I again visited him on Monday.He took occasion to enlarge,as he often did,upon the wretchedness of a sea-life.'A ship is worse than a gaol.There is,in a gaol,better air,better company,better conveniency of every kind;and a ship has the additional disadvantage of being in danger.When men come to like a sea-life,they are not fit to live on land.'--'Then (said I)it would be cruel in a father to breed his son to the sea.'JOHNSON.'It would be cruel in a father who thinks as I do.Men go to sea,before they know the unhappiness of that way of life;and when they have come to know it,they cannot escape from it,because it is then too late to choose another profession;as indeed is generally the case with men,when they have once engaged in any particular way of life.'
On Tuesday,March 19,which was fixed for our proposed jaunt,we met in the morning at the Somerset coffee-house in the Strand,where we were taken up by the Oxford coach.He was accompanied by Mr.Gwyn,the architect;and a gentleman of Merton College,whom we did not know,had the fourth seat.We soon got into conversation;for it was very remarkable of Johnson,that the presence of a stranger had no restraint upon his talk.I observed that Garrick,who was about to quit the stage,would soon have an easier life.
JOHNSON.'I doubt that,Sir.'BOSWELL.'Why,Sir,he will be Atlas with the burthen off his back.'JOHNSON.'But I know not,Sir,if he will be so steady without his load.However,he should never play any more,but be entirely the gentleman,and not partly the player:he should no longer subject himself to be hissed by a mob,or to be insolently treated by performers,whom he used to rule with a high hand,and who would gladly retaliate.'BOSWELL.
'I think he should play once a year for the benefit of decayed actors,as it has been said he means to do.'JOHNSON.'Alas,Sir!
he will soon be a decayed actor himself.'
Johnson expressed his disapprobation of ornamental architecture,such as magnificent columns supporting a portico,or expensive pilasters supporting merely their own capitals,'because it consumes labour disproportionate to its utility.'For the same reason he satyrised statuary.'Painting (said he)consumes labour not disproportionate to its effect;but a fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man.The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty.
You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.'
Gwyn was a fine lively rattling fellow.Dr.Johnson kept him in subjection,but with a kindly authority.The spirit of the artist,however,rose against what he thought a Gothick attack,and he made a brisk defence.'What,Sir,will you allow no value to beauty in architecture or in statuary?Why should we allow it then in writing?Why do you take the trouble to give us so many fine allusions,and bright images,and elegant phrases?You might convey all your instruction without these ornaments.'Johnson smiled with complacency;but said,'Why,Sir,all these ornaments are useful,because they obtain an easier reception for truth;but a building is not at all more convenient for being decorated with superfluous carved work.'
Gwyn at last was lucky enough to make one reply to Dr.Johnson,which he allowed to be excellent.Johnson censured him for taking down a church which might have stood many years,and building a new one at a different place,for no other reason but that there might be a direct road to a new bridge;and his expression was,'You are taking a church out of the way,that the people may go in a straight line to the bridge.'--'No,Sir,(said Gwyn,)I am putting the church IN the way,that the people may not GO OUT OF THE WAY.'
JOHNSON.(with a hearty loud laugh of approbation,)'Speak no more.Rest your colloquial fame upon this.'
Upon our arrival at Oxford,Dr.Johnson and I went directly to University College,but were disappointed on finding that one of the fellows,his friend Mr.Scott,who accompanied him from Newcastle to Edinburgh,was gone to the country.We put up at the Angel inn,and passed the evening by ourselves in easy and familiar conversation.Talking of constitutional melancholy,he observed,'A man so afflicted,Sir,must divert distressing thoughts,and not combat with them.'BOSWELL.'May not he think them down,Sir?'
JOHNSON.'No,Sir.To attempt to THINK THEM DOWN is madness.He should have a lamp constantly burning in his bed-chamber during the night,and if wakefully disturbed,take a book,and read,and compose himself to rest.To have the management of the mind is a great art,and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise.'BOSWELL.'Should not he provide amusements for himself?Would it not,for instance,be right for him to take a course of chymistry?'JOHNSON.'Let him take a course of chymistry,or a course of rope-dancing,or a course of any thing to which he is inclined at the time.Let him contrive to have as many retreats for his mind as he can,as many things to which it can fly from itself.Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy is a valuable work.It is,perhaps,overloaded with quotation.But there is great spirit and great power in what Burton says,when he writes from his own mind.'
Next morning we visited Dr.Wetherell,Master of University College,with whom Dr.Johnson conferred on the most advantageous mode of disposing of the books printed at the Clarendon press.Ioften had occasion to remark,Johnson loved business,loved to have his wisdom actually operate on real life.
We then went to Pembroke College,and waited on his old friend Dr.
