Life of Johnson
Chapter 76 : [834] 'The words in Italicks are allusions to pa.s.sages in Mr. Warton's poem

[834] 'The words in Italicks are allusions to pa.s.sages in Mr. Warton's poem, called _The Progress of Discontent_, now lately published.'

WARTON.--BOSWELL.

'And now intent on new designs, Sighs for a fellows.h.i.+p--and fines.

These fellows.h.i.+ps are pretty things, We live indeed like petty kings.

And ev'ry night I went to bed, Without a Modus in my head.'

Warton's _Poems_, ii. 192.

For _modus_ and _fines_ see _post_, April 25, 1778.

[835] Lucretius, i. 23

[836]

'Hence ye prophane; I hate ye all, Both the Great Vulgar and the Small.'

Cowley's _Imit. of Horace_, Odes, iii. 1.

[837] _Journal Britannique_. It was to Maty that Gibbon submitted the ma.n.u.script of his first work. Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 123.

[838] Maty, as Prof. de Morgan pointed out, had in the autumn of 1755 been guilty of 'wilful suppression of the circ.u.mstances of Johnson's attack on Lord Chesterfield.' In an article in his _Journal_ he regrets the absence from the _Dictionary_ of the _Plan_. 'Elle eut epargne a l'auteur la composition d'une nouvelle preface, qui ne contient qu'en partie les memes choses, et qu'on est tente de regarder comme destinee a faire perdre de vue quelques-unes des obligations que M. Johnson avait contractees, et le Mecene qu'il avait choisi.' _Notes and Queries_, 2nd S. iv. 341.

[839] He left London in 1751 and returned to it in 1760. _Memoirs of Dr.

Barney_, i. 85, 133.

[840] See _ante_, p. 183, note 2.

[841] Sir John Hawkins, p. 341, inserts two notes as having pa.s.sed formally between Andrew Millar and Johnson, to the above effect. I am a.s.sured this was not the case. In the way of incidental remark it was a pleasant play of raillery. To have deliberately written notes in such terms would have been morose. BOSWELL.

[842] 'Talking one day of the patronage the great sometimes affect to give to literature and literary men, "Andrew Millar," says Johnson, "is the Maecenas of the age."' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 200. Horace Walpole, writing on May 18, 1749 (_Letters_ ii. 163), says:--'Millar the bookseller has done very generously by Fielding; finding _Tom Jones_, for which he had given him six hundred pounds, sell so greatly, he has since given him another hundred.' Hume writing on July 6, 1759, says:--'Poor Andrew Millar is declared bankrupt; his debts amount to above 40,000, and it is said his creditors will not get above three s.h.i.+llings in the pound. All the world allows him to have been diligent and industrious; but his misfortunes are ascribed to the extravagance of his wife, a very ordinary case in this city.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii.

64. He must soon have recovered his position, for Dr. A. Carlyle (Auto.

p. 434) met Millar at Harrogate in 1763. In the inn were several baronets, and great squires, members of parliament, who paid Millar civility for the use of his two newspapers which came to him by every post. 'Yet when he appeared in the morning, in his well-worn suit of clothes, they could not help calling him Peter Pamphlet; for the generous patron of Scotch authors, with his city wife and her niece, were sufficiently ridiculous when they came into good company.' Mr.

Croker (_Boswell_, p. 630) says that Millar was the bookseller described by Johnson, _post_, April 24, 1779. as 'habitually and equably drunk.'

He is, I think, mistaken.

[843] His _Dictionary_. BOSWELL.

[844] 'A translation of Apollonius Rhodius was now intended by Mr.

Warton.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.

[845] Kettel Hall is an ancient tenement built about the year 1615 by Dr. Ralph Kettel, President of Trinity College, for the accommodation of commoners of that Society. It adjoins the College; and was a few years ago converted into a private house. MALONE.

[846] 'At Ellsfield, a village three miles from Oxford.'

WARTON.--BOSWELL.

[847] It was published on April 15, 1755, in two vols. folio, price 4 10_s_. bound. Johnson's _Works_, v. 51.

[848] 'Booksellers concerned in his _Dictionary_.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.

'June 12, Mr. Paul Knapton, bookseller. June 18, Thos. Longman, Esq., bookseller.' _Gent. Mag_., xxv. 284. The 'Esq.' perhaps is a sign that even so early as 1755 the Longmans ranked higher than most of their brethren.

[849] 1. _Own_ not in the original. Johnson's _Works_, v. 36.

[850] 'I have not always executed my own scheme, or satisfied my own expectations.' Johnson's _Works_, p. 41.

