common message-card, and was sent to Mr. Richardson, along with the imitation of Juvenal. "This is imitated by one Johnson who put in for a Public-school in Shropshire, but was disappointed. He has an infirmity of the convulsive kind, that attacks him sometimes, so as to make Him a sad Spectacle. Mr. P. from the merit of This Work which was all the knowledge he had of Him endeavour'd to serve Him without his own application; & wrote to my L. gore, but he did not succeed. Mr. Johnson published afterwds. another Poem in Latin with Notes the whole very Humerous call'd the Norfolk Prophecy. P." Johnson had been told of this note; and Sir Joshua Reynolds informed him of the compliment which it contained, but, from delicacy, avoided showing him the paper itself. When Sir Joshua observed to Johnson that he seemed very desirous to see Pope's note, he answered, "Who would not be proud to have such a man as Pope so solicitous in inquiring about him?" The infirmity to which Mr. Pope alludes, appeared to me also, as I have elsewhere observed,' to be of the convulsive kind, and of the nature of that distemper called St. Vitus's dance; and in this opinion I am confirmed by the description which Sydenham gives of that disease. "This disorder is a kind of convulsion. It manifests itself by halting or unsteadiness of one of the legs, which the patient draws after him like an idiot. If the hand of the same side be applied to the breast, or any other part of the body, he cannot keep it a moment in the same posture, but it will be drawn into a dif And Curll must have a special care To leave the margin wide. Lend these to paper-sparing Pope; And when he sits to write, No letter with an envelope Could give him more delight." Advice to Grub-Street Writers. The original MS. of Pope's "Homer" (preserved in the British Museum) is almost entirely written on the covers of letters, and sometimes between the lines of the letters themselves.-Nichols. ' Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, third edition, p. 8. ferent one by a convulsion, notwithstanding all his efforts to the contrary." Sir Joshua Reynolds, however, was of a different opinion, and favoured me with the following Paper. "Those motions or tricks of Dr. Johnson are improperly called convulsions. He could sit motionless, when he was told so to do, as well as any other man. My opinion is, that it proceeded from a habit which he had indulged himself in, of accompanying his thoughts with certain untoward actions; and those actions always appeared to me as if they were meant to reprobate some part of his past conduct. Whenever he was not engaged in conversation, such thoughts were sure to rush into his mind; and, for this reason, any company, any employment whatever, he preferred to being alone. The great business of his life (he said) was to escape from himself. This disposition he considered as the disease of his mind, which nothing cured but company. "One instance of his absence of mind and particularity, as it is characteristic of the man, may be worth relating. When he and I took a journey together into the West, we visited the late Mr. Bankes, of Dorsetshire; the conversation turning upon pictures, which Johnson could not well see, he retired to a corner of the room, stretching out his right leg as far as he could reach before him, then bringing up his left leg, and stretching his right still further on. The old gentleman, observing him, went up to him, and in a very courteous manner assured him, though it was not a new house, the flooring was perfectly safe. The Doctor started from his reverie, like a person waked out of his sleep, but spoke not a word." While we are on this subject, my readers may not be displeased with another anecdote, communicated to me by the same friend, from the relation of Mr. Hogarth. Johnson used to be a pretty frequent visitor at the house of Mr. Richardson, author of "Clarissa," and other novels of extensive reputation. Mr. Hogarth came one day to see Richardson, soon after the execution of Dr. Cameron for having takenarms for the house of Stuart in 1745-6;2 and being a warm 'Sir Joshua Reynolds's notion on this subject is confirmed by what Johnson himself said to a young lady, the niece of his friend Christopher Smart. See a note by Mr. Boswell on some particulars communicated by Reynolds, under March 30th, 1783.—Malone. 2 Dr. Cameron was executed on June 7th, 1753.-Croker. partisan of George the Second, he observed to Richardson, that certainly there must have been some very unfavourable circumstances lately discovered in this particular case, which had induced the King to approve of an execution for rebellion so long after the time when it was committed, as this had the appearance of putting a man to death in cold blood,' and was very unlike his Majesty's usual clemency. While he was talking, he perceived a person standing at a window in the room, shaking his head, and rolling himself about in a strange ridiculous manner. He concluded that he was an idiot, whom his relations had put under the care of Mr. Richardson, as a very good man. To his great surprise, however, this figure stalked forwards to where he and Mr. Richardson were sitting, and all at once took up the argument, and burst out into an invective against George the Second, as one who, upon all occasions, was