duce in poetical compofition. We find in Plaut. Rudens, act iii. scene 4,

• Nam huic alteræ patria quæ fit profecto nefcio.'

Plautus is, to be fure, an old comick writer: but in the days of Scipio and Lelius, we find, Terent. Heautontim. act ii. fcene 3,

boc ipfa in itinere alteræ 'Dum narrat, forte audivi.

"You doubt my having authority for ufing genus abfolutely, for what we call family, that is, for illuftrious extraction. Now I take genus in Latin, to have much the fame fignification with birth in English; both in their primary meaning expreffing fimply defcent, but both made to ftand xar' ox, for noble defcent. Genus is thus ufed in Hor. lib. ii. Sat. v. 1. 8,

"Et genus et virtus, nifi cum re, vilior alga eft,'

And in lib. i. Epist. vi. 1. 37,

Et genus et formam Regina pecunia donat."

And in the celebrated conteft between Ajax and
Ulyffes, Ovid's Metamorph. lib. xiii. 1. 140,

Nam genus et proavos, et quæ non fecimus ipfi,
Vix ea noftra voco.'

"Homines nullius originis, for nullis orti majoribus, or nullo loco nati, is, "you are afraid, barbarous.”

1766.

Etat. 57.

1766.

Etat. 57.

Origo is used to fignify extraction, as in Virg. Æneid i. 286,

<

• Nafcetur pulchra Trojanus origine Cefar.'

and in Æneid x. 1. 618,

• Ille tamen noftrá deducit origine nomen.'

and as nullus is used for obscure, is it not in the genius of the Latin language to write nullius originis, for obfcure extraction?

"I have defended myself as well as I could.

Might I venture to differ from you with regard to the utility of vows? I am fenfible that it would be very dangerous to make vows rashly, and without a due confideration. But I cannot help thinking that they may often be of great advantage to one of a variable judgement and irregular inclinations. I always remember a paffage in one of your letters to our Italian friend Baretti, where talking of the monastick life, you say you do not wonder that serious men fhould put themselves under the protection of a religious order, when they have found how unable they are to take care of themselves. For my own part, without affecting to be a Socrates, I am fure I have a more than ordinary ftruggle to maintain with the Evil Principle; and all the methods I can devife are little enough to keep me tolerably steady in the paths of rectitude.

"I am ever, with the highest veneration,

"Your affectionate humble fervant,

JAMES BOSWELL.”

It appears from Johnson's diary, that he was this year at Mr. Thrale's, from before Midfummer till after Michaelmas, and that he afterwards paffed a month at Oxford. He had then contracted a great intimacy with Mr. Chambers of that University, now Sir Robert Chambers, one of the Judges in India.

1766.

Ætat.

He published nothing this year in his own name; but the noble dedication* to the King, of Gwyn's "London and Weftminster Improved," was written by him; and he furnished the Preface,† and feveral of the pieces, which compofe a volume of Miscellanies by Mrs. Anna Williams, the blind lady who had an afylum in his house. Of thefe, there are his " Epitaph on Philips;** "Tranflation of a Latin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer "" Friendship, an Ode;*" and, "The Ant,*" a paraphrase from the Proverbs, of which I have a copy in his own hand-writing; and, from internal evidence, I afcribe to him, "To Mifs — on her giving the Authour a gold and filk network Purfe of her own weaving;t" and, "The happy Life.t"-Most of the pieces in this volume have evidently received additions from his fuperiour pen, particularly "Verfes to Mr. Richardfon, on his Sir Charles Grandifon;" "The Excurfion;" "Reflections on a Grave digging in Westminster Abbey." There is in this collection a poem « On the Death of Stephen Grey, the Electrician ;*” which, on reading it, appeared to me to be undoubtedly Johnson's. I asked Mrs. Williams whether it was not his. "Sir, (faid fhe, with some warmth,) I wrote that poem before I had

57.

1766.

the honour of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance." I, however, was fo much impreffed with my first Ætat. 57′ notion, that I mentioned it to Johnson, repeating,

at the fame time, what Mrs. Williams had faid.
His answer was, "It is true, Sir, that fhe wrote
it before she was acquainted with me; but fhe has
not told you that I wrote it all over again, except
two lines."
"The Fountains,t" a beautiful lit-
tle Fairy tale in profe, written with exquisite sim-
plicity, is one of Johnson's productions; and I
cannot with-hold from Mrs. Thrale the praise of
being the authour of that admirable poem, "The
Three Warnings.

He wrote this year a letter not intended for publication, which has, perhaps, -as ftrong marks of his fentiment and style, as any of his compofitions. The original is in my poffeffion. It is addressed to the late Mr. William Drummond, bookseller in Edinburgh, a gentleman of good family, but small eftate, who took arms for the houfe of Stuart in 1745; and during his concealment in London till the act of general pardon came out, obtained the acquaintance of Dr. Johnfon, who justly esteemed him as a very worthy man. It seems, fome of the members of the fociety in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge, had oppofed the fcheme of tranflating the holy fcriptures into the Erfe or Gaelick language, from political confiderations of the difadvantage of keeping up the diftinction between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of North-Britain. Dr. Johnfon being informed of this, I fuppofe by Mr. Drummond, wrote with a generous indignation as follows:

To

SIR,

To Mr. WILLIAM DRUMMOND.

1766.

Atat. 57.

"I DID not expect to hear that it could be, in an affembly convened for the propagation of Christian knowledge, a queftion whether any nation uninftructed in religion fhould receive inftruction; or whether that inftruction fhould be imparted to them by a tranflation of the holy books into their own language. If obedience to the will of GoD be neceffary to happiness, and knowledge of his will be neceffary to obedience, I know not how he that with-holds this knowledge, or delays it, can be faid to love his neighbour as himself. He, that voluntarily continues ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces; as to him that fhould extinguish the tapers of a light-house, might justly be imputed the calamities of fhipwrecks. Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity; and as no man is good but as he wishes the good of others, no man can be good in the highest degree, who wishes not to others the largest measures of the greatest good. To omit for a year, or for a day, the most efficacious method of advancing Chriftianity, in compliance with any purposes that terminate on this fide of the grave, is a crime of which I know not that the world has yet had an example, except in the practice of the planters of America, a race of mortals whom, I fuppofe, no other man wifhes to refemble.

"The Papists have, indeed, denied to the laity the ufe of the bible; but this prohibition, in few