Mrs. Thrale says of him, that he does good to everybody, but speaks well of nobody.' Memoirs of Dr. Burney, ii. 89. He must not be confounded with the Rev. Mr. Seward of Lichfield.
[372] See post, under date of June 18, 1778.
[373] In the list of deaths in the Gent. Mag. for 1779, p. 103, we find, 'Feb. 8. Isaac de Groot, great-grandson to the learned Grotius. He had long been supported by private donations, and at length was provided for in the Charterhouse, where he died.'
[374] The preceding letter. BOSWELL.
[375] This letter was addressed not to a Mr. Dilly, but to Mr. W. Sharp, Junior. See Gent. Mag. 1787, p. 99. CROKER.
[376] See ante, i. 312.
[377] See ante, p. 101.
[378] See Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 16.
[379] See ante, p. 86, and post, under Nov. 29, 1777.
[380] Johnson gives both epocha and epoch in his Dictionary.
[381] Langton. See ante, p. 48, and post, Sept. 22, 1777.
[382] This very just remark I hope will be constantly held in remembrance by parents, who are in general too apt to indulge their own fond feelings for their children at the expence of their friends. The common custom of introducing them after dinner is highly injudicious. It is agreeable enough that they should appear at any other time; but they should not be suffered to poison the moments of festivity by attracting the attention of the company, and in a manner compelling them from politeness to say what they do not think. BOSWELL. See ante, p. 28.
[383] Gibbon wrote to Garrick from Paris on Aug. 14:--'At this time of year the society of the Turk's-head can no longer be addressed as a corporate body, and most of the individual members are probably dispersed: Adam Smith in Scotland; Burke in the shades of Beaconsfield; Fox, the Lord or the devil knows where, etc. Be so good as to salute in my name those friends who may fall in your way. Assure Sir Joshua, in particular, that I have not lost my relish for manly conversation and the society of the brown table.' Garrick Corres. ii. 256. I believe that in Gibbon's published letters no mention is found of Johnson.
[384] See ante, ii. 159, and post, April 4, 1778. Of his greatness at the Bar Lord Eldon has left the following anecdote;--'Mr. Dunning, being in very great business, was asked how he contrived to get through it all. He said, "I do one third of it, another third does itself, and the remaining third continues undone."' Twiss's Eldon, i. 327.
[385] It is not easy to detect Johnson in anything that comes even near an inaccuracy. Let me quote, therefore, a passage from one of his letters which shews that when he wrote to Mrs. Boswell he had not, as he seems to imply, eaten any of the marmalade:--'Aug. 4, 1777. I believe it was after I left your house that I received a pot of orange marmalade from Mrs. Boswell. We have now, I hope, made it up. I have not opened my pot.' Piozzi Letters, i. 350.
[386] See ante, March 19, 1776.
[387] What it was that had occured is shewn by Johnson's letter to Mrs. Thrale on Aug. 4:--'Boswell's project is disconcerted by a visit from a relation of Yorkshire, whom he mentions as the head of his clan [see ante, ii. 169, note 2]. Boszy, you know, make a huge bustle about all his own motions and all mine. I have inclosed a letter to pacify him, and reconcile him to the uncertainties of human life.' Piozzi Letters, i. 350.
[388] When she was about four months old, Boswell declared that she should have five hundred pounds of additional fortune, on account of her fondness for Dr. Johnson. See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 15, 1773. She died, says Malone, of a consumption, four months after her father.
[389] See ante, March 23, 1776.
[390] By an odd mistake, in the first three editions we find a reading in this line to which Dr. Johnson would by no means have subscribed, wine having been substituted for time. That error probably was a mistake in the transcript of Johnson's original letter. The other deviation in the beginning of the line (virtue instead of nature) must be attributed to his memory having deceived him. The verse quoted is the concluding line of a sonnet of Sidney's:--
'Who doth desire that chast his wife should bee, First be he true, for truth doth truth deserve; Then be he such, as she his worth may see, And, alwaies one, credit with her preserve: Not toying kynd nor causelessly unkynd, Nor stirring thoughts, nor yet denying right, Nor spying faults, nor in plaine errors blind, Never hard hand, nor ever rayns (reins) too light; As far from want, as far from vaine expence, Th' one doth enforce, the t'other doth entice: Allow good companie, but drive from thence All filthie mouths that glorie in their vice: This done, thou hast no more but leave the rest To nature, fortune, time, and woman's breast.'
MALONE.
[391] 2 Corinthians, iv. 17.
[392] Boswell says (ante, i. 342):--'I am not satisfied if a year passes without my having read Rasselas through.'
[393] It appears that Johnson, now in his sixty-eighth year, was seriously inclined to realise the project of our going up the Baltick, which I had started when we were in the Isle of Sky [Boswell's Hebrides, Sept.