care a farthing whether he drinks 
 wine or not." Sir Joshua Reynolds : " Yes, 
 they do for the time ". Johnson : " For the 
 time ! — if they care this minute, they forget it 
 the next. And as for the good worthy man — 
 how do you know he is good and worthy ? No 
 good and worthy man will insist upon another 
 man's drinking wine. As to the wine twenty 
 years in the cellar— of ten men, three say this, 
 merely because they must say something; three 
 are telling a lie, when they say they have had 
 the wine twenty years; three would rather save 
 the wine ; one, perhaps, cares. I allow it is 
 something to please one's company; and people 
 are always pleased with those who partake 
 pleasure with them. But after a man has 
 brought himself to relinquish the great personal 
 pleasure which arises from drinking wine, any 
 other consideration is a trifle. To please others 
 by drinking wine, is something only, if there be 
 130
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 nothing against it. I should, however, be sorry 
 to oft'end worthy men : 
 
 ' Curst be the verse, how well soe'er it flow. 
 That tends to make one worthy man my foe '." 
 
 BoswELL : "Curst be the spring, the zvdter''\ 
 Johnson : " But let us consider what a sad 
 thing it would be, if we were obliged to drink. 
 or do anything else that may happen to be 
 agreeable to the company where we are". 
 Langton : " By the same rule you must join 
 with a gang of cutpurses". Johnson: "Yes, 
 Sir ; but yet we must do justice to wine ; we 
 must allow it the power it possesses. To make 
 a man pleased with himself, let me tell you, is 
 doing a very great thing : — 
 
 *■ Si patria i-olumus, si nobis i-ii-erc ccrri'," 
 
 I was at this time myself a water-drinker, 
 upon trial, upon Johnson's recommendation. 
 Johnson : " Boswell is a bolder combatant than 
 Sir Joshua; he argues for wine without the help 
 of wine; but Sir Joshua with it". Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds : " But to please one's company is a 
 strong motive ". Johnson (who from drinking 
 only water supposed everybody who drank wine 
 to be elevated): " I won't argue any more with 
 you. Sir. You are too far gone." Sir Joshua : 
 " 1 should have thought so indeed, Sir, had I 
 made such a speech as you have now done ". 
 Johnson (drawing himself in, and I really 
 thought blushing) : " Nay, don't be angry. I 
 did not mean to oftend you." Sir Joshua : 
 " At first the taste of wine was disagreeable to 
 131
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 me; but I brought myself to drink it, that I 
 might be like other people. The pleasure of 
 drinking wine is so connected with pleasing 
 your company, that altogether there is som.e- 
 thing of social goodness in it." Johnson : 
 " This is only saying the same thing over 
 again". Sir Joshua: "No, this is new". 
 Johnson : " You put it in new words, but it is 
 an old thought. This is one of the disadvan- 
 tages of wine, it makes a man mistake words 
 for thoughts." Boswell: " I think it is a new 
 thought ; at least it is in a new attitude ". 
 Johnson : " Nay, Sir, it is only in a new coat ; 
 or an old coat with a new facing. (Then 
 laughing heartily) — It is the old dog in a new 
 doublet. An extraordinary instance, however, 
 m.ay occur where a man's patron will do nothing 
 for him, unless he will drink : there may be a 
 good reason for drinking." 
 
 I mentioned a nobleman, who I believed was 
 really uneasy, if his company would not drink 
 hard. Johnson : " That is from having had 
 people about him whom he has been accustomed 
 to command". Boswell: "Suppose I should 
 be tete-a-tete with him at table ". Johnson : 
 " Sir, there is no more occasion for your drink- 
 ing with him, than his being sober with you''\ 
 Boswell : " Why, that is true; for it would do 
 him less hurt to be sober, than it would do 
 me to get drunk ". Johnson: " Yes, Sir : and 
 from what I have heard of him, one would not 
 wish to sacrifice himself to such a man. If he 
 must always have somebody to drink with him, 
 he should buy a slave, and then he would be 
 132
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 sure to have it. They who submit to drink as 
 another pleases, make themselves his slaves." 
 BoswELL : " But, Sir, you will surely make 
 allowance for the dut^• of hospitality. A gentle- 
 man who loves drinking comes to visit me." 
 Johnson: "Sir, a man knows whom he visits; 
 he comes to the table of a sober man ". Bos- 
 well : " But, Sir, you and I should not have 
 been so well received in the Highlands and 
 Hebrides, if I had not drunk with our worthy 
 friends. If I had drunk water only as you did, 
 they would not have been so cordial." John- 
 son : " Sir William Temple mentions, that in 
 his travels through the Netherlands he had two 
 or three gentlemen with him; and when a bum- 
 per was necessary, he put it on them. Were 
 I to travel again through the islands, I would 
 have Sir Joshua with me to take the bumpers." 
 BoswHLL : " But, Sir, let me put a case. Sup- 
 pose Sir Joshua should take a jaunt into Scot- 
 land; he does me the honour to pay me a visit 
 at my house in the country ; I am overjoyed at 
 seeing him ; we are quite by ourselves : shall I 
 unsociably and churlishly let him sit drinking 
 by himself? No. no, my dear Sir Joshua, you 
 shall not be treated so, I will take a bottle with 
 you." — The Life. 1778, April 2?tli. 
 
 Johnson harangued against drinking wine. "A 
 man," said he, " m.iy choose whether he will have 
 abstemiousness and knowledge, or claret and 
 ignorance." Dr. Robertson (who is very com- 
 panionable) was beginning to dissent as to the 
 proscription of claret. Johnson (with a placid 
 133
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 smile) : " Na}-, Sir, you shall not differ with me ; 
 as I have said that the man is most perfect who 
 takes in the most things, I am for knowledge and 
 claret". Robertson (holding a glass of generous 
 claret in his hand) : " Sir, 1 can only drink your 
 health". Johnson : "Sir, I should be sorry if 
 you should be ever in such a state as to be able 
 to do nothing more". 
 
 —The L'lje. ij'j'i, April 29th. 
 
 On Wednesday, April 7, I dined with him at 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds's. I have not marked 
 what company was there. Johnson harangued 
 upon the qualities of different liquors ; and 
 spoke with great contempt of claret, as so weak, 
 that " a man would be drowned by it before it 
 made him drunk". He was persuaded to drink 
 one glass of it, that he might judge, not from 
 recollection, which might be dim, but from 
 immediate sensation. He shook his head, and 
 said, " Poor stuff! No, Sir, claret is the liquor 
 for boys ; port for men : but he who aspires to 
 be a hero (smiling) must drink brandy. In the 
 first place, the flavour of brandy is most grateful 
 to the palate ; and then brandy will do soonest 
 for a man what drinking can do for him. There 
 are, indeed, few who are able to drink brandy. 
 That is a power rather to be wished for than 
 attained. And yet," proceeded he, " as in 
 all pleasure hope is a considerable part, I know 
 not but fruition comes too quick by brandy. 
 Florence wine I think the worst ; it is wine 
 only to the eye ; it is wine neither while you are 
 drinking it, nor after you have drunk it ; it 
 134
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 neither pleases the taste, nor exhiharates the 
 spirits." I reminded him how heartily he and 
 I used to drinlv wine together, when we were 
 first acquainted ; and how I used to have a 
 headache after sitting up with him. He did not 
 like to have this recalled, or, perhaps, thinking 
 that I boasted improperly, resolved to have a 
 witty stroke at me : " Nay, Sir, it was not the 
 wine that made your head ache, but the se?ise 
 that I put into it." Boswell : " What, Sir, will 
 sense make the head ache?" Johnson : "Yes, 
 Sir (with a smile), when it is not used to it". — 
 No man who has a true relish of pleasantry 
 could be offended at this ; especially if Johnson 
 in a long intimacy had given him repeated 
 proofs of his regard and good estimation. I 
 used to say, that as he had given me ;i^iooo in 
 praise, he had a good right now and then to 
 take a guinea from me. 
 
 — The Lije. 1779, April 7th. 
 
 Talking of the effects of drinking, he said, 
 "Drinking may be practised with great prudence; 
 a man who exposes himself when he is intoxi- 
 cated, has not the art of getting urunk ; a sober 
 man who happens occasionally to get drunk, 
 readily enough goes into a new company, which 
 a man who has been drinking should never do. 
 Such a man will undertake anything ; he is with- 
 out skill in inebriation. I used to slink home 
 when I had drunk too much. A man accustomed 
 to self-examination will be conscious when he is 
 drunk, though an habitual drunkard will not be 
 conscious of it. I knew a ph}sician who for 
 135
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 twenty years was not sober ; yet in a pamphlet, 
 which he wrote upon fevers, he appealed to 
 Garrick and me for his vindication from a charge 
 of drunkenness. A bookseller (naming him), 
 who got a large fortune by trade, was so habitu- 
 ally and equally drunk, that his most intimate 
 friends never perceived that he was more sober 
 at one time than another." 
 
 — The Life. 1779, April 24th. 
 
 /He told me I might now have the pleasure to 
 see Dr. Johnson drink wine again, for he had 
 lately returned to it. When I mentioned this to 
 Johnson, he said, "I drink it now sometimes, but 
 not socially." The first evening that I was with 
 him at Thrale's, I observed he poured a large 
 quantity of it into a glass, and swallowed it 
 greedily. Everything about his character and 
 manners was forcible and violent ; there never 
 was any moderation ; many a day did he fast, 
 many a year did he refrain from wine ; but when 
 he did eat, it was voraciously; when he did drink 
 wine, it was copiously. He could practise ab- 
 stinence, but not temperance. 
 
 — Tlie Life. 1781, March 21st. 
 
 On Friday. March 30, 1 dined with him at Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds's, with the Earl ofCharlemont, 
 Sir Annesley Stewart, Mr. Eliot, of Port-Eliot, 
 Mr. Burke, Dean Marlay, Mr. Langton : a most 
 agreeable day, of which I regret that every cir- 
 cumstance is not preserved ; but it is un- 
 reasonable to require such a multiplication of 
 felicity. 
 
 136
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 Mr. Eliot mentioned a curious liquor peculiar 
 to his country, which the Cornish fishermen 
 drink. They call it Mahogan"^ ; and it is made of 
 two parts gin, and one part treacle, well beaten 
 together. I begged to have some of it made, 
 which was done with proper skill by Mr. Eliot. 
 I thought it very good liquor ; and said it was a 
 counterpart of what is called Jthole Porridge in 
 the Highlands of Scotland, which is a mixture of 
 whiskey and honey. Johnson said, " That must 
 be a better liquor than the Cornish, for both its 
 component parts are better." He also observed, 
 '■'■ Mahogan"^ must be a modern name; for it is 
 not long since the wood called mahogany was 
 known in this country." I mentioned his scale 
 of liquors : — claret for boys, — port for men, — 
 brandy for heroes. " Then," said Mr. Burke, 
 " let me have claret : I love to be a boy ; to have 
 the careless gaiety of boyish days." Johnson : 
 "I should drink claret too, if it would give me 
 that ; but it does not : it neither makes boys 
 men, nor men boys. You'll be drowned by it, 
 before it has any effect upon you." 
 
 — The Life. 17S1, March 30th. 
 
 On Sunday, April i 5, being Easter Day, after 
 solemn worship in St. Paul's Church, I found 
 him alone ; Dr. Scott, of the commons, came in. 
 He talked of its having been said, that Addison 
 wrote some of his best papers in The Spec- 
 tator, when warm with wine. Dr. Johnson did 
 not seem willing to admit this. Dr. Scott, as a 
 confirmation of it, related that Blackstone, a 
 sober man, composed his Commentaries with a 
 137
 
 THE ETHICS OF 
 
 bottle of port before him ; and found his mind 
 invigorated and supported, in the fatigue of his 
 great work, by a temperate use of it. 
 
 —The Life. 1 781, April 15th. 
 
 Another evening Johnson's kind indulgence 
 towards me had a pretty difficult trial. I had 
 dined at the Duke of Montrose's with a very 
 agreeable party, and his Grace, according to his 
 usual custom, had circulated the bottle very 
 freely. Lord Graham and I went together to 
 Miss Monckton's, where I certainly was in extra- 
 ordinary spirits, and above all fear or awe. In 
 the midst of a great number of persons of the 
 first rank, amongst whom I recollect, with con- 
 fusion, a noble lady of the most stately decorum, 
 I placed myself next to Johnson, and thinking 
 myself now fully his match, talked to him in a 
 loud and boisterous manner, desirous to let the 
 company know how I could contend with Ajax. 
 I particularly remember pressing him upon the 
 value of the pleasures of the imagination, and 
 as an illustration of my argument, asking him, 
 " What, Sir, supposing I were to fancy that the 
 
 (naming the most charming Duchess in 
 
 his Majesty's dominions) were in love with me, 
 should I not be very happy?" My friend with 
 much address evaded vay interrogatories, and 
 kept me as quiet as possible; but it may easily 
 be conceived how he must have felt. However, 
 when a few days afterwards I waited upon him 
 and made an apology, he behavea with the most 
 friendly gentleness. — The Life. lySi.May. 
 
 138
 
 CONVIVIAL DRINKING 
 
 " Von are entering upon a transaction which 
 requires much prudence. You must endeavour 
 to oppose without exasperating ; to practise 
 temporary hostility, without producing enemies 
 for life. This is, perhaps, hard to be done ; yet 
 it has been done by many, and seems most likely 
 to be effected by opposing merely upon general 
 principles, without descending to personal or 
 particular censures or objections. One thing I 
 must enjoin you, which is seldom observed in 
 the conduct of elections; — I must entreat you to 
 be scrupulous in the use of strong liquors. One 
 night's drunlcenness may defeat the labours of 
 forty days well employed. Be firm, but not 
 clamorous ; be active, but not malicious ; and 
 you may form such an interest, as ma}' not only 
 exalt yourself, but dignify )'our famil}." 
 
 —The Life. 1784, March 30th. 
 
 ^39
 
 The Art of Conversation 
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 It has been circulated, I know not with what 
 authenticity, that Johnson considered Dr. Birch 
 as a dull writer, and said of him, " Tom Birch 
 is as brisk as a bee in conversation, but no 
 sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it 
 becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs ail his 
 faculties." That the literature ot this countr}- 
 is much Indebted to Birch's activity and dili- 
 gence must certainly be acknowledged. We 
 have seen that Johnson honoured him with a 
 Greek Epigram ; and his correspondence with 
 him, during many years, proves that he had no 
 mean opinion of him. — The Life. 1743. 
 
 He laughed heartily when I mentioned to 
 him a saying of his concerning Mr. Thomas 
 Sheridan, which Foote took a wicked pleasure 
 to circulate. '^ Why, Sir, Sherry is dull, natur- 
 ally dull ; but it must have taken him a great 
 deal of pains to become what we now see him. 
 Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in 
 Nature." — " So," said he, " I allowed him all 
 his own merit." —TA' L/f. 1763, Feb. aStli. 
 140
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 Talking of Garrick, he said, " He is the first 
 man in the world for sprightly conversation." 
 —The Life. '1763, May 2+th. 
 
 A writer of deserved eminence being men- 
 tioned, Johnson said, " Why, Sir, he is a man 
 of good parts, but being originally poor, he has 
 got a love of mean company and low jocularity; 
 a very bad thing, Sir. To laugh is good, and 
 to talk is good. But you ought no more to 
 think it enough if you laugh, than you are to 
 think it enough if you talk. You may laugh in 
 as many ways as you talk ; and surely evev^ 
 way of talking that is practised cannot be 
 esteemed." — The Life. 1763, July 21st. 
 
 Of a certain player, he remarked, that his 
 conversation usually threatened and announced 
 more than it performed ; that he fed you with 
 a continual renovation of hope, to end in a 
 constant succession of disappointment. 
 
 — The Lije. 1770. Dr. Maxwell's CoUectama. 
 
 Of our friend Goldsmith he said, " Sir, he is 
 so much afraid of being unnoticed, that he often 
 talks merely lest you should forget that he is in 
 the company." Boswell : " Yes, he stands 
 forward ". Johnson : " True, Sir ; but if a 
 man is to stand forward, he should v.-ish to do 
 it not in an awkward posture, not in rags, not 
 so as that he shall only be exposed to ridicule". 
 BoswELL : " For my part, I like very well to 
 hear honest Goldsmith talk away carelessly ". 
 141
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 Johnson : " Why, yes, Sir, but he should not 
 like to hear himself". 
 
 — The Life. 177.'., April iith. 
 
 "The misfortune of Goldsmith in conver- 
 sation is this : he goes on without knowing 
 how he is to get off. His genius is great, but 
 his knowledge is small. As they say of a 
 generous man, it is a pity he is not rich, we 
 may say of Goldsmith, it is a pity he is not 
 knowing. He would not keep his knowledge 
 to himself." — The Life. 1772, May 9th. 
 
 Lord Chesterfield being mentioned, Johnson 
 remarked, that almost all of that celebrated 
 nobleman's witty sayings were puns. He, 
 however, allowed the merit of good wit to his 
 Lordship's saying of Lord Tyrawley and him- 
 self, when both very old and infirm : " Tyraw- 
 ley and I have been dead these two years ; but 
 we don't choose to have it known." 
 
 — The Life. 1773, April 3rd. 
 
 •^ He said : " Goldsmith should not be for 
 ever attempting to shine in conversation : he 
 has not temper for it, he is so much mortified 
 when he fails. Sir, a game of jokes is com- 
 posed partly of skill, partly of chance, a man 
 may be beat at times by one who has not the 
 tenth part of his wit. Now Goldsmith's put- 
 ting himself against another, is like a man 
 laying a hundred to one who cannot spare the 
 hundred. It is not worth a man's while. A 
 man should not lay a hundred to one, unless 
 142
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 he can easily spare It, though he has a hundred 
 chances for him : he can get but a guinea, ;;nd 
 he may lose a hundred. Goldsmith is in this 
 state. When he contends, if he gets the 
 better, it is a very little addition to a man 
 of his literary reputation : if he does not get 
 the better, he is miserably vexed." 
 
 Johnson's own superlative powers of wit set 
 him above any risk of such uneasiness. Gar- 
 rick had remarked to me of him, a fev/ days 
 before, " Rabelais and all other wits are nothing 
 compared with him. You may be diverted by 
 them ; but Johnson gives you a forcible hug, 
 and shakes laughter out of you whether you 
 will or no." 
 
 Goldsmith, however, was often very fortu- 
 nate in his witty contests, even when he 
 entered the lists with Johnson himself. Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds was in company with them 
 one day, when Goldsmith said, that he thought 
 he could write a good fable, mentioned the sim- 
 plicity which that kind of composition requires, 
 and observed, that in most fables the anim.als 
 introduced seldom talk in character. " For 
 instance," said he, " the fable of the little 
 fishes, who saw birds fly over their heads, and 
 envying them, petitioned Jupiter to be changed 
 into birds. The skill," continued he, " con- 
 sists in making them talk like little fishes." 
 While he indulged himself in this fanciful 
 reverie, he observed Johnson shaking his sides, 
 and laughing. Upon which he smartly pro- 
 ceeded, "Why, Dr. Johnson, this is not so 
 easy as you seem to think ; for if you were to 
 143
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 make little fishes talk, they would talk like 
 WHALES." — The Life. 1773, April 27th. 
 
 Goldsmith being mentioned, Johnson : " It 
 is amazing how little Goldsmith knows. He 
 seldom comes where he is not more ignorant 
 than anyone else." Sir Joshua R?;ynolds : 
 " Yet there is no man whose company is more 
 liked ". Johnson : " To be sure, Sir. When 
 people find a man of the most distinguished 
 abilities as a writer their inferior while he is 
 with them, it must be highly gratifying to 
 them. What Goldsmith comically says of 
 himself is very true — he always gets the better 
 when he argues alone ; meaning, that he is 
 master of a subject in his study, and can write 
 well upon it ; but when he comes into com- 
 pany, grows confused, and unable to talk. 
 Take him as a poet, his Traveller is a very fine 
 performance; aye, and so is his Deserted tillage, 
 were it not sometimes too much the echo of 
 his Traveller. Whether, indeed, we take him 
 as a poet, as a comic writer, or as an historian, 
 he stands in the first class." 
 
 — Tke Life. 1773, April 30th. 
 
 In our way to the Club to-night, when I 
 regretted that Goldsmith would, upon every 
 occasion, endeavour to shine, by which he 
 often exposed himself, Mr. Langton observed, 
 that he was not like Addison, who was content 
 with the fame of his writings, and did not aim 
 also at excellency in conversation, for which he 
 found himself unfit ; and that he said to a lady 
 144
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 who complained of his having talked little in 
 company, " Madam, I have but ninepence in 
 ready money, but I can draw for a thousand 
 pounds." I observed that Goldsmith had a 
 great deal of gold in his cabinet, but not con- 
 tent with that, was always taking out his purse. 
 Johnson : " Yes, Sir, and that so often an 
 empty purse ! " 
 
 Goldsmith's incessant desire of being con- 
 spicuous in company, was the occasion of his 
 sometimes appearing to such disadvantage as 
 one should hardly have supposed possible in 
 a man of his genius. When his literary repu- 
 tation had risen deservedly high, and his society 
 was much courted, he became very jealous of 
 the extraordinary attention which was every- 
 where paid to Johnson. One evening, in a 
 circle of wits, he found fault with me for talk- 
 ing of Johnson as entitled to the honour of 
 unquestionable superiority. " Sir," said he, 
 "you are for making a monarchy of what 
 should be a republic." 
 
 He was still more mortified, when, talking 
 in a company with fluent vivacity, and, as he 
 flattered himself, to the admiration of all who 
 were present, a German, who sat next him, 
 and perceived Johnson rolling himself, as if 
 about to speak, suddenly stopped him, saying, 
 " Stay, stay — Toctor Shonson is going to say 
 something." This was, no doubt, very pro- 
 voking, especially to one so irritable as Gold- 
 smith, who frequently mentioned it with strong 
 expressions of indignation. 
 
 It may also be observed, that Goldsmith was 
 ( B 212 ) 145 M
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 sometimes content to be treated with an easy 
 familiarity, but upon occasions would be conse- 
 quential and important. An instance of this 
 occurred in a small particular. Johnson had a 
 way of contracting the names of his friends: as 
 Beauclerk, Beau ; Boswell, Bozzy ; Langton, 
 Lanky ; Murphy, Mur ; Sheridan, Sherry. I 
 remember one day, when Tom Davies was tell- 
 ing that Dr. Johnson said, " We are all in 
 labour for a name to Goldfs play," Goldsmith 
 seemed displeased that such a liberty should be 
 taken with his name and said, " I have often 
 desired him not to call me GoldyT Tom was 
 remarkably attentive to the most minute circum- 
 stances about Johnson. I recollect his telling 
 me once, on my arrival in London, " Sir, our 
 great friend has made an improvement on his 
 appellation of old Mr. Sheridan. Recalls him 
 now Sherry derrj^—The Life. 1773, May 7th. 
 
 We talked of Mr. Burke. — Dr. Johnson said, 
 he had great variety of knowledge, store of 
 imagery, copiousness of language. Robertson: 
 " He has wit too ". Johnson : " No, Sir, he 
 never succeeds there. 'Tis low ; 'tis conceit. 
 I used to say, Burke never once made a good 
 joke. What I most envy Burke for is, his 
 being constantly the same. He is never what 
 we call humdrum ; never unwilling to begin to 
 talk, nor in haste to leave ofl." Boswell : 
 " Yet he can listen ". Johnson : " No ; I 
 cannot say he is good at that. So ciesirous 
 is he to talk, that, if one is speaking at this 
 end of the table, he'll speak to somebody at the 
 146
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 other end. Burke, Sir, is such a man, that if 
 you met hiiu for the first time in the street 
 where you were stopped by a drove of oxen, 
 and you and he stepped aside to take shelter 
 but for five minutes, he'd talk to you in such a 
 manner, that, when you parted, you would say, 
 this is an extraordinary man. Now, you may 
 be long enough with me, without finding any- 
 thing extraordinary." 
 
 —The Tour, ^jj'i, Aug. i5tli. 
 
 He had last night looked into Lord Hailes's 
 Remarks on the History of Scotland. Dr. R.obert- 
 son and I said, it was a pity Lord Hailes did 
 not write greater things. His lordship had not 
 then published his Annals of Scotland. — Johnson: 
 " I remember I was once on a visit at the 
 house of a lady for whom I had a high respect. 
 There was a good deal of company in the room. 
 When they were gone, I said to this lady, 'What 
 foolish talking have we had !' — ' Yes,' said she, 
 'but while they talked, you said nothing.' — I 
 was struck with the reproof. How much better 
 is the man who does anything that is innocent, 
 than he who does nothing. Besides, I love 
 anecdotes. I fancy mankind may come, in time, 
 to write all aphoristically, except in narrative ; 
 grow weary of preparation, and connection, and 
 illustration, and all those arts by which a big 
 book is made. — If a man is to wait till he 
 weaves anecdotes into a system, we may be 
 long in getting them, and get but few, in com- 
 parison of what we might get." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. i6th. 
 147
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 BoswELi : " It is a shame that authors are 
 not now better patronized ". Johnson: "No, 
 Sir. If learning cannot support a man, if he 
 must sit with his hands across till somebody 
 feeds him, it is as to him a bad thing and it is 
 better as it is. With patronage, what flattery ! 
 what falsehood ! While a man is in equilibrio, 
 he throws truth among the multitude, and lets 
 them take it as they please : in patronage, he 
 must say what pleases his patron, and it is 
 an equal chance whether that be truth or false- 
 hood." Watson : " But is not the case now, 
 that, instead of flattering one person, we flatter 
 the age?" Johnson: "No, Sir. The world 
 always lets a man tell what he thinks, his own 
 way. I wonder, however, that so many people 
 have written, who might have let it alone. 
 That people should endeavour to excel in 
 conversation, I do not wonder ; because in 
 conversation praise is instantly reverberated." 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 19th. 
 
 We drove over a wild moor. It rained, and 
 the scene was somewhat dreary. Dr. Johnson 
 repeated, with solemn emphasis, Macbeth's 
 speech on meeting the witches. As we tra- 
 velled on, he told me, " Sir, you got into our 
 club by doing what a man can do. Several of 
 the members wished to keep you out. Burke 
 told me, he doubted if you were fit for it : 
 but, now you are in, none of them are sorry. 
 Burke says, that you have so much good 
 humour naturally, it is scarce a virtue." Bos- 
 WELL : "They were afraid of you, Sir, as it 
 148
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 was you who proposed me ". Johnson : " Sir, 
 they knew, that if they refused you, they'd 
 probably never have got in another. I'd have 
 kept them all out. Beauclerk was very earnest 
 for you." BoswELL : " Beauclerk has a keen- 
 ness of mind which is very uncommon ". 
 Johnson : " Yes, Sir ; and everything comes 
 from him so easily. It appears to me that I 
 labour when I say a good thing." Boswell : 
 " You are loud, Sir ; but it is not an eftbrt of 
 mind". —The Tour. 1773, Augf. 21st. 
 
 We visited two booksellers' shops, and could 
 not find Arthur Johnston's Poems. We went 
 and sat near an hour at Mr. Riddoch's. He 
 could not tell distinctly how much education 
 at the college here costs, which disgusted Dr. 
 Johnson. I had pledged myself that we should 
 go to the inn, and not stay supper. They 
 pressed us, but he was resolute. I saw Mr. 
 Riddoch did not please him. He said to me, 
 afterwards, " Sir, he has no vigour in his talk." 
 But my friend should have considered that he 
 himself was not in good humour; so that it 
 was not easy to talk to his satisfaction. We 
 sat contentedly at our inn. He then became 
 merry, and observed how little we had either 
 heard or said at Aberdeen : that the Aber- 
 donians had not started a single mazvkin (the 
 Scottish word for hare) for us to pursue. 
 
 — 2'/ie Tour. 1773, Au^. 2t,\\\. 
 
 In a short Account of the Kirk of Scotland, 
 which I published some years ago, I applied 
 149
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 these words '■'•penes ilium gloria, penes hunc 
 palma " to the two contending parties, and 
 explained them thus : " The popular party has 
 most eloquence ; Dr. Robertson's party most 
 influence". I was very desirous to hear Dr. 
 Johnson's explication. Johnson : " I see no 
 difficulty. Gilmour was admired for his parts; 
 Nisbet carried his cause by his skill in law. 
 Palma is victory." I observed, that the char- 
 acter of Nicholson, in this book resembled that 
 of Burke : for it is said, in one place, " in 
 omnes lusos kJj jocos se so'pe resolvebat'''' \ and, in 
 another, " sed accipitris more e conspectu aliquando 
 astantium sublimi se protrahens volatu, in pr^edam 
 miro impetu descendchat'''' . Johnson: "No, Sir; 
 I never heard Burke make a good joke in 
 my life ". Boswell : " But, Sir, you will 
 allow he is a hawk ". Dr. Johnson, thinking 
 that I meant this of his joking, said, " No, 
 Sir, he is not a hawk there. He is the beetle 
 in the mire." I stiU adhered to my metaphor, 
 — " But he soars as the hawk." Johnson : 
 " Yes, Sir ; but he catches nothing ". M'Leod 
 asked, what is the particular excellence of 
 Burke's eloquence ? Johnson : " Copiousness 
 and fertility of allusion ; a power of diversi- 
 fying his matter, by placing it in various rela- 
 tions. Burke has great information, and great 
 command of language; though, in my opinion, 
 it has not in every respect the highest ele- 
 gance." Boswell: '^Do you think, Sir, that 
 Burke has read Cicero much ?" Johnson : " I 
 don't believe it. Sir. Burke has great know- 
 ledge, great fluency of words, and great prompt- 
 150
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 ness of ideas, so that he can speak with great 
 illustration on any subject that comes before 
 him. He is neither like Cicero nor like 
 Demosthenes, nor like anyone else, but speaks 
 as well as he can." 
 
 — Tlie Tour. 1773, Sept. 15th. 
 
 He said, he was angry at Thrale, for sitting 
 at General Oglethorpe's without speaking. He 
 censured a man for degrading himself to a 
 nonentity. I observed, that Goldsmith was 
 on the other extreme ; for he spoke at all 
 ventures. Johnson : " Yes, Sir ; Goldsmith, 
 rather than not speak, will talk of what he 
 knows himself to be ignorant, which can only 
 end in exposing him ". " I wonder," said I, 
 " if he feels that he exposes himself. If he 
 was with two tailors — " " Or with two foun- 
 ders," said Dr. Johnson, interrupting me, " he 
 would fall a-talking on the method of making 
 cannon, though both of them would soon see 
 that he did not know what metal a cannon is 
 made of" — The Tour. 1773, Oct. znd. 
 
 I was quite easy with Sir Allan almost in- 
 stantaneously. He knew the great intimacy 
 that had been between my father and his pre- 
 decessor, Sir Hector, and was himself of a very 
 frank disposition. After dinner, Sir Allan said 
 he had got Dr. Campbell about an hundred 
 subscribers to his Britannia Elucidata (a work 
 since published under the title of A Political 
 Surpey of Great Britaiii) of whom he believed 
 twenty were dead, the publication having been 
 151
 
 Ti^E ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 so long delayed. Johnson : " Sir, I imagine 
 the deLiy of publication is owing to this; — 
 that, after publication, there will be no more 
 subscribers, and few will send the additional 
 guinea to get their books : in which they will 
 be wrong ; for there will be a great deal of 
 instruction in the work. I think highly of 
 Campbell. In the first place, he has very good 
 parts. In the second place, he has very exten- 
 sive reading ; not, perhaps, what is properly 
 called learning, but history, politics, and, in 
 short, that popular knowledge which makes a 
 man very useful. In the third place, he has 
 learned much by what is called the z'ox viva. 
 He talks with a great many people." 
 
 Speaking of this gentleman, at Rasay, he 
 told us, that he one day called on him, and 
 they talked of Tull's Husbandly. Dr. Camp- 
 bell said something. Dr. Johnson began to 
 dispute it. " Come," said Dr. Campbell, " we 
 do not want to get the better of one another : 
 we want to increase each other's ideas." Dr. 
 Johnson took it in good part, and the conver- 
 sation then went on coolly and instructively. 
 His candour in relating this anecdote does 
 him much credit, and his conduct on that 
 occasion proves how easily he could be per- 
 suaded to talk from a better motive than " for 
 victory". — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 17th. 
 
 Young Col told us he could run down a 
 
 greyhound ; " for," said he, " the dog runs 
 
 himself out of breath by going too quick, and 
 
 then I get up with him." I accounted for his 
 
 152
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 advantage over the dog, by remarking that Col 
 had the faculty of reason, and knew how to 
 moderate his pace, which the dog had not 
 sense enough to do. Dr. Johnson said, " He 
 is a noble animal. He is as complete an 
 islander as the mind can figure. He is a 
 farmer, a sailor, a hunter, a fisher : he will run 
 you down a dog : if any man has a tall, it is 
 Col. He is hospitable ; and he has an in- 
 trepidity of talk, whether he understands the 
 subject or not. I regret that he is not more 
 intellectual." —The Tour. 1773, Oct. i8th. 
 
 In a magazine I found a saying of Dr. John- 
 son's, something to this purpose ; that the 
 happiest part of a man's life is what he passes 
 lying awake in bed in the morning. I read it 
 to him. He said, " I may, perhaps, have said 
 this; for nobody, at times, talks more laxly than 
 I do." I ventured to suggest to him, that this 
 was dangerous from one of his authority. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 74th. 
 
 He this day, when we were by ourselves, 
 observed, how common it was for people to 
 talk from books ; to retail the sentiments of 
 others, and not their own : in short, to con- 
 verse without any originality of thinking. He 
 was pleased to say, " You and I do not talk 
 from books". — The Tour. 1773, Nov. 3rd. 
 
 He was pleased to say, " If you come to 
 settle here, we will have one day in the week 
 153
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 on which we will meet bj- ourselves. That is 
 the happiest conversation where there is no 
 competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet inter- 
 change of sentiment." 
 
 — T/ie Life. i77S> April i4fh. 
 
 I expressed a desire to be acquainted with 
 a lady who had been much talked of, and 
 universally celebrated for extraordinary address 
 and insinuation. Johnson : " Never believe 
 extraordinary characters which you hear of 
 people. Depend upon it, Sir, they are ex- 
 aggerated. You do not see one man shoot 
 a great deal higher than another." I men- 
 tioned Mr. Burke. Johnson: "Yes, Burke is 
 an extraordinary man. His stream of mind is 
 perpetual." It is very pleasing to me to 
 record, that Johnson's high estimation of the 
 talents of this gentleman was uniform, from 
 their early acquaintance. Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds informs me, that when Mr. Burke was 
 first elected a member of Parliament, and Sir 
 J. Hawkins expressed a wonder at his attain- 
 ing a seat, Johnson said : " Now, we who 
 know Mr. Burke, know that he will be one 
 of the first men in the country." And once 
 when Johnson was ill, and unable to exert 
 himself as much as usual without fatigue, Mr. 
 Burke having been mentioned, he said, " That 
 fellow calls forth all my powers. Were I to 
 see Burke now it would kill me." So much 
 was he accustomed to consider conversation as 
 a contest, and such was his notion of Burke as 
 an opponent. — The Life. 1776, March 20th. 
 154
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 Dr. Adams told us, that in some of the 
 colleges at Oxford, the fellov/s had excluded 
 the students from social intercourse with them 
 in the common room. Johnson : " They are 
 in the right, Sir ; there can be no real conver- 
 sation, no fair exertion of mind amongst them, 
 if the young men are by : for a man who has 
 a character does not choose to stake it in their 
 presence ". Bcswell : " But, Sir, may there 
 not be very good conversation without a con- 
 test for superiority?" Johnson: "No ani- 
 mated conversation, Sir ; for it cannot be but 
 one or other will come off superior. I do not 
 mean that the victor must have the better of 
 the argument, for he may take the weak side ; 
 but his superiority of parts and knowledge 
 will necessarily appear ; and he to whom he 
 thus shows himself superior is lessened in the 
 eyes of the young men. You know it was 
 said, ' Mallem cum Srnligero errare quam cum 
 Clat'io recte sapere '. In the same manner take 
 Bentley's and Jason de Nores' Comments upon 
 Horace, you will admire Bentlev more when 
 wrong, than Jason when right." 
 
 — The Life. ij-iS, March 20tii. 
 
 "Goldsmith", he said, "referred everything 
 to vanity ; his virtues and his vices too vvere 
 from that motive. He was not a social man : 
 he never exchanged mind with you." 
 
 — The Life. 1776, April iith. 
 
 The uncommon vivacity of General Ogle- 
 thorpe's mind, and variety of knowledge, hav- 
 155
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 ing sometimes made his conversation seem too 
 desultory, Johnson observed, " Oglethorpe, 
 Sir, never completes what he has to say." 
 
 He on the same account made a similar 
 remark on Patrick Lord Elibank : " Sir, there 
 is nothing conclusive in his talk." 
 
 When 1 complained of having dined at a 
 splendid table without hearing one sentence of 
 conversation worthy of being remembered, he 
 said, "Sir, there seldom is any such conversa- 
 tion." BoswKLL : "Why then meet at table?" 
 Johnson: "Why, to eat and drink together, 
 and to promote kindness; and, Sir, this is 
 better done where there is no solid conver- 
 sation ; for when there is, people differ in 
 opinion, and get into bad humour, or some of 
 the company, who are not capable of such 
 conversation, are left out, and feel themselves 
 uneasy. It was for this reason. Sir Robert 
 Walpole said, he always talked bawdy at his 
 table, because in that all could join." 
 
 Being irritated by hearing a gentleman ask 
 Mr. Levett a variety of questions concerning 
 him when he was sitting by, he broke out, 
 " Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and 
 me. I am sick of both. A man," said he, 
 " should not talk of himself, nor much of any 
 particular person. He should take care not to 
 be made a proverb ; and therefore should avoid 
 having any one topic of which people can say, 
 ' We shall hear him upon it '. There was a 
 Dr. Oldfield, who was always talking of the 
 Duke of Marlborough. He came into a coffee- 
 house one day, and told that his Grace had 
 i=;6
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 spoken in the House of Lords for half an hour. 
 * Did he indeed speak for half an hour?' said 
 Belchier, the surgeon. — ' Yes.' — ' And what did 
 he say of Dr. Oldfield ?'—* Nothing.'— ' Why, 
 then, Sir, he was very ungrateful ; for Dr. Old- 
 field could not have spoken for a quarter of an 
 hour, without saying something of him.'" 
 
 — The Life. 1776, May. 
 
 Johnson gave us this evening, in his happy 
 discriminative manner, a portrait of the late 
 Mr. Fitzherbert of Derbyshire. " There was," 
 said he, " no sparkle, no brilliancy in Fitz- 
 herbert ; but I never knew a man who was 
 so generally acceptable. He made everybody 
 quite easy, overpowered nobody by the supe- 
 riority of his talents, made no man think worse 
 of himself by being his rival, seemed always to 
 listen, did not oblige you to hear much from 
 him, and did not oppose what you said. Every- 
 body liked him; but he had no friend, as I 
 understand the word, nobody with whom he 
 exchanged intimate thoughts. People were 
 willing to think well of everything about him. 
 He was an instance of the truth of the 
 observation, that a man will please more upon 
 the whole by negative qualities than by positive; 
 by never offending, than by giving a great deal 
 of delight. In the first place, men hate more 
 steadily than they love ; and if I have said 
 something to hurt a man once, I shall not get 
 the better of this, by saying many things to 
 please him." — The Life. 1777, Sept. 15th. 
 
 157
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 In the evening the Reverend P.lr. Seward, of 
 Lichfield, who was passing through Ashbourne, 
 in his way home, drank tea with us. Johnson 
 described him thus: — "Sir, his ambition is to 
 be a fine talker; so he goes to Buxton, and such 
 places, where he may find companies to listen 
 to him. And, Sir, he is a valetudinarian, — one 
 of those who are always mending themselves. 
 I do not know a more disagreeable character 
 than a valetudinarian, who thinks he may do 
 anything that is for his ease, and indulges him- 
 self in the grossest freedoms. Sir, he brings 
 himself to the state of a hog in a sty." 
 
 — The L'tje iJJJ, Sept. i6th. 
 
 Johnson and Taylor were so different from 
 each other, that I wondered at their preserving 
 an intimacy. Their having been at school and 
 college together, might, in some degree, account 
 for this; but Sir Joshua Reynolds has fur- 
 nished me with a stronger reason ; for Johnson 
 mentioned to him that he had been told by 
 Taylor he was to be his heir. I shall not take 
 upon me to animadvert upon this; but certain 
 it is that Johnson paid great attention to 
 Taylor. He now, however, said to me, " Sir, 
 I love him ; but I do not love him more ; my 
 regard for him does not increase. As it is 
 said in the Apocrypha, ' his talk is of bullocks'. 
 I do not suppose he is very fond of my com- 
 pany. His habits are by no means sufficiently 
 clerical ; this he knows that I see ; and no 
 man likes to live under the eye of perpetual 
 disapprobation." — The Life. 1777, Sept. 21st. 
 158
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 " Did we not hear so much said of Jack 
 Wilkes, we should think more highly of his 
 conversation. Jack has a great variety of talk : 
 Jack is a scholar, and Jack has the manners 
 of a gentleman. But after hearing his name 
 sounded from pole to pole, as the phosnix of 
 convivial felicity, we are disappointed in his 
 company. He has always been at me : but I 
 would do Jack a kindness, rather than not. 
 The contest is now over." 
 
 " Garrick's gaiety of conversation has deli- 
 cacy and elegance : Foote makes you laugh 
 more ; but Foote has the air of a buffoon 
 paid for entertaining the company. He, in- 
 deed, well deserves his hire." 
 
 — The Life. 1777, Sept. 21st 
 
 He said, " John Wesley's conversation is 
 good, but he is never at leisure. He is always 
 obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very 
 disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs 
 and have out his talk, as I do." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, March 31st. 
 
 Of Goldsmith, he said, " He was not an 
 agreeable companion, for he talked always for 
 fame. A man who does so never can be pleas- 
 ing. The man who talks to unburden his mind 
 is the man to delight you. An eminent friend 
 of ours is not so .igreeable as the variety of his 
 knowledge would otherwise make him, because 
 he talks partly from ostentation." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April yth. 
 
 Goldsmith being mentioned, Johnson ob- 
 
 159
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 served that it was long before his merit came 
 to be acknowledged: that he once complained 
 to him, in ludicrous terms of distress, "When- 
 ever I write anything, the public make a point to 
 know nothing about it" : but that his Traveller 
 brought him into high reputation. Langton : 
 "There is not one bad line in that poem — no 
 one of Dryden's careless verses". Sir Joshua: 
 " I was glad to hear Charles Fox say, it was 
 one of the finest poems in the English lan- 
 guage ". Langton : " Why were you glad ? 
 You surely had no doubt of this before." 
 Johnson: "No; the merit of The Traveller is 
 so well established, that Mr. Fox's praise can- 
 not augment it, nor his censure diminish it". 
 Sir Joshua: " But his friends may suspect they 
 had too great a partiality for him". Johnson: 
 " Nay, Sir, the partiality of his friends was 
 always against him. It was with difficulty we 
 could give him a hearing. Goldsmith had no 
 settled notions upon any subject; so he talked 
 always at random. It seemed to be his inten- 
 tion to blurt out whatever was in his mind, and 
 see what would become of it. He was angry 
 too, when caught in an absurdity ; but it did 
 not prevent him from falling into another the 
 next minute. I remember Chamier, after talk- 
 ing with him some time, said, ' Well, I do 
 believe he wrote this poem himself: and, let 
 me tell you, that is believing a great deal.' 
 Chamier once asked him, what he meant by slow, 
 the last word in the first line of The Traveller, 
 
 ' Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow.* 
 i6o
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 Did he mean tardiness of locomotion ? Gold- 
 smith, who would say something without con- 
 sideration, answered, ' Yes.' I was sitting by, 
 and said, 'No, Sir; you do not mean tardiness 
 of locomotion; you mean that sluggishness of 
 mind which comes upon a man in solitude.' 
 Chamier believed then that I had written the 
 line, as much as if he had seen me write it. 
 Goldsmith, however, was a man who, what- 
 ever he wrote, did it better than any other man 
 could do. He deserved a place in Westminster 
 Abbey ; and every year he lived, would have 
 deserved it better. He had indeed been at no 
 pains to fill his mind with knowledge. He 
 transplanted it from one place to another ; and 
 it did not settle in his mind ; so he could not 
 tell what was in his own books." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 9th. 
 
 He found fault with our friend Langton for 
 having been too silent. " Sir," said I, " you 
 will recollect that he very properly took up Sir 
 Joshua for being glad that Charles Fox had 
 praised Goldsmith's Traveller, and you joined 
 him." Johnson: "Yes, Sir, I knocked Fox on 
 the head, without ceremony. Reynolds is too 
 much under Fox and Burke at present. He is 
 under the Fox star, and the Irish constellatio?i. 
 He is always under some planet." Boswell : 
 "There is no Fox star". Johnson: "But there 
 is a Dog star". Boswell: "They say, indeed, 
 a fox and a dog are the same animal". 
 
 I reminded him of a gentleman, who, Mrs. 
 Cholmondeley said, was first talkative from 
 (B212) 161 N
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 affectation, and then silent from the same 
 cause ; that he first thought, " I shall be cele- 
 brated as the liveliest man in every company;" 
 and then, all at once, "Oh! it is much more 
 respectable to be grave and look wise." " He has 
 reversed the Pythagorean discipline, by being 
 first talkative, and then silent. He reverses 
 the course of nature too; he was first the gay 
 butterfly, and then the creeping worm." John- 
 son laughed loud and long at this expansion 
 and illustration of what he himself had told 
 me. — The Life. 1778, April loth. 
 
 He talked of Mr. Charles Fox, of whose 
 abilities he thought highly, but observed, that 
 he did not talk much at our Club. I have 
 heard Mr. Gibbon remark, " that Mr. Fox 
 could not be afraid of Dr. Johnson ; yet he 
 certainly was very shy of saying anything in 
 Dr. Johnson's presence ". Mr. Scott now 
 quoted what was said of Alcibiades by a Greek 
 poet, to which Johnson assented. 
 
 — The Life, i^ji, April loth. 
 
 Of John Wesley, he said, "He can talk well 
 on any subject." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 15th. 
 
 This interview confirmed my opinion of 
 Johnson's most humane and benevolent heart. 
 His cordial and placid behaviour to an old 
 fellow-collegian, a man so different from him- 
 self, and his telling him that he would go down 
 to his farm and visit him, showed a kindness of 
 162
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 disposition very rare at an advanced age. He 
 observed, " Flow wonderful it was that they 
 had both been in London forty years, without 
 having ever once met, and both walkers in the 
 street too!" Mr. Edwards, when going away, 
 again recurred to his consciousness of senility, 
 and looking full in Johnson's face, said to him, 
 " You'll lind in Dr." Young 
 
 'O my coevals! remnants of yourselves '." 
 
 Johnson did not relish this at all; but shook 
 his head with impatience. Edwards walked off 
 seemingly highly pleased with the honour of 
 having been thus noticed by Dr. Johnson. 
 When he was gone I said to Johnson, I 
 thought him but a weak man. Johnson : 
 " why, yes. Sir. Here is a man who has 
 passed through life without experience: yet I 
 would rather have him with me than a more 
 sensible man who v/ill not talk readily. This 
 man is always willing to say what he has to 
 say." Yet Dr. Johnson had himself by no 
 means that willingness which he praised so 
 much, and I think so justly ; for who has not 
 felt the painful effect of the dreary void, when 
 there is a total silence in the company, for any 
 length of time; or, which is as bad, or perhaps 
 worse, when the conversation is with difficulty 
 kept up by a perpetual effort ? 
 
 Johnson once observed to me, " Tom Tyers 
 described me the best; 'Sir,' said he, 'you are 
 like a ghost: you never speak till you are spoken 
 to.'" —The Life. 1778, April 17th. 
 
 163
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 He proceeded : — " Demosthenes Taylor, as 
 he was called (that is, the editor o^ Demosthenes), 
 was the most silent man, the merest statue of a 
 man that I had 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 talk- 
 ing of Dr. Zachary Grey, and was ascribing to 
 him something that was written by Dr. Richard 
 Grey. So, to correct him, Taylor said (imitat- 
 ing his affected sententious emphasis and nod), 
 '■Richard'.'" — The Life. 1778, April 25th. 
 
 The conversation having turned on Bon-mots, 
 he quoted, from one of the jina, 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." He admitted that Mr. Burke's 
 classical pun upon Mr. Wilkes's being carried 
 on the shoulders of the mob 
 
 -numerisque fertur 
 
 Lege solutus," 
 
 was admirable; and though he was strangely 
 unwilling to allow to that extraordinary man 
 the talent of wit, he also laughed with approba- 
 tion at another of his playful conceits ; which 
 was, that " Horace has in one line given a 
 description of a good desirable manor : 
 
 'Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines'; 
 164
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 that is to say, a modus as to the tithes, and 
 certain finest — The Life. 1778, April 25th. 
 
 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: "Some- 
 times it may proceed from a man's strong con- 
 sciousness 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 Life. 1778, April 25th. 
 
 Dr. Robertson expatiated on the character of 
 a certain nobleman; that he was one of the 
 strongest-minded men that ever lived; that he 
 would sit in company quite sluggish, while 
 there was nothing to call forth his intellectual 
 vigour ; but the moment that any important 
 subject was started — for instance, how this 
 country is to be defended against a French 
 invasion — he would rouse himself, and show 
 his extraordinary talents with the most power- 
 ful ability and animation. Johnson : " Yet this 
 man cut his own throat. The true strong and 
 sound mind is the mind that can embrace 
 equally great things and small. Now, I am 
 it>5
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 told the King of Prussia will say to a servant, 
 ' Bring me a bottle of such a wine, which came 
 in such a year; it lies in such a corner of the 
 cellars'. I would have a man great in great 
 things and elegant in little things." He said 
 to me afterwards, when we were by ourselves, 
 " Robertson was in a mighty romantic humour; 
 he talked of one whom he did not know; but I 
 downed him with the King of Prussia." " Yes, 
 Sir," said I, " you threw a bottle at his head." 
 — The Life. 1778, April 29th. 
 
 Next day, Thursday, April 30th, I found him 
 at home by himself Johnson: "Well, Sir, 
 Ramsay gave us a splendid dinner. I love 
 Ramsay. You will not find a man in whose 
 conversation there is more instruction, more 
 information, and more elegance, than in Ram- 
 say's." Boswell: "What I admire in Ramsay, 
 is his continuing to be so young". Johnson : 
 " Why, yes. Sir, it is to be admired. I value 
 myself upon this, that there is nothing of the 
 old man in my conversation. I am now sixty- 
 eight, and I have no more of it than at twenty- 
 eight." Boswell : " But, Sir, would you not 
 wish to know old age ? He who is never an 
 old man, does not know the whole of human 
 life; for old age is one of the divisions of it." 
 Johnson: "Nay, Sir, what talk is this?" Bos- 
 wEx,l: "I m^ean, Sir, the Sphinx's description 
 of it — morning, noon, and night. I would 
 know night, as well as morning and noon." 
 Johnson: "What, Sir, would you know what it 
 is to feel the evils of old age ? Would you 
 166
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 have the gout ? Would you have decrepitude ?" 
 Seeing him heated, I would not argue farther ; 
 but I was confident that I was in the right. I 
 would, in due time, be a Nestor, an elder of 
 the people; and there should be some difference 
 between the conversation of twenty-eight and 
 sixty-eight. A grave picture should not be 
 gay. There is a serene, solemn, placid old 
 age. Johnson: "Mrs. Thrale's mother said of 
 me what flattered me much. A clergyman was 
 complaining of want of society in the country 
 where he lived, and said, * They talk of runts ; ' 
 that is, young cows. * Sir,' said Mrs. Salus- 
 bury, * Mr. Johnson would learn to talk of 
 runts,' meaning that I was a man who would 
 make the most of my situation, whatever it 
 was." He added, " I think myself a very 
 polite man." — The Life. 1778, April 30th. 
 
 On Saturday, May 2, I dined with him at 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds's, where there was a very 
 large company, and a great deal of conversation; 
 but owing to some circumstances which I can- 
 not now recollect, I have no record of any part 
 of it, except that there were several people there 
 by no means of the Johnsonian school; so that 
 less attention was paid to him than usual, which 
 put him out of humour; and upon some imagi- 
 nary offence from me, he attacked me with such 
 rudeness, that I was vexed and angry, because 
 it gave those persons an opportunity of enlarg- 
 ing upon his supposed ferocity, and ill-treatment 
 of his best friends. I was so much hurt, and 
 had my pride so much roused, that I kept away 
 167
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 from him for a week; and, perhaps, might have 
 kept away much longer, nay, gone to Scotland 
 without seeing him again, had not we fortun- 
 ately met and been reconciled. To such un- 
 happy chances are human friendships liable! 
 
 On Friday, May 8th, I dined with him at Mr. 
 Langton's. I was reserved and silent, which I 
 supposed he perceived, and might recollect the 
 cause. After dinner, when Mr. Langton was 
 called out of the room, and we were by our- 
 selves, he drew his chair near to mine, and 
 said, in a tone of conciliating courtesy, " Well, 
 how have you done?" Boswell: "Sir, you 
 have made me very uneasy by your behaviour 
 to me when we were last at Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds's. You know, my dear Sir, no man 
 has a greater respect and affection for you, or 
 would sooner go to the end of the world to 
 serve you. Now, to treat me so — " He in- 
 sisted that I had interrupted him, which I 
 assured him was not the case; and proceeded, 
 " But why treat me so before people who neither 
 love you nor me?" Johnson: "Well, I am 
 sorry for it. I'll make it up to you twenty dif- 
 ferent ways, as you please." Boswell: " I said 
 to-day to Sir Joshua, when he observed that 
 you tossed me sometimes, I don't care how 
 often, or how high he tosses me, when only 
 friends are present, for then I fall upon soft 
 ground; but I do not like falling on stones, 
 which is the case when enemies are present. I 
 think this is a pretty good image. Sir." John- 
 son : " Sir, it is one of the happiest I ever have 
 heard." 
 
 i68
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 The truth is, there was no venom in the 
 wounds which he inflicted at any time, unless 
 they were irritated by some malignant infusion 
 by other hands. We were instantly as cordial 
 again as ever, and joined in hearty laugh at some 
 ludicrous but innocent peculiarities of one of 
 our friends. Boswell: "Do you think, Sir, it 
 is always culpable to laugh at a man to his 
 face?" Johnson: "Why, Sir, that depends 
 upon the man and the thing. If it is a slight 
 man, and a slight thing, you may; for you take 
 nothing valuable from him." 
 
 When Mr. Langton returned to us, the 
 " flow of talk " went on. An eminent author 
 being mentioned: — Johnson: "He is not a 
 pleasant man. His conversation is neither in- 
 structive nor brilliant. He does not talk as if 
 impelled by any fulness of knowledge or vivacity 
 ol imagination. His conversation is like that 
 of any other sensible man. He talks with no 
 wish either to inform or to hear, but only 
 
 because he thinks it does not become to 
 
 sit in a company and say nothing." 
 
 Mr. Langton having repeated the anecdote of 
 Addison having distinguished between his 
 powers in conversation and in writing, by 
 saying, "I have only ninepence in my pocket; 
 but I can draw for a thousand pounds:" — 
 Johnson: "He had not that retort ready. Sir; 
 he had prepared it beforehand ". Langton 
 (turning to me): "A fine surmise. Set a thief 
 to catch a thief." 
 
 —The Life. 1778, May 2nd, and May 8th. 
 
 169
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 " To be contradicted in order to force you 
 to talk is mighty unplcasing. You shine, in- 
 deed ; but it is by being ground^ 
 
 — The Life. 1779, April 16th. 
 
 A celebrated wit being mentioned, he said, 
 " One may say of him as was said of a French 
 wit, // n^ a de P esprit que contre Dieii. I have 
 been several times in company with him, but 
 never perceived any strong power of wit. He 
 produces a general effect by various means ; he 
 has a cheerful countenance and a gay voice. 
 Besides, his trade is wit. It would be as wild 
 in him to come into company without merri- 
 ment, as for a highwayman to take the road 
 without his pistols." 
 
 Talking of celebrated and successful irregular 
 practisers in physic, he said, " Taylor was the 
 most ignorant man I ever knew, but sprightly : 
 Ward, the dullest. Taylor challenged me once 
 to talk Latin with him (laughing). I quoted 
 some of Horace, which he took to be part of 
 my own speech. He said a few words well 
 enough." Beaumont : " I remember. Sir, you 
 said, that Taylor was an instance how far im- 
 pudence could carry ignorance". Mr. Beau- 
 clerk was very entertaining this day, and told us 
 a number of short stories in a lively and elegant 
 manner, and with that air of the woi'ld which 
 has I know not what impressive effect, as if 
 there were something more than is expressed, 
 or than, perhaps, we could perfectly understand. 
 As Johnson and I accompanied Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds in his coach, Johnson said, " There is in 
 170
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 Beauclerk a predominance over his company 
 that one does not like. But he is a man who 
 has lived so much in the world, that he has a 
 short story on every occasion ; he is always 
 ready to talk, and is never exhausted." 
 
