36.
[1240] Reynolds said of Johnson:--'He was not easily imposed upon by professions to honesty and candour; but he appeared to have little suspicion of hypocrisy in religion.' Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 459. Boswell, in one of his penitent letters, wrote to Temple on July 21, 1790:--'I am even almost inclined to think with you, that my great oracle Johnson did allow too much credit to good principles, without good practice.' Letters of Boswell, p. 327.
[1241] Campbell lived in 'the large new-built house at the north-west-corner of Queen Square, Bloomsbury, whither, particularly on a Sunday evening, great numbers of persons of the first eminence for science and literature resorted for the enjoyment of conversation.' Hawkins's Johnson, p. 210.
[1242] Churchill, in his first poem, The Rosciad (Poems, i. 4), mentions Johnson without any disrespect among those who were thought of as judge.
'For Johnson some, but Johnson, it was feared, Would be too grave; and Sterne too gay appeared.'
In The Author (ib. ii. 36), if I mistake not, he grossly alludes to the convulsive disorder to which Johnson was subject. Attacking the pensioners he says--the italics are his own:--
'Others, half-palsied only, mutes become, And what makes Smollett write makes Johnson dumb.'
[1243] See post, April 6, 1772, where Johnson called Fielding a blockhead.
[1244] Churchill published his first poem, The Rosciad, in March or April 1761 (Gent. Mag. xxxi. 190); The Apology in May or June (Ib. p. 286); Night in Jan. 1762 (Ib. xxxii. 47); The First and Second Parts of The Ghost in March (ib. p. 147); The Third Part in the autumn (ib. p. 449); The Prophecy of Famine in Jan. 1763 (ib. xxxiii. 47), and The Epistle to Hogarth in this month of July (ib. p. 363). He wrote the fourth part of The Ghost, and nine more poems, and died on Nov. 4, 1764, aged thirty-two or thirty-three.
[1245] 'Cowper had a higher opinion of Churchill than of any other contemporary writer. "It is a great thing," he said, "to be indeed a poet, and does not happen to more than one man in a century; but Churchill, the great Churchill, deserved that name." He made him, more than any other writer, his model.' Southey's Cowper, i. 87, 8.
[1246] Mr. Forster says that 'Churchill asked five guineas for the manuscript of The Rosciad (according to Southey, but Mr. Tooke says he asked twenty pounds).' Finding no purchaser he brought the poem out at his own risk. Mr. Forster continues:--'The pulpit had starved him on forty pounds a year; the public had given him a thousand pounds in two months.' Forster's Essays, ii. 226, 240. As The Rosciad was sold at one shilling a copy, it seems incredible that such a gain could have been made, even with the profits of The Apology included. 'Blotting and correcting was so much Churchill's abhorrence that I have heard from his publisher he once energetically expressed himself, that it was like cutting away one's own flesh.' D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, ed. 1834, iii. 129. D'Israeli 'had heard that after a successful work he usually precipitated the publication of another, relying on its crudeness being passed over by the public curiosity excited by its better brother. He called this getting double pay, for thus he secured the sale of a hurried work.'
[1247] In the opening lines of Gotham, Bk. iii, there is a passage of great beauty and tenderness.
[1248] In 1769 I set Thornton's burlesque Ode. It was performed at Ranelagh in masks, to a very crowded audience, as I was told; for I then resided in Norfolk. BURNEY. Dr. Burney's note cannot be correct. He came to reside in London in 1760 (Memoirs of Dr. Burney, i. 133) The Ode is in the list of 'new books, published' in the Gent. Mag. for June 1763, and is described as having been performed at Ranelagh.
[1249] The Connoisseur was started by Thornton and Colman in 1754. Cowper and Lloyd were contributors. Southey's Cowper, i. 46, 49, 65.
[1250] See ante, p. 350, note.
[1251] See post, Aug. 2, 1763, and Oct. 26, 1769.
[1252] See post. Sept. 20, 1777, note.
[1253] The northern bard mentioned page 421. When I asked Dr. Johnson's permission to introduce him, he obligingly agreed; adding, however, with a sly pleasantry, 'but he must give us none of his poetry.' It is remarkable that Johnson and Churchill, however much they differed in other points, agreed on this subject. See Churchill's Journey.
['Under dark Allegory's flimsy veil Let Them with Ogilvie spin out a tale Of rueful length,' Churchill's Poems, ii. 329.]
It is, however, but justice to Dr. Ogilvie to observe, that his Day of Judgement has no inconsiderable share of merit. BOSWELL.
[1254] 'Johnson said:--"Goldsmith should not be for ever attempting to shine in conversation."' Post, April 27, 1773. See also post, May 7, 1773.
[1255] Fifteen years later Lord George Germaine, Secretary of State, asserted in a debate 'that the King "was his own Minister," which Charles Fox took up admirably, lamenting that His Majesty "was his own unadvised Minister."' Walpole's Journal of the Reign of George III, ii.