them it seems, very neatly, and what next?" JOHNSON. "Let them dry, sir." BOSWELL." And what next?" JOHNSON. "Nay, sir, you shall know their fate no further." BOSWELL. "Then the world must be left in the dark. It must be said (assuming a mock solemnity) he scraped them and let them dry, but what he did with them next he never could be prevailed upon to tell." JOHNSON. "Nay, sir, you should say it more emphatically:-he could not be prevailed upon, even by his dearest friends, to tell '." He had this morning received his diploma as doctor of laws from the university of Oxford. He did not vaunt of his new dignity, but I understood he was highly pleased with it. I shall here insert the progress and completion of that high academical honour, in the same manner as I have traced his obtaining that of master of arts. "TO THE REV. DR. FOTHERGILL, ` Vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford, to be communicated to the heads of houses, and proposed in convocation, "Downing-street, 3d March, 1775. MR. VICE-CHANCELLOR AND GENTLEMEN,-The honour of the degree of M. A. by diploma, formerly conferred upon Mr. Samuel Johnson, in consequence of his having eminently distinguished himself by the publication of a series of essays, [The following extract of one of what Miss Seward would call his loveletters to Miss Boothby, probably explains, in terms hardly suitable to the correspondence with a lady, the use to which he put these orange peels. → "Give me leave, who have thought much on medicine, to propose to you an easy and, I think, very probable remedy for indigestion and lubricity of the bowels. Dr. Lawrence has told me your case. Take an ounce of dried orange peel, finely powdered, divide it into scruples, and take one scruple at a time in any manner: the best way is, perhaps, to drink it in a glass of hot red port, or to eat it first, and drink the wine after it. If you mix cinnamon or nutmeg with the powder it were not worse; but it will more bulky, and so more woublesome. This is a medicine not disgusting, not costly, easily tried, and if not found useful, easily left off. I would not have you offer it to the doctor as mine. Physicians do not love intruders; yet do not take it without his leave. But do not be easily put off, for it is in my opinion very likely to help you, and not likely to do you harm: do not take too much in haste; a scruple once in three hours, or about five scruples a day, will be sufficient to begin, or less if you find any aversion. I think using sugar with it might be bad; if syrup, use old syrup of quinces; but even that I do not like. I should think better of conserve of sloes."-Lett. 31st Dec. [1755]-ED.] excellently calculated to form the manners of the people, and in which the cause of religion and morality has been maintained and recommended by the strongest powers of argument and elegance of language, reflected an equal degree of lustre upon the university itself. "The many learned labours which have since that time employed the attention and displayed the abilities of that great man, so much to the advancement of literature and the benefit of the community, render him worthy of more distinguished honours in the republick of letters; and I persuade myself that I shall act agreeably to the sentiments of the whole university, in desiring that it may be proposed in convocation to confer on him the degree of doctor in civil law by diploma, to which I readily give my consent; and am, Mr. Vice-chancellor and gentlemen, your affectionate friend and servant, "NORTH 1." "DIPLOMA. "Cancellarius, magistri, et scholares universitatis Oxoniensis omnibus ad quos presentes literæ pervenerint, salutem in Domino sempiternam. "Sciatis, virum illustrem, Samuelem Johnson, in omni humaniorum literarum genere eruditum, omniumque scientiarum comprehensione felicissimum, scriptis suis, ad popularium mores formandos summa verborum elegantia ac sententiarum gravitate compositis, ita olim inclaruisse, ut dignus videretur cui ab academia suá eximia quædam laudis præmia deferentur, quique venerabilem Magistrorum ordinem summa cum dignitate cooptaretur: "Cùm verò eundem clarissimum virum tot posteà tantique labores, in patrid præsertim lingua ornanda et stabilienda feliciter impensi, ita insigniverint, ut in literarum republica princeps jam et primarius jure habeatur ; nos, cancellarius, magistri, et scholares universitatis Oxoniensis, quò talis viri merita pari honoris remuneratione exæquentur, et perpetuum suæ simul laudis, nostræque ergà literas propensissimæ voluntatis extet monumentum, in solenni convocatione doctorumet magistrorum regentium, et non regentium, prædictum Samuelem Johnson doctorem in jure civili renunciavimus et constituimus, eumque, virtute præsentis diplomatis, singulis juribus, privilegiis et honoribus, ad istum gradum quàquà pertinentibus, frui et gaudere jussimus. In cujus rei testimonium commune universitatis Oxoniensis sigillum præsentibus apponi fecimus. "Datum in domo nostræ convocationis die tricesimo mensis Martii, anno Domini millesimo septingentesimo, septuagesimo quinto "." 1 Extracted from the Convocation Register, Oxford.-BoswELL. 2 The original is in my possession. He showed me the diploma, and allowed "Viro Reverendo THOMÆ FOTHERGILL, S. T. P. universitatis Oxoni- "SAM. JOHNSON. "Multis non est opus, ut testimonium quo, te præside, Oxonienses nomen meum posteris commendárunt, quali animo acceperim compertum faciam. Nemo sibi placens non lætatur; nemo sibi non placet, qui vobis, literarum arbitris, placere potuit. Hoc tamen habet incommodi tantum beneficium, quod mihi nunquam posthác sine vestræ fama detrimento vel labi liceat vel cessare; semperque sit timendum ne quod mihi tam eximiæ laudi est, vobis aliquando fiat opprobrio. Vale1. 