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I argued warmly against the judges trading, and mentioning Hale as an instance of a perfect judge, who devoted himself entirely to his office. JOHNSON. "Hale, sir, attended to other things besides law; he left a great estate." BosWELL. "That was because what he got accumulated without any exertion and anxiety on his part."

While the dispute went on, Moody once tried to say something on our side. Tom Davies clapped him on the back, to encourage him. Beauclerk, to whom I mentioned this circumstance, said, "that he could not conceive a more humiliating situation than to be clapped on the back by Tom Davies."

We got into an argument whether the [ I made a calculation, that if I should write judges who went to India might with pro- but a page a day, at the same rate, I should, priety engage in trade. Johnson warmly in ten years, write nine volumes in folio, of maintained that they might. "For why," an ordinary size and print." BOSWELL. he urged," should not judges get riches, "Such as Carte's History!"" JOHNSON. as well as those who deserve them less?" "Yes, sir; when a man writes from his own I said, they should have sufficient salaries, mind, he writes very rapidly 2. The greatand have nothing to take off their attention est part of a writer's time is spent in readfrom the affairs of the publick. JOHNSON. ing, in order to write; a man will turn over "No judge, sir, can give his whole atten- half a library, to make one book." tion to his office; and it is very proper that he should employ what time he has to himself to his own advantage, in the most profitable manner 1." "Then, sir," said Davies, who enlivened the dispute by making it somewhat dramatick," he may become an insurer; and when he is going to the bench, he may be stopped, Your lordship cannot go yet; here is a bunch of invoices; several ships are about to sail.'" | JOHNSON. "Sir, you may as well say a judge should not have a house; for they may come and tell him- Your lordship's house is on fire;' and so, instead of minding the business of his court, he is to be occupied in getting the engine with the greatest speed. There is no end of this. Every judge who has land, trades to a certain extent in corn or in cattle, and in the land itself undoubtedly his steward acts for him, and so do clerks for a great merchant. A judge may be a farmer, but he is not to geld his own pigs. A judge may play a little at cards for his amusement; but he is not to play at marbles, or chuck-farthing in the piazza. No, sir, there is no profession to which a man gives a very great proportion of his time. It is wonderful, when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession. No man would be a judge, upon the condition of being totally a judge. The best employed lawyer has his mind at work but for a small proportion of his time; a great deal of his occupation is merely mechanical. I once wrote for a magazine:

the loss of her son, which event took place in March, 1776, and is alluded to in the letters. Nor can Mr. Boswell's date be mistaken, for he says, that Campbell dined at Mr. Dilly's on Wednesday the 5th April, and the 5th April fell on a Wednesday in 1775. Mr. Boswell had, more

over,

left London in 1776, prior to the date of Mrs. Thrale's, so that he could not have met Dr. Campbell in that year. The discrepancy is on a point of no importance, but it seems inexplicable. —ED.]

[This must have been said in a mere s irit of argumentation, for we have seen (ante, p. 359.) that he was angry at a judge's being so much like an ordinary gentleman as even to wear a round hat in his own country house, and he censured him for being so much of a farmer as to farm a part of his demesne for his own amusement.ED.]

We spoke of Rolt, to whose 'Dictionary of Commerce' Dr. Johnson wrote the preface. JOHNSON. "Old Gardener, the book seller, employed Rolt and Smart to write a monthly miscellany, called The Universal Visitor.' There was a formal written contract, which Allen the printer saw. Gardener thought as you do of the judge. They were bound to write nothing else; they were to have, I think, a third of the profits of his sixpenny pamphlet; and the contract was for ninety-nine years. I wish I had thought of giving this to Thurlow, in the cause about literary property. What an excellent instance would it have been of the oppression of booksellers towards poor authors!" smiling 3. Davies, zealous for the honour of the trade, said Gardener was not properly a bookseller. JOHNSON. "Nay, sir; he certainly was a bookseller. He had served his time regularly, was a member of the Stationers' Company, kept a shop in the face of mankind, purchased copyright, and was a bibliopole, sir, in every sense. I wrote for some months in The Universal Visitor' for poor Smart, while he was mad, not then knowing the terms on which he was engaged to write, and thinking I was

Johnson certainly did, who had a mind stored with knowledge, and teeming with imagery; but the observation is not applicable to writers in general.-BOSWELL.

