Читать книгу The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. - James Boswell - Страница 112

‘I told you, that among the manuscripts are some things of Sir Thomas More. I beg you to pass an hour in looking on them, and procure a transcript of the ten or twenty first lines of each, to be compared with what I have; that I may know whether they are yet published. The manuscripts are these:

‘Catalogue of Bodl. MS. pag. 122. F. 3. Sir Thomas More.

‘1. Fall of angels. 2. Creation and fall of mankind. 3. Determination of the Trinity for the rescue of mankind. 4. Five lectures of our Saviour’s passion. 5. Of the institution of the sacrament, three lectures. 6. How to receive the blessed body of our Lord sacramentally. 7. Neomenia, the new moon. 8. De tristitia, tædio, pavore, et oratione Christi, ante captionem ejus.

‘Catalogue, pag. 154. Life of Sir Thomas More. Qu. Whether Roper’s? Pag. 363. De resignatione Magni Sigilli in manus Regis per D. Thomam Morum. Pag. 364. Mori Defensio Morice.

‘If you procure the young gentleman in the library to write out what you think fit to be written, I will send to Mr. Prince the bookseller to pay him what you shall think proper.

‘Be pleased to make my compliments to Mr. Wise, and all my friends.

‘I am, Sir,

‘Your affectionate, &c.

‘SAM. JOHNSON.’

‘[London] Aug. 7, 1755.’

[Page 291: Publication of the DICTIONARY. Ætat 46.]

The Dictionary, with a Grammar and History of the English Language, being now at length published, in two volumes folio, the world contemplated with wonder so stupendous a work achieved by one man, while other countries had thought such undertakings fit only for whole academies. Vast as his powers were, I cannot but think that his imagination deceived him, when he supposed that by constant application he might have performed the task in three years. Let the Preface be attentively perused, in which is given, in a clear, strong, and glowing style, a comprehensive, yet particular view of what he had done; and it will be evident, that the time he employed upon it was comparatively short. I am unwilling to swell my book with long quotations from what is in every body’s hands, and I believe there are few prose compositions in the English language that are read with more delight, or are more impressed upon the memory, than that preliminary discourse. One of its excellencies has always struck me with peculiar admiration: I mean the perspicuity with which he has expressed abstract scientifick notions. As an instance of this, I shall quote the following sentence: ‘When the radical idea branches out into parallel ramifications, how can a consecutive series be formed of senses in their own[849] nature collateral?’ We have here an example of what has been often said, and I believe with justice, that there is for every thought a certain nice adaptation of words which none other could equal, and which, when a man has been so fortunate as to hit, he has attained, in that particular case, the perfection of language.

[Page 292: The Preface to the Dictionary. A.D. 1755.]

The extensive reading which was absolutely necessary for the accumulation of authorities, and which alone may account for Johnson’s retentive mind being enriched with a very large and various store of knowledge and imagery, must have occupied several years. The Preface furnishes an eminent instance of a double talent, of which Johnson was fully conscious. Sir Joshua Reynolds heard him say, ‘There are two things which I am confident I can do very well: one is an introduction to any literary work, stating what it is to contain, and how it should be executed in the most perfect manner; the other is a conclusion, shewing from various causes why the execution has not been equal to what the authour promised to himself and to the publick.’

