willingly indulges unpleasing thoughts. | cord-the laurel of discord-the poverty The world lies all enamelled before him, as of criticism. Swift's opinion of the power a distant prospect sun-gilt ; inequalities only found by coming to it. Love is to be all joy-children excellent-Fame to be constant-caresses of the great-applauses of the learned-smiles of Beauty. "Fear of disgrace-Bashfulness-Finds things of less importance. Miscarriages forgot like excellencies;—if remembered, of no import. Danger of sinking into negligence of reputation;-lest the fear of disgrace destroy activity. Confidence in himself. Long tract of life before him-No thought of sicknessEmbarrassment of affairs.-Distraction of family. Publick calamities.-No sense of the prevalence of bad habits. Negligent of time-ready to undertake-careless to pursue-all changed by time. of six geniuses united. That union scarce Common danger unites by crushing other passions-but they return. Equality hinders compliance. Superiority produces insolence and envy. Too much regard in each to private interest;-too little. "The mischiefs of private and exclusive societies.-The fitness of social attraction diffused through the whole. The mischiefs of too partial love of our country. Contraction of moral duties.—'or quasi, & qunos. "Every man moves upon his own centre, and therefore repels others from too near a contact, though he may comply with some general laws. Confident of others-unsuspecting as unexperienced-imagining himself secure against neglect, never imagines they will venture to treat him ill. Ready to trust; expecting to be trusted. Convinced by time of the selfishness, the meanness, the cow--his own interest. ardice, the treachery of men. "Youth ambitious, as thinking honours easy to be had. "Different kinds of praise pursued at different periods. Of the gay in youth, dang. hurt, &c. despised. "Of the fancy in manhood. Ambit.stocks-bargains.-Of the wise and sober in old age-seriousness-formality-maxims, but general-only of the rich, otherwise age is happy-but at last everything referred to riches-no having fame, honour, influence, without subjection to caprice. "Horace. "Hard it would be if men entered life with the same views with which they leave it, or left as they enter it-No hopeno undertaking-no regard to benevolenceno fear of disgrace, &c. "Youth to be taught the piety of ageage to retain the honour of youth." This, it will be observed, is the sketch of Number 196 of the Rambler. I shall gratify my readers with another specimen: "Confederacies difficult; why. "Seldom in war a match for single persons-nor in peace; therefore kings make themselves absolute. Confederacies in learning-every great work the work of one. Bruy. Scholars' friendship like ladies. Scribebamus, &c. Mart.2 The apple of dis 1 This most beautiful image of the enchanting delusion of youthful prospect has not been used in any of Johnson's essays. 2 Lib. xii. 96. "In 'Tuccam æmulum omnium suorum studiorum."-MALONE. "Of confederacy with superiors every one knows the inconvenience. With equals, no authority;-every man his own opinion "Man and wife hardly united;-scarce ever without children. Computation, if two to one against two, how many against five? If confederacies were easy-useless; -many oppresses many.-If possible only to some, dangerous. Principum amicitias." Here we see the embryo of Number 45 of the Adventurer; and it is a confirmation of what I shall presently have occasion to mention, that the papers in that collection marked T. were written by Johnson. This scanty preparation of materials will not, however, much diminish our wonder at the extraordinary fertility of his mind; for the proportion which they bear to the number of essays which he wrote is very small; and it is remarkable, that those for which he had made no preparation are as rich and as highly finished, as those for which the hints were lying by him. It is also to be observed, that the papers formed from his hints are worked up with such strength and elegance, that we almost lose sight of the hints, which become like "drops in the bucket." Indeed, in several instances, he has made a very slender use of them, so that many of them remain still unapplied 3. 3 Sir John Hawkins has selected from this lit tle collection of materials, what he calls the But he has not been able to read the manuscript "Rudiments of two of the papers of the Rambler." distinctly. Thus he writes, p. 266, "Sailor's fate any mansion;" whereas the original is "Sailor's life my aversion." He has also transcribed the unappropriated hints on Writers for bread, in which he deciphers these notable passages, one in Latin, fatui non famæ, instead of As the Rambler was entirely the work of one man, there was, of course, such a uniformity in its texture, as very much to exclude the charm of variety; and the grave and often solemn cast of thinking, which distinguished it from other periodical papers, made it, for some time, not generally liked. So slowly did this excellent work, of which twelve editions have now issued from the press, gain upon the world at large, that even in the closing number the authour says, "I have never been much a favourite of the