Records of my life / By the late John Taylor, esq. Complete in one volume.
- John Taylor
- Date:
- 1833
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Records of my life / By the late John Taylor, esq. Complete in one volume. Source: Wellcome Collection.
32/474 (page 26)
![witting Bolingbroke.” Here then he assigns a motive. But is it possible to suppose thaf Pope should be ambitious of so silly and con- temptible a triumph ? Yet a few pages after, he says, “ His violation of the trust reposed in him by Bolingbroke, could have no motive in¬ consistent with the warmest affection; he either thought the action so near to indifferent that he forgot it, or so laudable that he expected his friend to approve it.” At length he finally agrees with War- burton, who, he says, “ supposes, with great appearance of reason, that the irregularity of his conduct proceeded wholly from his zeal for Bolingbroke, who might, perhaps, have destroyed the pamphlet? which Pope thought it his duty to preserve, even without its author’s approbation.” This motive might be supposed to occur at first to every man of plain understanding, for it never can be conceived that Pope desired the despicable profit of selling the copies, for wThich he must have waited till the author’s death; nor that he wanted the reputation of having written the pamphlet, since it is probable that he gave to Bolingbroke the few copies which he required for his friends, and that Bolingbroke presented them as he intended. The same motive of zealous friendship might be expected to occur to Bolingbroke, whose rancour on the subject after Pope’s death was wholly unjustifiable. Pope has gratified the world so much by his genius, that it is but h general duty to vindicate his memory. Dr. Johnson was long a bigoted Jacobite. When he was walking with some friends in Kensington Gardens, one of them observed that it was a fine place. “ Phoo,” said Johnson, “ nothing can be fine that belongs to a usurper.” Dr. Monsey assured me, that once in company, when the conversation was on the age of King George the Third, he heard him say, “ What does it signify when such an animal was born, or whether he ever existed ]” Yet he afterward said, in his account of his interview with his majesty, that it was not for him il to bandy compliments with his sovereign.” Johnson was often too dogmatical and decisive to distinguish clearly. He says in his “ Life of Pope,” “ Aristotle is praised for naming fortitude first of the cardinal virtues, as that without which no other virtue can steadily be practised ; but he might with equal propriety have placed prudence and justice before it, since without prudence, fortitude is mad ; without justice it is mischievous.” The doctor here seems to consider fortitude as active valour. Surely the proper arrangement would be temperance to secure the power of acting, prudence to act properly, justice to respect the rights of others, and fortitude to bear firmly the evils of life. Mr. Godwin, I understand, has said that no original thought can be found in all the works of Johnson. Admitting this assertion to be well founded, it may, however, be justly urged in his favour, that, to use his own words, he has “ recommended known truths by his man¬ ner of adorning them ;” that he has “ varied the dress and situation of common objects, so as to give them fresh grace and more powerful attractions.” He has given dignity to the English language, and a body of criticism upon the English poets, written in a masterly style,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29302936_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
