THE LIFE

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D.

HAVING left Ashbourne in the evening, we stopped to change horses at Derby, and availed ourselves of a moment to enjoy the conversation of my countryman, Dr. Butler, then physician there. He was in great indignation because lord Mountstuart's bill for a Scotch militia had been lost. Dr. Johnson was as violent against it. "I am glad,” said he, “ that parliament has had the spirit to throw it out. You wanted to take advantage of the timidity of our scoundrels:" (meaning, I suppose, the ministry.) It may be observed, that he used the epithet scoundrel, very commonly, not quite in the sense in which it is generally understood, but as a strong term of disapprobation; as when he abruptly answered Mrs. Thrale, who had asked him how he did, "Ready to become a scoundrel, madam; with a little more spoiling, you will, I think, make me a complete rascal a❞—he meant, easy to become a capricious and self-indulgent valetudinarian; a character for which I have heard him express great disgust.

Johnson had with him upon this jaunt, Il Palmerino d'Inghilterra, a romance praised by Cervantes; but did not like it much. He said, he read it for the language, by way of preparation for his Italian expedition.-We lay this night at Loughborough.

On Thursday, March 28th, we pursued our journey. I mentioned that old Mr. Sheridan complained of the ingra

VOL. III.

a Anecdotes of Johnson, p. 176.

B

titude of Mr. Wedderburne and general Fraser, who had been much obliged to him when they were young Scotchmen entering upon life in England. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, a man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him. A man, when he gets into a higher sphere, into other habits of life, cannot keep up all his former connections. Then, sir, those who knew him formerly upon a level with themselves, may think that they ought still to be treated as on a level; which cannot be: and an acquaintance in a former situation, may bring out things which it would be very disagreeable to have mentioned before higher company, though, perhaps, every body knows of them." He placed this subject in a new light to me; and showed, that a man who has risen in the world, must not be condemned too harshly for being distant to former acquaintance, even though he may have been much obliged to them. It is, no doubt, to be wished that a proper degree of attention should be shown by great men to their early friends. But if, either from obtuse insensibility to difference of situation, or presumptuous forwardness, which will not submit even to an exteriour observance of it, the diguity of high place cannot be preserved, when they are admitted into the company of those raised above the state in which they once were, encroachment must be repelled, and the kinder feelings sacrificed. To one of the very fortunate persons whom I have mentioned, namely, Mr. Wedderburne, now lord Loughborough, I must do the justice to relate, that I have been assured by another early acquaintance of his, old Mr. Macklin, who assisted in improving his pronunciation, that he found him very grateful. Macklin, I suppose, had not pressed upon his elevation with so much eagerness as the gentleman who complained of him. Dr. Johnson's remark as to the jealousy entertained of our friends who rise far above us, is certainly very just. By this was withered the early friendship between Charles Townshend and Akenside; and many similar instances might be adduced.

He said, "It is commonly a weak man who marries for

love." We then talked of marrying women of fortune; and I mentioned a common remark, that a man may be, upon the whole, richer by marrying a woman with a very small portion, because a woman of fortune will be proportionably expensive; whereas a woman who brings none will be very moderate in expenses. JOHNSON. "Depend upon it, sir, this is not true. A woman of fortune, being used to the handling of money, spends it judiciously but a woman who gets the command of money for the first time upon her marriage, has such a gust in spending it, that she throws it away with great profusion."

He praised the ladies of the present age, insisting that they were more faithful to their husbands, and more virtuous in every respect, than in former times, because their understandings were better cultivated. It was an undoubted proof of his good sense and good disposition, that he was never querulous, never prone to inveigh against the present times, as is so common when superficial minds are on the fret. On the contrary, he was willing to speak favourably of his own age; and, indeed, maintained its superiority in every respect, except in its reverence for government; the relaxation of which he imputed, as its grand cause, to the shock which our monarchy received at the revolution, though necessary; and, secondly, to the timid concessions made to faction by successive administrations in the reign of his present majesty. I am happy to think, that he lived to see the crown at last recover its just influence.

At Leicester we read in the newspaper that Dr. James was dead. I thought that the death of an old schoolfellow, and one with whom he had lived a good deal in London, would have affected my fellow-traveller much: but he only said, "Ah! poor Jamy." Afterwards, however, when we were in the chaise, he said, with more tenderness, "Since I set out on this jaunt, I have lost an old friend and a young one ;-Dr. James, and poor Harry," (meaning Mr. Thrale's son.)

Having lain at St. Alban's on Thursday, March 28th,

we breakfasted the next morning at Barnet. I expressed to him a weakness of mind which I could not help; an uneasy apprehension that my wife and children, who were at a great distance from me, might perhaps be ill. "Sir," said he, "consider how foolish you would think it in them to be apprehensive that you are ill." This sudden turn relieved me for the moment; but I afterwards perceived it to be an ingenious fallacy. I might, to be sure, be satisfied that they had no reason to be apprehensive about me, because I knew that I myself was well: but we might have a mutual anxiety, without the charge of folly; because each was, in some degree, uncertain as to the condition of the other.

I enjoyed the luxury of our approach to London, that metropolis which we both loved so much, for the high and varied intellectual pleasure which it furnishes. I experienced immediate happiness while whirled along with such a companion, and said to him, "Sir, you observed one day at general Oglethorpe's, that a man is never happy for the present, but when he is drunk. Will you not add, or when driving rapidly in a post-chaise ?" JOHNSON. "No, sir; you are driving rapidly from something, or to something."

Talking of melancholy, he said, "Some men, and very thinking men too, have not those vexing thoughts". Sir

The philosopher may reason on the folly of this apprehension, but he will still feel its influence. Swift was so much under the dominion of this painful feeling, that he would leave letters unopened, to spare himself for a while from the shock of the ill tidings they might bear of his absent friends. It may be resolved, perhaps, into those instinctive feelings of our nature, for whose influence metaphysical science vainly strives to account, but whose existence it may as vainly venture to deny :

Comes minore sum futurus in metu,

Qui major absentes habet.

Ut assidens implumibus pullis avis

Serpentium allapsus timet,

Magis relictis; non, ut adsit, auxilî

Latura plus præsentibus.

Hor. Epod. i. 17.—Ed.

The phrase vexing thoughts," is, I think, very expressive. It has been