Life of Johnson
Chapter 160 : [732] Boswell calls Elwal Johnson's countryman, because they both came from the s

[732] Boswell calls Elwal Johnson's countryman, because they both came from the same county. See _ante_, ii.

[733] Baretti, in a MS. note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 219, says:--'Johnson would have made an excellent Spanish inquisitor. To his shame be it said, he always was tooth and nail against toleration.'

[734] Dr. Mayo's calm temper and steady perseverance, rendered him an admirable subject for the exercise of Dr. Johnson's powerful abilities.

He never flinched; but, after reiterated blows, remained seemingly unmoved as at the first. The scintillations of Johnson's genius flashed every time he was struck, without his receiving any injury. Hence he obtained the epithet of The Literary Anvil. BOSWELL. See _post_, April 15, 1778, for an account of another dinner at Mr. Dilly's, where Johnson and Mayo met.

[735] The Young Pretender, Charles Edward.

[736] Mr. Croker, quoting Johnson's letter of May 20, 1775 (_Piozzi Letters_, i. 219), where he says, 'I dined in a large company at a dissenting bookseller's yesterday, and disputed against toleration with one Doctor Meyer,' continues:--'This must have been the dinner noted in the text; but I cannot reconcile the date, and the mention of the death of the Queen of Denmark, which happened on May 10, 1775, ascertains that the date of the _letter_ is correct. Boswell ... must, I think, have misdated and misplaced his note of the conversation.' That the dinner did not take place in May, 1775, is, however, quite clear. By that date Goldsmith had been dead more than a year, and Goldsmith bore a large part in the talk at the Dilly's table. On the other hand, there can be no question about the correctness of the date of the letter. Wesley, in his _Journal_ for 1757 (ii. 349), mentions 'Mr. Meier, chaplain to one of the Hanoverian regiments.' Perhaps he is the man whom Johnson met in 1775.

[737] See _ante_, i. 423, note 2.

[738] 'It is very possible he had to call at Covent-garden on his way, and that for this, and not for Boswell's reason, he had taken his hat early. The actor who so a.s.sisted him in Young Marlow was taking his benefit this seventh of May; and for an additional attraction Goldsmith had written him an epilogue.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 376.

[739] Johnson was not given to interrupting a speaker. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 164), describing his conversation, says:--'For the pleasure he communicated to his hearers he expected not the tribute of silence; on the contrary, he encouraged others, particularly young men, to speak, and paid a due attention to what they said.' See _post_, under April 29, 1776, note.

[740] That this was Langton can be seen from Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug.

22, 1773, and from Johnson's letters of July 5, 1773, July 5, 1774, and Jan. 21, 1775.

[741] See _post_, April 28, 1783.

[742] _Pr. and Med_. p. 40. Boswell.

[743] See _ante_, i. 489.

[744] 'In England,' wrote Burke, 'the Roman Catholics are a sect; in Ireland they are a nation.' Burke's _Corres_. iv. 89.

[745] 'The celebrated number of _ten_ persecutions has been determined by the ecclesiastical writers of the fifth century, who possessed a more distinct view of the prosperous or adverse fortunes of the church, from the age of Nero to that of Diocletian. The ingenious parallels of the _ten_ plagues of Egypt, and of the _ten_ horns of the Apocalypse, first suggested this calculation to their minds.' Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, ch. xvi, ed. 1807, ii. 370.

[746] See _ante_, ii. 121, 130.

[747] See _ante_, ii. 105.

[748] Reynolds said:--'Johnson had one virtue which I hold one of the most difficult to practise. After the heat of contest was over, if he had been informed that his antagonist resented his rudeness, he was the first to seek after a reconciliation.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 457. He wrote to Dr. Taylor in 1756:--'When I am musing alone, I feel a pang for every moment that any human being has by my peevishness or obstinacy spent in uneasiness.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 324. More than twenty years later he said in Miss Burney's hearing:--'I am always sorry when I make bitter speeches, and I never do it but when I am insufferably vexed.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 131. 'When the fray was over,' writes Murphy (_Life_, p. 140), 'he generally softened into repentance, and, by conciliating measures, took care that no animosity should be left rankling in the breast of the antagonist.' See _ante_, ii. 109.