How should puny scribblers be abashed and disappointed, when they find him displaying a perfect theory of lexicographical excellence, yet at the same time candidly and modestly allowing that he ‘had not satisfied his own expectations[850].’ Here was a fair occasion for the exercise of Johnson’s modesty, when he was called upon to compare his own arduous performance, not with those of other individuals, (in which case his inflexible regard to truth would have been violated, had he affected diffidence,) but with speculative perfection[851]; as he, who can outstrip all his competitors in the race, may yet be sensible of his deficiency when he runs against time. Well might he say, that ‘the English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned[852],’ for he told me, that the only aid which he received was a paper containing twenty etymologies, sent to him by a person then unknown, who he was afterwards informed was Dr. Pearce, Bishop of Rochester[853]. The etymologies, though they exhibit learning and judgement, are not, I think, entitled to the first praise amongst the various parts of this immense work. The definitions have always appeared to me such astonishing proofs of acuteness of intellect and precision of language, as indicate a genius of the highest rank[854]. This it is which marks the superiour excellence of Johnson’s Dictionary over others equally or even more voluminous, and must have made it a work of much greater mental labour than mere Lexicons, or Word-books, as the Dutch call them. They, who will make the experiment of trying how they can define a few words of whatever nature, will soon be satisfied of the unquestionable justice of this observation, which I can assure my readers is founded upon much study, and upon communication with more minds than my own.

[Page 293: Erroneous definitions. Ætat 46.]

A few of his definitions must be admitted to be erroneous. Thus, Windward and Leeward[855], though directly of opposite meaning, are defined identically the same way; as to which inconsiderable specks it is enough to observe, that his Preface announces that he was aware there might be many such in so immense a work[856]; nor was he at all disconcerted when an instance was pointed out to him. A lady once asked him how he came to define Pastern the knee of a horse: instead of making an elaborate defence, as she expected, he at once answered, ‘Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance[857].’ His definition of Network[858] has been often quoted with sportive malignity[859], as obscuring a thing in itself very plain. But to these frivolous censures no other answer is necessary than that with which we are furnished by his own Preface.

[Page 294: Humorous definitions. A.D. 1755.]

‘To explain, requires the use of terms less abstruse than that which is to be explained, and such terms cannot always be found. For as nothing can be proved but by supposing something intuitively known, and evident without proof, so nothing can be defined but by the use of words too plain to admit of definition[860]. Sometimes easier words are changed into harder; as, burial, into sepulture or interment; dry[861], into desiccative; dryness, into siccity or aridity; fit, into paroxism; for the easiest word, whatever it be, can never be translated into one more easy.’

[Page 295: Humorous definitions.]

His introducing his own opinions, and even prejudices, under general definitions of words, while at the same time the original meaning of the words is not explained, as his Tory[862], Whig[863], Pension[864], Oats[865], Excise[866], and a few more, cannot be fully defended, and must be placed to the account of capricious and humorous indulgence[867]. Talking to me upon this subject when we were at Ashbourne in 1777, he mentioned a still stronger instance of the predominance of his private feelings in the composition of this work, than any now to be found in it. ‘You know, Sir, Lord Gower forsook the old Jacobite interest. When I came to the word Renegado, after telling that it meant “one who deserts to the enemy, a revolter,” I added, Sometimes we say a GOWER[868]. Thus it went to the press; but the printer had more wit than I, and struck it out.’

[Page 296: Humorous definitions. A.D. 1756.]

Let it, however, be remembered, that this indulgence does not display itself only in sarcasm towards others, but sometimes in playful allusion to the notions commonly entertained of his own laborious task. Thus: ‘Grub-street, the name of a street in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called Grub-street[869].’—’Lexicographer, a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge[870]’.

[Page 297: The gloom of solitude. Ætat 46.]

At the time when he was concluding his very eloquent Preface, Johnson’s mind appears to have been in such a state of depression[871], that we cannot contemplate without wonder the vigorous and splendid thoughts which so highly distinguish that performance. ‘I (says he) may surely be contented without the praise of perfection, which if I could obtain in this gloom of solitude, what would it avail me? I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave; and success and miscarriage are empty sounds, I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise[872].’ That this indifference was rather a temporary than an habitual feeling, appears, I think, from his letters to Mr. Warton[873]; and however he may have been affected for the moment, certain it is that the honours which his great work procured him, both at home and abroad, were very grateful to him[874]. His friend the Earl of Corke and Orrery, being at Florence, presented it to the Academia della Crusca. That Academy sent Johnson their Vocabulario, and the French Academy sent him their Dictionnaire, which Mr. Langton had the pleasure to convey to him[875].

