Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 50

[337] Wilkes imperfectly recalled to mind the following pa.s.sage in Plutarch:--'[Greek: Euphranor ton Thaesea ton heatou to Parrhasiou parebale, legon tor men ekeinou hroda bebrokenai, tor de eautou krea boeia.]' 'Euphranor, comparing his own Theseus with Parrhasius's, said that Parrhasius's had fed on roses, but his on beef.' _Plutarch_, ed.

1839, iii. 423.

[338] Portugal, receiving from Brazil more gold than it needed for home uses, s.h.i.+pped a large quant.i.ty to England. It was said, though probably with exaggeration, that the weekly packet-boat from Lisbon, brought one week with another, more than 50,000 in gold to England. Smith's _Wealth of Nations_, book iv. ch. 6. Portugal pieces were current in our colonies, and no doubt were commonly sent to them from London. It was natural therefore that they should be selected for this legal fiction.

[339] See _ante_, ii. III.

[340] 'Whenever the whole of our foreign trade and consumption exceeds our exportation of commodities, our money must go to pay our debts so contracted, whether melted or not melted down. If the law makes the exportation of our coin penal, it will be melted down; if it leaves the exportation of our coin free, as in Holland, it will be carried out in specie. One way or other, go it must, as we see in Spain.... Laws made against exportation of money or bullion will be all in vain. Restraint or liberty in that matter makes no country rich or poor.' Locke's _Works_, ed. 1824, iv. 160.

[341] 'Nov. 14, 1779. Mr. Beauclerk has built a library in Great Russellstreet, that reaches half way to Highgate. Everybody goes to see it; it has put the Museum's nose quite out of joint.' Walpole's _Letters_, vii. 273. It contained upwards of 30,000 volumes, and the sale extended over fifty days. Two days' sale were given to the works on divinity, including, in the words of the catalogue, 'Heterodox! et Increduli. Angl. Freethinkers and their opponents.' _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and His Critics_, p. 315. It sold for 5,011 (ante, in. 420, note 4). Wilkes's own library--a large one--had been sold in 1764, in a five days' sale, as is shewn by the _Auctioneer's Catalogue_, which is in the Bodleian.

[342] 'Our own language has from the Reformation to the present time been chiefly dignified and adorned by the works of our divines, who, considered as commentators, controvertists, or preachers, have undoubtedly left all other nations far behind them.' _The Idler_, No. 91.

[343] Mr. Wilkes probably did not know that there is in an English sermon the most comprehensive and lively account of that entertaining faculty, for which he himself is so much admired. It is in Dr. Barrow's first volume, and fourteenth sermon, _'Against foolish Talking and Jesting.'_ My old acquaintance, the late Corbyn Morris, in his ingenious _Essay on Wit, Humour, and Ridicule_, calls it 'a profuse description of Wit;' but I do not see how it could be curtailed, without leaving out some good circ.u.mstance of discrimination. As it is not generally known, and may perhaps dispose some to read sermons, from which they may receive real advantage, while looking only for entertainment, I shall here subjoin it:--'But first (says the learned preacher) it may be demanded, what the thing we speak of is? Or what this facetiousness (or _wit_ as he calls it before) doth import? To which questions I might reply, as Democritus did to him that asked the definition of a man, "'Tis that which we all see and know." Any one better apprehends what it is by acquaintance, than I can inform him by description. It is, indeed, a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and judgements, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain notion thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the figure of the fleeting air. Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to a known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or in forging an apposite tale; sometimes it playeth in words and phrases, taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense, or the affinity of their sound: sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression: sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude: sometimes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection: sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a l.u.s.ty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense: sometimes a scenical representation of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimical look or gesture, pa.s.seth for it: sometimes an affected simplicity, sometimes a presumptuous bluntness giveth it being: sometimes it riseth only from a lucky hitting upon what is strange: sometimes from a crafty wresting obvious matter to the purpose. Often it consisteth in one knows not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are unaccountable, and inexplicable; being answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy, and windings of language. It is, in short, a manner of speaking out of the simple and plain way, (such as reason teacheth and proveth things by,) which by a pretty surprising uncouthness in conceit or expression, doth affect and amuse the fancy, stirring in it some wonder, and breeding some delight thereto. It raiseth admiration, as signifying a nimble sagacity of apprehension, a special felicity of invention, a vivacity of spirit, and reach of wit more than vulgar; it seeming to argue a rare quickness of parts, that one can fetch in remote conceits applicable; a notable skill, that he can dextrously accommodate them to the purpose before him; together with a lively briskness of humour, not apt to damp those sportful flashes of imagination. (Whence in Aristotle such persons are termed [Greek: _hepidexioi_], dextrous men, and [Greek: _eustrophoi_], men of facile or versatile manners, who can easily turn themselves to all things, or turn all things to themselves.) It also procureth delight, by gratifying curiosity with its rareness, as semblance of difficulty: (as monsters, not for their beauty, but their rarity; as juggling tricks, not for their use, but their abstruseness, are beheld with pleasure:) by diverting the mind from its road of serious thoughts; by instilling gaiety and airiness of spirit; by provoking to such dispositions of spirit in way of emulation or complaisance; and by seasoning matters, otherwise distasteful or insipid, with an unusual and thence grateful tang.' BOSWELL. Morris's _Essay_ was published in 1744. Hume wrote:--'Pray do you not think that a proper dedication may atone for what is objectionable in my Dialogues'! I am become much of my friend Corbyn Morrice's mind, who says that he writes all his books for the sake of the dedications.' J.

