Chapter 3

In your last month's Review of books, you have asserted, that the publication of Dr. Johnson's _Prayers_ and _Meditations_ appears to have been at the instance of Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford. This, I think, is more than you are warranted by the editor's preface to say; and is so far from being true, that Dr. Adams never saw a line of these compositions, before they appeared in print, nor ever heard from Dr. Johnson, or the editor, that any such existed. Had he been consulted about the publication, he would certainly have given his voice against it: and he therefore hopes, that you will clear him, in as publick a manner as you can, from being any way accessary to it. Wm. Adams.

[38] "Debilem facite manu, Debilem pede, coxa; Tuber adstrue gibberum; Lubricos quate dentes; Vita dum superest, bene est: Hanc mihi, vel acuta Si sedeam cruce, sustine." SENEC. EPIST. 101.

Let me but live, the fam'd Mæcenas cries, Lame of both hands, and lame in feet and thighs; Hump-back'd, and toothless;--all convuls'd with pain, Ev'n on the cross,--so precious life remain.

Dr. Johnson, in his last illness, is said to have declared (in the presence of Doctors H. and B.) that he would prefer a state of existence in eternal pain to annihilation.

[39] "This last comet (which appeared in the year 1680) I may well call the most remarkable one that ever appeared; since, besides the former consideration, I shall presently shew, that it is no other than that very comet, which came by the earth at the time of Noah's deluge, and _which was the cause of the same_." Whiston's _Theory of the Earth_, p. 188.

[40] "Since 575 years appear to be the period of the comet that caused the deluge, what a learned friend who was the occasion of my examination of this matter, suggests, will deserve to be considered; viz. Whether the story of the phoenix, that celebrated emblem of the resurrection in Christian antiquity, (that it returns once after five centuries, and goes to the altar and city of the sun, and is there burnt; and another arises out of its ashes, and carries away the remains of the former; &c.) be not an allegorical representation of this comet, which returns once after five centuries, and goes down to the sun, and is there vehemently heated, and its outward regions dissolved; yet that it flies off again, and carries away what remains after that terrible burning; &c. and whether the _conflagration_ and renovation of things, which some such comet may bring on the earth, be not hereby prefigured, I will not here be positive: but I own, that I do not know of any solution of this famous piece of mythology and hieroglyphics, as this seems to be, that can be compared with it." _Ibid._ p. 196.

[41] "'Tis here foretold [by Esdras] that there should be _signs in the woman_; and before all others this prediction has been verified in the famous _rabbet-woman of Surrey_, in the days of King George I.--This story has been so unjustly laughed out of countenance, that I must distinctly give my reasons for believing it to be true, and alleging it here as the fulfilling of this ancient prophecy before us.--1st. The man-midwife, Mr. Howard of Godalmin in Surrey, a person of very great honesty, skill and reputation in his profession, attested it.--It was believed by King George to be real; and it was also believed by my old friends the Speaker and Mr. Samuel Collet, as they told me themselves, and was generally by sober persons in the neighbourhood. Nay Mr. Molyneux, the Prince's Secretary, a very inquisitive person, and my very worthy friend, assured me he had at first so great a diffidence in the truth of the fact, and was so little biassed by the other believers, even by the King himself, that he would not be satisfied till he was permitted both to see and feel the rabbet, _in that very passage, whence we all come into this world_." Whiston's _Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 110.

[42] "The incumbrances of fortune were shaken from his mind as _dew-drops from the lion's mane_." Johnson's _Preface to his edition of Shakespeare_.

[43] Every reader of sensibility must be strongly affected by the following pathetick passages:--"Much of my life has been lost under the pressures of disease; much has been trifled away; and much has always been spent in provision for the day that was passing over me; but I shall not think my employment useless or ignoble, if by my assistance foreign nations and distant ages gain access to the propagators of knowledge, and understand the teachers of truth; if my labours afford light to the repositories of science, and add celebrity to Bacon, to Hooker, to Milton, and to Boyle."

