BOSWELL.'By associating with you,Sir,I am always getting an accession of wisdom.But perhaps a man,after knowing his own character--the limited strength of his own mind,should not be desirous of having too much wisdom,considering,quid valeant humeri,how little he can carry.'JOHNSON.'Sir,be as wise as you can;let a man be aliis laetus,sapiens sibi:
"Though pleas'd to see the dolphins play,I mind my compass and my way."You may be wise in your study in the morning,and gay in company at a tavern in the evening.Every man is to take care of his own wisdom and his own virtue,without minding too much what others think.'
He said,'Dodsley first mentioned to me the scheme of an English Dictionary;but I had long thought of it.'BOSWELL.'You did not know what you were undertaking.'JOHNSON.'Yes,Sir,I knew very well what I was undertaking,--and very well how to do it,--and have done it very well.'BOSWELL.'An excellent climax!and it HASavailed you.In your Preface you say,"What would it avail me in this gloom of solitude?"You have been agreeably mistaken.'
In his Life of Milton he observes,'I cannot but remark a kind of respect,perhaps unconsciously,paid to this great man by his biographers:every house in which he resided is historically mentioned,as if it were an injury to neglect naming any place that he honoured by his presence.'I had,before I read this observation,been desirous of shewing that respect to Johnson,by various inquiries.Finding him this evening in a very good humour,I prevailed on him to give me an exact list of his places of residence,since he entered the metropolis as an authour,which Isubjoin in a note.
1.Exeter-street,off Catherine-street,Strand.2.Greenwich.
3.Woodstock-street,near Hanover-square.4.Castle-street,Cavendish-square,No.6.5.Strand.6.Boswell-Court.7.
Strand,again.8.Bow-street.9.Holborn.10.Fetter-lane.
11.Holborn,again.12.Gough-square.13.Staple Inn.14.
Gray's Inn.15.Inner Temple-lane,No.1.16.Johnson's-court,No.7.17.Bolt-court.No.8.--BOSWELL.
On Tuesday,October 12,I dined with him at Mr.Ramsay's,with Lord Newhaven,and some other company,none of whom I recollect,but a beautiful Miss Graham,a relation of his Lordship's,who asked Dr.
Johnson to hob or nob with her.He was flattered by such pleasing attention,and politely told her,he never drank wine;but if she would drink a glass of water,he was much at her service.She accepted.'Oho,Sir!(said Lord Newhaven,)you are caught.'
JOHNSON.'Nay,I do not see HOW I am CAUGHT;but if I am caught,Idon't want to get free again.If I am caught,I hope to be kept.'
Then when the two glasses of water were brought,smiling placidly to the young lady,he said,'Madam,let us RECIPROCATE.'
Lord Newhaven and Johnson carried on an argument for some time,concerning the Middlesex election.Johnson said,'Parliament may be considered as bound by law as a man is bound where there is nobody to tie the knot.As it is clear that the House of Commons may expel and expel again and again,why not allow of the power to incapacitate for that parliament,rather than have a perpetual contest kept up between parliament and the people.'Lord Newhaven took the opposite side;but respectfully said,'I speak with great deference to you,Dr.Johnson;I speak to be instructed.'This had its full effect on my friend.He bowed his head almost as low as the table,to a complimenting nobleman;and called out,'My Lord,my Lord,I do not desire all this ceremony;let us tell our minds to one another quietly.'After the debate was over,he said,'Ihave got lights on the subject to-day,which I had not before.'
This was a great deal from him,especially as he had written a pamphlet upon it.
Of his fellow-collegian,the celebrated Mr.George Whitefield,he said,'Whitefield never drew as much attention as a mountebank does;he did not draw attention by doing better than others,but by doing what was strange.Were Astley to preach a sermon standing upon his head on a horse's back,he would collect a multitude to hear him;but no wise man would say he had made a better sermon for that.I never treated Whitefield's ministry with contempt;Ibelieve he did good.He had devoted himself to the lower classes of mankind,and among them he was of use.But when familiarity and noise claim the praise due to knowledge,art,and elegance,we must beat down such pretensions.'
(Part Five )
What I have preserved of his conversation during the remainder of my stay in London at this time,is only what follows:I told him that when I objected to keeping company with a notorious infidel,a celebrated friend of ours said to me,'I do not think that men who live laxly in the world,as you and I do,can with propriety assume such an authority.Dr.Johnson may,who is uniformly exemplary in his conduct.But it is not very consistent to shun an infidel to-day,and get drunk to-morrow.'JOHNSON.'Nay,Sir,this is sad reasoning.Because a man cannot be right in all things,is he to be right in nothing?Because a man sometimes gets drunk,is he therefore to steal?This doctrine would very soon bring a man to the gallows.'
He,I know not why,shewed upon all occasions an aversion to go to Ireland,where I proposed to him that we should make a tour.
JOHNSON.'It is the last place where I should wish to travel.'
BOSWELL.'Should you not like to see Dublin,Sir?'JOHNSON.'No,Sir!Dublin is only a worse capital.'BOSWELL.'Is not the Giant's-Causeway worth seeing?'JOHNSON.'Worth seeing?yes;but not worth going to see.'
Yet he had a kindness for the Irish nation,and thus generously expressed himself to a gentleman from that country,on the subject of an UNION which artful Politicians have often had in view--'Do not make an union with us,Sir.We should unite with you,only to rob you.We should have robbed the Scotch,if they had had any thing of which we could have robbed them.'
