James Boswell - THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON - All 6 Volumes in One Edition

[1334] In Boswelliana (p. 214) this anecdote is thus given:—‘Boswell was talking to Mr. Samuel Johnson of Mr. Sheridan’s enthusiasm for the advancement of eloquence. “Sir,” said Mr. Johnson, “it won’t do. He cannot carry through his scheme. He is like a man attempting to stride the English Channel. Sir, the cause bears no proportion to the effect. It is setting up a candle at Whitechapel to give light at Westminster.”’ See also ante , p. 385, and post . Oct. 16, 1969, April 18 and May 17, 1783.

[1335] Most likely Boswell himself. See ante , p. 410.

[1336] ‘Let a Frenchman talk twice with a minister of state, he desires no more to furnish out a volume.’ Swift’s Works , ed. 1803, xvi. 197. Lord Chesterfield wrote from Paris in 1741:—‘They [the Parisians] despise us, and with reason, for our ill-breeding; on the other hand, we despite them for their want of learning, and we are in the right of it.’ Supplement to Chesterfield’s Letters , p. 49. See Boswell’s Hebrides , Oct. 14, 1773.

[1337] ‘Dr. Johnson said that he had been told by an acquaintance of Sir Isaac Newton, that in early life he started as a clamorous infidel.’ Seward’s Anecdotes , ii. 324. In Brewster’s Life of Newton I find no mention of early infidelity. On the contrary, Newton had been described as one who ‘had been a searcher of the Scriptures from his youth’ (ii. 314). Brewster says that ‘some foreign writers have endeavoured to shew that his theological writings were composed at a late period of life, when his mind was in its dotage.’ It was not so, however. Ib . p. 315.

[1338] I fully intended to have followed advice of such weight; but having staid much longer both in Germany and Italy than I proposed to do, and having also visited Corsica, I found that I had exceeded the time allowed me by my father, and hastened to France in my way homewards. BOSWELL. See ante , p. 410.

[1339]

‘Has heaven reserved, in pity to the poor,

No pathless waste, or undiscovered shore?

No secret island in the boundless main?

No peaceful desert, yet unclaimed by Spain?’

Johnson looked upon the discovery of America as a misfortune to mankind. In Taxation no Tyranny ( Works , vi. 233) he says that ‘no part of the world has yet had reason to rejoice that Columbus found at last reception and employment. In the same year, in a year hitherto disastrous to mankind, by the Portuguese was discovered the passage of the Indies, and by the Spaniards the coast of America.’ On March 4, 1773, he wrote (Croker’s Boswell , p. 248):—‘I do not much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and robbery.’ See ante , p. 308, note 2, and post, March 21, 1775, and under Dec. 24, 1783.

[1340] See ante , p. 394, note 2.

[1341] Letters written from Leverpoole, Chester, Corke, &c., by Samuel Derrick, 1767.

[1342] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd ed. p. 104 [Aug. 27, 1773]. BOSWELL.

[1343] Ibid. p. 142 [242, Sept. 22, 1773]. BOSWELL. Johnson added:—‘but it was nothing.’ Derrick, in 1760, published Dryden’s Misc. Works , with an Account of his Life .

[1344] He published a biographical work, containing an account of eminent writers, in three vols. 8vo. BOSWELL.

[1345]

‘Thus the soft gifts of sleep conclude the day,

And stretched on bulks, as usual, poets lay.’

The Dunciad , ii. 420.

In Humphry Clinker , in the Letter of June 10, in which is described the dinner given by S—— to the poor authors, of one of them it is said:—‘The only secret which he ever kept was the place of his lodgings; but it was believed that during the heats of summer he commonly took his repose upon a bulk.’ Johnson defines bulk as a part of a building jutting out .

[1346] ‘Knowledge is certainly one of the means of pleasure, as is confessed by the natural desire which every mind feels of increasing its ideas … without knowing why we always rejoice when we learn, and grieve when we forget.’ Rasselas , ch. xi.

[1347] In the days of Old London Bridge, as Mr. Croker points out, even when the tide would have allowed passengers to shoot it, those who were prudent landed above the bridge, and walked to some wharf below it.

[1348] All who are acquainted with the history of religion, (the most important, surely, that concerns the human mind,) know that the appellation of Methodists was first given to a society of students in the University of Oxford, who about the year 1730 were distinguished by an earnest and methodical attention to devout exercises. This disposition of mind is not a novelty, or peculiar to any sect, but has been, and still may be found, in many christians of every denomination. Johnson himself was, in a dignified manner, a Methodist. In his Rambler , No. 110, he mentions with respect ‘the whole discipline of regulated piety;’ and in his Prayers and Meditations , many instances occur of his anxious examination into his spiritual state. That this religious earnestness, and in particular an observation of the influence of the Holy Spirit, has sometimes degenerated into folly, and sometimes been counterfeited for base purposes, cannot be denied. But it is not, therefore, fair to decry it when genuine. The principal argument in reason and good sense against methodism is, that it tends to debase human nature, and prevent the generous exertions of goodness, by an unworthy supposition that GOD will pay no regard to them; although it is positively said in the scriptures that He ‘will reward every man according to his works.’ [St. Matthew xvi. 27.] But I am happy to have it [in] my power to do justice to those whom it is the fashion to ridicule, without any knowledge of their tenets; and this I can do by quoting a passage from one of their best apologists, Mr. Milner, who thus expresses their doctrine upon this subject. ‘Justified by faith, renewed in his faculties, and constrained by the love of Christ, their believer moves in the sphere of love and gratitude, and all his duties flow more or less from this principle. And though they are accumulating for him in heaven a treasure of bliss proportioned to his faithfulness and activity, and it is by no means inconsistent with his principles to feel the force of this consideration , yet love itself sweetens every duty to his mind; and he thinks there is no absurdity in his feeling the love of GOD as the grand commanding principle of his life.’ Essays on several religious Subjects, &c., by Joseph Milner, A.M., Master of the Grammar School of Kingston upon-Hull, 1789, p . 11. BOSWELL. Southey ( Life of Wesley , i. 41), mentioning the names given at Oxford to Wesley and his followers, continues:—‘One person with less irreverence and more learning observed, in reference to their methodical manner of life, that a new sect of Methodists was sprung up, alluding to the ancient school of physicians known by that name.’ Wesley, in 1744, wrote The Humble Address to the King of the Societies in derision called Methodists. Journal , i. 437. He often speaks of ‘the people called Methodists,’ but sometimes he uses the term without any qualification. Mrs. Thrale, in 1780, wrote to Johnson:—‘Methodist is considered always a term of reproach, I trust, because I never yet did hear that any one person called himself a Methodist.’ Piozzi Letters , ii. 119.

[1349] Wesley said:—‘We should constantly use the most common, little, easy words (so they are pure and proper) which our language affords. When first I talked at Oxford to plain people in the Castle [the prison] or the town, I observed they gaped and stared. This quickly obliged me to alter my style, and adopt the language of those I spoke to; and yet there is a dignity in their simplicity, which is not disagreeable to those of the highest rank.’ Southey’s Wesley , i. 431. See post , 1770, in Dr. Maxwell’s Collectanea , Oct. 12, 1779, Aug. 30, 1780, and Boswell’s Hebrides , Nov. 10, 1773.