Fin manuscript diary of this year; such as, mortality and the uncertainty of life, will tell | his studies appear on different days, in his him that he should not delay making his will; and here, sir, will he say, is my will, which I have just made, with the assistance of one of the ablest lawyers in the kingdom; and he will read it to him (laughing all the time). He believes he has made this will; but he did not make it; you, Chambers, made it for him. I trust you have had more conscience than to make him say, ' being of sound understanding!' ha, ha, ha! I hope he has left me a legacy. I'd have his will turned into verse, like a ballad." Let this serve as a specimen of what accessions of literature he was perpetually infusing into his mind, while he charged himself with idleness. p. 131. This year died Mrs. Salisbury Piozzi, In this playful manner did he run on, ex- (mother of Mrs. Thrale), a lady ulting in his own pleasantry, which certain-whom he appears to have esteemed much, ly was not such as might be expected from and whose memory he honoured with an epthe authour of "The Rambler," but which itaph. [This event also furnished is here preserved, that my readers may be him with a subject of meditation acquainted even with the slightest occasion- for the evening of June the 18th, on which al characteristicks of so eminent a man. day this lady died.] ED. ["Friday, June 18, 1773. This day, after dinner, died Mrs. Salisbury; she had for some days almost lost the power of speaking. Yesterday, as I touched her hand, and kiss Mr. Chambers did not by any means relish this jocularity upon a matter of which pars magna fuit 1, and seemed impatient till he got rid of us. Johnson could not stop his merriment, but continued it all the wayed it, she pressed my hand between her two till he got without the Temple-gate. He then burst into such a fit of laughter, that he appeared to be almost in a convulsion; and, in order to support himself, laid hold of one of the posts at the side of the foot pavement, and sent forth peals so loud, that in the silence of the night his voice seemed to resound from Temple-bar to Fleet-ditch. This most ludicrous exhibition of the awful, melancholy, and venerable Johnson, happened well to counteract the feelings of sadness which I used to experience when parting with him for a considerable time. I accompanied him to his door, where he gave me his blessing. He records of himself this year: "Between Easter and Whitsuntide, having always considered that time as propitious to study, I attempted to learn the low Dutch language." It is to be observed, that he here admits an opinion of the human mind being influenced by seasons, which he ridicules in his writings. His progress, he says, was interrupted by a fever," which, by the imprudent use of a small print, left an inflammation in his useful eye." We cannot but admire his spirit when we know, that amidst a complication of bodily and mental distress, he was still animated with the desire of intellectual improvement 2. Various notes of [Mr. Chambers may have known more of the real state of the affair than Boswell, and been offended at the mode in which Johnson treated their common friend. It is absurd to think that he could have felt any displeasure on his own account.-ED.] 2 Not six months before his death, he wished me to teach him the Scale of Musick: "Dr. Barney, teach me at least the alphabet of your language."-BURNEY. hands, which she probably intended as the parting caress. At night her speech returned a little; and she said, among other things, to her daughter, I have had much time, and I hope I have used it. This morning being called about nine to feel her pulse, I said at parting, God bless you, for Jesus Christ's sake. She smiled, as pleased. She had her senses perhaps to the dying moment." [He complains, about this period, that his memory had been for a long time very much confused, and that names, and persons, and events, slide away strangely from him. "But," he adds, "I grow easier."] In a letter from Edinburgh, dated the 29th of May, I pressed him to persevere in his resolution to make this year the projected visit to the Hebrides, of which he and I had talked for many years, and which I was confident would afford us much entertainment. "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, 5th July, 1775. "DEAR SIR,-When your letter came to me, I was so darkened by an inflammation in my eye that I could not for some time read it. I can now write without trouble, and can read large prints. My eye is gradually growing stronger; and I hope will be able to take some delight in the survey of a Caledonian loch. "Chambers is going a judge, with six thousand a year, to Bengal. He and I shall come down together as far as Newcastle, and thence I shall easily get to Edinburgh. Let me know the exact time when your courts intermit. I must conform a little to Chambers's occasions, and he must conform a little to mine. The time which you shall fix must be the common point to which we will come as near as we can. Except this eye, I am very well. "Beattie is so caressed, and invited, and treated, and liked, and flattered by the great, that I can see nothing of him. I am in great hope that he will be well provided for, and then we will live upon him at the Marischal College, without pity or modesty. I left the town without taking leave of me, and is gone in deep dudgeon to1. Ís not this very childish? Where is now my legacy? TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR,-I shall set out from London on Friday the sixth of this month, and purpose not to loiter much by the way. Which day I shall be at Edinburgh, I cannot exactly tell. I suppose I must drive to an inn, and send a porter to find you. "I am