face. Yours is the only letter of good-will that I have received; though, indeed, I am promised something of that sort from Sweden. "How my new edition [of Shakspeare] will be received I know not; the subscription has not been very successful. I shall publish about March. "If you can direct me how to send proposals, I should wish that they were in such hands. "I remember, Sir, in some of the first letters with which you favoured me, you mentioned your lady. May I inquire after her? In return for the favours which you have shown me, it is not much to tell you, that I wish you and her all that can conduce to your happiness. I am, Sir, "Your most obliged, and most humble servant, In 1758 we find him, it should seem, in as easy and pleasant a state of existence as constitutional unhappiness ever permitted him to enjoy. "TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, LINCOLNSHIRE. "DEAREST SIR, "Jan. 9, 1758. "I must have indeed slept very fast not to have been awakened by your letter. None of your suspicions are true; I am not much richer than when you left me; and, what is worse, my omission of an answer to your first letter, will prove that I am not much wiser. But I go on as I formerly did, designing to be some time or other both rich and wise; and yet cultivate neither mind nor fortune, Do you take notice of my example, and learn the danger of delay. When I was as you are now, towering in confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am. "But you do not seem to need my admonition. You are busy in acquiring and in communicating knowledge, and while you are studying, enjoy the end of study, by making others wiser and happier. I was much pleased with the tale that you told me of being tutor to your sisters. I, who have no sisters nor brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends; and cannot see, without wonder, how rarely that native union is afterwards regarded. It sometimes, indeed, happens, that some supervenient cause of discord may overpower this original amity; but it seems to me more frequently thrown away with levity, or lost by negligence, than destroyed by injury or violence. We tell the ladies that good wives make good husbands; I believe it is a more certain position that good brothers make good sisters. "I am satisfied with your stay at home, as Juvenal with his friend's retirement to Cumæ: I know that your absence is best, though it be not best for me. 'Quamvis digressu veteris confusus amici, Mrs. Langton is as Langton is a good Cumæ, but who must be Sibylla? wise as Sibyl, and as good; and will live, if my wishes can prolong life, till she shall in time be as old. But she differs in this, that she has not scattered her precepts in the wind, at least not those which she bestowed upon you. "The two Wartons just looked into the town, and were taken to see "Cleone," where David [Garrick] says, they were starved for want of company to keep them warm. David and Doddy1 have had a new quarrel, and, I think, cannot conveniently quarrel any more. "Cleone" was well acted by all the characters, but Bellamy left nothing to be desired. I went the first night, and supported it as well as I might; for Doddy, you know, is my patron, and I would not desert him. The play was very well received. Doddy, after the danger was over, went every night to the stage-side, and cried at the distress of poor Cleone. "I have left off housekeeping, and therefore made presents of the game which you were pleased to send me. The pheasant I gave to Mr. Richardson, the bustard to Dr. Lawrence, and the pot I placed with Miss Williams, to be eaten by myself. She desires that her compliments and good wishes may be accepted by the family; and I make the same request for myself. 66 Mr. Reynolds has within these few days raised his price to twenty guineas a head, and Miss3 is much employed in miniatures. I know not any body [else] whose prosperity has increased since you left them. 66 Murphy is to have his "Orphan of China" acted next month; and is therefore, I suppose, happy. I wish I could tell you of any great good to which I was approaching, but at present my prospects do not much delight me; however, I am always pleased when I find that you, dear Sir, remember, 'Your affectionate, humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." 46 TO MR. BURNEY, AT LYNNE, NORFOLK. "London, March 8, 1758. "Your kindness is so great, and my claim to any particular regard from you so little, that I am at a loss how to express my sense of your favours ; but I am, indeed, much pleased to be thus distinguished by you. “I am ashamed to tell you that my Shakspeare will not be out so soon as I promised my subscribers; but I did not promise them more than I promised myself. It will, however, be published before summer. “I have sent you a bundle of proposals, which, I think, do not profess more than I have hitherto performed. I have printed many of the plays, and have hitherto left very few passages unexplained; where I am quite at loss, I confess my ignorance, which is seldom done by commentators. "I have, likewise, enclosed receipts; not that I mean to impose upon you the trouble of pushing them with more importunity than may seem proper, but that you may rather have more than fewer than you shall want. The proposals you will disseminate as there shall be an opportunity. I once printed them at length in the 'Chronicle,' and some of my friends (I believe Mr. Murphy, who formerly wrote the 'Gray's-Inn Journal' introduced them with a splendid encomium. "Since the Life of Browne,' I have been a little engaged, from time to time, in the Literary Magazine,' but not very lately. I have not the collection by me, and therefore cannot draw out a catalogue of my own parts, but will 1 Mr. Dodsley, the author of " Cleone."-Boswell. 2 Mr. Samuel Richardson, author of "Clarissa.-Boswell. 8 Miss Reynolds, Sir Joshua's sister.-ED. 4 This letter was an answer to one, in which was enclosed a draft for the payment of some subscriptions to his Shakspeare.