DR. BEATTIE AND HIS WIFE 66 turned to us, I told him the subject of their dispute. JOHNSON: 'Why, Sir, it was properly for botany that they went out: I believe they thought only of culling of simples. 66 I thanked him for showing civilities to Beattie. "Sir," said he, "I should thank you. We all love Beattie. Mrs. Thrale says, if ever she has another husband, she'll have Beattie. He sunk upon us 2 that he was married; else we should have shewn his lady more civilities. She is a very fine woman. But how can you shew civilities to a nonentity? I did not think he had been married. Nay, I did not think about 1 Neither Mr. Banks nor Dr. Solander went with the expedition, owing to their not considering their ship, the Endeavour, seaworthy. See Ann. Reg. 1772. Croker. "MY DEAR SIR,-As I suppose your great work will soon be reprinted, I beg leave to trouble you with a remark on a passage of it, in which I am a little misrepresented. Be not alarmed; the misrepresentation is not imputable to you. Not having the book at hand, I cannot specify the page, but I suppose you will easily find it. Dr. Johnson says, speaking of Mrs. Thrale's family, 'Dr. Beattie sunk upon us that he was married,' or words to that purpose. I am not sure that I understand sunk upon us, which is a very uncommon phrase: but it seems to me to imply (and others, I find, have understood it in the same sense), studiously concealed from us his being married. Now, Sir, this was by no means the case. I could have no motive to conceal a circumstance, of which I never was nor can be ashamed; and of which Dr. Johnson seemed to think, when he afterwards became acquainted with Mrs. Beattie, that I had, as was true, reason to be proud. So far was I from concealing her, that my wife had at that time almost as numerous an acquaintance in London as I had myself; and was not very long after, kindly invited and elegantly entertained at Streatham by Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. My request, therefore, is, that you would rectify this matter in your new edition. You are at liberty to make what use you please of this letter. My best wishes ever attend you and your family. Believe me to be, with the utmost regard and esteem, dear Sir, your obliged and affectionate humble servant, J. BEATTIE." I have, from my respect for my friend, Dr. Beattie, and regard to his extreme sensibility, inserted the foregoing letter, though I cannot but wonder at his considering as any imputation a phrase commonly used among the best friends. B. 225 it one way or other; but he did not tell us of his lady till late." 66 He then spoke of St. Kilda, the most remote of the Hebrides. I told him, I thought of buying it. JOHNSON : Pray do, Sir. We will go and pass a winter amid the blasts there. We shall have fine fish, and we will take some dried tongues with us, and some books. We will have a strong-built vessel, and some Orkney men to navigate her. We must build a tolerable house: but we may carry with us a wooden house ready made, and requiring nothing but to be put up. Consider, Sir, by buying St. Kilda, you may keep the people from falling into worse hands. We must give them a clergyman, and he shall be one of Beattie's choosing. He shall be educated at Marischal College. I'll be your Lord Chancellor, or what you please. BOSWELL" Are you serious, Sir, in advising me to buy St. Kilda? for if you should advise me to go to Japan, I believe I should do it." JOHNSON: "Why yes, Sir, I am serious." BosWELL: 'Why then I'll see what can be done. 66 I gave him an account of the two parties in the Church of Scotland, those for supporting the rights of patrons, independent of the people, and those against it. JOHNSON: "It should be settled one way or other. I cannot wish well to a popular election of the clergy, when I consider that it occasions such animosities, such unworthy courting of the people, such slanders between the contending parties, and other disadvantages. It is enough to allow the people to remonstrate against the nomination of a minister for solid reasons." (I suppose he meant heresy or immorality.) He was engaged to dine abroad, and asked me to return to him in the evening at nine, which I accordingly did. We drank tea with Mrs. Williams, who told us a story of second sight, which happened in Wales, where she was born. -He listened to it very attentively, and said he should be glad to have some instances of that faculty well authenticated. His elevated wish for more and more evidence for spirit, in opposition to the grovelling belief of materialism, led him to a love of such mysterious dis-only subscribe their adherence to the quisitions. He again justly observed, Church of England, there would be still that we could have no certainty of the the same difficulty; for still the young truth of supernatural appearances, unless men would be subscribing to what they something was told us which we could do not understand. For if you should not know by ordinary means, or some- ask them, what do you mean by the thing done which could not be done but Church of England? Do you know in by supernatural power; that Pharaoh in what it differs from the Presbyterian reason and justice required such evidence Church? from the Romish