[Page 298: His melancholy at its meridian. A.D. 1755.]

It must undoubtedly seem strange, that the conclusion of his Preface should be expressed in terms so desponding, when it is considered that the authour was then only in his forty-sixth year. But we must ascribe its gloom to that miserable dejection of spirits to which he was constitutionally subject, and which was aggravated by the death of his wife two years before[876]. I have heard it ingeniously observed by a lady of rank and elegance, that ‘his melancholy was then at its meridian[877].’ It pleased GOD to grant him almost thirty years of life after this time; and once, when he was in a placid frame of mind, he was obliged to own to me that he had enjoyed happier days, and had many more friends, since that gloomy hour than before[878].

[Page 299: Johnson’s happiest days last. Ætat 46.]

It is a sad saying, that ‘most of those whom he wished to please had sunk into the grave;’ and his case at forty-five was singularly unhappy, unless the circle of his friends was very narrow. I have often thought, that as longevity is generally desired, and I believe, generally expected, it would be wise to be continually adding to the number of our friends, that the loss of some may be supplied by others. Friendship, ‘the wine of life[879],’ should like a well-stocked cellar, be thus continually renewed; and it is consolatory to think, that although we can seldom add what will equal the generous first-growths of our youth, yet friendship becomes insensibly old in much less time than is commonly imagined, and not many years are required to make it very mellow and pleasant. Warmth will, no doubt, make a considerable difference. Men of affectionate temper and bright fancy will coalesce a great deal sooner than those who are cold and dull.

[Page 300: Garrick’s complimentary epigram. A.D. 1755.]

The proposition which I have now endeavoured to illustrate was, at a subsequent period of his life, the opinion of Johnson himself. He said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, ‘If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.’

The celebrated Mr. Wilkes, whose notions and habits of life were very opposite to his, but who was ever eminent for literature and vivacity, sallied forth with a little Jeu d’Esprit upon the following passage in his Grammar of the English Tongue, prefixed to the Dictionary: ‘H seldom, perhaps never, begins any but the first syllable.’ In an Essay printed in The Publick Advertiser, this lively writer enumerated many instances in opposition to this remark; for example, ‘The authour of this observation must be a man of a quick apprehension, and of a most comprehensive genius.’ The position is undoubtedly expressed with too much latitude.

This light sally, we may suppose, made no great impression on our Lexicographer; for we find that he did not alter the passage till many years afterwards[880].

He had the pleasure of being treated in a very different manner by his old pupil Mr. Garrick, in the following complimentary Epigram[881]:

‘On JOHNSON’S DICTIONARY,

‘Talk of war with a Briton, he’ll boldly advance,

That one English soldier will beat ten of France;

Would we alter the boast from the sword to the pen,

Our odds are still greater, still greater our men:

In the deep mines of science though Frenchmen may toil,

Can their strength be compar’d to Locke, Newton, and Boyle?

Let them rally their heroes, send forth all their pow’rs,

Their verse-men and prose-men, then match them with ours!

First Shakspeare and Milton[882], like gods in the fight,

Have put their whole drama and epick to flight;

In satires, epistles, and odes, would they cope,

Their numbers retreat before Dryden and Pope;

And Johnson, well arm’d like a hero of yore,

Has beat forty French[883], and will beat forty more!’

[Page 301: Zachariah Williams. Ætat 46.]

