Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 64

'I am, Sir,

'Your affectionate &c.,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'London, Jan. 24, 1784.'

[811] See _post_, v. 48.

[812] See _post_, p. 271.

[813] I sent it to Mr. Pitt, with a letter, in which I thus expressed myself:--'My principles may appear to you too monarchical: but I know and am persuaded, they are not inconsistent with the true principles of liberty. Be this as it may, you, Sir, are now the Prime Minister, called by the Sovereign to maintain the rights of the Crown, as well as those of the people, against a violent faction. As such, you are ent.i.tled to the warmest support of every good subject in every department.' He answered:--'I am extremely obliged to you for the sentiments you do me the honour to express, and have observed with great pleasure the _zealous and able support_ given to the CAUSE OF THE PUBLICK in the work you were so good to transmit to me.' BOSWELL. Five years later, and two years before _The Life of Johnson_ was published, Boswell wrote to Temple:--'As to Pitt, he is an insolent fellow, but so able, that upon the whole I must support him against the _Coalition_; but I will _work_ him, for he has behaved very ill to me. Can he wonder at my wis.h.i.+ng for preferment, when men of the first family and fortune in England struggle for it?' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 295. Warburton said of Helvetius, whom he disliked, that, if he had met him, 'he would have _worked_ him.'

Walpole's _Letters_, iv. 217.

[814] Out of this offer, and one of a like nature made in 1779 (_ante_, iii. 418), Mr. Croker weaves a vast web of ridiculous suspicions.

[815] From his garden at Prestonfield, where he cultivated that plant with such success, that he was presented with a gold medal by the Society of London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. BOSWELL.

[816] In the original _effusion_. Johnson's _Works_, vii. 402.

[817] Who had written him a very kind letter. BOSWELL.

[818] On Jan. 12 the Ministry had been in a minority of 39 in a House of 425; on March 8 the minority was reduced to one in a House of 381.

Parliament was dissolved on the 25th. In the first division in the new Parliament the Ministry were in a majority of 97 in a House of 369.

_Parl. Hist._ xxiv. 299, 744, 829.

[819] See _ante_, p. 241.

[820] 'In old Aberdeen stands the King's College, of which the first president was Hector Boece, or Boethius, who may be justly reverenced as one of the revivers of elegant learning.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 11.

[821] See _ante_, iii. 104.

[822] In his dining-room, no doubt, among 'the very respectable people'

whose portraits hung there. _Ante_, p. 203, note.

[823] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 466) wrote on March 30:--'The nation is intoxicated, and has poured in Addresses of Thanks to the Crown for exerting the prerogative _against_ the palladium of the people.'

[824] The election lasted from April 1 to May 16. Fox was returned second on the poll. _Ann. Reg._ xxvii. 190.

[825] He was returned also for Kirkwall, for which place he sat for nearly a year, while the scrutiny of the Westminster election was dragging on. _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 799.

[826] Hannah More wrote on March 8 (_Memoirs_, i. 310):--'I am sure you will honour Mr. Langton, when I tell you he is come on purpose to stay with Dr. Johnson, and that during his illness. He has taken a little lodging in Fleet-street in order to be near, to devote himself to him.

He has as much goodness as learning, and that is saying a bold thing of one of the first Greek scholars we have.'

[827] Floyer was the Lichfield physician on whose advice Johnson was '_touched_' by Queen Anne. _Ante_, i. 42, 91, and _post_, July 20, 1784.

[828] To which Johnson returned this answer:--

'TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL OF PORTMORE.

'Dr. Johnson acknowledges with great respect the honour of Lord Portmore's notice. He is better than he was; and will, as his Lords.h.i.+p directs, write to Mr. Langton.

'Bolt-court, Fleet-street,

April 13, 1784.'

BOSWELL. Johnson here a.s.sumes his t.i.tle of Doctor, which Boswell says (_ante_, ii. 332, note 1), so far as he knew, he never did. Perhaps the letter has been wrongly copied, or perhaps Johnson thought that, in writing to a man of t.i.tle, he ought to a.s.sume such t.i.tle as he himself had.

[829] The eminent painter, representative of the ancient family of Homfrey (now Humphry) in the west of England; who, as appears from their arms which they have invariably used, have been, (as I have seen authenticated by the best authority,) one of those among the Knights and Esquires of honour who are represented by Holinshed as having issued from the Tower of London on coursers apparelled for the justes, accompanied by ladies of honour, leading every one a Knight, with a chain of gold, pa.s.sing through the streets of London into Smithfield, on Sunday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, being the first Sunday after Michaelmas, in the fourteenth year of King Richard the Second. This family once enjoyed large possessions, but, like others, have lost them in the progress of ages. Their blood, however, remains to them well ascertained; and they may hope in the revolution of events, to recover that rank in society for which, in modern times, fortune seems to be an indispensable requisite. BOSWELL.

[830] Son of Mr. Samuel Paterson. BOSWELL. In the first two editions after 'Paterson' is added 'eminent for his knowledge of books.' See _ante_, iii. 90.

[831] Humphry, on his first coming to London, poor and unfriended, was helped by Reynolds. Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 174.