Church? from from Moses; nay, that our Saviour said, the Greek Church? from the Coptic "If I had not done among them the Church? they could not tell you. So, works which none other man did, they Sir, it comes to the same thing.' Boshad not had sin." He had said in the WELL: "But, would it not be sufficient morning, that Macaulay's "History of St. to subscribe the Bible?" JOHNSON: Kilda" was very well written, except some Why no, Sir; for all sects will subscribe foppery about liberty and slavery. I men- the Bible; nay, the Mahometans will tioned to him that Macaulay told me, he subscribe the Bible; for the Mahometans was advised to leave out of his book the acknowledge JESUS CHRIST, as well as wonderful story that upon the approach of Moses, but maintain that GOD sent a stranger all the inhabitants catch cold; Mahomet as a still greater prophet than but that it had been so well authenticated, either." he determined to retain it. JOHNSON: "Sir, to leave things out of a book, merely because people tell you they will not be believed, is meanness. Macaulay acted with more magnanimity." 1 We talked of the Roman Catholic religion and how little difference there was in essential matters between ours and it. JOHNSON: "True, Sir; all denominations of Christians have really little difference in point of doctrine, though they may differ widely in external forms. There is a prodigious difference between the external form of one of your Presbyterian churches in Scotland, and a church in Italy; yet the doctrine taught is essentially the same." I mentioned the petition to Parliament for removing the subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles. JOHNSON: "It was soon thrown out. Sir, they talk of not making boys at the University subscribe to what they do not understand; but they ought to consider, that our Universities were founded to bring up members for the Church of England, and we must not supply our enemies with arms from our arsenal. No, Sir, the meaning of subscribing is, not that they fully understand all the articles, but that they will adhere to the Church of England. Now take it in this way, and suppose that they should 1 See pp. 190-91. 66 66 I mentioned the motion which had been made in the House of Commons, to abolish the fast of the 30th of January. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, I could have wished that it had been a temporary act, perhaps, to have expired with the century. I am against abolishing it; because that would be declaring it wrong to establish it; but I should have no objection to make an act, continuing it for another century, and then letting it expire." 2 He disapproved of the Royal Marriage Bill; "Because," said he, "I would not have the people think that the validity of marriage depends on the will of man, or that the right of a king depends on the will of man. I should not have been against making the marriage of any of the royal family without the approbation of King and Parliament, highly criminal." In the morning we had talked of old families, and the respect due to them. JOHNSON: "Sir, you have a right to that kind of respect, and are arguing for yourself. I am for supporting the principle, and am disinterested in doing it, as I have no such right." BOSWELL: Why, Sir, it is one more incitement to a man to do well." JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir, 66 2 It was abolished by Royal Warrant on Jan. 17th, 1859, together with the fasts for May 29th and Nov. 5th. Napier. 66 OLD FAMILIES observed. 66 66 227 and it is a matter of opinion, very pliancy of organs, to represent what is necessary to keep society together. What I remember a lady of quality is it but opinion, by which we have a in this town, Lady who was a respect for authority, that prevents us, wonderful mimic, and used to make me who are the rabble, from rising up and laugh immoderately. I have heard she pulling down you who are gentlemen is now gone mad." BOSWELL: "It is from your places, and saying 'We will be amazing how a mimic can not only give gentlemen in our turn'? Now, Sir, that you the gestures and voice of a person respect for authority is much more easily whom he represents; but even what a granted to a man whose father has had it, person would say on any particular than to an upstart, and so society is more subject." JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, you easily supported." BOSWELL: "Perhaps, are to consider that the manner and some Sir, it might be done by the respect particular phrases of a person do much to belonging to office, as among the Romans, impress you with an idea of him, and you where the dress, the toga, inspired reve- are not sure that he would say what the rence. JOHNSON : Why, we know mimic says in his character." BOSWELL: very little about the Romans. But, I don't think Foote a good mimic, Sir." surely, it is much easier to respect a man JOHNSON : No, Sir; his imitations are who has always had respect than to respect not like. He gives you something differa man who we know was last year no better ent from himself, but not the character than ourselves, and will be no better next which he means to assume. He goes out year. In Republics there is no respect for of himself, without