The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [462]
Next day I found him at home in the morning. He praised Delany’s Observations on Swift; said that his book and Lord Orrery’s might both be true, though one viewed Swift more, and the other less favourably; and that, between both, we might have a complete notion of Swift.
Talking of a man’s resolving to deny himself the use of wine, from moral and religious considerations, he said, ‘He must not doubt about it. When one doubts as to pleasure, we know what will be the conclusion. I now no more think of drinking wine, than a horse does. The wine upon the table is no more for me, than for the dog that is under the table.’
On Thursday, April 9, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s, with the Bishop of St. Asaph, (Dr. Shipley,) Mr. Allan Ramsay, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Cambridge, and Mr. Langton. Mr. Ramsay had lately returned from Italy, and entertained us with his observations upon Horace’s villa, which he had examined with great care. I relished this much, as it brought fresh into my mind what I had viewed with great pleasure thirteen years before. The Bishop, Dr. Johnson, and Mr. Cambridge, joined with Mr. Ramsay, in recollecting the various lines in Horace relating to the subject.
Horace’s journey to Brundusium being mentioned, Johnson observed, that the brook which he describes is to be seen now, exactly as at that time, and that he had often wondered how it happened, that small brooks, such as this, kept the same situation for ages, notwithstanding earthquakes, by which even mountains have been changed, and agriculture, which produces such a variation upon the surface of the earth. Cambridge. A Spanish writer has this thought in a poetical conceit. After observing that most of the solid structures of Rome are totally perished, while the Tiber remains the same, he adds,
“Lo que era Firme buio solamente,
Lo Fugitivo permanece y dura.” ‘776
JOHNSON. ‘Sir, that is taken from Janus Vitalis:
“––––––immota labescunt;
Et quce perpetub sunt agitata manent.” ‘777
The Bishop said, it appeared from Horace’s writings that he was a cheerful contented man. JOHNSON. ‘We have no reason to believe that, my Lord. Are we to think Pope was happy, because he says so in his writings? We see in his writings what he wished the state of his mind to appear. Dr. Young, who pined for preferment, talks with contempt of it in his writings, and affects to despise every thing that he did not despise.’ Bishop of St. Asaph. ‘He was like other chaplains, looking for vacancies: but that is not peculiar to the clergy. I remember when I was with the army, after the battle of Lafeldt, the officers seriously grumbled that no general was killed.’ CAMBRIDGE. ‘We may believe Horace more when he says,
“Komce Tibur amem, ventosus Tibure Romam;”778
than when he boasts of his consistency:
“Me constare mihi scis, et decedere tristem,
Quandocunque trahunt invisa negotia Romam.”’779
BOSWELL. ‘How hard is it that man can never be at rest.’ RAMSAY. ‘It is not in his nature to be at rest. When he is at rest, he is in the worst state that he can be in; for he has nothing to agitate him. He is then like the man in the Irish song,
“There liv’d a young man in Ballinacrazy,
Who wanted a wife for to make him unaisy.”’
Goldsmith being mentioned, Johnson observed, that it was long before his merit came to be acknowledged. That he once complained to him, in ludicrous terms of distress, ‘Whenever I write any thing, the publick make a point to know nothing about it:’ but that his Traveller brought him into high reputation.