CHAPTER LVIII-1784 LAST DAYS Johnson's Return to London from his last Midland Tour-Last Letters to Boswell-The Authors of the Universal History "-Specimens of Imitations of Johnson's Style: Dr. Robertson, Edward Gibbon, Miss Burney, Rev. Mr. Nares-Johnson places Stones over the Graves of his Father and MotherA Point of Biography. He arrived in London on the 16th of November, and next day sent to Dr. Burney the following note, which I insert as the last token of his remembrance of that ingenious and amiable man, and as another of the many proofs of the tenderness and benignity of his heart: "MR. JOHNSON, who came home last night, sends his respects to dear Dr. Burney, and all the dear Burneys, little and great." "DEAR SIR, 66 "TO MR. HECTOR, IN BIRMINGHAM. "I DID not reach Oxford until Friday morning, and then I sent Francis to see the balloon fly, but could not go myself. I stayed at Oxford till Tuesday, and then came in the common vehicle easily to London. I am as I was, and having seen Dr. Brocklesby, am to ply the squills; but whatever be their efficacy, this world must soon pass away. Let us think seriously on our duty.-I send my kindest respects to dear Mrs. Careless: let me have the prayers of both. We have all lived long, and must soon part. GOD have mercy on us, for the sake of our Lord JEsus CHRIST. Amen. "London, Nov. 17, 1784." "I am, etc. "SAM. JOHNSON. His correspondence with me, after his letter on the subject of my settling in London, shall now, as far as is proper, be produced in one series. July 26, he wrote to me from Ashbourne: "On the 14th I came to Lichfield, and found everybody glad enough to see me. On the 20th I came hither, and found a house half-built, of very uncomfortable appearance; but my own room has not been altered. That a man worn with diseases, in his seventy-second or third year, should condemn part of his remaining life to pass among ruins and rubbish, and that no inconsiderable part, appears to me very strange.-I know that your kindness makes you impatient to know the state of my health, in which I cannot boast of much improvement. I came through the journey without much inconvenience, but when I attempt self-motion I find my legs weak, and my breath very short; this day I have been much disordered. I have no company; the Doctor* is busy in his fields, and goes to bed at nine, and his whole system is so different from mine, *The Rev. Dr. Taylor. myself." Having written to him in bad spirits, a letter filled with dejection and fretfulness, and at the same time expressing anxious apprehensions concerning him, on account of a dream which had disturbed me; his answer was chiefly in terms of reproach, for a supposed charge of affecting discontent, and indulging the vanity of 66 It, pro ceeded, Write to me often, and write like a man. I consider your fidelity and tenderness as a great part of the comforts which are yet left me, and sincerely wish we could be nearer to each other. My dear friend, HIS RETURN TO LONDON From an engraving by De Clansen from the picture by James Northcote, R.A. SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. 1115 James Northcote (b. 1746, d. 1831), the painter of this picture, was author of a life is very short and very uncertain; let us spend it as well as we can. My worthy neighbour, Allen, is dead. Love me as well as you can. Pay my respects to dear Mrs. Boswell. Nothing ailed me at that time; let your superstition at last have an end." Feeling very soon that the manner in which he had written might hurt me, he two days afterwards, July 28, wrote to me again, giving me an account of his sufferings; after which, he thus proceeds: "Before this letter, you will have had one which I hope you will not take amiss; for it contains only truth, and that truth kindly intended. . . Spartam quam nactus es orna; make the most and best of your lot, and compare yourself not with the few that are above you, but with the multitudes which are below you. . . . Go steadily forwards with lawful business or honest diversions. Be (as Temple says of the Dutchman) well when you are not ill, and pleased when you are not angry.'-. . . This may seem but an ill return for your tenderness; but I mean it well, for I love you with great ardour and sincerity. Pay my respects to dear Mrs. Boswell, and teach the young ones to love me." I unfortunately was so much indisposed during a considerable part of the year, that it was not, or at least I thought it was not, in my power to write to my illustrious friend as formerly, or without expressing such complaints as offended him. Having conjured him not to do me the injustice of charging me with affectation, I was with much regret long silent. His last letter to me then came, and affected me very tenderly. "I HAVE this summer sometimes amended, and sometimes relapsed, but, upon the whole, have lost ground very much. My legs are extremely weak, and my breath very short, and the water is now increasing upon me. In this uncomfortable state your letters used to relieve; what is the reason that I have them no longer? Are you sick, or are you sullen? Whatever be the reason, if it be less than necessity, drive it away; and of the short life that we have, make the best use for yourself and for your friends. . . . I am sometimes afraid that your omission to write has some real cause, and shall be glad to know that you are not sick, and that nothing ill has befallen dear Mrs. Boswell, or any of your family. "I am, Sir, yours, etc., Yet it was not a little painful to me to find that in a paragraph of this letter, which I have omitted, he still persevered in arraigning me as before, which was strange in him who had so much experience of what I suffered. I, however, wrote to him two as kind letters as I could; the last of which came too late to be read by him, for his illness increased more rapidly upon him than I had apprehended; but I had the consolation of being informed that he spoke of me on his death-bed with affection, and I look forward with humble hope of renewing our friendship in a better world. I now relieve the readers of this work from any farther personal notice of its author; who, if he should be thought to have obtruded himself too much upon their attention, requests them to consider the peculiar plan of his biographical undertaking. Soon after Johnson's return to the metropolis, both the asthma and dropsy became more violent and distressful. He had for some time kept a journal in Latin of the state of his illness, and the remedies which he used, under the title of Egri Ephemeris, which he began on the 6th of July, but continued it no longer than the 8th of November; finding, I suppose, that it was a mournful and unavailing register. It is in my possession, and is written with great care and accuracy. Still his love of literature* did not fail. A very few days