He seemed very happy in the near prospect of going to Italy with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. "But," said he, "before leaving England I am to take a jaunt to Oxford, Birmingham, my native city, Lichfield, and my old friend Dr. Taylor's, at Ashbourne, in Derbyshire. I shall go in a few days, and you, Boswell, shall go with me." I was ready to accompany him; being willing even to leave London to have the pleasure of his conversation. I mentioned with much regret the extravagance of the representative of a great family in Scotland, by which there was danger of its being ruined; and as Johnson respected it for its antiquity, he joined with me in thinking it would be happy if this person should die. Mrs. Thrale seemed shocked at this, as feudal barbarity, and said, "I do not understand this preference of the estate to its owner; of the land to the man who walks upon that land." JOHNNay, madam, it is not a preference of the land to its owner; it is the preference of a family to an individual. Here is an establishment in a country, which is of importance for ages, not only to the chief but to his people; an establishment which extends upwards and downwards; that this should be destroyed by one idle fellow is a sad thing." SON. 66 He said, "Entails are good, because it is good to preserve in a country series of men, to whom the people are accustomed to look up as to their leaders. But I am for leaving a quantity of land in commerce, to excite industry, and keep money in the country; for if no land were to be bought in the country, there would be no encouragement to acquire wealth, because a family could not be founded there; or if it were acquired, it must be carried away to another country where land may be bought. And although the land in every country will remain the same, and be as fertile where there is no money, as where there is, yet all that portion of the happiness of civil life, which is produced by money circulating in a country, would be lost." BOSWELL. "Then, sir, would it be for the advantage of a country that all its lands were sold at once JOHNSON. "So far, sir, as money produces good, it would be an advantage; for then that country would have as much money circulating in it as it is worth. But to be sure this would be counterbalanced by disadvantages attending a total change of proprietors." I expressed my opinion that the power of entailing should be limited thus: "That there should be one-third, or perhaps one half of the land of a country kept free for commerce; that the proportion allowed to be entailed should be parcelled out so that no family could entail above a certain quan tity. Let a family, according to the abili ties of its representatives, be richer or poorer in different generations, or always rich if its representatives be always wise: but let its absolute permanency be moderate. In this way we should be certain of there being always a number of established roots; and as, in the course of nature, there is in every age an extinction of some families, there would be continual openings for men ambitious of perpetuity, to plant a stock in the entail ground 1." JOHNSON. Why, sir, mankind will be better able to regulate the system of entails, when the evil of too much land being locked up by them is felt, than we can do at present when it is not felt." 66 I mentioned Dr. Adam Smith's book on "The Wealth of Nations," which was just published, and that Sir John Pringle had observed to me, that Dr. Smith, who had never been in trade, could not be expected to write well on that subject any more than a lawyer upon physick. JOHNSON. "He is mistaken, sir; a man who has never been engaged in trade himself may undoubtedly write well upon trade, and there is nothing which requires more to be illustrated by philosophy than trade docs. As to mere wealth, that is to say, money, it is clear that one nation or one individual cannot increase its store but by making another poorer: but trade procures what is more valuable, the reciprocation of the peculiar advantages of different countries. A merchant seldom thinks but of his own particular trade. To write a good book upon it, a man must have extensive views. It is not necessary to have practised, to write well upon a subject." I mentioned law as a subject on which no man could write well without practice. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, in England, where so much money is to be got by the practice of the law, most of our writers upon it have been in practice; though Blackstone had not been much in practice when he published his Commentaries.' But upon the continent, the great writers on law have not all been in practice: Grotius, indeed, was; but Puffendorf was not; Burlamaqui was not 2." 1 The privilege of perpetuating in a family an estate and arms indefeasibly from generation to generation is enjoyed by none of his majesty's subjects except in Scotland, where the legal fiction of fine and recovery is unknown. It is a privilege so proud, that I should think it would be proper to have the exercise of it dependent on the royal prerogative. It seems absurd to permit the power of perpetuating their representation to truly no name. The king, as the impartial father men, who, having had no eminent merit, have of his people, would never refuse to grant the privilege to those who deserved it.