of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean. On those shores were the four great Empires of the world—the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. All our religion, almost all our law, almost all our arts, almost all that sets us above savages, has come to us from the shores of the Mediterranean.' The General observed, that THE MEDITERRANEAN would be a noble subject for a poem."

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We talked of translation. I said, I could not define it, nor could I think of a similitude to illustrate it; but that it appeared to me the translation of poetry could be only imitation. JOHNSON: "You may translate books of science exactly. You may also translate history, in so far as it is not embellished with oratory, which is poetical. Poetry, indeed, cannot be translated; and therefore it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language.

A gentleman maintained that the art of printing had hurt real learning, by disseminating idle writings. JOHNSON: "Sir, if it had not been for the art of printing, we should now have no learning at all; for books would have perished faster than they could have been transcribed.' This observation seems not just, considering for how many ages books were preserved by writing alone.1

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The same gentleman maintained that a general diffusion of knowledge among a people was a disadvantage, for it made the vulgar rise above their humble sphere. JOHNSON: Sir, while knowledge is a distinction, those who are possessed of it will naturally rise above those who are not. Merely to read and write was a distinction at first; but we see, when reading and writing have become general, the common people keep their stations. And so, were higher attainments to become general, the effect would be the same."

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Goldsmith," he said, "referred every thing to vanity; his virtues and his vices too were from that motive. He was not a social man: he never exchanged mind with you."

2

We spent the evening at Mr. Hoole's. Mr. Mickle, the excellent translator of "The Lusiad," was there. I have preserved little of the conversation of this evening. Dr. Johnson said, Thomson had a true poetical genius, the power of viewing everything in a poetical light. His fault is such a cloud of words sometimes, that the sense can hardly peep through. Shiels, who compiled Cibber's Lives of the Poets, was

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1 The author did not recollect that of the books preserved (and an infinite number was lost) all were confined to two languages. In modern times and modern languages, France and Italy alone produce more books in a given time than Greece and Rome; put England, Spain, Germany, and the Northern kingdoms out of the question.— BURNEY.

2 Wm. Julius Mickle, the translator of Camoens' "Lusiad," was born in 1734, at Langholm, in Dumfriesshire. He died in 1788.-ED.

3 See antè, p. 26.

one day sitting with me. I took down Thomson, and read aloud a large portion of him, and then asked, 'Is not this fine?' Shiels having expressed the highest admiration, Well, Sir,' said I, 'I have omitted every other line.'

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I related a dispute between Goldsmith and Mr. Robert Dodsley, one day when they and I were dining at Tom Davies's, in 1762. Goldsmith asserted that there was no poetry produced in this age. Dodsley appealed to his own collection, and maintained that though you could not find a palace like Dryden's " Ode on St. Cecilia's Day," you had villages composed of very pretty houses; and he mentioned particularly "The Spleen. JOHNSON: "I think Dodsley gave up the question. He and Goldsmith said the same thing; only he said it in a softer manner than Goldsmith did; for he acknowledged that there was no poetry, nothing that towered above the common mark. You may find wit and humour in verse, and yet no poetry. Hudibras' has a profusion of these; yet it is not to be reckoned a

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poem. The Spleen,' in Dodsley's collection, on which you say he chiefly rested, is not poetry." BOSWELL: "Does not Gray's poetry, Sir, tower above the common mark?" JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir; but we must attend to the difference between what men in general cannot do if they would, and what every man may do if he would. Sixteenstring Jack' towered above the common mark." BosWELL: "Then, Sir, what is poetry?" JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is, but it is not easy to tell what it is.'

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MR. CRADOCK.

On Friday, April 12, I dined with him at our friend Tom Davies's, where we met Mr. Cradock,2 of Leicestershire, author of "Zobeide," a

1 A noted highwayman, who, after having been several times tried and acquitted, was at last hanged. He was remarkable for foppery in his dress, and particularly for wearing a bunch of sixteen strings at the knees of his breeches.-BosWELL.

