My Lord,
I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World,
that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the
publick, were written by your Lordship.
I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World,
that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the
publick, were written by your Lordship.
Macaulay
= See _The Century Dictionary_.
=8= 34. =Drury Lane. = A street in the heart of the city, near the
Strand,--one of the chief thoroughfares. It was beginning to lose its
old-time respectability.
=9= 9. =the sight of food. = Once when Boswell was giving a dinner and
one of the company was late, Boswell proposed to order dinner to be
served, adding, "'Ought six people to be kept waiting for one? ' 'Why,
yes,' answered Johnson, with a delicate humanity, 'if the one will
suffer more by your sitting down than the six will do by waiting. '" Is
it probable that Macaulay exaggerates?
=9= 27. =Harleian Library. = The library collected by Robert Harley,
First Earl of Oxford. Osborne afterwards bought it and Johnson did some
of the cataloguing for him. As to Osborne's punishment, Boswell says:
"The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. 'Sir, he was impertinent
to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own
chamber. '"
=10= 6. =Blefuscu, Mildendo. = If Blefuscu and Mildendo look unfamiliar,
go to Lilliput for them. (See _Gulliver's Travels_. )
=10= 9. "Johnson told me, that as soon as he found that the speeches
were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more
of them; for he 'would not be accessory to the propagation of
falsehood. '"--Boswell.
=10= 15. Cf. _The Traveller_. Do you suppose that either Johnson or
Goldsmith really believed that one form of government is as good as
another?
=10= 17. =Montagues. = See Shakspere's _Romeo and Juliet_.
_10_ 18. =Greens. = In Roman chariot races there was the bitterest
rivalry between the different colors of the factions, and the betting
often led to scenes of riot and bloodshed. Once in Justinian's reign,
in the great circus at Constantinople, the tumult was not suppressed
till about thirty thousand of the rioters had been killed. See Gibbon,
_Decline and Fall_, Chapter XL.
=10= 22. =Sacheverell. = What do you gather from the context about this
preacher? Was he high church? Did he preach resistance to the king?
=10= 31. =Tom Tempest. = See Johnson's _Idler_, No. 10.
=10= 32. =Laud. = Read in Gardiner's _Student's History of England_ the
account of this archbishop who tried to enforce uniformity of worship.
=11= 2-4. =Hampden, Falkland, Clarendon. = In the case of these three
statesmen, as well as in the case of Laud, the context shows which of
them were supporters of Charles I and which resisted him. Does Macaulay
imply that Johnson would have been excusable if he had sympathized with
Hampden's refusal to pay "ship money"?
=11= 5. =Roundheads. = If you do not know why they were so called, see
_The Century Dictionary_.
=11= 20-21. =Great Rebellion. = If in doubt as to which rebellion
Macaulay refers, see _The Century Dictionary_ or Brewer's _Dictionary
of Phrase and Fable_.
=12= 2, 8, 10. =Juvenal. = Dryden has translated five of the poems of
this great Roman satirist. It is worth while to compare Johnson's
_London_, a free imitation of the Third Satire, with Dryden's version.
Johnson's poem may be found in Hales's _Longer English Poems_.
=12= 19. Boswell, too, asks us to remember Pope's candor and liberal
conduct on this occasion. Let us not forget it.
=13= 8. =Psalmanazar. = Pretending to be a Japanese, this Frenchman
wrote what he called a _History of Formosa_. Although fabulous, it
deceived the learned world.
=13= 14-15. =blue ribands. = Worn by members of the Order of the Garter.
=13= 16. =Newgate. = The notorious London prison.
=13= 26. =Piazza= here has its first meaning,--"an open square in a
town surrounded by buildings or colonnades, a plaza. " This space was
once the "convent" garden of the monks of Westminster. For a brief
sketch of it down to the time its "coffee houses and taverns became the
fashionable lounging-places for the authors, wits, and noted men of the
kingdom," see _The Century Dictionary_.
=14= 11-12. =Grub Street. = "Originally the name of a street in
Moorfields in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories,
dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called
_grubstreet_.
'I'd sooner ballads write, and _grubstreet_ lays. ' Gay. "
--Johnson's _Dictionary_, edition of 1773.
=14= 23. =Warburton. = Bishop Warburton thus praised Johnson in the
Preface to his own edition of _Shakspere_, and Johnson showed his
appreciation by saying to Boswell, "He praised me at a time when
praise was of value to me. " On another occasion, when asked whether he
considered Warburton a superior critic to Theobald, he replied, "He'd
make two-and-fifty Theobalds, cut into slices! " Johnson's sketch of
him, in the _Life of Pope_, Boswell calls "the tribute due to him when
he was no longer in 'high place,' but numbered with the dead. "
=14= 28-31. He employed six amanuenses, not a large number of
assistants for a task of such magnitude. Nor was the sum of fifteen
hundred guineas a generous one from which to pay these assistants.
=14= 33. =Chesterfield. = Every young man should read an abridged
edition of Chesterfield's _Letters to his Son_; for example, the volume
in the Knickerbocker Nugget Series. It contains much that is worth
remembering, and the style is entertaining.
=15= 17. It is hard to realize what a stupendous task Johnson undertook
when he began his Dictionary. Other dictionaries, notably Bailey's,
were in existence, but they were mere beginnings of what he had in
mind. As lists of words, with explanations of the meanings, they were
useful, but none of them could reasonably be considered a standard. A
standard Johnson's certainly was. Although no etymologist, in general
he not only gave full and clear definitions, but he chose remarkably
happy illustrations of the meanings of words. By taking care, also, to
select passages which were interesting and profitable reading as well
as elegant English, he succeeded in making probably the most readable
dictionary that has ever appeared.
=15= 23. For the _Vanity of Human Wishes_, see Hales's _Longer English
Poems_ or Syle's _From Milton to Tennyson_. As in the case of _London_,
the student will wish to compare Dryden's translation.
=16= 8-9. And this was eleven years after the _London_ had appeared; as
Boswell says, his fame was already established.
=16= 13. =Goodman's Fields. = Garrick made this theater successful.
=16= 15. =Drury Lane Theatre. = Near Drury Lane. (See note to =8= 34. )
Other prominent actors in this famous old theatre were Kean, the
Kembles, and Mrs. Siddons.