Johnson this year gave at once a proof of his benevolence, quickness of apprehension, and admirable art of composition, in the assistance which he gave to Mr. Zachariah Williams, father of the blind lady whom he had humanely received under his roof. Mr. Williams had followed the profession of physick in Wales; but having a very strong propensity to the study of natural philosophy, had made many ingenious advances towards a discovery of the longitude, and repaired to London in hopes of obtaining the great parliamentary reward[884]. He failed of success; but Johnson having made himself master of his principles and experiments, wrote for him a pamphlet, published in quarto, with the following title: An Account of an Attempt to ascertain the Longitude at Sea, by an exact Theory of the Variation of the Magnetical Needle; with a Table of the Variations at the most remarkable Cities in Europe, from the year 1660 to 1680.[Dagger] To diffuse it more extensively, it was accompanied with an Italian translation on the opposite page, which it is supposed was the work of Signor Baretti[885], an Italian of considerable literature, who having come to England a few years before, had been employed in the capacity both of a language-master and an authour, and formed an intimacy with Dr. Johnson. This pamphlet Johnson presented to the Bodleian Library[886]. On a blank leaf of it is pasted a paragraph cut out of a newspaper, containing an account of the death and character of Williams, plainly written by Johnson[887].

[Page 302: Joseph Baretti. A.D. 1755.]

[Page 303: A scheme of life for Sunday. Ætat 47.]

In July this year he had formed some scheme of mental improvement, the particular purpose of which does not appear. But we find in his Prayers and Meditations, p. 25, a prayer entitled ‘On the Study of Philosophy, as an Instrument of living;’ and after it follows a note, ‘This study was not pursued.’

On the 13th of the same month he wrote in his Journal the following scheme of life, for Sunday:

‘Having lived’ (as he with tenderness of conscience expresses himself) ‘not without an habitual reverence for the Sabbath, yet without that attention to its religious duties which Christianity requires;

‘1. To rise early, and in order to it, to go to sleep early on Saturday.

‘2. To use some extraordinary devotion in the morning.

‘3. To examine the tenour of my life, and particularly the last week; and to mark my advances in religion, or recession from it.

‘4. To read the Scripture methodically with such helps as are at hand.

‘5. To go to church twice.

‘6. To read books of Divinity, either speculative or practical.

‘7. To instruct my family.

‘8. To wear off by meditation any worldly soil contracted in the week.’

1756: ÆTAT. 47.—In 1756 Johnson found that the great fame of his Dictionary had not set him above the necessity of ‘making provision for the day that was passing over him[888].’

[Page 304: Payment for the DICTIONARY. A.D. 1756.]

No royal or noble patron extended a munificent hand to give independence to the man who had conferred stability on the language of his country. We may feel indignant that there should have been such unworthy neglect; but we must, at the same time, congratulate ourselves, when we consider, that to this very neglect, operating to rouse the natural indolence of his constitution, we owe many valuable productions, which otherwise, perhaps, might never have appeared.

He had spent, during the progress of the work, the money for which he had contracted to write his Dictionary. We have seen that the reward of his labour was only fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds; and when the expence of amanuenses and paper, and other articles are deducted, his clear profit was very inconsiderable. I once said to him, ‘I am sorry, Sir, you did not get more for your Dictionary‘. His answer was, ‘I am sorry, too. But it was very well. The booksellers are generous, liberal-minded men[889].’ He, upon all occasions, did ample justice to their character in this respect[890]. He considered them as the patrons of literature; and, indeed, although they have eventually been considerable gainers by his Dictionary, it is to them that we owe its having been undertaken and carried through at the risk of great expence, for they were not absolutely sure of being indemnified.

[Page 305: Johnson’s opinion of booksellers. Ætat 47.]

On the first day of this year we find from his private devotions, that he had then recovered from sickness[891]; and in February that his eye was restored to its use[892]. The pious gratitude with which he acknowledges mercies upon every occasion is very edifying; as is the humble submission which he breathes, when it is the will of his heavenly Father to try him with afflictions. As such dispositions become the state of man here, and are the true effects of religious discipline, we cannot but venerate in Johnson one of the most exercised minds that our holy religion hath ever formed. If there be any thoughtless enough to suppose such exercise the weakness of a great understanding, let them look up to Johnson and be convinced that what he so earnestly practised must have a rational foundation.

