1776. that the contract fhould be diffolved; fhe only argues that the may indulge Mr. Macbean, authour of the " Dictionary of ancient Geography," came with us. Dr. Johnson made a remark, which both Mr. Macbean and I thought new. It was this: that "the law against ufury is for the protection of creditors as well as of debtors; for if there were no fuch check, people would be apt, from the temptation of great intereft, to lend to defperate perfons, by whom they would lose their money. Accordingly there are inftances of ladies being ruined, by having injudiciously funk their fortunes for high annuities, which, after a few years, ceased to be paid, in confequence of the ruined circumstances of the borrower." ལ་ན་། * Mrs. Williams was very peevish; and I wondered at Johnson's patience with her now, as I had often done on fimilar occafions. The truth is, humane confideration of the forlorn and indigent state in which left by her father, induced him to treat her with the the Poets, by Mr. even to be defirous of procuring her amusement, fr Scotchman, one of his many of his friends, by carrying her with hi Theophilus Cibber, who was her manner of eating, in confequence of her to be put upon the title-page, the delicacy of perfons of nice sensatior ition was intended: in the first place, at all; and, in the fecond place, that it After coffee, we went to afternoon fome beggars in the street as we v was no civilifed country in the ne Memoirs of Gray's Life fet him much claffes of the people was prev, poems did; for you there faw a man conbut it is better that some fhe Johnfon acquiefced in this, but depreciated the which would be the cafe in tonably. For he faid, "I forced myself to read When the fervice was e mmon topick of converfation. I found it mighty ourfelves. He recomme, it is fit for the fecond table." Why he thought fo, He now gave it as his opinion, that "Akenfide "Nunque th to Gray and Mafon." VOL. II. Ave. 1 1776. Etat. 67. had been reckoned whimfical.-" So he was, (faid he,) in fome things; but there is no end of objections. There are few books to which fome objection or other may not be made." Upon the queftion whether a man who had been guilty of vicious actions would do well to force himself into folitude and fadnefs; JOHNSON. "No, Sir, unless it prevent him from being vicious again. With fome people, gloomy penitence is only madnefs turned upfide down. in order to be relieved from gloom, he has indulgences." A man may be gloomy, till, recourse again to criminal On Wednesday, April 10, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, where were Mr. Murphy and fome other company. Before dinner, Dr. Johnson and I paffed fome time by ourselves. I was forry to find it was now refolved that the propofed journey to Italy fhould not take place this year. He faid, “I am disappointed, to be fure; but it is not a great disappointment." I wondered to fee him bear, with a philofophical calmness, what would have made most people peevish and fretful. I perceived, however, that he had fo warmly cherished the hope of enjoying claffical scenes, that he could not eafily part with the scheme; for he said, "I shall probably contrive to get to Italy some other way. But I won't mention it to Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, as it might vex them." I fuggefted, that going to Italy might have done Mr. and Mrs. Thrale good. JOHNSON. "I rather believe not, Sir. While grief is fresh, tempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, holy feftival, timent will diffipate the remains of it." world, the refurrection, phy entertained us with the hiftory of Mr. Jofeph over death and the grave, f.Dr. Johnfon's, a barrifter at law, of good parts, OTTOM I repeated to him an argumen fe of life, incompatible with that fuccefs in tained, that her husband's having would otherwife have defervedly mainreleafed her from conjugal obligations, in his deportment. He wrote a tragedy "This is miferable ftuff, Sir. To the copatriot," He read it to a company and wife, there is a third party-Society; art he wrote it over again: fo then GOD: and, therefore, it cannot be diffolved and with the fame title. are not made for particular cafes, but for manku in his poffeffion. This very be unhappy with her husband; but he cannot befon who had been about him, approbation of the civil and ecclefiaftical power. tively averred to have been because he is not fo rich as another; but he is no property with his own hand." BOSWELL. "But, Sir, • Patrick Lord Elibank, who died 1778. Dr. had of bringing their us to pay foolish com right, Sir. We may hildren, for there are many. many who care very little about their own children. It may be observed, that men, who from being engaged in bufinefs, or from their courfe of life in whatever way, feldom fee their children, do not care much about them. I myself should not have had much fondnefs for a child of my own." MRS. THRALE. "Nay, Sir, how can you talk fo?" JOHNSON. "At least, I never wifhed to have a child." Mr. Murphy mentioned Dr. Johnson's having a defign to publish an edition of Cowley. Johnson said, he did not know but he should; and he expreffed his disapprobation of Dr. Hurd, for having published a mutilated edition under the title of "Select Works of Abraham Cowley." Mr. Murphy thought it a bad precedent; obferving, that any authour might be used in the fame manner; and that it was pleafing to fee the variety of an authour's compofitions, at different periods. We talked of Flatman's Poems; and Mrs. Thrale obferved, that Pope had partly borrowed from him, "The dying Chriftian to his Soul." Johnson repeated Rochester's verfes upon Flatman, which, I think, by much too fevere: "Nor that flow drudge in fwift Pindarick ftrains, "And rides a jaded Mufe, whipt with loofe reins." } I like to recollect all the paffages that I heard Johnfon repeat: it ftamps a value on them. He told us, that the book entitled "The Lives of the Poets, by Mr. Cibber," was entirely compiled by Mr. Shiels, a Scotchman, one of his amanuenfes. "The bookfellers (faid he,) gave Theophilus Cibber, who was then in prison, ten guineas, to allow Mr. Cibber to be put upon the title-page, as the authour; by this, a double impofition was intended: in the first place, that it was the work of a Cibber at all; and, in the fecond place, that it was the work of old Cibber.” Mr. Murphy faid, that "The Memoirs of Gray's Life fet him much higher in his estimation than his poems did; for you there faw a man conftantly at work in literature." Johnfon acquiefced in this, but depreciated the book, I thought, very unreasonably. For he faid, "I forced myself to read it, only because it was a common topick of conversation. I found it mighty dull; and, as to the style, it is fit for the fecond table." Why he thought so, I was at a lofs to conceive. He now gave it as his opinion, that "Akenfide was a fuperiour poet both to Gray and Mafon." 