Life of Johnson
Chapter 81 : Stevens. On Jan. 5, 1760, the t.i.tle was changed to _The Universal Chronicle and Westm

Stevens. On Jan. 5, 1760, the t.i.tle was changed to _The Universal Chronicle and Westminster Journal_, and it was published by W. Faden and R. Stevens. On March 15, 1760, it was published by R. Stevens alone. The paper consisted of eight pages. _The Idler_, which varied in length, came first, and was printed in larger characters, much like a leading article. The changes in t.i.tle and owners.h.i.+p seem to show that in spite of Johnson's contributions it was not a successful publication.

[986] 'Those papers may be considered as a kind of syllabus of all Reynolds's future discourses, and certainly occasioned him some thinking in their composition. I have heard him say, that Johnson required them from him on a sudden emergency, and on that account, he sat up the whole night to complete them in time; and by it he was so much disordered, that it produced a vertigo in his head.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 89, Reynolds must have spoken of only one paper; as the three, appearing as they did on Sept. 29, Oct. 20, and Nov. 10, could not have been required at one time.

[987] 'To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavours with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.' _The Idler_, No. 17.

[988] Prayers and Meditations, p. 30 [36], BOSWELL.

[989] In July, 1759.

[990] This number was published a few days after his mother's death. It is in the form of a letter, which is thus introduced:-'The following letter relates to an affliction perhaps not necessary to be imparted to the publick; but I could not persuade myself to suppress it, because I think I know the sentiments to be sincere, and I feel no disposition to provide for this day any other entertainment.'

[991] In the table of contents the t.i.tle of No. 58 is, 'Expectations of pleasure frustrated.' In the original edition of _The Idler_ no t.i.tles are given. In this paper he shews that 'nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.'

[992] In this paper he begins by considering, 'why the only thinking being of this globe is doomed to think merely to be wretched, and to pa.s.s his time from youth to age in fearing or in suffering calamities.'

He ends by a.s.serting that 'of what virtue there is, misery produces far the greater part.'

[993] 'There are few things,' he writes, 'not purely evil, of which we can say, without some emotion of uneasiness, _this is the last_.... The secret horrour of the last is inseparable from a thinking being, whose life is limited, and to whom death is dreadful.'

[994] 'I asked him one day, why the _Idlers_ were published without mottoes. He replied, that it was forborne the better to conceal himself, and escape discovery. "But let us think of some now," said he, "for the next edition. We can fit the two volumnes in two hours, can't we?"

Accordingly he recollected, and I wrote down these following (nine mottoes) till come friend coming in, in about five minutes, put an end to our further progress on the subject.' _Piossi Letters_, ii. 388.

[995] See _post_, July 14 and 26, 1763, April 14, 1775, and Aug. 2, 1784, note for instances in which Johnson ridicules the notion that weather and seasons have any necessary effect on man; also April 17, 1778. In the _Life of Milton_ (_Works_. vii. 102), he writes:--'this dependence of the soul upon the seasons, those temporary and periodical ebbs and flows of intellect, may, I suppose, justly be derided as the fumes of vain imagination. _Sapiens dominabitur astro_. The author that thinks himself weather-bound will find, with a little help from h.e.l.lebore, that he is only idle or exhausted. But while this notion has possession of the head, it produces the inability with it supposes. Our powers owe much of their energy to our hopes; _possunt quin posse vidertur_.' Boswell records, in his _Hebrides_ (Aug. 16, 1773), that when 'somebody talked of happy moments for composition,' Johnson said:--'Nay, a man may write at any time, if he will set himself _doggedly_ to it.' Reynolds, who Alas! avowed how much he had learnt from Johnson (_ante_, p. 245), says much the same in his _Seventh Discourse_: 'But when, in plain prose, we gravely talk of courting the Muse in shady bowers; waiting the call and inspiration of Genius ... of attending to times and seasons when the imagination shoots with the greatest vigour, whether at the summer solstice or the vernal equinox ... when we talk such language or entertain such sentiments as these, we generally rest contented with mere words, or at best entertain notions not only groundless but pernicious.' Reynolds's _Works_, i. 150. On the other hand, in 1773 Johnson recorded:--'Between Easter and Whitsuntide, having always considered that time as propitious to study, I attempted to learn the Low-Dutch language.' _Post_, under May 9, 1773. In _The Rambler_, No. 80, he says:--'To the men of study and imagination the winter is generally the chief time of labour. Gloom and silence produce composure of mind and concentration of ideas.' In a letter to Mrs.

Thrale, written in 1775, he says:--'Most men have their bright and their Cloudy days, at least they have days when they put their powers into act, and days when they suffer them to repose.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.

