'Nay,Sir,never try to have a thing merely to shew that you CANNOThave it.From ground that would let for forty shillings you may have a large orchard;and you see it costs you only forty shillings.Nay,you may graze the ground when the trees are grown up;you cannot while they are young.'BOSWELL.'Is not a good garden a very common thing in England,Sir?'JOHNSON.'Not so common,Sir,as you imagine.In Lincolnshire there is hardly an orchard;in Staffordshire very little fruit.'BOSWELL.'Has Langton no orchard?'JOHNSON.'No,Sir.'BOSWELL.'How so,Sir?'JOHNSON.'Why,Sir,from the general negligence of the county.He has it not,because nobody else has it.'BOSWELL.'Ahot-house is a certain thing;I may have that.'JOHNSON.'A hot-house is pretty certain;but you must first build it,then you must keep fires in it,and you must have a gardener to take care of it.'
BOSWELL.'But if I have a gardener at any rate ?--'JOHNSON.
'Why,yes.'BOSWELL.'I'd have it near my house;there is no need to have it in the orchard.'JOHNSON.'Yes,I'd have it near my house.I would plant a great many currants;the fruit is good,and they make a pretty sweetmeat.'
I record this minute detail,which some may think trifling,in order to shew clearly how this great man,whose mind could grasp such large and extensive subjects,as he has shewn in his literary labours,was yet well-informed in the common affairs of life,and loved to illustrate them.
Talking of the origin of language;JOHNSON.'It must have come by inspiration.A thousand,nay,a million of children could not invent a language.While the organs are pliable,there is not understanding enough to form a language;by the time that there is understanding enough,the organs are become stiff.We know that after a certain age we cannot learn to pronounce a new language.
No foreigner,who comes to England when advanced in life,ever pronounces English tolerably well;at least such instances are very rare.When I maintain that language must have come by inspiration,I do not mean that inspiration is required for rhetorick,and all the beauties of language;for when once man has language,we can conceive that he may gradually form modifications of it.I mean only that inspiration seems to me to be necessary to give man the faculty of speech;to inform him that he may have speech;which Ithink he could no more find out without inspiration,than cows or hogs would think of such a faculty.'WALKER.'Do you think,Sir,that there are any perfect synonimes in any language?'JOHNSON.
'Originally there were not;but by using words negligently,or in poetry,one word comes to be confounded with another.'
He talked of Dr.Dodd.'A friend of mine,(said he,)came to me and told me,that a lady wished to have Dr.Dodd's picture in a bracelet,and asked me for a motto.I said,I could think of no better than Currat Lex.I was very willing to have him pardoned,that is,to have the sentence changed to transportation:but,when he was once hanged,I did not wish he should be made a saint.'
Mrs.Burney,wife of his friend Dr.Burney,came in,and he seemed to be entertained with her conversation.
Garrick's funeral was talked of as extravagantly expensive.
Johnson,from his dislike to exaggeration,would not allow that it was distinguished by any extraordinary pomp.'Were there not six horses to each coach?'said Mrs.Burney.JOHNSON.'Madam,there were no more six horses than six phoenixes.'
Time passed on in conversation till it was too late for the service of the church at three o'clock.I took a walk,and left him alone for some time;then returned,and we had coffee and conversation again by ourselves.
We went to evening prayers at St.Clement's,at seven,and then parted.
On Sunday,April 20,being Easter-day,after attending solemn service at St.Paul's,I came to Dr.Johnson,and found Mr.Lowe,the painter,sitting with him.Mr.Lowe mentioned the great number of new buildings of late in London,yet that Dr.Johnson had observed,that the number of inhabitants was not increased.
JOHNSON.Why,Sir,the bills of mortality prove that no more people die now than formerly;so it is plain no more live.The register of births proves nothing,for not one tenth of the people of London are born there.'BOSWELL.'I believe,Sir,a great many of the children born in London die early.'JOHNSON.'Why,yes,Sir.'BOSWELL.'But those who do live,are as stout and strong people as any:Dr.Price says,they must be naturally stronger to get through.'JOHNSON.'That is system,Sir.A great traveller observes,that it is said there are no weak or deformed people among the Indians;but he with much sagacity assigns the reason of this,which is,that the hardship of their life as hunters and fishers does not allow weak or diseased children to grow up.Now had I been an Indian,I must have died early;my eyes would not have served me to get food.I indeed now could fish,give me English tackle;but had I been an Indian I must have starved,or they would have knocked me on the head,when they saw I could do nothing.'BOSWELL.'Perhaps they would have taken care of you:we are told they are fond of oratory,you would have talked to them.'
JOHNSON.Nay,Sir,I should not have lived long enough to be fit to talk;I should have been dead before I was ten years old.
Depend upon it,Sir,a savage,when he is hungry,will not carry about with him a looby of nine years old,who cannot help himself.
They have no affection,Sir.'BOSWELL.'I believe natural affection,of which we hear so much,is very small.'JOHNSON.
'Sir,natural affection is nothing:but affection from principle and established duty is sometimes wonderfully strong.'LOWE.'Ahen,Sir,will feed her chickens in preference to herself.'