H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 147.

[344] The quarrel arose from the destruction by George II. of George I.'s will (_ante_, ii. 342). The King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, was George I.'s grandson. 'Vague rumours spoke of a large legacy to the Queen of Prussia [Frederick's mother]. Of that bequest demands were afterwards said to have been frequently and roughly made by her son, the great King of Prussia, between whom and his uncle subsisted much inveteracy.' Walpole's _Letters_, i. cxx.

[345] When I mentioned this to the Bishop of Killaloe, 'With the goat,'

said his Lords.h.i.+p. Such, however, is the engaging politeness and pleasantry of Mr. Wilkes, and such the social good humour of the Bishop, that when they dined together at Mr. Dilly's, where I also was, they were mutually agreeable. BOSWELL. It was not the lion, but the leopard, that shall lie down with the kid. _Isaiah_, xi. 6.

[346] Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, authour of tracts relating to natural history, &c. BOSWELL.

[347] Mrs. Montagu, so early as 1757, wrote of Mr. Stillingfleet:--'I a.s.sure you our philosopher is so much a man of pleasure, he has left off his old friends and his blue stockings, and is at operas and other gay a.s.semblies every night.' Montagu's _Letters_, iv. 117.

[348] See _ante_, in. 293, note 5.

[349] Miss Burney thus describes her:--'She is between thirty and forty, very short, very fat, but handsome; splendidly and fantastically dressed, rouged not unbecomingly yet evidently, and palpably desirous of gaining notice and admiration. She has an easy levity in her air, manner, voice, and discourse, that speak (sic) all within to be comfortable.... She is one of those who stand foremost in collecting all extraordinary or curious people to her London conversaziones, which, like those of Mrs. Vesey, mix the rank and the literature, and exclude all beside.... Her parties are the most brilliant in town.' Miss Burney then describes one of these parties, at which were present Johnson, Burke, and Reynolds. 'The company in general were dressed with more brilliancy than at any rout I ever was at, as most of them were going to the d.u.c.h.ess of c.u.mberland's.' Miss Burney herself was 'surrounded by strangers, all dressed superbly, and all looking saucily.... Dr. Johnson was standing near the fire, and environed with listeners.' Mme.

D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 179, 186, 190. Leslie wrote of Lady Corke in 1834 (_Autobiographical Recollections_, i. 137, 243):--'Notwithstanding her great age, she is very animated. The old lady, who was a lion-hunter in her youth, is as much one now as ever.' She ran after a Boston negro named Prince Saunders, who 'as he put his Christian name "Prince" on his cards without the addition of Mr., was believed to be a native African prince, and soon became a lion of the first magnitude in fas.h.i.+onable circles.' She died in 1840.

[350] 'A lady once ventured to ask Dr. Johnson how he liked Yorick's [Sterne's] _Sermons_. "I know nothing about them, madam," was his reply.

But some time afterwards, forgetting himself, he severely censured them.

The lady retorted:--"I understood you to say, Sir, that you had never read them." "No, Madam, I did read them, but it was in a stage-coach; I should not have even deigned to look at them had I been at large."

Cradock's _Memoirs_, p. 208.

[351] See _ante_, iii. 382, note 1.

[352] Next day I endeavoured to give what had happened the most ingenious turn I could, by the following verses:--

To THE HONOURABLE Miss MONCKTON.

'Not that with th' excellent Montrose I had the happiness to dine; Not that I late from table rose, From Graham's wit, from generous wine.

It was not these alone which led On sacred manners to encroach; And made me feel what most I dread, JOHNSON'S just frown, and self-reproach.

But when I enter'd, not abash'd, From your bright eyes were shot such rays, At once intoxication flash'd, And all my frame was in a blaze.

But not a brilliant blaze I own, Of the dull smoke I'm yet asham'd; I was a dreary ruin grown, And not enlighten'd though inflam'd.

Victim at once to wine and love, I hope, MARIA, you'll forgive; While I invoke the powers above, That henceforth I may wiser live.'

The lady was generously forgiving, returned me an obliging answer, and I thus obtained an _Act of Oblivion_, and took care never to offend again. BOSWELL.