afraid Beattie will not be at his college soon enough for us, and I shall be sorry to miss him; but there is no staying for the concurrence of all conveniences. will do as well as we can. I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." We "8d August, 1773. "I hope your dear lady and her dear baby are both well. I shall see them too when I come; and I have that opinion of your choice, as to suspect that when I have seen Mrs. Boswell, I shall be less willing to go away. I "DEAR SIR,-Not being at Mr. Thrale's am, dear sir, your affectionate humble ser- when your letter came, I had written the invant, "SAM. JOHNSON. closed paper and sealed it; bringing it hith"Write to me as soon as you can. Cham-er for a frank, I found yours. If any thing bers is now at Oxford." I again wrote to him, informing him that the court of session rose on the twelfth of August, hoping to see him before that time, and expressing, perhaps in too extravagant terms, my admiration of him, and my expectation of pleasure from our intended tour. could repress my ardour, it would be such Tour to the Hebrides. 2 Dr. Johnson had, for many years, given me hopes that we should go together, and visit the Hebrides. Martin's account of those islands 1 [Both these blanks must be filled with Langton. See ante, p. 321.-ED.] 2 [Here begins the Journal of the Tour to the Hebrides, to which Mr. Boswell had prefixed two mottos, the first in the title-page, from Pope: had impressed us with a notion, that we might there contemplate a system of life almost totally different from what we had been accustomed to see; and to find simplicity and wildness, and all the circumstances of remote time or place, so near to our native great island, was an object withJohnson has said in his "Journey," "that in the reach of reasonable curiosity. Dr. he scarcely remembered how the wish to visit the Hebrides was excited;" but he told "O! while along the stream of time thy name me, in summer, 1763, that his father put Erpanded flies, and gathers all its fame, Martin's account into his hands when he Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, Pursue the triumph and partake the gale?" was very young, and that he was much The other on a fly-leaf, from Baker's Chronicle: pleased with it. We reckoned there would "He was of an admirable pregnancy of be some inconveniences and hardships, and wit, and that pregnancy much improved by perhaps a little danger; but these, we were continual study from his childhood; by which persuaded, were magnified in the imaginahe had gotten such a promptness in express- tion of every body. When I was at Fering his mind, that his extemporal speeches ney, in 1764, I mentioned our design to were little inferior to his premeditated wri- Voltaire. He looked at me, as if I had talktings. Many, no doubt, had read as much, ed of going to the North Pole, and said, and perhaps more than he; but scarce ever "You do not insist on my accompanying any concocted his reading into judgment as you?" "No, sir." "Then I am very willhe did." Mr. Boswell tells us that Johnson reading you should go." I was not afraid that this journal as it proceeded, which, strange as the our curious expedition would be prevented reader will think it, when he comes to read some passages of it, Johnson himself confirms; for he by such apprehensions; but I doubted that says to Mrs. Thrale, "You never told me, and I it would not be possible to prevail on Dr. omitted to inquire, how you were entertained by Johnson to relinquish, for some time, the Boswell's Journal. One would think the man felicity of a London life, which, to a man had been hired to be a spy upon me. who can enjoy it with full intellectual relish, very diligent, and caught opportunities of writing is apt to make existence in any narrower from time to time. You may now conceive your sphere seem insipid or irksome. I doubted self tolerably well acquainted with the expedi- that he would not be willing to come down tion."-Letters, v. l. p. 233.-ED.] from his elevated state of philosophical digni He was eous, which are like excellent oil2, and break not the head. Offer my best compli ty; from a superiority of wisdom among the wise, and of learning among the learned; and from flashing his wit upon minds brightments to him, and assure him that I shall be enough to reflect it. happy to have the satisfaction of seeing him under my roof." He had disappointed my expectations so long, that I began to despair; but, in spring, 1773, he talked of coming to Scotland that year with so much firmness, that I hoped he was at last in earnest. I knew that, if he were once launched from the metropolis, he would go forward very well; and I got our common friends there to assist in setting him afloat. To Mrs. Thrale, in particular, whose enchantment over him seldom failed, I was much obliged. It was, "I'll give thee a wind." "Thou art kind." To attract him, we had invitations from the chiefs Macdonald and Macleod; and, for additional aid, I wrote to Lord Elibank, Dr. William Robertson, and Dr. Beattie. To Dr. Robertson, so far as my letter concerned the present subject, I wrote as follows: "Our friend, Mr. Samuel Johnson, is in great health and spirits; and, I do think, has a serious resolution to visit Scotland this year. The more attraction, however, the better; and, therefore, though I know he will be happy to meet you there, it will forward the scheme, if, in your answer to this, you express yourself concerning it with that power of which you are so happily possessed, and which may be so directed as to operate strongly upon him." His answer to that part of my letter was quite as I could have wished. It was written with the address and persuasion of the historian of America. "When I saw you last, you