Lord Chesterfield being mentioned,Johnson remarked,that almost all of that celebrated nobleman's witty sayings were puns.He,however,allowed the merit of good wit to his Lordship's saying of Lord Tyrawley and himself,when both very old and infirm:'Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years;but we don't choose to have it known.'
The conversation having turned on modern imitations of ancient ballads,and some one having praised their simplicity,he treated them with that ridicule which he always displayed when that subject was mentioned.
He disapproved of introducing ure phrases into secular discourse.This seemed to me a question of some difficulty.Aure expression may be used,like a highly classical phrase,to produce an instantaneous strong impression;and it may be done without being at all improper.Yet I own there is danger,that applying the language of our sacred book to ordinary subjects may tend to lessen our reverence for it.If therefore it be introduced at all,it should be with very great caution.
On Thursday,April 8,I sat a good part of the evening with him,but he was very silent.
Though he was not disposed to talk,he was unwilling that I should leave him;and when I looked at my watch,and told him it was twelve o'clock,he cried,What's that to you and me?'and ordered Frank to tell Mrs.Williams that we were coming to drink tea with her,which we did.It was settled that we should go to church together next day.
On the 9th of April,being Good Friday,I breakfasted with him on tea and cross-buns;DOCTOR Levet,as Frank called him,making the tea.He carried me with him to the church of St.Clement Danes,where he had his seat;and his behaviour was,as I had imaged to myself,solemnly devout.I never shall forget the tremulous earnestness with which he pronounced the awful petition in the Litany:'In the hour of death,and at the day of judgement,good LORD deliver us.
We went to church both in the morning and evening.In the interval between the two services we did not dine;but he read in the Greek New Testament,and I turned over several of his books.
I told him that Goldsmith had said to me a few days before,'As Itake my shoes from the shoemaker,and my coat from the taylor,so Itake my religion from the priest.'I regretted this loose way of talking.JOHNSON.'Sir,he knows nothing;he has made up his mind about nothing.'
To my great surprize he asked me to dine with him on Easter-day.Inever supposed that he had a dinner at his house;for I had not then heard of any one of his friends having been entertained at his table.He told me,'I generally have a meat pye on Sunday:it is baked at a publick oven,which is very properly allowed,because one man can attend it;and thus the advantage is obtained of not keeping servants from church to dress dinners.'
April 11,being Easter-Sunday,after having attended Divine Service at St.Paul's,I repaired to Dr.Johnson's.I had gratified my curiosity much in dining with JEAN JAQUES ROUSSEAU,while he lived in the wilds of Neufchatel:I had as great a curiosity to dine with DR.SAMUEL JOHNSON,in the dusky recess of a court in Fleet-street.
I supposed we should scarcely have knives and forks,and only some strange,uncouth,ill-drest dish:but I found every thing in very good order.We had no other company but Mrs.Williams and a young woman whom I did not know.As a dinner here was considered as a singular phaenomenon,and as I was frequently interrogated on the subject,my readers may perhaps be desirous to know our bill of fare.Foote,I remember,in allusion to Francis,the NEGRO,was willing to suppose that our repast was BLACK BROTH.But the fact was,that we had a very good soup,a boiled leg of lamb and spinach,a veal pye,and a rice pudding.
He owned that he thought Hawkesworth was one of his imitators,but he did not think Goldsmith was.Goldsmith,he said,had great merit.BOSWELL.'But,Sir,he is much indebted to you for his getting so high in the publick estimation.'JOHNSON.'Why,Sir,he has perhaps got SOONER to it by his intimacy with me.'
Goldsmith,though his vanity often excited him to occasional competition,had a very high regard for Johnson,which he at this time expressed in the strongest manner in the Dedication of his comedy,entitled,She Stoops to Conquer.
He told me that he had twelve or fourteen times attempted to keep a journal of his life,but never could persevere.He advised me to do it.'The great thing to be recorded,(said he,)is the state of your own mind;and you should write down every thing that you remember,for you cannot judge at first what is good or bad;and write immediately while the impression is fresh,for it will not be the same a week afterwards.'
I again solicited him to communicate to me the particulars of his early life.He said,'You shall have them all for two-pence.Ihope you shall know a great deal more of me before you write my Life.'He mentioned to me this day many circumstances,which Iwrote down when I went home,and have interwoven in the former part of this narrative.
On Tuesday,April 13,he and Dr.Goldsmith and I dined at General Oglethorpe's.Goldsmith expatiated on the common topick,that the race of our people was degenerated,and that this was owing to luxury.JOHNSON.'Sir,in the first place,I doubt the fact.Ibelieve there are as many tall men in England now,as ever there were.But,secondly,supposing the stature of our people to be diminished,that is not owing to luxury;for,Sir,consider to how very small a proportion of our people luxury can reach.Our soldiery,surely,are not luxurious,who live on sixpence a day;and the same remark will apply to almost all the other classes.