-BOSWELL. 2 [Neither Grotius, Puffendorf, nor Burlamaqui, When we had talked of the great consequence which a man acquired by being employed in his profession, I suggested a doubt of the justice of the general opinion, that it is improper in a lawyer to solicit employment, for why, I urged, should it not be equally allowable to solicit that as the means of consequence, as it is to solicit votes to be elected a member of parliament ? Mr. Strahan had told me that a countryman of his and mine, who had risen to eminence in the law, had, when first making his way, solicited him to get him employed in city causes. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is wrong to stir up lawsuits; but when once it is certain that a lawsuit is to go on, there is nothing wrong in a lawyer's endeavouring that he shall have the benefit, rather than another." BOSWELL. "You would not solicit employment, sir, if you were a lawyer." JOHNSON. "No, sir; but not because I should think it wrong, but because I should disdain it." This was a good distinction, which will be felt by men of just pride. He proceeded: "However, I would not have a lawyer to be wanting to himself in using fair means. I would have him to inject a little hint now and then, to prevent his being overlooked.' Lord Mountstuart's bill for a Scotch militia, in supporting which his lordship had made an able speech in the house of commons, was now a pretty general topick of conversation. JOHNSON. "As Scotland contributes so little land-tax towards the general support of the nation, it ought not to have a militia paid out of the general fund, unless it should be thought for the general interest that Scotland should be protected from an invasion, which no man can think will happen; for what enemy would invade Scotland, where there is nothing to be got? No, sir; now that the Scotch have not the pay of English soldiers spent among them, as so many troops are sent abroad, they are trying to get money another way, by having a militia paid. If they are afraid, and seriously desire to have an armed force to defend them, they should pay for it. Your scheme is to retain a part were writers on what can be strictly called practical law; and the great writers on practical law, in all countries, have been practical lawyers.-ED.] 1 [Probably Mr. Wedderburn.--ED.] 2 [Boswell writes to Mr. Wilkes on this subject, 20th April, 1776: "I am delighted to find that my honoured friend and Mecanas, my Lord Mountstuart, made an excellent speech on the Scotch militia bill."-Wilkes's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 319. Mr. Boswell's Mecanas disappointed his hopes, and hence, perhaps, some of those observations about "courting the great" and "apathy of patrons" which Mr. Boswell occasionally makes.--ED.] of your land-tax, by making us pay and clothe your militia." BOSWELL. "You should not talk of we and you, sir; there is now an union." JOHNSON. "There must be a distinction of interest, while the proportions of land-tax are so unequal. If Yorkshire should say, Instead of paying our land-tax, we will keep a greater number of militia,' it would be unreasonable." In this argument my friend was certainly in the wrong. The land-tax is as unequally proportioned between different parts of England, as between England and Scotland; nay, it is considerably unequal in Scotland itself. But the land-tax is but a small part of the numerous branches of publick revenue, all of which Scotland pays precisely as England does. A French invasion made in Scotland would soon penetrate into England. He thus discoursed upon supposed obligation in settling estates: "Where a man gets the unlimited property of an estate, there is no obligation upon him in justice to leave it to one person rather than to another. There is a motive or preference from kindness, and this kindness is generally entertained for the nearest relation. If I owe a particular man a sum of money, I am obliged to let that man have the next money I get, and cannot in justice let another have it; but if I owe money to no man, I may dispose of what I get as I please. There is not a debitum justitia to a man's next heir; there is only a debitum caritatis. It is plain, then, that I have morally a choice according to my liking. If I have a brother in want, he has a claim from affection to my assistance; but if I have also a brother in want, whom I like better, he has a preferable claim. The right of an heir at law is only this, that he is to have the succession to an estate, in case no other person is appointed to it by the owner. His right is merely preferable to that of the king.' We got into a boat to cross over to Blackfriars; and as we moved along the Thames, I talked to him of a little volume, which, altogether unknown to him, was advertised to be published in a few days, under the title of "Johnsoniana, or Bon Mots of Dr. Johnson." JOHNSON. "Sir, it is a mighty impudent thing 3. BOSWELL. Pray, sir, could you have no redress if you were to prosecute a publisher for bringing out, under your name, what you