Morning journal and courier., 1888-02-07
AT LINONIA HALL.

Al AANVNAA RAAAAs
 Donald G. Mitchell Lectures to the
 Students Last Evening President
 Dwight PresIding-A Glance at Many
 Famous EnglIshmen.
 Linonia hall was filled to overfewing last
 evening by members of the university eager
 to hear Donald G. Mitchell, Al, lecture on
 ''Dr. Johnson and some old clubmen of his
 time." This was the first of series of lses
 lures to be given under the auspices of the
 Phi Beta Kappa society of Yale.
 President Dwight, in introducing the
 speaker, addressed the 250 students present
 as the gentlemen of Phi Beta Kappa (great
 applause) and congratulated them on open
 ing the course with such instructive speak
 CT. Mir. Mitchell said: I shall ask you to go
 with me to the heart of London to find the
 elubmen about whom we are to hear. It is not
 the London we know nowadays, but changed
 in many ways; instead of the well settled sub-
 urbs there were barely settled places, the old
 numbering houses being supported by cross
 beams and other unstable props. Here we
 find the old Fleet prison and around the cor
 ner in the smoke of Fleet street in dingy
 court lived that leviathan of a man, Dr. Sam uel Johnson. He had married; his wife was
 stout, ruddy faced and twenty years older
 
 disturbed by such things. His brain and his
 heart were equally large. He had snubbed the elegant Lord Chesterfield, who wished his name to be on the first page of the diction- ary But he took a friendly interest in all the newsboys of the district. We know him best by his Rambler and his Rasselas. But who ever reads the Rambler through? In the Rasselas he tells about an abyssinian prince in the midst of every luxury, W ho became restless because he had nothing to occupy him and resolved to seek happiness elsewhere. The author sums up by describing his ad- ventures and saying, 'tYou will rarely find man who dosen't consider the lot of his neigh bor better than his own" It is interesting to know that this work was written during the evenings of week to defray the expenses of his mothers funeral.
 Prominent among Dr. Johnson's friends was Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was fourteen years his senior. This friendship was Q strange one indeed, for the two seemed total ly unsuited to each other. In l760 Reynolds moved into Lester Square, where he gave his many steaming dinners. In this square there is Eow bust of the famous painter.
 Johnson and Reynolds formed this famous club, which at first met on Mondays and af- forwards on Wednesdays. Among its mem, bers were Johnson, Burke. Reynolds and 5 Goldsmith. It still survives and it's mem- I bership includes Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold and Tyndall. Burke was indebted to the club for the in- 4 troduction to public men which began his wonderful career. He was impetuous even l to the border of aggressiveness, but revered s the age of the doctor. Later it became said ' that Burkes speeches would quickly empty the benches of the House of Commons. He was never tired of talking.
 Another member of the club was, in the { doctors opinion, the prime story-teller. This member married fine lady and then treated I L ls- Burke said Git was refreshing to see her witt k a good income and such a calm, self-congrat ulatory enjoyment of the situation"
 Then, too, came David Garrick, not one o1 \ the original nine, but elected few years later. He always had & fondness for dress and wrote to his father at Gibraltar: sI hope \ you find velvet cheap there, because someone \ gave me silver buckle and it would go cap \ itally with pair of velvet brooches" H. invested his money in the wine business which he totally neglected; fate having des ! tined him to become great actor. James Boswell, Esq, well known for hii \ life of his master, Johnson, had only within \ a year of the formation of the club seen ths doctor for the first time in butcher shop; he \ first was snubbed, but later on they became fast friends. Every critic pounces upon Bos | we'll. Macaulay, in particular, has giveI him black eye. He was Tory, well uT b in classical studies, and, contrasted with the ! doctor, exceedingly well bred. His wit was charming. Of course Boswell wasn't very high-toned man, but he had most extra \ ordinary gift of narrative.
 Now let us turn to a more respectable per \ son, Edward Gibbon, who was taken into the club shortly after it's form mation. He had attended Oxford; he became Roman ist, which so angered his father that he put him under tutors to be brought back into k the Calvinistic faith, which was accomplish | ed. He went to live near Lake Lucerne where he formed strong attachment for the daughter of a Protestant clergyman witE | whom he discoursed upon the conjugation oi verbs and upon the conjugalities of other sorts. His first volume of the Rise and Fal of the Roman Empire came out in 1776. Il made great sensation.
 Physically he was short, corpulent, witt puffed out cheeks. His wig was always 1T order and he never really allowed his nerves to wake up until @ chance came for some oi his famous thrusts. He didn't often go te the club; he took kindly to Goldsmith, but disliked the doctor and honestly hated Bos we'll, who hated him honestly in return. He was the one historian of the eighteenth cen- tury whom critics have never dared to sci
 aside. He had no enthusiasm, except the en-
 thusiasm of knowing things; his blood had nc boiling point, his indignation no scorchine power. Gentlemen, if any of you have any idea of writing history, I strongly advise you to avoid the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Great applause.)
 Oliver Goldsmith, though not an origina memberof the club, was one of the most active He had lost no chance to give thrust at tht self-conscious Boswell. He was no deep stu ! dent of research, took ordinary facts and put | them in the amber of his language. Though his poetry may not be remarkable, there is \ tenderness in it which we caa never forget He died at the age of forty-five and was the ! first to break che circle of the club. A stolio physician who was called in during his last \ illness asked the sick man whether his mind was at ease. ''What" said he. "Can z mans mind be at ease when his pulse is \ humping toward 100, his pocketbook empty | his plans broken up and his hopes all gonef Meanwhile Johnson had made the acquaint | ance of a Mir. and Mrs. Thrale, who were overdowing in their kindness to him and gave him set of apartments at their country { house where he might live as he pleased Who can tell what might have been his career if this had happened earlier. h 1779 his old friend Garrick died leaving \ fortune of million made on the stage. Soon more passed away and this cast a gloom ovel the doctors spirits, which he endeavored to shake off. In the following year his bene- factor, MT. Thrale, died and gossip said John. son would soon marry the widow; but these gossips never dared venture within reaching distance of the doctors cane.
 The old mans superstitious dread of death disappeared from him toward the end of his life and at his end he was surrounded by the surviving members of the club.