362 Dr. Watts. [A.D. 1756. them that elegance might consist with piety'. They would have both done honour to a better society', for they had that charity which might well make their failings be forgotten, and with which the whole Christian world might wish for communion. They were pure from all the heresies of an age, to which every opinion is become a favourite that the universal church has hitherto detested! 'This praise, the general interest of mankind requires to be given to writers who please and do not corrupt, who instruct and do not weary. But to them all human eulogies are vain, whom I believe applauded by angels, and numbered with the just'.' His defence of tea against Mr. Jonas Hanway's violent attack upon that elegant and popular beverage', shews how In the Lives of the Poets (Works, viii. 383) Johnson writes:-' Dr. Watts was one of the first authors that taught the Dissenters to court attention by the graces of language. Whatever they had among them before, whether of learning or acuteness, was commonly obscured and blunted by coarseness and inelegance of style. He showed them that zeal and purity might be expressed and enforced by polished diction.' 'Such he [Dr. Watts] was as every Christian Church would rejoice to have adopted.' Ib. p. 380. See also post, July 7, 1777, and May 19, 1778. 2 • Mr. Hanway would have had the support of Johnson's father, who, as his son writes, 'considered tea as very expensive, and discouraged my mother from keeping company with the neighbours, and from paying visits or receiving them. She lived to say, many years after, that if the time were to pass again, she would not comply with such unsocial injunctions.' Account of Johnson's Early Life, p. 18. The Methodists, ten years earlier than Hanway, had declared war on tea. · After talking largely with both the men and women Leaders,' writes Wesley, 'we agreed it would prevent great expense, as well of health as of time and of money, if the poorer people of our society could be persuaded to leave off drinking of tea. Wesley's Journal, i. 526. Pepys, writing in 1660, says: 'I did send for a cup of tee, (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.' Pepys' Diary, i. 137. Horace Walpole (Letters, i. 224) writing in 1743 says:-They have talked of a new duty on tea, to be paid by every housekeeper for all the persons in their families; but it will scarce be proposed. Tea is so universal, that it would make a greater clamour than a duty on wine.' In October 1734 tea was sold in London at the following prices : Aetat. 47.] Johnson's tea-drinking. 363 very well a man of genius can write upon the slightest subject, when he writes, as the Italians say, con amore: I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of that fragrant leaf than Johnson'. The quantities which he drank of it at all hours were so great, that his nerves must have been uncommonly strong, not to have been extremely relaxed by such an intemperate use of it. He assured me, that he never felt the least inconvenience from it; which is a proof that the fault of his constitution was rather a too great tension of fibres, than the contrary. Mr. Hanway wrote an angry answer to Johnson's review of his Essay on Tea, and Johnson, after a full and deliberate pause, made a reply to it; the only instance, I believe, in the whole course of his 'Yet in his reply to Mr. Hanway he said (Works, vi. 33) :—' I allowed tea to be a barren superfluity, neither medicinal nor nutritious, that neither supplied strength nor cheerfulness, neither relieved weariness, nor exhilarated sorrow.' Cumberland writes (Memoirs, i. 357) :—' I remember when Sir Joshua Reynolds at my house reminded Dr. Johnson that he had drank eleven cups, he replied:-"Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?" And then laughing in perfect good humour he added:—“ Sir, I should have released the lady from any further trouble, if it had not been for your remark; but you have reminded me that I want one of the dozen, and I must request Mrs. Cumberland to round up my number."' 2 In this Review Johnson describes himself as a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning.' Johnson's Works, vi. 21. That he never felt the least inconvenience from it' may well be doubted. His nights were almost always bad. In 1774 he recorded:-'I could not drink this day either coffee or tea after dinner. I know not when I missed before.' The next day he recorded:- Last night my sleep was remarkably quiet. I know not whether by fatigue in walking, or by forbearance of tea.' Diary of a Journey into North Wales, Aug. 4. 