Life of Johnson Volume V Part 38

"Never mind, la.s.sie," he said; "many a better man has been made a saint of before."' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 436.

[66] The House of Lords reversed the decision of the Court of Session in this cause. See _ante_, ii.50, 230.

[67] Ogden was Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge. The sermons were published in 1770. Boswell mentions them so often that in Rowlandson's caricatures of the tour he is commonly represented as having them in his hand or pocket. See _ante_, iii. 248.

[68] 'Talking of the eminent writers in Queen Anne's reign, Johnson observed, "I think Dr. Arbuthnot the first man among them.'" _Ante_, i. 425.

[69] 'We found that by the interposition of some invisible friend lodgings had been provided for us at the house of one of the professors, whose easy civility quickly made us forget that we were strangers.'

_Works_, ix. 3.

[70] He is referring to Beattie's _Essay on Truth_. See _post_, Oct. 1, and _ante_, ii. 201.

[71] See _ante_, ii. 443, where Johnson, again speaking of Hume, and perhaps of Gibbon, says:--'When a man voluntarily engages in an important controversy, he is to do all he can to lessen his antagonist, because authority from personal respect has much weight with most people, and often more than reasoning.'

[72] Johnson, in his Dictionary, calls _bubble_ 'a cant [slang] word.'

[73] Boswell wrote to Temple in 1768:--'David [Hume] is really amiable: I always regret to him his unlucky principles, and he smiles at my faith; but I have a hope which he has not, or pretends not to have. So who has the best of it, my reverend friend?' _Letters of Boswell_, p.151. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. pp. 274-5) says:--'Mr. Hume gave both elegant dinners and suppers, and the best claret, and, which was best of all, he furnished the entertainment with the most instructive and pleasing conversation, for he a.s.sembled whosoever were most knowing and agreeable among either the laity or clergy. For innocent mirth and agreeable raillery I never knew his match....He took much to the company of the younger clergy, not from a wish to bring them over to his opinions, for he never attempted to overturn any man's principles, but they best understood his notions, and could furnish him with literary conversation.'

[74] No doubt they were destroyed with Boswell's other papers. _Ante_, iii.301, note 1.

[75] This letter, though shattered by the sharp shot of Dr. _Horne_ of _Oxford's_ wit, in the character of _One of the People called Christians_, is still prefixed to Mr. Hume's excellent _History of England_, like a poor invalid on the piquet guard, or like a list of quack medicines sold by the same bookseller, by whom a work of whatever nature is published; for it has no connection with his _History_, let it have what it may with what are called his _Philosophical_ Works. A worthy friend of mine in London was lately consulted by a lady of quality, of most distinguished merit, what was the best History of England for her son to read. My friend recommended Hume's. But, upon recollecting that its usher was a superlative panegyrick on one, who endeavoured to sap the credit of our holy religion, he revoked his recommendation. I am really sorry for this ostentatious _alliance_; because I admire _The Theory of Moral Sentiments_, and value the greatest part of _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_. Why should such a writer be so forgetful of human comfort, as to give any countenance to that dreary infidelity which would make us poor indeed?' ['makes me poor indeed.' _Oth.e.l.lo_, act iii. sc.3].

BOSWELL. Dr. Horne's book is ent.i.tled, _A Letter to Adam Smith, LL.D., On the Life, Death, and Philosophy of his Friend David Hume, Esq. By one of the People called Christians_. Its chief wit is in the Preface. The bookseller mentioned in this note was perhaps Francis Newbery, who succeeded his father, Goldsmith's publisher, as a dealer in quack medicines and books. They dealt in 'over thirty different nostrums,' and published books of every nature. Of the father Johnson said:--'Newbery is an extraordinary man, for I know not whether he has read or written most books.' He is the original of 'Jack Whirler' in _The Idler_, No.

19. _A Bookseller of the Last Century_, pp. 22, 73.

[76] Hume says that his first work, his _Treatise of Human Nature_, 'fell _dead-born from the press.' Auto._ p.3. His _Enquiry concerning Human Understanding_ 'was entirely overlooked and neglected.' _Ib_. p.4.

His _Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals_ 'came unnoticed and un.o.bserved into the world.' _Ib_. p.5. The first volume of his _History of England_ certainly met with numerous a.s.sailants; but 'after the first ebullitions of their fury were over, what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sink into oblivion. Mr. Millar told me,' he continues, 'that in a twelvemonth he sold only forty-five copies of it...I was I confess, discouraged, and had not the war at that time been breaking out between France and England, I had certainly retired to some provincial town of the former kingdom, have changed my name, and never more have returned to my native country.' _Ib_. p.6. Only one of his works, his _Political Discourses_, was 'successful on the first publication.' _Ib_.

p.5. By the time he was turned fifty, however, his books were selling very well, and he had become 'not only independent but opulent.' Ib. p.

