Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/210

 ��Anecdotes by Hannah More.

��Did I tell you I went to see Dr. Johnson ? Miss Monckton x carried me, and we paid him a very long visit. He received me with the greatest kindness and affection, and as to the Bas Bleu, all the flattery I ever received from every body together would not make up his sum. He said, but I seriously insist you do not tell any body, for I am ashamed of writing it even to you ; he said there was no name in poetry that might not be glad to own it 2. You cannot imagine how I stared ; all this from John son, that parsimonious praiser ! I told him I was delighted at his approbation ; he answered quite characteristically, * And so you may, for I give you the opinion of a man who does not rate his judgment in these things very low, I can tell you.' Memoirs, i. 319.

1784.

My appointment at Oxford was to flirt with Dr. Johnson, but he was a recreant knight, and had deserted 3. He had been for a fortnight at the house of my friend Dr. Adams, the head of Pembroke, with Mr. Boswell ; but the latter being obliged to go to town, Johnson was not thought well enough to remain behind, and afterwards to travel by himself; so that he left my friend's house the very day I got thither, though they told me he did me the honour to be very angry and out of humour, that I did not come so soon as I had promised. I am grieved to find that his mind is still a prey to melancholy, and that the fear of death operates on him to the destruction of his peace. It is grievous it is unaccountable ! He who has the Christian hope upon the best foundation ; whose faith is strong, whose morals are irreproachable 4 ! But I am willing to ascribe it to bad nerves, and bodily disease. Memoirs, i. 330.

even what he likes, extravagantly.'

3 He went to Oxford on June 3, 1784, and left it on June 19. Life, iv. 283, 311.

4 ' MRS. ADAMS. " You seem, Sir, to forget the merits of our Redeemer." JOHNSON. " Madam, I do not for get the merits of my Redeemer ; but my Redeemer has said that he will set some on his right hand and some on his left." He was in gloomy

Poor

��1 Life, iv. 108, n. 4.

2 Johnson said to Mrs. Thrale : ' I know nobody who blasts by praise as you do; for whenever there is exaggerated praise everybody is set against a character.' Ib. iv. 81. See also ib. iii. 225, where Mrs. Thrale said : ' I do not know for cer tain what will please Dr. Johnson ; but I know for certain that it will displease him to praise anything,

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