7. Id. Apr. 1775.” ["TO MRS. THRALE. Lett. v. i. p. "1st April, 1775. "I had mistaken the day on which I was to dine with Mr. Bruce, and hear of Abyssinia, and therefore am to dine this day with Mr. Hamilton. "The news from Oxford is that no tennis-court can be hired at any price2; and that the vice-chancellor will not write to the Clarendon trustees without some previous intimation that his request will not be unacceptable. We must, therefore, find some way of applying to Lord Mansfield, who, with the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Chester, holds the trust. Thus are we thrown to a vexatious distance. Poor [Carter]! do not tell him. me to read it, but would not consent to my taking a copy of it, fearing perhaps that I should blaze it abroad in his lifetime. His objection to this appears from the [following] letter to Mrs. Thrale, in which he scolds her for the grossness of her flattery of him. It is remarkable that he never, so far as I know, assumed his title of doctor, but called himself Mr. Johnson, as appears from many of his cards or notes to myself, and I have seen many from him to other persons, in which he uniformly takes that designation. I once observed on his table a letter directed to him with the addition of esquire, and objected to it as being a designation inferiour to that of doctor; but he checked me, and seemed pleased with it, because, as I conjectured, he liked to be sometimes taken out of the class of literary men, and to be merely genteel-un gentilhomme comme un autre. [The editor suspects that one reason why Johnson was a little reserved about this Oxford degree was that Lord North appeared as the prime mover in it, and that Johnson did not much relish the appearance of owing literary distinction to Lord North; firstly, because he was personally dissatisfied with his lordship; and, secondly, because the degree, at that particular moment, might look like a reward for his political pamphlets. When Mr. Boswell is so severe on Mrs. Piozzi for inaccuracy and exaggeration, may we not fairly ask whether the gentle allusion to flattery (in the letter which Mr. Boswell did not publish) can be fairly called "scolding Mrs. Piozzi for the grossness of her flattery ?”—ED.] The original is in the hands of Dr. Fothergill, then vice-chancellor, who made this transcript."-T. WARTON. 2 [For a riding-school for Mr. Carter.-ED.] 213. Lett. "The other Oxford news is that they have sent me a degree v. i. p. of doctor of laws, with such praises in the diploma as, perhaps, ought to make me ashamed; they are very like your praises. I wonder whether I shall ever show them to you. 214. "Boswell will be with you. Please to ask Murphy the way to Lord Mansfield. Dr. Wetherell, who is now here, and will be here for some days, is very desirous of seeing the brewhouse; I hope Mr. Thrale will send him an invitation. He does what he can for Carter. To-day I dine with Hamilton; to-morrow with Hoole ; on Monday with Paradise; on Tuesday with master and mistress; on Wednesday with Dilly; but come back to the tower '.”] He revised some sheets of Lord Hales's "Annals of Scotland," and wrote a few notes on the margin with red ink, which he bade me tell his lordship did not sink into the paper, and might be wiped off with a wet sponge, so that it did not spoil his manuscript. I observed to him that there were very few of his friends so accurate as that I could venture to put down in writing what they told me as his sayings. JOHNSON. "Why should you write down my sayings?" BOSWELL. "I write them when they are good." JOHNSON. "Nay, you may as well write down the sayings of any one else that are good." But where, I might with great propriety have added, can I find such? I visited him by appointment in the evening, and we drank tea with Mrs. Williams. He told me that he had been in the company of a gentleman whose extraordinary travels had been much the subject of conversation. But I found he had not listened to him with that full confidence, without which there is 1 [The tower was a separate room at Streatham, where Dr. Johnson slept.PIOZZI. So called probably because it was bowed. The editor slept in that room many years after, and was pleased to find that Dr. Johnson's writing-table was carefully preserved, and that even the blots of his ink were not cleaned away.-ED.] 2 [Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, with whom he had dined this day at Mr. Gerard Hamilton's.-ED.] 2 little satisfaction in the society of travellers. I was curious to hear what opinion so able a judge as John- ¶ son had formed of his abilities, and I asked if he was not a man of sense. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, he is not a distinct relater; and I should say, he is neither abounding nor deficient in sense. I did not perceive any superiority of understanding." BOSWELL." But will you not allow him a nobleness of resolution, in penetrating into distant regions?" JOHNSON. "That, sir, is not to the present purpose: we are talking of sense. resolution." A fighting cock has a nobleness of Next day, Sunday, 2d April, I dined with him at Mr. Hoole's. We talked of Pope. JOHNSON. "Hé wrote his 'Dunciad' for fame. That was his primary motive. Had it not been for that, the dunces might have railed against him till they were weary, without his troubling himself about them. He delighted to vex them, no doubt; but he had more delight in seeing how well he could vex them.” The " Odes to Obscurity and Oblivion," in ridicule of "cool Mason and warm Gray," being mentioned, Johnson said, "They are Colman's best things." Upon its being observed that it was believed these odes were made by Colman and Lloyd jointly ;~~ JOHNSON. "Nay, sir, how can two people make an ode? Perhaps one made one of them, and one the other." I observed that two people had made a play, and quoted the anecdote of Beaumont and Fletcher, who were brought under suspicion of treason, because while concerting the plan of a tragedy when sitting together at a tavern, one of them was overheard saying to the other, "I'll kill the king." JOHNSON. "The first of these odes is the best; but they are both good. They exposed a very bad kind VOL. III. Р |