of his pieces would have been remembered.' Dodsley himself, upon this being repeated to him, said, 'It was too much.' It must be remembered, that Johnson always appeared not to be sufficiently sensible of the merit of Otway.' "Snatches of reading,' said he, 'will not make a Bentley or a Clarke. They are, however, in a certain degree advantageous. I would put a child into a library (where no unfit books are), and let him read at his choice. A child should not be discouraged from reading any thing that he takes a liking to, from a notion that it is above his reach. If that be the case, the child will soon find it out and desist; if not, he of course gains the instruction; which is so much the more likely to come, from the inclination with which he takes up the study.' "Though he used to censure carelessness with great vehemence, he owned, that he once, to avoid the trouble of locking up five guineas, hid them, he forgot where, so that he could not find them. "A gentleman who introduced his brother to Dr. Johnson was earnest to recommend him to the doctor's notice, which he did by saying, 'When we have sat together some time, you'll find my brother grow very entertaining.' 'Sir,' said Johnson, 'I can wait.' "When the rumour was strong that we should have a war, because the French would assist the Americans, he rebuked a friend with some asperity for supposing it, saying, ‘No, Sir, national faith is not yet sunk so low.' "In the latter part of his life, in order to satisfy himself whether his mental faculties were impaired, he resolved that he would try to learn a new language, and fixed upon the Low Dutch for that purpose, and this he continued till he had read about one half of 'Thomas à Kempis;' and, finding that there appeared no abatement of his power of acquisition, he then 1 This assertion concerning Johnson's insensibility to the pathetic powers of Otway is too round. I once asked him, whether he did not think Otway frequently tender; when he answered, "Sir, he is all tenderness."-Burney. desisted, as thinking the experiment had been duly tried. Mr. Burke justly observed, that this was not the most vigorous trial, Low Dutch being a language so near to our own: had it been one of the languages entirely different, he might have been very soon satisfied. "Mr. Langton and he having gone to see a freemason's funeral procession when they were at Rochester, and some solemn music being played on French horns, he said, 'This is the first time that I have ever been affected by musical sounds;' adding, ' that the impression made upon him was of a melancholy kind.' Mr. Langton saying, that this effect was a fine one,-JOHNSON. 'Yes, if it softens the mind so as to prepare it for the reception of salutary feelings, it may be good: but inasmuch as it is melancholy per se, it is bad. "Goldsmith had long a visionary project, that some time or other, when his circumstances should be easier, he would go to Aleppo, in order to acquire a knowledge, as far as might be, of any arts peculiar to the East, and introduce them into Britain. When this was talked of in Dr. Johnson's company, he said, 'Of all men, Goldsmith is the most unfit to go out upon such an inquiry; for he is utterly ignorant of such arts as we already possess, and consequently could not know what would be accessions to our present stock of mechanical knowledge. Sir, he would bring home a grinding barrow, which you see in every street in London, and think that he had furnished a wonderful improvement.' "Greek, Sir,' said he, 'is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can.' "When Lord Charles Hay, after his return from America, was preparing his defence to be offered to the court-martial which he had demanded, having heard Mr. Langton as high in expressions of admiration of Johnson as he usually was, he requested that Dr. Johnson might be introduced to him; and Mr. Langton having mentioned it to Johnson, he very kindly and readily agreed; and, being presented by Mr. Langton to his lordship, while under arrest, he saw him several times; upon one of which occasions Lord Charles read to him what he had prepared, which Johnson signified his approbation of, saying, 'It is a very good soldierly defence.' Johnson said. that he had advised his lordship, that as it was in vain to contend with those who were in possession of power, if they would offer him the rank of lieutenant-general, and a government, it would be better judged to desist from urging his complaints. It is well known that his lordship died before the sentence was made known. 