the writer, and to the noble person to whom | much cash as would pay his expenses back it is addressed: to London. He could not trust himself with his own money, as he felt himself "TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL unable to resist the importunity of the nu OF BUTE. "20th July, 1762. "MY LORD, When the bills were yesterday delivered to me by Mr. Wedderburne, I was informed by him of the future favours which his majesty has, by your lordship's recommendation, been induced to intend for me. "Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed; your lordship's kindness includes every circumstance that can gratify delicacy, or enforce obligation. You have conferred your favours on a man who has neither alliance nor interest 2, who has not merited them by services, nor courted them by officiousness; you have spared him the shame of solicitation, and the anxiety of Hawk. p. 395 66 SAM. JOHNSON." p. 64, 65. merous claimants on his benevolence.] [The addition of three hundred pounds a year, to what Johnson was able to earn by the ordinary exercise of his talents, raised him to a state of comparative affluence, and afforded him the means of assisting many whose real or pretended wants had formerly excited his compassion. He now practised a rule which he often recommended to his friends, always to carry some loose money to give to beggars, imitating therein, though certainly without intending it, that good This year, his friend, Sir Joshua Reybut weak man, old Mr. Whiston, who has nolds, paid a visit of some weeks to his nabeen seen distributing, in the streets, mo- tive county, Devonshire, in which he was ney to beggars on each hand of him, till accompanied by Johnson, who was much his pocket was nearly exhausted.] pleased with this jaunt, and declared he had [When he was in the habit of visit-derived from it a great accession of new ing Lichfield, towards the latter ideas. He was entertained at the seats of part of his life, he was accustomed, on his several noblemen and gentlemen in the arrival, to deposit with Miss Porter as west of England; but the greatest part of this time was passed at Plymouth, where the magnificence of the navy, the shipbuilding and all its circumstances, afforded him a grand subject of contemplation. Harwood. 1 [It does not appear what bills these were evidently something distinct from the pension, yet probably of the same nature, as the words "future favours" seems to imply that there had been some present favour.-ED.] 2 [These are the phrases by which a man endeavours to deceive himself and the world. Johnson would dignify himself by attributing his pension to the spontaneous patronage of Lord Bute, passing over in silence Sheridan and Mr. Wedderburne, whose solicitation and interest undoubtedly led to the grant of the pension.-ED.]] At 3 [That Johnson may, in conversation, have made this strange and almost unintelligible charge against the whigs is possible: but if by the allusion to the Life of Addison is meant the observation on the character of Sir Andrew Freeport, Mrs. Piozzi has misrepresented the matter. It is "the spirit of unfeeling commerce," and not of whiggism, that Johnson observes upon.-ED.] a man hates at all, he will hate his next neighbour; he concluded that this new and rising town could not but excite the envy and jealousy of the old, in which conjecture he was very soon confirmed; he therefore set himself resolutely on the side of the old town, the established town, in which his lot was cast, considering it as a kind of duty to stand by it. He accordingly entered warmly into its interests, and upon every occasion talked of the Dockers, as the inhabitants of the new town were call one of these seats Dr. Aniyat, physician in | London, told me he happened to meet him. In order to amuse him till dinner should be ready, he was taken out to walk in the garden, The master of the house thinking it proper to introduce something scientifick into the conversation, addressed him thus: "Are you a botanist, Dr. Johnson?" "No, sir," answered Johnson, "I am not a botanist; and (alluding, no doubt, to his near-sightedness), should I wish to become a botanist, I must first turn myself into a reptile." The commissioner of the dock-ed, as upstarts and aliens, Plymouth is yard paid him the compliment of ordering the yacht to convey him and his friend to the Eddystone, to which they accordingly sailed. But the weather was so tempestuous that they could not land. am a Plymouth man. Rogues! let them die of thirst. They shall not have a drop!" Lord Macartney obligingly favoured me with a copy of the following letter, in his own handwriting, from the original, which was found, by the present Earl of Bute, among his father's papers. very plentifully supplied with water by a river brought into it from a great distance, which is so abundant that it runs to waste in the town. The Dock, or Newtown, being totally destitute