publick." | of your letter of the 9th inst. at Gloucester, and did intend to answer it from that city, though I had but one sound hand (the cold and rain on my journey having given me the gout); but, as soon as I could write I went to Westminster, the seat of Mr. Cambridge?, who entertained the Prince 3 there, and, in his boat, on the Severn. He kept me one night, and took me down part of his river to the Severn, where I sailed in one of his boats, and took a view of another of a peculiar make, having two keels, or being rather two long canoes, connected by a floor or stage. I was then towed back again to sup and repose. Next morning he explained to me the contrivance of some waterfalls, which seem to come from a piece of water which is four feet lower. The three following days I spent in returning to town, and could not find time to write in an inn. Yet, very soon after its commencement, there were who felt and acknowledged its uncommon excellence. Verses in its praise appeared in the newspapers; and the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine mentions, in October, his having received several letters to the same purpose from the learned. "The Student, or Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany," in which Mr. Bonnel Thorn- "I need not tell you that the Prince apton and Mr. Colman were the principal writ-peared highly pleased with every thing that ers, describes it as "a work that exceeds any thing of the kind ever published in this kingdom, some of the Spectators excepted, if indeed they may be excepted." And afterwards, "May the publick favours crown his merits, and may not the English, under the auspicious reign of GEORGE the Second, neglect a man, who, had he lived in the first century, would have been one of the greatest favourites of Augustus." This flattery of the monarch had no effect. It is too well known, that the second George never was an Augustus to learning or genius. ED. [Richardson, the authour of Mr. Cambridge showed, though he called him upon deck often to be seen by the people on the shore, who came in prodigious crowds, and thronged from place to place, to have a view as often as they could, not satisfied with one; so that many who came between the towing line and the bank of the river were thrown into it, and his royal highness could scarce forbear laughing; but sedately said to them, 'I am sorry for your condition.' "Excuse this ramble from the purpose of your letter. I return to answer, that Mr. Cla-Johnson is the Great Rambler, being, as you observe, the only man who can furnish two such papers in a week, besides his other great business, and has not been assisted with above three. rissa, to whom Cave had sent the five first numbers of the Rambler, became, as they proceeded, "so inexpressibly pleased with them," that he wrote to Cave in strong commendation, and intimated his conviction (the name of the authour being still a secret) that Johnson was the only man who could write them. Cave's answer seems worth inserting, as giving a higher idea of his own station in society than has been hitherto entertained, as well as more clearly explaining some points of Dr. Johnson's life. Rich. Cor. vol. 1. p. 166. MR CAVE TO MR. RICHARDSON. "DEAR SIR, I received the pleasure fami non fame; Johnson having in his mind what Thuanus says of the learned German antiquary and linguist, Xylander, who, he tells us, lived in such poverty, that he was supposed fami non famæ scribere; and another in French, Degente de fate et affamé d'argent, instead of Degouté de fame (an old word for renommé) et affamé d'argent. The manuscript, being written in an exceedingly small hand, is indeed very hard to read; but it would have been better to have left blanks than to write nonsense. BOSWELL. | "I may discover to you, that the world is not so kind to itself as you wish it. The encouragement, as to sale, is not in proportion to the high character given to the work by the judicious, not to say the raptures expressed by the few that do read it; but its being thus relished in numbers gives hope that the sets must go off, as it is a fine paper, and, considering the late hour of having the copy, tolerably printed. "When the authour was to be kept private (which was the first scheme), two gentlemen, belonging to the Prince's court, 1 [So in the work quoted, but it is a mistake for Whitminster in Gloucestershire, the seat then, as now, of the family of Cambridge.-ED.] [Richard Owen Cambridge, author of the Scribbleriad, and a considerable contributor to the World. He was born in 1714, and died in 1802 at his seat opposite Richmond.