ternal agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. When they once desire to learn, they will naturally have recourse to the nearest language by which that desire can be gratified; and one will tell another, that if he would attain knowledge, he must learn English. "This speculation may, perhaps, be thought more subtle than the grossness of real life will easily admit. Let it, however, be remembered, that the efficacy of ignorance has long been tried, and has not produced the consequence expected. Let knowledge, therefore, take its turn; and let the patrons of privation stand awhile aside, and admit the operation of positive principles. "You will be pleased, Sir, to assure the worthy man who is em ployed in the new translation,' that he has my wishes for his success; and if here or at Oxford I can be of any use, that I shall think it more than honour to promote his undertaking. "I am sorry that I delayed so long to write. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." The opponents of this pious scheme being made ashamed of their conduct, the benevolent undertaking was allowed to go on. The following letters, though not written till the year after, being chiefly upon the same subject, are here inserted. "DEAR SIR, TO MR. WILLIAM DRUMMOND. "Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, April 21, 1767. "That my letter should have had such effects as you mention, gives me great pleasure. I hope you do not flatter me by imputing 1 The Rev. Mr. John Campbell, minister of the parish of Kippen, near Stirling, who has lately favoured me with a long, intelligent, and very obliging letter upon this work, makes the following remark :-" Dr. Johnson has alluded to the worthy man employed in the translation of the New Testament. Might not this have afforded you an opportunity of paying a proper tribute of respect to the memory of the Rev. Mr. James Stuart, late minister of Killin, distinguished by his eminent piety, learning, and taste? The amiable simplicity of his life, his warm benevolence, his indefatigable and successful exertions for civilising and improving the parish of which he was minister for upwards of fifty years, entitle him to the gratitude of his country, and the veneration of all good men. It certainly would be a pity, if such a character should be permitted to sink into oblivion." [Note in the Third Edition, vol. ii. p. 30.--Editor.] Those whom my argu to me more good than I have really done. ments have persuaded to change their opinion, show such modesty and candour as deserve great praise. "I hope the worthy translator goes diligently forward. He has a higher reward in prospect than any honours which this world can bestow. I wish I could be useful to him. "The publication of my letter, if it could be of use in a cause to which all other causes are nothing, I should not prohibit. But first, I would have you to consider whether the publication will really do any good; next, whether by printing and distributing a very smal number, you may not attain all that you propose; and, what perhaps I should have said first, whether the letter, which I do not now perfectly remember, be fit to be printed. If you can consult Dr. Robertson, to whom I am a little known, I shall be satisfied about the propriety of whatever he shall direct. If he thinks that it should be printed, I entreat him to revise it; there may, perhaps, be some negligent lines written, and whatever is amiss, he knows very well how to rectify. Be pleased to let me know, from time to time, how this excellent design goes forward. "Make my compliments to young Mr. Drummond, whom I hope you will live to see such as you desire him. I have not lately seen Mr. Elphinston, but believe him to be prosperous. I shall be glad to hear the same of you, for I am, Sir, your affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." "SIR, TO THE SAME. "Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, Oct. 24, 1767. "I returned this week from the country, after an absence of near six months, and found your letter with many others, which I should have answered sooner, if I had sooner seen them. "Dr. Robertson's opinion was surely right. Men should not be told of the faults which they have mended. I am glad the old language is taught, and honour the translator, as a man whom God has distinguished by the high office of propagating his word. "I must take the liberty of engaging you in an office of charity. Mrs. Heely, the wife of Mr. Heely, who had lately some office in your theatre, is my near relation, and now in great distress. They wrote 1 This paragraph shows Johnson's real estimation of the character and abilities of the celebrated Scottish Historian, however lightly, in a moment of caprice, he may have spoken of his works. me word of their situation some time ago, to which I returned them an answer which raised hopes of more than it is proper for me to give them. Their representation of their affairs I have discovered to be such as cannot be trusted; and at this distance, though their case requires haste, I know not how to act. She, or her daughters, may be heard of at Canongate head. I must beg, Sir, that you will enquire after them, and let me know what is to be done. I am willing to go to ten pounds, and will transmit you such a sum, if upon examination you find it likely to be of use. If they are in immediate want, advance them what you think proper. What I could do I would do for the woman, having no great reason to pay much regard to Heely himself.1 "I believe you may receive some intelligence from Mrs. Baker of the theatre, whose letter I received at the same time with yours; and to whom, if you see her, you will make my excuse for the seeming neglect of answering her. "Whatever you advance within ten pounds shall be immediately returned to you, or paid as you shall order. I trust wholly to your judgment. I am, Sir, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." Mr. Cuthbert Shaw,' alike distinguished by his genius, misfortunes, and misconduct, published this year a poem, called "The Race, by Mercurius Spur, Esq.," in which he whimsically made the living poets of England contend for pre-eminence of fame by running: "Prove by their heels the prowess of the head.” "Here Johnson comes,-unblest with outward grace, To view him, porters with their loads would rest, 1 This is the person concerning whom Sir John Hawkins (Life of Johnson, p. 596, et seqq.) has thrown out very unwarrantable reflections both against Dr. Johnson and Mr. Francis Barber. 