8. A few weeks before he died he wrote: 'I see many symptoms of my literary reputation's breaking out at last with additional l.u.s.tre.'

_Ib_. p.10.

[77] _Psalms_, cxix. 99.

[78] We learn, _post_, Oct. 29, that Robertson was cautious in his talk, though we see here that he had much more courage than the professors of Aberdeen or Glasgow.

[79] This was one of the points upon which Dr. Johnson was strangely heterodox. For, surely, Mr. Burke, with his other remarkable qualities, is also distinguished for his wit, and for wit of all kinds too: not merely that power of language which Pope chooses to denominate wit:--

(True wit is Nature to advantage drest; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest.)

[Pope's Essay on Criticism, ii. 297.] but surprising allusions, brilliant sallies of vivacity, and pleasant conceits. His speeches in parliament are strewed with them. Take, for instance, the variety which he has given in his wide range, yet exact detail, when exhibiting his Reform Bill. And his conversation abounds in wit. Let me put down a specimen. I told him, I had seen, at a _Blue stocking_ a.s.sembly, a number of ladies sitting round a worthy and tall friend of ours, listening to his literature. 'Ay, (said he) like maids round a May-pole.' I told him, I had found out a perfect definition of human nature, as distinguished from the animal. An ancient philosopher said, Man was 'a two-legged animal without feathers,' upon which his rival Sage had a c.o.c.k plucked bare, and set him down in the school before all the disciples, as a 'Philosophick Man.' Dr. Franklin said, Man was 'a tool-making animal,' which is very well; for no animal but man makes a thing, by means of which he can make another thing. But this applies to very few of the species. My definition of _Man_ is, 'a Cooking animal.'

The beasts have memory, judgment, and all the faculties and pa.s.sions of our mind in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook. The trick of the monkey using the cat's paw to roast a chestnut, is only a piece of shrewd malice in that _turp.i.s.sima bestia_, which humbles us so sadly by its similarity to us. Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats. Your definition is good, said Mr. Burke, and I now see the full force of the common proverb, 'There is _reason_ in roasting of eggs.' When Mr.

Wilkes, in his days of tumultuous opposition, was borne upon the shoulders of the mob, Mr. Burke (as Mr. Wilkes told me himself, with cla.s.sical admiration,) applied to him what _Horace_ says of _Pindar_,

..._numeris_que fertur LEGE _solutis_. [_Odes_, iv. 2. 11.]

Sir Joshua Reynolds, who agrees with me entirely as to Mr. Burke's.

fertility of wit, said, that this was 'dignifying a pun.' He also observed, that he has often heard Burke say, in the course of an evening, ten good things, each of which would have served a noted wit (whom he named) to live upon for a twelvemonth. I find, since the former edition, that some persons have objected to the instances which I have given of Mr. Burke's wit, as not doing justice to my very ingenious friend; the specimens produced having, it is alleged, more of conceit than real wit, and being merely sportive sallies of the moment, not justifying the encomium which, they think with me, he undoubtedly merits. I was well aware, how hazardous it was to exhibit particular instances of wit, which is of so airy and spiritual a nature as often to elude the hand that attempts to grasp it. The excellence and efficacy of a _bon mot_ depend frequently so much on the occasion on which it is spoken, on the particular manner of the speaker, on the person to whom it is applied, the previous introduction, and a thousand minute particulars which cannot be easily enumerated, that it is always dangerous to detach a witty saying from the group to which it belongs, and to set it before the eye of the spectator, divested of those concomitant circ.u.mstances, which gave it animation, mellowness, and relief. I ventured, however, at all hazards, to put down the first instances that occurred to me, as proofs of Mr. Burke's lively and brilliant fancy; but am very sensible that his numerous friends could have suggested many of a superior quality. Indeed, the being in company with him, for a single day, is sufficient to shew that what I have a.s.serted is well founded; and it was only necessary to have appealed to all who know him intimately, for a complete refutation of the heterodox opinion entertained by Dr. Johnson on this subject. _He_ allowed Mr.

Burke, as the reader will find hereafter [_post_. Sept.15 and 30], to be a man of consummate and unrivalled abilities in every light except that now under consideration; and the variety of his allusions, and splendour of his imagery, have made such an impression on _all the rest_ of the world, that superficial observers are apt to overlook his other merits, and to suppose that _wit_ is his chief and most prominent excellence; when in fact it is only one of the many talents that he possesses, which are so various and extraordinary, that it is very difficult to ascertain precisely the rank and value of each. BOSWELL. For Malone's share in this note, see _ante_, iii. 323, note 2. For Burke's Economical Reform Bill, which was brought in on Feb. 11, 1780, see Prior's _Burke_, p.184.

For _Blue Stocking_, see _ante_, iv. 108. The 'tall friend of ours' was Mr. Langton (_ante_, i. 336). For Franklin's definition, see _ante_, iii. 245, and for Burke's cla.s.sical pun, _ib_. p. 323. For Burke's 'talent of wit,' see _ante_, i. 453, iii. 323, iv. May 15, 1784, and _post_, Sept. 15.

[80] See _ante_, iv. 27, where Burke said:--'It is enough for me to have rung the bell to him [Johnson].'

[81] See _ante_, vol. iv, May 15, 1784.

[82] Prior (_Life of Burke_, pp.31, 36) says that 'from the first his destination was the Bar.' His name was entered at the Middle Temple in 1747, but he was never called. Why he gave up the profession his biographer cannot tell.

[83] See _ante_, ii. 437, note 2.

[84] See _ante_, i. 78, note 2.

[85] That cannot be said now, after the flagrant part which Mr. _John Wesley_ took against our American brethren, when, in his own name, he threw amongst his enthusiastick flock, the very individual combustibles of Dr. _Johnson's Taxation no Tyranny_; and after the intolerant spirit which he manifested against our fellow-christians of the Roman Catholick Communion, for which that able champion, Father _O'Leary_, has given him so hearty a drubbing. But I should think myself very unworthy, if I did not at the same time acknowledge Mr. John Wesley's merit, as a veteran 'Soldier of Jesus Christ' [2 _Timothy_, ii. 3], who has, I do believe, 'turned many from darkness into light, and from the power of _Satan_ to the living G.o.d' [_Acts_, xxvi. 18]. BOSWELL. Wesley wrote on Nov. 11, 1775 (_Journal_, iv. 56), 'I made some additions to the _Calm Address to our American Colonies_. Need any one ask from what motive this was wrote? Let him look round; England is in a flame! a flame of malice and rage against the King, and almost all that are in authority under him. I labour to put out this flame.' He wrote a few days later:--'As to reviewers, news-writers, _London Magazines_, and all that kind of gentlemen, they behave just as I expected they would. And let them lick up Mr. Toplady's spittle still; a champion worthy of their cause.'

_Journal_, p. 58. In a letter published in Jan. 1780, he said:--'I insist upon it, that no government, not Roman Catholic, ought to tolerate men of the Roman Catholic persuasion. They ought not to be tolerated by any government, Protestant, Mahometan, or Pagan.' To this the Rev. Arthur O'Leary replied with great wit and force, in a pamphlet ent.i.tled, _Remarks on the Rev. Mr. Wesley's Letters_. Dublin, 1780.

Wesley (_Journal_, iv. 365) mentions meeting O'Leary, and says:--'He seems not to be wanting either in sense or learning.' Johnson wrote to Wesley on Feb. 6, 1776 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 475), 'I have thanks to return you for the addition of your important suffrage to my argument on the American question. To have gained such a mind as yours may justly confirm me in my own opinion. What effect my paper has upon the public, I know not; but I have no reason to be discouraged. The lecturer was surely in the right, who, though he saw his audience slinking away, refused to quit the chair while Plato staid.'

[86] 'Powerful preacher as he was,' writes Southey, 'he had neither strength nor acuteness of intellect, and his written compositions are nearly worthless.' Southey's _Wesley,_ i. 323. See _ante_, ii. 79.

[87] Mr. Burke. See _ante_, ii. 222, 285, note 3, and iii. 45.

[88] If due attention were paid to this observation, there would be more virtue, even in politicks. What Dr. Johnson justly condemned, has, I am sorry to say, greatly increased in the present reign. At the distance of four years from this conversation, 21st February, 1777, My Lord Archbishop of York, in his 'sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,' thus indignantly describes the then state of parties:--'Parties once had a _principle_ belonging to them, absurd perhaps, and indefensible, but still carrying a notion of _duty_, by which honest minds might easily be caught. 'But there are now _combinations_ of _individuals_, who, instead of being the sons and servants of the community, make a league for advancing their _private interests_. It is their business to hold high the notion of _political honour_. I believe and trust, it is not injurious to say, that such a bond is no better than that by which the lowest and wickedest combinations are held together; and that it denotes the last stage of political depravity.' To find a thought, which just shewed itself to us from the mind of _Johnson_, thus appearing again at such a distance of time, and without any communication between them, enlarged to full growth in the mind of _Markham_, is a curious object of philosophical contemplation.--That two such great and luminous minds should have been so dark in one corner,--that _they_ should have held it to be 'Wicked rebellion in the British subjects established in America, to resist the abject condition of holding all their property at the mercy of British subjects remaining at home, while their allegiance to our common Lord the King was to be preserved inviolate,--is a striking proof to me, either that 'He who sitteth in Heaven' [_Psalms_, ii.4] scorns the loftiness of human pride,--or that the evil spirit, whose personal existence I strongly believe, and even in this age am confirmed in that belief by a _Fell_, nay, by a _Hurd_, has more power than some choose to allow. BOSWELL. Horace Walpole writing on June 10, 1778, after censuring Robertson for sneering at Las Casas, continues:--'Could Archbishop Markham in a Sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel by fire and sword paint charity in more contemptuous terms? It is a Christian age.' _Letters_, vii.81. It was Archbishop Markham to whom Johnson made the famous bow; _ante_, vol. iv, just before April 10, 1783. John Fell published in 1779 _Demoniacs; an Enquiry into the Heathen and Scripture Doctrine of Daemons_. For Hurd see _ante_, under June 9,1784.

[89] See Forster's _Essays_, ii 304-9. Mr. Forster often quotes Cooke in his _Life of Goldsmith_. He describes him (i. 58) as 'a _young_ Irish law student who had chambers near Goldsmith in the temple.' Goldsmith did not reside in the temple till 1763 (_ib_. p.336), and Cooke was old enough to have published his _Hesiod_ in 1728, and to have found a place in _The Dunciad_ (ii. 138). See Elwin and Courthope's _Pope_, x. 212, for his correspondence with Pope.

[90] It may be observed, that I sometimes call my great friend, _Mr_.

Johnson, sometimes _Dr_. Johnson: though he had at this time a doctor's degree from Trinity College, Dublin. The University of Oxford afterwards conferred it upon him by a diploma, in very honourable terms. It was some time before I could bring myself to call him Doctor; but, as he has been long known by that t.i.tle, I shall give it to him in the rest of this Journal. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 488, note 3, and ii. 332, note I.

[91] In _The Idler_, No. viii, Johnson has the following fling at tragedians. He had mentioned the terror struck into our soldiers by the Indian war-cry, and he continues:--'I am of opinion that by a proper mixture of a.s.ses, bulls, turkeys, geese, and tragedians a noise might be procured equally horrid with the war-cry.' See _ante_, ii.92.

[92] _Tom Jones_, Bk. xvi. chap. 5. Mme. Necker in a letter to Garrick said:--'Nos acteurs se metamorphosent a.s.sez bien, mais Monsieur Garrick fait autre chose; il nous metamorphose tous dans le caractere qu'il a revetu; _nous sommes remplis de terreur avec Hamlet_,' &c. _Garrick Corres_. ii. 627.

[93] See _ante_, i. 432, and ii. 278.

[94] See _ante_, ii. 11.

[95] Euphan M'Cullan (not Eupham Macallan) is mentioned in Dalrymple's [Lord Hailes] _Remarks on the History of Scotland_, p. 254. She maintained that 'she seldom ever prayed but she got a positive answer.'

The minister of her parish was ill. 'She prayed, and got an answer that for a year's time he should be spared; and after the year's end he fell sick again.' 'I went,' said she, 'to pray yet again for his life; but the Lord left me not an mouse's likeness (a proverbial expression, meaning _to reprove with such severity that the person reproved shrinks and becomes abashed_), and said, 'Beast that thou art! shall I keep my servant in pain for thy sake?' And when I said, 'Lord, what then shall I do?' He answered me, 'He was but a reed that I spoke through, and I will provide another reed to speak through.' Dalrymple points out that it was a belief in these 'answers from the Lord' that led John Balfour and his comrades to murder Archbishop Sharp.

[96] R. Chambers, in his _Traditions_, speaking of the time of Johnson's visit, says (i. 21) on the authority of 'an ancient native of Edinburgh that people all knew each other by sight. The appearance of a new face upon the streets was at once remarked, and numbers busied themselves in finding out who and what the stranger was.'

[97] It was on this visit to the parliament-house, that Mr. Henry Erskine (brother of Lord Erskine), after being presented to Dr. Johnson by Mr. Boswell, and having made his bow, slipped a s.h.i.+lling into Boswell's hand, whispering that it was for the sight of his _bear_.

WALTER SCOTT.

[98] This is one of the Libraries ent.i.tled to a copy of every new work published in the United Kingdom. Hume held the office of librarian at a salary of 40 a year from 1752 to 1757. J.H. Burton's _Hume_, i.

367, 373.

[99] The Edinburgh oyster-cellars were called _laigh shops_. Chambers's _Traditions_, ii. 268.

[100] This word is commonly used to signify _sullenly, gloomily_; and in that sense alone it appears in Dr. Johnson's _Dictionary_. I suppose he meant by it, 'with an _obstinate resolution_, similar to that of a sullen man.' BOSWELL. Southey wrote to Scott:--'Give me more lays, and correct them at leisure for after editions--not laboriously, but when the amendment comes naturally and unsought for. It never does to sit down doggedly to _correct_.' Southey's _Life_, iii. 126. See _ante_, i.

332, for the influence of seasons on composition.

[101] Boswell, _post_, Nov. 1, writes of '_old Scottish_ enthusiasm,'