Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

witty man. He was an inftance of the truth of the observation, that a man will pleafe more upon the whole by negative qualities than by pofitive; by never offending, than by giving a great deal of delight. In the first place men hate more fteadily than they love; and if I have faid fomething to hurt a vain man once, I fhall not get the better of this by faying many things to please bim.'

We turn over many dull uninteresting pages, dull probably as they are not new, and uninterefting as they contain nothing of importance. Mr. E's remarks on parliamentary fpeaking are excellent: those who recollect the influence of the minority in the late Ruffian armament, will be more fully struck with the fpeaker's judgment and accuracy of distinction.

[ocr errors]

Mr. E. I don't mean to flatter, but when pofterity reads one of your fpeeches in parliament, it will be difficult to believe that you took fo much pains, knowing with certainty that it could produce no. effect, that not one vote would be gained by it.' E. Waving your. compliment to me, I fhall fay in general, that it is very well worth while for a man to take pains to speak well in parliament. A man who has vanity, fpeaks to difplay his talents; and if a man: fpeaks well he gradually establishes a certain reputation and confequence in the general opinion, which fooner or later will have its political reward. Befides, though not one vote is gained, at good fpeech has its effect. Though an act which has been ably oppofed paffes into a law, yet in its progrefs it is modelled, it is foftened in fuch a manner, that we fee plainly the minifter has. been told, that the members attached to him are so fenfible of its injustice or abfurdity from what they have heard, that it must be altered.' JOHNSON. And, Sir, there is a gratification" of pride. Though we cannot out-vote them we will out-argue them. They shall not do wrong without its being shown both to themselves and to the world." E. The house of commons is a mixed body. (I except the minority, which I hold to be pure [fmiling] but I take the whole houfe.) It is a mass by no means pure; but neither is it wholly corrupt, though there is a larger proportion of corruption in it. There are many members who generally go with the minifter, who will not go all lengths. There' are many honest well-meaning country gentlemen, who are in parliament only to keep up the confequence of their families. Upon most of these a good speech will have influence.' JOHNSON. 'We are all more or lefs governed by intereft. But intereft will not make us do every thing. In a cafe which admits of doubt, we try to think on the fide which is for our intereft, and generally bring ourselves to act accordingly. But the fubject must admit

of diverfity of colouring; it must receive a colour on that fide, In the house of commons there are members enough who will not vote what is grossly unjuft or abfurd. No, Sir, there must always be right enough, or appearance of right, to keep wrong in countenance.' BOSWELL. There is furely always a majority in parliament who have places, or who want to have them, and who therefore will be generally ready to fupport government without requiring any pretext.' E, True Sir; that majority will always follow

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Quo clamor vocat et turba faventium.'

[ocr errors]

BOSWELL. 'Well now, let us take the common phrase, placehunters. I thought they had hunted without regard to any thing, just as their huntfman, the ninifter, leads, looking only to the prey. J. But taking your metaphor, you know that in hunting there are few fo defperately keen as to follow without referve. Some do not choose to leap hedges and ditches and risk their necks, or gallop over fteeps, or even to dirty themselves in bogs and mire', BOSWELL. I am glad there are fome good, quiet, moderate political hunters.' E. I believe in any body of men in England I fhould have been in the minority; I have always been in the mi nority.' P. The house of commons resembles a private company. How feldom is any man convinced by another's argument; paffion and pride rise against it.' R. What would be the confequence, if a minister, fure of a majority in the houfe of commons, fhould refolve that there fhould be no fpeaking at all upon his fide.' E. He must foon go out. That has been tried; but it was found it would not do.'

[ocr errors]

The numerous inftances of Johnson's defect in fcientific purfuits, in fubjects of tafte, or occafionally of general infor mation, it is useless to detail. The fervility, the itare of wonder, and the astonishment of general indifcriminate admiration, fo confpicuous in almost every page of his collector's nar rative, have already been the fubjects of ridicule in various different forms and publications. We have, however, faid that Mr. Bofwell is generally lively in his remarks, and fometimes accurate in his comments. If the following paffage, which occurs in p. 371 of the fecond volume, is his own, it shows a correctnefs of difcrimination which must add to the credit of his difcernment, Johnfon again, in his 72d year, drank wine, and drank it greedily. Every thing, adds our author, about his character and manners, were forcible and violent; there never was any moderation. Many a day did he faft, many a year refrain from wine; but when he did eat, it was voracioully; when he did drink wine, it was copiously.

He

He could practife abftinence, but not temperance.' Had Mr. Bofwell written an octavo in this ftyle, he might have failed down the stream of time with Johnfon; but even of this fplendid fentence, if we recollect rightly, we may fay- Alas, master, it is borrowed.'- Yet we think the fhort concluding character of Johnfon is drawn with great fpirit and propri ety.

His figure was large and well formed, and his countenance of the caft of an ancient ftatue; yet his appearance was rendered ftrange and fomewhat uncouth, by convulfive cramps, by the fears of that difemper which it was once imagined the royal touch could cure, and by a flovenly mode of drefs. He had the use only of one eye; yet fo much does mind govern and even fupply the deficiency of organs, that his vifual perceptions, as far as they extended, were ancommonly quick and accurate. So morbid was his temperament, that he never knew the natural joy of a free and vigorous ufe of his limbs: when he walked, it was like the struggling gait of one in fetters; when he rode, he had no command or direction of his horfe, but was carried as if in a balloon. That with his conftitution and habits of life he should have lived seventy-five years, is a proof that an inherent vivida vis is a powerful prefervative of the human frame.'

