p. 124. "His rage [for liberty] of patriotism. "Mr. Dyson with [a zeal] an ardour of friendship." In the Life of Lyttelton, Johnson seems to have been not favourably disposed towards that nobleman. Mrs. Thrale suggests that he was offended by [Miss Hill Boothby's'] preference of his lordship to him o. Piozzi, [After mentioning the death of Mrs. Fitzherbert and Johnson's high admiration of her, she adds, "The friend of this lady, Miss Boothby 3, succeeded her in the management of Mr. Fitzherbert's family, and in the esteem of Dr. Johnson; though he told me, she pushed her piety to bigotry, her devotion to enthusiasm; that she somewhat disqualified herself for the duties of this life, by her perpetual aspirations after the next: such was, however, the purity of her mind, he said, and such the graces of her manner, that Lord Lyttelton and he used to strive for her preference with an emulation that occasioned hourly disgust, and 1 [Mr. Boswell had, instead of Miss Boothby's name, inserted that of Molly Aston; an error which he would not have forgiven to Mrs. Piozzi.—ED.] 2 Let not my readers smile to think of Johnson's being a candidate for female favour; Mr. Peter Garrick assured me that he was told by a lady, that, in her opinion, Johnson was "a very seducing man." Disadvantages of person and manner may be forgotten, where intellectual pleasure is communicated to a susceptible mind; and that Johnson was capable of feeling the most delicate and disinterested attachment appears from the following letter, which is published by Mrs. Thrale, with some others to the same person, of which the excellence is not so apparent: c TO MISS BOOTHBY. "January, 1755. "DEAREST MADAM,-Though I am afraid your illness leaves you little leisure for the reception of airy civilities, yet I cannot forbear to pay you my congratulations on the new year; and to declare my wishes that your years to come may be many and happy. In this wish, indeed, I include myself, who have none but you on whom my heart reposes; yet surely I wish your good, even though your situation were such as should permit you to communicate no gratifications to, dearest, dearest madam, your, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." 3 Miss Hill Boothby, who was the only daughter of Brook Boothby, esq. and his wife, Elizabeth Fitzherbert, was somewhat older than Johnson. She was born October 27, 1708, and died January 16, 1756. Six Letters addressed to her by Johnson in the year 1755 are printed in Mrs. Piozzi's Collection; and a prayer composed by him on her death may be found in his "Prayers and Meditations." His affection for her induced him to preserve and bind up in a volume thirty-three of her Letters, which were purchased from the widow of his servant, Francis Barber, and published by R. Phillips in 1805,--MALONE. ended in lasting animosity. You may see,' said he to me, when the Poets' Lives were printed, that dear Boothby is at my heart still.' She would delight on that fellow Lyttelton's company all I could do, and I cannot forgive even his memory the preference given by a mind like hers." Baretti has been heard to say, that, when this lady died, Dr. Johnson was almost distracted with grief, and that his friends about him had much to do to calm the violence of his emotions 1.] 66 I can by no means join in the censure bestowed by Johnson on his lordship, whom he calls " poor Lyttelton," for returning thanks to the critical reviewers, for having "kindly commended" his "Dialogues of the Dead." Such " Such " acknowledgments," says my friend, never can be proper, since they must be paid either for flattery or for justice." In my opinion, the most upright man, who has been tried on a false accusation, may, when he is acquitted, make a bow to his jury. And when those, who are so much the arbiters of literary merit, as in a considerable degree to influence the public opinion, review an authour's work, placido "a [Notwithstanding the mention of the "heart" in Mrs. Piozzi's anecdote and in the foregoing letter, there seems no reason to suppose that (as Miss Seward asserted) this was really an affair of the heart" an early attachment" (see ante, vol. i. p. 51). The other letters, of which Boswell says that "their merit is not so apparent," (but which will be found in the Appendix), are written in still warmer terms of affection: Miss Boothby is "a sweet angel," and ". dear angel," and his "heart is full of tenderness;" but when the whole series of letters are read, it will be seen that the friendship began late in the life of both parties; that it was wholly platonic, or to speak more properly, spiritual; and that the letters in which these very affectionate expressions occur were written when Johnson believed that Miss Boothby was dying. It must also be cbserved, that it is very unlikely that Johnson should seriously confess that he had been so unjust to Lord Lyttelton from any private pique; and it seems, by his letters to Mrs. Thrale (ante, April, 1779), that he had no such feeling towards Lyttelton, and that he had applied to his lordship's friends to write the life; and finally, it is to be noted, Lord Lyttelton married his second lady in 1749, and Johnson does not seem to have known Miss Boothby till 1754. In short, the Editor has no doubt, nor will any one who reads the letters, and considers how little personal intercourse there could have been between Miss Boothby and Dr. Johnson, that the whole story is a mistake, founded, perhaps, on some confusion between Miss Boothby and Miss Aston, and countenanced, it must be admitted, by the warm expressions of the letters.