Thursday morning, Dr. Johnson went to town for some days, but not before Mrs. Thrale read him a very serious lecture upon giving way to such violence; which he bore with a patience and quietness that even more than made his peace with me.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 45. Two months later the quarrel was made up. 'Mr. Pepys had desired this meeting by way of a reconciliation; and Dr. Johnson now made amends for his former violence, as he advanced to him, as soon as he came in, and holding out his hand to him received him with a cordiality he had never shewn him before. Indeed he told me himself that he thought the better of Mr. Pepys for all that had passed.' Ib. p. 82. Miss Burney, in Dec. 1783, described the quarrel to Mr. Cambridge:--'"I never saw Dr. Johnson really in a passion but then; and dreadful indeed it was to see. I wished myself away a thousand times. It was a frightful scene. He so red, poor Mr. Pepys so pale." "It was behaving ill to Mrs. Thrale certainly to quarrel in her house." "Yes, but he never repeated it; though he wished of all things to have gone through just such another scene with Mrs. Montagu; and to refrain was an act of heroic forbearance. She came to Streatham one morning, and I saw he was dying to attack her." "And how did Mrs. Montagu herself behave?" Very stately, indeed, at first. She turned from him very stiffly, and with a most distant air, and without even courtesying to him, and with a firm intention to keep to what she had publicly declared--that she would never speak to him more. However, he went up to her himself, longing to begin, and very roughly said:--"Well, Madam, what's become of your fine new house? I hear no more of it." "But how did she bear this?" "Why, she was obliged to answer him; and she soon grew so frightened--as everybody does--that she was as civil as ever." He laughed heartily at this account. But I told him Dr. Johnson was now much softened. He had acquainted me, when I saw him last, that he had written to her upon the death of Mrs. Williams [see post, Sept. 18, 1783, note], because she had allowed her something yearly, which now ceased. "And I had a very kind answer from her," said he. "Well then, Sir," cried I, "I hope peace now will be again proclaimed." "Why, I am now," said he, "come to that time when I wish all bitterness and animosity to be at an end."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 290.
[226] January, 1791. BOSWELL. Hastings's trial had been dragging on for more than three years when The Life of Johnson was published. It began in 1788, and ended in 1795.
[227] Gent. Mag. for 1785, p. 412.
[228] Afterwards Sir Robert Chambers, one of his Majesty's Judges in India. BOSWELL. See ante, i.274.
[229] 'He conceived that the cultivation of Persian literature might with advantage be made a part of the liberal education of an English gentleman; and he drew up a plan with that view. It is said that the University of Oxford, in which Oriental learning had never, since the revival of letters, been wholly neglected, was to be the seat of the institution which he contemplated.' Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1843, iii. 338.
[230] Lord North's. Feeble though it was, it lasted eight years longer.
[231] Jones's Persian Grammar. Boswell. It was published in 1771.
[232] Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. BOSWELL.
[233] See ante, ii. 296.
[234] Macaulay wrote of Hastings's answer to this letter:--'It is a remarkable circumstance that one of the letters of Hastings to Dr. Johnson bears date a very few hours after the death of Nuncomar. While the whole settlement was in commotion, while a mighty and ancient priesthood were weeping over the remains of their chief, the conqueror in that deadly grapple sat down, with characteristic self-possession, to write about the Tour to the Hebrides, Jones's Persian Grammar, and the history, traditions, arts, and natural productions of India.' Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1843, iii.376.
[235] Johnson wrote the Dedication, Ante, i.383.
[236] See ante, ii.82, note 2.
[237] Copy is manuscript for printing.
[238] Published by Kearsley, with this well-chosen motto:--'From his cradle He was a SCHOLAR, and a ripe and good one: And to add greater honours to his age Than man could give him, he died fearing Heaven.' SHAKSPEARE. BOSWELL. This quotation is a patched up one from Henry VIII, act iv. sc.2. The quotation in the text is found on p. 89 of this Life of Johnson.
[239] Mr. Thrale had removed, that is to say, from his winter residence in the Borough. Mrs. Piozzi has written opposite this passage in her copy of Boswell:--'Spiteful again! He went by direction of his physicians where they could easiest attend to him.' Hayward's Piozzi, i. 91. There was, perhaps, a good deal of truth in Boswell's supposition, for in 1779 Johnson had told her that he saw 'with indignation her despicable dread of living in the Borough.' Piozzi Letters, ii.92. Johnson had a room in the new house. 'Think,' wrote Hannah More, 'of Johnson's having apartments in Grosvenor-square! but he says it is not half so convenient as Bolt-court.' H.