265. In 1781 he wrote:--'I thought myself above a.s.sistance or obstruction from the seasons; but find the autumnal blast sharp and nipping, and the fading world an uncomfortable prospect.' _Ib_. ii. 220.

Again, in the last year of his life he wrote:--'The: weather, you know, has not been balmy. I am now reduced to think, and am at least content to talk, of the weather. Pride must have a fall.' _Post_, Aug. 2, 1784.

[996] Addison's _Cato_, act i. sc. 4.

[997] Johnson, reviewing the d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough's attack on Queen Mary, says (_Works_, vi. 8):--'This is a character so different from all those that have been hitherto given of this celebrated princess, that the reader stands in suspense, till he considers that ... it has. .h.i.therto had this great advantage, that it has only been compared with those of kings.'

[998] Johnson had explained how it comes to pa.s.s that Englishmen talk so commonly of the weather. He continues:--'Such is the reason of our practice; and who shall treat it with contempt? Surely not the attendant on a court, whose business is to watch the looks of a being weak and foolish as himself, and whose vanity is to recount the names of men, who might drop into nothing, and leave no vacuity.... The weather is a n.o.bler and more interesting subject; it is the present state of the skies and of the earth, on which plenty and famine are suspended, on which millions depend for the necessaries of life.' 'Garrick complained that when he went to read before the court, not a look or a murmur testified approbation; there was a profound stillness--every one only watched to see what the king thought.' Hazlitt's _Conversations of Northcote_, p. 262.

[999] _The Idler_, No. 90. See _post_, April 3, 1773, where he declaims against action in public speaking.

[1000] He now and then repeats himself. Thus, in _The Idler_, No. 37, he moralises on the story, how Socrates, pa.s.sing through the fair at Athens, cried out:--'How many things are here which I do not need!'

though he had already moralised on it in _the Adventurer_, Nos. 67, 119.

[1001] No. 34.

[1002] _Poems on Several Occasions_, by Thomas Blacklock, p. 179. See _post_, Aug. 5, 1763, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 17, 1773.

[1003] 'Among the papers of Newbery, in the possession of Mr. Murray, is the account rendered on the collection of _The Idler_ into two small volumes, when the arrangement seems to have been that Johnson should receive two-thirds of the profits.

_The Idler_.

'DR. . s. d.

Paid for Advertising.. 20 0 6 Printing two vols., 1,500 41 13 0 Paper. . . . . . . 52 3 0 * * * * *

113 16 6 Profit on the edition . 126 3 6 * * * * *

240 0 0 * * * * *

'CR. . s. d.

1,500 Sets at 16 per 100 240 0 0 * * * * *

Dr. Johnson two-thirds 84 2 4 Mr. Newbery one-third. 42 1 2 * * * * *

126 3 6 * * * * *

Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 204.

If this account is correctly printed, the sale must have been slow. The first edition (2 vols. 5s.) was published in Oct. 1761, (_Gent. Mag_.

x.x.xi. 479). Johnson is called Dr. in the account; but he was not made an LL.D. till July 1765. Prior, in his _Life of Goldsmith_ (i. 459), publishes an account between Goldsmith and Newbery in which the first entry is:--

'1761. Oct. 14, 1 set of _The Idler_. . . . . 0 50 0.'

Johnson, as Newbery's papers show, a year later bought a copy of Goldsmith's _Life of Nash_; _ib_. p. 405.

[1004] See _ante_, p. 306.

[1005] This paper may be found in Stockdale's supplemental volume of Johnson's _Miscellaneous Pieces_. BOSWELL. Stockdale's supplemental volumes--for there are two--are vols. xii. and xiii. of what is known as 'Hawkins's edition.' In this paper (_Works_, iv. 450) he represents in a fable two vultures speculating on that mischievous being, man, 'who is the only beast who kills that which he does not devour,' who at times is seen to move in herds, while 'there is in every herd one that gives directions to the rest, and seems to be more eminently delighted with a wide carnage.'

[1006] 'Receipts for _Shakespeare_.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.

[1007] 'Then of Lincoln College. Now Sir Robert Chambers, one of the Judges in India.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.

[1008] Old Mr. Langton's niece. See _post,_ July 14, 1763.

[1009] 'Mr. Langton.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.

[1010] Boswell records:--'Lady Di Beauclerk told me that Langton had never been to see her since she came to Richmond, his head was so full of the militia and Greek. "Why," said I, "Madam, he is of such a length he is awkward and not easily moved." "But," said she, "if he had lain himself at his length, his feet had been in London, and his head might have been here _eodem die_."' _Boswelliana_, p. 297.

[1011] 'Part of the impression of the _Shakespeare_, which Dr. Johnson conducted alone, and published by subscription. This edition came out in 1765.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.

