'Never,my dear Sir,do you take it into your head to think that Ido not love you;you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem;I love you as a kind man,I value you as a worthy man,and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.I hold you,as Hamlet has it,"in my heart of hearts,"and therefore,it is little to say,that I am,Sir,your affectionate humble servant,'SAM.JOHNSON.'
'London,Aug.27,1775.'
My Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides,which that lady read in the original manu.--BOSWELL.
'TO MR.ROBERT LEVET.
'Paris,Oct.22,1775.
'DEAR SIR,--We are still here,commonly very busy in looking about us.We have been to-day at Versailles.You have seen it,and Ishall not describe it.We came yesterday from Fontainbleau,where the Court is now.We went to see the King and Queen at dinner,and the Queen was so impressed by Miss,that she sent one of the Gentlemen to enquire who she was.I find all true that you have ever told me of Paris.Mr.Thrale is very liberal,and keeps us two coaches,and a very fine table;but I think our cookery very bad.Mrs.Thrale got into a convent of English nuns;and I talked with her through the grate,and I am very kindly used by the English Benedictine friars.But upon the whole I cannot make much acquaintance here;and though the churches,palaces,and some private houses are very magnificent,there is no very great pleasure after having seen many,in seeing more;at least the pleasure,whatever it be,must some time have an end,and we are beginning to think when we shall come home.Mr.Thrale calculates that,as we left Streatham on the fifteenth of September,we shall see it again about the fifteenth of November.
Written from a tour in France with the Thrales,Johnson's only visit to the Continent.--ED.
Miss Thrale.
'I think I had not been on this side of the sea five days before Ifound a sensible improvement in my health.I ran a race in the rain this day,and beat Baretti.Baretti is a fine fellow,and speaks French,I think,quite as well as English.
'Make my compliments to Mrs.Williams;and give my love to Francis;and tell my friends that I am not lost.I am,dear Sir,your affectionate humble,&c.
'SAM.JOHNSON.'
It is to be regretted that he did not write an account of his travels in France;for as he is reported to have once said,that 'he could write the Life of a Broomstick,'so,notwithstanding so many former travellers have exhausted almost every subject for remark in that great kingdom,his very accurate observation,and peculiar vigour of thought and illustration,would have produced a valuable work.
When I met him in London the following year,the account which he gave me of his French tour,was,'Sir,I have seen all the visibilities of Paris,and around it;but to have formed an acquaintance with the people there,would have required more time than I could stay.I was just beginning to creep into acquaintance by means of Colonel Drumgold,a very high man,Sir,head of L'Ecole Militaire,a most complete character,for he had first been a professor of rhetorick,and then became a soldier.And,Sir,I was very kindly treated by the English Benedictines,and have a cell appropriated to me in their convent.'
He observed,'The great in France live very magnificently,but the rest very miserably.There is no happy middle state as in England.
The shops of Paris are mean;the meat in the markets is such as would be sent to a gaol in England:and Mr.Thrale justly observed,that the cookery of the French was forced upon them by necessity;for they could not eat their meat,unless they added some taste to it.The French are an indelicate people;they will spit upon any place.At Madame ------'s,a literary lady of rank,the footman took the sugar in his fingers,and threw it into my coffee.I was going to put it aside;but hearing it was made on purpose for me,Ie'en tasted Tom's fingers.The same lady would needs make tea a l'Angloise.The spout of the tea-pot did not pour freely;she had the footman blow into it.France is worse than Scotland in every thing but climate.Nature has done more for the French;but they have done less for themselves than the Scotch have done.'
It happened that Foote was at Paris at the same time with Dr.
Johnson,and his deion of my friend while there,was abundantly ludicrous.He told me,that the French were quite astonished at his figure and manner,and at his dress,which he obstinately continued exactly as in London;--his brown clothes,black stockings,and plain shirt.He mentioned,that an Irish gentleman said to Johnson,'Sir,you have not seen the best French players.'JOHNSON.'Players,Sir!I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint-stools to make faces and produce laughter,like dancing dogs.'--'But,Sir,you will allow that some players are better than others?'JOHNSON.'Yes,Sir,as some dogs dance better than others.'
While Johnson was in France,he was generally very resolute in speaking Latin.It was a maxim with him that a man should not let himself down,by speaking a language which he speaks imperfectly.
Indeed,we must have often observed how inferiour,how much like a child a man appears,who speaks a broken tongue.When Sir Joshua Reynolds,at one of the dinners of the Royal Academy,presented him to a Frenchman of great distinction,he would not deign to speak French,but talked Latin,though his Excellency did not understand it,owing,perhaps,to Johnson's English pronunciation:yet upon another occasion he was observed to speak French to a Frenchman of high rank,who spoke English;and being asked the reason,with some expression of surprise,--he answered,'because I think my French is as good as his English.'Though Johnson understood French perfectly,he could not speak it readily,as I have observed at his first interview with General Pauli,in 1769;yet he wrote it,Iimagine,pretty well.
Here let me not forget a curious anecdote,as related to me by Mr.