Life of Johnson
Chapter 82 : _Ra.s.selas_, chap, xi. His step-daughter, Miss Porter, though for many years she was w

_Ra.s.selas_, chap, xi. His step-daughter, Miss Porter, though for many years she was well off, had never been to London. _Post_, March 23, 1776. Nay, according to Horace Walpole (_Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, iv. 327), 'George III. had never seen the sea, nor ever been thirty miles from London at the age of thirty-four.'

[1019] For the letters written at this time by Johnson to his mother and Miss Porter, see Appendix B.

[1020] _Ra.s.selas_ was published in two volumes, duodecimo, and was sold for five s.h.i.+llings. It was reviewed in the _Gent. Mag_. for April, and was no doubt published in that month. In a letter to Miss Porter dated March 23, 1759 (See Appendix), Johnson says:--'I am going to publish a little story-book, which I will send you when it is out.' I may here remark that the _Gent. Mag_. was published at the end of the month, or even later. Thus the number for April, 1759, contains news as late as April 30. The name _Ra.s.selas_ Johnson got from Lobo's _Voyage to Abyssinia_. On p. 102 of that book he mentions 'Ra.s.sela Christos, Lieutenant-General to _Abysinia; Sultan Segued.' On p. 262 he explains the meaning of the first part of the word:--'There is now a Generalissimo established under the t.i.tle of _Ras_, or _Chief_.' The t.i.tle still exists. Colonel Gordon mentions Ras Arya and Ras Aloula. The Rev. W. West, in his _Introduction to Ra.s.selas_, p. x.x.xi (Sampson Low and Co.), says:--'The word _Ras_, which is common to the Amharic, Arabic, and Hebrew tongues, signifies a _head_, and hence a prince, chief, or captain.... Sela Christos means either "Picture of Christ," or "For the sake of Christ."'

[1021] Hawkins's Johnson, p. 367.

[1022] See _post_, June 2, 1781. Finding it then accidentally in a chaise with Mr. Boswell, he read it eagerly. This was doubtless long after his declaration to Sir Joshua Reynolds. MALONE.

[1023] Baretti told Malone that 'Johnson insisted on part of the money being paid immediately, and accordingly received 70. Any other person with the degree of reputation he then possessed would have got 400 for that work, but he never understood the art of making the most of his productions.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 160. Some of the other circ.u.mstances there related by Baretti are not correct.

[1024] Hawkesworth received 6000 for his revision of Cook's _Voyages_; _post_, May 7, 1773.

[1025] See _post_, March 4, 1773.

[1026] _Ecclesiastes_, i. 14.

[1027] See _post_, May 16, 1778. It should seem that _Candide_ was published in the latter half of February 1759. Grimm in his letter of March 1, speaks of its having just appeared. 'M. de Voltaire vient de nous egayer par un pet.i.t roman.' He does not mention it in his previous letter of Feb. 15. _Grimm, Carres. Lit_. (edit. 1829), ii. 296.

Johnson's letter to Miss Porter, quoted in the Appendix, shows that Ra.s.selas was written before March 23; how much earlier cannot be known.

_Candide_ is in the May list of books in the _Gent. Mag_. (pp. 233-5), price 2_s_. 6_d_., and with it two translations, each price 1_s_. 6_d_.

[1028] See _post_, June 13, 1763.

[1029] In the original,--'which, perhaps, prevails.' _Ra.s.selas_, ch.

x.x.xi.

[1030] This is the second time that Boswell puts 'morbid melancholy' in quotation marks (ante, p. 63). Perhaps he refers to a pa.s.sage in Hawkins's _Johnson_ (p. 287), where the author speaks of Johnson's melancholy as 'this morbid affection, as he was used to call it.'

[1031] 'Perfect through sufferings.' _Hebrews_, ii. 10.

[1032] Perhaps the reference is to the conclusion of _Le Monde comme il va_:--'Il resolut ... de laisser aller _le monde comme il va_; car, dit il, _si tout riest pas bien, tout est pa.s.sable_.'

[1033] Gray, _On a Distant Prospect of Eton College_.

