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THE

LIFE

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D.

My correspondence with Dr. Johnson during the rest of this year was, I know not why, very scanty, and all on my side. I wrote him one letter to introduce Mr. Sinclair (now Sir John), the member for Caithness', to his acquaintance; and informed him in another that my wife had again been affected with alarming symptoms of illness. [But his letters to ED. other correspondents, and particularly to Mrs. Thrale, carry on the story of his life.]

["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. LUCY PORTER.

"London, 9th June, 1781. "DEAR MADAM,-I hope the summer makes you better. My disorders, which had come upon me again, have again given way to medicine; and I am a better sleeper than I have lately been.

“The death of dear Mr. Thrale has made my attendance upon his home necessary; but we have sold the trade, which we did not know how to manage, and have sold it for an hundred and thirty thousand pounds.

"My Lives are at last published, and you will receive them this week by the carrier. I have some hopes of coming this

1

[The Right Honourable Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, bart. ; a voluminous writer on agriculture and statistics.-ED.]

2 [This passage is transposed from the date, (January, 1782,) under which it stands in the original edition, to this, its more proper place. ED.]

Pearson

MSS.

VOL. V.

B

У

Piozzi,

p. 80.

summer amongst you for a short time. I shall be loath to miss
you two years together. But in the mean time let me know
how you do. I am, dear madam, your affectionate servant,
"SAM. JOHNSON."]

"TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ.

"Bolt-court, 16th June, 1781. "DEAR SIR,-How welcome your account of yourself and your invitation to your new house was to me, I need not tell you, who consider our friendship not only as formed by choice, but as matured by time. We have been now long enough acquainted to have many images in common, and therefore to have a source of conversation which neither the learning nor the wit of a new companion can supply.

66

My Lives are now published; and if you will tell me whither I shall send them, that they may come to you, I will take care that you shall not be without them.

"You will perhaps be glad to hear that Mrs. Thrale is disencumbered of her brewhouse; and that it seemed to the purchaser so far from an evil, that he was content to give for it an hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds. Is the nation ruined?

"Please to make my respectful compliments to Lady Rothes, and keep me in the memory of all the little dear family, particularly Mrs. Jane. I am, sir, your affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

Johnson's charity to the poor was uniform and extensive, both from inclination and principle. He not only bestowed liberally out of his own purse, but what is more difficult as well as rare, would beg from others, when he had proper objects in view. This he did judiciously as well as humanely. Mr. Philip Metcalfe tells me, that when he has asked him for some money for persons in distress, and Mr. Metcalfe has offered what Johnson thought too much, he insisted on taking less, saying, No, no, sir; we must not pamper them 1."

66

[With advising others to be charitable, however,

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p. 80.

Dr. Johnson did not content himself. He gave away Piozzi, all he had, and all he ever had gotten, except the two thousand pounds he left behind; and the very small portion of his income which he spent on himself, with all our calculation, we never could make more than seventy or at most fourscore pounds a year, and he pretended to allow himself a hundred. He had numberless dependants out of doors as well as in, "who, as he expressed it, did not like to see him latterly unless he brought them money." For those people he used frequently to raise contributions on his richer friends; "and this," says he, "is one of the thousand reasons which ought to restrain a man from drony solitude and useless retirement."]

I am indebted to Mr. Malone, one of Sir Joshua Reynolds's executors, for the following note, which was found among his papers after his death, and which, we may presume, his unaffected modesty prevented him from communicating to me with the other letters from Dr. Johnson with which he was pleased to furnish me. However slight in itself, as it does honour to that illustrious painter and most amiable man, I am happy to introduce it.

"TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

"23d June, 1781.

“DEAR SIR, - It was not before yesterday that I received your splendid benefaction. To a hand so liberal in distributing, I hope nobody will envy the power of acquiring. I am, dear sir, your obliged and most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

The following letters were written at this time by Johnson to Miss Reynolds, the latter on receiving from her a copy of her "Essay on Taste," privately printed, but never published.

Reyn.
MSS.

["DR. JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS.

