JOHNSON. "There is nothing marked in that. No, Sir, Garagantua is the best." Notwithstanding this ease and good humour, when I, a little while afterwards, repeated his sarcasm on Kenrick[737], which was received with applause, he asked, "_Who_ said that?" and on my suddenly answering, _Garagantua_, he looked serious, which was a sufficient indication that he did not wish it to be kept up.
When we went to the drawing-room there was a rich a.s.semblage. Besides the company who had been at dinner, there were Mr. Garrick, Mr. Harris of Salisbury, Dr. Percy, Dr. Burney, Honourable Mrs. Cholmondeley, Miss Hannah More, &c. &c.
After wandering about in a kind of pleasing distraction for some time, I got into a corner, with Johnson, Garrick, and Harris. GARRICK: (to Harris.) "Pray, Sir, have you read Potter"s _Aeschylus_?" HARRIS. "Yes; and think it pretty." GARRICK. (to Johnson.) "And what think you, Sir, of it?" JOHNSON. "I thought what I read of it _verbiage_[738]: but upon Mr. Harris"s recommendation, I will read a play. (To Mr. Harris.) Don"t prescribe two." Mr. Harris suggested one, I do not remember which.
JOHNSON. "We must try its effect as an English poem; that is the way to judge of the merit of a translation. Translations are, in general, for people who cannot read the original." I mentioned the vulgar saying[739], that Pope"s _Homer_ was not a good representation of the original.
JOHNSON. "Sir, it is the greatest work of the kind that has ever been produced[740]." BOSWELL. "The truth is, it is impossible perfectly to translate poetry[741]. In a different language it may be the same tune, but it has not the same tone. Homer plays it on a ba.s.soon; Pope on a flagelet." HARRIS. "I think Heroick poetry is best in blank verse; yet it appears that rhyme is essential to English poetry, from our deficiency in metrical quant.i.ties. In my opinion, the chief excellence of our language is numerous prose." JOHNSON. "Sir William Temple was the first writer who gave cadence to English prose[742]. Before his time they were careless of arrangement, and did not mind whether a sentence ended with an important word or an insignificant word, or with what part of speech it was concluded." Mr. Langton, who now had joined us, commended Clarendon. JOHNSON. "He is objected to for his parentheses, his involved clauses, and his want of harmony. But he is supported by his matter. It is, indeed, owing to a plethory of matter that his style is so faulty[743]. Every _substance_, (smiling to Mr. Harris[744],) has so many _accidents_.--To be distinct, we must talk _a.n.a.lytically_. If we a.n.a.lyse language, we must speak of it grammatically; if we a.n.a.lyse argument, we must speak of it logically." GARRICK. "Of all the translations that ever were attempted, I think Elphinston"s _Martial_ the most extraordinary[745]. He consulted me upon it, who am a little of an epigrammatist myself, you know. I told him freely, "You don"t seem to have that turn." I asked him if he was serious; and finding he was, I advised him against publishing. Why, his translation is more difficult to understand than the original. I thought him a man of some talents; but he seems crazy in this." JOHNSON. "Sir, you have done what I had not courage to do. But he did not ask my advice, and I did not force it upon him, to make him angry with me." GARRICK. "But as a friend, Sir--"
JOHNSON. "Why, such a friend as I am with him--no." GARRICK. "But if you see a friend going to tumble over a precipice?" JOHNSON. "That is an extravagant case, Sir. You are sure a friend will thank you for hindering him from tumbling over a precipice; but, in the other case, I should hurt his vanity, and do him no good. He would not take my advice.
His brother-in-law, Strahan, sent him a subscription of fifty pounds, and said he would send him fifty more, if he would not publish."
GARRICK. "What! Is Strahan a good judge of an Epigram? Is not he rather an _obtuse_ man, eh?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, he may not be a judge of an Epigram: but you see he is a judge of what is _not_ an Epigram."
BOSWELL. "It is easy for you, Mr. Garrick, to talk to an authour as you talked to Elphinston; you, who have been so long the manager of a theatre, rejecting the plays of poor authours. You are an old Judge, who have often p.r.o.nounced sentence of death. You are a practiced surgeon, who have often amputated limbs; and though this may have been for the good of your patients, they cannot like you. Those who have undergone a dreadful operation, are not very fond of seeing the operator again."