of water, petitioned Reynolds and he were at this time the Plymouth that a small portion of the conguests of Dr. Mudge, the celebrated sur- duit might be permitted to go to them, and geon, and now physician of that place, not this was now under consideration. Johnmore distinguished for quickness of parts son, affecting to entertain the passions of and variety of knowledge, than loved and the place, was violent in opposition; and esteemed for his amiable manners; and here half-laughing at himself for his pretended Johnson formed an acquaintance with Dr. zeal, where he had no concern, exclaimed, Mudge's father 2, that very eminent divine," No, no! I am against the Dockers 3; Í the Rev. Zachariah Mudge, prebendary of Exeter, who was idolised in the west, both for his excellence as a preacher and the uniform perfect propriety of his private conduct. He preached a sermon purposely that Johnson might hear him; and we shall see afterwards that Johnson honoured his memory by drawing his character. While Johnson was at Plymouth, he saw a great many of its inhabitants, and was not sparing of his very entertaining conversation. It was here that he made that frank and truly original confession, that "ignorance, pure ignorance," was the cause of a wrong definition in his Dictionary of the word pastern [the knee of a horse], to the no small surprise of the lady who put the question to him; who having the most profound reverence for his character, so as almost to suppose him endowed with infallibility, expected to hear an explanation (of what, to be sure, seemed strange to a common reader), drawn from some deep-learned source with which she was unacquainted. TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF BUTE. "Temple-lane, 3d Nov. 1762. "MY LORD, That generosity by which I was recommended to the favour of his majesty will not be offended at a solicitation necessary to make that favour permanent and effectual. "The pension appointed to be paid me at Michaelmas I have not received, and know not where or from whom I am to ask it. I beg, therefore, that your lordship will be pleased to supply Mr. Wedderburne with such directions as may be necessary, which, this visit, exclaim with the utmost vehemence, 3 A friend of mine once heard him, during Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom I was "I HATE a Docker."-BLAKEWAY. [This obliged for my information concerning this feud happily subsided, but the Dockers continuexcursion, mentions a very characteristical ered as a mere appendage to Plymouth; and ed to our own days dissatisfied with being considanecdote of Johnson while at Plymouth. they solicited and obtained, in 1823, the king's Having observed, that in consequence of royal licence that the town of Plymouth-Dock the dock-yard a new town had arisen about should be hereafter called Devonport-a name two miles off as a rival to the old; and singularly ill-chosen on the part of the Dockers' knowing from his sagacity, and just obser--for it happens, ludicrously enough, that the port vation of human nature, that it is certain if 1 [Captain Francis Rogers.-ED.] 2 [Mr. Thomas Mudge, the ingenious watchmaker in Fleet-street, who made considerable improvements in time-keepers, and wrote a book on that subject, was another son of Mr. Zachariah Mudge.-HALL.] of Plymouth is wholly within the county of Devon; while Hamoaze, the port of Dock, is equally in Devon and Cornwall. So that the Dockers have assumed a name which could properly belong only to the antagonist town; and, to crown the blunder, the separate name was given just when the increase of buildings had completed the union of the two towns.-ED.] I believe, his friendship will make him think | nothing that so much seduces reason from it no trouble to convey to me. "To interrupt your lordship, at a time like this, with such petty difficulties, is improper and unseasonable; but your knowledge of the world has long since taught you, that every man's affairs, however little, are important to himself. Every man hopes that he shall escape neglect; and, with reason, may every man, whose vices do not preclude his claim, expect favour from that beneficence which has been extended to, my lord, your lordship's most obliged, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." "TO MR. JOSEPH BARETTI, AT MILAN. "London, 21 Dec. 1762. "SIR,-You are not to suppose, with all your conviction of my idleness, that I have passed all this time without writing to my Baretti. I gave a letter to Mr. Beauclerk, who, in my opinion, and in his own, was hastening to Naples for the recovery of his health; but he has stopped at Paris, and I know not when he will proceed. Langton is with him. "I will not trouble you with speculations about peace and war. The good or ill success of battles and embassies extends itself to a very small part of domestick life: we all have good and evil, which we feel more sensibly than our petty part of publick