gave us some hopes that you might prevail with Mr. Johnson to make out that excursion to Scotland, with the expectation of which we have long flattered ourselves. If he could order matters so as to pass some time in Edinburgh, about the close of the summer season, and then visit some of the Highland scenes, I am confident he would be pleased with the grand features of nature in many parts of this country: he will meet with many persons here who respect him, and some whom I am persuaded he will think not unworthy of his esteem. I wish he would make the experiment. He sometimes cracks his jokes upon us; but he will find that we can distinguish between the stabs of malevolence and the rebukes of the right [She gives, in one of her letters to Dr. Johnson, the reasons which induced her to approve this excursion: "" Fatigue is profitable to your health, upon the whole, and keeps fancy from playing foolish tricks. Exercise for your body and exertion for your mind, will contribute more than all the medicine in the universe to preserve that life we all consider as invaluable."-Letters, v. l. p. 190.-ED.] To Dr. Beattie I wrote, "The chief intention of this letter is to inform you, that I now seriously believe Mr. Samuel Johnson will visit Scotland this year: but I wish that every power of attraction may be employed to secure our having so valuable an acquisition, and therefore I hope you will, without delay, write to me what I know you think, that I may read it to the mighty sage, with proper emphasis, before I leave London, which I must do soon. He talks of you with the same warmth that he did last year. We are to see as much of Scotland as we can, in the months of August and September. We shall not be long of being at Marischal College 3. He is particularly desirous of seeing some of the Western Islands." Dr. Beattie did better: ipse venit. He was, however, so polite as to wave his privilege of nil mihi rescribas, and wrote from Edinburgh as follows: "Your very kind and agreeable favour of the 20th of April overtook me here yesterday, after having gone to Aberdeen, which place I left about a week ago. I am to set out this day for London, and hope to have the honour of paying my respects to Mr. Johnson and you, about a week or ten days hence. I shall then do what I can to enforce the topick you mention; but at present I cannot enter upon it, as I am in a very great hurry, for I intend to begin my journey within an hour or two." He was as good as his word, and threw some pleasing motives into the northern scale. But, indeed, Mr. Johnson loved all that he heard, from one whom he tells us, in his Lives of the Poets, Gray found “a poet, a philosopher, and a good man." My Lord Elibank did not answer my letter to his lordship for some time. The reason will appear when we come to the Isle of Sky. I shall then insert my letter, with letters from his lordship, both to myself and Mr. Johnson. I beg it may be understood, that I insert my own letters, as I relate my own sayings, rather as keys to what is valuable belonging to others, than for their own sake. Luckily, Mr. Justice (now Sir Robert) 2 Our friend, Edmund Burke, who, by this time, had received some pretty severe strokes from Dr. Johnson, on account of the unhappy difference in their politicks, upon my repeating this passage to him, exclaimed, “ Oil of vitriol !”— BOSWELL. 3 This, I find, is a Scotticism. I should have said, "It will not be long before we shall be at Marischal College."-BOSWELL. Chambers, who was about to sail for the East Indies, was going to take leave of his relations at Newcastle, and he conducted Dr. Johnson to that town [whence he wrote me the following]: “Newcastle, 11th August, 1775. "DEAR SIR,-I came hither last night, and hope, but do not absolutely promise, to be in Edinburgh on Saturday. Beattie will not come so soon. I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON. "My compliments to your lady." Mr. Scott, of University College, Oxford, afterwards Sir William Scott [and Lord Stowell], accompanied him from thence to Edinburgh. With such propitious convoys did he proceed to my native city. But lest metaphor should make it be supposed he actually went by sea, I choose to mention that he travelled in post-chaises, of which the rapid motion was one of his most favourite amusements. Dr. Samuel Johnson's character, religious, moral, political, and literary; nay, his figure and manner are, I believe, more generally known than those of almost any man; yet it may not be superfluous here to attempt a sketch of him. Let my readers then remember that he was a sincere and zealous christian, of high church of England and monarchical principles, which he would not tamely suffer to be questioned; Steady and inflexible in maintaining the obligations of piety and virtue, both from a regard to the order of society, and from a veneration for the Great Source of all order; correct, nay, stern in his taste; hard to please, and easily offended; impetuous and irritable in his temper, but of a most humane and benevolent heart; having a mind stored with a vast and various collection of learning and knowledge, which he communicated with peculiar perspicuity and force, in rich and choice expression. He united a most logical head with a most fertile imagination, which gave him an extraordinary advantage in arguing; for he could reason close or wide, as he saw best for the moment. He could, when he chose it, be the greatest sophist that ever wielded a weapon in the schools of declamation, but he indulged this only in conversation; for he owned he sometimes talked for victory; he was too conscientious to make errour permament and pernicious, by deliberately writing it. He was conscious of his superiority. He loved praise