[1236] See post, March 15, 1776.
[1237] 'Dr. Campbell was an entertaining story-teller, which [sic] sometimes he rather embellished; so that the writer of this once heard Dr. Johnson say:—"Campbell will lie, but he never lies on paper."' Gent. Mag. for 1785, p. 969.
[1238] I am inclined to think that he was misinformed as to this circumstance. I own I am jealous for my worthy friend Dr. John Campbell. For though Milton could without remorse absent himself from publick worship [Johnson's Works, vii. 115] I cannot. On the contrary, I have the same habitual impressions upon my mind, with those of a truely venerable Judge, who said to Mr. Langton, 'Friend Langton, if I have not been at church on Sunday, I do not feel myself easy.' Dr. Campbell was a sincerely religious man. Lord Macartney, who is eminent for his variety of knowledge, and attention to men of talents, and knew him well, told me, that when he called on him in a morning, he found him reading a chapter in the Greek New Testament, which he informed his Lordship was his constant practice. The quantity of Dr. Campbell's composition is almost incredible, and his labours brought him large profits. Dr. Joseph Warton told me that Johnson said of him, 'He is the richest authour that ever grazed the common of literature.' BOSWELL.
[1239] See post, April 7, 1778. Campbell complied with one of the Monita Padagogica of Erasmus. 'Si quem praeteribis natu grandem, magistratum, sacerdotem, doctorem…. memento aperire caput…. Itidem facito quum praeteribis asdem sacram.' Erasmus's Colloquies, ed. 1867, i. 36.
[1240] Reynolds said of Johnson:—'He was not easily imposed upon by professions to honesty and candour; but he appeared to have little suspicion of hypocrisy in religion.' Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 459. Boswell, in one of his penitent letters, wrote to Temple on July 21, 1790:—'I am even almost inclined to think with you, that my great oracle Johnson did allow too much credit to good principles, without good practice.' Letters of Boswell, p. 327.
[1241] Campbell lived in 'the large new-built house at the north-west-corner of Queen Square, Bloomsbury, whither, particularly on a Sunday evening, great numbers of persons of the first eminence for science and literature resorted for the enjoyment of conversation.' Hawkins's Johnson, p. 210.
[1242] Churchill, in his first poem, The Rosciad (Poems, i. 4), mentions Johnson without any disrespect among those who were thought of as judge.
'For Johnson some, but Johnson, it was feared,
Would be too grave; and Sterne too gay appeared.'
In The Author (ib. ii. 36), if I mistake not, he grossly alludes to the convulsive disorder to which Johnson was subject. Attacking the pensioners he says—the italics are his own:—
'Others, half-palsied only, mutes become,
And what makes Smollett write makes Johnson dumb.'