‘SAM. JOHNSON, (L.S.)
‘Signed, sealed, published, declared, and delivered, by the said Samuel Johnson, as, and for a Codicil to his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us, who, in his presence, and at his request, and also in the presence of each other, have hereto subscribed our names as witnesses.
‘JOHN COPLEY.
‘WILLIAM GIBSON.
‘HENRY COLE.’
Upon these testamentary deeds it is proper to make a few observations.
His express declaration with his dying breath of his faith as a Christian, as it had been often practised in such solemn writings, was of real consequence from this great man; for the conviction of a mind equally acute and strong, might well overbalance the doubts of others, who were his contemporaries. The expression polluted, may, to some, convey an impression of more than ordinary contamination; but that is not warranted by its genuine meaning, as appears from The Rambler, No. 42. The same word is used in the will of Dr. Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, who was piety itself.
His legacy of two hundred pounds to the representatives of Mr. Innys, bookseller, in St. Paul’s Church-yard, proceeded from a very worthy motive. He told Sir John Hawkins, that his father having become a bankrupt, Mr. Innys had assisted him with money or credit to continue his business. ‘This, (said he,) I consider as an obligation on me to be grateful to his descendants.’
The amount of his property proved to be considerably more than he had supposed it to be. Sir John Hawkins estimates the bequest to Francis Barber at a sum little short of fifteen hundred pounds, including an annuity of seventy pounds to be paid to him by Mr. Langton, in consideration of seven hundred and fifty pounds, which Johnson had lent to that gentleman. Sir John seems not a little angry at this bequest, and mutters ‘a caveat against ostentatious bounty and favour to negroes.’ But surely when a man has money entirely of his own acquisition, especially when he has no near relations, he may, without blame, dispose of it as he pleases, and with great propriety to a faithful servant. Mr. Barber, by the recommendation of his master, retired to Lichfield, where he might pass the rest of his days in comfort.
It has been objected that Johnson has omitted many of his best friends, when leaving bookstoseveralastokensofhis last remembrance. The namesofDr. Adams, Dr. Taylor, Dr. Burney, Mr. Hector, Mr. Murphy, the Authour of this Work, and others who were intimate with him, are nottobefoundinhis Will. This maybeaccounted For by considering, that as he was very near his dissolution at the time, he probably mentioned such as happened tooccur to him; and thathe may have recollected, that he had formerly shewn others such proofs of his regard, that it was not necessary to crowd his Will with their names. Mrs. Lucy Porter was much displeased that nothing was left to her; but besides what I have now stated, she should have considered, that she had left nothing to Johnson by her Will, which was made during his life-time, as appeared at her decease.
His enumerating several persons in one group, and leaving them ‘each a book at their election,’ might possibly have given occasion to a curious question as to the order of choice, had they not luckily fixed on different books. His library, though by no means handsome in its appearance, was sold by Mr. Christie, for two hundred and forty-seven pounds, nine shillings; many people being desirous to have a book which had belonged to Dr. Johnson. In many of them he had written little notes: sometimes tender memorials of his departed wife; as, ‘This was dear Tetty’s book;’ sometimes occasional remarks of different sorts. Mr. Lysons, of Clifford’s Inn, has favoured me with the two following:
In Holy Rules and Helps to Devotion, byBryan Duppa, Lord Bishop of Winton, ‘Preces quidam (? quidem)videtur diligenter tractasse; spero non inauditus(? inauditas).’1275
In The Rosicrucian infallible Axiomata, by John Heydon, Gent., prefixed to which are some verses addressed to the authour, signed Ambr. Waters, A. M. Coll. Ex. Oxon. ‘These Latin verses were written to Hobbes by Bathurst, upon his Treatise on Human Nature, and have no relation to the book. –An odd fraud.’
a One of these volumes, Sir John Hawkins informs us, he put into his pocket; for which the excuse he states is, that he meant to preserve it from falling into the hands of a person1276 whom he describes so as to make it sufficiently clear who is meant; ‘having strong reasons (said he,) to suspect that this man might find and make an ill use of the book.’ Why Sir John should suppose that the gentleman alluded to would act in this manner, he has not thought fit to explain. But what he did was not approved of by Johnson; who, upon being acquainted of it without delay by a friend, expressed great indignation, and warmly insisted on the book being delivered up; and, afterwards, in the supposition of his missing it, without knowing by whom it had been taken, he said, ‘Sir, I should have gone out of the world distrusting half mankind.’ Sir John next day wrote a letter to Johnson, assigning reasons for his conduct; upon which Johnson observed to Mr. Langton, ‘Bishop Sanderson could not have dictated a better letter. I could almost say, Melius est sic penituisse quam non erfasse.’1277 The agitation into which Johnson was thrown by this incident, probably made him hastily burn those precious records which must ever be regretted.
