[1238] Windham was scarcely a statesman as yet, though for a few months of the year before he had been Chief Secretary for Ireland (ante, p 200). He was in Parliament, but he had never spoken. His Diary shews that he had no 'important occupations.' On Dec. 12, for instance, he records (p. 30):—'Came down about ten; read reviews, wrote to Mrs. Siddons, and then went to the ice; came home only in time to dress and go to my mother's to dinner.' See ante, p. 356, for his interest in balloons.
[1239] 'My father,' writes Miss Burney, 'saw him once while I was away, and carried Mr. Burke with him, who was desirous of paying his respects to him once more in person. He rallied a little while they were there; and Mr. Burke, when they left him, said to my father:—"His work is almost done, and well has he done it."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 333. Burke, in 1792, said in Parliament that 'Dr. Johnson's virtues were equal to his transcendent talents, and his friendship he valued as the greatest consolation and happiness of his life.' Parl. Debates, xxx. 109.
[1240] On the same undoubted authority, I give a few articles, which should have been inserted in chronological order; but which, now that they are before me, I should be sorry to omit:—
'In 1736, Dr. Johnson had a particular inclination to have been engaged as an assistant to the Reverend Mr. Budworth, then head master of the Grammar-school, at Brewood, in Staffordshire, "an excellent person, who possessed every talent of a perfect instructor of youth, in a degree which, (to use the words of one of the brightest ornaments of literature, the Reverend Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester,) has been rarely found in any of that profession since the days of Quintilian." Mr. Budworth, "who was less known in his life-time, from that obscure situation to which the caprice of fortune oft condemns the most accomplished characters, than his highest merit deserved," had been bred under Mr. Blackwell [Blackwall], at Market Bosworth, where Johnson was some time an usher [ante, i. 84]; which might naturally lead to the application. Mr. Budworth was certainly no stranger to the learning or abilities of Johnson; as he more than once lamented his having been under the necessity of declining the engagement, from an apprehension that the paralytick affection, under which our great Philologist laboured through life, might become the object of imitation or of ridicule, among his pupils.' Captain Budworth, his grandson, has confirmed to me this anecdote.
'Among the early associates of Johnson, at St. John's Gate, was Samuel Boyse [G-1], well known by his ingenious productions; and not less noted for his imprudence. It was not unusual for Boyse to be a customer to the pawnbroker. On one of these occasions, Dr. Johnson collected a sum of money to redeem his friend's clothes, which in two days after were pawned again. "The sum, (said Johnson,) was collected by sixpences, at a time when to me sixpence was a serious consideration [G-2]."
'Speaking one day of a person for whom he had a real friendship, but in whom vanity was somewhat too predominant, he observed, that "Kelly [G-3] was so fond of displaying on his side-board the plate which he possessed, that he added to it his spurs. For my part, (said he,) I never was master of a pair of spurs, but once; and they are now at the bottom of the ocean. By the carelessness of Boswell's servant, they were dropped from the end of the boat, on our return from the Isle of Sky [G-4]."'
The late Reverend Mr. Samuel Badcock [G-5], having been introduced to Dr. Johnson, by Mr. Nichols, some years before his death, thus expressed himself in a letter to that gentleman:—
'How much I am obliged to you for the favour you did me in introducing me to Dr. Johnson! Tantùm vìdi Virgilium [G-6]. But to have seen him, and to have received a testimony of respect from him, was enough. I recollect all the conversation, and shall never forget one of his expressions. Speaking of Dr. P—— [Priestley], (whose writings, I saw, he estimated at a low rate,) he said, "You have proved him as deficient in probity as he is in learning [G-7]." I called him an "Index-scholar [G-8];" but he was not willing to allow him a claim even to that merit. He said, that "he borrowed from those who had been borrowers themselves, and did not know that the mistakes he adopted had been answered by others." I often think of our short, but precious, visit to this great man. I shall consider it as a kind of an aera in my life.' BOSWELL. [Note: See Appendix G for notes on this footnote.]
[1241] See ante, i. 152, 501.
[1242] He wrote to Dr. Taylor on Feb. 17, 1776:—'Keep yourself cheerful. Lie in bed with a lamp, and when you cannot sleep and are beginning to think, light your candle and read. At least light your candle; a man is perhaps never so much harrassed (sic) by his own mind in the light as in the dark.' Notes and Queries, 6th S. v. 423.