—ED.] 3 [In July and August of this year the Prince and Princess of Wales, and their eldest daughter (the late Duchess of Brunswick), made a tour through Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and Hampshire. ED.] came to me to inquire his name, in order to do him service; and also brought a list of seven gentlemen to be served with the Rambler. As I was not at liberty, an inference was drawn, that I was desirous to keep to myself so excellent a writer. Soon after, Mr. Doddington 1 sent a letter directed to the Rambler, inviting him to his house, when he should be disposed to enlarge his acquaintance. In a subsequent number 2 a kind of excuse was made, with a hint that a good writer might not appear to advantage in conversation. Since that time several circumstances, and Mr. Garrick and others, who knew the authour's powers and style from the first, unadvisedly asserted their (but) suspicions, overturned the scheme of secrecy. (About which there is also one paper 2.) "I have had letters of approbation from Dr. Young, Dr. Hartley, Dr. Sharpe, Miss Carter, &c. &c. most of them, like you, setting them in a rank equal, and some superiour, to the Spectators (of which I have not read many, for the reasons 3 which you assign): but, notwithstanding such recommendation, whether the price of twopence, or the unfavourable season of their first publication, hinders the demand, no boast can be made of it. "The authour (who thinks highly of your writings) is obliged to you for contributing your endeavours; and so is, for several marks of your friendship, good sir, your admirer, and very humble servant, "E. CAVE."] Johnson told me, with an amiable fondness, a little pleasing circumstance relative to this work. Mrs. Johnson, in whose judgement and taste he had great confidence, said to him, after a few numbers of the Rambler had come out, "I thought very well of you before; but I did not imagine you could have written any thing equal to this." Distant praise, from whatever quarter, is not so delightful as that of a wife whom a man loves and esteems. Her approbation may be said to "come home to his bosom;" and being 1 [George Bubb Doddington, afterwards Lord Melcombe, whose fame as a statesman and a wit has been obscured, if not obliterated, by the publication of his Diary.-ED.] 2 [The two Ramblers referred to are probably Nos. 14 and 13.-ED.] [Richardson had said, "I remember not any thing in those Spectators that I read, for I never found time to read them all, that half so much struck me." It seems very strange that men of literary habits, like Richardson and Cave, should have read the Spectator so imperfectly. It is the stranger, with regard to Richardson, for his only paper in the Rambler (No. 97) is written in the character of a professed admirer of the Spectator.-ED.] so near, its effect is most sensible and permanent. Mr. James Elphinston 4, who has since published various works, and who was ever esteemed by Johnson as a worthy man, happened to be in Scotland while the Rambler was coming out in single papers at London. With a laudable zeal at once for the improvement of his countrymen, and the reputation of his friend, he suggested and took the charge of an edition of those Essays at Edinburgh, which followed progressively the London publication 5. The following letter written at this time, though not dated, will show how much pleased Johnson was with this publication, and what kindness and regard he had for Mr. Elphinston. 4 [Mr. James Elphinston was born in Edinburgh, in 1721. He, when very young, was a private tutor in two or three eminent families : but about 1752 set up a boarding-school at Kensington, where, as we shall see, Dr. Johnson sometimes visited him. He died in 1809. His works are forgotten or remembered for their absurdity. He translated Martial, of which Dr. Beattie says, "It is truly an unique-the specimens formerly published did very well to laugh at; but a whole quarto of nonsense and gibberish is too much. It is strange that a man not wholly illiterate should have lived so long in England without learning the language."-Biog. Dic. And it was, no doubt, of this strange work that Mrs. Piozzi relates, that "of a modern Martial, when it came out, Dr. Johnson said there are in these verses too much folly for madness, I think, and too much madness for folly."-Piozzi, p. 47.-ED.] 5 It was executed in the printing-office of Sands, Murray, and Cochran, with uncommon elegance, upon writing paper, of a duodecimo size, and with the greatest correctness and Mr. Elphinston enriched it with translations of the mottos. When completed, it made eight handsome volumes. It is, unquestionably, the most accurate and beautiful edition of this work; and there being but a small impression, it is now become scarce, and sells at a very high price.-Boswell. With respect to the correctness of this edition, my father probably derived his information from some other person, and appears to have been misinformed; for it was not accurately printed, as we learn from Mr. A. Chalmers.-J. BOSWELL. [Mr. Chalmers a little misrepresents, and Mr. James Boswell wholly mistook the fact. Elphinston's edition was correctly printed after the Mr. original folio numbers as they came out. Chalmers denies its accuracy, because it has not the various corrections subsequently made by. Johnson when he republished the Rambler in volumes.