66 We talked of Mr. Burke.-Dr. Johnson said, he had a great variety of knowledge, store of imagery, copiousness of language. ROBERTSON. "He has wit too." JOHNSON. No, Sir; he never succeeds there. 'Tis low; 'tis conceit. I used to say, Burke never once made a good joke. What I most envy Burke for, is, his being This was one of the points upon which Dr. Johnson was strangely heterodox. For, surely, Mr. Burke, with his other remarkable qualities, is also distinguished for his wit, and for wit of all kinds too; not merely that power of language which Pope chuses to denominate wit, (True wit is Nature to advantage drest; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest.) 66 but surprising allusions, brilliant sallies of vivacity, and pleasant conceits. His speeches in parliament are strewed with them. Take, for instance, the variety which he has given in his wide range, yet exact detail, when exhibiting his Reform Bill. And his conversation abounds in wit. Let me put down a specimen.-I told him, I had seen, at a Blue stocking assembly, a number of ladies sitting round a worthy and tall friend of ours, listening to his literature. Aye (said he) like maids round a May-pole."-I told him, I had found out a perfect definition of human nature, as distinguished from the animal. An ancient philosopher said, Man was "a twolegged animal without feathers"-upon which his rival Sage had a Cock plucked bare, and set him down in the school before all the disciples, as a Philosophic Man." Dr. Franklin said, Man was "a tool-making_animal," which is very well; for, no animal but man makes a thing, by means of which he can make another thing. But this applies to very few of the species. My definition of Man is, "a Cooking Animal," The beasts have memory, judgement, and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook. The trick of the monkey using the cat's paw to roast a chestnut, is only a piece of shrewd malice in that turpissima bestia, which humbles us so sadly by its similarity to us. Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats.-Your definition is good, said Mr. Burke, and I now see the full force of the common proverb, "There is reason in roasting of eggs."-When Mr. Wilkes, in his days of tumultuous opposition, was borne upon the shoulders of the mob, Mr. Burke (as Mr. Wilkes told me himself, with classical admiration) applied to him what Horace says of Pindar, Sir Joshua Reynolds, who agrees with me entirely as to Mr. Burke's fertility of wit, said, that this was "dignifying a pun." He also observed, that he has often heard Burke say, in the course of an evening, ten good things, each of which would have served a noted wit (whom he named) to live upon for a twelvemonth. Second Edition.-Added to note: "I find, since the former edition, that some persons have objected to the instances which I have given of Mr. Burke's wit, as not doing justice to my very ingenious friend; the specimens produced having, it is alleged, more of conceit than real wit, and being merely sportive sallies of the moment, not justifying the encomium which they think with me, he undoubtedly merits. I was well aware, how hazardous it was to exhibit particular instances of wit, which is of so airy and spiritual a nature as often to elude the hand that attempts to grasp it. The excellence and efficacy of a bon mot depend frequently so much on the occasion on which it is spoken, on the particular manner of the speaker, on the person to whom it is applied, the previous introduction, and a thousand minute particulars which cannot be easily enumerated, that it is always dangerous to detach a witty saying from the group to which it belongs, and to set it before the eye of the spectator, divested of those concomitant circumstances, which gave it animation, mellowness, and relief. I ventured, however, at all hazards, to put down the first instances that occurred to me, as proofs of Mr. Burke's lively and brilliant fancy; but am very sensible that his numerous friends could have suggested many of a superior quality. Indeed, the being in company with him, for a single day, is sufficient to 66 constantly the same. He is never what we call hum-drum; never unwilling to begin to talk, nor in a haste to leave off." BOSWELL. "Yet he can listen." JOHNSON. No; I cannot say he is good at that. So desirous is he to talk, that, if one is speaking at this end of the table, he'll speak to somebody at the other end. Burke, Sir, is such a man, that if you met him for the first time in a street where you were stopped by a drove of oxen, and you and he stepped aside to take shelter but for five minutes, he'd talk to you in such a manner, that, when you parted, you would say, this is an extraordinary man. Now, you may be long enough with me, without finding any thing extraordinary." He said, he believed Burke was intended for the law; but either had not money enough to follow it, or had not diligence enough. He said, he could not understand how a man could apply to one thing, and not to another. Robertson said, one man had more judgement, another more imagination. JOHNSON. No, Sir; it is only one man has more mind than another. He may direct it differently; he may, by accident, see the success of one kind of study, and take a desire to excel in it. I am persuaded that, had Sir Isaac Newton applied to poetry, he would have made a very fine epic poem. I could as easily apply to law as to tragick poetry." BOSWELL. "Yet, Sir, you did apply to tragick poetry, not to law." JOHNSON. "Because, Sir, I had not money to study law. Sir, the man who has vigour may walk to the east, just as well as to the west, if he happens to turn his head that way." BOSWELL. "But, Sir, 'tis like walking up and down a hill; one man will naturally do the one better than the other. A hare will run up a hill best, from her legs being short; a dog down." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir; that is from mechanical powers. If you make mind mechanical, you may argue in that manner. One mind is a vice, and holds fast; there's a good memory. Another is a Another is a razor; file; and he is a disputant, a controversialist. and he is sarcastical." We talked of Whitefield. He said, he was shew that what I have asserted is well founded; and it was only necessary to have appealed to all who know him intimately, for a complete refutation of the heterodox He allowed Mr. Burke, as the opinion entertained by Dr. Johnson on this subject. reader will find hereafter, to be a man of consummate and unrivalled abilities in every light except that now under consideration; and the variety of his allusions, and splendour of his imagery, have made such an impression on all the rest of the world, that superficial observers are apt to overlook his other merits, and to suppose that wit is his chief and most prominent excellence; when in fact it is only one of the many talents that he possesses, which are so various and extraordinary, that it is very difficult to ascertain precisely the rank and value of each."1 1 Malone, who, during Boswell's absence in Scotland, was seeing the "Tour " through the press, ventured to add this passage, the authorship of which Boswell, later, disclaimed in hand some terms. а at the same college with him, and knew him before he began to be better than other people (smiling); that he believed he sincerely meant well, but had a mixture of politicks and ostentation: whereas Wesley thought of religion only. Robertson said, Whitefield had strong natural eloquence, which, if cultivated, would have done great things. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I take it he was at the height of what his abilities could do, and was sensible of it. He had the ordinary advantages of education; but he chose to pursue that oratory which is for the mob." BOSWELL." He had great effect on the passions." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I don't think so. 1 He could not represent a succession of pathetick images. He vociferated, and made an impression. There, again, was a mind like a hammer." Dr. Johnson now said, a certain eminent political friend of our's was wrong, in his maxim of sticking to a certain set of men on all occasions. "I can see that a man may do right to stick to a party (said he); that is to say, he is a Whig, or he is a Tory, and he thinks one of those parties upon the whole the best, and that, to make it prevail, it must be generally supported, though, in particulars, it may be wrong. He takes its faggot of principles, in which there are fewer rotten sticks than in the other, though some rotten sticks to be sure; and they cannot well be separated. But, to bind one's self to one man, or one set of men, (who may be right today and wrong to-morrow) without any general preference of system, I must disapprove.' " b no aThat cannot be said now, after the flagrant part which Mr. John Wesley took against our American bretheren, when, in his own name, he threw amongst his enthusiastic flock, the very individual combustibles of Dr. Johnson's "Taxation Tyranny; and after the intolerant spirit which he manifested against our fellow christians of the Roman Catholic Communion, for which that able champion, Father O'Leary, has given him so hearty a drubbing. But I should think myself very unworthy, if I did not at the same time acknowledge Mr. John Wesley's merit, as a veteran "Soldier of Jesus Christ," who has, I do believe, "turned many from darkness into light, and from the power of Satan to the living GOD." b If due attention were paid to this observation, there would be more virtue, even in politicks. What Dr. Johnson justly condemned, has, I am sorry to say, greatly increased in the present reign. At the distance of four years from this conversation, 21st February 1777, my Lord Archbishop of York, in his "sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," thus indignantly describes the then state of parties: "Parties once had a principle belonging to them, absurd perhaps, and indefensible, but still carrying a notion of duty, by which honest minds might easily be caught. "But they are now combinations of individuals, who, in stead of being the sons and servants of the community, make a league for advancing their private interests. It is their business to hold high the notion of political honour. I believe and trust, it is not injurious to say, that such a bond is no better than that by which the lowest and wickedest combinations are held together; and that it denotes the last stage of political depravity.' To find a thought, which just shewed itself to us from the mind of Johnson, thus 1 Mr. Burke, He told us of Cooke,' who translated Hesiod, and lived twenty years on a translation of Plautus, for which he was always taking subscriptions; and