422 Monastick life. [A.D. 1761. 'I know my Baretti will not be satisfied with a letter in which I give him no account of myself: yet what account shall I give him? I have not, since the day of our separation, suffered or done any thing considerable. The only change in my way of life is, that I have frequented the theatre more than in former seasons. But I have gone thither only to escape from myself. We have had many new farces, and the comedy called The Jealous Wife', which, though not written with much genius, was yet so well adapted to the stage, and so well exhibited by the actors, that it was crowded for near twenty nights. I am digressing from myself to the play-house; but a barren plan must be filled with episodes. Of myself I have nothing to say, but that I have hitherto lived without the concurrence of my own judgment; yet I continue to flatter myself, that, when you return, you will find me mended. I do not wonder that, where the monastick life is permitted, every order finds votaries, and every monastery inhabitants. Men will submit to any rule, by which they may be exempted from the tyranny of caprice and of chance. They are glad to supply by external authority their own want of constancy and resolution, and court the government of others, when long experience has convinced them of their own inability to govern themselves. If I allegorical painting said, “I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world."' He bought prints of Burke, Dyer, and Goldsmith-'Good impressions' he said to hang in a little room that he was fitting up with prints. Croker's Boswell, p. 639. Among his effects that were sold after his death were 'sixty-one portraits framed and glazed,' post, under Dec. 9, 1784. When he was at Paris, and saw the picture-gallery at the Palais Royal, he entered in his Diary:-I thought the pictures of Raphael fine;' post, Oct. 16, 1775. The philosopher Hume was more insensible even than Johnson. Dr. J. H. Burton says:— It does not appear from any incident in his life, or allusions in his letters, which I can remember, that he had ever really admired a picture or a statue.' Life of Hume, ii. 134. 1 By Colman. There is nothing else new,' wrote Horace Walpole on March 7, 1761 (Letters, iii. 382), 'but a very indifferent play, called The Jealous Wife, so well acted as to have succeeded greatly.' In Chap. 47 of Rasselas Johnson had lately considered monastic life. Imlac says of the monks :-'Their time is regularly distributed, one duty succeeds another, so that they are not left open to the distraction of unguided choice, nor lost in the shades of listless inactiv were Aetat. 52.] Monastick life. 423 were to visit Italy, my curiosity would be more attracted by convents than by palaces: though I am afraid that I should find expectation in both places equally disappointed, and life in both places supported with impatience and quitted with reluctance. That it must be so soon quitted, is a powerful remedy against impatience; but what shall free us from reluctance? Those who have endeavoured to teach us to die well, have taught few to die willingly yet I cannot but hope that a good life might end at last in a contented death. 'You see to what a train of thought I am drawn by the mention of myself. Let me now turn my attention upon you. I hope you take care to keep an exact journal, and to register all occurrences and observations'; for your friends here expect such a book of travels as has not been often seen. You have given us good specimens in your letters from Lisbon. I wish you had staid longer in Spain', for no country is less known to the rest of Europe; but the quickness of your discernment must make amends for the celerity of your motions. He that knows which way to direct his view, sees much in a little time. 'Write to me very often, and I will not neglect to write to you; and I may, perhaps, in time, get something to write at least, you will know by my letters, whatever else they may have or want, that I continue to be 'London, June 10, 17613.' 'Your most affectionate friend, ity.... He that lives well in the world is better than he that lives in a monastery. But perhaps every one is not able to stem the temptations of publick life; and, if he cannot conquer, he may properly retreat. See also post, March 15, 1776, and Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 19, 1773. 1 Baretti, in the preface to his Journey (p. vi.), says that the method of the book was due to Dr. Johnson. It was he that exhorted me to write daily, and with all possible minuteness; it was he that pointed out the topics which would most interest and most delight in a future publication.' He advised Boswell to go to Spain. Post, June 25 and July 26, 1763. * Dr. Percy records that 'the first visit Goldsmith ever received from Johnson was on May 31, 1761, [ten days before this letter was written] when he gave an invitation to him, and much other company, many of them literary men, to a supper in his lodgings in Wine Office 424 Chronology of the Scriptures. [A.D. 1762. 1762: ÆTAT. 53.]-In 1762 he wrote for the Reverend Dr. Kennedy, Rector of Bradley in Derbyshire, in a strain of very courtly elegance, a Dedication to the King of that gentleman's work, entitled, A Complete System of Astronomical Chronology, unfolding the Scriptures. He had certainly looked at this work before it was printed; for the concluding paragraph is undoubtedly of his composition, of which let my readers judge: 'Thus have I endeavoured to free Religion and History from the darkness of a disputed and uncertain chronology; from difficulties which have hitherto appeared insuperable, and darkness which no luminary of learning has hitherto been able to dissipate. I have established the truth of the Mosaical account, by evidence which no transcription can corrupt, no negligence can lose, and no interest can pervert. I have shewn that the universe bears witness to the inspiration of its historian, by the revolution of its orbs and the succession of its seasons; that the stars in their courses fight against incredulity, that the works of GOD give hourly confirmation to the law, the prophets, and the gospel, of which one day telleth another, and one night certifieth another; and that the validity of the sacred writings can never be denied, while the moon shall increase and wane, and the sun shall know his going down'.' He this year wrote also the Dedication to the Earl of Middlesex of Mrs. Lennox's Female Quixote', and the Preface to the Catalogue of the Artists' Exhibition.