Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 66

[879] She too was learned; for according to Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i.

292) she had learnt Hebrew, merely to be useful to her husband.

[880]

'This day then let us not be told, That you are sick, and I grown old; Nor think on our approaching ills, And talk of spectacles and pills.'

Swift's _Lines on Stella's Birthday_, 1726-27. Works, ed. 1803, xi. 21.

[881] Dr. Newton, in his _Account of his own Life_, after animadverting upon Mr. Gibbon's _History_, says, 'Dr. Johnson's _Lives of the Poets_ afforded more amus.e.m.e.nt; but candour was much hurt and offended at the malevolence that predominates in every part. Some pa.s.sages, it must be allowed, are judicious and well written, but make not sufficient compensation for so much spleen and ill humour. Never was any biographer more sparing of his praise, or more abundant in his censures. He seemingly delights more in exposing blemishes, than in recommending beauties; slightly pa.s.ses over excellencies, enlarges upon imperfections, and not content with his own severe reflections, revives old scandal, and produces large quotations from the forgotten works of former criticks. His reputation was so high in the republick of letters, that it wanted not to be raised upon the ruins of others. But these _Essays_, instead of raising a higher idea than was before entertained of his understanding, have certainly given the world a worse opinion of his temper.--The Bishop was therefore the more surprized and concerned for his townsman, for _he respected him not only for his genius and learning, but valued him much more for the more amiable part of his character, his humanity and charity, his morality and religion.'_ The last sentence we may consider as the general and permanent opinion of Bishop Newton; the remarks which precede it must, by all who have read Johnson's admirable work, be imputed to the disgust and peevishness of old age. I wish they had not appeared, and that Dr. Johnson had not been provoked by them to express himself, not in respectful terms, of a Prelate, whose labours were certainly of considerable advantage both to literature and religion. BOSWELL.

[882] Newton was born Jan. 1, 1704, and was made Bishop in 1761. In his _Account of his own Life_ (p. 65) he says:--'He was no great gainer by his preferment; for he was obliged to give up the prebend of Westminster, the precentorship of York, the lecturership of St.

George's, Hanover Square, and the _genteel office of sub-almoner_.' He died in 1781. His _Works_ were published in 1782. Gibbon, defending himself against an attack by Newton, says (_Misc. Works_, l. 24l):--'The old man should not have indulged his zeal in a false and feeble charge against the historian, who,' &c.

[883] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides,_ 3rd ed. p. 371 [Oct. 25].

BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 216.

[884] The Rev. Mr. Agutter [_post,_ under Dec. 20] has favoured me with a note of a dialogue between Mr. John Henderson [_post,_ June 12] and Dr. Johnson on this topick, as related by Mr. Henderson, and it is evidently so authentick that I shall here insert it:--HENDERSON. 'What do you think, Sir, of William Law?' JOHNSON. 'William Law, Sir, wrote the best piece of Parenetick Divinity; but William Law was no reasoner.'

HENDERSON. 'Jeremy Collier, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'Jeremy Collier fought without a rival, and therefore could not claim the victory.' Mr.

Henderson mentioned Kenn and Kettlewell; but some objections were made: at last he said, 'But, Sir, what do you think of Leslie?' JOHNSON.

'Charles Leslie I had forgotten. Leslie _was_ a reasoner, and _a reasoner who was not to be reasoned against.'_ BOSWELL.

For the effect of Law's 'Parenetick Divinity' on Johnson, see _ante_, i.

68. 'I am surprised,' writes Macaulay, 'that Johnson should have p.r.o.nounced Law no reasoner. Law did indeed fall into great errors; but they were errors against which logic affords no security. In mere dialectical skill he had very few superiors.' Macaulay's _England_, ed.

1874, v. 81, note. Jeremy Collier's attack on the play-writers Johnson describes in his _Life of Congreve_ (_Works_, viii. 28), and continues:--'Nothing now remained for the poets but to resist or fly.

Dryden's conscience, or his prudence, angry as he was, withheld him from the conflict: Congreve and Vanbrugh attempted answers.' Of Leslie, Lord Bolingbroke thus writes (_Works_, in. 45):--'Let neither the polemical skill of Leslie, nor the antique erudition of Bedford, persuade us to put on again those old shackles of false law, false reason, and false gospel, which were forged before the Revolution, and broken to pieces by it.' Leslie is described by Macaulay, _History of England_, v. 81.

[885] Burnet (_History of his own Time_, ed. 1818, iv. 303) in 1712 speaks of Hickes and Brett as being both in the Church, but as shewing 'an inclination towards Popery.' Hickes, he says, was at the head of the Jacobite party. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 25.

[886] 'Only five of the seven were non-jurors; and anybody but Boswell would have known that a man may resist arbitrary power, and yet not be a good reasoner. Nay, the resistance which Sancroft and the other nonjuring Bishops offered to arbitrary power, while they continued to hold the doctrine of non-resistance, is the most decisive proof that they were incapable of reasoning.' Macaulay's _England_, ed. 1874, v. 81.

[887] See _ante_, ii. 321, for Johnson's estimate of the Nonjurors, and i. 429 for his Jacobitism.

[888] Savage's _Works_, ed. 1777, ii. 28.

[889] See _ante_, p. 46.

[890] See Boswell's _Hebrides, post_, v. 77.

[891] I have inserted the stanza as Johnson repeated it from memory; but I have since found the poem itself, in _The Foundling Hospital for Wit_, printed at London, 1749. It is as follows:--

'EPIGRAM, _occasioned by a religious dispute at Bath_.

'On Reason, Faith, and Mystery high, Two wits harangue the table; B----y believes he knows not why.

N---- swears 'tis all a fable.

