ANOTHER WILLIAM. Whigs, indeed, are not willing to be governed; and it is possible that KING WILLIAM may be strongly inclined to guide their measures: but Whigs have been cheated like other mortals, and suffered their leader to become their tyrant, under the name of their PROTECTOR. What more they will receive from England, no man can tell. In their rudiments of empire they may want a CHANCELLOR."

Then came this paragraph:

'Their numbers are, at present, not quite suficient for the greatness which, in some form of government or other, is to rival the ancient monarchies; but by Dr. Franklin's rule of progression, they will, in a century and a quarter, be more than equal to the inhabitants of Europe. When the Whigs of America are thus multiplied, let the princes of the earth tremble in their palaces. If they should continue to double and to double, their own hemisphere would not contain them. But let not our boldest oppugners of authority look forward with delight to this futurity of Whiggism.' How it ended I know not, as it is cut off abruptly at the foot of the last of these proof pages.

His pamphlets in support of the measures of administration were published on his own account, and he afterwards collected them into a volume, with the title of Political Tracts by the Author of the Rambler, with this motto:

'Fallitur egregio quisquis sub Principe credit
Servitium; nunquam libertas gratior extat
Quam sub Rege pio.'-CLAUDIANUS.

These pamphlets drew upon him numerous attacks. Against the common weapons of literary warfare he was hardened; but there were two instances of animadversion which I communicated to him, and from what I could judge, both from his silence and his looks, appeared to me to impress him much.

It

One was, A Letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson, occasioned by his late political Publications. appeared previous to his Taxation no Tyranny, and was written by Dr. Joseph Towers. In that performance, Dr. Johnson was treated with the respect due to so eminent a man, while his conduct as a political writer was boldly and pointedly arraigned, as inconsistent with the character of one who, if he did employ his pen upon politics,

'it might reasonably be expected should distinguish himself, not by party violence and rancour, but by moderation and by wisdom.'

It concluded thus:

'I would, however, wish you to remember, should you again address the public under the character of a political writer, that luxuriance of imagination or energy of language will ill compensate for the want of candour, of justice, and of truth. And I shall only add, that should I hereafter be disposed to read, as I heretofore have done, the most excellent of all your per

formances, the Rambler, the pleasure which I have been accustomed to find in it will be much diminished by the reflection that the writer of so moral, so elegant, and so valuable a work, was capable of prostituting his talents in such productions as The False Alarm, the Thoughts on the Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands, and The Patriot.'

I am willing to do justice to the merit of Dr. Towers, of whom I will say, that although I abhor his Whiggish democratical notions and propensities (for I will not call them principles), I esteem him as an ingenious, knowing, and very convivial man.

The other instance was a paragraph of a letter to me from my old and most intimate friend the Reverend Mr. Temple, who wrote the character of Gray, which has had the honour to be adopted both by Mr. Mason and Dr. Johnson in their accounts of that poet. The words were

'How can your great, I will not say your pious, but your moral friend, support the barbarous measures of administration, which they have not the face to ask even their infidel pensioner Hume to defend?'

However confident of the rectitude of his own mind, Johnson may have felt sincere uneasiness that his conduct should be erroneously imputed to unworthy motives by good men, and that the influence of his valuable writings should on that account be in any degree obstructed or lessened.

He complained to a right honourable friend of distinguished talents and very elegant manners, with whom he maintained a long intimacy, and whose generosity towards him will afterwards appear, that his pension having been given to him as a literary character, he had been applied to by the administration to write political pamphlets; and he was even so much irritated that he declared his resolution to resign his pension. His friends showed him the impropriety of such a measure, and he afterwards expressed his gratitude, and said he had received good advice. To that friend he once signified a wish to have his pension secured to him for life; but he neither asked nor received from Government any reward whatsoever for his political labours.

On Friday, March 24, I met him at the LITERARY CLUB, where were Mr. Beauclerk, Mr. Langton, Mr. Colman, Dr. Percy, Mr. Vesey, Sir Charles Bunbury, Dr. George Fordyce, Mr. Steevens, and Mr. Charles Fox. Before he came in we talked of his Journey to the Western Islands, and of his coming away, 'willing to believe the second sight,' which seemed to excite some ridicule. I was then so impressed with the truth of many of the stories of which I had been told, that I avowed my conviction, saying, 'He is only willing to believe: I do believe. The evidence is enough for me, though not for his great mind. What will not fill a quart bottle, will fill a pint bottle. I am filled with belief.' 'Are you?" said Colman; 'then cork it up.'