GARRICK. "Yes, I know enough of that. There was a reverend gentleman, (Mr. Hawkins,) who wrote a tragedy, the SIEGE of something[746], which I refused." HARRIS. "So, the siege was raised." JOHNSON. "Ay, he came to me and complained; and told me, that Garrick said his play was wrong in the _concoction_. Now, what is the concoction of a play?" (Here Garrick started, and twisted himself, and seemed sorely vexed; for Johnson told me, he believed the story was true.) GARRICK. "I--I--I--said _first_ concoction[747]." JOHNSON: (smiling.) "Well, he left out _first_. And Rich[748], he said, refused him _in false English_: he could shew it under his hand." GARRICK. "He wrote to me in violent wrath, for having refused his play: "Sir, this is growing a very serious and terrible affair. I am resolved to publish my play. I will appeal to the world; and how will your judgement appear?" I answered, "Sir, notwithstanding all the seriousness, and all the terrours, I have no objection to your publishing your play; and as you live at a great distance, (Devonshire, I believe,) if you will send it to me, I will convey it to the press[749]." I never heard more of it, ha! ha! ha!"
On Friday, April 10, I found Johnson at home in the morning. We resumed the conversation of yesterday. He put me in mind of some of it which had escaped my memory, and enabled me to record it more perfectly than I otherwise could have done. He was much pleased with my paying so great attention to his recommendation in 1763, the period when our acquaintance began, that I should keep a journal[750]; and I could perceive he was secretly pleased to find so much of the fruit of his mind preserved; and as he had been used to imagine and say that he always laboured when he said a good thing[751]--it delighted him, on a review, to find that his conversation teemed with point and imagery[752].
I said to him, "You were yesterday, Sir, in remarkably good humour[753]: but there was nothing to offend you, nothing to produce irritation or violence. There was no bold offender. There was not one capital conviction. It was a maiden a.s.size. You had on your white gloves."
He found fault with our friend Langton for having been too silent. "Sir, (said I,) you will recollect, that he very properly took up Sir Joshua for being glad that Charles Fox had praised Goldsmith"s _Traveller_, and you joined him." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, I knocked Fox on the head, without ceremony. Reynolds is too much under Fox and Burke at present. He is under the _Fox star_ and the _Irish constellation_. He is always under some planet[754]." BOSWELL. "There is no Fox star." JOHNSON. "But there is a dog star." BOSWELL. "They say, indeed, a fox and a dog are the same animal."
I reminded him of a gentleman, who, Mrs. Cholmondeley said, was first talkative from affectation, and then silent from the same cause; that he first thought, "I shall be celebrated as the liveliest man in every company;" and then, all at once, "O! it is much more respectable to be grave and look wise." "He has reversed the Pythagorean discipline, by being first talkative, and then silent. He reverses the course of Nature too: he was first the gay b.u.t.terfly, and then the creeping worm."
Johnson laughed loud and long at this expansion and ill.u.s.tration of what he himself had told me.
We dined together with Mr. Scott (now Sir William Scott[755], his Majesty"s Advocate General,) at his chambers in the Temple, n.o.body else there. The company being small, Johnson was not in such spirits as he had been the preceding day, and for a considerable time little was said.
At last he burst forth, "Subordination is sadly broken down in this age.
No man, now, has the same authority which his father had,--except a gaoler. No master has it over his servants: it is diminished in our colleges; nay, in our grammar-schools." BOSWELL. "What is the cause of this, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why the coming in of the Scotch," (laughing sarcastically). BOSWELL. "That is to say, things have been turned topsy turvey.--But your serious cause." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, there are many causes, the chief of which is, I think, the great increase of money. No man now depends upon the Lord of a Manour, when he can send to another country, and fetch provisions. The shoe-black at the entry of my court does not depend on me. I can deprive him but of a penny a day, which he hopes somebody else will bring him; and that penny I must carry to another shoe-black[756], so the trade suffers nothing. I have explained, in my _Journey to the Hebrides_, how gold and silver destroy feudal subordination[757]. But, besides, there is a general relaxation of reverence. No son now depends upon his father as in former times.
