Life of Johnson Volume V Part 39

again italicising these two words.

[102] See _ante_, iii. 410.

[103] See _ante_, i. 354.

[104] c.o.c.kburn (_Life of Jeffrey_, i. 182) writing of the beginning of this century, describes how the General a.s.sembly 'met in those days, as it had done for about 200 years, in one of the aisles of the then grey and venerable cathedral of St. Giles. That plain, square, galleried apartment was admirably suited for the purpose; and it was more interesting from the men who had acted in it, and the scenes it had witnessed, than any other existing room in Scotland. It had beheld the best exertions of the best men in the kingdom ever since the year 1640.

Yet was it obliterated in the year 1830 with as much indifference as if it had been of yesterday; and for no reason except a childish desire for new walls and change.'

[105] I have hitherto called him Dr. William Robertson, to distinguish him from Dr. James Robertson, who is soon to make his appearance. But _Princ.i.p.al_, from his being the head of our college, is his usual designation, and is shorter: so I shall use it hereafter. BOSWELL.

[106] The dirtiness of the Scotch churches is taken off in _The Tale of a Tub_, sect. xi:--'Neither was it possible for the united rhetoric of mankind to prevail with Jack to make himself clean again.' In _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of Aug. 8) we are told that 'the good people of Edinburgh no longer think dirt and cobwebs essential to the house of G.o.d.' Bishop Horne (_Essays and Thoughts_, p. 45) mentioning 'the maxim laid down in a neighbouring kingdom that _cleanliness is not essential to devotion_,' continues, 'A Church of England lady once offered to attend the Kirk there, if she might be permitted to have the pew swept and lined. "The pew swept and lined!" said Mess John's wife, "my husband would think it downright popery."' In 1787 he wrote that there are country churches in England 'where, perhaps, three or four n.o.ble families attend divine service, which are suffered year after year to be in a condition in which not one of those families would suffer the worst room in their house to continue for a week.' _Essays and Thoughts_, p. 271.

[107] 'Hume recommended Fergusson's friends to prevail on him to suppress the work as likely to be injurious to his reputation.' When it had great success he said that his opinion remained the same. He had heard Helvetius and Saurin say that they had told Montesquieu that he ought to suppress his _Esprit des Lois_. They were still convinced that their advice was right. J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 385-7. It was at Fergusson's house thirteen years later that Walter Scott, a lad of fifteen, saw Burns shed tears over a print by Bunbury of a soldier lying dead on the snow. Lockhart's _Scott_, i. 185. See _ib_. vii. 61, for an anecdote of Fergusson.

[108] They were pulled down in 1789. Murray's _Handbook for Scotland_, ed. 1883, p. 60.

[109] See _ante_, ii. 128.

[110] See _ante_, iii. 357, and _post_, Johnson's _Tour into Wales_, Aug. 1, 1774.

[111]

'There where no statesman buys, no bishop sells; A virtuous palace where no monarch dwells.'

_An Epitaph_. Hamilton's Poems, ed. 1760, p. 260. See _ante_, iii. 150.

[112] The stanza from which he took this line is,

'But then rose up all Edinburgh, They rose up by thousands three; A cowardly Scot came John behind, And ran him through the fair body!'

[113] Johnson described her as 'an old lady, who talks broad Scotch with a paralytick voice, and is scarce understood by her own countrymen.'

_Piozzi Letters_, i.109. Lord Shelburne says that 'her husband, the last Duke, could neither read nor write without great difficulty.'

Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 11. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 107) says that in 1745 he heard her say:--'I have sworn to be d.u.c.h.ess of Douglas or never to mount a marriage bed.' She married the Duke in 1758. R.

Chambers wrote in 1825:--'It is a curious fact that sixty years ago there was scarcely a close in the High Street but what had as many n.o.ble inhabitants as are at this day to be found in the whole town.'

_Traditions of Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, i. 72.

[114] See ante, ii. 154, note 1.

[115] Lord Chesterfield wrote from London on Dec. 16, 1760 (_Misc.

Works_, iv. 291):--'I question whether you will ever see my friend George Faulkner in Ireland again, he is become so great and considerable a man here in the republic of letters; he has a constant table open to all men of wit and learning, and to those sometimes who have neither. I have been able to get him to dine with me but twice.'

[116] Dr. Johnson one evening roundly a.s.serted in his rough way that "Swift was a shallow fellow; a very shallow fellow." Mr. Sheridan replied warmly but modestly, "Pardon me, Sir, for differing from you, but I always thought the Dean a very clear writer." Johnson vociferated "All shallows are clear."' _Town and Country Mag_. Sept. 1769. _Notes and Queries_, Jan. 1855, p. 62. See _ante_, iv. 61.