=17= 13. See page 7. The story on which _Irene_ is based is as
follows:--
Mahomet the Great, first emperor of the Turks, in the year 1453
laid siege to the city of Constantinople, then possessed by the
Greeks, and, after an obstinate resistance, took and sacked it.
Among the many young women whom the commanders thought fit to
lay hands on and present to him was one named Irene, a Greek,
of incomparable beauty and such rare perfection of body and
mind, that the emperor, becoming enamored of her, neglected
the care of his government and empire for two whole years,
and thereby so exasperated the Janizaries, that they mutinied
and threatened to dethrone him. To prevent this mischief,
Mustapha Bassa, a person of great credit with him, undertook
to represent to him the great danger to which he lay exposed
by the indulgence of his passion: he called to his remembrance
the character, actions, and achievements of his predecessors,
and the state of his government; and, in short, so roused
him from his lethargy, that he took a horrible resolution
to silence the clamors of his people by the sacrifice of
this admirable creature. Accordingly, he commanded her to be
dressed and adorned in the richest manner that she and her
attendants could devise, and against a certain hour issued
orders for the nobility and leaders of his army to attend him
in the great hall of his palace. When they were all assembled,
himself appeared with great pomp and magnificence, leading his
captive by the hand, unconscious of guilt and ignorant of his
design. With a furious and menacing look, he gave the beholders
to understand that he meant to remove the cause of their
discontent; but bade them first view that lady, whom he held
with his left hand, and say whether any of them, possessed of a
jewel so rare and precious, would for any cause forego her; to
which they answered that he had great reason for his affection
toward her. To this the emperor replied that he would convince
them that he was yet master of himself. And having so said,
presently, with one of his hands catching the fair Greek by
the hair of the head, and drawing his falchion with the other,
he, at one blow, struck off her head, to the great terror of
them all; and having so done, he said unto them, "Now by this
judge whether your emperor is able to bridle his affections or
not. "--Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_.
=17= 20-21. =Tatler, Spectator. = It is to be hoped that the reader
needs no introduction to these papers or to the account of them in
Macaulay's essay on Addison.
=17= 30. =Rambler. = A suitable title for a series of moral discourses?
At the time of the undertaking he composed a prayer to the effect
that he might in this way promote the glory of Almighty God and the
salvation both of himself and others. --_Prayers and Meditations_, p. 9,
quoted by Boswell.
=17= 31-32. Boswell considers it a strong confirmation of the truth
of Johnson's remark that "a man may write at any time if he will set
himself doggedly to it," that "notwithstanding his constitutional
indolence, his depression of spirits, and his labour in carrying on his
Dictionary, he answered the stated calls of the press twice a week from
the stores of his mind during all that time. "
=17= 34. =Richardson. = Samuel Richardson. When he was a boy, the girls
employed him to write love letters for them; and his novels, written in
after life, also took the form of letters. He wrote _Pamela, or Virtue
Rewarded_; _Clarissa Harlowe, or the History of a Young Lady_; and _The
History of Sir Charles Grandison_ (about 1750). Johnson called him "an
author who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature and taught the
passions to move at the command of virtue. "
=18= 2. =Young. = Johnson held a high opinion of Edward Young's
most famous work, _Night Thoughts_, and Boswell writes, "No book
whatever can be recommended to young persons, with better hopes of
seasoning their minds with _vital religion_, than Young's _Night
Thoughts_. "--=Hartley. = David Hartley, prominent as a psychologist, and
as a physician benevolent and studious. For intimate friends he chose
such men as Warburton and Young.
=18= 3. =Dodington. = A member of Parliament who patronized men of
letters and was complimented by Young and Fielding.
=18= 7. =Frederic. = When Frederick, Prince of Wales, became the
center of the opposition to Walpole, in 1737, among the leaders of
his political friends, called "the Leicester House Party,"--at that
time Leicester House was the residence of the Prince of Wales,--were
Chesterfield, William Pitt, and Bubb Dodington.
=18= 25. In regard to the use of antiquated and hard words, for which
Johnson was censured, he says in _Idler_ No. 90, "He that thinks with
more extent than another, will want words of larger meaning. "
=18= 30-32. =brilliancy . . . eloquence . . . humour. = Johnson wrote many
of these discourses so hastily, says Boswell, that he did not even read
them over before they were printed. Boswell continues: "Sir Joshua
Reynolds once asked him by what means he had attained his extraordinary
accuracy and flow of language. He told him, that he had early laid it
down as a fixed rule to do his best on every occasion, and in every
company: to impart whatever he knew in the most forcible language he
could put it in; and that by constant practice, and never suffering
any careless expressions to escape him, or attempting to deliver his
thoughts without arranging them in the clearest manner, it became
habitual to him. " One man who knew Johnson intimately observed "that he
always talked as if he was talking upon oath. "
=18= 32-=19= 10. Cf. Johnson's comment: "Whoever wishes to attain
an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not
ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of
Addison. "--Boswell, 1750.
=19= 1-2. =Sir Roger=, etc. These two sets of allusions offer a good
excuse for handling complete editions of the _Spectator_ and the
_Rambler_.
=19= 21. =the Gunnings. = "The beautiful Misses Gunning," two
sisters, were born in Ireland. They went to London in 1751, were
continually followed by crowds, and were called "the handsomest women
alive. "--=Lady Mary. = Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Let one of the
encyclopædias introduce you to this relative of Fielding who laughed
at Pope when he made love to her, and whose wit had full play in the
brilliant letters from Constantinople which added greatly to her
reputation as an independent thinker.
=19= 23-24. =the Monthly Review. = This Whig periodical would not
appeal to Johnson as did its rival, the _Critical Review_. It was the
_Monthly_ that Goldsmith did hack work for. Smollett wrote for the
other. See Irving's _Life of Goldsmith_, Chapter VII.
=19= 31. It was published in 1755, price £4 10_s. _, bound.
=20= 17. The letter, which needs no comment, is as follows:
February 7, 1755.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.
My Lord,
I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World,
that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the
publick, were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished,
is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours
from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what
terms to acknowledge.
