a In this censure which has been carelessly uttered, I carelessly joined. But in justice to Dr. Kippis, who with that manly candid good temper which marks his character, set me right, I now with pleasure retract it; and I desire it may be particularly observed, as pointed out by him to me, that ‘The new lives of dissenting Divines, in the first four volumes of the second edition of the Biographia Britannica are those of John Aber-nethy, Thomas Amory, George Benson, Hugh Broughton, the learned Puritan, Simon Browne, Joseph Boyse of Dublin, Thomas Cartwright the learned Puritan, and Samuel Chandler. The only doubt I have ever heard suggested is, whether there should have been an article of Dr. Amory. But I was convinced, and am still convinced, that he was entitled to one, from the reality of his learning, and the excellent and candid nature of his practical writings.
‘The new lives of clergymen of the Church of England, in the same four volumes, are as follows: John Balguy, Edward Bentham, George Berkley Bishop of Cloyne, William Berriman, Thomas Birch, William Borlase, Thomas Bott, James Bradley, Thomas Broughton, John Brown, John Burton, Joseph Butler Bishop of Durham, Thomas Carte, Edmund Castell, Edmund Chishull, Charles Churchill, William Clarke, Robert Clayton Bishop of Clogher, John Conybeare Bishop of Bristol, George Costard, and Samuel Croxhall. – “I am not conscious (says Dr. Kippis,) of any partiality in conducting the work. I would not willingly insert a Dissenting Minister that does not justly deserve to be noticed, or omit an established Clergyman that does. At the same time, I shall not be deterred from introducing Dissenters into the Biographia, when I am satisfied that they are entitled to that distinction, from their writings, learning, and merit.”’
Let me add that the expression ‘A friend to the constitution in Church and State,’ was not meant by me, as any reflection upon this reverend gentleman, as if he were an enemy to the political constitution of his country, as established at the revolution, but, from my steady and avowed predilection for a Tory, was quoted from Johnson’s Dictionary, where that distinction is so defined.
a Observations on Insanity, by Thomas Arnold, M.D., London, 1782.
b We read in the Gospels,708 that those unfortunate persons who were possessed with evil spirits (which, after all, I think is the most probable cause of madness, as was first suggested to me by my respectable friend Sir John Pringle), had recourse to pain, tearing themselves, and jumping sometimes into the fire, sometimes into the water. Mr. Seward has furnished me with a remarkable anecdote in confirmation of Dr. Johnson’s observation. A tradesman, who had acquired a large fortune in London, retired from business, and went to live at Worcester. His mind, being without its usual occupation, and having nothing else to supply its place, preyed upon itself, so that existence was a torment to him. At last he was seized with the stone; and a friend who found him in one of its severest fits, having expressed his concern, ‘No, no, Sir, (said he,) don’t pity me: what I now feel is ease compared with that torture of mind from which it relieves me.’
a Now, at the distance of fifteen years since this conversation passed, the observation which I have had an opportunity of making in Westminster Hall has convinced me, that, however true the opinion of Dr. Johnson’s legal friend may have been some time ago, the same certainty of success cannot now be promised to the same display of merit. The reasons, however, of the rapid rise of some, and the disappointment of others equally respectable, are such as it might seem invidious to mention, and would require a longer detail than would be proper for this work.
a Ecclesiasticus. ch. xxxviii, verse 25. The whole chapter may be read as an admirable illustration of the superiority of cultivated minds over the gross and illiterate.
a 2nd edit. p. 53.
b Page 89.
c See Plott’s History of Staffordshire, p. 88, and the authorities referred to by him.
a I am told that Horace, Earl of Orford, has a collection of Bon-Mots by persons who never said but one.
b I am informed by Mr. Langton, that a great many years ago he was present when this question was agitated between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Burke; and, to use Johnson’s phrase, they ‘talked their best;’ Johnson for Homer, Burke for Virgil. It may well be supposed to have been one of the ablest and most brilliant contests that ever was exhibited. How much must we regret that it has not been preserved.
a Pope mentions,
‘Stretch’d on the rack of a too easy chair.’732
But I recollect a couplet quite apposite to my subject in Virtue, an Ethick Epistle, a beautiful and instructive poem, by an anonymous writer, in 1758; who, treating of pleasure in excess, says: –
‘Till languor, suffering on the rack of bliss,
Confess that man was never made for this.’733
a See ante, p. 560.
a Gray’s Elegy, 68.
a A daughter born to him.
b Mrs. Aston.
a See State Trials, vol. xi, p. 339, and Mr. Hargrave’s argument.
b The motto to it was happily chosen: –
‘Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses.’741
I cannot avoid mentioning a circumstance no less strange than true, that a brother Advocate in considerable practice, but of whom it certainly cannot be said, Ingenuas didicit fideliter artes,742 asked Mr. Maclaurin, with a face of flippant assurance, ‘Are these words your own?’
a The friendship between Mr. Welch and him was unbroken. Mr. Welch died not many months before him, and bequeathed him five guineas for a ring, which Johnson received with tenderness, as a kind memorial. His regard was constant for his friend Mr. Welch’s daughters; of whom, Jane is married to Mr. Nollekens the statuary, whose merit is too well known to require any praise from me.
b Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, humorously observed, that Levett used to breakfast on the crust of a roll, which Johnson, after tearing out the crumb for himself, threw to his humble friend. [Perhaps the word threw is here too strong. Dr. Johnson never treated Levett with contempt.]
a See this subject discussed in a subsequent page, under May 3, 1779 {p. 735}.
b Alluding to a line in his Vanity of Human Wishes, describing Cardinal Wolsey in his state of elevation: –
‘Through him the rays of regal bounty shine.’
a Daughter of Dr. Swinfen, Johnson’s godfather, and widow of Mr. Desmoulins, a writing-master.