1772. し With this conceffion I was pretty well fatisfied; and let me give my country- BOSWELL. "It may be of use, Sir, to have a Dictionary to ascertain the pronunciation." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, my Dictionary shews you the accents of words, if you can but remember them." BOSWELL. "But, Sir, we want marks to afcertain the pronunciation of the vowels. Sheridan, I believe, has finished such a work." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, confider how much easier it is to learn a language by the ear, than by any marks. Sheridan's Dictionary may do very well; but you cannot always carry it about with you: and, when you want the word, you have not the Dictionary. It is like a man who has a fword that will not draw. It is an admirable sword, to be fure: but while your enemy is cutting your throat, you are unable to use it. Besides, Sir, what entitles Sheridan to fix the pronunciation of English? He has, in the first place, the disadvantage of being an Irishman: and if he says he will Aaa fix هر : 1772. Ætat. 63. fix it after the example of the best company, why they differ among themEtat 62 felves. I remember an inftance: when I published the Plan for my Dictionary, Lord Chesterfield told me that the word great should be pronounced so as to rhyme to state; and Sir William Young fent me word that it should be pronounced so as to rhyme to feat, and that none but an Irishman would pronounce it grait. Now here were two men of the highest rank, the one, the best fpeaker in the House of Lords, the other, the best speaker in the House of Commons, differing entirely." I again visited him at night. Finding him in a very good humour, I ventured to lead him to the fubject of our fituation in a future state, having much curiofity to know his notions on that point. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, the happiness of an unembodied spirit will confift in a confciousness of the favour of God, in the contemplation of truth, and in the possession of felicitating ideas." BOSWELL. "But, Sir, is there any harm in our forming to ourselves conjectures as to the particulars of our happiness, though the fcripture has faid but very little on the fubject? We know not what we shall be." JOHNSON. " Sir, there is no harm. What philofophy suggests to us on this topick is probable: what scripture tells us is certain. Dr. Henry More has carried it as far as philofophy can. You may buy both his theological and philofophical works in two volumes folio, for about eight shillings." BOSWELL. "One of the most pleasing thoughts is, that we shall fee our friends again." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; but you must confider, that when we are become purely rational, many of our friendships will be cut off. Many friendships are formed by a community of fenfual pleasures: all these will be cut off. We form many friendships with bad men, because they have agreeable qualities, and they can be useful to us; but, after death, they can no longer be of use to us. form many friendships by mistake, imagining people to be different from what they really are. After death, we shall fee every one in a true light. Then, Sir, they talk of our meeting our relations: but then all relationship is dif folved; and we shall have no regard for one perfon more than another, but for their real value. However, we shall either have the fatisfaction of meeting our friends, or be fatisfied without meeting them." BOSWELL. "Yet, Sir, we fee in scripture that Dives still retained an anxious concern about his brethren." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, we must either suppose that passage to be metaphorical, or hold with many divines, and all the Purgatorians, that departed fouls do not all at once arrive at the utmost perfection of which they are capable." BOSWELL. "I think, Sir, that is a very rational supposition." JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; but we do not know it is a true one. There is no harm in believing 4 We 1772. believing it: but you must not compel others to make it an article of faith, BOSWELL. "I do not know whether there are any well-attested stories of the appearance of ghosts. You know there is a famous story of the appearance of Mrs. Veal, prefixed to 'Drelincourt on Death." JOHNSON. " I believe, Sir, that is given up. I believe the woman declared upon her death-bed that it was a lie." BOSWELL. "This objection is made against the truth of ghofts appearing: that if they are in a state of happiness, it would be a punishment to them to return to this world; and if they are in a state of mifery, it would be giving them a refpite." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, as the happiness or mifery of unembodied spirits does not depend upon place, but is intellectual, we cannot say that they are less happy or less miferable by appearing upon earth." We went down between twelve and one to Mrs. Williams's room, and drank tea. I mentioned that we were to have the remains of Mr. Gray, in prose and verse, published by Mr. Mafon. JOHNSON. "I think we have had enough of Gray. I see they have published a fplendid edition of Akenfide's works. One bad Ode may be fuffered, but a number of them together makes one fick." BOSWELL. "Akenside's distinguished poem is his 'Pleasures of the Imagination:' but, for my part, I never could admire it so much as moft people do." JOHNSON. "Sir, I could not read it through." BOSWELL. "I have read it through; but I did not find any