When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your
Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by
the enchantment of your address; and could not forbear to
wish that I might boast myself _Le vainqueur du vainqueur de
la terre_;--that I might obtain that regard for which I saw
the world contending; but I found my attendance so little
encouraged that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me
to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in
publick, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a
retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I have done all that
I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected,
be it ever so little.
Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your
outward rooms or was repulsed from your door; during which time
I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which
it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the
verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word
of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did
not expect, for I never had a Patron before.
The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and
found him a native of the rocks.
Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a
man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached
ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have
been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had
been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and
cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till
I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical
asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been
received, or to be unwilling that the Publick should consider
me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me
to do for myself.
Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to
any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though
I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I
have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once
boasted myself with so much exultation,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most humble,
Most obedient servant,
SAM. JOHNSON.
=20= 24. =Horne Tooke. = A name assumed by John Horne, a politician
and philologist whose career is briefly outlined in _The Century
Dictionary_. The passage which so moved him follows.
In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let
it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though
no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the authour, and
the world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the
faults of that which it condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity
to inform it that the _English Dictionary_ was written with
little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage
of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or
under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience
and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow. It may repress
the triumph of malignant criticism to observe, that if our
language is not here fully displayed, I have only failed in an
attempt which no human powers have hitherto completed. If the
lexicons of ancient tongues, now immutably fixed, and comprised
in a few volumes, be yet, after the toil of successive ages,
inadequate and delusive; if the aggregated knowledge, and
co-operating diligence of the _Italian_ academicians, did
not secure them from the censure of _Beni_; if the embodied
criticks of _France_, when fifty years had been spent upon
their work, were obliged to change its oeconomy, and give their
second edition another form, I may surely be contented without
the praise of perfection, which, if I could obtain, in this
gloom of solitude, what would it avail me? I have protracted
my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk
into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I
therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to
fear or hope from censure or from praise.
This extract is taken from the fourth edition, London, MDCCLXXIII,
the last to receive Johnson's corrections. If you possibly can get
the opportunity, turn these volumes over enough to find a few of the
whimsical definitions, such, for example, as that of lexicographer,
according to Johnson "a writer of dictionaries, a _harmless drudge_. "
Other words worth looking up are _excise_, _oats_, and _networks_.
=21= 6. =Junius and Skinner. = Johnson frankly admitted that for
etymologies he turned to the shelf which contained the etymological
dictionaries of these seventeenth-century students of the Teutonic
languages. This phase of dictionary making was not considered so deeply
then as it is now.
=21= 13. =spunging-houses. = Johnson's _Dictionary_ says:
"Spunging-house. A house to which debtors are taken before commitment
to prison, where the bailiffs sponge upon them, or riot at their cost. "
=21= 26. =Jenyns. = This writer, who, according to Boswell, "could very
happily play with a light subject," ventured so far beyond his depth
that it was easy for Johnson to expose him.
=22= 10. =Rasselas. = Had Johnson written nothing else, says Boswell,
_Rasselas_ "would have rendered his name immortal in the world of
literature. . . . It has been translated into most, if not all, of the
modern languages. "
=22= 12. =Miss Lydia Languish. = Of course plays are not necessarily
written to be read, but Sheridan's well-known comedy, _The Rivals_, is
decidedly readable. Every one should be familiar with Miss Languish and
Mrs. Malaprop.
=23= 8. =Bruce. = The _Dictionary of National Biography_ says that
James Bruce--whose _Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile_, five
volumes, appeared in 1790--"will always remain the poet, and his work
the epic, of African travel. "
=23= 13. =Mrs. Lennox. = A woman whose literary efforts Johnson
encouraged so much as he did Mrs. Lennox's is certainly worth looking
up in the index to Boswell's _Johnson_. --=Mrs. Sheridan=, the
dramatist's mother, gave Johnson many an entertaining evening in her
home. She and her son entered heartily into the lively, stimulating
conversations he loved.
=23= 25. =Hector . . . Aristotle. = The sacking of Troy is generally
assigned to the twelfth century B. C. Aristotle lived eight centuries
later. --=Julio Romano. = An Italian painter of the fifteenth century.
=24= 5. =the Lord Privy Seal. = Some documents require only the privy
seal; others must have the great seal too. For Johnson's admission that
the printer was wise in striking out the reference alluded to, see the
index to Boswell's _Johnson_, under _Gower_.
=24= 14. =Oxford. = By recalling what Macaulay said in the early part of
the essay (=10= 26, 27) about Oxford, and by bearing in mind what House
[of Stuart? of Hanover? ] George the Third belonged to, one sees point
to "was becoming loyal. "
=24= 14-18. Study these four short sentences in connection with the
preceding sentence beginning "George the Third. " To what extent are
they a repetition? To what extent an explanation?
=24= 22. =accepted. = When, in answer to Johnson's question to Lord
Bute, "Pray, my Lord, what am I expected to do for this pension? " he
received the ready reply, "It is not given you for anything you are to
do, but for what you have done," he hesitated no longer.
Three hundred a year was a large sum in Johnson's eyes at that time.
Whether he wrote less than he would have written without it may be
questioned, says Mr. Hill, but he adds that probably "without the
pension he would not have lived to write the second greatest of his
works--the _Lives of the Poets_. "
=25= 19. =a ghost . . . Cock Lane. = If you will read Boswell's account of
the affair, you will probably conclude that Johnson was not quite so
"weak" as Macaulay implies.
=25= 26. =Churchill. = One of the reigning wits of the day, Boswell says.
=26= 3. =The preface. = Other critics speak with more enthusiasm of the
good sense and the clear expression of the preface, and find that these
qualities are not altogether lacking in the notes.
=26= 8. =Wilhelm Meister. = The hero of Goethe's novel of the same name.
You may have read this passage on _Hamlet_ in Rolfe's edition (p. 14),
quoted from Furness's _Hamlet_, Vol. II, pp. 272 ff. Sprague also
quotes it in his edition, p. 13.
=26= 26. =Ben. = The eighteenth-century Johnson has been followed by
the nineteenth-century critics in putting a high estimate on the Jonson
who wrote _Every Man in His Humor_. We are told that Shakspere took
one of the parts in this play, acted in 1598. If you are not satisfied
with the account in _The Century Dictionary_, or with any encyclopædia
article, see _The English Poets_, edited by T. H. Ward, Vol. II (The
Macmillan Company).