I found his Journey the common topic of conversation in London at this time, wherever I happened to be. At one of Lord Mansfield's formal Sunday evening conversations, strangely called Levées, his lordship addressed me, 'We have all been reading your travels, Mr Boswell.' I answered, 'I was but the humble attendant of Dr. Johnson.' The Chief-Justice replied, with that air and manner which none, who ever saw and heard him, can forget, 'He speaks ill of nobody but Ossian.'

Johnson was in high spirits this evening at the Club, and talked with great animation and success. He attacked Swift, as he used to do upon all occasions. 'The Tale of a Tub is so superior to his other writings, that one can hardly believe he was the author of it: there is in it such a vigour of mind, such a swarm of thoughts, so much of nature, and art, and life.' I wondered to hear him say of Gulliver's Travels, 'When once you have thought of big men and little men, it is very easy to do all the rest.' I endeavoured to make a stand for Swift, and tried to rouse those who were much more able to defend him; but in vain. Johnson at last, of his own accord, allowed very great merit to the inventory of articles found in the pocket of The Man Mountain, particularly the description of his watch, which it was conjectured was his God, as he consulted it upon all occasions. He observed that 'Swift put his name to but two things (after he had a name to put), The Plan for the Improvement of the English Language, and the last Drapier's Letter.'

From Swift there was an easy transition to Mr. Thomas Sheridan. JOHNSON: 'Sheridan is a wonderful admirer of the tragedy of Douglas,

and presented its author with a gold medal. Some years ago, at a coffeehouse in Oxford, 1 called to him, "Mr Sheridan, Mr. Sheridan how came you to give a gold medal to Home, for writing that foolish play?" This, you see, was wanton and insolent; but I meant to be wanton and insolent. A medal has no value but as a stamp of merit. And was Sheridan te assume to himself the right of giving that stamp! If Sheridan was magnificent enough to bestow a gold medal as an honorary reward of dramatic excellence, he should have requested one of the Universities to choose the person on whom it should be conferred. Sheridan had no right to give a stamp of merit: it was counterfeiting Apollo's coin.'

On Monday, March 27, I breakfasted with him at Mr. Strahan's. He told us that he was engaged to go that evening to Mrs. Abington's benefit. She was visiting some ladies whom I was visiting, and begged that I would come to her benefit. I told her I could not hear; but she insisted so much on my coming, that it would have been brutal to have refused her.' This was a speech quite characteristical. He loved to bring forward his having been in the gay circles of life; and he was, perhaps, a little vain of the solicitations of this elegant and fashionable actress. He told us the play was to be The Hypocrite, altered from Cibber's Nonjuror, so as to satirize the Methodists. 'I do not think,' said he, 'the character of the Hypocrite justly applicable to the Methodists, but it was very applicable to the Nonjurors. I once said to Dr. Madan,1a clergyman of Ireland, who was a great Whig, that perhaps a Nonjuror would have been less criminal in taking the oaths imposed by the ruling power than refusing them; because refusing them necessarily laid him under almost an irresistible temptation to be more criminal; for, a man must live, and if he precludes himself from the support furnished by the establishment, will probably be reduced to very wicked shifts to maintain himself. BOSWELL: "I should think, sir, that a man who took the oaths contrary to his principles was a determined wicked man, because he was sure he was committing perjury; whereas a Nonjuror might be insensibly led to do what was wrong, without being so directly conscious of it.' JOHNSON: 'Why, sir, a man who goes to bed to his patron's wife, is pretty sure that he is committing wickedness.' BOSWELL: 'Did the nonjuring clergymen do so, sir?" JOHNSON: 'I am afraid many of them did.'

I was startled at this argument, and could by no means think it convincing. Had not his own father complied with the requisition of Government (as to which he once observed to me, when I pressed him upon it, 'That, sir, he was to settle with himself'), he would probably have

'had he not resembled My father as he swore.'

Mr. Strahan talked of launching into the great ocean of London, in order to have a chance for rising into eminence; and, observing that many men were kept back from trying their fortunes there because they were born to a competency, said, 'Small certainties are the bane of men of talents;' which Johnson confirmed. Mr. Strahan put Johnson in mind of a remark which he had made to him: 'There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.' 'The more one thinks of this,' said Strahan, 'the juster it will appear.'

Mr. Strahan had taken a poor boy from the country as an apprentice upon Johnson's recommendation. Johnson having inquired after him, said, 'Mr. Strahan, let me have five guineas on account, and I'll give this boy one. Nay, if a man recommends a boy, and does nothing for him, it is sad work. Call him down.'

I followed him into the court-yard behind Mr. Strahan's house; and there I had proof of what I had heard him profess, that he talked alike to all. Some people tell you that they let themselves down to the capacity of their hearers. I never do that. I speak uniformly in as intelligible a manner as I can.'

