Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

106

Locke's Latin verses.

[August 23.

that, in some disorders of the imagination, people had been known to fly.'

I talked of the difference of genius, to try if I could engage Gerard in a disquisition with Dr. Johnson; but I did not succeed. I mentioned, as a curious fact, that Locke had written verses. JOHNSON. 'I know of none, Sir, but a kind of exercise prefixed to Dr. Sydenham's Works', in which he has some conceits about the dropsy, in which water and burning are united; and how Dr. Sydenham removed fire by drawing off water, contrary to the usual practice, which is to extinguish fire by bringing water upon it. I am not sure that there is a word of all this; but it is such kind of talk'.'

'Malone records :-'I could not find from Mr. Walpole that his father [Sir Robert] read any other book but Sydenham in his retirement.' To his admiration of Sydenham his death was attributed; for it led him to treat himself wrongly when he was suffering from the stone. Prior's Malone, p. 387. Johnson wrote a Life of Sydenham. In it he ridicules the notion that a man eminent for integrity practised Medicine by chance, and grew wise only by murder. Works, vi. 409.

'All this, as Dr. Johnson suspected at the time, was the immediate invention of his own lively imagination; for there is not one word of it in Mr. Locke's complimentary performance. My readers will, I have no doubt, like to be satisfied, by comparing them; and, at any rate, it may entertain them to read verses composed by our great metaphysician, when a Bachelor in Physick.

AUCTORI, IN TRACTATUM EJUS DE FEBRIBUS.
Febriles æstus, victumque ardoribus orbem

Flevit, non tantis par Medicina malis.

Nam post mille artes, medicæ tentamina curæ,
Ardet adhuc Febris; nec velit arte regi.

Præda sumus flammis; solum hoc speramus ab igne,
Ut restet paucus, quem capit urna, cinis.

Dum quærit medicus febris caussamque, modumque,
Flammarum & tenebras, & sine luce faces;

Quas tractat patitur flammas, & febre calescens,
Corruit ipse suis victima rapta focis.

Qui tardos potuit morbos, artusque trementes,
Sistere, febrili se videt igne rapi.

Sic faber exesos fulsit tibicine muros;

Dum trahit antiquas lenta ruina domos.

Sed si flamma vorax miseras incenderit ædes,

We

August 23.]

Macpherson's FINGAL

107

We spoke of Fingal'. Dr. Johnson said calmly, 'If the poems were really translated, they were certainly first written.

Unica flagrantes tunc sepelire salus.

Fit fuga, tectonicas nemo tunc invocat artes;
Cum perit artificis non minus usta domus.
Se tandem Sydenham febrisque Scholæque furori
Opponens, morbi quærit, & artis opem.

Non temere incusat tectæ putedinis [putredinis] ignes;
Nec fictus, febres qui fovet, humor erit.
Non bilem ille movet, nulla hic pituita; Salutis

Quæ spes, si fallax ardeat intus aqua?

Nec doctas magno rixas ostentat hiatu,
Quis ipsis major febribus ardor inest.
Innocuas placide corpus jubet urere flammas,
Et justo rapidos temperat igne focos.
Quid febrim exstinguat, varius quid postulet usus,
Solari ægrotos, qua potes arte, docet.
Hactenus ipsa suum timuit Natura calorem,
Dum sæpe incerto, quo calet, igne perit:
Dum reparat tacitos male provida sanguinis ignes,
Prælusit busto, fit calor iste rogus.

Jam secura suas foveant præcordia flammas,
Quem Natura negat, dat Medicina modum.
Nec solum faciles compescit sanguinis æstus,
Dum dubia est inter spemque metumque salus;
Sed fatale malum domuit, quodque astra malignum
Credimus, iratam vel genuisse Stygem.

Extorsit Lachesi cultros, Pestique venenum
Abstulit, & tantos non sinit esse metus.

Quis tandem arte nova domitam mitescere Pestem
Credat, & antiquas ponere posse minas?

Post tot mille neces, cumulataque funera busto,
Victa jacet parvo vulnere dira Lues.
Etheriæ quanquam spargunt contagia flammæ,
Quicquid inest istis ignibus, ignis erit.
Delapsæ cœlo flammæ licet acrius urant,

Has gelida exstingui non nisi morte putas?
Tu meliora paras victrix Medicina; tuusque,
Pestis quæ superat cuncta, triumphus eris [erit].
Vive liber, victis febrilibus ignibus; unus

Te simul & mundum qui manet, ignis erit.

J. LOCK, A.M. Ex. Aede Christi, Oxon. Boswell.

1 See ante, ii. 145, 340, 341.

down.

108

Johnson fatigued by Gordon.

[August 23. down. Let Mr. Macpherson deposite the manuscript in one of the colleges at Aberdeen, where there are people who can judge; and, if the professors certify the authenticity, then there will be an end of the controversy. If he does not take this obvious and easy method, he gives the best reason to doubt; considering too, how much is against it à priori.'

We sauntered after dinner in Sir Alexander's garden, and saw his little grotto, which is hung with pieces of poetry written in a fair hand. It was agreeable to observe the contentment and kindness of this quiet, benevolent man. Professor Macleod was brother to Macleod of Talisker, and brother-in-law to the Laird of Col. He gave me a letter to young Col. I was weary of this day, and began to think wishfully of being again in motion. I was uneasy to think myself too fastidious, whilst I fancied Dr. Johnson quite satisfied. But he owned to me that he was fatigued and teased by Sir Alexander's doing too much to entertain him. I said, it was all kindness. JOHNSON. True, Sir; but sen sation is sensation.' BOSWELL. It is so we feel pain equally from the surgeon's probe, as from the sword of the foe.'

