Rambler, No. 13.
[444] Journal of a tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 167. [Sept. 10, 1773.] BOSWELL.
[445] This piece contains a passage in honour of some great critic. ‘May the shade, at least, of one great English critick rest without disturbance; and may no man presume to insult his memory, who wants his learning, his reason, or his wit.’ Johnson’s Works, v. 182. Bentley had died on July 14 of this year, and there can be little question that Bentley is meant.
[446] See post, end of 1744.
[447] ‘There is nothing to tell, dearest lady, but that he was insolent and I beat him, and that he was a blockhead and told of it, which I should never have done…. I have beat many a fellow, but the rest had the wit to hold their tongues.’ Piozzi’s Anec. p. 233. In the Life of Pope Johnson thus mentions Osborne:—‘Pope was ignorant enough of his own interest to make another change, and introduced Osborne contending for the prize among the booksellers [Dunciad, ii. 167]. Osborne was a man entirely destitute of shame, without sense of any disgrace but that of poverty…. The shafts of satire were directed equally in vain against Cibber and Osborne; being repelled by the impenetrable impudence of one, and deadened by the impassive dulness of the other.’ Johnson’s Works, viii. 302.
[448] In the original contentions.
[449] ‘Dec. 21, 1775. In the Paper Office there is a wight, called Thomas Astle, who lives like moths on old parchments.’ Walpole’s Letters, vi. 299.
[450] Savage died on Aug. 1, 1743, so that this letter is misplaced.
[451] The Plain Dealer was published in 1724, and contained some account of Savage. BOSWELL.
[452] In the Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1743 (p. 490) there is an epitaph on R——d S——e, Esq., which may perhaps be this inscription. ‘His life was want,’ this epitaph declares. It is certainly not the Runick Inscription in the number for March 1742, as Malone suggests; for the earliest possible date of this letter is seventeen months later.
[453] I have not discovered what this was. BOSWELL.
[454] The Mag.-Extraordinary is perhaps the Supplement to the December number of each year.
[455] This essay contains one sentiment eminently Johnsonian. The writer had shown how patiently Confucius endured extreme indigence. He adds:—‘This constancy cannot raise our admiration after his former conquest of himself; for how easily may he support pain who has been able to resist pleasure.’ Gent. Mag. xii. 355.
[456] In this Preface there is a complaint that has been often repeated—‘All kinds of learning have given way to politicks.’
[457] In the Life of Pope (Johnson’s Works, viii. 287) Johnson says that Crousaz, ‘however little known or regarded here, was no mean antagonist’
[458] It is not easy to believe that Boswell had read this essay, for there is nothing metaphysical in what Johnson wrote. Two-thirds of the paper are a translation from Crousaz. Boswell does not seem to have distinguished between Crousaz’s writings and Johnson’s. We have here a striking instance of the way in which Cave sometimes treated his readers. One-third of this essay is given in the number for March, the rest in the number for November.
[459]
Angliacas inter pulcherrima Laura puellas,
Mox uteri pondus depositura grave,
Adsit, Laura, tibi facilis Lucina dolenti,
Neve tibi noceat praenituisse Deae.
Mr. Hector was present when this Epigram was made impromptu. The first line was proposed by Dr. James, and Johnson was called upon by the company to finish it, which he instantly did. BOSWELL. Macaulay (Essays, i. 364) criticises Mr. Croker’s criticism of this epigram.
[460] The lines with which this poem is introduced seem to show that it cannot be Johnson’s. He was not the man to allow that haste of performance was any plea for indulgence. They are as follows:—‘Though several translations of Mr. Pope’s verses on his Grotto have already appeared, we hope that the following attempt, which, we are assured, was the casual amusement of half an hour during several solicitations to proceed, will neither be unacceptable to our readers, nor (these circumstances considered) dishonour the persons concerned by a hasty publication.’ Gent. Mag. xiii. 550.
[461] See Gent. Mag. xiii. 560. I doubt whether this advertisement be from Johnson’s hand. It is very unlikely that he should make the advertiser in one and the same paragraph when speaking of himself use us and mine. Boswell does not mention the Preface to vol. iii. of the Harkian Catalogue. It is included in Johnson’s Works (v. 198). Its author, be he who he may, in speaking of literature, says:—‘I have idly hoped to revive a taste well-nigh extinguished.’
[462] Johnson did not speak equally well of Dr. James’s morals. ‘He will not,’ he wrote, ‘pay for three box tickets which he took. It is a strange fellow.’ The tickets were no doubt for Miss Williams’s benefit (Croker’s Boswell, 8vo. p. 101). See ante, p. 81, and post, March 28, 1776, end of 1780, note.
[463] See post, April 5, 1776.
[464] ‘TO DR. MEAD.
‘SIR,
‘That the Medicinal Dictionary is dedicated to you, is to be imputed only to your reputation for superior skill in those sciences which I have endeavoured to explain and facilitate: and you are, therefore, to consider this address, if it be agreeable to you, as one of the rewards of merit; and if, otherwise, as one of the inconveniences of eminence.
‘However you shall receive it, my design cannot be disappointed; because this publick appeal to your judgement will shew that I do not found my hopes of approbation upon the ignorance of my readers, and that I fear his censure least, whose knowledge is most extensive.
‘I am, Sir,
‘Your most obedient
‘humble servant,
‘R. JAMES.’
BOSWELL. See post, May 16, 1778, where Johnson said, ‘Dr. Mead lived more in the broad sunshine of life than almost any man.’
[465] Johnson was used to speak of him in this manner:—‘Tom is a lively rogue; he remembers a great deal, and can tell many pleasant stories; but a pen is to Tom a torpedo, the touch of it benumbs his hand and his brain.’ Hawkins’s Johnson, p. 209. Goldsmith in his Life of Nash (Cunningham’s Goldsmith’s Works, iv. 54) says:—‘Nash was not born a writer, for whatever humour he might have in conversation, he used to call a pen his torpedo; whenever he grasped it, it benumbed all his faculties.’ It is very likely that Nash borrowed this saying from Johnson. In Boswell’s Hebrides, Sept. 24, 1773, we read:—Dr. Birch being mentioned, Dr. Johnson said he had more anecdotes than any man. I said, Percy had a great many; that he flowed with them like one of the brooks here. JOHNSON. “If Percy is like one of the brooks here, Birch was like the River Thames. Birch excelled Percy in that as much as Percy excels Goldsmith.” Disraeli (Curiosities of Literature, iii, 425) describes Dr. Birch as ‘one to whom British history stands more indebted than to any superior author. He has enriched the British Museum by thousands of the most authentic documents of genuine secret history.’
[466] Ante, p. 140.
[467] In 1761 Mr. John Levett was returned for Lichfield, but on petition was declared to be not duly elected (Parl. Hist. xv. 1088). Perhaps he was already aiming at public life.
[468] One explanation may be found of Johnson’s intimacy with Savage and with other men of loose character. ‘He was,’ writes Hawkins, ‘one of the most quick-sighted men I ever knew in discovering the good and amiable qualities of others’ (Hawkins’s