more money." Piozzi, p. 119. Mrs. Piozzi and Sir John Hawkins have strangely mis-stated the history of Goldsmith's situation and Johnson's friendly interference, when this novel was sold. I shall give it authentically from Johnson's own exact narration: "I received one morning a message from poor Goldsmith that he was in great distress, and as it was not in his power to come to me, begging that I would come to him as soon as possible. I sent him a guinea, and promised to come to him directly. I accordingly went as soon as I was dressed, and found that his landlady had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent passion. I perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and had got a bottle of madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork into the bottle, desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him of the means by which he might be extricated. He then told me that he had a novel ready for the press, which he produced to me. I looked into it, and saw its merit; told the landlady I should soon return, and having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him so ill 2." [How Mr. Boswell, who affects such extreme accuracy, should say that Hawkins has strangely mis-stated this affair is very surprising; what Hawkins says (Life, p. 420), is merely that, under a pressing necessity, he wrote the Vicar of Wakefield, and sold it to Newbury for 401. Hawkins's account is not in any respect inconsistent with Boswell's; and the difference between the prices stated, even if Hawkins be in error, is surely not sufficient to justify the charge of a strange misstatement.-ED.] 2 It may not be improper to annex here Mrs. Piozzi's account of this transaction, in her own words, as a specimen of the extreme inaccuracy with which all her anecdotes of Dr. Johnson are related, or rather discoloured and distorted. "I have forgotten the year, but it could scarcely, I think, be later than 1765 or 1766, that he was called abruptly from our house after dinner, and returning in about three hours, said he had been with an enraged authour, whose landlady pressed him for payment within doors, while the bailiffs beset him without; that he was drinking himself drunk with madeira, to drown care, and fretting over a novel, which, when finished, was to be his whole fortune, but he could not get it done for distraction, nor could he step out of doors to offer it for sale. Mr. Johnson, therefore, Here let me not forget the curious anecdote 3, referred to by Dr. Maxwell, which was related to me by Mr. Beauclerk, and which I shall endeavour to exhibit as well as I can in that gentleman's lively manner; and, in justice to him, it is proper to add, that Dr. Johnson told me I might rely both on the correctness of his memory, and the fidelity of his narrative. "When Madame de Boufflers 4 was first in England (said Beauclerk), she was desirous to see Johnson. I accordingly went with her to his chambers in the Temple, where she was entertained with his conversation for some time. When our visit was over, she and I left him, and were got into Inner Templesent away the bottle, and went to the bookseller, recommending the performance, and desiring some immediate relief; which when he brought back to the writer, he called the woman of the house directly to partake of punch, and pass their time in merriment.”—Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, p. 119.-BOSWELL. [It is hardly fair to give this as a proof of Mrs. Piozzi's inaccuracy in all her anecdotes. We have seen some instances, and shall see more, in which Dr. Johnson, according even to Mr. Boswell's report, told an anecdote different ways, and how can we be sure that he did not do so in the present case? The greatest discrepancy between the two stories is the time of the day at which it happened; and, unluckily, the admitted fact of the bottle of madeira seems to render Mrs. Piozzi's version the more probable of the two. If, according to Mr. Boswell's account, Goldsmith had, in the morn ing, changed Johnson's charitable guinea for the purpose of getting a bottle of madeira, we cannot complain that Mrs. Piozzi's represents him as "drinking himself drunk with madeira;" which Mr. Boswell thinks so violently inaccurate, as to deserve being marked in italics.-ED.] 3 [Mr. Boswell had placed this anecdote under 1775: it is thought right to introduce it near the date of the event.