Paternity used to be considered as of itself a great thing, which had a right to many claims. That is, in general, reduced to very small bounds.
My hope is, that as anarchy produces tyranny, this extreme relaxation will produce _freni strictio_[758]."
Talking of fame, for which there is so great a desire, I observed how little there is of it in reality, compared with the other objects of human attention. "Let every man recollect, and he will be sensible how small a part of his time is employed in talking or thinking of Shakspeare, Voltaire, or any of the most celebrated men that have ever lived, or are now supposed to occupy the attention and admiration of the world. Let this be extracted and compressed; into what a narrow s.p.a.ce will it go[759]!" I then slily introduced Mr. Garrick"s fame, and his a.s.suming the airs of a great man[760]. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is wonderful how _little_ Garrick a.s.sumes. No, Sir, Garrick _fortunam reverenter habet_[761]. Consider, Sir: celebrated men, such as you have mentioned, have had their applause at a distance; but Garrick had it dashed in his face, sounded in his ears, and went home every night with the plaudits of a thousand in his _cranium_. Then, Sir, Garrick did not _find_, but _made_ his way to the tables, the levees, and almost the bed-chambers of the great. Then, Sir, Garrick had under him a numerous body of people; who, from fear of his power, and hopes of his favour, and admiration of his talents, were constantly submissive to him. And here is a man who has advanced the dignity of his profession. Garrick has made a player a higher character." SCOTT. "And he is a very sprightly writer too."
JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; and all this supported by great wealth of his own acquisition. If all this had happened to me, I should have had a couple of fellows with long poles walking before me, to knock down every body that stood in the way. Consider, if all this had happened to Cibber or Quin[762] they"d have jumped over the moon.--Yet Garrick speaks to _us_[763]." (smiling.) BOSWELL. "And Garrick is a very good man, a charitable man." JOHNSON. "Sir, a liberal man. He has given away more money than any man in England[764]. There may be a little vanity mixed; but he has shewn, that money is not his first object." BOSWELL. "Yet Foote used to say of him, that he walked out with an intention to do a generous action; but, turning the corner of a street, he met with the ghost of a halfpenny, which frightened him." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, that is very true, too; for I never knew a man of whom it could be said with less certainty to-day, what he will do to-morrow, than Garrick; it depends so much on his humour at the time." SCOTT. "I am glad to hear of his liberality. He has been represented as very saving." JOHNSON. "With his domestick saving we have nothing to do. I remember drinking tea with him long ago, when Peg Woffington made it, and he grumbled at her for making it too strong[765]. He had then begun to feel money in his purse, and did not know when he should have enough of it[766]."
On the subject of wealth, the proper use of it, and the effects of that art which is called oeconomy, he observed: "It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly incomes, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend. Lord Shelburne[767] told me, that a man of high rank, who looks into his own affairs, may have all that he ought to have, all that can be of any use, or appear with any advantage, for five thousand pounds a year. Therefore, a great proportion must go in waste; and, indeed, this is the case with most people, whatever their fortune is."
BOSWELL. "I have no doubt, Sir, of this. But how is it? What is waste?"
JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, breaking bottles, and a thousand other things. Waste cannot be accurately told, though we are sensible how destructive it is.
OEconomy on the one hand, by which a certain income is made to maintain a man genteely, and waste on the other, by which, on the same income, another man lives shabbily, cannot be defined. It is a very nice thing: as one man wears his coat out much sooner than another, we cannot tell how."
We talked of war. JOHNSON. "Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea." BOSWELL. "Lord Mansfield does not." JOHNSON. "Sir, if Lord Mansfield were in a company of General Officers and Admirals who have been in service, he would shrink; he"d wish to creep under the table." BOSWELL. "No; he"d think he could _try_ them all." JOHNSON. "Yes, if he could catch them: but they"d try him much sooner. No, Sir; were Socrates and Charles the Twelfth of Sweden both present in any company, and Socrates to say, "Follow me, and hear a lecture on philosophy;" and Charles, laying his hand on his sword, to say, "Follow me, and dethrone the Czar;" a man would be ashamed to follow Socrates. Sir, the impression is universal[768]; yet it is strange. As to the sailor, when you look down from the quarter deck to the s.p.a.ce below, you see the utmost extremity of human misery; such crouding, such filth, such stench[769]!" BOSWELL. "Yet sailors are happy."