[Page 306: Christopher Smart. A.D. 1756.]

His works this year were, an abstract or epitome, in octavo, of his folio Dictionary, and a few essays in a monthly publication, entitled, The Universal Visiter. Christopher Smart, with whose unhappy vacillation of mind he sincerely sympathised, was one of the stated undertakers of this miscellany; and it was to assist him that Johnson sometimes employed his pen[893]. All the essays marked with two asterisks have been ascribed to him; but I am confident, from internal evidence, that of these, neither ‘The Life of Chaucer,’ ‘Reflections on the State of Portugal,’ nor an ‘Essay on Architecture,’ were written by him. I am equally confident, upon the same evidence, that he wrote ‘Further Thoughts on Agriculture[894];’[Dagger] being the sequel of a very inferiour essay on the same subject, and which, though carried on as if by the same hand, is both in thinking and expression so far above it, and so strikingly peculiar, as to leave no doubt of its true parent; and that he also wrote ‘A Dissertation on the State of Literature and Authours[895],’[Dagger] and ‘A Dissertation on the Epitaphs written by Pope.’[Dagger] The last of these, indeed, he afterwards added to his Idler[896]. Why the essays truly written by him are marked in the same manner with some which he did not write, I cannot explain; but with deference to those who have ascribed to him the three essays which I have rejected, they want all the characteristical marks of Johnsonian composition.

[Page 307: The Literary Magazine. Ætat 47.]

He engaged also to superintend and contribute largely to another monthly publication, entitled The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review; the first number of which came out in May this year[897]. What were his emoluments from this undertaking, and what other writers were employed in it, I have not discovered. He continued to write in it, with intermissions, till the fifteenth number; and I think that he never gave better proofs of the force, acuteness, and vivacity of his mind, than in this miscellany, whether we consider his original essays, or his reviews of the works of others. The ‘Preliminary Address’[Dagger] to the Publick is a proof how this great man could embellish, with the graces of superiour composition, even so trite a thing as the plan of a magazine.

His original essays are, ‘An Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain[898];’[Dagger] ‘Remarks on the Militia Bill[899];’[Dagger] ‘Observations on his Britannick Majesty’s Treaties with the Empress of Russia and the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel[900];’[Dagger] ‘Observations on the Present State of Affairs[901];’[Dagger] and ‘Memoirs of Frederick III, King of Prussia[902].’[Dagger] In all these he displays extensive political knowledge and sagacity, expressed with uncommon energy and perspicuity, without any of those words which he sometimes took a pleasure in adopting in imitation of Sir Thomas Browne; of whose Christian Morals he this year gave an edition, with his ‘Life’[*] prefixed to it, which is one of Johnson’s best biographical performances. In one instance only in these essays has he indulged his Brownism[903]. Dr. Robertson, the historian, mentioned it to me, as having at once convinced him that Johnson was the author of the ‘Memoirs of the King of Prussia.’ Speaking of the pride which the old King, the father of his hero, took in being master of the tallest regiment in Europe, he says, ‘To review this towering regiment was his daily pleasure; and to perpetuate it was so much his care, that when he met a tall woman he immediately commanded one of his Titanian retinue to marry her, that they might propagate procerity[904]’ For this Anglo-Latian word procerity, Johnson had, however, the authority of Addison[905].

[Page 309: The earthquake of Lisbon. Ætat 47.]

