Life of Johnson Volume I Part 94

[1409] Pope's _Moral Essays_, iii. 242.

[1410] Malone says that it was from him that Boswell had his account of Garrick's election, and that he had it from Reynolds. He adds that 'Johnson warmly supported Garrick, being in reality a very tender affectionate man. He was merely offended at the actors conceit.' He continues:--'On the former part of this story it probably was that Hawkins grounded his account that Garrick never was of the Club, and that Johnson said he never ought to be of it. And thus it is that this stupid biographer, and the more flippant and malicious Mrs. Piozzi have miscoloured and misrepresented almost every anecdote that they have pretented to tell of Dr. Johnson.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 392. Whatever was the slight cast upon Garrick, he was nevertheless the sixth new member elected. Four, as I have shown, were added by 1768. The next elections were in 1773 (Croker's _Boswell_, ed. 1844. ii. 326), when five were added, of whom Garrick was the second, and Boswell the fifth.

In 1774 five more were elected, among whom were Fox and Gibbon. Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 249) says that 'upon Garrick's death, when numberless applications were made to succeed him [in the Club], Johnson was deaf to them all. He said, "No, there never could be found any successor worthy of such a man;" and he insisted upon it there should be a year's widowhood in the club, before they thought of a new election.'

[1411] Grainger wrote to Percy on April 6, 1764:--'Sam. Johnson says he will review it in _The Critical_' In August, 1765, he wrote:--'I am perfectly satisfied with the reception the _Sugar Cane_ has met with, and am greatly obliged to you and Mr. Johnson for the generous care you took of it in my absence.' Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 238. He was absent in the West Indies. He died on Dec. 16, 1766. _Ib_. p. 241. The review of the _Sugar Cane_ in the _Critical Review_ (p. 270) is certainly by Johnson. The following pa.s.sage is curious:--'The last book begins with a striking invocation to the genius of Africa, and goes on to give proper instructions for the buying and choice of negroes.... The poet talks of this ungenerous commerce without the least appearance of detestation; but proceeds to direct these purchasers of their fellow-creatures with the same indifference that a groom would give instructions for choosing a horse.

'Clear roll their ample eye; their tongue be red; Broad swell their chest; their shoulders wide expand; Not prominent their belly; clean and strong Their thighs and legs in just proportion rise.'

See also _post_, March 21, 1776.

[1412] Johnson thus ends his brief review:--'Such in the poem on which we now congratulate the public as on a production to which, since the death of Pope, it not be easy to find anything equal.' _Critical Review_, p. 462.

[1413] _Pr. and Med_. p. 50. BOSWELL. He adds:--

'I hope To put my rooms in order.

Disorder I have found one great cause of idleness.'

[1414] _Ib_. p. 51. BOSWELL.

[1415] It was on his birth-day that he said this. He wrote on the same day:--'I have outlived many friends. I have felt many sorrows. I have made few improvements.'

[1416] _Prayers and Meditations_, p. 58. BOSWELL. In his _Vision of Theodore_ (_Works_, ix. 174) he describes the state of mind which he has recorded in his Meditations:--'There were others whose crime it was rather to neglect Reason than to disobey her; and who retreated from the heat and tumult of the way, not to the bowers of Intemperance, but to the maze of Indolence. They had this peculiarity in their condition, that they were always in sight of the road of Reason, always wishing for her presence, and always resolving to return to-morrow.'

[1417] See Appendix F.

[1418] It used to be imagined at Mr. Thrale's, when Johnson retired to a window or corner of the room, by perceiving his lips in motion, and hearing a murmur without audible articulation, that he was praying: but this was not _always_ the case, for I was once, perhaps unperceived by him, writing at a table, so near the place of his retreat, that I heard him repeating some lines in an ode of Horace, over and over again, as if by iteration, to exercise the organs of speech, and fix the ode in his memory:

Audiet cives acuisse ferrum Quo graves Persas melius perirent, Audiet pugnas....

Odes, i. 2, 21.

['Our sons shall hear, shall hear to latest times, Of Roman arms with civil gore imbrued, Which better had the Persian foe subdued.'

_Francis_.]

It was during the American War. BURNEY. Boswell in his _Hebrides_ (Oct.

12, 1773) records, 'Dr. Johnson is often uttering pious e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns, when he appears to be talking to himself; for sometimes his voice grows stronger, and parts of the Lord's Prayer are heard.' In the same pa.s.sage he describes other 'particularities,' and adds in a note:--'It is remarkable that Dr. Johnson should have read this account of some of his own peculiar habits, without saying anything on the subject, which I hoped he would have done.' See _post_, Dec. 1784, note.

[1419] Churchill's _Poems_, i. 16. See _ante_, p. 391.

