1772.

critical fagacity enough to discover a more than ordinary hand in the Petition. I told him that Dr. Johnson had favoured me with his pen. His Lordship, Etat. 63. with wonderful acumen, pointed out exactly where his compofition began, and where it ended. But that I may do impartial justice, and conform to the great rule of Courts, Suum cuique tribuito, I must add, that their Lordships in general, though they were pleased to call this " a well-drawn paper," preferred the former very inferiour petition which I had written; thus confirming the truth of an obfervation made to me by one of their number, in a merry mood: "My dear Sir, give yourself no trouble in the compofition of the papers you prefent to us; for, indeed, it is cafting pearls before

fwine."

I renewed my folicitations that he would this year accomplish his longintended vifit to Scotland.

fo

"DEAR SIR,

To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq.

"THE regret has not been little with which I have miffed a journey pregnant with pleasing expectations, as that in which I could promise myfelf not only the gratification of curiofity, both rational and fanciful, but the delight of feeing thofe whom I love and esteem, * * *

But fuch has been the courfe of things, that I could not come; and fuch has
been, I am afraid, the ftate of my body, that it would not well have seconded
my inclination. My body, I think, grows better, and I refer my hopes to
another year; for I am very fincere in my defign to pay the vifit, and take
the ramble. In the mean time, do not omit any opportunity of keeping up
of
any
a favourable opinion of me in the minds of
my friends. Beattie's
book is, I believe, every day more liked; at least I like it more, as I look
more upon it.

"I am glad if you got credit by your caufe, and am yet of opinion that our cause was good, and that the determination ought to have been in your favour. Poor Haftie, I think, had but his deserts,

"You promised to get me a little Pindar, and may add to it a little Anacreon.

"The leifure which I cannot enjoy, it will be a pleasure to hear that you employ upon the antiquities of the feudal establishment. The whole fystem of ancient tenures is gradually paffing away; and I wish to have the knowledge

D dd 2

1772.

Etat. 63.

ledge of it preferved adequate and complete. For fuch an inftitution makes a very important part of the hiftory of mankind. Do not forget a defign fo worthy of a fcholar who ftudies the laws of his country, and of a gentleman who may naturally be curious to know the condition of his own ancestors. I am dear Sir,

"I was much disappointed that you did not come to Scotland last autumn. However, I must own that your letter prevents me from complaining: not only because I am fenfible that the ftate of your health was but too good an excufe, but because you write in a ftrain which shews that you have agreeable views of the scheme which we have so long proposed.

"I communicated to Beattie what you faid of his book in your last letter to me. He writes to me thus: You judge very rightly in fuppofing that Dr. Johnson's favourable opinion of my book must give me great delight. Indeed it is impoffible for me to fay how much I am gratified by it; for there is not a man upon earth whofe good opinion I would be more ambitious to cultivate. His talents and his virtues I reverence more than any words can exprefs. The extraordinary civilities, (the paternal attentions I fhould rather fay,) and the many inftructions I have had the honour to receive from him, will to me be a perpetual scource of pleasure in the recollection.

Dum memor ipfe mei dum fpiritus bos reget artus.'

I had still some thoughts, while the fummer lafted, of being obliged to go to London on fome little business; otherwise I should certainly have troubled him with a letter feveral months ago, and given fome vent to my gratitude and admiration. This I intend to do, as foon as I am left a little at leifure. Mean time, if you have occafion to write to him, I beg you will offer him my most refpectful compliments, and affure him of the fincerity of my attachment and the warmth of my gratitude.'

"I am, &c.

"JAMES BOSWELL."

In 1773 his only publication was an edition of his folio Dictionary, with 1773additions and corrections; nor did he, fo far as is known, furnish any produc- Etat. 64. tions of his fertile pen to any of his numerous friends or dependants, except the Preface to his old amanuenfis Macbean's "Dictionary of ancient Geography." His Shakspeare, indeed, which had been received with high approbation by the publick, and gone through feveral editions, was this year re-published by George Steevens, Efq. a gentleman not only deeply fkilled in ancient learning, and of very extenfive reading in English literature, efpecially the early writers, but at the fame time of acute difcernment and elegant tafte. It is almost unneceffary to fay, that by his great and valuable additions to Dr. Johnson's work, he justly obtained confiderable reputation.

"I HAVE read your kind letter much more than the elegant Pindar which it accompanied. I am always glad to find myself not forgotten, and to be forgotten by you would give me great uneasiness. My northern friends have never been unkind to me: I have from you, dear Sir, teftimonies of affection, which I have not often been able to excite; and Dr. Beattie rates the testimony which I was defirous of paying to his merit, much higher than I fhould have thought it reasonable to expect.

"I have heard of your masquerade. What fays your Synod to fuch innovations? I am not studiously scrupulous, nor do I think a masquerade either evil in itself, or very likely to be the occafion of evil; yet as the world thinks it a very licentious relaxation of manners, I would not have been one of the first inafquers in a country where no masquerade had ever been before.

