These pamphlets drew upon him numerous attacks. Against the common weapons of literary warfare he was hardened; but there were two instances of animadversion which I communicated to him, and from what I could judge, both from his silence and his looks, appeared to me to impress him much1.

One was, "A Letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson, occasioned by his late political Publications." It appeared previous to his "Taxation no Tyranny," and was written by Dr. Joseph Towers. In that performance, Dr. Johnson was treated with the respect due to so eminent a man, while his conduct as a political writer was boldly and pointedly arraigned, as inconsistent with the character of one, who, if he did employ his pen upon politics,

"it might reasonably be expected should distinguish himself, not by party violence and rancour, but by moderation and by wisdom."

It concluded thus:

"I would, however, wish you to remember, should you again address the publick under the character of a political writer, that luxuriance of imagination or energy of language will ill compensate for the want of candour, of justice, and of truth. And I shall only add, that should I hereafter be disposed to read, as I heretofore have done, the most excellent of all your performances, The Rambler,' the pleasure which I have been accustomed to find in it will be much diminished by the reflection that the writer of so moral, so elegant, and so valuable a work, was capable of prostituting his talents in such productions as The False Alarm,' the 'Thoughts on the Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands,' and 'The Patriot.""

I am willing to do justice to the merit of Dr.

1 [Mr. Boswell, by a very natural prejudice, construes Johnson's silence and looks into something like a concurrence in his own sentiments; but it does not appear that Johnson ever abated one jot of the firmness and decision of his opinion on these questions. See his conversation passim, and his letter to Mr. Westley, post, 6th Feb. 1776.-ED.]

Towers, of whom I will say, that although I abhor1 his whiggish democratical notions and propensities (for I will not call them principles), I esteem him as an ingenious, knowing, and very convivial man.

The other instance was a paragraph of a letter to me, from my old and most intimate friend the Rev. Mr. Temple, who wrote the character of Gray, which has had the honour to be adopted both by Mr. Mason and Dr. Johnson in their accounts of that poet. The words were,

"How can your great, I will not say your pious, but your moral friend, support the barbarous measures of administration, which they have not the face to ask even their infidel pensioner Hume to defend?"

However confident of the rectitude of his own mind, Johnson may have felt sincere uneasiness that his conduct should be erroneously imputed to unworthy motives by good men; and that the influence of his valuable writings should on that account be in any degree obstructed or lessened.

He complained to a right honourable friend of

[Mr. Boswell is here very inconsistent; for abhorring Dr. Towers's whiggish democratical notions and propensities, how can he allow any weight to his opinions in a case which called these propensities into full effect; and above all, how could he suppose that Dr. Johnson, with his known feelings and opinions, could be influenced by a person professing such doctrines ?-ED.]

2 [Mr. Gerard Hamilton. This anecdote is wholly at variance with Mr. Boswell's own assertion, ante, v. i. p. 361; and—without going the whole length of that assertion, " that Johnson's pension had no influence whatsoever on his political publications"—Mr. Hamilton's anecdote may be doubted, not only from a consideration of Johnson's own character and principles, but from the evidence of all his other friends-persons who knew him more intimately than Mr. Hamilton-Mrs. Thrale, Mr. Murphy, Sir J. Hawkins, Mr. Tyers-who all declare that his political pamphlets expressed the opinions which in private conversation he always maintained. Mr. Boswell, we have seen, was of the same opinion as to Johnson's sincerity, till he took up the adverse side of the political question. Then, indeed, he admits, not only without contradiction, but with a species of confirmation, Mr. Hamilton's anecdote. It must, moreover, be observed, that the anecdote itself is not very consistent; for it states that Johnson consulted Mr. Hamilton on the contradictory objects of resigning his pension altogether, and of endeavouring to have it secured to him for life. It must be recollected, in weighing Mr. Hamilton's testimony on this point, that we have it only at second hand, and that there is reason to believe that he had been connected in some mysterious political engagement with Dr. Johnson, which might tend to discolour his view of this matter.-ED.]

distinguished talents and very elegant manners, with whom he maintained a long intimacy, and whose generosity towards him will afterwards appear, that his pension having been given to him as a literary character, he had been applied to by administration to write political pamphlets; and he was even so much irritated, that he declared his resolution to resign his pension. His friend showed him the impropriety of such a measure, and he afterwards expressed his gratitude, and said he had received good advice. To that friend he once signified a wish to have his pension secured to him for his life; but he neither asked nor received from government any reward whatsoever for his political labours.

66

On Friday, March 24, I met him at the LITERARY CLUB, where were Mr. Beauclerk, Mr. Langton, Mr. Colman, Dr. Percy, Mr. Vesey, Sir Charles Bunbury, Dr. George Fordyce, Mr. Steevens, and Mr. Charles Fox. Before he came in, we talked of his "Journey to the Western Islands," and of his coming away, willing to believe the second-sight'," which seemed to excite some ridicule. I was then so impressed with the truth of many of the stories of which I had been told, that I avowed my conviction, saying, "He is only willing to believe: I do believe. The evidence is enough for me, though not for his great mind. What will not fill a quart-bottle will fill a pint-bottle. I am filled with belief." "Are you ?" said Colman ;

"then cork it up."

