soon make himself superiour to the seasons; and may set at defiance the morning mist and the evening damp, the blasts of the east, and the clouds of the south[995].’
[Page 333: The attendants on a Court. Ætat 49.]
‘I think the Romans call it Stoicism[996].’
But in this number of his Idler his spirits seem to run riot; for in the wantonness of his disquisition he forgets, for a moment, even the reverence for that which he held in high respect[997]; and describes ‘the attendant on a Court,’ as one ‘whose business, is to watch the looks of a being, weak and foolish as himself[998].’
[Page 334: Johnson not a plagiary. A.D. 1758.]
Alas! it is too certain, that where the frame has delicate fibres, and there is a fine sensibility, such influences of the air are irresistible. He might as well have bid defiance to the ague, the palsy, and all other bodily disorders, Such boasting of the mind is false elevation.
His unqualified ridicule of rhetorical gesture or action is not, surely, a test of truth; yet we cannot help admiring how well it is adapted to produce the effect which he wished. ‘Neither the judges of our laws, nor the representatives of our people, would be much affected by laboured gesticulation, or believe any man the more because he rolled his eyes, or puffed his cheeks, or spread abroad his arms, or stamped the ground, or thumped his breast; or turned his eyes sometimes to the ceiling, and sometimes to the floor[999].’
A casual coincidence with other writers, or an adoption of a sentiment or image which has been found in the writings of another, and afterwards appears in the mind as one’s own, is not unfrequent. The richness of Johnson’s fancy, which could supply his page abundantly on all occasions, and the strength of his memory, which at once detected the real owner of any thought, made him less liable to the imputation of plagiarism than, perhaps, any of our writers[1000]. In The Idler, however, there is a paper[1001], in which conversation is assimilated to a bowl of punch, where there is the same train of comparison as in a poem by Blacklock, in his collection published in 1756[1002], in which a parallel is ingeniously drawn between human life and that liquor. It ends,—
‘Say, then, physicians of each kind,
Who cure the body or the mind,
What harm in drinking can there be,
Since punch and life so well agree?’
[Page 335: Profits on The Idler. Ætat 49.]
To The Idler, when collected in volumes[1003], he added, beside the ‘Essay on Epitaphs’ and the ‘Dissertation on those of Pope[1004],’ an Essay on the ‘Bravery of the English common Soldiers.’ He, however, omitted one of the original papers, which in the folio copy is No. 22[1005].
‘To THE REVEREND MR. THOMAS WARTON.
‘DEAR SIR,
‘Your notes upon my poet were very acceptable. I beg that you will be so kind as to continue your searches. It will be reputable to my work, and suitable to your professorship, to have something of yours in the notes. As you have given no directions about your name, I shall therefore put it. I wish your brother would take the same trouble. A commentary must arise from the fortuitous discoveries of many men in devious walks of literature. Some of your remarks are on plays already printed: but I purpose to add an Appendix of Notes, so that nothing comes too late.
‘You give yourself too much uneasiness, dear Sir, about the loss of the papers[1006]. The loss is nothing, if nobody has found them; nor even then, perhaps, if the numbers be known. You are not the only friend that has had the same mischance. You may repair your want out of a stock, which is deposited with Mr. Allen, of Magdalen-Hall; or out of a parcel which I have just sent to Mr. Chambers[1007] for the use of any body that will be so kind as to want them. Mr. Langtons are well; and Miss Roberts[1008], whom I have at last brought to speak, upon the information which you gave me, that she had something to say.
‘I am, &c.
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘[London] April 14, 1758.’
[Page 336: Mr. Langton as an undergraduate. A.D. 1758.]
‘TO THE SAME.
‘DEAR SIR,
‘You will receive this by Mr. Baretti, a gentleman particularly intitled to the notice and kindness of the Professor of poesy. He has time but for a short stay, and will be glad to have it filled up with as much as he can hear and see.
‘In recommending another to your favour, I ought not to omit thanks for the kindness which you have shewn to myself. Have you any more notes on Shakspeare? I shall be glad of them.
‘I see your pupil sometimes[1009]: his mind is as exalted as his stature[1010]. I am half afraid of him; but he is no less amiable than formidable. He will, if the forwardness of his spring be not blasted, be a credit to you, and to the University. He brings some of my plays[1011] with him, which he has my permission to shew you, on condition you will hide them from every body else.
[Page 337: Experience compared with expectation. Ætat 49.]
‘I am, dear Sir, &c.
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘[London,] June 1, 1758.’
‘To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD.
‘DEAR SIR,
‘Though I might have expected to hear from you, upon your entrance into a new state of life at a new place, yet recollecting, (not without some degree of shame,) that I owe you a letter upon an old account, I think it my part to write first. This, indeed, I do not only from complaisance but from interest; for living on in the old way, I am very glad of a correspondent so capable as yourself, to diversify the hours. You have, at present, too many novelties about you to need any help from me to drive along your time.
‘I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed[1012]. You, who are very capable of anticipating futurity, and raising phantoms before your own eyes, must often have imagined to yourself an academical life, and have conceived what would be the manners, the views, and the conversation, of men devoted to letters; how they would choose their companions, how they would direct their studies, and how they would regulate their lives. Let me know what you expected, and what you have found. At least record it to yourself before custom has reconciled you to the scenes before you, and the disparity of your discoveries to your hopes has vanished from your mind. It is a rule never to be forgotten, that whatever strikes strongly, should be described while the first impression remains fresh upon the mind.
[Page 338: A violent death. A.D. 1759.]
‘I love, dear Sir, to think on you, and therefore, should willingly write more to you, but that the post will not now give me leave to do more than send my compliments to Mr. Warton, and tell you that I am, dear Sir, most affectionately,
‘Your very humble servant,
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘June 28, 1757[1013].’
‘TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE.
‘DEAR SIR,
‘I should be sorry to think that what engrosses the attention of my friend, should have no part of mine. Your mind is now full of the fate of Dury[1014]; but his fate is past, and nothing remains but to try what reflection will suggest to mitigate the terrours of a violent death, which is more formidable at the first glance, than on a nearer