We got into an argument whether the Judges who went to India might with propriety engage in trade.Johnson warmly maintained that they might.'For why (he urged,)should not Judges get riches,as well as those who deserve them less?'I said,they should have sufficient salaries,and have nothing to take off their attention from the affairs of the publick.JOHNSON.'No Judge,Sir,can give his whole attention to his office;and it is very proper that he should employ what time he has to himself,to his own advantage,in the most profitable manner.''Then,Sir,(said Davies,who enlivened the dispute by ****** it somewhat dramatick,)he may become an insurer;and when he is going to the bench,he may be stopped,--"Your Lordship cannot go yet:here is a bunch of invoices:several ships are about to sail."'JOHNSON.Sir,you may as well say a Judge should not have a house;for they may come and tell him,"Your Lordship's house is on fire;"and so,instead of minding the business of his Court,he is to be occupied in getting the engine with the greatest speed.There is no end of this.Every Judge who has land,trades to a certain extent in corn or in cattle;and in the land itself,undoubtedly.His steward acts for him,and so do clerks for a great merchant.A Judge may be a farmer;but he is not to geld his own pigs.A Judge may play a little at cards for his amusement;but he is not to play at marbles,or at chuck-farthing in the Piazza.No,Sir;there is no profession to which a man gives a very great proportion of his time.It is wonderful,when a calculation is made,how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession.No man would be a Judge,upon the condition of being totally a Judge.
The best employed lawyer has his mind at work but for a small proportion of his time;a great deal of his occupation is merely mechanical.I once wrote for a magazine:I made a calculation,that if I should write but a page a day,at the same rate,Ishould,in ten years,write nine volumes in folio,of an ordinary size and print.'BOSWELL.'Such as Carte's History?'JOHNSON.
'Yes,Sir.When a man writes from his own mind,he writes very rapidly.The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading,in order to write:a man will turn over half a library to make one book.'
We spoke of Rolt,to whose Dictionary of Commerce Dr.Johnson wrote the Preface.JOHNSON.'Old Gardner the bookseller employed Rolt and Smart to write a monthly miscellany,called The Universal Visitor.There was a formal written contract,which Allen the printer saw.Gardner thought as you do of the Judge.They were bound to write nothing else;they were to have,I think,a third of the profits of this sixpenny pamphlet;and the contract was for ninety-nine years.I wish I had thought of giving this to Thurlow,in the cause about Literary Property.What an excellent instance would it have been of the oppression of booksellers towards poor authours!'(smiling.)Davies,zealous for the honour of THE TRADE,said,Gardner was not properly a bookseller.JOHNSON.'Nay,Sir;he certainly was a bookseller.He had served his time regularly,was a member of the Stationers'company,kept a shop in the face of mankind,purchased copyright,and was a bibliopole,Sir,in every sense.I wrote for some months in The Universal Visitor,for poor Smart,while he was mad,not then knowing the terms on which he was engaged to write,and thinking I was doing him good.I hoped his wits would soon return to him.Mine returned to me,and I wrote in The Universal Visitor no longer.
Friday,April 7,I dined with him at a Tavern,with a numerous company.
One of the company suggested an internal objection to the antiquity of the poetry said to be Ossian's,that we do not find the wolf in it,which must have been the case had it been of that age.
The mention of the wolf had led Johnson to think of other wild beasts;and while Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr.Langton were carrying on a dialogue about something which engaged them earnestly,he,in the midst of it,broke out,'Pennant tells of Bears--'[what he added,I have forgotten.]They went on,which he being dull of hearing,did not perceive,or,if he did,was not willing to break off his talk;so he continued to vociferate his remarks,and BEAR('like a word in a catch'as Beauclerk said,)was repeatedly heard at intervals,which coming from him who,by those who did not know him,had been so often assimilated to that ferocious animal,while we who were sitting around could hardly stifle laughter,produced a very ludicrous effect.Silence having ensued,he proceeded:'We are told,that the black bear is innocent;but I should not like to trust myself with him.'Mr.Gibbon muttered,in a low tone of voice,'I should not like to trust myself with YOU.'This piece of sarcastick pleasantry was a prudent resolution,if applied to a competition of abilities.
Patriotism having become one of our topicks,Johnson suddenly uttered,in a strong determined tone,an apophthegm,at which many will start:'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.'But let it be considered,that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country,but that pretended patriotism which so many,in all ages and countries,have made a cloak for self-interest.
Mrs.Prichard being mentioned,he said,'Her playing was quite mechanical.It is wonderful how little mind she had.Sir,she had never read the tragedy of Macbeth all through.She no more thought of the play out of which her part was taken,than a shoemaker thinks of the skin,out of which the piece of leather,of which he is ****** a pair of shoes,is cut.'
On Saturday,April 8,I dined with him at Mr.Thrale's,where we met the Irish Dr.Campbell.Johnson had supped the night before at Mrs.Abington's,with some fashionable people whom he named;and he seemed much pleased with having made one in so elegant a circle.
