1778. Pope." MRS. THRALE: (surprized as I was, and a little angry.) "I suppose, Sir, Mr. Boswell thought, Etat. that as you are to write Pope's Life, you would wish to 69. know about him." JOHNSON. "Wish! why yes. If it rained knowledge, I'd hold out my hand; but I would not give myself the trouble to go in quest of it." There was no arguing with him at the moment. Some time afterwards he said, "Lord Marchmont will call on me, and then I shall call on Lord Marchmont." Mrs. Thrale was uneasy at his unaccountable caprice; and told me, that if I did not take care to bring about a meeting between Lord Marchmont and him it would never take place, which would be a great pity. I sent a card to his Lordship, to be left at Johnson's house, acquainting him, that Dr. Johnson could not be in town next day, but would do himself the honour of waiting on him at another time.-I give this account fairly, as a specimen of that unhappy temper with which this great and good man had occasionally to struggle, from something morbid in his constitution. Let the most censorious of my readers suppose himself to have a violent fit of the tooth-ach, or to have received a severe stroke on the shin-bone, and when in such a state to be asked a question; and if he has any candour he will not be surprized at the answers which Johnson sometimes gave in moments of irritation, which, let me assure them, is exquisitely painful. But it must not be erroneously supposed that he was, in the smallest degree, careless concerning any work which he undertook, or that he was generally thus peevish. It will be seen that in the following year he had a very agreeable interview with Lord Marchmont, at his Lordship's house; and this very afternoon he soon forgot any fretfulness, and fell into conversation as usual. I mentioned a reflection having been thrown out against four Peers for having presumed to rise in opposition to the opinion of the twelve Judges, in a cause in the House of Lords, as if that were indecent. JOHNSON."Sir, there is no ground for censure. Peers are Judges themselves and supposing them really to be of a different opinion, they might from duty The 1778. be in opposition to the Judges, who were there only to be consulted." Etat. 69. In this observation I fully concurred with him; for unquestionably, all the Peers are vested with the highest judicial powers; and when they are confident that they understand a cause, are not obliged, nay ought not to acquiesce in the opinion of the ordinary Law Judges, or even in that of those who from their studies and experience are called the Law Lords. I consider the Peers in general as I do a Jury, who ought to listen with respectful attention to the sages of the law; but, if after hearing them, they have a firm opinion of their own, are bound, as honest men, to decide accordingly. Nor is it so difficult for them to understand even law questions, as is generally thought; provided they will bestow sufficient attention upon them. This observation was made by my honoured relation to the late Lord Cathcart, who had spent his life in camps and courts; yet he assured me, that he could form a clear opinion upon most of the causes that came before the House of Lords, " as they were so well enucleated in the Cases." Mrs. Thrale told us, that a curious clergyman of our acquaintance had discovered a licentious stanza, which Pope had originally in his "Universal Prayer," before the stanza, "What conscience dictates to be done, It was this: "Can sins of moment claim the rod, "And that offend great Nature's GOD, and that Dr. Johnson observed, "it had been borrow- 6 BOSWELL. "In that stanza of Pope's, rod of fires,' is certainly a bad metaphor." MRS. THRALE." And 6 'sins of moment' is a faulty expression; for its true im- 1778. port is momentous, which cannot be intended." JOHN- Etat. SON. "It must have been written of moments.' Of 69. moment, is momentous; of moments, momentary. I warrant you however, Pope wrote this stanza, and some friend struck it out. Boileau wrote some such thing, and Arnaud struck it out, saying, Vous gagnerez deux ou trois impies, et perdrez je ne sais combien des honnettes gens.' These fellows want to say a daring thing, and don't know how to go about it. Mere poets know no more of fundamental principles than—.” Here he was interrupted somehow. Mrs. Thrale mentioned Dryden. JOHNSON. "He puzzled himself about predestination.-How foolish was it in Pope to give all his friendship to Lords, who thought they honoured him by being with him; and to choose such Lords as Burlington, and Cobham, and Bolingbroke? Bathurst was negative, a pleasing man; and I have heard no ill of Marchmont ;-and then always saying, 'I do not value you for being a Lord;' which was a sure proof that he did. I never say, I do not value Boswell more for being born to an estate, because I do not care." BosWELL." Nor for being a Scotchman ?" JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, I do value you more for being a Scotchman. You are a Scotchman without the faults of Scotchmen. You would not have been so valuable as you are had you not been a Scotchman." Talking of divorces, I asked if Othello's doctrine was not plausible; "He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen, "Let him not know't, and he's not robb'd at all.” Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale joined against this. JOHNSON." Ask any man if he'd wish not to know of such an injury." BOSWELL. "Would you tell your friend to make him unhappy?" JOHNSON. "Perhaps, Sir, I should not; but that would be from prudence on my own account. A man would tell his father." BOSWELL." Yes; because he would not have spurious children to get any share of the family inheritance." MRS. THRALE. "Or he would tell his brother." Etat. 1778. BOSWELL. "Certainly his elder brother." JOHNSON. You would tell your friend of a woman's infamy, to 69. prevent his marrying a whore: there is the same reason to tell him of his wife's infidelity, when he is married, to prevent the consequences of imposition. It is a breach of confidence not to tell a friend." BoswELL. "Would you tell Mr. ?" (naming a gentleman who assuredly was not in the least danger of such a miserable disgrace, though married to a fine woman.). JOHNSON. "No, Sir; because it would do no good: he is so sluggish, he'd never go to parliament and through a divorce." 66 get He said of one of our friends," He is ruining himself without pleasure. A man who loses at play, or who runs out his fortune at court, makes his estate less, in hopes of making it bigger: (I am sure of this word, which was often used by him :) but it is a sad thing to pass through the quagmire of parsimony, to the gulph of ruin. To pass over the flowery path of extravagance, is very well." Amongst the numerous prints pasted on the walls of the dining-room at Streatham, was Hogarth's 'Modern Midnight Conversation.' I asked him what he knew of Parson Ford, who makes a conspicuous figure in the riotous group. JOHNSON. "Sir, he was my acquaintance and relation, my mother's nephew. He had purchased a living in the country, but not simoniacally. I never saw him but in the country. I have been told he was a man of great parts; very profligate, but I never heard he was impious." BOSWELL. "Was there not a story of his ghost having appeared?" JOHNSON. Sir, it was believed. A waiter at the Hummums, in which house Ford died, had been absent for some time, and returned, not knowing that Ford was dead. Going down to the cellar, according to the story, he met him; going down again, he met him a second time. When he came up, he asked some of the people of the house what Ford could be doing there. They told him Ford was dead. The waiter took a fever, in which he lay for some time. When he recovered he said he had a message to deliver to 66 some women from Ford; but he was not to tell what, 1778. or to whom. He walked out; he was followed; but Etat. somewhere about St. Paul's they lost him. He came 69. back, and said he had delivered the message, and the women exclaimed, Then we are all undone !' Dr. Pellet, who was not a credulous man, enquired into the truth of this story, and he said, the evidence was irresistible. My wife went to the Hummums; (it is a place where people get themselves cupped.) I believe she went with intention to hear about this story of Ford. At first they were unwilling to tell her; but, after they had talked to her, she came away satisfied that it was true. To be sure, the man had a fever; and this vision may have been the beginning of it. But if the message to the women, and their behaviour upon it were true as related, there was something supernatural. That rests upon his word; and there it remains." was After Mrs. Thrale was gone to bed, Johnson and I sat up late. We resumed Sir Joshua Reynolds's argument on the preceding Sunday, that a man would be virtuous, though he had no other motive than to preserve his character. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is not true : for, as to this world, vice does not hurt a man's character." BOSWELL." Yes, Sir, debauching a friend's wife will." JOHNSON. "No, Sir. Who thinks the worse of for it." BosWELL. "Lord not his friend." JOHNSON. "That is only a circumstance, Sir; a slight distinction. He could not get into the house but by Lord A man is chosen Knight of the shire, not the less for having debauched ladies." BOSWELL. "What, Sir, if he debauched the ladies of gentlemen in the county, will not there be a general resentment against him?" JOHNSON. "No, Sir. He will lose those particular gentlemen; but the rest will not trouble their heads about it." (warmly.) BOSWELL. "Well, Sir, I cannot think so." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, there is no talking with a man who will dispute what every body knows, (angrily.) Don't you know this?" BOSWELL. "No, Sir; and I wish to think better of your country than you represent it. I |