[117] '_The Memoirs of Scriblerus_,' says Johnson (_Works_, viii. 298), 'seem to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches, perhaps, by Pope.' Swift also was concerned in it. Johnson goes on to shew why 'this joint production of three great writers has never obtained any notice from mankind.' Arbuthnot was the author of _John Bull_. Swift wrote to Stella on May 10, 1712:--'I hope you read _John Bull_. It was a Scotch gentleman, a friend of mine, that wrote it; but they put it upon me.'

See _ante_, i. 425.

[118] See _ante_, i. 452, and ii. 318.

[119] Horace, _Satires_. I. iii. 19.

[120] See _ante_, i. 396, and ii. 298.

[121] See _ante_, ii. 74.

[122] 'At supper there was such conflux of company that I could scarcely support the tumult. I have never been well in the whole journey, and am very easily disordered.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 109.

[123] See _ante_, iv. 17, and under June 9, 1784.

[124] Johnson was thinking of Sir Matthew Hale for one.

[125] 'It is supposed that there were no executions for witchcraft in England subsequently to the year 1682; but the Statute of I James I, c.

12, so minute in its enactments against witches, was not repealed till the 9 Geo. II, c. 5. In Scotland, so late as the year 1722, when the local jurisdictions were still hereditary [see _post_, Sept. 11], the sheriff of Sutherlandshire condemned a witch to death.' _Penny Cyclo_.

xxvii. 490. In the Bishopric of Wurtzburg, so late as 1750, a nun was burnt for witchcraft: 'Cette malheureuse fille soutint opiniatrement qu'elle etait sorciere.... Elle etait folle, ses juges furent imbecilles et barbares.' Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, xxvi. 285.

[126] A Dane wrote to Garrick from Copenhagen on Dec. 23, 1769:--'There is some of our retinue who, not understanding a word of your language, mimic your gesture and your action: so great an impression did it make upon their minds, the scene of daggers has been repeated in dumb show a hundred times, and those most ignorant of the English idiom can cry out with rapture, "A horse, a horse; my kingdom for a horse!"' _Garrick Corres._ i. 375. See _ante_, vol. iv. under Sept. 30, 1783

[127] See _ante_, i. 466.

[128] Johnson, in the preface to his _Dictionary_ (_Works_, v. 43), after stating what he had at first planned, continues:--'But these were the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer.' See _ante_, i. 189, note 2, and May I, 1783.

[129] See his letter on this subject in the APPENDIX. BOSWELL. He had been tutor to Hume's nephew and was one of Hume's friends. J.H Burton's _Hume_, ii. 399.

[130] By the Baron d'Holbach. Voltaire (_Works_, xii. 212) describes this book as 'Une _Philippique_ contre Dieu.' He wrote to M.

Saurin:--'Ce maudit livre du Systeme de la Nature est un peche contre nature. Je vous sais bien bon gre de reprouver l'atheisme et d'aimer ce vers: "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer." Je suis rarement content de mes vers, mais j'avoue que j'ai une tendresse de pere pour celui-la.' _Ib_. v. 418.

[131] One of Garrick's correspondents speaks of 'the sneer of one of Johnson's ghastly smiles.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 334. 'Ghastly smile' is borrowed from _Paradise Lost_, ii. 846.

[132] See _ante_, iii. 212. In Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_, ii.

158, is given a comic poem ent.i.tled _The Court of Session Garland_, written by Boswell, with the help, it was said, of Maclaurin.

[133] Dr. John Gregory, Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, died on Feb. 10 of this year. It was his eldest son James who met Johnson. 'This learned family has given sixteen professors to British Universities.' Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._ xvi. 289.

[134] See _ante_, i. 257, note 3.

[135] See _ante_, i. 228.

[136] See _ante_, ii. 196.

[137] In the original, _cursed the form that_, &c. Johnson's _Works_, i.

21.

[138] Mistress of Edward IV. BOSWELL.

[139] Mistress of Louis XIV. BOSWELL. Voltaire, speaking of the King and Mlle. de La Valliere (not Valiere, as Lord Hailes wrote her name), says:--'Il gouta avec elle le bonheur rare d'etre aime uniquement pour lui-meme.' _Siecle de Louis XIV_, ch. 25. He describes her penitence in a fine pa.s.sage. _Ib._ ch. 26.

[140] Malone, in a note on the _Life of Boswell_ under 1749, says that 'this lady was not the celebrated Lady Vane, whose memoirs were given to the public by Dr. Smollett [in _Peregrine Pickle_], but Anne Vane, who was mistress to Frederick Prince of Wales, and died in 1736, not long before Johnson settled in London.' She is mentioned in a note to Horace Walpole's _Letters_, 1. cx.x.xvi.

[141] Catharine Sedley, the mistress of James II, is described by Macaulay, _Hist of Eng._ ed. 1874, ii. 323.