"A new edition of my great Dictionary is printed, from a copy which I was perfuaded to revife; but having made no preparation, I was able to do very little. Some fuperfluities I have expunged, and fome faults I have corrected, and here and there have fcattered a remark; but the main fabrick of the work remains as it was. I had looked very little into it fince I wrote it, and, I think, I found it full as often better, as worse, than I expected.

"Baretti and Davies have had a furious quarrel; a quarrel, I think, irreconcileable. Dr. Goldfmith has a new comedy, which is expected in the

2 There had been mafquerades in Scotland before; but not for a very long time.

fpring.

1773

ལ

fpring. No name is yet given it. The chief diversion arises from a stratagem Atat. 64. by which a lover is made to mistake his future father-in-law's house for an inn. This you fee borders upon farce. The dialogue is quick and gay, and the incidents are fo prepared as not to feem improbable.

"I am forry that you loft your cause of Intromiffion, because I yet think the arguments on your fide unanswerable. But you seem, I think, to fay that you gained reputation even by your defeat; and reputation you will daily gain, if you keep Lord Auchinleck's precept in your mind, and endeavour to confolidate in your mind a firm and regular fyftem of law, instead of picking up occafional fragments.

"My health feems in general to improve; but I have been troubled for many weeks with a vexatious catarrh, which is fometimes fufficiently diftressful. I have not found any great effects from bleeding and phyfick; and am afraid, that I must expect help from brighter days and fofter air.

"Write to me now and then; and whenever any good befalls you, make hafte to let me know it, for no one will rejoice at it more than, dear Sir, "Your moft humble fervant,

"London, Feb. 24, 1773.

SAM. JOHNSON.

"You continue to stand very high in the favour of Mrs. Thrale.”

On Saturday, April 3, the day after my arrival in London this year, I went to his house late in the evening, and fat with Mrs. Williams till he came home. I found in the London Chronicle, Dr. Goldfmith's apology to the publick for beating Evans, a bookfeller, on account of a paragraph in a newspaper published by him, which Goldfinith thought impertinent to him and to a lady of his acquaintance. The apology was written fo much in Dr. Johnfon's manner, that both Mrs. Williams and I fuppofed it to be his; but when he came home he foon undeceived us. When he faid to Mrs. Williams, "Well, Dr. Goldfinith's manifefto has got into your paper;" I asked him if Dr. Goldfimith had written it, with an air that made him fee I fufpected it was his, though subscribed by Goldsmith. JOHNSON. "Sir, Dr. Goldfmith would no more have asked me to write such a thing as that for him, than he would have asked me to feed him with a spoon, or to do any thing else that denoted his imbecillity. I as much believe that he wrote it, as if I had seen him do it. Sir, had he fhewn it to any one friend, he would not have been allowed to publish it. He has, indeed, done it very well; but it is a foolish thing well done. I fuppofe he has been fo much elated with the fuccefs of his new

comedy,

comedy, that he has thought every thing that concerned him must be of importance to the publick." BoswELL. "I fancy, Sir, this is the first time that he has been engaged in fuch an adventure." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I believe it is the first time he has beat; he may have been beaten before. This, Sir, is a new plume to him."

I mentioned Sir John Dalrymple's "Memoirs of Great-Britain and Ireland," and his discoveries to the prejudice of Lord Ruffel and Algernon Sydney. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, every body who had juft notions of government thought them rafcals before. It is well that all mankind now fee them to be rafcals BOSWELL. "But, Sir, may not thofe difcoveries be true without their being rafcals?" JOHNSON. "Confider, Sir; would any of them have been willing to have had it known that they intrigued with France? Depend upon it, Sir, he who does what he is afraid fhould be known, has fomething rotten about him. This Dalrymple seems to be an honest fellow; for he tells equally what makes against both fides. But nothing can be poorer than his mode of writing: it is the mere bouncing of a school-boy. Great He! but greater She! and fuch Stuff."

I could not agree with him in this criticism; for though Sir John Dalrymple's ftyle is not regularly formed in any respect, and one cannot help smiling fometimes at his affected grandiloquence, there is in his writing a pointed vivacity, and much of a gentlemanly fpirit.

At Mr. Thrale's in the evening, he repeated his ufual paradoxical declamation against action in publick speaking. "Action can have no effect upon reasonable minds. It may augment noise, but it never can enforce argument. If you speak to a dog, you use action; you hold up your hand thus because he is a brute: and in proportion as men are removed from brutes, action will have the less influence upon them." MRS. THRALE. "What then, Sir,. becomes of Demofthenes's faying? Action, action, action!" JOHNSON. "Demofthenes, Madam, fpoke to an affembly of brutes; to a barbarous people."

I thought it extraordinary, that he should deny the power of rhetorical action upon human nature, when it is proved by innumerable facts in all ftages of society. Reasonable beings are not folely reasonable. They have fancies which may be pleased, paffions which may be roused.

Lord Chesterfield being mentioned, Johnson remarked, that almost all of that celebrated nobleman's witty fayings were puns. He, however, allowed the merit of good wit to his Lordship's faying of Lord Tyrawley and himself, when both very old and infirm: "Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years; but we don't choose to have it known.""

1773.

Etat. 64.