[1420] 'It is in vain to try to find a meaning in every one of his particularities, which, I suppose, are mere habits contracted by chance; of which every man has some that are more or less remarkable.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 12, 1773. 'The love of symmetry and order, which is natural to the mind of man, betrays him sometimes into very whimsical fancies. "This n.o.ble principle," says a French author, "loves to amuse itself on the most trifling occasions. You may see a profound philosopher," says he, "walk for an hour together in his chamber, and industriously treading at every step upon every other board in the flooring."' _The Spectator_, No. 632.

[1421] Mr. S. Whyte (_Miscellanea Nova_, p. 49) tells how from old Mr.

Sheridan's house in Bedford-street, opposite Henrietta-street, with an opera-gla.s.s he watched Johnson approaching. 'I perceived him at a good distance working along with a peculiar solemnity of deportment, and an awkward sort of measured step. Upon every post as he pa.s.sed along, he deliberately laid his hand; but missing one of them, when he had got at some distance he seemed suddenly to recollect himself, and immediately returning carefully performed the accustomed ceremony, and resumed his former course, not omitting one till he gained the crossing. This, Mr.

Sheridan a.s.sured me, was his constant practice.'

[1422] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 316. BOSWELL.

'The day that we left Talisker, he bade us ride on. He then turned the head of his horse back towards Talisker, stopped for some time; then wheeled round to the same direction with ours, and then came briskly after us.' Boswell's _Hebrides_', Oct. 12, 1773.

[1423] Sir Joshua's sister, for whom Johnson had a particular affection, and to whom he wrote many letters which I have seen, and which I am sorry her too nice delicacy will not permit to be published. BOSWELL.

'Whilst the company at Mr. Thrale's were speculating upon a microscope for the mind, Johnson exclaimed:--"I never saw one that would bear it, except that of my dear Miss Reynolds, and hers is very near to purity itself."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 80. Once, said Northcote, there was a coolness between her and her brother. She wished to set forth to him her grievances in a letter. Not finding it easy to write, she consulted Johnson, 'who offered to write a letter himself, which when copied should pa.s.s as her own.' This he did. It began: 'I am well aware that complaints are always odious, but complain I must.' Such a letter as this she saw would not pa.s.s with Sir Joshua as her own, and so she could not use it. _Ib_. p. 203. Of Johnson's letters to her Malone published one, and Mr. Croker several more. Mme. D'Arblay, in the character she draws of her (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. 332), says that 'Dr. Johnson tried in vain to cure her of living in an habitual perplexity of mind and irresolution of conduct, which to herself was restlessly tormenting, and to all around her was teazingly wearisome.'

[1424] See Appendix C.

[1425] _Pr. and Med_. p. 61. BOSWELL.

[1426] See _ante_, p. 346.

[1427] His quarter's pension. See _ante_, P. 376.

[1428] Mr. Croker, misunderstanding a pa.s.sage in Hawkins, writes:--'Hawkins says that he disliked to be called Doctor, as reminding him that he had been a schoolmaster.' What Hawkins really says (_Life_, p. 446) is this:--'His attachment to Oxford prevented Johnson from receiving this honour as it was intended, and he never a.s.sumed the t.i.tle which it conferred. He was as little pleased to be called Doctor in consequence of it, as he was with the t.i.tle of _Domine_, which a friend of his once incautiously addressed him by. He thought it alluded to his having been a schoolmaster.' It is clear that 'it' in the last line refers only to the t.i.tle of _Domine_. Murphy (_Life_, p. 98) says that Johnson never a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Doctor, till Oxford conferred on him the degree. Boswell states (_post_, March 31, 1775, note):--'It is remarkable that he never, so far as I know, a.s.sumed his t.i.tle of _Doctor_, but called himself _Mr_. Johnson.' In this, as I show there, Boswell seems to be not perfectly accurate. I do not believe Hawkins's a.s.sertion that Johnson 'was little pleased to be called Doctor in consequence of his Dublin degree.' In Boswell's Hebrides, most of which was read by him before he received his Oxford degree, he is commonly styled Doctor. Boswell says in a note on Aug. 15, 1773:--'It was some time before I could bring myself to call him Doctor.' Had Johnson disliked the t.i.tle it would have been known to Boswell. Mrs. Thrale, it is true, in her letters' to him, after he had received both his degrees, commonly speaks of him as Mr. Johnson. We may a.s.sume that he valued his Oxford degree of M.A. more highly than the Dublin degree of LL.D.; for in the third edition of the _Abridgment of his Dictionary_, published in 1766, he is styled Samuel Johnson, A.M. In his _Lives of the Poets_ he calls himself simply Samuel Johnson. He had by that time risen above degrees. In his _Journey to the Hebrides_ (_Works_, ix. 14), after stating that 'An English or Irish doctorate cannot be obtained by a very young man,' he continues:--'It is reasonable to suppose ... that he who is by age qualified to be a doctor, has in so much time gained learning sufficient not to disgrace the t.i.tle, or wit sufficient not to desire it.'

[1429] Trinity College made him, it should seem, _Armiger_ at the same time that it made him Doctor of Laws.

[1430] See Appendix D for this letter.

[1431] _Pr. and Med_. p. 66. BOSWELL.

