Life of Johnson
Chapter 405 : 'To wing my flight to fame.'DRYDEN. Virgil, _Georgics_, iii. 9.[1109] On Nov

'To wing my flight to fame.'

DRYDEN. Virgil, _Georgics_, iii. 9.

[1109] On Nov. 12 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'We came hither (to Edinburgh) on the ninth of this month. I long to come under your care, but for some days cannot decently get away.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 202.

[1110] He would have been astonished had he known that a few miles from Edinburgh he had pa.s.sed through two villages of serfs. The coal-hewers and salt-makers of Tranent and Preston-Pans were still sold with the soil. 'In Scotland domestic slavery is unknown, except so far as regards the coal-hewers and salt-makers, whose condition, it must be confessed, bears some resemblance to slavery; because all who have once acted in either of the capacities are compellable to serve, and fixed to their respective places of employment during life.' Hargrave's _Argument in the case of James Sommersett_, 1772. Had Johnson known this he might have given as his toast when in company with some very grave men at _Edinburgh_:--'Here's to the next insurrection of the slaves in _Scotland_.' _Ante_, iii. 200.

[1111] The year following in the House of Commons he railed at the London booksellers, 'who, he positively a.s.serted, entirely governed the newspapers.' 'For his part,' he added, 'he had ordered that no English newspaper should come within his doors for three months.' _Parl. Hist_.

xvii. 1090.

[1112] See _ante_, iii. 373.

[1113] 'At the latter end of 1630 Ben Jonson went on foot into Scotland, on purpose to visit Drummond. His adventures in this journey he wrought into a poem; but that copy, with many other pieces, was accidentally burned.' Whalley's _Ben Jonson_, Preface, p. xlvi.

[1114] Perhaps the same woman showed the chapel who was there 29 years later, when Scott visited it. One of his friends 'hoped that they might, as habitual visitors, escape hearing the usual endless story of the silly old woman that showed the ruins'; but Scott answered, 'There is a pleasure in the song which none but the songstress knows, and by telling her we know it all ready we should make the poor devil unhappy.'

Lockharts _Scott_, ed. 1839, ii. 106.

[1115] _ O rare Ben Jonson_ is on Jonson's tomb in Westminster Abbey.

[1116] See _ante_, ii. 365.

[1117] 'Ess.e.x was at that time confined to the same chamber of the Tower from which his father Lord Capel had been led to death, and in which his wife's grandfather had inflicted a voluntary death upon himself. When he saw his friend carried to what he reckoned certain fate, their common enemies enjoying the spectacle, and reflected that it was he who had forced Lord Howard upon the confidence of Russel, he retired, and, by a _Roman death_, put an end to his misery.' Dalrymple's _Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland_, vol. i. p. 36. BOSWELL. In the original after 'his wife's grandfather,' is added 'Lord Northumberland.' It was his wife's great-grandfather, the eighth Earl of Northumberland. He killed himself in 1585. Burke's _Peerage_.

[1118] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 293) says of Robertson and Blair:--'Having been bred at a time when the common people thought to play with cards or dice was a sin, and everybody thought it an indecorum in clergymen, they could neither of them play at golf or bowls, and far less at cards or backgammon, and on that account were very unhappy when from home in friends' houses in the country in rainy weather. As I had set the first example of playing at cards at home with unlocked door [Carlyle was a minister], and so relieved the clergy from ridicule on that side, they both learned to play at whist after they were sixty.'

See _ante_, iii. 23.

[1119] See _ante_, i. 149, and v. 350.

[1120] See _ante_, iv. 54.

[1121] He wrote to Boswell on Nov. 16, 1776 (_ante_, iii. 93):--'The expedition to the Hebrides was the most pleasant journey that I ever made.' In his _Diary_ he recorded on Jan. 9, 1774:--'In the autumn I took a journey to the Hebrides, but my mind was not free from perturbation.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 136. The following letter to Dr. Taylor I have copied from the original in the possession of my friend Mr. M. M.

Holloway:--

'DEAR SIR,

'When I was at Edinburgh I had a letter from you, telling me that in answer to some enquiry you were informed that I was in the Sky. I was then I suppose in the western islands of Scotland; I set out on the northern expedition August 6, and came back to Fleet-street, November 26. I have seen a new region.

'I have been upon seven of the islands, and probably should have visited many more, had we not begun our journey so late in the year, that the stormy weather came upon us, and the storms have I believe for about five months hardly any intermission.

