66 TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "Oxford, 23d March, 1768. "MY DEAR BOSWELL, I have omitted a long time to write to you, without knowing very well why. I could now tell why I should not write; for who would write to men who publish the letters of their friends, without their leave? Yet I write to you in spite of my caution, to tell you that I shall be glad to see you, and that I wish you would empty your head of Corsica, which I think has filled it rather too long. But, at all events, I shall be glad, very glad to see you.-I am, sir, yours affectionately, 66 SAM. JOHNSON." I answered thus: "TO MR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. "London, 26th April, 1768. "MY DEAR SIR,-I have received your last letter, which, though very short, and by no means complimentary, yet gave me real pleasure, because it contains these words, I shall be glad, very glad to see you.'-Surely you have no reason to complain of my publishing a single paragraph of one of your letters; the temptation to it was so strong. An irrevocable grant of your friendship, and your dignifying my desire of visiting Corsica with the epithet of 'a wise and noble curiosity,' are to me more valuable than many of the grants of kings. "But how can you bid me empty my head of Corsica?' My noble-minded friend, do you not feel for an oppressed nation bravely struggling to be free? Consider fairly what is the case. The Corsicans never received any kindness from the Genoese. They never agreed to be subject to them. They owe them nothing, and when reduced to an abject state of slavery, by force, shall they not rise in the great cause of liberty, and break the galling yoke? And shall not every liberal soul be warm for them? Empty my head of Corsica? Empty it of honour, empty it of humanity, empty it of friendship, empty it of piety. No! while I live, Corsica, and the cause of the brave islanders, shall ever employ much of my attention, shall ever interest me in the sincerest manner. this occasion; the slaves of power, and the solicitors of favour, were driven hither from the remotest corners of the kingdom, but judex honestum prætulit utili. The virtue of Oxford has once more prevailed. "The death of Sir Walter Bagot, a little before the election, left them no great time to deliberate, and they therefore joined Sir Roger Newdigate, their old representative, an Oxfordshire gentleman, of no name, no great interest, nor perhaps any other merit than that of being on the right side; yet when the poll was numbered, it produced, For Sir R. Newdigate Mr. Page Mr. Jenkinson 352 296 198 62 "Of this I am sure you must be glad; for, without inquiring into the opinions or conduct of any party, it must be for ever pleasing to see men adhering to their principles against their interest, especially when you consider that those voters are poor, and never can be much less poor by the favour of those whom they are now opposing."] "TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD. Malone. "Oxford, 18th April, 1768. "MY DEAR DEAR LOVE,-You have had a very great loss. To lose an old friend, is to be cut off from a great part of the little pleasure that this life allows. But such is the condition of our nature, that as we live on we must see those whom we love drop successively, and find our circle of relations grow less and less, till we are almost unconnected with the world; and then it must soon be our turn to drop into the grave. There is always this consolation, that we have one Protector who can never be lost but by our own fault, and every new experience of the uncertainty of all other comforts should determine us to fix our hearts where true joys are to be found. All union with the inhabitants of earth must in time be broken; and all the hopes that terminate here, must on (one) part or other end in disappointment. "I am glad that Mrs. Adey and Mrs. Cobb do not leave you alone. Pay my respects to them, and the Sewards, and all my friends. When Mr. Porter comes, he will direct you. Let me know of his arrival, and I will write to him. "When I go back to London, I will take care of your reading glass. Whenever I can do anything for you, remember, my dear darling, that one of my greatest pleaEv-sures is to please you. "I am, &c. "JAMES BOSWELL." Letters, "The punctuality of your correspondence I consider as a proof of great regard. When we shall see each other, I know not, but let us often think on each other, and think with tenderness. Do not forget me in your prayers. I have for a long time back been very poorly; but of what use is it to com- | itself, would not suffer me to take any noplain? "Write often, for your letters always give great pleasure to, my dear, your most affectionate and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." Upon his arrival in London in May, he