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after being at considerable pains to study | struggles with great industry for the supthe subject, he wrote three several letters port of eight children, hopes by a benefit in the Gazetteer, in opposition to his plan. concert to set herself free from a few debts, If it should be remarked that this was a which she cannot otherwise discharge. She controversy which lay quite out of John- has, I know not why, so high an opinion of son's way, let it be remembered, that after me as to believe that you will pay less reall, his employing his powers of reasoning gard to her application than to mine. You and eloquencce upon a subject which he had know, madam, I am sure you know, how studied on the moment, is not more strange hard it is to deny, and therefore would not than what we often observe in lawyers, wonder at my compliance, though I were to who, as Quicquid agunt homines is the suppress a motive which you know not, matter of lawsuits, are sometimes obliged the vanity of being supposed to be of any to pick up a temporary knowledge of an art importance to Mrs Montagu. But though or science, of which they understood no- I may be willing to see the world deceived thing till their brief was delivered, and ap- for my advantage, I am not deceived mypear to be much masters of it. In like man-self, for I know that Mrs. Ogle will owe ner, members of the legislature frequently introduce and expatiate upon subjects of which they have informed themselves for the occasion.

["DR. JOHNSON TO MISS LUCY PORTER.

Pearson
MSS.

"10th May, 1759. "DEAR MADAM,-I am almost ashamed to tell you that all your letters came safe, and that I have been always very well, but hindered, I hardly know how, from writing. Isent, last week, some of my works, one for you, one for your aunt Hunter, who was with my poor dear mother when she died, one for Mr. Howard, and one for Kitty.

"I beg you, my dear, to write often to me, and tell me how you like my little book. I am, dear love, your affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."]

["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. MONTAGU. "Gray's-inn, 17th Dec. 1759. "MADAM,-Goodness so conMontagu MSS. spicuous as yours will be often solícited, and perhaps sometimes solicited by those who have little pretension to your favour. It is now my turn to introduce a petitioner, but such as I have reason to believe you will think worthy of your notice. Mrs. Ogle, who kept the musick-room in Soho-square, a woman who most distinguished ornaments of London. As to the stability of the fabrick, it is certain that the city of London took every precaution to have the best Portland stone for it; but as this is to be found in the quarries belonging to the public, under the direction of the lords of the treasury, it so happened that parliamentary interest, which is often the bane of fair pursuits, thwarted their endeavours Notwithstanding this disadvantage, it is well known that not only has Blackfriars-bridge never sunk either in its foundation or in its arches, which were so much the subject of contest, but any injuries which it has suffered from the effects of severe frosts have been already, in some measure, repaired with sounder stone, and every necessary renewal can be completed at a moderate expense.-BOSWELL.

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whatever favours she shall receive from the
patronage which we humbly entreat on this
occasion, much more to your compassion
for honesty in distress, than to the request
of, madam, your most obedient and most
humble servant,
"SAM. JOHNSON."]

In 1760, he wrote "an Address of the Painters to George III. on his Accession to the Throne of these Kingdoms †," which no monarch ever ascended with more sincere congratulations from his people. Two generations of foreign princes had prepared their minds to rejoice in having again a king, who gloried in being " born a Briton." also wrote for Mr. Baretti the Dedicationt of his Italian and English Dictionary, to the Marquis of Abreu, then envoy-extraor dinary from Spain at the court of Great Britain.

He

Johnson was now either very idle, or very busy with his Shakspeare; for I can find no other publick composition by him except an Introduction to the proceedings of the Committee for clothing the French Prisoners*; one of the many proofs that he was ever awake to the calls of humanity; and an account which he gave in the Gentleman's Magazine of Mr. Tytler's acute and able vindication of Mary, Queen of Scots*. The generosity of Johnson's feelings shine forth in the following sentence: "It has now been fashionable, for near half a century, to defame and vilify the house of Stuart, and to exalt and magnify the reign of Elizabeth. The Stuarts have found few apologists, for the dead cannot pay for praise; and who will, without reward, oppose the tide of popularity? Yet there remains still among us, not wholly extinguished, a zeal for truth, a desire of establishing right in opposition to fashion.”

[The following memorandum, made on his birth-day in this year,

ED.

