The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [860]
a It appears that Johnson, now in his sixty-eighth year, was seriously inclined to realise the project of our going up the Baltick, which I had started when we were in the Isle of Sky; for he thus writes to Mrs. Thrale; Letters, vol. i. p. 366: –
‘Ashbourne, Sept. 13, 1777. ‘Boswell, I believe, is coming. He talks of being here to day. I shall be glad to see him. But he shrinks from the Baltick expedition, which I think is the best scheme in our power. What we shall substitute I know not. He wants to see Wales; but, except the woods of Bachycraigh, what is there in Wales, that can fill the hunger of ignorance, or quench the thirst of curiosity? We may, perhaps, form some scheme or other; but, in the phrase of Hockley in the Hole,687 it is a pity he has not a better bottom.’688 Such an ardour of mind, and vigour of enterprise, is admirable at any age: but more particularly so at the advanced period at which Johnson was then arrived. I am sorry now that I did not insist on our executing that scheme. Besides the other objects of curiosity and observation, to have seen my illustrious friend received, as he probably would have been, by a Prince so eminently distinguished for his variety of talents and acquisitions as the late King of Sweden; and by the Empress of Russia, whose extraordinary abilities, information, and magnanimity, astonish the world, would have afforded a noble subject for contemplation and record. This reflection may possibly be thought too visionary by the more sedate and cold-blooded part of my readers; yet I own, I frequently indulge it with an earnest, unavailing regret.
a It so happened. The letter was forwarded to my house at Edinburgh.
a Having unexpectedly, by the favour of Mr. Stone, of London Field, Hackney, seen the original in Johnson’s hand-writing, of ‘The Petition of the City of London to his Majesty, in favour of Dr. Dodd,’ I now present it to my readers, with such passages as were omitted inclosed in crotchets, and the additions or variations marked in Italicks.
‘That William Dodd, Doctor of Laws, now lying under sentence of death in your Majesty’s gaol of Newgate, for the crime of forgery, has for a great part of his life set a useful and laudable example of diligence in his calling, [and as we have reason to believe, has exercised his ministry with great fidelity and efficacy,] which, in many instances, has produced the most happy effect.
‘That he has been the first institutor, [or] and a very earnest and active promoter of several modes of useful charity, and [that] therefore [he] may be considered as having been on many occasions a benefactor to the publick.
‘[That when they consider his past life, they are willing to suppose his late crime to have been not the consequence of habitual depravity, but the suggestion of some sudden and violent temptation.]
‘[That] Your Petitioners therefore considering his case as in some of its circumstances unprecedented and peculiar, and encouraged by your Majesty’s known clemency, [they] most humbly recommend the said William Dodd to [his] your Majesty’s most gracious consideration, in hopes that he will be found not altogether [unfit] unworthy to stand an example of Royal Mercy.’
b His Speech at the Old Bailey, when found guilty.
a Dr. Gisborne, Physician to his Majesty’s Household, has obligingly communicated to me a fuller account of this story than had reached Dr. JOHNSON. The affected Gentleman was the late John Gilbert Cooper, Esq., author of a Life of Socrates, and of some poems in Dodsley’s Collection. Mr. Fitzherbert found him one morning, apparently, in such violent agitation, on account of the indisposition of his son, as to seem beyond the power of comfort. At length, however, he exclaimed, ‘I’ll write an Elegy.’ Mr. Fitzherbert being satisfied, by this, of the sincerity