"In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the authour, and the world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the faults of that which it condemns, yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it, that the ENGLISH DICTIONARY was written with _little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow_." Preface to Dr. Johnson's Dictionary.

[44] See Swift's letter to Lord Oxford for the institution of an academy to improve and fix the English language.

[45] The great French and Italian Dictionaries were not the productions of an individual, but were compiled by a body of Academicians in each country.

[46] "In times and regions so disjoined from each other, that there can scarcely be imagined any communication of sentiments, either by commerce or tradition, has prevailed a general and uniform expectation of propitiating GOD by corporal austerities, of anticipating his vengeance by voluntary inflictions, and appeasing his justice by a speedy and cheerful submission to a less penalty when a greater is incurred." _Rambler_, No. 110.

[47] The style of the _Ramblers_ seem to have been formed on that of Sir Thomas Brown's _Vulgar Errors_ and _Christian Morals_.

"But ice is water congealed by the frigidity of the air, whereby it acquireth no new form, but rather a consistence or determination of its defluency, and amitteth not its essence, but condition of fluidity. Neither doth there any thing properly conglaciate but water, or watery humidity, for the determination of quicksilver is properly fixation, that of milk coagulation, and that of oil and unctuous bodies only incrassation."--Is this written by Brown or Johnson?

[48] In the _Ramblers_ the abstract too often occurs instead of the concrete;--one of Dr. Johnson's peculiarities.

[49] See Victoria's Letter, RAMBLER, No. 130.--"I was never permitted to sleep till I had passed through the cosmetick discipline, part of which was a regular lustration performed with bean-flower water and may-dews; my hair was perfumed with a variety of unguents, by some of which it was to be thickened, and by others to be curled. The softness of my hands was secured by medicated gloves, and my bosom rubbed with a pomade prepared by my mother, of virtue to discuss pimples, and clear discolorations."

[50] Dr. Johnson's extraordinary facility of composition is well known from many circumstances. He wrote forty pages of the Life of Savage in one night. He composed seventy lines of his Imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal, and wrote them down from memory, without altering a word. In the Prologue on opening Drury-Lane theatre, he changed but one word, and that in compliment to Mr. Garrick. Some of his _Ramblers_ were written while the printer's messenger was waiting to carry the copy to the press. Many of the _Idlers_ were written at Oxford; Dr. Johnson often began his talk only just in time not to miss the post, and sent away the paper without reading it over.

[51] See his admirable _Lives of the Poets_, and particularly his Disquisition on metaphysical and religious poetry.

[52] See his Review of Soame Jennings's _Essay on the Origin of Evil_; a masterpiece of composition, both for vigour of style and precision of ideas.

[53] Pope's or rather Bolingbroke's system was borrowed from the Arabian metaphysicians.

[54] The scheme of the _Essay on Man_ was given by Lord Bolingbroke to Pope.

[55] See that sublime and beautiful Tale, _The Prince of Abyssinia_; and _The Rambler_, No. 65, 204, &c. &c.

[56] "The world is disposed to call this a discovery of Dr. Franklin's, (from his paper inserted in the Philosophical Transactions) but in this they are much mistaken. Pliny, Plutarch, and other naturalists were acquainted with it."--"Ea natura est olei, ut lucem afferat, ac tranquillar omnia, etiam mare, quo non aliud elementum implacabilius." _Memoirs of the Society of Manchester._

[57] _London_, a Satire, and _The Vanity of Human Wishes_, are both imitations of Juvenal. On the publication of _London_ in 1738, Mr. Pope was so much struck by it, that he desired Mr. Dodsley, his bookseller, to find out the author. Dodsley having sought him in vain for some time, Mr. Pope said, he would very soon be _deterré_. Afterwards Mr. Richardson the painter found out Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Pope recommended him to Lord Gower.

[58] See the Prologue spoken by Mr. Garrick in 1747, on the opening of Drury-Lane theatre.

[59] "Inter _ignotæ_ strepitus _loquelæ_."--Ode to Mrs. Thrale.