1 "Johnson one day gave high praise to Dr. Bentley's verses "the only 1 Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Cowley, says, that these are English verses which Bentley is known to have written." I shall here insert them, and hope my readers will apply them. "Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill, And thence poetic laurels bring, Must stoop as delving Woodward low. "Who studies ancient laws and rites, "Who travels in religious jars, (Truth mix'd with error, shades with rays,) Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars, In ocean wide or sinks or strays. "But grant our hero's hope long toil All sciences, all hearts his spoil, Yet what reward, or what renown? "Envy, innate in vulgar souls, Envy steps in and stops his rise; His lustre, and his worth decries. To college and old books confined; Dunces advanced, he's left behind : in Dodsley's Collection, which he recited with his usual energy. Dr. Adam Smith, who was present, observed, in his decisive professorial manner, 'Very well,-very well.' Johnson, however, added, 'Yes, they are very well, Sir; but you may observe in what manner they are well. They are the forcible verses of a man of a strong mind, but not accustomed to write verse; for there is some uncouthness in the expression.'1 "Drinking tea one day at Garrick's with Mr. Langton, he was questioned if he was not somewhat of a heretic as to Shakspeare. Said Garrick, 'I doubt he is a little of an infidel.' 'Sir,' said Johnson, I will stand by the lines I have written on Shakspeare in my prologue at the opening of your theatre.' Mr. Langton suggested, that in the line,— 'And panting Time toil'd after him in vain,' Johnson might have had in his eye the passage in the 'Tempest,' where Prospero says of Miranda, Johnson said nothing. Garrick then ventured to observe, 'I do not think that the happiest line in the praise of Shakspeare.' Yet left content, a genuine stoic he, Great without patron, rich without South Sea." The last stanza is corrected from a better copy found by J. Boswell, jun.-Croker. 1 The difference between Johnson and Smith is apparent even in this slight instance. Smith was a man of extraordinary application, and had his mind crowded with all manner of subjects; but the force, acuteness, and vivacity of Johnson were not to be found there. He had bookmaking so much in his thoughts, and was so chary of what might be turned to account in that way, that he once said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he made it a rule, when in company, never to talk of what he understood. Beauclerk had for a short time a pretty high opinion of Smith's conversation. Garrick, after listening to him for a while, as to one of whom his expectations had been raised, turned slily to a friend, and whispered him, "What say you to this?-eh? flabby, I think." Johnson exclaimed (smiling), 'Prosaical rogues! next time I write, I'll make both time and space pant.'1 "It is well known that there was formerly a rude custom for those who were sailing upon the Thames to accost each other as they passed in the most abusive language they could invent; generally, however, with as much satirical humour as they were capable of producing. Addison gives a specimen of this ribaldry in Number 383 of 'The Spectator,' when Sir Roger de Coverly and he are going to Spring-garden. Johnson was once eminently successful in this species of contest. A fellow having attacked him with some coarse raillery, Johnson answered him thus, 'Sir, your wife, under pretence of keeping a bawdy-house, is a receiver of stolen goods.' One evening when he and Mr. Burke and Mr. Langton were in company together, and the admirable scolding of Timon of Athens was mentioned, this instance of Johnson's was quoted, and thought to have at least equal excellence. 'As Johnson always allowed the extraordinary talents of Mr. Burke, so Mr. Burke was fully sensible of the wonderful powers of Johnson. Mr. Langton recollects having passed 1 I am sorry to see in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. ii., [p. 257 and foll.,] An essay on the Character of Hamlet, written, I should suppose, by a very young man, though called "Reverend," who speaks with presumptuous petulance of the first literary character of his age. Amidst a cloudy confusion of words (which hath of late too often passed in Scotland for metaphysics), he thus ventures to criticise one of the noblest lines in our language:-"Dr. Johnson has remarked, that 'Time toiled after him in vain.' But I should apprehend that this is entirely to mistake the character. Time toils after every great man, as well as after Shakspeare. The workings of an ordinary mind keep pace, indeed, with time; they move no faster; they have their beginning, their middle, and their end; but superior natures can reduce these into a point. They do not, indeed, suppress them; but they suspend, or they lock them up in the breast." The learned society, under whose sanction such gabble is ushered into the world, would do well to offer a premium to any one who will discover its meaning. The author of this essay was Thomas Robertson, D.D., F.R.S. Edinburgh, who became minister of Dalmeny in 1775, and died at Edinburgh, Nov. 15, 1799. He also wrote "The History of Mary Queen of Scots, including an examination of the writings which were ascribed to her." 4to. Edinburgh, 1793.—Editor. |