The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [888]
b Anec. p. 23.
c Ib. p. 302.
d Anec. p. 63.
a Upon mentioning this to my friend Mr. Wilkes, he, with his usual readiness, pleasantly matched it with the following sentimental anecdote. He was invited by a young man of fashion at Paris, to sup with him and a lady, who had been for some time his mistress, but with whom he was going to part. He said to Mr. Wilkes that he really felt very much for her, she was in such distress; and that he meant to make her a present of two hundred louis-d’ors. Mr. Wilkes observed the behaviour of Mademoiselle, who sighed indeed very piteously, and assumed every pathetick air of grief; but eat no less than three French pigeons, which are as large as English partridges, besides other things. Mr. Wilkes whispered the gentleman, ‘We often say in England, Excessive sorrow is exceeding dry, but I never heard Excessive sorrow is exceeding hungry. Perhaps one hundred will do.’ The gentleman took the hint.
a Sir Joshua Reynolds, on account of the excellence both of the sentiment and expression of this letter, took a copy of it which he shewed to some of his friends; one of whom,1216 who admired it, being allowed to peruse it leisurely at home, a copy was made, and found its way into the newspapers and magazines. It was transcribed with some inaccuracies. I print it from the original draft in Johnson’s own hand-writing.
a See p. 399.
b A mistake for 1752.
c Printed in his Works {i.150}.
a Johnson wrote removes.
a At the Essex Head, Essex-street.
b Mr. Allen, the printer.
a It is remarkable that so good a Latin scholar as Johnson should have been so inattentive to the metre, as by mistake to have written stellas instead of ignes.
a His love of London continually appears. In a letter from him to Mrs. Smart, wife of his friend the Poet, which is published in a well-written life of him, prefixed to an edition of his Poems, in 1791, there is the following sentence: – ‘To one that has passed so many years in the pleasures and opulence of London, there are few places that can give much delight.’
Once, upon reading that line in the curious epitaph quoted in The Spectator,
‘Born in New-England, did in London die;’1230
he laughed and said, ‘I do not wonder at this. It would have been strange, if born in London, he had died in New-England.’
a The celebrated Miss Fanny Burney.
a Son of the late Peter Paradise, Esq., his Britannick Majesty’s Consul at Salonica, in Macedonia, by his lady, a native of that country. He studied at Oxford, and has been honoured by that University with the degree of LL.D. He is distinguished not only by his learning and talents, but by an amiable disposition, gentleness of manners, and a very general acquaintance with well-informed and accomplished persons of almost all nations.
b Bookseller to his Majesty.
a Allan Ramsay, Esq., painter to his Majesty, who died Aug. 10, 1784, in the 71st year of his age, much regretted by his friends.
a Against inquisitive and perplexing thoughts. ‘O Lord, my Maker and Protector, who hast graciously sent me into this world to work out my salvation, enable me to drive from me all such unquiet and perplexing thoughts as may mislead or hinder me in the Practice of those duties which Thou hastrequired. WhenIbeholdthe worksofthy hands, and consider the course of thy providence, give me grace always to remember that thy thoughts are not my thoughts, nor thy ways my ways. And while it shall please Thee to continue me inthis world, where much is to be done, and little to be known, teach me by thy Holy Spirit, to withdraw my mind from unprofitable and dangerous inquiries, from difficulties vainly curious, and doubts impossible to be solved. Let me rejoice in the light which Thou hast imparted, let me serve Thee with active zeal and humble confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul which Thou receivest Shall be satisfied with knowledge. Grantthis, O Lord, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.’
b P. 279.
c I shall add one instance only to those which I have thought