'Well, my boy, how do you go on?' 'Pretty well, sir; but they are afraid I ar'n't strong enough for some parts of the business.' JOHNSON: 'Why, I shall be sorry for it; for when you consider with how little mental power and corporeal labour a printer can get a guinea a week, it is a very desirable occupation for you. Do you hear-take all the pains you can; and if this does not do, we must think of some other way of life for you. There's a guinea.'

Here was one of the many, many instances of his active benevolence. At the same time, the slow and sonorous solemnity with which, while he bent himself down, he addressed a little, thick, short-legged boy, contrasted with the boy's awkwardness and awe, could not but excite some ludicrous emotions.

I met him at Drury Lane playhouse in the evening. Sir Joshua Reynolds, at Mrs. Abington's request, had promised to bring a body of wits to her benefit; and having secured forty places in the front boxes, had done me the honour to put me in the group. Johnson sat on the seat directly behind me; and as he could neither see nor hear at such a distance from the stage, he was wrapped up in grave abstraction, and seemed quite a cloud amidst all the sunshine of glitter and gaiety. I wondered at his patience in sitting out a play of five acts, and a farce of two. He said very little; but after the prologue to Bon Ton had been spoken, which he could hear pretty well from the more slow and distinct utterance, he talked on prologue writing, and

rior to any that David Garrick has written; but David Garrick has written more good prologues than Dryden has done. It is wonderful that he has been able to write such variety of them.'

At Mr. Beauclerk's, where I supped, was Mr. Garrick, whom I made happy with Johnson's praise of his prologues; and I suppose, in gratitude to him, he took up one of his favourite topics-the nationality of the Scotch-which he maintained in a pleasant manner, with the aid of a little poetical fiction. 'Come, come, don't deny it; they are really national. Why, now, the Adams are as liberal-minded men as any in the world: but, I don't know how it is, all their workmen are Scotch. You are, to be sure, wonderfully free from that nationality; but so it happens, that you employ the only Scotch shoeblack in London.' He imitated the manner of his old master with ludicrous exaggeration; repeating, with pauses and half-whistlings interjected,

'Os homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera-tollere vultus:"

looking downwards all the time, and while pronouncing the four last words, absolutely touching the ground with a kind of contorted gesticulation.

Garrick, however, when he pleased, could imitate Johnson very exactly; for that great actor, with his distinguished powers of expres sion, which were so universally admired, possessed also an admirable talent of mimicry. He was always jealous that Johnson spoke lightly of him. I recollect his exhibiting him to me one day, as if saying, 'Davy has some convivial pleasantry about him, but 'tis a futile fellow;' which he uttered perfectly with the tone and air of Johnson.

I cannot too frequently request of my readers, while they peruse my account of Johnson's conversation, to endeavour to keep in mind his deliberate and strong utterance. His mode of speaking was indeed very impressive; and I wish it could be preserved as music is written, according to the very ingenious method of Mr. Steele, who has shown how the recitation of

1 My noble friend, Lord Pembroke, said once to me at Wilton, with a happy pleasantry and some truth, that 'Dr. Johnson's sayings would not appear so extraordinary, were it not for his bow-wow way.' The sayings themselves are generally of sterling merit;

but, doubtless, his manner was an addition to their effect, and therefore should be attended to as much as may be. It is necessary, however, to guard those who were not acquainted with him, against overcharged imitations or caricatures of his manner, which are frequently attempted, and many of which are secondhand copies from the late Mr. Henderson, the actor, who, though a good mimic of some persons, did not represent Johnson correctly.-BOSWELL.

2 See Prosodia Rationalis; or, an Essay towards establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech, to be expressed and perpetuated by peculiar Symbols. London, 1779.-BOSWELL.

Mr. Garrick, and other eminent speakers, might be transmitted to posterity in score.1

Next day I dined with Johnson at Mr. Thrale's. He attacked Gray, calling him 'a dull fellow.' BOSWELL: 'I understand he was reserved, and might appear dull in company; but surely he was not dull in poetry.' JOHNSON: 'Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull everywhere. He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him GREAT. He was a mechanical poet.' He then repeated some ludicrous lines, which have escaped my memory, and said, 'Is not that GREAT, like his Odes?' Mrs. Thrale maintained that his Odes were melodious; upon which he exclaimed,

'Weave the warp, and weave the woof;'I added, in a solemn tone,

"The winding-sheet of Edward's race." There is a good line.' 'Ay,' said he, 'and the next line is a good one (pronouncing it contemptuously),

"Give ample verge and room enough." No, sir, there are but two good stanzas in Gray's poetry, which are in his Elegy in a Country Churchyard.' He then repeated the stanza,

'For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey,' etc., mistaking one word; for instead of precincts he said confines. He added, 'The other stanza I forget.'

