Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol. II (version 2) — Section 62

He then carried me to visit Dr. Bentham, Canon of Christ-Church, and Divinity Professor, with whose learned and lively conversation we were much pleased.

He gave us an invitation to dinner, which Dr. Johnson told me was a high honour.

'Sir, it is a great thing to dine with the Canons of Christ-Church.'

We could not accept his invitation, as we were engaged to dine at University College.

We had an excellent dinner there, with the Master and Fellows, it being St. Cuthbert's day, which is kept by them as a festival, as he was a saint of Durham, with which this college is much connected[1303].

We drank tea with Dr. Home[1304], late President of Magdalen College, and Bishop of Norwich, of whose abilities, in different respects, the publick has had eminent proofs, and the esteem annexed to whose character was increased by knowing him personally.

He had talked of publishing an edition of Walton's _Lives_[1305], but had laid aside that design, upon Dr. Johnson's telling him, from mistake, that Lord Hailes intended to do it.

I had wished to negociate between Lord Hailes and him, that one or other should perform so good a work.

JOHNSON.

'In order to do it well, it will be necessary to collect all the editions of Walton's _Lives_.

By way of adapting the book to the taste of the present age, they have, in a later edition, left out a vision which he relates Dr. Donne had[1306], but it should be restored; and there should be a critical catalogue given of the works of the different persons whose lives were written by Walton, and therefore their works must be carefully read by the editor.'

We then went to Trinity College, where he introduced me to Mr. Thomas Warton, with whom we passed a part of the evening.

We talked of biography.

--JOHNSON.

'It is rarely well executed[1307].

They only who live with a man can write his life with any genuine exactness and discrimination; and few people who have lived with a man know what to remark about him.

The chaplain of a late Bishop[1308], whom I was to assist in writing some memoirs of his Lordship, could tell me scarcely any thing[1309].'

I said, Mr. Robert Dodsley's life should be written, as he had been so much connected with the wits of his time[1310], and by his literary merit had raised himself from the station of a footman.

Mr. Warton said, he had published a little volume under the title of _The Muse in Livery_ [1311].

JOHNSON.

'I doubt whether Dodsley's brother[1312] would thank a man who should write his life: yet Dodsley himself was not unwilling that his original low condition should be recollected.

When Lord Lyttelton's _Dialogues of the Dead_ came out, one of which is between Apicius, an ancient epicure, and Dartineuf, a modern epicure, Dodsley said to me, "I knew Dartineuf well, for I was once his footman[1313]."

' Biography led us to speak of Dr. John Campbell[1314], who had written a considerable part of the _Biographia Britannica_.

Johnson, though he valued him highly, was of opinion that there was not so much in his great work, _A Political Survey of Great Britain_, as the world had been taught to expect[1315]; and had said to me, that he believed Campbell's disappointment, on account of the bad success of that work, had killed him.

He this evening observed of it, 'That work was his death.'

Mr. Warton, not adverting to his meaning, answered, 'I believe so; from the great attention he bestowed on it.'

JOHNSON.

'Nay, Sir, he died of _want_ of attention, if he died at all by that book.'

We talked of a work much in vogue at that time, written in a very mellifluous style, but which, under pretext of another subject, contained much artful infidelity[1316].

I said it was not fair to attack us thus unexpectedly; he should have warned us of our danger, before we entered his garden of flowery eloquence, by advertising, 'Spring guns and men-traps set here[1317].'

The authour had been an Oxonian, and was remembered there for having 'turned Papist.'

I observed, that as he had changed several times--from the Church of England to the Church of Rome,--from the Church of Rome to infidelity,--I did not despair yet of seeing him a methodist preacher.

JOHNSON, (laughing.

) 'It is said, that his range has been more extensive, and that he has once been Mahometan[1318].

However, now that he has published his infidelity, he will probably persist in it.'

BOSWELL.

'I am not quite sure of that, Sir.'