=26= 33-34. =Æschylus, Euripides, Sophocles. = Three great contemporary
Greek tragedians.
=27= 3. =Fletcher. = Point out why an editor of Shakspere's plays should
be familiar with the work of this group of Elizabethan dramatists.
=27= 11. =Royal Academy. = "His Majesty having the preceding year [1768]
instituted the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Johnson had won the
honour of being appointed Professor in Ancient Literature. "--Boswell.
Goldsmith was Professor in Ancient History in the same institution, and
Boswell was Secretary for Foreign Correspondence. Look in _The Century
Dictionary_ under _academy_, the third meaning, and recall whatever you
may have heard or read about the French Academy.
=27= 12. =the King. = "His Majesty expressed a desire to have the
literary biography of this country ably executed, and proposed to Dr.
Johnson to undertake it. "--Boswell. Read Boswell's account of the
interview. In consulting the index look under _George III. _
=27= 22. =colloquial talents. = Madame d'Arblay once said that Johnson
had about him more "fun, and comical humour, and love of nonsense" than
almost anybody else she ever saw.
=28= 23. =Goldsmith. = Macaulay's article on Goldsmith in _The
Encyclopædia Britannica_ is short, and so thoroughly readable that
there is no excuse for not being familiar with it. Boswell is
continually giving interesting glimpses of Dr. Oliver Goldsmith, and
by taking advantage of the index in the _Life of Johnson_ one may in
half an hour learn a great deal about this remarkable man. According
to Boswell, "he had sagacity enough to cultivate assiduously the
acquaintance of Johnson, and his faculties were gradually enlarged by
the contemplation of such a model. "
=28= 24. =Reynolds. = We can learn from short articles about Sir
Joshua's career, but the index to Boswell's _Johnson_ will introduce
us to the good times the great portrait painter had with the great
conversationalist whom we are studying. Reynolds was the first proposer
of the Club, and "there seems to have been hardly a day," says Robina
Napier, "when these friends did not meet in the painting room or in
general society. " Ruskin says, "Titian paints nobler pictures and
Vandyke had nobler subjects, but neither of them entered so subtly as
Sir Joshua did into the minor varieties of human heart and temper. "
The business of his art "was not to criticise, but to observe," and
for this purpose the hours he spent at the Club might be as profitable
as those spent in his painting room. It will be interesting to make a
list of some of the most notable "subjects" Reynolds painted. --=Burke. =
Be sure to read Boswell's account of the famous Round Robin. It
will make you feel better acquainted with Burke, Johnson, Reynolds,
and Goldsmith. The student will find valuable material in Professor
Lamont's edition of Burke's _Speech on Conciliation with America_,
published by Ginn & Company.
=28= 25. =Gibbon. = You noticed on the _Round Robin_ the autograph of
the author of _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_?
=28= 26. =Jones. = Sir William Henry Rich Jones was "the first English
scholar to master Sanskrit, and to recognize its importance for
comparative philology," says _The Century Dictionary_.
=29= 9. =Johnson's Club. = The Club still flourishes. Both Scott and
Macaulay belonged to it.
=29= 14. =James Boswell. = "Out of the fifteen millions that then lived,
and had bed and board, in the British Islands, this man has provided us
a greater _pleasure_ than any other individual, at whose cost we now
enjoy ourselves; perhaps has done us a greater _service_ than can be
specially attributed to more than two or three: yet, ungrateful that
we are, no written or spoken eulogy of James Boswell anywhere exists;
his recompense in solid pudding (so far as copyright went) was not
excessive; and as for the empty praise, it has altogether been denied
him. Men are unwiser than children; they do not know the hand that
feeds. "
So Carlyle writes of the man; the book, he says, is "beyond any other
product of the eighteenth century"; it draws aside the curtains of the
Past and gives us a picture which changeful Time cannot harm or hide.
The picture charms generation after generation because it is true. "It
is not speaking with exaggeration, but with strict measured sobriety,
to say that this Book of Boswell's will give us more real insight into
the _History of England_ during those days than twenty other Books,
falsely entitled 'Histories,' which take to themselves that special
aim. . . . The thing I want to see is not Redbook Lists, and Court
Calendars, and Parliamentary Registers, but the LIFE OF MAN in England:
what men did, thought, suffered, enjoyed; the form, especially the
spirit, of their terrestrial existence, its outward environment, its
inward principle; _how_ and _what_ it was; whence it proceeded, whither
it was tending. . . .
"Hence, indeed, comes it that History, which should be 'the essence of
innumerable Biographies,' will tell us, question it as we like, less
than one genuine Biography may do, pleasantly and of its own accord! "
Mr. Leslie Stephen says that "Macaulay's graphic description of
his absurdities, and Carlyle's more penetrating appreciation of his
higher qualities, contain all that can be said"; but the more recent
testimony of Dr. George B. Hill, in _Dr. Johnson, His Friends and His
Critics_, should count for something. Dr. Hill points out that while
Macaulay grants Boswell immortality he refuses him greatness, and calls
attention to what he considers elements of greatness. In regard to the
accuracy of a biographer who would "run half over London, in order to
fix a date correctly," he says: "That love, I might almost say that
passion for accuracy, that distinguished Boswell in so high a degree
does not belong to a mind that is either mean or feeble. Mean minds are
indifferent to truth, and feeble minds can see no importance in a date. "
=29= 27. =Wilkes. = John Wilkes, a notorious politician, was imprisoned
for writing an article in which he attacked George the Third. The
liberty of the press was involved and Wilkes was released, much to
the delight of the people. For a brief summary of the Bill of Rights,
see Brewer's _Historic Note-book_ or _A Handbook of English Political
History_, by Acland and Ransome.
=29= 29. =Whitfield. = Macaulay's short sentence implies, does it not,
that Whitfield (or Whitefield) was a noisy, open-air preacher among the
Calvinistic Methodists? In testing the accuracy of this inference in
_The Encyclopædia Britannica_ or in Franklin's _Autobiography_, note in
what countries Whitefield preached, and where he died. Boswell quotes
Johnson's opinion of Whitefield in two places.
