He bore the journey very well,and seemed to feel himself elevated as he approached Oxford,that magnificent and venerable seat of learning,Orthodoxy,and Toryism.Frank came in the heavy coach,in readiness to attend him;and we were received with the most polite hospitality at the house of his old friend Dr.Adams,Master of Pembroke College,who had given us a kind invitation.Before we were set down,I communicated to Johnson,my having engaged to return to London directly,for the reason I have mentioned,but that I would hasten back to him again.He was pleased that I had made this journey merely to keep him company.He was easy and placid with Dr.Adams,Mrs.and Miss Adams,and Mrs.Kennicot,widow of the learned Hebraean,who was here on a visit.He soon dispatched the inquiries which were made about his illness and recovery,by a short and distinct narrative;and then assuming a gay air,repeated from Swift,--'Nor think on our approaching ills,And talk of spectacles and pills.'
I fulfilled my intention by going to London,and returned to Oxford on Wednesday the 9th of June,when I was happy to find myself again in the same agreeable circle at Pembroke College,with the comfortable prospect of making some stay.Johnson welcomed my return with more than ordinary glee.
Next morning at breakfast,he pointed out a passage in Savage's Wanderer,saying,'These are fine verses.''If (said he,)I had written with hostility of Warburton in my Shahspeare,I should have quoted this couplet:--"Here Learning,blinded first and then beguil'd,Looks dark as Ignorance,as Fancy wild."You see they'd have fitted him to a T,'(smiling.)Dr.ADAMS.'But you did not write against Warburton.'JOHNSON.No,Sir,I treated him with great respect both in my Preface and in my Notes.'
After dinner,when one of us talked of there being a great enmity between Whig and Tory;--Johnson.'Why not so much,I think,unless when they come into competition with each other.There is none when they are only common acquaintance,none when they are of different sexes.A Tory will marry into a Whig family,and a Whig into a Tory family,without any reluctance.But indeed,in a matter of much more concern than political tenets,and that is religion,men and women do not concern themselves much about difference of opinion;and ladies set no value on the moral character of men who pay their addresses to them;the greatest profligate will be as well received as the man of the greatest virtue,and this by a very good woman,by a woman who says her prayers three times a day.'Our ladies endeavoured to defend their sex from this charge;but he roared them down!'No,no,a lady will take Jonathan Wild as readily as St.Austin,if he has threepence more;and,what is worse,her parents will give her to him.Women have a perpetual envy of our vices;they are less vicious than we,not from choice,but because we restrict them;they are the slaves of order and fashion;their virtue is of more consequence to us than our own,so far as concerns this world.'
Miss Adams mentioned a gentleman of licentious character,and said,'Suppose I had a mind to marry that gentleman,would my parents consent?'JOHNSON.'Yes,they'd consent,and you'd go.You'd go though they did not consent.'Miss ADAMS.'Perhaps their opposing might make me go.'JOHNSON.'O,very well;you'd take one whom you think a bad man,to have the pleasure of vexing your parents.
You put me in mind of Dr.Barrowby,the physician,who was very fond of swine's flesh.One day,when he was eating it,he said,"Iwish I was a Jew.""Why so?(said somebody;)the Jews are not allowed to eat your favourite meat.""Because,(said he,)I should then have the gust of eating it,with the pleasure of sinning."'
Johnson then proceeded in his declamation.
Miss Adams soon afterwards made an observation that I do not recollect,which pleased him much:he said with a good-humoured smile,'That there should be so much excellence united with so much DEPRAVITY,is strange.'
Indeed,this lady's good qualities,merit,and accomplishments,and her constant attention to Dr.Johnson,were not lost upon him.She happened to tell him that a little coffeepot,in which she had made his coffee,was the only thing she could call her own.He turned to her with a complacent gallantry,'Don't say so,my dear;I hope you don't reckon my heart as nothing.'
On Friday,June 11,we talked at breakfast,of forms of prayer.
JOHNSON.'I know of no good prayers but those in the Book of Common Prayer.'DR.ADAMS.(in a very earnest manner:)'I wish,Sir,you would compose some family prayers.'JOHNSON.'I will not compose prayers for you,Sir,because you can do it for yourself.
But I have thought of getting together all the books of prayers which I could,selecting those which should appear to me the best,putting out some,inserting others,adding some prayers of my own,and prefixing a discourse on prayer.'We all now gathered about him,and two or three of us at a time joined in pressing him to execute this plan.He seemed to be a little displeased at the manner of our importunity,and in great agitation called out,'Do not talk thus of what is so aweful.I know not what time GOD will allow me in this world.There are many things which I wish to do.'
Some of us persisted,and Dr.Adams said,'I never was more serious about any thing in my life.'JOHNSON.'Let me alone,let me alone;I am overpowered.'And then he put his hands before his face,and reclined for some time upon the table.
Dr.Johnson and I went in Dr.Adams's coach to dine with Dr.
Nowell,Principal of St.Mary Hall,at his beautiful villa at Iffley,on the banks of the Isis,about two miles from Oxford.
