He would not allow me to praise a lady1 then at Bath; observing, " She does not gain upon me, sir; I think her empty-headed." He was, indeed, a stern critick upon characters and manners. Even Mrs. Thrale did not escape his friendly animadversion at times. When he and I were one day endeavouring to ascertain, article by article, how one of our friends 2 could possibly spend as much money in his family as he told us he did, she interrupted us by a lively extravagant sally, on the expense of clothing his children, describing it in a very ludicrous and fanciful Johnson looked a little angry, and said, Nay, madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate." At another time, when she said, perhaps affectedly, "I don't like to fly." JOHNSON. "With your wings, madam, you must fly: but have a care, there are clippers abroad." How very well was this said, and how fully has experience proved the truth of it! But have they not clipped rather rudely, and gone a great deal closer than was necessary3 ?

manner.

66

Recoll.

[But though Dr. Johnson would, as Mrs. Piozzi Reyn. has candidly confessed, treat her with occasional rudeness, he had a most sincere and tender regard for her, and no wonder; for she would, with great consideration and kindness, overlook his foibles and his asperities. One day, at her own table, he spoke so very roughly to her, that every one present was surprised that she could bear it so placidly, and on the ladies withdrawing, Miss Reynolds expressed great astonishment that Dr. Johnson should speak so harshly to

1 [This has been supposed to be Miss Hannah More; yet it seems hard to conceive in what wayward fancy he could call her “empty-headed.”—En.] 2 [Mr. Langton.-ED.]

3 [This alludes to the many sarcastic observations published against Mrs. Piozzi, on her lamentable marriage, and particularly to Baretti's brutal strictures in the European Magazine for 1788; so brutal, that Mr. Boswell, with all his enmity towards her, could not approve of them.-ED.]

Recoll.

Reyn. her, but to this she said no more than "O, dear good man!" This simple reply appeared so strong a proof of her generous and affectionate friendship, that Miss Reynolds took the first opportunity of communicating it to Dr. Johnson, repeating her own animadversions which had produced it. He was much delighted with the information; and some time after, as he was lying back in his chair, seeming to be half asleep, but really, as it turned out, musing on this pleasing incident, he repeated, in a loud whisper, “ O, dear good man!" This kind of soliloquy was a common habit of his, when any thing very flattering or very extraordinary engrossed his thoughts.]

Of the

The in

not in a

A gentleman expressed a wish to go and live three. years at Otaheité, or New Zealand, in order to obtain a full acquaintance with people so totally different from all that we have ever known, and be satisfied what pure nature can do for man. JOHNSON. "What could you learn, sir? What can savages tell, but what they themselves have seen? past or the invisible they can tell nothing. habitants of Otaheité and New Zealand are state of pure nature; for it is plain they broke off from some other people. Had they grown out of the ground, you might have judged of a state of pure nature. Fanciful people may talk of a mythology being amongst them; but it must be invention. They have once had religion, which has been gradually debased. And what account of their religion can you suppose to be learnt from savages? Only consider, sir, our own state: our religion is in a book; we have an order of men whose duty it is to teach it; we have one day in the week set apart for it, and this is in general pretty well observed: yet ask the first ten gross men you meet, and hear what they can tell of their religion."

On Monday, April 29, he and I made an excursion to Bristol, where I was entertained with seeing him inquire upon the spot into the authenticity of

66

Rowley's poetry," as I had seen him inquire upon the spot into the authenticity of " Ossian's poetry." George Catcot, the pewterer, who was as zealous for Rowley as Dr. Hugh Blair was for Ossian (I trust my reverend friend will excuse the comparison), attended us at our inn, and with a triumphant air of lively simplicity, called out, "I'll make Dr. Johnson a convert." Dr. Johnson, at his desire, read aloud some of Chatterton's fabricated verses, while Catcot stood at the back of his chair, moving himself like a pendulum, and beating time with his feet, and now and then looking into Dr. Johnson's face, wondering that he was not yet convinced. We called on Mr. Barret, the surgeon, and saw some of the originals, as they were called, which were executed very artificially; but from a careful inspection of them, and a consideration of the circumstances with which they were attended, we were quite satisfied of the imposture, which, indeed, has been clearly demonstrated from internal evidence, by several able criticks'.