great power in it." I mentioned Elwal, the heretick, whose trial Sir John Pringle had given me to read. JOHNSON. "Sir, Mr. Elwal was, I think, an ironmonger at Wolverhampton; and he had a mind to make himself famous, by being the Aaa2 founder i founder of a new fect, which he wished much should be called Elwallians. He held, that every thing in the Old Testament that was not typical, was to be of perpetual obfervance; and fo he wore a ribband in the plaits of his coat, and he also wore a beard. I remember I had the honour of dining in company with Mr. Elwal. There was one Barter, a miller, who wrote againft him; and fo you had 'The Controverfy between Mr. ELWAL and Mr. BARTER.' To try to make himself diftinguished, he wrote a letter to King George the Second, challenging him to dispute with him, in which he said, • George, if you be afraid to come by yourself, to difpute with a poor old man, you may bring a thousand of your black-guards with you; and if you should still be afraid, you may bring a thousand of your red-guards.' The letter had fomething of the impudence of Junius to our prefent King. But the men of Wolverhampton were not so inflammable as the Common Council of London; fo Mr. Elwal failed in his scheme of making himself a man of great confequence." On Tuesday, March 31, he and I dined at General Paoli's. A question was started, whether the state of marriage was natural to man. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage, that we find all the motives which they have for remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilised society imposes to prevent feparation, are hardly fufficient to keep them together." The General faid, that in a state of nature a man and woman uniting together would form a strong and conftant affection, by the mutual pleasure each would receive; and that the fame causes of dissention would not arise between them, as occur between husband and wife in a civilised state. JOHNSON. "Sir, they would have dissentions enough, though of another kind. One would choose to go a hunting in this wood, the other in that; one would choose to go a fishing in this lake, the other in that; or, perhaps, one would choose to go a hunting, when the other would choose to go a fishing; and so they would part. Besides, Sir, a savage man and a favage woman meet by chance; and when the man fees another woman that pleases him better, he will leave the first." We then fell into a disquisition whether there is any beauty independent of utility. The General maintained there was not. Dr. Johnson maintained that there was; and he instanced a coffee-cup which he held in his hand, the painting of which was of no real use, as the cup would hold the coffee equally well if plain; yet the painting was beautiful. We talked of the strange custom of swearing in conversation. The General faid, that all barbarous nations fwore from a certain violence of temper, that could 1772. could not be confined to earth, but was always reaching at the powers above. He said, too, that there was greater variety of swearing, in propor- Etat. 63. tion as there was a greater variety of religious ceremonies. Dr. Johnson went home with me to my lodgings in Conduit-street and drank tea, previous to our going to the Pantheon, which neither of us had feen before. He faid, "Goldsmith's Life of Parnell is poor; not that it is poorly written, but that he had poor materials: for nobody can write the life of a man, but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him." I faid, that if it was not troublesome and prefuming too much, I would request him to tell me all the little circumstances of his life; what schools he attended, when he came to Oxford, when he came to London, &c. &c. He did not disapprove of my curiofity as to these particulars; but faid, "They'll come out by degrees as we talk together." He censured Ruffhead's Life of Pope; and faid, "he knew nothing of Pope, and nothing of poetry." He praised Dr. Joseph Warton's Essay on Pope; but faid, he supposed we should have no more of it, as the authour had not been able to perfuade the world to think of Pope as he did. BOSWELL. "Why, Sir, fhould that prevent him from continuing his work? He is an ingenious Counsel, who has made the most of his cause : he is not obliged to gain it." JOHNSON. "But, Sir, there is a difference when the cause is of a man's own making." We talked of the proper use of riches. JOHNSON. "If I were a man of a great eftate, I would drive all the rafcals whom I did not like out of the county at an election." I asked him how far he thought wealth should be employed in hofpitality. JOHNSON. "You are to consider that ancient hofpitality, of which we hear fo much, was in an uncommercial country, when men being idle, were glad to be entertained at rich men's tables. But in a commercial country, a bufy country, time becomes precious, and therefore hospitality is not so much valued. No doubt there is still room for a certain degree of it; and a man has a fatisfaction in feeing his friends eating and drinking around him. But promifcuous hofpitality is not the way to gain real influence. You must help fome people at table before others; you must ask some people how they like their wine oftener than others. You therefore offend more people than you please. You are like the French statesman, who faid, when he granted a favour, J'ai fait dix mécontens et un ingrat.' Besides, Sir, being entertained ever so well at a man's table, impresses no lasting regard or esteem. No, |