Adams,the master of it,whom I found to be a most polite,pleasing,communicative man.Before his advancement to the headship of his college,I had intended to go and visit him at Shrewsbury,where he was rector of St.Chad's,in order to get from him what particulars he could recollect of Johnson's academical life.He now obligingly gave me part of that authentick information,which,with what I afterwards owed to his kindness,will be found incorporated in its proper place in this work.
Dr.Adams told us,that in some of the Colleges at Oxford,the fellows had excluded the students from social intercourse with them in the common room.JOHNSON.'They are in the right,Sir:there can be no real conversation,no fair exertion of mind amongst them,if the young men are by;for a man who has a character does not choose to stake it in their presence.'BOSWELL.'But,Sir,may there not be very good conversation without a contest for superiority?'JOHNSON.'No animated conversation,Sir,for it cannot be but one or other will come off superiour.I do not mean that the victor must have the better of the argument,for he may take the weak side;but his superiority of parts and knowledge will necessarily appear:and he to whom he thus shews himself superiour is lessened in the eyes of the young men.'
We walked with Dr.Adams into the master's garden,and into the common room.JOHNSON.(after a reverie of meditation,)'Ay!Here I used to play at draughts with Phil.Jones and Fludyer.Jones loved beer,and did not get very forward in the church.Fludyer turned out a scoundrel,a Whig,and said he was ashamed of having been bred at Oxford.He had a living at Putney,and got under the eye of some retainers to the court at that time,and so became a violent Whig:but he had been a scoundrel all along to be sure.'
BOSWELL.'Was he a scoundrel,Sir,in any other way than that of being a political scoundrel?Did he cheat at draughts?'JOHNSON.
'Sir,we never played for MONEY.'
He then carried me to visit Dr.Bentham,Canon of Christ-Church,and Divinity Professor,with whose learned and lively conversation we were much pleased.He gave us an invitation to dinner,which Dr.Johnson told me was a high honour.'Sir,it is a great thing to dine with the Canons of Christ-Church.'We could not accept his invitation,as we were engaged to dine at University College.We had an excellent dinner there,with the Master and Fellows,it being St.Cuthbert's day,which is kept by them as a festival,as he was a saint of Durham,with which this college is much connected.
We drank tea with Dr.Horne,late President of Magdalen College,and Bishop of Norwich,of whose abilities,in different respects,the publick has had eminent proofs,and the esteem annexed to whose character was increased by knowing him personally.
We then went to Trinity College,where he introduced me to Mr.
Thomas Warton,with whom we passed a part of the evening.We talked of biography--JOHNSON.'It is rarely well executed.They only who live with a man can write his life with any genuine exactness and discrimination;and few people who have lived with a man know what to remark about him.The chaplain of a late Bishop,whom I was to assist in writing some memoirs of his Lordship,could tell me scarcely any thing.'
I said,Mr.Robert Dodsley's life should be written,as he had been so much connected with the wits of his time,and by his literary merit had raised himself from the station of a footman.Mr.Warton said,he had published a little volume under the title of The Muse in Livery.JOHNSON.'I doubt whether Dodsley's brother would thank a man who should write his life:yet Dodsley himself was not unwilling that his original low condition should be recollected.
When Lord Lyttelton's Dialogues of the Dead came out,one of which is between Apicius,an ancient epicure,and Dartineuf,a modern epicure,Dodsley said to me,"I knew Dartineuf well,for I was once his footman."'
I mentioned Sir Richard Steele having published his Christian Hero,with the avowed purpose of obliging himself to lead a religious life;yet,that his conduct was by no means strictly suitable.
JOHNSON.'Steele,I believe,practised the lighter vices.'
Mr.Warton,being engaged,could not sup with us at our inn;we had therefore another evening by ourselves.I asked Johnson,whether a man's being forward to make himself known to eminent people,and seeing as much of life,and getting as much information as he could in every way,was not yet lessening himself by his forwardness.
JOHNSON.'No,Sir,a man always makes himself greater as he increases his knowledge.
I censured some ludicrous fantastick dialogues between two coach-horses and other such stuff,which Baretti had lately published.
He joined with me,and said,'Nothing odd will do long.Tristram Shandy did not last.'I expressed a desire to be acquainted with a lady who had been much talked of,and universally celebrated for extraordinary address and insinuation.JOHNSON.'Never believe extraordinary characters which you hear of people.Depend upon it,Sir,they are exaggerated.You do not see one man shoot a great deal higher than another.'I mentioned Mr.Burke.JOHNSON.'Yes;Burke is an extraordinary man.His stream of mind is perpetual.'
It is very pleasing to me to record,that Johnson's high estimation of the talents of this gentleman was uniform from their early acquaintance.Sir Joshua Reynolds informs me,that when Mr.Burke was first elected a member of Parliament,and Sir John Hawkins expressed a wonder at his attaining a seat,Johnson said,'Now we who know Mr.Burke,know,that he will be one of the first men in this country.'And once,when Johnson was ill,and unable to exert himself as much as usual without fatigue,Mr.Burke having been mentioned,he said,'That fellow calls forth all my powers.Were Ito see Burke now it would kill me.'So much was he accustomed to consider conversation as a contest,and such was his notion of Burke as an opponent.