never said, and ascribing to you dull stupid nonsense, or making you swear profanely, as many igno 3 [This was a contemptible jest-book full of indecencies, and with very little of Johnson in it. Mr. Boswell's work is the true Johnsoniana, and a judicious and entertaining selection from Boswell, under this title, has been lately published. --ED.] rant relaters of your bon mots do?" JOHNSON. "No, sir, there will always be some truth mixed with the falsehood, and how can it be ascertained how much is true and how much is false? Besides, sir, what damages would a jury give me for having been represented as swearing?" BoswELL. "I think, sir, you should at least disavow such a publication, because the world and posterity might with much plausible foundation say, Here is a volume which was publickly advertised and came out in Dr. Johnson's own name, and, by his silence, was admitted by him to be genuine.' 23 JOHNSON. "I shall give myself no trouble about the matter." He was, perhaps, above suffering from such spurious publications; but I could not help thinking, that many men would be much injured in their reputation, by having absurd and vicious sayings imputed to them; and that redress ought in such cases to be given. He said, "The value of every story depends on its being true. A story is a picture either of an individual or of human nature in general: if it be false, it is a picture of nothing. For instance: suppose a man should tell that Johnson, before setting out for Italy, as he had to cross the Alps, sat down to make himself wings. This many people would believe: but it would be a picture of nothing. ******* (naming a worthy friend of ours), used to think a story, a story, till I showed him that truth was essential to it." [On another occasion Piozzi, he said, "A story is a specimen of p. 89. human manners, and derives its sole value from its truth. When Foote has told me something, I dismiss it from my mind, like a passing shadow; when Reynolds tells me something, I consider myself as possessed of an idea the more."] I observed, that Foote entertained us with stories which were not true; but that, indeed, it was properly not as narratives that Foote's stories pleased us, but as collections of ludicrous images. JOHNSON. "Foote is quite impartial, for he tells lies of every body." [Mr. Cradock 2 relates that a gentleman sitting next to Johnson at a table where Foote was entertaining the company with some exaggerated recitals, whispered his neighbour, Why, Dr. Crad. Mem. p. 98. 66 1 [Although Mr. Langton was a man of strict and accurate veracity, the Editor suspects, from the term worthy friend, which Boswell generally appropriates to Mr. Langton, as well as the number of asterisks (See ante, vol. i. p. 522, n.), that he was here meant; if so, the opinion which Johnson corrected was probably one stated by Mr. Langton in very early life, for he knew Johnson when he was only fifteen years of age.-ED.] 2 [See post, 12 April, 1776.-ED.] | Johnson, it is impossible that this impudent fellow should know the truth of half what he has told us." "Nay, sir," replied Johnson, hastily," if we venture to come into company with Foote, we have no right, I think, to look for truth."] p. 88. The importance of strict and scrupulous veracity cannot be too often inculcated. Johnson was known to be so rigidly attentive to it, that even in his common conversation, the slightest circumstance was mentioned with exact precision. [Indeed one reason why his memory Piozzi, was so particularly exact might be derived from his rigid attention to veracity; being always resolved to relate every fact as it stood, he looked even on the smaller parts of life with minute attention, and remembered such passages as escape cursory and common observers. His p. 234. veracity was indeed, from the most trivial to the most solemn occasions, strict even to severity; he scorned to embellish a story with fictitious circumstances, which (he used to say) took off from its real value. "A story," said Johnson, "should be a specimen of life and manners; but if the surrounding circumstances are false, as it is no more a representation of reality, it is no longer worthy our attention."] The knowledge of his having such a principle and habit made his friends have a perfect reliance on the truth of every thing that he told, however it might have been doubted if told by many others. As an instance of this, I may mention an odd incident which he related as having happened to him one night in Fleet-street. "A gentlewoman," said he, "begged I would give her my arm to assist her in crossing the street, which I accordingly did; upon which she offered me a shilling, supposing me to be the watchman. I perceived that she was somewhat in liquor." This, if told by most people, would have been thought an invention; when told by Johnson, it was believed by his friends as much as if they had seen what passed 3. p. 176. [Mrs. Piozzi relates some very similar instances, which he himself Piozzi, told her. As he was walking along the Strand, a gentleman stepped out of some neighbouring tavern, with his napkin in his hand and no hat, and stopping him as civilly as he could: "I beg your pardon, sir, you are Dr. Johnson, I believe." Yes, "We have a wager depending on your reply: pray, sir, is it irreparable, or irrepairable that one should say?" "The last, I think, sir," answered Dr. Johnson, but sir." 1 [Miss Reynolds says, in her Recollections, that she wonders why Mr. Boswell should think this anecdote so surprising; for Johnson's dress was so mean (until his pension) that he might have been easily mistaken for a beggar.