Peace, c.o.xcombs, peach, and both agree, N----, kiss they empty brother: Religion laughs at foes like thee, And dreads a friend like t'other.'

BOSWELL. The disputants are supposed to have been Beau Nash and Bentley, the son of the doctor, and the friend of Walpole. Croker. John Wesley in his _Journal_, i. 186, tells how he once silences Nash.

[892] See ante, ii. 105.

[893] Waller, in his _Divine Poesie_, canto first, has the same thought finely expressed:--

'The Church triumphant, and the Church below, In songs of praise their present union show; Their joys are full; our expectation long, In life we differ, but we join in song; Angels and we a.s.sisted by this art, May sing together, though we dwell apart.'

BOSWELL.

[894] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, post, v. 45.

[895] In the original, _flee_.

[896] The sermon thus opens:--'That there are angels and spirits good and bad; that at the head of these last there is ONE more considerable and malignant than the rest, who, in the form, or under the name of a _serpent_, was deeply concerned in the fall of man, and whose _head_, as the prophetick language is, the son of man was one day to _bruise_; that this evil spirit, though that prophecy be in part completed, has not yet received his death's wound, but is still permitted, for ends unsearchable to us, and in ways which we cannot particularly explain, to have a certain degree of power in this world hostile to its virtue and happiness, and sometimes exerted with too much success; all this is so clear from Scripture, that no believer, unless he be first of all _spoiled by philosophy and vain deceit [Colossians_, ii. 8], can possibly entertain a doubt of it.'

Having treated of _possessions_, his Lordship says, 'As I have no authority to affirm that there _are_ now any such, so neither may I presume to say with confidence, that there are _not_ any.'

'But then with regard to the influence of evil spirits at this day upon the SOULS of men, I shall take leave to be a great deal more peremptory.--(Then, having stated the various proofs, he adds,) All this, I say, is so manifest to every one who reads the Scriptures, that, if we respect their authority, the question concerning the reality of the demoniack influence upon the minds of men is clearly determined.'

Let it be remembered, that these are not the words of an antiquated or obscure enthusiast, but of a learned and polite Prelate now alive; and were spoken, not to a vulgar congregation, but to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's-Inn. His Lordship in this sermon explains the words, 'deliver us from evil,' in the Lord's Prayer, as signifying a request to be protected from 'the evil one,' that is the Devil. This is well ill.u.s.trated in a short but excellent Commentary by my late worthy friend, the Reverend Dr. Lort, of whom it may truly be said, _Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit_. It is remarkable that Waller, in his _Reflections on the several Pet.i.tions, in that sacred form of devotion_, has understood this in the same sense;--

'Guard us from all temptations of the FOE.'

BOSWELL. Dr. Lort is often mentioned in Horace Walpole's _Letters_.

Multis ille _quidem_ flebilis occidit,' comes from Horace, _Odes_, i.

xxiv. 9, translated by Francis,--

How did the good, the virtuous mourn.'

For Dr. Hurd see _ante_, p. 189.

[897] There is a curious anecdote of this physician in _Gent. Mag._ 1772, p. 467.

[898] See _ante_, p. 166. He may have taken the more to Fox, as he had taken to Beauclerk (_ante_, i. 248), on account of his descent from Charles II. Fox was the great-great-grandson of that king. His Christian names recall his Stuart ancestry.

[899] Horace Walpole wrote on April 11 (_Letters_, viii. 469):--'In truth Mr. Fox has all the popularity in Westminster; and, indeed, is so amiable and winning that, could he have stood in person all over England, I question whether he would not have carried the Parliament.'

Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 316) in the same month wrote:--'Unluckily for my principles I met Fox canva.s.sing the other day, and he looked so sensible and agreeable, that if I had not turned my eyes another way, I believe it would have been all over with me.' See _ante_, p. 279.

[900] Dr. John Radcliffe, who died in 1714, left by his will, among other great benefactions to the University of Oxford, '600 yearly to two persons, when they are Masters of Arts and entered on the physic-line, for their maintenance for the s.p.a.ce of ten years; the half of which time at least they are to travel in parts beyond sea for their better improvement.' _Radcliffe's Life and Will_, p. 123. Pope mentions them in his _Imitations of Horace, Epistles_, ii. i. 183:--

'E'en Radcliffe's doctors travel first to France, Nor dare to practise till they've learned to dance.'

[901] What risks were run even by inoculation is shewn in two of Dr.

Warton's letters. He wrote to his brother:--'This moment the dear children have all been inoculated, never persons behaved better, no whimpering at all, I hope in G.o.d for success, but cannot avoid being in much anxiety.' A few days later he wrote:--'You may imagine I never pa.s.sed such a day as this in my life! grieved to death myself for the loss of so sweet a child, but forced to stifle my feelings as much as possible for the sake of my poor wife. She does not, however, hit on, or dwell on, that most cutting circ.u.mstance of all, poor Nanny's dying, as it were by our own means, tho' well intended indeed.' Wooll's _Warton_, i. 289. Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, i. 155), on the other hand, bitterly regretted that he had not had a child inoculated, whom he lost by small-pox.

[902] See _post_, before Nov. 17, and under Dec. 9, 1784.

[903] 'I am the vilest of sinners and the worst of men.' Taylor's _Works_ (ed. 1864), iii. 31. 'The best men deserve not eternal life, and I who am the worst may have it given me.' _Ib_. p. 431--'He that hath lived worst, even I.' _Ib_. vii. 241. 'Behold me the meanest of thy creatures.' _Ib_. p. 296.

[904] 'You may fairly look upon yourself to be the greatest sinner that you know in the world. First, because you know more of the folly of your own heart than you do of other people's; and can charge yourself with various sins that you only know of yourself, and cannot be sure that other people are guilty of them.' Law's _Serious Call_, chap. 23.