-ED.] · lumine, when I am afraid mankind in general are better pleased with severity, he may surely express a grateful sense of their civility. VARIOUS READINGS IN THE LIFE OF LYTTELTON. "He solaced [himself] his grief by writing a long poem to her memory. "The production rather [of a mind that means well, than thinks vigorously] as it seems of leisure than of study, rather effusions than compositions. "His last literary [work] production. 66 [Found the way] undertook to persuade.” As the introduction to his critical examination of the genius and writings of Young, he did Mr. Herbert Croft, then a barrister of Lincoln's-inn, now a clergyman', the honour to adopt a Life of Young, written by that gentleman, who was the friend of Dr. Young's son, and wished to vindicate him from some very erroneous remarks to his prejudice. Mr. Croft's performance was subjected to the revision of Dr. Johnson, as appears from the following note to Mr. John Nichols 2: "This Life of Dr. Young was written by a friend of his son. What is crossed with black is expunged by the authour, what is crossed with red is expunged by me. If you find any thing more that can be well omitted, I shall not be sorry to see it yet shorter." It has always appeared to me to have a considerable share of merit, and to display a pretty successful imitation of Johnson's style. When I mentioned [Afterwards Sir Herbert Croft, bart. He died at Paris, after a residence of fifteen years in that city, April 27, 1816. See Gent. Mag. for May, 1816.— ED.] 2 Gentleman's Magazine, vol. iv. p. 10.-Boswell. ; this to a very eminent literary character 1, he opposed me vehemently, exclaiming, "No, no, it is not a good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force it has all the nodosities of the oak without its strength." This was an image so happy, that one might have thought he would have been satisfied with it; but he was not. And setting his mind again to work, he added, with exquisite felicity, "It has all the contortions of the sibyl, without the inspiration." Mr. Croft very properly guards us against supposing that Young was a gloomy man; and mentions, that "his parish was indebted to the good-humour of the authour of the Night Thoughts' for an assembly and a bowling-green." A letter from a noble foreigner is quoted, in which he is said to have been very pleasant in conversation." 66 Mr. Langton, who frequently visited him, informs me that there was an air of benevolence in his manner, but that he could obtain from him less information than he had hoped to receive from one who had lived so much in intercourse with the brightest men of what has been called the Augustan age of England; and that he showed a degree of eager curiosity concerning the common occurrences that were then passing, which appeared somewhat remarkable in a man of such intellectual stores, of such an advanced age, and who had retired from life with declared disappointment in his expectations. An instance at once of his pensive turn of mind, and his cheerfulness of temper, appeared in a little story, which he himself told to Mr. Langton, when they were walking in his garden: "Here (said he) I had put a handsome sun-dial, with this inscription, 1 Mr. Burke.-MALONE. Piozzi, P. 45. Eheu fugaces! which (speaking with a smile) was sadly verified, for by the next morning my dial had been carried off1." It gives me much pleasure to observe, that however Johnson may have casually talked, yet when he sits, las "an ardent judge zealous to his trust, giving sentence" upon the excellent works of Young, he allows them the high praise to which they are justly entitled." The Universal Passion," says he, "is indeed a very great performance, his distichs have the weight of solid sentiment, and his points the sharpness of resistless truth." [The person spoken of in Johnson's strictures on the poetry of Young, "as a lady of whose praise he would have been justly proud," was Mrs. Thrale, who was a great admirer of Young, and one day forced Johnson to prefer Young's description of night to the so-muchadmired ones of Dryden and Shakspeare, as more forcible and more general. Every reader is not either a lover or a tyrant, but every reader is interested when he hears that "Creation sleeps; 't is as the general pulse Of life stood still, and nature made a pause→→→ “This,” said he, "is true; but remember that taking 1 The late Mr. James Ralph told Lord Macartney, that he passed an evening with Dr. Young at Lord Melcombe's (then Mr. Doddington), at Hammersmith. The doctor happening to go out into the garden, Mr. Doddington observed to him, on his return, that it was a dreadful night, as in truth it was, there being a violent storm of rain and wind. "No, sir," replied the doctor, "it is a very fine night. The Lord is abroad!"-BOSWELL. |