=29= 30.
=8= 34. =Drury Lane. = A street in the heart of the city, near the
Strand,--one of the chief thoroughfares. It was beginning to lose its
old-time respectability.
=9= 9. =the sight of food. = Once when Boswell was giving a dinner and
one of the company was late, Boswell proposed to order dinner to be
served, adding, "'Ought six people to be kept waiting for one? ' 'Why,
yes,' answered Johnson, with a delicate humanity, 'if the one will
suffer more by your sitting down than the six will do by waiting. '" Is
it probable that Macaulay exaggerates?
=9= 27. =Harleian Library. = The library collected by Robert Harley,
First Earl of Oxford. Osborne afterwards bought it and Johnson did some
of the cataloguing for him. As to Osborne's punishment, Boswell says:
"The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. 'Sir, he was impertinent
to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own
chamber. '"
=10= 6. =Blefuscu, Mildendo. = If Blefuscu and Mildendo look unfamiliar,
go to Lilliput for them. (See _Gulliver's Travels_. )
=10= 9. "Johnson told me, that as soon as he found that the speeches
were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more
of them; for he 'would not be accessory to the propagation of
falsehood. '"--Boswell.
=10= 15. Cf. _The Traveller_. Do you suppose that either Johnson or
Goldsmith really believed that one form of government is as good as
another?
=10= 17. =Montagues. = See Shakspere's _Romeo and Juliet_.
_10_ 18. =Greens. = In Roman chariot races there was the bitterest
rivalry between the different colors of the factions, and the betting
often led to scenes of riot and bloodshed. Once in Justinian's reign,
in the great circus at Constantinople, the tumult was not suppressed
till about thirty thousand of the rioters had been killed. See Gibbon,
_Decline and Fall_, Chapter XL.
=10= 22. =Sacheverell. = What do you gather from the context about this
preacher? Was he high church? Did he preach resistance to the king?
=10= 31. =Tom Tempest. = See Johnson's _Idler_, No. 10.
=10= 32. =Laud. = Read in Gardiner's _Student's History of England_ the
account of this archbishop who tried to enforce uniformity of worship.
=11= 2-4. =Hampden, Falkland, Clarendon. = In the case of these three
statesmen, as well as in the case of Laud, the context shows which of
them were supporters of Charles I and which resisted him. Does Macaulay
imply that Johnson would have been excusable if he had sympathized with
Hampden's refusal to pay "ship money"?
=11= 5. =Roundheads. = If you do not know why they were so called, see
_The Century Dictionary_.
=11= 20-21. =Great Rebellion. = If in doubt as to which rebellion
Macaulay refers, see _The Century Dictionary_ or Brewer's _Dictionary
of Phrase and Fable_.
=12= 2, 8, 10. =Juvenal. = Dryden has translated five of the poems of
this great Roman satirist. It is worth while to compare Johnson's
_London_, a free imitation of the Third Satire, with Dryden's version.
Johnson's poem may be found in Hales's _Longer English Poems_.
=12= 19. Boswell, too, asks us to remember Pope's candor and liberal
conduct on this occasion. Let us not forget it.
=13= 8. =Psalmanazar. = Pretending to be a Japanese, this Frenchman
wrote what he called a _History of Formosa_. Although fabulous, it
deceived the learned world.
=13= 14-15. =blue ribands. = Worn by members of the Order of the Garter.
=13= 16. =Newgate. = The notorious London prison.
=13= 26. =Piazza= here has its first meaning,--"an open square in a
town surrounded by buildings or colonnades, a plaza. " This space was
once the "convent" garden of the monks of Westminster. For a brief
sketch of it down to the time its "coffee houses and taverns became the
fashionable lounging-places for the authors, wits, and noted men of the
kingdom," see _The Century Dictionary_.
=14= 11-12. =Grub Street. = "Originally the name of a street in
Moorfields in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories,
dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called
_grubstreet_.
'I'd sooner ballads write, and _grubstreet_ lays. ' Gay. "
--Johnson's _Dictionary_, edition of 1773.
=14= 23. =Warburton. = Bishop Warburton thus praised Johnson in the
Preface to his own edition of _Shakspere_, and Johnson showed his
appreciation by saying to Boswell, "He praised me at a time when
praise was of value to me. " On another occasion, when asked whether he
considered Warburton a superior critic to Theobald, he replied, "He'd
make two-and-fifty Theobalds, cut into slices! " Johnson's sketch of
him, in the _Life of Pope_, Boswell calls "the tribute due to him when
he was no longer in 'high place,' but numbered with the dead. "
=14= 28-31. He employed six amanuenses, not a large number of
assistants for a task of such magnitude. Nor was the sum of fifteen
hundred guineas a generous one from which to pay these assistants.
=14= 33. =Chesterfield. = Every young man should read an abridged
edition of Chesterfield's _Letters to his Son_; for example, the volume
in the Knickerbocker Nugget Series. It contains much that is worth
remembering, and the style is entertaining.
=15= 17. It is hard to realize what a stupendous task Johnson undertook
when he began his Dictionary. Other dictionaries, notably Bailey's,
were in existence, but they were mere beginnings of what he had in
mind. As lists of words, with explanations of the meanings, they were
useful, but none of them could reasonably be considered a standard. A
standard Johnson's certainly was. Although no etymologist, in general
he not only gave full and clear definitions, but he chose remarkably
happy illustrations of the meanings of words. By taking care, also, to
select passages which were interesting and profitable reading as well
as elegant English, he succeeded in making probably the most readable
dictionary that has ever appeared.
=15= 23. For the _Vanity of Human Wishes_, see Hales's _Longer English
Poems_ or Syle's _From Milton to Tennyson_. As in the case of _London_,
the student will wish to compare Dryden's translation.
=16= 8-9. And this was eleven years after the _London_ had appeared; as
Boswell says, his fame was already established.
=16= 13. =Goodman's Fields. = Garrick made this theater successful.
=16= 15. =Drury Lane Theatre. = Near Drury Lane. (See note to =8= 34. )
Other prominent actors in this famous old theatre were Kean, the
Kembles, and Mrs. Siddons.