-ED.] 4 [La Comtesse de Boufflers was the mistress of the Prince de Conti, and aspired to be his wife; she was a bel-esprit, and in that character thought it necessary to be an Anglomane and to visit England in the summer of 1763. Horace Walpole says of her, in a letter to Montagu, 17th May, 1763, “Madame de Boufflers will, I think, die a martyr to a taste (for seeing sights), which she fancied she had, and finds she had not. Never having stirred ten miles from Paris, and having only rolled in an easy coach from one hotel to another on a gliding pavement, she is already worn out by being hurried from morning till night from one sight to another. She rises every morning so fatigued with the toils of the preceding day, that she has not strength, if she had inclination, to observe the least or the finest things she sees." One of the sights, which this inquisitive traveller was taken to see, was Dr. Johnson, and a strange sight it seems that it was. Madame de Boufflers visited England a second time on the melancholy necessity of the emigration -ED.] lane, when all at once I heard a noise like | tical and biographical writer, being mentionCampbell is a man of thunder. This was occasioned by Johnson, ed, Johnson said, who, it seems, upon a little recollection, much knowledge, and has a good share of had taken it into his head that he ought to imagination. His 'Hermippus Redivivus' have done the honours of his literary resi- is very entertaining, as an account of the dence to a foreign lady of quality, and, ea- hermetick philosophy, and as furnishing a ger to show himself a man of gallantry, was curious history of the extravagancies of hurrying down the staircase in violent agi- the human mind. If it were merely imagitation. He overtook us before we reached nary, it would be nothing at all. Campthe Temple-gate, and, brushing in between bell is not always rigidly careful of truth me and Madame de Boufflers, seized her in his conversation; but I do not believe hand, and conducted her to her coach. His there is any thing of this carelessness in dress was a rusty brown morning suit, a his books. Campbell is a good man, a piI am afraid he has not been in pair of old shoes by way of slippers, a little ous man. shrivelled wig sticking on the top of his the inside of a church for many years3; head, and the sleeves of his shirt and the but he never passes a church without pullknees of his breeches hanging loose. Aing off his hat. This shows that he has considerable crowd of people gathered round, and were not a little struck by this singular appearance." good principles. I used to go pretty often was, no doubt, an able, industrious, and very voluminous writer, but hardly can be designated as "the celebrated." His Lives of the Admirals is the only one of his almost innumerable My next meeting with Johnson was on Friday, the 1st of July, when he and I and Dr. Goldsmith supped at the Mitre. I was publications that is still called for; his last and before this time pretty well acquainted with most extensive work, "A Political Survey of Goldsmith, who was one of the brightest Britain," published in 1774, has become, from ornaments of the Johnsonian school. the change of circumstances, almost obsolete, but Goldsmith's respectful attachment to John- at the time deserved more reputation than it obson was then at its height; for his own tained. He was born in 1708, and died in 1775. literary reputation had not yet distin--ED.] guished him so much as to excite a vain desire of competition with his great master. He had increased my admiration of the goodness of Johnson's heart, by incidental remarks in the course of conversation, such as, when I mentioned Mr. Levet, whom he entertained under his roof. "He is poor and honest, which is recommendation enough to Johnson;" and when I wondered that he was very kind to a man of whom I had heard a very bad character," He is now become miserable, and that ensures the protection of Johnson." Goldsmith attempted this evening to maintain, I suppose from an affectation of paradox," that knowledge was not desirable on its own account, for it often was a source of unhappiness." JOHNSON." Why, sir, that knowledge may in some cases produce unhappiness, I allow. But upon the whole, knowledge, per se, is certainly an object which every man would wish to attain, although, perhaps, he may not take the trouble necessary for attaining it." On the con 3 I am inclined to think that he was misinformed as to this circumstance. I own I am jealous for my worthy friend Dr. John Campbell. For though Milton could without remorse absent himself from publick worship, I cannot. trary, I have the same habitual impressions upon my mind, with those of a truly venerable judge, who said to Mr. Langton, "Friend Langton, if i have not been at church on Sunday, I do not feel myself easy." Dr. Campbell was a sincerely religious man. Lord Macartney, who is eminent for his variety of knowledge, and attention to men of talents, and knew him well, told me, that when he called on him in a morning, he found him reading a chapter in the Greek New Testament, which he informed his lordship was his constant practice. The quantity of Dr. Campbell's composition is almost incredible, and his labours brought him large profits. Dr. Joseph Warton told me that Johnson said of him, "He is the richest authour that ever grazed the common of literature." [Mr. Boswell quotes this dictum as if it was evidence only of Dr. Campbell's wealth; he probably did not see that it characterised his celebrated friend, by no very complimentary al Dr. John Campbell, the celebrated 2 polit-lusion, as grazing the common of literature. 