A young lady who had married a man much her inferior in rank being mentioned, a question arose how a woman's relations should behave to her in such a situation; and while I recapitulate the debate, and recollect what has since happened, I cannot but be struck in a manner that delicacy forbids me to express. While I contended that she ought to be treated with an inflexible steadiness of displeasure, Mrs. Thrale was all for mildness and forgiveness, and, according to the vulgar phrase, 'making the best of a bad bargain.' JOHNSON: 'Madam, we must distinguish. Were I a man of rank, I would not let a daughter starve who had made a mean marriage; but having voluntarily degraded herself from the station which she was originally entitled to hold, I would support her only in that which she herself had chosen, and would not put her on a level with my other daughters. You are to consider, madam, that it is our duty to maintain the subordination of civilised society; and when there is a gross and shameful

I use the phrase in score, as Dr. Johnson has explained it in his Dictionary: 'A song in SCORE, the words with the musical notes of a song annexed.' But I understand that, in scientific propriety, it means all the parts of a musical composition noted down in the characters by which it is exhibited to the eye of the skilful.-BOSWELL.

It was declamation that Steele pretended to reduce

to notation by new characters. This he called the melody of speech, not the harmony, which the term in score Implies.-BURNEY.

deviation from rank, it should be punished so as to deter others from the same perversion.'

After frequently considering this subject, I am more and more confirmed in what I then meant to express, and which was sanctioned by the authority and illustrated by the wisdom of Johnson; and I think it of the utmost consequence to the happiness of society, to which subordination is absolutely necessary. It is weak and contemptible, and unworthy in a parent to relax in such a case. It is sacrificing general advantage to private feelings. And let it be considered, that the claim of a daughter who has acted thus to be restored to her former situation, is either fantastical or unjust. If there be no value in the distinction of rank, what does she suffer by being kept in the situation to which she has descended? If there be a value in that distinction, it ought to be steadily maintained. If indulgence be shown to such conduct, and the offenders know that in a longer or shorter time they shall be received as well as if they had not contaminated their blood by a base alliance, the great check upon that inordinate caprice which generally occasions low marriages will be removed, and the fair and comfortable order of improved life will be miserably disturbed.

Lord Chesterfield's Letters being mentioned, Johnson said, 'It was not to be wondered at that they had so great a sale, considering that they were the letters of a statesman, a wit, one who had been so much in the mouths of mankind, one long accustomed viram volitare per ora.'

On Friday, March 31, I supped with him and some friends at a tavern. One of the company attempted, with too much forwardness, to rally him on his late appearance at the theatre; but had reason to repent of his temerity. 'Why, sir, did you go to Mrs. Abington's benefit? Did you see?' JOHNSON: 'No, sir.' 'Did you hear?' JOHNSON: 'No, sir.' 'Why then, sir, did you go?' JOHNSON: 'Because, sir, she is a favourite of the public; and when the public cares the thousandth part for you that it does for her, I will go to your benefit too.'

Next morning I won a small bet from Lady Diana Beauclerk, by asking him as to one of his particularities, which her ladyship laid I durst not do. It seems he had been frequently observed at the Club to put into his pocket the Seville oranges, after he had squeezed the juice of them into the drink which he had made for himself. Beauclerk and Garrick talked of it to me, and seemed to think that he had a strange unwillingness to be discovered. We could not divine what he did with them; and this was the bold question to be put. I saw on his table the spoils of the preceding night, some fresh peels nicely scraped and cut into pieces. 'Oh, sir,' said I, 'I now partly see what you do with the squeezed oranges you put into your pocket at the Club.' JOHNSON: 'I have a great love for them.' BosWELL: 'And pray, sir, what do you do with

Q

them? You scrape them, it seems, very neatly, and what next?' JOHNSON: 'Let them dry, sir.' BOSWELL: 'And what next?" JOHNSON: 'Nay, sir, you shall know their fate no further.' BOSWELL: 'Then the world must be left in the dark. It must be said,' assuming a mock solemnity, 'he scraped them and let them dry; but what he did with them next he never could be prevailed upon to tell.' JOHNSON: 'Nay, sir, you should say it more emphatically: - he could not be prevailed upon, even by his dearest friends, to tell.'

