Complete Works of Samuel Johnson, page 825
Fame, bile tumet jecur:
Urbane, mitte opem, precor.
Tibi enim cor humanum
Non a malis alienum:
Mihi mens nee male grato,
Pro a te favore dato.
Ex gehenna debitoria,
Vulgo, domo spongiatoria.’
He adds that he hopes to have his Ode on the British Nation done that day. This Ode, which is given in the Gent. Mag. 1742, p. 383, contains the following verse, which contrasts sadly with the poor poet’s case: —
‘Thou, sacred isle, amidst thy ambient main,
Enjoyst the sweets of freedom all thy own.’
[G-2] It is not likely that Johnson called a sixpence ‘a serious consideration.’ He who in his youth would not let his comrades say prodigious (ante/, in. 303) was not likely in his old age so to misuse a word.
[G-3] Hugh Kelly is mentioned ante, ii. 48, note 2, and iii. 113.
[G-4] It was not on the return from Sky, but on the voyage from Sky to Rasay, that the spurs were lost. Post, v. 163.
[G-5] Dr. White’s Bampton Lectures of 1784 ‘became part of the triumphant literature of the University of Oxford,’ and got the preacher a Christ Church Canonry. Of these Lectures Dr. Parr had written about one-fifth part. White, writing to Parr about a passage in the manuscript of the last Lecture, said:— ‘I fear I did not clearly explain myself; I humbly beg the favour of you to make my meaning more intelligible.’ On the death of Mr. Badcock in 1788, a note for £500 from White was found in his pocket-book. White pretended that this was remuneration for some other work; but it was believed on good grounds that Badcock had begun what Parr had completed, and that these famous Lectures were mainly their work. Badcock was one of the writers in the Monthly Review. Johnstone’s Life of Dr. Parr, i. 218-278. For Badcock’s correspondence with the editor of the Monthly Review, see Bodleian MS. Add.
C. 90.
[G-6] ‘Virgilium vidi tantum.’ Ovid, Tristia, iv. 10. 51.
[G-7] Mackintosh says of Priestley:— ‘Frankness and disinterestedness in the avowal of his opinion were his point of honour.’ He goes on to point out that there was ‘great mental power in him wasted and scattered.’ Life of Mackintosh, i. 349. See ante, ii. 124, and iv. 238 for Johnson’s opinion of Priestley.
[G-8] Badcock, in using the term ‘index-scholar,’ was referring no doubt to Pope’s lines: —
‘How Index-learning turns no student pale,
Yet holds the eel of science by the tail.’
Dunciad, i. 279.
APPENDIX H.
(Notes on Boswell’s note on pages 421-422.)
[H-1] The last lines of the inscription on this urn are borrowed, with a slight change, from the last paragraph of the last Rambler/. (Johnson’s Works, iii. 465, and ante, i. 226.) Johnson visited Colonel Myddelton on August 29, 1774, in his Tour to Wales. See post, v. 453.
[H-2] Johnson, writing to Dr. Taylor on Sept. 3, 1783, said:— ‘I sat to Opey (sic) as long as he desired, and I think the head is finished, but it is not much admired.’ Notes and Queries, 6th S. v. 481. Hawkins (Life of Johnson, p. 569) says that in 1784 ‘Johnson resumed sitting to Opie, but,’ he adds, ‘I believe the picture was never finished.’
[H-3] Of this picture, which was the one painted for Beauclerk (ante, p. 180), it is stated in Johnson’s Work, ed. 1787, xi. 204, that ‘there is in it that appearance of a labouring working mind, of an indolent reposing body, which he had to a very great degree.’
[H-4] It seems almost certain that the portrait of Johnson in the Common Room of University College, Oxford, is this very mezzotinto. It was given to the College by Sir William Scott, and it is a mezzotinto from Opie’s portrait. It has been reproduced for this work, and will be found facing page 244 of volume iii. Scott’s inscription on the back of the frame is given on page 245, note 3, of the same volume.
APPENDIX I.
(Page 424.)
