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instance, observed in his sprightly manner, with more vivacity than regard to just discrimination, as is usual with wits, "When Johnson lived much with the Herveys, and saw a good deal of what was passing in life, he wrote his 'London,' which is lively and easy; when he became more retired, he gave us his 'Vanity of Human Wishes,' which is as hard as Greek. Had he gone on to imitate another satire, it would have been as hard as Hebrew."*

But "The Vanity of Human Wishes" is, in the opinion of the best judges, as high an effort of ethic poetry as any language can show. The instances of variety of disappointment are chosen so judiciously, and painted so strongly, that, the moment they are read, they bring conviction to every thinking mind. That of the scholar must have depressed the too sanguine expectations of many an ambitious student. That of the warrior, Charles of Sweden, is, I think, as highl finished a picture as can possibly be conceived.

Were all the other excellences of this poem
annihilated, it must ever have our grateful reve-
rence from its noble conclusion; in which we are
consoled with the assurance that happiness may
be attained, if we "apply our hearts to piety :-
"Where, then, shall hope and fear their objects find?
Shall dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind?
Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?
Shall no dislike alarm, no wishes rise,

No cries attempt the mercy of the skies?
Inquirer, cease; petitions yet remain,

Which Heaven may hear, nor deem Religion vain.
Still raise for good the supplicating voice,

But leave to Heaven the measure and the choice.
Safe in His hand, whose eye discerns afar
The secret ambush of a specious prayer;
Implore his aid, in his decisions rest,
Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best:
Yet when the sense of sacred presence fires,
And strong devotion to the skies aspires,
Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind,
Obedient passions, and a will resign'd;

For love, which scarce collective man can fill;
For patience, sovereign o'er transmuted ill;
For faith, which panting for a happier seat,
Counts death kind Nature's signal for retreat,

From Mr. Langton.-BOSWELL.

+ In this poem one of the instances mentioned of unfortunate men is Lydiat:

Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end."

These goods for man the laws of Heaven ordain, These goods he grants, who grants the power to gain With these celestial wisdom calms the mind, And makes the happiness she does not find."* Garrick being now vested with theatrical power by being manager of Drury-lane Theatre, he kindly and generously made use of it to bring out Johnson's tragedy, which had been long kept back for want of encouragement. But in this benevolent purpose he met with no small difficulty from the temper of Johnson, which could not brook that a drama which he had formed with much study, and had been obliged to keep more than the nine years of Horace, should be revised and altered at the pleasure of an actor. Yet Garrick knew well, that without some alterations it would not be fit for the stage. A violent dispute having ensued between them, Garrick applied to the Reverend Dr. Taylor to interpose. Johnson was at first very obstinate. "Sir," said he, the fellow wants me to make 'Mahomet' run mad, that he may have an opportunity of tossing his hands and kicking his heels." He was, however, at last, with difficulty, prevailed on to comply with Garrick's wishes, so as to allow of some changes; but still there were not enough.

Dr. Adams was present the first night of the representation of " Irene," and gave me the following account :-"Before the curtain drew up, there were catcalls whistling, which alarmed Johnson's friends. The Prologue, which was written by himself in a manly strain, soothed the audience, and the play went off tolerably, till it

* In this poem, a line in which the danger attending on female beauty is mentioned, has very generally, I believe, been misunderstood:

"Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring, And Sedley curs'd the form that pleas'd a king."

"The lady mentioned in the first of these verses, was
not the celebrated Lady Vane, whose memoirs were
given to the public by Dr. Smollett, but Anne Vane,
who was mistress to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and
died in 1736, not long before Johnson settled in Lon-
don. Some account of this lady was published, under
the title of "The Secret History of Vanella," 8vo. 1732.
See also "Vanella in the Straw," 4to. 1732. In Mr. Bos-
well's "Tour to the Hebrides" (p. 37, 4th edit.), we find
some observations respecting the lines in question:-
"In Dr. Johnson's 'Vanity of Human Wishes,' there is
the following passage:--

'The teeming mother, anxious for her race,
Begs for each birth the fortune of a face:
Yet Vane,' &c.