unrelenting and barbarous; mentioning many instances; particularly, that when an officer of high rank had been acquitted by a court martial, George the Second had, with his 1 1 Impartial posterity may, perhaps, be as little inclined as Dr. Johnson was, to justify the uncommon rigour exercised in the case of Dr. Archibald Cameron. He was an amiable and truly honest man; and his offence was owing to a generous, though mistaken, principle of duty. Being obliged, after 1746, to give up his profession as a physician, and to go into foreign parts, he was honoured with the rank of Colonel, both in the French and Spanish service. He was a son of the ancient and respectable family of Cameron of Lochiel; and his brother, who was the chief of that brave clan, distinguished himself by moderation and humanity, while the Highland army marched victorious through Scotland. It is remarkable of this chief, that though he had earnestly remonstrated against the attempt as hopeless, he was of too heroic a spirit not to venture his life and fortune in the cause, when personally asked by him whom he thought his prince. Sir Walter Scott states, in his Introduction to Redgauntlet (Waverley Novels, vol. xxxv., p. viii., &c.), that the government of George II. were in possession of sufficient evidence that Dr. Cameron had returned to the Highlands, not, as he alleged on his trial, for family affairs merely, but as the secret agent of the Pretender in a new scheme of rebellion: the ministers, however, preferred trying this indefatigable partisan on the ground of his undeniable share in the insurrection of 1745, rather than rescuing themselves and their master from the charge of harshness, at the expense of making it universally known, that a fresh rebellion had been in agitation so late as 1752.-Lockhart.” notes upon this appear to me undoubtedly his. He this year, and the two following, wrote the Parliamentary Debates. He told me himself, that he was the sole composer of them for those three years only. He was not, however, precisely exact in his statement, which he mentioned from hasty recollection; for it is sufficiently evident, that his composition of them began November 19, 1740, and ended February 23 1742-3.1 It appears from some of Cave's letters to Dr. Birch, that Cave had better assistance for that branch of his Magazine, than has been generally supposed; and that he was indefatigable in getting it made as perfect as he could. Thus, 21st July, 1735: "I trouble you with the inclosed, because you said you could easily correct what is here given for Lord C—ld's speech. I beg you will do so as soon as you can for me, because the month is far advanced." And 15th July, 1737: "As you remember the debates so far as to perceive the speeches already printed are not exact, I beg the favour that you will peruse the inclosed, and, in the best manner your memory will serve, correct the mistaken passages, or add any thing that is omitted. I should be very glad to have something of the Duke of N-le's speech, which would be particularly of service. A gentleman has Lord Bathurst's speech to add something to." And July 3, 1744, "You will see what stupid, low, abominable stuff is put2 upon your noble and learned friend's3 character, such as I should quite reject, and endeavour to do something better towards doing justice to the character. But as I cannot expect to attain my desire in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work, to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post, and others by the speakers themselves, who have been pleased to visit St. John's Gate, and show particular marks of their being pleased." 1 On Johnson's Parliamentary Debates, see Appendix to this volume.— Editor. 2 I suppose in another compilation of the same kind. 3 Doubtless, Lord Hardwicke. Birch's MSS. Brit. Mus. 4302. d said to Garrick, "I think, Davy, I can make a better." len, stirring about his tea for a little while, in a state meditation, he almost extempore produced the following rses : "Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove At the same time that Mr. Garrick favoured me with this necdote, he repeated a very pointed Epigram by Johnson, on reorge the Second and Colley Cibber, which has never yet ppeared, and of which I know not the exact date. Dr. Johnon afterwards gave it to me himself : Augustus still survives in Maro's strain, In 1741 he wrote for the "Gentleman's Magazine" the Preface;"†"Conclusion of his Lives of Drake and Barreer;""A free Translation of the Jests of Hierocles, with an ntroduction;"† and, I think, the following pieces: "Debate on the Proposal of Parliament to Cromwell, to assume the itle of King, abridged, modified, and digested;"† "Transtion of Abbé Guyon's Dissertation on the Amazons;"† Translation of Fontenelle's Panegyric on Dr. Morin." † Two 1 The epitaph of Philips is in the porch of Wolverhampton church. The ose part of it is curious : Near this place lies Charles Claudius Philips, whose absolute contempt Î riches, and inimitable performances upon the violin, made him the ad'ration of all that knew him. He was born in Wales, made the tour of urope, and, after the experience of both kinds of fortune, died in 1732.”. Lakeway. 2 This is a recast of the report, published in 1660, of this debate. Genman's Magazine, vol. xi., p. 152, et seqq.-Editor. |