The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [817]
This is so beautifully imagined, that I would not suppress it. But like many other theories, it is deduced from a supposed fact, which is, indeed, a fiction.
a Prayers and Meditations, p. 27.
b [Speaking himself of the imperfection of one of his eyes, he said to Dr. Burney, ‘the dog was never good for much.’]
c Anecdotes, p. 10.
a [Johnson’s observation to Dr. Rose, on this subject, deserves to be recorded. Rose was praising the mild treatment of children at school, at a time when flogging began to be less practised than formerly: ‘But then, (said Johnson,) they get nothing else: and what they gain at one end, they lose at the other.’ B.]
a He is said to be original of the parson in Hogarth’s Modern Midnight Conversation.
a As was likewise the Bishop of Dromore many years afterwards.
a Mr. Hector informs me, that this was made almost impromptu, in his presence.
a This he inserted, with many alterations, in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1743 {p. 378}.
b Some young ladies at Lichfield having proposed to act The Distressed Mother,25 Johnson wrote this, and gave it to Mr. Hector to convey it privately to them.
a Athen. Oxon. edit. 1721, i. 627.
b Oxford, 20th March, 1776.
c It ought to be remembered that Dr. Johnson was apt, in his literary as well as moral exercises, to overcharge his defects. Dr. Adams informed me, that he attended his tutor’s lectures, and also the lectures in the College Hall, very regularly.
a Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of Dr. Johnson, by John Courtenay, Esq., M.P.
a Mrs. Piozzi has given a strange fantastical account of the original of Dr. Johnson’s belief in our most holy religion. ‘At the age of ten years his mind was disturbed by scruples of infidelity, which preyed upon his spirits, and made him very uneasy, the more so, as he revealed his uneasiness to none, being naturally (as he said) of a sullen temper, and reserved disposition. He searched, however, diligently, but fruitlessly, for evidences of the truth of revelation; and, at length, recollecting a book he had once seen [I suppose at five years old] in his father’s shop, intitled De veritate Religionis,32 etc., he began to think himself highly culpable for neglecting such a means of information, and took himself severely to task for this sin, adding many acts of voluntary, and, to others, unknown penance. The first opportunity which offered, of course, he seized the book with avidity; but, on examination, not finding himself scholar enough to peruse its contents, set his heart at rest; and not thinking to enquire whether there were any English books written on the subject, followed his usual amusements and considered his conscience as lightened of a crime. He redoubled his diligence to learn the language that contained the information he most wished for; but from the pain which guilt [namely having omitted to read what he did not understand] had given him, he now began to deduce the soul’s immortality [a sensation of pain in this world being an unquestionable proof of existence in another], which was the point that belief first stopped at; and from that moment resolving to be a Christian, became one of the most zealous and pious ones our nation ever produced.’ Anecdotes, p. 17.
a [He told Dr. Burney that he never wrote any of his works that were printed, twice over. Dr. Burney’s wonder at seeing several pages of his Lives of the Poets, in Manuscript, with scarce a blot or erasure, drew this observation