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The history of Lydiat being little known, the following account of him may be acceptable to many of my readers. It appeared as a note in the Supplement to the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1748, in which some passages extracted from Johnson's poem were inserted, and it should have been added in the subsequent editions."A very learned divine and mathematician, Fellow of "Lord Hailes told him [Johnson] he was mistaken in the New College, Oxon, and Rector of Okerton, near Ban- instances he had given of unfortunate fair ones, for bury. He wrote, among many others, a Latin treatise, neither Vane nor Sedley had a title to that description." 'De Natura Cæli, &c. in which he attacked the senti-His lordship therefore thought that the lines should ments of Scaliger and Aristotle, not bearing to hear it rather have run thus:urged, that some things are true in philosophy, and false in divinity. He made above six hundred Sermons on the Harmony of the Evangelists. Being unsuccessful in publishing his works, he lay in the prison of Bocardo at Oxford, and in the King's Bench, till Bishop Usher, Dr. Laud, Sir William Boswell, and Dr. Pink, released him by paying his debts. He petitioned King Charles I. to be sent into Ethiopia, &c. to procure MSS. Having spoken in favour of monarchy and bishops, he was plundered by the Parliament forces, and twice carried away prisoner from his rectory; and afterwards had not a shirt to shift him in three months, without he borrowed and died very poor in 1646."-BOSWELL.

"Yet Shore could tell-
And Valière curs'd".

"Our friend (he added in a subsequet note, addressed to Mr. Boswell on this subject) chose Vane, who was far from being well-look'd, and Sedley, who was so ugly that Charles II. said his brother had her, by way of penance.-MALONE.

Mahomet was in fact played by Mr. Barry, and Demetrius by Mr. Garrick; but probably at this time the parts were not yet cast.-BOSWELL

The expression used by Dr. Adams was "soothed'

came to the conclusion, when Mrs. Pritchard, the heroine of the piece, was to be strangled upon the stage, and was to speak two lines with the bow-string round her neck. The audience cried out 'Murder! Murder!'* She several times attempted to speak; but in vain. At last she was obliged to go off the stage alive." This passage was afterwards struck out, and she was carried off to be put to death behind the scenes, as the play now has it. The Epilogue, as Johnson informed me, was written by Sir William Yonge. I know not how his play came to be thus graced by the pen of a person so eminent in the political world.

Notwithstanding all the support of such performers as Garrick, Barry, Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Pritchard, and every advantage of dress and decoration, the tragedy of "Irene" did not please the public. Mr. Garrick's zeal carried it through

I should rather think the audience was awed by he ex traordinary spirit and dignity of the following lines :"Be this at least his praise, be this his pride

To force applause no modern arts are tried: Should partial catcalls all his hopes confound, He bids no trumpet quell the fatal sound; Should welcome sleep relieve the weary wit, He rolls no thunders o'er the drowsy pit; No snares to captivate the judgment spreada Nor bribes your eyes, to prejudice your heads. Unmov'd, though witlings sneer and rivals rail, Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail, He scorns the meek address, the suppliant strain, With merit needless, and without it vain: In Reason, Nature, Truth, he dares to trust; Ye fops be silent, and ye wits be just!"-BOSWELL. This shows how ready modern audiences are to condemn in a new play what they have frequently endured very quietly in an old one. Rowe has made Moneses in Tamerlane" die by the bow-string, without

offence."-MALONE.

I know not what Sir John Hawkins means by the cold reception of "Irene." I was at the first representa tion, and most of the subsequent. It was much applauded the first night, particularly the speech on to-morrow. It ran nine nights at least. It did not indeed become a stock-play, but there was not the least opposition during the representation, except the first night in the last act, where Irene was to be strangled on the stage, which John could not bear, though a dramatic poet may stab or slay by hundreds. The bow-string was not a Christian nor an ancient Greek or Roman death. But this offence was removed after the first night, and Irene went off the stage to be strangled. Many stories were circulated at the time, of the author's being observed at the representation to be dissatisfied with some of the speeches and conduct of the play, himself; and, like La Fontaine, expressing his disapprobation aloud."-BURNEY.