miscarriage or prosperity. I am sorry for your disappointment, with which you seem more touched than I should expect a man of your resolution and experienee to have been, did I not know that general truths are seldom applied to particular occasions; and that the fallacy of our self-love extends itself as wide as our interest or affections. Every man believes that mistresses are unfaithful, and patrons capricious; but he excepts his own mistress, and his own patron. We have all learned that greatness is negligent and contemptuous, and that in courts life is often languished away in ungratified expectation; but he that approaches greatness, or glitters in a court, imagines that destiny has at last exempted him from the common lot. vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman; and if all would happen that a lover fancies, I know not what other terrestrial happiness would deserve pursuit. But love and marriage are different states. Those who are to suffer the evils together 1, and to suffer often for the sake of one another, soon lose that tenderness of look, and that benevolence of mind, which arose from the participation of unmingled pleasure and successive amusement. A woman, we are sure, will not be always fair; we are not sure she will always be virtuous: and man cannot retain through life that respect and assiduity by which he pleases for a day or for a month. I do not, however, pretend to have discovered that life has any thing more to be desired than a prudent and virtuous marriage; therefore know not what counsel to give you. "If you can quit your imagination of love and greatness, and leave your hopes of preferment and bridal raptures to try once more the fortune of literature and industry, the way through France is now open. We flatter ourselves that we shall cultivate, with great diligence, the arts of peace; and every man will be welcome among us who can teach us any thing we do not know. For your part, you will find all your old friends willing to receive you. Reynolds still continues to increase in reputation and in riches. Miss Williams, who very much loves you, goes on in the old way. Miss Cotterel is still with Mrs. Porter. Miss Charlotte is married to Dean Lewis, and has three children. Mr. Levet has married a street-walker. But the gazette of my narration must now arrive to tell you, that Bathurst went physician to the army, and died at the Havannah. "I know not whether I have not sent you word that Huggins 2 and Richardson are 1 Johnson probably wrote "the evils of life together." The words in Italicks, however, are not found in Baretti's original edition of this letter, but they may have been omitted inadvertently either in his transcript or at the press.-MALONE. 2 [Huggins, the translator of Ariosto. enmity to Baretti and Johnson will be explained by the following extract from a MS. letter of Dr. Warton to his brother, dated Winsdale, 28th April, 1755. His "Do not let such evils overwhelm you as thousands have suffered and thousands have surmounted; but turn your thoughts with vigour to some other plan of life, and keep always in your mind, that, with due submission to Providence, a man "He (Huggins) abuses Baretti infernally, and of genius has been seldom ruined but by says that he run off with a gold watch (you rehimself. Your patron's weakness or in-member the present); that he one day lent sensibility will finally do you little hurt, if he is not assisted by your own passions. Of your love I know not the propriety, nor can estimate the power; but in love, as in every other passion of which hope is the essence, we ought always to remember the uncertainty of events. There is, indeed, Barretti the watch to know when to return from a walk to dinner, and could never get it afterwards; that he applied to him in London; that after many excuses Baretti skulked, and then got Johnson to write to Mr. Huggins a suppliant letter; that this letter stopped Huggins awhile, while Baretti got a protection from the Sardinian ambassador; that then Johnson had the assurance Pearson both dead. When we see our enemies and | ["TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD. friends gliding away before us, let us not forget that we are subject to the general law of mortality, and shall soon be where our doom will be fixed for ever.