Boswell most likely never knew that in the year 1790 Mr. Seward, in the name of Cadell the publisher, had asked Parr to write a Life of Johnson. (Johnstone’s Life of Parr, iv. 678.) Parr, in his amusing vanity, was as proud of this Life as if he had written it. ‘“It would have been,” he said, “the third most learned work that has ever yet appeared. The most learned work ever published I consider Bentley On the Epistles of Phalaris; the next Salmasius On the Hellenistic Language.” Alluding to Boswell’s Life he continued, “Mine should have been, not the droppings of his lips, but the history of his mind.”’ Field’s Life of Parr, i. 164.
In the epitaph that he first sent in were found the words ‘Probabili Poetae.’
‘In arms,’ wrote Parr, ‘were all the Johnsonians: Malone, Steevens, Sir W. Scott, Windham, and even Fox, all in arms. The epithet was cold. They do not understand it, and I am a Scholar, not a Belles-Lettres man.’
Parr had wished to pass over all notice of Johnson’s poetical character. To this, Malone said, none of his friends of the Literary Club would agree. He pointed out also that Parr had not noticed ‘that part of Johnson’s genius, which placed him on higher ground than perhaps any other quality that can be named — the universality of his knowledge, the promptness of his mind in producing it on all occasions in conversation, and the vivid eloquence with which he clothed his thoughts, however suddenly called upon.’ Parr, regardless of Johnson’s rule that ‘in lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath’ (ante, ii. 407), replied, that if he mentioned his conversation he should have to mention also his roughness in contradiction, &c. As for the epithet probabili, he ‘never reflected upon it without almost a triumphant feeling in its felicity.’ Nevertheless he would change it into ‘poetae sententiarum et verborum ponderibus admirabili.’ Yet these words, ‘energetic and sonorous’ though they were, ‘fill one with a secret and invincible loathing, because they tend to introduce into the epitaph a character of magnificence.’ With every fresh objection he rose in importance. He wrote for the approbation of real scholars of generations yet unborn. ‘That the epitaph was written by such or such a man will, from the publicity of the situation, and the popularity of the subject, be long remembered.’ Johnstone’s Life of Parr, iv. 694-712. No objection seems to have been raised to the five pompous lines of perplexing dates and numerals in which no room is found even for Johnson’s birth and birth-place.
‘After I had written the epitaph,’ wrote Parr to a friend, ‘Sir Joshua Reynolds told me there was a scroll. I was in a rage. A scroll! Why, Ned, this is vile modern contrivance. I wanted one train of ideas. What could I do with the scroll? Johnson held it, and Johnson must speak in it. I thought of this, his favourite maxim, in the Life of Milton, [Johnson’s Works, vii. 77],
“[Greek: Otti toi en megaroisi kakon t agathon te tetuktai.].”
In Homer [Odyssey, iv. 392] you know — and shewing the excellence of Moral Philosophy. There Johnson and Socrates agree. Mr. Seward, hearing of my difficulty, and no scholar, suggested the closing line in the Rambler [ante, i. 226, note 1]; had I looked there I should have anticipated the suggestion. It is the closing line in Dionysius’s Periegesis,
“[Greek: Anton ek makaron antaxios eiae amoibae.].”
I adopted it, and gave Seward the praise. “Oh,” quoth Sir William Scott, “[Greek: makaron] is Heathenish, and the Dean and Chapter will hesitate.” “The more fools they,” said I. But to prevent disputes I have altered it.
“[Greek: En makaressi ponon antaxios ein amoibae].”
Johnstone’s Life of Parr, iv. 713.
Though the inscription on the scroll is not strictly speaking part of the epitaph, yet this mixture of Greek and Latin is open to the censure Johnson passed on Pope’s Epitaph on Craggs.
‘It may be proper to remark,’ he said, ‘the absurdity of joining in the same inscription Latin and English, or verse and prose. If either language be preferable to the other, let that only be used; for no reason can be given why part of the information should be given in one tongue and part in another on a tomb more than in any other place, or on any other occasion.’ Johnson’s Works, viii. 353.
Bacon the sculptor was anxious, wrote Malone, ‘that posterity should know that he was entitled to annex R.A. to his name.’ Parr was ready to give his name, lest if it were omitted ‘Bacon should slily put the figure of a hog on Johnson’s monument’; just as ‘Saurus and Batrachus, when Octavia would not give them leave to set their names on the Temples they had built in Rome, scattered one of them [Greek: saurai] [lizards], and the other [Greek: batrachoi] [frogs] on the bases and capitals of the columns.’ But as for the R.A., the sculptor ‘very reluctantly had to agree to its omission.’ Johnstone’s Parr, iv. 705 and 710.