† Court, Fleet Street. Percy being intimate with Johnson, was desired to call upon him and take him with him. As they went together the former was much struck with the studied neatness of Johnson's dress. He had on a new suit of clothes, a new wig nicely powdered, and everything about him so perfectly dissimilar from his usual appearance that his companion could not help inquiring the cause of this singular transformation. Why, Sir," said Johnson, "I hear that Goldsmith, who is a very great sloven, justifies his disregard of cleanliness and decency by quoting my practice, and I am desirous this night to show him a better example." Goldsmith's Misc. Works, i. 62. Psalms, xix. 2. Psalms, civ. 19. 1 Judges, v. 20. 64 2 * Boswell is ten years out in his date. This work was published in 1752. The review of it in the Gent. Mag. for that year, p. 146, was, I believe, by Johnson. The Aetat. 53.] The care of living. 425 The following letter, which, on account of its intrinsick merit, it would have been unjust both to Johnson and the publick to have with-held, was obtained for me by the solicitation of my friend Mr. Seward: 'TO DR. STAUNTON, (NOW SIR GEORGE STAUNTON, BARONET'). 'DEAR SIR, 'I make haste to answer your kind letter, in hope of hearing again from you before you leave us. I cannot but regret that a man of your qualifications should find it necessary to seek an establishment in Guadaloupe, which if a peace should restore to the French', I shall think it some alleviation of the loss, that it must restore likewise Dr. Staunton to the English. 'It is a melancholy consideration, that so much of our time is necessarily to be spent upon the care of living, and that we can seldom obtain ease in one respect but by resigning it in another; yet I suppose we are by this dispensation not less happy in the whole, than if the spontaneous bounty of Nature poured all that we want into our hands. A few, if they were thus left to themselves, would, perhaps, spend their time in laudable pursuits; but the greater part would prey upon the quiet of each other, or, in the want of other objects, would prey upon themselves. 'This, however, is our condition, which we must improve and solace as we can: and though we cannot choose always our place of residence, we may in every place find rational amusements, and possess in every place the comforts of piety and a pure conscience. 'In America there is little to be observed except natural curiosities. The new world must have many vegetables and animals with which philosophers are but little acquainted. I hope you will furnish yourself with some books of natural history, and some glasses and other instruments of observation. Trust as little as you can to report; examine all you can by your own senses. I do not doubt but you will be able to add much to knowledge, and, perhaps, to medicine. Wild nations trust to simples; and, perhaps, the Peruvian bark is not the only specifick which those extensive regions may afford us. 'Wherever you are, and whatever be your fortune, be certain, He accompanied Lord Macartney on his embassy to China in 1792. In 1797 he published his Account of the Embassy. 'It was taken in 1759, and restored to France in 1763. Penny Cyclo. xi. 463. dear 426 Improper expectations. [A.D. 1762. dear Sir, that you carry with you my kind wishes; and that whether you return hither, or stay in the other hemisphere', to hear that you are happy will give pleasure to, Sir, 'June 1, 1762.' 'Your most affectionate humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' A lady having at this time solicited him to obtain the Archbishop of Canterbury's patronage to have her son sent to the University, one of those solicitations which are too frequent, where people, anxious for a particular object, do not consider propriety, or the opportunity which the persons whom they solicit have to assist them, he wrote to her the following answer, with a copy of which I am favoured by the Reverend Dr. Farmer', Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge. 'MADAM, 'I hope you will believe that my delay in answering your letter could proceed only from my unwillingness to destroy any hope that you had formed. Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords3: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that 'Extraordinary as 1 W. S. Landor (Works, ed. 1876, v. 99) says: were Johnson's intellectual powers, he knew about as much of poetry as of geography. In one of his letters he talks of Guadaloupe as being in another hemisphere. Speaking of that island, his very words are these: "Whether you return hither or stay in another hemisphere.”* Guadaloupe, being in the West Indies, is in another hemisphere. 'See post, April 12, 1776. 3 ''It is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded; for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are less dreadful than its extinction.' The Idler, No. 58. See also post, under March 30, 1783, where he ranks the situation of the Prince of Wales as the happiest in the kingdom, partly on account of the enjoyment of hope. requires |