surprised me one morning with a visit at my lodging in Half-moon-street, was quite satisfied with my explanation, and was in the kindest and most agreeable frame of mind. As he had objected to a part of one of his letters being published, I thought it right to take this opportunity of asking him explicitly whether it would be improper to publish his letters after his death. His answer was, "Nay, sir, when I am dead, you may do as you will." He talked in his usual style with a rough contempt of popular liberty. "They make a rout about universa! liberty, without considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty. Political liberty is good only so far as it produces private liberty. Now, sir, there is the liberty of the press. which you know is a constant topick. Suppose you and I and two hundred more were restrained from printing our thoughts: what then? What proportion would that restraint upon us bear to the private happiness of the nation ?" This mode of representing the inconveniencies of restraint as light and insignificant was a kind of sophistry in which he delighted to indulge himself, in opposition to the extreme laxity for which it has been fashionable for too many to argue, when it is evident, upon reflection, that the very essence of government is restraint; and certain it is, that as government produces rational happiness, too much restraint is better than too little. But when restraint is unnecessary, and so close as to gall those who are subject to it, the people may and ought to remonstrate; and, if relief is not granted, to resist. Of this manly and spirited principle, no man was more convinced than Johnson himself. About this time Dr. Kenrick attacked him, through my sides, in a pamphlet, entitled "An Epistle to James Boswell, Esq. occasioned by his having transmitted the moral writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson to Pascal Paoli, General of the Corsicans." I was at first inclined to answer this pamphlet; but Johnson, who knew that my doing so would only gratify Kenrick, by keeping alive what would soon die away of tice of it. Hawk. p. 347. [Johnson's silence, with regard to Kenrick's attacks, proceeded not more from his contempt of such an adversary, than from a settled resolution he had formed, of declining all controversy in defence either of himself or of his writings. Against personal abuse he was ever armed by a reflection that I have heard him utter:-" Alas! reputation would be of little worth, were it in the power of every concealed enemy to deprive us of it;" and he defied all attacks on his writings by an answer of Dr. Bentley to one who threatened to write him down, that "no authour was ever written down but by himself.” His steady perseverance in this resolution afforded him great satisfaction whenever he reflected on it; and he would often felicitate himself that, throughout his life, he had had firmness enough to treat with contempt the calumny and abuse as well of open as concealed enemies, and the malevolence of those anonymous scribblers whose trade is slander, and wages infamy.] His sincere regard for Francis Barber, his faithful negro servant, made him so desirous of his further improvement, that he now placed him at a school at Bishop Stortford, in Hertfordshire 2. This humane attention does Johnson's heart much honour. Out of many letters which Mr. Barber received from his master, he has preserved three, which he kindly gave me, and which I shall insert according to their dates. 2 [The sending his negro servant, now probably little short of thirty years of age, to a boarding school, seems a very strange exercise of his good-nature. It was a very unpopular one with some of Johnson's inmates-when Mrs. Williams and Francis quarrelled, as was very frequent, the lady would complain to the doctor, adding, "This is your scholar, on whose education you have spent 3001." Dr. Johnson, in the conclusion of the letter, calls him a " boy," but sixteen years had already elapsed since he entered Johnson's [Would Johnson have talked in this way in the days of the Marmor Norfolciense? ante, p. 55.) If we lost the liberty of the press, what security could we have for any other right?-ED.] | own service.