Collins shared in many of the ventures of Newbery, Goldsmith's publisher. Mr. Welsh says (ib. p. 61) that Collins's accounts show 'that the first three editions resulted in a loss.' If this was so, the booksellers must have been great bunglers, for the book ran through three editions in six or seven months. Forster's Goldsmith, i. 425.
[1227] The Traveller (price one shilling and sixpence) was published in December 1764, and The Vicar of Wakefield in March 1766. In August 1765 the fourth edition of The Traveller appeared, and the ninth in the year Goldsmith died. He received for it L21. Forster's Goldsmith, i. 364, 374, 409. See ante, p. 193, note i.
[1228] '"Miss Burney," said Mrs. Thrale [to Dr. Johnson], "is fond of The Vicar of Wakefield, and so am I. Don't you like it, Sir?" "No, madam, it is very faulty; there is nothing of real life in it, and very little of nature. It is a mere fanciful performance."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i. 83. 'There are a hundred faults in this Thing,' said Goldsmith in the preface, 'and a hundred things might be said to prove them beauties. But it is needless. A book may be amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity.' See post, April 25, 1778.
[1229] Anecdotes of Johnson, p. 119. BOSWELL.
[1230] Life of Johnson, p. 420. BOSWELL.
[1231] In his imprudence he was like Savage, of whom Johnson says (Works, viii. 161):--'To supply him with money was a hopeless attempt; for no sooner did he see himself master of a sum sufficient to set him free from care for a day, than he became profuse and luxurious.' When Savage was 'lodging in the liberties of the Fleet, his friends sent him every Monday a guinea, which he commonly spent before the next morning, and trusted, after his usual manner, the remaining part of the week to the bounty of fortune.' Ib. p. 170.
[1232] It may not be improper to annex here Mrs. Piozzi's account of this transaction, in her own words, as a specimen of the extreme inaccuracy with which all her anecdotes of Dr. Johnson are related, or rather discoloured and distorted:--'I have forgotten the year, but it could scarcely, I think, be later than 1765 or 1766 that he was called abruptly from our house after dinner, and returning in about three hours, said he had been with an enraged authour, whose landlady pressed him for payment within doors, while the bailiffs beset him without; that he was drinking himself drunk with Madeira, to drown care, and fretting over a novel, which, when finished, was to be his whole fortune, but he could not get it done for distraction, nor could he step out of doors to offer it for sale. Mr. Johnson, therefore, sent away the bottle, and went to the bookseller, recommending the performance, and desiring some immediate relief; which when he brought back to the writer, he called the 'woman of the house directly to partake of punch, and pass their time in merriment.' Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, p. 119. BOSWELL. The whole transaction took place in 1762, as is shown, ante, p. 415, note 1; Johnson did not know the Thrales till 1764.
[1233] Through Goldsmith Boswell became acquainted with Reynolds. In his Letter to the People of Scotland (p. 99), he says:--'I exhort you, my friends and countrymen, in the words of my departed Goldsmith, who gave me many nodes Atticae, and gave me a jewel of the finest water--the acquaintance of Sir Joshua Reynolds.'
[1234] See post, July 30, 1763.
[1235] See post, March 20, 1776, and Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 17, 1773.
[1236] See post, March 15, 1776.
[1237] 'Dr. Campbell was an entertaining story-teller, which [sic] sometimes he rather embellished; so that the writer of this once heard Dr. Johnson say:--"Campbell will lie, but he never lies on paper."' Gent. Mag. for 1785, p. 969.
[1238] I am inclined to think that he was misinformed as to this circumstance. I own I am jealous for my worthy friend Dr. John Campbell. For though Milton could without remorse absent himself from publick worship [Johnson's Works, vii. 115] I cannot. On the contrary, I have the same habitual impressions upon my mind, with those of a truely venerable Judge, who said to Mr. Langton, 'Friend Langton, if I have not been at church on Sunday, I do not feel myself easy.' Dr. Campbell was a sincerely religious man. Lord Macartney, who is eminent for his variety of knowledge, and attention to men of talents, and knew him well, told me, that when he called on him in a morning, he found him reading a chapter in the Greek New Testament, which he informed his Lordship was his constant practice. The quantity of Dr. Campbell's composition is almost incredible, and his labours brought him large profits. Dr. Joseph Warton told me that Johnson said of him, 'He is the richest authour that ever grazed the common of literature.' BOSWELL.
[1239] See post, April 7, 1778. Campbell complied with one of the Monita Padagogica of Erasmus. 'Si quem praeteribis natu grandem, magistratum, sacerdotem, doctorem.... memento aperire caput.... Itidem facito quum praeteribis asdem sacram.' Erasmus's Colloquies, ed. 1867, i.