1 [Mr. Boswell, as has been already observed, imagined that all the literary men in England were mere planets moving round and borrowing light from his great luminary, Johnson. Goldsmith was an ornament of the Johnsonian society, but in what respect can he be said to have belonged to the Johnsonian school? The style of his writings, the turn of his mind, the habits of his life, were, in almost every point, strikingly dissimilar from Johnson's.-ED.] 2 [Mr. Boswell a little exaggerates the literary station of his countryman, Dr. Campbell; who The strange story of Campbell's "pulling off his to Campbell's on a Sunday evening, till I I mentioned the periodical paper called began to consider that the shoals of Scotch-"The Connoisseur." He said it wanted men who flocked about him might proba- | matter.-No doubt it had not the deep bly say, when any thing of mine was well thinking of Johnson's writings. But suredone, Ay, ay, he has learnt this of CAW-ly it has just views of the surface of life, MELL!" and a very sprightly manner. His opinion of The World was not much higher than of the Connoisseur. ་ He talked very contemptuously of Churchill's poetry, observing, that "it had a temporary currency, only from its audacity of abuse, and being filled with living names, and that it would sink into oblivion." I ventured to hint that he was not quite a fair judge, as Churchill had attacked him violently. JOHNSON. Nay, sir, I am a very fair judge. He did not attack me violently till he found I did not like his poetry; and his attack on me shall not prevent me from continuing to say what I think of him, from an apprehension that it may be ascribed to resentment. No, sir, I called the fellow a blockhead at first, and I will call him a blockhead still. However, I will acknowledge that I have a better opinion of him now than I once had; for he has shown more fertility than I expected. To be sure, he is a tree that cannot produce good fruit he only bears crabs. But, sir, a tree that produces a great many crabs is better than a tree which produces only a few." In this depreciation of Churchill's poetry I could not agree with him. It is very true that the greatest part of it is upon the topicks of the day, on which account, as it brought him great fame and profit at the time, it must proportionably slide out of the publick attention as other occasional objects succeed. But Churchill had extraordinary vigour both of thought and expression. His portraits of the players will ever be valuable to the true lovers of the drama; and his strong caricatures of several eminent men of his age will not be forgotten by the curious. Let me add, that there are in his works many passages which are of a general nature; and his " Prophecy of Famine" is a poem of no ordinary merit. It is, indeed, falsely injurious to Scotland; but therefore may be allowed a greater share of invention." Let me here apologize for the imperfect manner in which I am obliged to exhibit Johnson's conversation at this period. In the early part of my acquaintance with him, I was so wrapt in admiration of his extraordinary colloquial talents, and so little accustomed to his peculiar mode of expres sion, that I found it extremely difficult to recollect and record his conversation with its genuine vigour and vivacity. In progress of time, when my mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ather, I could, with much more facility and exactness, carry in my memory and commit to paper the exuberant variety of his wisdom and wit. At this time Miss Williams, as she was called, though she did not reside with him in the Temple under his roof, but had lodgings in Bolt-court, Fleet-street, had so much of his attention, that he every night drank tea with her before he went home, however late it might be, and she always sat up for him. This, it may be fairly conjectured, was not alone a proof of his regard for her, but of his own unwillingness to go into solitude, before that unseasonable hour at which he had habituated himself to expect the oblivion of repose. Dr. Goldsmith, being a privileged man, went with him this night, strutting away, and calling to me with an air of superiority, like that of an esoterick over an exoterick disciple of a sage of antiquity2, "I go to Miss Williams." I ton's burlesque Ode on St. Cecilia's day. It was performed at Ranelagh in masks, to a very sided in Norfolk. Beard sung the salt-box song, crowded audience, as I was told; for I then rewhich was admirably accompanied on that instrument by Brent, the fencing-master, and father of Miss Brent, the celebrated singer; Skeggs on the broomstick, as bassoon; and a remarkable perBonnell Thornton had just published a former on the Jew's-harp,-" Buzzing twangs the burlesque "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day," iron lyre." Cleavers were cast in bell-metal for adapted to the ancient British musick, viz. this entertainment. All the performers of the old the salt box, the jew's-harp, the marrow-woman's oratory, employed by Foote, were, I bones and cleaver, the hum-strum or hurdy-believe, employed at Ranelagh, on this occasion. gurdy, &c. Johnson praised its humour, and seemed much diverted with it. He repeated the following passage: "In strains more exalted the Salt-box shall join, And clattering and battering and clapping combine; With a rap and a tap, while the hollow side sounds, Up and down leaps the flap, and with rattling rebounds 1." -BURNEY. [In the original edition of this ode now before the editor, the date on the title-page is 1749, a mistake, no doubt, for 1769. For the use to which Dr. Burney put it, as a burlesque vehicle for musick, it is very well; but as a literary production, it seems without object or meaning. It has not even the low merit of being a parody; the best line is that on the jew's-harp, above quoted-" Buzzing twangs the iron lyre."