Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 78

'Signed, sealed, published, declared, and delivered, by the said Samuel Johnson, as, and for a Codicil to his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us, who, in his presence, and at his request, and also in the presence of each other, have hereto subscribed our names as witnesses.

'JOHN COPLEY.

'WILLIAM GIBSON.

'HENRY COLE.'

Upon these testamentary deeds it is proper to make a few observations.

His express declaration with his dying breath as a Christian, as it had been often practised in such solemn writings, was of real consequence from this great man; for the conviction of a mind equally acute and strong, might well overbalance the doubts of others, who were his contemporaries. The expression _polluted_, may, to some, convey an impression of more than ordinary contamination; but that is not warranted by its genuine meaning, as appears from _The Rambler_, No.

42[F-8]. The same word is used in the will of Dr. Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln [F-9], who was piety itself.

His legacy of two hundred pounds to the representatives of Mr. Innys, bookseller, in St. Paul's Church-yard [F-10], proceeded from a very worthy motive. He told Sir John Hawkins, that his father having become a bankrupt, Mr. Innys had a.s.sisted him with money or credit to continue his business. 'This, (said he,) I consider as an obligation on me to be grateful to his descendants [F-11].'

The amount of his property proved to be considerably more than he had supposed it to be. Sir John Hawkins estimates the bequest to Francis Barber at a sum little short of fifteen hundred pounds, including an annuity of seventy pounds to be paid to him by Mr. Langton, in consideration of seven hundred and fifty pounds, which Johnson had lent to that gentleman. Sir John seems not a little angry at this bequest, and mutters 'a caveat against ostentatious bounty and favour to negroes [F-12].' But surely when a man has money entirely of his own acquisition, especially when he has no near relations, he may, without blame, dispose of it as he pleases, and with great propriety to a faithful servant. Mr. Barber, by the recommendation of his master, retired to Lichfield, where he might pa.s.s the rest of his days in comfort.

It has been objected that Johnson has omitted many of his best friends, when leaving books to several as tokens of his last remembrance. The names of Dr. Adams, Dr. Taylor [F-13], Dr. Burney, Mr. Hector, Mr.

Murphy, the Authour of this Work, and others who were intimate with him, are not to be found in his Will. This may be accounted for by considering, that as he was very near his dissolution at the time, he probably mentioned such as happened to occur to him; and that he may have recollected, that he had formerly shewn others such proofs of his regard, that it was not necessary to crowd his Will with their names.

Mrs. Lucy Porter was much displeased that nothing was left to her; but besides what I have now stated, she should have considered, that she had left nothing to Johnson by her Will, which was made during his life-time, as appeared at her decease.

His enumerating several persons in one group, and leaving them 'each a book at their election,' might possibly have given occasion to a curious question as to the order of choice, had they not luckily fixed on different books. His library, though by no means handsome in its appearance, was sold by Mr. Christie, for two hundred and forty-seven pounds, nine s.h.i.+llings [F-14]; many people being desirous to have a book which had belonged to Johnson. In many of them he had written little notes: sometimes tender memorials of his departed wife; as, 'This was dear Tetty's book:' sometimes occasional remarks of different sorts. Mr.

Lysons, of Clifford's Inn, has favoured me with the two following:

In _Holy Rules and Helps to Devotion_, by Bryan Duppa, Lord Bishop of Winton, '_Preces quidam (? quidem) videtur diligenter tracta.s.se; spero non inauditus (? inauditas).'_

In _The Rosicrucian infallible Axiomata_, by John Heydon, Gent., prefixed to which are some verses addressed to the authour, signed Ambr.

Waters, A.M. Coll. Ex. Oxon. '_These Latin verses were written to Hobbes by Bathurst, upon his Treatise on Human Nature, and have no relation to the book.--An odd fraud_.'--BOSWELL. [Note: See Appendix F for notes on this footnote.]

[1233] 'He burned,' writes Mrs. Piozzi, 'many letters in the last week, I am told, and those written by his mother drew from him a flood of tears. Mr. Sastres saw him cast a melancholy look upon their ashes, which he took up and examined to see if a word was still legible.'--_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 383.

[1234] Boswell in his _Hebrides_ (_post_, v. 53) says that Johnson, starting northwards on his tour, left in a drawer in Boswell's house 'one volume of a pretty full and curious _Diary of his Life_, of which I have,' he continues, 'a few fragments.' The other volume, we may conjecture, Johnson took with him, for Boswell had seen both, and apparently seen them only once. He mentions (_ante_, i. 27) that these 'few fragments' had been transferred to him by the residuary legatee (Francis Barber). One large fragment, which was published after Barber's death, he could never have seen, for he never quotes from it (_ante_, i.

