'Why,Madam,because I have not then got the better of my bad humour from having been shown them.You must consider,Madam;beforehand they may be bad,as well as good.Nobody has a right to put another under such a difficulty,that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth,or hurt himself by telling what is not true.'BOSWELL.'A man often shews his writings to people of eminence,to obtain from them,either from their good-nature,or from their not being able to tell the truth firmly,a commendation,of which he may afterwards avail himself.'JOHNSON.'Very true,Sir.Therefore the man,who is asked by an authour,what he thinks of his work,is put to the torture,and is not obliged to speak the truth;so that what he says is not considered as his opinion;yet he has said it,and cannot retract it;and this authour,when mankind are hunting him with a cannister at his tail,can say,"Iwould not have published,had not Johnson,or Reynolds,or Musgrave,or some other good judge,commended the work."Yet Iconsider it as a very difficult question in conscience,whether one should advise a man not to publish a work,if profit be his object;for the man may say,"Had it not been for you,I should have had the money."Now you cannot be sure;for you have only your own opinion,and the publick may think very differently.'SIR JOSHUAREYNOLDS.'You must upon such an occasion have two judgements;one as to the real value of the work,the other as to what may please the general taste at the time.'JOHNSON.'But you can be SURE of neither;and therefore I should scruple much to give a suppressive vote.Both Goldsmith's comedies were once refused;his first by Garrick,his second by Colman,who was prevailed on at last by much solicitation,nay,a kind of force,to bring it on.His Vicar of Wakefield I myself did not think would have had much success.It was written and sold to a bookseller before his Traveller;but published after;so little expectation had the bookseller from it.
Had it been sold after the Traveller he might have had twice as much money for it,though sixty guineas was no mean price.The bookseller had the advantage of Goldsmith's reputation from The Traveller in the sale,though Goldsmith had it not in selling the copy.'SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.'The Beggar's Opera affords a proof how strangely people will differ in opinion about a literary performance.Burke thinks it has no merit.'JOHNSON.'It was refused by one of the houses;but I should have thought it would succeed,not from any great excellence in the writing,but from the novelty,and the general spirit and gaiety of the piece,which keeps the audience always attentive,and dismisses them in good humour.'
We went to the drawing-room,where was a considerable increase of company.Several of us got round Dr.Johnson,and complained that he would not give us an exact catalogue of his works,that there might be a complete edition.He smiled,and evaded our entreaties.
That he intended to do it,I have no doubt,because I have heard him say so;and I have in my possession an imperfect list,fairly written out,which he entitles Historia Studiorum.I once got from one of his friends a list,which there was pretty good reason to suppose was accurate,for it was written down in his presence by this friend,who enumerated each article aloud,and had some of them mentioned to him by Mr.Levett,in concert with whom it was made out;and Johnson,who heard all this,did not contradict it.
But when I shewed a copy of this list to him,and mentioned the evidence for its exactness,he laughed,and said,'I was willing to let them go on as they pleased,and never interfered.'Upon which I read it to him,article by article,and got him positively to own or refuse;and then,having obtained certainty so far,I got some other articles confirmed by him directly;and afterwards,from time to time,made additions under his sanction.
The conversation having turned on Bon-Mots,be quoted,from one of the Ana,an exquisite instance of flattery in a maid of honour in France,who being asked by the Queen what o'clock it was,answered,'What your Majesty pleases.'He admitted that Mr.Burke's classical pun upon Mr.Wilkes's being carried on the shoulders of the mob,--'-------------Numerisque fertur Lege solutus,'
was admirable;and though he was strangely unwilling to allow to that extraordinary man the talent of wit,he also laughed with approbation at another of his playful conceits;which was,that 'Horace has in one line given a deion of a good desirable manour:--"Est modus in rebus,sunt certi denique fines;"that is to say,a modus as to the tithes and certain fines.'
He observed,'A man cannot with propriety speak of himself,except he relates simple facts;as,"I was at Richmond:"or what depends on mensuration;as,"I am six feet high."He is sure he has been at Richmond;he is sure he is six feet high:but he cannot be sure he is wise,or that he has any other excellence.Then,all censure of a man's self is oblique praise.It is in order to shew how much he can spare.It has all the invidiousness of self-praise,and all the reproach of falsehood.'
On Tuesday,April 28,he was engaged to dine at General Paoli's,where,as I have already observed,I was still entertained in elegant hospitality,and with all the ease and comfort of a home.
I called on him,and accompanied him in a hackney-coach.We stopped first at the bottom of Hedgelane,into which he went to leave a letter,'with good news for a poor man in distress,'as he told me.I did not question him particularly as to this.He himself often resembled Lady Bolingbroke's Lively deion of Pope;that 'he was un politique aux choux et aux raves.'He would say,'I dine to-day in Grosvenor-square;'this might be with a Duke:or,perhaps,'I dine to-day at the other end of the town:'or,'A gentleman of great eminence called on me yesterday.'