=17= 13. See page 7. The story on which _Irene_ is based is as
follows:--
Mahomet the Great, first emperor of the Turks, in the year 1453
laid siege to the city of Constantinople, then possessed by the
Greeks, and, after an obstinate resistance, took and sacked it.
Among the many young women whom the commanders thought fit to
lay hands on and present to him was one named Irene, a Greek,
of incomparable beauty and such rare perfection of body and
mind, that the emperor, becoming enamored of her, neglected
the care of his government and empire for two whole years,
and thereby so exasperated the Janizaries, that they mutinied
and threatened to dethrone him. To prevent this mischief,
Mustapha Bassa, a person of great credit with him, undertook
to represent to him the great danger to which he lay exposed
by the indulgence of his passion: he called to his remembrance
the character, actions, and achievements of his predecessors,
and the state of his government; and, in short, so roused
him from his lethargy, that he took a horrible resolution
to silence the clamors of his people by the sacrifice of
this admirable creature. Accordingly, he commanded her to be
dressed and adorned in the richest manner that she and her
attendants could devise, and against a certain hour issued
orders for the nobility and leaders of his army to attend him
in the great hall of his palace. When they were all assembled,
himself appeared with great pomp and magnificence, leading his
captive by the hand, unconscious of guilt and ignorant of his
design. With a furious and menacing look, he gave the beholders
to understand that he meant to remove the cause of their
discontent; but bade them first view that lady, whom he held
with his left hand, and say whether any of them, possessed of a
jewel so rare and precious, would for any cause forego her; to
which they answered that he had great reason for his affection
toward her. To this the emperor replied that he would convince
them that he was yet master of himself. And having so said,
presently, with one of his hands catching the fair Greek by
the hair of the head, and drawing his falchion with the other,
he, at one blow, struck off her head, to the great terror of
them all; and having so done, he said unto them, "Now by this
judge whether your emperor is able to bridle his affections or
not. "--Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_.
=17= 20-21. =Tatler, Spectator. = It is to be hoped that the reader
needs no introduction to these papers or to the account of them in
Macaulay's essay on Addison.
=17= 30. =Rambler. = A suitable title for a series of moral discourses?
At the time of the undertaking he composed a prayer to the effect
that he might in this way promote the glory of Almighty God and the
salvation both of himself and others. --_Prayers and Meditations_, p. 9,
quoted by Boswell.
=17= 31-32. Boswell considers it a strong confirmation of the truth
of Johnson's remark that "a man may write at any time if he will set
himself doggedly to it," that "notwithstanding his constitutional
indolence, his depression of spirits, and his labour in carrying on his
Dictionary, he answered the stated calls of the press twice a week from
the stores of his mind during all that time. "
=17= 34. =Richardson. = Samuel Richardson. When he was a boy, the girls
employed him to write love letters for them; and his novels, written in
after life, also took the form of letters. He wrote _Pamela, or Virtue
Rewarded_; _Clarissa Harlowe, or the History of a Young Lady_; and _The
History of Sir Charles Grandison_ (about 1750). Johnson called him "an
author who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature and taught the
passions to move at the command of virtue. "
=18= 2. =Young. = Johnson held a high opinion of Edward Young's
most famous work, _Night Thoughts_, and Boswell writes, "No book
whatever can be recommended to young persons, with better hopes of
seasoning their minds with _vital religion_, than Young's _Night
Thoughts_. "--=Hartley. = David Hartley, prominent as a psychologist, and
as a physician benevolent and studious. For intimate friends he chose
such men as Warburton and Young.
=18= 3. =Dodington. = A member of Parliament who patronized men of
letters and was complimented by Young and Fielding.
=18= 7. =Frederic. = When Frederick, Prince of Wales, became the
center of the opposition to Walpole, in 1737, among the leaders of
his political friends, called "the Leicester House Party,"--at that
time Leicester House was the residence of the Prince of Wales,--were
Chesterfield, William Pitt, and Bubb Dodington.
=18= 25. In regard to the use of antiquated and hard words, for which
Johnson was censured, he says in _Idler_ No. 90, "He that thinks with
more extent than another, will want words of larger meaning. "
=18= 30-32. =brilliancy . . . eloquence . . . humour. = Johnson wrote many
of these discourses so hastily, says Boswell, that he did not even read
them over before they were printed. Boswell continues: "Sir Joshua
Reynolds once asked him by what means he had attained his extraordinary
accuracy and flow of language. He told him, that he had early laid it
down as a fixed rule to do his best on every occasion, and in every
company: to impart whatever he knew in the most forcible language he
could put it in; and that by constant practice, and never suffering
any careless expressions to escape him, or attempting to deliver his
thoughts without arranging them in the clearest manner, it became
habitual to him. " One man who knew Johnson intimately observed "that he
always talked as if he was talking upon oath. "
=18= 32-=19= 10. Cf. Johnson's comment: "Whoever wishes to attain
an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not
ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of
Addison. "--Boswell, 1750.
=19= 1-2. =Sir Roger=, etc. These two sets of allusions offer a good
excuse for handling complete editions of the _Spectator_ and the
_Rambler_.
=19= 21. =the Gunnings. = "The beautiful Misses Gunning," two
sisters, were born in Ireland. They went to London in 1751, were
continually followed by crowds, and were called "the handsomest women
alive. "--=Lady Mary. = Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Let one of the
encyclopædias introduce you to this relative of Fielding who laughed
at Pope when he made love to her, and whose wit had full play in the
brilliant letters from Constantinople which added greatly to her
reputation as an independent thinker.
=19= 23-24. =the Monthly Review. = This Whig periodical would not
appeal to Johnson as did its rival, the _Critical Review_. It was the
_Monthly_ that Goldsmith did hack work for. Smollett wrote for the
other. See Irving's _Life of Goldsmith_, Chapter VII.
=19= 31. It was published in 1755, price £4 10_s. _, bound.
=20= 17. The letter, which needs no comment, is as follows:
February 7, 1755.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.
My Lord,
I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World,
that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the
publick, were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished,
is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours
from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what
terms to acknowledge.
