Mag. 1781, p. 253.
[1265] Boswell, the day after this talk, wrote:—‘I have had a long letter from my father, full of affection and good counsel. Honest man! he is now very happy: it is amazing to think how much he has had at heart, my pursuing the road of civil life.’ Letters of Boswell, p. 25.
[1266] Gray, says Nicholls, ‘disliked all poetry in blank verse, except Milton.’ Gray’s Works, ed. 1858, v. 36. Goldsmith, in his Present State of Polite Learning (ch. xi.), wrote in 1759:—‘From a desire in the critic of grafting the spirit of ancient languages upon the English have proceeded of late several disagreeable instances of pedantry. Among the number, I think, we may reckon blank verse. Nothing but the greatest sublimity of subject can render such a measure pleasing; however, we now see it used upon the most trivial occasions.’ On the same page he speaks of ‘the tuneless flow of our blank verse.’ See post, 1770, in Dr. Maxwell’s Collectanea and the beginning of 1781, under The Life of Milton, for Johnson’s opinion of blank verse.
[1267] ‘Johnson told me, that one day in London, when Dr. Adam Smith was boasting of Glasgow, he turned to him and said, “Pray, Sir, have you ever seen Brentford?’” Boswell’s Hebrides, Oct. 29, 1773. See post, April 29, 1778.
[1268] ‘He advised me to read just as inclination prompted me, which alone, he said, would do me any good; for I had better go into company than read a set task. He said, too, that I should prescribe to myself five hours a day, and in these hours gratify whatever literary desires may spring up.’ Letters of Boswell, p. 28. The Editor of these Letters compares Tranio’s advice:—
‘No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en:
In brief, Sir, study what you most affect.’
Taming of the Shrew, act i. sc. I.
‘Johnson used to say that no man read long together with a folio on his table. “Books,” said he, “that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.”’ Johnson’s Works (1787), xi. 197. See also The Idler, No. 67, and post, April 12, 1776, and under Sept. 22, 1777.
[1269] Wilkes, among others, had attacked him in Aug. 1762 in The North Briton, Nos. xi. and xii.
[1270] When I mentioned the same idle clamour to him several years afterwards, he said, with a smile, ‘I wish my pension were twice as large, that they might make twice as much noise.’ BOSWELL.
[1271] In one thing at least he was changed. He could now indulge in the full bent, to use his own words (Works, viii. l36), ‘that inquisitiveness which must always be produced in a vigorous mind, by an absolute freedom from all pressing or domestick engagements.’
[1272] See post, April 13, 1773, Sept. 17 and 19, 1777, March 21, 1783, and June 9, 1784. Lord Shelburne says:—‘After the Revolution the Tory and Jacobite parties had become almost identified by their together opposing the Court for so many years, and still more by the persecution which they suffered in common, for it was the policy of Sir Robert Walpole to confound them as much as possible, so as to throw the Jacobite odium upon every man who opposed government.’ Fitzmaurice’s Shelburne, i. 35. Lord Bolingbroke (Works, iii. 28) complains that the writers on the side of the ministry ‘frequently throw out that every man is a friend to the Pretender who is not a friend of Walpole.’
[1273] See post, April 6, 1775
[1274] Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 402 [Nov. 10]. BOSWELL.
[1275] Mr. Walmsley died in 1751 (ante, p. 81). Johnson left Lichfield in 1737. Unless Mr. Walmsley after 1737 visited London from time to time, he can scarcely be meant.
[1276] See ante, p. 336.
[1277] He used to tell, with great humour, from my relation to him, the following little story of my early years, which was literally true: ‘Boswell, in the year 1745, was a fine boy, wore a white cockade, and prayed for King James, till one of his uncles (General Cochran) gave him a shilling on condition that he should pray for King George, which he accordingly did. So you see (says Boswell) that Whigs of all ages are made the same way.’ BOSWELL. Johnson, in his Dictionary under Whiggism, gives only one quotation, namely, from Swift: ‘I could quote passages from fifty pamphlets, wholly made up of whiggism and atheism.’ See post, April 28, 1778, where he said: ‘I have always said, the first Whig was the Devil;’ and Boswell’s Hebrides, Oct. 21 and Nov. 8, 1773. To Johnson’s sayings might be opposed one of Lord Chatham’s in the House of Lords: ‘There are some distinctions which are inherent in the nature of things. There is a distinction between right and wrong—between Whig and Tory.’ Parl. Hist. xvi. 1107.
[1278] Letter to Rutland on Travel, 16mo. 1569. BOSWELL. This letter is contained in a little volume entitled, Profitable Instructions; describing what special observations are to be taken by travellers in all nations, states and countries; pleasant and profitable. By the three much admired, Robert, late Earl of Essex, Sir Philip Sidney, and Secretary Davison. London. Printed for Benjamin Fisher, at the Sign of the Talbot, without Aldersgate. 1633. (Lowndes gives the date of 1613, but the earliest edition seems to be this of 1633.) The letter from which Boswell quotes is entitled, The late E. of E. his advice to the E. of R. in his Travels. It is dated Greenwich, Jan. 4, 1596. Mr. Spedding (Bacon’s Works, ix. 4) suggests that ‘it may have been (wholly or in part) written by Bacon.’
[1279] Boswell (Boswelliana, p. 210) says that this ‘impudent fellow’ was Macpherson.
[1280] Boswell repeated this saying and some others to Paoli. ‘I felt an elation of mind to see Paoli delighted with the sayings of Mr. Johnson, and to hear him translate them with Italian energy to the Corsican heroes.’ Here Boswell describes the person as ‘a certain authour.’ Boswell’s Corsica, p. 199
[1281] Boswell thus takes him off in his comic poem The Court of Session Garland:—
‘“This cause,” cries Hailes, “to judge I can’t pretend, For justice, I percieve, wants an e at the end.”’
Mr. R. Chambers, in a note on this, says:—‘A story is told of Lord Hailes once making a serious objection to a law-paper, an in consequence to the whole suit, on account of the word justice being thus spelt. Traditions of Edinburgh, ii. 161. Burke says that he ‘found him to be a clever man, and generally knowing.’ Burke’s Corres. iii. 301. See ante p. 267, and post May 12, 1774 and Boswell’s Hebrides, Aug. 17, 1773.
[1282] ‘Ita feri ut se mori sentiat.’ Suetonius, Caligula, chap. xxx.
[1283] Johnson himself was constantly purposing to keep a journal. On April 11, 1773, he told Boswell ‘that he had twelve or fourteen times attempted to keep a journal of his life,’ post, April 11, 1773. The day before he had recorded:—‘I hope from this time to keep a journal.’ Pr. and Med. p. 124. Like records follow, as:—‘Sept. 24, 1773. My hope is, for resolution I dare no longer call it, to divide my time regularly, and to keep such a journal of my time, as may give me comfort in reviewing it.’ Ib. p. 132. ‘April 6, 1777. My purpose once more is To keep a journal.’ Ib. p. 161. ‘Jan. 2, 1781. My hope is To keep a journal.’ Ib. p. 188. See also post, April 14, 1775, and April 10, 1778.
[1284] Boswell, when he was only eighteen, going with his father to the [Scotch] Northern Circuit, ‘kept,’ he writes,