['This sentence may be generous, but it is not very logical. Elizabeth was surely as dead as the Stuarts, and could no more pay for praise than they could.-ED.]

may be quoted as an example of the rules | compliments Johnson in a just and elegant and resolutions which he was in the habit manner: of making, for the guidance of his moral conduct and literary studies: the fourth item seems obscure and strange:

"Sept. 18.

"Resolved, D. (eo) j (uvante),

"To combat notions of obligation.

"To apply to study.

"To reclaim imaginations.

"Transcendent Genius! whose prolifick vein
Ne'er knew the frigid poet's toil and pain;
To whom APOLLO opens all his store,
And every Muse presents her sacred lore;
Say, pow'rful JOHNSON, whence thy verse is
fraught

With so much grace, such energy of thought,
Whether thy JUVENAL instructs the age
In chaster numbers, and new points his rage;
Or fair IRENE sees, alas! too late

"To consult the resolves on Tetty's Her innocence exchanged for guilty state;

coffin.

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"To keep a journal.

Whate'er you write, in every golden line
Sublimity and elegance combine;

Thy nervous phrase impresses every soul,
While harmony gives rapture to the whole."

Again, towards the conclusion:

"To oppose laziness, by doing what is Thou then, my friend, who see'st the dangʼrous

to be done tomorrow.

"Rise as early as I can.

"Send for books for Hist. of War.
"Put books in order.
"Scheme of life."]

In this year I have not discovered a single private letter written by him to any of his friends. It should seem that he had at this period a floating intention of writing a history of the recent and wonderful succeses of the British arms in all quarters of the globe; for among the [foregoing] resolutions or memorandums, there is, "Send for books for Hist. of War." How much is it to be regretted that this intention was not fulfilled. His majestick expression would have carried down to the latest posterity the glorious achievements of his country, with the same fervent glow which they produced on the mind at the time. He would have been under no temptation to deviate in any degree from truth, which he held very sacred, or to take a licence, which a learned divine told me he once seemed, in a conversation, jocularly to allow to historians, "There are (said he) inexcusable lies, and consecrated lies. For instance, we are told that on the arrival of the news of the unfortunate battle of Fontenoy, every heart beat, and every eye was in tears. Now we know that no man eat his dinner the worse, but there should have been all this concern; and to say there was (smiling), may be reckoned a consecrated lie."

strife

In which some demon bids me plunge my life,
To the Aonian fount direct my feet,
Say, where the Nine thy lonely musings meet?
Where warbles to thy ear the sacred throng,
Thy moral sense, thy dignity of song?
Tell, for you can, by what unerring art
You wake to finer feelings every heart;
In each bright page some truth important give,
Aud bid to future times thy RAMBLER live."

I take this opportunity to relate the manner in which an acquaintance first commenced between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Murphy. During the publication of "The Gray's-inn Journal," a periodical paper which was successfully carried on by Mr. Murphy alone, when a very young man, he happened to be in the country with Mr. Foote; and having mentioned that he was obliged to go to London in order to get ready for the press one of the numbers of that journal, Foote said to him, "You need not go on that account. Here is a French magazine, in which you will find a very pretty oriental tale; translate that, and send it to your prin

ter."

Mr. Murphy having read the tale, was highly pleased with it, and followed Foote's advice. When he returned to town, this tale was pointed out to him in "The Rambler," from whence it had been transBoileau and Murphy, which will show how little the epistle of the latter is entitled to the character of originality-in fact, such an unacknowledged use of an author is almost plagiarism. Rare et fameux esprit, dont la fertile veine Ignore, en crivant, le travail et la peine. Transcendent genius! whose prolifick vein

This year Mr Murphy, having thought himself ill-treated by the Reverend Dr. Franklin, who was one of the writers of "The Critical Review," published an indignant vindication in "A Poetical Epistle Quand je veux dire blanc, la quinteuse dit noir. to Samuel Johnson, A. M. 1," in which he

[It seems strange and very uncandid that Mr. Murphy did not acknowledge that this poetical epistle was an imitation of Boileau's Epitre à Moliere. I subjoin a few couplets from both

Ne'er knew the frigid poet's toil and pain.
Souvant j'ai beau rêver du matin jusqu'au soir,

In feverish toil I pass the weary night,
And when I would say black, rhyme answers white.
Moli re, ensiegne moi l'art de ne rimer plus.
On puisque, enfin, tes soins y seroient superflus,

And since I ne'er can learn thy classic lore,

Instruct me, Johnson, how to write no more!-ED.]