His reviews are of the following books: ‘Birch’s History of the Royal Society;’[Dagger] ‘Murphy’s Gray’s Inn Journal;’[Dagger] ‘Warton’s Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope, Vol. I.’[Dagger] ‘Hampton’s Translation of Polybius;’[Dagger] ‘Blackwell’s Memoirs of the Court of Augustus;’[Dagger] ‘Russel’s Natural History of Aleppo[906];’[Dagger] ‘Sir Isaac Newton’s Arguments in Proof of a Deity;’[Dagger] ‘Borlase’s History of the Isles of Scilly;’[Dagger] ‘Home’s Experiments on Bleaching;’[Dagger] ‘Browne’s Christian Morals;’[Dagger] ‘Hales on Distilling Sea-Water, Ventilators in Ships, and curing an ill Taste in Milk;’[Dagger] ‘Lucas’s Essay on Waters;’[Dagger] ‘Keith’s Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops;’[Dagger] ‘Browne’s History of Jamaica;’[Dagger] ‘Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XLIX.’[Dagger] ‘Mrs. Lennox’s Translation of Sully’s Memoirs;’[*] ‘Miscellanies by Elizabeth Harrison;’[Dagger] ‘Evans’s Map and Account of the Middle Colonies in America[907];’[Dagger] ‘Letter on the Case of Admiral Byng;’[*] ‘Appeal to the People concerning Admiral Byng;’[*] ‘Hanway’s Eight Days Journey, and Essay on Tea;’[*] ‘The Cadet, a Military Treatise;’[Dagger] ‘Some further Particulars in Relation to the Case of Admiral Byng, by a Gentleman of Oxford;’[*] ‘The Conduct of the Ministry relating to the present War impartially examined;’[Dagger] ‘A Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil.’[*] All these, from internal evidence, were written by Johnson; some of them I know he avowed, and have marked them with an asterisk accordingly[908].

[Page 310: Johnson’s ardour for liberty. A.D. 1750.]

Mr. Thomas Davies indeed, ascribed to him the Review of Mr. Burke’s

‘Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful;’ and

Sir John Hawkins, with equal discernment, has inserted it in his

collection of Johnson’s works: whereas it has no resemblance to

Johnson’s composition, and is well known to have been written by Mr.

Murphy, who has acknowledged it to me and many others.

It is worthy of remark, in justice to Johnson’s political character, which has been misrepresented as abjectly submissive to power, that his ‘Observations on the present State of Affairs’ glow with as animated a spirit of constitutional liberty as can be found any where. Thus he begins:

‘The time is now come, in which every Englishman expects to be informed of the national affairs; and in which he has a right to have that expectation gratified. For, whatever may be urged by Ministers, or those whom vanity or interest make the followers of ministers, concerning the necessity of confidence in our governours, and the presumption of prying with profane eyes into the recesses of policy, it is evident that this reverence can be claimed only by counsels yet unexecuted, and projects suspended in deliberation. But when a design has ended in miscarriage or success, when every eye and every ear is witness to general discontent, or general satisfaction, it is then a proper time to disentangle confusion and illustrate obscurity; to shew by what causes every event was produced, and in what effects it is likely to terminate; to lay down with distinct particularity what rumour always huddles in general exclamation, or perplexes by indigested[909] narratives; to shew whence happiness or calamity is derived, and whence it may be expected; and honestly to lay before the people what inquiry can gather of the past, and conjecture can estimate of the future[910]’.

[Page 311: Dr. Lucas. Ætat 47.]

Here we have it assumed as an incontrovertible principle, that in this country the people are the superintendants of the conduct and measures of those by whom government is administered; of the beneficial effect of which the present reign afforded an illustrious example, when addresses from all parts of the kingdom controuled an audacious attempt to introduce a new power subversive of the crown.[911]

A still stronger proof of his patriotick spirit appears in his review of an ‘Essay on Waters, by Dr. Lucas;’ of whom, after describing him as a man well known to the world for his daring defiance of power, when he thought it exerted on the side of wrong, he thus speaks:

‘The Irish ministers drove him from his native country by a proclamation, in which they charged him with crimes of which they never intended to be called to the proof, and oppressed by methods equally irresistible by guilt and innocence.

‘Let the man thus driven into exile, for having been the friend of his country, be received in every other place as a confessor of liberty; and let the tools of power be taught in time, that they may rob, but cannot impoverish[912].’