 — The Life. 1779, April 24th. 
 
 Huggins, the translator of Ariosto, and Mr. 
 Thomas Warton, in the early part of his 
 literary life, had a dispute concerning that poet : 
 of whom Mr. Warton, in his Observations on 
 Spenser's Fairy Queen, gave some account which 
 Huggins attempted to answer with violence, 
 and said, " I will militate no longer against his 
 nescience^ Huggins was master of the subject, 
 but wanted expression. Mr. Warton's know- 
 ledge of it was then imperfect, but his manner 
 lively and elegant. Johnson said, " It appears 
 to me, that Huggins has ball without powder, 
 and Warton powder without ball." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 An eminent foreigner, when he was shown 
 the British Museum, was very troublesome 
 with many absurd enquiries. "Now there. Sir," 
 said he, " is the difference between an English- 
 man and a Frenchman. A Frenchman must 
 be always talking, whether he knows anything 
 of the matter or not ; an Englishman is content 
 to say nothing, when he has nothing to say." 
 His unjust contempt for foreigners was, indeed, 
 extreme. One evening, at Old Slaughter's 
 coffee-house, when a number of them were 
 talking loud about little matters, he said, " Does 
 171
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 not this confirm old Meynell's observation — 
 For anything 1 see, foreigners are foo/s .'" 
 He said, that once, when he had a violent 
 toothache, a Frenchman accosted him thus : 
 " jlh. Monsieur, vous etueiiez tropy 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 He used frequently to observe, that men might 
 be very eminent in a profession, without our 
 perceiving any particular power of mind in 
 them in conversation. " It seems strange," said 
 he, " that a man should see so far to the right, 
 who sees so short a way to the left. Burke is 
 the only man whose common conversation cor- 
 responds with the general fame which he has 
 in the world. Take up whatever topic you 
 please, he is ready to meet you." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 'Johnsonianc. 
 
 A gentleman who introduced his brother to 
 Dr. Johnson, was earnest to recommend him 
 to the Doctor's notice, which he did by saying, 
 " When we have sat together some time, you'll 
 find my brother grow very entertaining." — 
 " Sir," said Johnson, " I can wait." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 As Johnson alwa}s allowed the extraordinary 
 talents of Mr. Burke, so Mr. Burke was fully 
 sensible of the wonderful powers of Johnson. 
 Mr. Langton recollects having passed an even- 
 ing with both of them, when Mr. Burke re- 
 172
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 peatedly entered upon topics which it was 
 evident he would have illustrated with ex- 
 tensive knowledge and richness of expression ; 
 but Johnson always seized upon the con- 
 versation, in which, however, he acquitted 
 himself in a most masterly manner. As Mr. 
 Burke and Mr. Langton were walking home, 
 Mr. Burke observed that Johnson had been 
 very great that night. Mr. Langton joined in 
 this, but added, he could have wished to hear 
 more from another person, plainly intimating 
 that he meant Mr. Burke. " Oh, no," said Mr. 
 Burke, " it is enough for me to have rung the 
 bell to him." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 The late Mr. Fitzh-rbert told Mr. Langton 
 that Johnson said to him, " Sir, a man has 
 no more right to sa'^ an uncivil thing, than to 
 act one ; no more right to say a rude thing 
 to another than to knock him down." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 Of Dr. Goldsmith, he said, " No man was 
 more foolish when he had not a pen in his 
 hand, or more wise when he had." 
 Talking of Dr. Blagden's copiousness and pre- 
 precision of communication. Dr. Johnson said, 
 " Blagden, Sir, is a delightful fellow." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 " The melancholy information you have re- 
 ^73
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 ceived concerning Mr. Beauclerk's death is 
 true. Had his talents been directed in any 
 sufficient degree as they ought, I have always 
 been strongly of opinion that they were calcu- 
 lated to make an illustrious figure ; and that 
 opinion, as it had been in part formed upon 
 Dr. Johnson's judgment, receives more and 
 more confirmation by hearing what, since his 
 death, Dr. Johnson has said concerning them : 
 a few evenings ago, he was at Mr. Vesey's, 
 where Lord Althorpe, who was one of a nu- 
 merous company there, addressed Dr. Johnson 
 on the subject of Mr. Beauclerk's death, say- 
 ing, ' Our Club has had a great loss since we 
 met last.' He replied, * A loss, that perhaps 
 the whole nation could not repair ! ' The 
 Doctor then went on to speak of his endow- 
 ments, and particularly extolled the wonderful 
 ease with which he uttered what was highly 
 excellent. He said, that ' no man ever was so 
 free when he was going to say a good thing, 
 from a look that expressed that it was coming; 
 or, when he had said it, from a look that ex- 
 pressed that it had come'. At Mr. Thrale's, 
 some days before, when we were talking on the 
 same subject, he said, referring to the same 
 idea of his wonderful facility, 'Topham Beau- 
 clerk's talents were those which he had felt 
 himself more disposed to envy, than those ot 
 any whom he had known.' " 
 
 — The Life. 1780, May. Letter of I.angton 
 to Boswell. 
 
 Speaking of Pope's not having been known 
 174
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 to excel in conversation, Johnson observes, 
 that " traditional memory retains no sallies of 
 raillery, or sentences of observation ; nothing 
 either pointed or solid, wise or merry ; and 
 that one apophthegm only is recorded ". In 
 this respect. Pope differed widely from John- 
 son, whose conversation was, perhaps, more 
 admirable than even his writings, however 
 excellent. Mr. Wilkes has, however, favoured 
 me with one repartee of Pope, of which John- 
 son was not informed. Johnson, after justly 
 censuring him for having "nursed in his mind 
 a foolish disesteem of kings", tells us, "yet a 
 little regard shown him by the Prince of Wales 
 melted his obduracy : and he had not much to 
 say when he was asked by his Royal Highness, 
 hozv he could love a Prince while he disliked 
 Kings?" The answer which Pope made was, 
 " The young lion is harmless, and even play- 
 ful ; but when his claws are full grown, he be- 
 comes cruel, dreadful, and mischievous." 
 
 But although we have no collection of Pope's 
 sayings, it is not therefore to be concluded that 
 he was not agreeable in social intercourse ; for 
 Johnson had been heard to say, that " the 
 happiest conversation is that of which nothing 
 is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of 
 pleasing impression". The late Lord Somer- 
 ville, who saw much of great and brilliant life, 
 told me, that he had dined in company with 
 Pope, and that after dinner the little man, as he 
 called him, drank his bottle of Burgundy, and 
 was exceedingly gay and entertaining. 
 
 —T/ieVfe. 1 78 1. 
 
 ^7S
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 I asked him, if he was not dissatisfied with 
 having so small a share of weath, and none of 
 those distinctions in the state which are the 
 objects of ambition. Johnson : " I never 
 courted the great ; they sent for me ; but I 
 think tiiey now give me up. They are satis- 
 fied ; they have seen enough of me." Upon 
 my observing that I could not believe this, 
 for they must certainly be highly pleased by 
 his conversation ; conscious of his own su- 
 periority, he answered, " No, Sir; great lords 
 and great ladies don't love to have their mouths 
 stopped." When I warmly declared how 
 happy I was at all times to hear him ; — " Yes, 
 Sir," said he ; " but if you were Lord Chan- 
 cellor, it would not be so ; you would then 
 consider your own dignity." His noble friend. 
 Lord Elibank, well observed, that if a great 
 man procured an interview with Johnson, and 
 did not wish to see him more, it showed a 
 mere idle curiosity, and a wretched want of 
 relish for extraordinary powers of mind. Mrs. 
 Thrale justly and wittily accounted for such 
 conduct by saying, that Johnson's conversation 
 was by much too strong for a person accus- 
 tomed to obsequiousness and flattery ; it was 
 mustard in a young child's mouth. 
 
 —The Life. 1781 
 
 Mrs. Thrale mentioned a gentleman who 
 had acquired a fortune of j^^ooo a year in 
 trade, but was absolutely miserable, because he 
 could not talk in company ; so miserable, that 
 he was impelled to lament his situation in the 
 176
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 street to , whom he hates, and who he 
 
 knows despises him. " I am a most unhappy 
 man," said he. " I am invited to conversations. 
 I go to conversations ; but, alas ! I have no 
 conversation." Johnson : " Man commonly 
 cannot be successful in different ways. This 
 gentleman has spent, in getting ^^4000 a year, 
 the time in which he might have learnt to talk; 
 and now he cannot talk." Mr. Perkins made 
 a shrewd and droll remark : " If he had got his 
 j^4000 a year as a mountebank, he might have 
 learned to talk at the same time that he was 
 getting his fortune." 
 
 — The Life. 1781, April ist. 
 
 Talking of conversation, he said, " There 
 must, in the first place, be knowledge; there 
 must be materials ; — in the second place, there 
 must be a command of words ; — in the third 
 place, there must be imagination, to place 
 things in such views as they are not commonly 
 seen in ; — and in the fourth place, there must 
 be presence of mind, and a resolution that it is 
 not to be overcome by failures ; this last is an 
 essential requisite ; for want of it many people 
 do not excel in conversation. Now I want it ; 
 I throw up the game upon losing a trick." I 
 wondered to hear him talk thus of himself, and 
 said, " I don't know. Sir, how this may be ; 
 but I am sure you beat other people's cards 
 out of their hands." I doubt whether he 
 heard this remark. While he went on talking 
 triumphantly, I was fixed in admiration, and 
 said to Mrs, Thrale, " Oh, for shorthand to 
 ( B 212 ) 177 O
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 take this down."- " You'll carry it all in your 
 head," said she; "a long head is as good as 
 shorthand." 
 
 It has been observed, and wondered at, that 
 Mr. Charles Fox never talked with any free- 
 dom in the presence of Dr. Johnson ; though 
 it is well known, and I myself can witness, 
 that his conversation is various, fluent, and 
 exceedingly agreeable. Johnson's own experi- 
 ence, however, of that gentleman's reserve, was 
 a sufficient reason for his going on thus : — 
 " J"ox never talks in private company; not from 
 any determination not to talk, but because he 
 has not the first motion. A man who is used 
 to the applause of the House of Commons, has 
 no wish for that of a private company. A man 
 accustomed to throw for a thousand pounds, 
 if set down to throw for sixpence, would not 
 be at the pains to count his dice. Burke's 
 talk is the ebullition of his mind : he does not 
 talk from a desire of distinction, but because 
 his mind is full." 
 
 He thus curiously characterized one of our 
 
 old acquaintance : — ** is a good man, Sir; 
 
 but he is a vain man and a liar. He, however, 
 only tells lies of vanity; of victories, for in- 
 stance, in conversation, which never happened." 
 This alluded to a story which I had repeated 
 from that gentleman, to entertain Johnson with 
 its wild bravado : " This Johnson, Sir," said 
 he, "whom you are all afraid of, will shrink, if 
 you come close to him in argument, and roar 
 as loud as he. He once maintained the para- 
 dox, that there is no beauty but in utility. 
 178
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 ' Sir,' said I, ' what say you to the peacocii's 
 tail, which is one of the most beautiful objects 
 in nature, but would have as much utility if 
 its feathers were all of one colour?' \\.ft felt 
 what I thus produced, and had recourse to his 
 usual expedient, ridicule ; exclaiming * A pea- 
 cock has a tail, and a fox has a tail ' ; and then 
 he burst out into a laugh. — '■ Well, Sir,' said I, 
 with a strong voice, looking him full in the 
 face, ' you have unkennelled your fox ; pursue 
 him if you dare.' He had not a word to say, 
 Sir." — Johnson told me, that this was fiction 
 from beginning to end. 
 
 — The Life. 1783, March 21st. 
 
 It is remarkable, that notwithstanding their 
 congeniality in politics, he never was acquainted 
 with a late eminent noble judge, whom I have 
 heard speak of him, as a writer, with great 
 respect. Johnson, I know not upon what 
 degree of investigation, entertained no exalted 
 opinion of his lordship's intellectual character. 
 Talking of him to me one day, he said, " It is 
 wonderful, Sir, with how little real superiority 
 of mind men can make an eminent figure in 
 public life," He expressed himself to the 
 same purpose concerning another law-lord, who, 
 it seems, once took a fancy to associate with the 
 wits of London; but with so little success, that 
 Foote said, "What can he mean by coming 
 among us ? He is not only dull himself, but 
 the cause of dulness in others." Trying him 
 by the test of his colloquial powers, Johnson 
 had found him very defective. He once said to 
 179
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 Sir [ostuia Reynolds, "This man now has been 
 ten years about town, and has made nothing of 
 it;" meaning as a companion. He said to me, 
 " I never heard anything from him in company 
 that was at all striking ; and depend upon it, 
 Sir, it is when you come close to a man in con- 
 versation, that you discover what his real abilities 
 are : to make a speech in a public assembly is a 
 knack. Now I honour Thurlow, Sir; Thurlow 
 is a fine fellow; he fairly puts his mind to 
 yours." 
 
 After repeating to him some of his pointed, 
 lively sayings, I said, " It is a pity, Sir, you 
 don't always remember your own good things, 
 that you may have a laugh when you will." 
 Johnson : " Nay, Sir, it is better that I forget 
 them, that I may be reminded of them, and 
 have a laugh on their being brought to my 
 recollection", — The Life. 1783, Spring. 
 
 Dr. Goldsmith said once to Dr. Johnson, 
 that he wished for some additional members 
 to the Literary Club, to give it an agreeable 
 variety; for, said he, there can now be nothing 
 new among us : we have travelled over one 
 another's minds. Johnson seemed a little 
 angry, and said, " Sir, you have not travelled 
 over my mind, I promise you." Sir Joshua, 
 however, thought Goldsmith right ; observing, 
 that " when people have lived a great deal 
 together, they know what each of them will 
 say on every subject. A new understanding, 
 therefore, is desirable ; because though it may 
 onlv furnish the same sense upon a question 
 180
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 which would have been furnished by those 
 with whom we are accustomed to live, yet 
 this sense will have a different colouring ; and 
 colouring is of much effect in everything else 
 as well as in painting." 
 
 Johnson used to say that he made it a con- 
 stant rule to talk as well as he could both as 
 to sentiment and expression, by which means, 
 what had been originally effort became familiar 
 and easy. The consequence of this, Sir Joshua 
 observed, was, that his common conversation in 
 all companies was such as to secure him uni- 
 versal attention, as something above the usual 
 colloquial style was expected. 
 
 Yet, though Johnson had this habit in com- 
 pany, when another mode was necessary, in 
 order to investigate truth, he could descend to 
 a language intelligible to the meanest capacity. 
 An instance of this was witnessed by Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds, when they were present at an ex- 
 amination of a little blackguard boy by Mr. 
 Saunders Welch, the late Westminster Justice. 
 Welch, who imagined that he was exalting 
 himself in Dr. Johnson's eyes by using big 
 words, spoke in a manner that was utterly 
 unintelligible to the boy ; Dr. Johnson per- 
 ceiving it, addressed himself to the boy, and 
 changed the pompous phraseology into collo- 
 quial language. Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was 
 much amused by this procedure, which seemed 
 a kind of reversing of what might have been 
 expected from the two men, took notice of it 
 to Dr. Johnson, as they walked away by them- 
 selves. Johnson said that it was continually 
 i8i
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 the case ; and that he was always obliged to 
 translate the justice's swelling diction (smiling) 
 so that his meaning might be understood by 
 the vulgar, from whom information was to be 
 obtained. 
 
 Sir Joshua once observed to him that he had 
 talked above the capacity of some people with 
 whom they had been in company together. 
 " No matter, Sir," said Johnson ; " they con- 
 sider it as a compliment to be talked to, as if 
 they were wiser than they are. So true is this, 
 Sir, that Baxter made it a rule in every sermon 
 that he preached, to say something that was 
 above the capacity of his audience." 
 
 — The Life. 1783, Spring. 
 
 Though his usual phrase for conversation 
 was talk, yet he made a distinction ; for when 
 he once told me that he dined the day before 
 at a friend's house, with " a very pretty com- 
 pany " ; and I asked him if there was good 
 conversation, he answered, " No, Sir ; we had 
 talk enough, but no conversation ; there was 
 nothing discussed^ — The Life. 1783, Spring. 
 
 His acute observation of human life made 
 him remark, " Sir, there is nothing by which 
 a man exasperates most people more than by 
 displaying a superior ability of brilliancy in 
 conversation. They seem pleased at the time: 
 but their envy makes them curse him at their 
 hearts." — The Life. 1783, Spring. 
 
 A friend was one day, about two years 
 182
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 before his death, struck with some instance of 
 Dr. Johnson's great candour. " Well, Sir," said 
 he, "I will always say that you are a very candid 
 man." — "Will you?" replied the Doctor; "I 
 doubt then you will be very singular. But 
 indeed, Sir," continued he, " I look upon myself 
 to be a man very much misunderstood. I am 
 not an uncandld, nor am I a severe man. I 
 sometimes say more than I mean, in jest : and 
 people are apt to believe me serious : however, 
 1 am more candid than I was when I was 
 younger. As I know more of mankind, I 
 expect less of them, and am ready now to 
 call a man a good man, upon easier terms 
 than I was formerly." 
 
 — The Life. 1783. "A Few Particulars." 
 
 On the evening of Saturday, May 15th, he 
 was in fine spirits at our Essex Head Club. He 
 told us, " I dined yesterday at Mrs. Garrick's 
 with Mrs. Carter, Miss Hannah More, and 
 Miss Fanny Burney. Three such women are 
 not to be found : I know not where I could 
 find a fourth, except Mrs. Lennox, who is 
 superior to them all." Boswell : " What ! had 
 you them all to yourself. Sir?" Johnson: "1 
 had them all, as much as they were had ; but 
 it might have been better had there been more 
 company there ". Boswell: " Might not Mrs; 
 Montagu have been a fourth?" Johnson: 
 " Sir, Mrs. Montagu does not make a trade 
 of her wit ; but Mrs. Montagu is a very 
 extraordinary woman ; she has a constant 
 stream of conversation, and it is always im-
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 pregnateJ; it has always meaning". Boswell: 
 " Mr. Burke has a constant stream of conver- 
 sation ". Johnson : " Yes, Sir ; if a man were 
 tc go by chance at the same time with Burke 
 under a shed, to shun a shower, he would say 
 — *T'his is an extraordinary man.' If Burke 
 should go into a stable to see his horse dressed, 
 the ostler would sa}- — ' We have had an extra- 
 ordinary man here.' " Boswell : " Foote was 
 a man who never failed in conversation. If he 
 had gone into a stable — " Johnson : " Sir, if 
 he had gone into the stable, the ostler would 
 have said, ' Here has been a comical fellow ; ' 
 but he would not have respected him ". Bos- 
 well : " And, Sir, the ostler would have 
 answered him, would have given him as good 
 as he brought, as the common saying is". 
 Johnson : " Yes, Sir ; and Foote would have 
 answered the ostler. — When Burke does not 
 descend to be merry, his conversation is very 
 superior indeed. There is no proportion be- 
 tween the powers which he shows in serious 
 talk and in jocularity. When he lets himself 
 down to that, he is in the kennel." 
 
 — The Life. 1784, May 15th 
 
 We talked of our worthy friend Mr. Langton. 
 He said, " I know not who will go to Heaven 
 if Langton does not. Sir, I could almost say, 
 Sit anima men cum LangtonoT I mentioned a 
 very eminent friend as a virtuous man. John- 
 son : " Yes, Sir, but has not the evangeli- 
 cal virtue of Langton. , I am afraid, 
 
 would not scruple to pick up a wench." 
 184
 
 JOHNSOM'S PRECEPT 
 
 He however charged Mr. Langton with 
 what he thought want of judgment upon an 
 interesting occasion. "When I was ill," said 
 he, " I desired he would tell me sincerely in 
 what he thought my life was faulty. Sir, he 
 brought me a sheet of paper, on which he had 
 written down several texts of Scripture, recom- 
 mending Christian charity. And when I 
 questioned him what occasion I had given for 
 such an animadversion, all that he could say 
 amounted to this, — that I sometimes contra- 
 dicted people in conversation. Now what 
 harm does it do to any man to be contra- 
 dicted .?" BoswELL : " I suppose he meant 
 the manner of doing it ; roughly and harshly ". 
 Johnson: "And who is the worse for that?" 
 Boswell: " It hurts people of weaker nerves". 
 Johnson : " I know no such weak-nerved 
 people ". Mr. Burke, to whom I related this 
 conference, said, " It is well if, when a man 
 comes to die, he has nothing heavier upon his 
 conscience, than having been a little rough in 
 conversation." 
 
 Johnson, at the time when the paper was 
 presented to him, though at first pleased with 
 the attention of his friend, whom he thanked 
 in an earnest manner, soon exclaimed, in a 
 loud and angry tone, "What is your drift. Sir ?" 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds pleasantly observed, that 
 it was a scene for a comedy, to see a penitent 
 get into a violent passion, and belabour his 
 confessor. — The Life. 1784, May 19th. 
 
 Dr. Johnson and I went in Dr. Adams's 
 
 185
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 coach to dine with Dr. Nowcll, Principal of 
 St. Mary Hall, at his beautiful villa at Iffley, 
 on the banks of the Isis, about two miles from 
 Oxford. While we were upon the road, I had 
 the resolution to ask Johnson whether he 
 thought that the roughness of his manner had 
 been an advantage or not, and if he would not 
 have done more good, if he had been more 
 gentle. I proceeded to answer myself thus : 
 " Perhaps it has been of advantage, as it has 
 given weight to what you said : you could not, 
 perhaps, have talked with such authority with- 
 out it." Johnson: "No, Sir; I have done 
 more good as I am. Obscenity and impiety 
 have always been repressed in my company." 
 BoswELL : " True, Sir ; and that is more than 
 can be said of every Bishop. Greater liberties 
 have been taken in the presence of a Bishop, 
 though a very good man, from his being milder, 
 and therefore not commanding such awe. Yet, 
 Sir, man}' people who might have been benefited 
 by your conversation, have been frightened 
 away. A worthy friend of ours has told me, 
 that he has often been afraid to talk to you." 
 Johnson : " Sir, he need not have been afraid, 
 if he had anything rational to say. If he had 
 not, it was better he did not talk." 
 
 — The Life. 1784, June i ith. 
 
 We this day dined at Sir foshua Reynolds's 
 with General Paoli, I^ord Eliot (formerly Mr. 
 Eliot, of Port Eliot), Dr. Beattie, and some 
 other company. Talking of Lord Chester- 
 field : — Johnson : "His manner was exquisitely 
 186
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 elegant, and he had more knowledge than I 
 expected ". Boswell : " Did you find, Sir, 
 his conversation to be of a superior style?" 
 Johnson : " Sir, in the conversation which I 
 had with him I had the best right to superi- 
 ority, for it was upon philology and literature." 
 
 — The Lije. 1784, June 27th. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds having said that he 
 took the altitude of a man's taste by his stories 
 and his wit, and of his understanding by the 
 remarks which he repeated ; being always sure 
 that he must be a weak man who quotes com- 
 mon things with an emphasis as if they were 
 oracles ; — Johnson agreed with him ; and Sir 
 Joshua having also observed that the real 
 character of a man was found out by his amuse- 
 ment — Johnson added, " Yes, Sir ; no man is 
 a hypocrite in his pleasures." 
 
 I have mentioned Johnson's general aversion 
 to pun. He once, however, endured one of 
 mine. — When we were talking of a numerous 
 company in which he had distinguished himself 
 highly, I said, "Sir, you were a cod surrounded 
 by smelts. Is not this enough for you ? at a 
 time too when you were not fishing for a com- 
 pliment ?" He laughed at this with a compla- 
 cent approbation. Old Mr. Sheridan observed, 
 upon my mentioning it to him, "He liked your 
 compliment so well, he was willing to take it 
 with pun sauceT For my own part, I think 
 no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should 
 be suppressed : and that a good pun may be 
 187
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 admitted among the smaller excellencies of 
 lively conversation. — The Life. 1784. 
 
 He once in his life was known to have 
 uttered what is called a bull; Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds, when they were riding together in Dc\ on- 
 shire, complained that he had a very bad horse, 
 for that even when going downhill he moved 
 slowly step by step. " Ay," said Johnson, 
 " and when he goes uphill, he stands stilir 
 
 He had a great aversion to gesticulating in 
 company. He called once to a gentleman who 
 oflended him in that point, "Don't attituden- 
 iz,e." And when another gentleman thought 
 he was giving additional force to what he 
 uttered, by expressive movements of his hands, 
 Johnson fairly seized them, and held them 
 down. 
 
 An author of considerable eminence having 
 engrossed a good share of the conversation 
 in the company of Johnson, and having said 
 nothing but what was trifling and insignifi- 
 cant ; Johnson, when he was gone, observed 
 to us, " It is wonderful what a difference there 
 sometimes is between a man's powers of writing 
 
 and talking. writes with great spirit, 
 
 but is a poor talker ; had he held his tongue, 
 we might have supposed him to have been 
 restrained by modesty ; but he has spoken a 
 great deal to-day ; and have you heard wiiat 
 stuff" it was?" —TheLiJe. 1784.
 
 JOHNSON'S PRECEPT 
 
 "to MR. GEORGE NICOL, ESQ. 
 
 ^^ As/ibounie, ^"lug. 19, 1784. 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 " Since we parted, I have been much op- 
 pressed by my asthma, but it has lately been 
 less laborious. When I sit I am almost at 
 ease, and I can walk, though yet very little, 
 with less difficulty for this week past, than 
 before. I hope I shall again enjoy my friends, 
 and that you and I shall have a little more 
 literary conversation. Where I now am, every- 
 thing is very liberally provided for me but con- 
 versation. My friend is sick himself, and the 
 reciprocation of complaints and groans afford 
 not much of either pleasure or instruction. 
 What we have not at home this town does not 
 supply, and I shall be glad of a little imported 
 intelligence, and hope that you will bestow now 
 and then, a little time on the relief, and enter- 
 tainment of, Sir, yours, &c., 
 
 " Sam. Johnson." 
 — The Life. 1784, Aug. 19th. 
 
 189
 
 The Art of Conversation 
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 His Manner and Method 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds once asked him by what 
 means he had attained his extraordinary accur- 
 acy and flow of language. He told him that 
 he had early laid it down as a fixed rule to do 
 his best on every occasion, and in ev^ery com- 
 pany... to impart whatever he knew in the most 
 forcible language he could put it in... and that 
 by constant practice, and never suffering any 
 careless expressions to escape him, or attempt- 
 ing to deliver his thoughts without arranging 
 them in the clearest manner, it became habitual 
 to him. — The Lije. 1750. 
 
 During this argument. Goldsmith sat in rest- 
 less agitation, from a wish to get in and shine. 
 Finding himself excluded, he had taken his hat 
 to go away, but remained for some time with it 
 in his hand, like a gamester, who, at the close of 
 a long night lingers for a little while to see if 
 he can have a favourable opening to finish with 
 success. Once when he was beginning to speak, 
 he found himself overpov.-ered by the loud voice 
 190
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 of Johnson, who was at the opposite end of the 
 table, and did not perceive Goldsmith's attempt. 
 Thus disappointed of his wish to obtain the 
 attention of the company. Goldsmith in a passion 
 threw down his hat, looking angrily at Johnson, 
 and exclaimed in a bitter tone, " Take it". 
 
 — The Life. 1773, May 7th 
 
 He had a loud voice, and a slow deliberate 
 utterance, which no doubt gave some additional 
 weight to the sterling metal of his conversation. 
 Lord Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, 
 with a happy pleasantry, and some truth, that 
 " Dr. Johnson's sayings would not appear so 
 extraordinary, were it not for his bow-icow 
 way"; but I admit the truth of this only on 
 some occasions. The Messiah, played upon 
 Canterbury organ, is more sublime than when 
 played upon an inferior instrument : but very 
 slight music will seem grand, when conveyed 
 to the ear through that majestic medium. 
 While therefore Dr. Johnson s sayings are read, 
 let his manner he taken along zvith them. Let it 
 however be observed, that the sayings them- 
 selves are generally great ; that, though he 
 might be an ordinary composer at times, he 
 was for the most part a Handel. 
 
 — 1 he Tour. 1773. Introduction. 
 
 As we were going, the Scottish phrase of 
 honest man! which is an expression of kindness 
 and regard, was again and again applied by the 
 company to Dr. Johnson. I was also treated 
 with much civility ; and I must take some 
 191
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 merit from my assiduous attention to him, and 
 from my contriving that he shall be easy wher- 
 ever he goes, that he shall not be asked twice 
 to eat or drink anything (which always dis- 
 gusts him), that he shall be provided with 
 water at his meals, and many such little things, 
 which, if not attended to, would fret him. I 
 also may be allowed to claim some merit in 
 leading the conversation: I do not mean lead- 
 ing, as in an orchestra, by playing the first 
 fiddle; but leading as one does in examining 
 a witness, — starting topics, and making him 
 pursue them. He appears to me like a great 
 mill, into which a subject is thrown to be 
 ground. It requires, indeed, fertile minds to 
 furnish materials for this mill. I regret when- 
 ever I see it unemployed: but sometimes I feel 
 myself quite barren, and having nothing to 
 throw in. I know not if this mill be a good 
 figure; though Pope makes his mind a mill 
 for turning verses. 
 
 — The Tour. iTj-i,, Sept. 28th. 
 
 I mentioned a new gaming club, of which 
 Mr. Beauclerk had given me an account, where 
 the members played to a desperate extent. 
 Johnson : " Depend upon it, Sir, this is mere 
 talk. Who is ruined by gaming ? You will not 
 find six instances in an age. There is a strange 
 rout made about deep play: whereas you have 
 many more people ruined by adventurous trade, 
 and yet we do not hear such an outcry against 
 it." Thrale : "There may be few people 
 absolutely ruined by deep play; but very many 
 192
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 are much hurt in their circumstances by it". 
 JoHNsow: "Yes, Sir, and so are very many by 
 othei Icinds of expense". I had heard him talk 
 once before in the same manner; and at Oxford 
 he said, " he wished he had learned to play at 
 cards ". The truth, however, is, that he loved ' 
 tc display his ingenuity in argument ; and, 
 therefore, would sometimes in conversation . 
 maintain opinions which he was sensible were 
 wrong, but in supporting which, his reasoning 
 and wit would be most conspicuous. He would 
 begin thus: "Why, Sir, as to the good or evil 
 of card-playing — " " Now," said Garrick, " he 
 is thinking which side he shall take." He ap- 
 peared to have a pleasure in contradiction, espe- 
 cially when any opinion whatever was delivered 
 with an air of confidence ; so that there was 
 hardly any topic, if not one of the great truths 
 of Religion and Morality, that he might not 
 have been incited to argue, either for or against. 
 Lord Elibank had the highest admiration of his 
 powers. He once observed to me, " Whatever 
 opinions Johnson maintains, I will not say that 
 he convinces me; but he never fails to show me 
 that he has good reasons for it." I have heard 
 Johnson pay his lordship this high compliment: 
 " I never was in Lord Elibank's company with- 
 out learning something." 
 
 — The Life. 1776, April 5th. 
 
 Tuesday, September i6th, Dr. Johnson hav- 
 ing mentioned to me the extraordinary size 
 and price of some cattle reared by Dr. Taylor, 
 I rode out with our host, surveyed his farm, 
 
 ( B 212 \ Xq-K V
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 and was shown one cow which he had sold for 
 a hundred and twenty guineas, and another for 
 which he had been offered a hundred and 
 thirty. Taylor thus described to me his old 
 schoolfellow and friend, Johnson : — " He is a 
 man of a very clear head, great power of words, 
 and a very gay imagination ; but there is no 
 disputing with hin-. He will not hear you, 
 and, having a louder voice than you, must 
 roar you down." 
 
 — The Life. ijTJi September i6th. 
 
 I went to Streatham on Monday, March 
 30th. Before he appeared, Mrs. Thrale made 
 a very characteristical remark: — "I do not 
 know for certain what will please Dr. Johnson: 
 but I know for certain that it will displease 
 him to praise anything, even what he likes, 
 extravagantly." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, March 30th. 
 
 On Monday, April 13th, I dined with John- 
 son at Mr. Langton's, where were Dr. Porteus, 
 then Bishop of Chester, now of London, and 
 Dr. Stinton. He was at first in a very silent 
 mood. Before dinner he said nothing but 
 " Pretty baby " to one of the children. Lang- 
 ton said very well to me afterwards, that he 
 could repeat Johnson's conversation before 
 dinner, as Johnson had said that he could 
 repeat a complete chapter of " The Natural 
 History of Iceland ", from the Danish of 
 Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly 
 thus : — 
 
 194
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 " Chap. LXXII. Concerning Snakes 
 
 " There are no snakes to be met with 
 throughout the whole island." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 13th. 
 
 On Wednesday, April 15th, I dined with Dr. 
 Johnson at Mr. Dilly's, and was in high spirits, 
 for I had been a good part of the morning with 
 Mr. Orme, the able and eloquent historian of 
 Hindostan, who expressed a great admiration 
 of Johnson. " I do not care," said he, " on 
 what subject Johnson talks: but I love better 
 to hear him talk than anybody. He either gives 
 you new thoughts or a new colouring. It is a 
 shame to the nation that he has not been more 
 liberally rewarded. Had I been George the 
 Third, and thought as he did about America, I 
 would have given Johnson three hundred a year 
 for his Taxation no Tyranny alone." I repeated 
 this, and Johnson was much pleased with such 
 praise from such a man as Orme. 
 
 — The Lije. 1778, April 15th. 
 
 " The style and character of his conversation 
 is pretty generally known ; it was certainly 
 conducted in conformity with a precept of 
 Lord Bacon, but it is not clear, I apprehend, 
 that this conformity was either perceived or 
 intended by Johnson. The precept alluded to 
 is as follows : — ' In all kinds of speech, either 
 pleasant, grave, severe, or ordinar}', it is con- 
 venient to speak leisurely, and rather drawl- 
 ingly than hastily ; because hasty speech con- 
 195
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 founds the memory, and oftentimes, besides 
 the unseemliness, drives a man either to stam- 
 mering, a nonplus, or harping on that which 
 should follow ; whereas a slow speech confirm- 
 eth the memory, addeth a conceit of wisdom 
 to the hearers, besides a seemlincss of speech 
 and countenance.' Dr. Johnson's method of 
 conversation was certainly calculated to excite 
 attention, and to amuse and instruct (as it 
 happened), without wearying or confusing his 
 compan}'. He was always most perfectly clear 
 and perspicuous, and his language was so ac- 
 curate, and his sentences so neatly constructed, 
 that his conversation might have been all 
 printed without any correction. At the same 
 time, it was easy and natural ; the accuracy of 
 it had no appearance of labour, constraint, or 
 stiffness : he seemed more correct than others, 
 by the force of habit, and the customary exer- 
 cises of his powerful mind." 
 
 — The Life. 17S3. " A Few Particulars." 
 
 Here it may be observed, that his frequent 
 use of the expression. No, Sir, was not always 
 to intimate contradiction ; for he would say so 
 when he was about to enforce an affirmative 
 proposition which had not been denied, as in 
 the instance last mentioned. I used to con- 
 sider it as a kind of flag of defiance : as if he 
 had said, " Any argument you may offer against 
 this, is not just. No, Sir, it is not." It was 
 like Falstaff's " I deny your Major." 
 
 — T/ie Life. 178+. 
 
 196
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 As he was general and unconfined in his 
 studies, he cannot be considered as master of 
 any one particular science; but he had accumu- 
 lated a vast and various collection of learning 
 and knowledge, which was so arranged in his 
 mind as to be ever in readiness to be brought 
 forth. But his superiority over other learned 
 men consisted chiefly in what may be called the 
 art of thinking, the art of using his mind — a 
 certain continual power of seizing the useful 
 substance of all that he knew, and exhibiting it 
 in a clear and forcible manner ; so that know- 
 ledge, which we often see to be no better than 
 lumber in men of dull understanding, vv^as in 
 him true, evident, and actual wisdom. His 
 moral precepts are practical ; for they are 
 drawn from an intimate acquaintance with 
 human nature. His maxims carry conviction; 
 for they are founded on the basis of common 
 sense, and a very attentive and minute survey 
 of real life. His mind was so full of imagery, 
 that he might have been perpetually a poet; yet 
 it is remarkable, that however rich his prose is 
 in this respect, his poetical pieces, in general, 
 have not much of that splendour, but are rather 
 distinguished by strong sentiment, and acute 
 observation, conveyed in harmonious and ener- 
 getic verse, particularly in heroic couplets. 
 Though usually grave, and even awful in his 
 deportment, he possessed uncommon and 
 peculiar powers of wit and humour ; he fre- 
 quently indulged himself in colloquial plea- 
 santry; and the heartiest merriment was often 
 enjoyed in his company ; with this great 
 197
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 advantage, that it was entirely free from any 
 poisonous tincture of vice or impiety — it was 
 salutary to those who shared in it. He had 
 accustomed himself to such accuracy in his 
 common conversation, that he at ail times ex- 
 pressed his thoughts with great force, and an 
 elegant choice of language, the effect of which 
 was aided by his having a loud voice, and a 
 slow deliberate utterance. In him were united 
 a most logical head with a most fertile imagina- 
 tion, which gave him an extraordinary advantage 
 in arguing; for he could reason close or wide, 
 as he saw best lor the moment. Exulting in 
 his intellectual strength and dexterit}-, he could, 
 when he pleased, be the greatest sophist that 
 ever contended in the lists of declamation; and, 
 from a spirit of contradiction and a delight in 
 showing his powers, he would often maintain 
 the wrong side with equal warmth and in- 
 genuity; so that when there was an audience, 
 his real opinions could seldom be gathered 
 from his talk; though when he was in com- 
 pany with a single friend, he would discuss a 
 subject with genuine fairness ; but he was too 
 conscientious to make error permanent and 
 pernicious, by deliberately writing it; and in 
 all his numerous works, he earnestly inculcated 
 what appeared to him to be the truth ; his 
 piety being constant, and the ruling principle 
 of all his conduct. — The Life. Final Page. 
 
 Having asked Mr. Langton if his father and 
 mother had sat for their pictures, which he 
 thought it right for each generation of a family 
 198
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 to do, and being told they had opposed it, he 
 said, " Sir, among the anfractuosities of the 
 human mind, I icnow not if it may not be one, 
 that there is a superstitious reluctance to sit 
 for a picture." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 Talking of a very respectable author, he told 
 us a curious circumstance in his life, which 
 was, that he had married a printer's devil. 
 Reynolds : " A printer's devil, Sir ! Why, I 
 thought a printer's devil was a creature with a 
 black face and in rags." Johnson : " Yes, Sir. 
 But I suppose he had her face washed, and put 
 clean clothes on her. (Then looking very 
 serious and very earnest.) And she did not 
 disgrace him ; — the woman had a bottom of 
 good sense." The word bottom, thus intro- 
 duced, was so ludicrous, when contrasted with 
 his gravity, that most of us could not forbear 
 tittering and laughing ; though I recollect that 
 the Bishop of Killaloe kept his countenance 
 with perfect steadiness, while Miss Hannah 
 More slily hid her face behind a lady's back 
 who sat on the same settee with her. His 
 pride could not bear that any expression of his 
 should excite ridicule, when he did not intend 
 it ; he therefore resolved to assume and exer- 
 cise despotic power, glanced sternly around, 
 and called out, in a strong tone, " Where's the 
 merriment?" Then colleccing himself, and 
 looking awful, to make us feel how he could 
 impose restraint, and as it were searching his 
 199
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 mind for a still more ludicrous word, he slowly 
 pronounced, " I say the woman \s2.s fundamentally 
 sensible;" as if he had said, hear this now, 
 and laugh if you dare. We all sat composed as 
 at a funeral. — The Life. 1781, April 20th. 
 
 He seemed to take a pleasure in speaking 
 in his own style ; for when he had carelessly 
 missed it, he would repeat the thought trans- 
 lated into it. Talking of the comedy of The 
 Rehearsal, he said, " It has not wit enough to 
 keep it sweet." This was easy ; he therefore 
 caught himself, and pronounced a more round 
 sentence : " It has not vitality enough to pre- 
 serve it from putrefaction." 
 
 —The Life. 1784. 
 
 His Information and Zeal for Knowledge 
 
 Before dinner we examined the fort. The 
 Major explained the fortification to us, and 
 Mr. Feme gave us an account of the stores. 
 Dr. Johnson talked of the proportions of 
 charcoal and saltpetre in making gunpowder, 
 of granulating it, and of giving it a gloss. 
 He made a very good figure upon these 
 topics. He said to me afterwards, that " he 
 had talked ostentatiousl-^ ". 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Au^. 28th. 
 
 Dr. Johnson has the happy art (for which I 
 have heard my father praise the old Earl of 
 Aberdeen) of instructing himself, by making 
 every man he meets tell him something of what
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 he knows best. He led Keith to talk to him 
 of the Excise in Scotland, and, in the course of 
 conversation, mentioned that his friend Mr. 
 Thrale, the great brewer, paid twenty thousand 
 pounds a year to the revenue ; and that he had 
 four casks, each of which holds sixteen hun- 
 dred barrels, — above a thousand hogsheads. 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 29th. 
 
 Dr. Johnson was now wishing to move. 
 There was not enough of intellectual enter- 
 tainment for him, after he had satisfied his 
 curiosity, which he did, by asking questions, 
 till he had exhausted the island; and where 
 there was so numerous a company, mostly 
 young people, there was such a flow of familiar 
 talk, so much noise, and so much singing and 
 dancing, that little opportunity was left for his 
 energetic conversation. He seemed sensible 
 of this; for when I told him how happy they 
 were at having him there, he said, " Yet we 
 have not been able to entertain them much." 
 I was fretted, from irritability of nerves, by 
 M'Cruslick's too obstreperous mirth. I com- 
 plained of it to my friend, observing we should 
 be better if he was gone. " No, Sir," said he, 
 " he puts something into our society, and takes 
 nothing out of it." Dr. Johnson, however, 
 had several opportunities of instructing the 
 company: but I am sorry to say, that I did 
 not pay sufficient attention to what passed, as 
 his discourse now turned chiefly on mechanics, 
 agriculture, and such subjects, rather than on 
 science and wit. Last night Lady Rasay
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 showed him the operation of wawking cloth, 
 that is, thickening it in the same manner as 
 is done by a mill. Here it is performed by 
 women, who kneel upon the ground, and rub 
 it with both their hands, singing an Erse song 
 all the time. He was asking questions while 
 they were performing this operation, and, 
 amidst their loud and wild howl, his voice was 
 heard even in the room above. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Sept. i ith. 
 
 I have often been astonished with what 
 exactness and perspicuity he will explain the 
 process of any art. He this morning explained 
 to us all the operation of coining, and, at night, 
 all the operation of brewing, so very clearly, 
 that Mr. M'Queen said, when he heard the 
 first, he thought he had been bred in the 
 Mint; when he heard the second, that he had 
 been bred a brewer. 
 
 — J he Tour. iTj'j,, Sept. i6th. 
 
 After the ladies were gone from table, we 
 talked of the Highlanders not having sheets ; 
 and this led us to consider the advantage of 
 wearing linen. Johnson : " All animal sub- 
 stances are less cleanly than vegetables. Wool, 
 of which flannel is made, is an animal sub- 
 stance ; flannel therefore is not so cleanly as 
 linen. I remember I used to think tar dirty; 
 but when I knew it to be only a preparation of 
 the juice of the pine, I thought so no longer. 
 It is not disagreeable to have the gum that 
 oozes from a plum-tree upon }our fingers, 
 202
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 becaus'^ it is vegetable; but if you have any 
 candle-grease, any tallow upon your fingers, 
 you are uneasy till you rub it ofF. I have 
 often thought, that, if 1 kept a seraglio, the 
 ladies should all wear linen gowns, or cotton; 
 I mean stuffs made of vegetable substances. I 
 would have no silk; you cannot tell when it is 
 clean: it will be very nasty before it is per- 
 ceived to be so. Linen detects its own dirti- 
 ness." 
 
 To hear the grave Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
 " that majestic teacher of moral and religious 
 wisdom ", while sitting solemn in an arm- 
 chair in the Isle of Sky, talk, ex cathedra, of 
 his keeping a seraglio, and acknowledge that 
 the supposition had often been in his thoughts, 
 struck me so forcibly with ludicrous contrast, 
 that I could not but laugh immoderately. He 
 was too proud to submit, even for a moment, 
 to be the object of ridicule, and instantly re- 
 taliated with such keen sarcastic wit, and such 
 a variety of degrading images, of every one of 
 which I was the object, that, though I can 
 bear such attacks as well as most men, I yet 
 found myself so much the sport of all the 
 company, that I would gladly expunge from 
 my mind every trace of this severe retort. 
 — The Tour. ^ITI-, Sept. i6th. 
 
 After supper he said, " I am sorry that prize- 
 fighting is gone out ; every art should be 
 preserved, and the art of defence is surely 
 important. It is absurd that our soldiers 
 should have swords, and not be taught the use 
 203
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 of them. Prize-fighting made people accus- 
 tomed not to be alarmed at seeing their own 
 blood, or feeling a little pain from a wound. 
 I think the heavy glaymore was an ill-contrived 
 weapon. A man could only strike once with 
 it. It employed both his hands, and he must 
 of course be soon fatigued with wielding it; 
 so that if his antagonist could only keep play- 
 ing a while, he was sure of him. I would 
 fight with a dirk against Rorie More's sword. 
 I could ward off a blow with a dirk, and then 
 run in upon my enemy. When within that 
 heavy sword, I have him; he is quite helpless, 
 and I could stab him at my leisure, like a calf. 
 It is thought by sensible military men, that 
 the English do not enough avail themselves of 
 their superior strength of body against the 
 French ; for that must always have a great 
 advantage in pushing with bayonets. I have 
 heard an officer say, that if women could be 
 made to stand, they would do as well as men 
 in a mere interchange of bullets from a dis- 
 tance: but, if a body of men should come close 
 up to them, then to be sure they must be over- 
 come; now," said he, "in the same manner 
 the weaker-bodied French must be overcome 
 by our strong soldiers." 
 
 — The Tour. 1775, Sept. 19th. 
 
 Last night Dr. Johnson gave us an account 
 of the whole process of tanning, and of the 
 nature of milk, and the various operations upon 
 it, as making whey, &c. His variety of infor- 
 mation is surprising ; and it gives one much 
 204
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 satisfaction to find such a man bestowing his 
 attention on the useful arts of life. Ulinish 
 was much struck with his icnowledge ; and 
 said, " He is a great orator, Sir; it is music to 
 hear this man speak." A strange thought 
 struck me, to try if he knew anything of an 
 art, or whatever it should be called, which is 
 no doubt very useful in life, but which lies far 
 out of the way of a philosopher and poet ; I 
 mean the trade of a butcher. I enticed him 
 into the subject, by connecting it with the 
 various researches into the manners and cus- 
 toms of uncivilized nations, that have been 
 made by our late navigators into the South 
 Seas. I began with observing, that Mr. (now 
 Sir Joseph) Banks tells us, that the art of 
 slaughtering animals was not known in Ota- 
 heite, for, instead of bleeding to death their 
 dogs (a common food with them), they strangle 
 them. This he told me himself; and I sup- 
 posed that their hogs were killed in the same 
 way. Dr. Johnson said, " This must be owing 
 to their not having knives, though they have 
 sharp stones with which they can cut a car- 
 cass in pieces tolerably." By degrees, he 
 showed that he knew something even of 
 butchery. " Different animals," said he, " are 
 killed differently. An ox is knocked down, 
 and a calf stunned; but a sheep has its throat 
 cut, without anything being done to stupefy it. 
 The butchers have no view to the ease of the 
 animals, but only to make them quiet, for their 
 own safety and convenience. A sheep can 
 give them little trouble. Hales is of opinion, 
 205
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 that every animal should be blooded, without 
 having any blow given to it, because it bleeds 
 better." Boswei.l : " That would be cruel ". 
 Johnson: "No, Sir; there is not much pain, if 
 the jugular vein be properly cut ". Pursuing 
 the subject, he said, the kennels of Southwark 
 ran with blood two or three days in the week; 
 that he was afraid there were slaughter-houses 
 in more streets in London than one supposes 
 (speaking with a kind of horror of butchering); 
 " and yet," he added, " any of us would kill a 
 cow, rather than not have beef." I said we 
 could not. " Yes," said he, " anyone may. 
 The business of a butcher is a trade indeed, 
 that is to say, there is an apprenticeship served 
 to it; but it may be learnt in a month." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Sept. 23rd. 
 
 We danced to-night to the music of the 
 bagpipe, which made us beat the ground with 
 prodigious force. I thought it better to en- 
 deavour to conciliate the kindness of the people 
 of Sky, by joining heartily in their amuse- 
 ments, than to play the abstract scholar. I 
 looked on this Tour to the Hebrides as a 
 copartnership between Dr. Johnson and me. 
 Each was to do all he could to promote its 
 success; and I have some reason to flatter my- 
 self that my gayer exertions were of service to 
 us. Dr. Johnson's immense fund of know- 
 ledge and wit was a wonderful source of ad- 
 miration and delight to them; but they had it 
 only at times ; and they required to have the 
 intervals agreeably filled up, and even little 
 206
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 elucidations of his learned text. I was also 
 fortunate enough frequently to draw him forth 
 to talk, when he would otherwise have been 
 silent. The fountain was at times locked up, 
 till I opened the spring. It was curious to 
 hear the Hebridians, when any dispute hap- 
 pened while he was out of the room, saying, 
 " Stay till Dr. Johnson comes : say that to 
 him !" ■ — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 2nd. 
 
 At Grisspol we found a good farmhouse, 
 belonging to the Laird ot Col, and possessed 
 by Mr. M'Sweyn. On the beach here there is 
 a singular variety of curious stones. I picked 
 up one very like a small cucumber. By the 
 by, Dr. Johnson told me, that Gay's line in 
 the Beggars^ Opera, " As men should serve a 
 cucumber ", &c., has no waggish meaning, with 
 reference to men flinging away cucumbers as 
 too cooling, which some have thought ; for it 
 has been a common saying of physicians in 
 England, that a cucumber should be well sliced, 
 and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then 
 thrown out, as good for nothing. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 5th. 
 
 On my expressing my wonder at his dis- 
 covering so much of the knowledge peculiar to 
 different professions, he told me, " I learnt what 
 I know of law chiefly from Mr. Ballow, a very 
 able man. I learnt some too from Chambers; 
 but was not so teachable then. One is not 
 willing to be taught by a young man." When 
 I expressed a wish to know more about Mr. 
 207
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 Ballow, Johnson said, " Sir, I have seen him 
 but once these twenty years. The tide of life 
 has driven us different ways." I was sorry at 
 the time to hear this ; but whoever quits the 
 creeks of private connections, and fairly gets 
 into the great ocean of London, will by imper- 
 ceptible degrees, unavoidably experience such 
 cessations of acquaintance. 
 
 " My knowledge of physic," he added, " I 
 learnt from Dr. James, whom I helped in writ- 
 ing the proposals for his Dictionary, and also 
 a little in the Dictionary itself. I also learnt 
 from Dr. Lawrence, but was then grown more 
 stubborn." — The Life. 1776, April 5th. 
 
 I felt a pleasure in walking about Derby, 
 such as I always have in walking about any town 
 to which I am not accustomed. There is an 
 immediate sensation of novelty; and one specu- 
 lates on the way in which life is passed in it, 
 which, although there is a sameness everywhere 
 upon the whole, is yet minutely diversified. 
 The minute diversities in everything are won- 
 derful. Talking of shaving the other night at 
 Dr. Taylor's, Dr. Johnson said, " Sir, of a 
 thousand shavers, two do not shave so much 
 alike as not to be distinguished." I thought 
 this not possible, till he specified so many of 
 the varieties in shaving ; — holding the razor 
 more or less perpendicular; — drawing long or 
 short strokes; — beginning at the upper part of 
 the face, or the under — at the right side or the 
 left side. Indeed, when one considers what 
 variety of sounds can be uttered by the vvind- 
 208
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 pipe, in the compass of a very small aperture, 
 we may be convinced how many degrees of 
 difference there may be in the application of a 
 razor. — The Life. iTjy, Sept. 19th. 
 
 During this interview at Ashbourne, John- 
 son seemed to be more uniformly social, cheer- 
 ful, and alert, than I had almost ever seen him. 
 He was prompt on great occasions and on 
 small. Taylor, who praised everything of his 
 own to excess; in short, "whose geese were all 
 swans ", as the proverb says, expatiated on the 
 excellence of his bull-dog, which he told us was 
 " perfectly w^ell-shaped ". Johnson, after ex- 
 amining the animal attentively, thus repressed 
 the vain glory of our host : — " No, Sir, he is not 
 well-shaped; for there is not the quick transi- 
 tion from the thickness of the forepart to the 
 tenuity — the thin part — behind, which a bull- 
 dog ought to have." This tenuity was the only 
 hard zcord that I heard him use during this 
 interview, and, it will be observed, he instantly 
 put another expression in its place. Taylor 
 said, a small bull-dog was as good as a large 
 one. Johnson: "No, Sir; for in proportion to 
 his size he has strength ; and your argument 
 would prove that a good bull-dog may be as 
 small as a mouse ". It was amazing how he 
 entered with perspicuity and keenness upon 
 everything that occurred in conversation. Most 
 men whom I know, would no more think of 
 discussing a question about a bull-dog, than of 
 attacking a bull. — The Life. iTjj, Sept. 
 
 ( B 212 ) 209 Q
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 He used to descant critically on the dishes 
 which had been at table where he had dined or 
 supped, and to recollect very minutely what he 
 had liked. I remember when he was in Scot- 
 land, his praising '■'■ Gordon'' s palates'''' (a dish of 
 palates at the Honourable Alexander Gordon's) 
 with a warmth of expression which might have 
 done honour to more important subjects. "As 
 for Maclaurin's imitation of a made d'uk, it was 
 a wretched attempt." He about the same 
 time was so much displeased with the perfor- 
 mances of a nobleman's French cook, that he 
 exclaimed with vehemence, " I'd throw such a 
 rascal into the river"; and he then proceeded 
 to alarm a lady at whose house he was to sup, 
 by the following manifesto of his skill : — " I, 
 Madam, who live at a variety of good tables, 
 am a much better judge of cookery than any 
 person who has a very tolerable cook, but lives 
 much at home ; for his palate is gradually 
 adapted to the taste of his cook ; whereas. 
 Madam, in trying by a wider range, I can 
 more exquisitely judge." When invited to 
 dine, even with an intimate friend, he was not 
 pleased if something better than a plain dinner 
 was not prepared for him. I have heard him 
 say, on such an occasion, " This was a good 
 dinner enough to be sure ; but it was not a 
 dinner to ask a man to." On the other hand, 
 he was wont to express with great glee, his 
 satisfaction when he had been entertained quite 
 to his mind. One day when he had dined 
 with his neighbour and landlord, in Bolt 
 Court, Mr. Allen, the printer, whose old 
 ?.io
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 housekeeper had studied his taste in every- 
 thing, he pronounced this eulogy : " Sir, we 
 could not have had a better dinner, had there 
 been a S"inod of Cocks." 
 
 — The Life. 1763, Aug. 5th. 
 
 The subject of cookery having been very 
 naturally introduced at a table where Johnson, 
 who boasted of the niceness of his palate, owned 
 that "he always found a good dinner", he said, 
 " I could write a better book of cookery than 
 has ever yet been written; it should be a book 
 upon philosophical principles. Pharmacy is 
 now made much more simple. Cookery may 
 be made so too. A prescription, which is now 
 compounded of five ingredients, had formerly 
 fifty in it. So in cookery, if the nature of the 
 ingredients be well known, much fewer will do. 
 Then, as you cannot make bad meat good, I 
 would tell what is the best butcher's meat, the 
 best beef, the best pieces: how to choose young 
 fowls ; the proper seasons of different vege- 
 tables; and then how to roast and boil, and 
 compound." Dilly: "Mrs. Glasse's Cooker-^, 
 which is the best, was written by Dr. Hill. 
 Half the trade know this." Johnson: "Well, 
 Sir, this shows how much better the subject of 
 cookery may be treated by a philosopher. I 
 doubt if the book be written by Dr. Hill; for, 
 in Mrs. Glasse's Cookery, which I have looked 
 into, saltpetre and sal-prunella are spoken of as 
 different substances, whereas sal-prunella is only 
 saltpetre burnt on charcoal; and Hill could not 
 be ignorant of this. However, as the greatest
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 part of such a hook is made by transcription, 
 this mistake may have been carelessly adopted. 
 But you shall see what a book of cookery I shall 
 make ! I shall agree with Mr. Dilly for the 
 copyright." Miss Seward : " That would be 
 Hercules with the distaff" indeed". Johnson: 
 " No, Madam. Women can spin very well ; 
 but they cannot make a good book of cookery." 
 — The Life. 1778, April i 5th. 
 