JOHNSON. "They are happy as brutes are happy, with a piece of fresh meat,--with the grossest sensuality. But, Sir, the profession of soldiers and sailors has the dignity of danger. Mankind reverence those who have got over fear[770], which is so general a weakness." SCOTT. "But is not courage mechanical, and to be acquired?" JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir, in a collective sense. Soldiers consider themselves only as parts of a great machine[771]." SCOTT. "We find people fond of being sailors."
JOHNSON. "I cannot account for that, any more than I can account for other strange perversions of imagination."
His abhorrence of the profession of a sailor was uniformly violent[772]; but in conversation he always exalted the profession of a soldier. And yet I have, in my large and various collection of his writings, a letter to an eminent friend, in which he expresses himself thus: "My G.o.d-son called on me lately. He is weary, and rationally weary, of a military life. If you can place him in some other state, I think you may increase his happiness, and secure his virtue. A soldier"s time is pa.s.sed in distress and danger, or in idleness and corruption." Such was his cool reflection in his study[773]; but whenever he was warmed and animated by the presence of company, he, like other philosophers, whose minds are impregnated with poetical fancy, caught the common enthusiasm for splendid renown[774].
He talked of Mr. Charles Fox, of whose abilities he thought highly, but observed, that he did not talk much at our CLUB. I have heard Mr. Gibbon remark, "that Mr. Fox could not be afraid of Dr. Johnson; yet he certainly was very shy of saying any thing in Dr. Johnson"s presence[775]." Mr. Scott now quoted what was said of Alcibiades by a Greek poet[776], to which Johnson a.s.sented.
He told us, that he had given Mrs. Montagu a catalogue of all Daniel Defoe"s works of imagination; most, if not all of which, as well as of his other works, he now enumerated, allowing a considerable share of merit to a man, who, bred a tradesman, had written so variously and so well. Indeed, his _Robinson Crusoe_ is enough of itself to establish his reputation[777].
He expressed great indignation at the imposture of the c.o.c.klane Ghost, and related, with much satisfaction, how he had a.s.sisted in detecting the cheat, and had published an account of it in the news-papers[778].
Upon this subject I incautiously offended him, by pressing him with too many questions, and he shewed his displeasure. I apologised, saying that "I asked questions in order to be instructed and entertained; I repaired eagerly to the fountain; but that the moment he gave me a hint, the moment he put a lock upon the well, I desisted."--"But, Sir, (said he,) that is forcing one to do a disagreeable thing:" and he continued to rate me. "Nay, Sir, (said I,) when you have put a lock upon the well, so that I can no longer drink, do not make the fountain of your wit play upon me and wet me."
He sometimes could not bear being teazed with questions[779]. I was once present when a gentleman asked so many as, "What did you do, Sir?" "What did you say, Sir?" that he at last grew enraged, and said, "I will not be put to the _question_. Don"t you consider, Sir, that these are not the manners of a gentleman? I will not be baited with _what_, and _why_; what is this? what is that? why is a cow"s tail long? why is a fox"s tail bushy?" The gentleman, who was a good deal out of countenance, said, "Why, Sir, you are so good, that I venture to trouble you."
JOHNSON. "Sir, my being so _good_ is no reason why you should be so _ill_."
Talking of the Just.i.tia hulk at Woolwich, in which criminals were punished, by being confined to labour, he said, "I do not see that they are punished by this: they must have worked equally had they never been guilty of stealing[780]. They now only work; so, after all, they have gained; what they stole is clear gain to them; the confinement is nothing. Every man who works is confined: the smith to his shop, the tailor to his garret." BOSWELL. "And Lord Mansfield to his Court."
JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, you know the notion of confinement may be extended, as in the song, "Every island is a prison[781]." There is, in Dodsley"s _Collection_, a copy of verses to the authour of that song[782]."
Smith"s Latin verses on Poc.o.c.ke, the great traveller,[783] were mentioned.
He repeated some of them, and said they were Smith"s best verses.
