} It may also be observed, that Goldsmith was fometimes content to be 1773treated with an easy familiarity, but, upon occafions, would be confequential Etat. 64. and important. An instance of this occurred in a small particular. Johnfon had a way of contracting the names of his friends; as, Beauclerk, Beau; Bofwell, Bozzy; Langton, Lanky; Murphy, Mur; Sheridan, Sherry. I remember one day, when Tom Davies was telling that Dr. Johnfon faid, "We are all in labour for a name to Goldy's play," Goldsmith seemed difpleased that such a liberty should be taken with his name, and faid, "I have often defired him not to call me Goldy." Tom was remarkably attentive to the most minute circumstance about Johnson. I recollect his telling me once, on my arrival in London, "Sir, our great friend has made an improvement on his appellation of old Mr. Sheridan. He calls him now. Sherry derry." " SIR, To the Reverend Mr. BAGSHAW, at Bromley*.. " I RETURN you my fincere thanks for your additions to my Dictionary; but the new edition has been published some time, and therefore I cannot now make use of them. Whether I shall ever revise it more, I know not. If many readers had been as judicious, as diligent, and as communicative as yourself, my work had been better. The world must at present take it as it is. I am, Sir, "May 8, 1773 "Your most obliged " And most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." On Sunday, May 8, I dined with Johnson at Mr. Langton's, with Dr. Beattie and some other company. He defcanted on the subject of Literary Property. "There seems, (faid he,) to be in authours a stronger right of property than that by occupancy; a metaphysical right, a right, as it were, of creation, 2 The Reverend Thomas Bagshaw, M. A. who died on November 20, 1787, in the seventyfeventh year of his age, Chaplain of Bromley College, in Kent, and Rector of Southfleet. He had refigned the cure of Bromley parish some time before his death. For this, and another letter from Dr. Johnson in 1784, to the same truly respectable man, I am indebted to Dr. John Loveday, of the Commons, who has obligingly transcribed them for me from the originals in his poffeffion. { : 1773 } which should from its nature be perpetual; but the consent of nations is Etat. 64. against it, and indeed reason and the interests of learning are against it; for were it to be perpetual, no book, however useful, could be universally diffused amongst mankind, should the proprietor take it into his head to restrain its circulation. No book could have the advantage of being edited with notes, however necessary to its elucidation, should the proprietor perversely oppose it. For the general good of the world, therefore, whatever valuable work has once been created by an authour, and issued out by him, should be understood. as no longer in his power, but as belonging to the publick; at the same time the authour is entitled to an adequate reward. This he should have by an exclufive right to his work for a confiderable number of years." He attacked Lord Monboddo's strange speculation on the primitive state of human nature; observing, "Sir, it is all conjecture about a thing useless, even were it known to be true. Knowledge of all kinds is good. Conjecture, as to things useful, is good; but conjecture as to what it would be useless to know, fuch as whether men ever went upon all four, is very idle." On Monday, May 9, as I was to set out on my return to Scotland next morning, I was defirous to see as much of Dr. Johnson as I could. But I first called on Goldsmith to take leave of him. The jealousy and envy which, though poffefsed of many most amiable qualities, he frankly avowed, broke out violently at this interview. Upon another occafion, when Goldsmith confessed himself to be of an envious disposition, I contended with Johnfon that we ought not to be angry with him, he was fo candid in owning it. "Nay, Sir, (faid Johnson,) we must be angry that a man has fuch a fuperabundance of an odious quality that he cannot keep it within his own breast, but it boils over." In my opinion, however, Goldsmith had not more of it than other people have, but only talked of it freely. He now feemed very angry that Johnson was going to be a traveller; faid, " he would be a dead weight for me to carry, and that I should never be able to lug him along through the Highlands and Hebrides." Nor would he patiently allow me to enlarge upon Johnson's wonderful abilities; but exclaimed, " Is he like Burke, who winds into a fubject like a ferpent?" "But, (faid I,) Johnfon is the Hercules who strangled ferpents in his cradle." I dined with Dr. Johnfon at General Paoli's. He was obliged, by indifpofition, to leave the company early; he appointed me, however, to meet him in the evening at Mr. (now Sir Robert,) Chambers's in the Temple, where he accordingly came, though he continued to be very ill. Chambers, as is common on such occafions, prescribed various remedies to him. JOHNSON. (fretted I 1773 } (fretted by pain,) "Pr'ythee don't teaze me. Stay till I am well, and then you shall tell me how to cure myself." He grew better, and talked with a Ætat. 64. noble enthusiasm of keeping up the representation of refpectable families. His zeal on this fubject was a circumstance in his character exceedingly remarkable, when it is confidered that he himself had no pretensions to blood. I heard him once say, "I have great merit in being zealous for fubordination and the honours of birth; for I can hardly tell who was my grandfather." He maintained the dignity and propriety of male fuccession, in oppofition to the opinion of one of our friends, who had that day employed Mr. Chambers to draw his will, devising his eftate to his three fifters, in preference to a remote heir male. Johnfon called them three dowdies, and faid, with as high a fpirit as the boldeft Baron in the most perfect days of the feudal system, "An ancient eftate should always go to males. It is mighty foolish to let a stranger have it, because