 Mr. Langton has been pleased, at my request, 
 to favour me with some particulars of Dr. John- 
 son's visit to Warley Camp, where this gentle- 
 man was at the time stationed as a Captain in 
 the Lincolnshire militia. I shall give them in 
 his own words, in a letter to me: — 
 
 " It was in the summer of the year 1778 that 
 he complied with my invitation to come down 
 to the camp at Warley, and he stayed with me 
 about a week. The scene appeared, notwith- 
 standing a great degree of ill health that he 
 seemed to labour under, to interest and amuse 
 him, as agreeing with the disposition that I 
 believe you know he constantly manifested to- 
 wards enquiring into subjects of the military 
 kind. He sat, with a patient degree of atten- 
 tion, to observe the proceedings of a regimental 
 court-martial, that happened to be called in the 
 time of his stay with us; and one night, as late 
 as eleven o'clock, he accompanied the Major 
 of the regiment in going what was styled the 
 Rounds, where he might observe the forms of 
 visiting the guards, for seeing that they and 
 their sentries are ready in their duty on their 
 
 212
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 several posts. He took occasion to converse at 
 times on military topics, one in particular that 
 I see the mention of, in your Journal of a Tour 
 to the Hebrides, which lies open before me, as 
 to gunpowder; which he spoke of to the same 
 effect, in part, that you relate. 
 
 " On one occasion, when the regiment were 
 going through their exercise, he went quite close 
 to the men at one of the extremities of it, and 
 watched all their practice attentively; and when 
 he came away his remark was, ' The men in- 
 deed do load their muskets and fire with won- 
 derful celerity.' He was likewise particular in 
 enquiring to know what was the weight of the 
 musket balls in use, and within what distance 
 they might be expected to take effect when fired 
 off. 
 
 " In walking among the tents, and observing 
 the difference between those of the officers and 
 private men, he said, that the superiority of 
 accommodation of the better conditions of life, 
 to that of the inferior ones, was never exhibited 
 to him in so distinct a view. The civilities 
 paid to him in the camp were from the gentle- 
 men of the Lincolnshire regiment, one of the 
 officers of which accommodated him with a tent 
 in which he slept; and from General Hall, who 
 very courteously invited him to dine with him, 
 where he appeared to be very well pleased with 
 this entertainment, and the civilities he received 
 on the part of the General; the attention like- 
 wise of the General's aide-de-camp, Captain 
 Smith, seemed to be very welcome to him, as 
 appeared by their engaging in a great deal of 
 213
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 discourse together. The gentlemen of the East 
 York regiment liicewise, on being informed of 
 his coming, solicited his company at dinner; 
 but by that time he had fixed his departure, so 
 that he could not comply with the invitation." 
 — The Life. 1778, Summer. 
 
 BoswELL : " Why, Sir, do people play this 
 trick which I observe now, when I look at your 
 grate, putting the shovel against it to make the 
 fire burn?" Johnson: " They play the trick, 
 but it does not make the fire burn. There is a 
 better; setting the poker perpendicularly up at 
 right angles with the grate. In the days of 
 superstition they thought as it made a cross 
 with the bars, it would drive away the witch." 
 — The Life. 1779, ^^^- loth. 
 
 BoswELL : " I observe in London, that the 
 poor go about and gather bones, which I under- 
 stand are manufactured." Johnson : "Yes, Sir; 
 they boil them, and extract a grease from them 
 for greasing wheels and other purposes. Of 
 the best pieces they make a mock ivory, which 
 is used for hafts to knives, and various other 
 things; the coarser pieces they burn and 
 pound, and sell the ashes." Boswell : " For 
 what purpose, Sir?" Johnson: "Why, Sir, 
 for making a furnace for the chemists for melt- 
 ing iron. A paste made of burnt bones will 
 stand a stronger heat than anything else. Con- 
 sider, Sir, if you are to melt iron, you cannot 
 line your pot with brass, because it is softer 
 214
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 than iron, and would melt sooner ; nor with 
 iron, for though malleable iron is harder than 
 cast iron, yet it would not do ; but a paste of 
 burnt bones will not melt." Boswell : " Do 
 you know, Sir, I have discovered a manufacture 
 to a great extent, of what you only piddle at — 
 scraping and drying the peel of oranges. At a 
 place in Newgate Street, there is a prodigious 
 quantity prepared, which they sell to the dis- 
 tillers." Johnson : " Sir, I believe they make a 
 higher thing out of them than a spirit ; they 
 make what is called orange-butter, the oil of 
 the orange inspissated, which they mix perhaps 
 with common pomatum, and make it fragrant. 
 The oil does not fly off in the drying." 
 
 —The Life. 1783. April 1 8th. 
 
 His Dexterity and Brutality of Retort 
 
 Mrs. Thrale disputed with him on the merit 
 of Prior. He attacked him powerfully; said he 
 wrote of love like a man who had never felt it : 
 his love verses were college verses ; and he 
 repeated the song " Alexis shunn'd his fellow- 
 swains ", &c., in so ludicrous a manner, as to 
 make us all wonder how anyone could have 
 been pleased with such fantastical stuff. Mrs. 
 Thrale stood to her gun with great courage in 
 defence of amorous ditties, which Johnson de- 
 spised, till he at last silenced her by saying, 
 " My dear lady, talk no more of this. Nonsense 
 can be defended but by nonsense." 
 
 Mrs. Thrale then praised Garrick's talents for 
 light gay poetry ; and, as a specimen, repeated 
 215
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 his song in F/oiixei and PerdiUi, and dwelt with 
 peculiar pleasure on this line : 
 
 "I 'd smile with the simple, and feed with the poor ". 
 
 Johnson : " Nay, my dear lady, this will never 
 do. Poor David ! Smile with the simple. 
 What folly is that ? And who would feed with 
 the poor that can help it ? No, no ; let me 
 smile with the wise, and feed with the rich." 
 I repeated this sally to Garrick, and wondered 
 to find his sensibility as a writer not a little 
 irritated by it. To soothe him I observed that 
 Johnson spared none of us ; and 1 quoted the 
 passage in Horace, in which he compares one 
 who attacks his friends for the sake of a laugh, 
 to a pushing ox, that is marked by a bunch 
 of hay put upon his horns : fceuum habet hi 
 coitiu. " Ay," said Garrick, vehemently, " he 
 has a whole mow of it." 
 
 — The Lije. 1769, Oct. 6th. 
 
 Talking of a barrister W'ho had a bad utter- 
 ance, someone (to rouse Johnson) wickedly 
 said, that he was unfortunate in not having 
 been taught oratory by Sheridan. Johnson : 
 " Nay, Sir, if he had been taught by Sheridan, 
 he would have cleared the room ". Garrick : 
 " Sheridan has too much vanity to be a good 
 man ". — We shall now see Johnson's mode of 
 defending a man ; taking him into his own 
 hands, and discriminating. Johnson : " No, 
 Sir. There is, to be sure, in Sheridan, some- 
 thing to reprehend and everything to laugh at ; 
 but, Sir, he is not a bad man. No, Sir ; were 
 216
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 mankind to be divided into good and bad, he 
 would stand considerably within the ranks ot 
 good. And, Sir, it must be allowed that 
 Sheridan excels in plain declamation, though 
 he can exhibit no character." 
 
 I should, perhaps, have suppressed this dis- 
 quisition concerning a person of whose merit and 
 worth I think with respect, had he not attacked 
 Johnson so outrageously in his Lije of Szoift, and 
 at the same time, treated us, his admirers, as a 
 set of pigmies. He who has provoked the lash 
 of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it. 
 — The Life. 1769, Oct. i6th. 
 
 There was a pretty large circle this evening. 
 Dr. Johnson was in very good humour, lively, 
 and ready to talk upon all subjects. Mr. Fer- 
 gusson, the self-taught philosopher, told him of 
 a new invented machine which went without 
 horses ; a man who sat in it turned a handle, 
 which worked a spring that drove it forward. 
 " Then, Sir," said Johnson, " what is gained is, 
 the man has his choice whether he will move 
 himself alone, or himself and the machine too." 
 Dominicetti being mentioned, he would not 
 allow him any merit. " There is nothing in 
 all this boasted system. No, Sir ; medicated 
 baths can be no better than warm water ; their 
 only effect can be that of tepid moisture." 
 One of the company took the other side, main- 
 taining that medicines of various sorts, and 
 some too of most powerful effect, are intro- 
 duced into the human frame by the medium of 
 the pores ; and, therefore when warm water is 
 217
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 impregnated with salutiferous substances, it 
 may produce great effects as a bath. This 
 appeared to me very satisfactory. Johnson did 
 not answer it ; but talking for victory, and 
 determined to be master of the field, he had 
 recourse to the device which Goldsmith im- 
 puted to him in the witty words of one of 
 Gibber's comedies: "There is no arguing with 
 Johnson; for when his pistol misses fire, he 
 knocks you down with the butt-end of it." 
 He turned to the gentleman, " Well, Sir, go to 
 Dominicetti, and get thyself fumigated ; but 
 be sure that the steam be directed to thy head, 
 for that is the peccant part" This produced a 
 triumphant roar of laughter from the motley 
 assembly of philosophers, printers, and depen- 
 dents, male and female. 
 
 —The Life. 1769, Oct. 26th. 
 
 " When exasperated by contradiction, he was 
 apt to treat his opponents with too much acri- 
 mony : as, * Sir, you don't see your way through 
 that question. Sir, you talk the language of 
 ignorance.' On my observing to him that a 
 certain gentleman had remained silent the 
 whole evening, in the midst of a very brilliant 
 and learned society, ' Sir,' said he, ' the con- 
 versation overflowed and drowned him.' " 
 
 — The Life. 1770. Dr. Maxwell's CW/t'i/i^w^a. 
 
 I spoke of Allan Ramsay's Gentk Shepherd, 
 in the Scottish dialect, as the best pastoral that 
 had ever been written ; not only abounding 
 218
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 with beautiful rural imagery, and just and 
 pleasing sentiments, but being a real picture 
 of manners ; and I oftered to teach Dr. John- 
 son to understand it. " No, Sir," said he, 
 " I won't learn it. You shall retain your 
 superiority by my not knowing it." 
 
 — The Life. 1773, April 15th. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds : "I do not perceive 
 why the profession of a player should be de- 
 spised ; for the great and ultimate end of all 
 the employments of mankind is to produce 
 amusement. Garrick produces more amuse- 
 ment than anybody." Boswell : " You say, 
 Dr. Johnson, that Garrick exhibits himself for 
 a shilling. In this respect he is only on a 
 footing with a lawyer who exhibits himself for 
 his fee, and even will maintain any nonsense or 
 absurdity, if the case require it. Garrick re- 
 fuses a play or a part which he does not like : 
 a lawyer never refuses." Johnson : " Why, 
 Sir, what does this prove ? only that a lawyer 
 is worse. Boswell is now like Jack in the Tale 
 of a Tub, who, when he is puzzled by an argu- 
 ment, hangs himself He thinks I shall cut 
 him down, but I'll let him hang " (laughing 
 vociferously). Sir Joshua Reynolds : " Mr. 
 Boswell thinks that the profession of a lawyer 
 being unquestionably honourable, if he can 
 show the profession of a player to be more 
 honourable, he proves his argument ". 
 
 — The Life. 1773, April 29th. 
 
 219
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 '' Dr. Johnson and 1 had each an excellent 
 bed-chamber. We had a dispute wnich of us 
 had the best curtains. His were rather the 
 best, being of linen ; but I insisted that my 
 bed had the best posts, which was undeniable. 
 " Well," said he, " if you have the best posts, 
 we will have you tied to them and whipped." 
 I mention this slight circumstance, only to show 
 how ready he is, even in mere trifles, to get the 
 better of his antagonist, by placing him in a 
 ludicrous view. I have known him sometimes 
 use the same art, when hard pressed in serious 
 disputation. Goldsmith, I remember, to re- 
 taliate for many a severe defeat which he has 
 suffered from him, applied to him a lively say- 
 ing in one of Gibber's comedies, which puts 
 this part of his character in a strong light. 
 "There is no arguing with Johnson; for, if 
 his pistol misses Jire, he knocks you dozen with the 
 butt-end of ity — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 5th. 
 
 Professors Reid and Anderson, and the two 
 Messieurs Foulis, the Elzevirs of Glasgow, 
 dined and drank tea with us at our inn, after 
 which the professors went away; and I, having 
 a letter to write, left my fellow-traveller with 
 Messieurs Foulis. Though good and ingenious 
 men, they had that unsettled speculative mode 
 of conversation which is offensive to a man 
 regularly taught at an English school and uni- 
 versity. I found that, instead of listening to 
 the dictates of the Sage, they had teased him 
 with questions and doubtful disputations. He 
 came in a flutter to me, and desired I might 
 220
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 come back again, for he could out bear these 
 men. "O ho! Sir," said I, "you are flying to 
 me for refuge ! " He never, in any situation, 
 was at a loss for a ready repartee. He answered, 
 with quicli vivacity, " It is of two evils choosing 
 the least." I was delighted with this flash 
 bursting from the cloud which hung upon his 
 mind, closed my letter directly, and joined the 
 company. 
 
 We supped at Professor Anderson's. The 
 general impression upon my memory is, that 
 we had not much conversation at Glasgow, 
 where the professors, like their brethren at 
 Aberdeen, did not venture to expose themselves 
 much to the battery of cannon which they knew 
 might play upon them. Dr. Johnson, who was 
 fully conscious of his own superior powers, 
 afterwards praised Principal Robertson for his 
 caution in this respect. He said to me, 
 " Robertson, Sir, was in the right. Robertson 
 is a man of eminence, and the head of a college 
 at Edinburgh. He had a character to main- 
 tain, and did well not to risk its being lessened." 
 — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 29th. 
 
 Mr. 1 opham Beauclerk came in the evening, 
 and he and Dr. Johnson and I stayed to supper. 
 It was mentioned that Dr. Dodd had once 
 wished to be a member of the Literary Club. 
 Johnson: "I should be sorry if any of our club 
 were hanged. I will not say but some of them 
 deserve it." Beauclerk (supposing this to be 
 aimed at persons for whom he had at that time 
 a wondertul fancy, which, however, did not last
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 long) was irritated, and eagerly said : '' You, 
 Sir, have a friend (naming him) who deserves 
 to be hanged; for he speaks behind their backs 
 against those with whom he lives on the best 
 terms, and attacks them in the newspapers. 
 He certainly ought to be kicked." Johnson : " Sir, 
 we all do this in some degree: ' Veniatn petimus 
 damusque vicissim'. To be sure it may be done 
 so much, that a man may deserve to be kicked." 
 Beauclerk : "He is very malignant". John- 
 son: "No, Sir: he is not malignant. He is 
 mischievous, if you will. He would do no 
 man an essential injury; he may, indeed, love 
 to make sport of people by vexing their vanity. 
 I, however, once knew an old gentleman who 
 was absolutely malignant. He really wished 
 evil to others, and rejoiced at it." Boswell : 
 " The gentleman, Mr. Beauclerk, against whom 
 you are so violent, is I know, a man of good 
 principles". Beauclerk: "Then he does not 
 wear them out in practice". 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 13th. 
 
 The gentleman who had dined with us at 
 Dr. Percy's 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 sulphurous vapour, 
 which was afterwards to burst in thunder. — 
 We talked of a gentleman who was running 
 out his fortune in London ; and I said, " We
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 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 : " Be- 
 cause, 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 weapons." 
 This was a candid and pleasant confession. 
 — The Life. 1778, April 17th. 
 
 It is well known that there was formerly a 
 rude custom for those who were sailing upon 
 the Thames to accost each other as they passed 
 in the most abusive language they could invent, 
 generally, however, with as much satirical 
 humour as they were capable of producing. 
 Addison gives a specimen of this ribaldry, in 
 number 383 of The Spectator, when Sir Roger de 
 Coverley and he are going to Spring Garden. 
 Johnson was once eminently successful in this 
 species of contest; a fellow having attacked him 
 with some coarse raillery, Johnson answered him 
 thus, " Sir, your wife, under pretence of keeping 
 a baivd'^-hoiise, is a receiver of stolen goods ". 
 One evening when he and Mr. Burke and Mr. 
 Langton were in company together, and the 
 admirable scolding of Timon of Athens was 
 mentioned, this instance of Johnson's was 
 223
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 quoted, and thought to have .it least equal 
 excellence. 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 Johnson could not brook appearing to be 
 worsted in argument, even when he had taken 
 the wrong side, to show the force and dexterity 
 of his talents. VVhen, therefore, he perceived 
 that his opponent gained ground, he had re- 
 course to some sudden mode of robust sophis- 
 try. Once, when I was pressing upon him 
 with visible advantage, he stopped me thus : — 
 " My dear Boswell, let's have no more of this ; 
 you'll make nothing of it. I'd rather have you 
 whistle a Scotch tune." 
 
 Care, however, must be taken to distinguish 
 between Johnson when he " talked for victory", 
 and Johnson when he had no desire but to in- 
 form and illustrate. — " One of Johnson's prin- 
 cipal talents," says an eminent friend of his, 
 " was shown in maintaining the wrong side of 
 an argument, and in a splendid perversion of the 
 truth. If you could contrive to have his fair 
 opinion on a subject, and without any bias 
 from personal prejudice, or from a wish to be 
 victorious in argument, it was wisdom itself, 
 not only convincing, but overpowering." 
 
 He had, however, all his life habituated him- 
 self to consider conversation as a trial of intel- 
 lectual vigour and skill; and to this I think we 
 may venture to ascribe that unexampled richness 
 and brilliancy which appeared in his own. As 
 a proof at once of his eagerness for colloquial 
 224
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 distinction, and his high notion of this emi- 
 nent friend, he once addressed him thus: — 
 " , we now have been several hours to- 
 gether; and you have said but one thing for 
 which I envied you." — The Life. 1781. 
 
 Johnson's dexterity in retort, when he 
 seemed to be driven to an extremity by his 
 adversary, was very remarkable. Of his power 
 in this respect, our common friend, Mr. Wind- 
 ham, of Norfolk, has been pleased to furnish 
 me with an eminent instance. However un- 
 favourable to Scotland, he uniformly gave 
 liberal praise to George Buchanan, as a writer. 
 In a conversation concerning the literary merits 
 of the two countries, in which Buchanan was 
 introduced, a Scotchman, imagining that on this 
 ground he should have an undoubted triumph 
 over him, exclaimeci, " Ah, Dr. Johnson, what 
 would you have said of Buchanan, had he been 
 an Englishman?" — "Why, Sir," said Johnson 
 after a little pause, " I should not have said of 
 Buchanan, had he been an Englishman, what I will 
 now say of him as a Scotchman, — that he was tlie 
 only man of genius his country ever produced." 
 
 And this brings to my recollection another 
 instance of the same nature. I once reminded 
 him that when Dr. Adam Smith was expatiat- 
 ing on the beauties of Glasgow, he had cut him 
 short by saying, " Pray, Sir, have you ever seen 
 Brentford?" and I took the liberty to add, 
 " My dear Sir, surely that was shocking^ — 
 " Why, then. Sir," he replied, " you have 
 never seen Brentford." — The Life. 1783. 
 ( B 212 ) 225 R
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 A dull country magistrate gave Johnson a 
 long tedious account of his exercising his 
 criminal jurisdiction, the result of which was 
 having sentenced four convicts to transporta- 
 tion. Johnson, in an agony of impatience to 
 get rid of such a companion, exclaimed, " I 
 heartily wish, Sir, that I were a fifth." 
 
 — The L'ff. 1784. 
 
 Johnson was present when a tragedy was 
 read, in which there occurred this line : — 
 " Who rules o'er freemen sliould himself be free ". 
 
 The company having admired it much — " I 
 cannot agree with you," said Johnson ; " it 
 might as well he said, 
 
 "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat". 
 
 — The Life. 1784. 
 
 / Johnson having argued for some time with 
 a pertinacious gentleman : his opponent, who 
 had talked in a very puzzling manner, hap- 
 pened to say, "I don't understand you. Sir;" 
 upon which Johnson observed, " Sir, I have 
 found you an argument ; but I am not obliged 
 to find you an understanding." 
 
 — The Life. 1784. 
 
 -- A foppish physician once reminded Johnson 
 of his having been in company with him on a 
 former occasion: — " I do not remember it, Sir." 
 The physician still insisted ; adding, that he 
 that day wore so fine a coat that it must have 
 attracted his notice. " Sir," said Johnson, 
 226
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 " had you been dipped in Pactolns, I should 
 not have noticed you." 
 
 — The Life. 17S4.. 
 
 A gentleman having said that a conge d''elire 
 has not, perhaps, the force of a command, but 
 may be considered only as a strong recom- 
 mendation ; — " Sir," replied Johnson, who 
 overheard him, " it is such a recommendation, 
 as if I should throw you out of a two pair of 
 stairs window, and recommend you to fall soft." 
 
 One of the company provoked him greatly by 
 doing what he could least of all bear, which was 
 quoting something of his own writing, against 
 what he then maintained. "What, Sir", cried 
 the gentleman, " do you say to 
 
 ' The busy day, the peaceful night, 
 Unfelt, uncounted, glided by' t" 
 
 Johnson finding himself thus presented as 
 giving an instance of a man who had lived 
 without uneasiness, was much offended ; for 
 he looked upon such a quotation as unfair. 
 His anger burst out in an unjustifiable retort, 
 insinuating that the gentleman's remark was a 
 sally of ebriety; " Sir, there is one passion I 
 would advise you to command; when you have 
 drunk out that glass, don't drink another." 
 Here was exemplified what Goldsmith said of 
 him, with the aid of a very witty image from 
 one of Gibber's comedies: "There is no argu- 
 ing with Johnson; for if his pistol misses fire, 
 he knocks you down with the butt-end oi it." 
 227
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 Another was this : when a gentleman of 
 eminence in the literary world was violently 
 censured for attacking people by anonymous 
 paragraphs in newspapers, he, from the spirit 
 of contradiction as I thought, took up his 
 defence, and said, "Come, come, this is not 
 so terrible a crime; he means only to vex them 
 a little. I do not say that I should do it ; but 
 there is a great difference between him and 
 me ; what is fit for Hephaestion is not fit for 
 Alexander." — Another, when I told him that a 
 young and handsome countess had said to me, 
 " I should think that to be praised by Dr. 
 Johnson would make one a fool all one's life ;" 
 and that I answered, " Madam, I shall make 
 him a fool to-day, by repeating this to him ; " 
 he said, " I am too old to be made a fool ; but 
 if you say I am made a fool, I shall not deny it. 
 I am much pleased with a compliment, espe- 
 cially from a pretty woman." 
 
 — The Life. 1784, May 15th. 
 
 His Irritability and Quarrels 
 
 He supped at the Crown and Anchor tavern, 
 in the Strand, with a company whom I collected 
 to meet him. They were Dr. Percy, now 
 Bishop of Dromore, Dr. Douglas, now Bishop 
 of Salisbury, Mr. Langton, Dr. Robertson, the 
 historian, Dr. Hugh Blair, and Mr. Thomas 
 Davies, who wished much to be introduced to 
 these eminent Scotch literati ; but on the 
 present occasion he had very little opportunity 
 of hearing them talk, for with an excess of 
 228
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 prudence, for which Johnson afterwards found 
 fault with them, they hardly opened their lips, 
 and that only to say something which they 
 were certain would not expose them to the 
 sword of Goliath : such was their anxiety for 
 their fame when in the presence of Johnson. 
 He was this evening in remarkable vigour of 
 mind, and eager to exert himself in conver- 
 sation, which he did with great readiness and 
 fluency ; but I am sorry to find that I have 
 preserved but a small part of what passed. 
 
 He was vehement against old Dr. Mounsey, 
 of Chelsea College, as "a fellow who swore and 
 talked bawdy ". " I have often been in his 
 company," said Dr. Percy, " and never heard 
 him swear or talk bawdy." Mr. Da vies, who 
 sat next to Dr. Percy, having after this had 
 some conversation aside with him, made a 
 discovery which, in his zeal to pay court to 
 Dr. Johnson, he eagerly proclaimed aloud from 
 the foot of the table : " Oh, Sir, I have found 
 out a very good reason why Dr. Percy never 
 heard Mounsey swear or talk bawdy, for he 
 tells me he never saw him but at the Duke 
 of Northumberland's table." "And so. Sir," 
 said Dr. Johnson loudly to Dr. Percy, " you 
 would shield this man from the charge of 
 swearing and talking bav/dy, because he did 
 not do so at the Duke of Northumberland's 
 table. Sir, you might as well tell us that you 
 had seen him hold up his hand at the Old 
 Bailey, and he neither swore nor talked bawdy; 
 or that you had seen him in the cart at Tyburn, 
 and he neither swore nor talked bawdy. And 
 229
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 is it thus, Sir, that you presume to controvert 
 what I have related?" Dr. Johnson's anim- 
 adversion was uttered in such a manner that 
 Dr. Percy seemed to be displeased, and soon 
 afterwards left the company, of which Johnson 
 did not at that time take any notice. 
 
 Swift having been mentioned, Johnson, as 
 usual, treated him with little respect as an 
 author. Some of us endeavoured to support 
 the Dean of St. Patrick's, by various arguments. 
 One in particular praised his Conduct of the 
 Allies. Johnson : " Sir, his Conduct of the Allies 
 is a performance of very little ability". "Sure- 
 ly, Sir," said Dr. Douglas, "you must allow it 
 has strong facts." Johnson : " Why, yes. Sir ; 
 but what is that to the merit of the composi- 
 tion ? In the Sessions-paper of the Old Bailey 
 there are strong facts. Housebreaking is a 
 strong fact ; robbery is a strong fact ; and 
 murder is a mighty strong fact ; but is great 
 praise due to the historian of those strong 
 facts ? No, Sir, Swift has told what he had 
 to tell distinctly enough, but that is all. He 
 had to count ten, and he has counted it right." 
 — Then recollecting that Mr. Davies, by acting 
 as an informer, had been the occasion of his 
 talking somewhat too harshly to his friend Dr. 
 Percy, for which, probably, when the first 
 ebullition was over he felt some compunction, 
 he took an opportunity to give him a hit : so 
 added, with a preparatory laugh, " Why, Sir, 
 Tom Davies might have written the Conduct of 
 the Allies.'" Poor Tom being thus suddenly 
 dragged into ludicrous notice in presence of the 
 230
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 Scottish Doctors, to whom he was ambitious of 
 appearing to advantage, was grievously morti- 
 fied. Nor did his punishment rest here ; for 
 upon subsequent occasions, whenever he, 
 " statesman all o'er ", assumed a strutting im- 
 portance, I used to hail him " The Author of the 
 Conduct oj the J /lies ". 
 
 When I calleci upon Dr. Johnson next morn- 
 ing, I found him highly satisfied with his collo- 
 quial prowess the preceding evening. " Well," 
 said he, ''we had good talk." Boswell: "Yes, 
 Sir, you tossed and gored several persons ". 
 — The Life. 1768, June. 
 
 After dinner our conversation first turned 
 upon Pope. Johnson said, his characters of 
 men were admirably drawn, those of women 
 not so well. He repeateci to us, in his forcible 
 melodious manner, the concluding lines of the 
 Dunciad. While he was talking loudly in 
 praise of those lines, one of the company ven- 
 tured to say, " Too fine for such a poem : a 
 poem on what?" Johnson (with a disdainful 
 look) : " Why, on dunces. It was worth while 
 being a dunce then. Ah, Sir, hadst thou lived 
 in those days ! It is not worth while being 
 a dunce now, when there are no wits." When 
 Toplady was going to speak, Johnson uttered 
 some sound which led Goldsmith to think that 
 he was beginning again, and taking the words 
 from Toplady. Upon which, he seized this op- 
 portunity of venting his own envy and spleen, 
 under the pretext of supporting another person: 
 "Sir," said he to Johnson, "the gentleman has 
 231
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 heard you patiently for an hour ; pray allow us 
 now to hear him." Johnson (sternly): "Sir, I 
 was not interrupting the gentleman. I was only 
 giving him a signal of my attention. Sir, you 
 are impertinent." Goldsmith made no reply, 
 but continued in the company for some time. 
 
 He and Mr. Langton and I went together 
 to the Club, where we found Mr. Burke, Mr. 
 Garrick, and some other members, and amongst 
 them our friend Goldsmith, who sat silently 
 brooding over Johnson's reprimand to him 
 after dinner. Johnson perceived this, and said 
 aside to some of us, " I'll make Goldsmith for- 
 give me ;" and then called to him in a loud 
 voice, " Dr. Goldsmith, something passed 
 to-day where you and I dined ; I ask your 
 pardon." Goldsmith answered placidly, " It 
 must be much from you. Sir, that I take ill." 
 And so at once the difference was over, and 
 they were on as easy terms as ever, and 
 Goldsmith rattled away as usual. 
 
 — The Life. 1769, Oct. i6th. 
 
 After breakfast. Dr. Johnson and I, and 
 Joseph mounted horses, and Col and the cap- 
 tain walked with us about a short mile across 
 the island. We paid a visit to the Reverend 
 Mr. Hector M'Lean. His parish consists of 
 the islands of Col and Tyr-yi. He was about 
 seventy-seven years of age, a decent ecclesiastic, 
 dressed in a full suit of black clothes, and a 
 black wig. He appeared like a Dutch pastor, 
 or one of the assembly of divines at West- 
 minster. Dr. Johnson observed to me after- 
 232
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 wards, " that he was a fine old man, and was 
 as well-dressed, and had as much dignity in 
 his appearance as the dean of a cathedral ". 
 We were told, that he had a valuable library, 
 though but poor accommodation for it, being 
 obliged to keep his books in large chests. It 
 was curious to see him and Dr. Johnson to- 
 gether. Neither of them heard very distinctly; 
 so each of them talked in his own way, and at 
 the same time. Mr. M'Lean said, he had a 
 confutation of Bayle, by Leibnitz. Johnson : 
 " A confutation of Bayle, Sir ! What part of 
 Bayle do you mean ? The greatest part of his 
 writings is not confutable: it is historical and 
 critical." Mr. M'Lean said, " the irreligious 
 part " ; and proceeded to talk of Leibnitz's 
 controversy with Clarke, calling Leibnitz a 
 great man. Johnson : " Why, Sir, Leibnitz 
 persisted in affirming that Newton called space 
 sensor'ium numhns, notwithstanding he was cor- 
 rected, and desired to observe that Newton's 
 words were quasi sensor'ium mwihiis. No, Sir; 
 Leibnitz v/as as paltry a fellow as I know. 
 Out of respect to Queen Caroline, who patron- 
 ized him, Clarke treated him too well." 
 
 During the time that Dr. Johnson was thus 
 going on, the old minister was standing with 
 his back to the fire, cresting up erect, pulling 
 down the front of his periwig, and talking 
 what a great man Leibnitz was. To give an 
 idea of the scene, would require a page with 
 two columns; but it ought rather to be repre- 
 sented by two good players. The old gentle- 
 man said, Clarke was very wicked, for going so 
 233
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 much into the Arian system. " I will not say 
 he was wicked," said Dr. Johnson; "he might 
 be mistaken." M*Lean: "He was wicked, to 
 shut his eyes against the Scriptures ; and 
 worthy men in England have since confuted 
 him to all intents and purposes". Johnson: 
 " I know not ivlio has confuted him to all 
 intents and purposes ". Here again there was 
 a double talking, each continuing to maintain 
 his own argument, without hearing exactly 
 what the other said. 
 
 I regretted that Dr. Johnson did not practise 
 the art of accommodating himself to different 
 sorts of people. Had he been softer with this 
 venerable old man, we might have had more 
 conversation ; but his forcible spirit, and im- 
 petuosity of manner may be said to spare 
 neither sex nor age. I have seen even Mrs. 
 Thrale stunned; but I have often maintained, 
 that it is better he should retain his own 
 manner. Pliability of address I conceive to be 
 inconsistent with that majestic power of mind 
 which he possesses, and which produces such 
 noble effects. A lofty oak will not bend like 
 a supple willow. 
 
 He told me afterwards, he liked firmness 
 in an old man, and was pleased to see Mr. 
 M'Lean so orthodox. "At his age, it is too 
 late for a man to be asking himself questions 
 as to his belief." 
 
 — The Tour, i-j-ji, Oct. ftli. 
 
 Books of Travels having been mentioned, 
 Johnson praised Pennant very highly, as he did 
 234
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 at Dunvegan, in the Isle of Sky. Dr. Percy, 
 knowing himself to be the heir male of the 
 ancient Percys, and having the warmest and 
 most dutiful attachment to the noble House of 
 Northumberland, could not sit quietly and hear 
 a man praised, who had spoken disrespectfully 
 of Alnwick Castle, and the Duke's pleasure- 
 grounds, especially as he thought meanly of his 
 Travels. He therefore opposed Johnson eagerly. 
 Johnson : " Pennant, in what he has said of 
 Alnwick, has done what he intended; he has 
 made you very angry". Percy: "He has said, 
 the garden is trim, which is representing it, like 
 a citizen's parterre, when the truth is, there is a 
 very large extent of fine turf and gravel walks". 
 Johnson : " According to your own account. 
 Sir, Pennant is right. It is trim. Here is 
 grass cut close, and gravel rolled smooth. Is 
 not that trim ? The extent is nothing against 
 that; a mile may be as trim as a square yard. 
 Your extent puts me in mind of the citizen's 
 enlarged dinner, two pieces of roast beef and 
 two puddings. There is no variety, no mind 
 exerted in laying out the ground, no trees." 
 Percy : " He pretends to give the natural his- 
 tory of Northumberland, and yet takes no notice 
 of the immense number of trees planted there 
 of late ". Johnson : " That, Sir, has nothing 
 to do with the natural history ; that is civil 
 history. A man who gives the natural history 
 of the oak, is not to tell how many oaks have 
 been planted in this place or that. A man 
 who gives the natural history of the cow, is not 
 to tell how many cows are milked at Islington. 
 235
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 The animal is the same, whether milked in the 
 Park or at Islington." Percy: " Pennant does 
 not describe well; a carrier who goes along the 
 side of Lochlomond would describe it better". 
 Johnson: "I think he describes very well". 
 Percy : " I travelled after him ". Johnson : 
 "And / travelled after him". Percy: "But, 
 my good friend, you are short-sighted, and do 
 not see so well as I do ". I wondered at Dr. 
 Percy's venturing thus. Dr. Johnson said no- 
 thing at the time ; but inflammable particles 
 were collecting for a cloud to burst. In a little 
 while Dr. Percy said something more in dis- 
 paragement of Pennant. Johnson (pointedly): 
 "This is the resentment of a narrow mind, 
 because he did not find everything in Northum- 
 berland ". Percy (feeling the stroke) : " Sir, 
 you may be as rude as you please". Johnson: 
 " Hold, Sir! Don't talk of rudeness; remember, 
 Sir, you told me (puffing hard with passion 
 struggling for a vent) I was short-sighted. We 
 have done with civility. We are to be as rude 
 as we please." Percy : " Upon my honour, 
 Sir, I did not mean to be uncivil". Johnson: 
 " I cannot say so. Sir; for I did mean to be 
 uncivil, thinking you had been uncivil ". Dr. 
 Percy rose, ran up to him, and taking him by 
 the hand, assured him affectionately that his 
 meaning had been misunderstood; upon which 
 a reconciliation instantly took place. John- 
 son : " My dear Sir, I am willing you shall 
 hang Pennant ". Percy (resuming the former 
 subject): "Pennant complains that the helmet 
 is not hung out to invite to the hall of hospi- 
 236
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 tality. Now, I never heard that it was a cus- 
 tom to hang out a helmet^ Johnson: "Hang 
 him up, hang him up ". Boswell (humouring 
 the joke) : " Hang out his skull instead of a 
 helmet, and you may drink ale out of it in your 
 hall of Odin, as he is your enemy; that will be 
 truly ancient. There will be 'Northern Antiquities." 
 Johnson: "He's a Whig, Sir; a sad dog (smil- 
 ing at his own violent expressions, merely for 
 political difference of opinion). But he's the 
 best traveller I ever read ; he observes more 
 things than anyone else does." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 12th. 
 
 On Friday, April i6th, I had been present 
 at the trial of the unfortunate Mr. Hackman, 
 who, in a fit of frantic jealous love, had shot 
 Miss Ray, the favourite of a nobleman. John- 
 son, in whose company I had dined to-day 
 with some other friends, was much Interested 
 by my account of what passed, and particularly 
 with his prayer for the mercy of heaven. He 
 said, in a solemn fervid tone, " I hope he shall 
 find mercy." 
 
 This day a violent altercation arose between 
 Johnson and Beauclerk [at the Club], which 
 having made much noise at the time, I think it 
 proper, in order to prevent any future misre- 
 presentation, to give a minute account of it. 
 
 In talking of Hackman, Johnson argued, as 
 Judge Blackstone had done, that his being 
 furnished with two pistols was a proof that he 
 meant to shoot two persons. Mr. Beauclerk 
 said, " No ; for that every wise man who in- 
 237
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 tended to shoot himself took two pistols, that 
 he might be sure of doing it at once. Lord 
 
 's cook shot himself with one pistol, and 
 
 lived ten days in great agony. Mr. , who 
 
 loved butter muHins, but durst not eat them 
 because they disagreed with his stomach, re- 
 solved to shoot himself; and then he ate three 
 buttered muffins for breakfast, before shooting 
 himself, knowing that he should not be troubled 
 with indigestion ; he had two charged pistols ; 
 one was found lying charged upon the table by 
 him, after he had shot himself with the other." 
 "Well," said Johnson, with an air of triumph, 
 " you see here one pistol was sufficient." 
 Beauclerk replied smartly, " Because it hap- 
 pened to kill him." And either then or very 
 little afterwards, being piqued at Johnson's 
 triumphant remark, added, " This is what you 
 don't know, and I do." There was then a 
 cessation of the dispute ; and some minutes 
 intervened, during which dinner and the glass 
 went on cheerfully ; when Johnson suddenly 
 and abruptly exclaimed, " Mr. Beauclerk, how 
 came you to talk so petulantly to me, as, * This 
 is what you don't know, but what I know?' 
 One thing I know, which '^ou don't seem to 
 know, that you are very uncivil." Beauclerk: 
 " Because yoa began by being uncivil (which 
 you always are)". The words in parenthesis 
 were, I believe, not heard by Dr. Johnson. 
 Here again there was a cessation of arms. 
 Johnson told me that the reason why he 
 waited at first some time without taking any 
 notice of what Mr. Beauclerk said, was because 
 238
 
 JOHNSON'S PRACTICE 
 
 he was thinking whether he should resent it. 
 But when he considered that there were pre- 
 sent a young Lord and an eminent traveller, 
 two men of the world with whom he had 
 never dined before, he was apprehensive that 
 they might think they had a right to take such 
 liberties with him as Beauclerk did, and there- 
 fore resolved he would not let it pass ; adding, 
 " that he would not appear a coward ". A 
 little while after this, the conversation turned 
 on the violence of Hackman's temper. John- 
 son then said, " It was his business to command 
 his temper, as my friend Mr. Beauclerk should 
 have done some time ago." Beauclerk : " I 
 should learn o? you, Sir". Johnson : " Sir, you 
 have given me opportunities enough of learning, 
 when I have been in your company. No man 
 loves to be treated with contempt." Beau- 
 clerk (with a polite inclination toward John- 
 son): "Sir, you have known me twenty years, 
 and however I may have treated others, you 
 may be sure I could never treat you with 
 contempt ". Johnson : " Sir, you have said 
 more than was necessary ". Thus it ended ; 
 and Beauclerk's coach not having come for him 
 till very late, Dr. Johnson and another gentle- 
 man sat with him a long time after the rest of 
 the company were gone ; and he and I dined 
 at Beauclerk's on the Saturday se'nnight follow- 
 ing. — The Life. 1779, April i6th. 
 
 Johnson was, at a certain period of his life, 
 a good deal with the Earl of Shelburne, now 
 Marquis of Lansdowne, as he doubtless could 
 239
 
 THE ART OF CONVERSATION 
 
 not but have a due value for that nobleman's 
 activity of mind, and uncommon acquisitions of 
 important knowledge, however much he might 
 disapprove of other parts of his lordship's charac- 
 ter, which were widely different from his own. 
 
 Morice IVIorgann, Esq., author of the very in- 
 genious Essay on the Character of Falstaff] being 
 a particular friend of his lordship, had once an 
 opportunity of entertaining Johnson for a day 
 or two at Wycombe, when this lord was ab- 
 sent, and by him I have been favoured with 
 two anecdotes. 
 
 One is not a little to the credit of Johnson's 
 candour. Mr. Morgann and he had a dispute 
 pretty late at night, in which Johnson would 
 not give up, though he had the wrong side, 
 and, in short, both kept the field. Next morn- 
 ing, when they met in the breakfast -room, 
 Dr. Johnson accosted Mr. Morgann thus : 
 " Sir, I have been thinking on our dispute last 
 night — you were in the right." 
 
 The other was as follows : — " Johnson, for 
 sport perhaps, or from the spirit of contra- 
 diction, eagerly maintained that Derrick had 
 merit as a writer. Mr. Morgann argued with 
 him directly in vain. At length he had re- 
 course to this device. " Pray, Sir," said he, 
 " whether do you reckon Derrick or Smart the 
 best poet ?" Johnson at once felt himself roused, 
 and answered, " Sir, there is no settling the 
 point of precedency between a louse and a flea." 
 — The Life. 1783. Spring. 
 
 He entered upon a curious discussion of the 
 240
 
 JOHNSOiN'S PRACTICE 
 
 difference between intuition and sagacity ; one 
 being immediate in its effect, the other re- 
 quiring a circuitous process ; one, he observed, 
 was the c^e of the mind, the other the nose of 
 the mind. 
 
 A young gentleman present took up the ar- 
 gument against him, and maintained that no 
 man ever thinks of the nose of the mind, not 
 adverting that though that figurative sense 
 seems strange to us, as very unusual, it is truly 
 not more forced than Hamlet's " In my mind's 
 eye, Horatio ". He persisted much too long, 
 and appeared to Johnson as putting himself 
 forward as his antagonist with too much pre- 
 sumption : upon which he called to him, in a 
 loud tone, " What is it you are contending for, 
 if you be contending?" — And afterwards ima- 
 gining that the gentleman retorted upon him 
 with a kind of smart drollery, he said, " Mr. 
 
 , it does not become you to talk so to me. 
 
 Besides, ridicule is not your talent ; you have 
 there neither intuition nor sagacity." — The 
 gentleman protested that he had intended no 
 improper freedom, but had the greatest respect 
 for Dr. Johnson. After a short pause, during 
 which we were somewhat uneasy ; — Johnson : 
 " Give me your hand. Sir. You were too 
 
 tedious, and I was too short." Mr. : 
 
 " Sir, I am honoured by your attention in 
 any way". Johnson: "Come, Sir, let's have 
 no more of it. We ofl'ended one another by 
 our contention ; let us not ofi'end the company 
 by our compliments." 
 
 —The Life. 1784, June 27th. 
 
 ( B 212 ) 241 S
 
 The Fear of Death 
 
 I mentioned to him that I had seen the exe- 
 cution of several convicts at Tyburn, two days 
 before, and that none of them seemed to be 
 under any concern. Johnson: "Most of them, 
 Sir, have never thought at all ". Boswell : 
 " But is not the fear of death natural to man ?" 
 Johnson: " So much so, Sir, that the whole of 
 life is but keeping away the thoughts of it". 
 He then, in a low and earnest tone, talked of 
 his meditating upon the awful hour of his own 
 dissolution, and in what manner he should 
 conduct himself upon that occasion: " I know 
 not," said he, " whether I should wish to have 
 a friend by me, or have it all between God and 
 myself." — The Life. 1769, Oct. 19th. 
 
 When we were alone, I introduced the 
 subject of death, and endeavoured to main- 
 tain that the fear of it might be got over. 
 I told him that David Hume said to me, he 
 was no more uneasy to think he should not be 
 after his life, than that he had not. been before he 
 began to exist. Johnson : " Sir, if he really 
 thinks so, his perceptions are disturbed ; he is 
 mad. If he does not think so, he lies. He 
 may tell you he holds his finger in the flame of 
 242
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 a candle, without feeling pain ; would you 
 believe him ? When he dies, he at least gives 
 up all he has." Boswell : " Foote, Sir, told 
 me, that when he was very ill he was not afraid 
 to die". Johnson: "It is not true, Sir. Hold 
 a pistol to Foote's breast, or to Hume's breast, 
 and threaten to kill them, and you'll see how 
 they behave." Boswell: " But may we not 
 fortify our minds for the approach of death ?" — 
 Here I am sensible I was in the wrong, to 
 bring before his view what he ever looked upon 
 with horror; for although when in a celestial 
 frame of mind in his Vanity of Human Wishes, 
 he has supposed death to be " kind Nature's 
 signal for retreat ", from this state of being to 
 " a happier seat ", his thoughts upon this awful 
 change were in general full of dismal apprehen- 
 sions. His mind resembled tlie vast amphi- 
 theatre, the Coliseum at Rome. In the centre 
 stood his judgment, which, like a mighty 
 gladiator, combatted those apprehensions that, 
 like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all 
 around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. 
 After a conflict, he drives them back into their 
 dens ; but not killing them, they were still 
 assailing him. To my question, whether we 
 might not fortify our minds for the approach of 
 death, he answered, in a passion, " No, Sir, let 
 it alone. It matters not how a man dies, but 
 how he lives. The act of dying is not of im- 
 portance, it lasts so short a time." He added 
 (with an earnest look), "A man knows it must 
 be so, and submits. It will do him no good to 
 whine." 
 
 243
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 I attempted to continue the conversation. 
 He was so provoked that he said: " Give us no 
 more of this : " and was thrown into such a 
 state of agitation, that he expressed himself in a 
 way that alarmed and distressed me; showed an 
 impatience that I should leave him, and when I 
 was going away, called to me sternly, " Don't 
 let us meet to-morrow." 
 
 — The Lije. 1769, Oct. 26th. 
 
 We spoke of death. Dr. Johnson on this 
 subject observed, that the boastings of some 
 men, as to dying easily, were idle talk, proceed- 
 ing from partial views. I mentioned Hawthorn- 
 den's Cypres5-g!-ore, where it is said that the 
 world is a mere show; and that it is unreason- 
 able for a man to wish to continue in the 
 show-room, after he has seen it. Let him 
 go cheerfully out, and give place to other 
 spectators. Johnson : " Yes, Sir, if he is sure 
 he is to be well, after he goes out of it. But if 
 he is to grow blind after he goes out of the 
 show-room, and never to see anything again ; 
 or if he does not know whither he is to go next, 
 a man will not go cheerfully out of a show- 
 room. No wise man will be contented to die, 
 If he thinks he is to go into a state of punish- 
 ment. Nay, no wise man will be contented 
 to die, if he thinks he is to fall into annihila- 
 tion : for however unhappy any man's exist- 
 ence may be, he yet would rather have it, than 
 not exist at all. No, there is no rational principle 
 by which a man can die contented, but a trust 
 in the mercy of God, through the merits of 
 244
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 Jesus Christ." This short sermon, delivered 
 with an earnest tone, in a boat upon the sea, 
 which was perfectly calm, on a day appropri- 
 ated to religious worship, while everyone 
 listened with an air of satisfaction, had a most 
 pleasing effect upon my mind. 
 
 Pursuing the same train of serious reflection, 
 he added, that it seemed certain that happiness 
 could not be found in this life, because so many 
 had tried to find it, in such a variety of ways, 
 and had not found it. 
 
 — The Tour. ^JTZ, Sept. 12th. 
 
 While we were chatting in the indolent style 
 of men who were to stay here all this day at 
 least, we were suddenly roused at being told 
 that the wind was fair, that a little fleet of 
 herring-busses was passing by for Mull, and 
 that Mr. Simpson's vessel was about to sail. 
 Hugh M'Donald, the skipper, came to us, and 
 was impatient that we should get ready, which 
 we soon did. Dr. Johnson, with composure 
 and solemnity, repeated the observation of 
 Epictetus, that, " as man has the voyage of 
 death before him, — whatever may be his em- 
 ployment, he should be ready at the Master's 
 call; and an old man should never be far from 
 the shore, lest he should not be able to get 
 himself ready". — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 3rd. 
 
 Let m.e now go back, and glean Johnso7uana. 
 
 The Saturday before we sailed from Slate, I sat 
 
 awhile in the afternoon with Dr. Johnson in his 
 
 room, in a quiet serious frame. I observed, 
 
 245
 
 THH FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 that hardly any man was accurately prepared 
 for dying; but almost every one left something 
 undone, something in confusion ; that my 
 father, indeed, told me he knew one man 
 (Carlisle of Limekilns) after whose death all 
 his papers were found in exact order ; and 
 nothing was omitted in his will. Johnson : 
 "Sir, I had an uncle who died so; but such 
 attention requires great leisure, and great firm- 
 ness of mind. If one was to think constantly 
 of death, the business of life would stand still. 
 I am no friend to making religion appear too 
 hard. Many good people have done harm, by 
 giving severe notions of it. In the same way, 
 as to learning: I never frighten young people 
 with difficulties; on the contrary, I tell them 
 that they may very easily get as much as will 
 do very well. I do not indeed tell them that 
 they will be Bentleys." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 15th. 
 
 As I wandered with my reverend friend in 
 the groves of Auchinleck I told him that, if I 
 survived him, it was my intention to erect a 
 monument to him here, among scenes which, 
 in my mind, were all classical; for in my youth 
 I had appropriated to them many of the descrip- 
 tions of the Roman poets. He could not bear 
 to have death presented to him in any shape ; 
 for his constitutional melancholy made the king 
 of terrors more frightful. He turned off the 
 subject, saying, " Sir, I hope to see your grand- 
 children!" — The Tour. 1773, Nov. 4th. 
 
 246
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 At Dr. Webster's, he said, that he believed 
 hardly any man died without affectation. This 
 remark appears to me to be well founded, and 
 will account for many of the celebrated death- 
 bed sayings which are recorded. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, November 
 
 Mr. Macpherson little knew the character of 
 Dr. Johnson, if he supposed that he could be 
 easily intimidated: for no man was ever more 
 remarkable for personal courage. He had, in- 
 deed, an awful dread of death, or rather, " of 
 something after death " ; and what rational 
 man, who seriously thinks of quitting all that 
 he has ever known, and going into a new and 
 unknown state of being, can be without that 
 dread? But his fear was from reflection; his 
 courage natural. His fear, in that one instance, 
 was the result of philosophical and religious 
 consideration. He feared death, but he feared 
 nothing else, not even what might occasion 
 death. — The Life. 1775. 
 
 I mentioned to Dr. Johnson, that David 
 Hume's persisting in his infidelity, when he 
 was dying, shocked me much. Johnson: "Why 
 should it shock you. Sir? Hume owned he 
 had never read the Testament with attention. 
 Here then was a man who had been at no 
 pains to enquire into the truth of religion, and 
 had continually turned his mind the other way. 
 It was not to be expected that the prospect of 
 death would alter his way of thinking, unless 
 God should send an angel to set him right." 
 247
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 I said I had reason to believe that the thought 
 of annihilation gave Hume no pain. Johnson: 
 " It was not so, Sir. He had a vanity in being 
 thought easy. It is more probable that he 
 should assume an appearance of ease, than so 
 very improbable a thing should be, as a man 
 not afri^id of going (as, in spite of his delusive 
 theory, he cannot be sure but he may go) into 
 an unknown state, and not being uneasy at 
 leaving all he knew. And you are to consider 
 that, upon his own principle of annihilation, 
 he had no motive to speak the truth." The 
 horror of death, which I had always observed 
 in Dr. Johnson, appeared strong to-night. I 
 ventured to tell him that I i-.ad been tor mo- 
 ments in my life not afraid of death; therefore 
 I could suppose another man in that state of 
 mind for a considerable space of time. He 
 said, " He never had a moment in which death 
 was not terrible to him." He added, that it 
 had been observed, that scarce any man dies in 
 public but with apparent resolution; from that 
 desire of praise which never quits us. I said. 
 Dr. Dodd seemed willing to die, and full of 
 hopes of happiness. " Sir," said he, " Dr. Dodd 
 would have given both his hands and both his 
 legs to have lived. The better a man is, the 
 more he is afraid of death, having a clearer 
 view of infinite purity." He owned, that our 
 being in an unhappy uncertainty as to our 
 salvation was mysterious; and said, "Ah! we 
 must wait till we are in anotlier state of being 
 to have many things explained to us." Even 
 the powerful mind of Johnson seemed foiled by 
 248
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 futurity. But I thought that the gloom of un- 
 certainty in solemn religious speculation, being 
 mingled with hope, was yet more consolatory 
 than the emptiness of infidelity. A man can 
 live in thick air, but perishes in an exhausted 
 receiver. 
 
 Dr. Johnson was mvtch pleased with a re- 
 mark which I told him was made to me by 
 General Paoli: — "That it is impossible not to 
 be afraid of death; and that those who at the 
 time of dying are not afraid, are not thinking 
 of death, but of applause, or something else, 
 which keeps death out of their sight: so that 
 all men are equally afraid of death when they 
 see it; only some have a power of turning their 
 sight away from it better than others". 
 
 — The Life. 1777, Sept. i6tii. 
 
 Some ladies, who had been present yester- 
 day when I mentioned his birthday, came to 
 dinner to-day, and plagued him unintention- 
 ally by wishing him joy. I know not why he 
 disliked having his birthday mentioned, unless 
 it were that it reminded him of his approach- 
 ing nearer to death, of which he had a constant 
 dread. 
 
 I mentioned to him a friend of mine who 
 was formerly gloomy from low spirits, and 
 much distressed by the fear of death, but was 
 now uniformly placid, and contemplated his 
 dissolution without any perturbation. " Sir," 
 said Johnson, " this is only a disordered imagi- 
 nation taking a different turn." 
 
 — The Life. 1777, Sept. 19th. 
 249
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 I expressed a liorror at the thought of death. 
 Mrs. Knowles: "Nay, thou should'st not have 
 a horror for what is the gate of life". John- 
 son (standing upon the hearth rolling about, 
 with a serious, solemn, and somewhat gloomy 
 air) : " No rational man can die witJiout un- 
 easy apprehension". Mrs. Knowles: "The 
 Scriptures tell us, ' The righteous shall have 
 hope in his death'". Johnson: " Yes, Madam, 
 that is, he shall not have despair. But, con- 
 sider his hope of salvation must be founded on 
 the terms on which it is promised that the 
 mediation of our Saviour shall be applied to 
 us, — namely, obedience; and where obedience 
 has failed, then, as suppletory to it, repentance. 
 But what man can say that his obedience has 
 been such as he would approve of in another, 
 or even in him.self upon close examination, or 
 that his repentance has not been such as to 
 require being repented of? No man can be 
 sure that his obedience and repentance will 
 obtain salvation." Mrs. Knowles: " But divine 
 intimation of acceptance may be made to the 
 soul". Johnson: "Madam, it may; but I 
 should not think the better of a man who 
 should tell me, on his death-bed, he was sure 
 of salvation. A man cannot be sure himself 
 that he has divine intimation of acceptance; 
 much less can he make others sure that he has 
 it." Boswell: "Then, Sir, we must be con- 
 tented to acknowledge that death is a terrible 
 thing". Johnson: "Yes, Sir. I have made 
 no approaches to a state which can look on it 
 as not terrible." Mrs. Knowles (seeming to 
 250
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 enjoy a pleasing serenity in the persuasion of 
 benignant divine light) : " Does not St. Paul 
 say, ' I have fought the good fight of faith, I 
 have finished my course; henceforth is laid up 
 for me a crow^n of life'?" Johnson: "Yes, 
 Madam; but here was a man inspired, a man 
 who had been converted by supernatural inter- 
 position". Boswell: "In prospect death is 
 dreadful; but in fact we find that people die 
 easy". Johnson: "Why, Sir, most people 
 have not thought much of the matter, so cannot 
 jijy much, and it is supposed they die easy. 
 Few believe it certain they are then to die; 
 and those who do, set themselves to behave 
 with resolution, as a man does who is going 
 to be hanged: — he is not the less unwilling to 
 be hanged." Miss Seward: "There is one 
 mode of the fear of death, which is certainly 
 absurd: and that is the dread of annihilation, 
 which is only a pleasing sleep without a dream". 
 Johnson: "It is neither pleasing nor sleep; it 
 is nothing. Now mere existence is so much 
 better than nothing, that one would rather 
 exist even in pain, than not exist." Boswell: 
 " If annihilation be nothing, then existing in 
 pain is not a comparative state, but is a positive 
 evil, which I cannot think we should choose. 
 I must be allowed to differ here; and it would 
 lessen the hope of a future state founded on the 
 argument, that the Supreme Being, who is good 
 as he is great, will hereafter compensate for our 
 present sufferings in this life. For if existence, 
 such as we have it here, be comparatively a 
 good, we have no reason to complain, though 
 251
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 no more of it should be given to us. But if 
 our only state of existence were in this world, 
 then we might with some reason complain that 
 we are so dissatisfied with our enjoyments com- 
 pared with our desires." Johnson: "The lady 
 confounds annihilation, which is nothing, with 
 the apprehension of it, which is dreadful. It 
 is in the apprehension of it that the horror of 
 annihilation consists." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 15th. 
 
