282 Tom Davies's benefit. [A.D. 1778. English pulpit eloquence.' JOHNSON. 'We have no sermons addressed to the passions that are good for any thing; if you mean that kind of eloquence.' A CLERGYMAN: (whose name I do not recollect.) 'Were not Dodd's sermons addressed to the passions?" JOHNSON. 'They were nothing, Sir, be they addressed to what they may.' At dinner, Mrs. Thrale expressed a wish to go and see Scotland. JOHNSON. 'Seeing Scotland, Madam, is only seeing a worse England. It is seeing the flower gradually fade away to the naked stalk. Seeing the Hebrides, indeed, is seeing quite a different scene.' Our poor friend, Mr. Thomas Davies', was soon to have a benefit at Drury-lane theatre, as some relief to his unfortunate circumstances. We were all warmly interested for his success, and had contributed to it. However, we thought there was no harm in having our joke, when he could not be hurt by it. I proposed that he should be brought on to speak a Prologue upon the occasion; and I began to mutter fragments of what it might be: as, that when now grown old, he was obliged to cry, 'Poor Tom's a-cold*;'-that he owned he had been driven from the stage by a Churchill, but that this was no disgrace, for a Churchill had beat the French; that he had been satyrised as 'mouthing a sentence as curs mouth a bone,' but he was now glad of a bone to pick. Nay, (said Johnson,) I would have him to say, "Mad Tom is come to see the world again."" He and I returned to town in the evening. Upon the road, I endeavoured to maintain, in argument, that a landed gentleman is not under any obligation to reside upon his estate; and that by living in London he does no injury to his country. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, he does no injury to his country son showed no great eagerness to read them. See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 15 and 22. See ante, p. 253. * King Lear, act iii. sc. 4. • The Duke of Marlborough. • See Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, i. 330. Aetat. 69.] Delany's OBSERVATIONS ON SWIFT. 283 in general, because the money which he draws from it gets back again in circulation; but to his particular district, his particular parish, he does an injury. All that he has to give away is not given to those who have the first claim to it. And though I have said that the money circulates back, it is a long time before that happens. Then, Sir, a man of family and estate ought to consider himself as having the charge of a district, over which he is to diffuse civility and happiness'.' Next day I found him at home in the morning. He praised Delany's Observations on Swift; said that his book and Lord Orrery's might both be true, though one viewed Swift more, and the other less favourably; and that, between both, we might have a complete notion of Swift2. Talking of a man's resolving to deny himself the use of wine, from moral and religious considerations, he said, 'He must not doubt about it. When one doubts as to pleasure, we know what will be the conclusion. I now no more think of drinking wine, than a horse does. The wine upon the table is no more for me, than for the dog that is under the table.' On Thursday, April 9, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, with the Bishop of St. Asaph', (Dr. Shipley,) See ante, p. 201. The account of Swift's reception in Ireland given by Lord Orrery and Dr. Delany are so different, that the credit of the writers, both undoubtedly veracious, cannot be saved but by supposing, what I think is true, that they speak of different times.' Johnson's Works, viii. 207. See Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 22. Lord Orrery says that Swift, on his return to Ireland in 1714, 'met with frequent indignities from the populace, and indeed was equally abused by persons of all ranks and denominations.' Orrery's Remarks on Swift, ed. 1752, p. 60. Dr. Delany says (Observations, p. 87) that 'Swift, when he came to take possession of his Deanery [in 1713], was received with very distinguished respect.' He could practise abstinence,' says Boswell (post, March 20, 1781), 'but not temperance.' * 'The dinner was good, and the Bishop is knowing and conversible,' wrote Johnson of an earlier dinner at Sir Joshua's where he had met the same bishop. Piozzi Letters, i. 334. Mr. Allan 284 Horace's villa. [A.D. 1778. Mr. Allan Ramsay', Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Cambridge, and Mr. Langton. Mr. Ramsay had lately returned from Italy, and entertained us with his observations upon Horace's villa, which he had examined with great care. I relished this much, as it brought fresh into my mind what I had viewed with great pleasure thirteen years before. The Bishop, Dr. Johnson, and Mr. Cambridge, joined with Mr. Ramsay, in recollecting the various lines in Horace relating to the subject. Horace's journey to Brundusium being mentioned, Johnson observed, that the brook which he describes is to be seen now, exactly as at that time, and that he had often wondered how it happened, that small brooks, such as this, kept the same situation for ages, notwithstanding earthquakes, by which even mountains have been changed, and agriculture, which produces such a variation upon the surface of the earth. CAMBRIDGE. 