When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your
Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by
the enchantment of your address; and could not forbear to
wish that I might boast myself _Le vainqueur du vainqueur de
la terre_;--that I might obtain that regard for which I saw
the world contending; but I found my attendance so little
encouraged that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me
to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in
publick, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a
retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I have done all that
I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected,
be it ever so little.
Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your
outward rooms or was repulsed from your door; during which time
I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which
it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the
verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word
of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did
not expect, for I never had a Patron before.
The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and
found him a native of the rocks.
Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a
man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached
ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have
been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had
been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and
cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till
I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical
asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been
received, or to be unwilling that the Publick should consider
me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me
to do for myself.
Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to
any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though
I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I
have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once
boasted myself with so much exultation,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most humble,
Most obedient servant,
SAM. JOHNSON.
=20= 24. =Horne Tooke. = A name assumed by John Horne, a politician
and philologist whose career is briefly outlined in _The Century
Dictionary_. The passage which so moved him follows.
In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let
it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though
no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the authour, and
the world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the
faults of that which it condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity
to inform it that the _English Dictionary_ was written with
little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage
of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or
under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience
and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow. It may repress
the triumph of malignant criticism to observe, that if our
language is not here fully displayed, I have only failed in an
attempt which no human powers have hitherto completed. If the
lexicons of ancient tongues, now immutably fixed, and comprised
in a few volumes, be yet, after the toil of successive ages,
inadequate and delusive; if the aggregated knowledge, and
co-operating diligence of the _Italian_ academicians, did
not secure them from the censure of _Beni_; if the embodied
criticks of _France_, when fifty years had been spent upon
their work, were obliged to change its oeconomy, and give their
second edition another form, I may surely be contented without
the praise of perfection, which, if I could obtain, in this
gloom of solitude, what would it avail me? I have protracted
my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk
into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I
therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to
fear or hope from censure or from praise.
This extract is taken from the fourth edition, London, MDCCLXXIII,
the last to receive Johnson's corrections. If you possibly can get
the opportunity, turn these volumes over enough to find a few of the
whimsical definitions, such, for example, as that of lexicographer,
according to Johnson "a writer of dictionaries, a _harmless drudge_. "
Other words worth looking up are _excise_, _oats_, and _networks_.
=21= 6. =Junius and Skinner. = Johnson frankly admitted that for
etymologies he turned to the shelf which contained the etymological
dictionaries of these seventeenth-century students of the Teutonic
languages. This phase of dictionary making was not considered so deeply
then as it is now.
=21= 13. =spunging-houses. = Johnson's _Dictionary_ says:
"Spunging-house. A house to which debtors are taken before commitment
to prison, where the bailiffs sponge upon them, or riot at their cost. "
=21= 26. =Jenyns. = This writer, who, according to Boswell, "could very
happily play with a light subject," ventured so far beyond his depth
that it was easy for Johnson to expose him.
=22= 10. =Rasselas. = Had Johnson written nothing else, says Boswell,
_Rasselas_ "would have rendered his name immortal in the world of
literature. . . . It has been translated into most, if not all, of the
modern languages. "
=22= 12. =Miss Lydia Languish. = Of course plays are not necessarily
written to be read, but Sheridan's well-known comedy, _The Rivals_, is
decidedly readable. Every one should be familiar with Miss Languish and
Mrs. Malaprop.
=23= 8. =Bruce. = The _Dictionary of National Biography_ says that
James Bruce--whose _Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile_, five
volumes, appeared in 1790--"will always remain the poet, and his work
the epic, of African travel. "
=23= 13. =Mrs. Lennox. = A woman whose literary efforts Johnson
encouraged so much as he did Mrs. Lennox's is certainly worth looking
up in the index to Boswell's _Johnson_. --=Mrs. Sheridan=, the
dramatist's mother, gave Johnson many an entertaining evening in her
home. She and her son entered heartily into the lively, stimulating
conversations he loved.
=23= 25. =Hector . . . Aristotle. = The sacking of Troy is generally
assigned to the twelfth century B. C. Aristotle lived eight centuries
later. --=Julio Romano. = An Italian painter of the fifteenth century.
=24= 5. =the Lord Privy Seal. = Some documents require only the privy
seal; others must have the great seal too. For Johnson's admission that
the printer was wise in striking out the reference alluded to, see the
index to Boswell's _Johnson_, under _Gower_.
=24= 14. =Oxford. = By recalling what Macaulay said in the early part of
the essay (=10= 26, 27) about Oxford, and by bearing in mind what House
[of Stuart? of Hanover? ] George the Third belonged to, one sees point
to "was becoming loyal. "
=24= 14-18. Study these four short sentences in connection with the
preceding sentence beginning "George the Third. " To what extent are
they a repetition? To what extent an explanation?
=24= 22. =accepted. = When, in answer to Johnson's question to Lord
Bute, "Pray, my Lord, what am I expected to do for this pension? " he
received the ready reply, "It is not given you for anything you are to
do, but for what you have done," he hesitated no longer.
Three hundred a year was a large sum in Johnson's eyes at that time.
Whether he wrote less than he would have written without it may be
questioned, says Mr. Hill, but he adds that probably "without the
pension he would not have lived to write the second greatest of his
works--the _Lives of the Poets_. "
=25= 19. =a ghost . . . Cock Lane. = If you will read Boswell's account of
the affair, you will probably conclude that Johnson was not quite so
"weak" as Macaulay implies.
=25= 26. =Churchill. = One of the reigning wits of the day, Boswell says.
=26= 3. =The preface. = Other critics speak with more enthusiasm of the
good sense and the clear expression of the preface, and find that these
qualities are not altogether lacking in the notes.
=26= 8. =Wilhelm Meister. = The hero of Goethe's novel of the same name.
You may have read this passage on _Hamlet_ in Rolfe's edition (p. 14),
quoted from Furness's _Hamlet_, Vol. II, pp. 272 ff. Sprague also
quotes it in his edition, p. 13.
=26= 26. =Ben. = The eighteenth-century Johnson has been followed by
the nineteenth-century critics in putting a high estimate on the Jonson
who wrote _Every Man in His Humor_. We are told that Shakspere took
one of the parts in this play, acted in 1598. If you are not satisfied
with the account in _The Century Dictionary_, or with any encyclopædia
article, see _The English Poets_, edited by T. H. Ward, Vol. II (The
Macmillan Company).
