Mrs.Aston,whom I had seen the preceding night,and her sister,Mrs.Gastrel,a widow lady,had each a house and garden,and pleasure-ground,prettily situated upon Stowhill,a gentle eminence,adjoining to Lichfield.Johnson walked away to dinner there,leaving me by myself without any apology;I wondered at this want of that facility of manners,from which a man has no difficulty in carrying a friend to a house where he is intimate;Ifelt it very unpleasant to be thus left in solitude in a country town,where I was an entire stranger,and began to think myself unkindly deserted;but I was soon relieved,and convinced that my friend,instead of being deficient in delicacy,had conducted the matter with perfect propriety,for I received the following note in his handwriting:'Mrs.Gastrel,at the lower house on Stowhill,desires Mr.Boswell's company to dinner at two.'I accepted of the invitation,and had here another proof how amiable his character was in the opinion of those who knew him best.I was not informed,till afterwards,that Mrs.Gastrel's husband was the clergyman who,while he lived at Stratford upon Avon,where he was proprietor of Shakspeare's garden,with Gothick barbarity cut down his mulberry-tree,and,as Dr.Johnson told me,did it to vex his neighbours.
His lady,I have reason to believe,on the same authority,participated in the guilt of what the enthusiasts for our immortal bard deem almost a species of sacrilege.
After dinner Dr.Johnson wrote a letter to Mrs.Thrale on the death of her son.I said it would be very distressing to Thrale,but she would soon forget it,as she had so many things to think of.
JOHNSON.'No,Sir,Thrale will forget it first.SHE has many things that she MAY think of.HE has many things that he MUSTthink of.'This was a very just remark upon the different effect of those light pursuits which occupy a vacant and easy mind,and those serious engagements which arrest attention,and keep us from brooding over grief.
In the evening we went to the Town-hall,which was converted into a temporary theatre,and saw Theodosius,with The Stratford Jubilee.
I was happy to see Dr.Johnson sitting in a conspicuous part of the pit,and receiving affectionate homage from all his acquaintance.
We were quite gay and merry.I afterwards mentioned to him that Icondemned myself for being so,when poor Mr.and Mrs.Thrale were in such distress.JOHNSON.'You are wrong,Sir;twenty years hence Mr.and Mrs.Thrale will not suffer much pain from the death of their son.Now,Sir,you are to consider,that distance of place,as well as distance of time,operates upon the human feelings.I would not have you be gay in the presence of the distressed,because it would shock them;but you may be gay at a distance.Pain for the loss of a friend,or of a relation whom we love,is occasioned by the want which we feel.In time the vacuity is filled with something else;or sometimes the vacuity closes up of itself.'
Mr.Seward and Mr.Pearson,another clergyman here,supt with us at our inn,and after they left us,we sat up late as we used to do in London.
Here I shall record some fragments of my friend's conversation during this jaunt.
'Marriage,Sir,is much more necessary to a man than to a woman;for he is much less able to supply himself with domestick comforts.
You will recollect my saying to some ladies the other day,that Ihad often wondered why young women should marry,as they have so much more freedom,and so much more attention paid to them while unmarried,than when married.I indeed did not mention the STRONGreason for their marrying--the MECHANICAL reason.'BOSWELL.'Why,that IS a strong one.But does not imagination make it much more important than it is in reality?Is it not,to a certain degree,a delusion in us as well as in women?'JOHNSON.'Why yes,Sir;but it is a delusion that is always beginning again.'BOSWELL.'Idon't know but there is upon the whole more misery than happiness produced by that passion.'JOHNSON.'I don't think so,Sir.'
'Never speak of a man in his own presence.It is always indelicate,and may be offensive.'
'Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.It is assuming a superiority,and it is particularly wrong to question a man concerning himself.There may be parts of his former life which he may not wish to be made known to other persons,or even brought to his own recollection.'
'A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage.People may be amused and laugh at the time,but they will be remembered,and brought out against him upon some subsequent occasion.'
'Much may be done if a man puts his whole mind to a particular object.By doing so,Norton has made himself the great lawyer that he is allowed to be.'
On Tuesday,March 26,there came for us an equipage properly suited to a wealthy well-beneficed clergyman;--Dr.Taylor's large roomy post-chaise,drawn by four stout plump horses,and driven by two steady jolly postillions,which conveyed us to Ashbourne;where Ifound my friend's schoolfellow living upon an establishment perfectly corresponding with his substantial creditable equipage:
his house,garden,pleasure-grounds,table,in short every thing good,and no scantiness appearing.Every man should form such a plan of living as he can execute completely.Let him not draw an outline wider than he can fill up.I have seen many skeletons of shew and magnificence which excite at once ridicule and pity.Dr.
Taylor had a good estate of his own,and good preferment in the church,being a prebendary of Westminster,and rector of Bosworth.