may furnish a subject of long meditation. I am not satisfied if a year passes without my having read it through; and at every perusal, my admiration of the mind which produced it is so highly raised, that I can scarcely believe that I had the honour of enjoying the intimacy of such a man.

I restrain myself from quoting passages from this excellent work, or even referring to them, because I should not know what to select, or rather what to omit. I shall, however, transcribe one, as it shows how well he could state the arguments of those who believe in the appearance of departed spirits: a doctrine which it is a mistake to suppose that he himself ever positively held :

'If all your fear be of apparitions,' said the Prince, I will promise you safety: there is no danger from the dead; he that is once buried will be seen no more.'

'That the dead are seen no more,' said Imlac, 'I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth; those that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues, confess it by their fears.'

Notwithstanding my high admiration of Rasselas, I will not maintain that the 'morbid melancholy' in Johnson's constitution may not, perhaps, have made life appear to him more insipid and unhappy than it generally is: for I am sure that he had less enjoyment from it than I have. Yet, whatever additional shade his own particular sensations may have thrown on his representation of life, attentive observation and close inquiry have convinced me that there is too much reality in the gloomy picture. The truth, however, is, that we judge of the happiness and misery of life differently at different times, according to the state of our changeable frame. I always remember a remark made to me by a Turkish lady, educated in France; Ma foi, Monsieur, notre bonheur dépend de la façon

que notre sang circule. This have I learnt from a pretty hard course of experience, and would, from sincere benevolence, impress upon all who honour this book with a perusal, that until a steady conviction is obtained that the present life is an imperfect state, and only a passage to a better, if we comply with the divine scheme of progressive improvement; and also that it is a part of the mysterious plan of Providence, that intellectual beings must be made perfect through suffering;' there will be a continual recurrence of disappointment and uneasiness.

WELL.

2 This paper was in such high estimation before it was collected into volumes, that it was seized on with avidity by various publishers of newspapers and magazines to enrich their publications. Johnson, to put a stop to this unfair proceeding, wrote for the Universal Chronicle the following advertisement; in which there is, perhaps, more pomp of words than the occasion demanded:

London, Jan. 5, 1759. ADVERTISEMENT. The pro

prietors of the paper entitled the Idler, having found that those essays are inserted in the newspapers and magazines with so little regard to justice or decency, that the Universal Chronicle, in which they first appear, is not always mentioned, think it necessary to declare to the publishers of those collections, that however patiently they have hitherto endured these injuries, made yet more injurious by contempt, they have now determined to endure them no longer. They have already seen essays, for which a very large price is paid, transferred with the most shameless rapacity into the weekly or monthly compilations, and their right, at least for the present, alienated from them, before they could themselves be said to enjoy it. But they would not willingly be thought to want tenderness,

even for men by whom no tenderness hath been shown. The past is without remedy, and shall be without resentment. But those who have been thus busy with their sickles in the fields of their neighbours, are henceforward to take notice that the time of impunity is at an end. Whoever shall, without our leave, lay the hand of rapine upon our papers, is to expect that we shall vindicate our due, by the means which justice prescribes, and which are warranted by the immemorial prescriptions of honourable trade.

We shall lay hold,

in our turn, on their copies, degrade them from the pomp of wide margin and diffuse typography, contract them into a narrow space, and sell them at an humble G

was proceeding, though slowly, in his edition of Shakspeare. He, however, from that liberality which never failed, when called upon to assist other labourers in literature, found time to translate for Mrs. Lenox's English version of Brumoy, 'A Dissertation on the Greek Comedy' [+], and 'The General Conclusion of the Book '[+].

An inquiry into the state of foreign countries was an object that seems at all times to have interested Johnson. Hence Mr. Newbery found no great difficulty in persuading him to write the Introduction [*] to a collection of voyages and travels published by him under the title of The World Displayed, the first volume of which appeared this year, and the remaining volumes in subsequent years.

