JOHNSON.'Garrick was a very good man,the cheerfullest man of his age;a decent liver in a profession which is supposed to give indulgence to licentiousness;and a man who gave away,freely,money acquired by himself.He began the world with a great hunger for money;the son of a half-pay officer,bred in a family,whose study was to make four-pence do as much as others made four-pence halfpenny do.But,when he had got money,he was very liberal.'Ipresumed to animadvert on his eulogy on Garrick,in his Lives of the Poets.'You say,Sir,his death eclipsed the gaiety of nations.'JOHNSON.'I could not have said more nor less.It is the truth;ECLIPSED,not EXTINGUISHED;and his death DID eclipse;it was like a storm.'BOSWELL.'But why nations?Did his gaiety extend farther than his own nation?'JOHNSON.'Why,Sir,some exaggeration must be allowed.Besides,nations may be said--if we allow the Scotch to be a nation,and to have gaiety,--which they have not.YOU are an exception,though.Come,gentlemen,let us candidly admit that there is one Scotchman who is cheerful.'
BEAUCLERK.'But he is a very unnatural Scotchman.'I,however,continued to think the compliment to Garrick hyperbolically untrue.
His acting had ceased some time before his death;at any rate he had acted in Ireland but a short time,at an early period of his life,and never in Scotland.I objected also to what appears an anticlimax of praise,when contrasted with the preceding panegyrick,--'and diminished the public stock of harmless pleasure!'--'Is not HARMLESS PLEASURE very tame?'JOHNSON.'Nay,Sir,harmless pleasure is the highest praise.Pleasure is a word of dubious import;pleasure is in general dangerous,and pernicious to virtue;to be able therefore to furnish pleasure that is harmless,pleasure pure and unalloyed,is as great a power as man can possess.'This was,perhaps,as ingenious a defence as could be made;still,however,I was not satisfied.
Talking of celebrated and successful irregular practisers in physick;he said,'Taylor was the most ignorant man I ever knew;but sprightly.Ward the dullest.Taylor challenged me once to talk Latin with him;(laughing).I quoted some of Horace,which he took to be a part of my own speech.He said a few words well enough.'BEAUCLERK.'I remember,Sir,you said that Taylor was an instance how far impudence could carry ignorance.'Mr.Beauclerk was very entertaining this day,and told us a number of short stories in a lively elegant manner,and with that air of THE WORLDwhich has I know not what impressive effect,as if there were something more than is expressed,or than perhaps we could perfectly understand.As Johnson and I accompanied Sir Joshua Reynolds in his coach,Johnson said,'There is in Beauclerk a predominance over his company,that one does not like.But he is a man who has lived so much in the world,that he has a short story on every occasion;he is always ready to talk,and is never exhausted.'
Soon after this time a little incident occurred,which I will not suppress,because I am desirous that my work should be,as much as is consistent with the strictest truth,an antidote to the false and injurious notions of his character,which have been given by others,and therefore I infuse every drop of genuine sweetness into my biographical cup.
'TO DR.JOHNSON.
'MY DEAR SIR,--I am in great pain with an inflamed foot,and obliged to keep my bed,so am prevented from having the pleasure to dine at Mr.Ramsay's to-day,which is very hard;and my spirits are sadly sunk.Will you be so friendly as to come and sit an hour with me in the evening.I am ever your most faithful,and affectionate humble servant,'South Audley-street,Monday,April 26.'
'JAMES BOSWELL.'
'TO MR.BOSWELL.
'Mr.Johnson laments the absence of Mr.Boswell,and will come to him.--Harley-street.'
He came to me in the evening,and brought Sir Joshua Reynolds.Ineed scarcely say,that their conversation,while they sate by my bedside,was the most pleasing opiate to pain that could have been administered.
Johnson being now better disposed to obtain information concerning Pope than he was last year,sent by me to my Lord Marchmont a present of those volumes of his Lives of the Poets which were at this time published,with a request to have permission to wait on him;and his Lordship,who had called on him twice,obligingly appointed Saturday,the first of May,for receiving us.
On that morning Johnson came to me from Streatham,and after drinking chocolate at General Paoli's,in South-Audley-street,we proceeded to Lord Marchmont's in Curzon-street.His Lordship met us at the door of his library,and with great politeness said to Johnson,'I am not going to make an encomium upon MYSELF,by telling you the high respect I have for YOU,Sir.'Johnson was exceedingly courteous;and the interview,which lasted about two hours,during which the Earl communicated his anecdotes of Pope,was as agreeable as I could have wished.When we came out,I said to Johnson,that considering his Lordship's civility,I should have been vexed if he had again failed to come.'Sir,(said he,)Iwould rather have given twenty pounds than not have come.'Iaccompanied him to Streatham,where we dined,and returned to town in the evening.
He had,before I left London,resumed the conversation concerning the appearance of a ghost at Newcastle upon Tyne,which Mr.John Wesley believed,but to which Johnson did not give credit.I was,however,desirous to examine the question closely,and at the same time wished to be made acquainted with Mr.John Wesley;for though I differed from him in some points,I admired his various talents,and loved his pious zeal.At my request,therefore,Dr.Johnson gave me a letter of introduction to him.
'TO THE REVEREND MR.JOHN WESLEY.