[1034] Johnson writing to Mrs. Thrale said:--'_Vivite lacti_ is one of the great rules of health.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 55. 'It was the motto of a bishop very eminent for his piety and good works in King Charles the Second's reign, _Inservi Deo et laetare_--"Serve G.o.d and be cheerful."' Addison's _Freeholder_, No. 45.

[1035] Literary and Moral Character of Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL.

[1036] This paper was in such high estimation before it was collected into volumes, that it was seized on with avidity by various publishers of news-papers and magazines, to enrich their publications. Johnson, to put a stop to this unfair proceeding, wrote for the _Universal Chronicle_ the following advertis.e.m.e.nt; in which there is, perhaps, more pomp of words than the occasion demanded:

'London, January 5, 1759. ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT. The proprietors of the paper int.i.tled _The Idler_, having found that those essays are inserted in the news-papers and magazines with so little regard to justice or decency, that the _Universal Chronicle_, in which they first appear, is not always mentioned, think it necessary to declare to the publishers of those collections, that however patiently they have hitherto endured these injuries, made yet more injurious by contempt, they have now determined to endure them no longer. They have already seen essays, for which a very large price is paid, transferred, with the most shameless rapacity, into the weekly or monthly compilations, and their right, at least for the present, alienated from them, before they could themselves be said to enjoy it. But they would not willingly be thought to want tenderness, even for men by whom no tenderness hath been shewn. The past is without remedy, and shall be without resentment. But those who have been thus busy with their sickles in the fields of their neighbours, are henceforward to take notice, that the time of impunity is at an end.

Whoever shall, without our leave, lay the hand of rapine upon our papers, is to expect that we shall vindicate our due, by the means which justice prescribes, and which are warranted by the immemorial prescriptions of honourable trade. We shall lay hold, in our turn, on their copies, degrade them from the pomp of wide margin and diffuse typography, contract them into a narrow s.p.a.ce, and sell them at an humble price; yet not with a view of growing rich by confiscations, for we think not much better of money got by punishment than by crimes. We shall, therefore, when our losses are repaid, give what profit shall remain to the _Magdalens_; for we know not who can be more properly taxed for the support of penitent prost.i.tutes, than prost.i.tutes in whom there yet appears neither penitence nor shame.' BOSWELL.

[1037] I think that this letter belongs to a later date, probably to 1765 or 1766. As we learn, _post_, April 10, 1776, Simpson was a barrister 'who fell into a dissipated course of life.' On July 2, 1765, Johnson records that he repaid him ten guineas which he had borrowed in the lifetime of Mrs. Johnson (his wife). He also lent him ten guineas more. If it was in 1759 that Simpson was troubled by small debts, it is most unlikely that Johnson let six years more pa.s.s without repaying him a loan which even then was at least of seven years' standing. Moreover, in this letter Johnson writes:--'I have been invited, or have invited myself, to several parts of the kingdom.' The only visits, it seems, that he paid between 1754-1762 were to Oxford in 1759 and to Lichfield in the winter of 1761-2. After 1762, when his pension gave him means, he travelled frequently. Besides all this, he says of his step-daughter:-- 'I will not incommode my dear Lucy by coming to Lichfield, while her present lodging is of any use to her.' Miss Porter seems to have lived in his house till she had built one for herself. Though his letter to her of Jan. 10, 1764 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 163), shews that it was then building, yet she had not left his house on Jan. 14, 1766 (_ib_.

p. 173).

'To JOSEPH SIMPSON, ESQ.

'DEAR SIR,

'Your father's inexorability not only grieves but amazes me[1038]: he is your father; he was always accounted a wise man; nor do I remember any thing to the disadvantage of his good-nature; but in his refusal to a.s.sist you there is neither good-nature, fatherhood, nor wisdom. It is the practice of good-nature to overlook faults which have already, by the consequences, punished the delinquent. It is natural for a father to think more favourably than others of his children; and it is always wise to give a.s.sistance while a little help will prevent the necessity of greater.