-ED.] the same regard which you express for me on every other occasion, will incline you to forgive me. I am often, very often, ill; and, when I am well, am obliged to work: and, indeed, have never much used myself to punctuality. You are however, not to make unkind inferences, when I forbear to reply to your kindness; for be assured, I never receive a letter from you without great pleasure, and a very warm sense of your generosity and friendship, which I heartily blame myself for not cultivating with more care. In this, as in many other cases, I go wrong, in opposition to conviction; for I think scarce any temporal good equally to be desired with the regard and familiarity of worthy men. I hope we shall be some time nearer to each other, and have a more ready way of pouring out our hearts. "I am glad that you still find encouragement to proceed in your publication, and shall beg the favour of six more volumes to add to my former six, when you can with any convenience send them me. Please to present a set in my name to Mr. Ruddiman', of whom, I hear, that his learning is not his highest excellence. I have transcribed the mottos, and returned them, I hope not too late, of which I think many very happily performed. Mr. Cave has put the last in the magazine 2, in which I think he did well. I beg of you to write soon, and to write often, and to write long letters, which I hope in time to repay you; but you must be a patient creditor. I have, however, this of gratitude, that I think of you with regard, when I do not, perhaps, give the proofs which I ought, of being, sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." This year he wrote to the same gentleman another letter upon a mournful occa sion. 1 Mr. Thomas Ruddiman, the learned grammarian of Scotland, well known for his various excellent works, and for his accurate editions of several authours. He was also a man of a most worthy private character. His zeal for the royal House of Stuart did not render him less estimable in Dr. Johnson's eye.-BoswELL. If it re If the Magazine here referred to be that for October, 1752 (see Gent. Mag. vol. 22, p. 468), then this letter belongs to a later period. lates to the Magazine for September, 1750 (see Gent. Mag. vol. 20, p. 406), then it may be ascribed to the month of October in that year, and should have followed the subsequent letter.-MALONE. [It seems clear from the expression of the letter that it refers to Cave's first publication of the mottos, and was probably written in Oct. 1750; but in either case it should have followed the letter of the 25th Sept.; though the editor has not thought it worth while to disturb Mr. Boswell's original arrangement.-ED.] "TO MR. JAMES ELPHINSTON. "September 25, 1750. "DEAR SIR,-You have, as I find by every kind of evidence, lost an excellent mother; and I hope you will not think me incapable of partaking of your grief. I have a mother, now eighty-two years of age, whom, therefore, I must soon lose, unless it please God that she should rather mourn for me. I read the letters in which you relate your mother's death to Mrs. Strahan3, and think I do myself honour, when I tell you that I read them with tears; but tears are neither to you nor to me of any farther use, when once the tribute of nature has been paid. The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues of which we are lamenting our deprivation. The greatest benefit which one friend can confer upon another is to guard, and excite, and elevate, his virtues. This your mother will still perform, if you diligently preserve the memory of her life, and of her death: a life, so far as I can learn, useful, wise, and innocent; and a death resigned, peaceful, and holy. I cannot forbear to mention, that neither reason nor revelation denies you to hope, that you may increase her happiness by obeying her precepts; and that she may, in her present state, look with pleasure upon every act of virtue to which her instructions or example have contributed 4. Whether this be more than a pleasing dream, or a just opinion of separate spirits, is, indeed, of no great importance to us, when we consider ourselves as acting under the eye of God; yet, surely, there is something pleasing in the belief, that our separation from those whom we love is merely corporeal; and it may be a great incitement to virtuous friendship, if it can be made probable that that union that has received the divine approbation shall continue to eternity. "There is one expedient by which you may, in some degree, continue her presence. If you write down minutely what you remember of her from her earliest years, you will read it with great pleasure, and receive from it many hints of soothing recollection, when time shall remove her yet farther from you, and your grief shall be matured to veneration. To this, however painful for the present, I cannot but advise you, as to a source of comfort and satisfaction in the time to come; for all comfort and all satis 3 [Sister to Mr. Elphinston.-Gent. Mag. 1785, p. 755. It is to be observed, that, for many of his early acquaintance, Johnson was indebted to the society of Mr. Strahan.- ED.] [This letter may, as the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine observes (loc. cit.), be read as a commentary on the celebrated passages in Johnson's Meditations, relative to the intermediate state of departed friends.