I found his "Journey" the common topick of conversation in London at this time, wherever I happened to be. At one of Lord Mansfield's formal Sunday evening conversations, strangely called Levées, his lordship addressed me, "We have all been reading

1 Johnson's "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland."-Works, vol. viii. p. 347.—Boswell.

VOL. III.

your travels, Mr. Boswell." I answered, "I was but the humble attendant of Dr. Johnson." The chiefjustice replied, with that air and manner which none, who ever saw and heard him, can forget, "He speaks ill of nobody but Ossian 1."

Johnson was in high spirits this evening at the club, and talked with great animation and success. He attacked Swift, as he used to do upon all occasions. "The Tale of a Tub' is so much superiour to his other writings, that one can hardly believe he was the authour of it: there is in it such a vigour of mind, such a swarm of thoughts, so much of nature, and art, and life." I wondered to hear him say of "Gulliver's Travels," "When once you have thought of big men and little men, it is very easy to do all the rest." I endeavoured to make a stand for Swift, and tried to rouse those who were much more able to defend him; but in vain. Johnson at last, of his own accord, allowed very great merit to the inventory of articles found in the pocket of " the Man Mountain," particularly the description of his watch, which

[It is not easy to guess how the air and manner, even of Lord Mansfield, could have set off such an unmeaning expression as this. Johnson denied the authenticity of the poems attributed to Ossian, but that was not speaking ill of Ossian, in the sense which Mr. Boswell evidently gives to the phrase.-En.] 2 This doubt has been much agitated on both sides, I think without good reason. See Addison's "Freeholder," May 4th, 1714; "An Apology for the Tale of a Tub;" Dr. Hawkesworth's "Preface to Swift's Works," and Swift's "Letter to Tooke the Printer," and Tooke's "Answer" in that collection; Sheridan's "Life of Swift ;" Mr. Courtenay's note on p. 3 of his "Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of Dr. Johnson ;" and Mr. Cooksey's "Essay on the Life and Character of John, Lord Somers, Baron of Evesham."

Dr. Johnson here speaks only to the internal evidence. I take leave to differ from him, having a very high estimation of the powers of Dr. Swift. His "Sentiments of a Church-of-Englandman ;" his "Sermon on the Trinity," and other serious pieces, prove his learning as well as his acuteness in logick and metaphysicks; and his various compositions of a different cast exhibit not only wit, humour, and ridicule; but a knowledge "of nature, and art, and life;" a combination, therefore, of those powers, when (as the "Apology" says) "the authour was young, his invention at the height, and his reading fresh in his head," might surely produce "The Tale of a Tub."-BOSWELL. [See ante, vol. i. p. 464. After the letter to Benjamin Tooke, the printer, there was no longer any room for controversy. The most zealous friend of Swift would only have to add, that he who wished to detract from his merit was obliged to deny (contrary to all evidence) that he was the author of his own works. ED.]

it was conjectured was his God, as he consulted it upon all occasions. He observed, that Swift put his name to but two things (after he had a name to put), "The Plan for the Improvement of the English Language," and the last "Drapier's Letter."

From Swift, there was an easy transition to Mr. Thomas Sheridan. JOHNSON. "Sheridan is a wonderful admirer of the tragedy of Douglas, and presented its authour with a gold medal. Some years

ago, at a coffee-house in Oxford, I called to him, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Sheridan, how came you to give a gold medal to Home, for writing that foolish play?' This, you see, was wanton and insolent; but I meant to be wanton and insolent. A medal has no value but as a stamp of merit. And was Sheridan to assume to himself the right of giving that stamp? If Sheridan was magnificent enough to bestow a gold medal as a honorary reward of dramatick excellence, he should have requested one of the Universities to choose the person on whom it should be conferred. Sheridan had no right to give a stamp of merit: it was counterfeiting Apollo's coin '.”

On Monday, March 27, I breakfasted with him at Mr. Strahan's. He told us, that he was engaged to

1 [The medal was presented in 1757, and as it does not appear that Johnson and Sheridan ever met after the affair of the pension, (ante, 1762), this fact occurred probably in Johnson's visit to Oxford, in 1759. It seems, therefore, that Johnson had begun to be "wanton and insolent" towards Sheridan before the pension had caused the cup of gall to overflow. Mr. Whyte, the friend of Sheridan, gives the history of the medal thus: "When Sheridan undertook to play Douglas in Dublin, he had liberally written to Home, promising him the profits of the third night. It happened, however, that these profits fell very short, and Sheridan was rather perplexed what to do. At first, he thought of offering the author a piece of plate, but, on the suggestion of Mr. Whyte, the idea of a medal was adopted. The medal (Mr. Whyte adds) had the additional grace of being conveyed to Mr. Home through the hands of Lord Macartney and Lord Bute, but had a narrow escape of being intercepted by the way, for, as Mr. Whyte was bringing it to London, he was stopped by a highwayman and robbed of his purse, but contrived to secrete and preserve the medal."-Whyte's True Account of the Gold Medal, Dublin, 1794. When Johnson called Douglas "a foolish play," he was not only "wanton and insolent," as he admits, but showed very bad taste, and very violent prejudice.—ED.]