2 The hospitable proprietor of Gumley Hall, where he was accustomed to entertain a large circle of literary friends. Mr. Cradock was admitted to the first literary circles of his day, and was in habits of intimacy with Dr. Johnson, Boswell, Burke, Goldsmith, Doctors Parr, Farmer, and Askew, Geo. Steevens, Lords Thurlow and Sandwich, Bishops Hurd, Percy, and Hinchliff, &c. "Of Dr Johnson's manners," says Mr. Cradock, in his Literary Memoirs, "Garrick was a great mimic, and by his imitations at times ren. dered Johnson abundantly ridiculous. Tom Davies monopolized his laugh, and his laugh was that of a rhinoceros!" He was the author of several works; and in 1826, just previous to his death, he published his "Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs." Mr. Cradock was senior fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was born 1741-2, and died December 15, 1826.-ED.

tragedy; a very pleasing gentleman, to whom my friend Dr. Farmer's very excellent "Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare "is addressed; and also Dr. Harwood, who has written and published various works, particularly a fantastical translation of the New Testament, in modern phrase, and with a Socinian twist.1

2

I introduced Aristotle's doctrine in his " Art of Poetry," of "the κάθαρσις τῶν παθημάτων, the purging of the passions, as the purpose of tragedy. "But how are the passions to be purged by terror and pity?" said I, with an assumed air of ignorance, to incite him to talk, for which it was often necessary to employ some address. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, you are to consider what is the meaning of purging in the original sense. It is to expel impurities from the human body. The mind is subject to the same imperfection. The passions are the greatest movers of human actions; but they are mixed with such impurities, that it is necessary they should be purged or refined by means of terror and pity. For instance, ambition is a noble passion; but by seeing upon the stage, that a man who is so excessively ambitious as to raise himself by injustice is punished, we are terrified at the fatal consequences of such a passion. In the same manner, a certain degree of resentment is necessary; but if we see that a man carries it too far, we pity the object of it, and are taught to moderate that passion." My record upon this occasion does great injustice to Johnson's expression, which was so forcible and brilliant, that Mr. Cradock whispered me, "O that his words were written in a book!"

I observed the great defect of the tragedy of " Othello" was, that it had not a moral; for that no man could resist the circumstances of suspicion which were artfully suggested to Othello's mind. JOHNSON : "In the first place, Sir, we learn from Othello this very useful moral, not to make an unequal match; in the second place, we learn not to yield too readily to suspicion. The handkerchief is merely a trick, though a very pretty trick; but there are no other circumstances of reasonable suspicion, except what is related by Iago of Cassio's warm expressions concerning Desdemona in his sleep, and that depended entirely upon the assertion of one man. No, Sir, I think Othello has more moral than almost any play."

Talking of a penurious gentleman of our acquaintance, Johnson said, "Sir, he is narrow, not so much from avarice, as from impotence to spend his money. He cannot find in his heart to pour out a bottle of wine but he would not much care if it should sour."

:

He said he wished to see John Dennis's critical works collected. Davies said they would not sell. Dr. Johnson seemed to think otherwise. Davies said of a well-known dramatic author, that "he lived upon

1 Dr. Harwood was a Dissenter, and is best known as a classical scholar.-ED. 2 See an ingenious Essay on this subject by the late Dr. Moor, Greek professor at Glasgow.-BuSWELL.

potted stories, and that he made his way as Hannibal did, by vinegar; having begun by attacking people; particularly the players."

He reminded Dr. Johnson of Mr. Murphy's having paid him the highest compliment that ever was paid to a layman, by asking his pardon for repeating some oaths in the course of telling a story.

Johnson and I supped this evening at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in company with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Langton, Mr. Nairne, now one of the Scotch judges, with the title of Lord Dunsinan, and my very worthy friend, Sir William Forbes,1 of Pitsligo.