-ED.] faction is sincerely wished you by, dear sir, | ous, considering how universally those volyour most obliged, most obedient, and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." umes are now disseminated. Even the most condensed and brilliant sentences which they contain, and which have very properly been selected under the name of "BEAUTIES 2," are of considerable bulk. But I may shortly observe, that the Rambler furnishes such an assemblage of discourses on practical reli The Rambler has increased in fame as in age. Soon after its first folio edition was concluded it was published in six duodecimo volumes 1; and its author lived to see ten nu-gion and moral duty, of critical investigamerous editions of it in London, beside those of Ireland and Scotland. I profess myself to have ever entertained a profound veneration for the astonishing force and vivacity of mind which the Rambler exhibits. That Johnson had penetration enough to see, and, seeing, would not disguise, the general misery of man in this state of being, may have given rise to the superficial notion of his being too stern a philosopher. But men of reflection will be sensible that he has given a true representation of human existence, and that he has, at the same time, with a generous benevolence, displayed every consolation which our state affords us; not only those arising from the hopes of futurity, but such as may be attained in the immediate progress through life. He has not depressed the soul to despondency and indifference. He has every where inculcated study, labour, and exertion. Nay, he has shown, in a very odious light, a man, whose practice is to go about darkening the views of others, by perpetual complaints of evil, and awakening those considerations of danger and distress, which are, for the most part, lulled into a quiet oblivion. This he has done very strongly in his character of Suspirius, (No. 55) from which Goldsmith took that of Croaker, in his comedy of "The good-natured Man," as Johnson told me he acknowledged to him, and which is, indeed, very obvious. To point out the numerous subjects which the Rambler treats, with a dignity and perspicuity which are there united in a manner which we shall in vain look for any where else, would take up too large a portion of my book, and would, I trust, be superflu tions, and allegorical and oriental tales, that no mind can be thought very deficient that has, by constant study and meditation, assimilated to itself all that may be found there. No. 7, written in Passion-week, on abstraction and self-examination, and No. 110, on penitence and the placability of the Divine Nature, cannot be too often read. No. 54, on the effect which the death of a friend should have upon us, though rather too dispiriting, may be occasionally very medicinal to the mind. Every one must suppose the writer to have been deeply impressed by a real scene; but he told me that was not the case; which shows how well his fancy could conduct him to the "house of mourning." Some of these more solemn papers, I doubt not, particularly attracted the notice of Dr. Young, the author of "The Night Thoughts," of whom my estimation is such, as to reckon his applause an honour even to Johnson. I have seen some volumes of Dr. Young's copy of the Rambler, in which he has marked the passages which he thought particularly excellent, by folding down a corner of the page; and such as he rated in a supereminent degree are marked by double folds. I am sorry that some of the volumes are lost. Johnson was pleased when told of the minute attention with which Young had signified his approbation of his essays. I will venture to say, that in no writings whatever can be found more bark and steel for the mind, if I may use the expression; more that can brace and invigorate every manly and noble sentiment. No. 32, on patience, even under extreme misery, is wonderfully lofty, and as much above the rant of stoicism, as the sun of Revelation is This is not quite accurate. In the Gent. brighter than the twilight of Pagan philosoMag. for Nov. 1751, while the work was yet phy. I never read the following sentence proceeding, is an advertisement, announcing that without feeling my frame thrill: "I think four volumes of the Rambler would speedily be there is some reason for questioning whethpublished; and, it is believed, that they were pub-er the body and mind are not so proportionlished in the next month. The fifth and sixth volames, with tables of contents, and translations of the mottos, were published in July, 1752, by Payne (the original publisher), three months after the close of the work. When the Rambler was collection, and wrote to Mr. Kearsley, bookseller, lected into volumes, Johnson revised and corrected it throughout. Mr. Boswell was not aware of this circumstance, which has lately been discovered, and accurately stated, by Mr. Alexander Chalmers, in a new edition of these and various other periodical essays, under the title of "The British Essayists."-MALONE. ed, that the one can bear all which can be inflicted on the other; whether virtue can 2 Dr. Johnson was gratified by seeing this se in Fleet street, the following note: "Mr. Johnson sends compliments to Mr. Kearsley, and begs the favour of seeing him as soon as he can. Mr. Kearsley is desired to bring with him the last edition of what he has honoured with the name of BEAUTIES. May 20, 1782." -BOSWELL. |