Mr. Murphy, in his "Life of Johnson," p. 53, says, "The amount of the three benefit nights for the tragedy of Irene,' it is to be feared, were not very considerable, as the profit, that stimulating motive, never invited the author to another dramatic attempt."

On the word "profit." the late Mr. Isaac Reed in his copy of that Life, which I purchased at the sale of his library, has added a manuscript note, containing the following receipts on Johnson's three benefit nights:

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for nine nights, so that the author had his three nights' profit; and from a receipt signed by him, now in the hands of Mr. James Dodsley, it appears that his friend, Mr. Robert Dodsley, gave him one hundred pounds for the сору, with his usual reservation of the right of one edition. "Irene," considered as a poem, is entitled to the praise of superior excellence. Analysed into parts, it will furnish a rich store of noble sentiments, fine imagery, and beautiful language; but it is deficient in pathos, in that delicate power of touching the human feelings, which is the principal end of the drama.* Indeed Garrick has complained to me that Johnson not only had not the faculty of producing the impressions of tragedy, but that he had not the sensibility to perceive them. His great friend Mr. Walmesley's prediction, that he would "turn out a fine tragedy-writer," was, therefore, ill-founded. Johnson was wise enough to be convinced that he had not the talents necessary to write successfully for the stage, and never made another attempt in that species of composition.

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When asked how he felt upon the ill success of his tragedy, he replied, "Like the Monument; meaning that he continued firm and unmoved as that column. And let it be remembered, as an admonition to the genus irritabile of dramatic writers, that this great man, instead of peevishly complaining of the bad taste of the town, submitted to its decision without a murmur. had, indeed, upon all occasions, a great deference for the general opinion: "A man," said he, "who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind; he supposes that he can instruct or amuse them, and the public to whom he appeals must, after all, be the judges of his pretensions."

On occasion of this play being brought upon the stage, Johnson had a fancy, that as a dramatic author, his dress should be more gay than what he ordinarily wore; he therefore appeared behind the scenes, and even in one of the side boxes, in a scarlet waistcoat, with rich gold lace, and a gold laced hat. He humorously observed to Mr. Langton, "that when in that dress he could not treat people with the same ease as when in his usual plain clothes." Dress indeed, we must allow, has more effect even upon strong minds than one should suppose without having had the experience of it. His necessary attendance while his play was in rehearsal, and during its performance, brought him acquainted with many of the performers of both sexes, which produced a more favourable opinion of their profes

was acted at Drury-lane on Monday, Feb. 6, and from that time, without interruption, to Monday, February the 20th, being in all thirteen nights."

On this Mr. Reed somewhat indignantly has written"This is false; it was acted only nine nights, and never repeated afterwards. Mr. Murphy, in making the above calculation, includes both the Sundays and Lent-days." The blunder, however, is that of the Monthly Reviewer, from whom Murphy took, without acknowledg ment, the greater part of his essay. M. R. vol. lxxvii. p. 135.-A. CHALMERS.

Aaron Hill (vol. ii. p. 355), in a letter to Mr. Mallet, gives the following account of "Irene," after having seen it:-"I was at the anomalous Mr. Johnson's benefit, and found the lay his proper representative; strong sens ungraced by sweetness or decorum."-BOSWELL.

sion than he had harshly expressed in his "Life of Savage." With some of them he kept up an acquaintance as long as he and they lived, and was ever ready to show them acts of kindness. He, for a considerable time, used to frequent the Green Room, and seemed to take delight in dissipating his gloom, by mixing in the sprightly chitchat of the motley circle then to be found there. Mr. David Hume related to me from Mr. Garrick, that Johnson at last denied himself this amusement, from considerations of rigid virtue, saying, "I'll come no more behind your scenes, David; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propen sities."

