"I am now going to take leave, perhaps a very long leave, of my dear Mr. Chambers. That he is going to live where you govern may justly alleviate the regret of parting; and the hope of seeing both him and you again, which I am not willing to mingle with doubt, must at present comfort as it can, Sir, your, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WARREN HASTINGS. 66 London, Dec. 20, 1774. "SIR, "Being informed that by the departure of a ship there is now an opportunity of writing to Bengal, I am unwilling to slip out of your memory by my own negligence, and therefore take the liberty of reminding you of my existence by sending you a book which is not yet made public. "I have lately visited a region less remote and less illustrious than India, which afforded some occasions for speculation. What has occurred to me, I have put into the volume,' of which I beg your acceptance. "Men in your station seldom have presents totally disinterested : my book is received, let me now make my request. There is, Sir, somewhere within your government, a young adventurer, one Chauncey Lawrence, whose father is one of my oldest friends. Be pleased to show the young man what countenance is fit; whether he wants to be restrained by your authority, or encouraged by your favour. His father is now president of the college of physicians; a man venerable for his knowledge, and more venerable for his virtue. "I wish you a prosperous government, a safe return, and a long enjoyment of plenty and tranquillity. I am, Sir, your, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WARREN HASTINGS. "Jan. 9, 1781. "SIR, "Amidst the importance and multiplicity of affairs in which your great office engages you, I take the liberty of recalling your attention for a moment to literature, and will not prolong the interruption by an apology which your character makes needless. "Mr. Hoole, a gentleman long known and long esteemed in the 'The Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. India House, after having translated Tasso, has undertaken Ariosto. How well he is qualified for his undertaking he has already shown. He is desirous, Sir, of your favour in promoting his proposals, and flatters me by supposing that my testimony may advance his interest. "It is a new thing for a clerk of the India House to translate poets; it is new for a governor of Bengal to patronise learning. That he may find his ingenuity rewarded, and that learning may flourish under your protection, is the wish of, Sir, your, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." I wrote to him in February, complaining of having been troubled by a recurrence of the perplexing question of Liberty and Necessity; and mentioning that I hoped soon to meet him again in London. "DEAR SIR, TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "March 14, 1781. "I hoped you had got rid of all this hypocrisy of misery. What have you to do with Liberty and Necessity? Or what more than to hold your tongue about it? Do not doubt but I shall be most heartily glad to see you here again, for I love every part about you but your affectation of distress. "I have at last finished my Lives, and have laid up for you a load of copy, all out of order, so that it will amuse you a long time to set it right. Come to me, my dear Bozzy, and let us be as happy as we We will go again to the Mitre, and talk old times over. I am, dear Sir, yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON." can. On Monday, March 19, I arrived in London, and on Tuesday, the 20th, met him in Fleet Street, walking, or rather indeed moving along; for his peculiar march is thus described in a very just and picturesque manner, in a short Life' of him 1 1 Published by Kearsley (1785), with this well-chosen motto:— "From his cradle He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one: And, to add greater honours to his age Than man could give him, he died fearing Heaven." -Shakspeare. 1 published very soon after his death :-"When he walked the streets, what with the constant roll of his head, and the concomitant motion of his body, he appeared to make his way by that motion, independent of his feet." That he was often much stared at while he advanced in this manner may easily be believed; but it was not safe to make sport of one so robust as he was. Mr. Langton saw him one day, in a fit of absence, by a sudden start, drive the load off a porter's back, and walk forward briskly, without being conscious of what he had done. The porter was very angry, but stood still, and eyed the huge figure with much earnestness, till he was satisfied that his wisest course was to be quiet, and take up his burthen again. Our accidental meeting in the street after a long separation was a pleasing surprise to us both. He stepped aside with me into Falcon Court, and made kind inquiries about my family; and as we were in a hurry, going different ways, I promised to call on him next day. He said he was engaged to go out in the morning. Early, Sir?" said I. JOHNSON. “Why, Sir, a London morning does not go with the sun." 66 I waited on him next evening, and he gave me a great portion of his original manuscript of his "Lives of the Poets," which he had preserved for me. I found on visiting his friend, Mr. Thrale, that he was now very ill, and had removed, I suppose by the solicitation of Mrs. Thrale, to a house in Grosvenor Square. I was sorry to see him sadly changed in his appearance. He told me I might now have the pleasure to see Dr. Johnson drink wine again, for he had lately returned to it. When I mentioned this to Johnson, he said, "I drink it now sometimes, but not socially." The first evening that I was with him at Thrale's, I observed he poured a large quantity of it into a glass, and swallowed it greedily. Every thing about his character and manners was forcible and violent; there never was any moderation. Many a day did he fast, many a year did he refrain from wine: but when he did eat, it was 1 P. 82. voraciously; when he did drink wine, it was copiously. He could practise abstinence, but not temperance. Mrs. Thrale and I had a dispute whether Shakspeare or Milton had drawn the most admirable picture of a man.1 I was for Shakspeare, Mrs. Thrale for Milton; and, after a fair hearing, Johnson decided for my opinion. I told him of one of Mr. Burke's playful sallies upon Dean Marlay: "I don't like the Deanery of Ferns; it sounds so like a barren title." "Dr. Heath' should have it," said I. Johnson laughed, and, condescending to trifle in the same mode of conceit, suggested Dr. Moss.* He said, "Mrs. Montagu has dropt me. Now, Sir, there 'Shakspeare makes Hamlet thus describe his father : "See what a grace was seated on his brow; Milton thus portrays our first parent, Adam :— "His fair large front and eye sublime declared Round from his parted forelock manly hung Clust'ring, but not beneath his shoulders broad." 2 Dr. Richard Marlay, afterwards Lord Bishop of Waterford; a very amiable, benevolent, and ingenious man. He was chosen a member of the Literary Club in 1777, and died in Dublin, July 2, 1802, in his seventyfifth year. Malone. In very early life, I had the honour of the bishop's acquaintance and indulgent notice of my first attempts in literature. He was all that Mr. Malone says of him.-Croker. 3 Dr. Benjamin Heath, celebrated for a curious library, which was sold in 1810, at very high prices.-Croker. 4 Dr. Charles Moss had been already better provided for, having been, in 1766, Bishop of St. David's, and in 1774, of Bath and Wells. He died in 1802.-Croker. 5 Mrs. Montagu, with, I think, an over nicety of feeling (if that was the real cause) “dropt” him on account of his Life of Lord Lyttelton.— Croker. are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropt by." He certainly was vain of the society of ladies, and could make himself very agreeable to them when he chose it: Sir Joshua Reynolds agreed with me that he could. Mr. Gibbon, with his usual sneer, controverted it, perhaps in resentment of Johnson's having talked with some disgust of his ugliness, which one would think a philosopher would not mind. Dean Marlay wittily observed, "A lady may be vain when she can turn a wolf-dog into a lap-dog." The election for Ayrshire, my own county, was this spring tried upon a petition before a committee of the House of Commons. I was one of the counsel for the sitting member,' and took the liberty of previously stating different points to Johnson, who never failed to see them clearly, and to supply me with some good hints. He dictated to me the following note upon the registration of deeds : "All laws are made for the convenience of the community. What is legally done should be legally recorded, that the state of things may be known, and that wherever evidence is requisite, evidence may be had. For this reason, the obligation to frame and establish a legal register is enforced by a legal penalty, which penalty is the want of that perfection and plenitude of right which a register would give. Thence it follows that this is not an objection merely legal; for the reason on which the law stands being equitable, makes it an equitable objection." "This," said he, "you must enlarge on, when speaking to the committee. You must not argue there as if you were arguing in the schools; close reasoning will not fix their attention you must say the same thing over and over again in different words. If you say it but once, they miss it in a moment of inattention. It is unjust, Sir, to censure lawyers for multiplying words when they argue; it is often necessary for them to multiply words." His notion of the duty of a member of parliament, sitting Hugh Montgomery, Esq. The petitioner, however, William Macdowall, Esq., was declared duly elected.-Croker. |