[749] Johnson had offended Langton as well as Goldsmith this day, yet of Goldsmith only did he ask pardon. Perhaps this fact increased Langton's resentment, which lasted certainly more than a year. See _post_, July 5, 1774, and Jan. 21, 1775.

[750] 'Addison, speaking of his own deficiency in conversation, used to say of himself, that with respect to intellectual wealth he could draw bills for a thousand pounds, though he had not a guinea in his pocket.'

Johnson's _Works_, vii. 446. Somewhat the same thought may be found in _The Tatler_, No. 30, where it is said that 'a man endowed with great perfections without good-breeding, is like one who has his pockets full of gold, but always wants change for his ordinary occasions.' I have traced it still earlier, for Burnet in his _History of his own Times_, i. 210, says, that 'Bishop Wilkins used to say Lloyd had the most learning in ready cash of any he ever knew.' Later authors have used the same image. Lord Chesterfield (_Letters_, ii. 291) in 1749 wrote of Lord Bolingbroke:--'He has an infinite fund of various and almost universal knowledge, which, from the clearest and quickest conception and happiest memory that ever man was blessed with, he always carries about him. It is his pocket-money, and he never has occasion to draw upon a book for any sum.' Southey wrote in 1816 (_Life and Corres_. iv. 206):--'I wish to avoid a conference which will only sink me in Lord Liverpool's judgment; what there may be in me is not payable at sight; give me leisure and I feel my strength.' Rousseau was in want of readiness like Addison:--'Je fais d'excellens impromptus a loisir; mais sur le temps je n'ai jamais rien fait ni dit qui vaille. Je ferais une fort jolie conversation par la poste, comme on dit que les Espagnols jouent aux echecs. Quand je lus le trait d'un Duc de Savoye qui se retourna, faisant route, pour crier; _a votre gorge, marchand de Paris_, je dis, me voila.' _Les Confessions_, Livre iii. See also _post_, May 8, 1778.

[751] 'Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces, or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings; and Milton, in a letter to a learned stranger, by whom he had been visited, with great reason congratulates himself upon the consciousness of being found equal to his own character, and having preserved in a private and familiar interview that reputation which his works had procured him.'

_The Rambler_, No. 14.

[752] Prior (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 459) says that it was not a German who interrupted Goldsmith but a Swiss, Mr. Moser, the keeper of the Royal Academy (_post_, June 2, 1783). He adds that at a Royal Academy dinner Moser interrupted another person in the same way, when Johnson seemed preparing to speak, whereupon Goldsmith said, 'Are you sure that _you_ can comprehend what he says?'

[753] Edmund Burke he called Mund; Dodsley, Doddy; Derrick, Derry; c.u.mberland, c.u.mbey; Monboddo, Monny; Stockdale, Stockey. Mrs. Piozzi represents him in his youth as calling Edmund Hector 'dear Mund.'

_Ante_, i. 93, note. Sheridan's father had been known as Sherry among Swift and his friends. Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, x. 256.

[754] Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 103) on this remarks:--'It was a courteous way of saying, "I wish _you_ [Davies] wouldn't call me Goldy, whatever Mr. Johnson does."' That he is wrong in this is shown by Boswell, in his letter to Johnson of Feb. 14, 1777, where he says:--'You remember poor Goldsmith, when he grew important, and wished to appear _Doctor Major_, could not bear your calling him _Goldy_.' See also Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 14, 1773.

[755] The Reverend Thomas Bagshaw, M.A., who died on November 20, 1787, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, Chaplain of Bromley College, in Kent, and Rector of Southfleet. He had resigned the cure of Bromley Parish some time before his death. For this, and another letter from Dr.

Johnson in 1784, to the same truely respectable man, I am indebted to Dr. John Loveday, of the Commons [_ante_, i. 462, note 1], a son of the late learned and pious John Loveday, Esq., of Caversham in Berks.h.i.+re, who obligingly transcribed them for me from the originals in his possession. This worthy gentleman, having retired from business, now lives in Warwicks.h.i.+re. The world has been lately obliged to him as the Editor of the late Rev. Dr. Townson's excellent work, modestly ent.i.tled, _A Discourse on the Evangelical History, from the Interment to the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ_; to which is prefixed, a truly interesting and pleasing account of the authour, by the Reverend Mr. Ralph Churton. BOSWELL.

