1803, xix. 153, for his letter to this wine merchant, Thomas Beach by name.
[713] These lines are in the Annus Mirabilis (stanza 164) in a digression in praise of the Royal Society; described by Johnson (Works, vii. 320) as 'an example seldom equalled of seasonable excursion and artful return.' Ib p. 341, he says: 'Dryden delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning, where light and darkness begin to mingle.... This inclination sometimes produced nonsense, which he knew; and sometimes it issued in absurdities, of which perhaps he was not conscious.' He then quotes these lines, and continues: 'They have no meaning; but may we not say, in imitation of Cowley on another book--
"'Tis so like sense, 'twill serve the turn as well."'
Cowley's line is from his Pindarique Ode to Mr. Hobs:--
''Tis so like truth, 'twill serve our turn as well.'
[714] In his Dictionary, he defines punster as a low wit, who endeavours at reputation by double meaning. See post, April 28, 1778.
[715] I formerly thought that I had perhaps mistaken the word, and imagined it to be Corps, from its similarity of sound to the real one. For an accurate and shrewd unknown gentleman, to whom I am indebted for some remarks on my work, observes on this passage--'Q. if not on the word Fort? A vociferous French preacher said of Bourdaloue, "Il preche fort bien, et moi bien fort."'--Menagiana. See also Anecdotes Litteraires, Article Bourdaloue. But my ingenious and obliging correspondent, Mr. Abercrombie of Philadelphia, has pointed out to me the following passage in Menagiana; which renders the preceding conjecture unnecessary, and confirms my original statement:
'Madme de Bourdonne, Chanoinesse de Remiremont, venoit d'entendre un discours plein de feu et d'esprit, mais fort peu solide, et tresirregulier. Une de ses amies, qui y prenoit interet pour l'orateur, lui dit en sortant, "Eh bien, Madme que vous semble-t-il de ce que vous venez d'entendre?--Qu'il ya d'esprit?"--"Il y a tant, repondit Madme de Bourdonne, que je n'y ai pas vu de corps"'--Menagiana, tome ii. p. 64. Amsterd. 1713. BOSWELL. Menagiana, ou les bans mots et remarques critiques, historiqites, morales et derudition de M. Menage, recueillies par ses amis, published in 1693. Gilles Menage was born 1613, died 1692.
[716] That Johnson only relished the conversation, and did not join in it, is more unlikely. In his charge to Boswell, he very likely pointed out that what was said within was not to be reported without. Boswell gives only brief reports of the talk at the Club, and these not openly. See post, April 7, 1775, note.
[717] See post, the passage before Feb. 18, 1775.
[718] By the Rev. Henry Wharton, published in 1692.
[719] See ante, ii. 126, for what Johnson said of the inward light.
[720] Lady Diana Beauclerk. In 1768 Beauclerk married the eldest daughter of the second Duke of Marlborough, two days after her divorce from her first husband, Viscount Bolingbroke, the nephew of the famous Lord Bolingbroke. She was living when her story, so slightly veiled as it is, was thus published by Boswell. The marriage was not a happy one. Two years after Beauclerk's death, Mr. Burke, looking at his widow's house, said in Miss Burney's presence:--'I am extremely glad to see her at last so well housed; poor woman! the bowl has long rolled in misery; I rejoice that it has now found its balance. I never myself so much enjoyed the sight of happiness in another, as in that woman when I first saw her after the death of her husband.' He then drew Beauclerk's character 'in strong and marked expressions, describing the misery he gave his wife, his singular ill-treatment of her, and the necessary relief the death of such a man must give.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 147.
[721] Old Mr. Langton. CROKER. See post, April 26, 1776.
[722] See post, Sept. 22, 1777.
[723] See post, May 15, 1776.
[724] The writer of hymns.
[725] Malone says that 'Hawkesworth was introduced by Garrick to Lord Sandwich, who, thinking to put a few hundred pounds into his pocket, appointed him to revise and publish Cook's Voyages. He scarcely did anything to the MSS., yet sold it to Cadell and Strahan for L6000.' Prior's Malone, p. 441. Thurlow, in his speech on copy-right on March 24, 1774, said 'that Hawkesworth's book, which was a mere composition of trash, sold for three guineas by the booksellers' monopolizing.' Parl. Hist. xvii. 1086. See ante, i. 253, note 1, and Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 3.
[726] Gilbert White held 'that, though most of the swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay behind, and bide with us during the winter.' White's Selborne, Letter xii. See ante, ii. 55.
[727] See ante, ii. 73.
[728] No. 41. 'The sparrow that was hatched last spring makes her first nest the ensuing season of the same materials, and with the same art as in any following year; and the hen conducts and shelters her first brood of chickens with all the prudence that she ever attains.'
[729] See post, April 3, 1776, April 3, 1779, and April 28, 1783.