35, note 1).

[1235] One of these volumes, Sir John Hawkins informs us, he put into his pocket; for which the excuse he states is, that he meant to preserve it from falling into the hands of a person whom he describes so as to make it sufficiently clear who is meant; 'having strong reasons (said he,) to suspect that this man might find and make an ill use of the book.' Why Sir John should suppose that the gentleman alluded to would act in this manner, he has not thought fit to explain. But what he did was not approved of by Johnson; who, upon being acquainted of it without delay by a friend, expressed great indignation, and warmly insisted on the book being delivered up; and, afterwards, in the supposition of his missing it, without knowing by whom it had been taken, he said, 'Sir, I should have gone out of the world distrusting half mankind.' Sir John next day wrote a letter to Johnson, a.s.signing reasons for his conduct; upon which Johnson observed to Mr. Langton, 'Bishop Sanderson could not have dictated a better letter. I could almost say, _Melius est sic penituisse quam non erra.s.se_.' The agitation into which Johnson was thrown by this incident, probably made him hastily burn those precious records which must ever be regretted. BOSWELL. According to Mr. Croker, Steevens was the man whom Hawkins said that he suspected. Porson, in his witty _Panegyrical Epistle on Hawkins v. Johnson_ (_Gent. Mag._ 1787, pp. 751-3, and _Porson Tracts_, p. 341), says:--'I shall attempt a translation [of _Melius est_, &c.] for the benefit of your mere English readers:--_There is more joy over a sinner that repenteth than over a just person that needeth no repentance_. And we know from an authority not to be disputed (Hawkins's _Life_, p. 406) that _Johnson was a great lover of penitents_.

"G.o.d put it in the mind to take it hence, That thou might'st win the more thy [Johnson's] love, Pleading so wisely in excuse of it."

[1236] _Henry IV_, act iv. sc. 5.

[1237] 'Tibullus addressed Cynthia in this manner:--

"_Te spectem, suprema, mihi c.u.m venerit hora, Te teneam moriens deficiente mamu.

Lib. i. El. I. 73.

Before my closing eyes dear Cynthia stand, Held weakly by my fainting, trembling hand."'

Johnson's Works, iv. 35.

[1238] Windham was scarcely a statesman as yet, though for a few months of the year before he had been Chief Secretary for Ireland (_ante_, p 200). He was in Parliament, but he had never spoken. His _Diary_ shews that he had no 'important occupations.' On Dec. 12, for instance, he records (p. 30):--'Came down about ten; read reviews, wrote to Mrs.

Siddons, and then went to the ice; came home only in time to dress and go to my mother's to dinner.' See _ante_, p. 356, for his interest in balloons.

[1239] 'My father,' writes Miss Burney, 'saw him once while I was away, and carried Mr. Burke with him, who was desirous of paying his respects to him once more in person. He rallied a little while they were there; and Mr. Burke, when they left him, said to my father:--"His work is almost done, and well has he done it."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii.

333. Burke, in 1792, said in Parliament that 'Dr. Johnson's virtues were equal to his transcendent talents, and his friends.h.i.+p he valued as the greatest consolation and happiness of his life.' _Parl. Debates_, x.x.x. 109.

[1240] On the same undoubted authority, I give a few articles, which should have been inserted in chronological order; but which, now that they are before me, I should be sorry to omit:--

'In 1736, Dr. Johnson had a particular inclination to have been engaged as an a.s.sistant to the Reverend Mr. Budworth, then head master of the Grammar-school, at Brewood, in Staffords.h.i.+re, "an excellent person, who possessed every talent of a perfect instructor of youth, in a degree which, (to use the words of one of the brightest ornaments of literature, the Reverend Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester,) has been rarely found in any of that profession since the days of Quintilian." Mr.

Budworth, "who was less known in his life-time, from that obscure situation to which the caprice of fortune oft condemns the most accomplished characters, than his highest merit deserved," had been bred under Mr. Blackwell [Blackwall], at Market Bosworth, where Johnson was some time an usher [_ante_, i. 84]; which might naturally lead to the application. Mr. Budworth was certainly no stranger to the learning or abilities of Johnson; as he more than once lamented his having been under the necessity of declining the engagement, from an apprehension that the paralytick affection, under which our great Philologist laboured through life, might become the object of imitation or of ridicule, among his pupils.' Captain Budworth, his grandson, has confirmed to me this anecdote.