--ED.] "for the adverb [adjective] ought to follow | the verb; but you had better consult my Dictionary than me, for that was the result of more thought than you will now give me time for." "No, no,” replied the gen- | tleman, gaily, "the book I have no certainty at all of; but here is the author, to whom I referred: I have won my twenty guineas quite fairly, and am much obliged to you, sir;" so shaking Dr. Johnson kindly by the hand, he went back to finish his dinner or dessert. 66 power to steal, yet he may all his life be a thief in his heart. So when a man has once become a Carthusian, he is obliged to continue so, whether he chooses it or not. Their silence, too, is absurd. We read in the Gospel of the apostles being sent to preach, but not to hold their tongues. All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle. I said to the Lady Abbess of a convent, Madam, you are here, not for the love of virtue, but the fear of vice.' She said, 'She should remember this as long as she lived."" I thought it hard to give her this view of her situation when she could not help it; and, indeed, I wondered at the whole of what he now said; because, both in his "Rambler" and Idler," he treats religious austerities with much solemnity of respect. Finding him still persevering in his abstinence from wine, I ventured to speak to him of it. JOHNSON. "Sir, I have no objection to a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences. One of the fathers tells us, he found fasting made him so peevish that he did not practise it." He also once told Mrs. Piozzi that a young gentleman called on him one moning, and told him that, having dropped suddenly into an ample fortune, he was willing to qualify himself for genteel society by adding some literature to his other endowments," and wished to be put in an easy way of obtaining it. Johnson recommended the University; "for you read Latin, sir, with facility." "I read it a little, to be sure, sir." "But do you read it with facility, I say?" Upon my word, sir, I do not very well know, but I rather believe not." Dr. Johnson now began to recommend other branches of science; and, advising him to study natural history, there arose some talk about animals, and their divisions into oviparous and viviparous: "And the cat here, sir," said the youth who wished for instruction, "pray in which class is she?" The Doctor's patience and desire of doing good began now to give way. "You would do well," said he, " to look for some person to be always about you, sir, who is capable of explaining such matters, and not come to us to know whether the cat lays eggs or not: get a discreet map to keep you company, there are many who would be glad of your table and fi.ty pounds a year." The young gentleman retired, and in less than a week informed his friends, that he had fixed on a preceptor to whom no objections could be made; but when he named as such one of the most distinguished characters in our age or nation, Dr. Johnson fairly gave himself up to an honest burst of laughter, at seeing this youth at such a surprising distance from common knowledge of the world. We landed at the Temple-stairs, where we parted. I found him in the evening in Mrs. Williams's room. We talked of religious orders. He said, "It is as unreasonable for a man to go into a Carthusian convent for fear of being immoral, as for a man to cut off his hands for fear he should steal. There is, indeed, great resolution in the immediate act of dismembering himself; but when that is once done, he has no longer any merit: for though it is out of his 1 [Mr. Burke. Malone MS.-ED.] VOL. II. -- 5 Though he often enlarged upon the evil of intoxication, he was by no means harsh and unforgiving to those who indulged in occasional excess in wine. One of his friends 2, I well remember, came to sup at a tavern with him and some other gentlemen, and too plainly discovered that he had drunk too much at dinner. When one who loved mischief, thinking to produce a severe censure, asked Johnson, a few days afterwards, " Well, sir, what did your friend say to you, as an apology for being in such a situation?" Johnson answered, "Sir, he said all that a man should say he said he was sorry for it." I heard him once give a very judicious practical advice upon the subject: "A man who has been drinking wine at all freely should never go into a new company. With these who have partaken of wine with him, he may be pretty well in unison; but he will probably be offensive, or appear ridiculous, to other people.' He allowed very great influence to education. "I do not deny, sir, but there is some original difference in minds; but it is nothing in comparison of what is formed by education. We may instance the science of numbers, which all minds are equally capable of attaining 3: yet we find a prodi 2 [Probably Mr. Boswell himself.