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In 1750 he came forth in the character for which he was eminently qualified, a majestic teacher of moral and religious wisdom. The vehicle which he chose, was that of a periodical paper, which he knew had been, upon former occasions, employed great success. The "Tatler," "Spectator," and "Guardian," were the last of the kind published in England, which had stood the test of a long trial; and such an interval had now elapsed since their publication, as made him justly think that, to many of his readers, this form of instruction would, in some degree, have the advantage of novelty. A few days before the first of his Essays came out, there started another competitor for fame in the same form, under the title of "The Tatler Revived," which I believe was "born but to die." Johnson was, I think, not very happy in the choice of his title,-"The Rambler" which certainly is not suited to a series of grave and moral discourses, which the Italians have literally, but ludicrously translated by Il Vagabondo, and which has been lately assumed as the denomination of a vehicle of licentious tales. "The Rambler's Magazine." He gave Sir Joshua Reynolds the following account of its getting this name:"What must be done, Sir, will be donc. When I was to begin publishing that paper, I was at a loss how to name it. I sat down at night upon my bedside, and resolved that I would not go to sleep till I had fixed its title. The 'Rambler' seemed the best that occurred, and I took

it.

**

With what devout and conscientious sentiments this paper was undertaken, is evidenced by the following prayer, which he composed ard offered up on the occasion:

self and others: grant this, O Lord, for the sake of thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen."-[Pr. & Med. ¦ p. 9.1

"Almighty God, the giver of all good things, without whose help all labour is ineffectual, and without whose grace all wisdom is folly; grant, I beseech Thee, that in this undertaking thy Holy Spirit may not be withheld from me, but that I may promote thy glory, and the salvation of my

I have heard Dr. Warton mention, that he was at Mr. Robert Dodsley's with the late Mr. Moore, and several of his friends, considering what should be the name of the periodical paper which Moore had undertaken. Garrick proposed the "Salad," which, by a curious coincidence, was afterwards applied to himself by Goldsmith:

"Our Garrick's a salad, for in him we see

Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree !" At last, the company having separated, without anything of which they approved having been offered, Dodsley himself thought of" The World."-BOSWELL.

The first paper of the "Rambler" was published on Tuesday the 20th of March, 1749-50; and its author was enabled to continue it, without interruption, every Tuesday and Saturday, till Saturday the 17th of March,* 1752, on which day it closed. This is a strong confirmation of the truth of a remark of his, which I have had occasion to quote elsewhere, † that "a man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it," for, notwithstanding his constitutional indolence, his depression of spirits, and his labour in carrying on his Dictionary, he answered the stated calls of the press twice a week from the stores of his mind, during all that time; having received no assistance, except four billets in No. 10, by Miss Mulso, now Mrs. Chapone; No. 30, by Mrs. Catherine Talbot; No. 97, by Mr. Samuel Richardson, whom he describes in an introductory note as "An author who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue;" and Numbers 44 and 100, by Mrs. Elizabeth Carter.

Posterity will be astonished when they are told, upon the authority of Johnson himself, that many of these discourses, which we should suppose had been laboured with all the slow attention of literary leisure, were written in haste as the moment press, without even being read over by him before they were printed. It can be accounted for only in this way: that by reading and meditation, and a very close inspection of life he had accumulated a great fund of miscellaneous knowledge, which, by a peculiar promptitude of mind, was ever ready at his call, and which he had constantly accustomed himself to clothe in the most apt and energetic expression. Sir Joshua Reynolds once asked him by what means he had attained his extraordinary accuracy and flow of language. He told him, that he had early laid it down as a fixed rule to do his Lt on every occasion, and in every company, to impart whatever he knew in the most forcible language he could put it in; and that by constant practice, and never suffering any careless expressions to escape him, or attempting to deliver his thoughts without arranging them in the clearest manner, it became habitual to him. ‡

Yet he was not altogether unprepared as a periodical writer; for I have in my possession a small duodecimo volume in which he has written in the form of Mr. Locke's "Common-Place Book," a variety of hints for essays on different

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subjects. He has marked upon the first blank leaf of it, "To the 128th page, collections for the 'Rambler;'" and in another place, "In fifty-two there were seventeen provided; in 97-21; in 190-25." At a subsequent period, probably after the work was finished, he added, "In all, taken of provided materials, 30."

