LETTER 315.

FROM MR. BOSWELL.

"Edinburgh, Feb. 28. 1778.

"MY DEAR SIR,-You are at present busy amongst the English poets, preparing, for the public instruction and entertainment, prefaces biographical and critical. It will not, therefore, be out of season to appeal to you for the decision of a controversy which has arisen between a lady and me concerning a passage in Parnell. That poet tells us, that his hermit quitted his cell

to know the world by sight,

To find if books or swains report it right;
(For yet by swains alone the world he knew,

Whose feet came wand'ring o'er the nightly dew).'

I maintain, that there is an inconsistency here; for as the hermit's notions of the world were formed from the reports both of books and swains, he could not justly be said to know by swains alone. Be pleased to judge between us, and let us have your reasons. (1)

"What do you say to Taxation no Tyranny,' now, after Lord North's declaration, or confession, or whatever else his conciliatory speech should be called? I never differed from you in politics but upon two points - the Middlesex election, and the taxation of the Americans by the British houses of representatives. There is a charm in the word parliament, so I avoid it. As I am a steady and a warm tory, I regret that the king does not see it to be better for him to receive constitutional supplies from his American subjects by the voice of their own assemblies, where his royal person is represented, than through the medium of his British subjects. I am persuaded that the power of the crown, which I wish to increase, would be greater when in contact with

(1) See this subject discussed in a subsequent page, under May 3. 1779.- - M.

6

all its dominions, than if the rays of regal bounty' (1) were 'to shine' upon America through that dense and troubled body, a modern British parliament. But, enough of this subject; for your angry voice at Ashbourne upon it still sounds awful in my mind's ears.' I ever am, &c. JAMES BOSWELL."

LETTER 316. TO MRS. MONTAGU.

"March 5. 1778.

"MADAM,—And so you are alarmed, naughty lady? You might know that I was ill enough when Mr. Thrale brought you my excuse. Could you think that I missed the honour of being at (your) table for any slight reason? But you (have) too many to miss any one of us, and I am (proud) to be remembered at last. much better. A little cough (still) remains which will not confine me. To houses (like yours) of great delicacy I am not willing to bring it.

I am

"Now, dear Madam, we must talk of business. Poor Davies, the bankrupt bookseller, is soliciting his friends to collect a small sum for the repurchase of part of his household stuff. Several of them gave him five guineas. It would be an honour to him to owe part of his relief to Mrs. Montagu.

"Let me thank you, Madam, once more for your inquiry; you have, perhaps, among your numerous train not one that values a kind word or a kind look more than, Madam, yours, &c. SAM. JOHNSON."

LETTER 317. TO MRS. MONTAGU.

"March 6. 1778.

" MADAM, · I hope Davies (2), who does not want wit, does not want gratitude, and then he will be almost as

(1) Alluding to a line in his "Vanity of Human Wishes," describing Cardinal Wolsey in a state of elevation : —

"Through him the rays of regal bounty shine."

(2) Tom Davies, the bankrupt bookseller, in whose behalf he

thankful for the bill as I am for the letter that enclosed it.

"If I do not lose, what I hope always to keep, my reverence for transcendent merit, I shall continue to be with unalterable fidelity, Madam, your &c.

"SAM. JOHNSON."

LETTER 318. FROM MR. BOSWELL.

"Edinburgh, March 12. 1778.

"MY DEAR SIR, - The alarm of your late illness distressed me but a few hours; for on the evening of the day that it reached me, I found it contradicted in The London Chronicle,' which I could depend upon as authentic concerning you, Mr. Strahan being the printer of it. I did not see the paper in which the approaching extinction of a bright luminary' was announced. Sir William Forbes told me of it; and he says he saw me so uneasy, that he did not give me the report in such strong terms as he read it. He afterwards sent me a letter from Mr. Langton to him, which relieved me much. I am, however, not quite easy, as I have not heard from you; and now I shall not have that comfort before I see you, for I set out for London to-morrow before the post comes in. I hope to be with you on Wednesday morning: and I ever am, with the highest veneration, my dear Sir, your most obliged, faithful, and affectionate humble servant,

"JAMES BOSWELL."

more than once appealed to the charity of Mrs. Montague.

49

CHAPTER II.

1778.

Inmates of Bolt Court.- ·Tom Davies.-Counsel at the Bar of the House of Commons. Thomas à Kempis. Uses of a Diary.— Strict Adherence to Truth.

-Alcibiades's Dog.- Emi

gration. Parliamentary Eloquence.

Place Hunt

ers.― - Irish Language. Thicknesse's "Travels."

Honesty.

Temptation.

Dr. Kennedy's Tragedy. Shooting a Highwayman. - Mr. Dunning. Laxity of Narration.- Mrs. Montagu. Harris of Salisbury.— Definition.

Contentment.

Wine-drinking.

Charles "Seeing

the Fifth. Best English Sermons. Scotland.". - Absenteeism. Delany's "Observations on Swift."

ON Wednesday, March 18., I arrived in London, and was informed by good Mr. Francis, that his master was better, and was gone to Mr. Thrale's at Streatham, to which place I wrote to him, begging to know when he would be in town. He was not expected for some time; but next day, having called on Dr. Taylor, in Dean's-yard, Westminster, I found him there, and was told he had come to town for a few hours. He met me with his usual kindness, but instantly returned to the writing of something on which he was employed when I came in, and on which he seemed much intent. Finding

him thus engaged, I made my visit very short, and had no more of his conversation, except his expressing a serious regret that a friend of ours [Mr. Langton] was living at too much expense, considering how poor an appearance he made: "If,” said he, “a man has splendour from his expense, if he spends his money in pride or in pleasure, he has value; but if he lets others spend it for him, which is most commonly the case, he has no advantage from it."

On Friday, March 20., I found him at his own house, sitting with Mrs. Williams, and was informed that the room formerly allotted to me was now appropriated to a charitable purpose; Mrs. Desmoulins (1), and, I think, her daughter, and a Miss Carmichael, being all lodged in it. Such was his humanity, and such his generosity, that Mrs. Desmoulins herself told me he allowed her half a guinea a week. Let it be remembered, that this was above a twelfth part of his pension.(2)

His liberality, indeed, was at all periods of his

(1) Daughter of Dr. Swinfen, Johnson's godfather, and widow of Mr. Desmoulins, a writing-master.

(2) The dissensions that the many odd inhabitants of his house chose to live constantly in, distressed and mortified him exceedingly. He really was sometimes afraid of going home, because he was so sure to be met at the door with numberless complaints; and he used to lament pathetically to me, and to Mr. Sastres, the Italian master, who was much his favourite, that they made his life miserable from the impossibility he found of making theirs happy, when every favour he bestowed on one was wormwood to the rest. If, however, I ventured to blame their ingratitude, and condemn their conduct, he would instantly set about softening the one and justifying the other; and finished commonly by telling me, that I knew not how to make allowances for situations I never experienced.— Piozzi.