-I pray God to bless you, and am, sir, your most affectionate humble servant, "Write soon. "SAM. JOHNSON." In 1763 he furnished to "The Poetical Calendar," published by Fawkes and Woty, a character of Collins*, which he afterwards engrafted into his entire life of that admirable poet, in the collection of lives which he wrote for the body of English poetry, formed and published by the booksellers of London. His account of the melancholy depression with which Collins was severely afflicted, and which brought him to his grave, is, I think, one of the most tender and interesting passages in the whole series of his writings. He also favoured Mr. Hoole with the Dedication of his translations of Tasso to the Queen*, which is so happily conceived and elegantly expressed, that I cannot but point it out to the peculiar notice of my readers 2. to write him, Huggins, a sneering letter, defying his power to touch Baretti; and then Huggins applied to Sir Thomas Robinson, secretary of state, to get the ambassador to revoke his protection, which he did; and that, at last, with great difficulty, the watch was got from a pawnbroker's, to whom Baretti had sold it. "What a strange story, and how difficult to be believed, especially considering who it comes from! Huggins wanted to get an approbation of his translation from Johnson; but Johnson would not, though Huggins says 't was only to get money from him. To crown all, he says that Baretti wanted to poison Croker. This makes the whole improbable, but crowns the story. Are not these rich anecdotes ? I told Jones, and commissioned him to tell St. John the whole truth. Dr. Brown, -'s neighbour, got Ariosto for Queen's. By some means or other, Johnson must know this story of Huggins. How infamous is it, if it should be false !" Baretti had been employed by Huggins to revise his translation. The person whom Huggins accused Baretti of an attempt to poison was the Rev. Temple Henry Croker, the author of several works, and amongst others of a translation of Ariosto's Orlando, published in 1755, and of his Satires, in 1759.-ED.] 1 [We have seen ante, p. 119, the peculiar sympathy which probably gave such pathos to Johnson's account of the mental infirmities of Collins.-ED.] 2. MADAM,-To approach the high and illustrious has been in all ages the privilege of poets; and though translators cannot justly claim the same honour, yet they naturally follow their authours as attendants; and I hope that in return for having enabled Tasso to diffuse his fame through the British dominions, I may be introduced by him to the presence of your majesty. "12th April, 1763. "MY DEAR,-The newspaper has informed me of the death of MSS. Captain Porter. I know not what to say to you, condolent or consolatory, beyond the common considerations which I suppose you have proposed to others, and know how to apply to yourself. In all afflictions the first relief is to be asked of God. "I wish to be informed in what condition your brother's death has left your fortune; if he has bequeathed you competence or plenty, I shall sincerely rejoice; if you are in any distress or difficulty, I will endeavour to make what I have, or what I can get, sufficient for us both.—I am, madam, yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON."] "Tasso has a peculiar claim to your majesty's favour, as follower and panegyrist of the house of Este, which has one common ancestor with the house of Hanover; and in reviewing his life, it is not easy to forbear a wish that he had lived in a happier time, when he might among the descendants of that illustrious family have found a more liberal and potent patronage. "I cannot but observe, madam, how unequally reward is proportioned to merit, when I reflect that the happiness which was withheld from Tasso is reserved for me; and that the poem which once hardly procured to its authour the countenance of the princes of Ferrara, has attracted to its translator the favourable notice of a British queen. "Had this been the fate of Tasso, he would have been able to have celebrated the condescension of your majesty in nobler language, but could not have felt it with more ardent gratitude than, madam, your majesty's most faithful and devoted servant."-BoswELL. 3 [Mr. Boswell had inserted these Collectanea under 1770, to supply the blank occasioned by his not having visited London that year; but as many of Dr. Maxwell's anecdotes appear to relate to a period antecedent to the commencement of Mr. Boswell's personal acquaintance in 1763, it has been thought better to remove them to this place.-ED.] 4 [Dr. William Maxwell was the son of Dr. John Maxwell, Archdeacon of Downe, in Ireland, and cousin of the Honourable Henry Maxwell, Bishop of Dromore in 1765, and of Meath in 1766, from whom he obtained preferment; but having a considerable property of his own, he resigned the living when, as it is said, his residence was insisted on; and he fixed himself in Bath, where he died so late as 1818, at the age of 87. Although, as has been just stated, most of the anecdotes probably refer to the period when Johnson resided in the Temple, Maxwell must the social friend of Johnson, who spoke of him with a very kind regard. preacher at the Temple, and for many years | ed the legal and salutary prerogatives of the crown, he no less respected the constitu tional liberties of the people. Whiggism, at the time of the Revolution, he said, was accompanied with certain principles; but latterly, as a mere party distinction under Walpole and the Pelhams, was no better than