'A Spanish writer has this thought in a poetical conceit. After observing that most of the solid structures of Rome are totally perished, while the Tiber remains the same, he adds, ، "Lo que èra Firme huió solamente, JOHNSON. 'Sir, that is taken from Janus Vitalis': * There is no mention in the Journey to Brundusium of a brook. Johnson referred, no doubt, to Epistle i. 16. 12. 3 'Ne ought save Tyber hastning to his fall Remaines of all. O world's inconstancie! That which is firme doth flit and fall away, And that is flitting doth abide and stay.' Spenser, The Ruines of Rome. * Giano Vitale, to give him his Italian name, was a theologian and poet of Palermo. His earliest work was published in 1512, and he died about 1560. Brunet, and Zedler's Universal Lexicon. 5 'Albula Romani restat nunc nominis index, Qui quoque nunc rapidis fertur in aequor aquis. The Aetat. 69.] The contentment of poets. ، 285 The Bishop said, it appeared from Horace's writings that he was a cheerful contented man. JOHNSON. We have no reason to believe that, my Lord. Are we to think Pope was happy, because he says so in his writings? We see in his writings what he wished the state of his mind to appear. Dr. Young, who pined for preferment, talks with contempt of it in his writings, and affects to despise every thing that he did not despise'.' BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. He was like other chaplains, looking for vacancies: but that is not peculiar to the clergy. I remember when I was with the army', after the battle of Lafeldt, the officers seriously grumbled that no general was killed.' CAMBRIDGE. 'We may believe Horace more when he says, "Roma Tibur amem, ventosus Tibure Romam3;" than when he boasts of his consistency: "Me constare mihi scis, et decedere tristem, BOSWELL. 'How hard is it that man can never be at rest.' RAMSAY. 'It is not in his nature to be at rest. When he is at rest, he is in the worst state that he can be in; for he has nothing to agitate him. He is then like the man in the Irish song, Disce hinc quid possit Fortuna. Immota labascunt, Jani Vitalis Panormitani De Roma. See Delicia C.C. Italorum Poetarum, edit. 1608, p. 1433. It is curious that in all the editions of Boswell that I have seen, the error labescunt remains unnoticed. 1 See post, June 2, 1781. * Dr. Shipley was chaplain to the Duke of Cumberland. Croker. The battle was fought on July 2, N.S. 1747. 3 'Inconstant as the wind I various rove; At Tibur, Rome-at Rome, I Tibur love.' FRANCIS. Horace, Epistles, i. 8. 12. In the first two editions Mr. Cambridge's speech ended here. 4 'More constant to myself, I leave with pain, By hateful business forced, the rural scene: FRANCIS. Horace, Epist. i. 14. 16. "There 286 Goldsmith's TRAVELLER. [A.D. 1778. "There liv'd a young man in Ballinacrazy. Goldsmith being mentioned, Johnson observed, that it was long before his merit came to be acknowledged. That he once complained to him, in ludicrous terms of distress, 'Whenever I write any thing, the publick make a point to know nothing about it:' but that his Traveller brought him into high reputation'. LANGTON. 'There is not one bad line in that poem; not one of Dryden's careless verses.' SIR JOSHUA. 'I was glad to hear Charles Fox say, it was one of the finest poems in the English language.' LANGTON. 'Why was you glad? You surely had no doubt of this before.' JOHNSON. 'No; the merit of The Traveller is so well established, that Mr. Fox's praise cannot augment it, nor his censure diminish it.' SIR JOSHUA. 'But his friends may suspect they had too great a partiality for him.' JOHNSON. Nay, Sir, the partiality of his friends was always against him. It was with difficulty we could give him a hearing. Goldsmith had no settled notions upon any subject; so he talked always at random. It seemed to be his intention to blurt out whatever was in his mind, and see what would become of it. He was angry, too, when catched in an absurdity; but it did not prevent him from falling into another the next minute. I remember Chamier, after talking with him for some time, said, "Well, I do believe he wrote this poem himself: and, let me tell you, that is believing a great deal." Chamier once asked him, what he meant by slow, the last word in the first line of The Traveller, "Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow." Did he mean tardiness of locomotion? Goldsmith, who would say something without consideration, answered, See ante, p. 190. * Fox, it should be remembered, was Johnson's junior by nearly forty years. * See ante, i. 478, ii. 246, and Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 2. See ante, i. 553. "Yes." |