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p.505.

515.

Hawk. power, with the same spirit as did the president and fellows of Magdalen college, or those conscientious divines the seven bishops. This disposition, as it leads to whiggism, one would have thought, might have reconciled him to the memory of James's successor, whose exercise of the regal authority among us merited better returns than were made him; but, it had no such effect: he never spoke of King William but in terms of reproach, and, in his opinion of him, seemed to adopt all the prejudices of jacobite bigotry and rancour. He, however, was not so unjust to the minister who most essentially contributed to the p. 514, establishment of the reigning family. Of Sir Robert Walpole, notwithstanding that he had written against him in the early part of his life, he had a high opinion he said of him, that he was a fine fellow, and that his very enemies deemed him so before his death: he honoured his memory for having kept this country in peace many years, as also for the goodness and placability of his temper; of which Pulteney, earl of Bath, thought so highly, that, in a conversation with Johnson, he said, that Sir Robert was of a temper so calm and equal, and so hard to be provoked, that he was very sure he never felt the bitterest invectives against him for half an hour. To the same purpose Johnson related the following anecdote, which he said he had from Lord North: Sir Robert having got into his hands some treasonable letters of his inveterate enemy, Will. Shippen, one of the heads of the jacobite faction, he sent for him, and burned them before his face. Some time afterwards, Shippen had occasion to take the oaths to the government in the house of commons, which, while he was doing, Sir Robert, who stood next him, and knew his principles to be the same as ever, smiled: "Egad, Robin," said Shippen, who had observed him, "that's hardly fair.”

To party opposition Dr. Johnson ever expressed great Hawk. aversion; and, of the pretences of patriots, always spoke p.506-7. with indignation and contempt. He partook of the short-lived joy that infatuated the public, when Sir Robert Walpole ceased to have the direction of the national councils, and trusted to the professions of Mr. Pulteney and his adherents, who called themselves the country-party, that all elections should thenceforward be free and uninfluenced, and that bribery and corruption, which were never practised but by courtiers and their agents, should be no more. A few weeks, nay, a few days, convinced Johnson, and indeed all England, that what had assumed the appearance of patriotism, was personal hatred and inveterate malice in some, and in others, an ambition for that power, which, when they had got it, they knew not how to exercise. A change of men, and in some respect of measures, took place: Mr. Pulteney's ambition was gratified by a peerage; the wants of his associates were relieved by places, and seats at the public boards; and, in a short time, the stream of government resumed its former channel, and ran with a current as even as it had ever done.

Upon this developement of the motives, the views, and the consistency of the above-mentioned band of patriots, Johnson once remarked to me, that it had -given more strength to government than all that had been written in its defence, meaning thereby, that it had destroyed all confidence in men of that character.]

APPENDIX.

No. I.

IN justice to the ingenious Dr. Blacklock, I publish the following letter from him, relative to a passage in the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. See vol. ii. p. 282. -BOSWELL.

:

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"Edinburgh, Nov. 12, 1785.

"DEAR SIR,-Having lately had the pleasure of reading your account of the journey which you took with Dr. Samuel Johnson to the Western Isles, I take the liberty of transmitting my ideas of the conversation which happened between the doctor and myself concerning lexicography and poetry, which, as it is a little different from the delineation exhibited in the former edition of your journal, cannot, I hope, be unacceptable; particularly since I have been informed that a second edition of that work is now in contemplation, if not in execution and I am still more strongly tempted to encourage that hope, from considering that, if every one concerned in the conversations related were to send you what they can recollect of these colloquial entertainments, many curious and interesting particulars might be recovered, which the most assiduous attention could not observe, nor the most tenacious memory retain. A little reflection, sir, will convince you, that there is not an axiom in Euclid more intuitive nor more evident than the doctor's assertion that poetry was of much easier execution than lexicography. Any mind, therefore, endowed with common sense, must have been extremely absent from itself, if it discovered the least astonishment from hearing that a poem might be written with much more facility than the same quantity of a dictionary.

