第65章
Swift having been mentioned,Johnson,as usual,treated him with little respect as an authour.Some of us endeavoured to support the Dean of St.Patrick's by various arguments.One in particular praised his Conduct of the Allies.JOHNSON.'Sir,his Conduct of the Allies is a performance of very little ability.''Surely,Sir,(said Dr.Douglas,)you must allow it has strong facts.'JOHNSON.
'Why yes,Sir;but what is that to the merit of the composition?
In the Sessions-paper of the Old Bailey,there are strong facts.
Housebreaking is a strong fact;robbery is a strong fact;and murder is a MIGHTY strong fact;but is great praise due to the historian of those strong facts?No,Sir.Swift has told what he had to tell distinctly enough,but that is all.He had to count ten,and he has counted it right.'Then recollecting that Mr.
Davies,by acting as an INFORMER,had been the occasion of his talking somewhat too harshly to his friend Dr.Percy,for which,probably,when the first ebullition was over,he felt some compunction,he took an opportunity to give him a hit;so added,with a preparatory laugh,'Why,Sir,Tom Davies might have written The Conduct of the Allies.'Poor Tom being thus suddenly dragged into ludicrous notice in presence of the Scottish Doctors,to whom he was ambitious of appearing to advantage,was grievously mortified.Nor did his punishment rest here;for upon subsequent occasions,whenever he,'statesman all over,'assumed a strutting importance,I used to hail him--'the Authour of The Conduct of the Allies.'
When I called upon Dr.Johnson next morning,I found him highly satisfied with his colloquial prowess the preceding evening.
'Well,(said he,)we had good talk.'BOSWELL.'Yes,Sir;you tossed and gored several persons.'
The late Alexander,Earl of Eglintoune,who loved wit more than wine,and men of genius more than sycophants,had a great admiration of Johnson;but from the remarkable elegance of his own manners,was,perhaps,too delicately sensible of the roughness which sometimes appeared in Johnson's behaviour.One evening about this time,when his Lordship did me the honour to sup at my lodgings with Dr.Robertson and several other men of literary distinction,he regretted that Johnson had not been educated with more refinement,and lived more in polished society.'No,no,my Lord,(said Signor Baretti,)do with him what you would,he would always have been a bear.''True,(answered the Earl,with a smile,)but he would have been a DANCING bear.'
To obviate all the reflections which have gone round the world to Johnson's prejudice,by applying to him the epithet of a BEAR,let me impress upon my readers a just and happy saying of my friend Goldsmith,who knew him well:'Johnson,to be sure,has a roughness in his manner;but no man alive has a more tender heart.He has nothing of the bear but his skin.'
1769:AETAT.60.]--I came to London in the autumn,and having informed him that I was going to be married in a few months,Iwished to have as much of his conversation as I could before engaging in a state of life which would probably keep me more in Scotland,and prevent me seeing him so often as when I was a single man;but I found he was at Brighthelmstone with Mr.and Mrs.
Thrale.
After his return to town,we met frequently,and I continued the practice of making notes of his conversation,though not with so much assiduity as I wish I had done.At this time,indeed,I had a sufficient excuse for not being able to appropriate so much time to my Journal;for General Paoli,after Corsica had been overpowered by the monarchy of France,was now no longer at the head of his brave countrymen,but having with difficulty escaped from his native island,had sought an asylum in Great-Britain;and it was my duty,as well as my pleasure,to attend much upon him.Such particulars of Johnson's conversation at this period as I have committed to writing,I shall here introduce,without any strict attention to methodical arrangement.Sometimes short notes of different days shall be blended together,and sometimes a day may seem important enough to be separately distinguished.
He said,he would not have Sunday kept with rigid severity and gloom,but with a gravity and simplicity of behaviour.
I told him that David Hume had made a short collection of Scotticisms.'I wonder,(said Johnson,)that HE should find them.'
On the 30th of September we dined together at the Mitre.Iattempted to argue for the superior happiness of the savage life,upon the usual fanciful topicks.JOHNSON.'Sir,there can be nothing more false.The savages have no bodily advantages beyond those of civilised men.They have not better health;and as to care or mental uneasiness,they are not above it,but below it,like bears.No,Sir;you are not to talk such paradox:let me have no more on't.It cannot entertain,far less can it instruct.Lord Monboddo,one of your Scotch Judges,talked a great deal of such nonsense.I suffered HIM;but I will not suffer YOU.'--BOSWELL.
'But,Sir,does not Rousseau talk such nonsense?'JOHNSON.'True,Sir,but Rousseau KNOWS he is talking nonsense,and laughs at the world for staring at him.'BOSWELL.'How so,Sir?'JOHNSON.