1763. Etat. 54. men, many women, and many children." Johnson, at this time, did not know that Dr. Blair had just published a Differtation, not only defending their authenticity, but seriously ranking them with the poems of Homer and Virgil and when he was afterwards informed of this circumftance, he expreffed fome displeasure at Dr. Fordyce's having fuggefted the topick, and faid, "I am not forry that they got thus much for their pains. Sir, it was like leading one to talk of a book, when the authour is concealed behind the door." He received me very courteously; but, it must be confeffed, that his apartment, and furniture, and morning drefs, were fufficiently uncouth. His brown fuit of cloaths looked very rufty; he had on a little old fhrivelled unpowdered wig, which was too small for his head; his fhirt-neck and knees of his breeches were loofe; his black worsted stockings ill drawn up; and he had a pair of unbuckled fhoes by way of flippers. But all these flovenly particularities were forgotten the moment that he began to talk. Some gentlemen, whom I do not recollect, were fitting with him; and when they went away, I alfo rofe; but he faid to me, Nay, don't go."—" Sir, (faid I) I am afraid that I intrude upon you. It is benevolent to allow me to fit and hear you." He feemed pleafed with this compliment, which I fincerely paid him, and anfwered, "Sir, I am obliged to any man who visits me." I have preferved the following fhort minute of what paffed this day. "Madness frequently discovers itself merely by unnecessary deviation from the ufual modes of the world. My poor friend Smart fhewed the disturbance of his mind by falling upon his knees and faying his prayers in the street, or in any other unufual place. Now although, rationally fpeaking, it is greater madness not to pray at all, than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are so many who do not pray, that their understanding is not called in question.” Concerning this unfortunate poet, Chriftopher Smart, who was confined in a mad-house, he had, at another time, the following converfation with Dr. Burney. JOHNSON. "It feems as if his mind had ceafed to ftruggle with the difeafe; for he grows fat upon it." BURNEY. "Perhaps, Sir, that may be from want of exercise." JOHNSON. "No, Sir; he has partly as much exercise as he used to have, for he digs in the garden. Indeed, before his confinement, he used for exercise to walk to the alehouse; but he was carried back again. I did not think he ought to be fhut up. His infirmities were not noxious to fociety. He infifted on people praying with him; and I'd as lief pray with Kit. Smart as any one elfe. Another charge was, that he did not love clean linen; and I have no paffion for it.” 4 "Mankind « Mankind have a great averfion to intellectual labour; but even fuppofing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.” "The morality of an action depends on the motive, from which we act. If I fling half a crown to a beggar with intention to break his head, and he picks it up and buys victuals with it, the phyfical effect is good; but, with refpect to me, the action is very wrong. So, religious exercises, if not performed with an intention to please GOD, avail us nothing. As our Saviour fays of those who perform them from other motives, Verily they have their reward.' "The Christian Religion has very strong evidences. It, indeed, appears in fome degree ftrange to reafon; but in History we have undoubted facts, against which, in reasoning à priori, we have more arguments than we have for them; but then, teftimony has great weight, and cafts the balance. I would recommend to every man whose faith is yet unfettled, Grotius,-Dr. Pearfon,-and Dr. Clark." Talking of Garrick, he said, "He is the first man in the world for sprightly conversation.” When I rose a second time he again preffed me to stay, which I did. He told me, that he generally went abroad at four in the afternoon, and feldom came home till two in the morning. I took the liberty to ask if he did not think it wrong to live thus, and not make more use of his great talents. He owned it was a bad habit. On reviewing, at the diftance of many years, my journal of this period, I wonder how, at my first visit, I ventured to talk to him fo freely, and that he bore it with fo much indulgence. Before we parted he was fo good as to promise to favour me with his company one evening at my lodgings; and, as I took my leave, shook me cordially by the hand. It is almost needlefs to add, that I felt no little elation at having now fo happily established an acquaintance of which I had been fo long ambitious. My readers will, I truft, excuse me for being thus minutely circumftantial, when it is confidered that the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson was to me a most valuable acquisition, and laid the foundation of whatever inftruction and entertainment they may receive from my collections concerning the great fubjec of the work which they are now perufing. I did not vifit him again till Monday, June 13, at which time I recollect no part of his converfation, except that when I told him I had been to fee Johnson ride upon three horses, he faid, "Such a man, Sir, fhould be encouraged; for his performances fhew the extent of the human powers in one 1763. tat. 54 1763. Etat. 54. one inftance, and thus tend to raise our opinion of the faculties of man. He fhews what may be attained by perfevering application; fo that every man may hope, that by giving as much application, although perhaps he may never ride three horses at a time or dance upon a wire, yet he may be equally expert in whatever profeffion he has chofen to purfue." He again fhook me by the hand at parting, and asked me why I did not come oftener to him. Trufting that I was now in his good graces, I answered, that he had not given me much encouragement, and reminded him of the check I had received from him at our first interview. "Poh, poh! (faid he, with a complacent fmile,) never mind these things. Come to me as often as you