-ED.] 2 [It may perhaps not be unnecessary to some 1 In 1769 I set for Smart and Newbury, Thorn-readers to explain that the ancient philosophers confess, I then envied him this mighty privilege, of which he seemed so proud; but it was not long before I obtained the same mark of distinction. On Tuesday, the 5th of July, I again visited Johnson. He told me he had looked into the poems of a pretty voluminous writer, Mr. (now Dr.) John Ogilvie, one of the presbyterian ministers of Scotland, which had lately come out, but could find nothing in them. BoswELl. "Is there not imagination in them, sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, sir, there is in them what was imagination, but it is no more imagination in him, than sound is sound in the echo. And his diction too is not his own. We have long ago seen white-robed innocence, and flower-bespangled meads." you easily suppose,-nothing but that I love I have had an inflammation in my eyes, but it is much better, and will be, I hope, soon quite well. "Be so good as to let me know whether you design to stay at Lichfield this summer; if you do, I purpose to come down. I shall bring Frank with me, so that Kitty must contrive to make two beds, or get a servant's bed at the Three Crowns, which may be as well. As I suppose she may want sheets and table-linen, and such things, I have sent ten pounds, which she may lay out in conveniences. I will pay her for her board what you think proper; I think a guinea a week for me and the boy. "Be pleased to give my love to Kitty.-I am, my dearest love, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."] Talking of London, he observed, "Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable On Wednesday, July 6, he was engaged little lanes and courts. It is not in the to sup with me at my lodgings in Downingshowy evolutions of buildings, but in the street, Westminster. But on the precedmultiplicity of human habitations which are ing night my landlord having behaved very crowded together, that the wonderful im- rudely to me and some company who were mensity of London consists."-I have often with me, I resolved not to remain another amused myself with thinking how different night in his house. I was exceedingly una place London is to different people. They, easy at the awkward appearance I supposed whose narrow minds are contracted to the I should make to Johnson and the other consideration of some one particular pursuit, gentlemen whom I had invited, not being view it only through that medium. A po- able to receive them at home, and being litician thinks of it merely as the seat of obliged to order supper at the Mitre: I government in its different departments; went to Johnson in the morning, and talka grazier, as a vast market for cattle; a ed of it as of a serious distress. He laughmercantile man, as a place where a prodi- ed, and said, “Consider, sir, how insignifigious deal of business is done upon 'Change; cant this will appear a twelvemonth her.ce." a dramatick enthusiast, as the grand scene Were this consideration to be applied to of theatrical entertainments; a man of plea- most of the little vexatious incidents of life, sure, as an assemblage of taverns, and the by which our quiet is too often disturbed, great emporium for ladies of easy virtue. it would prevent many painful sensations. But the intellectual man is struck with it, I have tried it frequently with good effect. as comprehending the whole of human life" There is nothing (continued he) in this in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible. ["DR. JOHNSON TO MISS LUCY PORTER. Pearson "5th July, 1763. "MY DEAREST DEAR,-I am extremely glad that so much prudence and virtue as yours is at last rewarded with so large a fortune!, and doubt not but that the excellence which you have shown in circumstances of difficulty will continue the same in the convenience of wealth. "I have not written to you sooner, having nothing to say, which you would not were supposed to have two sets of tenets-one, the exoteric, external, or public doctrines-the other the esoteric, the internal, or secret doctrine, which were reserved for the more favoured few. -ED.] [Miss Porter had just received a legacy of 10,000l. by the death of her brother.