He talked with an uncommon animation of travelling into distant countries; that the mind was enlarged by it, and that an acquisition of dignity of character was derived from it. He expressed a particular enthusiasm with respect to visiting the wall of China. I catched it for the moment[784], and said I really believed I should go and see the wall of China had I not children, of whom it was my duty to take care. "Sir, (said he,) by doing so, you would do what would be of importance in raising your children to eminence. There would be a l.u.s.tre reflected upon them from your spirit and curiosity. They would be at all times regarded as the children of a man who had gone to view the wall of China. I am serious, Sir."
When we had left Mr. Scott"s, he said, "Will you go home with me?" "Sir, (said I,) it is late; but I"ll go with you for three minutes." JOHNSON.
"Or _four_." We went to Mrs. Williams"s room, where we found Mr. Allen the printer, who was the landlord of his house in Bolt-court, a worthy obliging man, and his very old acquaintance; and what was exceedingly amusing, though he was of a very diminutive size, he used, even in Johnson"s presence, to imitate the stately periods and slow and solemn utterance of the great man[785].--I this evening boasted, that although I did not write what is called stenography, or short-hand, in appropriated characters devised for the purpose, I had a method of my own of writing half words, and leaving out some altogether so as yet to keep the substance and language of any discourse which I had heard so much in view, that I could give it very completely soon after I had taken it down. He defied me, as he had once defied an actual short-hand writer[786], and he made the experiment by reading slowly and distinctly a part of Robertson"s _History of America_, while I endeavoured to write it in my way of taking notes. It was found that I had it very imperfectly; the conclusion from which was, that its excellence was princ.i.p.ally owing to a studied arrangement of words, which could not be varied or abridged without an essential injury.
On Sunday, April 12, I found him at home before dinner; Dr. Dodd"s poem ent.i.tled _Thoughts in Prison_ was lying upon his table. This appearing to me an extraordinary effort by a man who was in Newgate for a capital crime, I was desirous to hear Johnson"s opinion of it: to my surprize, he told me he had not read a line of it. I took up the book and read a pa.s.sage to him. JOHNSON. "Pretty well, if you are previously disposed to like them." I read another pa.s.sage, with which he was better pleased. He then took the book into his own hands, and having looked at the prayer at the end of it, he said, "What _evidence_ is there that this was composed the night before he suffered? _I_ do not believe it." He then read aloud where he prays for the King, &c. and observed, "Sir, do you think that a man the night before he is to be hanged cares for the succession of a royal family[787]?--Though, he _may_ have composed this prayer, then. A man who has been canting all his life, may cant to the last[788].--And yet a man who has been refused a pardon after so much pet.i.tioning, would hardly be praying thus fervently for the King."
He and I, and Mrs. Williams, went to dine with the Reverend Dr. Percy.
Talking of Goldsmith, Johnson said, he was very envious[789]. I defended him, by observing that he owned it frankly upon all occasions. JOHNSON.
"Sir, you are enforcing the charge. He had so much envy, that he could not conceal it. He was so full of it that he overflowed. He talked of it to be sure often enough. Now, Sir, what a man avows, he is not ashamed to think; though many a man thinks, what he is ashamed to avow. We are all envious naturally[790]; but by checking envy, we get the better of it.
So we are all thieves naturally; a child always tries to get at what it wants, the nearest way; by good instruction and good habits this is cured, till a man has not even an inclination to seize what is another"s; has no struggle with himself about it."
And here I shall record a scene of too much heat between Dr. Johnson and Dr. Percy, which I should have suppressed, were it not that it gave occasion to display the truely tender and benevolent heart of Johnson, who, as soon as he found a friend was at all hurt by any thing which he had "said in his wrath," was not only prompt and desirous to be reconciled, but exerted himself to make ample reparation[791].
Books of Travels having been mentioned, Johnson praised Pennant very highly, as he did at Dunvegan, in the Isle of Sky[792]. Dr. Percy, knowing himself to be the heir male of the ancient Percies,[793] and having the warmest and most dutiful attachment to the n.o.ble House of Northumberland, could not sit quietly and hear a man praised, who had spoken disrespectfully of Alnwick-Castle and the Duke"s pleasure grounds, especially as he thought meanly of his travels. He therefore opposed Johnson eagerly. JOHNSON. "Pennant in what he has said of Alnwick, has done what he intended; he has made you very angry." PERCY.
