Life of Johnson
Chapter 93 : [1379] Johnson's visit to Gordon and Maclaurin are just mentioned in Boswell'

[1379] Johnson's visit to Gordon and Maclaurin are just mentioned in Boswell's _Hebrides_, under Nov. 11, 1772.

[1380] The only n.o.bleman with whom he dined 'about the same time' was Lord Elibank. After dining with him, 'he supped,' says Boswell, 'with my wife and myself.' _Ib_.

[1381] See _post_, April 15, 1778.

[1382] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 102) says, 'Johnson's own notions about eating were nothing less than delicate; a leg of pork boiled till it dropped from the bone, a veal-pie with plums and sugar, or the outside cut of a salt b.u.t.tock of beef were his favourite dainties.' Cradock saw Burke at a tavern dinner send Johnson a very small piece of a pie, the crust of which was made with bad b.u.t.ter. 'Johnson soon returned his plate for more. Burke exclaimed:--"I am glad that you are able so well to relish this pie." Johnson, not at all pleased that what he ate should ever be noticed, retorted:--"There is a time of life, Sir, when a man requires the repairs of a table."' Cradock's _Memoirs_, i. 229. A pa.s.sage in Baretti's _Italy_, ii. 316, seems to show that English eating in general was not delicate. 'I once heard a Frenchman swear,' he writes, 'that he hated the English, "parce qu'ils versent du beurre fondu sur leur veau rod."'

[1383] 'He had an abhorrence of affectation,' said Mr. Langton. _Post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_.

[1384] At college he would not let his companions say _prodigious_.

_Post_, April 17, 1778.

[1385] See _post_, Sept. 19, 1777, and 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. Dugald Stewart quotes a saying of Turgot:--'He who had never doubted of the existence of matter might be a.s.sured he had no turn for metaphysical disquisitions.' _Life of Reid_, p. 416.

[1386] Claude Buffier, born 1661, died 1737. Author of _Traite despremieres verites et de la source de nos jugements_.

[1387]

'Not when a gilt buffet's reflected pride Turns you from sound philosophy aside.'

Pope's _Satires_, ii. 5.

[1388] Mackintosh (_Life_, i. 71) said that 'Burke's treatise on the _Sublime and Beautiful_ is rather a proof that his mind was not formed for pure philosophy; and if we may believe Boswell that it was once the intention of Mr. Burke to have written against Berkeley, we may be a.s.sured that he would not have been successful in answering that great speculator; or, to speak more correctly, that he could not have discovered the true nature of the questions in dispute, and thus have afforded the only answer consistent with the limits of the human faculties.'

[1389] Goldsmith's _Retaliation_.

[1390] I have the following autograph letter written by Johnson to Dr.

Taylor three weeks after Boswell's departure.

'DEAR SIR,

'Having with some impatience reckoned upon hearing from you these two last posts, and been disappointed, I can form to myself no reason for the omission but your perturbation of mind, or disorder of body arising from it, and therefore I once more advise removal from Ashbourne as the proper remedy both for the cause and the effect.

'You perhaps ask, whither should I go? any whither where your case is not known, and where your presence will cause neither looks nor whispers. Where you are the necessary subject of common talk, you will not safely be at rest.

'If you cannot conveniently write to me yourself let somebody write for you to

'Dear Sir,

'Your most affectionate,

'SAM. JOHNSON.

'August 25, 1763.

'To the Reverend Dr. Taylor in Ashbourne, Derbys.h.i.+re.'

Five other letters on the same subject are given in _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. pp. 324, 342, 382. Taylor and his wife 'never lived very well together' (p. 325), and at last she left him. On May 22nd of the next year Johnson congratulated Taylor 'upon the happy end of so vexatious an affair, the happyest [sic] that could be next to reformation and reconcilement' (p. 382). Taylor did not follow the advice to leave Ashbourne; for on Sept. 3 Johnson wrote to him:--'You seem to be so well pleased to be where you are, that I shall not now press your removal; but do not believe that every one who rails at your wife wishes well to you. A small country town is not the place in which one would chuse to quarrel with a wife; every human being in such places is a spy.'