I would ascribe to this year the following letter to a son of one of his early friends at Lichfield, Mr. Joseph Simpson, barrister, and author of a tract entitled Reflections on the Study of the Law:

'TO JOSEPH SIMPSON, ESQ. 'DEAR SIR,-Your father's inexorability not only grieves but amazes me : he is your father; he was always accounted a wise man; nor do I remember anything to the disadvantage of his good nature; but in his refusal to assist you there is neither good nature, fatherhood, nor wisdom. It is the practice of good nature to overlook faults which have already, by the consequences, punished the delinquent. It is natural for a father to think more favourably

than others of his children; and it is always wise to give assistance, while a little help will prevent the necessity of greater.

'If you married imprudently, you miscarried at your own hazard, at an age when you had a right of choice. It would be hard if the man might not choose his own wife, who has a right to plead before the judges of his country.

'If your imprudence has ended in difficulties and inconveniences, you are yourself to support them; and, with the help of a little better health, you would support them and conquer them. Surely, that want which accident and sickness produces is to be supported in every region of humanity, though there were neither friends nor fathers in the world. You have certainly from your father the highest claim of charity, though none of right; and therefore I would counsel you to omit no decent nor manly degree of importunity. Your debts in the whole are not large, and of the whole but a small part is troublesome. Small debts are like small shot; price; yet not with a view of growing rich by confiscations, for we think not much better of money got by punishment than by crimes. We shall therefore, when our losses are repaid, give what profit shall remain to the Magdalens; for we know not who can be more properly taxed for the support of penitent prostitutes, than prostitutes in whom there yet appears neither penitence nor shame.'-BOSWELL.

they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger. You must therefore be enabled to discharge petty debts, that you may have leisure with security to struggle with the rest. Neither the great nor little debts disgrace you. I am sure you have my esteem for the courage with which you contracted them, and the spirit with which you endure them. I wish my esteem could be of more use. I have been invited, or have invited myself, to several parts of the kingdom; and will not incommode my dear Lucy by coming to Lichfield, while her present lodging is of any use to her. I hope, in a few days, to be at leisure and to make visits. Whither I shall fly

is matter of no importance. A man unconnected is at home everywhere, unless he may be said to be at home nowhere. I am sorry, dear sir, that where you have parents, a man of your merits should not have a home. I wish I could give it you. I am, my dear sir, affectionately 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

yours,

He now refreshed himself by an excursion to Oxford, of which the following short characteristical notice, in his own words, is preserved :—

- is now making tea for me. I have been in my gown ever since I came here. It was at my first coming quite new and handsome. I have swum thrice, which I had disused for many years. I have proposed to Vansittart1 climbing over the wall, but he has refused me.

And I have clapped my hands till they are sore at Dr. King's speech.'"

His negro servant, Francis Barber, having left him, and been some time at sea, not pressed, as has been supposed, but with his own consent, it appears, from a letter to John Wilkes, Esq., rested himself in procuring his release from a from Dr. Smollett, that his master kindly intestate of life of which Johnson always expressed the utmost abhorrence. He said, 'No man will

be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.' And at another time, 'A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better com pany.' The letter was as follows:

Johnson. His black servant, whose name is Francis Barber, has been pressed on board the Stag frigate, Captain Angel, and our lexicographer is in great distress. He says the boy is a sickly lad, of a delicate frame, and particularly subject to a malady in his throat, which renders him very unfit for his Majesty's service. You know what matter of animosity the said Johnson has against you; and I dare say you desire no other opportunity of resenting it, than that of laying him under an obligation. He was humble enough to desire my assistance on this occasion, though he and I were never catercousins; and I gave him to understand that I would make application to my friend Mr. Wilkes, who, perhaps, by his interest with Dr. Hay and Mr. Elliot, might be able to procure the discharge of his lacquey. It would be superfluous to say more on the subject, which I leave to your own consideration; but I cannot kt slip this opportunity of declaring that I am, with the most inviolable esteem and attachment, dear sir, your affectionate, obliged humble servant, 'T. SMOLLETT.',