he marries your daughter, and takes your name. As for an estate newly acquired by trade, you may give it, if you will, to the dog Towzer, and let him keep his own name." I have known him at times exceedingly diverted at what seemed to others a very small sport. He now laughed immoderately, without any reason that we could perceive, at our friend's making his will; called him the teftator, and added, "I dare fay, he thinks he has done a mighty thing. He won't stay till he gets home to his feat in the country, to produce this wonderful deed: he'll call. up the landlord of the first inn on the road; and, after a fuitable preface upon. mortality and the uncertainty of life, will tell him that he should not delay making his will; and here, Sir, will he say, is my will, which I have just made, with the assistance of one of the ablest lawyers in the kingdom; and he will read it to him (laughing all the time). He believes he has made this will; but he did not make it: you, Chambers, made it for him. I trust you have had more confcience than to make him fay, 'being of found understanding; ha, ha, ha! I hope he has left me a legacy. I'd have his will turned into verse, like a ballad." In this playful manner did he run on, exulting in his own pleasantry, which certainly was not fuch as might be expected from the authour of "The Rambler," but which is here preserved, that my readers may be acquainted even with the flightest occafional characteristicks of so eminent a man. Mr. Chambers did not by any means relish this jocularity upon a matter of which pars magna fuit, and seemed impatient till he got rid of us. Johnfon could not stop his merriment, but continued it all the way till we got without the Temple-gate. He then burst into fuch a fit of laughter, that he { 1773. he appeared to be almost in a convulfion; and, in order to support himself, Ætat. 64. laid hold of one of the posts at the side of the foot-pavement, and fent forth peals so loud, that in the filence of the night his voice seemed to refound from Temple-bar to Fleet-ditch. This most ludicrous exhibition of the aweful, melancholy, and venerable Johnfon, happened well to counteract the feelings of sadness which I used to experience when parting with him for a considerable time. I accompanied him to his door, where he gave me his blessing. He records of himself this year, "Between Easter and Whitsuntide, having always confidered that time as propitious to study, I attempted to learn the Low Dutch language." It is to be observed, that he here admits an opinion of the human mind being influenced by seasons, which he ridicules in his writings. His progress, he says, " was interrupted by a fever, which, by the imprudent use of a small print, left an inflammation in his useful eye." We cannot but admire his spirit when we know, that amidst a complication of bodily and mental distress, he was still animated with the defire of intellectual improvement. Various notes of his studies appear on different days, in his manufcript diary of this year; such as, “ Inchoavi lectionem Pentateuchi-Finivi lectionem Conf. Fab. Burdonum. Legi primum actum Troadum. Legi Dissertationem Clerici poftremam de Pent.-2 of Clark's Sermons.-L. Appolonii pugnam Betriciam.-L. centum verfus Homeri." Let this serve as a specimen of what accessions of literature he was perpetually infusing into his mind, while he charged himself with idleness. This year died Mrs. Salusbury, (mother of Mrs. Thrale,) a lady whom he appears to have esteemed much, and whose memory he honoured with an Epitaph 4. In a letter from Edinburgh, dated the 29th of May, I pressed him to persevere in his resolution to make this year the projected visit to the Hebrides, of which he and I had talked for many years, and which I was confident would afford us much entertainment. TO JAMES BOSWELL, Esq. "DEAR SIR, "WHEN your letter came to me, I was so darkened by an inflammation in my eye, that I could not for some time read it. I can now write 3 Prayers and Meditations, p. 129. • Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes of Johnfon, p. 131. without 1773 without trouble, and can read large prints. My eye is gradually growing stronger; and I hope will be able to take some delight in the survey of a Ætat. 64. Caledonian loch. " Chambers is going a Judge, with fix thousand a year, to Bengal. He and I shall come down together as far as Newcastle, and thence I shall easily get to Edinburgh. Let me know the exact time when your Courts intermit. I must conform a little to Chambers's occasions, and he must conform a little to mine. The time which you shall fix, must be the common point to which we will come as near as we can. Except this eye, I am very well. "Beattie is so caressed, and invited, and treated, and liked, and flattered, by the great, that I can fee nothing of him. I am in great hope that he will be well provided for, and then we will live upon him at the Marischal College, without pity or modefty. left the town without taking leave of me, and is gone in deep dudgeon to Is not this very childish? Where is now my legacy? " I hope your dear lady and her dear baby are both well. I shall fee them too when I come; and I have that opinion of your choice, as to fufpect that when I have seen Mrs. Bofwell, I shall be less willing to go away. I am, dear Sir, "Johnson's-court, Fleetstreet, July 5, 1773 "Your affectionate humble fervant, SAM. JOHNSON. "Write to me as foon as you can. Chambers is now at Oxford." I again wrote to him, informing him that the Court of Seffion rose on the twelfth of Auguft, hoping to fee him before that time, and expreffing, perhaps in too extravagant terms, my admiration of him, and my expectation of pleafure from our intended tour. "DEAR SIR, TO JAMES BOSWELL, Esq. " I SHALL set out from London on Friday the fixth of this month, and purpose not to loiter much by the way. Which day I shall be at Edinburgh, I cannot exactly tell. I suppose I must drive to an inn, and fend a porter to find you. |