1763. Our converfation proceeded. "Sir, (faid he) I am a friend to fubordination, as most conducive to the happiness of society. There is a reciprocal Atat. 54. pleasure in governing and being governed." "Dr. Goldfinith is one of the first men we now have as an authour, and he is a very worthy man too. He has been loofe in his principles, but he is coming right." I mentioned Mallet's tragedy of ELVIRA, which had been acted the preceding winter at Drury-lane, and that the Honourable Andrew Erskine, Mr. Dempfter, and myself, had joined in writing a pamphlet, entitled "Critical Strictures" against it. That the mildness of Dempfter's difpofition had, however, relented; and he had candidly faid, "We have hardly a right to abuse this tragedy; for, bad as it is, how vain fhould either of us be to write one not near fo good." JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir; this is not just reasoning. You may abufe a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may fcold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables." When I talked to him of the paternal estate to which I was heir, he said, "Sir, let me tell you, that to be a Scotch landlord, where you have a number of families dependent upon you, and attached to you, is, perhaps, as high a fituation as humanity can arrive at. A merchant upon the 'Change of London, with a hundred thousand pounds, is nothing: an English duke, "While they were enquiring and deliberating, they were fummoned into the girl's chamber by fome ladies who were near her bed, and who had heard knocks and scratches. When the gentlemen entered, the girl declared that fhe felt the fpirit like a mouse upon her back, and was required to hold her hands out of bed. From that time, though the fpirit was very folemnly required to manifeft its existence by appearance, by impreffion on the hand or body of any prefent, by scratches, knocks, or any other agency, no evidence of any preter-natural power was exhibited. "The fpirit was then very feriously advertifed that the perfon to whom the promife was. made of ftriking the coffin, was then about to vifit the vault, and that the performance of the promife was then claimed. The company at one o'clock went into the church, and the gentleman, to whom the promise was made, went with another into the vault. The spirit was folemnly required to perform its promife, but nothing more than filence enfued: the perfon supposed to be accused by the fpirit, then went down with several others, but no effect was perceived. Upon their return they examined the girl, but could draw no confeffion from her. Between two and three fhe defired and was permitted to go home with her father. "It is, therefore, the opinion of the whole affembly, that the child has fome art of making or counterfeiting a particular noife, and that there is no agency of any higher cause." The Critical Review, in which Mallet himself fometimes wrote, characterised this pamphlet as the crude efforts of envy, petulance, and felf-conceit." There being thus three epithets, we the three authours had a humourous contention how each should be appropriated. 1763. Atat. 54. with an immenfe fortune, is nothing: he has no tenants who confider themfelves as under his patriarchal care, and who will follow him to the field upon any emergency." His notion of the dignity of a Scotch landlord had been formed upon what he had heard of the Highland Chiefs; for it is long fince a lowland landlord has been fo curtailed in his feudal authority, that he has little more influence over his tenants than an English landlord; and of late years moft of the Highland Chiefs have deftroyed, by means too well known, the princely power which they once enjoyed. He proceeded: "Your going abroad, Sir, and breaking off idle habits, may be of great importance to you. I would go where there are courts and learned men. There is a good deal of Spain that has not been perambulated. I would have you go thither. A man of inferiour talents to yours may furnish us with useful obfervations upon that country." His fuppofing me, at that period of life, capable of writing an account of my travels that would deferve to be read, elated me not a little. I appeal to every impartial reader whether this faithful detail of his franknefs, complacency, and kindness to a young man, a stranger and a Scotchman, does not refute the unjuft opinion of the harfhness of his general demeanour. His occafional reproofs of folly, impudence, or impiety, and even the fudden fallies of his conftitutional irritability of temper, which have been preserved for the poignancy of their wit, have produced that opinion among those who have not confidered that such instances, though collected by Mrs. Piozzi into a small volume, and read over in a few hours, were, in fact, scattered through a long series of years; years, in which his time was chiefly spent in inftructing and delighting mankind by his writings and conversation, in acts of piety to GOD, and good-will to men. I complained to him that I had not yet acquired much knowledge, and asked his advice as to my studies. He faid, "Don't talk of study now. I will give you a plan; but it will require fome time to confider of it." "It is very good in you, Mr. Johnson, (I replied) to allow me to be with you thus. Had it been foretold to me fome years ago that I fhould pass an evening with the authour of the RAMBLER, how fhould I have exulted!" What I then expreffed was fincerely from the heart. He was fatisfied that it was, and cordially answered, "Sir, I am glad we have met. I hope we shall pafs many evenings and mornings too, together." We finished a couple of bottles of port, and fat till between one and two in the morning. 1763. He wrote this year in the Critical Review the account of "Telemachus, a Mask,” by the Reverend George Graham, of Eton College. The fubject of Ætat. 54. this beautiful poem was particularly interefting to Johnfon, who had much experience of " the conflict of oppofite principles," which he defcribes as, "The contention between pleasure and virtue, a struggle which will always be continued while the prefent fyftem of nature shall fubfift: nor can history or poetry exhibit more than pleasure triumphing over virtue, and virtue fubjugating pleasure." As Dr. Oliver Goldsmith will frequently appear in this narrative, I shall endeavour to make my readers in fome degree acquainted with his fingular character. He was a native of Ireland, and a contemporary with Mr. Burke, at Trinity College, Dublin, but did not then give much promise of future celebrity. He, however, obferved to Mr. Malone, that "though he made no great figure in mathematicks, which was a study in much repute there, he could turn an Ode of Horace better than any of them." He afterwards studied phyfick at Edinburgh, and upon the Continent; and I have been informed, was enabled to pursue his travels on foot, partly by