 Having fallen into a very serious fram.e of 
 mind, in which mutual expressions of kindness 
 passed between us, such as would be thought 
 too vain in me to repeat, I talked with regret 
 of the sad inevitable certainty that one of us 
 must survive the other. Johnson: "Yes, Sir, 
 that is an affecting consideration. I remember 
 Swift, in one of his letters to Pope, says, ' I 
 intend to come over, that we may meet once 
 more; and when we must part, it is what 
 happens to all human beings'." Boswf.ll : 
 " The hope that we shall see our departed 
 friends again must support the mind". John- 
 son: "Why yes. Sir". Boswell: "There is 
 a strange unwillingness to part with life, in- 
 dependent of serious fears as to futurity. A 
 reverend friend of ours (naming him) tells me, 
 that he feels an uneasiness at the thoughts of 
 leaving his house, his study, his books." John- 
 son: "This is foolish in . A man need 
 
 not be uneasy on these grounds; for, as he 
 
 will retain his consciousness, he may say with 
 
 the philosopher. Omnia men mecumporto." Bos- 
 
 252
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 well: "True, Sir; we may carry our books in 
 our heads; but still there is something painful 
 in the thought of leaving for ever what has 
 given us pleasure ". 
 
 — The Life. 177", April 17th. 
 
 A clergyman at Bath wrote to him, that in 
 The Morning Ckronich, a passage in The Beauties 
 of Johnson, article Death, had been pointed out 
 as supposed by some readers to recommend 
 suicide, the words being, " To die is the fate 
 of man; but to die with lingering anguish is 
 generally his folly"; and respectfully suggest- 
 ing to him, that such an erroneous notion of 
 any sentence in the writings of an acknowledged 
 friend of religion and virtue, should not pass 
 uncontradicted. 
 
 Johnson thus answered the clergyman's 
 letter: 
 
 "to the reverend MR. , AT BATH 
 
 '■'■May 15, 1782. 
 
 "Sir, 
 
 " Being now in the country in a state of 
 recovery, as I hope, from a very oppressive dis- 
 order, I cannot neglect the acknowledgment of 
 your Christian letter. The Book called The 
 Beauties of Johnson, is the production of I know 
 not whom: I never saw it but by casual in- 
 spection, and considered myself as utterly dis- 
 engaged from its consequences. Of the passage 
 you m.ention, I remember some notice in some 
 paper, but knowing that it must be misrepre- 
 sented, I thought of it no more, nor do I know 
 253
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 where to find it in my own books. I am 
 accustomed to think little of newspapers; but 
 an opinion so weighty and serious as yours has 
 determined me to do, what I should, without 
 your seasonable admonition, have omitted; and 
 I will direct my thought to be shown in its true 
 state. If I could find the passage I would 
 direct you to it. I suppose the tenor is this: — 
 * Acute diseases are the immediate and in- 
 evitable strokes of Heaven; but of them the 
 pain is short, and the conclusion speedy ; 
 chronical disorders, by which we are sus- 
 pended in tedious torture between life and 
 death, are commonly the effect of our own 
 misconduct and intemperance. To die, &c.' 
 This, Sir, you see, is all true and all blameless. 
 I hope some time in the next week to have all 
 rectified. My health has been lately much 
 shaken; if you favour me with any answer, it 
 will be a comfort to me to know that I have 
 your prayers. I am, &c., 
 
 " Sam. Johnson." 
 
 This letter, as might be expected, had its 
 full effect, and the clergyman acknowledged it 
 in grateful and pious terms. 
 
 — The Life. 1782, May 15th. 
 
 Seward : " I wonder that there should be 
 people without religion". Johnson: " Sir, you 
 need not wonder at this, when you consider 
 how large a proportion of almost every man's 
 life is passed without thinking of it. I myself 
 was for some years totally regardless of religion. 
 254
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 It had dropped out of my mind. It was at 
 an early part of my life. Sickness brought it 
 back, and I hope I have never lost it since." 
 BoswELL : " My dear Sir, what a man must 
 you have been without religion ! Why you 
 must have gone on drinking, and swearing, 
 and — " JOHNSON (with a smile) : " I drank 
 enough and swore enough to be sure'. 
 Seward : " One should think that sickness, 
 and the view of death, would make more men 
 religious". Johnson: "Sir, they do not know 
 how to go about it : they have not the first 
 notion. A man who has never had religion 
 before, no more grows religious when he is 
 sick, than a man who has never learned figures 
 can count when he has need of calculation." 
 —The Life. 1783, April 28th. 
 
 "to JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 
 
 ^^Feh. II, 1784. 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 " I hear of many enquiries which your 
 kindness has disposed you to make after me. 
 I have long intended you a long letter, which 
 perhaps the Imagination of its length hindered 
 me from, beginning. I will, therefore, content 
 myself with a shorter. 
 
 " Having promoted the institution of a new 
 Club in the neighbourhood, at the house of an 
 old servant of Thrale's, I went thither to meet 
 the company, and was seized with a spasmodic 
 asthma, so violent, that with difficulty I got to 
 my own house, in which I have been confined 
 ^55
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 eight or nine weeks, and from which I know 
 not when I shall be able to go even to church. 
 The asthma, however, is not the worst. A 
 dropsy gains ground upon me ; my legs and 
 thighs are very much swollen with water, which 
 I should be content if I could keep there, but 
 I am afraid that it will soon be higher. My 
 nights are very sleepless and very tedious. 
 And yet I am extremely afraid of dying. 
 
 " My physicians try to make me iiope, that 
 much of my malady is the effect of cold, and 
 that some degree at least of recovery is to be 
 expected from vernal breezes and summer suns. 
 If my life is prolonged to autumn, I should be 
 glad to try a warmer climate; though how to 
 travel with a diseased body, without a com- 
 panion to conduct me, and with very little 
 money, I do not well see. Ramsay has re- 
 covered his limbs in Italy ; and Fielding was 
 sent to Lisbon, where, indeed, he died; but he 
 was, I believe, past hope when he went. Think 
 for me what I can do. 
 
 " I received your pamphlet, and when I write 
 again may perhaps tell you some opinion about 
 it; but you will forgive a man struggling with 
 disease his neglect of disputes, politics, and 
 pamphlets. Let me have your prayers. My 
 compliments to your lady, and young ones. 
 Ask your physicians about my case: and desire 
 Sir Alexander Dick to write me his opinion. 
 I am, dear Sir, &c., 
 
 " Sam. Johnson." 
 — The Life. 1784, Feb. iith. 
 
 256
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 "to MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD 
 
 ^^ February 23, 1784.. 
 
 " My Dearest Love, 
 
 " I have been extremely ill of an asthma and 
 dropsy, but received, by the mercy of God, 
 sudden and unexpected relief last Thursday, 
 by the discharge of twenty pints of water. 
 Whether I shall continue free, or shall fill 
 again, cannot be told. Pray for me. 
 
 " Death, my dear, is very dreadful ; let us 
 think nothing worth our care but how to pre- 
 pare for it ; what we know amiss in ourselves 
 let us make haste to amend, and put our trust 
 in the mercy of God, and the intercession of 
 our Saviqiji^ 
 
 " I am, dear Madam, 
 
 " Your most humble servant, 
 
 " Sam. Johnson." 
 
 "to the rev. dr. TAYLOR, ASHBOURNE, 
 DERBYSHIRE 
 
 " London, Easter Monday, 
 "April 12, 1784. 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 " What can be the reason that i iiear nothing 
 from you? I hope nothing disables you from 
 writing. What I have seen, and what I have 
 felt, gives me reason to fear everything. Do 
 not omit giving me the comfort of knowing, 
 that after all my losses I have yet a friend left. 
 
 " I want every comfort. My life is very 
 solitary and very cheerless. Though it has 
 ( B 212 ) 257 T
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 pleased God wonderfully to deliver me from 
 the dropsy, I am yet very weak, and have not 
 passed the door since the 13th of December. 
 I hope for some help from warm weather, 
 which will surely come in time. 
 
 " I could not have the consent of the physi- 
 cians to go to church yesterday: I therefore 
 received the holy sacrament at home, in the 
 room where I communicated with dear Mrs. 
 Williams, a little before her death. O my 
 friend, the approach of death is very dreadful. 
 I am afraid to think on that which I know I 
 cannot avoid. It is vain to look round and 
 round for that help which cannot be had. Yet 
 we hope and hope, and fancy that he who has 
 lived to-day may live to-morrow. But let us 
 learn to derive our hope only from Goo. 
 
 " In the meantime let us be kind to one 
 another. I have no friend nov/ living but you, 
 and Mr. Hector, that was the friend of my 
 youth. Do not neglect, dear Sir, yours affec- 
 tionately, " Sam. Johnson." 
 — The Life. 1784, April 12th. 
 
 Johnson, talking of the fear of death, said, 
 " Some people are not afraid, because they 
 look upon salvation as the effect of an absolute 
 decree, and think they feel in themselves the 
 marks of sanctification. Others, and those the 
 most rational in my opinion, look upon salva- 
 tion as conditional: and, as they never can be 
 sure that they have complied with the condi- 
 tions, they are afraid." 
 
 — T/ie Life. 1784, May i6th. 
 2s8
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 On Wednesday, May 19, I sat a part of the 
 evening with him, by ourselves. I observed, 
 that the death of our friends might be a con- 
 solation against the fearof our own dissolution, 
 because we might have more friends in the other 
 world than in this. He perhaps felt this as a 
 reflection upon his apprehension as to death; 
 and said, with heat, " How can a man know 
 "tvhere his departed friends are, or whether they 
 will be his friends in the other world? How 
 many friendships have you known formed upon 
 principles of virtue? Most friendships arc 
 formed by caprice or by chance, mere con- 
 federacies in vice or leagues in folly." 
 
 — The Life. 1784, May 19th. 
 
 I have no note of this evening'cj conversation, 
 except a single fragment. When I mentioned 
 Thomas Lord Lyttelton's vision, the prediction 
 of the time of his death and its exact fulfil- 
 ment; — Johnson: " It is the most extraordinary 
 thing that has happened in my day. I heard 
 it with my own ears, from his uncle. Lord 
 Westcote. I am so glad to have every evidence 
 of the spiritual world, that I am willing to be- 
 lieve it." Dr. Adams : " You have evidence 
 enough; good evidence, which needs not much 
 support". Johnson: " I like to have more". 
 
 Mr. Henderson, with whom I had sauntered 
 in the venerable walks of Merton College, and 
 found him a very learned and pious man, supped 
 with us. Dr. Johnson surprised him not a 
 little, by acknowledging, with a look of horror, 
 that he was much oppressed by the fear of 
 259
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 death. The amiable Dr. AcLims suggested that 
 God was infinitely good. Johnson: "That he 
 is infinitely good, as far as the perfection of his 
 nature will allow, I certainly believe; but it is 
 necessary for good upon the whole, that in- 
 dividuals should be punished. As to an in- 
 dividual, therefore, he is not infinitely good ; 
 and as I cannot be sure that I have fulfilled the 
 conditions on which salvation is granted, I am 
 afraid I may be one of those who shall be 
 damned." (Looking dismally.) Dr. Adams : 
 "What do you mean by damned?" Johnson 
 (passionately and loudly): "Sent to hell, Sir, 
 and punished everlastingly". Dr. Adams: "I 
 don't believe that doctrine". Johnson: " Hold, 
 Sir; do you believe that some will be punished 
 at all?" Dr. Adams: "Being excluded from 
 heaven will be a punishment; yet there may 
 be no great positive suffering". Johnson : 
 " Well, Sir, but if you admit any degree of 
 punishment, there is an end of your argument 
 for infinite goodness sim.ply considered ; for 
 infinite goodness would inflict no punishment 
 whatever. There is no infinite goodness 
 physically considered; morally there is." Bos- 
 well: " But may not a man attain to such a 
 degree of hope as not to be uneasy from the 
 fear of death?" Johnson: "A man may have 
 such a degree of hope as to keep him quiet. 
 You see I am not quiet, from the vehemence 
 with which I talk; but I do not despair." 
 Mrs. Adams: " You seem, Sir, to forget the 
 merits of our Redeemer". Johnson: "Madam, 
 I do not forget the merits of my Redeemer; 
 260
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 but my Redeemer has said that he will set 
 some on his right hand and some on his left". 
 — He was in gloomy agitation, and said, " I'll 
 have no more on't." — If what has now been 
 stated should be urged by the enemies of 
 Cliristianity, as if its influence on the mind 
 were not benignant, let it be remembered, that 
 Johnson's temperament was melancholy, of 
 which such direful apprehensions of futurit} are 
 often a common effect. We shall presently see, 
 that when he approached nearer to his awful 
 change, his mind became tranquil, and he ex- 
 hibited as much fortitude as becomes a thinking 
 man in that situation. 
 
 — The Life. 1784, June 12th. 
 
 " I have lost dear Mr. Allen ; and wherever 
 I turn, the dead or the dying meet my notice, 
 and force my attention upon misery and mor- 
 tality. Mrs. Barney's escape from so much dan- 
 ger, and her ease after so much pain, throws, 
 however, some radiance of hope upon the 
 gloomy prospect. May her recovery be per- 
 fect, and her continuance long. I struggle 
 hard for life. I take physic, and take air ; my 
 friend's chariot is always ready. We have run 
 this morning twenty-four miles, and could run 
 fort}'-eight more. But ivho can run the race with 
 death?'"' —The Life. 1784, Aug. 2nd. 
 
 " On which side soever I turn, mortality 
 
 presents its formidable frown. I left three old 
 
 friends at Lichfield, wlien I was last there, and 
 
 now found them all dead. I no sooner lost 
 
 261
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 sight of dear Allen, than I am told that I shall 
 see him no more. That we must all die, we 
 always knew ; I wish I had sooner remembered 
 it. Do not think me intrusive or importunate, 
 If I now call, dear Sir, upon you to remember 
 it." —The Life. 1784, Au^. 19th. 
 
 Death had always been to him an object of 
 terror; so that, though by no means happy, he 
 still clung to life with an eagerness at which 
 many have wondered. At any time when he 
 was ill, he was very much pleased to be told 
 that he looked better. An ingenious member 
 of the Eumelian Club informs me, that upon one 
 occasion, when he said to him that he saw 
 health returning to his cheek, Johnson seized 
 him by the hand and exclaimed, " Sir, you are 
 one of the kindest friends I ever had". 
 
 His own state of his views of futurity will 
 appear truly rational; and may, perhaps, im- 
 press the unthinking with seriousness. 
 
 " You know," says he, " I never thought 
 confidence with respect to futurity, any part of 
 the character of a brave, a wise, or a good man. 
 Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing; 
 wisdom impresses strongly the consciousness 
 of those faults, of which it is, perhaps, itself, 
 an aggravation; and goodness, always wishing 
 to be better, and imputing every deficiency to 
 criminal negligence, and every fault to voluntary 
 corruption, never dares to suppose the condi- 
 tion of forgiveness fulfilled, nor what is wanting 
 in the crime supplied b)- penitence. 
 
 "This is the state of the best; but what 
 262
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH 
 
 must he the condition of him whose heart will 
 not suffer him to rank himself among the best, 
 or among the good? — Such must be his dread 
 of the approaching trial, as will leave him little 
 attention to the opinion of those whom he is 
 leaving for ever; and the serenity that is not 
 felt, it can be no virtue to feign." 
 
 — The Life. 1784. 
 
 263
 
 Johnson's Prejudice against 
 the Scots 
 
 We find in Johnson's London the most 
 spirited invectives against tyranny and oppres- 
 sion, the warmest predilection for his own 
 country, and the purest love of virtue ; inter- 
 spersed with traits of his own particular char- 
 acter and situation, not omitting his prejudices 
 as a " true-born Englishman " not only against 
 foreign countries, but against Ireland and Scot- 
 land. — The Life. 1738. 
 
 The public has had, from another pen, a 
 long detail of what had been done in this 
 country by prior lexicographers ; and no doubt 
 Johnson v>'as wise to avail himself of them, so 
 far as they went : but the learned yet judicious 
 research of etymology, the various yet accurate 
 display of definition, and the rich collection of 
 authorities were reserved for the superior mind 
 of our great philologist. For the mechanical 
 part he employed, as he told me, six amanu- 
 enses ; and let it be remembered by the natives 
 of North Britain, to whom he is supposed to 
 have been so hostile, that five of them were 
 of that country. There were two Messieurs 
 264
 
 A PREJUDICE 
 
 Macbean ; Mr. Shiels, who, we shall hereafter 
 see, partly wrote the Lives of the Poets to which 
 the name of Gibber is affixed ; Mr. Stewart, 
 son of Mr. George Stewart, bookseller at Edin- 
 burgh ; and a Mr. Maitland. The sixth of 
 these humble assistants was Mr. Peyton, who, 
 I believe, taught French, and publislied some 
 elementary tracts. 
 
 To all these painful labourers Johnson showed 
 a never-ceasing kindness, so far as they stood 
 in need of it. The elder Mr. Macbean had 
 afterwards the honour of being librarian to 
 Archibald Duke of Argyle, for many years, but 
 was left without a shilling. Johnson wrote 
 for him a Preface to J System of Ancient 
 Geography ; and, by the favour of Lord Thur- 
 low, got him admitted a poor brother of the 
 Charterhouse. For Shiels, who died of a con- 
 sumption, he had much tenderness ; and it has 
 been thought that some choice sentences in 
 the Lives of the Poets were supplied by him. 
 Peyton, when reduced to penury, had frequent 
 aid from the bounty of Johnson, who at last 
 was at the expense of burying hiin and his wife. 
 — 'L'he Life. 1747. 
 
 " You know that we have a new King and a 
 new Parliament. Of the new Parliament Fitz- 
 herbert is a member. V/e were so weary of 
 our old King, that we are much pleased with his 
 successor ; of whom we are so much inclined 
 to hope great things, that most of us begin 
 already to believe them. The young man is 
 hitherto blameless ; but it would be unreason- 
 26s
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 able to expect much from the immaturity of 
 juvenile years, and the ignorance of princely 
 education. He has been long in the hands of 
 the Scots, and has already favoured them more 
 than the English will contentedly endure. But, 
 perhaps, he scarcely knows whom he has dis- 
 tinguished, or whom he has disgusted." 
 
 — The Life. 1761, June loth. 
 
 At last, on Monday, the i6th of May, when 
 I was sitting in Mr. Davies's back-parlour, after 
 having drunk tea with him and Mrs. Davies, 
 Johnson unexpectedly came into the shop ; and 
 Mr. Davies having perceived him, through the 
 glass-door in the room in which we were sitting, 
 advancing towards us, — he announced his awful 
 approach to me, somewhat in the manner of an 
 actor in the part of Horatio, when he addresses 
 Hamlet on the appearance of his father's ghost, 
 "Look, my Lord, it comes!" I found that I 
 had a very perfect idea of Johnson's figure, 
 from the portrait of him painted by Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds soon after he had published his Dic- 
 tionary, in the attitude of sitting in his easy 
 chair in deep meditation ; which was the first 
 picture his friend did for him, which Sir Joshua 
 very kindly presented to me. Mr. Davies 
 mentioned my name, and respectfully intro- 
 duced me to him. I was much agitated ; and 
 recollecting his prejudice against the Scotch, of 
 which I had heard much, I said to Davies, 
 "Don't tell where I come from." — "From 
 Scotland," cried Davies, roguishly. " Mr. 
 Johnson," said I, " I do indeed come from 
 266
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 Scotland, but I cannot help it." I am willing 
 to flatter myself that I meant this as light 
 pleasantry to soothe and conciliate him, and 
 not as an humiliating abasement at the expense 
 of my country. But however that might be, 
 this speech was somewhat unlucky ; for with 
 that quickness of wit for which he was so 
 remarkable, he seized the expression, " come 
 from Scotland ", which I used in the sense of 
 being of that country ; and, as if I had said 
 that I had come away from it, or left it, retorted, 
 "That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many 
 of your countrymen cannot help." This stroke 
 stunned me a good deal ; and when we had sat 
 down, I felt myself not a little embarrassed, and 
 apprehensive of what might come next. 
 
 — The Life. 1763, May i6th. 
 
 Mr. Ogilvie was unlucky enough to choose 
 for the topic of his conversation the praises of 
 his native country. He began with saying 
 that there was very rich land around Edin- 
 burgh. Goldsmith, who had studied physic 
 there, contradicted this, very untruly, with a 
 sneering laugh. Disconcerted a little by this, 
 Mr. Ogilvie then took a new ground, where, 1 
 suppose, he thought himself perfectly safe ; for 
 he observed, that Scotland had a great many 
 noble wild prospects. Johnson : " I believe. 
 Sir, you have a great many. Norway, too, has 
 noble wild prospects ; and Lapland is remark- 
 able for prodigious noble wild prospects. But, 
 Sir, let me tell you, the noblest prospect which 
 a Scotchman ever sees, is the highroad that 
 267
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 leads hiin to England ! " This unexpected and 
 pointed sally produced a roar of applause. 
 After all, however, those who admire the rude 
 grandeur of nature cannot deny it to Caledonia. 
 — The Life. 1763, July 6th. 
 
 His prejudice against Scotland appeared 
 remarkably strong at this time. When I 
 talked of our advancement in literature, " Sir," 
 said he, "you have learnt a little from us, and 
 you think yourselves very great men. Hume 
 would never have written history had not Vol- 
 taire written it before him. He is an echo of 
 V^oltaire." Boswell : " But, Sir, we have Lord 
 Kames". Johnson: "You have Lord Kames. 
 Keep him ; ha, ha, ha ! We don't envy you 
 him. Do you ever see Dr. Robertson?" Bos- 
 well: "Yes, Sir". Johnson: "Does the dog 
 talk of me ?" Boswell : " Indeed, Sir, he does, 
 and loves you". Thinking that I now had him 
 in a corner, and being solicitous for the literary 
 fame of my country, I pressed him for his 
 opinion on the merit of Dr. Robertson's His- 
 tory of Scotland. But to my surprise, he 
 escaped. " Sir, I love Robertson, and I won't 
 talk of his book." 
 
 It is but justice both to him and Dr. Robert- 
 son to add, that though he indulged himself in 
 this salTy of wit, he had too good taste not to 
 be fully sensible of the merits of that admirable 
 work. —The Life. 1768, Spring. 
 
 I told him that David Hume had made a 
 268
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 short collection of Scotticisms. " I wonder," 
 said Johnson, '• that he should find them." 
 
 — The Life. 1769, September. 
 
 He played off his wit against Scotland with 
 a good-humoured pleasantry, which gave me, 
 though no bigot to national prejudices, an 
 opportunity for a little contest with him. I 
 having said that England was obliged to us for 
 gardeners, almost all their good gardeners being 
 Scotchmen — Johnson : " Why, Sir, thai is be- 
 cause gardening is much more necessary amongst 
 you than with us, which makes so many of 
 your people learn it. It is all gardening with 
 you. Things which grow wild here, must be 
 cultivated with great care in Scotland. Pray, 
 now," throwing himself back in his chair, and 
 laughing, " are you ever able to bring the sloe 
 to perfection ?" 
 
 I boasted that we had the honour of being 
 the first to abolish the unhospitable, trouble- 
 some, and ungracious custom of giving veils to 
 servants. Johnson : " Sir, you abolished veils 
 because you were too poor to be able to give 
 them." — The Life. 1769, Oct. 6th. 
 
 On Thursday, October 19, I passed the 
 evening with him at his house. He advised 
 me to complete a Dictionary of words peculiar 
 to Scotland, of which I showed him a specimen. 
 " Sir," said he, " Ray has made a collection of 
 north country words. By collecting those of 
 your country, you will do a useful thing towards 
 the history of the language." He bade me 
 269
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 also go on with collections which I was making 
 upon the antiijuities of Scotland. " Make a 
 large book — a folio." Boswell : " But of what 
 use will it be, Sir?" Johnson: "Never mind 
 the use; do it". — The Life. 1769, Oct. 19th. 
 
 Dr. Johnson was often accused of preju- 
 dices, nay, antipathy, with regard to the natives 
 of Scotland. Surely, so illiberal a prejudice 
 never entered his mind : and, it is well known, 
 many natives of that respectable country pos- 
 sessed a large share in his esteem ; nor were 
 any of them ever excluded from his good offices 
 as far as opportunity permitted. True it is, he 
 considered the Scotch, nationally, as a crafty, 
 designing jieople, eagerly attentive to their own 
 interest, and too apt to overlook the claims and 
 pretensions of other people. " While they con- 
 fine their benevolence, in a manner, exclusively 
 to those of their own country, they expect to 
 share in the good offices of other people. Now," 
 said Johnson, " this principle is either right or 
 wrong ; if right, we should do well to imitate 
 such conduct ; if wrong, we cannot too much 
 detest it." 
 
 — The Life 1770. Dr. Maxwell's Collectanea. 
 
 Somebody observing that the Scotch High- 
 landers, in the year 1745, ^^'^ made surprising 
 efforts, considering their numerous wants and 
 disadvantages: " Yes, Sir," said he, "their wants 
 were numerous ; but you have not mentioned 
 the greatest of them all — the want of law ". 
 — The Life. 1770. Dr. Maxwell's Co//fr/<?«m. 
 270
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 He would not allow Scotland to derive any 
 credit from Lord Mansfield ; tor he was edu- 
 cated in England. " Much," said he, " may 
 be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young." 
 — The Life. 1772, Spring. 
 
 On Sunday, April 5 th, after attending divine 
 service at St. Paul's church, I found him alone. 
 Of a schoolmaster of his acquaintance, a native 
 of Scotland, he said, " He has a great deal of 
 good about him ; but he is also very defective 
 in some respects. His inner part is good, but 
 his outer part is mighty awkward. You in 
 Scotland do not attain that nice critical skill in 
 languages which we get in our schools in Eng- 
 land. I would not put a boy to him whom I 
 intended for a man of learning. But for the 
 sons of citizens, who are to learn a little, get 
 good morals, and then go to trade, he may do 
 very well." — The Life. 1772, April 5th. 
 
 On Saturday, May ist, we dined by our- 
 selves at our old rendezvous, the Mitre Tavern. 
 He was placid, but not much disposed to talk. 
 He observed, that " The Irish mix better with 
 the English than the Scotch do ; their lan- 
 guage is nearer to English ; as a proof of which, 
 they succeed very well as players, which Scotch- 
 men do not. Then, Sir, they have not that 
 extreme nationality which we find in the Scotch. 
 I will do you, Boswell, the justice to say, that 
 you are the most unscotchijied of your country- 
 men. You are almost the only instance of a 
 Scotchman that I have known, who did not at 
 271
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 every other sentence bring in some other 
 Scotcliraan." —The Life. 1773, May ist. 
 
 His prejudice against Scotland was announced 
 almost as soon as he began to appear in the 
 world of letters. In his London, a poem, are 
 the following nervous lines : — 
 
 " For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land ? 
 Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand ? 
 There none are swept by sudden fate away ; 
 But all, whom hunger spares, with age decay." 
 
 The truth is, like the ancient Greeks and 
 Romans, he allowed himself to look upon all 
 nations but his own as barbarians : not only 
 Hibernia, and Scotland, but Spain, Italy, and 
 France, are attacked in the same poem. If he 
 was particularly prejudiced against the Scots, it 
 was because they were more in his way ; be- 
 cause he thought their success in England 
 rather exceeded the due proportion of their 
 real merit ; and because he could not but see 
 in them that nationality which I believe no 
 liberal-minded Scotsman will deny. He was 
 indeed, if I may be allowed the phrase, at 
 bottom much of a John Bull:, much of a blunt 
 true-born Englishman. There was a stratum of 
 common clay under the rock of marble. He 
 was voraciously fond of good eating ; and he 
 has a great deal of that quality called humour, 
 which gives an oiliness and a gloss to every 
 other quality. 
 
 I am, I flatter myself, completely a citizen of 
 the world. — In my travels through Holland, 
 272
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica, France, 
 I never felt myself from home ; and I sincerely 
 love " every kindred and tongue and people and 
 nation ". I subscribe to what my late truly 
 learned and philosophical friend Mr. Crosbie 
 said, that the English are better animals than 
 the Scots ; they are nearer the fun ; their blood 
 is richer, and more mellow : but when I 
 humour any of them in an outrageous con- 
 tempt of Scotland, I fairly own I treat them as 
 children. And thus I have, at some moments, 
 found myself obliged to treat even Dr. John- 
 son. 
 
 To Scotland however he ventured ; and he 
 returned from it in great good humour, with 
 his prejudices much lessened, and with very 
 grateful feelings of the hospitality with which 
 he was treated ; as is evident from that admir- 
 able work, his Journey to the Western Islands 
 of Scotland, which, to my utter astonishment, 
 has been misapprehended, even to rancour, by 
 many of mj' countrymen. 
 
 — The Tour. Introduction. 
 
 I here began to indulge old Scottish senti- 
 ments, and to express a warm regret, that, by 
 our Union with England, we were no more ; — 
 our independent kingdom was lost. — Johnson : 
 " Sir, never talk of your independency, who 
 could let your Queen remain twenty years in 
 captivity, and then be put to death, without 
 even a pretence of justice, without your ever 
 attempting to rescue her ; and such a Queen 
 too ! as every man of any gallantry of spirit 
 ( B 212 ) 273 U
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 would have sacrificed his life for." Worthy 
 Mr. James Kkrr, Keeper of the Records: 
 " Half our nation was bribed by Knglish 
 money". Johnson: "Sir, that is no defence: 
 that makes you worse". — Good Mr. Brown, 
 Keeper of the Advocates' Library : " We had 
 better say nothing about it". — Boswell : " You 
 would have been glad, however, to have had us 
 last war. Sir, to fight your battles ! " — Johnson: 
 " We should have had you for the same price, 
 though there had been no Union, as we might 
 have had Swiss, or other troops. No, no, I 
 shall agree to a separation. You have only to 
 go home." — Just as he had said this, I, to divert 
 the subject, showed him the signed assurances 
 of the three successive Kings of the Hanover 
 family, to maintain the Presbyterian establish- 
 ment in Scotland. — "We'll give you that," spid 
 he, " into the bargain." 
 
 We next went to the great church of St. 
 Giles, which has lost its original magnificence 
 in the inside, by being divided into four places 
 of Presbyterian worship. " Come," said Dr. 
 Johnson jocularly to Principal Robertson, "let 
 me see what was once a church ! " We entered 
 that division which was formerly called the 
 New Church, and of late the High Church, so 
 well known by the eloquence of Dr. Hugh 
 Blair. It is now very elegantly fitted up ; but 
 it was then shamefully dirty. Dr. Johnson 
 said nothing at the time ; but when we came 
 to the great door of the Royal Infirmary, where, 
 upon a bo.ird, was this inscription, " Clear, your 
 feet!", he turned about slyly, and said, "There 
 274
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 is no occasion for putting this at the doors of 
 your churches !" 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. i6th. 
 
 The conversation then turned on Atheism, 
 on that horrible book, Systeme de la Mature : 
 and on the supposition of an eternal necessity, 
 without design, without a governing mind. — 
 Johnson : " If it were so, why has it ceased? 
 Why don't we see men thus produced around us 
 now? Why, at least, does it not i^eep pace, in 
 some measure, with the progress of tim.e? If 
 it stops because there is now no need of it, 
 then it is plain there is, and ever has been, an 
 all-powerful intelligence. But stay ! " said he, 
 with one of his satiric laughs, "Ha! ha! ha! 
 I shall suppose Scotchmen made necessarily, 
 and Englishmen by choice." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 17th. 
 
 I told him the port here was the mouth of 
 the river or water of Leith. " Not LetheT said 
 Mr. Nairne. "Why, Sir," said Dr. Johnson, 
 "when a Scotchman sets out from this port 
 for England, he forgets his native country." 
 Nairne: " I hope, Sir, you will forget England 
 here". Johnson: "Then 'twill be still more 
 Lethe". He observed of the pier or quay, 
 " You have no occasion for so large a one : 
 your trade does not require it : but you are 
 like a shopkeeper who takes a shop, not only 
 for what he has to put into it, but that it may 
 be believed he has a great deal to put into it." 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. i8th. 
 
 275
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 He then said, " I see a number of people 
 bare-footed here : I suppose you all went so 
 before the Union. Hoswell, your ancestors 
 went so, when they had as much land as your 
 family has now. Yet Auchinleck is the Field 
 of Stones \ there would be bad going bare-footed 
 there. The Lairds, however, did it." I bought 
 some speldings, fish (generally whitings) salted 
 and dried in a particular manner, being dipped 
 in the sea and dried in the sun, and eaten by 
 the Scots by way of a relish. He had never 
 seen them, thougii they were sold in London. 
 I insisted on scoitifying his palate; but he was 
 very reluctant. With difficulty I prevailed with 
 him to let a bit of one of them lie in his mouth. 
 He did not like it. 
 
 — The Tour, lyjl, Aug. i8th. 
 
 We observed two occupations united in the 
 same person, who had hung out two sign-posts. 
 Upon one was, " James Hood, White Iron 
 Smith" {i.e. Tin-plate Worker). Upon another, 
 " The Art of Fencing taught, by James Hood ". 
 Upon this last were painted some trees, and 
 two men fencing, one of whom had hit the 
 other in the eye, to show his great dexterity; 
 so that the art was well taught. Johnson : 
 " Were I studying here, I should go and take 
 a lesson. I remember Hope, in his book on 
 this art, says, ' the Scotch are very good 
 fencers'." — The Tour. iTjz^ Aug. 19th. 
 
 We went and saw Colonel Nairne's garden 
 and grotto. Here was a fine old plane-tree. 
 276
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 Unluckily the colonel said, there was but this 
 and another large tree in the county. This 
 assertion was an excellent cue for Dr. Johnson, 
 who laughed enormously, calling to me to hear 
 it. He had expatiated to me on the nakedness of 
 that part of Scotland which he had seen. His 
 'Journey has been violently abused, for what he 
 has said upon this subject. But let it be con- 
 sidered, that when Dr. Johnson talks of trees, 
 he means trees of good size, such as he was 
 accustomed to see in England, and of these 
 there are certainly very few upon the easteiti 
 coast of Scotland. Besides, he said that he 
 meant to give only a map of the road; and let 
 any traveller observe how many trees, which 
 deserve the name, he can see from the road 
 from Berwick to Aberdeen. Had Dr. Johnson 
 said "there are no trees" upon this line, he 
 would have said what is colloquially true ; 
 because, by no trees, in common speech, we 
 mean few. When he is particular in counting, 
 he may be attacked. I know not how Colonel 
 Nairne came to say there were but two large 
 trees in the county of Fife. I did not perceive 
 that he smiled. There are certainly not a great 
 many, but I could have shown him more than 
 two at Balmuto, from whence my ancestors 
 came, and which now belongs to a branch of 
 my famil}'. 
 
 The grotto was ingeniously constructed. In 
 the front of it were petrified stocks of fir, plane, 
 and some other tree. Dr. Johnson said, "Scot- 
 land has no right to boast of this grotto; it is 
 owing to personal merit. I never denied per- 
 277
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 sonal merit to many of you." — Professor Sliaw 
 said to me, as we walked, " This is a wonderful 
 man : he is master of every subject he handles." 
 Dr. Watson allowed liim a very strong under- 
 standing but wondered at his total inattention 
 to established manners, as he came from Lon- 
 don. — The Tour. i77j, Aug. 20th. 
 
 When we came down from it [the town-hall], 
 I met Mr. Gleg, a merchant here. He went 
 with us to see the English chapel. It is situated 
 on a pretty dry spot, and there is a fine walk 
 to it. It is really an elegant building, both 
 within and without. The organ is adorned with 
 green and gold. Dr. Johnbon gave a shilling 
 extraordinary to the clerk, saying, " He belongs 
 to an honest church". I put him in mind, 
 that episcopals were but dissenters here ; they 
 were only tolerated. " Sir," said he, " we are 
 here, as Christians in Turke}-." 
 
 — The Tour. iTTi, Aug. 21st. 
 
 As we travelled onwards from Montrose, we 
 had the Grampian hills in our view, and some 
 good land around us, but void of trees and 
 hedges. Dr. Johnson has said ludicrously, in 
 his Journey, that the hedges were of stone; for, 
 instead of the verdant thorn to refresh the eye, 
 we found the bare zeal/ or dike intersecting the 
 prospect. He observed, that it was wonderful 
 to see a country so divested, so denuded of 
 trees. — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 21st. 
 
 We set out about eight in the morning, and 
 278
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 breakfasted at Ellon. The landlady said to 
 me, " Is not this the great Doctor that is going 
 about through the country?" I said, "Yes." 
 "Ay," said she, "we heard of him. I made 
 an errand into the room on purpose to see him. 
 There is something great in his appearance: it 
 is a pleasure to have such a man in one's house; 
 a man who does so much good. If I had 
 thought of it, I would have shown him a child 
 of mine, who has had a lump on his throat for 
 some time." "But," said I, "he is not a 
 doctor of physic." "Is he an oculist?" said 
 the landlord. "No," said I, "he is only a 
 very learned man." Landlord: " They say he 
 is the greatest man in England, except Lord 
 Mansfield ". Dr. Johnson was highly enter- 
 tained with this, and I do think he was pleased 
 too. He said, "I like the exception: to have 
 called me the greatest man in England, would 
 have been an unmeaning compliment: but the 
 exception marked that the praise was in earnest; 
 and, in Scotland, the exception must be Lord 
 Mansfield^ or — 5/r John PTingle." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 24th. 
 
 After dinner, we walked to the old castle of 
 Calder (pronounced Cawdor), the Thane of 
 Cawdor's seat. I was sorry that my friend, 
 this " prosperous gentleman ", was not there. 
 The old tower must be of great antiquity. 
 There is a drawbridge, — what has been a moat, 
 — and an ancient court. There is a hawthorn- 
 tree, which rises like a wooden pillar through 
 the rooms of the castle; for, by a strange con- 
 279
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 celt, the walls have been built round it. The 
 thickness of the walls, the small slanting 
 windows, and a great iron door at the entrance 
 on the second story as you ascend the stairs, 
 all indicate the rude times in which this castle 
 was erected. There were here some large 
 venerable trees. 
 
 I was afraid of a quarrel between Dr. John- 
 son and Mr. M'Aulay, who talked slightingly 
 of the lower English clergy. The Doctor gave 
 him a frowning look, and said, "This is a day 
 of novelties: I have seen old trees in Scotland, 
 and I have heard the English clergy treated 
 with disrespect." 
 
 — The Tour. lyTi, Aug. 27th. 
 
 A conversation took place, about saying 
 grace at breakfast (as we do in Scotland) as 
 well as at dinner and supper ; in which Dr. 
 Johnson said, " It is enough if we have stated 
 seasons of prayer ; no matter when. A man 
 may as well pray when he mounts his horse, 
 or a woman when she milks her cow (which 
 Mr. Grant told us is done in the Highlands) 
 as at meals; and custom is to be followed." 
 
 — The Tour. XTJI, Aug. 28th. 
 
 Mr. Keith breakfasted with us. Dr. John- 
 son expatiated rather too strongly upon the 
 benefits derived to Scotland from the Union, 
 and the bad state of our people before it. I 
 am entertained with his copious exaggeration 
 upon that subject ; but I am uneasy when 
 people are by, who do not know him as well 
 280
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 as I do, and may be apt to think Lim narrow- 
 minded. I therefore diverted the subject. 
 
 — T/it Tour. 1773, Aug. 29th. 
 
 After brealifast we got into a boat for Sky. 
 It rained much when we set off, but cleared 
 up as we advanced. One of the boatmen, who 
 spoke English, said that a mile at land was 
 two miles at sea. I then observed, that from 
 Glenelg to Armidale in Sky, which was our 
 present course, and is called twelve, was only 
 six miles : but this he could not understand. 
 " Well," said Dr. Johnson, " never talk to me 
 of the native good sense of the Highlanders. 
 Here is a fellow who calls one mile two, and 
 yet cannot comprehend that twelve such ima- 
 ginary miles make in truth but six." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Sept. 2nd. 
 
 Sir Alexander Macdonald having been an 
 Eton scholar, and being a gentleman of talents. 
 Dr. Johnson had been very well pleased with 
 him in London. But my fellow-traveller and 
 I were now full of the old Highland spirit, 
 and were dissatisfied at hearing of racked rents 
 and emigration; and finding a chief not sur- 
 rounded by his clan. Dr. Johnson said, "Sir, 
 the Highland chiefs should not be allowed to 
 go farther south than Aberdeen. A strong- 
 minded man, like Sir James Macdonald, may 
 be improved by an English education; but in 
 general, they will be tamed into insignificance." 
 — The Tcur. 1773, Sept. 2nd. 
 281
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 IVI}- endeavours to rouse tlic English-bred 
 Chieftain, in whose house we were, to the 
 feudal and patriarchal feelings proving in- 
 effectual, Dr. Johnson this morning tried to 
 bring him to our way of thinking. Johnson: 
 "Were I in your place, Sir, in seven } ears I 
 would make this an independent island. I 
 would roast oxen whole, and hang out a flag 
 as a signal to the Macdonalds to come and 
 get beef and whisky." Sir Alexander was still 
 starting difficulties. Johnson: "Nay, Sir; if 
 you are born to object, I have done with you. 
 Sir, I would have a magazine of arms." Sir 
 Alexander: "They would rust". Johnson: 
 " Let there be men to keep them clean. Your 
 ancestors did not use to let their arms rust." 
 
 We attempted in vain to communicate to 
 him a portion of our enthusiasm. He bore 
 with so polite a good-nature our warm, and 
 what some might call Gothic expostulations on 
 this subject, that I should not forgive myself, 
 were I to record all that Dr. Johnson's ardour 
 led him to say. This day was little better 
 than a blank. — The Tour. 1773, Sept. 4th. 
 
 After supper, I talked of the assiduity of 
 the Scottish clergy, in visiting and privately 
 instructing their parishioners, and observed 
 how much in this they excelled the English 
 clergy. Dr. Johnson would not let this pass. 
 He tried to turn it off" by saying, "There are 
 different ways of instructing. Our clergy pray 
 and preach." M'Leod and I pressed the sub- 
 ject, upon which he grew warm, and broke 
 282
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 forth: " I do not believe your people are better 
 instructed. If they are, it is the blind leading 
 the blind; for your clergy are not instructed 
 themselves." Thinking he had gone a little 
 too far, he checked himself, and added, "When 
 1 talk of the ignorance of your clergy, I talk of 
 them as a body: I do not mean that there are 
 not individuals who are learned (looking at 
 Mr. M'Queen). I suppose there are such 
 among the clergy in Muscovy. The clergy 
 of England have produced the most valuable 
 books in support of religion, both in theory 
 and practice. What have your clergy done, 
 since you sunk into Presbyterianism ? Can 
 you name one book of any value, on a religious 
 subject, written by them?" We were silent. 
 " rii help you. Forbes wrote very well; but 
 I believe he wrote before episcopacy was quite 
 extinguished." And then pausing a little, he 
 said, *' Yes, you have Wishart against Repent- 
 ance." Boswell: "But, Sir, we are not con- 
 tending for the superior learning of our clergy, 
 but for their superior assiduity ". He bore 
 us down again, with thundering against their 
 ignorance, and said to me, " I see you have 
 not been well taught; for you have not charity." 
 He had been in some measure forced into this 
 warmth, by the exulting air which I assumed; 
 for, when he began, he said, " Since you zvill 
 drive the nail!" He again thought of good 
 Mr. M'Queen, and, taking him by the hand, 
 said, " Sir, I did not mean any disrespect to 
 you." 
 
 Here I must observe, that he conquered by 
 283
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 deserting his ground, and not meeting the 
 argument as I had put it. The assiduity of 
 the Scottish clergy is certainly greater than 
 that of the English. His taking up the topic 
 of their not having so much learning, was, 
 though ingenious, yet a fallacy in logic. It 
 was as if there should be a dispute whether 
 a man's hair is well dressed, and Dr. Johnson 
 should say, " Sir, his hair cannot be well 
 dressed; for he has a dirty shirt. No man 
 who has not clean linen has his hair well 
 dressed." When some days afterwards he 
 read this passage, he said, " No, Sir ; I did 
 not say that a man's hair could not be well 
 dressed because he had not clean linen, but 
 because he is bald." 
 
 He used one argument against the Scottish 
 clergy being learned, which I doubt was not 
 good. " As we believe a man dead till we 
 know that he is alive ; so we believe men 
 ignorant till we know that they are learned." 
 Now our maxim in law is, to presume a man 
 alive, till we know he is dead. However, in- 
 deed, it may be answered, that we must first 
 know he has lived ; and that we have never 
 known the learning of the Scottish clergy. 
 Mr. M'Queen, though he was of opinion that 
 Dr. Johnson had deserted the point really in 
 dispute, was much pleased with what he said, 
 and owned to me he th.ought it very just; and 
 Mrs. M'Leod was so much captivated by his 
 eloquence, that she told me, " I was a good 
 advocate for a bad cause." 
 
 — Tlu Tour. 1773, Sept. 23rd. 
 284
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 We resolved not to go ashore again, but lie 
 here in readiness. Dr. Johnson and I had each 
 a bed in the cabin. Col sat at the fire in the 
 fore-castle, with the captain, and Joseph, and 
 the rest. I ate some dry oatmeal, of which I 
 found a barrel in the cabin. I had not done 
 this since I was a boy. Dr. Johnson owned 
 that he too was fond of it when a boy ; a 
 circumstance which I was highly pleased to 
 hear from him, as it gave me an opportunity 
 of observing that, notwithstanding his joke on 
 the article of oats, he was himself a proof that 
 this kind oi food was not peculiar to the people 
 of Scotland. — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 13th. 
 
 We had a very hard journey to-day. I had 
 no bridle for my sheltie, but only a halter ; 
 and Joseph rode without a saddle. At one 
 place, a loch having swelled over the road, we 
 were obliged to plunge through pretty deep 
 water. Dr. Johnson observed, how helpless a 
 man would be, were he travelling here alone, 
 and should meet with any accident; and said, 
 " he longed to get to a countr-y of saddles and 
 bndles''\ He was more out of humour to-day, 
 than he has been in the course of our Tour, 
 being fretted to find that his little horse could 
 scarcely support his weight ; and having 
 suffered a loss, which, though small in itself, 
 was of some consequence to him, while travel- 
 ling the rugged steeps of Mull, where he was 
 at times obliged to walk. The loss that I 
 allude to was that of the large oak-stick, which, 
 as I formerly mentioned, he had brought with 
 285
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 him from London, It was of great use to him 
 in our wild peregrination; for, ever since his 
 last illness in 1766, he has had a weakness in 
 his knees, and has not been able to walk 
 easily. It had too the properties of a measure; 
 for one nail was driven into it at the length of 
 a foot; another at that of a yard. In return 
 for the services it had done him, he said, this 
 morning he would make a present of it to 
 some Museum ; but he little thought he was 
 so soon to lose it. As he preferred riding 
 with a switch, it was entrusted to a fellow to 
 be delivered to our baggage-man, who followed 
 us at some distance; but we never saw it more. 
 I could not persuade him out of a suspicion 
 that it had been stolen. " No, no, my friend," 
 said he, " it is not to be expected that any man 
 in Mull who has got it will part with it. Con- 
 sider, Sir, the value of such a piece of timber 
 here!" —The Tour. 1773, Oct. i6th. 
 
 Sir Allan M'Lean bragged, that Scotland 
 had the advantage of England, by its having 
 more water. Johnson : " Sir, we would not 
 have your water, to take the vile bogs which 
 produce it. You have too much ! A man 
 who is drowned has more water than either of 
 us;" and then he laughed. (But this was 
 surely robust sophistry: for the people of taste 
 in England, who have seen Scotland, own that 
 its variety of rivers and lakes makes it naturally 
 more beautiful than England in that respect.) 
 Pursuing his victory over Sir Allan, he pro- 
 ceeded: "Your country consists of two things, 
 286
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 stone and water. There is, indeed, a little 
 earth above the stone in some places, but a 
 very little; and the stone is always appearing. 
 It is like a man in rags; the naked skin is still 
 peeping out." — The Tour. \TJ^, Oct. 21st. 
 
 On our arrival at the Saracen's Head Inn, at 
 Glasgow, I was made happy by good accounts 
 from home; and Dr. Johnson, who had not re- 
 ceived a single letter since we left Aberdeen, 
 found here a great many, the perusal of which 
 entertained him much. He enjoyed in imagina- 
 tion the comforts which we could now com- 
 mand, and seemed to be in high glee. I 
 remember, he put a leg up on each side of the 
 grate, and said, with a mock solemnity, by way 
 of soliloquy, but loud enough for me to hear 
 it, " Here am I, an English man, sitting by a 
 <ri>^/ fire." — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 28th. 
 
 The professors of the university being in- 
 formed of our arrival, Dr. Stevenson, Dr. Reid, 
 and Pv4r. Anderson, breakfasted with us. Mr. 
 Anderson accompanied us while Dr. Johnson 
 viewed this beautiful city. He had told me 
 that one day in London, when Dr. Adam 
 Smith was boasting of it, he turned to me and 
 said, " Pray, Sir, have you ever seen Brent- 
 ford?" This was surely a strong instance of 
 his impatience, and spirit of contradiction. I 
 put him in mind of it to-day, while he ex- 
 pressed his admiration of the elegant buildings, 
 and whispered him, " Don't you feel some re- 
 morse?" — The Tour. i773> Oct. 29th. 
 287
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Dun, our parish minister, 
 who had dined with us yesterday, with some 
 other company, insisted that Dr. Johnson and 
 I should dine with him to-da}-. This gave 
 me an opportunity to show my friend the road 
 to the church, made by my father at a great 
 expense, for about three miles, on his own 
 estate, through a range of well-enclosed farms, 
 with a row of trees on each side of it. He 
 called it the Via sacra, and was very fond of it. 
 Dr. Johnson, though he held notions far distant 
 from those of the Presbyterian clergy, ) et could 
 associate on good terms with them. He in- 
 deed occasionally attacked them. One of them 
 discovered a narrowness of information con- 
 cerning the dignitaries of the Church of Eng- 
 land, among whom may be found men of the 
 greatest learning, virtue, and piety, and of a 
 truly apostolic character. He talked before 
 Dr. Johnson, of fat bishops and drowsy deans; 
 and, in short, seemed to believe the illiberal 
 and profane scoffings of professed satirists, or 
 vulgar railers. Dr. Johnson was so highly 
 oftended, that he said to him, " Sir, you know- 
 no more of our church than a tlottentot." I 
 was sorry that he brought this upon himself. 
 — The Tour. 1773-, Nov. 5th. 
 
 Mr. Nairne came in, and he and I accom- 
 panied Dr. Johnson to Edinburgh Castle, which 
 he owned was "a great place". But I must 
 mention, as a striking instance of that spirit of 
 contradiction to which he had a strong propen- 
 sity, when Lord Elibank was some days after 
 288
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 talking of it with the natural elation of a Scotch- 
 man, or of any man who is proud of a stately 
 fortress in his own country, Dr. Johnson affected 
 to despise it, observing that, " it would make a 
 good prison in England ". 
 
 Lest it should be supposed that I have sup- 
 pressed one of his sallies against my country, 
 it may not be improper here to correct a mis- 
 taken account that has been circulated, as to 
 his conversation this day. It has been said, 
 that being desired to attend to the noble 
 prospect from the Castle Hill, he replied, " Sir, 
 the noblest prospect that a Scotchman ever 
 sees, is the highroad that leads him to Lon- 
 don." This lively sarcasm was thrown out at 
 a tavern in London, in my presence, many 
 vears before. ^The Tour. \tt^, Nov. loth. 
 
 His Journe'^ to the Western Islands of Scot/and 
 is a most valuable performance. It abounds 
 in extensive philosophical views of society, 
 and in ingenious sentiment and lively descrip- 
 tion. 
 
 His private letters to Mrs. Thralc, written 
 during the course of his journey, which there- 
 fore may be supposed to convey his genuine 
 feelings at the time, abound in such benignant 
 sentiments towards the people who showed 
 him civilities, that no man whose temper is 
 not very harsh and sour, can retain a doubt of 
 the goodness of his heart. 
 
 It is painful to recollect with what rancour 
 he was assailed by numbers of shallow irritable 
 North Britons, on account of his supposed 
 
 (8 212) 289 X
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 injurious treatment of their country and 
 countrymen, in his Joufttcy. Had there been 
 any just ground for such a charge, would the 
 virtuous and candid Dempster have given his 
 opinion of the book, in the terms in which I 
 have quoted? Would the patriotic Knox have 
 spoken of it as he has done? Would Mr. 
 Tytler, surely 
 
 " a Scot, if ever Scoi there were", 
 
 have expressed himself thus? And let me add, 
 that, citizen of the world as I hold myself to 
 be, I have that degree of predilection for my 
 natale solum, nay, I have that just sense of the 
 merit of an ancient nation which has been ever 
 renowned for its valour, which in former times 
 maintained its independence against a powerful 
 neighbour, and in modern times has been 
 equally distinguished for its ingenuity and 
 industry in civilized life, that I should have 
 felt a generous indignation at any injustice 
 done to it. Johnson treated Scotland no worse 
 than he did even his best friends, whose 
 characters he used to give as they appeared to 
 him, both in light and shade. Some people, 
 who had not exercised their minds sufficiently, 
 condemned him for censuring his friends. But 
 Sir Joshua Rej-nolds, whose philosophical pene- 
 tration and justness of thinking were not less 
 known to those who lived with him, than his 
 genius in his art is admired by the world, 
 explained his conduct thus: — 
 
 " He was fond of djscrimination, which he 
 
 290
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 could not show without pointing out the bad 
 as well as the good in every character; and as 
 his friends were those whose characters he 
 knew best, they afforded him the best oppor- 
 tunity for showing the acuteness of his judg- 
 ment." — The Life. 1775. 
 
 He expressed to his friend Mr. Windham of 
 Norfolk, his wonder at the extreme jealousy of 
 the Scotch, and their resentment at having 
 their country described by him as it really was; 
 when, to say that it was a country as good as 
 England, would have been a great falsehood. 
 " None of us," said he, " would be offended if 
 a foreigner who has travelled here should say 
 that vines and olives don't grow in England." 
 And as to his prejudice against the Scotch, 
 which I always ascribed to that nationality 
 which he observed in tJiem, he said to the same 
 gentleman, "When I find a Scotchman, to 
 whom an Englishman is as a Scotchman, that 
 Scotchman shall be an Englishman to me." 
 His intimacy with many gentlemen of Scot- 
 land, and his employing so many natives of 
 that country as his amanuenses, prove that his 
 prejudice was not virulent ; and I have de- 
 posited in the British Museum, amongst other 
 pieces of his writing, the following note in 
 answer to one from me, asking if he would 
 meet me at dinner at the Mitre, though a 
 friend of mine, a Scotchman, was to be there: — 
 
 " Mr. Johnson does not see why Mr. Boswell 
 should suppose a Scotchman less acceptable 
 291
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 than any other man. He will he at the 
 Mitre." —T/ie Lije. 1775. 
 
 My much-valued friend, Dr. Barnard, now 
 Bishop of Killaloe, having once expressed to 
 him an apprehension, that if he should visit 
 Ireland he might treat the people of that 
 country more unfavourably than he had done 
 the Scotch, he answered, with strong pointed 
 double-edged wit, " Sir, you have no reason to 
 be afraid of me. The Irish are not in a con- 
 spiracy to cheat the world by false representa- 
 tions of the merits of their countrymen. No, 
 Sir; the Irish are a fair people; — they never 
 speak well of one another." 
 
 Johnson told me of an instance of Scottish 
 nationality, which made a very unfavourable 
 impression upon his mind. A Scotchman of 
 some consideration in London, solicited him 
 to recommend by the weight of his learned 
 authority, to be master of an English school, 
 a person of whom he who recommended him 
 confessed he knew no more but that he was 
 his countryman. Johnson was shocked at this 
 unconscientious conduct. 
 
 All the miserable cavillings against his 
 "Journey, in newspapers, magazines, and other 
 fugitive publications, I can speak from certain 
 knowledge, only furnished him with sport. 
 At last there came out a scurrilous volume, 
 larger than Johnson's own, filled with malignant 
 abuse under a name, real or fictitious, of some 
 low man, in an obscure corner of Scotland, 
 though supposed to be the work of another 
 292
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 Scotchman, who has found means to make 
 himself well known both in Scotland and 
 England. The eftect which it had upon John- 
 son was, to produce this pleasant observation 
 to Mr. Seward, to whom he lent the book; 
 " This fellow must be a blockhead. They 
 don't know how to go about their abuse. 
 Who will read a five shilling book against me? 
 No, Sir, if they had wit, they should have kept 
 pelting me with pamphlets." 
 