_Ib_. p. 343.

[1391] According to Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 210) he was accompanied by his black servant Frank. 'I must have you know, ladies,' said he, 'that Frank has carried the empire of Cupid further than most men. When I was in Lincolns.h.i.+re so many years ago he attended me thither; and when we returned home together, I found that a female haymaker had followed him to London for love.' If this story is generally true, it bears the mark of Mrs. Piozzi's usual inaccuracy. The visit was paid early in the year, and was over in February; what haymakers were there at that season?

[1392] Boswell by his quotation marks refers, I think, to his _Hebrides_, Oct. 24, 1773, where Johnson says:--'n.o.body, at times, talks more laxly than I do.' See also _post_, ii. 73.

[1393] See _post_, April 26, 1776, for old Mr. Langton's slowness of understanding.

[1394] See _ante_, i. 320.

[1395] Mr. Best (_Memorials_, p. 65) thus writes of a visit to Langton:--'We walked to the top of a very steep hill behind the house.

Langton said, "Poor dear Dr. Johnson, when he came to this spot, turned back to look down the hill, and said he was determined to take a roll down. When we understood what he meant to do, we endeavoured to dissuade him; but he was resolute, saying, he had not had a roll for a long time; and taking out of his lesser pockets whatever might be in them, and laying himself parallel with the edge of the hill, he actually descended, turning himself over and over till he came to the bottom."

This story was told with such gravity, and with an air of such affectionate remembrance of a departed friend, that it was impossible to suppose this extraordinary freak an invention of Mr. Langton.' It must have been in the winter that he had this roll.

[1396] Boswell himself so calls it in a Mr. letter to Temple written three or four months after Garrick's death, _Letters of Boswell_, p.

242. See also Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25, 1773.

[1397] Malone says:--'Reynolds was the original founder of our Literary Club about the year 1762, the first thought of which he started to Dr.

Johnson at his own fireside.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 434. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 122) says:--'Johnson called Reynolds their Romulus, or said somebody else of the company called him so, which was more likely.'

According to Hawkins (_Life_, p. 425) the Club was founded in the winter of 1763, i.e. 1763-4.

[1398] Dr. Nugent, a physician, was Burke's father-in-law. Macaulay (_Essays_, i. 407) says:--'As we close Boswell's book, the club-room is before us, and the table on which stands the omelet for Nugent, and the lemons for Johnson.' It was from Mrs. Piozzi that Macaulay learnt of the omelet. Nugent was a Roman Catholic, and it was on Friday that the Club before long came to meet. We may a.s.sume that he would not on that day eat meat. 'I fancy,' Mrs. Piozzi writes (_Anec_. p. 122), 'Dr. Nugent ordered an omelet sometimes on a Friday or Sat.u.r.day night; for I remember Mr. Johnson felt very painful sensations at the sight of that dish soon after his death, and cried:--"Ah my poor dear friend! I shall never eat omelet with _thee_ again!" quite in an agony.' Dr. Nugent, in the imaginary college at St. Andrews, was to be the professor of physic.

Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25, 1773.

[1399] Mr. Andrew Chamier was of Huguenot descent, and had been a stock-broker. He was a man of liberal education. 'He acquired such a fortune as enabled him, though young, to quit business, and become, what indeed he seemed by nature intended for, a gentleman.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 422. In 1764 he was Secretary in the War Office. In 1775 he was appointed Under Secretary of State. Forster's _Goldsmith_, i.

310. He was to be the professor of commercial politics in the imaginary college. Johnson pa.s.sed one of his birth-days at his house; _post_, under Sept. 9, 1779, note.

[1400] 'It was Johnson's intention,' writes Hawkins (_Life_, p. 423), 'that their number should not exceed nine.' Nine was the number of the Ivy Lane Club (_ante_, p. 190). Johnson, I suppose, looked upon nine as the most _clubable_ number. 'It was intended,' says Dr. Percy, 'that if only two of these chanced to meet for the evening, they should be able to entertain each other.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 70. Hawkins adds that 'Mr. Dyer (_post_, 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_), a member of the Ivy Lane Club, who for some years had been abroad, made his appearance among us, and was cordially received.' According to Dr.