[1432] _Single-speech_ Hamilton, as he was commonly called, though in the House of Commons he had spoken more than once. For above thirty sessions together, however, he held his tongue. Prior's _Burke_, p. 67.

[1433] See Appendix E for an explanation.

[1434] _Pr. and Med_. p. 67 BOSWELL.

[1435] See Appendix F.

[1436] Mr. Blakeway, in a note on this pa.s.sage, says:--'The predecessor of old Thrale was Edmund Halsey, Esq.; the n.o.bleman who married his daughter was Lord Cobham. The family of Thrale was of some consideration in St. Albans; in the Abbey-church is a handsome monument to the memory of Mr. John Thrale, late of London, merchant, who died in 1704.' He describes the arms on the monument. Mr. Hayward, in _Mrs. Piozzis Autobiography_, i. 9, quotes her marginal note on this page in Boswell.

She says that Edmund Halsey, son of a miller at St. Albans, married the only daughter of his master, old Child, of the Anchor Brewhouse, Southwark, and succeeded to the business upon Child's death. 'He sent for one of his sister's sons to London (my Mr. Thrale's father); said he would make a man of him, and did so; but made him work very hard, and treated him very roughly.' He left him nothing at his death, and Thrale bought the brewery of Lord and Lady Cobham.

[1437] See _post_, under April 4, 1781, and June 16, 1781.

[1438] Mrs. Burney informs me that she heard Dr. Johnson say, 'An English Merchant is a new species of Gentleman.' He, perhaps, had in his mind the following ingenious pa.s.sage in _The Conscious Lovers_, act iv.

scene ii, where Mr. Sealand thus addresses Sir John Bevil: 'Give me leave to say, that we merchants are a species of gentry that have grown into the world this last century, and are as honourable, and almost as useful as you landed-folks, that have always thought yourselves so much above us; for your trading forsooth is extended no farther than a load of hay, or a fat ox.--You are pleasant people indeed! because you are generally bred up to be lazy, therefore, I warrant your industry is dishonourable.' BOSWELL.

_The Conscious Lovers_ is by Steele. 'I never heard of any plays fit for a Christian to read,' said Parson Adams, 'but _Cato_ and _The Conscious Lovers_; and I must own, in the latter there are some things almost solemn enough for a sermon.' _Joseph Andrews_, Book III, chap. xi.

[1439] In the first number of _The Hypochondriack_ Boswell writes:--'It is a saying in feudal treatises, "Semel Baro semper Baro_," "Once a baron always a baron."' _London Mag_. 1777, p. 493. He seems of Mr.

Thrale's inferiority by speaking of him as Thrale and his house as Thrale's. See _post_, April 5 and 12, 1776, April 7, 1778, and under March 30, 1783. He never, I believe, is thus familiar in the case of Beauclerk, Burke, Langton, and Reynolds.

[1440] For her extraction see Hayward's _Mrs. Piozzi_, i. 238.

[1441] Miss Burney records in May 1779, how one day at Streatham 'Mr.

Murphy met with a very joyful reception; and Mr. Thrale, for the first time in his life, said he was "a good fellow;" for he makes it a sort of rule to salute him with the t.i.tle of "scoundrel," or "rascal." They are very old friends; and I question if Mr. Thrale loves any man so well.'

Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 210.

[1442] From the _Garrick Corres_, i. 116, it seems that Murphy introduced Garrick to the Thrales. He wrote to him on May 13, 1760:--'You stand engaged to Mr. Thrale for Wednesday night. You need not apprehend drinking; it is a very easy house.'

[1443] Murphy (_Life_, p. 98) says that Johnson's introduction to the Thrales 'contributed more than anything else to exempt him from the solicitudes of life.' He continues that 'he looks back to the share he had in that business with self congratulation, since he knows the tenderness which from that time soothed Johnson's cares at Streatham, and prolonged a valuable life.' Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale from Lichfield on July 20, 1767:--'I have found nothing that withdraws my affections from the friends whom I left behind, or which makes me less desirous of reposing at that place which your kindness and Mr. Thrale's allows me to call my _home_.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 4. From Mull, on Oct.

15, 1773, he wrote:--'Having for many weeks had no letter, my longings are very great to be informed how all things are at home, as you and mistress allow me to call it.' _Ib_. p. 166. Miss Burney in 1778 wrote that 'though Dr. Johnson lives almost wholly at Streatham, he always keeps his apartments in town.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 58. Johnson (_Works_, viii. 381) tells how, in the house of Sir Thomas Abney, 'Dr.

Watts, with a constancy of friendship and uniformity of conduct not often to be found, was treated for thirty-six years with all the kindness that friendship could prompt, and all the attention that respect could dictate.' He continues:--'A coalition like this, a state in which the notions of patronage and dependence were overpowered by the perception of reciprocal benefits, deserves a particular memorial.' It was such a coalition which he formed with the Thrales--a coalition in which, though the benefits which he received were great, yet those which he conferred were still greater.