going into other authority, but a fear of power." BOSWELL: people. He cannot take off any person "At present, Sir, I think riches seem to unless he is strongly marked, such as gain most respect." JOHNSON : 'No, George Faulkner.1 He is like a painter Sir, riches do not gain hearty respect; who can draw the portrait of a man who they only procure external attention. A has a wen upon his face, and who therevery rich man, from low beginnings, may fore is easily known. If a man hops buy his election in a borough; but, cæteris upon one leg, Foote can hop upon one leg. paribus, a man of family will be preferred. But he has not that nice discrimination People will prefer a man for whose which your friend seems to possess. father their fathers have voted, though Foote is, however, very entertaining with they should get no more money, or even a kind of conversation between wit and less. That shews that the respect for buffoonery. family is not merely fanciful, but has an actual operation. If gentlemen of family would allow the rich upstarts to spend their money profusely, which they are ready enough to do, and not vie with them in expense, the upstarts would soon be at an end, and the gentlemen would remain; but if the gentlemen will vie in expense with the upstarts, which is very foolish, they must be ruined." 66 66 I gave him an account of the excellent mimicry of a friend of mine in Scotland; observing, at the same time, that some people thought it a very mean thing. JOHNSON: Why, Sir, it is making a very mean use of man's powers. But to be a good mimic, requires great powers; great acuteness of observation, great retention of what is observed, and great On Monday, March 23, I found him busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary. Mr. Peyton, one of his original amanuenses, was writing for him. I put him in mind of a meaning of the word side, which he had omitted, viz. relationship; as father's side, mother's side. He inserted it. I asked him if humiliating was a good word. He said, he had seen it frequently used, but he did not know it to be legitimate English. He would not admit civilization, but only civility. With great deference to him I thought civilization, from to civilize, better in the sense opposed to barbarity, than civility; as it is better to have a Journal. He was the only man, says Cumber1 The printer and publisher of the Dublin land in his Memoirs, whom Foote's extravagant pencil could not caricature. distinct word for each sense, than one word with two senses, which civility is in his way of using it. He seemed also to be intent on some sort of chemical operation. I was entertained by observing how he contrived to send Mr. Peyton on an errand, without seeming to degrade him; “Mr. Peyton, -Mr. Peyton, will you be so good as to take a walk to Temple Bar? You will there see a chemist's shop, at which you will be pleased to buy for me an ounce of oil of vitriol; not spirit of vitriol, but oil of vitriol. It will cost three half-pence.' Peyton immediately went, and returned with it, and told him it cost but a penny. I then reminded him of the schoolmaster's cause, and proposed to read to him the printed papers concerning it. "No, Sir," said he, "I can read quicker than I can hear." So he read them to himself. We talked of languages. Johnson observed that Leibnitz had made some progress in a work, tracing all languages up to the Hebrew. "Why, Sir," said he, "you would not imagine that the French jour, day, is derived from the Latin dies, and yet nothing is more certain; and the intermediate steps are very clear. From dies, comes diurnus. Diu is, by inaccurate ears, or inaccurate pronunciation, easily confounded with giu; then the Italians form a substantive of the ablative of an adjective, and thence giurno, or, as they make it, giorno: which is readily contracted into giour, or jour." He observed, that the Bohemian language was true Sclavonic. The Swede said, it had some similarity with the German. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, to be sure, such parts of Sclavonia as confine with Germany will borrow German words; and such parts as confine with Tartary will borrow Tartar words." I He said, he never had it properly ascertained that the Scotch Highlanders and the Irish understood each other. told him that my cousin, Colonel Graham, of the Royal Highlanders, whom I met at Drogheda, told me they did. JOHNSON : "Sir, if the Highlanders understood Irish, why translate the New Testament into Erse, as was lately done at Edinburgh, when there is an Irish translation?" BosWELL: 'Although the Erse and Irish are both dialects of the same language, there may be a good deal of diversity between them, as between the different dialects in Italy."