Percy, by 1768 not only had Hawkins formally withdrawn, but Beauclerk had forsaken the club for more fas.h.i.+onable ones. 'Upon this the Club agreed to increase their number to twelve; every new member was to be elected by ballot, and one black ball was sufficient for exclusion. Mr.

Beauclerk then desired to be restored to the Society, and the following new members were introduced on Monday, Feb. 15, 1768; Sir R. Chambers, Dr. Percy and Mr. Colman.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 72. In the list in Croker's _Boswell_, ed. 1844, ii. 326, the election of Percy and Chambers is placed in 1765.

[1401] Boswell wrote on April 4, 1775:--'I dine, Friday, at the Turk's Head, Gerrard-street, with our Club, Sir Joshua Reynolds, etc., who now dine once a month, and sup every Friday.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 186.

In 1766, Monday was the night of meeting. _Post_, May 10, 1766. In Dec.

1772 the night was changed to Friday. Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 72.

Hawkins says (_Life_, pp. 424, 5):--'We seldom got together till nine; preparing supper took up till ten; and by the time that the table was cleared, it was near eleven. Our evening toast was the motto of Padre Paolo, _Esto perpetua! Esto perpetua_ was being soon not Padre Paolo's motto, but his dying prayer. 'As his end evidently approached, the brethren of the convent came to p.r.o.nounce the last prayers, with which he could only join in his thoughts, being able to p.r.o.nounce no more than these words, "_Esto perpetua_" mayst thou last for ever; which was understood to be a prayer for the prosperity of his country.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 269.

[1402] See _post_, March 14, 1777.

[1403] 'After 1783 it removed to Prince's in Sackville-street, and on his house being soon afterwards shut up, it removed to Baxter's, which subsequently became Thomas's, in Dover-street. In January 1792 it removed to Parsloe's, in St. James's-street; and on February 26, 1799, to the Thatched-house in the same street.' Forster's _Goldsmith_ i. 311.

[1404] The second edition is here spoken of. MALONE.

[1405] _Life of Johnson_, p. 425. BOSWELL.

[1406] From Sir Joshua Reynolds. BOSWELL. The Knight having refused to pay his portion of the reckoning for supper, because he usually eat no supper at home, Johnson observed, 'Sir John, Sir, is a very _unclubable_ man.' BURNEY. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 231) says that 'Mr. Dyer had contracted a fatal intimacy with some persons of desperate fortunes, who were dealers in India stock, at a time when the affairs of the company were in a state of fluctuation.' Malone, commenting on this pa.s.sage, says that 'under these words Mr. Burke is darkly alluded to, together with his cousin.' He adds that the character given of Dyer by Hawkins 'is discoloured by the malignant prejudices of that shallow writer, who, having quarrelled with Mr. Burke, carried his enmity even to Mr. Burke's friends.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 419. See also _ante_, p. 27. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 420) said of Goldsmith:--'As he wrote for the booksellers, we at the Club looked on him as a mere literary drudge, equal to the task of compiling and translating, but little capable of original, and still less of poetical composition.'

[1407] _Life of Johnson_, p. 425. BOSWELL. Hawkins is 'equally inaccurate' in saying' that Johnson was so constant at our meetings as never to absent himself.' (_Ib_. p. 424.) See _post_, Johnson's letter to Langton of March 9, 1766, where he says:--'Dyer is constant at the Club; Hawkins is remiss; I am not over diligent.'

[1408] Letters to and from Dr. Johnson. Vol. ii. p. 278 [387]. BOSWELL.

The pa.s.sage is as follows:--'"If he _does_ apply," says our Doctor to Mr. Thrale, "I'll black-ball him." "Who, Sir? Mr. Garrick, your friend, your companion,--black-ball him!" "Why, Sir, I love my little David dearly, better than all or any of his flatterers do, but surely one ought, &c."'