1775.

Etat. 66.

I fay Lord Bute advised, I mean, that fuch acts were done when he was minister,
and we are to fuppofe that he advised them.-Lord Bute fhewed an undue
partiality to Scotchmen. He turned out Dr. Nichols, a very eminent man,
from being physician to the King, to make room for one of his countrymen,
a man very low in his profeffion. He had *********** and **** to go on
errands for him. He had occafion for people to go on errands for him; but
he should not have had Scotchmen; and, certainly, he should not have suf-
fered them to have access to him before the first people in England.”

I told him, that the admiffion of one of them before the first people in
England, which had given the greatest offence, was no more than what hap-
pens at every minifter's levee, where thofe who attend are admitted in the
order that they have come, which is better than admitting them according to
their rank; for if that were to be the rule, a man who has waited all the
morning might have the mortification to fee a peer, newly come, go in before
him, and keep him waiting ftill. JOHNSON. "True, Sir; but **** should
not have come to the levee, to be in the way of people of confequence. He
faw Lord Bute at all times; and could have faid what he had to say at any
time, as well as at the levee. There is now no Prime Minister: there is only
an agent for government in the House of Commons. We are governed by
the Cabinet; but there is no one head there, as in Sir Robert Walpole's
time." BOSWELL. "What then, Sir, is the ufe of Parliament ?" JOHNSON.
"Why, Sir, Parliament is a larger council to the King; and the advantage
of such a council is, having a great number of men of property concerned in
the legislature, who, for their own intereft, will not confent to bad laws. And
you must have observed, Sir, that administration is feeble and timid, and cannot
act with that authority and resolution which is neceffary. Were I in power, I
would turn out every man who dared to oppofe me. Government has the
diftribution of offices, that it may be enabled to maintain its authority."
"Lord Bute (he added,) took down too faft, without building up fome-
thing new."
BOSWELL. "Because, Sir, he found a rotten building. The
political coach was drawn by a fet of bad horfes: it was neceffary to change
them." JOHNSON. "But he fhould have changed them one by one."

I told him that I had been informed by Mr. Orme, that many parts of the
Eaft Indies were better mapped than the Highlands of Scotland. JOHNSON.
"That a country may be mapped, it must be travelled over." "Nay, (faid
I, meaning to laugh with him at one of his prejudices,) can't you say, it is not
worth mapping?"

1775.

As we walked to St. Clement's church, and faw feveral fhops open upon this most folemn faft-day of the Chriftian world, I remarked, that one dif- Etat. 66. advantage arising from the immensity of London, was, that nobody was heeded by his neighbour; there was no fear of cenfure for not obferving Good-Friday, as it ought to be kept, and as it is kept in country towns. He said, it was, upon the whole, very well obferved even in London. He, however, owned, that London was too large; but added, "It is nonsense to say the head is too big for the body. It would be as much too big, though the body were ever fo large; that is to fay, though the country were ever fo extenfive. It has no fimilarity to a head connected with a body."

Dr. Wetherell, Mafter of Univerfity College, Oxford, accompanied us home from church; and after he was gone, there came two other gentlemen, one of whom uttered the common-place complaints, that by the increase of taxes, labour would be dear, other nations would underfell us, and our commerce would be ruined. JOHNSON, (fmiling). «Never fear, Sir. Our commerce is in a very good state; and fuppofe we had no commerce at all, we could live very well on the produce of our own country." I cannot omit to mention, that I never knew any man who was lefs difpofed to be querulous than Johnson. Whether the subject was his own fituation, or the state of the publick, or the state of human nature in general, though he faw the evils, his mind was turned to refolution, and never to whining or complaint.

We went again to St. Clement's in the afternoon. He had found fault with the preacher in the morning for not choofing a text adapted to the day. The preacher in the afternoon had chofen one extremely proper: "It is finished."

After the evening fervice, he faid, "Come, you fhall go home with me, and fit just an hour." But he was better than his word; for after we had drunk tea with Mrs. Williams, he asked me to go up to his study with him, where we fat a long while together in a ferene undisturbed frame of mind, fometimes in filence, and fometimes converfing, as ve felt ourselves inclined, or more properly fpeaking, as he was inclined; for during all the course of my long intimacy with him, my respectful attention never abated, and my wifh to hear him was fuch, that I conftantly watched every dawning of communication from that great and illuminated mind.

In

He obferved, "All knowledge is of itself of fome value. There is nothing fo minute or inconfiderable, that I would not rather know it than not. the fame manner, all power, of whatever fort, is of itself desirable. A man would not fubmit to learn to hem a ruffle, of his wife, or his wife's maid; but if a mere wifh could attain it, he would rather wifh to be able to hem a ruffle." He

Q992

1775.

He again advised me to keep a journal fully and minutely, but not to menEtat. 66. tion fuch trifles as, that meat was too much or too little done, or that the weather was fair or rainy. He had, till very near his death, a contempt for the notion that the weather affects the human frame.

I told him that our friend Goldsmith had faid to me, that he had come too late into the world, for that Pope and other poets had taken up the places in the Temple of Fame; fo that as but a few at any period can poffefs poetical reputation, a man of genius can now hardly acquire it. JOHNSON. "That is one of the moft fenfible things I have ever heard of Goldfmith. It is difficult to get literary fame, and it is every day growing more difficult. Ah, Sir, that fhould make a man think of fecuring happiness in another world, which all who try fincerely for it may attain. In comparison of that, how little are all other things! The belief of immortality is impreffed upon all men, and all men act under an impreffion of it, however they may talk, and though, perhaps, they may be fcarcely fenfible of it." I faid, it appeared to me that fome people had not the leaft notion of immortality; and I mentioned a distinguished gentleman of our acquaintance. JOHNSON. "Sir, if it were not for the notion of immortality, he would cut a throat to fill his pockets." When I quoted this to Beauclerk, who knew much more of the gentleman than we did, he said, in his acid manner, "He would cut a throat to fill his pockets, if it were not for fear of being hanged."