can. I fhall be glad to see you." I had learnt that his place of frequent refort was the Mitre tavern in Fleetstreet, where he loved to fit up late, and I begged I might be allowed to pass an evening with him there foon, which he promised I fhould. A few days afterwards I met him near Temple-bar, about one o'clock in the morning, and asked if he would then go to the Mitre. "Sir, (faid he) it is too late; they won't let us in. But I'll go with you another night with all my heart." A revolution of fome importance in my plan of life had just taken place; for instead of procuring a commiffion in the foot-guards, which was my own inclination, I had, in compliance with my father's wishes, agreed to study the law, and was foon to set out for Utrecht, to hear the lectures of an excellent Civilian in that University, and then to proceed on my travels. Though very defirous of obtaining Dr. Johnson's advice and instructions on the mode of pursuing my studies, I was at this time fo occupied, fhall I call it? or so diffipated, by the amusements of London, that our next meeting was not till Saturday, June 25, when happening to dine at Clifton's eating-house, in Butcher-row, I was furprized to perceive Johnson come in and take his feat at another table. The mode of dining, or rather being fed at fuch houses in London, is well known to many to be particularly unfocial, as there is no Ordinary, or united company, but each perfon has his own mess, and is under no obligation to hold any intercourfe with any one. A liberal and full-minded man, however, who loves to talk, will break through this ehurlish and unsocial restraint. Johnson and an Irish gentleman got into a dispute concerning the cause of some part of mankind being black. « Why, Sir, (faid Johnfon,) it has been accounted for in three ways: either by fuppofing that they are the pofterity of Ham, who was curfed; or that GOD at first created two kinds of men, one black and another white; or that by the heat of the fun the fkin is fcorched, and fo acquires a footy hue. This matter has been been much canvaffed among naturalists, but has never been brought to any 1763. certain iffue." What the Irishman faid is totally obliterated from my mind; Etat. 54. but I remember that he became very warm and intemperate in his expreffions; upon which Johnson rose, and quietly walked away. When he had retired, his antagonist took his revenge, as he thought, by faying " He has a most ungainly figure, and an affectation of pompofity unworthy of a man of genius." Johnson had not observed that I was in the room. I followed him, however, and he agreed to meet me in the evening at the Mitre. I called on him, and we went thither at nine. We had a good fupper, and port wine, of which he then sometimes drank a bottle. The orthodox high-church found of the Mitre, the figure and manner of the celebrated Samuel Johnson, the extraordinary power and precision of his converfation, and the pride arifing from finding myself admitted as his companion, produced a variety of sensations, and a pleasing elevation of mind beyond what I had ever before experienced. I find in my journal the following minute of our conversation, which, though it will give but a very faint notion of what paffed, is, in fome degree, a valuable record; and it will be curious in this view, as fhewing how habitual to his mind were fome opinions which appear in his works. Colley Cibber, Sir, was by no means a blockhead; but by arrogating to himself too much, he was in danger of lofing that degree of estimation to which he was entitled. His friends gave out that he intended his birth-day Odes should be bad: but that was not the cafe, Sir; for he kept them many months by him, and a few years before he died he fhewed me one of them, with great folicitude to render it as perfect as might be, and I made fome corrections, to which he was not very willing to fubmit. I member the following couplet in allufion to the King and himself: • Perch'd on the eagle's foaring wing The lowly linnet loves to fing.' Sir, he had heard fomething of the fabulous tale of the wren fitting upon the 1763. Etat. 54. "Sir, I do not think Gray a first-rate poet. He has not a bold imagination, nor much command of words. The obfcurity in which he has involved himfelf will not perfuade us that he is fublime. His Elegy in a church-yard has happy felection of images, but I don't like what are called his great things. His Ode which begins • Ruin feize thee, ruthlefs King, • Confufion on thy banners wait,' has been celebrated for its abruptnefs, and plunging into the fubject all at once. But fuch arts as these have no merit, unless when they are original. We admire them only once; and this abruptness has nothing new in it. We have had it often before. Nay, we have it in the old fong of Johnny Armstrong: Is there ever a man in all Scotland From the highest eftate to the lowest degree, &c.' And then, Sir, Yes, there is a man in Weftmoreland, And Johnny Armstrong they do him call.' There, now, you plunge at once into the fubject. You have no previous narration to lead you to it.-The two next lines in that Ode are, I think, very good : • Though fann'd by conqueft's crimson wing, Here let it be observed, that although his opinion of Gray's poetry was widely different from mine, and I believe from that of most men of taste, by whom it is with juftice highly admired, there is certainly much abfurdity in the clamour which has been raifed, as if he had been culpably injurious to the merit of that bard, and had been actuated by envy. Alas! ye little fhortfighted criticks, could Johnson be envious of the talents of any of his contemporaries? That his opinion on this fubject was what in private and in publick he uniformly expreffed, regardless of what others might think, we may wonder, and perhaps regret; but it is fhallow and unjust to charge him with expreffing what he did not think. * My friend Mr. Malone, in his valuable comments on Shakspeare, has traced in that great poet the disjella membra of these lines. Finding |