-ED] gious difference in the powers of different | fixed for our proposed jaunt, we met in the men, in that respect, after they are grown up, because their minds have been more or less exercised in it: and I think the same cause will explain the difference of excellence in other things, gradations admitting always some difference in the first principles." This is a difficult subject; but it is best to hope that diligence may do a great deal. We are sure of what it can do, in increasing our mechanical force and dexterity. I again visited him on Monday. He took occasion to enlarge, as he often did, upon the wretchedness of a sea-life. "A ship is worse than a gaol. There is, in a gaol, better air, better company, better conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of being in danger. When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land." "Then," said I, "it would be cruel in a father to breed his son to the sea." JOHNSON. "It would be cruel in a father who thinks as I do. Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it, they cannot escape from it, because it is then too late to choose another profession; as indeed is generally the case with men, when they have once engaged in any particular way of life." p. 220. Piozzi, [On another occasion, he said, "The life of a sailor was also a continued scene of danger and exertion; and the manner in which time was spent on shipboard would make all who saw a cabin envy a gaol." The roughness of the language used on board a man of war, where he passed a week on a visit to Captain Knight, disgusted him terribly. He asked an officer what some place was called, and received for answer, that it was where the loplolly-man kept his loplolly; a reply he considered, not unjustly, as disrespectful, gross, and ignorant.] On Tuesday, 19th March, which was It seems, on the contrary, that there are few powers of mind so unequally given as those connected with numbers. The few who have them in any extraordinary degree, like Jedediah Buxton, and like the boys Bidder and Colborne, of our times, seem to have little other intellectual power. See accounts of Buxton in Gent. Mag. v. xxi. p. 61, and v. xxiv. p. 251.-ED.] morning at the Somerset coffee-house in the Strand, where we were taken up by the Oxford coach. He was accompanied by Mr. Gwyn, the architect; and a gentleman of Merton college, whom he did not know, had the fourth seat. We soon got into conversation; for it was very remarkable of Johnson, that the presence of a stranger had no restraint upon his talk. I observed that Garrick, who was about to quit the stage, would soon have an easier life. JOHNSON. "I doubt that, sir." BosWELL. "Why, sir, he will be Atlas with the burthen off his back." JOHNSON. "But I know not, sir, if he will be so steady without his load. However, he should never play any more, but be entirely the gentleman, and not partly the player: he should no longer subject himself to be hissed by a mob, or to be insolently treated by performers, whom he used to rule with a high hand, and who would gladly retaliate.” BoswELL. "I think he should play once a year for the benefit of decayed actors, as it has been said he means to do." JOHNSON "Alas, sir! he will soon be a decayed actor himself." Johnson expressed his disapprobation of ornamental architecture, such as magnificent columns supporting a portico, or expensive pilasters supporting merely their own capitals, "because it consumes labour disproportionate to its utility." For the same reason he satirized statuary. "Painting," said he, "consumes labour not disproportionate to its effect; but a fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot." Here he seemed to me to be strangely deficient in taste 3; for surely statuary is a noble art of 3 [Dr. Johnson does not seem to nave objected to ornamental architecture or statuary per se, but to labour disproportionate to its utility or effect. In this view, his criticisms are just. The late style of building introduced into London, of colonnades and porticos, without any regard to aspect, climate, or utility, is so absurd to reason, so offensive to taste, and so adverse to domestic comfort, that it reconciles us to the short-lived materials of which these edifices are composed. It would have been well if we had, according to [It is not likely that he ever spent a week on Johnson's sober advice, thought it necessary that shipboard. As the exact date of his excursion in- the "magnificence of porticos," and the " to the West with the Reynoldses (ante, v. i. p.pense of pilasters," should have borne some 163.) is not given, it cannot be ascertained degree of proportion to their utility. With whether it was then that he visited Captain (efter- regard to "statuary," when it does " preserve wards Sir Joseph) Knight who lay, in the Bel- the varieties of the human frame," it deserves all leisle, in Plymouth Sound, a couple of months of that Mr. Boswell says for it: but Johnson's obthe years 1762 and 1763.—ED.] jection was that it more frequently produced abortive failures," hardly resembling man.”. ED.] 2 [The loplolly-boy is the surgeon's attendant. -ED.] ex |