-BoswELL. do it, and send it. Do not buy them, for I will gather all those that have any thing of mine in them, and send them to Mrs. Burney, as a small token of gratitude for the regard which she is pleased to bestow upon me. "I am, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, 66 Dr. Burney has kindly favoured me with the following memorandum, which I take the liberty to insert in his own genuine easy style. I love to exhibit sketches of my illustrious friend by various eminent hands. DR. BURNEY. "Soon after this, Mr. Burney, during a visit to the capital, had an interview with him in Gough-square, where he dined and drank tea with him, and was introduced to the acquaintance of Mrs. Williams. After dinner, Mr. Johnson proposed to Mr. Burney to go up with him into his garret, which being accepted, he there found about five or six Greek folios, a deal writing-desk, and a chair and a half. Johnson giving to his guest the entire seat, tottered himself on one with only three legs and one arm. Here he gave Mr. Burney Mrs. Williams's history, and showed him some volumes of Shakspeare already printed, to prove that he was in earnest. Upon Mr. Burney's opening the first volume, at the Merchant of Venice' he observed to him, that he seemed to be more severe on Warburton than Theobald. 'O poor Tib!' said Johnson,' he was ready knocked down to my hands; Warburton stands between me and him.' 'But, Sir,' said Mr. Burney, 'you'll have Warburton upon your bones, wont you? No, Sir; he'll not come out: he'll only growl in his den.' 'But you think, Sir, that Warburton is a superior critic to Theobald?'-O, Sir, he'd make two-and-fifty Theobalds, cut into slices! The worst of Warburton is, that he has a rage for saying something, when there's nothing to be said.'-Mr. Burney then asked him whether he had seen the letter which Warburton had written in answer to a pamphlet, addressed, To the most impudent Man alive.' He answered in the negative. Mr. Burney told him it was supposed to be written by Mallet. The controversy now raged between the friends of Pope and Bolingbroke; and Warburton and Mallet were the leaders of the several parties Mr. Burney asked him then if he had seen Warburton's book against Bolingbroke's Philosophy? No, Sir; I have never read Bolingbroke's impiety, and therefore am not interested about its confutation.' 999 ΤΟ JOHNSON COMMENCES "THE IDLER"-REMARKS ON THE WORK-LETTERS ΟΝ N the 15th of April, 1758, he began a new periodical paper, entitled "The Idler," which came out every Saturday in a weekly newspaper, called "The Universal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette," published by Newberry. These essays were continued till April 5, 1760. Of one hundred and three, their total number, twelve were contributed by his friends; of which, Nos. 33, 93, and 96, were written by Mr. Thomas Warton; No. 67 by Mr. Langton; and Nos. 76, 69, and 82, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; the concluding words of No. 82, "and pollute his canvas with deformity," being added by Johnson; as Sir Joshua informed me. The "Idler" is evidently the work of the same mind which produced the "Rambler," but has less body and more spirit. It has more variety of real life, and greater facility of language. He describes the miseries of idleness with the lively sensations of one who has felt them; and in 1 This is a slight mistake. The first number of the "Idler" appeared on the 15th of April, 1758, in No. 2 of the "Universal Chronicle," &c., which was published by J. Payne, for whom, also, the " Rambler" had been printed. On the 29th of April this newspaper assumed the title of "Payne's Universal Chronicle," &c.--MALONE. his private memorandums while engaged in it, we find, "This year I hope to learn diligence." Many of these excellent essays were written as hastily as an ordinary letter. Mr. Langton remembers Johnson, when on a visit at Oxford, asking him one evening how long it was till the post went out; and on being told about half-an-hour, he exclaimed, "Then we shall do very well." He, upon this, instantly sat down and finished an "Idler," which it was necessary should be in London the next day. Mr. Langton having signified a wish to read it, "Sir," said he, "you shall do no more than I have done myself." He then folded up, and sent it off. it 66 Yet there are in the "Idler" several papers which show as much profundity of thought and labour of language as any of this great man's writings. No. 14, "Robbery of time;" No. 24, "Thinking;" No. 41, "Death of a friend ;" No. 43, "Flight of time;" No. 51, "Domestic greatness unattainable;" No. 52, "Self-denial;" No. 58, "Actual, how short of fancied, excellence;" No. 89, "Physical evil moral good ;" and his concluding paper on The horror of the last," will prove this assertion. I know not why a motto, the usual trapping of periodical papers, is prefixed to very few of the "Idlers," as I have heard Johnson commend the custom; and he never could be at a loss for one, his memory being stored with innumerable passages of the classics. In this series of essays he exhibits admirable instances of grave humour, of which he had an uncommon share. Nor on some occasions has he repressed that power of sophistry which he possessed in so eminent a degree. In No. 11, he treats with the utmost contempt the opinion that our mental faculties depend, in some degree, upon the weather; an opinion, which they who have never experienced its truths are not to be envied, and of which he himself could not but be sensible, as the effects of weather upon him were very visible. Yet thus he declaims: "Surely, nothing is more reproachful to a being endowed with reason than to resign its powers to the influence of the air, and live in dependence on the weather and the wind for the only blessings which nature has put into our power, tranquillity and benevolence. This distinction of seasons is produced only by imagination operating on luxury. To temperance, every day is bright; and every hour is propitious to diligence. He that shall resolutely excite his faculties or exert his virtues will soon make himself superior to the seasons, and may set at defiance the morning mist and the evening damp, the blasts of the east, and the clouds of the south." Alas! it is too certain that where the frame has delicate fibres, and there is a fine sensibility, such influences of the air are irresistible. He might as well have bid defiance to the ague, the palsy, and other bodily disorders. Such boasting of the mind is false elevation. "I think the Romans call it Stoicism." But in this number of his "Idler" his spirits seem to run riot; for in 1 Prayers and Meditations, p. 30.-BOSWELL. |