Dr. Johnson was observed by a musical friend of his to be extremely inattentive at a concert, whilst a celebrated solo player was running up the divisions and subdivisions of notes upon his violin. His friend, to induce him to take greater notice of what was going on, told him how extremely difficult it was. 'Difficult do you call it, Sir?' replied the Doctor; 'I wish it were impossible '.' Ib. p. 267. Dr. Johnson told Voltaire's antagonist Fréron, that vir erat acerrimi ingenii ac paucarum literarum2; and Bishop Warburton says of him, 'that he writes indifferently well upon every thing 3. Ib. Ib. p. 274. To some one who was complaining of his want of memory Johnson said, 'Pray, Sir, do you ever forget what money you are worth, or who gave you the last kick on your shins that you had? Now, if you would pay the same attention to what you read as you do to your temporal concerns and your bodily feelings, you would impress it as deeply in your memory.' Seward's Biographiana, p. 58. Dr. Johnson said one day, in talking of the difference between English and Scotch education, 'that if from the first he did not come out a scholar, he was fit for nothing at all; whereas (added he) in the last a boy is always taught something that may be of use to him; and he who is not able to read a page of Tully will Spiritual Europe: let him live, love him, as he was and could not but be! Pitiable it is, no doubt, that a Samuel Johnson . . should see nothing in the great Frederick but "Voltaire's lackey;” in Voltaire himself but a man acerrimi ingenii, paucarum literarum? Carlyle's Misc. Works, n.d. iii. 102. 3 In a letter to Hurd, Warburton says, 'Voltaire has fine parts and is a real genius.' Letters from a late Eminent Prelate, 1st ed. p. 79. 4 'The true art of memory is the art of attention.' The Idler, No. 74. See Life, iii. 191; v. 68. be be able to become a surveyor, or to lay out a garden'.' Ib. P. 197. Sir Robert Walpole's general principle as a minister was 'Quieta non movere, to let well alone.' This made Dr. Johnson say of him, 'He was the best minister this country ever had; as if we would have let him (he speaks of his own violent faction) he would have kept the country in perpetual peace'.' Ib. p. 554. 'What is written without effort (said Dr. Johnson) is in general read without pleasure.' Ib. p. 260. Dr. Johnson was of opinion that the happiest, as well as the most virtuous, persons were to be found amongst those who united with a business or profession a love of literature 3. He was constantly earnest with his friends, when they had thoughts of marriage, to look out for a religious wife. 'A principle of honour or fear of the world,' added he, 'will many times keep a man in decent order, but when a woman loses her religion, she, in general, loses the only tie that will restrain her actions. Plautus, in his Amphytrio5, makes Alcmena say beautifully to her husband I 'Non ego illam mihi dotem duco esse, quae dos dicitur, Life, ii. 363; ante, ii. 48. 2 For Johnson's attacks on Walpole, see Life, i. 129, 141. 'Walpole's name,' says Smollett describing the last years of his ministry, 'was seldom or never mentioned with decency, except by his own dependents.' Hist. of England, iii. 46. In 1773 ‘Johnson called Mr. Pitt a meteor; Sir Robert Walpole a fixed star.' Life, v. 339. Horace Walpole wrote on March He was one day asked by Mr. Cator what the Opposition meant by their flaming speeches and violent pamphlets against Lord North's administration. They mean, Sir, rebellion,' said he, they mean in spite to destroy that country which they are not permitted to govern 2. Ib. p. 600. Mrs. Cotterell3 having one day asked him to introduce her to a celebrated writer; 'Dearest Madam,' replied he, 'you had better let it alone; the best part of every author is in general to be found in his book.' This idea he has dilated with his usual perspicuity and illustrated by one of the most appropriate similes in the English language:—A transition from an author's book to his conversation is too often like an entrance into a large city after a distant prospect: remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples, and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur, and magnificence; but when we have passed the gates we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke 5. Ib. p. 600. The learned and excellent Charles Cole having once mentioned to him a book lately published on the Sacrament', he replied, 'Sir, I look upon the Sacrament as the palladium of religion; I hope that no profane hands will venture to touch it.' lb. p. 601. I 2 On being asked in his last illness what physician he had sent Ante, i. 349 n.; Life, iv. 313. Johnson said to Boswell in 1781: Between ourselves, Sir, I do not like to give opposition the satisfaction of knowing how much I disapprove of the ministry.' Life, iv. 100. For his contempt of it, see also ib. iii. 46, 356; iv. 81, 139; ante, i. 104. 3 Letters, ii. 393. 4 'Admiration begins where acquaintance ceases.' Rambler, No. 77. Rousseau, in Emile, speaking of for,-'Dr. Heberden,' replied he, ‘ultimum Romanorum1, the last of the learned physicians.' Ib. p. 601. [The three following anecdotes attributed to Seward in Croker's Boswell, ix. 255, I have failed to trace.] Another admonition of his was, never to go out without some little book or other in their pocket. 'Much time,' added he 'is lost by waiting, by travelling, &c., and this may be prevented, by making use of every possible opportunity for improvement 2.' 'The knowledge of various languages,' said he, ' may be kept up by occasionally using bibles and prayer-books in them at church.' Sir Joshua Reynolds in his picture of the Infant Hercules, painted for the Empress of Russia, in the person of Tiresias the soothsayer, gave an adumbration of Johnson's manner 3. I 6 Julius Caesar, Act v. sc. 3, l. 99. 2 On his way to Harwich he had in his pocket Pomponius Mela de Situ Orbis, which he read occasionally.' Life, i. 465. 3 The subject he had chosen in allusion to the power of Russia, then in its infancy....I have heard Mr. Rogers say that Reynolds, who was always thinking of his art, was one day walking near Beaconsfield, when he met a fine rosy little peasant boy-a son of Burke's bailiff. Reynolds patted him on the head, and, ANECDOTES BY GEORGE STEEVENS [PUBLISHED in the European Magazine, January, 1785, p. 51, under the title of Johnsoniana. The editor says by way of introduction :-' Of the various anecdotes of Dr. Johnson which have been given to the Public Papers we select the present collection, as we have every reason to rely on their authenticity.' 'These anecdotes were contributed by Steevens himself, and if they are not altogether fictitious, their language is coloured by their brutality.' W. P. COURTNEY, Dict. Nat. Biog. xi. 371. One or two of them which are told by Boswell I have omitted. Life, iv. 324. For Steevens's malignancy and untruthfulness see ib. iii. 281; iv. 178, n. 1.] I HAVE been told, Dr. Johnson, says a friend, that your translation of Pope's Messiah was made either as a common exercise, or as an imposition for some negligence you had been guilty of at College'. 'No, Sir,' replied the Doctor. 'At Pembroke the former were always in prose 2, and to the latter3 I would not have submitted. I wrote it rather to shew the tutors what I could do, than what I was willing should be done. It answered 'Hawkins (p. 13) states that it was imposed on him on account of his 'absenting himself from early prayers.' According to Boswell he was asked by his tutor to do it as a Christmas exercise. Life, i. 61. 2 For one of Johnson's exercises in prose see ib. i. 60, n. 7. 3 6 'Johnson never used the phrases the former and the latter. Ib. iv. 190. my |