[60] The dignified and affecting letter written by him to the King in the name of Doctor Dodd, after his condemnation, is justly, and, I believe, universally admired. His benevolence, indeed, was uniform and unbounded.----I have been assured, that he has often been so much affected by the sight of several unfortunate women, whom he has seen almost perishing in the streets, that he has taken them to his own house; had them attended with care and tenderness; and, on their recovery, clothed, and placed them in a way of life to earn their bread by honest industry.

[61] The papers in the ADVENTURER, signed with the letter T, are commonly attributed to one of Dr. Johnson's earliest and most intimate friends, Dr. Bathurst; but there is good reason to believe that they were written by Dr. Johnson, and given by him to his friend. At that time Dr. Johnson was himself engaged in writing the _Rambler_, and could ill afford to make a present of his labours. The various other pieces that he gave away, have bestowed fame, and probably fortune, on several persons. To the great disgrace of some of his clerical friends, forty sermons, which he himself tells us he wrote, have not yet been _deterré_.

[62] "A good continued speech (says Bacon in his ESSAYS) without a good speech of interlocution, shews slowness; and a good reply or second speech, without a good settled speech, sheweth shallowness and weakness. As we see in beasts, that those that are weakest in the course, are yet _nimblest in the turn_; as it is betwixt the greyhound and the hare."--If this observation be just, Dr. Johnson is an exception to the rule; for he was certainly as _strong_ "in the course, as nimble in the turn"; as ready in "reply," as in "a settled speech."

[63] The celebrated Flora Macdonald. See Boswell's _Tour_.

[64] See Note 4.

[65] Dr. Burney's _History of Musick_ is equally distinguished by elegance and perspicuity of style, and for scientifick knowledge.

[66] Sir William Jones produced that learned and ingenious work, _Poeseos Asiaticæ Commentarii_, at a very early age.

[67] "The Hindu God, to whom the following poem is addressed, appears evidently the same with the Grecian EROS, and the Roman CUPIDO.----His favourite place of resort is a large tract of country round AGRA, and principally the plains of Matra, where KRISHEN also and the nine GOPIA, who are clearly the Apollo and Muses of the Greeks, usually spend the night with musick and dance." Preface to the HYMN to CAMDEO, translated from the Hindu language into Persian, and re-translated by Sir William Jones.

There can be little doubt, considering the antiquity and early civilisation of Hindostan, that both the philosophy and beautiful mythology of the Greeks were drawn from that part of Asia.

[68] The following observation in Mr. Boswell's _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, may sufficiently account for that gentleman's being "now scarcely esteem'd a Scot" by many of his countrymen; "If he [Dr. Johnson] was particularly prejudiced against the Scots it was because they were more in his way; because he thought their success in England rather exceeded the due proportion of their real merit; and because he could not but see in them that nationality which, I believe, no liberal-minded Scotchman will deny." Mr. Boswell indeed is so free from national prejudices, that he might with equal propriety have been described as--

"Scarce by _South_ Britons now esteem'd a Scot."

[69] When Dr. Johnson repeated to Mr. Boswell Goldsmith's beautiful eulogium on the English nation, his eyes filled with tears.--Boswell's _Tour_, p. 431.--See also the Dissertation on the Bravery of the English common Soldiers, at the end of the _Idler_.

[70] See _Taxation no Tyranny_.

[71] Though Dr. Johnson has called Hamden the _zealot of rebellion_, yet that distinguished patriot could not have expressed himself with more ardour in the cause of liberty, than Dr. Johnson does in the following passage in his Life of Swift: "In the succeeding reign [that of George I.] he delivered Ireland from plunder and _oppression_; and shewed that wit, confederated with _truth_, had such force as authority was unable to resist.--It was from the time when he first began to patronize the Irish, that they may date their riches, and prosperity. He taught them first to know their own interest, their weight and their strength, and gave them spirit to assert that _equality_ with their fellow-subjects to which they have been ever since making vigorous advances, and to claim those _rights_ which they have at last established."