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Friday, 7th April, I dined with him at a tavern, with a numerous company. JOHNSON. "I have been reading Twiss's Travels in Spain,' which are just come out. They are as good as the first book of travels that you will take up. They are as good as those of Keysler or Blainville; nay, as Addison's, if you except the learning. They are not so good as Brydone's, but they are better than Pococke's. I have not, indeed, cut the leaves yet; but I have read in them where the pages are open, and I do not suppose that what is in the pages which are closed is worse than what is in the open pages. It would seem," he added, "that Addison had not acquired much Italian learning, for we do not find it introduced into his writings. The only instance that I recollect is his quoting Stavo bene; per star meglio, sto qui 2.""

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I mentioned Addison's having borrowed many of his classical remarks from Leandro Alberti 3. Mr. Beauclerk said, "It was

1 [At the Club, where there were present Mr. Charles Fox (president), Sir J. Reynolds, Drs. Johnson and Percy, Messrs. Beauclerk, Boswell, Chamier, Gibbon, Langton, and Steevens: why Mr. Boswell sometimes sinks the club is not quite clear. He might very naturally have felt some reluctance to betray the private conversation of a convivial meeting, but that feeling would have operated on all occasions. It may, however, be observed that he generally endeavours to confine his report to what was said either by Johnson or himself.-ED.]

2 Addison, however, does not mention where this celebrated epitaph, which has eluded a very diligent inquiry, is found.-MALONE. [It is mentioned by old Howell. "The Italian saying may be well applied to poor England: "I was well-would be better-took physic-and died." -Lett. 20th Jan. 1647.-ED.]

3 [This observation is, as Mr. Markland observes to me, to be found in Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son: "I have been lately informed of an Italian book, which I believe may be of use to you, and which, I dare say, you may get at Rome; written by one Alberti, about fourscore or a hundred years ago, a thick quarto. It is a classical description of Italy; from whence I am assured that Mr. Addison, to save himself trouble,

has taken most of his remarks and classical references. I am told that it is an excellent book

for a traveller in Italy."—Vol. ii. p. 351. If credit is to be given to Addison himself (and who can doubt his veracity?) this supposition must be groundless. He expressly says, "I have taken care to consider particularly the several passages of the ancient poets, which have any relation to the places or curiosities I met with: for, before I entered on my voyage, I took care to refresh my memory among the classic authors, and to make uch collections out of them as I might after

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alleged that he had borrowed also from another Italian authour." JOHNSON. "Why, sir, all who go to look for what the classicks have said of Italy must find the same passages 4; and I should think it would be one of the first things the Italians would do on the revival of learning, to collect all that the Roman authours have said of their country."

66

Ossian being mentioned ;-JOHNSON. Supposing the Irish and Erse languages to be the same, which I do not believe 5, yet as there is no reason to suppose that the inhabitants of the Highlands and Hebrides ever wrote their native language, it is not to be credited that a long poem was preserved among them. If we had no evidence of the art of writing being practised in one of the counties of England, we should not believe that a long poem was preserved there, though in the neighbouring counties, where the same language was spoken, the inhabitants could write." BEAUCLERK. "The ballad of Lilliburlero' was once in the mouths of all the people of this country, and is said to have had a great effect in bringing about the revolution. Yet I question whether any body can repeat it now; which shows how improbable it is that much poetry should be preserved by tradition."

One of the company suggested an internal objection to the antiquity of the poetry said to be Ossian's, that we do not find the wolf in it, which must have been the case had it been of that age.

The mention of the wolf had led Johnson to think of other wild beasts; and while Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Langton were carrying on a dialogue about something which engaged them earnestly, he, in the midst of it, broke out, "Pennant tells of bears." What he added I have forgotten They went on, which he, being dull of hearing, did not perceive, or, if he did, was not willing to break off his talk; so he continued to vociferate his remarks, and bear ("like a word in a catch," as Beauclerk said) was repeatedly heard at intervals. which coming from him who, by those who did not know him, had been so often assi milated to that ferocious animal, while we who were sitting round could hardly stifle Silence having ensured, he proceeded: laughter, produced a very ludicrous effect. "We are told, that the black bear is innocent; but I should not like to trust myself with him." Mr. Gibbon muttered, in a low tone of voice, "I should not like to

wards have occasion for, &c."-Preface to Remarks.-ED.]

4" But if you find the same applications in another book, then Addison's learning falls to the ground," ante, p. 431.—MALONE.

[He was in error. See ante, p. 284.-ED.]

trust myself with you." This piece of sar- | her housewifery; for he said, with a smile, castick pleasantry was a prudent resolution," Mrs. Abington's jelly, my dear lady, was if applied to a competition of abilities'. better than yours."

Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel 2." But let it be considered, that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism, which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest. I maintained, that certainly all patriots were not scoundrels. Being urged (not by Johnson) to name one exception, I mentioned an eminent person 3, whom we all greatly admired. JoHNSON. "Sir, I do not say that he is not honest; but we have no reason to conclude from his political conduct that he is honest. Were he to accept a place from this ministry, he would lose that character of firmness which he has, and might be turned out of his place in a year. This ministry is neither stable, nor grateful to their friends, as Sir Robert Walpole was; so that he may think it more for his interest to take his chance of his party coming in."

Mrs. Pritchard being mentioned, he said, "Her playing was quite mechanical. It is wonderful how little mind she had. Sir, she had never read the tragedy of Macbeth all through. She no more thought of the play out of which her part was taken, than a shoemaker thinks of the skin out of which the piece of leather of which he is making a pair of shoes is cut."

On Saturday, May 8, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, where we met the Irish Dr. Campbell 4. Johnson had supped the night before at Mrs. Abington's with some fashionable people whom he named; and he seemed much pleased with having made one in so elegant a circle. Nor did he omit to pique his mistress a little with jealousy of

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1 [Mr. Green, the anonymous author of the Diary of a Lover of Literature " (printed at Ipswich), states, under the date of 13th June, 1796, that a friend whom he designates by the initial M (and whom I believe to be my able and obliging friend Sir James Mackintosh), talking to him of the relative ability of Burke and Gibbon, said," Gibbon might have been cut out of a corner of Burke's mind without his missing it." I fancy, now that enthusiasm has cooled, Sir James would be inclined to allow Gibbon a larger share of mind, though his intellectual powers can never be compared with Burke's.-ED.]

2 [This remarkable sortie, which has very much amused the world, will hereafter be still more amusing, when it is known, that it appears by the books of the Club, that at the moment it was uttered, Mr. Fox was in the chair.-ED.] [No doubt Mr. Burke.-ED.]

4

[See ante, pp. 516 and 517.-ED.]

Mrs. Thrale, who frequently practised a coarse 5 mode of flattery, by repeating his bon mots in his hearing, told us that he had said, a certain celebrated actor 6 was just fit to stand at the door of an auction-room with a long pole, and cry, "Pray, gentlemen, walk in;" and that a certain authour, upon hearing this, had said, that another still more celebrated actor was fit for nothing better than that, and would pick your pocket after you came out. JOHNSON. "Nay, my dear lady, there is no wit in what our friend added; there is only abuse. You may as well say of any man that he will pick a pocket. Besides, the man who is stationed at the door does not pick people's pockets; that is done within by the auctioneer."

Mrs. Thrale told us that Tom Davies repeated, in a very bald manner, the story of Dr. Johnson's first repartee to me, which I have related exactly 8. He made me say, "I was born in Scotland," instead of "I come from Scotland;" so that Johnson's saying, "That, sir, is what a great many of your countrymen cannot help," had no point, or even meaning; and that upon this being mentioned to Mr. Fitzherbert, he observed, "It is not every man that can carry a bon mot."

On Monday, April 10, I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's 9, with Mr. Lang

5 [Certainly coarse enough; but not unfre quently practised by Boswell himself; and not much coarser than writing every mot, bon or record to read next morning. See Tuor to the otherwise, which he spoke, and giving him the Hebrides, passim.—ED.]

6 [Probably Sheridan.-ED.]

7

[Certainly Garrick; the authour was, perhaps, Murphy: a great friend of the Thrales, and who had occasional differences with Garrick.— ED.]

8 Ante, p. 178.-BOSWELL.

9 Let me here be allowed to pay my tribute of most sincere gratitude to the memory of that excellent person, my intimacy with whom was the more valuable to me, because my first acquaintance with him was unexpected and unsolicited. Soon after the publication of my "Account of Corsica,' he did me the honour to call on me, and approaching me with a frank courteous air, said, "My name, sir, is Oglethorpe, and I wish to be acquainted with you." I was not a little flattered to be thus addressed by an eminent man, of whom I had read in Pope, from my early years,

"Or, driven by strong benevolence of soul, Will fly like Oglethorpe from pole to pole." I was fortunate enough to be found worthy of his good opinion, insomuch, that I not only was in vited to make one in the many respectable companies whom he entertained at his table, but had a cover at his hospitable board every day when I

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ton and the Irish Dr. Campbell, whom the General had obligingly given me leave to bring with me. This learned gentleman was thus gratified with a very high intellectual feast, by not only being in company with Dr. Johnson, but with General Óglethorpe, who had been so long a celebrated name both at home and abroad 1.

I must, again and again, entreat of my readers not to suppose that my imperfect record of conversation contains the whole of what was said by Johnson, or other eminent persons who lived with him. What I have preserved, however, has the value of the most perfect authenticity.

He this day enlarged upon Pope's melancholy remark,

"Man never is, but always to be blest."

He asserted, that the present was never a happy state to any human being; but that, as every part of life, of which we are conscious, was at some point of time a period yet to come, in which felicity was expected, there was some happiness produced by hope. Being pressed upon this subject, and asked if he really was of opinion, that though, in general, happiness was very rare in human life, a man was not sometimes happy in the moment that was present, he answered, Never, but when he is drunk." [It was a gloomy Reyn, axiom of his, that the pains and miseries of human life outweighed its happiness and good; but on a lady's asking him, whether he would not permit the ease and quiet of common life to be put into the scale of happiness and good, he seemed embarrassed (very unusual with him), and, answering in the affirmative, rose from his seat, as if to avoid the inference and reply, which his answer authorized the lady to make.]

Recoll.

Piozzi, p. 219-20.

manity; for she is happy without health, without beauty, without money, and without understanding." This story he told me himself; and when I expressed something of the horror I felt, "The same stupidity," said he, "which prompted her to extol felicity she never felt, hindered her from feeling what shocks you on repetition. I tell you, the woman is ugly, and sickly, and foolish, and poor; and would it not make a man hang himself to hear such a creature say it was happy?"]

He urged General Oglethorpe to give the world his Life. He said, "I know no man whose Life would be more interesting. If I were furnished with materials, I should be very glad to write it 2"

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Mr. Scott of Amwell's Elegies were lying in the room. Dr. Johnson observed, They are very well, but such as twenty people might write." Upon this I took occasion to controvert Horace's maxim,

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Non Di, non homines, non concessere columnæ: "
mediocribus esse poetis
for here (I observed) was a very middle-
rate poet, who pleased many readers, and
therefore poetry of a middle sort was enti-
tled to some esteem; nor could I see why
poetry should not, like every thing else, havė
different gradations of excellence, and con-
sequently of value. Johnson repeated the
common remark, that" as there is no ne-
cessity for our having poetry at all, it be-
ing merely a luxury, an instrument of plea-
sure, it can have no value, unless when ex
quisite in its kind." I declared myself not
satisfied. "Why, then, sir," said he,
"Horace and you must settle it." He was
not much in the humour of talking.

No more of his conversation for some days appears in my journal, except that when a gentleman told him he had bought [Dr. Johnson did not like any a suit of lace for his lady, he said, "Well, one who said they were happy, or sír, you have done a good thing and a wise who said any one else was so. "It thing." "I have done a good thing," said was all cant," he would cry; "the dog the gentleman, "but I do not know that I knows he is miserable all the time." A have done a wise thing." JOHNSON. "Yes, friend whom he loved exceedingly told him sir; no money is better spent than what is on some occasion notwithstanding, that his laid out for domestic satisfaction. A man wife's sister was really happy, and called is pleased that his wife is dressed as well as upon the lady to confirm his assertion, other people; and a wife is pleased that she which she did somewhat roundly as we say, is dressed." and with an accent and manner capable of offending Dr. Johnson, if her position had not been sufficient, without any thing more, to put him in a very ill humour. "If your sister-in-law is really the contented being she professes herself, sir," said he, "her life gives the lie to every research of hu

happened to be disengaged; and in his society I
never failed to enjoy learned and animated con-
versation, seasoned with genuine sentiments of
virtue and religion.-BOSWELL.

1 [See ante, p. 48.]-ED.]
VOL I
66

On Friday, April 14, being Good Friday, I repaired to him in the morning, according

2. The General seemed unwilling to enter upon it at this time; but upon a subsequent occasion he communicated to me a number of particulars, which I have committed to writing; but I was not sufficiently diligent in obtaining more from him, not apprehending that his friends were so soon to lose him; for notwithstanding his great age, he was very healthy and vigorous, and was at last carried off by a violent fever, which is often fatal at any period of life.-BOSWELL.

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I told him, that the admission of one of them before the first people in England, which had given the greatest offence, was no more than what happens at every minister's levee, where those who attend are admitted in the order that they have come, which is better than admitting them according to their rank: for if that were to be the

to my usual custom on that day, and break- | for which nobody thanked him. It was of fasted with him. I observed that he fasted consequence to the king, but nothing to so very strictly, that he did not even taste the publick, among whom it was divided. bread, and took no milk with his tea; I sup- When I say Lord Bute advised, I mean, that such acts were done when he was minpose because it is a kind of animal food. He entered upon the state of the nation, ister, and we are to suppose that he advised and thus discoursed: "Sir, the great mis- them. Lord Bute showed an undue parfortune now is, that government has too tiality to Scotchmen. He turned out Dr. little power. All that it has to bestow Nichols 3, a very eminent man, from being must of necessity be given to support itself; physician to the king, to make room for one so that it cannot reward merit. No man, of his countrymen, a man very low in his for instance, can now be made a bishop for profession 4. He had ********** 5 and his learning and piety 1; his only chance to go on errands for him. He had occafor promotion is his being connected with sion for people to go on errands for him; but he should not have had Scotchsomebody who has parliamentary interest. Our several ministers in this reign have men; and, certainly, he should not have outbid each other in concessions to the peo- suffered them to have access to him beple. Lord Bute, though a very honour- fore the first people in England.” able man,-a man who meant well,-a man who had his blood full of prerogative, was a theoretical statesman, a book-minister, and thought this country could be governed by the influence of the crown alone. Then, sir, he gave up a great deal. He advised the king to agree that the judges should hold their places for life, instead of losing them at the accession of a new king. Bute, I suppose, thought to make the king ted at 200,000l. more. Surely, there was a popular by this concession; but the people noble munificence in this gift from a monarch to never minded it; and it was a most impoli- his people. And let it be remembered, that tick measure. There is no reason why a during the Earl of Bute's administration, the king judge should hold his office for life, more was graciously pleased to give up the hereditary than any other person in publick trust. revenues of the crown, and to accept, instead of judge may be partial otherwise than to the them, of the limited sum of 800,0001. a year; crown; we have seen judges partial to the upon which Blackstone observes, that “The hepopulace. A judge may become corrupt, reditary revenues, being put under the same and yet there may not be legal evidence management as the other branches of the publick against him. A judge may become froward patrimony, will produce more, and be better colfrom age. A judge may grow unfit for his lected than heretofore; and the publick is a office in many ways. It was desirable that gainer of upwards of 100,000l. per annum, by this disinterested bounty of his majesty."-Com. there should be a possibility of being de-book i. chap. viii. p. 330.-BosWELL. livered from him by a new king. That is now gone by an act of parliament er gratid of the crown. Lord Bute advised the king to give up a very large sum of money 2,

Lord

A

3 [Frank Nichols. He was of Exeter College ; M. A., June, 1721; B. M., February, 1724; M. D., 1729. Died 1778, in the eightieth year of his age.-HALL.]

[Probably Dr. Duncan, who was appointed physician to the king in 1760; and not, as has been surmised, Sir John Pringle, who was appointed physician to the queen in 1761.-ED.]

From this too just observation there are some eminent exceptions. BosWELL. [That a general assertion should be pronounced too just by the very person who admits that it is not univer5 [The Editor was convinced that the first of sally just is a little odd; but, moreover, the these blanks meant Wedderburn, till he found "eminent exceptions" destroy the whole force of that Sir James Mackintosh doubted it, from thinkthe assertion. In a constitution of government and ing that Wedderburn was already too high in the society like ours, influence, interest, and connex-scale of society to be spoken of so contemptuously ions must have some weight in the distribution as Johnson here does; but, on a full consideration even of church patronage. Johnson's assertion was of all the circumstances, the Editor is finally satisthat they had all the weight, to the utter exclu-fied that Wedderburn was here meant. sion of piety and learning. Boswell, by denying the entire exclusion, defeats the force of Johnson's observation, which certainly was too broadly, and, of course, incorrectly expressed.--ED.]

The

second blank, Sir James thinks, and the Editor agrees with him, means, certainly, Home, the author of Douglas. Boswell always puts a number of asterisks equal to the letters of the names he The money arising from the property of the suppresses, and, in this case, the asterisks fit the prizes taken before the declaration of war, which names of Wedderburn and Home; and, morewere given to his majesty by the peace of Paris, over, we find Wedderburn and Home distinctly and amounted to upwards of 700,000., and from associated as satellites of Lord Bute, in Wilkes the lands in the ceded islands, which were estima-celebrated dedication of Mortimer.-ED.]

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