Johnson's Life and Genius.
��vessel of his peace x . Fielding, he says, was the inventor of a cant phrase, Goodness of he art > which means little more than the virtue of a horse or a dog 2 . He should have known that kind affections are the essence of virtue ; they are the will of God implanted in our nature, to aid and strengthen moral obligation ; they incite to action ; a sense of benevolence is no less necessary than a sense of duty. Good affections are an ornament not only to an author but to his writings. He who shews himself upon a cold scent for opportunities to bark and snarl throughout a volume of six hundred pages, may, if he will, pretend to moralize ; but GOOD NESS OF HEART, or, to use that politer phrase, the virtue of a horse or a dog, would redound more to his honour. But Sir John is no more : our business is with Johnson. The members of his club were respectable for their rank, their talents, and their literature 3 . They attended with punctuality till about Midsummer 1 784, when, with some appearance of health, Johnson went into Derbyshire, and thence to Lichfield 4 . While he was in that part of the world, his friends in town were labouring for his benefit. The air of a more southern climate they thought might prolong a valuable life. But a pension of 300 a year was a slender fund for a travelling valetudinarian, and it was not then known that he had saved a moderate sum of money 5 . Mr. Boswell and Sir Joshua Reynolds undertook to solicit the patronage of the Chancellor 6 . With Lord Thurlow, while he was at the bar, Johnson was well acquainted. He was often heard to say, ' Thurlow is a man of such vigour of mind, that I never knew I was to meet him but I was going to say, I was
��father did not like being passed over.'
1 Macbeth, Act iii. sc. i. 1. 67.
2 Hawkins, p. 215.
'Had not Thwackum too much neglected virtue, and Square re ligion, in the composition of their several systems, and had not both utterly discarded all natural good ness of heart, they had never been represented as the objects of de rision in this history.' Tom Jones, Bk. iii. ch. 4.
��3 Life, iv. 254, 438.
4 Ib. iv. 353.
5 He left at least .2,000 (Ib. iv. 402, n. 2) ; but so little did he know the amount of his property that a few months before his death he said to Boswell : ' I have (said he) about the world I think above a thousand pounds, which I intend shall afford Frank an annuity of seventy pounds a year.' Ib. iv. 284.
6 Ib. iv. 326, 348.
afraid,
�� �
