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1737.

infinitely happy in his own perfections, wants no external gratifications; nor can Etat. 28. infinite truth be delighted with falfhood; that though he may guide or pity those be leaves in darkness, he abandons those who fhut their eyes against the beams of day."

Johnson's refidence at Lichfield, on his return to it at this time, was only for three months; and as he had as yet seen but a small part of the wonders of the metropolis, he had little to tell his townfmen. He related to me the following minute anecdote of this period: "In the laft age, when my mother lived in London, there were two fets of people, thofe who gave the wall, and those who took it; the peaceable and the quarrelfome. When I returned to Lichfield, after having been in London, my mother asked me, whether I was one of those who gave the wall, or those who took it. Now it is fixed that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the wall, another yields it; and it is never a difpute 4."

He now removed to London with Mrs. Johnfon; but her daughter, who had lived with them at Edial, was left with her relations in the country. His lodgings were for fome time in Woodstock-street, near Hanoverfquare, and afterwards in Castle-street, near Cavendish-square. As there is fomething pleasingly interefting, to many, in tracing fo great a man through all his different habitations, I fhall, before this work is concluded, prefent my readers with an exact lift of his lodgings and houses, in order of time, which, in placid condefcenfion to my refpectful curiofity, he one evening dictated to me, but without specifying how long he lived at each. In the progrefs of his life I fhall have occafion to mention some of them as connected with particular incidents, or with the writing of particular parts of his works. To fome, this minute attention may appear trifling; but when we confider the punctilious exactness with which the different houses in which Milton refided have been traced by the writers of his life, a fimilar enthusiasm may be pardoned in the biographer of Johnson.

His tragedy being by this time, as he thought, completely finished and fit for the stage, he was very defirous that it should be brought forward. Mr. Peter Garrick told me, that Johnson and he went together to the Fountain tavern, and read it over, and that he afterwards folicited Mr. Fleetwood, the patentee of Drury-lane theatre, to have it acted at his houfe; but Mr. Fleetwood would not accept it, probably because it was not patronised by

• Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 232.

fome

some man of high rank; and it was not acted till 1749, when his friend David 1738. Garrick was manager of that theatre.

"THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE," begun and carried on by Mr. Edward Cave, under the name of SYLVANUS URBAN, had attracted the notice and esteem of Johnson, in an eminent degree, before he came to London as an adventurer in literature. He told me, that when he first saw St. John's Gate, the place where that defervedly popular miscellany was originally printed, he "beheld it with reverence." I fuppofe, indeed, that every young authour has had the fame kind of feeling for the magazine or periodical publication which has first entertained him, and in which he has first had an opportunity to see himself in print, without the risk of expofing his name. I myself recollect fuch impreffions from "THE SCOTS MAGAZINE," which was begun at Edinburgh in the year 1739, and has been ever conducted with judgement, accuracy, and propriety. I yet cannot help thinking of it with an affectionate regard. Johnson has dignified the Gentleman's Magazine, by the importance with which he invests the life of Cave; but he has given it still greater luftre by the various admirable Effays which he wrote for it.

Though Johnson was often folicited by his friends to make a complete list of his writings, and talked of doing it, I believe with a serious intention that they fhould all be collected on his own account, he put it off from year to year, and at last died without having done it perfectly. I have one in his own handwriting, which contains a certain number; I indeed doubt if he could have recollected every one of them, as they were fo numerous, so various, and fcattered in fuch a multiplicity of unconnected publications; nay, feveral of them published under the names of other perfons, to whom he liberally contributed from the abundance of his mind. We must, therefore, be content to discover them, partly from occafional information given by him to his friends, and partly from internal evidence'.

His first performance in the Gentleman's Magazine, which for many years. was his principal refource for employment and fupport, was a copy of Latin verfes, in March, 1738, addreffed to the editor in so happy a ftyle of compliment, that Cave must have been destitute both of taste and sensibility, had had he not felt himself highly gratified.

Etat. 29.

s While in the courfe of my narrative I enumerate his writings, I fhall take care that my readers fhall not be left to waver in doubt, between certainty and conjecture, with regard to their authenticity; and, for that purpose, fhall mark with an afterisk (*) thofe which he acknowledged to his friends, and with a dagger (†) those which are ascertained to be his by internal evidence. When any other pieces are afcribed to him, I fhall give my reafons. *Ad

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URBANE, nullis feffe laboribus,
URBANE, nullis vite calumniis,
Cui fronte fertum in eruditâ
Perpetuò viret et virebit ;

Quid moliatur gens imitantium,
Quid et minetur, folicitus parùm,
Vacare folis perge Mufis,

Juxta animo ftudiifque felix.

Linguæ procacis plumbea fpicula,
Fidens, fuperbo frange filentio ;
Victrix per obftantes catervas
Sedulitas animofa tendet.

Intende nervos, fortis, inanibus
Rifurus olim nifibus æmuli;
Intende jam nervos, habebis
Participes opera Camanas.