[ocr errors]

We visited two booksellers' shops, and could not find Arthur Johnston's Poems'. We went and sat near an hour at Mr. Riddoch's. He could not tell distinctly how much education at the college here costs', which disgusted Dr.

'One of its ornaments [i. e. of Marischal College] is the picture of Arthur Johnston, who was principal of the college, and who holds among the Latin Poets of Scotland the next place to the elegant Buchanan.' Johnson's Works, ix. 12. Pope attacking Benson, who endeavoured to raise himself to fame by erecting monuments to Milton, and by printing editions of Johnston's version of the Psalms, introduces the Scotch Poet in the Dunciad:

'On two unequal crutches propped he came,
Milton's on this, on that one Johnston's name.'
Dunciad, bk. iv. l. 111.

Johnson wrote to Boswell for a copy of Johnston's Poems (ante, iii. 119) and for his likeness (ante, March 18, 1784).

[ocr errors]

Education is here of the same price as at St. Andrews, only the

Johnson.

August 24.] A landlady's admiration of Johnson.

109

Johnson. I had pledged myself that we should go to the inn, and not stay supper. They pressed us, but he was resolute. I saw Mr. Riddoch did not please him. He said to me, afterwards, Sir, he has no vigour in his talk.' But my friend should have considered that he himself was not in good humour; so that it was not easy to talk to his satisfaction. We sat contentedly at our inn. He then became merry, and observed how little we had either heard or said at Aberdeen: that the Aberdonians had not started a single mawkin (the Scottish word for hare) for us to pursue'.

TUESDAY, August 24.

We set out about eight in the morning, and breakfasted at Ellon. The landlady said to me, 'Is not this the great Doctor that is going about through the country?' I said, 'Yes.' 'Ay, (said she,) we heard of him. I made an errand into the room on purpose to see him. There's something great in his appearance: it is a pleasure to have such a man in one's house; a man who does so much good. If I had thought of it, I would have shewn him a child of mine, who has had a lump on his throat for some time.' 'But, (said I,) he is not a doctor of physick.' 'Is he an oculist?' said the landlord. 'No, (said I,) he is only a very learned man.' LANDLORD. They say he is the greatest man in England, except Lord Mansfield'.' Dr. Johnson was highly entertained with this, and I do think he was pleased too. He said, 'I like the exception: to have called me the greatest man in England, would have been an unmeaning compliment: but the exception marked that the praise was in earnest: and, in

session is but from the 1st of November to the 1st of April' [five months instead of seven]. Piozzi Letters, i. 116. In his Works (ix. 14) Johnson by mistake gives eight months to the St. Andrews session. On p. 5 he gives it rightly as seven.

'Beattie, as an Aberdeen professor, was grieved at this saying when he read the book. Why is it recorded?' he asked. For no reason that I can imagine, unless it be in order to return evil for good.' Forbes's Beattie, ed. 1824, p. 337.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

Dr. Major and Dr. Minor.

[August 24. Scotland, the exception must be Lord Mansfield, or-Sir John Pringle':'

He told me a good story of Dr. Goldsmith. Graham, who wrote Telemachus, a Masque, was sitting one night with him and Dr. Johnson, and was half drunk. He rattled away to Dr. Johnson: You are a clever fellow, to be sure; but you cannot write an essay like Addison, or verses like the RAPE OF THE LOCK.' At last he said', ' Doctor, I should be happy to see you at Eaton'.' 'I shall be glad to wait on you,' answered Goldsmith. 'No, (said Graham,) 'tis not you I mean, Dr. Minor; 'tis Doctor Major, there.' Goldsmith was excessively hurt by this. He afterwards spoke of it himself. 'Graham, (said he,) is a fellow to make one commit suicide.'

We had received a polite invitation to Slains castle. We arrived there just at three o'clock, as the bell for dinner was ringing. Though, from its being just on the North-east Ocean, no trees will grow here, Lord Errol has done all that can be done. He has cultivated his fields so as to bear rich crops of every kind, and he has made an excellent kitchengarden, with a hot-house. I had never seen any of the family but there had been a card of invitation written by the honourable Charles Boyd, the earl's brother'. We were

See ante, iii. 74, and post, Nov. 2.

' See ante, i. 475. Johnson, no doubt, was reminded of this story by his desire to get this book. Later on (ante, iii. 119) he asked Boswell 'to be vigilant and get him Graham's Telemachus.'

' I am sure I have related this story exactly as Dr. Johnson told it to me; but a friend who has often heard him tell it, informs me that he usually introduced a circumstance which ought not to be omitted. 'At last, Sir, Graham, having now got to about the pitch of looking at one man, and talking to another, said Doctor, &c.' 'What effect (Dr. Johnson used to add) this had on Goldsmith, who was as irascible as a hornet, may be easily conceived.' Boswell.

• Graham was of Eton College.

It was to Johnson that the invitation was due. When I was at the English Church at Aberdeen I happened to be espied by Lady Di. Middleton, whom I had sometime seen in Londo.; she told what she had seen to Mr. Boyd, Lord Errol's brother, who wrote us an inconducted

« EdellinenJatka »