-ED.] mighty misfortune; nay, we shall be better 2 [Certainly not; you must use them according to the contract, expressed or implied, under which guardmen upon him; or you may send the | we prosecute and punish. Political instigreatest scoundrel you can find into your tutions are formed upon the consideration of apartments; or you may say that you want what will most frequently tend to the good to make some experiments in natural phi- of the whole, although now and then exlosophy, and may burn a large quantity of ceptions may occur. Thus it is better in assafoetida in his house." general that a nation should have a supreme I had as my guests this evening at the legislative power, although it may at times Mitre tavern, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Goldsmith, be abused. And then, sir, there is this conMr. Thomas Davies, Mr. Eccles1, an Irish sideration, that if the abuse be enormous, gentleman, for whose agreeable company Nature will rise up, and claiming her oriI was obliged to Mr. Davies, and the Rev-ginal rights, overturn a corrupt political erend Mr. John Ogilvie2, who was desirous system." I mark this animated sentence of being in company with my illustrious with peculiar pleasure, as a noble instance friend, while I, in my turn, was proud to have of that truly dignified spirit of freedom the honour of showing one of my countrymen which ever glowed in his heart, though he upon what easy terms Johnson permitted was charged with slavish tenets by superme to live with him. ficial observers; because he was at all times indignant against that false patriotism, that pretended love of freedom, that unruly restlessness, which is inconsistent with the stable authority of any good government. Goldsmith, as usual, endeavoured, with too much eagerness, to shine, and disputed very warmly with Johnson against the well known maxim of the British constitution, "the king can do no wrong;" affirming, that "what was morally false could not be politically true; and as the king might, in the exercise of his regal power, command and cause the doing of what was wrong, it certainly might be said, in sense and in reason, that he could do wrong." JOHNSON. "Sir, you are to consider, that in our corstitution, according to its true principles, the king is the head, he is supreme; he is above every thing, and there is no power by which he can be tried. Therefore it is, sir, that we hold the king can do no wrong; that whatever may happen to be wrong in government may not be above our reach, by being ascribed to majesty. Redress is always to be had against oppression, by punishing the immediate agents. The king, though he should command, cannot force a judge to condemn a man unjustly; therefore it is the judge whom you have hired them. If a landlord breaks his part of the contract, the law will relieve the other party; but the latter is not at liberty to take such violent and illegal steps as Johnson suggests. ED.] 1 [Isaac Ambrose Eccles, Esq. of Cromroe, in the county of Wicklow, in Ireland: he published one or two plays of Shakspeare, with notes.ED.] ill's " This generous sentiment, which he uttered with great fervour, struck me exceedingly, and stirred my blood to that pitch of fancied resistance, the possibility of which I am glad to keep in mind, but to which I trust I never shall be forced. "Great abilities," said he, " are not requisite for an historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand: so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any high degree: only about as much as is used in the lower kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and colouring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary." Bayle's Dictionary is a very useful work for those to consult who love the biographical part of literature, which is what I love most." Talking of the eminent writers in Queen Anne's reign, he observed, "I think Dr. Arbuthnot the first man among them. He was the most universal genius, being an excellent physician, a man of deep learning, and a man of much humour. Mr. Addison was, to be sure, a great man: his learning was not profound; but his morality, his humour, and his elegance of writing, set him very high." 2 The northern bard mentioned page 191. When I asked Dr. Johnson's permission to intro- Mr. Ogilvie was unlucky enough to choose duce him, he obligingly agreed; adding, however, for the topick of his conversation the praises with a sly pleasantry, "but he must give us none of his native country. He began with sayof his poetry." It is remarkable that Johnson ing, that there was very rich land around and Churchill, however much they differed in Edinburgh. Goldsmith, who had studied other points, agreed on this subject. See Church- physick there, contradicted this, very unJourney." It is, however, but justice to truly, with a sneering laugh. DisconcertDr. Ogilvie to observe, that his " Day of Judged a little by this, Mr. Ogilvie then took a BOSWELL. [Boswell's naiveté in thinking it remarkable that two persons should agree in disliking the poetry of his northern bard is amusing: it might have been more remarkable if two had agreed in liking it.-ED.] ment" has no inconsiderable share of merit. new ground, where, I suppose, he thought himself perfectly safe; for he observed, that Scotland had a great many noble wild prospects. JOHNSON. "I believe, sir, you have a great many. Norway, too, has noble |