GOLDSMITH.'I DO wish to please him.I remember a line in Dryden,--"And every poet is the monarch's friend."
It ought to be reversed.'JOHNSON.'Nay,there are finer lines in Dryden on this subject:--"For colleges on bounteous Kings depend,And never rebel was to arts a friend."'
General Paoli observed,that 'successful rebels might.'
MARTINELLI.'Happy rebellions.'GOLDSMITH.'We have no such phrase.'GENERAL PAOLI.'But have you not the THING?'GOLDSMITH.
'Yes;all our HAPPY revolutions.They have hurt our constitution,and will hurt it,till we mend it by another HAPPY REVOLUTION.'Inever before discovered that my friend Goldsmith had so much of the old prejudice in him.
General Paoli,talking of Goldsmith's new play,said,'Il a fait un compliment tres gracieux a une certaine grande dame;'meaning a Duchess of the first rank.
I expressed a doubt whether Goldsmith intended it,in order that Imight hear the truth from himself.It,perhaps,was not quite fair to endeavour to bring him to a confession,as he might not wish to avow positively his taking part against the Court.He smiled and hesitated.The General at once relieved him,by this beautiful image:'Monsieur Goldsmith est comme la mer,qui jette des perles et beaucoup d'autres belles choses,sans s'en appercevoir.'
GOLDSMITH.'Tres bien dit et tres elegamment.'
A person was mentioned,who it was said could take down in short hand the speeches in parliament with perfect exactness.JOHNSON.
'Sir,it is impossible.I remember one,Angel,who came to me to write for him a Preface or Dedication to a book upon short hand,and he professed to write as fast as a man could speak.In order to try him,I took down a book,and read while he wrote;and Ifavoured him,for I read more deliberately than usual.I had proceeded but a very little way,when he begged I would desist,for he could not follow me.'Hearing now for the first time of this Preface or Dedication,I said,'What an expense,Sir,do you put us to in buying books,to which you have written Prefaces or Dedications.'JOHNSON.'Why,I have dedicated to the Royal family all round;that is to say,to the last generation of the Royal family.'GOLDSMITH.'And perhaps,Sir,not one sentence of wit in a whole Dedication.'JOHNSON.'Perhaps not,Sir.'BOSWELL.
'What then is the reason for applying to a particular person to do that which any one may do as well?'JOHNSON.'Why,Sir,one man has greater readiness at doing it than another.'
I spoke of Mr.Harris,of Salisbury,as being a very learned man,and in particular an eminent Grecian.JOHNSON.'I am not sure of that.His friends give him out as such,but I know not who of his friends are able to judge of it.'GOLDSMITH.'He is what is much better:he is a worthy humane man.'JOHNSON.'Nay,Sir,that is not to the purpose of our argument:that will as much prove that he can play upon the fiddle as well as Giardini,as that he is an eminent Grecian.'GOLDSMITH.'The greatest musical performers have but small emoluments.Giardini,I am told,does not get above seven hundred a year.'JOHNSON.'That is indeed but little for a man to get,who does best that which so many endeavour to do.
There is nothing,I think,in which the power of art is shown so much as in playing on the fiddle.In all other things we can do something at first.Any man will forge a bar of iron,if you give him a hammer;not so well as a smith,but tolerably.A man will saw a piece of wood,and make a box,though a clumsy one;but give him a fiddle and a fiddle-stick,and he can do nothing.'
On Monday,April 19,he called on me with Mrs.Williams,in Mr.
Strahan's coach,and carried me out to dine with Mr.Elphinston,at his academy at Kensington.A printer having acquired a fortune sufficient to keep his coach,was a good topick for the credit of literature.Mrs.Williams said,that another printer,Mr.
Hamilton,had not waited so long as Mr.Strahan,but had kept his coach several years sooner.JOHNSON.'He was in the right.Life is short.The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.'
Mr.Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired,and asked Dr.Johnson if he had read it.JOHNSON.'I have looked into it.''What,(said Elphinston,)have you not read it through?'
Johnson,offended at being thus pressed,and so obliged to own his cursory mode of reading,answered tartly,'No,Sir,do YOU read books THROUGH?'
On Wednesday,April 21,I dined with him at Mr.Thrale's.Agentleman attacked Garrick for being vain.JOHNSON.'No wonder,Sir,that he is vain;a man who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived.So many bellows have blown the fire,that one wonders he is not by this time become a cinder.'BOSWELL.
'And such bellows too.Lord Mansfield with his cheeks like to burst:Lord Chatham like an Aeolus.I have read such notes from them to him,as were enough to turn his head.'JOHNSON.'True.
When he whom every body else flatters,flatters me,I then am truly happy.'Mrs.THRALE.'The sentiment is in Congreve,I think.'
JOHNSON.'Yes,Madam,in The Way of the World:
"If there's delight in love,'tis when I see That heart which others bleed for,bleed for me."No,Sir,I should not be surprized though Garrick chained the ocean,and lashed the winds.'BOSWELL.'Should it not be,Sir,lashed the ocean and chained the winds?'JOHNSON.'No,Sir,recollect the original.