[353] See _ante_, ii. 436, and iv. 88, note I.

[354] On May 22 Horace Walpole wrote (_Letters_, viii. 44):--'Boswell, that quintessence of busybodies, called on me last week, and was let in, which he should not have been, could I have foreseen it. After tapping many topics, to which I made as dry answers as an unbribed oracle, he vented his errand. "Had I seen Dr. Johnson's _Lives of the Poets_?" I said slightly, "No, not yet;" and so overlaid his whole impertinence.'

[355] See _ante_, iii. 1.

[356] See _ante_, ii. 47, note 2; 352, note I; and iii. 376, for explanations of like instances of Boswell's neglect.

[357] See _ante_, i. 298, note 4.

[358] 'He owned he sometimes talked for victory.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, opening pages.

[359] The late Right Hon. William Gerard Hamilton. MALONE.

[360] Dr. Johnson, being told of a man who was thankful for being introduced to him, 'as he had been convinced in a long dispute that an opinion which he had embraced as a settled truth was no better than a vulgar error, "Nay," said he, "do not let him be thankful, for he was right, and I was wrong." Like his Uncle Andrew in the ring at Smithfield, Johnson, in a circle of disputants, was determined neither to be thrown nor conquered.' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 139. Johnson, in _The Adventurer_, No. 85, seems to describe his own talk. He writes:--'

While the various opportunities of conversation invite us to try every mode of argument, and every art of recommending our sentiments, we are frequently betrayed to the use of such as are not in themselves strictly defensible; a man heated in talk, and eager of victory, takes advantage of the mistakes or ignorance of his adversary, lays hold of concessions to which he knows he has no right, and urges proofs likely to prevail on his opponent, though he knows himself that they have no force.' J. S.

Mill gives somewhat the same account of his own father. 'I am inclined to think,' he writes, 'that he did injustice to his own opinions by the unconscious exaggerations of an intellect emphatically polemical; and that when thinking without an adversary in view, he was willing to make room for a great portion of the truths he seemed to deny.' Mill's _Autobiography_, p. 201. See also _ante_, ii. 100, 450, in. 23, 277, 331; and _post_, May 18, 1784, and Steevens's account of Johnson just before June 22, 1784.

[361] Thomas Shaw, D.D., author of _Travels to Barbary and the Levant_.

[362] See ante, iii. 314.

[363] The friend very likely was Boswell himself. He was one of 'these _tanti_ men.' 'I told Paoli that in the very heat of youth I felt the _nom est tanti_, the _omnia vanitas_ of one who has exhausted all the sweets of his being, and is weary with dull repet.i.tion. I told him that I had almost become for ever incapable of taking a part in active life.'

Boswell's _Corsica_, ed. 1879, p. 193.

[364] _Letters on the English Nation: By Batista Angeloni, a Jesuit, who resided many years in London. Translated from the original Italian by the Author of the Marriage Act. A Novel_. 2 vols. London [no printer's name given], 1755. Shebbeare published besides six _Letters to the People of England_ in the years 1755-7, for the last of which he was sentenced to the pillory. _Ante_, iii. 315, note I. Horace Walpole (_Letters_, iii. 74) described him in 1757 as 'a broken Jacobite physician, who has threatened to write himself into a place or the pillory.'

[365] I recollect a ludicrous paragraph in the newspapers, that the King had pensioned both a _He_-bear and a _She_-bear. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 66, and _post_, April 28, 1783.

[366]

Witness, ye chosen train Who breathe the sweets of his Saturnian reign; Witness ye Hills, ye Johnsons, Scots, Shebbeares, Hark to my call, for some of you have ears.'

_Heroic Epistle_. See _post_, under June 16, 1784.

[367] In this he was unlike the King, who, writes Horace Walpole,'

expecting only an attack on Chambers, bought it to tease, and began reading it to, him; but, finding it more bitter on himself, flung it down on the floor in a pa.s.sion, and would read no more.' _Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 187.

[368] They were published in 1773 in a pamphlet of 16 pages, and, with the good fortune that attends a muse in the peerage, reached a third edition in the year. To this same earl the second edition of Byron's _Hours of Idleness_ was 'dedicated by his obliged ward and affectionate kinsman, the author.' In _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_, he is abused in the pa.s.sage which begins:--

'No muse will cheer with renovating smile, The paralytic puling of Carlisle.'

In a note Byron adds:--'The Earl of Carlisle has lately published an eighteen-penny pamphlet on the state of the stage, and offers his plan for building a new theatre. It is to be hoped his lords.h.i.+p will be permitted to bring forward anything for the stage--except his own tragedies.' In the third canto of _Childe Harold_ Byron makes amends. In writing of the death of Lord Carlisle's youngest son at Waterloo, he says:--

'Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine; Yet one I would select from that proud throng, Partly because they blend me with his line, And partly that I did his Sire some wrong.'