=26= 33-34. =Æschylus, Euripides, Sophocles. = Three great contemporary
Greek tragedians.
=27= 3. =Fletcher. = Point out why an editor of Shakspere's plays should
be familiar with the work of this group of Elizabethan dramatists.
=27= 11. =Royal Academy. = "His Majesty having the preceding year [1768]
instituted the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Johnson had won the
honour of being appointed Professor in Ancient Literature. "--Boswell.
Goldsmith was Professor in Ancient History in the same institution, and
Boswell was Secretary for Foreign Correspondence. Look in _The Century
Dictionary_ under _academy_, the third meaning, and recall whatever you
may have heard or read about the French Academy.
=27= 12. =the King. = "His Majesty expressed a desire to have the
literary biography of this country ably executed, and proposed to Dr.
Johnson to undertake it. "--Boswell. Read Boswell's account of the
interview. In consulting the index look under _George III. _
=27= 22. =colloquial talents. = Madame d'Arblay once said that Johnson
had about him more "fun, and comical humour, and love of nonsense" than
almost anybody else she ever saw.
=28= 23. =Goldsmith. = Macaulay's article on Goldsmith in _The
Encyclopædia Britannica_ is short, and so thoroughly readable that
there is no excuse for not being familiar with it. Boswell is
continually giving interesting glimpses of Dr. Oliver Goldsmith, and
by taking advantage of the index in the _Life of Johnson_ one may in
half an hour learn a great deal about this remarkable man. According
to Boswell, "he had sagacity enough to cultivate assiduously the
acquaintance of Johnson, and his faculties were gradually enlarged by
the contemplation of such a model. "
=28= 24. =Reynolds. = We can learn from short articles about Sir
Joshua's career, but the index to Boswell's _Johnson_ will introduce
us to the good times the great portrait painter had with the great
conversationalist whom we are studying. Reynolds was the first proposer
of the Club, and "there seems to have been hardly a day," says Robina
Napier, "when these friends did not meet in the painting room or in
general society. " Ruskin says, "Titian paints nobler pictures and
Vandyke had nobler subjects, but neither of them entered so subtly as
Sir Joshua did into the minor varieties of human heart and temper. "
The business of his art "was not to criticise, but to observe," and
for this purpose the hours he spent at the Club might be as profitable
as those spent in his painting room. It will be interesting to make a
list of some of the most notable "subjects" Reynolds painted. --=Burke. =
Be sure to read Boswell's account of the famous Round Robin. It
will make you feel better acquainted with Burke, Johnson, Reynolds,
and Goldsmith. The student will find valuable material in Professor
Lamont's edition of Burke's _Speech on Conciliation with America_,
published by Ginn & Company.
=28= 25. =Gibbon. = You noticed on the _Round Robin_ the autograph of
the author of _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_?
=28= 26. =Jones. = Sir William Henry Rich Jones was "the first English
scholar to master Sanskrit, and to recognize its importance for
comparative philology," says _The Century Dictionary_.
=29= 9. =Johnson's Club. = The Club still flourishes. Both Scott and
Macaulay belonged to it.
=29= 14. =James Boswell. = "Out of the fifteen millions that then lived,
and had bed and board, in the British Islands, this man has provided us
a greater _pleasure_ than any other individual, at whose cost we now
enjoy ourselves; perhaps has done us a greater _service_ than can be
specially attributed to more than two or three: yet, ungrateful that
we are, no written or spoken eulogy of James Boswell anywhere exists;
his recompense in solid pudding (so far as copyright went) was not
excessive; and as for the empty praise, it has altogether been denied
him. Men are unwiser than children; they do not know the hand that
feeds. "
So Carlyle writes of the man; the book, he says, is "beyond any other
product of the eighteenth century"; it draws aside the curtains of the
Past and gives us a picture which changeful Time cannot harm or hide.
The picture charms generation after generation because it is true. "It
is not speaking with exaggeration, but with strict measured sobriety,
to say that this Book of Boswell's will give us more real insight into
the _History of England_ during those days than twenty other Books,
falsely entitled 'Histories,' which take to themselves that special
aim. . . . The thing I want to see is not Redbook Lists, and Court
Calendars, and Parliamentary Registers, but the LIFE OF MAN in England:
what men did, thought, suffered, enjoyed; the form, especially the
spirit, of their terrestrial existence, its outward environment, its
inward principle; _how_ and _what_ it was; whence it proceeded, whither
it was tending. . . .
"Hence, indeed, comes it that History, which should be 'the essence of
innumerable Biographies,' will tell us, question it as we like, less
than one genuine Biography may do, pleasantly and of its own accord! "
Mr. Leslie Stephen says that "Macaulay's graphic description of
his absurdities, and Carlyle's more penetrating appreciation of his
higher qualities, contain all that can be said"; but the more recent
testimony of Dr. George B. Hill, in _Dr. Johnson, His Friends and His
Critics_, should count for something. Dr. Hill points out that while
Macaulay grants Boswell immortality he refuses him greatness, and calls
attention to what he considers elements of greatness. In regard to the
accuracy of a biographer who would "run half over London, in order to
fix a date correctly," he says: "That love, I might almost say that
passion for accuracy, that distinguished Boswell in so high a degree
does not belong to a mind that is either mean or feeble. Mean minds are
indifferent to truth, and feeble minds can see no importance in a date. "
=29= 27. =Wilkes. = John Wilkes, a notorious politician, was imprisoned
for writing an article in which he attacked George the Third. The
liberty of the press was involved and Wilkes was released, much to
the delight of the people. For a brief summary of the Bill of Rights,
see Brewer's _Historic Note-book_ or _A Handbook of English Political
History_, by Acland and Ransome.
=29= 29. =Whitfield. = Macaulay's short sentence implies, does it not,
that Whitfield (or Whitefield) was a noisy, open-air preacher among the
Calvinistic Methodists? In testing the accuracy of this inference in
_The Encyclopædia Britannica_ or in Franklin's _Autobiography_, note in
what countries Whitefield preached, and where he died. Boswell quotes
Johnson's opinion of Whitefield in two places.
=29= 30.