when it was brought to him; but he was too proud to seek for it. He was somewhat susceptible of flattery. His mind was so full of imagery, that he might have been perpetually a poet. It has been often remarked, that in his poetical pieces, which it is to be regret ted are so few, because so excellent, his style He was 1 Such they appeared to me; but since the first edition, Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed to me, "that Dr. Johnson's extraordinary gestures were only habits, in which he indulged himself at certain times. When in company, where he was not free, or when engaged earnestly in conversation, he never gave way to such habits, which called St. Vitus's dance. He wore a full suit of plain brown clothes, with twisted hair-buttons of the same colour, a large bushy grayish wig, a plain shirt, black worsted stockings, and silver buckles. Upon this tour, when journeying, he wore boots, and a very wide brown cloth great coat, with pockets which might have almost held the two volumes of his folio dictionary, and he carried in his hand a large English oak stick. Let me not be censured for mentioning such minute particulars: every thing relative to so great a man is worth observing. I remember Dr. Adam Smith, in his rhetorical lectures at Glasgow, told us he was glad to know that Milton wore latchets in his shoes instead of buckles. When I mention the oak stick, it is but letting Hercules have his club; and, by and by, my readers will find this stick will bud, and produce a good joke. This imperfect sketch of the combination and the form " of that wonderful man, whom I venerated and loved while in this world, and after whom I gaze with humble hope, now that it has pleased Almighty God to call him to a better world, will serve to introduce to the fancy of my readers the capital object of the following journal, in the course of which I trust they will attain to a considerable degree of acquaintance with him. His prejudice against Scotland was announced almost as soon as he began to appear in the world of letters. In his "London," a poem, are the following nervous lines: "For who would leave, unbribed, Hibernia's land? Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand? There none are swept by sudden fate away: But all, whom hunger spares, with age decay." The truth is, like the ancient Greeks and Romans, he allowed himself to look upon all nations but his own as barbarians: not only Hibernia, and Scotland, but Spain, Italy, and France, are attacked in the same poem. If he was particularly prejudiced against the Scots, it was because they were more in his way; because he thought their success in England rather exceeded the due proportion of their real merit; and because he could not but see in them that nationality which I believe no liberal-minded Scots proves that they were not involuntary." I still, however, think, that these gestures were involuntary; for surely had not that been the case, he would have restrained them in the public streets. -BOSWELL. [See ante, p. 56, Sir Joshua's reasoning at large; notwithstanding which, it seems the better opinion that these gestures were the consequence of nervous affections, and not of trick or habit.-ED.] [This was no great discovery; the fashion of shoe-buckles was long posterior to Milton's day. -ED.] man will deny. He was indeed, if I may be allowed the phrase, at bottom much of a John Bull; much of a blunt true-born Englishman. There was a stratum of common clay under the rock of marble. He was voraciously fond of good eating; and he had a great deal of that quality called humour, which gives an oiliness and a gloss to every other quality. I am, I flatter myself, completely a citizen of the world. In my travels through Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica, France, I never felt myself from home; and I sincerely love" every kindred and tongue and people and nation." I subscribe to what my late truly learned and philosophical friend Mr. Crosbie said, that the English are better animals than the Scots; they are nearer the sun; their blood is richer, and more mellow: but when I humour any of them in an outrageous contempt of Scotland, I fairly own I treat them as children. And thus I have, at some moments, found myself obliged to treat even Dr. Johnson. To Scotland, however, he ventured; and he returned from it in great good humour, with his prejudices much lessened, and with very grateful feelings of the hospitality with which he was treated; as is evident from that admirable work, his "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland," which, to my utter astonishment, has been misapprehended, even to rancour, by my own countrymen. To have the company of Chambers and Scott, he delayed his journey so long, that the court of session, which rises on the 11th of August, was broke up before he got to Edinburgh. On Saturday, the 14th of August, 1773, late in the evening, I received a note from him, that he was arrived a Boyd's inn 2, at the head of the Canon-gate. "Saturday night. “Mr. Johnson sends his compliments to Mr. Boswell, being just arrived at Boyd's." I went to him directly. He embraced me cordially; and I exulted in the thought that I now had him actually in Caledonia. Mr. Scott's amiable manners, and attachment to our Socrates, at once united me to him. He told me that before I came in, the Doctor had unluckily had a bad specimen of Scottish cleanliness. He then drank no fer [The sign of the White Horse. It continued a place from which coaches used to start till the end of the eighteenth century; some twelve or fifteen years ago it was a carrier's inn, and has since been held unworthy even of that occupation, and the sign is taken down. It was a base hovel. -WALTER SCOTT.] |