Taylor's,attempted to dispute with Johnson in favour of Mungo Campbell,who shot Alexander,Earl of Eglintoune,upon his having fallen,when retreating from his Lordship,who he believed was about to seize his gun,as he had threatened to do.He said,he should have done just as Campbell did.JOHNSON.'Whoever would do as Campbell did,deserves to be hanged;not that I could,as a juryman,have found him legally guilty of murder;but I am glad they found means to convict him.'The gentleman-farmer said,'Apoor man has as much honour as a rich man;and Campbell had THAT to defend.'Johnson exclaimed,'A poor man has no honour.'The English yeoman,not dismayed,proceeded:'Lord Eglintoune was a damned fool to run on upon Campbell,after being warned that Campbell would shoot him if he did.'Johnson,who could not bear any thing like swearing,angrily replied,"He was NOT a DAMNEDfool:he only thought too well of Campbell.He did not believe Campbell would be such a DAMNED scoundrel,as to do so DAMNED a thing.'His emphasis on DAMNED,accompanied with frowning looks,reproved his opponent's want of decorum in HIS presence.
During this interview at Ashbourne,Johnson seemed to be more uniformly social,cheerful,and alert,than I had almost ever seen him.He was prompt on great occasions and on small.Taylor,who praised every thing of his own to excess;in short,'whose geese were all swans,'as the proverb says,expatiated on the excellence of his bull-dog,which,he told us,was 'perfectly well shaped.'
Johnson,after examining the animal attentively,thus repressed the vain-glory of our host:--'No,Sir,he is NOT well shaped;for there is not the quick transition from the thickness of the fore-part,to the TENUITY--the thin part--behind,--which a bull-dog ought to have.'This TENUITY was the only HARD WORD that I heard him use during this interview,and it will be observed,he instantly put another expression in its place.Taylor said,a small bull-dog was as good as a large one.JOHNSON.'No,Sir;for,in proportion to his size,he has strength:and your argument would prove,that a good bull-dog may be as small as a mouse.'It was amazing how he entered with perspicuity and keenness upon every thing that occurred in conversation.Most men,whom I know,would no more think of discussing a question about a bull-dog,than of attacking a bull.
I cannot allow any fragment whatever that floats in my memory concerning the great subject of this work to be lost.Though a small particular may appear trifling to some,it will be relished by others;while every little spark adds something to the general blaze:and to please the true,candid,warm admirers of Johnson,and in any degree increase the splendour of his reputation,I bid defiance to the shafts of ridicule,or even of malignity.Showers of them have been discharged at my Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides;yet it still sails unhurt along the stream of time,and,as an attendant upon Johnson,'Pursues the triumph,and partakes the gale.'
One morning after breakfast,when the sun shone bright,we walked out together,and 'pored'for some time with placid indolence upon an artificial water-fall,which Dr.Taylor had made by building a strong dyke of stone across the river behind the garden.It was now somewhat obstructed by branches of trees and other rubbish,which had come down the river,and settled close to it.Johnson,partly from a desire to see it play more freely,and partly from that inclination to activity which will animate,at times,the most inert and sluggish mortal,took a long pole which was lying on a bank,and pushed down several parcels of this wreck with painful assiduity,while I stood quietly by,wondering to behold the sage thus curiously employed,and smiling with an humorous satisfaction each time when he carried his point.He worked till he was quite out of breath;and having found a large dead cat so heavy that he could not move it after several efforts,'Come,'said he,(throwing down the pole,)'YOU shall take it now;'which I accordingly did,and being a fresh man,soon made the cat tumble over the cascade.
This may be laughed at as too trifling to record;but it is a small characteristick trait in the Flemish picture which I give of my friend,and in which,therefore I mark the most minute particulars.
And let it be remembered,that Aesop at play is one of the instructive apologues of antiquity.
Talking of Rochester's Poems,he said,he had given them to Mr.
Steevens to castrate for the edition of the poets,to which he was to write Prefaces.Dr.Taylor (the only time I ever heard him say any thing witty)observed,that if Rochester had been castrated himself,his exceptionable poems would not have been written.'Iasked if Burnet had not given a good Life of Rochester.JOHNSON.
'We have a good Death:there is not much Life.'I asked whether Prior's Poems were to be printed entire:Johnson said they were.Imentioned Lord Hailes's censure of Prior,in his Preface to a collection of Sacred Poems,by various hands,published by him at Edinburgh a great many years ago,where he mentions,'those impure tales which will be the eternal opprobrium of their ingenious authour.'JOHNSON.'Sir,Lord Hailes has forgot.There is nothing in Prior that will excite to lewdness.If Lord Hailes thinks there is,he must be more combustible than other people.'Iinstanced the tale of Paulo Purganti and his Wife.JOHNSON.Sir,there is nothing there,but that his wife wanted to be kissed when poor Paulo was out of pocket.No,Sir,Prior is a lady's book.No lady is ashamed to have it standing in her library.'
The hypochondriack disorder being mentioned,Dr.Johnson did not think it so common as I supposed.'Dr.Taylor (said he,)is the same one day as another.Burke and Reynolds are the same;Beauclerk,except when in pain,is the same.I am not so myself;but this I do not mention commonly.'
