第76章

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.I 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 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.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-and-twenty before he came to London.'

I again visited him at night.Finding him in a very good humour,Iventured to lead him to the subject of our situation in a future state,having much curiosity to know his notions on that point....

BOSWELL.'I do not know whether there are any well-attested stories of the appearance of ghosts.You know there is a famous story of the appearance of Mrs.Veal,prefixed to Drelincourt on Death.'JOHNSON.'I believe,Sir,that is given up.I believe the woman declared upon her death-bed that it was a lie.'BOSWELL.

'This objection is made against the truth of ghosts appearing:that if they are in a state of happiness,it would be a punishment to them to return to this world;and if they are in a state of misery,it would be giving them a respite.'JOHNSON.'Why,Sir,as the happiness or misery of embodied spirits does not depend upon place,but is intellectual,we cannot say that they are less happy or less miserable by appearing upon earth.'

We went down between twelve and one to Mrs.Williams's room,and drank tea.I mentioned that we were to have the remains of Mr.

Gray,in prose and verse,published by Mr.Mason.JOHNSON.'Ithink we have had enough of Gray.I see they have published a splendid edition of Akenside's works.One bad ode may be suffered;but a number of them together makes one sick.'BOSWELL.

'Akenside's distinguished poem is his Pleasures of Imagination;but for my part,I never could admire it so much as most people do.'

JOHNSON.'Sir,I could not read it through.'BOSWELL.'I have read it through;but I did not find any great power in it.'

On Tuesday,March 31,he and I dined at General Paoli's.

Dr.Johnson went home with me to my lodgings in Conduit-street and drank tea,previous to our going to the Pantheon,which neither of us had seen before.

He said,'Goldsmith's Life of Parnell is poor;not that it is poorly written,but that he had poor materials;for nobody can write the life of a man,but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.'

I said,that if it was not troublesome and presuming too much,Iwould request him to tell me all the little circumstances of his life;what schools he attended,when he came to Oxford,when he came to London,&c.&c.He did not disapprove of my curiosity as to these particulars;but said,'They'll come out by degrees as we talk together.'

We talked of the proper use of riches.JOHNSON.'If I were a man of a great estate,I would drive all the rascals whom I did not like out of the county at an election.'

We then walked to the Pantheon.The first view of it did not strike us so much as Ranelagh,of which he said,the 'coup d'oeil was the finest thing he had ever seen.'The truth is,Ranelagh is of a more beautiful form;more of it or rather indeed the whole rotunda,appears at once,and it is better lighted.However,as Johnson observed,we saw the Pantheon in time of mourning,when there was a dull uniformity;whereas we had seen Ranelagh when the view was enlivened with a gay profusion of colours.Mrs.Bosville,of Gunthwait,in Yorkshire,joined us,and entered into conversation with us.Johnson said to me afterwards,'Sir,this is a mighty intelligent lady.'

I said there was not half a guinea's worth of pleasure in seeing this place.JOHNSON.'But,Sir,there is half a guinea's worth of inferiority to other people in not having seen it.'BOSWELL.'Idoubt,Sir,whether there are many happy people here.'JOHNSON.

'Yes,Sir,there are many happy people here.There are many people here who are watching hundreds,and who think hundreds are watching them.'

Happening to meet Sir Adam Fergusson,I presented him to Dr.

Johnson.Sir Adam expressed some apprehension that the Pantheon would encourage luxury.'Sir,(said Johnson,)I am a great friend to publick amusements;for they keep people from vice.You now (addressing himself to me,)would have been with a wench,had you not been here.--O!I forgot you were married.'