2 See an account of him in the European Magazine, January, 1786. Cuthbert Shaw was born in 1738 or 1739, and died, overloaded with complicated distress, in Titchfield Street, Oxford Market, Sept. 1, 1771.— Wright. With looks convulsed he roars in pompous strain, The Hon. Thomas Hervey' and his lady having unhappily disagreed, and being about to separate, Johnson interfered as their friend, and wrote him a letter of expostulation, which I have not been able to find; but the substance of it is ascertained by a letter to Johnson in answer to it, which Mr. Hervey printed. The occasion of this correspondence between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Hervey was thus related to me by Mr. Beauclerk. "Tom Hervey had a great liking for Johnson, and in his will had left him a legacy of fifty pounds. One day he said to me, 'Johnson may want this money now, more than afterwards. I have a mind to give it him directly. Will you be so good as to carry a fifty pound note from me to him?' This I positively refused to do, as he might, perhaps, have knocked me down for insulting him, and have afterwards put the note in his pocket. But I said, if Hervey would write him a letter, and enclose a fifty pound note, I should take care to deliver it. He accordingly did write him a letter, mentioning that he was only paying a legacy a little sooner. To his letter he added, P.S. I am going to part with my wife. John 1 The Hon. Thomas Hervey, whose “Letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer " in 1742, was much read at that time. He was the second son of John, first Earl of Bristol, and one of the brothers of Johnson's early friend, Henry Hervey. He [was born in 1698], married, in 1744, Anne, daughter of Francis Coughlan, Esq., and died Jan. 20, 1775.—Malone. son then wrote to him, saying nothing of the note, but remonstrating with him against parting with his wife." When I mentioned to Johnson this story, in as delicate terms as I could, he told me that the fifty pound note was given to 1 This is not inconsistent with Mr. Beauclerk's account. It may have been in consideration of this pamphlet that Hervey left Johnson the fifty pounds in his will, and on second thoughts he may have determined to send it to him. It were, however, to be wished that the story had stood on its original ground. The acceptance of an anticipated legacy from a friend would have had nothing objectionable in it; but can so much be said for the employment of one's pen for hire, in the disgusting squabbles of so mischievous and profligate a madman as Mr. Thomas Hervey ? "He was well known," says the gentle biographer of the Peerage (Sir Egerton Brydges), "for his genius and eccentricities." The Letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer, above mentioned, was the first (1741), it is believed, of the many appeals which Mr. Hervey made to the public, relative to his private concerns. The subject is astonishing. Lady Hanmer eloped from her husband with Mr. Hervey, and made, it seems, a will in his favour, of certain estates, of which Sir Thomas had a life possession. Hervey's letter avows the adultery, and assigns very strange reasons for the lady's leaving her husband, and then goes on to complain, that Sir Thomas was cutting timber on the estate which had belonged to “our wife,” so he calls her, and of which the reversion was Hervey's, and begging that, if Hanmer did sell any more timber, he would give him, Hervey, the refusal of it. All this is garnished and set off by extravagant flights of fine writing, the most cutting sarcasms, the most indecent details, and the most serious expressions of the writer's conviction, that his conduct was natural and delicate, and such as every body must approve; and that, finally, in Heaven, Lady Hanmer, in the distribution of wives (suam cuique), would be considered as his. Twenty years did not cool his brain. Just at the close of the reign he addressed a letter to King George the Second, which still more clearly explains the state of his intellect. He talks, amidst a great deal of scandalous extravagance, of "the hideous subject of his mental excruciation,” and complains that his doctor mistook his case, by calling that a nervous disorder which was clearly inflammatory, and, in consequence of that fatal error, Hervey "passed eleven years without any more account of time, or other notice of things, than a person asleep, under the influence of some horrid dream," and so on. It is this letter which Horace Walpole thus characterises : Have you seen Tom Hervey's letter to the king? full of absurdity and madness, but with here and there gleams of genius and happy expressions that are wonderfully fine."-Letter to Conway, Dec., 1766. His quarrel with his second wife in 1767, referred to in the text, he, according to his custom, blazoned to the public by the following advertisement: "Whereas Mrs. Hervey has been three times from home last year, and at least as many the year |