Mr Wilkes, who upon all occasions has acted s private gentleman with most polite libe, applied to his friend Sir George Hay, Le one of the Lords Commissioners of the Aralty; and Francis Barber was discharged, te has told me, without any wish of his own. End his old master in chambers in the Temple, and returned to his service.

a: particular new scheme of life Johnson view this year, I have not discovered; * be meditated one of some sort, is clear -private devotions, in which we find ** i Med. pp. 30 and 40], 'the change of

things which I am now to make;' and,

e the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that te which I am now beginning may pro-Acing to thy laws, and end in the

of thy favour.' But he did not, in any external or visible change.1

te the manes of that ingenious and eman. CHUM was certainly a misCHAM, the title of the sovereign of swell applied to Johnson, the Monarch a was an epithet familiar to Smollett. iLshn, c. 56. For this correction I am

Palmerston, whose talents and lite-15 accord well with his respectable -BOSWELL.

ation of the second edition of this was furnished by Mr. Abercrombie of

a copy of a letter written by Dr. the poet, to Dr. Smollett, at Leghorn, ng paragraph --

Bench patriot, it is hard to say 11- he published a letter of yours asking of him in behalf of somebody for of literature, Mr. Johnson, had --MALONE. Her, from a note of his to Miss Porter, a the 23d of March of this year (1759),

At this time, there being a competition among the architects of London to be employed in the building of Blackfriars Bridge, a question was very warmly agitated, whether semicircular or elliptical arches were preferable. In the design offered by Mr. Mylne the elliptical form was adopted, and therefore it was the great object of his rivals to attack it. Johnson's regard for his friend Mr. Gwyn induced him to engage in this controversy against Mr. Mylne; and after

left his house in Gough Square, and went to reside in Staple Inn. Miss Williams took separate lodgings. It will appear from the list of Johnson's residences, subsequently given, that he removed from Staple Inn to Gray's Inn.

To

1 Sir John Hawkins has given a long detail of it, in that manner vulgarly, but significantly, called rigmarole; in which, amidst an ostentatious exhibition of arts and artists, he talks of proportions of a column being taken from that of the human figure, and adjusted by nature-masculine and feminine-in a man sesquioctave of the head, and in a woman sesquinonal;' nor has he failed to introduce a jargon of musical terms, which do not seem much to correspond with the subject, but serve to make up the heterogeneous mass. follow the knight through all this would be an useless fatigue to myself, and not a little disgusting to my readers. I shall, therefore, only make a few remarks upon his statement. He seems to exult in having detected Johnson in procuring from a person eminently skilled in mathematics and the principles of architecture, answers to a string of questions drawn up by himself, touching the comparative strength of semicircular and elliptical arches.' Now I cannot conceive how Johnson could have acted more wisely. Sir John complains that the opinion of that excellent mathematician, Mr. Thomas Simpson, did not preponderate in

favour of the semicircular arch. But he should have known, that however eminent Mr. Simpson was in the higher parts of abstract mathematical science, he was little versed in mixed and practical mechanics. Mr. Muller of Woolwich Academy, the scholastic father of all the great engineers which this country has employed for forty years, decided the question by declaring clearly in favour of the elliptical arch.

It is ungraciously suggested that Johnson's motive for opposing Mr. Mylne's scheme may have been his prejudice against him as a native of North Britain; when, in truth, as has been stated, he gave the aid of his able pen to a friend who was one of the candidates; and so far was he from having any illiberal antipathy to Mr. Mylne, that he afterwards lived with that gentleman upon very agreeable terms of acquaintance, and dined with him at his house. Sir John Hawkins, indeed, gives full vent to his own prejudice in abusing Blackfriars Bridge, calling it an edifice in which beauty and symmetry are in vain sought for; by which the citizens of London have perpetuated their own disgrace, and subjected a whole nation to the reproach of foreigners.' Whoever has contemplated, placido lumine, this stately, elegant, and airy structure, which has so fine an effect, especially on approaching the capital on that quarter, must wonder at such unjust and ill-tempered censure; and I appeal to all foreigners of good taste, whether this bridge be not one of the most distinguished ornaments of London. As to the stability of the fabric, 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

teng at trasterable pains to study the subject, de write three several letters in the Gazetteer m pogostica to his plan.