before his death he * It is truly wonderful to consider the extent and constancy of Johnson's literary ardour, notwithstanding the melancholy which clouded and embittered his existence. Besides the numerous and various works which he executed, he had, at different times, formed schemes of a great many more, Etat. 75] HIS LAST LETTER TO BOSWELL 1117 of which the following catalogue was given by him to Mr. Langton, and by that gentleman presented to his Majesty: "A small book of precepts and directions for piety: the hint taken from the directions in Morton's exercise. PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY, and LITERATURE in general. "History of Criticism, as it relates to judging of authors, from Aristotle to the present age. An account of the rise and improvements of that art; of the different opinions of authors, ancient and modern. "Translation of the History of Herodian. "New edition of Fairfax's Translation of Tasso, with notes, glossary, etc. Chaucer, a new edition of him, from manuscripts and old editions, with various readings, conjectures, remarks on his language, and the changes it had undergone from the earliest times to his age, and from his to the present; with notes explanatory of customs, etc., and references to Boccace, and other authors from whom he has borrowed, with an History of the Revival of Learning in Europe, containing an account of whatever contributed to the restoration of literature; such as controversies, printing, the destruction of the Greek empire, the encouragement of great men, with the lives of the most eminent patrons, and most eminent early professors of all kinds of learning in different countries. "A Body of Chronology, in verse, with historical notes. From an engraving by M. Bovi after a painting by Violet Hester Lynch Sion21 Mrs. Thrale's literary ambitions, if she had any, were sedulously concealed; but two of Mrs. Piozzi's books at least will always have an interest for those interested in Johnson, viz., Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson," 1786, which gives a very lively picture of the great Doctor, although not always reliable, and "Letters to and from Dr. Johnson," 1788. After the death of Piozzi, when over seventy, Mrs. Piozzi formed a sentimental attachment for a young actor, William Augustus Conway (b. 1789, d. 1828), but she adopted a nephew, John Piozzi, who took her maiden name, Salusbury. A Table of the Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians, distinguished by figures into six degrees of value, with notes, giving the reasons of preference or degradation. A Collection of Letters from English authors, with a preface giving some account of the writers; with reasons for selection, and criticism upon styles; remarks on each letter, if needful. A Collection of Proverbs from various languages. Jan. 6,—53. Jan. 28, 53. A Dictionary to the Common Prayer, in imitation of Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible. March,-52. A Collection of Stories and Examples, like those of Valerius Maximus. Jan. 10,-53. From Elian, a volume of select Stories, perhaps from others. "Collection of Travels, Voyages, Adventures, and Descriptions of Countries. "Dictionary of Ancient History and Mythology. "Treatise on the Study of Polite Literature, containing the history of learning, directions for editions, commentaries, etc. "Maxims, Characters, and Sentiments, after the manner of Bruyere, collected out of ancient authors, particularly the Greek with Apophthegms. "Classical Miscellanies, Select Translations from ancient Greek and Latin authors. Lives of Illustrious Persons, as well as of the active as the learned, in imitation of Plutarch. Poetical Dictionary of the English tongue. Considerations upon the present state of London. Collection of Epigrams, with notes and observations. “Observations on the English language, relating to words, phrases, and modes of speech. "Minutiæ Literariæ, Miscellaneous reflections, criticisms, emendations, notes. 64 History of the Constitution. Comparison of Philosophical and Christian Morality, by sentences collected from the moralists and fathers. Johnson's extraordinary facility of composition, when he shook off his constitutional indolence, and resolutely sat down to write, is admirably described by Mr. Courtenay, in his "Poetical Review," which I have several times quoted: "While through life's maze he sent a piercing view, Instant his genius sped its vigorous rays, We shall in vain endeavour to know with exact precision every production of Johnson's pen. owned to me, that he had written about forty sermons; but as I understood that he had given or sold them to different persons, who were to preach them as their own, he did not consider himself at liberty to acknowledge them. Would those who were thus aided by him, who are still alive, and the friends of those who are dead, fairly inform the world, it would be obligingly gratifying a reasonable curiosity, to which there should, I think, now be no objection. Two volumes of them, published since his death, are sufficiently ascertained: p. 346.—I have before me, in his handwriting, a fragment of twenty quarto leaves, of a translation into English of Sallust, De Bello Catilinario. When it was done I have no notion; but it seems to have no very superior merit to mark it as his. Besides the publications heretofore mentioned, I am satisfied, from internal evidence, to admit also as genuine the following, which, notwithstanding all my chronological care, escaped me in the course of this work: Considerations on the Case of Dr. Trapp's Sermons," [] published in 1739, in the Gentleman's Magazine. It is a very ingenious defence of the right of abridging an author's work, without being held as infringing his property. This is one of the nicest questions in the Law of Literature; and I cannot help thinking that the indulgence of abridging is often exceedingly injurious to authors and booksellers, and should in very few cases be permitted. At any rate, to prevent difficult and uncertain discussion, and give an absolute security to authors in the property of their labours, no abridgment whatever should be permitted till after the expiration of such a number of years as the Legislature may be pleased to fix. " But, though it has been confidently ascribed to him, I cannot allow that he wrote a Dedication to both Houses of Parliament of a book entitled "The Evangelical History Harmonized." He was no croaker; no declaimer against the times. He would not have written, That we are fallen upon an age in which corruption is not barely universal, is universally confessed." Nor," Rapine preys on the public without opposition, and perjury betrays it without inquiry." Nor would he, to excite a speedy reformation, have conjured up such phantoms of terror as these: "A few years longer, and perhaps |