第37章

'If you married imprudently,you miscarried at your own hazard,at an age when you had a right of choice.It would be hard if the man might not choose his own wife,who has a right to plead before the Judges of his country.

'If your imprudence has ended in difficulties and inconveniences,you are yourself to support them;and,with the help of a little better health,you would support them and conquer them.Surely,that want which accident and sickness produces,is to be supported in every region of humanity,though there were neither friends nor fathers in the world.You have certainly from your father the highest claim of charity,though none of right;and therefore Iwould counsel you to omit no decent nor manly degree of importunity.Your debts in the whole are not large,and of the whole but a small part is troublesome.Small debts are like small shot;they are rattling on every side,and can scarcely be escaped without a wound:great debts are like cannon;of loud noise,but little danger.You must,therefore,be enabled to discharge petty debts,that you may have leisure,with security to struggle with the rest.Neither the great nor little debts disgrace you.I am sure you have my esteem for the courage with which you contracted them,and the spirit with which you endure them.I wish my esteem could be of more use.I have been invited,or have invited myself,to several parts of the kingdom;and will not incommode my dear Lucy by coming to Lichfield,while her present lodging is of any use to her.I hope,in a few days,to be at leisure,and to make visits.Whither I shall fly is matter of no importance.A man unconnected is at home every where;unless he may be said to be at home no where.I am sorry,dear Sir,that where you have parents,a man of your merits should not have an home.I wish I could give it you.I am,my dear Sir,affectionately yours,'SAM.JOHNSON.'

He now refreshed himself by an excursion to Oxford,of which the following short characteristical notice,in his own words,is preserved 'is now making tea for me.I have been in my gown ever since I came here.It was,at my first coming,quite new and handsome.

I have swum thrice,which I had disused for many years.I have proposed to Vansittart,climbing over the wall,but he has refused me.And I have clapped my hands till they are sore,at Dr.King's speech.'

His negro servant,Francis Barber,having left him,and been some time at sea,not pressed as has been supposed,but with his own consent,it appears from a letter to John Wilkes,Esq.,from Dr.

Smollet,that his master kindly interested himself in procuring his release from a state of life of which Johnson always expressed the utmost abhorrence.He said,'No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail;for being in a ship is being in a jail,with the chance of being drowned.'And at another time,'A man in a jail has more room,better food,and commonly better company.'The letter was as follows:--'Chelsea,March 16,1759.

'DEAR SIR,I am again your petitioner,in behalf of that great CHAMof literature,Samuel Johnson.His black servant,whose name is Francis Barber,has been pressed on board the Stag Frigate,Captain Angel,and our lexicographer is in great distress.He says the boy is a sickly lad,of a delicate frame,and particularly subject to a malady in his throat,which renders him very unfit for his Majesty's service.You know what manner of animosity the said Johnson has against you;and I dare say you desire no other opportunity of resenting it than that of laying him under an obligation.He was humble enough to desire my assistance on this occasion,though he and I were never cater-cousins;and I gave him to understand that I would make application to my friend Mr.

Wilkes,who,perhaps,by his interest with Dr.Hay and Mr.Elliot,might be able to procure the discharge of his lacquey.It would be superfluous to say more on the subject,which I leave to your own consideration;but I cannot let slip this opportunity of declaring that I am,with the most inviolable esteem and attachment,dear Sir,your affectionate,obliged,humble servant,'T.SMOLLET.'

Mr.Wilkes,who upon all occasions has acted,as a private gentleman,with most polite liberality,applied to his friend Sir George Hay,then one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty;and Francis Barber was discharged,as he has told me,without any wish of his own.He found his old master in Chambers in the Inner Temple,and returned to his service.

1760:AETAT.51.]--I take this opportunity to relate the manner in which an acquaintance first commenced between Dr.Johnson and Mr.

Murphy.During the publication of The Gray's-Inn Journal,a periodical paper which was successfully carried on by Mr.Murphy alone,when a very young man,he happened to be in the country with Mr.Foote;and having mentioned that he was obliged to go to London in order to get ready for the press one of the numbers of that Journal,Foote said to him,'You need not go on that account.Here is a French magazine,in which you will find a very pretty oriental tale;translate that,and send it to your printer.'Mr.Murphy having read the tale,was highly pleased with it,and followed Foote's advice.When he returned to town,this tale was pointed out to him in The Rambler,from whence it had been translated into the French magazine.Mr.Murphy then waited upon Johnson,to explain this curious incident.His talents,literature,and gentleman-like manners,were soon perceived by Johnson,and a friendship was formed which was never broken.