2 Kings, xix. 35.
[524] Lord Chatham wrote on Oct. 12, 1766, to Lord Shelburne that he 'had extremely at heart to obtain this post for Lord Cardross, a young nobleman of great talents, learning, and accomplishments, and son of the Earl of Buchan, an intimate friend of Lord Chatham, from the time they were students together at Utrecht.' Chatham Corres. iii. 106. Horace Walpole wrote on Oct. 26, 'Sir James Gray goes to Madrid. The embassy has been sadly hawked about it.' Walpole's Letters, v. 22. 'Sir James Gray's father was first a box-keeper, and then footman to James II.' Ib ii. 366.
[525] See ante, ii. 134, for Johnson's attack on Lord Chatham's 'feudal gabble.'
[526] In Boswell's Hebrides, on Aug. 25, 1773, Johnson makes much the same answer to a like statement by Boswell. See post, March 21, 1783.
[527] See ante, i. 343, 405, and post, April 10, 1772.
[528] 'I cannot,' wrote John Wesley, (Journal, iv. 74), 'give up to all Deists in Great Britain the existence of witchcraft, till I give up the credit of all history, sacred and profane. And at the present time, I have not only as strong but stronger proofs of this from eye and ear witnesses than I have of murder; so that I cannot rationally doubt of one any more the than the other.'
[529] See this curious question treated by him with most acute ability, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 33. [Aug. 16.] BOSWELL. Johnson, in his Observations on Macbeth (Works, v. 55-7), shews his utter disbelief in witchcraft. 'These phantoms,' he writes, 'have indeed appeared more frequently in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been more gross; but it cannot be shewn that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been sufficient to drive them out of the world.' He describes the spread of the belief in them in the middle ages, and adds:--'The reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and though day was gradually increasing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft still continued to hover in the twilight.' See post, April 8, 1779 and 1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection.
[530] The passage to which Johnson alluded is to be found (I conjecture) in the Phoenissae, I. 1120. J. BOSWELL, JUN.
[531] Boswell (Letters, p. 324), on June 21, 1790, described to Temple the insults of that 'brutal fellow,' Lord Lonsdale, and continued:--'In my fretfulness I used such expressions as irritated him almost to fury, so that he used such expressions towards me that I should have, according to the irrational laws of honour sanctioned by the world, been under the necessity of risking my life, had not an explanation taken place.' Boswell's eldest son, Sir Alexander Boswell, lost his life in a duel.
[532] Johnson might have quoted the lieutenant in Tom Jones, Book vii. chap. 13. 'My dear boy, be a good Christian as long as you live: but be a man of honour too, and never put up an affront; not all the books, nor all the parsons in the world, shall ever persuade me to that. I love my religion very well, but I love my honour more. There must be some mistake in the wording of the text, or in the translation, or in the understanding it, or somewhere or other. But however that be, a man must run the risk, for he must preserve his honour.' See post, April 19, 1773, and April 20, 1783, and Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 19, 1773.
[533] Oglethorpe was born in 1698. In 1714 he entered the army. Prince Eugene's campaigns against the Turks in which Oglethorpe served were in 1716-17. Rose's Biog. Dict. vii. 266 and x. 381. He was not therefore quite so young as Boswell thought.
[534] In the first two editions Bender. Belgrade was taken by Eugene in 1717.
[535] 'Idem velle atque idem nolle ea demum firma amicitia est.' Sallust, Catilina, xx. 4.
[536] More than one conjecture has been hazarded as to the passage to which Johnson referred. I believe that he was thinking of the lines--
'Et variis albae junguntur saepe columbae; Et niger a viridi turtur amatur ave.'
Sappho to Phaon, line 37.
'Turtles and doves of differing hues unite, And glossy jet is paired with shining white.' (POPE.)
Goldsmith had said that people to live in friendship together must have the same likings and aversions. Johnson thereupon calls to mind Sappho, who had shown that there could be love where there was little likeness.
[537] It was not published till after Goldsmith's death. It is in the list of new books in the Gent. Mag. for Aug. 1774, p. 378. See post, under June 22, 1776, the note on Goldsmith's epitaph.
[538] 'Upon my opening the door the young women broke off their discourse, but my landlady's daughters telling them that it was nobody but the Gentleman (for that is the name that I go by in the neighbourhood as well as in the family), they went on without minding me.' Spectator, No. 12.
[539] The author also of the Ballad of Cumnor Hall. See Scott's Introduction to Kenilworth. Bishop Horne says that 'Mickle inserted in the Lusiad an angry note against Garrick, who, as he thought, had used him ill by rejecting a tragedy of his.' Shortly afterwards, he saw Garrick act for the first time.