that he presented Foote to a Club, in the following singular manner: "This is the nephew of the gentleman who was lately hung in chains for murdering his brother."2 a In the evening I introduced to Mr. Johnson two good friends of mine, Mr. William Nairne, Advocate, and Mr. Hamilton of Sundrum, my neighbour in the country, both of whom supped with us. I have preserved nothing of what passed, except that Dr. Johnson displayed another of his heterodox opinions—a contempt of tragick acting. He said, "the action of all players in tragedy is bad. It should be a man's study to repress those signs of emotion and passion, as they are called." He was of a direct contrary opinion to that of Fielding, in his "Tom Jones," who makes Partridge say, of Garrick, "why I could act as well as he myself. I am sure, if I had seen a ghost, I should have looked in the very same manner, and done just as he did." For, when I asked him, "Would not you, Sir, start as Mr. Garrick does, if you saw a ghost?" He answered, "I hope not. If I did, I should frighten the ghost." Monday, 16th August. Dr. William Robertson came to breakfast. We talked of "Ogden on Prayer." Dr. Johnson said, "The same arguments which are used against GOD's hearing prayer, will serve against his rewarding appearing again at such a distance of time, and without any communication between them, enlarged to full growth in the mind of Markham, is a curious object of philosophical contemplation.—That two such great and luminous minds should have been so dark in one corner-that they should nave held it to be "wicked Rebellion " in the British subjects established in America, to resist the abject condition of holding all their property at the mercy of British subjects remaining at home, while their allegiance to our common Lord the King was to be preserved inviolate,—is a striking proof to me, either that "He who sitteth in Heaven," scorns the loftiness of human pride,—or that the evil spirit, whose personal existence I strongly believe, and even in this age am confirmed in that belief by a Fell, nay, by a Hurd, has more power than some choose to allow. a It may be observed, that I sometimes call my great friend, Mr. Johnson, sometimes Dr. Johnson; though he had at this time a doctor's degree from Trinity College, Dublin. The University of Oxford afterwards conferred it upon him by a diploma, in very honourable terms. It was some time before I could bring myself to call him Doctor; but, as he has been long known by that title, I shall give it to him in the rest of this Journal. 1 One of the literary hacks that "hung loose upon society." He published a "Life of Foote." 2 Goodere was captain of the Ruby, in the cabin of which vessel the murder was accomplished. good, and punishing evil. He has resolved, he has declared, in the former case as in the latter." He had last night looked into Lord Hailes's "Remarks on the History of Scotland." Dr. Robertson and I said, it was a pity Lord Hailes did not write greater things. His Lordship had not then published his "Annals of Scotland." JOHNSON. "I remember I was once on a visit at the house of a lady for whom I had a high respect. There was a good deal of company in the room. When they were gone, I said to this lady, 'What foolish talking have we had!'-'Yes, (said she) but while they talked, you said nothing.'-I was struck with the reproof. How much better is the man who does any thing that is innocent, than he who does nothing. Besides, I love anecdotes. I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made. If a man is to wait till he weaves anecdotes into a system, we may be long in getting them, and get but few, in comparison of what we might get." Dr. Robertson said, the notions of Eupham Macallan, a fanatick woman, of whom Lord Hailes gives a sketch, were still prevalent among some of the Presbyterians; and therefore it was right in Lord Hailes, a man of known piety, to undeceive them. We walked out, that Dr. Johnson might see some of the things which we have to shew at Edinburgh. We went to the Parliament House, where the Parliament of Scotland sat, and where the 1 Among these objects of attraction was the statue of Charles II., on which Mr. Boswell, later, made some verses, published in the Public Advertiser. "There is in the stately square at Edinburgh, the Parliament-close, a very fine statue of Charles II. on horseback, a cast in lead larger than life. Some years ago the PROVOST of the city, from a strange Gothic fancy, had it laid over with a thick coat of paint, to make it look WHITE and NEW. This occasioned the following: "Well done, my Lord, with noble taste, You've made Charles gay as five-andtwenty; We may be scarce of gold and corn, But sure there's lead and gold in plenty Yet for a public work like this I would have had some famous artist, Though I had made each mark a pound I would have had the very smartest. "Why not bring Allan Ramsay down From stately coronet and cushion? For he can paint a living king, And knows the English Constitu- The milk-white steed is well enough, The cream complexion of Hanover? "This statue never gave offence, But now, as you've been pleased to make it, The ladies all will run away Lest they behold a man stark naked. Stay, fair, dissembling cowards! stay, He'll do no harm-you may go near him; I'll tell you-e'en when flesh and blood, Some of your grandams did not fear him." |