the politicks of stockjobbers, and the religion of infidels. "My acquaintance with that great and venerable character commenced in the year 1754. I was introduced to him by Mr. Grierson, his majesty's printer at Dublin, a gentleman of uncommon learning, and great wit and vivacity. Mr. Grierson died in Germany, at the age of twenty-seven. Dr. Johnson highly respected his abilities, and often observed, that he possessed more extensive knowledge than any man of his years he had ever known. His industry was equal to his talents; and he particularly excelled in every species of philological learning, and was, perhaps, the best critick of the age he lived in. "I must always remember with gratitude my obligation to Mr. Grierson, for the honour and happiness of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance and friendship, which continued uninterrupted and undiminished to his death; a connexion, that was at once the pride and happiness of my life. "What pity it is, that so much wit and good sense as Johnson continually exhibited in conversation should perish unrecorded! Few persons quitted his company without perceiving themselves wiser and better than they were before. On serious subjects he flashed the most interesting conviction upon his auditors; and upon lighter topicks, you might have supposed-Albano musas de monte locutas. "Though I can hope to add but little to the celebrity of so exalted a character, by any communications I can furnish, yet out of pure respect to his memory, I will venture to transmit to you some anecdotes concerning him, which fell under my own observation. The very minutia of such a character must be interesting, and may be compared to the filings of diamonds. "In politicks he was deemed a Tory, but certainly was not so in the obnoxious or party sense of the term; for while he assert have kept up occasional intercourse with him, as some of them undoubtedly refer to a later time. Dr. Maxwell was very proud of his acquaintance with Johnson, and affected to imitate his style of conversation.-ED.] Son of the learned Mrs. Grierson, who was patronized by the late Lord Granville, and was the editor of several of the classicks.-BoswELL. Her edition of Tacitus, with the notes of Ryckius, in three volumes, 8vo. 1730, was dedicated in very elegant Latin [from her own pen] to John, Lord Carteret (afterwards Earl Granville), by whom she was patronized during his residence in Ireland as lord-lieutenant between 1724 and 1730. -MALONE. [Lord Carteret gave her family the lucrative patent office of king's printer in Ireland, still enjoyed by her descendants. She was very beautiful, as well as learned.-ED.] "He detested the idea of governing by parliamentary corruption, and asserted most strenuously, that a prince steadily and conspicuously pursuing the interests of his people, could not fail of parliamentary concurrence. A prince of ability, he contended, might and should be the directing soul and spirit of his own administration; in short, his own minister and not the mere head of a party; and then, and not till then, would the royal dignity be sincerely respected. "Johnson seemed to think that a certain degree of crown influence 2 over the houses of parliament (not meaning a corrupt and shameful dependence) was very salutary, nay, even necessary, in our mixed government. For,' said he, if the members were under no crown influence, and disqualified from receiving any gratification from court, and resembled, as they possibly might, Pym and Haslerig, and other stubborn and sturdy members of the long parliament, the wheels of government would be totally obstructed. Such men would oppose, merely to show their power, from envy, jealousy, and perversity of disposition; and not gaining themselves, would hate and oppose all who did: not loving the person of the prince, and conceiving they owed him little gratitude, from the mere spirit of insolence and contradiction, they would oppose and thwart him upon all occasions.' "The inseparable imperfection annexed to all human governments consisted, he said, in not being able to create a sufficient fund of virtue and principle to carry the laws into due and effectual execution. Wisdom might plan, but virtue alone could execute. And where could sufficient virtue be found? A variety of delegated, and often discretionary powers must be intrusted somewhere; which, if not governed by integrity and conscience, would necessarily be abused, till at last the constable would sell his for a shilling. "This excellent person was sometimes charged with abetting slavish and arbitrary principles of government. Nothing in my opinion could be a grosser calumny and misrepresentation; for how can it be rationally supposed, that he should adopt such perni 2 On the necessity of crown influence, see Boucher's Sermons on the American Revolution, p. 218; and Paley's Moral Philosophy, B. VI. c. vii. p. 491, 4to. there quoted.-BLAKEWAY. |