Mbozi be remarked that this was a convary with lay quite out of Johnson's way, is is be remembered that, after all, his emguring his powers of reasoning and eloquence aped a ribject which he had studied on the 1. dira, et more strange than what we aften serve in lawyers, who, as Quicquid agunt b. vider is the matter of lawsuits, are sometimes bliged to pick up a temporary knowledge of an art or science of which they un lerstood nothing till their brief was delivered, and appear to be mach masters of it. In like manner, members of the Legislature frequently introduce and expatiate upon subjects of which they have informed themselves for the occasion.

CHAPTER XIII.

1760-1763.

In 1760 Johnson 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.' He also wrote, for Mr. Baretti, the Dedication [+] of his Italian and English Dictionary, to the Marquis of Abreu, then Envoy Extraordinary from Spain at the Court of Great Britain.

Johnson was now either very idle, or very busy with his Shakspeare; for I can find no other public 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 shines 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?

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 asare, repaired with sounder stone, and every Lecessary renewal can be completed at a moderate expense.-BOSWELL

Yet there remains still among us, not wholly extinguished, a zeal for truth, a desire of establishing right in opposition to fashion.'

In this year I have not discovered a single private letter written by him to any of his friends. It should seem, however, that he had at this period a floating intention of writing a history of the recent and wonderful successes of the British arms in all quarters of the globe; for among his resolutions or memorandums, September 18, there is, 'Send for books for Hist. of War. How much is it to be regretted that this intention was not fulfilled! His majestic 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 ate his dinner the worse, but there should have been all this concern; and to say there was (smiling), may be reckoned a consecrated lie.'

This year Mr. Murphy, having thought himself ill-treated by the Rev. Dr. Franklin, who was one of the writers of the Critical Revier, published an indignant vindication in A Potical Epistle to Samuel Johnson, A.M., in which he compliments Johnson in a just and elegant |

manner :

'Transcendent Genius! whose prolific 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, powerful 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
Her innocence exchanged for guilty state;
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:

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 printer.' 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 translated into the French magazine. Mr. Murphy 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

1

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 s 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 inat ace 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 allitional proof of his inaccuracy; for both the facts asserted are unfounded. He appears to have been +ght years older than twenty-one when he began the Gray's Inn Journal; and that paper, instead of running s 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 Hade 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 Lambers were given to the public. On Saturday, bt. 29, 1753, it assumed a new form, and was pubLanel as a distinct periodical paper; and in that shape it cat.nued 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 extradinary paper mentioned in the text is No. 38 of the second series, published on June 15, 1754; which is a translation from the French version of Johnson's Lamier, No. 190 [History of Abouzaid, son of Morad]. It was emitted in the republication of these Essays in two volumes 12mo, in which one hundred and four are fotel, and in which the papers are not always dated es the days when they really appeared; so that the Totto prefixed to this Anglo-Gallic Eastern tale, Daruris vera involvens, might very properly have been Fixed to this work when republished. Mr. Murphy dad not, I believe, wait on Johnson recently after the Funication of this adumbration of one of his Ramblers,

'TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON,
NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE.
'Oct. 18, 1760.

'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 stayed at home, and intended to do great things, which I have not done. Beau1 went 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 error, 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 likewise suppose it was not followed; however, I still believe it to be right.

'Let me hear from you again, wherever you are, or whatever you are doing; whether you wander or sit still, plant trees or make Rustics," 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 believe, a good figure in the whole, though his faults seem to be very many; some as seems to be stated in the text; for, in his concluding Essay, Sept. 21,1754, we find the following paragraph:'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 author, when he wrote it, was not acquainted with Johnson, whom, from his first introduction, he endeavoured to conciliate. Their acquaintance, therefore, 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.

1 Topham Beauclerk, Esq.-BOSWELL

2 Essays with that title, written about this time by Mr. Langton, but not published.