SAMUEL JOHNSON.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 616, 20 September 1909, Page 4

SAMUEL JOHNSON.

REMINISCENCES. " THE ORACLE OF SPELLING. (BvJ.Q.X) On tho day that I/iohficld a.n<l Lord Rosebory were bogiiuiing to celebrato tho two hundredth .anniversary of the- birth of Samuel Johnson, readers of Tee Dominion wero informed -tiha-t Mr. Hogben, the New Zoathat too much stress is laid upon correct spelling. It seemed an unhappy coincidence land inspector-Goiioral of , iicnools,. tiliinks that tho bi-coii'tcnary of the man who ii credited with having set English orthography upon a sure basis siiould witness too ,' dissemination of tho opinion that orthography does not matter so mueh as wo all tnought it did.' .';.-.

1 want to resent any .remark that is derogatory to Johnson: Ho , is ono of iny oldest family and personal friends. Long bofore I was big.enough to wisii to read "Boswoll" I knew-all the wood-cute in tho four or. live-volume edition on the bookshelves. at home. There \yoro the portraits—a different one on each fcitlc-page. . I liked best that which showed 'him with pern held loosely in the; idle hand at his sido, and drooping head —looking 'As if he had to write,, and didn't want to. There were Johnson, Beauclork, and Langton uiteifering with , the Covent Garden marketers; Johnson fishing a dead ,oat out "of a stream,, with ;Boswefi' loc-kiug on; Johnson, reading tho manuscript'of .tlie "Vicar of Wakefield," while Goldsmith 'waited, listless and untidy. One of my fa\ -i .■ourites.u-as of Johnson at tile party, asking "Who is tihe gentleman'in lace?," and' Mr. Dilly replying, to Ms ovident disgust, "Mr. \Vilkes, sir." But the picture that impressed mo most' showed' tho great man in his p)ain dwk clothes, with knee breeches and threecornered liat, coming down the stops at Lord Chesterfield's front door ' and looking very cross, y while gorgeous flunkeys pointed and ■.sneered, and within some dapper personage (namo unknowu, but.l hated him) was going up-as to his lorraiip's presence. I knew tie words.underneath by heart—'.'Seven years, my lord,"have now passed,' since I waited in' your outward rooms, or waa repulsed from your door. ... .'■■'. :

Hearing my elders talk of the book made me want to read it. I was told to wait until I was older, but I read enough to convince myself that. "Boswell' : ' is not a boy's book. 'Novcrthelees, tlio Johnson of the. wood-cuts was a' friend of' my childhood, aoid, toknpw him bettor when, I should grow up was something to;look forward to. , .-.■" ■•'. ■~',•. ' •My next recollection, of Johuson pertains to a printing office in a cathedral city, and especially, to the proof-reader's desk, whorb' I (then' mmy 'teens) "held .copy." The dictionary .with a.portrait of . ''tho groat fcsicographer" as frontispiece held a place of honour as court of appeal in cases, of disputed spelling. I used to read it whilo. we TOitcd for proofs. Tlius I discovered for raysqlf. a truth ■ which, years afterwards mot mo in^the- pages of "Boswell"—"It ia.remarkablo.that he"—J<>hnsont— "was so attentive in tho.choice of tho passages -, in wTiioh words aro .autlio-risod, that; one may read pago after.nag©,of;his Dictionary with improvement and pleasure". ; Perhaps my' employer— -a scrupulous Quaker, and also, by tho way, a loxicographer. of eminoncer-had 1 satisfied himeelf of tho iustico: of. tliat'-'fur-ther . assertion of Bo3n-elrs-r-"he has' quoted no author' Aylioso writings had a, , tendency to liurt .sound...religion ■ and. morality.'" -'^iSp; 1 while,, thq,; proofreader, took■ slnnff-,'. hisf asi sistant- toofc- quotations from Bacon,:, Hooker, and Dryden., i-discoVfefed (though-r.-m-ay not have thus Expressed-'it)' that Johnson's Dictionar)', unlike other die-' tionanes, /is. literature.-, : . I gloried (between proofs) in the splendid rliotoric and high sontentiousness of the preface, '.Some passages invited themselves into my memory;, and I can still retell tiiem, perhaps not.with perfect accuracy. For instance,- "Much of my. life has '.been lost under the .pressure of disease, m'uch has been trifled away, mudi hoe'--always "boon' spent, in' provision : for ; tho 'day that was paeang.over.mej.but r.'shalliot ihinlc jpy employment u«6103s 'or'-'ighoble. if '.by my" as- ' Wta-nce' foVeign 'notibris■".- and distaiit agesgam acoe'ss'to tho propagators' of kjiowledgo. and understand the teachers'of troth" I :thoug'lit I could detect'a fault of the'Johnsoman manner inthe sehtcnoo. whoroTio'uses i ?i^Pfp 80 " 8 " 1 phrase, "wplls'of English' un:tlehled,' and then translates it into "piiro Bources of. genuine,", diction." '■' But boyish eritdcism -,was hushed on reaching sentences. iike ttleso:, "I may surely be contented without the pra'ise'of.perfection, which, tf I could obtain in this gloom of solitude, what would it avail me? I.have protracted my labouw imtil nlost of thoso,ivhom' I' wish'ed topleaio liavo.sunk.'mto tho- grave;- andfßucoessV.'and misoan ; .iage;:.aro empty.-, soundsi vSI !*/'?# frigid,.aranqniffity,,-fT having' •lifctle to fear, or hopo from censuro.'or.fronf ■praiso.".'- , : .: - ;■;-. ■' -.-'(. ,-■■--.•' •;•• . . Andj-of coui-Efl, I f6und tio quebr defini-' tions-ot."csciso,". "oat-s," ."lexicographer," and the. rest—and enjoyed theso' occasional 'perversities of my ancient and revered friend, Whoso -touched that book', I felt, touched a man. ' ■■ . ■ ■■•■'. ■