I mentioned Sir Richard Steele having published his _Christian Hero_, with the avowed purpose of obliging himself to lead a religious life[1319], yet, that his conduct was by no means strictly suitable.

JOHNSON.

'Steele, I believe, practised the lighter vices.'

Mr. Warton, being engaged, could not sup with us at our inn; we had therefore another evening by ourselves.

I asked Johnson, whether a man's[1320] being forward to make himself known to eminent people, and seeing as much of life, and getting as much information as he could in every way, was not yet lessening himself by his forwardness.

JOHNSON.

'No, Sir; a man always makes himself greater as he increases his knowledge.'

I censured some ludicrous fantastick dialogues between two coach-horses and other such stuff, which Baretti had lately published[1321].

He joined with me, and said, 'Nothing odd will do long.

_Tristram Shandy_ did not last[1322].'

I expressed a desire to be acquainted with a lady who had been much talked of, and universally celebrated for extraordinary address and insinuation[1323].

JOHNSON.

'Never believe extraordinary characters which you hear of people.

Depend upon it, Sir, they are exaggerated.

You do not see one man shoot a great deal higher than another.'

I mentioned Mr. Burke.

JOHNSON.

'Yes; Burke is an extraordinary man.

His stream of mind is perpetual[1324].'

It is very pleasing to me to record, that Johnson's high estimation of the talents of this gentleman was uniform from their early acquaintance.

Sir Joshua Reynolds informs me, that when Mr. Burke was first elected a member of Parliament, and Sir John Hawkins expressed a wonder at his attaining a seat, Johnson said, 'Now we who know Mr. Burke, know, that he will be one of the first men in this country[1325].'

And once, when Johnson was ill, and unable to exert himself as much as usual without fatigue, Mr. Burke having been mentioned, he said, 'That fellow calls forth all my powers.

Were I to see Burke now it would kill me[1326].'

So much was he accustomed to consider conversation as a contest[1327], and such was his notion of Burke as an opponent.

Next morning, Thursday, March 31, we set out in a post-chaise to pursue our ramble.

It was a delightful day, and we rode through Blenheim park.

When I looked at the magnificent bridge built by John Duke of Marlborough, over a small rivulet, and recollected the Epigram made upon it-- 'The lofty arch his high ambition shows, The stream, an emblem of his bounty flows[1328]:' and saw that now, by the genius of Brown[1329], a magnificent body of water was collected, I said, 'They have _drowned_ the Epigram.'

I observed to him, while in the midst of the noble scene around us, 'You and I, Sir, have, I think, seen together the extremes of what can be seen in Britain:--the wild rough island of Mull, and Blenheim park.'

We dined at an excellent inn at Chapel-house, where he expatiated on the felicity of England in its taverns and inns, and triumphed over the French for not having, in any perfection, the tavern life.

'There is no private house, (said he,) in which people can enjoy themselves so well, as at a capital tavern.

Let there be ever so great plenty of good things, ever so much grandeur, ever so much elegance, ever so much desire that every body should be easy; in the nature of things it cannot be: there must always be some degree of care and anxiety.

The master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests are anxious to be agreeable to him: and no man, but a very impudent dog indeed, can as freely command what is in another man's house, as if it were his own[1330].

Whereas, at a tavern, there is a general freedom from anxiety.

You are sure you are welcome: and the more noise you make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you call for, the welcomer you are.

No servants will attend you with the alacrity which waiters do, who are incited by the prospect of an immediate reward in proportion as they please.

No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn[1331].'

He then repeated, with great emotion, Shenstone's lines:-- 'Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn[1332].'

My illustrious friend, I thought, did not sufficiently admire Shenstone[1333].

That ingenious and elegant gentleman's opinion of Johnson appears in one of his letters to Mr. Graves[1334], dated Feb.

9, 1760. 'I

have lately been reading one or two volumes of _The Rambler_; who, excepting against some few hardnesses[1335] in his manner, and the want of more examples to enliven, is one of the most nervous, most perspicuous, most concise, [and] most harmonious prose writers I know.

A learned diction improves by time.'