We divaricate so much, as Dr. Johnson said, that I am often hurt when, I dare say, he means no harm: and he has a method of treating me which makes me feel myself like a timid boy, which to Boswell (comprehending all that my character does in my own imagination and in that of a wonderful number of mankind) is intolerable. His wife too, whom in my conscience I cannot condemn for any capital bad quality, is so narrow-minded, and, I don't know how, so set upon keeping him under her own management, and so suspicious and so sourishly tempered that it requires the utmost exertion of practical philosophy to keep myself quiet. I however have done so all this week to admiration: nay, I have appeared good-humoured; but it has cost me drinking a considerable quantity of strong beer to dull my faculties.' Letters of Boswell, p. 215.
[1137] Voltaire wrote of Henault's Abrege de l' Histoire de la France:--'Il a ete dans l'histoire ce que Fontenelle a ete dans la philosophie. Il l'a rendue familiere.' Voltaire's Works, xvii. 99. With a quotation from Henault, Carlyle begins his French Revolution.
[1138] My Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, which that lady read in the original manuscript. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale, 'May 22, 1775:--I am not sorry that you read Boswell's Journal. Is it not a merry piece? There is much in it about poor me.' Piozzi Letters, i. 220. 'June 11, 1775. You never told me, and I omitted to inquire, how you were entertained by Boswell's Journal. One would think the man had been hired to be a spy upon me. He was very diligent, and caught opportunities of writing from time to time.' Ib p. 233. I suspect that the words I have marked by italics are not Johnson's, but are Mrs. Piozzi's interpolation.
[1139] 'In my heart of heart.' Hamlet, act iii. sc. 2.
[1140] Another parcel of Lord Hailes's Annals of Scotland. BOSWELL.
[1141] Where Sir Joshua Reynolds lived. BOSWELL.
[1142] Johnson's birthday. In Pr. and Med. p. 143, is a prayer which was, he writes, 'composed at Calais in a sleepless night, and used before the morn at Notre Dame.'
[1143] See ante, i. 243, note 3.
[1144] 'While Johnson was in France, he was generally very resolute in speaking Latin.' Post, under Nov. 12, 1775.
[1145] Miss Thrale. BOSWELL.
[1146] In his Journal he records 'their meals are gross' (post, Oct. 10). We may doubt therefore Mrs. Piozzi's statement that he said of the French: 'They have few sentiments, but they express them neatly; they have little in meat too, but they dress it well.' Piozzi's Anec. p. 102.
[1147] See ante, i. 362, note 1.
[1148] Boswell wrote to Temple:--'You know, my dearest friend, of what importance this is to me; of what importance it is to the family of Auchinleck, which you may be well convinced is my supreme object in this world.' Letters of Boswell, p. 217. Alexander Boswell was killed in a duel in 1822.
[1149] This alludes to my old feudal principle of preferring male to female succession. BOSWELL. See post, under Jan. 10, 1776.
[1150] He wrote to Dr. Taylor on the same day:--'I came back last Tuesday from France. Is not mine a kind of life turned upside down? Fixed to a spot when I was young, and roving the world when others are contriving to sit still, I am wholly unsettled. I am a kind of ship with a wide sail, and without an anchor.' Notes and Queries. 6th S., v. 422.
[1151] There can be no doubt that many years previous to 1775 he corresponded with this lady, who was his step-daughter, but none of his earlier letters to her have been preserved. BOSWELL. Many of these earlier letters were printed by Malone and Croker in later editions. See i. 512.
[1152] When on their way to Wales, July 7, 1774, post, vol. v.
[1153] Smollett wrote (Travels, i. 88):--'Notwithstanding the gay disposition of the French, their houses are all gloomy. After all it is in England only where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay furniture, neatness, and convenience.'
[1154] Son of Mrs. Johnson, by her first husband. BOSWELL.
[1155] 'A gentleman said, "Surely that Vanessa must be an extraordinary woman, that could inspire the Dean to write so finely upon her." Mrs. Johnson [Stella] smiled, and answered "that she thought that point not quite so clear; for it was well known the Dean could write finely upon a broomstick."' Johnson's Works, viii. 210.
[1156] Horace Walpole wrote from Paris this autumn:--'I have not yet had time to visit the Hotel du Chatelet.' Letters, vi. 260. On July 31st, 1789, writing of the violence of the mob, he says:--'The hotel of the Due de Chatelet, lately built and superb, has been assaulted, and the furniture sold by auction.' Ib ix. 202.
[1157] See post, under Nov. 12, 1775, note, and June 25, 1784.
[1158] The Prior of the Convent of the Benedictines where Johnson had a cell appropriated to him. Post, Oct. 31, and under Nov. 12.
[1159] The rest of this paragraph appears to be a minute of what was told by Captain Irwin. BOSWELL.
[1160] Melchior Canus, a celebrated Spanish Dominican, who died at Toledo, in 1560.