364 Admiral Byng. [A.D. 1756. life, when he condescended to oppose any thing that was written against him'. I suppose when he thought of any of his little antagonists, he was ever justly aware of the high sentiment of Ajax in Ovid: 'Iste tulit pretium jam nunc certaminis hujus, Qui, cùm victus erit, mecum certasse feretur3 But, indeed, the good Mr. Hanway laid himself so open to ridicule, that Johnson's animadversions upon his attack were chiefly to make sport'. The generosity with which he pleads the cause of Admiral Byng is highly to the honour of his heart and spirit. Though Voltaire affects to be witty upon the fate of that unfortunate officer, observing that he was shot 'pour encourager les autres"," the nation has long been satisfied that his life was sacrificed to the political fervour of the times. In the vault belonging to the Torrington family, in the church of Southill', in Bedfordshire, there is the following Epitaph upon his monument, which I have transcribed: 1 See post, May 1768. 'Losing, he wins, because his name will be Ennobled by defeat who durst contend with me.' In Hanway's Essay Johnson found much to praise. Hanway often went to the root when he dealt with the evils of life. Thus he writes: -The introducing new habits of life is the most substantial charity.' But he thus mingles sense and nonsense:-' Though tea and gin have spread their baneful influence over this island and his Majesty's other dominions, yet you may be well assured that the Governors of the Foundling Hospital will exert their utmost skill and vigilance to prevent the children under their care from being poisoned, or enervated, by one or the other.' Johnson's Works, vi. 26, 28. Et pourquoi tuer cet amiral? C'est, lui dit-on, parce qu'il n'a pas fait tuer assez de monde; il a livré un combat à un amiral français, et on a trouvé qu'il n'était pas assez près de lui. Mais, dit Candide, l'amiral français était aussi loin de l'amiral anglais que celui-ci l'était de l'autre. Cela est incontestable, lui répliquat - on; mais dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres.' Candide, ch. xxiii. * See post, June 3, 1781, when Boswell went to this church. 'To Aetat. 47.] Soame Fenyns. 'TO THE PERPETUAL DISGRACE OF PUBLIC Justice, THE HONOURABLE JOHN BYNG, ESQ. FELL A MARTYR TO POLITICAL MARCH 14, IN THE YEAR, 1757; 365 Johnson's most exquisite critical essay in the Literary Magazine, and indeed any where, is his review' of Soame Jenyns's Inquiry into the Origin of Evil. Jenyns was possessed of lively talents, and a style eminently pure and easy, and could very happily play with a light subject, either in prose or verse; but when he speculated on that most difficult and excruciating question, the Origin of Evil, he ventured far beyond his depth',' and, accordingly, was exposed by Johnson, both with acute argument and brilliant wit. I remember when the late Mr. Bicknell's humorous performance, entitled The Musical Travels of Joel Collyer', in which a slight attempt is made to ridicule Johnson, was ascribed to Soame Jenyns, 'Ha! (said Johnson) I thought I had given him enough of it.' His triumph over Jenyns is thus described by my friend Mr. Courtenay in his Poetical Review of the literary and moral Character of Dr. Johnson; a performance of such 'Johnson reprinted this Review in a small volume by itself. See Johnson's Works, vi. 47, note. 'I have ventured, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, But far beyond my depth.' Henry VIII. Act iii. sc. 2. • Musical Travels through England, by Joel Collier [not Collyer], Organist, 1774. This book was written in ridicule of Dr. Burney's Travels, who, says his daughter, 'was much hurt on its first appearance.' Dr. Burney's Memoirs, i. 259. 366 Johnson's triumph over Fenyns. [A.D. 1756. merit, that had I not been honoured with a very kind and partial notice in it', I should echo the sentiments of men of the first taste loudly in its praise: 'When specious sophists with presumption scan The source of evil hidden still from man; To rival St. John, and his scholar Pope: 1 See ante, p. 258. Some time after Dr. Johnson's death there appeared in the newspapers and magazines an illiberal and petulant attack upon him, in the form of an Epitaph, under the name of Mr. Soame Jenyns, very unworthy of that gentleman, who had quietly submitted to the critical lash while Johnson lived. It assumed, as characteristicks of him, all the vulgar circumstances of abuse which had circulated amongst the ignorant. It was an unbecoming indulgence of puny resentment, at a time when he himself was at a very advanced age, and had a near prospect of descending to the grave. I was truly sorry for it; for he was then become an avowed, and (as my Lord Bishop of London, who had a serious conversation with him on the subject, assures me) a sincere Christian. He could not expect that Johnson's numerous friends would patiently bear to have the memory of their master stigmatized by no mean pen, but that, at least, one would be found to retort. Accordingly, this unjust and sarcastick Epitaph was met in the same publick field by an answer, in terms by no means soft, and such as wanton provocation only could justify: 'EPITAPH, 'Prepared for a creature not quite dead yet. HERE lies a little ugly nauseous elf, Who judging only from its wretched self, The "Origin of Evil" to explain. A mighty Genius at this elf displeas'd, With a strong critick grasp the urchin squeez'd. Till in the dust the mighty Genius slept; |