[851] In the _Plan of an English Dictionary_ (_ib_. p. 16) Johnson, writing of 'the word _perfection_' says:--'Though in its philosophical and exact sense it can be of little use among human beings, it is often so much degraded from its original signification, that the academicians have inserted in their work, _the perfection of a language_, and, with a little more licentiousness, might have prevailed on themselves to have added _the perfection of a Dictionary_.' In the Preface to the fourth edition he writes:--'He that undertakes to compile a Dictionary undertakes that, which if it comprehends the full extent of his design, he knows himself unable to perform.' _Ib_. p. 52.

[852] _Ib_. p. 51.

[853] See _post_, under May 19, 1777.

[854] See _ante_, p. 186, note 5.

[855] He defines both _towards the wind_. The definitions remain unchanged in the fourth edition, the last corrected by Johnson, and also in the third edition of the abridgment, though this abridgment was made by him. _Pastern_ also remains unaltered in this latter edition. In the fourth edition he corrected it. 'The drawback of his character,' wrote Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'is entertaining prejudices on very slight foundations; giving an opinion, perhaps, first at random, but from its being contradicted he thinks himself obliged always to support it, or, if he cannot support, still not to acquiesce. Of this I remember an instance of a defect or forgetfulness in his _Dictionary_. I asked him how he came not to correct it in the second edition. "No," says he, "they made so much of it that I would not flatter them by altering it."'

Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 461.

[856] In his Preface (_Works_, v. 50) he antic.i.p.ated errors and laughter. 'A few wild blunders and risible absurdities, from which no work of such multiplicity was ever free, may for a time furnish folly with laughter and harden ignorance into contempt' In a letter written nearly thirty years later he said:--'Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 406.

[857] See _post_, under July 20, 1762.

[858] 'Network. Anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.' Reticulated is defined 'Made of network; formed with interst.i.tial vacuities.'

[859] 'That part of my work on which I expect malignity most frequently to fasten is the _Explanation_.... Such is the fate of hapless lexicography, that not only darkness, but light, impedes and distresses it; things may be not only too little, but too much known, to be happily ill.u.s.trated.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 34.

[860] In the original, 'to admit _a_ definition.' _Ib_.

[861] In the original, '_drier.' Ib_. 38.

[862] 'Tory. (A cant term derived, I suppose, from an Irish word signifying a savage.) One who adheres to the ancient const.i.tution of the state, and the apostolical hierarchy of the Church of England: opposed to a _whig_.'

[863] 'Whig. The name of a faction.' Lord Marchmont (_post_, May 12, 1778) said that 'Johnson was the first that brought Whig and Tory into a dictionary.' In this he was mistaken. In the fourth edition of Dr. Adam Littleton's _Linguae Latinae Liber Dictionarius_, published in 1703, _Whig_ is translated _h.o.m.o fanaticus, factiosus; Whiggism, Enthusiasmus, Perduellio; Tory, bog-trotter or Irish robber, Praedo Hibernicus; Tory_ opposed to whig, _Regiarum partium a.s.sertor_. These definitions are not in the first edition, published in 1678. _A pensioner_ or _bride_ [bribed] _person_ is rendered _Mercenarius.

[864] 'Pension. An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.' _Pensioner_ is defined as 'One who is supported by an allowance paid at the will of another; a dependant.'

These definitions remain in the fourth edition, corrected by Johnson in 1773.

[865] 'Oats. A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.' See _post_, March 23, 1776, and March 21, 1783. 'Did you ever hear,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'of Lord Elibank's reply when Johnson's famous definition of oats was pointed out first to him. "Very true, and where will you find such _men_ and such _horses_?"' Croker's _Carres_, ii. 35.

[866] He thus defines Excise: 'A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom Excise is paid.' The Commissioners of Excise being offended by this severe reflection, consulted Mr. Murray, then Attorney General, to know whether redress could be legally obtained. I wished to have procured for my readers a copy of the opinion which he gave, and which may now be justly considered as history; but the mysterious secrecy of office, it seems, would not permit it. I am, however, informed, by very good authority, that its import was, that the pa.s.sage might be considered as actionable; but that it would be more prudent in the board not to prosecute. Johnson never made the smallest alteration in this pa.s.sage. We find he still retained his early prejudice against Excise; for in _The Idler_, No. 65, there is the following very extraordinary paragraph: 'The authenticity of _Clarendon's_ history, though printed with the sanction of one of the first Universities of the world, had not an unexpected ma.n.u.script been happily discovered, would, with the help of factious credulity, have been brought into question by the two lowest of all human beings, a Scribbler for a party, and a Commissioner of Excise.'--The persons to whom he alludes were Mr. John Oldmixon, and George Ducket, Esq. BOSWELL. Mr. Croker obtained a copy of the case.

'_Case for the opinion of Mr. Attorney-General_.

'Mr. Samuel Johnson has lately published "A Dictionary of the English Language," in which are the following words:--

'"EXCISE, _n.s_. A hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but by wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid."