Life of Johnson Volume V Part 58

Cunningham to be 'the earliest good political caricature that we possess.' Walpole's _Letters_, i. 66. Mr. Croker says that 'the exact words are:--

bony? O he be de great orator Little-Tony.'

[776] See _ante_, ii. 213.

[777] In 1673 Burnet, who was then Professor of Theology in Glasgow, dedicated to Lauderdale _A Vindication of the Authority, &c., of the Church and State of Scotland_. In it he writes of the Duke's 'n.o.ble character, and more lasting and inward characters of his princely mind.'

[778] See _ante_, i. 450.

[779] See _ante_, p. 250.

[780] 'Others have considered infinite s.p.a.ce as the receptacle, or rather the habitation of the Almighty; but the n.o.blest and most exalted way of considering this infinite s.p.a.ce, is that of Sir Isaac Newton, who calls it the _sensorium_ of the G.o.dhead. Brutes and men have their _sensoriola_, or little _sensoriums_, by which they apprehend the presence, and perceive the actions, of a few objects that lie contiguous to them. Their knowledge and observation turn within a very narrow circle. But as G.o.d Almighty cannot but perceive and know everything in which he resides, infinite s.p.a.ce gives room to infinite knowledge, and is, as it were, an organ to Omniscience.' Addison, _The Spectator_, No. 565.

[781] 'Le celebre philosophe Leibnitz ... attaqua ces expressions du philosophe anglais, dans une lettre qu'il ecrivit en 1715 a la feue reine d'Angleterre, epouse de George II. Cette princesse, digne d'etre en commerce avec Leibnitz et Newton, engagea une dispute reglee par lettres entre les deux parties. Mais Newton, ennemi de toute dispute et avare de son temps, laissa le docteur Clarke, son disciple en physique, et pour le moins son egal en metaphysique, entrer pour lui dans la lice.

La dispute roula sur presque toutes les idees metaphysiques de Newton, et c'est peut-etre le plus beau monument que nous ayons des combats litteraires.' Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, xxviii. 44.

[782] See _ante_, iii. 248.

[783] See _ante_, iv. 295, where Boswell asked Johnson 'if he would not have done more good if he had been more gentle.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; I have done more good as I am. Obscenity and impiety have always been repressed in my company.'

[784] 'Mr. Maclean has the reputation of great learning: he is seventy-seven years old, but not infirm, with a look of venerable dignity, excelling what I remember in any other man. His conversation was not unsuitable to his appearance. I lost some of his good will by treating a heretical writer with more regard than in his opinion a heretick could deserve. I honoured his orthodoxy, and did not much censure his asperity. A man who has settled his opinions does not love to have the tranquillity of his conviction disturbed; and at seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 118.

[785] 'Mr. Maclean has no publick edifice for the exercise of his ministry, and can officiate to no greater number than a room can contain; and the room of a hut is not very large... The want of churches is not the only impediment to piety; there is likewise a want of ministers. A parish often contains more islands than one... All the provision made by the present ecclesiastical const.i.tution for the inhabitants of about a hundred square miles is a prayer and sermon in a little room once in three weeks.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 118.

[786]

'Our Polly is a sad s.l.u.t, nor heeds what we have taught her.

I wonder any man alive will ever rear a daughter.

For she must have both hoods and gowns, and hoops to swell her pride, With scarfs and stays, and gloves and lace; and she will have men beside; And when she's drest with care and cost, all-tempting, fine and gay, As men should serve a cuc.u.mber, she flings herself away.'

Air vii.

[787] See _ante_, p. 162.

[788] In 1715.

[789]

'When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow.'

Pope, _Essay on Criticism_, l. 370.

[790] Johnson's remark on these stones is curious as shewing that he had not even a glimpse of the discoveries to be made by geology. After saying that 'no account can be given' of the position of one of the stones, he continues:--'There are so many important things of which human knowledge can give no account, that it may be forgiven us if we speculate no longer on two stones in Col.' _Works_, ix. 122. See _ante_, ii. 468, for his censure of Brydone's 'anti-mosaical remark.'

[791]

'Malo me Galatea pet.i.t, lasciva puella.'

'My Phillis me with pelted apples plies.'

DRYDEN. Virgil, _Eclogues_, iii. 64.

[792]

'The helpless traveller, with wild surprise, Sees the dry desert all around him rise, And smother'd in the dusty whirlwind dies.'

_Cato_ act ii. sc. 6.

[793] Johnson seems unwilling to believe this. 'I am not of opinion that by any surveys or land-marks its [the sand's] limits have been ever fixed, or its progression ascertained. If one man has confidence enough to say that it advances, n.o.body can bring any proof to support him in denying it.' _Works_, ix. 122. He had seen land in like manner laid waste north of Aberdeen; where 'the owner, when he was required to pay the usual tax, desired rather to resign the ground.' _Ib_. p. 15.

[794] _Box_, in this sense, is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_.

[795] See _ante_, ii. 100, and iv. 274.

[796] In the original, _Rich windows. A Long Story_, l. 7.

[797] 'And this according to the philosophers is happiness.' Boswell says of Crabbe's poem _The Village_, that 'its sentiments as to the false notions of rustick happiness and rustick virtue were quite congenial with Johnson's own.' _Ante_, iv. 175.

[798] 'This innovation was considered by Mr. Macsweyn as the idle project of a young head, heated with English fancies; but he has now found that turnips will really grow, and that hungry sheep and cows will really eat them.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 121. 'The young laird is heir, perhaps, to 300 square miles of land, which, at ten s.h.i.+llings an acre, would bring him 96,000 a year. He is desirous of improving the agriculture of his country; and, in imitation of the Czar, travelled for improvement, and worked with his own hands upon a farm in Hertfords.h.i.+re.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 168.

[799] 'In more fruitful countries the removal of one only makes room for the succession of another; but in the Hebrides the loss of an inhabitant leaves a lasting vacuity; for n.o.body born in any other parts of the world will choose this country for his residence.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 93.

[800] 'In 1628 Daille wrote his celebrated book, _De l'usage des Peres_, or _Of the Use of the Fathers_. Dr. Fleetwood, Bishop of Ely, said of it that he thought the author had pretty sufficiently proved they were of _no use_ at all.' Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_. xi. 209.

[801] _Enquiry after Happiness_, by Richard Lucas, D.D., 1685.

[802] _Divine Dialogues_, by Henry More, D.D. See _ante_, ii. 162, note I.

[803] By David Gregory, the second of the sixteen professors which the family of Gregory gave to the Universities. _Ante_, p. 48.

[804] 'Johnson's landlord and next neighbour in Bolt-court.' _Ante_, iii. 141.

[805] 'Cuper's Gardens, near the south bank of the Thames, opposite to Somerset House. The gardens were illuminated, and the company entertained by a band of music and fireworks; but this, with other places of the same kind, has been lately discontinued by an act that has reduced the number of these seats of luxury and dissipation.' Dodsley's _London and its Environs_, ed. 1761, ii. 209. The Act was the 25th George II, for 'preventing robberies and regulating places of public entertainment.' _Parl. Hist_. xiv. 1234.

[806] 'Mr. Johnson,' according to Mr. Langton, 'used to laugh at a pa.s.sage in Carte's _Life of the Duke of Ormond,_ where he gravely observes "that he was always in full dress when he went to court; too many being in the practice of going thither with double lapells."'

_Boswelliana_, p. 274. The following is the pa.s.sage:--'No severity of weather or condition of health served him for a reason of not observing that decorum of dress which he thought a point of respect to persons and places. In winter time people were allowed to come to court with double-breasted coats, a sort of undress. The duke would never take advantage of that indulgence; but let it be never so cold, he always came in his proper habit, and indeed the king himself always did the same, though too many neglected his example to make use of the liberty he was pleased to allow.' Carte's _Life of Ormond_, iv. 693. See _ante_, i. 42. It was originally published in _three_ volumes folio in 1735-6.

[807] Seneca's two epigrams on Corsica are quoted in Boswell's _Corsica_, first edition, p. 13. Boswell, in one of his _Hypochondriacks (London Mag._ 1778, p. 173), says:--'For Seneca I have a double reverence, both for his own worth, and because he was the heathen sage whom my grandfather constantly studied.'

[808] 'Very near the house of Maclean stands the castle of Col, which was the mansion of the Laird till the house was built.... On the wall was, not long ago, a stone with an inscription, importing, that if any man of the clan of Maclonich shall appear before this castle, though he come at midnight, with a man's head in his hand, he shall there find safety and protection against all but the king. This is an old Highland treaty made upon a very memorable occasion. Maclean, the son of John Gerves, who recovered Col, and conquered Barra, had obtained, it is said, from James the Second, a grant of the lands of Lochiel, forfeited, I suppose, by some offence against the state. Forfeited estates were not in those days quietly resigned; Maclean, therefore, went with an armed force to seize his new possessions, and, I know not for what reason, took his wife with him. The Camerons rose in defence of their chief, and a battle was fought at Loch Ness, near the place where Fort Augustus now stands, in which Lochiel obtained the victory, and Maclean, with his followers, was defeated and destroyed. The lady fell into the hands of the conquerors, and, being found pregnant, was placed in the custody of Maclonich, one of a tribe or family branched from Cameron, with orders, if she brought a boy, to destroy him, if a girl, to spare her.

Maclonich's wife, who was with child likewise, had a girl about the same time at which Lady Maclean brought a boy; and Maclonich, with more generosity to his captive than fidelity to his trust, contrived that the children should be changed. Maclean, being thus preserved from death, in time recovered his original patrimony; and, in grat.i.tude to his friend, made his castle a place of refuge to any of the clan that should think himself in danger; and, as a proof of reciprocal confidence, Maclean took upon himself and his posterity the care of educating the heir of Maclonich.' Johnson's _Works,_ ix. 130.

[809] 'Mr. Croker tells us that the great Marquis of Montrose was beheaded at Edinburgh in 1650. There is not a forward boy at any school in England who does not know that the Marquis was hanged.' Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 357

[810] It is observable that men of the first rank spelt very ill in the last century. In the first of these letters I have preserved the original spelling. BOSWELL.

[811] See _ante,_ i., 127.

[812] Muir-fowl is grouse. _Ante_ p. 44.