Sir John Hawkins, who is unlucky upon all occasions, tells us, that "this method of accumulating intelligence had been practised by Mr. Addison, and is humorously described in one of the Spectators [No. 46], wherein he feigns to have dropped his paper of notanda, consisting of a diverting medley of broken sentences and loose hints, which he tells us he had collected and meant to make use of. Much of the same kind is Johnson's 'Adversaria.'"* But the truth is,

that there is no resemblance at all between them.

Addison's note was a fiction, in which unconnected fragments of his lucubrations were purposely jumbled together in as odd a manner as he could, in order to produce a laughable effect. Whereas Johnson's abbreviations are all distinct, and applicable to each subject of which the head is mentioned.

For instance, there is the following specimen: Youth's Entry, &c.

"Baxter's account of things in which he had changed his mind as he grew up. Voluminous. -No wonder.-If every man was to tell, or mark, on how many subjects he has changed, it would make vols. but the changes not always observed by man's self. From pleasure to bus. [business] to quiet; from thoughtfulness to reflect. to piety; from dissipation to domestic. by impercept. gradat. but the change is certain. Dial non progredi progress, esse conspicimus. Look back, consider what was thought at some dist. period.

Hope predom. in youth. Mind not willingly indulges unpleasing thoughts. The world lies enamelled before him, as a distant prospect sungilt;t the qualities 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.

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Confidence in himself. Long tract of life before him. No thought of sickness.-Embarrassment of affairs.-Distraction of family. Public calamities. No sense of the prevalence of bad habits. Negligent of time-ready to undertake careless to pursue-all changed by time.

"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 cowardice, the treachery of men.

Youth ambitious, as thinking honours easy to

be had.

*Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 268.-BOSWELL. †This most beautiful image of the enchanting delusion of youthful prospect has not been used in any of Johnson's essays.-BOSWELL,

"Different kinds of praise pursued at different periods. Of the gay in youth. dang. hurt, &c., despised.

"Of the fancy in manhood. Ambit.-stocksbargains.-Of the wise and sober in old ageseriousness-formality-maxims, but generalonly of the rich, otherwise age is happy-but at last every thing 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 hope-no undertaking-no regard to benevolence-no fear of disgrace, &c. "Youth to be taught the piety of age-age to retain the honour of youth.'

"

This, it will be observed, is the sketch of No. 196 of the "Rambler." I shall gratify my readers with another specimen :

"Confederacies difficult; why.

"Seldom in war a match for single personsnor in peace; therefore kings make themselves absolute. Confederacies in learning-every great ship like ladies. Scribebamus, &c., Mart. The work the work of one. Bruy. Scholars' friendapple of discord-the laurel of discord - the poverty of criticism. Swift's opinion of the power of six geniuses united. That union scarce possible. His remarks just ;-man, a social, not steady nature. Drawn to man by words, repelled by passions. Orb. drawn by attraction, rep. [repelled] by centrifugal.

"Common danger unites by crushing other passions-but they return. Equality hinders comToo much regard in each to private interest ;-too pliance. Superiority produces insolence and envy.

little.

societies.-The fitness of social attraction diffused

"The mischiefs of private and exclusive The mischiefs of too parthrough the whole. tial love of our country. Contraction of moral duties.-Οι φίλοι, οὐ φίλος.

therefore repells others from too near a contact, 'Every man moves upon his own centre, and though he may comply with some general laws.

"Of confederacy with superiors every one knows the inconvenience. With equals, no authority; every man his own opinion-his own

interest.