Honest Catcot seemed to pay no attention whatever to any objections, but insisted, as an end of all controversy, that we should go with him to the tower of the church of St. Mary, Redcliff, and view with our own eyes the ancient chest in which the manuscripts were found. To this Dr. Johnson goodnaturedly agreed; and, though troubled with a shortness of breathing, laboured up a long flight of steps, till we came to the place where the wondrous chest

1 Mr. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Warton, Mr. Malone.-BOSWELL.

2 [This naïveté resembles the style of evidence which Johnson so pleasantly ridicules in the IDLER. "Jack Sneaker is a hearty adherent to the protestant establishment; he has known those who saw the bed into which the Pretender was conveyed in a warming-pan.”—Idler, No. 10.—ED.]

stood.

no

"There," said Catcot, with a bouncing confident credulity, "there is the very chest itself." After this ocular demonstration, there was more to be said. He brought to He brought to my recollection a Scotch Highlander, a man of learning too, and who had seen the world, attesting, and at the same time giving his reasons for, the authenticity of Fingal: “I have heard all that poem when I was young." "Have you, sir? Pray what have you heard?" "I have

heard Ossian, Oscar, and every one of them."

Johnson said of Chatterton, "This is the most extraordinary young man that has encountered my knowledge. It is wonderful how the whelp has Hawk. written such things." [And of the merit of the Apoph. p. 208. poems admitted on both sides of the controversy, he' said, "It is a sword that cuts both ways. It is as wonderful that a boy of sixteen years old should have stored his mind with such a strain of ideas and images, as to suppose that such ease of versification and elegance of language were produced by Rowley in the time of Edward the Fourth.]

We were by no means pleased with our inn at Bristol. "Let us see now," said I,." how we should describe it." Johnson was ready with his raillery. "Describe it, sir? Why, it was so bad, that-Boswell wished to be in Scotland!"

After Dr. Johnson returned to London1, I was several times with him at his house, where I occasionally slept, in the room that had been assigned for me. I dined with him at Dr. Taylor's, at General Oglethorpe's, and at General Paoli's. To avoid a tedious minuteness, I shall group together what I.

[It appears from his letters to Mrs. Thrale, that he left Bath on Friday night, the 3d of May, and arrived in London by seven o'clock next day. On Sunday, the 5th, and Tuesday, the 7th, he dined with Dr. Taylor: on Wednesday, the 8th, with General Oglethorpe; and on Thursday, the 9th, with General Paoli. -ED.

have preserved of his conversation during this period also, without specifying each scene where it passed, except one, which will be found so remarkable as certainly to deserve a very particular relation. Where the place or the persons do not contribute to the zest of the conversation, it is unnecessary to encumber my page with mentioning them. To know of what vintage our wine is, enables us to judge of its value, and to drink it with more relish: but to have the produce of each vine of one vineyard, in the same year, kept separate, would serve no purpose. To know that our wine (to use an advertising phrase) is "of the stock of an ambassadour lately deceased," heightens its flavour: but it signifies nothing to know the bin where each bottle was once deposited 1.

"Garrick," he observed, "does not play the part of Archer in the Beaux Stratagem' well. The gentleman should break through the footman, which is not the case as he does it ".

"Where there is no education, as in savage countries, men will have the upper hand of women. Bodily strength, no doubt, contributes to this; but it would be so, exclusive of that; for it is mind that always governs. When it comes to dry understanding, man has the better."

"The little volumes entitled' Respublica, which are very well done, were a bookseller's work."

"There is much talk of the misery which we cause to the brute creation; but they are recompensed by existence. If they were not useful to man, and therefore protected by him, they would not be nearly so numerous." This argument is to be found in the

1 [Notwithstanding this elaborate illustration, drawn from the cellar, Mr. Boswell's readers are best pleased when his diligence has enabled him to give the actual dialogue, with all its details. ED.]

2 [Garrick, on the other hand, denied that Johnson was capable of distinguishing the gentleman from the footman. See ante, p. 353.—ED.]

3 [Accounts of the principal states of Europe.-ED.]

VOL. III.

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