 — 'The Life. 1775. 
 
 I put him in mind that the landlord at Ellon 
 in Scotland said, that he heard he was the 
 greatest man in England, — next to Lord Mans- 
 field. " Ay, Sir," said he, " the exception 
 defined the idea. A Scotchman could go no 
 farther : 
 
 'The force of Nature could no farther go'." 
 
 — The Life. 1775, April 2nd. 
 
 I had brought with me a great bundle of 
 Scotch magazines and newspapers, in which 
 his Joiirne'^ to the Western Islands was attacked 
 in ever}- mode ; and I read a great part of 
 them to him, knowing they would afford him 
 entertainment. I wish the writers of them 
 had been present : they would have been 
 sufficiently vexed. One ludicrous imitation of 
 his style, by Mr. Maclaurin, now one of the 
 Scotch Judges, with the title of Lord Dreghorn, 
 was distinguished by him from the rude mass. 
 "This," said he, "is the best. But I could 
 293
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 caricature my own style much better myself." 
 He defended his remark upon the general in- 
 sufficiency of education in Scotland ; and con- 
 firmed to me the authenticity of his witty 
 saying on the learning of the Scotch : — "Their 
 learning is like bread in a besieged town : 
 every man gets a little, but no man gets a full 
 meal." " There is," said he, " in Scotland, 
 a diffusion of learning, a certain portion of it 
 widely and thinly spread. A merchant has 
 as much learning as one of their clerg}." 
 
 — The Life. 1775, April nth. 
 
 Johnson : " Lord Bute showed an undue 
 partiality to Scotchmen. He turned out Dr. 
 Nichols, a very eminent man, from being physi- 
 cian to the king, to make room for one of his 
 countrymen, a man very low in his profession. 
 
 He had and to go on errands for 
 
 him. He had occasion for people to go on 
 errands for him ; but he should not have had 
 Scotchmen ; and, certainly, he should not liave 
 suffered them to have access to him before the 
 first people in England." 
 
 I told him, that the admission of one of 
 them before the first people in England, which 
 had given the greatest offence, was no more 
 than what happens at every minister's lez'ee, 
 where those who attend are admitted in the 
 order that they have come, which is better 
 than admitting them according to their rank ; 
 for if that were to be the rule, a man who has 
 waited all the morning might have the mortifi- 
 cation to see a peer, newly come, go in before 
 294
 
 AGAINST rHE SCOTS 
 
 him, and keep him waiting still. Johnson : 
 
 " True, Sir ; but should not have come 
 
 to the levee, to be in the way of people of 
 consequence. He saw Lord Bute at all times : 
 and could have said what he had to say at any 
 time, as well as at the leveed 
 
 — The Life. 1775, April 14th. 
 
 I told him that I had been informed by Mr. 
 Orme, that many parts of the East Indies were 
 better mapped than the Highlands of Scotland. 
 Johnson : " That a country may be mapped, it 
 must be travelled over ". "Nay," said I, mean- 
 ing to laugh with him at one of his prejudices, 
 "can't you say, it is not worth mapping?" 
 
 — The Life. 1775, April i^th. 
 
 " I will not send compliments to my iriends 
 by name, because I would be loth to leave any 
 out in the enumeration. Tell them, as you see 
 them, how well I speak of Scotch politeness, 
 and Scotch hospitality, and Scotch beauty, and 
 of everything Scotch, but Scotch oat-cakes, and 
 Scotch prejudices." 
 
 — The Life. 1775, May 27th. 
 
 I saw here [at Lichfield], for the first time, 
 oat ale:, and oat cakes, not hard as in Scotland, 
 but soft like a Yorkshire cake, were served at 
 breakfast. It was pleasant to me to find, that 
 " Oats^\ the "food (f horses", were so much used 
 as the food of the people in Dr. Johnson's own 
 town. — The Life. 1776, March 23rd. 
 
 29s
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 I observed that it was strange how well 
 Scotchmen were known to one another in their 
 own country, though born in very distant 
 counties ; for we do not find that the gentle- 
 men of neighbouring counties in England are 
 mutually known to each other. Johnson, with 
 his usual acuteness, at once saw and explained 
 the reason of this : "Why, Sir, you have Edin- 
 burgh, where the gentlemen from all your 
 counties meet, and which is not so large but 
 they are all known. There is no such common 
 place of collection in England, except London, 
 where from its great size and diffusion, many 
 of those who reside in contiguous counties of 
 England, may long remain unknown to each 
 other." — T/ie Life. 1776, March 25th. 
 
 Having left Ashbourne in the evening, we 
 stopped to change horses at Derby, and availed 
 ourselves of a moment to enjoy the conversa- 
 tion of my countryman. Dr. Butter, then 
 physician there. He was in great indignation 
 because Lord Mountstuart's Bill for a Scotch 
 militia had been lost. Dr. Johnson was as 
 violent against it. "I am glad," said he, " that 
 Parliament has had the spirit to throw it out. 
 You wanted to take advantage of the timidity 
 of our scoundrels " (meaning, I suppose, the 
 Ministry). It may be observed that he used 
 the epithet scoundrel verj- commonly — not 
 quite in the sense in which it is generally 
 understood, but as a strong term of disappro- 
 bation ; as, when he abruptly answered Mrs. 
 Thrale who had asked him how he did, 
 296
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 " Ready to become a scoundrel, Madam ; with 
 a little more spoiling you will, I think, make 
 me a complete rascal." He meant, easy to 
 become a capricious and self-indulgent valetu- 
 dinarian — a character for which I have heard 
 him express great disgust. 
 
 — The Life. iT](>, March 27th. 
 
 The peculiar respect paid to the military 
 character in France was mentioned. Boswell: 
 " I should think that where military men are 
 so numerous, they would be less valued as not 
 being rare ". Johnson : "^ Na}', Sir, wherever 
 a particular character or profession is high in 
 the estimation of a people, those who are of it 
 will be valued above other men. We value an 
 Englishman high in this country, and yet 
 Englislimen are not rare in it." 
 
 — The Life. 1776, April 3rd. 
 
 " Lord Hailes's Annah of Scotland have not 
 that painted form which is the taste of this age, 
 but it is a book which will always sell, it has 
 such a stability of dates, such a certainty of 
 facts, and such a punctuality of citation. I never 
 before read Scotch history with certaintv." 
 
 —The Life. 1776, May. 
 
 Mr. Arthur Lee mentioned some Scotch 
 who had taken possession of a barren part of 
 America, and wondered why they should choose 
 It. Johnson : " Why, Sir, all barrenness is 
 comparative. The Scotch would not know it to 
 be barren." Boswell : "Come, come, he is 
 flattering the English. You have now been in 
 297
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 ScotJand, Sir, and say if you did not see meat 
 and drink enough there." Johnson : "Why 
 yes, Sir ; meat and drink enough to give the in- 
 habitants sufficient strength to run away from 
 home ". All these quick and lively sallies were 
 said sportively, quite in jest, and with a smile, 
 which showed that he meant only wit. Upon 
 this topic, he and Mr. Wilkes could perfectly 
 assimilate ; here was a bond of union between 
 them, and I was conscious that as both of 
 them had visited Caledonia, both were fully 
 satisfied of the strange narrow ignorance of 
 those who imagine that it is a land of famine. 
 But they amused themselves with persevering 
 in the old jokes. When I claimed a superiority 
 for Scotland over England in one respect, that 
 no man can be arrested there for a debt, merely 
 because another swears it against him ; but 
 there must first be the judgment of a court of 
 law ascertaining its justice ; and that a seizure 
 of the person, before judgment is obtained, can 
 take place only if his creditor should swear that 
 he is about to fly from the country, or, as it is 
 technically expressed, is in mediiatione fuga ; 
 Wilkes : " That, I should think, may be safely 
 sworn of all the Scotch nation ". Johnson (to 
 Mr. Wilkes) : " You must know, Sir, I lately 
 took my friend Boswell, and showed him 
 genuine civilized life in an English provincial 
 town. I turned him loose at Lichfield, my 
 native city, that he might see for once real 
 civility : for you know he lives among savages 
 in Scotland, and among rakes in London." 
 Wilkes : " Except when he is with grave, sober, 
 298
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 decent people, like you and me". Johnson 
 (smiling) : "And we ashamed of him ". 
 
 — The Life, \j-j6, May 15th. 
 
 Mr. Wilkes remarked, that " among all the 
 bold flights of Shakespeare's imagination, the 
 boldest was making Birnam Wood march to 
 Dunsinane, creating a wood where there never 
 was a shrub ; a wood in Scotland ! ha ! ha ! 
 ha ! " And he also observed, that " the clannish 
 slavery of the Highlands of Scotland was the 
 single exception to Milton's remark of 'The 
 Mountain Nymph, sweet Liberty' being wor- 
 shipped in all hilly countries."-- "When I was 
 at Inverary," said he, " on a visit to my old 
 friend, Archibald, Duke of Argyle, his depen- 
 dants congratulated me on being such a 
 favourite of his Grace. I said, ' It is, then, 
 gentlemen, truly lucky for me ; for if I had 
 displeased the Duke, and he had wished it, 
 there is not a Campbell among you but would 
 have been ready to bring John Wilkes's head 
 to him in a charger. It would have been only 
 
 ' Oftvvith his head. So much for Aylesbury'. 
 
 I was then member for Aylesbury." 
 
 — The Life. 1776, May ifth. 
 
 After dinner we had an accession of Mrs. 
 Knowles, the Quaker lady, well known for her 
 various talents, and of Mr. Alderman Lee. 
 Amidst some patriotic groans, somebody, I 
 think the Alderman, said, " Poor old England 
 is lost." Johnson : " Sir, it is not so much to 
 299
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 be lamented that old England is lost, as that 
 the Scotch have found it ". Wilkes : " Had 
 Lord Bute governed Scotland on)}, I should 
 not have taken the trouble to write his eulogy, 
 and dedicate ' Mortimer ' to him ". 
 
 — The Life. 1776, May 15th. 
 
 " Sir Alexander Dick is the only Scotchman 
 liberal enough not to be angry that I could not 
 find trees where trees were not. I was much 
 delighted by his kind letter." 
 
 — The Life. 1777, July 22nd. 
 
 I ventured to mention a person who was as 
 violent a Scotcliman as he was an Englishman; 
 and literally had the same contempt for an 
 Englishman compared with a Scotchman, that 
 he had for a Scotchman compared with an 
 Englishman ; and that he would say of Dr. 
 Johnson, " Damned rascal ! to talk as he does 
 of the Scotch." This seemed, for a moment, 
 " to give him pause ". It perhaps presented 
 his extreme prejudice against the Scotch in a 
 point of view som.ewhat new to him, by the 
 effect of contrast. — The Life. 1777, Sept. 19th. 
 
 At dinner Mrs. Thrale expressed a wish to 
 go and see Scotland. Johnson : " Seeing Scot- 
 land, Madam, is only seeing a worse England. 
 It is seeing the flower gradually fade away to 
 the naked stalk. Seeing the Hebrides, indeed, 
 is seeing quite a different scene." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 7th. 
 
 300
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 Robertson: "Dr. Johnson, allow me to say, 
 that in one respect I have the advantage of 
 you; when you were in Scotland you would 
 not come to hear any of our preachers, whereas, 
 when I am here, I attend your public worship 
 without scruple, and indeed with great satis- 
 faction ". Johnson : " Why, Sir, that is not so 
 extraordinary; the King of Siam sent ambassa- 
 dors to Louis the Fourteenth; but Louis the 
 Fourteenth sent none to the King of Siam ". 
 
 Here my friend for once discovered a want 
 of knowledge or forgetfulness, for Louis the 
 Fourteenth did send an embassy to the King of 
 Siam., and the Abbe Choisi, who was employed 
 in it, published an account of it in two volumes. 
 — The Life. 1778, April 29th. 
 
 Mrs. Thrale mentioned Dryden. Johnson: 
 " He puzzled himself about predestination. 
 How foolish it was in Pope to give all his 
 friendship to lords, who thought they honoured 
 him by being with him; and to choose such 
 lords as Burlington and Cobhara, and Boling- 
 broke ! (Bathurst was negative, a pleasing man; 
 and I have heard no ill of Marchmont;) and 
 then always saying, ' I do not value you for 
 being a lord,' which was a sure proof that 
 he did. I never say, I do not value Boswell 
 more for being born to an estate, because I do 
 not care." Boswell: " Nor for being a Scotch- 
 man?" Johnson: "Nay, Sir, I do value you 
 more for being a Scotchm.an. You are a Scotch- 
 man without the faults of Scotchmen. You 
 301
 
 JOHNSON'S PRRJUDICE 
 
 would not have been so valuable ao you are, 
 had you not been a Scotchman." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, May 12th. 
 
 Johnson was well acquainted with Mr. 
 Dossie, author of a treatise on Agriculture ; 
 and said of him, " Sir, of the objects which 
 the Society of Arts have chiefly in view, the 
 chemical effects of bodies operating upon other 
 bodies, he knows more than almost any man." 
 Johnson, in order to give Mr. Dossie his vote 
 to be a member of this Society, paid up an 
 arrear which had run on for two years. On 
 this occasion he mentioned a circumstance, as 
 characteristic of the Scotch. " One of that 
 nation," said he, " who had been a candidate, 
 against whom I had voted, came up to me 
 with a civil salutation. Now, Sir, this is their 
 way. An Englishman would have stomached 
 it, and been sulky, and never have taken farther 
 notice of you; but a Scotchman, Sir, though you 
 vote nineteen times against him, will accost 
 you with equal complaisance after each time, 
 and the twentieth time. Sir, he will get your 
 vote." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johmoniana. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds praised Mudge's 5^/- 
 mons. Johnson : " Mudge's Sermons are good 
 but not practical. He grasps more sense 
 than he can hold; he takes more corn than he 
 can make into meal; he opens a wide prospect, 
 but it is so distant, it is indistinct. I love 
 302
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 Blair's Sermons. Though the dog is a Scotch- 
 man, and a Presbyterian, and everything he 
 should not be, I was the first to praise them. 
 Such was my candour." (Smiling.) Mrs. Bos- 
 cawen: " Such his great merit, to get the better 
 of all your prejudices ". Johnson : " Why, 
 Madam, let us compound the matter; let us 
 ascribe it to my candour and his merit ". 
 — The Life. 1781, April zot'n. 
 
 On Tuesday, May 8th, I had the pleasure of 
 again dining with Johnson and Mr. Wilkes, at 
 Mr. Dilly's. No negotiation was now required 
 to bring them together ; for Johnson was so 
 well satisfied with the former interview, that he 
 was very glad to meet Wilkes again, who was 
 this day seated between Dr. Beattie and Dr. 
 Johnson (between Truth and Reason, as General 
 Paoli said, when I told him of it). Wilkes : 
 " I have been thinking, Dr. Johnson, that there 
 should be a bill brought into Parliament that 
 the controverted elections for Scotland should 
 be tried in that country at their own Abbey of 
 Holyrood House, and not here ; for the conse- 
 quence of trying them here is, that we have an 
 inundation of Scotchmen, who come up and 
 never go back again. Now here is Boswell, 
 who is come upon the election for his own 
 county, which will not last a fortnight." John- 
 son : " Nay, Sir, I see no reason why they 
 should be tried at all; for, you know, one 
 Scotchman is as good as another ". Wilkes : 
 " Pray, Boswell, how much may be got in a 
 year by an Advocate at the Scotch bar?" Bos- 
 303
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 well: "I believe, two thousand pounds". 
 Wilkes: "How can it be possible to spend 
 that money in Scotland?" Johnson: "Why, 
 Sir, the money may be spent in England; but 
 there is a harder question. If one man in 
 Scotland gets possession of two thousand 
 pounds, what remains for all the rest of the 
 nation?" Wilkes: "You know, in the last 
 war, the immense booty which Thurot carried 
 off by the complete plunder of seven Scotch 
 isles; he re-embarked with three and sixpence T 
 Here again Johnson and Wilkes joined in ex- 
 travagant sportive raillery upon the supposed 
 poverty of Scotland, which Dr. Beattie and I 
 did not think it worth our while to dispute. 
 —The Life. 1781, May 8th. 
 
 I accompanied him in Mr. Dilly's chaise to 
 Sheffbrd, where, talking of Lord Bute's never 
 going to Scotland, he said, " As an English- 
 man, I should wish all the Scotch gentlemen 
 should be educated in England; Scotland would 
 become a province; they would spend all their 
 rents in England." This is a subject of 
 much consequence, and much delicacy. The 
 advantage of an English education is unques- 
 tionably very great to Scotch gentlemen of 
 talents and ambition ; and regular visits to 
 Scotland, and perhaps other means, might be 
 effectually used to prevent them from being 
 totally estranged from their native country, any 
 more than a Cumberland or Northum.berland 
 gentleman, who has been educated in the south 
 of England. I own, indeed, that it is no small 
 304
 
 AGAINST THE SCOTS 
 
 misfortune for Scotch gentlemen, who have 
 neither talents nor ambition, to be educated in 
 Enghmd, where they may be perhaps distin- 
 guished only by a nickname, lavish their fortune 
 in giving expensive entertainments to those 
 who laugh at them, and saunter about as mere 
 idle insignificant hangers-on even upon the 
 foolish great ; when, if they had been judi- 
 ciously brought up at home, they might have 
 been comfortable and creditable members of 
 society. — The Life. 1781, June 5th. 
 
 After musing for some time, he said, " I 
 wonder how I should have any enemies ; for 
 I do harm to nobody." Boswell : " In the 
 first place, Sir, you will be pleased to recollect, 
 that you set out with attacking the Scotch ; 
 so you got a whole nation for your enemies". 
 Johnson : " Why, I own, that by my definition 
 of oats I meant to vex them ". Boswell : 
 " Pray, Sir, can you trace the cause of your 
 antipathy to the Scotch ?" Johnson : " I can- 
 not. Sir ". Boswell : " Old Mr. Sheridan says, 
 it was because they- sold Charles the First". 
 Johnson : " Then, Sir, old Mr. Sheridan has 
 found out a very good reason ". 
 
 Surely the most obstinate and sulky nation- 
 ality, the most determined aversion to this 
 great and good man, must be cured, when he 
 is seen thus playing with one of his prejudices, 
 of which he candidly admitted that he could 
 not tell the reason. It was, however, probably 
 owing to his having had in his view the worst 
 part of the Scottish nation, the needy adven- 
 (B212) 305 Y
 
 A PREJUDICE 
 
 turers, many of whom he thought were advanced 
 above their merits, by means of which he did 
 not approve. Had he in his early life been in 
 Scotland, and seen the worthy, sensible, inde- 
 pendent gentlemen, who live rationally and 
 hospitably at home, he never could have enter- 
 tained such unfavourable and unjust notions of 
 his fellow-subjects. And accordingly we find, 
 that when he did visit Scotland, in the latter 
 period of his life, he was fully sensible of all 
 that it deserved, as I have already pointed out, 
 when speaking of his Journey to the Western 
 Islands. — The Life. 1783, March 21st. 
 
 Talking of the success of the Scotch in Lon- 
 don, he imputed it, in a considerable degree, to 
 their spirit of nationality. " You know, Sir," 
 said he, " that no Scotchman publishes a book, 
 or has a play brought upon the stage, but there 
 are five hundred people ready to applaud him." 
 — The Life. 1783. 
 
 306
 
 Politics and Government 
 
 FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 I talked of the recent expulsion of six students 
 from the University of Oxford, who were metho- 
 dises, and would not desist from publicly pray- 
 ing and exhorting. Johnson : " Sir, that expul- 
 sion was extremely just and proper. What 
 have they to do at an University, who are not 
 willing to be taught, but will presume to teach ? 
 Where is religion to be learnt, but at an Uni- 
 versity ? Sir, they were examined, and found 
 to be mighty ignorant fellows." Eoswell : 
 " But, was it not hard, Sir, to expel them, for I 
 am told they were good beings?" Johnson: 
 " I believe they might be good beings, but they 
 were not fit to be in the University of Oxford. 
 A cow is a very good animal in the field, but 
 we turn her out of a garden." Lord Elibank 
 used to repeat this as an illustration uncom- 
 monly happy. —The Life. 1772, April 14th. 
 
 We drank tea with Mrs. Williams. I intro- 
 duced a question which has been much agitated 
 in the Church of Scotland, whether the claim 
 of lay-patrons to present ministers to parishes 
 be well founded ; and supposing it to be well 
 307
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 founded, whether it ought to be exercised with- 
 out the concurrence of the people r 
 
 Supposing the question to be pleaded before 
 the General Assembly, he dictated to me what 
 follows : 
 
 " Against the right of patrons is commonly 
 opposed, by the inferior judicatures, the plea of 
 conscience. Their conscience tells them, that 
 the people ought to choose their pastor; their 
 conscience tells them, that they ought not to im- 
 pose upon a congregation a minister ungrateful 
 and unacceptable to his auditors. Conscience 
 is nothing more than a conviction felt by our- 
 selves of something to be done, or something to 
 be avoided: and in questions of simple unper- 
 plexed morality, conscience is very often a guide 
 that may be trusted. But before conscience can 
 determine, the state of the question is supposed 
 to be completely known. In questions of law, 
 or of fact, conscience is very often confounded 
 with opinion. No man's conscience can tell 
 him the rights of another man; they must be 
 known by rational investigation, or historical 
 inquiry. Opinion, which he that holds it may 
 call his conscience, may teach some men that 
 religion would be promoted, and quiet pre- 
 served by granting to the people universally 
 the choice of their ministers. But it is a con- 
 science very ill informed that violates the rights 
 of one man, for the convenience of another. 
 Religion cannot be promoted by injustice; and 
 it was never yet found that a popular election 
 was very quietly transacted." 
 
 — The Life. 1773, May ist. 
 308
 
 FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 I introduced the subject of toleration. John- 
 son : " Every societ}' has a right to preserve 
 public peace and order, and therefore has a good 
 right to prohibit the propagation of opinions 
 which have a dangerous tendency. To say the 
 magistrate has this right, is using an inadequate 
 word; it is the society for which the magistrate 
 is agent. He may be morally or theologically 
 wrong In restraining the propagation of opinions 
 which he thinks dangerous, but he is politically 
 right." Mayo : " I am of opinion, Sir, that 
 every man is entitled to liberty of conscience 
 in religion; and that the magistrate cannot 
 restrain that right". Johnson: "Sir, I agree 
 with you. Every man has a right to liberty of 
 conscience, and with that the magistrate cannot 
 interfere. People confound liberty of thinking 
 with liberty of talking; nay, wltli liberty of 
 preaching. Every man has a physical right to 
 think as he pleases; for it cannot be discovered 
 how he thinks. He has not a moral right, for 
 he ought to inform himself, and think justly. 
 But, Sir, no member of a society has a right to 
 teach any doctrine contrary to what the society 
 holds to be true. The magistrate, I say, may 
 be wrong In what he thinks; but while he 
 thinks himself right, he may and ought to en- 
 force what he thinks." Mayo: " Then, Sir, we 
 are to remain always in error, and truth never 
 can prevail ; and the magistrate was right in 
 persecuting the first Christians". Johnson: 
 " Sir, the only method by which religious truth 
 can be established Is by martjrdom. The 
 magistrate has a right to enforce what he 
 309
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 thinks; and he who is conscious of the truth 
 has a right to suffer. I am afraid there is no 
 other way of ascertaining the truth but by 
 persecution on the one hand and enduring it 
 on the other." Goldsmith : " But how is a 
 man to act, Sir ? Though firmly convinced of 
 the truth of his doctrine, may he not think it 
 wrong to expose himself to persecution ? Has 
 he a right to do so ? Is it not, as it were, com- 
 mitting voluntary suicide ?" Johnson : " Sir, as 
 to voluntary suicide, as you call it, there are 
 twenty thousand men in an army, who will 
 go without scruple to be shot at, and mount a 
 breach for fivepence a day". Goldsmith: "But 
 have they a moral right to do this?" Johnson": 
 " Nay, Sir, if you will not take the universal 
 opinion of mankind, I have nothing to say. 
 If mankind cannot defend their own way of 
 thinking, I cannot defend it. Sir, if a man is 
 in doubt whether it would be better for him to 
 expose himself to martyrdom or not, he should 
 not do it. He must be convinced that he has 
 a delegation from Heaven." Goldsmith: "I 
 would consider whether there is the greater 
 chance of good or evil upon the whole. If I 
 see a man who has fallen into a well, I would 
 wish to help him out: but if there is a greater 
 probability that he shall pull me in, than that 
 I shall pull him out, I would not attempt it. 
 So were I to go to Turkey, I might wish to 
 convert the Grand Signor to the Christian 
 faith ; but when I considered that I should 
 probably be put to death without effectuating 
 my purpose in any degree, I should keep myself 
 310
 
 FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 quiet." Johnson: " Sir, you must consider that 
 we have perfect and imperfect obligations. Per- 
 fect obligations, which are generally not to do 
 something, are clear and positive; as, 'Thou 
 shalt not kill '. But charity,- for instance, is 
 not definable by limits. It is a duty to give 
 to the poor; but no man can say how much 
 another should give to the poor, or when a 
 man has given too little to save his soul. In 
 the same manner it is a duty to instruct the 
 ignorant, and of consequence to convert infidels 
 to Christianity; but no man in the common 
 course of things is obliged to carry this to such 
 a degree as to incur the danger of martyrdom, 
 as no man is obliged to strip himself to the 
 shirt, in order to give charity. I have said that 
 a man must be persuaded that he has a par- 
 ticular delegation from Heaven." Goldsmith: 
 " Flow is this to be known ? Our first re- 
 formers, who were burnt for not believing 
 bread and wine to be Christ — " Johnson 
 (interrupting him): "Sir, they were not burnt 
 for not believing bread and wine to be Christ, 
 but for insulting those who did believe it. 
 And, Sir, when the first reformers began, they 
 did not intend to be martyred; as many of them 
 ran away as could." Boswell: " But, Sir, there 
 was your countryman Elwal, who, you told me, 
 challenged King George with his black-guards 
 and his red-guards". Johnson : " Pvly country- 
 man Elwal, Sir, should have been put in the 
 stocks — a proper pulpit for him; and he'd have 
 had a numerous audience. A man who preaches 
 in the stocks will always have hearers enough." 
 3"
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 Boswell: "But Elwal thouglii himself in the 
 right". Johnson: "We are not providing for 
 mad people; there are places for them in the 
 neighbourhood" (meaning Moorfields). Mayo: 
 " But, Sir, is it not very hard that I should not 
 be allowed to teach my children what I really 
 believe to be the truth?" Johnson: "Why, 
 Sir, you might contrive to teach your children 
 extra scandalum ; but, Sir, the magistrate, if he 
 knows it, has a right to restrain you. Suppose 
 you teach your children to be thieves :" Mayo: 
 "This is making a joke of the subject". John- 
 son: "Nay, Sir, take it thus, — that you teach 
 them the community of goods ; for which there 
 are as many plausible arguments as for most 
 erroneous doctrines. You teach them that all 
 things at first were in common, and that no 
 man had a right to anything but as he laid 
 his hands upon it; and that this still is, or 
 ought to be, the rule amongst mankind. Here, 
 Sir, you sap a great principle in society — pro- 
 perty. And don't you think the magistrate 
 would have a right to prevent }ou ? Or, sup- 
 pose you should teach your children the notion 
 of the Adamites, and they should run naked 
 into the streets, would not the magistrate have 
 a right to flog 'em into their doublets ?" Mayo: 
 " I think the magistrate has no right to inter- 
 fere till there is some overt act". Boswell: 
 " So, Sir, though he sees an enemy to the 
 state charging a blunderbuss, he is not to inter- 
 fere till it is fired off!" Mayo: "He must 
 be sure of its direction against the state". 
 Johnson : "The magistrate is to judge of that. 
 312
 
 FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 He has no right to restrain )our thinking, be- 
 cause the evil centres in yourself. If a man 
 were sitting at this table, and chopping oft' his 
 fingers, the magistrate, as guardian of the com- 
 munity, has no authority to restrain him, how- 
 ever he might do it from kindness as a parent. 
 Though, indeed, upon more consideration, I 
 think he may; as it is probable, that he who is 
 chopping off his own fingers, may soon proceed 
 to chop oft' those of other people. If I think 
 it right to steal Mr. Dilly's plate, I am a bad 
 man; but he can say nothing to me. If I make 
 an open declaration that I think so, he will keep 
 me out of his house. If I put forth my hand, 
 I shall be sent to Newgate. This is the grada- 
 tion of thinking, preaching, and acting: if a 
 man thinks erroneously, he may keep his 
 thoughts to himself, and nobody will trouble 
 him; if he preaches erroneous doctrine, society 
 may expel him; if he acts in consequence of it, 
 the law takes place, and he is hanged." Mayo: 
 " But, Sir, ought not Christians to have liberty 
 of conscience ?" Johnson : " I have already told 
 you so, Sir. You are coming back to where you 
 were." Boswell: " Dr. Mayo is always taking 
 a return post-chaise, and going the stage over 
 again. He has it at half-price." Johnson: 
 " Dr. Mayo, like other champions for unlimited 
 toleration, has got a set of words. Sir, it is no 
 matter, politically, whether the magistrate be 
 right or wrong. Suppose a club were to be 
 formed, to drink confusion to King George the 
 Third, and a happy restoration to Charles the 
 Third; this would be very bad with respect to 
 313
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 the state; but every member of that club must 
 either conform to its rules, or be turned out of 
 it. Old Baxter, I remember, maintains that 
 the magistrate should ' tolerate all things that 
 are tolerable'. This is no good definition of 
 toleration upon any principle ; but it shows 
 that he thought some things were not toler- 
 able." Topi.ady: "Sir, you have untwisted 
 this difficult subject with great dexterity". 
 — The Life. 1773, May 7th. 
 
 A gentleman present ventured to asii Dr. 
 Johnson if there was not a material difference 
 as to toleration of opinions which lead to 
 action, and opinions merely speculative ; for 
 instance, would it be wrong in the magistrate 
 to tolerate those who preach against the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity ? . . . . The gentleman, 
 with submissive deference, said, he had only 
 hinted at the question from a desire to hear 
 Dr. Johnson's opinion upon it. Johnson : 
 "Why then, Sir, I think that permitting men 
 to preach any opinion contrary to the doctrine 
 of the established Church, tends, in a certain 
 degree, to lessen the authority of the Church, 
 and consequently to lessen the influence of 
 religion ". — " It may be considered," said the 
 gentleman, "whether it would not be politic 
 to tolerate in such a case." Johnson : " Sir, 
 we have been talking of right: this is another 
 question. I think it is not politic to tolerate 
 in such a case." — The Life. 1773, May 7th. 
 
 On Saturday, April 3rd, I visited him at night, 
 314
 
 FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 and found him silting in Mrs. Williams's room, 
 with her, and one who, he afterwards told me, 
 was a natural son of the second Lord South- 
 well. The table had a singular appearance, 
 being covered with a heterogeneous assemblage 
 of oysters and porter for his company, and tea 
 for himself, I mentioned my having heard an 
 eminent physician, who was himself a Christian, 
 argue in favour of universal toleration, and 
 maintain, that no man could be hurt by another 
 man's differing from him in opinion. Johnson: 
 " Sir, you are, to a certain degree, hurt by 
 knowing that even one man does not believe" 
 — The Life. 1779, April 3rd. 
 
 / 
 
 Talking on the subject of toleration, one 
 day when some friends were with him in his 
 study, he made his usual remark, that the State 
 has a right to regulate the religion of the people, 
 who are the children of the State. A clergyman 
 having readily acquiesced in this, Johnson, who 
 loved discussion, observed, "But, Sir, you must 
 go round to other states than our own. You 
 do not know what a Brahmin has to say for 
 himself. In short. Sir, I have got no farther 
 than this: every man has a right to utter what 
 he thinks truth, and every other man has a 
 right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom 
 is the test." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 I mentioned Dr. Johnson's excellent distinc- 
 tion between liberty of conscience and libert}' 
 315
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 of teaching. Johnson: " Consider, Sir ; if you 
 have children whom you wish to educate in the 
 principles of the Church of England, and there 
 comes a Quaker who tries to pervert them to 
 his principles, you would drive away the 
 Quaker. You would not trust to the pre- 
 domination of right, which you believe is in 
 your opinions; you will keep wrong out of 
 their heads. Now the vulgar are the children 
 of the State. If any one attempts to teach 
 them doctrines contrary to what the State ap- 
 proves, the magistrate may and ought to restrain 
 him." Seward : " Would you restrain private 
 conversation, Sir?" Johnson: "Why, Sir, it 
 is difficult to say where private conversation 
 begins and where it ends. If we three should 
 discuss even the great question concerning the 
 existence of a Supreme Being by ourselves, we 
 should not be restrained ; for that would be 
 to put an end to all improvement. But if we 
 should discuss it in the presence of ten board- 
 ing-school girls and as many boys, I think the 
 magistrate would do well to put us in the stocks, 
 to finish the debate there." 
 
 —The Life. 1783, April 28th. 
 
 WHIG versus TORY 
 
 In politics he was deemed a Tory, but cer- 
 tainly was not so in the obnoxious or party 
 sense of the term ; for while he asserted the 
 legal and salutary prerogatives of the Crown, he 
 no less respected the constitutional liberties of 
 316
 
 WHIG VERSUS TORY 
 
 the people. Whiggism, at the time of the Re- 
 volution, he said, was accompanied with certain 
 principles: but latterly, as a mere party distinc- 
 tion under Walpole and the Pelham.s, was no 
 better than the politics of stock-jobbers, and 
 the religion of infidels. 
 
 He detested the idea of governing by Parlia- 
 mentary corruption, and asserted most strenu- 
 ousl}', that a prince steadily and conspicuously 
 pursuing the interests of his people, could not 
 fail of Parliamentary concurrence. A prince of 
 ability, he contended, might and should be the 
 directing soul and spirit of his own adminis- 
 tration ; in short, his own minister, and not 
 the mere head of a party ; and then, and not 
 till then, would the royal dignity be sincerely 
 respected. 
 
 Johnson seemed to think that a certain 
 degree of Crown influence over the Houses of 
 Parliament (not meaning a corrupt and shame- 
 ful dependence) was ver^' salutary, nay, even 
 necessary, in our mixed government. " For," 
 said he, " if the members were under no Crown 
 influence, and disqualified from receiving any 
 gratification from Court, and resembled, as they 
 possibly might, Pym and Haslerig, and other 
 stubborn and sturdy members of the Long 
 Parliament, the wheels of government would 
 be totally obstructed. Such men would oppose 
 merely to show their power, from envy, jealous}-, 
 and perversity of disposition ; and not gaining 
 themselves, would hate and oppose all who did; 
 not loving the person of the prince, and con- 
 ceiving they owed him little gratitude, from the 
 317
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 mere spirit of insolence and contradiction, 
 they would oppose and thwart him upon all 
 occasions." 
 
 The inseparable imperfection annexed to 
 all human governments, consisted, he said, in 
 not being able to create a sufficient fund of 
 virtue and principle to carry the laws into due 
 and efi^ectual execution. VVisdom might plan, 
 but virtue alone could execute. And where 
 could sufficient virtue be found ? A variety of 
 delegated, and often discretionary, powers must 
 be entrusted somewhere: which, if not governed 
 by integrity and conscience, would necessarily 
 be abused, till at last the constable would sell 
 his for a shilling. 
 
 This excellent person was sometimes charged 
 with abetting slavish and arbitrary principles of 
 government. Nothing in my opinion could be 
 a grosser calumny and misrepresentation; for 
 how can it be rationally supposed that he should 
 adopt such pernicious and absurd opinions, who 
 supported his philosophical character with so 
 much dignity, was extremely jealous of his per- 
 sonal liberty and independence, and could not 
 brook the smallest appearance of neglect or 
 insult, even from the highest personages ? 
 
 — The Life. 1770. T>y. M.ax-wt\\'s Collectanea. 
 
 In 1 77 1 he published another political pam- 
 phlet, entitled Thoughts on the late Transactions 
 respecting Falkland's Islands, in which, upon ma- 
 terials furnished to him by the Ministry, and upon 
 general topics, expanded in his rich style, lie suc- 
 cessfully endeavoured to persuade the nation that 
 318
 
 WHIG VERSUS TORY 
 
 it was wise and laudable to suiter the question 
 of right to remain undecided, rather than in- 
 volve our country in another war. It has been 
 suggested by some, with what truth I shall not 
 take upon me to decide, that he rated the con- 
 sequence of those islands to Great Britain too 
 low. But however this may be, every humane 
 mind must surely applaud the earnestness with 
 which he averted the calamit}' of war; a calamity 
 so dreadful, that it is astonishing how civilized, 
 nay, Christian nations can deliberately continue 
 to renew it. His description of its miseries in 
 this pamphlet is one of the finest pieces of elo- 
 quence in the English language. Upon this 
 occasion, too, we find Johnson lashing the party 
 in opposition with unbounded severity, and 
 making the fullest use of what he ever reckoned 
 a most effectual argumentative instrument — 
 contempt. His character of their very able 
 mysterious champion, Junius, is executed with 
 all the force of his genius, and finished with 
 the highest care. He seems to Iiave exulted 
 in sallying forth to single combat against the 
 boasted and formidable hero, who Ixide defiance 
 to "principalities and powers, and the rulers 
 of this world ". 
 
 This pamphlet, it is observable, was softened 
 in one particular, after the first edition; for the 
 conclusion of Mr. George Grenville's character 
 stood thus: "Let him not, however, be depre- 
 ciated in his grave. He had powers not uni- 
 versally possessed. : could he have enforced 
 payment of the Manilla ransom, he could have 
 counted ttT Which instead of retaining its sly 
 319
 
 ITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 point, was reduced to a mere flat unmean- 
 expression, or, if I may use the word — truism : 
 /He had powers not universally possessed: and 
 if he sometimes erred, he was likewise some- 
 times right". — The Life. 1771. 
 
 -^ He said, "Walpole was a minister given by 
 the King to the people: Pitt was a minister 
 given by the people to the King, — as an adjunct." 
 — The Life. 1772, May 9th. 
 
 He talked with approbation of an intended 
 edition of Tfie Spectator, with notes; two volumes 
 of which had been prepared by a gentleman 
 eminent in the literary world, and the materials 
 which he had collected for the remainder had 
 been transferred to another hand. He observed, 
 that all works which describe manners require 
 notes in sixty or seventy years, or less; and 
 told us, he had communicated all he knew that 
 could throw light upon Tfie Spectator. He said, 
 " Addison had made his Sir Andrew Freeport 
 a true Whig, arguing against giving charity to 
 beggars, and throwing out other such ungracious 
 sentiments; but that he had thought better, 
 and made amends by making him found an 
 hospital for decayed farmers." He called for 
 the volume of The Spectator, in which that 
 account is contained, and read it aloud to us. 
 He read so well, that everything acquired addi- 
 tional weight and grace from his utterance. 
 
 — TJic Lije. 1773, April 3rd. 
 
 320
 
 WHIG VERSUS TORY 
 
 The General observed that Martinelli was a 
 Whig. Johnson: "I am sorry for it. It shows 
 the spirit of the times: he is obliged to tem- 
 porize." Boswell: "I rather think, Sir, that 
 Toryism prevails in this reign". Johnson: "I 
 know not why you should think so, Sir. You 
 see your friend Lord Lyttelton, a nobleman, is 
 obliged in his History to write the most vulgar 
 Whiggism." —The Life. 1773, April 15th. 
 
 An eminent public character being men- 
 tioned; — Johnson: "I remember being present 
 when he showed himself to be so corrupted, 
 or at least something so different from what I 
 think right, as to maintain that a member of 
 Parliament should go along with his party right 
 or wrong. Now, Sir, this is so remote from 
 native virtue, from scholastic virtue, that a 
 good man must have undergone a great change 
 before he can reconcile himself to such a 
 doctrine. It is maintaining that you may lie 
 to the public; for you lie when you call that 
 right which you think wrong, or the reverse. 
 A friend of ours, who is too much an echo of 
 that gentleman, observed, ' that a man who 
 does not stick uniformly to a party is only 
 waiting to be bought'. 'Why then,' said I, 
 ' he is only waiting to be what that gentleman 
 is already.' " — The Life. 1773, April 15th. 
 
 •<7 Dr. Johnson now said, a certain eminent 
 
 political friend of ours was wrong, in his maxim 
 
 ( B 212 ) 321 Z
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 of sticking to a certain set of men on all occa- 
 sions. " I can see that a man may do right to 
 stick to 3. party" said he; " that is to say, he is 
 a Whig, or he is a Tory, and he thinks one of 
 those parties upon the whole the best, and that 
 to make it prevail, it must be generally sup- 
 ported, though, in particulars, it may be wrong. 
 He takes its faggot of principles, in which there 
 are fewer rotten sticks than in the other, though 
 some rotten sticks to be sure; and they cannot 
 well be separated. But, to bind one's self to 
 one man, or one set of men (who may be right 
 to-day and wrong to-morrow) without any gene- 
 ral preference of system, I must disapprove." 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 15th. 
 
 This morning the subject of politics was in- 
 troduced. Johnson : " Pulteney was as paltry 
 a fellow as could be. He was a Whig, who 
 pretended to be honest ; and you know it is 
 ridiculous for a Whig to pretend to be honest. 
 He cannot hold it out." He called Mr. Pitt a 
 meteor ; Sir Robert Walpole a fixed star. He 
 said, "It is wonderful to think that all the force 
 of government was required to prevent Wilkes 
 from being chosen the chief magistrate of 
 London, though the liverymen knew he would 
 rob their shops, — knew he would debauch their 
 daughters." — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 21st. 
 
 The morning was chiefly taken up by Dr. 
 Johnson's giving an account of our Tour. 
 The subject of difference in political principles 
 322
 
 WHIG VERSUS TORY 
 
 was introduced. Johnson: "It is much in- 
 creased by opposition. There was a violent 
 Whig, with whom I used to contend with great 
 eagerness. After his death I felt my Toryism 
 much abated." I suppose he meant Mr. 
 Walmsley of Lichfield, whose character he has 
 drawn so well in his life of Edmund Smith. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Nov. loth. 
 
 ^ Lord Newhaven and Johnson carried on an 
 argument for some tim.e, concerning the Middle- 
 sex election. Johnson said, " Parliament may 
 be considered as bound by law, as a man is 
 bound where there is nobody to tie the knot. 
 As it is clear that the House of Commons may 
 expel, and expel again and again, why not allow 
 of the power to incapacitate for that Parliament, 
 rather than have a perpetual contest kept up 
 between Parliament and the people." Lord 
 Newhaven took the opposite side ; but respect- 
 fully said, "I speak with great deference to j^ou. 
 Dr. Johnson ; I speak to be instructed." This 
 had its full effect on my friend. He bowed his 
 head almost as low as the table to a compli- 
 menting nobleman, and called out, "My Lord, 
 my Lord, I do not desire all this ceremony ; 
 let us tell our minds to one another quietly." 
 After the debate was over, he said, " I have got 
 lights on the subject to-day which I had not 
 before." This was a great deal from him, 
 especially as he had written a pamphlet upon 
 it. 
 
 He observed, "The House of Commons was 
 323
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 originally not a privilege of the people, but a 
 check for the Crown on the House or Lords. 
 I remember Henry VIII wanted them to do 
 something ; they hesitated in the morning, but 
 did it in the afternoon. He told them, * It is 
 well you did, or half your heads should have 
 been upon Temple Bar.' But the House of 
 Commons is now no longer under the power 
 of the Crown, and therefore must be bribed." 
 He added, " I have no delight in talking of 
 public affairs." — The Life. 1779, Oct. 12th. 
 
 One day having spoken very freely of those 
 who were then in power, he said to me, 
 " Between ourselves, Sir, I do not like to give 
 opposition the satisfaction of knowing how- 
 much I disapprove of the Ministry." And 
 when I mentioned that Mr. Burke had boasted 
 how quiet the nation was in George the Second's 
 reign, when Whigs were in power, compared 
 with the present reign, when Tories governed; 
 — "Why, Sir," said he, "you are to consider 
 that Tories, having more reverence for govern- 
 ment, will not oppose with the same violence 
 as Whigs, who being unrestrained by that 
 principle, will oppose by any means." 
 
 —The Life. 178 1, April. 
 
 ''' One day, when I told him that I was a zealous 
 Tory, but not enough " according to know- 
 ledge", and should be obliged to him for "a 
 reason", he was so candid, and expressed him- 
 self so well, that I begged of him to repeat 
 324
 
 WHIG VERSUS TORY 
 
 what he had said, and I wrote down as 
 follows : — 
 
 OF TORY AND WHIG 
 
 "A wise Tory and a wise Whig, I believe, 
 will agree. Their principles are the same, 
 though their modes of thinking are different. 
 A high Tory makes Government unintelligible: 
 it is lost in the clouds. A violent Wliig makes 
 it impracticable; he is for allowing so much 
 liberty to every man, that there is not power 
 enough to govern any man. The prejudice of 
 the Tory is for establishment; the prejudice 
 of the Whig is for innovation. A Tory does 
 not wish to give more real power to Govern- 
 ment, but that Government should have more 
 reverence. Then they differ as to the Church. 
 The Tory is not for giving more legal power 
 to the clergy, but wishes they should have a 
 considerable influence, founded on the opinion 
 of mankind: the Whig is for limiting and 
 watching them with a narrow jealousy." 
 
 —The Life. 17S1, May. 
 
 I am very sorry that 1 did not take a note 
 of an eloquent argument in which he main- 
 tained that the situation of Prince of Wales 
 was the happiest of any persons in the king- 
 dom, even beyond that of the Sovereign. I 
 recollect only — the enjoyment of hope, — the 
 high superiority of rank, without the anxious 
 cares of government, — and a great degree of 
 power, both from natural inJluence wisely used, 
 325
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 and from the sanguine expectations of those 
 who look forward to the chance of future 
 favour. — The Life. 1783. 
 
 . Of Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, Johnson 
 said to a friend — " Hurd, Sir, is one of a set 
 of men who account for everything s)stema- 
 tically; for instance, it has been a fashion to 
 wear scarlet breeches; these men would tell 
 you that, according to causes and effects, no 
 other wear could at that time have been 
 chosen." He, however, said of him at an- 
 other time to the same gentleman, " Hurd, 
 Sir, is a man whose acquaintance is a valuable 
 acquisition." 
 
 That learned and ingenious Prelate, it is 
 well known, published at one period of his 
 life Moral and Political Dialogues, with a wo- 
 fully Whiggish cast. Afterwards, his Lordship 
 having thought better, came to see his error, 
 and republished the work with a more Con- 
 stitutional spirit. Johnson, however, was un- 
 willing to allow him full credit for his political 
 conversion. I remember when his Lordship 
 declined the honour of being Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, Johnson said, " I am glad he did 
 not go to Lambeth ; for, after all, I fear he 
 is a Whig in his heart." — The Life. 1783. 
 
 On Saturday, May 17th, I saw him for a 
 
 short time. Having mentioned that I had 
 
 that morning been with old Mr. Sheridan, 
 
 he remembered their former intimacy with a 
 
 326
 
 WHIG VERSUS TORY 
 
 cordial warmth, and said to me, " Tell Mr. 
 Sheridan, I shall be glad to see him, and 
 shake hands with him." Boswell: " It is to 
 me very wonderful that resentment should be 
 kept up so long". Johnson: "Why, Sir, it 
 is not altogether resentment that he does not 
 visit me; it is partly falling out of the habit, — 
 partly disgust, as one has at a drug that has 
 made him sick. Besides, he knows that I 
 laugh at his oratory." Another day I spoke 
 of one of our friends, of whom he, as well 
 as I, had a very high opinion. He expatiated 
 in his praise ; but added, " Sir, he is a cursed 
 Whig, a bottomless Whig, as they all are now." 
 — The Life. 1783, May 17th. 
 
 I asked him if it was true, as reported, that 
 he had said lately, " I am for the King against 
 Fox; but 1 am for Fox against Pitt." John- 
 son: "Yes, Sir, the King is my master; but I 
 do not know Pitt; and Fox is my friend." 
 
 " I'ox," added he, " is a most extraordinary 
 man. Here is a man," describing him in 
 strong terms of objection in some respects, 
 according as he apprehended, but which ex- 
 alted his abilities the more, " who has divided 
 the kingdom with Cssar; so that it was a 
 doubt whether the nation should be ruled by 
 the sceptre of George III, or the tongue of 
 Fox." — T/ie Life. 1784, June 9th. 
 
 327
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 THE AMERICAN COLONISTS AND 
 SLAVERY 
 
 Parliament having been dissolved, and his 
 friend Mr. Thrale, who was a steady sup- 
 porter of Government, having again to en- 
 counter the storm of a contested election, he 
 wrote a short political pamphlet, entitled The 
 Patriot, addressed to the electors of Great 
 Britain; a title which, to factious men who 
 consider a patriot only as an opposer of the 
 measures of Government, will appear strangely 
 misapplied. It was, however, written with 
 energetic vivacity, and, except those passages 
 in which it endeavours to vindicate the glar- 
 ing outrage of the House of Commons in the 
 case of the Middlesex election, and to justify 
 the attempt to reduce our fellow-subjects in 
 America to unconditional submission, it con- 
 tained an admirable display of the properties 
 of a real patriot, in the original and genuine 
 sense;— a sincere, steady, rational, and un- 
 biassed friend to the interests and prosperity 
 of his King and country. It must be acknow- 
 ledged, however, that both in this and his 
 two former pamphlets, there was, amidst many 
 powerful arguments, not only a considerable por- 
 tion of sophistry, but a contemptuous ridicule 
 of his opponents, which was very provoking. 
 — The Life. 1774, October. 
 
 The doubts which, in my correspondence 
 with him, I had ventured to state as to the 
 justice and wisdom of the conduct of Great 
 328
 
 COLONISTS AND SLAVERY 
 
 Biiuln towards the American colonies, while I 
 at the same time requested that he would en- 
 able me to inform myself upon that momentous 
 subject, he had altogether disregarded; and had 
 recentl}" published a pamphlet, entitled, " Taxa- 
 tion no Tyranny: an answer to the Resolutions 
 and Address of the American Congress ". 
 
 He had long before indulged most un- 
 favourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects 
 in America. For, as early as 1769, I was 
 told by Dr. John Campbell, that he had said 
 of them, " Sir, they are a race of convicts, and 
 ought to be thankful for anything we allow 
 them short of hanging." 
 
 Of this performance I avoided to talk with 
 him; for I had now formed a clear and settled 
 opinion, that the people of America were well 
 warranted to resist a claim that their fellow- 
 subjects in the mother-country should have the 
 entire command of their fortunes, by taxing 
 them without their own consent; and the ex- 
 treme violence which it breathed, appeared to 
 me so unsuitable to the mildness of a Christian 
 philosopher, and so directly opposite to the 
 principles of peace which he had so beauti- 
 fully recommended in his pamphlet respecting 
 Falkland's Islands, that I was sorry to see 
 him appear in so unfavourable a ligiit. Be- 
 sides, I could not perceive in it that ability 
 of argument, or that felicity of expression, for 
 which he was, upon other occasions, so eminent. 
 Positive assertion, sarcastical severity, and ex- 
 travagant ridicule, which he himself reprobated 
 as a test of truth, were united in this rhapsody. 
 329
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 That this pamphlet was written at the desire 
 of those who were then in power, I have no 
 doubt: and, indeed, he owned to me, that it 
 had been revised and curtailed by some of 
 them. He told me, that they had struck out 
 one passage, which was to this effect: 
 
 "That the Colonists could with no solidity 
 argue from their not having been taxed while 
 in their infancy, that they should not now be 
 taxed. We do not put a calf into the plough; 
 we wait till he is an ox." 
 
 He said, "They struck it out either critically 
 as too ludicrous, or politically as too exasperat- 
 ing. I care not which. It was their business. 
 If an architect says, I will build five stories, 
 and the man who employs him says, I will have 
 only three, the employer is to decide." " Yes, 
 Sir," said I, " in ordinary cases. But should 
 it be so when the architect gives his skill and 
 labour gratis ?" 
 
 Unfavourable as I am constrained to say my 
 opinion of this pamphlet was, yet, since it was 
 congenial with the sentiments of numbers at 
 that time, and as everything relating to the 
 writings of Dr. Johnson is of importance in 
 literary history, I shall therefore insert some 
 passages which were struck out, it does not 
 appear why, either by himself or those who 
 revised it. They appear printed in a few proof 
 leaves of it in my possession, marked with 
 corrections in his own handwriting. I shall 
 distinguish them by Italics. 
 
 In the paragraph where he says, the Ameri- 
 330
 
 COLONISTS AND SLAVERY 
 
 cans were incited to resistance by European 
 intelligence from 
 
 " men whom they thought their friends, but 
 who were friends only to themselves ", 
 there followed, — 
 
 " and made by their selfishness, the enemies of their 
 country ". 
 
 And the next paragraph ran thus : — 
 
 " On the original contrivers of mischief, rather 
 than on those zvhom they have deluded, let an insulted 
 nation pour out its vengeance ". 
 
 The paragraph which came next was in these 
 
 words: — 
 
 " Unhappy is that country in 7vhich men can hope 
 for advancement b-j favouring its enemies. The 
 tranquillity of stable government is not akvays easily 
 preserved against the machinations of single inno- 
 vators ; but zuhat can be the hope of quiet, ivhen 
 factions hostile to the Legislature can be openly formed 
 and openly avowed?''"' 
 
 After the paragraph which now concludes 
 the pamphlet, there followed this, in which 
 he certainly means the great Earl of Chatham, 
 and glances at a certain popular Lord Chan- 
 cellor : — 
 
 " /^ by the fortune of war, they drive us utterly 
 away, what they will do next can only be conjec- 
 tured. If a new monarchy is erected, they will 
 want a King. He who first takes into his hand 
 the sceptre of America, should have a name of good 
 331
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 omen. William has been knozvn both a conqueror 
 and deliverer; and perhaps England, hozvever con- 
 temned, might jet supply them -with another 
 William. Whigs, indeed, are not zvilfrng to be 
 governed; and it is possible that King William 
 may be strongly inclined to guide their measures: 
 but Whigs have been cheated like other mortals, 
 and suffered their leader to become their tyrant, 
 under the name of their Protector. What more 
 they will receive from England, no man can tell. 
 In their rudiments of empire they may want a 
 Chancellor." 
 
 Then came this paragraph: — 
 
 " Their numbers are, at present, not quite sufficient 
 for the greatness zvhich, in some form of government 
 or other, is to rival the ancient monarchies ; but by 
 Dr. Franklin's rule of progression, they will, in a 
 century and a quarter, be more than equal to the 
 inhabitants of Europe. When the Whigs of AiJierica 
 are thus multiplied let the Princes of the earth tremble 
 in their palaces. If they should continue to double 
 and to double, their ozvn hemisphere would not contain 
 them. But let not our boldest oppugners of authority 
 look forward with delight to this futurity of Whig- 
 gismP 
 
 How it ended I know not, as it is cut off 
 abruptly at the foot of the last of these proof 
 pages. — The Life. 1775, March. 
 
 After supper I accompanied him. to his apart- 
 ment, and at my request he dictated to me an 
 argument in favour of the negro who was then 
 claiming his liberty, in an action in the Court 
 
 332
 
 COLONISTS AND SLAVERY 
 
 of Session in Scotland. He had always been 
 very zealous against slavery in every form, in 
 which I with all deference thought that he dis- 
 covered "a zeal without knowledge". Upon 
 one occasion, when in company with some very 
 grave men at Oxford, his toast was, "Here's 
 to the next insurrection of the negroes in the 
 West Indies ". His violent prejudice against 
 our West Indian and American settlers ap- 
 peared whenever there was an opportunity. 
 Towards the conclusion of his Taxation no 
 Tyranny, he says, " How is it that we hear 
 the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers 
 of negroes?" and in his conversation with Mr. 
 V/ilkes he asked, " Where did Beckford and 
 Trecothick learn English?" That Trecothick 
 could both speak and write good English is 
 well known. I myself was favoured with his 
 correspondence concerning the brave Corsi- 
 cans. And that Beckford could speak it 
 with a spirit of honest resolution even to 
 His Majesty, as his "faithful Lord Mayor 
 of London ", is commemorated by the noble 
 monument erected to him in Guildhall. 
 
 The argument dictated by Dr. Johnson was 
 as follows: — 
 
 " It must be agreed that in most ages many 
 countries have had part of their inhabitants in a 
 state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether 
 slavery can ever be supposed the natural con- 
 dition of man. It is impossible not to conceive 
 that men in their original state were equal; and 
 very difficult to imagine how one could be 
 subjected to another but by violent compulsion. 
 333
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 An individual may, indeed, forfeit his liberty 
 by a crime; but he cannot, by that crime, for- 
 feit the liberty of his children. What is true of 
 a criminal seems true likewise of a captive. A 
 man may accept life from a conquering enemy 
 on condition of perpetual servitude ; b\it it is 
 very doubtful whether he can entail that ser- 
 vitude on his descendants ; for no man can 
 stipulate, without commission, for another. The 
 condition which he himself accepts, his son or 
 grandson perhaps would have rejected. If we 
 should admit, what perhaps may with more 
 reason be denied, that there are certain rela- 
 tions between man and man which may make 
 slavery necessary and just, yet it can never be 
 proved that he who is now suing for his free- 
 dom ever stood in any of those relations. He 
 is certainly subject by no law, but that of 
 violence, to his present master, who pretends 
 no claim to his obedience, but that he bought 
 him from a merchant of slaves, whose right to 
 sell him never was examined. It is said that 
 according to the constitutions cf Jamaica he 
 was legally enslaved ; these constitutions are 
 merely positive, and apparently injurious to 
 the rights of mankind, because whoever is ex- 
 posed to sale is condemned to slavery without 
 appeal, by whatever fraud or violence he might 
 have been originally brought into the mer- 
 chant's power. In our own times princes have 
 been sold by wretches to whose care they were 
 entrusted, that they might have a European 
 education ; but when once they were brought 
 to a market in the plantations, little would 
 334
 
 COLONISTS AND SLAVERY 
 
 avail either their dignity or their wrongs. The 
 laws of Jamaica afford a negro no redress. His 
 colour is considered as a sufficient testimony 
 against him. It is to be lamented that moral 
 right should ever give way to political con- 
 venience. But if temptations of interest are 
 sometimes too strong for human virtue, let 
 us at least retain a virtue where there is no 
 temptation to quit it. In the present case 
 there is apparent right on one side, and no 
 convenience on the other. Inhabitants of this 
 island can neither gain riches nor power by 
 taking away the liberty of any part of the 
 human species. The sum of the argument is 
 this : — No man is by nature the property of 
 another — The defendant is, therefore, by nature 
 free — The rights of nature must be some way 
 forfeited before they can be justly taken away — 
 That the defendant has by any act forfeited the 
 rights of nature we require to be proved, and 
 if no proof of such forfeiture can be given, we 
 doubt not the justice of the court will declare 
 him free." 
 
 I record Dr. Johnson's argument fairly upon 
 this particular case; where, perhaps, he was in 
 the right. But I beg leave to enter my most 
 solemn protest against his general doctrine with 
 respect to the Slave Trade. For I will resolutely 
 say, that his unfavourable notion of it was owing 
 to prejudice, and imperfect or false information. 
 The wild and dangerous attempt which has 
 for some time been persisted in to obtain an 
 act of our Legislature, to abolish so very im- 
 portant and necessary a branch of commercial 
 335
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 interest, must have been crushed at once, had 
 not the insignificance of the zealots who vainly 
 took the lead in it, made the vast body of 
 planters, merchants, and others, whose immense 
 properties are involved in the trade, reason- 
 ably enough suppose that there could be no 
 danger. The eni:ouragement which the attempt 
 has received excites my wonder and indigna- 
 tion; and though some men of superior abili- 
 ties have supported it — whether from a love of 
 temporary popularity, when prosperous, or a 
 love of general mischief, when desperate — 
 my opinion is unshaken. To abolish a status, 
 which in all ages God has sanctioned, and man 
 has continued, would not only be robbery to an 
 innumerable class of our fellow-subjects, but it 
 would be extreme cruelty to the African savages, 
 a portion of whom it saves from massacre, or 
 intolerable bondage in their own country, and 
 introduces into a much happier state of life; 
 especially now when their passage to the West 
 Indies, and their treatment there, is humanely 
 regulated. To abolish this trade would be to 
 
 " shut the gates of mercy on mankind ". 
 
 Whatever may have passed elsewhere concern- 
 ing it, the House of Lords is wise and inde- 
 pendent: — 
 
 Intaminatis fulget honoribus; 
 
 Nee sumit aut ponit secures 
 
 Arbitrio popularis aura?. 
 
 I have read, conversed, and thought much 
 upon the subject, and \vould recommend to 
 336
 
 COLONISTS AND SLAVERY 
 
 all who are capable ol conviction an excellent 
 tract by my learned and ingenious friend John 
 Ranby, Esq., entitled, Doubts on the Abolition of 
 the Slave Trade. To Mr. Ranby's Doubts, I will 
 apply Lord Chancellor Hardwicke's expression 
 in praise of a Scotch law book, called Dirleton''s 
 Doubts. " His Doubts," said his Lordship, " are 
 better than most people's Certainties." 
 
 — T/ie Life. 1777, Sept. 23rd. 
 
 From this pleasing subject, he, I know not 
 how or why, made a sudden transition to one 
 upon which he was a violent aggressor ; for he 
 said, " I am willing to love all mankind, except 
 an American;'''' and his inflammable corruption 
 bursting into horrid fire, he " breathed out 
 threatenings and slaughter " ; calling them, 
 " Rascals — robbers — pirates;" and exclaiming, 
 he'd "burn and destroy them." Miss Seward, 
 looking to him with mild but steady astonish- 
 ment, said, " Sir, this is an instance that we are 
 always most violent against those whom we 
 have injured." — He was irritated still more by 
 this delicate and keen reproach; and roared out 
 another tremendous volley, which one might 
 fancy could be heard across the Atlantic. Dur- 
 ing this tempest I sat in great uneasiness, 
 lamenting his heat of temper; till, by degrees, 
 I diverted his attention to other topics. 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 15th. 
 
 " My dear friend Dr. Bathurst," said lie, 
 with a warmth of approbation, "declared, he 
 was glad that his father, who was a West 
 
 (B2T3) 337 2 A
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 Indian planter, had left his affairs in total ruin, 
 because having no estate he was not under the 
 temptation of having slaves." 
 
 — T he Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 On Sunday, April ist, I dined with him at 
 Mr. Thrale's, with Sir Philip Jennings Clerk 
 and Mr. Perkins, who had the superintendence 
 of Mr. Thrale's brewery, with a salary of five 
 hundred pounds a year. Sir Philip had the 
 appearance of a gentleman of ancient family, 
 well advanced in life. He wore his own white 
 hair in a bag of goodly size, a black velvet coat, 
 with an embroidered waistcoat, and very rich 
 laced ruffles; which Mrs. Thrale said were old- 
 fashioned, but which, for that reason, I thought 
 the more respectable, more like a Tory; yet 
 Sir Philip was then in Opposition in Parlia- 
 ment. "Ah, Sir," said Johnson, "ancient 
 ruffles and modern principles do not agree." 
 Sir Philip defended the Opposition to the 
 American war ably and with temper, and I 
 joined him. He said, the majority of the 
 nation was against the Ministry. Johnson: " I, 
 Sir, am against the Ministry; but it is for having 
 too little of that, of which Opposition thinks 
 they have too much. Were I a Minister, if 
 any man wagged his finger against me, he 
 should be turned out; for that which it is in 
 the power of Government to give at pleasure 
 to one or to another, should be given to the 
 supporters of Government. If you will not 
 oppose at the expense of losing your place, your 
 338
 
 JACOBITISM 
 
 opposition will not be honest, you Avill feel no 
 serious grievance; and the present Opposition 
 is only a contest to get what others have. Sir 
 Robert Walpole acted as I would do. As to the 
 American war, the sense of the nation is with the 
 Ministry. The majority of those who can 
 understand \^ with it; the majority of those who 
 can only hear, is against it; and as those who 
 can only hear are more numerous than those 
 who can understand, and Opposition is always 
 loudest, a majority of the rabble will be for 
 Opposition." 
 
 This boisterous vivacity entertained us; but 
 the truth in my opinion was, that those who 
 could understand the best were against the 
 American war, as almost every man now is, 
 when the question has been coolly considered. 
 — The Life. 1781, April ist. 
 
 JACOBITISM 
 
 His separate publications [in 1739] were A 
 Complete Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage, 
 from the malicious and scandalous Aspersions of Mr. 
 Brooke, author of Gustavus Vasa, being an ironical 
 attack upon them for their suppression of that 
 tragedy; and M armor Norfolciense; or, an Essay 
 on an Ancient Prophetical Inscription, in Monkish 
 Rhyme, lately discovered near Lynne, in Norfolk, by 
 Frobus Britannicus. In this performance he, in 
 a feigned inscription, supposed to have been 
 found in Norfolk, the county of Sir Robert 
 Walpole, then the obnoxious Prime Minister 
 of this country, inveighs against the Brunswick 
 339
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 succession, and the measures of Government 
 consequent upon it. To this supposed pro- 
 phecy he added a Commentary, making each 
 expression apply to the times, with warm anti- 
 Hanoverian zeal. 
 
 This anonymous pamphlet, I believe, did 
 not make so much noise as was expected, and, 
 therefore, had not a very extensive circulation. 
 
 Marmor Norfolciense became exceedingly scarce, 
 so that I, for many years, endeavoured in vain 
 to procure a copy of it. At last I was indebted 
 to the malice of one of Johnson's numerous 
 petty adversaries, who in 1775 published a new 
 edition of it, " with Notes and a Dedication to 
 Samuel Johnson, LL.D., by Tnbunus"; in which 
 some puny scribbler invidiously attempted to 
 found upon it a charge of inconsistency against 
 its author, because he had accepted of a pension 
 from his present Majesty, and had written in 
 support of the measures of Government. As a 
 mortification to such impotent malice, of which 
 there are so many instances towards men of 
 eminence, I am happy to relate that this 
 te^um imbelle did not reach its exalted object 
 till about a year after it thus appeared, when I 
 mentioned it to him, supposing that he knew 
 of the republication. To my surprise he had 
 not yet heard of it. He requested me to go 
 directly and get it for him, which I did. He 
 looked at it and laughed, and seemed to be 
 much diverted with the feeble eftbrts of his un- 
 known adversary, who, I hope, is alive to read 
 this account. " Now," said he, " here is some- 
 body who thinks he has vexed me sadly: yet if 
 340
 
 JACOBITISM 
 
 it had not been for you, you rogue, I should 
 probably never have seen it." 
 
 — 1 he Life. 1739. 
 
 Johnson used to be a pretty frequent visitor 
 at the house of Mr. Richardson, author of 
 Clarissa, and other novels of extensive repu- 
 tation. Mr. Hogarth came one day to see 
 Richardson, soon after the execution of Dr. 
 Cameron, lor having taken arms for the house 
 of Stuart in 174.5-4.6; and being a warm parti- 
 san of George the Second, he observed to 
 Richardson, that certainly there must have been 
 some very unfavourable circumstances lately 
 discovered in this particular case, which had 
 induced the King to appi'ove of an execution 
 for rebellion so long after the time when it 
 was committed, as this had the appearance of 
 putting a man to death in cold blood, and was 
 very unlike his Majesty's usual clemency. 
 While he was talking, he perceived a person 
 standing at a window in the room, shaking his 
 head, and rolling himself about in a strange, 
 ridiculous manner. He concluded that he was 
 an idiot whom his relations had put under the 
 care of Mr. Richardson, as a ver}- good man. 
 To his great surprise, however, this figure 
 stalked forwards, to where he and Mr. Richard- 
 son were sitting, and all at once took up the 
 argument, and burst out into an invective against 
 George the Second, as one, who, upon all occa- 
 sions, was unrelenting and barbarous ; men- 
 tioning many instances; particularly, that when 
 an officer of high rank had been acquitted by a 
 341
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 court-martial, George the Second had, with his 
 own hand, struck his name off the list. In 
 short, he displayed such a power of eloquence, 
 that Hogarth looked at him with astonishment, 
 and actually imagined that this idiot had been 
 at the moment inspired. Neither Hogarth nor 
 Johnson were made known to each other at this 
 interview. — The Life. 
 
 To such a degree of unrestrained frankness 
 had he now accustomed me, that in the course 
 of this evening I talked of the numerous reflec- 
 tions which had been thrown out against him, 
 on account of his having accepted a pension 
 from his present Majesty. " Why, Sir," said 
 he, with a hearty laugh, " it is a mighty foolish 
 noise that they make. I have accepted of a 
 pension as a reward which has been thought 
 due to my literary merit; and now that I have 
 this pension, I am the same man in every 
 respect that I have ever been; I retain the same 
 principles. It is true, that I cannot now curse 
 (smiling) the house of Hanover; nor would it 
 be decent for me to drink King James's health 
 in the wine that King George gives me money 
 to pay for. But, Sir, I think that the pleasure 
 of cursing the house of Hanover, and drinking 
 King James's health, are amply overbalanced by 
 three hundred pounds a year." 
 
 There was here, most certainly, an affecta- 
 tion of more Jacobitism than he really had; and 
 indeed an intention of admitting, for the mo- 
 ment, in a much greater extent than it really 
 existed, the charge of disaffection imputed to 
 342
 
 JACOBITISM 
 
 him by the world, merely for the purpose of 
 showing how dexterously he could repel an 
 attack, even though he were placed in the most 
 disadvantageous position; for I have heard him 
 declare, that if holding up his right hand would 
 have secured victory at Culloden to Prince 
 Charles's army, he was not sure he would have 
 held it up; so little confidence had he in the 
 right claimed by the house of Stuart, and so 
 fearful was he of the consequences of another 
 revolution on the throne of Great Britain; and 
 Mr. Topham Beauclerk assured me, he had 
 heard him say this before he had his pension. 
 At another time he said to Mr. Langton: 
 " Nothing has ever offered, that has made it 
 worth my while to consider the question fully." 
 He, however, also said to the same gentleman, 
 talking of King James the Second: "It was 
 become impossible for him to reign any longer 
 in this country." He no doubt had an early 
 attachment to the house of Stuart; but his 
 zeal had cooled as his reason strengthened. 
 Indeed I heard him once say, " that after the 
 death of a violent Whig, with whom he used to 
 contend with great eagerness, he felt his Tory- 
 ism much abated." I suppose he meant Mr. 
 Walmsley. 
 
 Yet there is no doubt that at earlier periods 
 he was wont often to exercise both his plea- 
 santry and ingenuity in talking Jacobitism. 
 My much respected friend. Dr. Douglas, now 
 Bishop of Salisbury, has favoured me with the 
 following admirable instance from his lordship's 
 own recollection: — One day when dining at 
 343
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 old Mr. Langton's, where Miss Roberts, his 
 niece, was one of the company, Johnson, with 
 his usual complacent attention to the fair sex, 
 took her by the hand, and said ; " My dear, I 
 hope you are a Jacobite." Old Mr. Langton, 
 who, though a high and steady Tory, was 
 attached to the present Royal Family, seemed 
 offended, and asked Johnson, with great warmth, 
 what he could mean by putting such a question 
 to his niece? "Why, Sir," said Johnson, "I 
 meant no offence to your niece, I meant her a 
 great compliment. A Jacobite, Sir, believes in 
 the divine right of kings. He that believes in 
 the divine right of kings believes in a Divinity. 
 A Jacobite believes in the divine rights of 
 bishops. He that believes in the divine rights 
 of bishops, believes in the divine authority of 
 the Christian religion. Therefore, Sir, a Jacobite 
 is neither an Atheist nor a Deist. That cannot 
 be said of a Whig; for Whiggism is a yiegatton of 
 all principle. '' —The Life. 1763, July 9th. 
 
 Talking of the Family of Stuart, he said: " It 
 should seem that the Family at present on the 
 throne has now established as good a right as 
 the former Family, by the long consent of the 
 people; and that to disturb this right might 
 be considered as culpable. At the same time 
 I own, that it is a very difficult question, when 
 considered v/ith respect to the house of Stuart. 
 To oblige people to take oaths as to the dis- 
 puted right, is vvrong. I know not whether 
 I could take them: but I do not blame those 
 who do." So conscientious and so delicate was 
 344
 
 JACOBITISM 
 
 he upon this subject, which has occasioned so 
 much clamour against him. 
 
 — The Life. iTJl, April 131)1. 
 
 I asked if it was not strange that Government 
 should permit so many infidel writings to pass 
 without censure. Johnson: " Sir, it is mighty 
 foolish. It is for want of knowing their own 
 power. The present Family on the throne came 
 to the Crown against the will of nine-tenths of 
 the people. Whether those nine-tenths were 
 right or wrong, it is not our business now to 
 inquire. But such being the situation of the 
 Royal Family, they were glad to encourage all 
 who would be their friends. Now you know 
 every bad man is a Whig; every man who has 
 loose notions. The Church was all against this 
 Family. They were, as I say, glad to encourage 
 any friends; and therefore, since their accession, 
 there is no instance of any man being kept back 
 on account of his bad principles; and hence 
 this inundation of impiety." I observed that 
 Mr. Hume, some of whose writings were very 
 unfavourable to religion, was, however, a Tory. 
 Johnson: "Sir, Hume is a Tory by chance, as 
 being a Scotchman; but not upon a principle 
 of duty; for he has no principle. If he is any- 
 thing, he is a Hobbist." 
 
 — The Tour. ^TJZ, Sept. 30th. 
 
 The duchess was very attentive to Dr. John- 
 son. I know not how a middle state came to be 
 mentioned. Her grace wished to hear him on 
 that point. " Madam," said he, " your own 
 345
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 relation, Mr. Archibald Campbell, can tell you 
 better about it than I can. He was a bishop 
 of the Nonjuring communion, and wrote a book 
 upon the subject." He engaged to get it for 
 her grace. He afterwards gave a full history 
 of Mr. Archibald Campbell, which I am sorry 
 I do not recollect particularly. He said, Mr. 
 Campbell had been bred a violent Whig, but 
 afterwards " kept better company, and became a 
 Tory." He said this with a smile, in pleasant 
 allusion, as I thought, to the opposition be- 
 tween his own political principles and those of 
 the duke's clan. He added that Mr. Campbell, 
 after the Revolution, was thrown into gaol on 
 account of his tenets; but, on application by 
 letter to the old Lord Townshend, was re- 
 leased : that he always spoke of his lordship 
 with great gratitude, saying, " though a Whig, 
 he had humanity." 
 
 Dr. Johnson and I passed some time together, 
 in June, 1784, at Pembroke College, Oxford, 
 with the Reverend Dr. Adams, the Master; and 
 I having expressed a regret that my note relative 
 to Mr. Archibald Campbell was imperfect, he 
 was then so good as to write with his own 
 hand, on the blank page of my Journal, opposite 
 to that which contains what I have now men- 
 tioned, the following paragraph; which, how- 
 ever, is not quite so full as the narrative he 
 gave at Liveraray: 
 
 " The Honourable Archibald Campbell was, 
 I believe, the nephew of the Marquis of Argyle. 
 He began life by engaging in Monmouth's re- 
 bellion, and, to escape the law, lived some time 
 346
 
 JACOBITISM 
 
 in Surinam. When he returned, he became 
 zealous for episcopacy and monarchy; and at 
 the Revolution adhered not only to the Non- 
 jurors, but to those who refused to communi- 
 cate with the Church of England, or to be 
 present at any worship where the Usurper was 
 mentioned as king. He was, I believe, more 
 than once apprehended in the reign of King 
 William, and once at the accession of George. 
 He was the familiar friend of Hicks and Nel- 
 son; a man of letters, but injudicious; and 
 very curious and inquisitive, but credulous. 
 He lived in 1743, or '44, about 75 years old." 
 — The Tour. 1773,001.251)1. 
 
 Lorel Elibank came to us, as did Sir William 
 Forbes. The rash Attempt in 1745 being men- 
 tioned, I observed, that it would make a fine 
 piece of History. Dr. Johnson said it would. 
 Lord Elibank doubted whether any man of this 
 age could give it impartially. Johnson: "A 
 man, by talking with those of different sides, 
 who were actors in it, and putting down all 
 that he hears, may in time collect the materials 
 of a good narrative. You are to consider, all 
 history was at first oral. I suppose Voltaire 
 was fifty years in collecting his Louis XIF, 
 which he did in the way that I am proposing." 
 Robertson: " He did so. He lived much with 
 all the great people who were concerned in that 
 reign, and heard them talk of everything; and 
 then either took Mr. Boswell's way, of writing 
 down what he heard, or, which is as good, 
 preserved it in his memory; for he has a vvon- 
 347
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 derful memory." With the leave, however, of 
 this elegant historian, no man's memory can 
 preserve facts or sayings with such fidelity as 
 may be done by \\riting them down when they 
 are recent. Dr. Robertson said: " It was now 
 full time to make such a collection as Dr. John- 
 son suggested ; for many ol the people who 
 were then in arms, were ciropping oft"; and both 
 Whigs and Jacobites were now come to talk 
 with moderation." Lord Elibank said to him: 
 *' Mr. Robertson, the first thing that gave me a 
 high opinion of you, was your saying in the 
 Select Society, while parties ran high, soon 
 after the year 1745, that you did not think 
 worse of a man's moral character for his having 
 been in rebellion. This was venturing to 
 utter a liberal sentiment, while both sides had 
 a detestation of each other." 
 
 Dr. Johnson observed, that being in rebellion 
 from a notion of another's right was not con- 
 nected with depravity; and that we had this 
 proof of it, that all mankind applauded the par- 
 doning of rebels; which they would not do in 
 the case of robbers and murderers. He said, 
 with a smile, that " he wondered that the phrase 
 of unnatural rebellion should be so much used, 
 for that all rebellion was natural to man." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Nov. iith. 
 
 I told him, that I heard Dr. Percy was writ- 
 ing the history of the wolf in Great Britain. 
 Johnson : " The wolf. Sir ! why the wolf? 
 Why does he not write of the bear, which we 
 had formerly ? Nay, it is said we had the 
 348
 
 JAGOBITISM 
 
 beaver. Or why does he not write of the grey 
 rat, the Hanover rat, as it is called, because it 
 is said to have come into this country about 
 the time that the Family of Hanover came ? I 
 should like to see 'The History of the Grey 
 Rat, by Thomas Percy, D.D., Chaplain in 
 Ordinary to His Majesty'" (laughing immode- 
 rately). Boswell: " I am afraid a court chaplain 
 could not decently write of the grey rat ". John- 
 son: " Sir, he need not give it the name of the 
 Hanover rat". Thus could he indulge a luxu- 
 riant, sportive imagination when talking of a 
 friend whom he loved and esteemed. 
 
 — The Life. 1776, March 21st. 
 
 He had this evening (partly, I suppose, from 
 the spirit of contradiction to his Whig friend) 
 a violent argument with Dr. Taylor, as to the 
 inclinations of the people of England at this 
 time towards the Royal Family of Stuart. He 
 grew so outrageous as to say, " that if England 
 were fairly polled the present King would be 
 sent away to-night, and his adherents hanged 
 to-morrow." Taylor, who was as violent a 
 Whig as Johnson was a Tory, was roused by 
 this to a pitch of bellowing. He denied loudly 
 what Johnson said, and maintained that there 
 was an abhorrence against the Stuart Family, 
 though he admitted that the people were not 
 much attached to the present King. Johnson: 
 " Sir, the state of the country is this: the people 
 knowing it to be agreed on all hands that this 
 King has not the hereditary right to the Crown, 
 and there being no hope that he who has it 
 349
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 can be restored, have grown cold and indifferent 
 upon the subject of loyalty, and have no warm 
 attachment to any king. They would not, 
 therefore, risk anything to restore the Exiled 
 Family. They would not give zos. a-piece to 
 bring it about. But if a mere vote could do it, 
 there would be twenty to one; at least, there 
 would be a very great majority of voices for it. 
 For, Sir, you are to consider, that all those 
 who think a king has a right to his crown, as a 
 man has to his estate, which is the just opinion, 
 would be for restoring the king who certainly 
 has the hereditary right, could he be trusted 
 with it; in which there would be no danger 
 now, when laws and everything else are so 
 much advanced : and every king will govern 
 by the laws. And you must also consider. 
 Sir, that there is nothing on the other side to 
 oppose this; for it is not alleged by anyone 
 that the present Family has any inherent right: 
 so that the Whigs could not have a contest 
 between two rights." 
 
 — The Life. 1777, Sept. 17th. 
 
 He talked with regret and indignation of the 
 factious opposition to Government at this time, 
 and imputed it in a great measure to the Revo- 
 lution. " Sir," said he, in a low voice, having 
 come nearer to me, while his old prejudices 
 seemed to be fomenting in his mind, " this 
 Hanoverian Family is isolee here. They have 
 no friends. Now the Stuarts had friends who 
 stuck by them so late as 1745. When the 
 right of the King is not reverenced, there will 
 350
 
 JACOBITISM 
 
 not be reverence for those appointed by the 
 King." — The Life. 1783, March a ist. 
 
 I was glad when General Oglethorpe's arrival 
 was announced, and we left the ladies. Dr. 
 Johnson attended him in the parlour, and was 
 as courteous as ever. The General said he was 
 busy reading the writers of the middle age. 
 Johnson said they were very curious. Ogle- 
 thorpe: "Tlie House of Commons has usurped 
 the power of the nation's money, and used it 
 tyrannically. Government is now carried on 
 by corrupt influence, instead of the inherent 
 right in the King." Johnson: " Sir, the want 
 of inherent right in the King occasions all this 
 disturbance. What we did at the Revolution 
 was necessary; but it broke our constitution." 
 Oglethorpe: "My father did not think it 
 necessary". —The Life 17S3, March 27.nd. 
 
 He talked with great regard of the Honour- 
 able Archibald Campbell, whose character he 
 had given at the Duke of Argyle's table, when 
 we were at Inveraray; and at this time wrote 
 out for me, in his own hand, a fuller account 
 of that learned and venerable wTiter, which I 
 have published in its proper place. Johnson 
 made a remark this evening which struck me a 
 good deal. " I never," said he, " knew a Non- 
 juror who could reason." Surely he did not 
 mean to deny that faculty to many of their 
 writers; to Hickes, Brett, and other eminent 
 divines of that persuasion: and did not recol- 
 lect that the seven Bishops, so justly celebrated 
 351
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 for their magnanimous resistance of arbitrary 
 power, were yet Nonjurors to the new Gov- 
 ernment. The Nonjuring clergy of Scotland, 
 indeed, who, excepting a few, have lately by a 
 sudden stroke cut oft' all ties of allegiance to 
 the house of Stuart, and resolved to pray for 
 our present lawful Sovereign by name, may be 
 thought to have confirmed this remark; as 
 it may be said, that the divine indefeasible 
 hereditary right which they professed to be- 
 lieve, if ever true, must be equally true still. 
 Many of my readers will be surprised, when 
 I mention that Johnson assured me he had 
 never in his life been in a Nonjuring meeting- 
 house. — The Life. 1784, June 9th. 
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 " People," he remarked, " may be taken in 
 once, who imagine that an author is greater 
 in private life than other men. Uncommon 
 parts require uncommon opportunities for their 
 exertion. 
 
 " In barbarous society, superiority of parts 
 is of real consequence. Great strength or great 
 wisdom is of much value to an individual. But 
 in more polished times there are people to do 
 everything for money; and then there are a 
 number of other superiorities, such as those of 
 birth, and fortune, and rank, that dissipate 
 men's attention, and leave no extraordinary 
 share of respect for personal and intellectual 
 superiority. This is wisely ordered by Provi- 
 352
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 dence, to preserve some equality among man- 
 kind." —The Life. 1763, May i6th. 
 
 Oar conversation proceeded. " Sir," said he, 
 " I am a friend to subordination as most con- 
 ducive to the happiness of society. There is 
 a reciprocal pleasure in governing and being 
 governed." — The Life. 1763, June 25th. 
 
 Rousseau's treatise on the inequality of man- 
 kind was at this time a fashionable topic. It 
 gave rise to an observation by Mr. Dempster, 
 that the advantages of fortune and rank were 
 nothing to a wise man, who ought to value 
 only merit. Johnson: " If man v/ere a savage, 
 living in the woods by himself, this might be 
 true ; but in civilized society we all depend 
 upon each other, and our happiness is very 
 much owing to the good opinion of mankind. 
 Now, Sir, in civilized society, external advan- 
 tages make us more respected. A man with a 
 good coat upon his back meets with a better 
 reception than he who has a bad one. Sir, 
 you may analyse this, and say what is there 
 in it ? But that will avail you nothing, for it 
 is part of a general system. Pound St. Paul's 
 church into atoms, and consider any single 
 atom; it is, to be sure, good for nothing; but 
 put all these atoms together and you have St. 
 Paul's church. So it is with human felicity, 
 which is made up of many ingredients, each of 
 which may be shown to be very insignificant. 
 In civilized society personal merit will not 
 serve you so much as money will. Sir, you 
 (B212) 353 2B
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 may make tlie experiment. Go into the street 
 and give one man a lecture on morality and 
 another a shilling, and see which will respect 
 you most. If you wish only to support nature, 
 Sir William Petty fixes your allowance at three 
 pounds a year ; but as times are much altered, 
 let us call it six pounds. This sum will fill 
 your belly, shelter you from the weather, and 
 even get you a strong lasting coat, supposing it 
 to be made of good bull's hide. Now, Sir, all 
 beyond this is artificial, and is desired in order 
 to obtain a greater degree of respect from our 
 fellow - creatures. And, Sir, if six hundred 
 pounds a year procure a man more conse- 
 quence, and, of course, more happiness than 
 six pounds a year, the same proportion will 
 hold as to six thousand, and so on, as far as 
 opulence can be carried. Perhaps he who has 
 a large fortune may not be so happy as he who 
 has a small one ; but that must proceed from 
 other causes than from his having the large 
 fortune: for, cceteris paribus, he who is rich in 
 a civilized society must be happier than he who 
 is poor; as riches, if properly used (and it is a 
 man's own fault if they are not) must be pro- 
 ductive of the highest advantages. Money, to 
 be sure, of itself is of no use: for its only use 
 is to part with it. Rousseau, and all those who 
 deal in paradoxes, are led away by a childish 
 desire of novelty. When I was a boy I used 
 always to choose the wrong side of a debate, 
 because most ingenious things, that is to say, 
 most new things, could be said upon it. Sir, 
 there is nothing for which you may not muster 
 354
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 up more plausible arguments than those which 
 are urged against wealth and other external 
 advantages. Why, now, there is stealing: why 
 should it be thought a crime ? When we con- 
 sider by what unjust methods property has 
 been often acquired, and that what was un- 
 justly got it must be unjust to keep, where is 
 the harm in one man's taking the property of 
 another from him ? Besides, Sir, when we 
 consider the bad use that many people make 
 of their property, and how much better use the 
 thief may make of it, it may be defended as a 
 very allowable practice. Yet, Sir, the experience 
 of mankind has discovered stealing to be so 
 very bad a thing that they make no scruple to 
 hang a man for it." 
 
 It was suggested that kings must be unhappy, 
 because they are deprived of the greatest of all 
 satisfactions, easy and unreserved society. John- 
 son: "This is an ill-founded notion. Being a 
 king does not exclude a m.an from such society. 
 Great kings have always been social. The 
 King of Prussia, the only great king at present, 
 is very social. Charles the Second, the last 
 king of England who was a man of parts, was 
 social ; and our Henrys and Edwards were all 
 social." ^ — The Life. 1763, July 20th. 
 
 Mr. Dempster having endeavoured to main- 
 tain that intrinsic merit ought to make the only 
 distinction among mankind. Johnson: "Why, 
 Sir, mankind have found that this cannot be. 
 How shall we determine the proportion of in- 
 trinsic merit? Were that to be the only distinc- 
 355
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 tion amongst mankind, we should soon quarrel 
 about the degrees of it. Were all distinctions 
 abolished, the strongest would not long acquiesce, 
 but would endeavour to obtain a superiority by 
 their bodily strength. But, Sir, as subordination 
 is very necessary for society, and contentions for 
 superiority very dangerous, mankind, that is to 
 say, all civilized nations, have settled it upon 
 a plain invariable principle. A man is born 
 to hereditary rank ; or his being appointed to 
 certain offices gives him a certain rank. Sub- 
 ordination tends greatly to human happiness. 
 V/ere we all upon an equality, we should have no 
 other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure." 
 
 I said, I considered distinction or rank to be 
 of so much importance in civilized society, that 
 if I were asked on the same day to dine with 
 the first duke in England, and with the first 
 man in Britain for genius, I should hesitate 
 which to prefer. Johnson : " To be sure. Sir, 
 if you were to dine only once, and it were 
 never to be known where you dined, you would 
 choose rather to dine with the first man for 
 genius; but to gain most respect, you should 
 dine with the first duke in England. For nine 
 people in ten that you meet with, would have 
 a higher opinion of you for leaving dined with 
 a duke ; and the great genius himself would 
 receive you better, because you had been with 
 the great duke." 
 
 He took care to guard himself against any 
 
 possible suspicion that his settled principles of 
 
 reverence for rank and respect for Vv'ealth were 
 
 at all owing to inean or interested motives: for 
 
 3S6
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 he asserted his own independence as a literary 
 man. 
 
 "No man," said he, "who ever lived by 
 literature, has lived more independently than 
 I have done." He said he had taken longer 
 time than he needed to have done in composing 
 his Dictionary. He received our compliments 
 upon that great work with complacency, and 
 told us that the Academy della Crusca could 
 scarcely believe that it was done by one man. 
 — The Life. 1763, July 20th. 
 
 He again insisted on the duty of maintaining 
 subordination of rank. " Sir, I would no more 
 deprive a nobleman of his respect than of his 
 money. I consider myself as acting a part in 
 the great system of society, and I do to others 
 as I would have them do to me. I Vv'ould be- 
 have to a nobleman as I should expect he 
 would behave to me, were I a nobleman, and 
 he Sam. Johnson. Sir, there is one Mrs. Mac- 
 aulay, in this town, a great republican. One 
 day when I was at her house, I put on a very 
 grave countenance, and said to her, ' Madam, 
 1 am now become a convert to your way of 
 thinking. I am convinced that all mankind 
 are upon an equal footing; and to give you an 
 unquestionable proof. Madam, that I am in 
 earnest, here is a very sensible, civil, well- 
 behaved fellow-citizen, your footman; I desire 
 that he may be allowed to sit down and dine 
 with us.' I thus. Sir, showed her the ab- 
 surdity of the levelling doctrine. She has 
 never liked me since. Sir, your levellers wish 
 357
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 to level dozen as far as themselves ; but they 
 cannot bear levelling up to themselves. They 
 would all have some people under them; why 
 not then have some people above them?" 
 
 I mentioned a certain author who disgusted 
 me by his forwardness, and by showing no 
 deference to noblemen into whose company he 
 was admitted. Johnson : " Suppose a shoe- 
 maker should claim an equality with him, as 
 he does with a lord : how he would stare. 
 ' Why, Sir, do you stare ?' says the shoemaker ; 
 * I do great service to society. 'Tis true I am 
 paid for doing it; but so are you, Sir; and I'm 
 sorry to say it, better paid than I am, for doing 
 something not so necessary. For mankind 
 could do better without your books than with- 
 out my shoes.' Thus, Sir, there would be a 
 perpetual struggle for precedence, were there 
 no fixed invariable rules for the distinction of 
 rank, which creates no jealousy, as it is allowed 
 to be accidental." — The Life. 1763, July 21st. 
 
 On his favourite subject of subordination, 
 Johnson said: " So far is it from being true 
 that men are naturally equal, that no two 
 people can be half an hour together, but one 
 shall acquire an evident superiority over the 
 other." 
 
 I mentioned the advice given us by philo- 
 sophers, to console ourselves, when distressed or 
 embarrassed, by thinking of those who are in a 
 worse situation than ourselves. This, I ob- 
 served, could not apply to all, for there must be 
 some who have nobody worse than they are. 
 358
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 Johnson : " Why, to be sure, Sir, there are; 
 but they don't know it. There is no being so 
 poor and so contemptible, who does not think 
 there is somebody still poorer and still more 
 contemptible." — The Life. 1766, Feb. 15th. 
 
 Boswell: " So, Sir, you laugh at schemes of 
 political improvement". Johnson: "Why, Sir, 
 most schemes of political improvements are 
 very laughable things ". 
 
 He observed, " Providence has wisely ordered 
 that the more numerous men are, the more 
 difficult it is for them to agree in anything, and 
 so they are governed. There is no doubt, that 
 if the poor should reason, ' We'll be the poor 
 no longer, we'll make the rich take their turn,' 
 they could easily do it, were it not that they 
 can't agree. So the common soldiers, though 
 so much more numerous than their officers, are 
 governed by them for the same reason." 
 
 — The Life. 1769, Oct. 26th. 
 
 Being solicited to compose a funeral sermon 
 for the daughter of a tradesman, he naturally 
 inquired into the character of the deceased ; 
 and being told she was remarkable for her 
 humility and condescension to inferiors, he 
 observed, that those were very laudable quali- 
 ties, but it might not be so easy to discover 
 who the lady's inferiors were. 
 
 — The Life. 1770. "Dr. yia^^wtW's Collectanea. 
 
 He refused to go out of a room before me 
 359
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 at Mr. Langton's house, saying, he hoped he 
 knew his rank belter than to presume to take 
 place of a Doctor in Divinity. I mention such 
 little anecdotes, merely to show the peculiar 
 turn and habit of his mind. 
 
 — The Life. 1770. Y)t. yiaxweWs Collectanea. 
 
 Though of no high extraction himself, he 
 had much respect for birth and family, especially 
 among ladies. He said, "Adventitious accom- 
 plishments may be possessed by all ranks ; but 
 one may easily distinguish the bom gentle- 
 woman" 
 
 — The Life. 1770. 'Dv.'M.^iWidVs Collectanea. 
 
 In the morning we had talked of old families, 
 and the respect due to them. Johnson : " Sir, 
 you have a right to that kind of respect, and are 
 arguing for yourself. I am for supporting the 
 principle, and am disinterested in doing it, as 
 I have no such right." Boswell: "Why, Sir, 
 it is one more incitement to a man to do 
 well". Johnson: "Yes, Sir, and it is a matter 
 of opinion very necessary to keep society to- 
 gether. What is it but opinion, by which we 
 have a respect for authority, that prevents 
 us, who are the rabble, from rising up and 
 pulling down you who are gentlemen from 
 your places, and saying, * We will be gentle- 
 m.en in our turn !' Now, Sir, that respect for 
 authority is much more easily granted to a man 
 whose father has had it, than to an upstart, 
 360
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 and so society is more easily supported," 
 BoswELL : " Perhaps, Sir, it might be done 
 by the respect belonging to office, as among 
 the Romans, where the dress, the toga, inspired 
 reverence". Johnson: "Why, we know very 
 little about the Romans. But, surely, it is much 
 easier to respect a man who has always had 
 respect, than to respect a man whom we know 
 was last year no better than ourselves, and will 
 be no better next year. In Republics there is 
 no respect to authority, but a fear of power." 
 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 elec- 
 tion in a borough; but, cater is 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 pro- 
 fusely, 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." 
 
 — The Lift. 1772, March 21st. 
 
 I told him that Mrs. Macaulay said, she 
 wondered how he could reconcile his political 
 361
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 principles with his moral: his notions of in- 
 equality and subordination with wishing well 
 to the happiness of all mankind wlio might live 
 so agreeably, had they all their portions of land, 
 and none to domineer over another. Johnson: 
 " Why, Sir, I reconcile my principles very well, 
 because mankind are happier in a state of in- 
 equality and subordination. Were they to be 
 in this pretty state of equality, they would soon 
 degenerate into brutes ; — they would become 
 Monboddo's nation : — their tails would grow. 
 Sir, all would be losers, were all to work for 
 all: they would have no intellectual improve- 
 ment. All intellectual improvement arises from 
 leisure; all leisure arises from one working for 
 another." — The Life. 1773, April 13th. 
 
 " Supposing, what I think cannot be proved, 
 that a popular election of ministers were to be 
 desired, our desires are not the measures of 
 equity. It were to be desired that power 
 should be only in the hands of the merciful, 
 and riches in the possession of the generous; 
 but the law must leave both riches and power 
 where it finds them : and must often leave 
 riches with the covetous, and power with the 
 cruel. Convenience may be a rule in little 
 things, where no other rule has been estab- 
 lished ; but as the great end of government 
 is to give every man his own, no inconvenience 
 is greater than that of making right uncertain. 
 Nor is any man more an enemy to public peace, 
 than he who fills weak heads with imaginary 
 claims, and breaks the series of civil subordina- 
 362
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 tion, by inciting the lower classes of mankind 
 to encroach upon the higher." 
 
 — The Life. 1773, May ist. 
 
 I dined with Dr. Johnson at General Paoli's. 
 He was obliged, by indisposition, to leave the 
 company early; he appointed me, however, to 
 meet him in the evening at Mr. (now Sir Robert) 
 Chambers's in the Temple, where he accord- 
 ingly came, though he continued to be very ill. 
 Chambers, as is common on such occasions, 
 prescribed various remedies to him. Johnson 
 (fretted by pain) : " Prythee don't tease me. 
 Stay till I am well, and then you shall tell me 
 how to cure myself." He grew better, and 
 talked with a noble enthusiasm of keeping up 
 the representation of respectable families. His 
 zeal on this subject was a circumstance in his 
 character exceedingly remarkable, when it is 
 considered that he himself had no pretensions 
 to blood. I heard him once say, " I have great 
 merit in being zealous for subordination and 
 the honours of birth ; for I can hardly tell 
 who was my grandfather." He maintained 
 the dignity and propriety of male succession, 
 in opposition to the opinion of one of our 
 friends, who had that day employed Mr. 
 Chambers to draw his will, devising his estate 
 to his three sisters, in preference to a remote 
 heir male. Johnson called them "three dotu- 
 dies ", and said, with as high a spirit as the 
 boldest Baron in the most perfect days of the 
 feudal system, " An ancient estate should always 
 go to males. It is mighty foolish to let a
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 stranger have it because he marries your 
 daughter, and takes your name. As for an 
 estate newly acquired by trade, you may give 
 it, if you will, to the dog Towser, and let him 
 keep his own name." 
 
 — The Life. 1773, May 9th. 
 
 I regretted the decay of respect for men of 
 family, and that a Nabob now would carry an 
 election from them. Johnson: "Why, Sir, the 
 Nabob will carry it by means of his wealth, in 
 a country where money is highly valued, as it 
 must be where nothing can be had without 
 money; but, if it comes to personal preference, 
 the man of family will always carry it. There 
 is generally a scoundrelism about a low man." 
 Mr. Boyd said that was a good ism. 
 
 I said, I believed mankind were happier in 
 the ancient feudal state of subordination, than 
 they are in the modern state of independency. 
 Johnson: "To be sure, the Chief w&s: but we 
 must think of the number of individuals. That 
 ihey were less happy, seems plain ; for that state 
 from which all escape as soon as they can, and 
 to which none return after they have left it, must 
 be less happy; and this is the case with the 
 state of dependence on a chief or great man." 
 
 I mentioned the happiness of the French in 
 their subordination, by the reciprocal benevo- 
 lence and attachment between the great and 
 those in lower rank. Mr. Boyd gave us an 
 instance of their gentlemanly spirit. An old 
 Chevalier de Malthe, of ancient noblesse, but in 
 low circumstances, was in a coffee-house at 
 364
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 Paris, where vvas Julien, the great manufacturer 
 at the Gobelins, of the fine tapestry, so much 
 distinguished both for the figures and the 
 colours. The chevalier's carriage was very old. 
 Says Julien, with a plebeian insolence, "I think. 
 Sir, you had better have your carriage new 
 painted." The chevalier looked at him with 
 indignant contempt, and answered, " Well, Sir, 
 you may take it home and dye it!" All the 
 coffee-house rejoiced at Julien's confusion. 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 25th. 
 
 I told Dr. Johnson I was in some difficulty 
 how to act at Inveraray. I had reason to think 
 that the Duchess of Argyle disliked me, on 
 account of my zeal in the Douglas cause; but 
 the Duke of Argyle had always been pleased 
 to treat me with great civility. They were now 
 at the castle, which is a very short walk from 
 our inn; and the question was, whether I should 
 go and pay my respects there. Dr. Johnson, to 
 whom I had stated the case, was clear that I 
 ought; but, in his usu?l way, he was very shy 
 of discovering a desire to be invited there him- 
 self Though from a conviction of the benefit 
 of subordination to society, he has always shown 
 great respect to persons of high rank when he 
 happened to be in their company, yet his pride 
 of character has ever made him guard against 
 any appearance of courting the great. Besides, 
 he was impatient to go to Glasgow, where he 
 expected letters. At the same time he was, I 
 believe, secretly not unwilling to have attention 
 paid him by so great a Chieftain, and so exalted 
 365
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 a nobleman. He insisted that I should not go 
 to the castle this day before dinner, as it would 
 look like seeking an invitation. "But," said I, 
 " if the duke invites us to dine with him to- 
 morrow, shall we accept ?" " Yes, Sir," I think 
 he said, " to be sure. But," he added, " he won't 
 ask us ! " I mentioned, that I was afraid my 
 company might be disagreeable to the duchess. 
 He treated this objection with a manly disdain: 
 " That, Sir, he must settle with his wife." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 24th. 
 
 After coffee, we went to afternoon service in 
 St. Clement's church. Observing some beggars 
 in the street as we walked along, I said to him 
 I supposed there was no civilized country in the 
 world where the misery of want in the lowest 
 classes of the people was prevented. Johnson: 
 "I believe, Sir, there is not; but it is better that 
 some should be unhappy, than that none should 
 be happy, which would be the case in a general 
 state of equality ". — The Life. 1776, April 7th. 
 
 We dined together with Mr. Scott (now Sir 
 William Scott), his Majesty's Advocate-General, 
 at his chambers in the Temple ; nobody else 
 there. The company being small, Johnson was 
 not in such spirits as he had been the preceding 
 day, and for a considerable time little was said. 
 At last he burst forth: "Subordination is sadly 
 broken down in this age. No man, now, has 
 the same authority which his father had, — 
 except a gaoler. No master has it over his 
 servants; it is diminished in our colleges; nay, 
 366
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 in our grammar schools." Boswell: "What is 
 the cause of this, Sir?" Johnson: "Why, the 
 coming in of the Scotch " (laughing sarcasti- 
 cally). Boswell: "That is to say, things have 
 been turned topsy-turvy. But your serious 
 cause?" Johnson: "Why, Sir, there are many 
 causes, the chief of which is, I think, the great 
 increase of money. No man now depends upon 
 the Lord of a Manor, when he can send to an- 
 other country, and fetch provisions. The shoe- 
 black at the entry of my court does not depend 
 on me. I can deprive him but of a penny a 
 day, which he hopes somebody else will bring 
 him ; and that penny I must carry to another 
 shoeblack; so the trade suffers nothing. I have 
 explained, in my Journey to the Hebrides, how 
 gold and silver destroy feudal subordination. 
 But, besides, there is a general relaxation of 
 reverence. No son now depends upon his 
 father, as in former times. Paternity used to 
 be considered as of itself a great thing, which 
 had a right to many claims. That is, in general, 
 reduced to very small bounds. My hope is, 
 that as anarchy produces tyranny, this extreme 
 relaxation will produce yJrwi strictio." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April loth. 
 
 Boswell : " I drank chocolate. Sir, this 
 morning with Mr. Eld; and, to my no small 
 surprise, found him to be a Staffordshire IVhig, 
 a being which I did not believe had existed". 
 Johnson : " Sir, there are rascals in all coun- 
 tries". Boswell: "Eld said, a Tory was a 
 creature generated between a nonjuring parson 
 367
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 and one's grandmother". Johnson: "And I 
 have always said, the first Whig was the Devil ". 
 Boswell: " He certainly was, Sir. The Devil 
 was impatient of subordination ; he was the 
 first who resisted power: — 
 
 ' Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven '." 
 
 — The Life. 1778, April 28th. 
 
 As he was a zealous friend of subordination, 
 he was at all times watchful to repress the 
 vulgar cant against the manners of the great. 
 "High people, sir," said he, "are the best; 
 take a hundred ladies of quality, you'll find 
 them better wives, better mothers, more will- 
 ing to sacrifice their own pleasure to their 
 children, than a hundred other women. Trades- 
 women (I mean the wives of tradesmen) in the 
 city, who are worth from ^^ 10,000 to ^^ 15,000, 
 are the worst creatures upon the earth, grossly 
 ignorant, and thinking viciousness fashionable. 
 Farmers, I think, are often worthless fellows. 
 Few lords will cheat ; and if they do, they'll 
 be ashamed of it ; farmers cheat, and are not 
 ashamed of it ; they have all the sensual vices 
 too of the nobility, with cheating into the 
 bargain. There is as much fornication and 
 adultery amongst farmers as amongst noble- 
 men." Boswell: "The notion of the world. 
 Sir, however, is that the morals of women of 
 quality are worse than those in lower stations ". 
 Johnson : " Yes, Sir, the licentiousness of one 
 woman of quality makes more noise than that 
 of a number of women in lower stations ; then, 
 368
 
 SUBORDINATION 
 
 Sir, you are to consider the malignity of women 
 in the city against women of quality, which 
 will make them believe anything of them — such 
 as that they call their coachman to bed. No, 
 sir ; so far as I have observed, the higher in 
 rank, the richer ladies are, they are the better 
 instructed and the more virtuous." 
 
 —The Life. 177S, May 13th. 
 
 Lord Graham commended Dr. Drummond 
 at Naples as a man of extraordinary talents ; 
 and added that he had a great love of liberty. 
 Johnson : " He is young, my Lord " (looking to 
 his Lordship with an arch smile) ; "all boys love 
 liberty, till experience convinces them they are 
 not so fit to govern themselves as they imagined. 
 We are all agreed as to our own liberty : we 
 would have as much of it as we can get ; but 
 we are not agreed as to the liberty of others : 
 for in proportion as we take, others must lose. 
 I believe we hardly wish that the mob should 
 have liberty to govern us. When that was the 
 case some time ago, no man was at liberty not 
 to have candles in his windows." Ramsay: 
 " The result is, that order is better than con- 
 fusion ". Johnson : "The result is, that order 
 cannot be had but by subordination ". 
 
 — The Life. 1779, April 8th. 
 
 One observation which Johnson makes in 
 Swift's Life should be often inculcated : " It 
 may be justly supposed, that there was in his 
 conversation, what appears so frequently in his 
 letters, an affectation of familiarity with the 
 ( B 212 ) 369 2 C
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 great, an ambition of momentary equality, 
 sought and enjoyed by the neglect of those 
 ceremonies which custom has established as 
 the barriers between one order of society 
 and another. This transgression of regularity 
 was by himself and his admirers termed great- 
 ness of soul ; but a great mind disdains to 
 hold anything by courtesy, and therefore never 
 usurps what a lawful claimant may take away. 
 He that encroaches on another's dignity, 
 puts himself in his power; he is either 
 repelled with helpless indignity, or endured 
 by clemency and condescension." 
 
 — The Life. 1781. 
 
 On Saturday, April jtli, I dined with him at 
 Mr. Hoole's, with Governor Bouchier and 
 Captain Orme, both of whom had been long 
 in the East Indies ; and being men of good 
 sense and observation, were very entertaining. 
 Johnson defended the Oriental regulation of 
 different castes of men, which was objected to 
 as totally destructive of the hopes of rising 
 in society by personal merit. He showed 
 that there was a principle in it sufficiently 
 plausible by analogy. " We see," said he, 
 " in metals that there are difl^erent species ; 
 and so likewise in animals, though one species 
 may not differ very widely from another, as 
 in the species of dogs, — the cur, the spaniel, 
 and the mastiff. The Brahmins are the 
 mastiffs of mankind." 
 
 — The Life. 1781, April 7th. 
 
 370
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 It is worthy of remark, in justice to Johnson's 
 political character, which has been misrepre- 
 sented as abjectly submissive to power, that 
 his Observations on the present State of Jj^airs 
 glow with as animated a spirit of Constitutional 
 liberty as can be found anywhere. Thus he 
 begins : " The time is now come, in which 
 every Englishman expects to be informed of 
 the national afl^airs ; and in which he has a 
 right to have that expectation gratified. For, 
 whatever may be urged by Ministers, or those 
 whom vanity or interest make the followers of 
 Ministers, concerning the necessity of con- 
 fidence in our governors, and the presumption 
 of prying with profane eyes into the recesses of 
 policy, it is evident that this reverence can be 
 claimed only by counsels yet unexecuted, and 
 projects suspended in deliberation. But when 
 a design has ended in miscarriage or success, 
 when every eye and every ear is witness to 
 general discontent, or general satisfaction, it 
 is then a proper time to disentangle confusion 
 and illustrate obscurity ; to show by what 
 causes every event was produced, and in what 
 effects it is likely to terminate ; to lay down 
 with distant particularity what rumour always 
 huddles in general exclamation, or perplexes by 
 indigested narratives ; to show whence happi- 
 ness or calamity is derived, and whence it may 
 be expected ; and honestly to lay before the 
 371
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 people what inquiry can gather of the past, 
 and conjecture can estimate of the future." 
 
 Here we have it assumed as an incontro- 
 vertible principle, that in this country the 
 people are the superintendents of the conduct 
 and measures of those by whom Government 
 is administered ; of the beneficial effect of 
 which the present reign afforded an illustrious 
 example, when addresses from all parts of the 
 kingdom controlled an audacious attempt to 
 introduce a new po'.ver subversive of the 
 Crown. 
 
 A still stronger proof of his patriotic spirit 
 appears in his review of an Essay on Waters, by 
 Dr. Lucas, of whom, after describing him as a 
 man well known to the world for his daring 
 defiance of power, when he thought it exerted 
 on the side of wrong, he thus speaks : — - 
 
 " The Irish Ministers drove him from his 
 native country by a proclamation, in which 
 they charge him with crimes of which they 
 never intended to be called to the proof, and 
 oppressed him by methoeis equally irresistible 
 by guilt and innocence. Let the man thus 
 driven into exile for having been the friend 
 of his country, be received in every other place 
 as a confessor of liberty ; and let the tools of 
 power be taught in time, that they may rob 
 but cannot impoverish." 
 
 Some of his reviews in this Magazine \Tke 
 Literary Magazine, or Universal Review\ are 
 very short accounts of the pieces noticed ; and 
 I mention them only that Dr. Johnson's 
 opinion of the works may be known ; but 
 372
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 many of them are examples of elaborate criti- 
 cism in the most masterly style. In his 
 review of the Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, 
 he has the resolution to think and speak from 
 his own mind, regardless of the cant trans- 
 mitted from age to age in praise of the ancient 
 Romans. Thus : " I know not why anyone 
 but a schoolboy in his declamation should 
 whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which 
 grew great only by the misery of the rest of 
 mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon 
 as they grew rich, grew corrupt ; and in their 
 corruption, sold the lives and freedoms of 
 themselves, and of one another." Again — " A 
 people who, while they were poor, robbed 
 mankind ; and as soon as they became rich, 
 robbed one another." — The Life. 1756. 
 
 Speaking of one who, with more than ordin- 
 ary boldness, attacked public measures and the 
 Royal Family, he said, " I think he is safe from 
 the law, but he is an abusive scoundrel : and 
 instead of applying to my Lord Chief Justice 
 to punish him, I would send half a dozen 
 footmen, and have him well ducked. 
 
 "The notion of liberty amuses the people 
 of England, and helps to keep off the tedium 
 vita". When a butcher tells you that his heart 
 bleeds for his country, he has, in fact, no uneasy 
 feeling." —The Life. 1763, May 16th. 
 
 Goldsmith, as usual, endeavoured with too 
 much eagerness to shine, and disputed very 
 warmly with Johnson against the well-known 
 373
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 maxim of the British Constitution, " the King 
 can do no wrong"; afiirming, that "what was 
 morally false could not be politically true ; and 
 as the King might, in the exercise of his regal 
 power, command and cause the doing of what 
 was wrong, it certainly might be said, in sense 
 and in reason, that he could do wrong." John- 
 son : " Sir, you are to consider that in our 
 Constitution, according to its true principles, 
 the King is the head, he is supreme ; he is 
 above everything, and there is no power by 
 which he can be tried. Therefore, it is, Sir, 
 that we hold the King can do no wrong ; that 
 whatever may happen to be wrong in govern- 
 ment may not be above our reach by being 
 ascribed to Majesty. Redress is always to be 
 had against oppression by punishing the imme- 
 diate agents. The King, though he should 
 command, cannot force a judge to condemn 
 a man unjustly; therefore it is the judge 
 whom we prosecute and punish. Political 
 institutions are formed upon the consideration 
 of what will most frequently tend to the good 
 of the whole, although now and then excep- 
 tions may occur. Thus it is better in general 
 that a nation should have a supreme Legislative 
 power, although it may at times be abused. 
 And then. Sir, there is this consideration, that 
 ij the abuse be enormous, nature tvill rise up, and 
 claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt 
 political system^ I mark this animated sentence 
 with peculiar pleasure, as a noble instance of 
 that truly dignified spirit of freedom which 
 ever glowed in his heart, though he was 
 374
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 charged with slavish tenets by superficial 
 observers, because he was at all times indig- 
 nant against that false patriotism, that pre- 
 tended love of freedom, that unruly restlessness 
 which is inconsistent with the stable authority 
 of any good government. 
 
 This generous sentiment, which he uttered 
 with great fervour, struck me exceedingly, and 
 stirred my blood to that pitch of fancied resist- 
 ance, the possibility of which I am glad to 
 keep in mand, but to which I trust I never 
 shall be forced. — The Life. 1763, July 6th. 
 
 He talked in his usual style with a rough 
 contempt of popular liberty. " They make a 
 rout about universal liberty, without consider- 
 ing that all that is to be valued, or indeed can 
 be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty. 
 Political liberty is good only so far as it pro- 
 duces private liberty. Now, Sir, there is the 
 liberty of the press, which you know is a con- 
 stant topic. Suppose you and I and two 
 hundred more were restrained from printing 
 our thoughts ; what then ? What proportion 
 would that restraint upon us bear to the private 
 happiness of the nation r" 
 
 This mode of representing the inconveni- 
 ences of restraint as light and insignificant, 
 was a kind of sophistry in which he delighted 
 to indulge himself, in opposition to the extreme 
 laxity for which it has been fashionable for too 
 many to argue, when it is evident, upon reflec- 
 tion, that the very essence of government is 
 restraint ; and certain it is, that as government 
 375
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 produces rational happiness, too much restraint 
 is better than too little. But when restraint is 
 unnecessary, and so close as to gall those who 
 are subject to it, the people may and ought to 
 remonstrate ; and, if relief is not granted, to 
 resist. Of this manly and spirited principle, 
 no man was more convinced than Johnson 
 himself. — The Life. 1768, May. 
 
 Politics being mentioned, he said : *' This 
 petitioning is a new mode of distressing Govern- 
 ment, and a mighty easy one. I will under- 
 take to get petitions either against quarter 
 guineas, or half guineas, with the help of a 
 little hot wine. There must be no yielding 
 to encourage this. The object is not impor- 
 tant enough. We are not to blow up hali a 
 dozen palaces, because one cottage is burning." 
 — The Life. 1769, Oct. i6th. 
 
 In 1770, he published a political pamphlet, 
 entitled. The False Alarm, intended to justify 
 the conduct of the Ministry and their majority 
 in the House of Commons, for having virtually 
 assumed it as an axiom that the expulsion of a 
 member of Parliament was equivalent to exclu- 
 sion, and thus having declared Colonel Luttrell 
 to be duly elected for the county of Middle- 
 sex, notwithstanding Mr. Wilkes had a great 
 majority of votes. This being justly considered 
 as a gross violation of the right of election, an 
 alarm for the Constitution extended itself all 
 over the kingdom. To prove this alarm to be 
 false was the purpose of Johnson's pamphlet ; 
 376
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 but even his vast powers are inadequate to 
 cope with Constitutional truth and reason, and 
 his argument failed of eftect ; and the House 
 of Commons have since expunged the offen- 
 sive resolution from their Journals. That the 
 House of Commons might have expelled Mr. 
 Wilkes repeatedly, and as often as he should 
 be re-chosen, was not denied ; but incapacita- 
 tion cannot be but by an act of the whole 
 Legislature. It was wonderful to see how a 
 prejudice in favour of government in general, 
 and an aversion to popular clamour, could 
 blind and contract such an understanding as 
 Johnson's, in this particular case ; yet the wit, 
 the sarcasm, the eloquent vivacity which this 
 pamphlet displayed, made it be read with great 
 avidity at the time, and it will ever be read 
 with pleasure, for the sake of its composition. 
 That it endeavoured to infuse a narcotic indif- 
 ference, as to public concerns, into the minds 
 of the people, and that it broke out sometimes 
 into an extreme coarseness of contemptuous 
 abuse, is but too evident. 
 
 It must not, however, be omitted, that when 
 the storm of his violence subsides, he takes a 
 fair opportunity to pay a grateful compliment 
 to the King, who had rewarded his merit : 
 
 " These low-born railers have endeavoured, 
 surely without effect, to alienate the affections 
 of the people from the only King who, for 
 almost a century, has much appeared to desire, 
 or much endeavoured to deserve them." And, 
 " Every honest man must lament, that the 
 faction has been regarded with frigid neutrality 
 377
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 by the Tories, who, being long accustomed to 
 signalize their principles by opposition to the 
 Court, do not yet consider, that they have at 
 last a King who knows not the name of party, 
 and who wishes to be the common father of 
 all his people." 
 
 To this pamphlet, which was at once dis- 
 covered to be Johnson's, several answers came 
 out, in which care was taken to remind the 
 public of his former attacks upon Government, 
 and of his now being a pensioner, without 
 allowing for the honourable terms upon which 
 Johnson's pension was granted and accepted, 
 or the change of system which the British 
 Court had undergone upon the accession of his 
 present Majesty. He was, however, soothed 
 in the highest strain of panegyric, in a poem 
 called " The Remonstrance ", by the Rev. Mr. 
 Stockdale, to whom he was, upon many 
 occasions, a kind protector. 
 
 — The Life. 1770. 
 
 He went with me, one Sunday, to hear my 
 old master, Gregory Sharpe, preach at the 
 Temple. — In the prefatory prayer, Sharpe ranted 
 about liberty, as a blessing most fervently to 
 be implored, and its continuance prayed for. 
 Johnson observed, that our liberty was in no 
 sort of danger : he would have done much better 
 to pray against our licentiousness. 
 
 — The Life. 1770. Dr. Maxwell's 6o//^r/««^«. 
 
 He said, " the poor in England were better 
 provided for than in any other country of the 
 
 378
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 same extent: he did not mean little Cantons or 
 petty Republics. Where a great proportion of 
 the people," said he, " are suftered to languish 
 in helpless misery, that country must be ill 
 policed, and wretchedly governed : a decent 
 provision for the poor is the true test of civili- 
 zation. — Gentlemen of education," he observed, 
 " were pretty much the same in all countries : 
 the condition of the lower orders, the poor 
 especially, was the true mark of national dis- 
 crimination." 
 
 When the corn-laws were in agitation in 
 Ireland, by which that country has been en- 
 abled not only to feed itself, but to export corn 
 to a large amount. Sir Thomas Robinson ob- 
 served that those laws might be prejudicial to 
 the corn -trade of England. "Sir Thomas," 
 said he, " you talk the language of a savage : 
 what, Sir, would you prevent any people from 
 feeding themselves, if by any honest means 
 they can do it r" 
 
 — The Life. 1770. Dr. hl^.^^^'c\\'s Collectaiieo. 
 
 Sir Adam suggested, that luxury corrupts a 
 people, and destroys the spirit of liberty. 
 Johnson : " Sir, that is all visionary. I would 
 not give half a guinea to live under one form 
 of government rather than another. It is of no 
 moment to the happiness of an individual. Sir, 
 the danger of the abuse of power is nothing to 
 a private man. What Frenchman is prevented 
 from passing his life as he pleases?" Sir 
 Adam : " But, Sir, in the British Constitution 
 it is surely of importance to keep up a spirit in 
 379
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 the people, so as to preserve a balance against 
 the Crown". Johnson: " Sir, I perceive you are 
 a vile Whig. — Why all this childish jealousy 
 of the power of the Crown ? The Crown has 
 not power enough. When I say that all govern- 
 ments are alike, I consider that in no govern- 
 ment can power be abused long. Mankind 
 will not bear it. If a sovereign oppresses his 
 people to a great degree, they will rise and cut 
 off his head. There is a remedy in human 
 nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe 
 under every form of government. Had not the 
 people of France thought themselves honoured 
 in sharing in the brilliant actions of Louis 
 XIV., they would not have endured him ; and 
 we may say the same of the King of Prussia's 
 people." Sir Adam introduced the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans. Johnson : " Sir, the 
 mass of both of them were barbarians. The 
 mass of every people must be barbarous where 
 there is no printing, and consequently know- 
 ledge is not generally diffused. Knowledge is 
 diffused among our people by the newspapers." 
 Sir Adam mentioned the orators, poets, and 
 artists of Greece. Johnson : " Sir, I am talk- 
 ing of the mass of the people. We see even 
 what the boasted Athenians were. The little 
 effect which Demosthenes's orations had upon 
 them shows that they were barbarians." 
 
 — The Life. 1772, March 31st. 
 
 We talked of the King's coming to see Gold- 
 smith's new play. — " I wish he would," said 
 Goldsmith ; adding, however, with an affected 
 380
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 indifference, "Not that it would do me the 
 least good." Johnson : " Well then, Sir, let 
 us say it would do him good" (laughing). "No, 
 Sir, this affectation will not pass : it is mighty 
 idle. In such a state as ours who would not 
 wish to please the Chief Magistrate ?" Gold- 
 smith: "I do wish to please him. I remember 
 a line in Dryden, 
 
 'And every poet is the monarch's friend'. 
 
 It ought to be reversed." Johnson : " Nay, 
 there are finer lines in Dryden on the subject: — - 
 
 ' For colleges on bounteous kings depend, 
 And never rebel^was to arts a friend.' " 
 
 General Paoli observed, that successful rebels 
 might. Martinelli : " Happy rebellions". 
 Goldsmith: "We have no such phrase". 
 General Paoli: " But have you not the thing:" 
 Goldsmith : " Yes, all our h(7ppy revolutions. 
 They have hurt our constitution, and will hurt 
 it, till w^e mend it by another happy revolu- 
 tion." I never before discovered that my 
 friend Goldsmith had so much of the old pre- 
 judice in him. — The Life. 1773, April 15th. 
 
 We dined at Kinghorn, and then got into a 
 post-chaise. Mr. Nairne and his servant, and 
 Joseph, rode by us. We stopped at Cupar, 
 and drank tea. We talked of Parliament ; and 
 I said I supposed very few of the members 
 knew much of what was going on, as indeed 
 very few gentlemen know much of tlieir private 
 381
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 affairs. Johnson ; " Why, Sir, if a man is not 
 of a sluggish mind, he may be his own steward. 
 If he will looic into his affairs, he will soon 
 learn. So it is as to public aflairs. There 
 must always be a certain number of men of 
 business in Parliament." Boswell : " But 
 consider. Sir; what is the House of Commons ? 
 Is not a great part of it chosen by peers ? Do 
 you think, Sir, they ought to have such an 
 influence?" Johnson: "Yes, Sir, influence 
 must ever be in proportion to property ; and 
 it is right it should". Boswell: " But is there 
 not reason to fear that the common people 
 may be oppressed?" Johnson: "No, Sir, our 
 great fear is from want of power in Government. 
 Such a storm of vulgar force has broke in." 
 Boswell: "It has only roared". Johnson: 
 " Sir, it has roared, till the Judges in West- 
 minster Hall have been afraid to pronounce 
 sentence in opposition to the popular cry. You 
 are frightened by what is no longer dangerous, 
 like Presbyterians by Popery." He then re- 
 peated a passage, I think, in Butler's Remains, 
 which ends, " And would cry. Fire ! Fire ! in 
 Noah's flood". —The Tour. 1773, Aug. i8th. 
 
 There is neither justice of peace nor con- 
 stable in Rasay. Sky has Mr. M'Cleod of 
 Ulinish, who is the sheriff-substitute, and no 
 other justice of peace. The want of the exe- 
 cution of justice is much felt among the islanders. 
 M'Cleod very sensibly observed, that taking 
 away the heritable jurisdictions had not been 
 of such service in the islands, as was imagined. 
 382
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 They had not authority enough in lieu of them. 
 What could formerly have been settled at once, 
 must now either take much time and trouble, 
 or be neglected. Dr. Johnson said: "A coun- 
 try is in a bad state, which is governed only by 
 laws; because a thousand things occur for which 
 laws cannot provide, and where authority ought 
 to interpose. Now destroying the authority 
 of the chiefs set the people loose. It did not 
 pretend to bring any positive good, but only 
 to cure some evil ; and I am not well enough 
 acquainted v/ith the country to know what degree 
 of evil the heritable jurisdiction occasioned." 
 I maintained hardly any ; because the chiefs 
 generally acted right, for their own sakes. 
 — T/ie Tour. 1773, Sept. iith. 
 
 When I returned to the inn, I informed Dr. 
 Johnson of the Duke of Argyle's invitation, 
 with which he was much pleased, and readily 
 accepted of it. We talked of a violent contest 
 which was then carrying on, with a view to the 
 next general election for Ayrshire ; where one 
 of the candidates, in order to undermine the 
 old and established interest, had artfully held 
 himself out as a champion for the independency 
 of the county against aristocratic influence, 
 and had persuaded several gentlemen into a 
 resolution to oppose every candidate who was 
 supported by peers. "Foolish fellows!" said 
 Dr. Johnson, "don't they see that they are as 
 much dependent upon the peers one way as 
 the other ? The peers have but to oppose a 
 candidate, to ensure him success. It is said, 
 383
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 the only way to make a pig go forward, is to 
 pull him back by the tail. These people must 
 be treated like pigs." 
 
 — 'llie Tour. 1773, Oct. 24th. 
 
 Patriotism having become one of our topics, 
 Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong deter- 
 mined tone, an apophthegm, at which many 
 will start : " Patriotism is the last refuge of a 
 scoundrel". But let it be considered, that he 
 did not mean a real and generous love of our 
 country, but that pretended patriotism which 
 so many, in all ages and countries, have made 
 a cloak for self-interest. I maintained, that 
 certainly all patriots were not scoundrels. Being 
 urged (not by Johnson), to name one exception, 
 I mentioned an eminent person, whom we all 
 greatly admired. Johnson : " Sir, I do not say 
 that he is not honest ; but we have no reason 
 to conclude from his political conduct that he 
 is honest. Were he to accept a place from this 
 Ministry, he would lose that character of firm- 
 ness which he has, and might be turned out of 
 his place in a year. This Ministry is neither 
 stable, nor grateful to their friends, as Sir 
 Robert Walpole was : so that he may think it 
 more for his interest to take his chance of his 
 party coming in." 
 
 — The Life. 1775, April 7th. 
 
 Johnson arraigned the modern politics of this 
 country, as entirely devoid of all principle of 
 whatever kind. "Politics," said he, "are now 
 384
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 nothing more than means of rising in the 
 world. With this sole view do men engage 
 in politics, and their whole conduct proceeds 
 upon it. How different in that respect is the 
 state of the nation now from what it was in 
 the time of Charles the First, during the Usur- 
 pation, and after the Restoration, in the time 
 of Charles the Second. Hudibras affords a 
 strong proof how much hold political principles 
 had then upon the minds of men. There is 
 in Hudibras a great deal of bullion which will 
 always last. But, to be sure, the brightest 
 strokes of his wit owed their force to the im- 
 pression of the characters, which was upon 
 men's minds at the time; to their knowing 
 them, at table and in the street; in short, being 
 familiar with them; and above all, to his satire 
 being directed against those whom a little while 
 before they had hated and feared. The nation 
 in general has ever been loyal, has been at all 
 times attached to the monarch, though a few 
 daring rebels have been wonderfully powerful 
 for a time. The murder of Charles the First 
 was undoubtedly not committed with the ap- 
 probation or consent of the people ; had that 
 been the case. Parliament would not have ven- 
 tured to consign the regicides to their deserved 
 punishment ; and we know what exuberance 
 of joy there was when Charles the Second was 
 restored. If Charles the Second had bent all 
 his mind to it, had made it his sole object, 
 he might have been as absolute as Louis the 
 Fourteenth." A gentleman observed, he would 
 have done no harm if he had. Johnson: "Why, 
 
 (B2I2) 385 2D
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 Sir, absolute princes seldom do .\ny harm. But 
 they who are governed by them are governed 
 by chance. There is no security for good 
 government." Cambridge: "There have been 
 many sad victims to absolute government". 
 Johnson : " So, Sir, have there been to popular 
 factions". Boswell: " The question is, which 
 is worst, one wild beast or many?" 
 
 — The Life. \iiSi April iith. 
 
 He entered upon the state of the nation, and 
 thus discoursed : " Sir, the great misfortune 
 now is, that Government has too little power. 
 All that it has to bestow must of necessity be 
 given to support itself; so that it cannot re- 
 ward merit. No man, for instance, can now 
 be made a bishop for his learning and piety ; 
 his only chance for promotion is his being con- 
 nected with somebody who has Parliamentary 
 interest. Our several Ministers in this reign 
 have outbid each other in concessions to the 
 people. Lord Bute, though a very honourable 
 man, — a man who meant well, — a man who 
 had his blood full of prerogative, — was a theo- 
 retical statesman, — a book - minister, — and 
 thought this country could be governed by the 
 influence of the Crown alone. Then, Sir, he 
 gave up a great deal. He advised the King to 
 agree that the judges should hold their places 
 for life, instead of losing them at the accession 
 of a new king. Lord Bute, I suppose, thought 
 to make the King popular by this concession; 
 but the people never minded it ; and it was a 
 most impolitic measure. 
 386
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 '* Lord Bute advised the King to give up a 
 very large sum of money, for which nobody 
 thanked him. It was of consequence to the 
 King, but nothing to the public, among whom 
 it was divided. When I say Lord Bute advised, 
 I mean, that such acts were done when he was 
 Minister, and we are to suppose that he ad- 
 vised them. There is now no Prime Minister; 
 there is only an agent for Government in the 
 House of Commons. We arc governed by the 
 Cabinet ; but there is no one head there since 
 Sir Robert Walpole's time." Boswell: "What 
 then. Sir, is the use of Parliament?" John- 
 son: "Why, Sir, Parliament is a large council 
 to the King; and the advantage of such a council 
 is, having a great number of men of property 
 concerned in the Legislature, who, for their 
 own interest, will not consent to bad laws. 
 And you must have observed, Sir, the Adminis- 
 tration is feeble and timid, and cannot act 
 with that authority and resolution which is 
 necessary. Were I in power, I would turn out 
 every man who dared to oppose me. Govern- 
 ment has the distribution of offices, that it 
 may be enabled to maintain its authority. 
 
 " Lord Bute," he added, " took down too 
 fast, without building up something new." 
 BoswELL : " Because, Sir, he found a rotten 
 building. The political coach was drawn by 
 a set of bad horses; it was necessary to change 
 them." Johnson : " But he should have 
 changed them one by one". 
 
 — The Life. 1775, April 14th. 
 
 387
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 He praised the ladies of the present age, in- 
 sisting that they were more faithful to their 
 husbands, and more virtuous in every respect, 
 than in former times, because their understand- 
 ings were better culti\'ated. It was an un- 
 doubted proof of his good sense and good 
 disposition, that he was never querulous, never 
 prone to inveigh against the present times, as 
 is so common when superficial minds are on 
 the fret. On the contrary, he was willing to 
 speak favourably of his own age ; and, indeed, 
 maintained its superiority in every respect, 
 except in its reverence for government; the re- 
 laxation of which he imputed as its grand cause, 
 to the shock which our monarchy received at 
 the Revolution, though necessary; and secondly, 
 to the timid concessions made to faction by 
 successive Administrations in the reign of his 
 present Majesty. I am happy to think that 
 he lived to see the Crown at last recover its just 
 influence. —The Life. 1776, March 28th. 
 
 Of a person who differed from him in 
 politics, he said: " In private life he is a very 
 honest gentleman; but I will not allow him to 
 be so in public life. People may be honest, 
 though they are doing wrong : that is between 
 their Maker and them. But zve, who are suffer- 
 ing by their pernicious conduct, are to destroy 
 them. We are sure that [Burke] acts from in- 
 terest. We know what his genuine principles 
 n-ere. They who allow their passions to con- 
 found the distinctions between right and wrong, 
 are criminal. They may be convinced : but 
 388
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 they have not come honestly by their convic- 
 tion. 
 
 " The mode of government b}- one may be 
 ill adapted to a small society, but is best for a 
 great nation. The characteristic of our ow^n 
 Government at present is imbecility. The 
 magistrates dare not call the Guards for fear ot 
 being hanged. The Guards will not come for 
 fear of being given up to the blind rage of 
 popular juries." — TJie Life. 1776, April 26th. 
 
 Early in this year came out, in two volumes 
 quarto, the posthumous works of the learned 
 Dr. Zachary Pearce, Bishop of Rochester; being, 
 J Commentary, with Notes, on the Four Evangelists 
 ana the Acts of the Apostles, with other theological 
 pieces. Johnson had now an opportunity of 
 making a grateful return to that excellent pre- 
 late, who, we have seen, was the only person 
 who gave him any assistance in the compilation 
 of his Dictionary. The Bishop had left some 
 account of his life and character, written by 
 himself. To this Johnson made some valuable 
 additions, and furnished to the editor, the 
 Reverend Mr. Derby, a Dedication, which I 
 shall here insert, both because it will appear at 
 this time with peculiar propriet}-, and because 
 it will tend to propagate and increase that 
 "fervour of /(j\v;//)' ", which in me, who boast 
 of the name of Tory, is not only a principle 
 but a passion. 
 
 389
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 "to the king 
 "Sir, 
 
 " I presume to lay before your Ma- 
 jesty the last labours of a learned Bishop who 
 died in the toils and duties of his calling. He 
 is now beyond the reach of all earthly honours 
 and rewards ; and only the hope of inciting 
 others to imitate him, makes it now fit to be 
 remembered that he enjoyed in his life the 
 favour of your Majesty. 
 
 " The tumultuary life of Princes seldom per- 
 mits them to survey the wide extent of national 
 interest without losing sight of private merit ; 
 to exhibit qualities which may be imitated by 
 the highest and the humblest of mankind; and 
 to be at once amiable and great. 
 
 " Such characters, if now and then they ap- 
 pear in history, are contemplated with admira- 
 tion. May it be the ambition of all your 
 subjects to make haste with their tribute of 
 reverence ; and as posterity may learn from 
 your Majesty how kings should live, may they 
 learn likewise from your people how they should 
 be honoured. I am, ma}- it please your Ma- 
 jesty, 
 
 *' With the most profound respect, 
 " Your Majesty's most dutiful and devoted 
 " Subject and servant." 
 
 — The Life. 1777. 
 
 Mr. Burke's Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, 
 on the afffairs of America, being mentioned, 
 390
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 Johnson censured the composition much, and 
 he ridiculed the definition of a free govern- 
 ment, viz. — " For any practical purpose, it is 
 what the people think so." — " I will let the 
 King of France govern me on those conditions," 
 said he, " for it is to be governed just as I 
 please." And when Dr. Taylor talked of a 
 girl being sent to a parish workhouse, and 
 asked how much she coidd be obliged to work, 
 " Why," said |ohnson, " as much as is reason- 
 able : and what is that ? as much as she thhiks 
 reasonable." — The Life. 1777, Sept. 22nd. 
 
 I talked of the corruption of the British Par- 
 liament, in which I alleged that any question, 
 however unreasonable or unjust, might be 
 carried by a venal majority ; and I spoke with 
 high admiration of the Roman Senate, as if 
 composed of men sincerely desirous to resolve 
 what they should think best for their country. 
 My friend would allow no such character to 
 the Roman Senate; and he maintained that the 
 British Parliament was not corrupt, and that 
 there was no occasion to corrupt its members; 
 asserting, that there was hardly ever any ques- 
 tion of great importance before Parliament, an}- 
 question in which a man might not very well 
 vote either upon one side or the other. He 
 said, there had been none in his time except 
 that respecting America. 
 
 — The Life. 1777, Sept. 23rd. 
 
 I told him that I was engaged as counsel at 
 the bar of the House of Commons to oppose a 
 391
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 road bill in the county of Stirling, and asked 
 him what mode he would advise mc to follow 
 in addressing such an audience. Johnson : 
 " Why, Sir, you must provide jourself with 
 a good deal of extraneous matter, which you 
 are to produce occasionally, so as to fill up the 
 time ; for you must consider, that they do not 
 listen much. If you begin with the strength 
 of your cause, it may be lost before they begin 
 to listen. When you catch a moment of at- 
 tention, press the merits of the question upon 
 them." He said, as to one point of the merits, 
 that he thought " it would be a wrong thing to 
 deprive the small landholders of the privilege 
 of assessing themselves for making and repair- 
 ing the high roads ; // was destroying a certain 
 portion of liber t)\ without a good reason, which was 
 always a bad thing^ When I mentioned this 
 observation next day to Mr. Wilkes, he plea- 
 santly said, " What ! does he talk of liberty ? 
 Liberty is as ridiculous in his mouth as Religion 
 in mine." Mr. Wilkes's advice as to the best 
 mode of speaking at the Bar of the House of 
 Commons was not more respectful towards the 
 Senate, than that of Dr. Johnson : " Be as 
 impudent as you can, as merry as you can, 
 and say whatever comes uppermost. Jack Lee 
 is the best heard there of any counsel; and he 
 is the most impudent dog, and always abusing 
 us." — The Life. 1778, March 20th. 
 
 Talking of different governments, — Johnson: 
 " The more contracted power is, the more 
 easily it is destroyed. A country governed by 
 392
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 a despot is an i?iverted cone. Government 
 there cannot be so firm, as when it rests upon 
 a broad basis gradually contracted, as the 
 government of Great Britain, which is founded 
 on the Parliament, then is in the Privy-Council, 
 then in the King." Boswell : " Power, when 
 contracted into the person of the despot, may 
 be easily destroyed, as the prince may be cut 
 off. So Caligula wished that the people of 
 Rome had but one neck, that he might cut 
 them oft" at a blow." Oglethorpe : " It was 
 of the Senate he wished that. The Senate, by 
 its usurpation, controlled both the Emperor 
 and the people. And don't you think that we 
 see too much of that in our own Parliament?" 
 — The Life. 1778, April 14th. 
 
 He said, " Lord Chatham was a Dictator; 
 he possessed the power of putting the State in 
 motion ; now there is no power, all order is 
 relaxed." Boswell: " Is there no hope of a 
 change to the better ?" Johnson : " Why, yes, 
 Sir, when we are weary of this relaxation. So 
 the City of London will appoint its Mayors 
 again by seniority." Boswell: " But is not 
 that taking a mere chance for having a good or 
 a bad Mayor?" Johnson: " Yes, Sir; but the 
 evil of competition is greater than that of the 
 worst Mayor that can come; besides, there is 
 no more reason to suppose that the choice of 
 a rabble will be right, than that chance will be 
 right." — The Life. 1778, May 17th. 
 
 In one of Johnson's registers of this year, 
 393
 
 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 there occurs the following curious passage : 
 " Jan. 20. The Ministry is dissolved. I prayed 
 with Francis, and gave thanks." It has been 
 the subject of discussion, whether there are two 
 distinct particulars mentioned here ? Or that 
 we are to understand the giving of thanks to be 
 in consequence of the dissolution of the Minis- 
 try ? In support of the last of these conjectures 
 may be urged his mean opinion of that Minis- 
 try, which has frequently appeared in the course 
 of this work; and it is strongly confirmed by 
 what he said on the subject to Mr. Seward :— 
 " I am glad the Ministry is removed. Such a 
 bunch of imbecility never disgraced a country. 
 If they sent a messenger into the City to take 
 up a printer, the messenger was taken up instead 
 of the printer, and committed by the sitting 
 alderman. If they sent one army to the relief 
 of another, the first army was defeated and 
 taken before the second arrived. I will not say 
 that what they did was always wrong; but it 
 was always done at a wrong time." 
 
 — The Life. 1782, March 20th. 
 
 In the evening I came to him again. He was 
 somewhat fretful from his illness. A gentle- 
 man asked him whether he had been abroad 
 to-day. " Don't talk so childishly," said he. 
 " You may as well ask if I hanged myself to- 
 day." I mentioned politics. Johnson : " Sir, 
 I'd as soon have a man to break my bones as 
 talk to me of public affairs, internal or external. 
 I have lived to see things all as bad as they can 
 be." — The Life. 1783, March 23rd. 
 
 394
 
 LIBERTY AND SEDITION 
 
 We talked of the accusation against a gentle- 
 man [Warren Hastings] for supposed delin- 
 quencies in India. Johnson : " What foun- 
 dation there is for accusation I know not; 
 but they will not get at him. Where bad 
 actions are committed at so great a distance, 
 a delinquent can obscure the evidence till 
 the scent becomes cold : there is a cloud be- 
 tween which cannot be penetrated : therefore 
 all distant power is bad. I am clear that 
 the best plan for the government of India is 
 a despotic governor; for if he be a good man, 
 it is evidently the best government: and sup- 
 posing him to be a bad man, it is better to have 
 one plunderer than many. A governor, whose 
 power is checked, lets others plunder, that he 
 himself may be allowed to plunder ; but if 
 despotic, he sees that the more he lets others 
 plunder, the less there will be for himself, so he 
 restrains them; and though he himself plunders, 
 the country is a gainer, compared with being 
 plundered by numbers." 
 
 —The Life. 1783, April 2Sth. 
 
 395
 
 Johnson's Prejudice against 
 the Players 
 
 It is remarkable, that in this biographical 
 disquisition [the Life of Sav^ge\ there appears 
 a very strong symptom of Johnson's prejudice 
 against players ; a prejudice which may be attri- 
 buted to the following causes : first, the imper- 
 fections of his organs, which were so defective 
 that he was not susceptible of the fine impres- 
 sions which theatrical excellence produces upon 
 the generality of mankind ; secondly, the cold 
 rejection of his tragedy ; and, lastly, the bril- 
 liant success of Garrick, who had been his 
 pupil, who had come to London at the same time 
 with him, not in a much more prosperous state 
 than himself, and whose talents he undoubtedly 
 rated low, compared with his own. His being 
 outstripped by his pupil in the race of imme- 
 diate fame, as well as of fortune, probably 
 made him feel some indignation, as thinking 
 that whatever might be Garrick's merits in his 
 art, the reward was too great when compared 
 with what the most successful efforts of literary 
 labour could attain. At all periods of his life, 
 Johnson used to talk contemptuously of players; 
 but in this work he speaks of them with 
 396
 
 A PREJUDICE 
 
 peculiar acrimony; for which, perhaps, there 
 \vas formerly too much reason from the licen- 
 tious and dissolute manners of those engaged in 
 that profession. It is but justice to add, that 
 in our own time such a change has taken place, 
 that there is no longer room for such an un- 
 favourable distinction. 
 
 His schoolfellow and friend. Dr. Taylor, told 
 me a pleasant anecdote of Johnson's triumph- 
 ing over his pupil, David Garrick. When that 
 great actor had played some little time at 
 Goodman's Fields, Johnson and Taylor went 
 to see him perform, and afterwards passed the 
 evening at a tavern with him and old Giftard. 
 Johnson, who was ever depreciating stage- 
 players, after censuring some mistakes in 
 emphasis, which Garrick had committed in the 
 course of that night's acting, said, " The 
 players. Sir, have got a kind of rant, with 
 which they run on, without any regard either 
 to accent or emphasis." Both Garrick and 
 Giffard were offended at this sarcasm, and 
 endeavoured to refute it ; upon which Johnson 
 rejoined, " Well, now, I'll give you something 
 to speak, with which you are little acquainted, 
 and then we shall see how just my observation 
 is. That shall be the criterion. Let me hear 
 you repeat the ninth Commandment, * Thou 
 shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh- 
 bour '." Both tried at it, said Dr. Taylor, and 
 both mistook the emphasis, which should be 
 upon not and false witness. Johnson put them 
 right, and enjoyed his victory with great glee. 
 — The Life. 1744. 
 397
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 His P'nnity of Human Wishes has less of 
 common life, but more of a philosophic dignity 
 than his London. More readers, therefore, will 
 be delighted with the pointed spirit of London, 
 than with the profound reflection of The Vanity 
 of Human Wishes. Garrick, for instance, ob- 
 served in his sprightly manner, with more 
 vivacity than regard to just discrimination, 
 as is usual with wits, " When Johnson lived 
 much with the Herveys, and saw a good deal 
 of what was passing in life, he wrote his 
 London, which is lively and easy ; when he 
 became more retired, he gave us his Vanity of 
 Human Wishes, which is as hard as Greek. Had 
 he gone on to imitate another satire, it would 
 have been as hard as Hebrew." 
 
 — The Lije. 1749, January. 
 
 Garrick being now vested with theatrical 
 power by being manager of Drury Lane The- 
 atre, he kindly and generously made use of it 
 to bring out Johnson's tragedy, which had 
 been long kept back for want of encouragement. 
 But in this benevolent purpose he met with no 
 small difficulty from the temper of Johnson, 
 which could not brook that a drama which he 
 had formed with much study, and had been 
 obliged to keep more than the nine years of 
 Horace, should be revised and altered at the 
 pleasure of an actor. Yet Garrick knew well, 
 that without some alterations it would not be 
 fit for the stage. A violent dispute having 
 ensued between them, Garrick applied to the 
 Reverend Dr. Taylor to interpose. Johnson 
 398
 
 AGAIiNST THE PLAYERS 
 
 was at first very obstinate. " Sir," said he, 
 " the fellow wants me to make Mahomet 
 run mad, that he may have an opportunity ot 
 tossing his hands and kicking his heels." He 
 was, however, at last, with ditficulty, prevailed 
 on to comply with Garrick's wishes, so as to 
 allow of some changes ; but still there were not 
 enough. 
 
 Dr. Adams was present the first night of the 
 representation ot bene, and gave me the follow- 
 ing account: — "Before the curtain drew up, 
 there were catcalls and whistling, which alarmed 
 Johnson's friends. The Prologue, which was 
 written by himself in a manly strain, soothed 
 the audience, and the play went oft tolcrabl)-, 
 till it came to the conclusion, when Mrs. Prit- 
 chard, the heroine of the piece, was to be 
 strangled upon the stage, and was to speak two 
 lines with the bow-string round her neck. The 
 audience cried out ^Murder! Murder T She 
 several times attempted to speak; but in vain. 
 At last she was obliged to go off the stage 
 alive." This passage was afterwards struck 
 out, and she was carried off to be put to death 
 behind the scenes, as the play now has it. 
 The Epilogue, as Johnson informed me, was 
 written by Sir William Yonge. I know not 
 how his play came to be thus graced by the 
 pen of a person so eminent in the political 
 world. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the support of such 
 
 performers as Garrick, Barry, Mrs. Gibber, 
 
 Mrs. Pritchard, and every advantage of dress 
 
 and decoration, the tragedy of Irene did 
 
 399
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 not please the public. Mr. Garrick's zeal 
 carried it through for nine nights, so that the 
 author had his three nights' profit; and from 
 a receipt signed by him, now in the hands of 
 Mr. James Dodsley, it appears that his friend, 
 Mr. Robert Dodsley, gave him one hundred 
 pounds for the copy, with his usual reservation 
 of the right of one edition. 
 
 Irene, considered as a poem, is entitled to 
 the praise of superior excellence. Analysed into 
 parts, it will furnish a rich store of noble senti- 
 ments, fine imagery, and beautiful language; but 
 it is deficient in pathos, in that delicate power 
 of touching the human feelings, which is the 
 principal end of the drama. Indeed Garrick 
 has complained to me that Johnson not only 
 had not the faculty of producing the impres- 
 sions of tragedy, but that he had not the 
 sensibility to perceive them. His great friend 
 Mr. Walmsley's prediction, that he would 
 "turn out a fine tragedy-writer", was, therefore, 
 ill-founded. Johnson was wise enough to be 
 convinced that he had not the talents necessary 
 to write successfully for the stage, and never 
 made another attempt in that species of com- 
 position. 
 
 When asked how he felt upon the ill success 
 of his tragedy, he replied, " Like the Monu- 
 ment;" meaning that he continued firm and 
 unmoved as that column. And let it be 
 remembered, as an admonition to the genus 
 irritabile of dramatic writers, that this great 
 man, instead of peevishly complaining of the 
 bad taste of the town, submitted to its decision 
 400
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 without a murmur. He had, indeed, upon all 
 occasions, a great deference for the general 
 opinion : " A man," said he, " who writes a 
 book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the 
 rest of mankind; he supposes that he can 
 instruct or amuse them, and the public to 
 whom he appeals must, after all, be the judges 
 of his pretensions." 
 
 On occasion of this play being brought upon 
 the stage, Johnson had a fancy that as a dra- 
 matic author his dress should be more gay than 
 what he ordinarily wore ; he therefore appeared 
 behind the scenes, and even in one of the side 
 boxes, in a scarlet waistcoat, with rich gold 
 lace, and a gold laced hat. He humorously 
 observed to Mr. Langton, " that when in that 
 dress he could not treat people with the same 
 ease as when in his usual plain clothes." 
 Dress indeed, we must allow, has more effect 
 even upon strong minds than one should sup- 
 pose without having had the experience of it. 
 His necessary attendance while his play was in 
 rehearsal, and during its performance, brought 
 him acquainted with many of the performers 
 of both sexes, which produced a more favour- 
 able opinion of their profession than he had 
 harshly expressed in his Life of Savage. With 
 some of them he kept up an acquaintance as 
 long as he and they lived, and was ever ready 
 to show them acts of kindness. He, for a con- 
 siderable time, used to frequent the Green Room, 
 and seemed to take delight in dissipating his 
 gloom, by mixing in the sprightly chit-chat of 
 the motley circle then to be found there. Mr. 
 ( B 212 ) 401 2 E
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 David Hume related to me from Mr. Garrick, 
 that Johnson at last denied himself this amuse- 
 ment, from considerations of rigid virtue, 
 saying, " I'll come no more behind your scenes, 
 David ; for the silk stockings and white bosoms 
 of your actresses excite my amorous propen- 
 sities." —The Life. 1749, Feb. 6th. 
 
 On the 6th of March came out Lord Boling- 
 broke's works, published by Mr. David Mallet. 
 The wild and pernicious ravings, under the 
 name of " Philosophy ", which were thus 
 ushered into the world, gave great offence to 
 all well-principled men. Johnson, hearing of 
 their tendency, which nobody disputed, was 
 roused with a just indignation, and pronounced 
 this memorable sentence upon the noble 
 author and his editor : " Sir, he was a scoun- 
 drel and a coward : a scoundrel for charging 
 a blunderbuss against religion and morality ; 
 a coward, because he had not resolution to 
 fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a 
 beggarly Scotchman, to draw the trigger after 
 his death ! " Garrick, who, I can attest from 
 my own knowledge, had his mind seasoned 
 with pious reverence, and sincerely disapproved 
 of the infidel writings of several, whom in the 
 course of his almost universal gay intercourse 
 with men of eminence he treated with external 
 civility, distinguished himself upon this occa- 
 sion. Mr. Pelham having died on the very 
 day on which Lord Bolingbroke's works came 
 out, he wrote an elegant ode on his death, 
 beginning 
 
 402
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 " Let others hail the rising sun, 
 I bow to that whose course is run !" 
 
 in which is the following stanza : — 
 
 "The same sad moin, to Church and State 
 (So for our sins 'twas fix'd by fate) 
 
 A double stroke was given ; 
 Black as the whirlwinds of the North, 
 St. John's tell genius issued forth, 
 And Pelham's fled to heaven." 
 
 — The Life. 1754, March 6th. 
 
 "The two Wartons just looked into the 
 town, and were taken to see Cleone, where 
 David [Garrick] says, they were starved for 
 want of company to keep them warm. David 
 and Doddy have had a new quarrel, and, I 
 think, cannot conveniently quarrel any more. 
 Cleone was well acted by all the characters, but 
 [Mrs.] Bellamy left nothing to be desired. I 
 went the first night, and supported it as well 
 as I might ; for Doddy, you know, is my 
 patron, and I would not desert him. The 
 play was very well received. Doddy, after the 
 danger was over, went every night to the stage- 
 side, and cried at the distress of poor Cleone." 
 — The Life. 1759, Jan. 9th. 
 
 He then addressed himself to Davies : 
 " What do you think of Garrick ? He has 
 refused me an order for the play for Miss 
 Williams, because he knows the house will 
 be full, and that an order would be worth 
 three shillings." Eager to take any opening 
 to get into conversation with him, I ventured 
 403
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 to say, " O Sir, I cannot think Mr. Garrick 
 would grudge such a trifle to you." " Sir," 
 said he, with a stern look, " I have known 
 David Garrick longer than you have done ; and 
 I know no right you have to talk to me on the 
 subject." Perhaps I deserved this check ; for 
 it was rather presumptuous in me, an entire 
 stranger, to express any doubt of the justice of 
 his animadversion upon his old acquaintance 
 and pupil. — The Life. 1763, May i6th. 
 
 " Colley Cibber, Sir, was by no means a 
 blockhead, but by arrogating to himself too 
 much, he was in danger of losing that degree 
 of estimation to which he was entitled. His 
 friends gave out that he intended his Birthday 
 Odes should be bad : but that was not the 
 case. Sir ; for he kept them many months by 
 him, and a few years before he died he showed 
 me one of them, with great solicitude to render 
 it as perfect as might be, and I made some 
 corrections, to which he was not very willing 
 to submit. I remember the following couplet 
 in allusion to the King and himself: — 
 
 ' Perched on the eagle's soaring wing, 
 The lowly linnet loves to sing.' 
 
 Sir, he had heard something of the fabulous 
 tale of the wren sitting upon the eagle's wing, 
 and he had applied it to a linnet. Gibber's 
 familiar style, however, was better than that 
 which Whitehead has assumed. Gmnd non- 
 sense is insupportable. Whitehead is but a 
 little man to inscribe verses to players." 
 404
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 1 did not presume to controvert this censure, 
 which was tinctured with his prejudice against 
 players ; hut I could not help thinicing that a 
 dramatic poet might ^vith propriety pay a com- 
 pliment to an eminent performer, as White- 
 head has very happily done in his verses to 
 Mr. Garrick. — The Life. 1763, June 25th. 
 
 Sir John Hawkins represents himself as a 
 " secede}-" from this society, and assigns as the 
 reason of his " withdrawing" himself from it, 
 that its late hours were inconsistent with his 
 domestic arrangements. In this he is not ac- 
 curate ; for the fact was that he one evening 
 attacked Mr. Burke in so rude a manner that 
 all the company testified their displeasure, and 
 at the next meeting his reception was such that 
 he never came again. 
 
 He is equally inaccurate with respect to Mr. 
 Garrick, of whom he says : " he trusted that 
 the least intimation of a desire to come among 
 us would procure him a ready admission; but 
 in this he was mistaken. Johnson consulted 
 me upon it, and when I could find no objection 
 to receive him, exclaimed, ' He will disturb us 
 by his buffoonery;' and afterwards so managed 
 matters that he was never formally proposed, 
 and, by consequence, never admitted." 
 
 In justice both to Mr. Garrick and Dr. 
 Johnson, I think it necessary to rectify this 
 mis-statement. The truth is, that not very 
 long after the institution of our club. Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds was speaking of it to Garrick. " 1 
 like it much," said he, " I think I shall be of 
 405
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 you." When Sir Joshua mentioned this to 
 Dr. Johnson, he was much displeased with the 
 actor's conceit. " He' II be of us,''' said Johnson, 
 " how does he know we will permit him ? The 
 first duke in England has no right to hold such 
 language." However, when Garrick was regu- 
 larly proposed some time afterwards, Johnson, 
 though he had taken a momentary offence at 
 his arrogance, warmly and kindly supported 
 him, and he was accordingly elected, was a 
 most agreeable member, and continued to at- 
 tend our meetings to the time of his death. 
 Mrs. Piozzi has also given a similar misre- 
 presentation of Johnson's treatment of Garrick 
 in this particular, as if he had used these con- 
 temptuous expressions — " If Garrick does apply, 
 I'll black-ball him. — Surely, one ought to sit in 
 a society like ours, 
 
 'Unelbow'd by a gamester, pimp, or player'." 
 
 I am happy to be enabled by such unquestion- 
 able authority as that of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
 as well as from my own knowledge, to vindi- 
 cate at once the heart of Johnson and the 
 social merit of Garrick. 
 
 — The Life. 1764, February. 
 
 I came to London in the autumn, and having 
 informed him that I was going to be married 
 in a few months, I wished to have as much of 
 his conversation as I could before engaging in 
 a state of life which would probably keep me 
 more in Scotland, and prevent mc seeing him 
 406
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 so often as when I was a single man ; but I 
 found he was at Brighthehnstone with Mr. 
 and Mrs. Thrale. I was very sorry that 1 had 
 not his company with me at the Jubilee, in 
 honour of Shakespeare, at Stratford-upon-Avon, 
 the great poet's native town. Johnson's con- 
 nection both with Shakespeare and Garrick 
 founded a double claim to his presence; and 
 it would have been highly gratifying to Pvlr. 
 Garrick. Upon this occasion I particularly 
 lamented that he had not that warmth of friend- 
 ship for his brilliant pupil, which we may 
 suppose would have had a benignant effect on 
 both. When almost every man of eminence 
 in the literary world was happy to partake in 
 this festival of genius, the absence of Johnson 
 could not but be wondered at and regretted. 
 The only trace of him there, was in the 
 whimsical advertisement of a haberdasher, who 
 sold Shakespearian ribands of various dyes ; and, 
 by way of illustrating their appropriation to 
 the bard, introduced a line from the celebrated 
 Prologue at the opening of Drury Lane Theatre: 
 
 " Each change of many-coloured life he drew ". 
 
 — The Life. 1769, September. 
 
 Johnson said, that the description of the 
 temple, in The Mourning Bride, was the finest 
 poetical passage he had ever read; he recollected 
 none in Shakespeare equal to it.—*' But," said 
 Garrick, all alarmed for " the god of his 
 idolatry", "we know not the extent and variety 
 ot his powers. We are to suppose there are 
 407
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 such passages in his works. Shakespeare must 
 not sufier from the badness of our memories." 
 Johnson, diverted by this enthusiastic jealousy, 
 went on with great ardour : " No, Sir ; Con- 
 greve has nature;" (smiling on the tragic eager- 
 ness of Garrick); but composing himself, he 
 added : " Sir, this is not comparing Congreve 
 on the whole with Shakespeare on the whole ; 
 but only maintaining that Congreve has one 
 finer passage than any that can be found in 
 Shakespeare. Sir, a man may have no more 
 than ten guineas in the world, but he may 
 have those ten guineas in one piece ; and so 
 may have a finer piece than a man who has ten 
 thousand pounds : but then he has only one 
 ten guinea piece. — What I mean is, that you 
 can show me no passage where there is simply 
 a description of material objects, without any 
 intermixture of moral notions, which produces 
 such an efitct." Mr. Murphy mentioned 
 Shakespeare's description of the night before the 
 battle of Agincourt; but it was observed it had 
 men in it. Mr. Davies suggested the speech 
 of Juliet, in which she figures herself av/ak- 
 ing in the tomb of her ancestors. Someone 
 mentioned the description of Dover Cliff. 
 Johnson: "No, Sir; it should be all precipice 
 — all vacuum. The crows impede your fall. 
 The diminished appearance of the boats, and 
 other circumstances, are all very good descrip- 
 tion ; but do not impress the mind at once 
 with the horrible idea of immense height. The 
 impression is divided ; you pass on by compu- 
 tation, from one stage of the tremendous space 
 408
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 to another. Had the girl in The Mourning 
 Bride said, she could not cast her shoe to the 
 top of one of the pillars in the temple, it would 
 not have aided the idea, but wealcened it." 
 
 —The Life. 1769, Oct. i6th. 
 
 Mrs. Montague, a lady distinguished for 
 having written an Essay on Shakespeare, being 
 mentioned — Rkynolds : " I think that essay 
 does her honour". Johnson: "Yes, Sir; it 
 does her honour, but it would do nobody else 
 honour. I have, indeed, not read it all. But 
 when I take up the end of a web, and find it 
 packthread, I do not expect, by looking further, 
 to find embroidery. Sir, I will venture to say, 
 there is not one sentence of true criticism in 
 her book." Garrick : " But, Sir, surely it 
 shows how much Voltaire has mistaken Shake- 
 speare, which nobody else has done". John- 
 son : " Sir, nobody else has thought it worth 
 while. And what merit is there in that ? You 
 may as well praise a schoolmaster for whipping 
 a boy who has construed ill. No, Sir, there 
 is no real criticism in it : none showing the 
 beaut)- of thought, as formed on the workings 
 oi the human heart." 
 
 The admirers of this Essay may be offended 
 at the slighting manner in which Johnson spoke 
 of it ; but let it be remembered, that he gave 
 his honest opinion unbiassed by any prejudice, 
 or any proud jealousy of a woman intruding 
 herself into the chair of criticism; for Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds has told me, that when the Essay 
 first came out, and it was not known who had 
 409
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 written it, Johnson wondered how Sir Joshua 
 could like it. At this time Sir Joshua himself 
 had received no information concerning the 
 author, except being assured by one of our 
 most eminent literati, that it was clear its 
 author did not know the Greek tragedies in 
 the original. One day at Sir Joshua's table, 
 when it was related that Mrs. Montague, in 
 an excess of compliment to the author of a 
 modern tragedy, had exclaimed, " I tremble for 
 Shakespeare," Johnson said, " When Shake- 
 speare has got for his rival, and 
 
 Mrs. Montague for his defender, he is in a poor 
 state indeed." — The Life. 1769,001. i6th. 
 
 I complained that he had not mentioned 
 Garrick in his Preface to Shakespeare: and asked 
 him if he did not admire him. Johnson: " Yes, 
 as * a poor player, who frets and struts his 
 hour upon the stage' — as a shadow". Bos- 
 WELL : " But has he not brought Shakespeare 
 into notice?" Johnson: "Sir, to allow that, 
 would be to lampoon the age. Many of Shake- 
 speare's plays are the worse for being acted : 
 Macbeth, for instance." Boswell : " What, 
 Sir ! is nothing gained by decoration and action! 
 Indeed, I do wish that you had mentioned 
 Garrick." Johnson : " My dear Sir, had I 
 mentioned him, I must have mentioned many 
 more: Mrs. Pritchard, Mrs. Gibber, — nay, and 
 Mr. Gibber too: he, too, altered Shakespeare". 
 Boswell: "You have read his Apolog'^, Sir?" 
 Johnson : " Yes, it is very entertaining. But 
 as for Gibber himself, taking from his conversa- 
 410
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 tion all that he ought not to have said, he was 
 a poor creature. I remember when he brought 
 me one of his Odes to have my opinion of it, 
 I could not bear such nonsense, and would not 
 let him read it to the end : so little respect 
 had I 'iox tkat great man P"" (laughing). "Yet I re- 
 member Richardson wondering that I could 
 treat him with familiarity." 
 
 — The Life. 1769, Oct. 19th. 
 
 Boswell: " Foote has a great deal of humour". 
 Johnson: "Yes, Sir". Boswell: "He has a 
 singular talent of exhibiting character". John- 
 son: " Sir, it is not a talent — it is a vice; it is 
 what others abstain from. It is not comedy, 
 which exhibits the character of a species, as 
 that of a miser gathered from many misers : it 
 is farce, which exhibits individuals." Boswell: 
 "Did not he think of exhibiting you. Sir?" 
 Johnson : " Sir, fear restrained him ; he knew 
 I would have broken his bones. I would have 
 saved him the trouble of cutting oft" a leg ; I 
 would not have left him a leg to cut off"." Bos- 
 well : " Pra)-, Sir, is not Foote an infidel ?" 
 Johnson : " I do not know. Sir, that the fellow 
 is an infidel ; but if he be an infidel, he is an 
 infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he 
 has never thought upon the subject." Bos- 
 well: " I suppose. Sir, he has thought super- 
 ficially, and seized the first notions which 
 occurred to his mind". Johnson: " Why then. 
 Sir, still he is like a dog, that snatches the 
 piece next him. Did you never observe that 
 dogs have not the power of comparing? A dog 
 411
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 will take a small bit of meat as readily as a 
 large, when both are before him." 
 
 — T/ie Life. 1769, Oct. 19th. 
 
 I gave him an account of the excellent mimi- 
 cry of a friend of mine in Scotland; observing, 
 at the same time, that some people thought it 
 a very mean thing. Johnson: "Why, Sir, it 
 is making a very mean use of man's powers. 
 But to be a good mimic requires great powers; 
 great acutencss 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 , 
 
 who was a wonderful mimic, and used to make 
 me laugh innmoderately. I have heard she is 
 now gone mad." Boswell: *' It is amazing how 
 a mimic 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 to 
 consider that the manner and some particular 
 phrases of a person do much to impress you 
 with an idea of him, and you are not sure that 
 he woulci say what the mimic says in his char- 
 acter". Boswell: "I don't think Foote a 
 good mimic, Sir". Johnson: "No, Sir; his 
 imitations are not like. He gives you some- 
 thing different from himself, but not the char- 
 acter which he means to assume. He goes 
 out of himself, without going into other people. 
 He cannot take off any person unless he is 
 strongly marked, such as George Faulkner. 
 He is like a painter who can draw the portrait 
 412
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 of a man who lias a wen upon his face, and 
 wlio 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, how- 
 ever, very entertaining with a kind of conversa- 
 tion between wit and bufrbonery." 
 
 — The Life. 1772, March 21st. 
 
 On Wednesday, April 2 ist, I dined with him 
 at Mr. Thrale's. A gentleman attacked Garrick 
 for being vain. Johnson: "No wonder, Sir, 
 that he is vain ; a man who is perpetually 
 flattered in every mode that can be conceived. 
 So many bellows have blown the fire, that one 
 wonders he has not by this time become a 
 cinder." Boswell : " And such bellows too. 
 Lord Mansfield with his cheeks like to burst. 
 Lord Chatham like an ^-olus. I have read 
 such notes from them to him as were enough 
 to turn his head." Johnson: "True. VVhen 
 he whom everybody else flatters, flatters me, 
 T then am truly happy." Mrs. Thrale: "The 
 sentiment is in Congreve, I think". Johnson: 
 "Yes, Madam, in The IVay of the World: — 
 
 * If there 's delight in love, 't is when I see 
 That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me.' 
 
 No, Sir, I should not be surprised though 
 Garrick chained the ocean and lashed the 
 winds." BoswELL : " Should it not be. Sir, 
 lashed the ocean and chained the winds?" 
 Johnson; "No, Sir, recollect the original: 
 4^3
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 ' In Corum atque Eurum solitus sacvire flagellis 
 Barbariis, -^olio nunquam hoc in carcere passes, 
 Ipsum compedibus qui vinxerat Ennosigaeum.'" 
 
 This does very well when both the winds and 
 the sea are personified, and mentioned by their 
 mythological names, as in Juvenal ; but when 
 they are mentioned in plain language, the appli- 
 cation of the epithets suggested by me is the 
 most obvious; and accordingly, my friend him- 
 self, in his imitation of the passage which de- 
 scribes Xerxes, has 
 
 " The waves he lashes, and enchains the wind ". 
 — The Lije. iTJZy April 21st. 
 
 Dr. Goldsmith's new play. She Stoops to Con- 
 quer, being mentioned — Johnson: "I know of 
 no comedy for many years that has so much 
 exhilarated an audience, that has answered so 
 much the great end of comedy — making an 
 audience merry". 
 
 — The Lije, 1773, April 29th. 
 
 In the evening I introduced to Mr. Johnson 
 two good friends of mine, Mr. William Nairne, 
 Advocate, and Mr. Hamilton of Sundrum, my 
 neighbour in the country, both of whom supped 
 with us. I have preserved nothing of what 
 passed, except that Dr. Johnson displayed an- 
 other of his heterodox opinions, — a contempt 
 of tragic acting. He said: " the action of all 
 players in tragedy is bad. It should be a man's 
 study to repress those signs of emotion and 
 passion, as they are called." He uas of a 
 414
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 directly contrary opinion to that of Fielding, 
 in his Tom Jones, who makes Partridge say, of 
 Garrick, " why, I could act as well as he my- 
 self. I am sure, if I had seen a ghost, I should 
 have looked in the very same manner, and 
 done just as he did." For, when I asked him, 
 " Would not you. Sir, start as Pvir. Garrick does, 
 if }'ou saw a ghost?" he answered: "I hope 
 not. If I did, I should frighten the ghost." 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 15th. 
 
 I again mentioned the stage. — Johnson : 
 " The appearance of a player, with whom I 
 have drunk tea, counteracts the imagination 
 that he is the character he represents. Nay, 
 you know, nobody imagines that he is the 
 character he represents. They say, * See 
 Garrick \ how he looks to-night! See how 
 he'll clutch the dagger!' That is the buz of 
 the theatre." — The Tour. 1773, Aug. i6th. 
 
 We talked of the stage. I observed, that we 
 had not now such a company of actors as in 
 the last age; Wilkes, Booth, &c., &c. — John- 
 son: "You think so, because there is one who 
 excels all the rest so much: you compare them 
 with Garrick, and see the deficiency. Garrick's 
 great distinction is his universality. He can 
 represent all modes of life, but that of an easy 
 fine - bred gentleman." Pennington : " He 
 should give over playing young parts". — John- 
 son : " He does not take them now ; but he 
 does not leave off those which he has been 
 used to play, because he does them better than 
 41S
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 anyone else can do them. If you had genera- 
 tions of actors, if they swarmed like bees, the 
 }Oung ones might drive off the old. Mrs. 
 Gibber, I think, got more reputation than she 
 deserved, as she had a great sameness; though 
 her expression was undoubtedly very fine. 
 Mrs. Clive was the best player I ever saw. 
 Mrs. Pritchard was a very good one ; but she 
 had something affected in her manner : I 
 imagine she had some player of the former age 
 in her eye, which occasioned it." 
 
 Colonel Pennington said, Garrick sometimes 
 failed in emphasis; as for instance, in Hamlet, 
 
 "I will speak daggers to her; but use none", 
 instead of 
 
 "I will speak daggers to her; but use none". 
 — The Tour. 1773, Aug. 28th. 
 
 Having talked of the strictness with which 
 witnesses are examined in courts of justice, 
 Dr. Johnson told us, that Garrick, though ac- 
 customed to face multitudes, when produced 
 as a witness in Westminster Hall, was so dis- 
 concerted by a new mode of public appearance, 
 that he could not understand what was asked. 
 It was a cause where an actor claimed a free 
 benefit; that is to say, a benefit without paying 
 the expense of the house; but the meaning of 
 the term was disputed. Garrick was asked, 
 " Sir, have you a free benefit? " " Yes." " Upon 
 what terms have you it?" " Upon — the terms 
 — of — a free benefit." He was dismissed as 
 416
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 one from whom no information could be ob- 
 tained. Dr. Johnson is often too hard on our 
 friend Mr. Garrick. When I asked him, why 
 he did not mention him in the Preface to his 
 Shakespeare, he said: "Garrick has been liberally 
 paid for anything he has done for Shakespeare. 
 If I should praise him, I should much more 
 praise the nation who paid him. He has not 
 made Shakespeare better known; he cannot illus- 
 trate Shakespeare : so I have reasons enough 
 against mentioning him, were reasons neces- 
 sary. There should be reasons for it." I 
 spoke of Mrs. Montague's very high praises of 
 Garrick. Johnson : " Sir, it is fit she should 
 say so much, and I should say nothing. 
 Reynolds is fond of her book, and I wonder at 
 it ; for neither I, nor Beauclerk, nor Mrs. 
 Thrale, could get through it." 
 
 —'The Tour. 1773, Sept. 23rd. 
 
 Talking of a very penurious gentleman of 
 our acquaintance, he observed, that he exceeded 
 V Jvnre in the play. I concurred with him, 
 and remarked that he would do well, if intro- 
 duced in one of Foote's farces ; that the best 
 way to get it done, would be to bring Foote to 
 be entertained at his house for a week, and 
 then it would be facit indtgnatlo. Johnson : 
 " Sir, I wish he had him. I, who have eaten 
 his bread, will not give him to him ; but I 
 should be glad he came honestly by him." 
 — The Tour. 1773, Oct. 2nd. 
 
 After dinner, various topics were discussed; 
 (B212) 417 2F
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 but I recollect only one particular. Dr. John- 
 son compared the dift'erent talents of Garrick 
 and Foote, as companions, and gave Garrick 
 greatly the preference for elegance, though he 
 allowed Foote extraordinary powers of enter- 
 tainment. He said, " Garrick is restrained by 
 some principle; but Foote has the advantage 
 of an unlimited range. Garrick has some deli- 
 cacy of feeling; it is possible to put him out; 
 you may get the better of him; but Foote is 
 the most incompressible fellow that I ever 
 knew: when you have driven him into a corner, 
 and think you are sure of him, he runs through 
 between your legs, or jumps over your head, 
 and makes his escape." 
 
 — The Tour. 1773, Nov. toth. 
 
 Many instances of his resolution may be 
 mentioned. In the playhouse at Lichfield, as 
 Mr. Garrick informed me, Johnson having for 
 a moment quitted a chair which was placed for 
 him betw^een the side scenes, a gentleman took 
 possession of it, and when Johnson on his re- 
 turn civilly demanded his seat, rudely refused 
 to give it up : upon which Johnson laid hold 
 of it, and tossed him and the chair into the 
 pit. Foote, who so successfully revived the old 
 comedy, by exhibiting living characters, had re- 
 solved to imitate Johnson on the stage; ex- 
 pecting great profits from the ridicule of so 
 celebrated a man. Johnson being informed of 
 his intention, and being at dinner at Mr. 
 Thomas Davies's, the bookseller, from whom 
 I had the story, he asked Mr. Davies " what 
 418
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 was the common price of an oak stick;" and 
 being answered sixpence, " Why then, Sir," 
 said he, " give me leave to send your servant 
 to purchase me a shilling one. I'll have a 
 double quantity; for I am told Foote means to 
 take, me off, as he calls it, and I am determined 
 the fellow shall not do it with impunity." 
 Davies took care to acquaint Foote of this, 
 which effectually checked the wantonness of 
 the mimic. — The Life. 1775, Feb. 
 
 From Swift, there was an easy transition to 
 Mr. Thomas Sheridan. Johnson : " Sheridan 
 is a wonderful admirer of the tragedy of Douglas., 
 and presented its author with a gold medal. 
 Some years ago, at a coffee-house in Oxford, I 
 called to him, * Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Sheridan, 
 how came you to give a gold medal to Home, 
 for writing that foolish play?' This, you see, 
 was wanton and insolent; but I meant to be 
 wanton and insolent. A medal has no value 
 but as a stamp of merit. And was Sheridan to 
 assume to himself the right of giving that 
 stamp ? If Sheridan was magnificent enough 
 to bestow a gold medal as an honorary reward 
 of dramatic excellence, he should have requested 
 one of the Universities to choose the person on 
 whom it should be conferred. Sheridan had 
 no right to give a stamp of merit : it was coun- 
 terfeiting Apollo's coin." 
 
 — The Life. 1775, March 24th. 
 
 On Monday, March 27th, I breakfasted with 
 419
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 him at Mr. Strahan's. He told us, that he 
 was engaged to go that evening to Mrs. Abing- 
 ton's benefit. " She was visiting some ladies 
 whom I was visiting, and begged that I would 
 come to her benefit. I told her I could not 
 hear : but she insisted so much on my coming, 
 that it would have been brutal to have refused 
 her." This was a speech quite characteristical. 
 He loved to bring forward his having been in 
 the gay circles of life ; and he was, perhaps, 
 a little vain of the solicitations of this elegant 
 and fashionable actress. He told us, the plaj- 
 was to be The Hypocrite, altered from Gibber's 
 'Nonjuror, so as to satirize the Methodists. 
 " I do not think," said he, " the character of the 
 Hypocrite justly applicable to the Methodists, 
 but it was very applicable to the Nonjurors." 
 — The Life. 1775, March 27th. 
 
 I met him at Drury Lane playhouse in the 
 evening. Sir Joshua Reynolds, at Mrs. Abing- 
 ton's request, had promised to bring a body of 
 wits to her benefit; and having secured forty 
 places in the front boxes, had done me the 
 honour to put me in the group. Johnson sat 
 on the seat directly behind me ; and as he 
 could neither see nor hear at such a distance 
 from the stage, he was wrapped up in grave 
 abstraction, and seemed quite a cloud amidst 
 all the sunshine of glitter and gaiety. I won- 
 dered at his patience in sitting out a play of 
 five acts, and a farce of two. He said very 
 little; but after the prologue to Bon Ton 
 had been spoken, which he could hear pretty 
 420
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 well from the more slow and distinct utterance, 
 he talked on prologue writing, and observed, 
 " Dryden has written prologues superior to 
 any that David Garrick has written; but David 
 Garrick has written more good prologues than 
 Dryden has done. It is wonderful that he has 
 been able to write such variety of them." 
 
 At Mr. Beauclerk's, where I supped, was Mr. 
 Garrick, whom I made happy Vv^ith Johnson's 
 praise of his prologues ; and I suppose, in 
 gratitude to him, he took up one of his favourite 
 topics — the nationality of the Scotch — which 
 he maintained in a pleasant manner, with the 
 aid of a little poetical fiction. " Come, come, 
 don't deny it : they are really national. Why, 
 now, the Adams are as liberal-minded men as 
 any in the world : but I don't know how it is, 
 all their workmen are Scotch. You are, to be 
 sure, wonderfully free from that nationality; 
 but so it happens, that you employ the only 
 Scotch shoeblack in London." He imitated 
 the manner of his old master with ludicrous 
 exaggeration; repeating, with pauses and half- 
 whistlings interjected, 
 
 " Os /iomiai sublime Jedit, — calmnque iiier'i 
 Jussit, — et erectos ad sidera — iollere njultus" : 
 
 looking downwards all the time, and, while 
 pronouncing the four last words, absolutely 
 touching the ground with a kind of contorted 
 gesticulation. 
 
 Garrick, however, when he pleased, could 
 imitate Johnson ver}' exactly; for that great 
 actor, with liis distinguished powers of expres- 
 
 421
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 sion which were so universally admired, pos- 
 sessed also an admirable talent of mimicry. 
 He was always jealous that Johnson spoke 
 lightly of him, I recollect his exhibiting him 
 to me one day, as if saying, " Davy has some 
 convivial pleasantry about him, but 'tis a futile 
 fellow;" which he uttered perfectly with the 
 tone and air of Johnson. 
 
 I cannot too frequently request of my readers, 
 while they peruse on my account of Johnson's 
 conversation, to endeavour to keep in mind his 
 deliberate and strong utterance. His mode of 
 speaking was indeed very impressive ; and I 
 wished it could be preserved as music is written, 
 according to the very ingenious method of Mr. 
 Steele, who has shown how the recitation of 
 Mr. Garrick, and other eminent speakers, might 
 be transmitted to posterity /» score. 
 
 — T lie Life. 1775, March 27th. 
 
 Dr. Johnson, as usual, spoke contemptuously 
 of Colley Gibber. " It is wonderful that a man, 
 who for forty years had lived with the great and 
 the witty, should have acquired so ill the talents 
 of conversation; and he had but half to furnish; 
 for one half of what he said was oaths." He, 
 however, allowed considerable merit to some 
 of his comedies, and said there was no reason 
 to believe that Thr Careless Husband was not 
 written by himself. Davies said, he was the 
 first dramatic writer who introduced genteel 
 ladies upon the stage. Johnson refuted his 
 observation by instancing several such char- 
 acters in comedies before his time. Davies 
 422
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 (trying to defend himself from a charge of 
 ignorance): " I mean genteel moral characters". 
 " I think," said Hickey, " gentility and morality 
 are inseparable." Boswell : " By no means, 
 Sir. The genteelest characters are often the 
 most immoral. Does not Lord Chesterfield 
 give precepts for uniting wickedness and the 
 graces r A man, indeed, is not genteel when he 
 gets drunk; but most vices may be committed 
 very genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's 
 wife genteelly: he may cheat at cards genteelly." 
 Hickey : "I do not think that is genteel ". 
 Boswell: "Sir, it may not be like a gentle- 
 man, but it may be genteel ". 
 
 — The Lije. 1775, April 6th. 
 
 Mrs. Pritchard being mentioned, he [John- 
 son] said, " Her playing was quite mechanical. 
 It is wonderful how little mind she had. Sir, 
 she had never read the tragedy of Macbeth all 
 through. She no more thought of the play out 
 of which her part was taken, than a shoemaker 
 thinks of the skin, out of which the piece of 
 leather, of which he is making a pair of shoes, 
 is cut." 
 
 On Saturday, May 8th, I dined with him at 
 Mr. Thrale's, where we met the Irish Dr. 
 Campbell. Johnson had supped the night 
 before at Mrs. Abington's with some fashion- 
 able people whom he named; and he seemed 
 much pleased with having made one in so 
 elegant a circle. Nor did he omit to pique 
 his mistress a little with jealousy of her house- 
 wifery ; for he said, with a smile, " Mrs. 
 423
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 Abington's jelly, my dear lady, was better than 
 yours." 
 
 Mrs. Thralc, who frequently practised a 
 coarse mode of flattery, by repeating his bon- 
 mots in his hearing, told us that he had said 
 a certain celebrated actor was just fit to stand 
 at the door of an auction-room with a long 
 pole, and cry, "Pray, gentlemen, walk in;" 
 and that a certain author, upon hearing this, 
 had said tliat another still more celebrated 
 actor was fit for nothing better than that, and 
 would pick }our pocket after you came out. 
 Johnson : " Nay, my dear lady, there is no wit 
 in what our friend added; there is only abuse. 
 You may as well say of any man that he will 
 pick a pocket. Besides, the man who is sta- 
 tioned at the door does not pick people's 
 pockets ; that is done within, by the auc- 
 tioneer." 
 
 Mrs. Thrale told us, that Tom Davies re- 
 peated, in a very bold manner, the story of Dr. 
 Johnson's first repartee to me, which I have 
 related exactl}'. He made me say, " I was born 
 in Scotland", instead of " I come from Scotland"; 
 so that Johnson's sa)'ing, " That, Sir, is what a 
 great many of your countrymen cannot help," 
 had no point, or even meaning : and that upon 
 this being mentioned to Mr. Fitzherbert, he 
 observed, " it is not every man that can carv^ a 
 bon-motT — The Life. 1775, April 7th. 
 
 The Beggar's Opera and the common ques- 
 tion, whether it was pernicious in its effects, 
 having been introduced; — Johnson: "As to 
 424
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 this matter, which has been very much con- 
 tested, I myself am of opinion, that more 
 influence has been ascribed to The Beggars 
 Opera, than it in reality ever had; for I do not 
 believe that any man was ever made a rogue by 
 being present at its representation. At the 
 same time I do not deny that it may have 
 some influence, by making the character of a 
 rogue familiar, and in some degree pleasing." 
 Then collecting himself, as it were, to give a 
 heavy stroke : " Tliere is in it such a labefacta- 
 t'lon of all principles as may be injurious to 
 morality." 
 
 While he pronounced this response, we sat 
 in a comical sort of restraint, smothering a 
 laugh, which we were afraid might burst out. 
 In his life of Gay, he has been still more 
 decisive as to the inefficienc)- of The Beggar^s 
 Opera in corrupting society. But I have 
 ever thought somewhat differently; for, indeed, 
 not only are the gaiety and heroism of a high- 
 wayman very captivating to a youthful imagina- 
 tion, but the arguments for adventurous depre- 
 dation are so plausible, the allusions so lively, 
 and the contrasts with the ordinary and more 
 painful modes of acquiring property are so 
 artfully displayed, that it requires a cool and 
 strong judgment to resist so imposing an ag- 
 gregate : yet, I own, I should be very sorry 
 to have The Beggar's Opera suppressed ; for 
 there is in it so much of real London life, so 
 much brilliant wit, and such a variety of airs, 
 which, from early association of ideas, engage, 
 soothe, and enliven the mind, that no perform- 
 425
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 ance which the theatre exhibits delights me 
 more. 
 
 The late " worthy " Duke of Queensbury, as 
 Thomson, in his Seasons, justly characterizes 
 him, told me that when Gay showed liim The 
 Beggiir^s Opera, his Grace's observation was, 
 " This is a very odd tiling. Gay; I am satisfied 
 that it is either a very good thing, or a very 
 bad thing." It proved the former, beyond the 
 warmest expectations of the author or his 
 friends. Mr. Cambridge, however, showed us 
 to-day, that there was good reason enough to 
 doubt concerning its success. He was told by 
 Quin, that during the first night of its appear- 
 ance it was long in a very dubious state; that 
 there was a disposition to damn it, and that it 
 was saved by the song, 
 
 " Oh, ponder well ! be not severe !" 
 
 the audience being much affected by the inno- 
 cent looks of Polly, when she came to those 
 two lines, which exhibit at once a painful and 
 ridiculous image, 
 
 " For on the rope that hangs my dear. 
 Depends poor Polly's life." 
 
 Ouin himself had so bad an opinion of it, that 
 he refused the part of Captain Macheath, and 
 gave it to Walker, who acquired great celebrity 
 by his grave yet animated performance of it. 
 — The Life. 1775, April nth. 
 
 Before setting out for Scotland on the 23 rd, 
 I was frequently in his company at different 
 426
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 places, but during this period have recorded 
 only two remarks ; one concerning Garrick : 
 " He has not Latin enough. He finds out the 
 Latin by the meaning, rather than the meaning 
 by the Latin : " and another concerning writers 
 of travels, who, he observed, " were more defec- 
 tive than any other writers." 
 
 — The Life. 1775, May. 
 
 It happened that Foote was at Paris at the 
 same time with Dr. Johnson, and his descrip- 
 tion of my friend while there Was abundantly 
 ludicrous. He told me, that the French were 
 quite astonished at his figure and manner, and 
 at his dress, which he obstinately continued 
 exactly as in London; — his brown clothes, 
 black stockings, and plain shirt. He men- 
 tioned, that an Irish gentleman said to Johnson, 
 " Sir, you have not seen the best French 
 players." Johnson : " Players, Sir ! I look 
 on them as no better than creatures set upon 
 tables and joint-stools to make faces and pro- 
 duce laughter, like dancing dogs." — " But, sir, 
 you will allow that some players are better than 
 others?" Johnson: "Yes, Sir, as some dogs 
 dance better than others ". 
 
 — The Life. 1775, Autumn. 
 
 Dr. Burney having remarked that Mr. Garrick 
 was beginning to look old, he [i.e. Johnson] 
 said, " Why, Sir, you are not to wonder at 
 that ; no man's face has had more wear and 
 tear." — The Life. 1775. 
 
 427
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 I observed that Garrick, who was about to 
 quit the stage, would soon have an easier life. 
 Johnson: "I doubt that, Sir". Boswkll : 
 " Why, Sir, he will be Atlas with the burden 
 off his back". Johnson : " But I know not if 
 he will be so steady without his load. How- 
 ever, he should never play any more, but be 
 entirely the gentleman, and not partly the 
 player; he should no longer subject himself to 
 be hissed by a mob, or to be insolently treated 
 by performers, whom he used to rule with a 
 high hand, and who would gladly retaliate." 
 BoswELL : " I think he should play once a 
 year for the benefit of decayed actors, as it has 
 been said he means to do". Johnson: "Alas, 
 Sir, he will soon be a decayed actor himself". 
 — The Life. 1776, March 19th. 
 
 We then visited Mr. Peter Garrick, who had 
 that morning received a letter from his brother 
 David, announcing our coming to Lichfield. 
 He was engaged to dinner, but asked us to tea, 
 and to sleep at his house. Johnson, however, 
 would not quit his old acquaintance Wilkins, 
 of the " Three Crowns ". The family likeness 
 of the Garricks was very striking; and Johnson 
 thought that David's vivacity was not so peculiar 
 to himself as was supposed. " Sir," said he, 
 " I don't know but if Peter had cultivated all 
 the arts of gaiety as much as David has done, 
 he might have been as brisk and lively. De- 
 pend upon it, Sir, vivacity is much an art, and 
 depends greatly on habit." I believe there is 
 a good deal of truth in this, notwithstanding 
 428
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 a ludicrous story told me by a lady abroad, of 
 a heavy German baron, who had lived much 
 with the young English at Geneva, and was 
 ambitious to be as lively as they; with which 
 view, he, with assiduous attention, was jumping 
 over the chairs and tables in his lodgings; and 
 Avhen the people of the house ran in and asked 
 with surprise, what was the matter, he answered, 
 " Sh' apprens letrefifr 
 
 — The Life. 1776, March 23rd. 
 
 There was at this time a company ot' players 
 performing at Lichfield. The manager, Mr. 
 Stanton, sent his compliments, and begged 
 leave to wait on Dr. Johnson. Johnson re- 
 ceived him very courteously, and he drank a 
 glass of wine with us. He was a plain, decent, 
 well-behaved man, and expressed his gratitude 
 to Dr. Johnson for having once got him per- 
 mission from Dr. Taylor at Ashbourne to play 
 there upon moderate terms. Garrick's name 
 was soon introduced. Johnson : " Garrick's 
 conversation is gay and grotesque. It is a dish 
 of all sorts, but all good things. There is no 
 solid meat in it; there is a want of sentiment 
 in it. Not but that he has sentiment some- 
 times, and sentiment, too, very powerful and 
 very pleasing; but it has not its full proportion 
 in his conversation." 
 
 When we were by ourselves he told me, 
 " Forty years ago. Sir, I was in love with an 
 actress here, Mrs. Emmet, who acted Flora 
 in Hob In the Well^ What merit this lady 
 had as an actress, or what was her figure or 
 429
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 her manner, I have not been informed : but, if 
 we may believe Mr. Garrick, his old master's 
 taste in theatrical merit was by no means re- 
 fined; he was not an elegans formarum spectator. 
 Garrick used to tell that Johnson said of an 
 actor, who played Sir Harry Wildair, at Lich- 
 field, " There is a courtly vivacity about the 
 fellow;" when, in fact, according to Garrick's 
 account, " he was the most vulgar ruffian that 
 ever went upon boards^ 
 
 We had promised Mr. Stanton to be at his 
 theatre on Monday. Dr. Johnson jocularly 
 proposed to me to write a Prologue for the 
 occasion : " A Prologue, by James Boswell, 
 Esq., from the Hebrides." I was really in- 
 clined to take the hint. Methought, " Pro- 
 logue, spoken before Dr. Samuel Johnson at 
 Lichfield, 1776," would have sounded as well 
 as " Prologue, spoken before the Duke of York 
 at Oxford," in Charles the Second's time. 
 Much might have been said of what Lichfield 
 had done for Shakespeare, by producing John- 
 son and Garrick. But I found he was averse 
 to it. — The Life. 1776, March 23rd. 
 
 On Thursday, April nth, I dined with him 
 at General Paoli's, in whose house I now re- 
 sided, and where I had ever afterwards the 
 honour of being entertained with the kindest 
 attention as his constant guest, while I was 
 in London, till I had a house of my own there. 
 I mentioned my having that morning intro- 
 duced to Mr. Garrick, Count Neni, a Flemish 
 nobleman of great rank and fortune, to whom 
 430
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 Giirrick talked of Abel Drugger as a small part\ 
 and related, with pleasant vanity, that a French- 
 man who had seen him in one of his low char- 
 acters, exclaimed, " Comment! je ne le crots pas. 
 Ce 71 est pas Monsieur Garrick, ce grand homme!" 
 Garrick added, with an appearance of grave 
 recollection, " If I were to begin life again, I 
 think I should not play these low characters." 
 Upon which I observed, " Sir, you would be 
 in the wrong; for your great excellence is your 
 variety of playing, your representing so well 
 characters so very different." Johnson : " Gar- 
 rick, Sir, was not in earnest in what he said; 
 for, to be sure, his peculiar excellence is his 
 variety; and, perhaps, there is not any one 
 character which has not been as well acted by 
 somebody else, as he could do it." Boswell : 
 "Why, then. Sir, did he talk so?" Johnson: 
 *' Why, Sir, to make you answer as you did ". 
 Boswell: "I don't know, Sir; he seemed to 
 dip deep into his mind for the reflection ". 
 Johnson : " He had not far to dip, Sir; he had 
 said the same thing, probably, twenty times 
 before". —The Life. 1776, April i ith. 
 
 " Garrick," he observed, " does not play the 
 part of Archer in The Beaux' Stratagem well. 
 The gentleman should break out through the 
 footman, which is not the case as he does it." 
 — The Life. 1776, May. 
 
 Foote being mentioned, Johnson said, "He 
 is not a good mimic." One of the company 
 431
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 added, "A merry Andrew, a buffoon !" John- 
 son : "But he has wit, too, and is not deficient 
 in ideas, or in fertility and variety of imagery, 
 and not empty of reading; he has knowledge 
 enough to fill up his part. One species of wit 
 he has in an eminent degree, that of escape. 
 You drive him into a corner with both hands; 
 but he's gone, Sir, when you think you have 
 got him — like an animal that jumps over your 
 head. Then he has a great range for wit; he 
 never lets truth stand between him and a jest, 
 and he is sometimes mighty coarse. Garrick 
 is under many restraints from which Foote is 
 free." Wilkes: " Garrick's wit is more like 
 Lord Chesterfield's ". Johnson : " The first 
 time I was in company with Foote was at 
 Fitzherbert's. Having no good opinion of 
 the fellow, I was resolved not to be pleased : 
 and it is very difficult to please a man against 
 his will. I went on eating my dinner pretty 
 sullenly, affecting not to mind him ; but the 
 dog was so very comical, that I was obliged 
 to lay down my knife and fork, throw myself 
 back upon my chair, and fairly laugh it out. 
 No, Sir, he was irresistible. He upon one 
 occasion experienced, in an extraordinary de- 
 gree, the efficacy of his powers of entertaining. 
 Amongst the many and various modes which 
 he tried of getting money, he became a partner 
 with a small-beer brewer, and he was to have 
 a share of the profits for procuring customers 
 amongst his numerous acquaintance. Fitz- 
 herbert was one who took his small-beer ; but 
 it was so bad that the servants resolved not 
 432
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 to drink it. They were at some loss how to 
 notify their resolution, being afraid of offending 
 their master, who they knew liked Foote much 
 as a companion. At last they fixed upon a little 
 black boy, who was rather a favourite, to be 
 their deputy, and deliver their remonstrance; 
 and having invested him with the whole autho- 
 rity of the kitchen, he was to inform Mr. 
 Fitzherbert, in all their names, upon a certain 
 day, that they would drink Foote's small-beer 
 no longer. On chat day Foote happened to 
 dine at Fitzherbert's, and this boy served at 
 table; he was so delighted with Foote's stories, 
 and merriment, and grimace, that when he went 
 downstairs he told them, ' This is the finest 
 man I have ever seen. I will not deliver your 
 message. I will drink his small-beer.'" 
 
 Somebody observed, that Garrick could not 
 have done this. Wilkes: " Garrick would have 
 made the small-beer still smaller. He is now 
 leaving the stage; but he will play Scrub all his 
 life." I knew that Johnson would let nobody 
 attack Garrick but himself, as Garrick said to 
 me, and I had heard him praise his liberality; 
 so, to bring out his commendation of his cele- 
 brated pupil, I said, loudly, " I have heard 
 Garrick is liberal." Johnson : " Yes, Sir, I 
 know that Garrick has given away more money 
 than any man in England that I am acquainted 
 with, and that not from ostentatious views. 
 Garrick was very poor when he began life ; so 
 when he came to have money, he probably was 
 very unskilful in giving away, and saved when 
 he should not. But Garrick began to be liberal 
 (B2I2) 433 2G
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 as soon as he could ; and I am of opinion, the 
 reputation of avarice, which he has had, has 
 been very lucky for him, and prevented his 
 having many enemies. You despise a man for 
 avarice, but do not hate him. Garrick might 
 have been much better attacked for living with 
 more splendour than is suitable to a player: if 
 they had had the wit to have assaulted him in 
 that quarter, they might have galled him more. 
 But they have kept clamouring about his avarice, 
 which has rescued him from much obloquy and 
 envy." 
 
 Talking of the great difficulty of obtaining 
 authentic information for biography, Johnson 
 told us, "When I was a young fellow I wanted 
 to write the ' Life of Dryden,' and in order to get 
 materials, I applied to the only two persons then 
 alive who had seen him ; these were old Swinney, 
 and old Cibber. Swinney's information was no 
 more than this, ' That at Will's coffee-house 
 Dryden had a particular chair for himself, which 
 was set by the fire in winter, and was then called 
 his winter-chair; and it was carried out for him 
 to the balcony in summer, and was then called 
 his summer-chair.' Cibber could tell no more 
 but 'That he remembered him a decent old 
 man, arbiter of critical disputes at Will's.' You 
 are to consider that Cibber was then at a great 
 distance from Dryden, had, perhaps, one leg 
 only in the room, and durst not draw in the 
 other." Boswell: "But Cibber was a man of 
 observation?" Johnson: "I think not". Bos- 
 well : " You will allow his Jpology to be well 
 done ". Johnson: "Very well done, to be sure, 
 434
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 Sir. That book is a striking proof of the justice 
 of Pope's remark: 
 
 'Each might his several province well command, 
 Would all but stoop to what they understand.'" 
 
 Boswell: "And his plays are good ". John- 
 son: "Yes; but that was his trade; V esprit clu 
 corps ; he had been all his life among players 
 and play-writers. I wondered that he had so 
 little to say in conversation, for he had kept the 
 best company, and learnt all that can be got by 
 the ear. He abused Pindar to me, and then 
 showed me an ode of his own, with an absurd 
 couplet making a linnet soar on an eagle's wing. 
 1 told him, that when the ancients made a simile, 
 they always made it like something real." 
 
 — The Life. 1776, May 15th. 
 
 In tiie summer he wrote a Prologue, which 
 was spoken beiore A Word to the Wise, a comedy 
 by Mr. Hugh Kelly, which had been brought 
 upon the stage in 1770; but he being a writer 
 for the Ministry in one of the newspapers, it 
 fell a sacrifice to popular fury, and, in the play- 
 house phrase, was damned. By the generosity 
 of Mr. Harris, the proprietor of Coven t Garden 
 Theatre, it was now exhibited for one night, for 
 the benefit of the author's widow and children. 
 To conciliate the favour of the audience, was 
 the intention of Johnson's Prologue, wfiich, as 
 it is not long, I shall here insert, as a proof 
 that his poetical talents were in no degree im- 
 paired. 
 
 435
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 'This night presents a play, which public rage, 
 Or right or wrong, once hooted from the stage: 
 From zeal or malice, now no more we dread, 
 For English vengeance ^vars not ^vith the dead. 
 A generous foe regards with pitying eye 
 The man whom Fate has laid where all must lie. 
 To wit, reviving from its author's dust. 
 Be kind, ye judges, or at least be just: 
 Let no renewed hostilities invade 
 Th' oblivious grave's inviolable shade. 
 Let one great payment every claim appease, 
 And him who cannot hurt, allow to please j 
 To please by scenes, unconscious of offence. 
 By harmless merriment, or useful sense. 
 Where aught of bright or fair the piece displays, 
 Approve it only;— 'tis too late to praise. 
 If want of skill or want of care appear, 
 Forbear to hiss; — the poet cannot hear. 
 By all, like him, must praise and blame be found, 
 At last, a fleeting gleam, or empty sound; 
 Yet then shall calm reflection bless the night, 
 When liberal pity dignified delight; 
 When pleasure fired her torch at virtue's flame, 
 And mirth was bounty with an humbler name." 
 
 — The Life. 1777, Summer. 
 
 A circumstance which could not fail to be very 
 pleasing to Johnson occurred this year. The 
 tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbtiry, written by his 
 early companion in London, Richard Savage, 
 was brought up with alterations, at Drury Lane 
 Theatre. The Prologue to it was written by 
 Mr. Richard Brinsley Sheridan; in which, after 
 describing very pathetically the wretchedness 
 of 
 
 436
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 "Ill-fated Savage, at whose birth was given 
 No parent but the Muse, no friend but Uea\'n ;" 
 
 he introduced an elegant compliment to Johnson 
 on his Dictionary, that wonderful performance 
 which cannot be too often or too highly praised; 
 of which Mr. Harris, in his Philological Inquiries, 
 justly and liberally observes, " Such is its merit, 
 that our language does not possess a more 
 copious, learned, and valuable work ". The 
 concluding lines of this prologue were these: — • 
 
 " So pleads the tale that gives to future times 
 The son's misfortunes and the parent's crimes; 
 There shall his fame (if own'd to-night) survive, 
 Fix'd by the hand that bids our languaoe 
 
 LIVE ". 
 
 Mr. Sheridan here at once did honour to his 
 taste and to his liberality of sentiment, by 
 showing that he was not prejudiced from the 
 unlucky difference which had taken place be- 
 tween his worthy father and Dr. Johnson. I 
 have already mentioned, that Johnson was very 
 desirous of reconciliation with old Mr. Sheridan. 
 It will, therefore, not seem at all surprising that 
 he was zealous in acknowledging the brilliant 
 merit of his son. While it had as yet been 
 displayed only in the drama, Johnson pro- 
 posed him as a member of The Literary Club, 
 observing, that "he who has written the two 
 best comedies of his age is surely a considerable 
 man." And he had, accordingly, the honour to 
 be elected; for an honour it undoubtedly must 
 be allowed to be, when it is considered of 
 437
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 whom that society consists, and that a single 
 black-ball excludes a candidate. 
 
 — The Lije. 1777. 
 
 "Colley Gibber once consulted me as to one 
 of his birthday Odes, a long time before it was 
 wanted. I objected very freely to several pass- 
 ages. Gibber lost patience, and would not 
 read his ode to an end. When we had done 
 with criticism, we walked over to Richardson's, 
 the author of Clarissa, and I wondered to find 
 Richardson displeased that I * did not treat 
 Gibber with more respect^ Now, Sir, to talk 
 oi respect for a. player \" (smiling disdainfully). 
 Boswell: " There, Sir, you are always here- 
 tical; you never will allow merit to a player", 
 Johnson : " Merit, Sir ; what merit ? Do you 
 respect a rope-dancer, or a ballad - singer r" 
 BoswELL : " No, Sir ; but we respect a great 
 player, as a man who can conceive lofty senti- 
 ments, and can express them gracefully ". 
 Johnson : " What, Sir, a fellow who claps a 
 hump on his back, and a lump on his leg, 
 and cries, '/ am Richard the Third'' t Nay, 
 Sir, a ballad-singer is a higher man, for he 
 does two things ; he repeats and he sings. 
 There is both recitation and music in his per- 
 formance; the player only recites." Boswell: 
 " My dear Sir ! you may turn anything into 
 ridicule. I allow, that a player of farce is not 
 entitled to respect ; he does a little thing : 
 but he who can represent exalted characters, 
 and touch the noblest passions, has very re- 
 spectable powers ; and mankind have agreed 
 438
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 in admiring great talents for the stage. We 
 must consider, too, that a great player does 
 what very few people are capable to do : his 
 art is a very rare faculty. M'^ho can repeat 
 Hamlet's soliloqu)', 'To be, or not to be,' as 
 Garrick does it ?" Johnson : " Anybody may. 
 Jemmy there" (a boy about eight years old, who 
 was in the room) " will do it as well in a week." 
 BoswELL : " No, no, Sir ; and as a proof of 
 the merit of great acting, and of the value 
 which mankind set upon it, Garrick has got 
 j^ioo,ooo". Johnson: "Is getting j^ 100,000 a 
 proof of excellence ? That has been done by 
 a scoundrel commissary." 
 
 This was most fallacious reasoning. I was 
 su7-e, for once, that I had the best side of the 
 argument. I boldly maintained the just distinc- 
 tion between a tragedian and a mere theatrical 
 droll; between those who rouse our terror and 
 pity, and those who only make us laugh. " If," 
 said I, " Betterton and Foote were to walk into 
 this room, you would respect Betterton much 
 more than Foote." Johnson : " If Betterton 
 were to walk into this room with Foote, Foote 
 would soon drive him out of it. Foote, Sir, 
 qtiatenus Foote, has powers superior to them 
 all." — The Life. 1777, Sept. 21st. 
 
 We retired from Mrs. Williams to another 
 room. Tom Davies soon after joined us. He 
 had no'.v unfortunately failed in his circum- 
 stances, and was much indebted to Dr. Johnson's 
 kindness in obtaining for him many alleviations 
 of his distress. After he went awa) , Johnson 
 439-
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 blamed his folly in quitting the stage, by which 
 he and his wife got ^^500 a year. I said, I 
 believed it was owing to Churchill's attack upon 
 him, 
 
 " He mouths a sentence, as curs mouth a bone." 
 
 Johnson : " I believe so too, Sir. But what 
 a man is he, who is to be driven from the stage 
 by a line? Another line would have driven him 
 from his shop." — TheLife. 1778, March 20th. 
 
 Our poor friend, Mr. Thomas Davies, was 
 soon to have a benefit at Drury Lane Theatre, 
 as some relief to his unfortunate circumstances. 
 We were all warmly interested for his success, 
 and had contributed to it. However, we thought 
 there was no harm in having our joke, when he 
 could not be hurt by it. I proposed that he 
 should be brought on to speak a Prologue upon 
 the occasion ; and I began to mutter fragments 
 of what it might be; as, that when now grown 
 old, he was obliged to cry, " Poor Tom 's a-cold " ; 
 — that he owned he had been driven from the 
 stage by a Churchill, but that was no disgrace, 
 for a Churchill had beat the French ; — that he 
 had been satirized as " mouthing a sentence as 
 curs mouth a bone ", but he was now glad of a 
 bone to pick. "Nay," said Johnson, "I would 
 have him to say, 
 
 'Mad Tom is come to see the world again'." 
 
 —The Life. 1778, April 7th. 
 440
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 Boswell: "It is easy for you, Mr. Garrick, to 
 talk to an author as you talked to Elphinston; 
 you, who have been so long the manager of a 
 theatre, rejecting" the plays of poor authors. 
 You are an old judge, who have often pro- 
 nounced sentence of death. You are a prac- 
 tised surgeon, who have often amputated limbs: 
 and though this may have been for the good 
 of your patients, they cannot like you. Those 
 who have undergone a dreadful operation are 
 not very fond of seeing the operator again." 
 Garrick : " Yes, I know enough of that. 
 There was a reverend gentleman (Mr. Haw- 
 kins), who wrote a tragedy, the siege of 
 something, which I refused." Harris: "So 
 the siege was raised ". Johnson : " Ay, he 
 came to me and complained; and told me that 
 Garrick said his play was wrong in the con- 
 coction. Now, what is the concoction of a 
 play?" (Here Garrick started, and twisted 
 himself, and seemed sorely vexed ; for John- 
 son told me he believed the story was true.) 
 Garrick: "I — I — I — ■a'xxdi, first concoction". 
 Johnson (smiling) : " Well, he left out first. 
 And Rich, he said, refused him in false EngUs/r. 
 he could show it under his hand." Garrick: 
 " He wrote to me in violent wrath, for having 
 refused his play: ' Sir, this is growing a very 
 serious and terrible affair. I am resolved to 
 publish my play. I will appeal to the world; 
 and how will your judgment appear!' I an- 
 swered, 'Sir, notwithstanding all the seriousness, 
 and all the terrors, I have no objection to your 
 publishing }our play; and as you live at a great 
 441
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 distance (Devonshire, I believe), if you will send 
 it to me, I will convey it to the press.' I never 
 heard more of it, — ha ! ha ! ha !" 
 
 —The Life. 1-]-]%, April <^x\'.. 
 
 Talking of fame, for which there is so great 
 a desire, I observed how little there is of it 
 in reality, compared with the other objects of 
 human attention. " Let every man recollect, 
 and he will be sensible how small a part of 
 his time is employed in talking or thinking of 
 Shakespeare, Voltaire, or any of the most cele- 
 brated men that have ever lived, or are now 
 supposed to occupy the attention and admira- 
 tion of the world. Let this be extracted and 
 compressed ; into what a narrow space will it 
 go!" I then slily introduced Mr. Garrick's 
 fame, and his assuming the airs of a great man. 
 Johnson : " Sir, it is wonderful how little 
 Garrick assumes. No, Sir, Garrick fortunam 
 revercnter habet. Consider, Sir, — celebrated 
 men, such as you have mentioned, have had 
 their applause at a distance; but Garrick had it 
 dashed in his face, sounded in his ears, and 
 went home every night with the plaudits of a 
 thousand in his cranium. Then, Sir, Garrick 
 did not find, but made his way to the tables, 
 the levees, and almost the bedchambers of the 
 great. Then, Sir, Garrick had under him a 
 numerous body of people; who, from fear of his 
 power and hopes of his favour, and admiration 
 of his talents, were constantly submissive to 
 him. And here is a man who has advanced the 
 dignity of his profession. Garrick has made a 
 442
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 player a higher character." Scott : " And he 
 Is a very sprightly writer too ". Johnson : 
 " Yes, Sir, and all this supported by great 
 wealth of his own acquisition. If all this had 
 happened to me, I should have had a couple of 
 fellows with long poles walking before me, to 
 knock down everybody that stood in the way. 
 Consider, if all this had happened to Cibber or 
 Quin, they'd have jumped over the moon. Yet 
 Garrick speaks to us" (smiling). Boswell: 
 "And Garrick is a very good man, a charitable 
 man". Johnson: "Sir, a liberal man. He 
 iias given away more money than any man in 
 England. There may be a little vanity mixed; 
 but he has shown that money is not his first 
 object ". Boswell: "Yet Foote used to say of 
 him, that he walked out with an intention to do 
 a generous action; but turning the corner of a 
 street, he met with the ghost of a halfpenny, 
 which frightened him". Johnson: " Why, Sir, 
 ihat is very true, too ; for I never knew a man 
 of whom it could be said with less certainty to- 
 day, what he will do to-morrow, than Garrick; 
 it depends so much on his humour at the time". 
 Scott: " I am glad to hear of his liberality. 
 He has been represented as very saving." 
 Johnson : " With his domestic saving we have 
 nothing to do. I remember drinking tea with 
 him long ago, when Peg Woffington made it, 
 and he grumbled at her for making it too 
 strong. He had then begun to feel money in 
 his purse, and did not know when he should 
 have enough of it." 
 
 —T/ie Life. 1778, April !oth. 
 443
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 Talking of Miss [ ], a literary lady, 
 
 he said, "I was obliged to speak to Miss 
 Reynolds, to let her know that I desired she 
 would not flatter me so much." Somebody 
 now observed, " She flatters Garrick." John- 
 son: "She is in the right to flatter Garrick. 
 She is in the right for two reasons ; first, 
 because she has the world with her, who 
 have been praising Garrick these thirty years ; 
 and, secondly, because she is rewarded for it 
 by Garrick. Why should she flatter me \ I 
 can do nothing for her. Let her carry her 
 praise to a better market. (Then turning to 
 Mrs. Knowles): You, Madam, have been flat- 
 tering me all the evening ; I wish you would 
 give Boswell a little now. If you knew his 
 merit as well as I do, you would say a great 
 deal ; he is the best travelling-companion in 
 the world." — The Life. 1778, April 15th. 
 
 Goldsmith, in his diverting simplicity, com- 
 plained one day, in a mixed company, of Lord 
 Camden. "I met him," said he, "at Lord 
 Clare's house in the country, and he took no 
 more notice of me than if I had been an ordi- 
 nary man." The company having laughed 
 heartily, Johnson stood forth in defence of his 
 friend. " Nay, gentlemen," said he, " Dr. Gold- 
 smith is in the right. A nobleman ought to 
 have made up to such a man as Goldsmith ; 
 and I think it is much against Lord Camden 
 that he neglected him." 
 
 Nor could he patiently endure to hear, that 
 such respect as he thought due only to higher 
 444
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 intellectual qualities should be bestowed on 
 men of slighter, though perhaps more amusing, 
 talents. I told him, that one morning, when I 
 went to breakfast with Garrick, who was very 
 vain of his intimacy with Lord Camden, he 
 accosted me thus : — " Pray now, did you — did 
 you meet a little lawyer turning the corner, eh ?" 
 — " No, Sir," said L " Pray what do you mean 
 by the question?" — "Why," replied Garrick, 
 with an aftected indifference, yet as if standing 
 on tip-toe, " Lord Camden has this moment 
 left me. We have had a long walk together." 
 Johnson : " Well, Sir, Garrick talked very 
 properly. Lord Camden was a little kzcyer to 
 be associated so familiarly with a player." 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds observed, with great 
 truth, that Johnson considered Garrick to be as 
 it were his pioperty. He would allow no man 
 either to blame or to praise Garrick in his 
 presence without contradicting him. 
 
 — The Life. 1778. 
 
 On Saturday, April 24th, I dined with him 
 at Mr. Beauclerk's, with Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
 Mr. Jones (afterwards Sir William), Mr. Lang- 
 ton, Mr. Steevens, Mr. Paradise, and Dr. 
 Higgins. I mentioned that Mr. Wilkes had 
 attacked Garrick to me, as a man who had no 
 friend. Johnson : " I believe he is right. Sir. 
 Oi (fiikvL, ov <^tAos — He had friends but no 
 friend. Garrick was so diffused, he had no 
 man to whom he wished to unbosom himself. 
 He found people always ready to applaud him, 
 and that always for the same thing ; so he saw 
 445
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 life with great imifbrmity.'"' I took upon me, 
 for once, to fight with Goliath's weapons, and 
 play the sophist. — " Ganicic did not need a 
 friend, as he got from everybody all that he 
 wanted. What is a friend ? One who supports 
 and comforts you, while others do not. Friend- 
 ship, you know, Sir, is the cordial drop, ' to 
 make the nauseous draught of life go down'; 
 but if the draught be not nauseous, if it be 
 all sweet, there is no occasion for that drop." 
 Johnson : " Many men would not be content 
 to live so. I hope I should not. They would 
 wish to have an intimate friend, with whom 
 they might compare minds and cherish private 
 virtues." One of the company mentioned 
 Lord Chesterfield as a man who had no friend. 
 Johnson : " There were more materials to make 
 friendship in Garrick, had he not been so dif- 
 fused ". BoswELL : " Garrick was pure gold, 
 but beat out to thin leaf. Lord Chesterfield 
 was tinsel." Johnson : " Garrick was a very 
 good man, the most cheerful man of his age ; 
 a decent liver in a profession which is supposed 
 to give indulgence to licentiousness ; and a man 
 who gave away, freely, money acquired by him- 
 self. He begun the world with a great hunger 
 for money ; the son of a half-pay ofiicer, bred 
 in a family whose study was to make fourpence 
 do as much as others made fourpence halfpenny 
 do. But when he had got money he was very 
 liberal." I presumed to animadvert on his 
 eulogy on Garrick, in his Lk'es of the Poets. 
 " You say. Sir, his death eclipsed the gaiety of 
 nations." Johnson : *' I could not have said 
 446
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 more or less. It is the truth : eclipsed, not 
 extinguished ; and his death did eclipse; it was 
 like a storm." Boswell : " But why nations ? 
 Did his gaiety extend farther than his own 
 nation ?" Johnson : "Why, Sir, some exagger- 
 ation must be allowed. Besides, nations may 
 be said — if we allow the Scotch to be a nation, 
 to have gaiety, — which they have not. Ton 
 arc an exception, though. Come, gentlemen, 
 let us candidly admit that there is one Scotch- 
 man who is cheerful." Beauclerk : " But he 
 is a very unnatural Scotchman ". I, however, 
 continued to think the compliment to Garrick 
 hypcrbolically untrue. His acting had ceased 
 some time before his death ; at any rate he had 
 acted in Ireland but a short time, at an early 
 period of his life, and never in Scotland. I 
 objected also to what appears an anti-climax 
 of praise, when contrasted with the preceding 
 panegyric, " and diminished the public stock of 
 harmless pleasure!" "Is not harmless pleasure 
 very tame?" Johnson: "Nay, Sir, harmless 
 pleasure is the highest praise. Pleasure is a 
 word of dubious import ; pleasure is, in general, 
 dangerous, and pernicious to virtue ; to be able, 
 therefore, to furnish pleasure that is harmless, 
 pleasure pure and unalloyed, is as great a power 
 as man can possess." This was, perhaps, as 
 ingenious a defence as could be made ; still, 
 however, I was not satisfied. 
 
 — The l.tfe. 1779, April 24th. 
 
 John Gilbert Cooper related, that soon 
 after the publication of his Dictionai-j, Garrick 
 •147
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 being asked by Johnson what people said of it, 
 told him, that among other animadversions, it 
 was objected that he cited authorities which 
 were beneath the dignity of such a work, and 
 mentioned Richardson. " Nay," said Johnson, 
 " I have done worse than that : I have cited 
 thee, David." 
 
 — The Life. 1 780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 When in good humour, he would talk of 
 his own writings with a wonderful frankness 
 and candour, and would even criticise them 
 with the closest severity. One day, having 
 read over one of his " Ramblers ", Mr. Langton 
 asked him how he liked that paper ; he shook 
 his head, and answered, " Too wordy." At 
 another time, when one was reading his tragedy 
 of bene, to a company at a house in the 
 country, he left the room ; and somebody 
 having asked him the reason of this, he replied, 
 " Sir, I thought it had been better." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johmoniana. 
 
 Talking of the farce of High Life below 
 Stairs, he said, "Here is a farce which is really 
 very diverting, when you see it acted ; and yet 
 one may read it, and not know that one has 
 been reading anything at all." 
 
 He used at one time to go occasionally to 
 
 the green-room of Drury Lane Theatre, where 
 
 he was much regarded by the players, and was 
 
 very easy and facetious with them. He had a 
 
 448
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 very high opinion of Mrs. Clive's comic powers, 
 and conversed more with her than with any of 
 them. He said, " Clive, Sir, is a good thing to 
 sit by; she always understands what you say." 
 And she said of him, " I love to sit by Dr. John- 
 son ; he always entertains me." One night, 
 when The Recruiting Officer was acted, he 
 said to Mr. Holland, who had been expressing 
 an apprehension that Dr. Johnson would dis- 
 dain the works of Farquhar: "No, Sir, I think 
 Farquhar a man whose writings have consider- 
 able merit." 
 
 His friend Garrick was so busy in conduct- 
 ing the drama, that they could not have so 
 much intercourse as Mr. Garrick used to pro- 
 fess an anxious wish that there should be. 
 There might, indeed, be something in the con- 
 temptuous severity as to the merit of acting, 
 which his old preceptor nourished in himself, 
 that would mortify Garrick after the great 
 applause which he received from the audience. 
 For though Johnson said of him, " Sir, a man 
 who has a nation to admire him every night, 
 may well be expected to be somewhat elated ; " 
 yet he would treat theatrical matters with a 
 ludicrous slight. He mentioned one evening, 
 " I met David coming off the stage, drest in 
 a woman's riding-hood, when he acted in The 
 Wonder. I came full upon him, and I believe 
 he was not pleased." 
 
 Once he asked Tom Davies, whom he saw 
 
 drest in a fine suit of clothes, "And what art 
 
 thou to-night?" Tom answered, " The Thane 
 
 ot Ross ;" (which it will be recollected is a very 
 
 {K212) 449 2H
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 inconsiderable character). "O brave!" said 
 Johnson. 
 
 — The Life. lySo. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 Dr. Goldsmith, upon occasion of Mrs. 
 Lennox's bringing out a play, said to Dr. 
 Johnson at the Club, that a person had advised 
 him to go and hiss it, because she had attacked 
 Shakespeare in her book called Shakespeare Illus- 
 trated. Johnson : " And did not you tell him 
 that he was a rascal?" Goldsmith: "No, Sir, 
 I did not. Perhaps he did not mean what he 
 said." Johnson : " Nay, Sir, if he lied, it is a 
 different thing ". Colman slily said (but it is 
 believed Dr. Johnson did not hear liim), " Then 
 the proper expression should have been, — Sir, 
 if you don't lie, you are a rascal." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 His distinction of the different degrees of 
 attainment of learning was thus marked upon 
 two occasions. Of Queen Elizabeth he said, 
 " She had learning enough to have given dignity 
 to a bishop;" and of Mr. Thomas Davies, he 
 said, " Sir, Davies has learning enough to give 
 credit to a clergyman." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 Mr. Langton, when a very young man, 
 read Dodsley's Cleone, a tragedy, to him, not 
 430
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 aware of his extreme impatience to be read to. 
 As it went on he turned his face to the back of 
 his chair, and put himself into various attitudes, 
 which marked his uneasiness. At the end of 
 an act, ho\vcver, he said, " Come, let's have 
 some more, let's go into the slaughter-house 
 again. Lanky. But I am afraid there is more 
 blood than brains." Yet he afterwards said, 
 " When I heard you read it I thought higher of 
 its power of language : when I read it myself 
 I was more sensible of its pathetic effect;" and 
 then he paid it a compliment which many will 
 think very extravagant. " Sir," said he, " if 
 Otway had written this play, no other of his 
 pieces would have been remembered." Dodsley 
 himself, upon this being repeated to him, said, 
 "It was too much:" it must be remembered, 
 that Johnson always appeared not to be suffi- 
 ciently sensible of the merit of Otway. 
 
 — T//e Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Jo/insoniana. 
 
 Drinking tea one day at Garrick's with 
 Mr. Langton, he was questioned if he was not 
 somewhat of a heretic as to Shakespeare; said 
 Garrick, " I doubt he is a little of an infidel." 
 " Sir," said Johnson^ " I will stand by the lines 
 I have written on Shakespeare in my Prologue 
 at the opening of your theatre." Mr. Langton 
 suggested that, in the line, 
 
 "And panting Time toil'd after him in vain," 
 
 JoJinson might have had in his eye the passage 
 451
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 in The Tempest, where Prospero says of 
 Miranda, 
 
 -she will outstrip all praise, 
 
 And make it halt behind her." 
 
 Johnson said nothing. Garrick then ventured 
 to observe, " I do not think that the happiest 
 line in the praise of Shakespeare." Johnson ex- 
 claimed (smiling), " Prosaical rogues! next time 
 I write, I'll make both time and space pant." 
 
 — The Life. 1780. Mr. Bennet Langton's 
 Johnsoniana. 
 
 I asked, whether a man naturally virtuous, or 
 one who has overcome wicked inclinations, is 
 the best. Johnson : " Sir, to you, the man who 
 has overcome wicked inclinations is not the 
 best. He has more merit to himself. I would 
 rather trust my money to a man who has no 
 hands, and so a physical impossibility to steal, 
 than to a man of the most honest principles. 
 There is a witty satirical story of Foote. He 
 had a small bust of Garrick placed upon his 
 bureau. ' You may be surprised,' said he, ' that 
 I allow him to be so near my gold ; but, you 
 will observe, he has no hands.' " 
 
 — The Lije. 1783, May 2 6ih. 
 
 He this autumn received a visit from the 
 celebrated Mrs. Siddons. He gives this 
 account of it in one of his letters to Mrs. 
 Thrale, October 27th : — 
 
 " Mrs. Siddons, in her visit to me, behaved 
 452
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 with great modesty and propriety, and left 
 nothing behind her to be censured or despised. 
 Neither praise nor money, the two powerful 
 corrupters of mankind, seemed to have depraved 
 her. I shall be glad to see her again. Her 
 brother Kemble calls on me, and pleases me 
 very well. Mrs. Siddons and 1 talked of plays; 
 and she told me her intention of exhibiting this 
 winter the characters of Constance, Catharine, 
 and Isabella, in Shakespeare." 
 
 Mr. Kemble has favoured me with the follow- 
 ing minute ot what passed at this visit : — 
 
 " When Mrs. Siddons came into the room, 
 there happened to be no chair ready for her, 
 which he observing, said with a smile, 'Madam, 
 you who so often occasion a want of scats to 
 other people, will the more easily excuse the 
 want of one yourself 
 
 "Having placed himself by her, he with 
 great good-humour entered upon a considera- 
 tion of the English drama ; and, among other 
 enquiries, particularly asked her which of Shake- 
 speare's characters she was most pleased with. 
 Upon her answering that she thought the 
 character of Queen Catharine in Henry the 
 Eighth the most natural : — ' I think so, too. 
 Madam,' said he : ' and whenever you perform 
 it, I will once more hobble out to the theatre 
 myself.' Mrs. Siddons promised she would do 
 herself the honour of acting his favourite part 
 for him ; but many circumstances happened to 
 prevent the representation of King Henry the 
 Eighth during the Doctor's life. 
 
 " In the course of the evening he thus gave 
 453
 
 JOHNSON'S PREJUDICE 
 
 his opinion upon the merits of some of the 
 principal performers whom he remembered to 
 have seen upon the stage. ' Mrs. Porter in 
 the vehemence of rage, and Mrs. Clive in the 
 sprightliness of humour, I have never seen 
 equalled. What Clive did best, she did better 
 than Garrick ; but could not do half so many 
 things well ; she was a better romp than any I 
 ever saw in nature. — Pritchard, in common life, 
 was a vulgar idiot ; she would talk of her 
 gownd\ but, when she appeared upon the stage, 
 seemed to be inspired by gentility and under- 
 standing. — I once talked with Colley Cibber, 
 and thought him ignorant of the principles of 
 his art. — Garrick, Madam, was no declaimer ; 
 there was not one of his own scene-shifters who 
 could not have spoken To be, or not to be, better 
 than he did ; yet he was the only actor I ever 
 saw, whom I could call a master both in tragedy 
 and comedy ; though I liked him best in comedy. 
 A true conception of character, and natural ex- 
 pression of it, were his distinguished excellen- 
 cies.' Having expatiated, with his usual force 
 and eloquence, on Mr. Garrick's extraordinary 
 eminence as an actor, he concluded with this 
 compliment to his social talents : ' And after 
 all. Madam, I thought him less to be envied on 
 the stage than at the head of a table.' " 
 
 Johnson, indeed, had thought more upon the 
 subject of acting than might be generally sup- 
 posed. Talking of it one day to Mr. Kemble, 
 he said, " Are you. Sir, one of those enthusiasts 
 who believe yourself transformed into the very 
 character you represent ?" Upon Mr. Kemble's 
 454
 
 AGAINST THE PLAYERS 
 
 answering that he had never felt so strong a 
 persuasion himself : " To be sure not, Sir," 
 saiei Johnson, " the thing is impossible. And 
 if Garrick really beliexed himself to be that 
 monster Richard the Third, he deserved to be 
 hanged every time he performed it." 
 
 — The Life. 1783, Autumn. 
 
 455
 
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