Life of Johnson Volume III Part 71

[963] See _ante_, ii. 432.

[964] Here he either was mistaken, or had a different notion of an extensive sale from what is generally entertained: for the fact is, that four thousand copies of that excellent work were sold very quickly.

A new edition has been printed since his death, besides that in the collection of his works. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 310, note 2.

[965] 'In the neighbourhood of Lichfield [in 1750] the princ.i.p.al gentlemen clothed their hounds in tartan plaid, with which they hunted a fox, dressed in a red uniform.' Mahon's _Hist. of England_, iv. 10.

[966] So Boswell in his _Hebrides_ (Nov. 8), hoping that his father and Johnson have met in heaven, observes, 'that they have met in a place where there is no room for Whiggism.' See _ante_, i. 431.

[967] _Paradise Lost_, bk. i. 263. Butler (_Miscellaneous Thoughts_, 1. 169) had said:--

'The Devil was the first o' th' name From whom the race of rebels came.'

[968] In the phraseology of Scotland, I should have said, 'Mr. John Spottiswoode the younger, _of that ilk_.' Johnson knew that sense of the word very well, and has thus explained it in his _Dictionary_, _voce_ ILK:--'It also signifies "the same;" as, _Mackintosh of that ilk_, denotes a gentleman whose surname and the t.i.tle of his estate are the same.' BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 427, note 2.

[969] He wrote to Dr. Taylor on Oct. 19 of the next year:--'There are those still who either fright themselves, or would fright others, with an invasion.... Such a fleet [a fleet equal to the transportation of twenty or of ten thousand men] cannot be hid in a creek; it must be safely [?] visible; and yet I believe no man has seen the man that has seen it. The ships of war were within sight of Plymouth, and only within sight.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 461.

[970] See _ante_, iii. 42.

[971] It is observed in Waller's _Life_, in the _Biographia Britannica_, that he drank only water; and that while he sat in a company who were drinking wine, 'he had the dexterity to accommodate his discourse to the pitch of theirs as it _sunk_.' If excess in drinking be meant, the remark is acutely just. But surely, a moderate use of wine gives a gaiety of spirits which water-drinkers know not. BOSWELL. 'Waller pa.s.sed his time in the company that was highest, both in rank and wit, from which even his obstinate sobriety did not exclude him. Though he drank water, he was enabled by his fertility of mind to heighten the mirth of Baccha.n.a.lian a.s.semblies; and Mr. Saville said that "no man in England should keep him company without drinking but Ned Waller."' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 197.

[972] See _ante_, iii. 41, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 17.

[973] Pope. _Satires_, Prologue, 1. 283.

[974] As he himself had said in his letter of thanks for his diploma of Doctor of Laws, 'Nemo sibi placens non lactatur' (_ante_, ii. 333).

[975]

'Who mean to live within our proper sphere, Dear to ourselves, and to our country dear.'

FRANCIS. Horace, _Epistles_, i. 3. 29.

[976] Johnson recommended this before. _Ante_, p. 169. Boswell tried abstinence once before. _Ante_, ii. 436, note 1, and iii. 170, note 1.

[977] Johnson wrote to Boswell in 1775:--'Reynolds has taken too much to strong liquor, and seems to delight in his new character.' _Ante_, ii. 292.

[978] See _ante_, p. 170, note 2.

[979] At the Castle of the Bishop of Munster 'there was,' writes Temple, 'nothing remarkable but the most Episcopal way of drinking that could be invented. As soon as we came in the great hall there stood many flagons ready charged; the general called for wine to drink the King's health; they brought him a formal bell of silver gilt, that might hold about two quarts or more; he took it empty, pulled out the clapper, and gave it me who (sic) he intended to drink to, then had the bell filled, drunk it off to his Majesty's health; then asked me for the clapper, put it in, turned down the bell, and rung it out to shew he had played fair and left nothing in it; took out the clapper, desired me to give it to whom I pleased, then gave his bell to be filled again, and brought it to me. I that never used to drink, and seldom would try, had commonly some gentlemen with me that served for that purpose when it was necessary.'

Temple's _Works_, ed. 1757, i. 266.

[980] See _ante_, ii. 450, note 1, and iii. 79.

[981] The pa.s.sages are in the _Jerusalem_, canto i. st. 3, and in _Lucretius_, i. 935, and again iv. 12. CROKER.

[982] See _ante_, ii. 247, where Boswell says that 'no man was more scrupulously inquisitive in order to discover the truth;' and iii. 188, 229.

[983] See _post_, under May 8, 1781.

[984] 'Sir,' said Johnson, 'I love Robertson, and I won't talk of his book.' _Ante_, ii. 53.

[985] 'I was once in company with Smith,' said Johnson in 1763, 'and we did not take to each other.' _Ante_, i. 427. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 29.

[986] See _ante_, ii. 63.

[987] See _ante_, ii. 84

[988] See _ante_, p. 3.

