Life of Johnson Volume III Part 79

[1256] See _ante_, ii. 461.

[1257] See _ante_, ii. 465.

[1258] See _ante_, _ib_. p. 466

[1259] See _ante_, _ib_. p. 467.

[1260] See _ante_, _ib_. p. 470.

[1261] See _ante_, _ib_. p. 469.

[1262] See ante_, p. 405.

[1263] Bishop Porteus. See _ante_, p. 279.

[1264] Miss Let.i.tia Barnston. BOSWELL.

[1265] 'At Chester I pa.s.sed a fortnight in mortal felicity. I had from my earliest years a love for the military life, and there is in it an animation and relish of existence which I have never found amongst any other set of men, except players, with whom you know I once lived a great deal. At the mess of Colonel Stuart's regiment I was quite _the great man_, as we used to say; and I was at the same time all joyous and gay ... I never found myself so well received anywhere. The young ladies there were delightful, and many of them with capital fortunes. Had I been a bachelor, I should have certainly paid my addresses to a Chester lady.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 247.

[1266] Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson from Brighton in 1778:--'I have lost what made my happiness in all seasons of the year; but the black dog shall not make prey of both my master and myself. My master swims now, and forgets the black dog.' Johnson replied:--'I shall easily forgive my master his long stay, if he leaves the dog behind him. We will watch, as well as we can, that the dog shall never be let in again, for when he comes the first thing he does is to worry my master.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 32, 37.

[1267] See _ante_, ii. 202.

[1268] I have a valuable collection made by my Father, which, with some additions and ill.u.s.trations of my own, I intend to publish. I have some hereditary claim to be an Antiquary; not only from my Father, but as being descended, by the mother's side, from the able and learned Sir John Skene, whose merit bids defiance to all the attempts which have been made to lessen his fame. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 225, note 2, for an imperfect list of Boswell's projected publications, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 23, for a fuller one.

[1269] See _ante_, iii. 162, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 11.

[1270] In the first two editions, _we_.

[1271] In chaps, xxiv. and xxv. of his _Siecle de Louis XV_. See _ante_, i. 498, note 4, for Voltaire's 'catching greedily at wonders.'

[1272] Burton in the last lines of _The Anatomy of Melancholy_, says:-- 'Only take this for a corollary and conclusion; as thou tenderest thine own welfare in this and all other melancholy, thy good health of body and mind, observe this short precept, give not way to solitariness and idleness. "Be not solitary, be not idle."'

[1273] Johnson was in better spirits than usual. The following day he wrote:--'I fancy that I grow light and airy. A man that does not begin to grow light and airy at seventy is certainly losing time if he intends ever to be light and airy.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 73.

[1274] Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit. _Juvenal_, xiv. 139.

[1275] He had seen it on his Tour in Wales on July 26, 1774. See _post_, vol. v.

[1276] Dean Percy, _ante_, p. 365.

[1277] Another son was the first Lord Ellenborough.

[1278] His regiment was afterwards ordered to Jamaica, where he accompanied it, and almost lost his life by the climate. This impartial order I should think a sufficient refutation of the idle rumour that 'there was still something behind the throne greater than the throne itself.' BOSWELL. Lord Shelburne, about the year 1803, likening the growth of the power of the Crown to a strong building that had been raised up, said:--'The Earl of Bute had contrived such a lock to it as a succession of the ablest men have not been able to pick, _nor has he ever let the key be so much as seen by which he has held it_.'

Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 68.

[1279] Boswell, on Jan. 4, wrote to Temple:--'How inconsiderable are both you and I, in comparison with what we used to hope we should be!

Yet your learning and your memoirs set you far above the common run of educated men. And _Son pittore anche io_. I too, in several respects, have attained to superiority. But we both want solidity and force of mind, such as we observe in those who rise in active life.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 249.

[1280]

'For in the mind alone our follies lie, The mind that never from itself can fly.'

FRANCIS. Horace, _Epistles_, i. 14. 13.

[1281] Requesting me to inquire concerning the family of a gentleman who was then paying his addresses to Miss Doxy. BOSWELL.

[1282] It is little more than half that distance.

[1283] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Nov. 7:--'My master, I hope, hunts and walks, and courts the belles, and shakes Brighthelmston. When he comes back, frolick and active, we will make a feast, and drink his health, and have a n.o.ble day.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 79.

[1284] See page 368. BOSWELL. On Nov. 16 he wrote:--'At home we do not much quarrel; but perhaps the less we quarrel, the more we hate. There is as much malignity amongst us as can well subsist without any thought of daggers or poisons.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 93.

[1285] See _ante_, i. 187.

[1286] See _post_, p. 421, and Feb. 27, 1784.

[1287] See _ante_, i. 260, and _post_, June 4. 1781.

[1288] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on April 11--'You are at all places of high resort, and bring home hearts by dozens; while I am seeking for something to say about men of whom I know nothing but their verses, and sometimes very little of them. Now I have begun, however, I do not despair of making an end.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 100.

[1289] See _ante_, ii. 5.

[1290] A writer in _Notes and Queries_ (3rd S., viii. 197) points out that Johnson, writing to a doctor, uses a doctor's language. 'Until very lately _solution of continuity_ was a favourite phrase with English surgeons; where a bone was broken, or the flesh, &c. cut or _lacerated_, there was a _solution of continuity_.' See _ante_, ii. 106, for _laceration_.

[1291] He died March 11, 1780, aged 40. _Gent. Mag_. 1780, p. 155.

[1292]

'Animula, vagula, blandula, Hospes comesque corporis, Quae nunc abibis in loca, Pallidula, rigida, nudula?

Nec, ut soles, dabis joca.'

_Adriani morientis ad animam suam_.

'Poor little, pretty, fluttering thing, Must we no longer live together?

And dost thou prune thy trembling wing, To take thy flight thou know'st not whither?

Thy humorous vein, thy pleasing folly Lies all neglected, all forgot; And pensive, wavering, melancholy, Thou dread'st and hop'st thou know'st not what.' _Prior_.

In _The Spectator_, No. 532, is a letter from Pope to Steele on these 'famous verses which the Emperor Adrian spoke on his death-bed.' See in Pope's _Correspondence_ (Elwin's _Pope_, vi. 394), this letter to Steele of Nov. 7, 1712, for his version of these lines.

[1293] See _ante_, ii. 246, note 1.

[1294] Mr. Beauclerk's library was sold by publick auction in April and May 1781, for 5011. MALONE. See _post_, May 8, 1781.

[1295] By a fire in Northumberland-house, where he had an apartment, in which I have pa.s.sed many an agreeable hour. BOSWELL.

[1296] See _post_, iv. 31.