a On the same undoubted authority, I give a few articles, which should have been inserted in chronological order; but which, now that they are before me, I should be sorry to omit: –
‘In 1736, Dr. Johnson had a particular inclination to have been engaged as an assistant to the Reverend Mr. Budworth, then head master of the Grammar-school, at Brewood, in Staffordshire, “an excellent person, who possessed every talent of a perfect instructor of youth, in a degree which, (to use the words of one of the brightest ornaments of literature, the Reverend Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester,) has been rarely found in any of that profession since the days of Quintilian.” Mr. Budworth, “who was less known in his life-time, from that obscure situation to which the caprice of fortune oft condemns the most accomplished characters, than his highest merit deserved,” had been bred under Mr. Blackwell,1279 at Market Bosworth, where Johnson was some time an usher; which might naturally lead to the application. Mr. Budworth was certainly no stranger to the learning or abilities of Johnson; as he more than once lamented his having been under the necessity of declining the engagement, from an apprehension that the paralytick affection, under which our great Philologist laboured through life, might become the object of imitation or of ridicule, among his pupils.’ Captain Budworth, his grandson, has confirmed to me this anecdote.
‘Among the early associates of Johnson, at St. John’s Gate, was Samuel Boyse, well known by his ingenious productions; and not less noted for his imprudence. It was not unusual for Boyse to be a customer to the pawnbroker. On one of these occasions, Dr. Johnson collected a sum of money to redeem his friend’s clothes, which in two days after were pawned again. “The sum, (said Johnson,) was collected by sixpences, at a time when to me sixpence was a serious consideration.”
‘Speaking one day of a person for whom he had a real friendship, but in whom vanity was somewhat too predominant, he observed, that “Kelly was so fond of displaying on his sideboard the plate which he possessed, that he added to it his spurs. For my part, (said he,) I never was master of a pair of spurs, but once; and they are now at the bottom of the ocean. By the carelessness of Boswell’s servant, they were dropped from the end of the boat, on our return from the Isle of Sky.”’
The late Reverend Mr. Samuel Badcock, having been introduced to Dr. Johnson, by Mr. Nichols, some years before his death, thus expressed himself in a letter to that gentleman: –
‘How much I am obliged to you for the favour you did me in introducing me to Dr. Johnson! Tantüm vidi Virgilium.1280 But to have seen him, and to have received a testimony of respect from him, was enough. I recollect all the conversation, and shall never forget one of his expressions. Speaking of Dr. P∗∗∗∗∗∗∗1281 (whose writings, I saw, he estimated at a low rate,) he said, “You have proved him as deficient in probity as he is in learning.” I called him an “Index-scholar;” but he
was not willing to allow him a claim even to that merit. He said, that “he borrowed from those who had been borrowers themselves, and did not know that the mistakes he adopted had been answered by others.” I often think of our short, but precious, visit to this great man. I shall consider it as a kind of an (Bra in my life.’
a The change of his sentiments with regard to Dr. Clarke, is thus mentioned to me in a letter from the late Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford: – ‘The Doctor’s prejudices were the strongest, and certainly in another sense the weakest, that ever possessed a sensible man. You know his extreme zeal for orthodoxy. But did you ever hear what he told me himself? That he had made it a rule not to admit Dr. Clarke’s name in his Dictionary. This, however, wore off. At some distance of time he advised with me what books he should read in defence of the Christian Religion. I recommended Clarke’s Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, as the best of the kind; and I find in what is called his Prayers and Meditations, that he was frequently employed in the latter part of his time in reading Clarke’s Sermons.’
a The Reverend Mr. Strahan took care to have it preserved, and has inserted it in Prayers and Meditations, p. 216.
a Servant to the Right Honourable William Windham.
a On the subject of Johnson I may adopt the words of Sir John Harrington, concerning his venerable Tutor and Diocesan, Dr. John Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells; ‘who hath given me some helps, more hopes, all encouragements in my best studies: to whom I never came but I grew more religious; from whom I never went, but I parted better instructed. Of him therefore, my acquaintance, my friend, my instructor, if I speak much, it were not to be marvelled; if I speak frankly, it is not to be blamed; and though I speak partially, it were to be pardoned.’ Nugæ Antiquæ, vol. i. p. 136. There is one circumstance in Sir John’s character of Bishop Still, which is peculiarly applicable to Johnson: ‘He became so famous a disputer, that the learnedest were even afraid to dispute with him; and he finding his own strength, could not stick to warn them in their arguments to take heed to their answers, like a perfect fencer that will tell aforehand in which button he will give the venew,1288 or like a cunning chess-player that will appoint aforehand with which pawn and in what place he will give the mate.’
b [The late Right Hon. William Gerard Hamilton.]
c Beside the Dedications to him by Dr. Goldsmith, the Reverend Dr. Franklin, and the Reverend Mr. Wilson, which I have mentioned according to their dates, there was one by a lady,1290 of a versification of Aningait and Ajut, and one by the ingenious Mr. Walker of his Rhetorical Grammar. I have introduced into this work several compliments paid to him in the writings of his contemporaries; but the number of them is so great, that we may fairly say that there was almost a general tribute.