[989] This experiment which Madame Dacier made in vain, has since been tried in our own language, by the editor of _Ossian_, and we must either think very meanly of his abilities, or allow that Dr. Johnson was in the right. And Mr. Cowper, a man of real genius, has miserably failed in his blank verse translation. BOSWELL. Johnson, in his _Life of Pope_ (_Works_, viii. 253), says:--'I have read of a man, who being by his ignorance of Greek compelled to gratify his curiosity with the Latin printed on the opposite page, declared that from the rude simplicity of the lines literally rendered he formed n.o.bler ideas of the Homeric majesty, than from the laboured elegance of polished versions,' Though Johnson nowhere speaks of Cowper, yet his writings were not altogether unknown to him. 'Dr. Johnson,' wrote Cowper, 'read and recommended my first volume.' Southey's _Cowper_, v. 171.

[990] 'I bought the first volume of _Manchester_, but could not read it; it was much too learned for me, and seemed rather an account of Babel than Manchester, I mean in point of antiquity.' Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 207.

[991] Henry was injured by Gilbert Stuart, the malignant editor of the _Edinburgh Magazine and Review_, who 'had vowed that he would crush his work,' and who found confederates to help him. He asked Hume to review it, thinking no doubt that one historian would attack another; when he received from him a highly favourable review he would not publish it.

It contained a curious pa.s.sage, where Hume points out that Henry and Robertson were clergymen, and continues:--'These ill.u.s.trious examples, if any thing, must make the _infidel abashed of his vain cavils_.' J.H.

Burton's _Hume_, ii. 469.

[992] Hume wrote to Millar:--'Hamilton and Balfour have offered Robertson [for his _Scotland_] a very unusual price; no less than 500 for one edition of 2000.' _Ib_. ii. 42. As Robertson did not accept this offer, no doubt he got a better one. Even if he got no more, it would not have seemed 'a moderate price' to a man whose preferment hitherto had been only 100 a year. (See Dugald Stewart's _Robertson_, p. 161.) Stewart adds (_ib_. p. 169):--'It was published on Feb. 1, 1759. Before the end of the month the author was desired by his bookseller to prepare for a second edition.' By 1793 it was in its fourteenth edition. _Ib_.

p. 326. The publisher was Millar; the price two guineas. _Gent. Mag_.

xxix. 84.

[993] Lord Clive. See _post_, p. 350, and Oct. 10, 1779.

[994] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 286) gives an instance of this 'romantick humour.' 'Robertson was very much a master of conversation, and very desirous to lead it, and to raise theories that sometimes provoked the laugh against him. He went a jaunt into England with Dundas, c.o.c.kburn and Sinclair; who, seeing a gallows on a neighbouring hillock, rode round to have a nearer view of the felon on the gallows.

When they met in the inn, Robertson began a dissertation on the character of nations, and how much the English, like the Romans, were hardened by their cruel diversions of c.o.c.k-fighting, bull-baiting, &c.; for had they not observed three Englishmen on horseback do what no Scotchman or--. Here Dundas interrupted him, and said, "What! did you not know, Princ.i.p.al, that it was c.o.c.kburn and Sinclair and me?" This put an end to theories, &c., for that day.'

[995] This was a favourite word with Johnson and Mrs. Thrale. 'Long live Mrs. G. that _downs_ my mistress,' he wrote (_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 26).

'Did you quite _down_ her?' he asked of another lady (_Ib_. p. 100).

Miss Burney caught up the word: 'I won't be _downed_,' she wrote. Mme.

D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 252.

[996] See _ante_, iii. 41, 327.

[997] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 474) tells how Robertson, with one of his pupils, and he, visited at a house where some excellent claret flowed freely. 'After four days Robertson took me into a window before dinner, and with some solemnity proposed to make a motion to shorten the drinking, if I would second him--"Because," added he, "although you and I may go through it, I am averse to it on my pupil's account." I answered that I was afraid it would not do, as our toastmaster might throw ridicule upon us, as we were to leave the island the day after the next, and that we had not proposed any abridgement till the old claret was all done, the last of which we had drunk yesterday. "Well, well," replied the Doctor, "be it so then, and let us end as we began."'

[998] Johnson, when asked to hear Robertson preach, said:--'I will hear him if he will get up into a tree and preach; but I will not give a sanction by my presence to a Presbyterian a.s.sembly.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 27. See also _Ib_. Nov. 7.

[999] Mrs. Piozzi confidently mentions this as having pa.s.sed in Scotland, _Anecdotes_, p. 62. BOSWELL. She adds:--'I was shocked to think how he [Johnson] must have disgusted him [Robertson].' She, we may well believe, felt no more shock than Robertson felt disgust.

[1000] See Voltaire's _Siecle de Louis XIV_, ch. xiv.

[1001] See _ante_, p. 191.

[1002] See _ante_, p. 54.

[1003] It was on this day that Johnson dictated to Boswell his Latin translation of Dryden's lines on Milton. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 22.

[1004] See _ante_, ii. 109.