"25th June, 1781.

"DEAR MADAM,-You may give the book to Mrs. Horneck, and I will give you another for yourself.

"I am afraid there is no hope of Mrs. Thrale's custom for your pictures; but, if you please, I will mention it. She cannot make a pension out of her jointure 9.

"I will bring the papers myself. I am, madam, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."]

"TO MISS REYNOLDS 4.

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"Bolt-court, 28th June, 1781.

"DEAREST MADAM,- -There is in these [pages, or remarks,] such depth of penetration, such nicety of observation, as Locke or Pascal might be proud of. This I desire you to believe is my real opinion.

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However, it cannot be published in its present state. Many of your notions seem not to be very clear in your own mind ; many are not sufficiently developed and expanded for the common reader: it wants every where to be made smoother and plainer.

"You may, by revisal and correction, make it a very elegant and a very curious work. I am, my dearest dear, your affectionate and obedient servant, "SAMUEL JOHNSON."

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"TO THOMAS ASTLE, ESQ.

"17th July, 1781.

SIR,—I am ashamed that you have been forced to call so often for your books, but it has been by no fault on either side. They have never been out of my hands, nor have I ever been at home without seeing you; for to see a man so skilful in the antiquities of my country is an opportunity of improvement not willingly to be missed.

[Probably the Beauties of Johnson, published about this period: see ante, vol. i. p. 190.-ED.]

2 [See ante, vol. i. p. 423.-ED.]

3 [Miss Reynolds, it seems, wished to dispose of her collection, and thought that Mrs. Thrale might purchase and pay for it by an annuity.-ED.]

4 The lady to whom this letter was addressed, and for whom Dr. Johnson had a high regard, died in Westminster, at the age of eighty, Nov. 1, 1807.– MALONE. [One Sunday evening, at the time he was first declining, Miss Reynolds sent to make inquiries. His answer was, "Tell her that I cannot be well, for she does not come to see me.”—Hawk. Mem. vol. ii. p. 149.-ED.]

"Your notes on Alfred appear to me very judicious and accurate, but they are too few. Many things familiar to you are unknown to me, and to most others; and you must not think too favourably of your readers: by supposing them knowing, you will leave them ignorant. Measure of land, and value of money, it is of great importance to state with care. Had the Saxons any gold coin?

"I have much curiosity after the manners and transactions of the middle ages, but have wanted either diligence or opportunity, or both. You, sir, have great opportunities, and I wish you both diligence and success. I am, sir, &c.

"SAM. JOHNSON."

The following curious anecdote I insert in Dr. Burney's own words. "Dr. Burney related to Dr. Johnson the partiality which his writings had excited in a friend of Dr. Burney's, the late Mr. Bewley 2, well known in Norfolk by the name of the Philosopher of Massingham; who, from the Ramblers and plan of his Dictionary, and long before the authour's fame was established by the Dictionary itself, or any other work, had conceived such a reverence for him, that he earnestly begged Dr. Burney to give him the cover of the first letter he had received from him, as a relick of so estimable a writer. This was in 1755. In 1760, when Dr. Burney visited Dr. Johnson at the Temple in London, where he had then chambers, he happened to arrive there before he was up; and being shown into the room where he was to breakfast, finding himself alone, he exa

1 The will of King Alfred, alluded to in this letter, from the original Saxon, in the library of Mr. Astle, has been printed at the expense of the University of Oxford.-BOSWELL.

2 [He was a "Monthly Reviewer," and died in 1783. If the story of "the bristles of the hearth-broom," or any thing like it, be true, Mr. Bewley might better have been called an idiot than an enthusiast; but the editor takes the liberty of disbelieving the anecdote altogether. That Mr. Bewley might have wished and asked for Dr. Johnson's autograph is natural enough; but that, after a lapse of five years, he should have been satisfied with receiving instead of an autograph a few bristles of a broom is too absurd; and that Dr. Burney should not have mentioned so strange a story to Dr. Johnson till after the further lapse of twenty-five years is quite incredible.-ED.]

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