"He has said the garden is _trim_[794], which is representing it like a citizen"s parterre, when the truth is, there is a very large extent of fine turf and gravel walks." JOHNSON. "According to your own account, Sir, Pennant is right. It _is_ trim. Here is gra.s.s cut close, and gravel rolled smooth. Is not that trim? The extent is nothing against that; a mile may be as trim as a square yard. Your extent puts me in mind of the citizen"s enlarged dinner, two pieces of roast-beef, and two puddings[795]. There is no variety, no mind exerted in laying out the ground, no trees[796]." PERCY. "He pretends to give the natural history of Northumberland, and yet takes no notice of the immense number of trees planted there of late." JOHNSON. "That, Sir, has nothing to do with the _natural history_; that is _civil_ history. A man who gives the natural history of the oak, is not to tell how many oaks have been planted in this place or that. A man who gives the natural history of the cow, is not to tell how many cows are milked at Islington. The animal is the same, whether milked in the Park or at Islington." PERCY. "Pennant does not describe well; a carrier who goes along the side of Lochlomond would describe it better." JOHNSON. "I think he describes very well." PERCY.
"I travelled after him." JOHNSON. "And _I_ travelled after him." PERCY.
"But, my good friend, you are short-sighted, and do not see so well as I do." I wondered at Dr. Percy"s venturing thus. Dr. Johnson said nothing at the time; but inflammable particles were collecting for a cloud to burst. In a little while Dr. Percy said something more in disparagement of Pennant. JOHNSON. (pointedly) "This is the resentment of a narrow mind, because he did not find every thing in Northumberland." PERCY.
(feeling the stroke) "Sir, you may be as rude as you please." JOHNSON.
"Hold, Sir! Don"t talk of rudeness; remember, Sir, you told me (puffing hard with pa.s.sion struggling for a vent) I was short-sighted[797]. We have done with civility. We are to be as rude as we please." PERCY. "Upon my honour, Sir, I did not mean to be uncivil." JOHNSON. "I cannot say so, Sir; for I _did_ mean to be uncivil, thinking _you_ had been uncivil."
Dr. Percy rose, ran up to him, and taking him by the hand, a.s.sured him affectionately that his meaning had been misunderstood; upon which a reconciliation instantly took place. JOHNSON. "My dear Sir, I am willing you shall _hang_ Pennant." PERCY. (resuming the former subject) "Pennant complains that the helmet is not hung out to invite to the hall of hospitality[798]. Now I never heard that it was a custom to hang out a _helmet_[799]." JOHNSON. "Hang him up, hang him up." BOSWELL. (humouring the joke) "Hang out his skull instead of a helmet, and you may drink ale out of it in your hall of Odin, as he is your enemy; that will be truly ancient. _There_ will be _Northern Antiquities_[800]." JOHNSON. "He"s a _Whig_, Sir; a _sad dog_. (smiling at his own violent expressions, merely for _political_ difference of opinion.) But he"s the best traveller I ever read; he observes more things than any one else does."
I could not help thinking that this was too high praise of a writer who had traversed a wide extent of country in such haste, that he could put together only curt frittered fragments of his own, and afterwards procured supplemental intelligence from parochial ministers, and others not the best qualified or most impartial narrators, whose ungenerous prejudice against the house of Stuart glares in misrepresentation; a writer, who at best treats merely of superficial objects, and shews no philosophical investigation of character and manners, such as Johnson has exhibited in his masterly _Journey_, over part of the same ground; and who it should seem from a desire of ingratiating himself with the Scotch, has flattered the people of North-Britain so inordinately and with so little discrimination, that the judicious and candid amongst them must be disgusted, while they value more the plain, just, yet kindly report of Johnson.
Having impartially censured Mr. Pennant, as a Traveller in Scotland, let me allow him, from authorities much better than mine, his deserved praise as an able Zoologist; and let me also from my own understanding and feelings, acknowledge the merit of his _London_, which, though said to be not quite accurate in some particulars, is one of the most pleasing topographical performances that ever appeared in any language.