Non ulla Mufis pagina gratior,
Quam quæ feveris ludicra jungere
Novit, fatigatamque nugis

Utilibus recreare mentem.

Texente Nymphis ferta Lycoride,
Rofa ruborem fic viola adjuvat

Immifta, fic Iris refulget

Ethereis variata fucis".

S. J.

It

• A translation of this Ode, by an unknown correspondent, appeared in the Magazine for the

month of May following:

"Hail URBAN! indefatigable man,

"Unwearied yet by all thy useful toil!

"Whom num'rous flanderers affault in vain ;
"Whom no base caluinny can put to foil.
"But ftill the laurel on thy learned brow
Flourishes fair, and fhall for ever grow.

"What

It appears that he was now enlisted by Mr. Cave as a regular coadjutor in his magazine, by which he probably obtained a tolerable livelihood. At what time, or by what means, he had acquired a competent knowledge both of French and Italian, I do not know; but he was fo well fkilled in them, as to be fufficiently qualified for a translator. That part of his labour which confisted in emendation and improvement of the productions of other contributors, like that employed in levelling ground, can be perceived only by those who had an opportunity of comparing the original with the altered copy. What we certainly know to have been done by him in this way, was the Debates in both houses of Parliament, under the name of "The Senate of

"What mean the fervile imitating crew,

"What their vain bluft'ring, and their empty noife,
"Ne'er feek: 'but ftill thy noble ends purfue,

"Unconquer'd by the rabble's venal voice.
"Still to the Muse thy ftudious mind apply,
"Happy in temper as in industry.

The fenfelefs fneerings of an haughty tongue,
Unworthy thy attention to engage,

"Unheeded pafs: and tho' they mean thee wrong,
"By manly filence disappoint their rage.
"Affiduous diligence confounds its foes,
"Refiftlefs, tho' malicious crouds oppose.

"Exert thy powers, nor flacken in the course,
Thy fpotlefs fame fhall quafh all false reports:
"Exert thy powers, nor fear a rival's force,
"But thou fhalt fmile at all his vain efforts;
"Thy labours fhall be crown'd with large fuccefs;
"The Mufe's aid thy magazine shall bless.

"No page more grateful to th' harmonious nine
<<Than that wherein thy labours we survey:

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"Where folemn themes in fuller fplendour fhine,

(Delightful mixture,) blended with the gay.

"Where in improving, various joys we find,

"A welcome respite to the wearied mind.

"Thus when the nymphs in fome fair verdant mead,

"Of various flow'rs a beauteous wreath compose,

"The lovely violet's azure-painted head
"Adds luftre to the crimfon-blushing rofe.
"Thus fplendid Iris, with her varied dye,
"Shines in the æther, and adorns the sky.

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1738.

Etat. 29.

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Lilliput," fometimes with feigned denominations of the feveral speakers,. fometimes with denominations formed of the letters of their real names, in the manner of what is called anagram, fo that they might eafily be decyphered. Parliament then kept the prefs in a kind of mysterious awe, which made it neceffary to have recourfe to fuch devices. In our time it has. acquired an unrestrained freedom, fo that the people in all parts of the kingdom have a fair, open, and exact report of the actual proceedings of their representatives and legislators; which in our constitution is highly to be valued, though, unquestionably, there has of late been too much reafon to complain of the petulance with which obscure scribblers have prefumed to treat men of the most respectable character and fituation..

This important article of the Gentleman's Magazine was, for feveral years, executed by Mr. William Guthrie, a man who deferves to be respectably recorded in the literary annals of this country. He was defcended of an ancient family in Scotland; but having a small patrimony, and being an adherent of the unfortunate house of Stuart, he could not accept of any office in the state; he therefore came to London, and employed his talents and learning as an "Authour by profeffion." His writings in history, criticism, and. politicks, had confiderable merit". He was the first English historian who had recourfe to that authentick fource of information, the Parliamentary Journals; and fuch was the power of his political pen, that, at an early period,. government thought it worth their while to keep it quiet by a penfion, which. he enjoyed till his death. Johnson esteemed him enough to wish that his life should be written. The debates in Parliament, which were brought home and digested by Guthrie, whofe memory, though furpaffed by others who have fince followed him in the fame department, was yet very quick and tenacious, were sent by Cave to Johnson for his revision; and, after some time, when Guthrie had attained to greater variety of employment, and the speeches were more and more enriched by the acceffion of Johnson's genius, it was refolved that he should do the whole himself, from the fcanty notes furnished by perfons employed to attend in both houses of Parliament. Sometimes, however, as he himself told me, he had nothing more communicated to him but the names of the several speakers, and the part which they had taken in the debate..

7 How much poetry he wrote, I know not; but he informed me, that he was the authour of the beautiful little piece, "The Eagle and Robin Redbreaft," in the collection of poems entitled "THE UNION," though it is there faid to be written by Archibald Scott, before the year 1600.

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