"The real cause of my surprise was what appeared to me much more paradoxical, that he could write a sheet of dictionary with as much pleasure as a sheet of poetry. He acknowledged, indeed, that the latter was much easier than the former. For in the one case, books and a desk were requisite; in the other, you might compose when lying in bed, or walking in the fields, &c. He did not, however, descend to explain, nor to this moment can I comprehend, how the labours of a mere philologist, in the most refined sense of that term, could give equal pleasure with the exercise of a mind replete with elevated conceptions and pathetic ideas, while taste, fancy, and intellect were deeply enamoured of nature, and in full exertion. You may likewise, perhaps, remember, that when I complained of the ground which scepticism in religion and morals was continually gaining, it did not appear to be on my own account, as my private opinions upon these important subjects had long been inflexibly determined. What I then deplored, and still deplore, was the unhappy influence which that gloomy hesitation had, not only upon particular characters, but even upon life in general; as being equally the bane of action in our present state, and of such consolations as we might derive from the hopes of a future.

"I have the pleasure of remaining with sincere esteem and respect, dear sir, your most obedient humble servant,

"THOMAS BLACKLOCK."

I am very happy to find that Dr. Blacklock's apparent uneasiness on the subject of scepticism was not on his own account (as I supposed), but from a benevolent concern for the happiness of mankind. With respect, however, to the question concerning poetry, and composing a dictionary, I am confident that my state of Dr. Johnson's position is accurate. One may misconceive the motive by which a person is induced to discuss a particular topick (as in the case of Dr. Blacklock's speaking of scepticism); but an assertion, like that made by Dr. Johnson, cannot be easily mistaken. And, indeed, it seems not very probable, that he who so pathetically laments the drudgery to which the unhappy lexicographer is doomed, and is known to have written his splendid imitation of Juvenal with astonishing rapidity, should have had "as much pleasure in writing a sheet of a dictionary as a sheet of poetry." Nor can I concur with the ingenious writer of the foregoing letter, in thinking it an axiom as evident as any in Euclid, that "poetry is of easier execution than lexicography." I have no doubt that Bailey, and the "mighty blunderbuss of law," Jacob, wrote ten pages of their respective dictionaries with more ease than they could have written five pages of poetry.

If this book should again be reprinted, I shall, with the utmost readiness, correct any errours I may have committed, in stating con

versations, provided it can be clearly shown to me that I have been inaccurate. But I am slow to believe (as I have elsewhere observed) that any man's memory, at the distance of several years, can preserve facts or sayings with such fidelity as may be done by writing them down when they are recent: and I beg it may be remembered, that it is not upon memory, but upon what was written at the time, that the authenticity of my journal rests.-BOSWELL.

No. II.

[WHILE this volume was passing through the press, but after pp. 21 and 171 had been printed, Mr. Langton favoured the Editor with several interesting papers (which had belonged to his grandfather, Mr. Bennet Langton), and, amongst them, a copy of the Verses on Inch-Kenneth, in Dr. Johnson's own hand-writing, dated 2d Dec. 1773, by which it appears that the line which the Editor ventured to consider as inferior to the rest,

"Sint pro legitimis pura labella sacris,"

was manufactured by Mr. Langton from two variations which Dr. Johnson had, it seems, successively rejected,

and

Sint pro legitimis pectora pura sacris,

Legitimas faciunt pura labella preces;

so that we may safely restore the reading which Johnson appears finally to have approved,

"Legitimas faciunt pectora pura preces."

Mr. Langton's copy agrees with that in p. 21, except only that "duas cepit casa" is "duas tenuit casa"-and "procul esse jubet" is "procul esse velit." How it happened that the copy sent by Johnson to Boswell in 1775 should be so mutilated and curtailed from a copy written so early as Dec. 1773, is not to be explained.-ED.]

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