1776. Etat. 67. Talking of the Reviews, Johnson faid, "I think them very impartial: I do not know an instance of partiality." He mentioned what had passed upon the fubject of the Monthly and Critical Reviews, in the converfation with which his Majefty had honoured him. He expatiated a little more on them this evening. "The Monthly Reviewers (faid he) are not Deifts; but they are Chriftians with as little christianity as may be; and are for pulling down all establishments. The Critical Reviewers are for fupporting the conftitution, both in church and state. The Critical Reviewers, I believe, often review without reading the books through; but lay hold of a topick, and write chiefly from their own minds. The Monthly Reviewers are duller men, and are glad to read the books through." He talked of Lord Lyttelton's extreme anxiety as an authour; obferving, that he was thirty years in preparing his Hiftory, and that he employed a man to point it for him; as if (laughing) another man could point his sense better than himself." Mr. Murphy faid, he understood his History was kept back several years for fear of Smollet. JOHNSON. "This seems strange to Murphy and me, who never felt that anxiety, but fent what we wrote to the prefs, and let it take its chance." MRS. THRALE. "The time has been, Sir, when you felt it." JOHNSON. "Why really, Madam, I do not recollect a time when that was the cafe." Talking of "The Spectator," he faid, "It is wonderful that there is fuch a proportion of bad papers, in the half of the work which was not written by Addifon; for there was all the world to write that half, yet not a half of that half is good. One of the finest pieces in the English language is the paper on Novelty, yet we do not hear it talked of. It was written by Grove, a dissenting teacher." He would not, I perceived, call him a clergyman, though he was candid enough to allow very great merit to his compofition. Mr. Murphy said, he remembered when there were several people alive in London, who enjoyed a confiderable reputation merely from having written a paper in "The Spectator." He mentioned particularly Mr. Ince, who used to frequent Tom's coffee-house. "But (faid Johnson,) you must confider how highly Steele fpeaks of Mr. Ince." He would not allow that the paper on carrying a boy to travel, figned Philip Homebred, which was written by the Lord Chancellor Hardwick, had merit. He faid, "it was quite vulgar, and had nothing luminous.” Johnson mentioned Dr. Barry's "Syftem of Phyfick." "He was a man (faid he,) who had acquired a high reputation in Dublin, came over to England, and brought his reputation with him, but had not great fuccefs. His notion was, that pulfation occafions death by attrition; and that, therefore, the way 1776. to preserve life is to retard pulfation. But we know that pulfation is strongest Etat. 67 in infants, and that we increase in growth while it operates in its regular courfe; fo it cannot be the cause of destruction." Soon after this, he faid fomething very flattering to Mrs. Thrale, which I do not recollect; but it. concluded with wishing her long life. "Sir, (faid I,) if Dr. Barry's fyftem be true, you have now shortened Mrs. Thrale's life, perhaps, fome minutes, by accelerating her pulfation." On Thursday, April 11, I dined with him at General Paoli's, in whofe house I now refided, and where I had ever afterwards the honour of being entertained with the kindest attention as his conftant guest, while I was in London, till I had a house of my own there. I mentioned my having that morning introduced to Mr. Garrick, Count Neni, a Flemish nobleman of great rank and fortune, to whom Garrick talked of Abel Drugger as a small part; and related, with pleasant vanity, that a Frenchman who had seen him in one of his low characters, exclaimed, "Comment! je ne le crois pas. Ce n'est pas, Monfieur 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 those low characters." Upon which I obferved, "Sir, you would be in the wrong; for your great excellence is your variety of playing, your representing fo well, characters fo very different. JOHNSON. "Garrick, Sir, was not in earnest in what he faid; for, to be fure, his peculiar excellence is his variety: and, perhaps, there is not any one character which has not been as well acted by somebody elfe, as he could do it." BosWELL. " BOSWELL. "Why then, Sir, did he talk fo?" 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. JOHNSON. "He had not far to dip, Sir: he had faid the fame thing, probably, twenty times before." Of a nobleman raised at a very early period to high office, he faid, “His parts, Sir, are pretty well for a Lord, but would not be diftinguished in a man who had nothing elfe but his parts." A journey to Italy was ftill in his thoughts. He faid, "A man who has not been in Italy, is always confcious of an inferiority,-from his not having seen what it is expected a man should fee. The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterrannean. On thofe fhores were the four great empires of the world; the Affyrian, the Perfian, the Grecian, and the Roman. All our religion, almost all our law, almoft all our arts, almost all that fets us above favages, has come to us from the fhores of the Mediter ranean." |