"18th Oct. 1760.

lated into the French magazine. Mr. Mur-"TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. AT LANGTON. phy then waited upon Johnson, to explain this curious incident. His talents, literature, and gentleman-like manners, were soon perceived by Johnson, and a friendship was formed, which was never broken'.

1 When Mr. Murphy first became acquainted with Dr. Johnson, he was about thirty-one years old. He died at Knightsbridge, June 18, 1805, it is believed in his eighty-second year.

In an account of this gentleman, published recently after his death, he is reported to have said, that he was but twenty-one, when he had the impudence to write a periodical paper, during the time that Johnson was publishing "the Rambler.”—In a subsequent page, in which Mr. Boswell gives an account of his first introduction to Johnson, will be found a striking instance of the incorrectness of Mr. Murphy's memory; and the assertion above-mentioned, if indeed he made it, which is by no means improbable, furnishes an additional proof of his inaccuracy; for both the facts asserted are unfounded. He appears to have been eight years older than twenty-one, when he began the Gray's-Inn Journal; and that paper, instead of running a race with Johnson's production, did not appear till after the closing of the Rambler, which ended March 14, 1752. The first number of the Gray's-Inn Journal made its appearance about seven months afterwards, in a newspaper of the time, called the Craftsman, October 21, 1752; and in that form the first forty-nine numbers were given to the publick. On Saturday, Sept. 29, 1753, it assumed a new form; and was published as a distinct periodical paper, and in that shape it continued to be published till the 21st of Sept. 1754, when it finally closed; forming in the whole one hundred and one Essays, in the folio copy. The extraordinary paper mentioned in the text is No. 38 of the second series, published on June 15, 1754; which is a re-translation from the French version of Johnson's Rambler, No. 190. It was omitted in the re-publication of these Essays in two volumes, 12mo. in which one hundred and four are found, and in which the papers are not always dated on the days when they really appeared; so that the motto prefixed to this Anglo-Gallick Eastern tale, obscuris vera involvens, might very properly have been prefixed to this work, when re-published. Mr. Murphy did not, I believe, wait on Johnson recently after the publication of this adumbration of one of his Ramblers, as seems to be stated in the text; for, in his concluding Essay, Sept. 21, 1754, we find the following paragraph:

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"DEAR SIR,-You that travel about the world have more materials for letters than I who stay at home; and should, therefore, write with frequency equal to your opportunities. I should be glad to have all England surveyed by you, if you would impart your observations in narratives as agreeable as your last. Knowledge is always to be wished to those who can communicate it well. While you have been riding and running, and seeing the tombs of the learned, and the camps of the valiant, I have only staid at home, and intended to do great Beau went things, which I have not done. away to Cheshire, and has not yet found his way back. Chambers passed the vacation at Oxford.

"I am very sincerely solicitous for the preservation or curing of Mr. Langton's sight, and am glad that the chirurgeon at Coventry gives him so much hope. Mr. Sharpe is of opinion that the tedious maturation of the cataract is a vulgar errour3, and that it may be removed as soon as it is formed. This notion deserves to be considered, I doubt whether it be universally true; but if it be true in some cases, and those cases can be distinguished, it may save a long and uncomfortable delay.

"Of dear Mrs. Langton you give me no account; which is the less friendly, as you know how highly I think of her, and how much I interest myself in her health. I suppose you told her of my opinion, and likeI still believe it to be right. wise suppose it was not followed; however,

"Let me hear from you again, wherever you are, or whatever you are doing; whether you wander or sit still, plant trees or make Rusticks, play with your sisters or muse alone; and in return I will tell you the success of Sheridan, who at this instant is playing Cato, and has already played Richard twice. He had more company the second than the first night, and will make, I fore, it may be presumed, did not commence till towards the end of this year 1754. Murphy, however, had highly praised Johnson in the preceding year, No. 14 of the second series, Dec. 22, 1753.-MALONE. [It seems uncandid in Mr Malone to insinuate a charge of falsehood against Mr. Murphy on the hearsay of an anonymous writer. Mr. Murphy, who in 1786 republished the Gray's-Inn Journal, with the original date of the first number, 21st Oct. 1752, never could have said that it was contemporaneous with the Rambler.-ED.]