[756] Sunday was May 9.

[757] As Langton was found to deeply resent Johnson's hasty expression at the dinner on the 7th, we must a.s.sume that he had invited Johnson to dine with him before the offence had been given.

[758] In the _Dictionary_ Johnson, as the second definition of _metaphysical_, says: 'In Shakespeare it means _supernatural_ or _preternatural_.' 'Creation' being beyond the nature of man, the right derived from it is preternatural or metaphysical.

[759] See _ante_, i. 437.

[760] Hume, on Feb. 24 of this year, mentioned to Adam Smith as a late publication Lord Monboddo's _Origin and Progress of Language_:--'It contains all the absurdity and malignity which I suspected; but is writ with more ingenuity and in a better style than I looked for.' J. H.

Burton's _Hume_, ii. 466. See _ante_, ii. 74.

[761] Monday was May 10.

[762] See _ante_, i. 413. Percy wrote of Goldsmith's envy:--'Whatever appeared of this kind was a mere momentary sensation, which he knew not how, like other men, to conceal.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 117.

[763] He might have applied to himself his own version of Ovid's lines, _Genus et proavos_, &c., the motto to _The Rambler_, No. 46:--

'Nought from my birth or ancestors I claim; All is my own, my honor and my shame.'

See _ante_, ii. 153.

[764] That Langton is meant is shewn by Johnson's letter of July 5 (_post_, p. 265). The man who is there described as leaving the town in deep dudgeon was certainly Langton. 'Where is now my legacy?' writes Johnson. He is referring, I believe, to the last part of his playful and boisterous speech, where he says:--'I hope he has left me a legacy.' Mr.

Croker, who is great at suspicions, ridiculously takes the mention of a legacy seriously, and suspects 'some personal disappointment at the bottom of this strange obstreperous and sour merriment.' He might as well accuse Falstaff of sourness in his mirth.

[765] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 23, 1773, where Boswell makes the same remark.

[766]

'Et quorum pars magna fui.'

'Yea, and was no small part thereof.'

Morris, aeneids, ii. 6.

[767] Johnson, as drawn by Boswell, is too 'awful, melancholy, and venerable.' Such 'admirable fooling' as he describes here is but rarely shown in his pages. Yet he must often have seen equally 'ludicrous exhibitions.' Hawkins (_Life_, p. 258) says, that 'in the talent of humour there hardly ever was Johnson's equal, except perhaps among the old comedians.' Murphy writes (Life, p. l39):--'Johnson was surprised to be told, but it is certainly true, that with great powers of mind, wit and humour were his s.h.i.+ning talents.' Mrs. Piozzi confirms this. 'Mr.

Murphy,' she writes (_Anec_. p. 205), 'always said he was incomparable at buffoonery.' She adds (p. 298):--'He would laugh at a stroke of genuine humour, or sudden sally of odd absurdity, as heartily and freely as I ever yet saw any man; and though the jest was often such as few felt besides himself, yet his laugh was irresistible, and was observed immediately to produce that of the company, not merely from the notion that it was proper to laugh when he did, but purely out of want of power to forbear it.' Miss Burney records:--'Dr. Johnson has more fun, and comical humour, and love of nonsense about him than almost anybody I ever saw.' Mine. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 204. See Boswell's own account, _post_, end of vol. iv.

[768] _Pr. and Med_. p. 129. BOSWELL. See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_ for Johnson's study of Low Dutch.

[769] 'Those that laugh at the portentous glare of a comet, and hear a crow with equal tranquillity from the right or left, will yet talk of times and situations proper for intellectual performances,' &c. _The Idler_, No. xi. See _ante_, i. 332.

[770] 'He did not see at all with one of his eyes' (_ante_, i. 41).

[771] Not six months before his death, he wished me to teach him the Scale of Musick:--'Dr. Burney, teach me at least the alphabet of your language.' BURNEY.

[772] Accurata Burdonum [i.e. Scaligerorum] Fabulae Confutatio (auctore I. R). Lugduni Batavorum. Apud Ludovic.u.m Elzevirium MDCXVII. BRIT. MUS.

CATALOGUE.