-The Swede went away, and Mr. Johnson continued his reading of the papers. I said, "I am afraid, Sir, it is troublesome.". Why, Sir," said he, "I do not take much delight in it; but I'll go through it." 66 66 We went to the Mitre, and dined in the room where he and I first supped together. He gave me great hopes of my cause. Sir," said he," the government of a schoolmaster is somewhat of the nature of military government; that is to say, it must be arbitrary, it must be exercised by the will of one man, according to particular circumstances. You must show some learning upon this occasion. You must show, that a schoolmaster has a prescriptive right to beat ; and that an action of assault and battery cannot be admitted against him unless there is some great excess, some barbarity. This man has maimed none of his boys. They are all left with the full exercise of their corporeal faculties. In our schools in England, many boys have been maimed; yet I never heard of an action against a schoolmaster on that account. Puffendorff, I think, maintains the right of a schoolmaster to beat his scholars." On Saturday, March 27, I introduced to him Sir Alexander Macdonald,1with whom he had expressed a wish to be acquainted. He received him very courteously. 1 He succeeded his brother Sir James Macdonald, (for whom see p. 153) as eighth baronet. Lord Macdonald. He is frequently mentioned in and in 1776 was raised to the Irish peerage a the Tour to the Hebrides. SON: THE SCOTCH ACCENT دو Sir Alexander observed, that the Chancellors in England are chosen from views much inferior to the office, being chosen from temporary political views. JOHNWhy, Sir, in such a government as ours, no man is appointed to an office because he is the fittest for it, nor hardly in any other government; because there are so many connexions and dependencies to be studied. A despotic prince may choose a man to an office, merely because he is the fittest for it. The King of Prussia may do it." SIR A.: “I think, Sir, almost all great lawyers, such at least as have written upon law, have known only law, and nothing else." JOHNSON : "Why no, Sir; Judge Hale was a great lawyer, and wrote upon law; and yet he knew a great many other things, and has written other things. Selden too. SIR A.: “Very true, Sir; and Lord Bacon. But was not Lord Coke a mere lawyer?' JOHNSON: "Why, I am afraid he was; but he would have taken it very ill if you had told him so. He would have prosecuted you for scandal." BOSWELL "Lord Mansfield is not a mere lawyer." JOHNSON: "No, Sir. I never was in Lord Mansfield's company; but Lord Mansfield was distinguished at the University. Lord Mansfield, when he first came to town, ‘drank champagne with the wits,' as Prior says. He was the friend of Pope." SIR A.: " Barristers, I believe, are not so abusive now as they were formerly. fancy they had less law long ago, and so were obliged to take to abuse, to fill up the time. Now they have such a number of precedents, they have no occasion for abuse." JOHNSON "Nay, Sir, they had more law long ago than they have now. As to precedents, to be sure they will increase in course of time; but the more precedents there are, the less occasion is there for law; that is to say, the less occasion is there for investigating principles." SIR A.: "I have been correcting several Scotch accents in my friend Boswell. I doubt, Sir, if any Scotchman ever attains to a perfect English pronunciation." JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, few of them do, because they do not persevere after acquiring a certain degree of it. But, Sir, there can be no doubt that they 229 may attain to a perfect English pronunciation, if they will. We find how near they come to it; and certainly, a man who conquers nineteen parts of the Scottish accent, may conquer the twentieth. But, Sir, when a man has got the better of nine-tenths he grows weary, he relaxes his diligence, he finds he has corrected his accent so far as not to be disagreeable, and he no longer desires his friends to tell him when he is wrong; nor does he choose to be told. Sir, when people watch me narrowly, and I do not watch myself, they will find me out to be of a particular county. In the same manner, Dunning may be found out to be a Devonshire man.1 So most Scotchmen may be found out. But, Sir, little aberrations are of no disadvantage. I never catched Mallet in a Scotch accent; and yet Mallet, I suppose, was past five-andtwenty before he came to London."? Upon another occasion I talked to him on this subject, having myself taken some pains to improve my pronunciation, by the aid of the late Mr. Love, of Drury Lane theatre, when he was a player at Edinburgh, and also of old Mr. Sheridan. Johnson said to me, "Sir, your pronunciation is not offensive. With this concession I was pretty well satisfied; and let me give my countrymen of North Britain an advice not to aim at absolute perfection in this respect; not to speak High English, as we are apt to call what is far removed from the Scotch, but which is by no means good English, and makes "the fools who use it" truly ridiculous. Good English is plain, easy, and smooth in the mouth of an unaffected English gentleman. A studied and factitious pronunciation, which requires perpetual attention, and imposes perpetual constraint, is exceedingly disgusting. A small intermixture of provincial peculiarities may, perhaps, have an agreeable effect, as the notes of different birds concur in the harmony of the grove, and please more than if they were all exactly alike. I could name some gentlemen of Ireland, to whom a slight proportion of 1 John Dunning (1731-33), first Lord Ashburton. 2 Mallet got rid of his Scotch name, Malloch. with his Scotch accent. |