Besides, why may not a person rather choose an air of bold negligence, than the obscure diligence of pedants and writers of affected phraseology? For my part, I have always thought an easy style more eligible than a pompous diction, lifted up by metaphor, amplified by epithet, and dignified by too frequent insertions of the Latin idiom." It is probable that the Rambler was here intended to be censured, and that the authour, when he wrote it, was not acquainted with Johnson, whom, from his first introduction, he endeav- 4 Essays with that title, written about this time oured to conciliate. Their acquaintance, there- by Mr. Langton, but not published.

2 Mr. Beauclerk.-BoswELL.

3 [Mr. Sharpe seems to have once been of a different opinion on this point, See ante, p. 100. |—ED.]

believe, a good figure in the whole, though | proof of it in our sister kingdom, as Dr.

his faults seem to be very many; some of
natural deficience, and some of laborious
affectation. He has, I think, no power of
assuming either that dignity or elegance
which some men, who have little of either
in common life, can exhibit on the stage.
His voice when strained is unpleasing, and
when low is not always heard. He seems
to think too much on the audience, and
turns his face too often to the galleries.
"However, I wish him well; and among
other reasons, because I like his wife1.
"Make haste to write to, dear sir, your
most affectionate servant,

Pr and

"SAM. JOHNSON."

Johnson informed me. When Akenside's "Pleasures of the Imagination" first came out, he did not put his name to the poem. Rolt went over to Dublin, published an edition of it, and put his own name to it. Upon the fame of this he lived for several months, being entertained at the best tables as "the ingenious Mr. Rolt 2." His conversation, indeed, did not discover much of the fire of a poet; but it was recollected that both Addison and Thomson were equally dull till excited by wine. Akenside having been informed of this imposition, vindicated his right by publishing the poem with its real authour's name. Several instances of such literary fraud have been detected. The Reverend Dr. Campbell, of St. Andrew's, wrote "An Inquiry into the original of Moral Virtue," the manuscript of which he sent to Mr. Innes, a clergyman in England, who was his countryman and acquaintance. Innes published it with his own name to it; and before the imposition was discovered, obtained considerable pro

In 1761 Johnson appears to have done little. He was still, no doubt, proceeding in his edition of Shakspeare; but what advances he made in it cannot be ascertained. He certainly was at this time not active; for, in his scrupulous examination of himself on Easter eve, he laments, in his too rigorous mode of censuring his own conduct, that his life, since the communion of the pre-motion, as a reward of his merit3. The cedir Easter, had been "dissipated and celebrated Dr. Hugh Blair, and his cousin useless." He, however, contributed Mr. George Ballantine, when students in this year the Preface to "Rolt's divinity, wrote a poem, entitled "The ReMed. p. 44. 'Dictionary of Trade and Com-surrection," copies of which were handed merce," ," in which he displays such a clear about in manuscript. They were at length and comprehensive knowledge of the sub- very much surprised to see a pompous ediject, as might lead the reader to think that tion of it in folio, dedicated to the Princess its authour had devoted all his life to it. I Dowager of Wales, by a Dr. Douglas, as asked him, whether he knew much of Rolt, his own. Some years ago a little novel, enand of his work. "Sir (said he), I never titled "The Man of Feeling," was assumsaw the man, and never read the book. ed by Mr. Eccles, a young Irish clergyman, The booksellers wanted a Preface to a Dic- who was afterwards drowned near Bath'. tionary of Trade and Commerce. I knew He had been at the pains to transcribe the very well what such a Dictionary should be, and I wrote a Preface accordingly." * I have had inquiry made in Ireland as to this Rolt, who wrote a great deal for the book-story, but do not find it recollected there. I give sellers, was, as Johnson told me, a singular it on the authority of Dr. Johnson, to which may character. Though not in the least acbe added, that of the "Biographical Dictionary,' and " quainted with him, he used to say, "I am Biographia Dramatica;" in both of which just come from Sam. Johnson." This was it has stood many years. Mr. Malone observes, a sufficient specimen of his vanity and im- that the truth probably is, not that an edition was pudence. But he gave a more eminent published with Rolt's name in the title-page, but, that the poem being then anonymous, Rolt acquiesced in its being attributed to him in conversation.-BOSWELL. [In the late edition of the Biographical Dictionary, the foregoing story is indeed noticed, but with an observation that it has Richard Rolt died in been completely refuted. March, 1770.-ED.]

p.