'Your Letter told me that you were better. When you write do not forget to confirm that account. I had very little ill health while I was on the journey, and bore rain and wind tolerably well. I had a cold and deafness only for a few days, and those days I pa.s.sed at a good house. I have traversed the east coast of Scotland from south to north from Edinburgh to Inverness, and the west coast from north to south, from the Highlands to Glasgow, and am come back as I went,

'Sir,

'Your affectionate humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Jan. 15, 1774.

'To the Reverend Dr. Taylor,

'in Ashbourn,

'Derbys.h.i.+re.'

[1122] Johnson speaking of this tour on April 10, 1783, said:--'I got an acquisition of more ideas by it than by anything that I remember.'

_Ante_, iv. 199.

[1123] See _ante_, p. 48.

[1124] See _ante_, i. 408, 443, note 2, and ii. 303.

[1125] 'It may be doubted whether before the Union any man between Edinburgh and England had ever set a tree.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 8.

[1126] See _ante_, p. 69.

[1127] Lord Balmerino's estate was forfeited to the Crown on his conviction for high treason in 1746 (_ante_, i. 180).

[1128] 'I know not that I ever heard the wind so loud in any other place; and Mr. Boswell observed that its noise was all its own, for there were no trees to increase it.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 122. See _ante_, p. 304.

[1129] See _ante_, ii. 300.

[1130] 'Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur. This faculty of seeing things out of sight is local and commonly useless. It is a breach of the common order of things, without any visible reason or perceptible benefit.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 106.

[1131] 'To the confidence of these objections it may be replied... that second sight is only wonderful because it is rare, for, considered in itself, it involves no more difficulty than dreams.' _Ib._

[1132] The fossilist of last century is the geologist of this. Neither term is in Johnson's _Dictionary_, but Johnson in his _Journey (Works_, ix. 43) speaks of 'Mr. Janes the fossilist.'

[1133] _Ib_. p. 157.

[1134] _Ib_. p. 6. I do not see anything silly in the story. It is however better told in a letter to Mrs. Thrale. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 112.

[1135] Mr. Orme, one of the ablest historians of this age, is of the same opinion. He said to me, 'There are in that book thoughts, which, by long revolution in the great mind of Johnson, have been formed and polished--like pebbles rolled in the ocean.' BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii.

300, and iii. 284.

[1136] See _ante_, iii. 301.

[1137] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 158) mentions 'a national combination so invidious that their friends cannot defend it.' See _ante_, ii.

307, 311.

[1138] See _ante_, p. 269, note 1.

[1139] Every reader will, I am sure, join with me in warm admiration of the truly patriotic writer of this letter. I know not which most to applaud--that good sense and liberality of mind, which could see and admit the defects of his native country, to which no man is a more zealous friend:--or that candour, which induced him to give just praise to the minister whom he honestly and strenuously opposed. BOSWELL.

[1140] The original MS. is now in my possession. BOSWELL.

[1141] The pa.s.sage that gave offence was as follows:--'Mr. Macleod is the proprietor of the islands of Raasay, Rona, and Fladda, and possesses an extensive district in Sky. The estate has not during four hundred years gained or lost a single acre. He acknowledges Macleod of Dunvegan as his chief, though his ancestors have formerly disputed the pre-eminence.' First edition, p. 132. The second edition was not published till the year after Johnson's death. In it the pa.s.sage remains unchanged. To it the following note was prefixed: 'Strand, Oct. 26, 1785. Since this work was printed off, the publisher, having been informed that the author some years ago had promised the Laird of Raasay to correct in a future edition a pa.s.sage concerning him, thinks it a justice due to that gentleman to insert here the advertis.e.m.e.nt relative to this matter, which was published by Dr. Johnson's desire in the Edinburgh newspapers in the year 1775, and which has been lately reprinted in Mr. Boswell's _Tour to the Hebrides_.' (It is not unlikely that the publication of Boswell's _Tour_ occasioned a fresh demand for Johnson's _Journey_.) In later editions all the words after 'a single acre' are silently struck out. Johnson's _Works_, ix. 55. See _ante_, ii. 382.

[1142] Rasay was highly gratified, and afterwards visited and dined with Dr. Johnson at his house in London. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote on May 12, 1775:--'I have offended; and what is stranger, have justly offended, the nation of Rasay. If they could come hither, they would be as fierce as the Americans. _Rasay_ has written to Boswell an account of the injury done him by representing his house as subordinate to that of Dunvegan.