[1038] In the _Rambler_, No. 148, ent.i.tled 'The cruelty of parental tyranny,' Johnson, after noticing the oppression inflicted by the perversion of legal authority, says:--'Equally dangerous and equally detestable are the cruelties often exercised in private families, under the venerable sanction of parental authority.' He continues:--'Even though no consideration should be paid to the great law of social beings, by which every individual is commanded to consult the happiness of others, yet the harsh parent is less to be vindicated than any other criminal, because he less provides for the happiness of himself.' See also _post_, March 29, 1779. A pa.s.sage in one of Boswell's _Letters to Temple_ (p. 111) may also be quoted here:--'The time was when such a letter from my father as the one I enclose would have depressed; but I am now firm, and, as my revered friend, Mr. Samuel Johnson, used to say, _I feel the privileges of an independent human being_; however, it is hard that I cannot have the pious satisfaction of being well with my father.'

[1039] Perhaps 'Van,' for Vansittart.

[1040] Lord Stowell informs me that Johnson prided himself in being, during his visits to Oxford, accurately academic in all points: and he wore his gown almost _ostentatiously_. CROKER.

[1041] Dr. Robert Vansittart, of the ancient and respectable family of that name in Berks.h.i.+re. He was eminent for learning and worth, and much esteemed by Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL. Johnson perhaps proposed climbing over the wall on the day on which 'University College witnessed him drink three bottles of port without being the worse for it.' _Post_, April 7, 1778.

[1042] _Gentleman's Magazine_, April, 1785. BOSWELL. The speech was made on July 7, 1759, the last day of 'the solemnity of the installment' of the Earl of Westmoreland as Chancellor of the University. On the 3rd 'the ceremony began with a grand procession of n.o.blemen, doctors, &c., in their proper habits, which pa.s.sed through St. Mary's, and was there joined by the Masters of Arts in their proper habits; and from thence proceeded to the great gate of the Sheldonian Theatre, in which the most numerous and brilliant a.s.sembly of persons of quality and distinction was seated, that had ever been seen there on any occasion.' _Gent. Mag_.

xxix. 342. Would that we had some description of Johnson, as, in his new and handsome gown, he joined the procession among the Masters! See _ante_, p. 281.

[1043] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3d edit. p. 126 [Aug. 31].

BOSWELL. The chance of death from disease would seem also to have been greater on the s.h.i.+p than in a jail. In _The Idler_ (No. 38) Johnson estimates that one in four of the prisoners dies every year. In his Review of Hanway's _Essay on Tea_ (_Works_, vi. 31) he states that he is told that 'of the five or six hundred seamen sent to China, sometimes half, commonly a third part, perish in the voyage.' See _post_, April 10, 1778.

[1044] _Ibid_. p. 251 [Sept. 23]. BOSWELL.

[1045] In my first edition this word was printed _Chum_, as it appears, in one of Mr. Wilkes's _Miscellanies_, and I animadverted on Dr.

Smollet's ignorance; for which let me propitiate the _manes_ of that ingenious and benevolent gentleman. CHUM was certainly a mistaken reading for _Cham_, the t.i.tle of the Sovereign of Tartary, which is well applied to Johnson, the Monarch of Literature; and was an epithet familiar to Smollet. See _Roderick Random_, chap. 56. For this correction I am indebted to Lord Palmerston, whose talents and literary acquirements accord well with his respectable pedigree of TEMPLE BOSWELL.

After the publication of the second edition of this work, the author was furnished by Mr. Abercrombie, of Philadelphia, with the copy of a letter written by Dr. John Armstrong, the poet, to Dr. Smollet at Leghorne, containing the following paragraph:--'As to the K. Bench patriot, it is hard to say from what motive he published a letter of yours asking some triffling favour of him in behalf of somebody, for whom the great CHAM of literature, Mr. Johnson, had interested himself.' MALONE. In the first edition Boswell had said:--'Had Dr. Smollet been bred at an English University, he would have know that a _chum_ is a student who lives with another in a chamber common to them both. A _chum of literature_ is nonsense.'

[1046] In a note to that piece of bad book-making, Almon's _Memoirs of Wilkes_ (i. 47), this allusion is thus explained:-'A pleasantry of Mr.