'Among the early a.s.sociates of Johnson, at St. John's Gate, was Samuel Boyse [G-1], well known by his ingenious productions; and not less noted for his imprudence. It was not unusual for Boyse to be a customer to the p.a.w.nbroker. On one of these occasions, Dr. Johnson collected a sum of money to redeem his friend's clothes, which in two days after were p.a.w.ned again. "The sum, (said Johnson,) was collected by sixpences, at a time when to me sixpence was a serious consideration [G-2]."

'Speaking one day of a person for whom he had a real friends.h.i.+p, but in whom vanity was somewhat too predominant, he observed, that "Kelly [G-3]

was so fond of displaying on his side-board the plate which he possessed, that he added to it his spurs. For my part, (said he,) I never was master of a pair of spurs, but once; and they are now at the bottom of the ocean. By the carelessness of Boswell's servant, they were dropped from the end of the boat, on our return from the Isle of Sky [G-4]."'

The late Reverend Mr. Samuel Badc.o.c.k [G-5], having been introduced to Dr.

Johnson, by Mr. Nichols, some years before his death, thus expressed himself in a letter to that gentleman:--

'How much I am obliged to you for the favour you did me in introducing me to Dr. Johnson! _Tantum vdi Virgilium_ [G-6]. But to have seen him, and to have received a testimony of respect from him, was enough. I recollect all the conversation, and shall never forget one of his expressions. Speaking of Dr. P---- [Priestley], (whose writings, I saw, he estimated at a low rate,) he said, "You have proved him as deficient in _probity_ as he is in learning [G-7]." I called him an "Index-scholar [G-8];" but he was not willing to allow him a claim even to that merit. He said, that "he borrowed from those who had been borrowers themselves, and did not know that the mistakes he adopted had been answered by others." I often think of our short, but precious, visit to this great man. I shall consider it as a kind of an _aera_ in my life.' BOSWELL. [Note: See Appendix G for notes on this footnote.]

[1241] See _ante_, i. 152, 501.

[1242] He wrote to Dr. Taylor on Feb. 17, 1776:--'Keep yourself cheerful. Lie in bed with a lamp, and when you cannot sleep and are beginning to think, light your candle and read. At least light your candle; a man is perhaps never so much harra.s.sed (_sic_) by his own mind in the light as in the dark.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 423.

[1243] Mr. Croker records 'the following communication from Mr. Hoole himself':--'I must mention an incident which shews how ready Johnson was to make amends for any little incivility. When I called upon him, the morning after he had pressed me rather roughly to read _louder_, he said, "I was peevish yesterday; you must forgive me: when you are as old and as sick as I am, perhaps you may be peevish too." I have heard him make many apologies of this kind.'

[1244] 'To his friend Dr. Burney he said a few hours before he died, taking the Doctor's hands within his, and casting his eyes towards Heaven with a look of the most fervent piety, "My dear friend, while you live do all the good you can." Seward's _Biographiana,_ p. 601

[1245] Mr. Hoole, senior, records of this day:--'Dr. Johnson exhorted me to lead a better life than he had done. "A better life than you, my dear Sir:" I repeated. He replied warmly, "Don't compliment not." Croker's _Boswell_, p. 844

[1246] See _ ante_, p. 293

[1247] The French historian, Jacques-Auguste de Thou, 1553-1617, author of _Historia sui Temporis_ in 138 books.

[1248] See _ante,_ ii. 42, note 2.

[1249] Mr. Hutton was occasionally admitted to the royal breakfast-table.

"Hutton," said the King to him one morning, "is it true that you Moravians marry without any previous knowledge of each other?" "Yes, may it please your majesty," returned Hutton; "our marriages are quite royal" Hannah More's _Memoirs_, i. 318. One of his female-missionaries for North American said to Dr. Johnson:--'Whether my Saviour's service may be best carried on here, or on the coast of Labrador, 'tis Mr.

Hutton's business to settle. I will do my part either in a brick-house or a snow-house with equal alacrity.' Piozzi's _Synonymy_, ii. 120. He is described also in the _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. 251, 291.

[1250] _Ante_, ii. 402.

[1251] Burke said of Hussey, who was his friend and correspondent, that in his character he had made 'that very rare union of the enlightened statesman with the ecclesiastic.' Burke's _Corres_. iv. 270.

[1252] Boswell refers, I believe, to Fordyce's epitaph on Johnson in the _Gent. Mag._ 1785, p. 412, or possibly to an _Ode_ on p. 50 of his poems.

[1253] 'Being become very weak and helpless it was thought necessary that a man should watch with him all night; and one was found in the neighbourhood for half a crown a night.' Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_, p. 589.

[1254] It was on Nov. 30 that he repeated these lines. See Croker's _Boswell_, p. 843.