[178] See ante, iii. 24.
[179] Johnson no doubt refers to Walpole in the following passage (Works, viii. l37):--'Of one particular person, who has been at one time so popular as to be generally esteemed, and at another so formidable as to be universally detested, Mr. Savage observed that his acquisitions had been small, or that his capacity was narrow, and that the whole range of his mind was from obscenity to politicks, and from politicks to obscenity.' This passage is a curious comment on Pope's lines on Sir Robert--
'Seen him I have, but in his happier hour Of social pleasure, ill-exchanged for power.'
Epilogue to the Satires, i. 29.
[180] Most likely Boswell himself. See ante, March 25, 1776, and post, April 10, 1778, for Johnson's dislike of questioning. See also ante, ii. 84, note 3.
[181] See ante, April 14, 1775.
[182] See ante, May 12, 1774.
[183] A Gallicism, which has it appears, with so many others, become vernacular in Scotland. The French call a pulpit, la chaire de verite. CROKER.
[184] As a proof of Dr. Johnson's extraordinary powers of composition, it appears from the original manuscript of this excellent dissertation, of which he dictated the first eight paragraphs on the 10th of May, and the remainder on the 13th, that there are in the whole only seven corrections, or rather variations, and those not considerable. Such were at once the vigorous and accurate emanations of his mind. BOSWELL.
[185] It is curious to observe that Lord Thurlow has here, perhaps in compliment to North Britain, made use of a term of the Scotch Law, which to an English reader may require explanation. To qualify a wrong, is to point out and establish it. BOSWELL.
[186]
'Quaeque ipse miserrima vidi, Et quorum pars magna fui.'
'Which thing myself unhappy did behold, Yea, and was no small part thereof.'
Morris, Aeneids, ii. 5.
[187] In the year 1770, in The False Alarm, Johnson attacked Wilkes with more than 'some asperity.' 'The character of the man,' he wrote, 'I have no purpose to delineate. Lampoon itself would disdain to speak ill of him, of whom no man speaks well.' He called him 'a retailer of sedition and obscenity;' and he said:--'We are now disputing ... whether Middlesex shall be represented, or not, by a criminal from a gaol.' Works, vi. 156, 169, 177. In The North Briton, No. xii, Wilkes, quoting Johnson's definition of a pensioner, asks:--'Is the said Mr. Johnson a dependant? or is he a slave of state, hired by a stipend to obey his master? There is, according to him, no alternative.--As Mr. Johnson has, I think, failed in this account, may I, after so great an authority, venture at a short definition of so intricate a word? A pension then I would call a gratuity during the pleasure of the Prince for services performed, or expected to be performed, to himself, or to the state. Let us consider the celebrated Mr. Johnson, and a few other late pensioners in this light.'
[188] Boswell, in his Letter to the People of Scotland (p. 70), mentions 'my old classical companion, Wilkes;' and adds, 'with whom I pray you to excuse my keeping company, he is so pleasant.'
[189] When Johnson was going to Auchinleck, Boswell begged him, in talking with his father, 'to avoid three topicks as to which they differed very widely; whiggism, presbyterianism, and--Sir John Pringle.' Boswell's Hebrides, Nov 2, 1773. See also ib. Aug 24. 'Pringle was President of the Royal Society--"who sat in Newton's chair, And wonder'd how the devil he got there."' J. H. Burton's Hume, i. 165. He was one of Franklin's friends (Franklin's Memoirs iii. III), and so was likely to be uncongenial to Johnson.
[190] No 22. CROKER. At this house 'Johnson owned that he always found a good dinner.' Post, April 15, 1778.
[191] This has been circulated as if actually said by Johnson; when the truth is, it was only supposed by me. BOSWELL.
[192] 'Don't let them be patriots,' he said to Mr. Hoole, when he asked him to collect a city Club. Post, April 6, 1781.
[193] See p. 7 of this volume. BOSWELL.
[194] 'Indifferent in his choice to sleep or die.' Addison's Cato, act v. sc. 1.
[195] See ante, i. 485.
[196] He was at this time 'employed by Congress as a private and confidential agent in England.' Dr. Franklin had arranged for letters to be sent to him, not by post but by private hand, under cover to his brother, Mr. Alderman Lee. Franklin's Memoirs, ii. 42, and iii. 415.
[197] When Wilkes the year before, during his mayoralty, had presented An Address, 'the King himself owned he had never seen so well-bred a Lord Mayor.' Walpole's Journal of the Reign of George III, i. 484.
[198] Johnson's London, a Poem, v. 145. BOSWELL--
'How when competitors like these contend, Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend.'
[199] See ante, ii. 154.
[200] Johnson had said much the same at a dinner in Edinburgh. See Boswell's Hebrides, Nov. 10, 1773. See ante, March 15, 1776, and post, Sept. 21, 1777.
[201] 'To convince any man against his will is hard, but to please him against his will is justly pronounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human abilities.' The Rambler, No.