Imatges de pàgina
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possesses any strong positive excellence. Few have all kinds of merit belonging to their character. We must not examine matters too deeply. No, Sir, a fallible being will fail somewhere.'

"Talking of the Irish clergy, he said, ' Swift was a man of great parts, and the instrument of much good to his country. Berkeley was a profound scholar, as well as a man of fine imagination; but Usher,' he said, was the great luminary of the Irish church; and a greater,' he added, no church could boast of; at least in modern times.'

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"We dined tête-à-tête at the Mitre, as I was preparing to return to Ireland, after an absence of many years. I regretted much leaving London, where I had formed many agreeable connections: Sir,' said he,' I don't wonder at it: no man, fond of letters, leaves London without regret. But remember, Sir, you have seen and enjoyed a great deal ;-you have seen life in its highest decorations, and the world has nothing new to exhibit. No man is so well qualified to leave public life as he who has long tried it and known it well. We are always hankering after untried situations, and imagining greater felicity from them than they can afford. No, Sir, knowledge and virtue may be acquired in all countries, and your local consequence will make you some amends for the intellectual gratifications you re.... linquish. Then he quoted the following lines with great pathos :

"He who has early known the pomps of state,

(For things unknown 'tis ignorance to condemn ;)
And after having view'd the gaudy bait,

Can boldly say, the trifle I contemn;
With such a one contented could I live,
Contented could I die.' (1)

(1) Being desirous to trace these verses to the fountain head, after having in vain turned over several of our elder poets with the hope of lighting on them, I applied to Dr. Maxwell, now

ÆTAT. 61.

MAXWELL'S COLLECTANEA.

149

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"He then took a most affecting leave of me; said, he knew it was a point of duty that called me away.. 'We shall all be sorry to lose you,' said he: laudo tamen.'

resident at Bath, for the purpose of ascertaining their author: but that gentleman could furnish no aid on this occasion. At length the lines have been discovered by the author's second son, Mr. James Boswell, in the London Magazine for July, 1732, where they form part of a poem on Retirement, there published anonymously, but in fact (as he afterwards found) copied, with some slight variations, from one of Walsh's smaller poems, entitled "The Retirement;" and they exhibit another proof of what has been elsewhere observed by the author of the work before us, that Johnson retained in his memory fragments of obscure or neglected poety. In quoting verses of that description, he appears by a slight variation to have sometimes given them a moral turn, and to have dexterously adapted them to his own sentiments, where the original had a very different tendency. Thus, in the present instance (as Mr. J. Boswell observes to me), "the author of the poem above mentioned exhibits himself as having retired to the country, to avoid the vain follies of a town life, ambition, avarice, and the pursuit of pleasure, contrasted with the enjoyments of the country, and the delightful conversation that the brooks, &c. furnish; which he holds to be infinitely more pleasing and instructive than any which towns afford. He is then led to consider the weakness of the human mind, and, after lamenting that he (the writer) who is neither enslaved by avarice, ambition, or pleasure, has yet made himself a slave to love, he thus proceeds.

"If this dire passion never will be done,

If beauty always must my heart enthral,
O, rather let me be enslaved by one,
Than madly thus become a slave to all:

"One who has early known the pomr of state

(For things unknown 'tis ignorance to condemn), And, after having view'd the gaudy bait,

Can coldly say, the trifle I contemn;

'In her blest arms contented could I live,
Contented could I die. But O, my mind
Imaginary scenes of bliss deceive

With hopes of joys impossible to find.""

Another instance of Johnson's retaining in his memory verses by obscure authors is given [post, Aug. 27. 1773], where, in

consequence of hearing a girl spinning in a chamber over that in which he was sitting, he repeated these lines, which he said were written by one Giffard, a clergymen; but the poem in which they are introduced has hitherto been undiscovered:

"Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound:
All at her work the village maiden sings;
Nor while she turns the giddy wheel around,
Revolves the sad vicissitude of things."

In the autumn of 1782, when he was at Brighthelmstone, he frequently accompanied Mr. Philip Metcalfe in his chaise, to take the air; and the conversation in one of their excursions happening to turn on a celebrated historian (1), since deceased, he repeated, with great precision, some verses, as very characteristic of that gentleman. These furnish another proof of what has been above observed; for they are found in a very obscure quarter, among some anonymous poems appended to the second volume of a collection frequently printed by Lintot, under the title of "Pope's Miscellanies: ".

"See how the wand'ring Danube flows,

Realms and religions parting;

A friend to all true christian foes,
To Peter, Jack, and Martin.

"Now Protestant, and Papist now,
Not constant long to either,
At length an infidel does grow,
And ends his journey neither.

"Thus many a youth I've known set out,
Half Protestant, half Papist,

And rambling long the world about,

Turn infidel or atheist."

In reciting these verses, I have no doubt that Johnson substituted some word for infidel in the second stanza, to avoid the disagreeable repetition of the same expression. - MALONE.

:) No doubt Gibbon.]

CHAPTER VI.

1771.

's Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands." - Lord George Grenville.-Junius.

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- Design of bringing Johnson into Parliament. Mr. Strahan. Lord North. Mr. Flood. Boswell's Marriage. — Visit to Lichfield and Ashbourne. Dr. Beattie. Lord Monboddo. St. Second Sight. The Thirtieth of January.

Kilda. Scots Church.
Thirty-nine Articles.

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Royal Marriage Act.· Old Families.

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Mimickry.

Mr. Peyton. Origin of Languages.—

Irish and Gaelic. Flogging at Schools..
Mansfield. Sir Gilbert Elliot.

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Lord

IN 1771 he published another political pamphlet, entitled "Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands," in which, upon materials furnished to him by ministry, and upon general topics, expanded in his rich style, he successfully endeavoured to persuade the nation that it was wise and laudable to suffer the question of right to remain undecided, rather than involve our country in another war. It has been suggested by some, with what truth I shall not take upon me to decide, that he rated the consequence of those islands to Great Britain too low. But however this may be, every humane mind must surely applaud the earnestness

with which he averted the calamity of war; a calamity so dreadful, that it is astonishing how civilised, nay, Christian nations, can deliberately continue to renew it. His description of its miseries, in this pamphlet, is one of the finest pieces of eloquence in the English language. Upon this occasion, too, we find Johnson lashing the party in opposition with unbounded severity, and making the fullest use of what he ever reckoned a most effectual argumentative instrument, contempt. His character of their very able mysterious champion, Junius, is executed with all the force of his genius, and finished with the highest care. He seems to have exulted in sallying forth to single combat against the boasted and formidable hero, who bade defiance to "principalities and powers, and the rulers of this world." (')

This pamphlet, it is observable, was softened in one particular, after the first edition; for the conclusion of Mr. George Grenville's character stood thus: "Let him not, however, be depreciated in his grave. He had powers not universally possessed: could he have enforced payment of the Manilla ransom he could have counted it." Which, instead of retaining its sly sharp point, was reduced to a mere flat unmeaning expression, or, if I may use the word,— truism: "He had powers not universally possessed:

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(1) He often delighted his imagination with the thoughts of having destroyed Junius. One day I had received a remarkably fine Stilton cheese as a present from some person who had packed and directed it carefully, but without mentioning whence it came. Mr. Thrale, desirous to know who they were obliged to, asked every friend as they came in, but nobody owned it. Depend upon it, Sir," says Johnson, "it was sent by Junius." - Piozzi.

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