We discussed the question whether drinking improved conversation and benevolence. Sir Joshua maintained it did. JOHNSON: "No, Sir, before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding; and those who are conscious of their inferiority have the modesty not to talk. When they have drunk wine, every man feels himself happy, and loses that modesty, and grows impudent and vociferous: but he is not improved he is only not sensible of his defects." Sir Joshua said the Doctor was talking of the effects of excess in wine; but that a moderate glass enlivened the mind, by giving a proper circulation to the blood. “I am," said he, "in very good spirits, when I get up in the morning. By dinner-time I am exhausted; wine puts me in the same state as when I got up; and I am sure that moderate drinking makes people talk better." JOHNSON: "No, Sir, wine gives not light, gay, ideal hilarity; but tumultuous, noisy, clamorous merriment. I have heard none of those drunken-nay, drunken is a coarse word-none of those vinous flights." SIR JOSHUA: "Because you have sat by, quite sober, and felt an envy of the happiness of those who were drinking." JOHNSON: "Perhaps contempt. And, Sir, it is not necessary to be drunk one's self to relish the wit of drunkenness. Do we not judge of the drunken wit, and of the dialogue between Iago and Cassio, the most excellent in its kind, when we are quite sober? Wit is wit, by whatever means it is produced; and, if good, will appear so at all times. I admit that the spirits are raised by drinking, as by the common participation of any pleasure: cock-fighting or bear-baiting will raise the spirits of a company as drinking does, though surely they will not improve conversation. I also admit, that there are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits which are not good till they are rotten. There are such men, but they are medlars. I indeed allow that there have been a very few men of talents who were improved by drinking; but I maintain that I am right as to the effects of drinking in general and let it be considered, that there is no position, however false in its universality, which is not true of some particular man." Sir

1 Sir W. Forbes was the founder, in conjunction with Sir J. H. Blair, of the first banking establishment in Edinburgh. He was an early member of the celebrated Literary Club, of which Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick, and Burke were distinguished associates. He was born at Pitsligo in 1739, and died in 1806.-ED.

William Forbes said, "Might not a man warmed with wine be like a bottle of beer, which is made brisker by being set before the fire?" "Nav," said Johnson laughing, I cannot answer that: that is too much for me."

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I observed that wine did some people harm, by inflaming, confusing, and irritating their minds; but that the experience of mankind had declared in favour of moderate drinking. JOHNSON: "Sir, I do not say it is wrong to produce self-complacency by drinking: I only deny that it improves the mind. When I drank wine I scorned to drink it when in company. I have drunk many a bottle by myself; in the first place, because I had need of it to raise my spirits; in the second place, because I would have nobody to witness its effects upon me. He told us, "almost all his Ramblers were written just as they were wanted for the press; that he sent a certain portion of the copy of an essay, and wrote the remainder, while the former part of it was printing. When it was wanted, and he had fairly sat down to it, he was sure it would be done."

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He said, that for general improvement a man should read whatever his immediate inclination prompts him to; though, to be sure, if a man has a science to learn, he must regularly and resolutely advance. He added, What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read. He told us he read Fielding's " Amelia" through without stopping.1 He said, "If a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an in- ̧ clination to go on, let him not quit it, to go to the beginning. He may perhaps not feel again the inclination."

Sir Joshua mentioned Mr. Cumberland's Odes, which were just published. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, they would have been thought as good as odes commonly are, if Cumberland had not put his name to them; but a name immediately draws censure, unless it be a name that bears down everything before it. Nay, Cumberland has made his odes subsidiary to the fame of another man. They might have run well enough by themselves; but he has not only loaded them with a name, but has made them carry double."

We talked of the Reviews, and Dr. Johnson spoke of them as he did at Thrale's. 3 Sir Joshua said, what I have often thought, that he wondered to find so much good writing employed in them, when the authors were to remain unknown, and so could not have the motive of fame.

1 We have here an involuntary testimony to the excellence of this admirable writer, to whom we have seen that Dr. Johnson directly allowed so little merit.-BOSWELL 2 Mr. Romney, the painter, who has now deservedly established a high reputation.— BOSWELL.

3 See antè, p. 28.