Wishing to be present at more of so singular a conversation as that between two fellow-collegians,who had lived forty years in London without ever having chanced to meet,I whispered to Mr.Edwards that Dr.Johnson was going home,and that he had better accompany him now.So Edwards walked along with us,I eagerly assisting to keep up the conversation.Mr.Edwards informed Dr.Johnson that he had practised long as a solicitor in Chancery,but that he now lived in the country upon a little farm,about sixty acres,just by Stevenage in Hertfordshire,and that he came to London (to Barnard's Inn,No.6),generally twice a week.Johnson appearing to me in a reverie,Mr.Edwards addressed himself to me,and expatiated on the pleasure of living in the country.BOSWELL.'Ihave no notion of this,Sir.What you have to entertain you,is,Ithink,exhausted in half an hour.'EDWARDS.'What?don't you love to have hope realized?I see my grass,and my corn,and my trees growing.Now,for instance,I am curious to see if this frost has not nipped my fruit-trees.'JOHNSON.(who we did not imagine was attending,)'You find,Sir,you have fears as well as hopes.'--So well did he see the whole,when another saw but the half of a subject.
When we got to Dr.Johnson's house,and were seated in his library,the dialogue went on admirably.EDWARDS.'Sir,I remember you would not let us say PRODIGIOUS at College.For even then,Sir,(turning to me,)he was delicate in language,and we all feared him.'JOHNSON.(to Edwards,)'From your having practised the law long,Sir,I presume you must be rich.'EDWARDS.'No,Sir;I got a good deal of money;but I had a number of poor relations to whom I gave a great part of it.'JOHNSON.'Sir,you have been rich in the most valuable sense of the word.'EDWARDS.'But I shall not die rich.'JOHNSON.'Nay,sure,Sir,it is better to LIVE rich than to DIE rich.'EDWARDS.'I wish I had continued at College.'
JOHNSON.'Why do you wish that,Sir?'EDWARDS.'Because I think I should have had a much easier life than mine has been.I should have been a parson,and had a good living,like Bloxam and several others,and lived comfortably.'JOHNSON.'Sir,the life of a parson,of a conscientious clergyman,is not easy.I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain.I would rather have Chancery suits upon my hands than the cure of souls.No,Sir,I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life,nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life.'Here taking himself up all of a sudden,he exclaimed,'O!
Mr.Edwards!I'll convince you that I recollect you.Do you remember our drinking together at an alehouse near Pembroke gate?
At that time,you told me of the Eton boy,who,when verses on our SAVIOUR'S turning water into wine were prescribed as an exercise,brought up a single line,which was highly admired,--"Vidit et erubuit lympha pudica DEUM,"
and I told you of another fine line in Camden's Remains,an eulogy upon one of our Kings,who was succeeded by his son,a prince of equal merit:--"Mira cano,Sol occubuit,nox nulla secuta est."'
Johnson said to me afterwards,'Sir,they respected me for my literature:and yet it was not great but by comparison.Sir,it is amazing how little literature there is in the world.'--BOSWELLEDWARDS.'You are a philosopher,Dr.Johnson.I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher;but,I don't know how,cheerfulness was always breaking in.'--Mr.Burke,Sir Joshua Reynolds,Mr.
Courtenay,Mr.Malone,and,indeed,all the eminent men to whom Ihave mentioned this,have thought it an exquisite trait of character.The truth is,that philosophy,like religion,is too generally supposed to be hard and severe,at least so grave as to exclude all gaiety.
EDWARDS.'I have been twice married,Doctor.You,I suppose,have never known what it was to have a wife.'JOHNSON.'Sir,I have known what it was to have a wife,and (in a solemn,tender,faultering tone)I have known what it was to LOSE A WIFE.--It had almost broke my heart.'
EDWARDS.'How do you live,Sir?For my part,I must have my regular meals,and a glass of good wine.I find I require it.'
JOHNSON.'I now drink no wine,Sir.Early in life I drank wine:
for many years I drank none.I then for some years drank a great deal.'EDWARDS.'Some hogs-heads,I warrant you.'JOHNSON.'Ithen had a severe illness,and left it off,and I have never begun it again.I never felt any difference upon myself from eating one thing rather than another,nor from one kind of weather rather than another.There are people,I believe,who feel a difference;but Iam not one of them.And as to regular meals,I have fasted from the Sunday's dinner to the Tuesday's dinner,without any inconvenience.I believe it is best to eat just as one is hungry:
but a man who is in business,or a man who has a family,must have stated meals.I am a straggler.I may leave this town and go to Grand Cairo,without being missed here or observed there.'
EDWARDS.'Don't you eat supper,Sir?'JOHNSON.'No,Sir.'
EDWARDS.'For my part,now,I consider supper as a turnpike through which one must pass,in order to get to bed.'
JOHNSON.'You are a lawyer,Mr.Edwards.Lawyers know life practically.A bookish man should always have them to converse with.They have what he wants.'EDWARDS.'I am grown old:I am sixty-five.'JOHNSON.'I shall be sixty-eight next birth-day.
Come,Sir,drink water,and put in for a hundred.'