Dr. Johnson proceeded: "Sir, there is a great cry about infidelity; but there are, in reality, very few infidels. I have heard a perfon, originally a Quaker, but now, I am afraid, a Deift, fay, that he did not believe there were, in all England, above two hundred infidels."

He was pleased to say, "If you come to fettle here, we will have one day in the week on which we will meet by ourselves. That is the happiest converfation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of fentiments." In his private register this evening is thus marked, "Boswell fat with me till night; we had some serious talk "." It also appears from the fame record, that after I left him he was occupied in religious. duties, in "giving Francis, his fervant, fome directions for preparation to communicate; in reviewing his life, and refolving on better conduct." The humility and piety which he difcovers on fuch occafions, is truly edifying. No faint, however, in the courfe of his religious warfare, was more fenfible of the unhappy failure of pious refolves, thap Johnson. He faid one day, talking to an acquaintance on this fubject, "Sir, Hell is paved with good intentions."

5 Prayers and Meditations, p. 138.

On

1775.

On Sunday, April 16, being Eafter-day, after having attended the folemn fervice at St. Paul's, I dined with Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Williams. I main- Etat. 66. tained that Horace was wrong in placing happiness in Nil admirari, for that I thought admiration one of the most agreeable of all our feelings; and I regretted that I had lost much of my difpofition to admire, which people generally do as they advance in life. JOHNSON. "Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better than admiration,-judgement, to estimate things at their true value." I still infifted that admiration was more pleasing than judgement, as love is more pleafing than friendship. The feeling of friendfhip is like that of being comfortably filled with roaft-beef, love, like being enlivened with champagne. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgement and friendship like being enlivened. Waller has hit upon the fame thought with you: but I don't believe you have borrowed from Waller. I wish you would enable yourself to borrow more."

He then took occafion to enlarge on the advantages of reading, and combated the idle fuperficial notion, that knowledge enough may be acquired in Conversation. "The foundation (faid he,) must be laid by reading. General principles must be had from books, which, however, must be brought to the teft of real life. In converfation you never get a fyftem. What is faid upon a fubject is to be gathered from a hundred people. The parts of a truth, which a man gets thus, are at fuch a distance from each other, that he never attains to a full view."

On Tuesday, April 18, he and I were engaged to go with Sir Joshua Reynolds to dine with Mr. Cambridge, at his beautiful villa on the banks of the Thames, near Twickenham. Dr. Johnfon's tardinefs was fuch, that Sir Joshua, who had an appointment at Richmond early in the day, was obliged to go by himself on horseback, leaving his coach to Johnson and me. Johnson was in fuch good spirits, that every thing feemed to please him as we drove along.

Our converfation turned on a variety of fubjects. He thought portraitpainting an improper employment for a woman. "Publick practice of any art, (he observed,) and staring in men's faces, is very indelicate in a female.”

6" Amoret's as fweet and good
"As the most delicious food;
"Which but talted does impart
"Life and gladness to the heart..

"Sachariffa's beauty's wine,

"Which to madnefs does incline;
"Such a liquor as no brain
"That is mortal can fuftain."

I happened.

1775.

I happened to start a queftion of propriety, whether when a man knows that Etat 66, fome of his intimate friends are invited to the house of another friend, with whom they are all equally intimate, he may join them without an invitation. JOHNSON." No, Sir; he is not to go when he is not invited. They may be invited on purpose to abufe him," (fmiling).

As a curious instance how little a man knows, or wishes to know, his own character in the world, or, rather, as a convincing proof that Johnson's roughnefs was only external, and did not proceed from his heart, I infert the following dialogue. JOHNSON. "It is wonderful, Sir, how rare a quality good humour is in life. We meet with very few good humoured men." I mentioned four of our friends, none of whom he would allow to be good humoured. One was acid, another was muddy, and to the others he had objections which have escaped me. Then, shaking his head and stretching himself at his eafe in the coach, and fmiling with much complacency, he turned to me and faid, "I look upon myself as a good humoured fellow." The epithet fellow, applied to the great Lexicographer, the ftately Moralift, the masterly Critick, as if he had been Sam Johnson, a mere pleasant companion, was highly diverting; and this light notion of himself ftruck me with wonder. I answered, alfo fmiling, "No, no, Sir; that will not do. You are good natured, but not good humoured: you are irafcible. You have not patience with folly and abfurdity. I believe you would pardon them, if there were time to deprecate your vengeance; but punishment follows fo quick after fentence, that they cannot escape."

I had brought with me a great bundle of Scotch magazines and newspapers, in which his "Journey to the Western Islands" was attacked in every mode; and I read a great part of them to him, knowing they would afford him entertainment. I wish the writers of them had been prefent: they would have been fufficiently vexed. One ludicrous imitation of his ftyle, by Mr. Maclaurin, now one of the Scotch Judges, with the title of Lord Dreghorn, was diftinguished by him from the rude mafs. "This (faid he,) is the best. But I could caricature my own ftyle much better myfelf." He defended his remark upon the general infufficiency of education in Scotland; and confirmed to me the authenticity of his witty faying on the learning of the Scotch ;"Their learning is like bread in a befieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal." "There is (faid he,) in Scotland a diffusion of learning, a certain portion of it widely and thinly fpread. A merchant there has as much learning as one of their clergy."