• Ono-day.-in-a poor, Ijttlo ' second-hand' DOOKshop I mado. a precious discovery—fto Dictionary in' two .thick' ''quarto volumes, oalf-oound. with'.tlio rough jiapor and quaint printing, of, 1793. Sifoh treasures,^l told m'yself, iver.6 not for an impecunious apprentice. I went away. I .camo.baok—departed ai'ain —returned once'moro.. Tho little , old woman in tho shop wonted: 103.'for Who.'-volumes. To mo thoy.-seemed worth.as many pounds, but my liquid assets totalled no* raoTo than 7s. I beat her down to that, and went away triumphantly burdened; ..- : ' - It must have -been before this time that I acquainted myself;with:the "Letter to Lord Uncsterfield," of \which, as I have shown/1 : already know one. famous sentence. I .used to .'say parts of tHe. "Letter" to niyseli,- in.stead of whistling, for I was that abnormal creature, i boy that did. not whistle. Or if, as some literary person has.lately said,'it is merely as , -a narcotic that wo repeat fine quotataons to ourselves, Johnson, perhaps was my substitute,'in'thoso : days, for cigarettes.' ■ A. critic oj more authority than I shall.ever be>Mo to .claim has oallcd' - the .Letter to Lord-Chesterfield'' an ''explosion .of wratli." .Nonsense. 'The wrath in it does n0 L e W°d°- Tho thing , is a perfect work of 'art. -lo mo it seeais one of tho finest pieces of English, proso ever written. . But 1 .may bo a partial judge,'for! regard Johnson's "London. , ; and ' his! '.'Vanity .of ' Human Wishes" as.great..poems.. '".- ~ ■ Years 'and, oceans intervened beforo the next stage/of my '. Johnsonian friendship. I read ■ VBoswell,": than wiioh, I pcotcst, no novel, play, poem, or newspaper is more interesting. No desert island library would be complete without it—or meagre with it. It is history, philosophy, • poetry, humour, journalism, -religion-, and .politics by turns, and light reading all the time. - ' It is a enron. Vcle of fact,-.yet-it-comprises one of those' triumphs whicharo tho special glory of great fiction. .The people of : Bhakespea-re, Cer-' vantes, Dickene, are more real to-day than I •*■¥ Pe.rsonagos of the -- histories and ■• biographies. ' Queen Anno, as someone baa very justly observed,, ie'-dead; But Boswell nae given Johnson the life and immortality. lof Fabtaff, Don Quixote,, and Sam Wellcr. Thanks to tho great biographer, ho who was formerly^an occasional and somewhat mysi torious visitor 13 now an inmate of my house. I dwell affectionately upon his very faults; they keep his virtues, human-. As far as I understand his intolleotttal eminence, I honoiir it, bnt I lovp those inconsistwicies which to the greatness of him. whom hia contemporaries called tho Litorary Dictator, and' who was long the Ornclo of Spelling, ridd tho charm of' fallibility. It is dofightful to read, in Birkbcck Hill's prcfaco to Johnson's "Lcttcra," that ho was not) always careful to comply with his ewn rulings, and that ho actually wrote:—"Persuauce/ , "I oannot butt," "council" (those who plead a cause), "happyest;"; "Fryday," "splicito," • "defense," "pamflots, 1 . 1 "liaiTasswl," "do's" and "dps" (does), ."inventor," "barel3," "cloaths" (clothes), "ncknowkgement," "distresful," "porsonale," "Plimouth." "imbeoillity," "oncrvaiting, ' and "devido." ■■; Aftt>r that, how is it possibfc to reuuko tho heresy? '