—ED.] They were Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dro- | so, sir," said Dr. Johnson loudly to Dr. more, Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of Salisbu- Percy, "you would shield this man from ry, Mr. Langton, Dr. Robertson the histo- the charge of swearing and talking loosely, nan, Dr. Hugh Blair, and Mr. Thomas because he did not do so at the Duke of Davies, who wished much to be introduced Northumberland's table. Sir, you might to these eminent Scotch literati; but on the as well tell us that you had seen him hold present occasion he had very little opportu- up his hand at the Old Bailey, and he neinity of hearing them talk, for with an ex- ther swore nor talked loosely; or that you cess of prudence, for which Johnson after- had seen him in the cart at Tyburn, and wards found fault with them, they hardly he neither swore nor talked loosely. And opened their lips, and that only to say some- is it thus, sir, that you presume to controthing which they were certain would not vert what I have related?" Dr. Johnson's expose them to the sword of Goliath; such animadversion was uttered in such a manwas their anxiety for their fame when in ner, that Dr. Percy seemed to be displeasthe presence of Johnson. He was this eve- ed, and soon afterwards left the company, ning in remarkable vigour of mind, and ea- of which Johnson did not at that time take ger to exert himself in conversation, which any notice. he did with great readiness and fluency; but I am sorry to find that I have preserved but a small part of what passed. Swift having been mentioned, Johnson, as usual, treated him with little respect as an authour. Some' of us endeavoured to He allowed high praise to Thomson as a support the Dean of St. Patrick's, by vapoet; but when one of the company said rious arguments. One in particular praishe was also a very good man, our moralisted his "Conduct of the Allies." JORNcontested this with great warmth, accusing SON. "Sir, his 'Conduct of the Allies' is him of gross sensuality and licentiousness a performance of very little ability." of manners. I was very much afraid that "Surely, sir," said Dr. Douglas, “ you in writing Thomson's life, Dr. Johnson must allow it has strong facts2." JOHNwould have treated his private character SON. Why yes, sir; but what is that to with a stern severity, but I was agreeably the merit of the composition? In the sesdisappointed; and I may claim a little merit sions-paper of the Old Bailey there are in it, from my having been at pains to send strong facts. Housebreaking is a strong him authentick accounts of the affectionate fact; robbery is a strong fact; and murand generous conduct of that poet to his der is a mighty strong fact: but is great sisters, one of whom, the wife of Mr. Thom- praise due to the historian of those strong son, schoolmaster at Lanark, I knew, and facts? No, sir, Swift has told what he had was presented by her with three of his let- to tell distinctly enough, but that is all. ters, one of which Dr. Johnson has inserted He had to count ten, and he has counted it in his life. right." Then recollecting that Mr. Davies, by acting as an informer, had been the occasion of his talking somewhat too harshly to his friend Dr. Percy, for which, probably, when the first ebullition was over, he felt some compunction, he took an opportunity to give him a hit: so added, with a preparatory laugh, "Why, sir, Tom Davies might have written the Conduct of. the Allies."" Poor Tom being thus suddenly dragged into ludicrous notice in presence of the Scottish doctors, to whom he was ambitious of appearing to advantage, was grievously mortified. Nor did He was vehement against old Dr. Mounsey, of Chelsea College, as "a fellow who swore and talked loosely." "I have often been in his company," said Dr. Percy, "and never heard him swear or talk loosely." Mr. Davies, who sat next to Dr. Percy, having after this had some conversation aside with him, made a discovery which, in his zeal to pay court to Dr. Johnson, he eagerly proclaimed aloud from the foot of the table: "O, sir, I have found out a very good reason why Dr. Percy never heard Mounsey swear or talk loosely, for he tells me he never saw him but at the Duke of Northumberland's table." "And 2 My respectable friend, upon reading this passage, observed that he probably must have said 1 Messenger Mounsey, M. D. died at his apart- not simply “strong facts," but "strong facts well ments in Chelsea College, Dec. 26, 1788, at the arranged." His Lordship, however, knows too great age of ninety-five. An extraordinary direc-well the value of written documents to insist on tion in his will may be found in the Gentleman's setting his recollection against my notes taken at Magazine, vol. 50. p. ii. p. 1183.-MALONE. the time. He does not attempt to traverse the [The direction was, that his body should not suf-record. The fact, perhaps, may have been, fer any funeral ceremony, but undergo dissection, and, after that operation, be thrown into the Thames, or where the surgeon pleased. It is surprising, that this coarse humorist should have been an intimate friend and favourite of the elegant and pious Mrs. Montagu.-ED.] either that the additional words escaped me in the noise of a numerous company, or that Dr. Johnson, from his impetuosity, and eagerness to seize an opportunity to make a lively retort, did not allow Dr. Douglas to finish his sentence.-Bos WELL. |