He had this morning received his diploma as Doctor of Laws from the University of Oxford. He did not vaunt of his new dignity, but I understood he was highly pleased with it. I shall here insert the progress and completion of that high academical honour, in the same manner as I have traced his obtaining that of Master of Arts.

'TO THE REVEREND DR. FOTHERGILL, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, to be communicated to the Heads of Houses and proposed in Convocation.

'DOWNING STREET, March 3, 1775.

'MR. VICE-CHANCELLOR AND GENTLEMEN, The honour of the degree of M.A. by diploma, formerly conferred upon MR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, in consequence of his having eminently distinguished himself by the publication of a series of Essays, excellently calculated to form the manners of the people, and in which the cause of religion and morality has been maintained and recommended by the strongest powers of argument and elegance of language, reflected an equal degree of lustre upon the University itself.

'The many learned labours which have since that time employed the attention and displayed the abilities of that great man, so much to the advancement of literature and the benefit of the community, render him worthy of more distinguished honours in the republic of letters; and I persuade myself that I shall act agreeably to the sentiments of the whole University in desiring that it may be proposed in Convocation to confer on him the degree of Doctor in Civil Law, by diploma, to which I readily give my consent; and am, Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen, your affectionate friend and servant,

DIPLOMA.

'NORTH.'"

•CANCELLARIUS, Magistri, et Scholares Universitatis Oxoniensis omnibus ad quos presentes Literæ pervenerint, salutem in Domino Sempiternam.

'SCIATIS, virum illustrem SAMUELEM JOHNSON, in omni humaniorum literarum genere eruditum, omniumque scientiarum comprehen

• Extracted from the Convocation Register, Oxford. -BSOWELL

sione felicissimum, scriptis suis, ad popularium mores formandos summâ verborum elegantia ac sententiarum gravitate compositis, ita olim inclaruisse, ut dignus videretur cui ab Academid sud eximia quædam laudis præmia deferentur, quique venerabilem Magistrorum Ordinem summâ cum dignitate coöptaretur.

'Cùm verò eundem clarissimum virum tot posteà tantique laboris, in patria præsertim linguâ ornandâ et stabilienda feliciter impensi, ita insigniverint, ut in Literarum Republica PRINCEPS jam et PRIMARIUS jure habeatur; Nos, CANCELLARIUS, Magistri, et Scholares Universitatis Oxoniensis, quô talis viri merita pari honoris remuneratione exæquentur, et perpetuum suæ simul laudis, nostræque erga literas propensissimæ voluntatis extet monumentum, in solenni Convocatione Doctorum et Magistrorum Regentium, et non Regentium, prædictum SAMUELEM JOHNSON, Doctorem in Jure Civilı renunciavimus et constituimus, eumque virtute præsentis Diplomatis singulis juribus, privilegiis et honoribus, ad istem gradum quàquà pertinentibus, frui et gaudere jussimus. In cujus rei testimonium commune Universitatis Oxoniensis sigillum præsentibus apponi fecimus.

'Datum in Domo nostræ Convocationis die tricesimo Mensis Martii, Anno Domini Millesimo septingentesimo, septuagesimo quinto.'' Viro Reverendo THOME FOTHERGILL. S.T.P. Universitatis Oxoniensis Vice-Cancellario. S.P.D.

'SAM. JOHNSON.

'MULTIS non est opus, ut testimonium quo, te præside, Oxoniensis nomen meum posteris commendarunt, quali animo acceperim compertum faciam. Nemo sibi placens non lætatur ; nemo sibi non placet, qui vobis, literarum arbitris, placere potuit. Hoc tamen habet incommodi tantum beneficium, quod mihi nunquam posthac sine vestræ famæ detrimento vel labi

1 The original is in my possession. He showed me the diploma, and allowed me to read it, but would not consent to my taking a copy of it, fearing perhaps that I should blaze it abroad in his lifetime. His objection to this appears from his 99th letter to Mrs. Thrale, whom in that letter he thus scolds for the grossness of her flattery of him :- 'The other Oxford news is, that they have sent me a degree of Doctor of Laws, with such praises in the diploma as perhaps ought to make me ashamed; they are very like your praises. I wonder whether I shall ever show it to you.'

It is remarkable that he never, so far as I know, assumed his title of Doctor, but called himself Mr. Johnson, as appears from many of his cards or notes to myself, and I have seen many from him to other persons, in which he uniformly takes that designation. -I once observed on his table a letter directed to him

with the addition of Esquire, and objected to it as being a designation inferior to that of Doctor; but he checked me, and seemed pleased with it, because, as I conjectured, he liked to be sometimes taken out of the class of literary men, and to be merely genteel-un gentilhomme comme un autre.-BOSWELL.