demanding at Universities to enter the lifts as a difputant, by which, according to the custom of many of them, he was entitled to the premium of a crown, when luckily for him his challenge was not accepted; fo that, as I once obferved to Dr. Johnson, he difputed his paffage through Europe. He then came to England, and was employed fucceffively in the capacities of an usher to an academy, a corrector of the prefs, a reviewer, and a writer for a newspaper. He had fagacity enough to cultivate affiduously the acquaintance of Johnson, and his faculties were gradually enlarged by the contemplation of fuch a model. To me and many others it appeared that he studiously copied the manner of Johnson, though, indeed, upon a smaller scale. At this time I think he had published nothing with his name, though it was pretty generally known that one Dr. Goldsmith was the authour of " An Effay on the prefent State of polite Literature," and of "The Citizen of the World," a series of letters supposed to be written from London by a Chinese. No man had the art of displaying with more advantage as a writer, whatever literary acquifitions he made. "Nihil quod tetigit non ornavit 5." His mind resembled a fertile, but thin foil. There was a quick, but not a strong vegetation, of whatever chanced to be thrown upon it. No deep root could be ftruck. The oak of the foreft did not grow there; but the elegant 5 See his Epitaph in Westminster Abbey, written by Dr. Johnson. fhrubbery 1763. Etat. 54. ιι fhrubbery and the fragrant parterre appeared in gay fucceffion. It has been generally circulated and believed that he was a mere fool in converfation"; but, in truth, this has been greatly exaggerated. He had, no doubt, a more than common fhare of that hurry of ideas which we often find in his countrymen, and which sometimes produces a laughable confufion in expreffing them. He was very much what the French call un etourdi, and from vanity and an eager defire of being confpicuous wherever he was, he frequently talked carelessly without knowledge of the fubject, or even without thought. His perfon was short, his countenance coarse and vulgar, his deportment that of a scholar aukwardly affecting the eafy gentleman. Those who were in any way diftinguished, excited envy in him to fo ridiculous an excefs, that the inftances of it are hardly credible. When accompanying two beautiful young ladies with their mother on a tour in France, he was seriously angry that more attention was paid to them than to him; and once at the exhibition of the Fantoccini, in London, when those who fat next him obferved with what dexterity a puppet was made to tofs a pike, he could not bear that it fhould have fuch praife, and exclaimed with fome warmth, "Pfhaw! I can do it better myself." He, I am afraid, had no fettled system of any fort, fo that his conduct must not be strictly fcrutinised; but his affections were social and generous, and when he had money he gave it away very liberally. His defire of imaginary confequence predominated over his attention to truth. When he began to rise into notice, he faid he had a brother who was Dean of Durham, a fiction fo easily detected, that it is wonderful how he should have been fo inconfiderate as to hazard it. He boafted to me at this time of the power of his pen in commanding money, which I believe was true in a certain degree, though in the instance he gave he was by no means correct. He told me that he had fold a novel for four hundred pounds. This was his "Vicar of 66 • In allufion to this, Mr. Horace Walpole, who admired his writings, faid he was an infpired ideot ;" and Garrick described him as one "Who wrote like an angel, and talk'd like poor Poll." Sir Joshua Reynolds has mentioned to me that he frequently heard Goldsmith talk warmly of the pleasure of being liked, and obferve how hard it would be if literary excellence fhould preclude a man from that fatisfaction, which he perceived it often did, from the envy which attended it; and therefore Sir Joshua was convinced that he was intentionally more abfurd, in order to lessen himself in focial intercourfe, trufting that his character would be fufficiently supported by his works. If it indeed was his intention to appear abfurd in company, he was often very fuccefsful. But with due deference to Sir Joshua's ingenuity. I think the conjecture too refined. Wakefield," 1 Wakefield." But Johnson informed me, that he had made the bargain for 1763. Mrs. Piozzi and Sir John Hawkins have strangely mis-stated the history of Goldsmith's fituation and Johnson's friendly interference, when this novel was fold. I fhall give it authentically from Johnson's own exact narration: "I received one morning a meffage from poor Goldsmith that he was in great distress, and, as it was not in his power to come to me, begging that I would come to him as soon as poffible. I fent him a guinea, and promised to come to him directly. I accordingly went as foon as I was dreft, and found that his landlady had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent paffion. I perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and had got a bottle of Madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork into the bottle, defired he would be calm, and began to talk to him of the means by which he might be extricated. He then told me that he had a novel ready for the prefs, which he produced to me. I looked into it, and faw its merit; told the landlady I should soon return, and having gone to a bookseller, fold it for fixty pounds. I brought Goldfmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him so ill." My next meeting with Johnson was on Friday the 1ft of July, when he and I and Dr. Goldfmith fupped together at the Mitre. I was before this time pretty well acquainted with Goldsmith, who was one of the brightest It may not be improper to annex here Mrs. Piozzi's account of this transaction, in her own words, as a fpecimen of the extreme inaccuracy with which all her anecdotes of Dr. Johnfon are related, or rather difcoloured and distorted. "I have forgotten the year, but it could scarcely I think be later than 1765 or 1766, that he was called abruptly from our houfe after dinner, and returning in about three hours, faid he had been with an enraged authour, whofe landlady pressed him for payment within doors, while the bailiffs befet him without; that he was drinking himself drunk with Madeira, to drown care, and fretting over a novel, which, when finished, was to be his whole fortune, but he could not get it done for distraction, nor could he ftep out of doors to offer it for fale. Mr. Johnson, therefore, fet away the bottle, and went to the bookfeller, recommending the performance, and defiring some immediate relief; which when he brought back to the writer, he called the woman of the house directly to partake of punch, and pass their time in merriment." Anecdotes of Johnfon, p. 119. |