第181章

When I observed that a housebreaker was in general very timorous;JOHNSON.'No wonder,Sir;he is afraid of being shot getting INTOa house,or hanged when he has got OUT of it.'

He told us,that he had in one day written six sheets of a translation from the French,adding,'I should be glad to see it now.I wish that I had copies of all the pamphlets written against me,as it is said Pope had.Had I known that I should make so much noise in the world,I should have been at pains to collect them.Ibelieve there is hardly a day in which there is not something about me in the newspapers.'

On Monday,June 4,we all went to Luton-Hoe,to see Lord Bute's magnificent seat,for which I had obtained a ticket.As we entered the park,I talked in a high style of my old friendship with Lord Mountstuart,and said,'I shall probably be much at this place.'

The Sage,aware of human vicissitudes,gently checked me:'Don't you be too sure of that.'He made two or three peculiar observations;as when shewn the botanical garden,'Is not EVERYgarden a botanical garden?'When told that there was a shrubbery to the extent of several miles:'That is making a very foolish use of the ground;a little of it is very well.'When it was proposed that we should walk on the pleasure-ground;'Don't let us fatigue ourselves.Why should we walk there?Here's a fine tree,let's get to the top of it.'But upon the whole,he was very much pleased.He said,'This is one of the places I do not regret having come to see.It is a very stately place,indeed;in the house magnificence is not sacrificed to convenience,nor convenience to magnificence.The library is very splendid:the dignity of the rooms is very great;and the quantity of pictures is beyond expectation,beyond hope.'

It happened without any previous concert,that we visited the seat of Lord Bute upon the King's birthday;we dined and drank his Majesty's health at an inn,in the village of Luton.

In the evening I put him in mind of his promise to favour me with a copy of his celebrated Letter to the Earl of Chesterfield,and he was at last pleased to comply with this earnest request,by dictating it to me from his memory;for he believed that he himself had no copy.There was an animated glow in his countenance while he thus recalled his high-minded indignation.

On Tuesday,June 5,Johnson was to return to London.He was very pleasant at breakfast;I mentioned a friend of mine having resolved never to marry a pretty woman.JOHNSON.'Sir it is a very foolish resolution to resolve not to marry a pretty woman.Beauty is of itself very estimable.No,Sir,I would prefer a pretty woman,unless there are objections to her.A pretty woman may be foolish;a pretty woman may be wicked;a pretty woman may not like me.But there is no such danger in marrying a pretty woman as is apprehended:she will not be persecuted if she does not invite persecution.A pretty woman,if she has a mind to be wicked,can find a readier way than another;and that is all.'

At Shefford I had another affectionate parting from my revered friend,who was taken up by the Bedford coach and carried to the metropolis.I went with Messieurs Dilly,to see some friends at Bedford;dined with the officers of the militia of the county,and next day proceeded on my journey.

Johnson's charity to the poor was uniform and extensive,both from inclination and principle.He not only bestowed liberally out of his own purse,but what is more difficult as well as rare,would beg from others,when he had proper objects in view.This he did judiciously as well as humanely.Mr.Philip Metcalfe tells me,that when he has asked him for some money for persons in distress,and Mr.Metcalfe has offered what Johnson thought too much,he insisted on taking less,saying,'No,no,Sir;we must not PAMPERthem.'

I am indebted to Mr.Malone,one of Sir Joshua Reynolds's executors,for the following note,which was found among his papers after his death,and which,we may presume,his unaffected modesty prevented him from communicating to me with the other letters from Dr.Johnson with which he was pleased to furnish me.However slight in itself,as it does honour to that illustrious painter,and most amiable man,I am happy to introduce it.

'TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

'DEAR SIR,--It was not before yesterday that I received your splendid benefaction.To a hand so liberal in distributing,I hope nobody will envy the power of acquiring.I am,dear Sir,your obliged and most humble servant,'June 23,1781.'

'SAM.JOHNSON.'

The following curious anecdote I insert in Dr.Burney's own words:--'Dr.Burney related to Dr.Johnson the partiality which his writings had excited in a friend of Dr.Burney's,the late Mr.

Bewley,well known in Norfolk by the name of the Philosopher of Massingham:who,from the Ramblers and Plan of his Dictionary,and long before the authour's fame was established by the Dictionary itself,or any other work,had conceived such a reverence for him,that he urgently begged Dr.Burney to give him the cover of the first letter he had received from him,as a relick of so estimable a writer.This was in 1755.In 1760,when Dr.Burney visited Dr.