[832] On April 21 he wrote:--'After a confinement of 129 days, more than the third part of a year, and no inconsiderable part of human life, I this day returned thanks to G.o.d in St. Clement's Church for my recovery.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 365.

[833] On April 26 he wrote:--'On Sat.u.r.day I showed myself again to the living world at the Exhibition; much and splendid was the company, but like the Doge of Genoa at Paris [Versailles, Voltaire, _Siecle de Louis XIV_, chap, xiv.], I admired nothing but myself. I went up the stairs to the pictures without stopping to rest or to breathe,

"In all the madness of superfluous health."

[Pope's _Essay on Man_, iii. 3.] The Prince of Wales had promised to be there; but when we had waited an hour and a half, sent us word that he could not come.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 367. 'The first Gentleman in Europe' was twenty-one years old when he treated men like Johnson and Reynolds with this insolence. Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 244) says that it was at this very dinner that 'Johnson left his seat by desire of the Prince of Wales, and went to the head of the table to be introduced.' He does not give his authority for the statement.

[834] Mr. Croker wrote in 1847 that he had 'seen it very lately framed and glazed, in possession of the lady to whom it was addressed.'

Croker's _Boswell_, p. 753.

[835] Shortly before he begged one of Mrs. Thrale's daughters 'never to think that she had arithmetic enough.' _Ante_, p. 171, note 3. See _ante_, iii. 207, note 3.

[836] Cowper wrote on May 10 to the Rev. John Newton:--'We rejoice in the account you give us of Dr. Johnson. His conversion will indeed be a singular proof of the omnipotence of Grace; and the more singular, the more decided.' Southey's _Cowper_, xv. 150. Johnson, in a prayer that he wrote on April 11, said:--'Enable me, O Lord, to glorify Thee for that knowledge of my corruption, and that sense of Thy wrath, which my disease and weakness and danger awakened in my mind.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 217.

[837] Mr. Croker suggests _immediate_.

[838] 'The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.'

_St. James_, v. 16.

[839] Upon this subject there is a very fair and judicious remark in the life of Dr. Abernethy, in the first edition of the _Biographia Britannica_, which I should have been glad to see in his life which has been written for the second edition of that valuable work. 'To deny the exercise of a particular providence in the Deity's government of the world is certainly impious: yet nothing serves the cause of the scorner more than an incautious forward zeal in determining the particular instances of it.'

In confirmation of my sentiments, I am also happy to quote that sensible and elegant writer Mr. _Melmoth_ [see _ante_, iii. 422], in Letter VIII.

of his collection, published under the name of _Fitzosborne_. 'We may safely a.s.sert, that the belief of a particular Providence is founded upon such probable reasons as may well justify our a.s.sent. It would scarce, therefore, be wise to renounce an opinion which affords so firm a support to the soul, in those seasons wherein she stands in most need of a.s.sistance, merely because it is not possible, in questions of this kind, to solve every difficulty which attends them.' BOSWELL.

[840] I was sorry to observe Lord Monboddo avoid any communication with Dr. Johnson. I flattered myself that I had made them very good friends (see _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, third edit. p. 67, _post_, v.

80), but unhappily his Lords.h.i.+p had resumed and cherished a violent prejudice against my ill.u.s.trious friend, to whom I must do the justice to say, there was on his part not the least anger, but a good-humoured sportiveness. Nay, though he knew of his Lords.h.i.+p's indisposition towards him, he was even kindly; as appeared from his inquiring of me after him, by an abbreviation of his name, 'Well, how does _Monny_?'

BOSWELL. Boswell (_Hebrides, post_, v. 74) says:--'I knew Lord Monboddo and Dr. Johnson did not love each other; yet I was unwilling not to visit his lords.h.i.+p, and was also curious to see them together.'

Accordingly, he brought about a meeting. Four years later, in 1777 (_ante_, iii. 102), Monboddo received from Johnson a copy of his Journey to the Hebrides. They met again in London in 1780 (Piozzi Letters, ii.

III), and perhaps then quarrelled afresh. Dr. Seattle wrote on Feb. 28, 1785:-'Lord Monboddo's hatred of Johnson was singular; he would not allow him to know anything but Latin grammar, "and that," says he, "I know as well as he does." I never heard Johnson say anything severe of him, though when he mentioned his name, he generally "grinned horribly a ghastly smile,"' ['Grinned horrible,' &c. _Paradise Lost_, ii. 846.]

Forbes's _Beattie_, p. 333. The use of the abbreviation _Monny_ on Johnson's part scarcely seems a proof of kindliness. See _ante_, i. 453, where he said:--'Why, Sir, _Sherry_ is dull, naturally dull,' &c.; and iii. 84, note 2, where he said:--'I should have thought _Mund_ Burke would have had more sense;' see also Rogers's _Boswelliana_, p. 216, where he said:--'_Derry_ [Derrick] may do very well while he can outrun his character; but the moment that his character gets up with him he is gone.'

[841] On May 13 he wrote:--' Now I am broken loose, my friends seem willing enough to see me. ... But I do not now drive the world about; the world drives or draws me. I am very weak.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 369.

[842] See _ante,_ iii, 443.