Aetat. 87.] The effects of wine on conversation. 41 the highest compliment that ever was paid to a layman, by asking his pardon for repeating some oaths in the course of telling a story'. Johnson and I supt this evening at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in company with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Langton, Mr. Nairne2, now one of the Scotch Judges, with the title of Lord Dunsinan, and my very worthy friend, Sir William Forbes3, of Pitsligo. We discussed the question whether drinking improved conversation and benevolence. Sir Joshua maintained it did. JOHNSON. No, Sir: before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding; and those who are conscious of their inferiority, have the modesty not to talk. When they have drunk wine, every man feels himself happy, and loses that modesty, and grows impudent and vociferous: but he is not improved; he is only not sensible of his defects.' Sir Joshua said the Doctor was talking of the effects of excess in wine; but that a moderate glass enlivened the mind, by giving a proper circulation to the blood. 'I am (said he,) in very good spirits, when I get up in the morning. By dinner-time I am exhausted; wine puts me in the same state as when I got up; and I am sure that moderate drinking makes people talk better.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; wine gives not light, gay, ideal hilarity; but tumultuous, noisy, clamorous merriment. I have heard none of those drunken,-nay, drunken is a coarse word,-none of those vinous flights.' SIR JOSHUA. 'Because you have sat by, quite sober, and felt an envy of the happiness of those who were drinking.' JOHNSON. 'Perhaps, contempt3.—And, Sir, it is not necessary to be drunk one's self, to relish the wit of drunkenness. Do we not judge of the drunken wit, of the dialogue between Iago and Cassio, the most excellent in its kind, when we are quite sober? Wit is wit, by whatever means it is produced; and, if good, will appear so at all times. I admit that the spirits are raised by drinking, as by the common 'Obscenity and impiety,' Johnson boasted in the last year of his life, 'have always been repressed in my company.' Post, June 11, 1784. See also post, Sept. 22, 1777. 2 See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 18. See post, April 28, 29, 1778. participation 42 The effects of wine on conversation. [A.D. 1776. participation of any pleasure: cock-fighting, or bear-baiting, will raise the spirits of a company, as drinking does, though surely they will not improve conversation. I also admit, that there are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits which are not good till they are rotten. There are such men, but they are medlars. I indeed allow that there have been a very few men of talents who were improved by drinking; but I maintain that I am right as to the effects of drinking in general: and let it be considered, that there is no position, however false in its universality, which is not true of some particular man.' Sir William Forbes said, 'Might not a man warmed with wine be like a bottle of beer, which is made brisker by being set before the fire?'-Nay, (said Johnson, laughing,) I cannot answer that: that is too much for me.' I observed, that wine did some people harm, by inflaming, confusing, and irritating their minds; but that the experience of mankind had declared in favour of moderate drinking. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I do not say it is wrong to produce self complacency by drinking; I only deny that it improves the mind. When I drank wine, I scorned to drink it when in company'. I have drunk many a bottle by myself; in the first place, because I had need of it to raise my spirits; in the second place, because I would have nobody to witness its effects upon me.' He told us, almost all his Ramblers were written just as they were wanted for the press; that he sent a certain portion of the copy of an essay, and wrote the remainder, while the former part of it was printing. When it was wanted, and he had fairly sat down to it, he was sure it would be done 3. See post, April 28, 1778. That he did not always scorn to drink when in company is shewn by what he said on April 7, 1778:-'I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worse for it. University College has witnessed this.' Copy is manuscript for printing. 3 In The Rambler, No. 134, he describes how he had sat deliberating on the subject for that day's paper, 'till at last I was awakened from this dream of study by a summons from the press; the time was now come for which I had been thus negligently purposing to provide, and, however dubious or sluggish, I was now necessitated to write. To a writer whose design is so comprehensive and miscellaneous that he may accommodate himself with a topick from every scene of life, or view of nature, it is no great aggra vation of his task to be obliged to He Aetat. 67.] Cumberland's ODES. 43 He said, that for general improvement, a man should read whatever his immediate inclination prompts him to; though, to be sure, if a man has a science to learn, he must regularly and resolutely advance. He added, 'what we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read'.' He told us, he read Fielding's Amelia through without stopping. He said, 'if a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an inclination to go on, let him not quit it, to go to the beginning. He may perhaps not feel again the inclination.' Sir Joshua mentioned Mr. Cumberland's Odes3, which were just published. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, they would have been thought as good as Odes commonly are, if Cumberland had not put his name to them; but a name immediately draws censure, unless it be a name that bears down everything before it. Nay, Cumberland has made his Odes subsidiary to the fame of another man. They might have run well enough by We have here an involuntary testimony to the excellence of this admirable writer, to whom we have seen that Dr. Johnson directly allowed so little merit. BOSWELL. 