[1012] Stockdale records (_Memoirs_, ii. 191), that after he had entered on his charge as domestic tutor to Lord Craven's son, he called on Johnson, who asked him how he liked his place. On his hesitating to answer, he said: 'You must expect insolence.' He added that in his youth he had entertained great expectations from a powerful family. "At length," he said, "I found that their promises, and consequently my expectations, vanished into air.... But, Sir, they would have treated me much worse, if they had known that motives from which I paid my court to them were purely selfish, and what opinion I had formed of them." He added, that since he knew mankind, he had not, on any occasion, been the sport of such delusion and that he had never been disappointed by anyone but himself.'

[1013] This, and some of the other letters to Langton, were not received by Boswell till the first volume of the second edition had been carried through the press. He gave them as a supplement to the second volume.

The date of this letter was there wrongly given as June 27, 1758. In the third edition it was corrected. Nevertheless the letter was misplaced as if the wrong date were the right one. Langton, as I have shewn (_ante_, p. 247), subscribed the articles at Oxford on July 7, 1757. He must have come into residence, as Johnson did (_ante_, p. 58), some little while before this subscription.

[1014] Major-General Alexander Dury, of the first regiment of foot-guards, who fell in the gallant discharge of his duty, near St.

Cas, in the well-known unfortunate expedition against France, in 1758.

His lady and Mr. Langton's mother was sisters. He left an only son, Lieutenant-Colonel Dury, who has a company in the same regiment.

BOSWELL. The expedition had been sent against St. Malo early in September. Failing in the attempt, the land forces retreated to St. Cas, where, while embarking, they were attacked by the French. About 400 of our soldiers were made prisoners, and 600 killed and wounded. _Ann.

Reg_.i.68.

[1015] See _post_, 1770, in Dr. Maxwell's _Collectanea_.

[1016] Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_, p. 365. BOSWELL. 'In the beginning of the year 1759 an event happened for which it might be imagined he was well prepared, the death of his mother, who had attained the age of ninety; but he, whose mind had acquired no firmness by the contemplation of mortality, was as little able to sustain the shock, as he would have been had this loss befallen him in his nonage.'

[1017] We may apply to Johnson in his behaviour to his mother what he said of Pope in his behaviour to his parents:--'Whatever was his pride, to them he was obedient; and whatever was his irritability, to them he was gentle. Life has among its soothing and quiet comforts few things better to give than such a son.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 281. In _The Idler_ of January 27, 1759 (No. 41), Johnson shews his grief for his loss. 'The last year, the last day must come. It has come, and is past.

The life which made my own life pleasant is at an end, and the gates of death are shut upon my prospects.... Such is the condition of our present existence that life must one time lose its a.s.sociations, and every inhabitant of the earth must walk downward to the grave alone and unregarded, without any partner of his joy or grief, without any interested witness of his misfortunes or success. Misfortune, indeed, he may yet feel; for where is the bottom of the misery of man? But what is success to him that has none to enjoy it? Happiness is not found in self-contemplation; it is perceived only when it is reflected from another.' In _Ra.s.selas_ (ch. xlv.) he makes a sage say with a sigh:--'Praise is to have an old man an empty sound. I have neither mother to be delighted with the reputation of her son, nor wife to partake the honours of her husband.' He here says once more what he had already said in his _Letter to Lord Chesterfield_ (_ante_, p. 261), and in the _Preface to the Dictionary_ (_ante_, p. 297).

[1018] Writing to his Birmingham friend, Mr. Hector, on Oct. 7, 1756, he said:--'I have been thinking every month of coming down into the country, but every month has brought its hinderances. From that kind of melancholy indisposition which I had when we lived together at Birmingham I have never been free, but have always had it operating against my health and my life with more or less violence. I hope however to see all my friends, all that are remaining, in no very long time.'

_Notes and Queries_, 6th S. iii. 301. No doubt his constant poverty and the need that he was under of making 'provision for the day that was pa.s.sing over him' had had much to do in keeping him from a journey to Lichfield. A pa.s.sage in one of his letters shews that fourteen years later the stage-coach took twenty-six hours in going from London to Lichfield. (_Piozzi Letters_, i. 55.) The return journey was very uncertain; for 'our carriages,' he wrote, 'are only such as pa.s.s through the place sometimes full and sometimes vacant.' A traveller had to watch for a place (_ib_. p. 51). As measured by time London was, in 1772, one hour farther from Lichfield than it now is from Ma.r.s.eilles. It is strange, when we consider the long separation between Johnson and his mother, that in _Ra.s.selas_, written just after her death, he makes Imlac say:-'There is such communication [in Europe] between distant places, that one friend can hardly be said to be absent from another.'