Luxury,so far as it reaches the poor,will do good to the race of people;it will strengthen and multiply them.Sir,no nation was ever hurt by luxury;for,as I said before,it can reach but to a very few.I admit that the great increase of commerce and manufactures hurts the military spirit of a people;because it produces a competition for something else than martial honours,--a competition for riches.It also hurts the bodies of the people;for you will observe,there is no man who works at any particular trade,but you may know him from his appearance to do so.One part or other of his body being more used than the rest,he is in some degree deformed:but,Sir,that is not luxury.A tailor sits cross-legged;but that is not luxury.'GOLDSMITH.'Come,you're just going to the same place by another road.'JOHNSON.'Nay,Sir,I say that is not LUXURY.Let us take a walk from Charing-cross to White-chapel,through,I suppose,the greatest series of shops in the world;what is there in any of these shops (if you except gin-shops,)that can do any human being any harm?'
GOLDSMITH.'Well,Sir,I'll accept your challenge.The very next shop to Northumberland-house is a pickle-shop.'JOHNSON.'Well,Sir:do we not know that a maid can in one afternoon make pickles sufficient to serve a whole family for a year?nay,that five pickle-shops can serve all the kingdom?Besides,Sir,there is no harm done to any body by the making of pickles,or the eating of pickles.'
We drank tea with the ladies;and Goldsmith sung Tony Lumpkin's song in his comedy,She Stoops to Conquer,and a very pretty one,to an Irish tune,which he had designed for Miss Hardcastle;but as Mrs.Bulkeley,who played the part,could not sing,it was left out.He afterwards wrote it down for me,by which means it was preserved,and now appears amongst his poems.Dr.Johnson,in his way home,stopped at my lodgings in Piccadilly,and sat with me,drinking tea a second time,till a late hour.
I told him that Mrs.Macaulay said,she wondered how he could reconcile his political principles with his moral;his notions of inequality and subordination with wishing well to the happiness of all mankind,who might live so agreeably,had they all their portions of land,and none to domineer over another.JOHNSON.
'Why,Sir,I reconcile my principles very well,because mankind are happier in a state of inequality and subordination.Were they to be in this pretty state of equality,they would soon degenerate into brutes;--they would become Monboddo's nation;--their tails would grow.Sir,all would be losers were all to work for all--they would have no intellectual improvement.All intellectual improvement arises from leisure;all leisure arises from one working for another.'
Talking of the family of Stuart,he said,'It should seem that the family at present on the throne has now established as good a right as the former family,by the long consent of the people;and that to disturb this right might be considered as culpable.At the same time I own,that it is a very difficult question,when considered with respect to the house of Stuart.To oblige people to take oaths as to the disputed right,is wrong.I know not whether Icould take them:but I do not blame those who do.'So conscientious and so delicate was he upon this subject,which has occasioned so much clamour against him.
On Thursday,April 15,I dined with him and Dr.Goldsmith at General Paoli's.
I spoke of Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd,in the Scottish dialect,as the best pastoral that had ever been written;not only abounding with beautiful rural imagery,and just and pleasing sentiments,but being a real picture of manners;and I offered to teach Dr.Johnson to understand it.'No,Sir,(said he,)I won't learn it.You shall retain your superiority by my not knowing it.'
It having been observed that there was little hospitality in London;--JOHNSON.'Nay,Sir,any man who has a name,or who has the power of pleasing,will be very generally invited in London.
The man,Sterne,I have been told,has had engagements for three months.'GOLDSMITH.'And a very dull fellow.'JOHNSON.'Why,no,Sir.'
Martinelli told us,that for several years he lived much with Charles Townshend,and that he ventured to tell him he was a bad joker.JOHNSON.'Why,Sir,thus much I can say upon the subject.
One day he and a few more agreed to go and dine in the country,and each of them was to bring a friend in his carriage with him.
Charles Townshend asked Fitzherbert to go with him,but told him,"You must find somebody to bring you back:I can only carry you there."Fitzherbert did not much like this arrangement.He however consented,observing sarcastically,"It will do very well;for then the same jokes will serve you in returning as in going."'
An eminent publick character being mentioned;--JOHNSON.'Iremember being present when he shewed himself to be so corrupted,or at least something so different from what I think right,as to maintain,that a member of parliament should go along with his party right or wrong.Now,Sir,this is so remote from native virtue,from scholastick virtue,that a good man must have undergone a great change before he can reconcile himself to such a doctrine.It is maintaining that you may lie to the publick;for you lie when you call that right which you think wrong,or the reverse.A friend of ours,who is too much an echo of that gentleman,observed,that a man who does not stick uniformly to a party,is only waiting to be bought.Why then,said I,he is only waiting to be what that gentleman is already.'
We talked of the King's coming to see Goldsmith's new play.--'Iwish he would,'said Goldsmith;adding,however,with an affected indifference,'Not that it would do me the least good.'JOHNSON.
'Well then,Sir,let us say it would do HIM good,(laughing.)No,Sir,this affectation will not pass;--it is mighty idle.In such a state as ours,who would not wish to please the Chief Magistrate?'