Let me not be forgetful of the honour done to him by Colonel Myddleton, of Gwaynynog, near Denbigh; who, on the banks of a rivulet in his park, where Johnson delighted to stand and repeat verses, erected an urn with the following inscription:
‘This spot was often dignified by the presence of
SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
Whose moral writings, exactly conformable to the precepts of Christianity, Give ardour to Virtue and confidence to Truth.’
As no inconsiderable circumstance of his fame, we must reckon the extraordinary zeal of the artists to extend and perpetuate his image. I can enumerate a bust by Mr. Nollekens, and the many casts which are made from it; several pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds, from one of which, in the possession of the Duke of Dorset, Mr. Humphry executed a beautiful miniature in enamel; one by Mrs. Frances Reynolds, Sir Joshua’s sister; one by Mr. Zoffani; and one by Mr. Opie; and the following engravings of his portrait: 1. One by Cooke, from Sir Joshua, for the Proprietors’ edition of his folio Dictionary. – 2. One from ditto, by ditto, for their quarto edition. – 3. One from Opie, by Heath, for Harrison’s edition of his Dictionary. – 4. One from Nollekens’ bust of him, by Bartolozzi, for Fielding’s quarto edition of his Dictionary. – 5. One small, from Harding, by Trotter, for his Beauties. – 6. One small, from Sir Joshua, by Trotter, for his Lives of the Poets. – 7. One small, from Sir Joshua, by Hall, for The Rambler. – 8. One small, from an original drawing, in the possession of Mr. John Simco, etched by Trotter, for another edition of his Lives of the Poets. – 9. One small, no painter’s name, etched by Taylor, for his Johnsoniana. – 10. One folio whole-length, with his oak-stick, as described in Boswell’s Tour, drawn and etched by Trotter. – 11. One large mezzotinto, from Sir Joshua, by Doughty. – 12. One large Roman head, from Sir Joshua, by Marchi. – 13. One octavo, holding a book to his eye, from Sir Joshua, by Hall, for his Works. – 14. One small, from a drawing from the life, and engraved by Trotter, for his Life published by Kearsley. – 15. One large, from Opie, by Mr. Townley, (brother of Mr. Townley, of the Commons,) an ingenious artist, who resided some time at Berlin, and has the honour of being engraver to his Majesty the King of Prussia. This is one of the finest mezzotintos that ever was executed; and what renders it of extraordinary value, the plate was destroyed after four or five impressions only were taken off. One of them is in the possession of Sir William Scott. Mr. Townley has lately been prevailed with to execute and publish another of the same, that it may be more generally circulated among the admirers of Dr. Johnson. – 16. One large, from Sir Joshua’s first picture of him, by Heath, for this work, in quarto. – 17. One octavo, by Baker, for the octavo edition. – 18. And one for Lavater’s Essay on Physiognomy, in which Johnson’s countenance is analysed upon the principles of that fanciful writer. – There are also several seals with his head cut on them, particularly a very fine one by that eminent artist, Edward Burch, Esq. R.A., in the possession of the younger Dr. Charles Burney.
Let me add, as a proof of the popularity of his character, that there are copper pieces struck at Birmingham, with his head impressed on them, which pass current as half-pence there, and in the neighbouring parts of the country.
a It is not yet published. – In a letter to me, Mr. Agutter says, ‘My sermon before the University was more engaged with Dr. Johnson’s moral than his intellectual character. It particularly examined his fear of death, and suggested several reasons for the apprehension of the good, and the indifference of the infidel in their last hours; this was illustrated by contrasting the death of Dr. Johnson and Mr. Hume: the text was Job xxi. 22–26.’
a The Reverend Dr. Parr, on being requested to undertake it, thus expressed himself in a letter to William Seward, Esq.:
‘I leave this mighty task to some hardier and some abler writer. The variety and splendour of Johnson’s attainments, the peculiarities of his character, his private virtues, and his literary publications, fill me with confusion and dismay, when I reflect upon the confined and difficult species of composition, in which alone they can be expressed, with propriety, upon his monument.’
But I understand that this great scholar, and warm admirer of Johnson, has yielded to repeated solicitations, and executed the very difficult undertaking. [Dr. Johnson’s Monument, consisting of a colossal figure leaning against a column, has since the death of our authour been placed in St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Epitaph was written by the Rev. Dr. Parr, and is as follows:
A
SAMVELI · JOHNSON
GRAMMATICO · ET · CRITICO
SCRIPTORVM · ANGLICORVM · LITTERATE · PERITO
POETAE · LVMINIBVS · SENTENTIARVM
ET · PONDERIBVS · VERBORVM · ADMIRABILI
MAGISTRO · VIRTVTIS · GRAVISSIMO
HOMINI · OPTIMO · ET · SINGVLARIS · EXEMPLI
The Life of Samuel Johnson Page 197