'Fielding's Amelia was the most pleasing heroine of all the romances,' he said; but that vile broken nose never cured [Amelia, bk., ii. ch. 1] ruined the sale of perhaps the only book, which being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night.' Piozzi's Anec. p. 221. Mrs. Carter, soon after the publication of Amelia, wrote (Corres. ii. 71):-'Methinks I long to engage you on the side of this poor unfortunate book, which I am told the fine folks are unanimous in pronouncing to be very sad stuff.' See ante, ii. 49. 3 Horace Walpole wrote, on Dec. 21, 1775 (Letters, vi. 298) :-' Mr. Cumberland has written an Ode, as he modestly calls it, in praise of Gray's Odes; charitably no doubt to make the latter taken notice of. Garrick read it the other night at Mr. Beauclerk's, who comprehended so little what it was about, that he desired Garrick to read it backwards, and try if it would not be equally good; he did, and it was.' It was to this reading backwards that Dean Barnard alludes in his verses 'The art of pleasing, teach me, Garrick ; Thou who reversest odes Pindaric, A second time read o'er.' See post, under May 8, 1781. Mr. Romney, the painter, who has now deservedly established a high reputation. BOSWELL. Cumberland (Memoirs, i. 384) dedicated his Odes to him, shortly after 'he themselves; 44 The writers in the REVIEWS. [A.D. 1776. themselves; but he has not only loaded them with a name, but has made them carry double.' We talked of the Reviews, and Dr. Johnson spoke of them as he did at Thrale's'. Sir Joshua said, what I have often thought, that he wondered to find so much good writing employed in them, when the authours were to remain unknown, and so could not have the motive of fame. JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, those who write in them, write well, in order to be paid well.' Soon after this day, he went to Bath with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. I had never seen that beautiful city, and wished to take the opportunity of visiting it, while Johnson was there. Having written to him, I received the following answer. 'DEAR SIR, 'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 'Why do you talk of neglect? When did I neglect you? If you will come to Bath, we shall all be glad to see you. Come, therefore, as soon as you can. 'But I have a little business for you at London. Bid Francis look in the paper-drawer of the chest of drawers in my bed-chamber, for two cases; one for the Attorney-General', and one for the SolicitorGeneral3. They lie, I think, at the top of my papers; otherwise they are somewhere else, and will give me more trouble. 'Please to write to me immediately, if they can be found. Make my compliments to all our friends round the world, and to Mrs. Williams at home. 'I am, Sir, your, &c. 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 'Search for the papers as soon as you can, that, if it is necessary, I may write to you again before you come down.' had returned from pursuing his studies at Rome.' 'A curious work might be written,' says Mr. Croker, 'on the reputation of painters. Hayley dedicated his lyre (such as it was) to Romney. What is a picture of Romney now worth?' The wheel is come full circle, and Mr. Croker's note is as curious as the work that he suggests. I Page 32 of this vol. BosWELL. * Thurlow. 3 Wedderburne. Boswell wrote to Temple on May 1-Luckily Dr. Taylor has begged of Dr. Johnson to come to London, to assist him in some interesting business, and Johnson loves much to be so consulted and so comes up.' Letters of Boswell, p. 234. On the 14th Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale :-' Mr. Wedderburne has given his opinion today directly against us. He thinks of the claim much as I think.' Piozzi Letters, i. 323. In Notes and Queries, 6th S., v. 423, in a letter from Johnson to Taylor, this business is mentioned. On Aetat. 67.] A visit to Bath. 45 On the 26th of April, I went to Bath'; and on my arrival at the Pelican inn, found lying for me an obliging invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, by whom I was agreeably entertained almost constantly during my stay. They were gone to the rooms; but there was a kind note from Dr. Johnson, that he should sit at home all the evening. I went to him directly, and before Mr. and Mrs. Thrale returned, we had by ourselves some hours of tea-drinking and talk. I shall group together such of his sayings as I preserved during the few days that I was at Bath. Of a person3 who differed from him in politicks, he said, 'In private life he is a very honest gentleman; but I will not allow him to be so in publick life. People may be honest, though they are doing wrong: that is, between their Maker and them. But we, who are suffering by their pernicious conduct, are to destroy them. We are sure that acts from interest. We know what his genuine principles were. They who allow their passions to confound the distinctions between right and Goldsmith wrote in 1762 :'Upon a stranger's arrival at Bath he is welcomed by a peal of the Abbey bells, and in the next place by the voice and music of the city waits.' Cunningham's Goldsmith's Works, iv. 57. In Humphry Clinker (published in 1771), in the Letter of April 24, we read that there was 'a peal of the Abbey bells for the honour of Mr. Bullock, an eminent cow-keeper of Tottenham, who had just arrived at Bath to drink the waters for indigestion.' town waits are also mentioned. season was not far from its close when Boswell arrived. Melford, in Humphry Clinker, wrote from Bath on May 17:-The music and entertainments of Bath are over for this season; and all our gay birds of passage have taken their flight to Bristol-well [Clifton], Tunbridge, Brighthelmstone, Scarborough, Harrowgate, &c. Not a soul is seen in this place, but a few broken-winded The parsons, waddling like so many crows along the North Parade.' Boswell had soon to return to London to eat commons in the Inner Temple.' Delighted with Bath, and apparently pleasing himself with the thought of a brilliant career at the Bar, he wrote to Temple, ' Quin said, "Bath was the cradle of age, and a fine slope to the grave." Were I a Baron of the Exchequer and you a Dean, how well could we pass some time there!' Letters of Boswell, pp. 231, 234. To the rooms! and their only son dead three days over one month! 'That it should come to this! But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two.' Hamlet, act i. sc. 2. 3 No doubt Mr. Burke. See ante, April 15, 1773, and under Oct. 1, 1774, note, and Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 15. wrong, |