Some of his reviews in this Magazine are very short accounts of the pieces noticed, and I mention them only that Dr. Johnson’s opinion of the works may be known; but many of them are examples of elaborate criticism, in the most masterly style. In his review of the ‘Memoirs of the Court of Augustus,’ he has the resolution to think and speak from his own mind, regardless of the cant transmitted from age to age, in praise of the ancient Romans[913]. Thus,

‘I know not why any one but a school-boy in his declamation should whine over the Common-wealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another[914].’

[Page 312: Dr. Watts. A.D. 1756.]

Again,

‘A people, who, while they were poor, robbed mankind; and as soon as they became rich, robbed one another[915].’

In his review of the Miscellanies in prose and verse, published by Elizabeth Harrison, but written by many hands, he gives an eminent proof at once of his orthodoxy and candour:

‘The authours of the essays in prose seem generally to have imitated, or tried to imitate, the copiousness and luxuriance of Mrs. Rowe[916], This, however, is not all their praise; they have laboured to add to her brightness of imagery, her purity of sentiments. The poets have had Dr. Watts before their eyes; a writer, who, if he stood not in the first class of genius, compensated that defect by a ready application of his powers to the promotion of piety. The attempt to employ the ornaments of romance in the decoration of religion, was, I think, first made by Mr. Boyle’s Martyrdom of Theodora; but Boyle’s philosophical studies did not allow him time for the cultivation of style; and the Completion of the great design was reserved for Mrs. Rowe. Dr. Watts was one of the first who taught the Dissenters to write and speak like other men, by shewing them that elegance might consist with piety[917]. They would have both done honour to a better society[918], for they had that charity which might well make their failings be forgotten, and with which the whole Christian world might wish for communion. They were pure from all the heresies of an age, to which every opinion is become a favourite that the universal church has hitherto detested!

[Page 313: Johnson’s defence of tea. Ætat 47.]

‘This praise, the general interest of mankind requires to be given to writers who please and do not corrupt, who instruct and do not weary. But to them all human eulogies are vain, whom I believe applauded by angels, and numbered with the just[919].’

[Page 314: Johnson’s reply to Hanway’s attack. A.D. 1756.]

His defence of tea against Mr. Jonas Hartway’s violent attack upon that elegant and popular beverage[920], shews how very well a man of genius can write upon the slightest subject, when he writes, as the Italians say, con amore: I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of that fragrant leaf than Johnson[921]. The quantities which he drank of it at all hours were so great, that his nerves must have been uncommonly strong, not to have been extremely relaxed by such an intemperate use of it[922]. He assured me, that he never felt the least inconvenience from it; which is a proof that the fault of his constitution was rather a too great tension of fibres, than the contrary. Mr. Hanway wrote an angry answer to Johnson’s review of his Essay on Tea, and Johnson, after a full and deliberate pause, made a reply to it; the only instance, I believe, in the whole course of his life, when he condescended to oppose any thing that was written against him[923]. I suppose when he thought of any of his little antagonists, he was ever justly aware of the high sentiment of Ajax in Ovid:

‘Iste tulit pretium jam nunc certaminis hujus,

Qui, cùm victus erit, mecum certasse feretur[924].’

But, indeed, the good Mr. Hanway laid himself so open to ridicule, that

Johnson’s animadversions upon his attack were chiefly to make sport[925].

[Page 315: Admiral Byng. Ætat 47.]

The generosity with which he pleads the cause of Admiral Byng is highly to the honour of his heart and spirit. Though Voltaire affects to be witty upon the fate of that unfortunate officer, observing that he was shot ‘pour encourager les autres[926],’ the nation has long been satisfied that his life was sacrificed to the political fervour of the times. In the vault belonging to the Torrington family, in the church of Southill[927], in Bedfordshire, there is the following Epitaph upon his monument, which I have transcribed: