PART III. ANECDOTES OF DR. JOHNSON, [Published in 1785.] 286. Christopher Smart. CHRISTOPHER SMART was at first well received by Johnson. I owe my acquaintance with him, which lasted thirty years, to the introduction of that bard. Johnson, whose hearing was not always good, understood Smart to call me by the name of Thyer, that eminent scholar, librarian of Manchester, and a nonjuror. This mistake was rather beneficial than otherwise to me. Johnson had been much indisposed all that day, and repeated a psalm he had just translated, during his affliction, into Latin verse, and did not commit it to paper. For so retentive was his memory, that he could always recover whatever he lent to that faculty. Smart, in return, re (1) Mr. Tyers very modestly calls his pamphlet a Sketch; and he certainly writes, as Mr. Boswell says, in a careless and desultory style; but there seems, on examination, no reason to doubt the accuracy of his facts; indeed, all the other biographers have either borrowed from Tyers, or have told the same stories in the same way as he has done, and thus vouched for his general accuracy.-C.-[For Boswell's account of "Tom Tyers," as Johnson always called him, see antè, Vol. VII. p. 156. He is the "Tom Restless" of the 48th "Idler." See antè, Vol. III. p. 116.] cited some of his own Latin compositions. He had translated with success, and to Mr. Pope's satisfaction, his "St. Cecilian Ode." Though Johnson composed so harmoniously in Latin and English, he had no ear for music; and though he lived in such habits of intimacy with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and once intended to have written the lives of the painters, he had no eye, nor perhaps taste, for a picture or a landscape. 288. Reading. Johnson preferred conversation to books; but when driven to the refuge of reading by being left alone, he then attached himself to that amusement. By his innumerable quotations, one would suppose, that he must have read more books than any man in England; but he declared that supposition was a mistake in his favour. He owned he had hardly read a book through. Churchhill used to say, having heard perhaps of his confession, as a boast, that "if Johnson had only read a few books, he could not be the author of his own works." His opinion, however, was, that he who reads most, has the chance of knowing most; but he declared, that the perpetual task of reading was as bad as the slavery in the mine, or the labour at the oar. 289. Greek. He owned that many knew more Greek than himself; but his grammar, he said, would show that he had once taken pains. Sir William Jones, one of the most enlightened of the sons of men, as Johnson described him, has often declared, that he knew a great deal of Greek. (1) (1) [On the subject of Johnson's skill in Greek, see antè, Vol. VIII. p. 389.] 290. Churchill. Cock Lane Ghost. Churchill challenged Johnson to combat; satire the weapon. Johnson never took up the gauntlet or replied; for he thought it unbecoming him to defend himself against an author who might be resolved to have the last word. He was content to let his enemies feed upon him as long as they could. I have heard Churchill declare, that he thought Johnson's poems of London,' and the Vanity of Human Wishes,' full of admirable verses, and that all his compositions were diamonds of the first water; but he wanted a subject for his pen and for raillery, and so introduced Pomposo into his descriptions; for, with other wise folks, he sat up with the Ghost." 66 291. Tea. Come when you would, early or late (for he desired to be called from bed, when a visitor was at the door), the tea-table was sure to be spread, "TE veniente die, TE decedente." With tea he cheered himself in the morning; with tea he solaced himself in the evening; for in these, or in equivalent words, he expressed himself in a printed letter to Jonas Hanway (1), who had just told the public, that tea was the ruin of the nation, and of the nerves of every one who drank it. The pun upon his favourite liquor he heard with a smile. 292. Streatham. Mrs. Thrale. Johnson formed at Streatham a room for a library, and increased by his recommendation the number of books. Here he was to be found (himself a library), when a friend called upon him; and by him the friend was sure to be introduced to the dinner-table, which (1) [Johnson, in his review of Hanway's "Essay on Tea," describes himself as "a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning." See antè, Vol. II. p. 67.] Mrs. Thrale knew how to spread with the utmost plenty and elegance; and which was often adorned with such guests, that to dine there was epulis accumbere divum, Of Mrs. Thrale, if mentioned at all, less cannot be said, than that, in one of the latest opinions of Dr. Johnson, "if she was not the wisest woman in the world, she was undoubtedly one of the wittiest." Besides a natural vivacity in conversation, she had reading enough, and the "gods had made her poetical." Her poem of "The Three Warnings" (the subject she owned not to be original) is highly interesting and serious, and literally comes home to every body's business and bosom. She took, or caused such care to be taken, of Johnson, during an illness of continuance, that Goldsmith told her, "he owed his recovery to her attention." She moreover taught him to lay up something of his income every year. 293. The Dictionary — and Rambler. During the printing of his Dictionary, the Ramblers came out periodically; for he could do more than one thing at a time. He declared, that he wrote them by way of relief from his application to his Dictionary, and for the reward. He told me, that he had no expectation they would have been so much read and admired. What was amusement to him was instruction to others. Goldsmith declared, that a system of morals might be drawn from these essays: this idea has been taken up and executed by a publication in an alphabetical series of moral maxims. (1) 294. Levett's Epitaph. His dependant, Levett, died suddenly under his roof. He preserved his name from oblivion, by writing an epitaph for him (2), which shows that his poetical fire ["The Beauties of Johnson." See antè, Vol. I. p. 250.] (2) See antè, Vol. VIII. p. 122.] was not extinguished, and is so appropriate, that it could belong to no other person in the world. Johnson said, that the remark of appropriation was just criticism his friend was induced to pronounce, that he would not have so good an epitaph written for himself. Pope has nothing equal to it in his sepulchral poetry. 295. Johnson's Library. Johnson had a large but not a splendid library, near five thousand volumes. Many authors, not in hostility with him, presented him with their works. But his study did not contain half his books. He possessed the chair that belonged to the Ciceronian Dr. King of Oxford, which was given him by his friend Vansittart. It answers the purposes of reading and writing, by night or by day; and is as valuable in all respects as the chair of Ariosto, as delineated in the preface to Hoole's liberal translation of that poet. Since the rounding of this period, intelligence is brought, that this literary chair is purchased by Mr. Hoole. Relics are venerable things, and are only not to be worshipped. On the reading-chair of Mr. Speaker Onslow, a part of this historical sketch was written. 296. Late Hours. Night was his time for composition. Indeed, he literally turned night into day, Noctes vigilabat ad ipsum mane; but not like Tigellius in Horace. Perhaps he never was a good sleeper, and, while all the rest of the world was in bed, he chose his lamp, in the words of Milton, " in midnight hour Were seen in some high lonely tower." He wrote and lived perhaps at one time only from day to day, and, according to vulgar expression, from sheet to sheet. There is cause to believe, he would not have written unless under the pressure of necessity. |