'He was afflicted with a bodily disease which made him restless and fretful, and with a conftitutional melancholy, the clouds of which darkened the brightnefs of his fancy, and gave a gloomy caft to his whole courfe of thinking: we therefore ought not to wonder at his fallies of impatience and paffion at any time, efpecially when provoked by obtrusive ignorance or prefuming petulance; and allowance must be made for his uttering hafty and fatirical fallies, even against his best friends. And furely, when it is confidered that amidst fick nefs and forrow.' he exerted his faculties in fo many works for the benefit of mankind, and particularly that he achieved the great and admirable Dictionary of our language, we must be aftonished at his refolution. The folemn text of him to whom much is given, much will be requir ed,' feems to have been ever prefent to his mind in a rigorous. fenfe, and to have made him dissatisfied with his labours and acts of goodness, however comparatively great; fo that the unavoidable consciousness of his fuperiority was in that refpect a cause of difquiet. He fuffered fo much from this, and from the gloom which perpetually haunted him, and made folitude frightful, that it may be faid of him, If in this life only he had hope, he was of all men moft miferable.' He loved praife when it was brought to him; but was too proud to feck for it. He was fomewhat fuf

[ocr errors]

ceptible

ceptible of flattery. As he was general and unconfined in his ftu dies, he cannot be confidered as mafter of any one particular fcience; but he had accumulated a vast and various collection of Tearning and knowledge, which was fo arranged in his mind, as to be ever in readiness to be brought forth. But his fuperiority over other learned men confifted chießy in what may be called the art of thinking, the art of ufing his mind; a certain continual power of feizing the ufeful fubftance of all that he knew, and exhibiting it in a clear and forcible manner; fo that knowledge which we often fee to be no better than lumber in men of dull understanding, was in him true, evident, and actual wisdom. His meral precepts are practical; for they are drawn from an inti wate acquaintance with human nature. His maxims carry conviction; for they are founded on the basis of common fenfe. His mind was fo full of imagery, that he might have been perpetually a poet; yet it is remarkable, that however rich his profe is in that refpect, the poetical pieces which he wrote were in general not fo, but rather ftrong fentiment and acute obfervation, conveyed in good verfe, particularly in heroic couplets. Though efually grave and even aweful in his deportment, he poffeffed uncommon and peculiar powers of wit and humour; he frequently indulged himself in colloquial pleafantry; and the heartieft merriment was often enjoyed in his company; with this great advantage, that as it was entirely free from any poisonous tincture of vice or impiety, it was falutary for those who fhared in it. He had accuftomed himfelf to fuch accuracy in his common conversation, that he at all times delivered himself with a force, and elegant choice of expreffion, the effect of which was aided by his having a loud voice, and a flow deliberate utterance. He united a most logical head with a moft fertile imagination, which gave him an extraordinary advantage in arguing; for he could reafon clofe or wide, as he faw beft for the moment.'

It is fcarcely neceffary for us to add any thing refpecting Johnson's character. We have faid enough of his general Knowledge, his comprehenfive views, and the accuracy of his intellectual attainments. The morbid melancholy may be the fubject of fome remarks, as human reafon may feem to be degraded by imperfections infeparable from the conftitution of finite beings; and the luftre of a character, which_notwithstanding fome fpots, fpots occafionally of magnitude, is fingularly brilliant, may be fullied. This may, however, require a fhort difcuffion.

Whatever be the arguments in favour of free-will, of volition unrestrained by the force and prevalence of motives, it must be allowed that the effects of reafon on the human mind are not at all times and on all fubjects equally powerful. Nor

[ocr errors]

is this always the confequence of early prejudice or preconceived opinion: it is a part of the conftitution of the human mind, which, with a kind of prifmatic power, will reflect fome rays and retain others. It is very confpicuous in different the arts and sciences, which perfons of a peculiar genius can never attain: it is obfervable alfo, that fome will retain, with a fixed perfeverance ideas which others imperfectly conceive or foon lofe. This was the cafe with Johnfon: educated early in the doctrines of the church of England, those parts of her tenets which are most nearly allied to Calvinifm, were congenial to his general feelings; and they made an impreffion which habits confirmed, and which reafon, if ever exerted, could not efface. In him, probably, they were fixed before reafon dawned, and gave an irritability to his mind on thefe fubjects, which, on the flightest vibration, would occafion pain, and roufe him to violence. In what these peculiar states of mind confift, it is impoffible to afcertain; and it is fufficient, as in the natural world, to refer any occurrence to a general law. But when this peculiar irritability is established, and when, from indulgence, it has arisen to any confiderable degree, the disease almost amounts to a partial madness: on the peculiar fubjects, terrors and apprehenfions hurry away the unhappy fufferer, and reafon or refolution has no longer any power. At the latter part of Johnson's life thefe terrors had a confiderable effect, nor was their influence loft till disease had weakened his powers and blunted his feelings -Mr. Bofwell has fufficiently shown the abfurdity of the fufpicion, that Johnfon endeavoured to shorten his sufferings by a voluntary death. The attempt was only to do more perfectly what he feared the timidity of the furgeon would not allow him to execute properly yet his whole conduct fhowed an unmanly irrefolution to protract the last fcene, the fcene which man, born to die, muft certainly at fome time act; which no wife man would wish to haften, nor, when the period is arrived, weakly endeavour to shun.

We wish we could add, that some other parts of Johnson's character were as effectually defended. The application for an increase of his penfion, when the lamp of life glimmered on its focket, and his own fortune was amply fufficient to have enabled him to seek a more genial clime, was a meanness which eloquence or argument cannot glofs over or refute. The difpofal of his effects was another error: it was more; it was unkindness and ingratitude. But thefe are faults which we only point out to prevent his example from becoming contagious: in the general character they are blots, but they are not connected with his literary fame: they obfcure his brilliancy in

fome

« AnteriorContinua »