Volume V. Tour to the Hebrides (1773) and Journey into North Wales (1774)
THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES WITH SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. BY JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
CONTAINING
Some Poetical Pieces by Dr. JOHNSON,
relative to the TOUR, and never before published;
A Series of his Conversation, Literary Anecdotes,
and Opinions of Men and Books:
WITH AN AUTHENTICK ACCOUNT OF
The Distresses and Escape of the GRANDSON of
KING JAMES II. in the Year 1746.
THE THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED.
O! while along the stream of time, thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame,
Say, shall my little bark attendant fail,
Pursue the triumph and partake the gale? POPE
DEDICATION.
TO EDMOND MALONE, ESQ.
MY DEAR SIR,
In every narrative, whether historical or biographical, authenticity is of the utmost consequence. Of this I have ever been so firmly persuaded, that I inscribed a former work to that person who was the best judge of its truth. I need not tell you I mean General Paoli; who, after his great, though unsuccessful, efforts to preserve the liberties of his country, has found an honourable asylum in Britain, where he has now lived many years the object of Royal regard and private respect; and whom I cannot name without expressing my very grateful sense of the uniform kindness which he has been pleased to shew me.
The friends of Doctor Johnson can best judge, from internal evidence, whether the numerous conversations which form the most valuable part of the ensuing pages are correctly related. To them, therefore, I wish to appeal, for the accuracy of the portrait here exhibited to the world.
As one of those who were intimately acquainted with him, you have a title to this address. You have obligingly taken the trouble to peruse the original manuscript of this Tour, and can vouch for the strict fidelity of the present publication. Your literary alliance with our much lamented friend, in consequence of having undertaken to render one of his labours more complete, by your edition of Shakspeare, a work which I am confident will not disappoint the expectations of the publick, gives you another claim. But I have a still more powerful inducement to prefix your name to this volume, as it gives me an opportunity of letting the world know that I enjoy the honour and happiness of your friendship; and of thus publickly testifying the sincere regard with which I am,
My dear Sir,
Your very faithful
And obedient servant,
JAMES BOSWELL.
LONDON,
20th September, 1785.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION.
Animated by the very favourable reception which two large impressions of this work have had, it has been my study to make it as perfect as I could in this edition, by correcting some inaccuracies which I discovered myself, and some which the kindness of friends or the scrutiny of adversaries pointed out. A few notes are added, of which the principal object is, to refute misrepresentation and calumny.
To the animadversions in the periodical Journals of criticism, and in the numerous publications to which my book has given rise, I have made no answer. Every work must stand or fall by its own merit. I cannot, however, omit this opportunity of returning thanks to a gentleman who published a Defence of my Journal, and has added to the favour by communicating his name to me in a very obliging letter.
It would be an idle waste of time to take any particular notice of the futile remarks, to many of which, a petty national resentment, unworthy of my countrymen, has probably given rise; remarks which have been industriously circulated in the publick prints by shallow or envious cavillers, who have endeavoured to persuade the world that Dr. Johnson’s character has been lessened by recording such various instances of his lively wit and acute judgment, on every topick that was presented to his mind. In the opinion of every person of taste and knowledge that I have conversed with, it has been greatly heightened; and I will venture to predict, that this specimen of the colloquial talents and extemporaneous effusions of my illustrious fellow-traveller will become still more valuable, when, by the lapse of time, he shall have become an ancient; when all those who can now bear testimony to the transcendent powers of his mind, shall have passed away; and no other memorial of this great and good man shall remain but the following Journal, the other anecdotes and letters preserved by his friends, and those incomparable works, which have for many years been in the highest estimation, and will be read and admired as long as the English language shall be spoken or understood.
J.B.
LONDON, 15th Aug. 1786.
THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES WITH SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
Dr. Johnson had for many years given me hopes that we should go together, and visit the Hebrides. Martin’s Account of those islands had impressed us with a notion that we might there contemplate a system of life almost totally different from what we had been accustomed to see; and, to find simplicity and wildness, and all the circumstances of remote time or place, so near to our native great island, was an object within the reach of reasonable curiosity. Dr. Johnson has said in his Journey ‘that he scarcely remembered how the wish to visit the Hebrides was excited;’ but he told me, in summer, 1763, that his father put Martin’s Account into his hands when he was very young, and that he was much pleased with it. We reckoned there would be some inconveniencies and hardships, and perhaps a little danger; but these we were persuaded were magnified in the imagination of every body. When I was at Ferney, in 1764, I mentioned our design to Voltaire. He looked at me, as if I had talked of going to the North Pole, and said, ‘You do not insist on my accompanying you?’— ‘No, Sir,’— ‘Then I am very willing you should go.’ I was not afraid that our curious expedition would be prevented by such apprehensions; but I doubted that it would not be possible to prevail on Dr. Johnson to relinquish, for some time, the felicity of a London life, which, to a man who can enjoy it with full intellectual relish, is apt to make existence in any narrower sphere seem insipid or irksome. I doubted that he would not be willing to come down from his elevated state of philosophical dignity; from a superiority of wisdom among the wise, and of learning among the learned; and from flashing his wit upon minds bright enough to reflect it.
He had disappointed my expectations so long, that I began to despair; but in spring, 1773, he talked of coming to Scotland that year with so much firmness, that I hoped he was at last in earnest. I knew that, if he were once launched from the metropolis he would go forward very well; and I got our common friends there to assist in setting him afloat. To Mrs. Thrale in particular, whose enchantment over him seldom failed, I was much obliged. It was, ‘I’ll give thee a wind.’-’ Thou art kind.’ — To attract him, we had invitations from the chiefs Macdonald and Macleod; and, for additional aid, I wrote to Lord Elibank, Dr. William Robertson, and Dr. Beattie.
To Dr. Robertson, so far as my letter concerned the present subject, I wrote as follows:
‘Our friend, Mr. Samuel Johnson, is in great health and spirits; and, I do think, has a serious resolution to visit Scotland this year. The more attraction, however, the better; and therefore, though I know he will be happy to meet you there, it will forward the scheme, if, in your answer to this, you express yourself concerning it with that power of which you are so happily possessed, and which may be so directed as to operate strongly upon him.’
His answer to that part of my letter was quite as I could have wished. It was written with the address and persuasion of the historian of America. ‘When I saw you last, you gave us some hopes that you might prevail with Mr. Johnson to make out that excursion to Scotland, with the expectation of which we have long flattered ourselves. If he could order matters so, as to pass some time in Edinburgh, about the close of the summer session, and then visit some of the Highland scenes, I am confident he would be pleased with the grand features of nature in many parts of this country: he will meet with many persons here who respect him, and some whom I am persuaded he will think not unworthy of his esteem. I wish he would make the experiment. He sometimes cracks his jokes upon us; but he will find that we can distinguish between the stabs of malevolence, and the rebukes of the righteous, which are like excellent oil, and break not the head. Offer my best compliments to him, and assure him that I shall be happy to have the satisfaction of seeing him under my roof.
To Dr. Beattie I wrote, ‘The chief intention of this letter is to inform you, that I now seriously believe Mr. Samuel Johnson will visit Scotland this year: but I wish that every power of attraction may be employed to secure our having so valuable an acquisition, and therefore I hope you will without delay write to me what I know you think, that I may read it to the mighty sage, with proper emphasis, before I leave London, which I must do soon. He talks of you with the same warmth that he did last year. We are to see as much of Scotland as we can, in the months of August and September. We shall not be long of being at Marischal College. He is particularly desirous of seeing some of the Western Islands.’
Dr. Beattie did better: ipse venit. He was, however, so polite as to wave his privilege of nil mihi rescribas, and wrote from Edinburgh, as follows:— ‘Your very kind and agreeable favour of the 20th of April overtook me here yesterday, after having gone to Aberdeen, which place I left about a week ago. I am to set out this day for London, and hope to have the honour of paying my respects to Mr. Johnson and you, about a week or ten days hence. I shall then do what I can, to enforce the topick you mention; but at present I cannot enter upon it, as I am in a very great hurry; for I intend to begin my journey within an hour or two.’
