Hoole, and Dr. Dunbar of Aberdeen, and I know not how many more; and Pepys and I had all the talk."] ["DR. JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS. "Bolt-court, 16th June, 1780. MSS. "DEAR MADAM,—I answer your Reyn. letter as soon as I can, for I have just received it. I am very willing to wait on you at all times, and will sit for the picture, and, if it be necessary, will sit again, for whenever I sit I shall be always with you. "Do not, my love, burn your papers. I have mended little but some bad rhymes 1. I thought them very pretty, and was much moved in reading them. The red ink is only lake and gum, and with a moist sponge will be washed off. "I have been out of order, but by bleeding and other means, am now better. Let me know on which day I shall come to you. I am, dear madam, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON. "To-day I am engaged, and only today."] Letters, vol. ii. p. 166-173. ["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE. "London, 10th July, 1780. "Last week I saw flesh but twice, and I think fish once: the rest was pease. "You are afraid, you say, lest I extenuate myself too fast, and are an enemy to violence: but did you never hear nor read, dear madam, that every man has his genius; and that the great rule by which all excellence is attained, and all success procured, is to follow genius; and have you not observed in all our conversation that my genius is always in extremes-that I am very noisy or very silent, very gloomy or very merry, very sour or very kind? And would you have me cross my genius, when it leads me sometimes to voracity, and sometimes to abstinence? You know that the oracle said, Follow your genius. When we get together again (but when, alas! will that be?) you can manage me, and spare me the solicitude of managing myself. "I stay at home to work, and yet do not work diligently; nor can tell when I shall have done, nor perhaps does any body but myself wish me to have done; for what can they hope I shall do better? Yet I wish the work was over, and I was at liberty. Would I go to Mrs. Aston and Mrs. Porter, and see the old places, and sigh to find that my old friends are gone? [Of a poem now (by the favour of Mr. Palmer) before the Editor. Johnson read it attentively, and made numerous corrections, but after all it is not worth much.-ED.] "TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. "Edinburgh, 29th April, 1780. "MY DEAR SIR,-This will be delivered to you by my brother David on his return from Spain. You will be glad to see the man who vowed to stand by the old castle of Auchinleck with heart, purse, and sword;' that romantick family solemnity devised by me, of which you and I talked with complacency upon the spot. I trust that twelve years of absence have not lessened his feudal attachment, and that you will find him worthy of being introduced to your acquaintance. I have the honour to be, with affectionate veneration, my dear sir, your most faithful humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL." Johnson received him very politely, and title he was afterwards himself created an English 2 [Brother to the first Lord Lyttelton, by which peer. See ante, vol. i. p. 491. n.—ED.] 3 [From Mr. (afterwards Sir) Herbert Croft. He died in 1816.-ED.] 4 Now settled in London.-BOSWELL. [As Inspector of Seamen's Wills in the Navy Pay Office, from which situation he retired in 1823, and died 1826, ætat. 76.-ED.] Thrale 1: Letters, p. 163. "21st June, 1780. "I have had with me a brother vol. ii. of Boswell's, a Spanish merchant, whom the war has driven from his residence at Valencia. He is gone to see his friends, and will find Scotland but a sorry place after twelve years' residence in a happier climate. He is a very agreeable man, and speaks no Scotch." has thus mentioned him in a letter to Mrs. | no reason for making any reprehensory complaint:-Sic fata ferunt. But methinks there might pass some small interchange of regard between us. If you say that I ought to have written, I now write: and I write to tell you, that I have much kindness for you and Mrs. Beattie; and that I wish your health better, and your life long. Try change of air, and come a few degrees southwards. A softer climate may do you both good. Winter is coming in; and London will be warmer, and gayer, and busier, and more fertile of amusement than Aberdeen. ED. [Dr. Johnson had, for the last year, felt some alleviation of a troublesome disease which had long affected him; this relief he thus gratefully and devoutly acknowledged: Sunday, June 18. In the morning of this day last year, I perceived the remission of those convulsions in my breast which had distressed me for more than twenty years. I returned thanks at church, for the mercy granted me, which has now continued a year."] ["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE. Letters, vol. ii P. 177. "14th August, 1780. "I hope you have no design of stealing away to Italy before the election, nor of leaving me behind you; though I am not only seventy but seventy-one. Could not you let me lose a year in round numbers? Sweetly, sweetly, sings Dr. Swift, Some dire misfortune to portend, But what if I am seventy-two? I remem- "( TO DR. BEATTIE, AT ABERDEEN. 66 My health is better, but that will be little in the balance when I tell you that Mrs. Montagu has been very ill, and is, I doubt, now but weakly. Mr. Thrale has been very dangerously disordered; but is much better, and I hope will totally recover. He has withdrawn himself from business the whole summer. Sir Joshua and his sister are well; and Mr. Davies has got great success as an authour, generated by the corruption of a bookseller 5. news I have not to tell you, and therefore you must be contented with hearing, what I know not whether you much wish to hear6, that I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. More "London, 21st August, 1780 "DEAR SIR,-I find you have taken one of your fits of taciturnity, and have resolved not to write till you are written to: it is but a peevish humour, but you shall have your way. "I have sat at home in Bolt-count all the summer, thinking to write the Lives, and a great part of the time only thinking. Several of them, however, are done, and I still think to do the rest. 4 Meaning his entertaining "Memoirs of David Garrick, Esq.," of which Johnson (as Davies informed me) wrote the first sentence; thus giving, as it were, the key-note to the performance. It is, indeed, very characteristical of its authour, "Bolt-court, Fleet-street, 21st August, 1780. beginning with a maxim, and proceeding to illus"SIR,-More years 3 than I have any de- rate. All excellence has a right to be recorded. light to reckon have past since you and II shall, therefore, think it superfluous to apologize saw one another: of this, however, there is for writing the life of a man, who, by an uncommon assemblage of private virtues, adorned the highest eminence in a publick profession."-BosWELL. 1 Mrs. Piozzi has omitted the name, she best knows why.-BOSWELL. [Mrs. l'iozzi (acting with more delicacy, both to him and others, than Mr. Boswell himself showed), has almost every where omitted names: she feared, perhaps, that Mr. Boswell might not like to see his name coupled with the designation of Scotland as a "sorry place."-ED.] 2 [It may be surmised that Mrs. Thrale, at her last birth-day, was thirty-five: see ante, pp. 87 and 215.-ED.] 3 I had been five years absent from London.BEATTIE. 5 [What the expression "generated by the corruption of a bookseller" means seems not quite clear; perhaps it is an allusion to the generation of a class of insects, as if Davies, from his adversity as a bookseller, had burst into new and gaudier life as an authour.-ED.] 6 I wish he had omitted the suspicion expressed here, though I believe he meant nothing but jocularity; for, though he and I differed sometimes in opinion, he well knew how much I loved and revered him.-BEATTIE. "Mr. Thrale and his family have, since his illness, passed their time first at Bath, and then at Brighthelmstone; but I have been at neither place. I would have gone to Lichfield if I could have had time, and I might have had time if I had been active; but I have missed much, and done little. "In the late disturbances, Mr. Thrale's house and stock were in great danger. The mob was pacified at their first invasion with about fifty pounds in drink and meat; and at their second, were driven away by the soldiers. Mr. Strahan got a garrison into his house, and maintained them a fortnight: he was so frighted, that he removed part of his goods. Mrs. Williams took shelter in the country. "I know not whether I shall get a ramble this autumn. It is now about the time when we were travelling. I have, however, better health than I had then, and hope you and I may yet show ourselves on some part of Europe, Asia, or Africa1. In the mean time let us play no trick, but keep each other's kindness by all means in our power. "The bearer of this is Dr. Dunbar of Aberdeen, who has written and published a very ingenious book 2, and who I think has a kindness for me, and will, when he knows you, have a kindness for you. young man. "I suppose your little ladies are grown tall; and your son has become a learned I love them all, and I love your naughty lady, whom I never shall persuade to love me. When the Lives are done, I shall send them to complete her collection, but must send them in paper, as, for want of a pattern, I cannot bind them to fit the rest. I am, sir, yours most affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON." It will no doubt be remarked how he avoids the rebellious land of America. This puts me in mind of an anecdote, for which I am obliged to my worthy, social friend, Governour Richard Penn. "At one of Miss E. Hervey's assemblies, Dr. Johnson was following her up and down the room; upon which Lord Abington observed to her, Your great friend is very fond of you; you can go no where without him.' Ay,' said she, he would follow me to any part of the world.' "Then,' said the earl, ask him to go with you to America.'"-BOSWELL. [This lady was Miss Elizabeth Hervey, daughter of William, brother of Johnson's two friends, Thomas and Henry Hervey. She was born in 1730, and died at a very advanced age, unmarried.-ED.] Essays on the History of Mankind."-Bos WELL. goes to Devonshire, and Renny to Richmond, and I am left by myself. I wish I could say nunquam minus 3, &c., but I am not diligent. "I am afraid that I shall not see Lichfield this year, yet it would please me to show my friends how much better I am grown: but I am not grown, I am afraid, less idle; and of idleness I am now paying the fine by having no leisure."] This year he wrote to a young clergyman* in the country the following very excellent letter, which contains valuable advice to divines in general: "Bolt-court, 30th August, 1780. "DEAR SIR,-Not many days ago Dr. Lawrence showed me a letter, in which you make mention of me: I hope, therefore, you will not be displeased that I endeavour to preserve your good will by some observations which your letter suggested to me. "You are afraid of falling into some improprieties in the daily service by reading to an audience that requires no exactness. Your fear, I hope, secures you from danger. They who contract absurd habits are such as have no fear. It is impossible to do the same thing very often without some peculiarity of manner: but that manner may be good or bad, and a little care will at least preserve it from being bad: to make it good, there must, I think, be something of natural or casual felicity, which cannot be taught. "Your present method of making your sermons seems very judicious. Few frequent preachers can be supposed to have sermons more their own than yours will be. Take care to register, somewhere or other, the authours from whom your several discourses are borrowed; and do not imagine that you shall always remember, even what, perhaps, you now think it impossible to forget. My advice, however, is, that you attempt, from time to time, an original sermon; and, in the labour of composition, do not burden your mind with too much at once; do not exact from yourself at one effort of excogitation, propriety of thought and elegance of expression. Invent first, and then embellish. The production of something where nothing was before, is an act of greater energy than the expansion_or decoration of the thing produced. down diligently your thoughts as they rise in the first words that occur; and when you have matter you will easily give it 3 ["Never less alone than when alone."ED.] Set [Probably his friend, the Reverend George Strahan, who published his Prayers and Meditations.-ED.] form; nor, perhaps, will this method be always necessary; for, by habit, your thoughts and diction will flow together. "The composition of sermons is not very difficult: the divisions not only help the memory of the hearer, but direct the judgment of the writer: they supply sources of invention, and keep every part in its proper place. "What I like least in your letter is your account of the manners of your parish; from which I gather, that it has been long neglected by the parson. The Dean of Carlisle who was then a little rector in Northamptonshire, told me, that it might be discerned whether or no there was a clergyman resident in a parish, by the civil or savage manner of the people. Such a congregation as yours stands in need of much reformation: and I would not have you think it impossible to reform them. A very savage parish was civilized by a decayed gentlewoman, who came among them to teach a petty school. My learned friend, Dr. Wheeler, of Oxford, when he was a young man, had the care of a neighbouring parish for fifteen pounds a year, which he was never paid; but he counted it a convenience, that it compelled him to make a sermon weekly. One woman he could not bring to the communion; and when he reproved or exhorted her, she only answered, that she was no scholar. He was advised to set some good woman or man of the parish, a little wiser than herself, to talk to her in a language level to her mind. Such honest, I may call them holy, artifices must be practised by every clergyman; for all means must be tried by which souls may be saved. Talk to your people, however, as much as you can; and you will find, that the more frequently you converse with them upon religious subjects, the more willingly they will attend, and the more submissively they will learn. A clergyman's diligence always makes him venerable. I think I have now only to say, that, in the momentous work you have undertaken, I pray God to bless you. I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." bour a suspicion of my indulging a peevish humour, or playing tricks; you will recollect that when I confessed to you that I had once been intentionally silent to try your regard, I gave you my word and honour that I would not do so again. "I rejoice to hear of your good state of health; I pray God to continue it long. I have often said that I would willingly have ten years added to my life, to have ten taken from yours; I mean, that I would be ten years older to have you ten years younger. But let me be thankful for the years during which I have enjoyed your friendship, and please myself with the hopes of enjoying it many years to come in this state of being, trusting always, that in another state, we shall meet never to be separated. Of this we can form no notion; but the thought, though indistinct, is delightful, when the mind is calm and clear. "The riots in London were certainly horrible; but you give me no account of your own situation during the barbarous anarchy. A description of it by Dr. Johnson would be a great painting 2; you might write another London, a poem.' I "I am charmed with your condescending affectionate expression, let us keep each other's kindness by all the means in our power: my revered friend! how elevating is it to my mind, that I am found worthy to be a companion to Dr. Samuel Johnson! All that you have said in grateful praise of Mr. Walmsley, I have long thought of you; but we are both Tories, which has a very general influence upon our sentiments. hope that you will agree to meet me at York, about the end of this month; or if you will come to Carlisle, that would be better still, in case the dean be there. Please to consider, that to keep each other's kindness, we should every year have that free and intimate communication of mind which can be had only when we are together. We should have both our solemn and our pleasant talk. "I write now for the third time, to tell you that my desire for our meeting this autumn is much increased. I wrote to 'Squire Godfrey Bosville, my Yorkshire chief, that I should, perhaps, pay him a visit, as I was to hold a conference with Dr. Johnson at York. I give you my word and honour that I said not a word of his inviting you; but he wrote to me as follows: "I need not tell you I shall be happy to see you here the latter end of this month, as you propose; and I shall likewise be in hopes that you will persuade Dr. Johnson to finish the conference here. It will add to the favour of your own company, if you 2 I had not seen his letters to Mrs. Thrale.— BOSWELL. prevail upon such an associate, to assist your observations. I have often been entertained with his writings, and I once belonged to a club of which he was a member, and I never spent an evening there, but I heard something from him well worth remembering.' "We have thus, my dear sir, good comfortable quarters in the neighbourhood of York, where you may be assured we shall be heartily welcome. I pray you then resolve to set out; and let not the year 1780 be a blank in our social calendar, and in that record of wisdom and wit, which I keep with so much diligence, to your honour, and the instruction and delight of others." Mr. Thrale had now another contest for the representation in parliament of the borough of Southwark, and Johnson kindly lent him his assistance, by writing advertisements and letters for him. I shall insert one as a specimen *: TO THE WORTHY ELECTORS OF THE BOROUGH OF SOUTHWARK. "Southwark, 5th Sept. 1780. “GENTLEMEN,—A new parliament being now called, I again solicit the honour of being elected for one of your representatives; and solicit it with the greater confidence, as I am not conscious of having neglected my duty, or of having acted otherwise than as becomes the independent representative of independent constituents; superiour to fear, hope, and expectation, who has no private purposes to promote, and whose prosperity is involved in the prosperity of his country. As my recovery from a very severe distemper is not yet perfect, I have declined to attend the hall, and hope an omission so necessary will not be harshly censured. "I can only send my respectful wishes, that all your deliberations may tend to the happiness of the kingdom, and the peace of the borough. I am, gentlemen, your most faithful and obedient servant, Piozzi, p. 165, "HENRY THRALE." [Mrs. Piozzi exhibits Dr. Johnson in a new and unexpected character, as taking a personal part in one of Mr. Thrale's contests for the borough. "Dr. Johnson," she says, "knew how to be merry with mean people, as well as to be sad with them; he loved the lower ranks of humanity with a real affection: and though his talents and learning kept him always in the sphere of upper life, yet he never lost sight of the time when he and they shared pain and pleasure in common. A Borough election once showed me his toleration of boisterous mirth, and his content in the company of people whom one would have thought at first sight little calculated for his society. A rough fellow one day on such an occasion, a hatter by trade, seeing Dr. Johnson's beaver in a state of decay, seized it suddenly with one hand, and clapping him on the back with the other: Ah, master Johnson,' says he, 'this is no time to be thinking about hats.' No, no, sir,' replies our Doctor in a cheerful tone, hats are of no use now, as you say, except to throw up in the air and huzza with;' accompanying his words with the true election halloo."] "TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY SOUTHWELL, DUBLIN. "Bolt-court, Fleet-street, London, 9th Sept. 1780. "MADAM,-Among the numerous addresses of condolence which your great loss must have occasioned, be pleased to receive this from one whose name perhaps you have never heard, and to whom your ladyship is known only by the reputation of your virtue, and to whom your lord was known only by his kindness and beneficence. "Your ladyship is now again summoned to exert that piety of which you once gave, in a state of pain and danger, so illustrious an example; and your lord's beneficence may be still continued by those, who with his fortune inherit his virtues. "I hope to be forgiven the liberty which I shall take of informing your ladyship, that Mr. Mauritius Lowe, a son of your late lord's father 2, had, by recommendation to the co-heiresses of Arthur Cecil Hamilton, Esq. 1 Margaret, the second daughter, and one of She was married in 1741 to Thomas George, the third Baron, and first Viscount, Southwell, and lived with him in the most perfect connubial felicity, till September, 1780, when Lord Southwell died; a loss which she never ceased to lament to the hour of her own dissolution, in her eighty-first year, August 16, 1802. The "illustrious example of piety and fortitude" to which Dr. Johnson alludes was the submitting, when past her fiftieth year, to an extremely painful surgical operation, which she endured with extraordinary firmness and composure, not allowing herself to be tied to her chair, nor uttering a single moan. This slight tribute of affection to the memory of these two most amiable and excellent persons, who were not less distinguished by their piety, beneficence, and unbounded charity, than by suavity of manners which endeared them to all who knew them, it is hoped, will be forgiven from one who was honoured by their kindness and friendship from his childhood.--MALONE. was born Jan. 7, 1698-9, and died in London, 2 Thomas, the second Lord Southwell, who Nov. 18, 1766. Johnson was well acquainted with this nobleman, and said, "he was the highest bred man, without insolence, that he was ever in company with." His younger brother, Edmund Southwell, lived in intimacy with Johnson for many years. See an account of him in "Hawkins's Life of Johnson," p. 405. He died in |