1 Mrs. Sheridan was authour of " Memoirs of Miss Sydney Biddulph," a novel of great merit, and of some other pieces.-BoswELL. [Her last work is, perhaps, her best-Nourjahad, an eastern tale: in which a pure morality is inculcated, with a great deal of fancy and considerable force. No wonder that Dr. Johnson should have liked her! Dr. Parr, in a letter to Mr. Moore, published in his Life of R. B. Sheridan (vol. i. 11), thus mentions her: "I once or twice met his mother-she was quite celestial! both her virtues and her genius were highly esteemed." This amiable and accomplished woman died at Blois, in September, 1766, as Mr. Moore states, and as is proved by a letter of Mr. Sheridan's, deploring that event, dated in October, 1766; though the Biog. Dict., and other authorities, placed her death in 1767.-ED.]

3 I have both the books. Innes was the clergyman who brought Psalmanazar to England, and was an accomplice in his extraordinary fiction.BOSWELL.

["Died, the Rev. Mr. Eccles, at Bath. In attempting to save a boy, whom he saw sinking in the Avon, he, together with the youth, were both drowned."-Gent. Mag. Aug. 15, 1777. And in the magazine for the next month are some verses on this event, with an epitaph, of which the first line is,

Beneath this stone the "man of feeling" lles.—ED.]

whole book, with blottings, interlineations, | the extent of my paper, that I design to reand corrections, that it might be shown to compense rarity by length. A short letter several people as an original. It was, in to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an intruth, the production of Mr. Henry Mac- sult like that of a slight bow or cursory sakenzie, an attorney in the Exchequer at lutation; a proof of unwillingness to do Edinburgh, who is the authour of several much, even where there is a necessity of doother ingenious pieces; but the belief with ing something. Yet it must be remembered, regard to Mr. Eccles became so general, that he who continues the same course of that it was thought necessary for Messieurs life in the same place will have little to tell. Strahan and Cadell to publish an advertise- One week and one year are very like one ment in the newspapers, contradicting the another. The silent changes made by time report, and mentioning that they purchased are not always perceived; and if they are the copyright of Mr. Mackenzie. I can not perceived, cannot be recounted. I have conceive this kind of fraud to be very easily risen and lain down, talked and mused, while practised with successful effrontery. The you have roved over a considerable part of filiation of a literary performance is difficult Europe; yet I have not envied my Baretti of proof; seldom is there any witness pres- any of his pleasures, though, perhaps, I ent at its birth. A man, either in confi- have envied others his company: and I am dence or by improper means, obtains posses- glad to have other nations made acquainted sion of a copy of it in manuscript, and bold- with the character of the English, by a travly publishes it as his own. The true au- eller who has so nicely inspected our manthour, in many cases, may not be able to ners, and so successfully studied our literamake his title clear. Johnson, indeed, from ture. I received your kind letter from Falthe peculiar features of his literary offspring, mouth, in which you gave me notice of might bid defiance to any attempt to appro- your departure for Lisbon; and another priate them to others: from Lisbon, in which you told me, that "But Shakspeare's magick could not copied be; To either of these how could any answer be you were to leave Portugal in a few days.

Within that circle none durst walk but he."

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returned? I have had a third from Turin, Complaining that I have not answered the former. Your English style still continues in its purity and vigour. With vigour your genius will supply it: but its purity must be continued by close attention. To use taminating one by the other, is very diftwo languages familiarly, and without conficult; and to use more than two, is hardly to be hoped. The praises which some have received for their multiplicity of languages may be sufficient to excite industry, but can hardly generate confidence.

joice at the kind reception which you have found, or at the popularity to which you are exalted. I am willing that your merit should be distinguished; but cannot wish that your affections may be gained. I would have you happy wherever you are: yet I would have you wish to return to England. If ever you visit us again you will find the kindness of your friends undiminished. To tell you how many inquiries are made after you would be tedious, or if not tedious, would be vain; because you may be told in a very few words, that all who knew you wish you well; and that all that you embraced at your departure will caress you at your re

I know not whether I can heartily re

turn: therefore do not let Italian academicians nor Italian ladies drive us from your

to Mr. Baretti, which are among the very best he ever wrote, were communicated to the proprietors of that instructive and elegant monthly miscellany, The European Magazine, in which they first appeared.-BOSWELL.

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