Wilkes on that pa.s.sage in Johnson's _Grammar of the English Tongue_, prefixed to the Dictionary--"_H_ seldom, perhaps never, begins any but the first syllable."' For this 'pleasantry' see _ante_, p. 300.

[1047] Mr. Croker says that he was not discharged till June 1760. Had he been discharged at once he would have found Johnson moving from Gough Square to Staple Inn; for in a letter to Miss Porter, dated March 23, 1739, given in the Appendix, Johnson said:-'I have this day moved my things, and you are now to direct to me at Staple Inn.'

[1048] _Prayers and Meditations _, pp. 30 [39] and 40. BOSWELL.

[1049] 'I have left off housekeeping' wrote Johnson to Langton on Jan.

9, 1759. Murphy (_Life_, p. 90), writing of the beginning of the year 1759, says:--'Johnson now found it necessary to retrench his expenses.

He gave up his house in Gough Square. Mrs. Williams went into lodgings [See _post_, July 1, 1763]. He retired to Gray's-Inn, [he had first moved to Staple Inn], and soon removed to chambers in the Inner Temple-lane, where he lived in poverty, total idleness, and the pride of literature, _Magni stat nominis umbra_. Mr. Fitzherbert used to say that he paid a morning visit to Johnson, intending from his chambers to send a letter into the city; but, to his great surprise, he found an authour by profession without pen, ink, or paper.' (It was Mr. Fitzherbert, who sent Johnson some wine. See _ante_, p. 305, note 2. See also _post_, Sept. 15, 1777). The following doc.u.ments confirm Murphy's statement of Johnson's poverty at this time:

'May 19, 1759.

'I promise to pay to Mr. Newbery the sum of forty-two pounds, nineteen s.h.i.+llings, and ten pence on demand, value received. 42 19 10.

'Sam. Johnson.'

'March 20, 1760.

'I promise to pay to Mr. Newbery the sum of thirty pounds upon demand., 30 0 0.

'Sam. Johnson.'

In 1751 he had thrice borrowed money of Newbery, but the total amount of the loans was only four guineas. Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 340. With Johnson's want of pen, ink, and paper we may compare the account that he gives of Savage's dest.i.tution (_Works_, viii. 3):--'Nor had he any other conveniences for study than the fields or the streets allowed him; there he used to walk and form his speeches, and afterwards step into a shop, beg for a few moments the use of the pen and ink, and write down what he had composed upon paper which he had picked up by accident.' Hawkins (_Life_, p. 383) says that Johnson's chambers were two doors down the Inner Temple Lane. 'I have been told,' he continues, 'by his neighbour at the corner, that during the time he dwelt there, more inquiries were made at his shop for Mr. Johnson, than for all the inhabitants put together of both the Inner and Middle Temple.' In a court opening out of Fleet Street, Goldsmith at this very time was still more miserably lodged. In the beginning of March 1759, Percy found him 'employed in writing his _Enquiry into Polite Learning_ in a wretched dirty room, in which there was but one chair, and when he from civility offered it to his visitant, himself was obliged to sit in the window.' _Goldsmith's Misc. Works_, i. 61.

[1050] Sir John Hawkins (Life, p. 373) has given a long detail of it, in that manner vulgarly, but significantly, called rigmarole; in which, amidst an ostentatious exhibition of arts and artists, he talks of 'proportions of a column being taken from that of the human figure, and _adjusted by Nature_--masculine and feminine--in a man, sesquioctave of the head, and in a woman _sesquinonal_;' nor has he failed to introduce a jargon of musical terms, which do not seem much to correspond with the subject, but serve to make up the heterogeneous ma.s.s. To follow the Knight through all this, would be an useless fatigue to myself, and not a little disgusting to my readers. I shall, therefore, only make a few remarks upon his statement.--He seems to exult in having detected Johnson in procuring 'from a person eminently skilled in Mathematicks and the principles of architecture, answers to a string of questions drawn up by himself, touching the comparative strength of semicircular and elliptical arches.' Now I cannot conceive how Johnson could have acted more wisely. Sir John complains that the opinion of that excellent mathematician, Mr. Thomas Simpson, did not preponderate in favour of the semicircular arch. But he should have known, that however eminent Mr.