At Leicester we read in the news-paper that Dr.James was dead.Ithought that the death of an old school-fellow,and one with whom he had lived a good deal in London,would have affected my fellow-traveller much:but he only said,Ah!poor Jamy.'Afterwards,however,when we were in the chaise,he said,with more tenderness,'Since I set out on this jaunt,I have lost an old friend and a young one;--Dr.James,and poor Harry.'(Meaning Mr.Thrale's son.)I enjoyed the luxury of our approach to London,that metropolis which we both loved so much,for the high and varied intellectual pleasure which it furnishes.I experienced immediate happiness while whirled along with such a companion,and said to him,'Sir,you observed one day at General Oglethorpe's,that a man is never happy for the present,but when he is drunk.Will you not add,--or when driving rapidly in a post-chaise?'JOHNSON.'No,Sir,you are driving rapidly FROM something,or TO something.'
Talking of melancholy,he said,'Some men,and very thinking men too,have not those vexing thoughts.Sir Joshua Reynolds is the same all the year round.Beauclerk,except when ill and in pain,is the same.But I believe most men have them in the degree in which they are capable of having them.If I were in the country,and were distressed by that malady,I would force myself to take a book;and every time I did it I should find it the easier.
Melancholy,indeed,should be diverted by every means but drinking.'
We stopped at Messieurs Dillys,booksellers in the Poultry;from whence he hurried away,in a hackney coach,to Mr.Thrale's,in the Borough.I called at his house in the evening,having promised to acquaint Mrs.Williams of his safe return;when,to my surprize,Ifound him sitting with her at tea,and,as I thought,not in a very good humour:for,it seems,when he had got to Mr.Thrale's,he found the coach was at the door waiting to carry Mrs.and Miss Thrale,and Signor Baretti,their Italian master,to Bath.This was not shewing the attention which might have been expected to the 'Guide,Philosopher,and Friend,'the Imlac who had hastened from the country to console a distressed mother,who he understood was very anxious for his return.They had,I found,without ceremony,proceeded on their intended journey.I was glad to understand from him that it was still resolved that his tour to Italy with Mr.and Mrs.Thrale should take place,of which he had entertained some doubt,on account of the loss which they had suffered;and his doubts afterwards proved to be well-founded.He observed,indeed very justly,that 'their loss was an additional reason for their going abroad;and if it had not been fixed that he should have been one of the party,he would force them out;but he would not advise them unless his advice was asked,lest they might suspect that he recommended what he wished on his own account.'I was not pleased that his intimacy with Mr.Thrale's family,though it no doubt contributed much to his comfort and enjoyment,was not without some degree of restraint:not,as has been grossly suggested,that it was required of him as a task to talk for the entertainment of them and their company;but that he was not quite at his ease;which,however,might partly be owing to his own honest pride--that dignity of mind which is always jealous of appearing too compliant.
On Sunday,March 31,I called on him,and shewed him as a curiosity which I had discovered,his Translation of Lobo's Account of Abyssinia,which Sir John Pringle had lent me,it being then little known as one of his works.He said,'Take no notice of it,'or 'don't talk of it.'He seemed to think it beneath him,though done at six-and-twenty.I said to him,'Your style,Sir,is much improved since you translated this.'He answered with a sort of triumphant smile,'Sir,I hope it is.'
On Wednesday,April 3,in the morning I found him very busy putting his books in order,and as they were generally very old ones,clouds of dust were flying around him.He had on a pair of large gloves such as hedgers use.His present appearance put me in mind of my uncle,Dr.Boswell's deion of him,'A robust genius,born to grapple with whole libraries.'
He had been in company with Omai,a native of one of the South Sea Islands,after he had been some time in this country.He was struck with the elegance of his behaviour,and accounted for it thus:'Sir,he had passed his time,while in England,only in the best company;so that all that he had acquired of our manners was genteel.As a proof of this,Sir,Lord Mulgrave and he dined one day at Streatham;they sat with their backs to the light fronting me,so that I could not see distinctly;and there was so little of the savage in Omai,that I was afraid to speak to either,lest Ishould mistake one for the other.'
We agreed to dine to-day at the Mitre-tavern after the rising of the House of Lords,where a branch of the litigation concerning the Douglas Estate,in which I was one of the counsel,was to come on.