If con

"Man and wife hardly united-scarce ever without children. Computation, if two to one against two, how many against five! federacies were easy-useless; many oppresses many. If possible only to some, dangerous. Principum amicitias.

Here we see the embryo of No. 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 remark

* Lib. xil. 96. "In Tuccam æmulum omnium sucum studiorum.”—MALONE.

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able, that those for which he had made no prepara-
tion are as rich and as highly furnished 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.*
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 author says, "I
have never been much a favourite of the public."
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 of Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany," in which Mr. Bonnel Thornton and Mr. Colman were the principal writers, describes it as "a work that exceeds anything of the kind ever published in this kingdom, some of the 'Spectators' excepted-if, indeed, they may be excepted." And afterwards, "May the public 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.

Johnson told me, with an amiable fondness, a little pleasing circumstance relative to this work. Mrs. Johnson, in whose judgment and taste he had great confidence, said to him, after a few numbers of the "Rambler" had come out, "I Sir John Hawkins has selected from this little collec-imagine you could have written anything equal to thought very well of you before; but I did not

tion of materials what he calls the "Rudiments of two of the papers of the Rambler."" But he has not been able to read the manuscript 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 fama, instead of fami non fama; 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 fama scribere; and another in French, Degenté de fate et affamé d'argent, instead of Dégouté 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.

The Ramblers" certainly were little noticed at first. Smart, the poet, first mentioned them to me as excellent papers, before I had heard any one else speak of them. When I went into Norfolk, in the autumn of 1751, I found but one person (the Rev. Mr. Squires, a man of learning, and a general purchaser of new books) who knew anything of them. But he been misinformed concerning the true author, for he had been told they were written by a Mr. Johnson of Canterbury, the son of a clergyman who had had a controversy with Bentley; and who had changed the readings of the old ballad entitled, "Norton Falgate," in Bentley's bold style (meo periculo), till not a single word of the original song was left. Before I left Norfolk in the year 1760, the "Ramblers" were in high favour among persons of learning and good taste. Others there were, devoid of both, who said that the hard words in the "Rambler" were used by the author to render his Dictionary indispensably necessary.-BURNEY.

It may not be improper to correct a slight error in the preceding note, though it does not at all effect the principal object of Dr. Burney's remark. The clergyman above alluded to, was Mr. Richard Johnson, schoolmaster at Nottingham, who in 1717 published an octavo volume in Latin, against Bentley's edition of Horace, entitled" Aristarchus Anti-Bentleianus." In the middle of this Latin work (as Mr. Bindley observes to me) he has introduced four pages of English criticism, in which he ludicrously corrects, in Bentley's manner, one stanza, not of the ballad the hero of which lived in Norton Falgate, but of a ballad celebrating the achievements of Tom Bostock: who in a sea-fight performed prodigies of valour. The stanza on which this ingenious writer has exercised his wit, is as follows:

"Then old Tom Bostock he fell to the work,

He pray'd like a Christian, but fought like a Turk.
And cut 'em all off in a jerk,

Which nobody can deny," &c.-MALONE.

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 so near, its effect is most sensible and permanent.

Mr. James Elphinston, 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 countryand took the charge of an edition of those essays men and the reputation of his friend, he suggested at Edinburgh, which followed progressively the London publication.*

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.

TO MR. JAMES ELPHINSTON. "DEAR SIR,

[No date.]

"I cannot but confess the failures of my correspondence, but hope 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

Murray, and Cochran, with uncommon elegance, upon
It was executed in the printing-office of Sands,
writing paper, of a duodecimo size, and with the greatest
correctness; and Mr. Elphinston enriched it with transla-
tions of the mottos.
handsome volumes.
When completed it made eight
It is, unquestionably, the most
being but a small impression, it is now become scarce,
accurate and beautiful edition of this work; and there
and sells at a very high price.-BOSWELL

With respect to the correctness of this edition, the author 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.

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