The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [847]
Of her rebellious subjects,
Sets her hand,
With tears and confusion,
To a resignation of the kingdom.’
a The learned and worthy Dr. Lawrence, whom Dr. Johnson respected and loved as his physician and friend.
b My friend has, in this letter, relied upon my testimony, with a confidence, of which the ground has escaped my recollection.
a I have deposited it in the British Museum.
a See Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 520 {p. 431, conclusion}.
a Page 103.
a I observed with much regret, while the first edition of this work was passing through the press (Aug. 1790), that this ingenious gentleman was dead.
a From a list in his hand-writing.
a Of his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.
a Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, ed. 1775, p. 256.
b This doubt has been much agitated on both sides, I think without good reason. See Addison’s Freeholder, May 4, 1714; –An Apology for the Tale of a Tub; – Dr. Hawkesworth’s Preface to Swift’s Works, and Swift’s Letter to Tooke the Printer, and Tooke’s Answer, in that collection; – Sheridan’s Life of Swift; – Mr. Courtenay’s note on p. 3 of his Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of Dr. Johnson; and Mr. Cooksey’s Essay onthe Life and Character of John Lord Somers, Baron of Evesham.
Dr. Johnson here speaks only to the internal evidence. I take leave to differ from him, having a very high estimation of the powers of Dr. Swift. His Sentiments of a Church-of England-man, his Sermon on the Trinity, and other serious pieces, prove his learning as well as his acuteness in logick and metaphysicks; and his various compositions of a different cast exhibit not only wit, humour, and ridicule; but a knowledge ‘of nature, and art, and life:’ a combination therefore of those powers, when (as the Apology says,) ‘the authour was young, his invention at the heighth, and his reading fresh in his head,’ might surely produce The Tale of a Tub.
a This was not merely a cursory remark; for in his Life of Fenton he observes, ‘With many other wise and virtuous men, who at that time of discord and debate (about the beginning of this century) consulted conscience {whether} well or ill informed, more than interest, he doubted the legality of the government; and refusing to qualify himself for publick employment, by taking the oaths required, left the University without a degree.’ This conduct Johnson calls ‘perverseness of integrity.’
The question concerning the morality of taking oaths, of whatever kind, imposed by the prevailing power at the time, rather than to be excluded from all consequence, or even any considerable usefulness in society, has been agitated with all the acuteness of casuistry. It is related, that he who devised the oath of abjuration,437 profligately boasted that he had framed a test which should ‘damn one half of the nation, and starve the other.’ Upon minds not exalted to inflexible rectitude, or minds in which zeal for a party is predominant to excess, taking that oath against conviction may have been palliated under the plea of necessity, or ventured upon in heat, as upon the whole producing more good than evil.
At a county election in Scotland, many years ago, when there was a warm contest between the friends of the Hanoverian succession, and those against it, the oath of abjuration having been demanded, the freeholders upon one side rose to go away. Upon which a very sanguine gentleman, one of their number, ran to the door to stop them, calling out with much earnestness, ‘Stay, stay, my friends, and let us swear the rogues out of it!’
a My noble friend Lord Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, with a happy pleasantry and some truth, that ‘Dr. Johnson’s sayings would not appear so extraordinary, were it not for his bow-wow way.’ The sayings themselves are generally of sterling merit; but, doubtless, his manner was an addition to their effect; and therefore should be attended to as much as may be. It is necessary, however, to guard those who were not acquainted with him, against overcharged