Mr. Pennant, like his countrymen in general[801], has the true spirit of a _Gentleman_. As a proof of it, I shall quote from his _London_ the pa.s.sage, in which he speaks of my ill.u.s.trious friend. "I must by no means omit _Bolt-court_, the long residence of Doctor SAMUEL JOHNSON, a man of the strongest natural abilities, great learning, a most retentive memory, of the deepest and most unaffected piety and morality, mingled with those numerous weaknesses and prejudices which his friends have kindly taken care to draw from their dread abode[802]. I brought on myself his transient anger, by observing that in his tour in _Scotland_, he once had "long and woeful experience of oats being the food of men in _Scotland_ as they were of horses in _England_."" It was a national reflection unworthy of him, and I shot my bolt. In return he gave me a tender hug[803]. _Con amore_ he also said of me "_The dog is a Whig_[804];"
I admired the virtues of Lord _Russell_, and pitied his fall. I should have been a Whig at the Revolution. There have been periods since, in which I should have been, what I now am, a moderate Tory, a supporter, as far as my little influence extends, of a well-poised balance between the crown and people: but should the scale preponderate against the _Salus populi_, that moment may it be said "_The dog"s a Whig_!"
We had a calm after the storm, staid the evening and supped, and were pleasant and gay. But Dr. Percy told me he was very uneasy at what had pa.s.sed; for there was a gentleman there who was acquainted with the Northumberland family, to whom he hoped to have appeared more respectable, by shewing how intimate he was with Dr. Johnson, and who might now, on the contrary, go away with an opinion to his disadvantage.
He begged I would mention this to Dr. Johnson, which I afterwards did.
His observation upon it was, "This comes of _stratagem_; had he told me that he wished to appear to advantage before that gentleman, he should have been at the top of the house, all the time." He spoke of Dr. Percy in the handsomest terms. "Then, Sir, (said I,) may I be allowed to suggest a mode by which you may effectually counteract any unfavourable report of what pa.s.sed. I will write a letter to you upon the subject of the unlucky contest of that day, and you will be kind enough to put in writing as an answer to that letter, what you have now said, and as Lord Percy is to dine with us at General Paoli"s soon, I will take an opportunity to read the correspondence in his Lordship"s presence." This friendly scheme was accordingly carried into execution without Dr.
Percy"s knowledge. Johnson"s letter placed Dr. Percy"s unquestionable merit in the fairest point of view; and I contrived that Lord Percy should hear the correspondence, by introducing it at General Paoli"s, as an instance of Dr. Johnson"s kind disposition towards one in whom his Lordship was interested. Thus every unfavourable impression was obviated that could possibly have been made on those by whom he wished most to be regarded. I breakfasted the day after with him, and informed him of my scheme, and its happy completion, for which he thanked me in the warmest terms, and was highly delighted with Dr. Johnson"s letter in his praise, of which I gave him a copy. He said, "I would rather have this than degrees from all the Universities in Europe. It will be for me, and my children and grand-children." Dr. Johnson having afterwards asked me if I had given him a copy of it, and being told I had, was offended, and insisted that I should get it back, which I did. As, however, he did not desire me to destroy either the original or the copy, or forbid me to let it be seen, I think myself at liberty to apply to it his general declaration to me concerning his other letters, "That he did not choose they should be published in his lifetime; but had no objection to their appearing after his death[805]." I shall therefore insert this kindly correspondence, having faithfully narrated the circ.u.mstances accompanying it[806].
"To DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
"MY DEAR SIR,
"I beg leave to address you in behalf of our friend Dr. Percy, who was much hurt by what you said to him that day we dined at his house[807]; when, in the course of the dispute as to Pennant"s merit as a traveller, you told Percy that "he had the resentment of a narrow mind against Pennant, because he did not find every thing in Northumberland." Percy is sensible that you did not mean to injure him; but he is vexed to think that your behaviour to him upon that occasion may be interpreted as a proof that he is despised by you, which I know is not the case. I have told him, that the charge of being narrow-minded was only as to the particular point in question; and that he had the merit of being a martyr to his n.o.ble family.
"Earl Percy is to dine with General Paoli next Friday; and I should be sincerely glad to have it in my power to satisfy his Lordship how well you think of Dr. Percy, who, I find, apprehends that your good opinion of him may be of very essential consequence; and who a.s.sures me, that he has the highest respect and the warmest affection for you.