The truth indeed seems to be, that Dr. Johnson, though he had been bred in high-church principles, and always expressed himself in controversial argument like a Tory, possessed a high independent spirit, and appears to have been a friend to the rights of man. His definition of the word _Caitiff_, in his Dictionary, may throw some light on this part of his character. "Caitiff. [_cattivo_, Ital. a slave; whence it came to signify a bad man, with some implication of meanness; as _knave_ in English, and _fur_ in Latin; so _certainly does slavery destroy virtue_.

Hêmisu tês aretês apoainutai doulion êmar.

A slave and a scoundrel are signified by the same words in many languages.] A mean villain," &c. See also that animated passage in his _London_, beginning, "Here let those reign," &c.

[72] It is observable that Dr. Johnson did not prefix a dedication to any one of his various works.

THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT

1948-1949

16. Henry Nevil Payne, _The Fatal Jealousie_ (1673).

18. Anonymous, "Of Genius," in _The Occasional Paper_, Vol. III, No. 10 (1719), and Aaron Hill, Preface to _The Creation_ (1720).

1949-1950

19. Susanna Centlivre, _The Busie Body_ (1709).

20. Lewis Theobald, _Preface to the Works of Shakespeare_ (1734).

22. Samuel Johnson, _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749), and two _Rambler_ papers (1750).

23. John Dryden, _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ (1681).

1951-1952

31. Thomas Gray, _An Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard_ (1751), and _The Eton College Manuscript_.

1952-1953

41. Bernard Mandeville, _A Letter to Dion_ (1732).

1963-1964

104. Thomas D'Urfey, _Wonders in the Sun_; or, _The Kingdom of the Birds_ (1706).

1964-1965

110. John Tutchin, _Selected Poems_ (1685-1700).

111. Anonymous, _Political Justice_ (1736).

112. Robert Dodsley, _An Essay on Fable_ (1764).

113. T. R., _An Essay Concerning Critical and Curious Learning_ (1698).

114. _Two Poems Against Pope_: Leonard Welsted, _One Epistle to Mr. A. Pope_ (1730), and _Anonymous, The Blatant Beast_ (1742).

1965-1966

115. Daniel Defoe and others, _Accounts of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal_.

116. Charles Macklin, _The Covent Garden Theatre_ (1752).

117. Sir George L'Estrange, _Citt and Bumpkin_ (1680).

118. Henry More, _Enthusiasmus Triumphatus_ (1662).

119. Thomas Traherne, _Meditations on the Six Days of the Creation_ (1717).

120. Bernard Mandeville, _Aesop Dress'd or a Collection of Fables_ (1704).

1966-1967

123. Edmond Malone, _Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Mr. Thomas Rowley_ (1782).

124. Anonymous, _The Female Wits_ (1704).

125. Anonymous, _The Scribleriad_ (1742). Lord Hervey, _The Difference Between Verbal and Practical Virtue_ (1742).

126. _Le Lutrin: an Heroick Poem, Written Originally in French by Monsieur Boileau: Made English by N. O._ (1682).

1967-1968

127-128. Charles Macklin, _A Will and No Will, or a Bone for the Lawyers_ (1746). _The New Play Criticiz'd, or The Plague of Envy_ (1747). Introduction by Jean B. Kern.

129. Lawrence Echard, Prefaces to _Terence's Comedies_ (1694) and _Plautus's Comedies_ (1694). Introduction by John Barnard.

130. Henry More, _Democritus Platonissans_ (1646). Introduction by P. G. Stanwood.

131. John Evelyn, _The History of ... Sabatai Sevi ... The Suppos'd Messiah of the Jews_ (1669). Introduction by Christopher W. Grose.

132. Walter Harte, _An Essay on Satire, Particularly on the Dunciad_ (1730). Introduction by Thomas B. Gilmore.

Subsequent publications may be checked in the annual prospectus.

Publications of the first fifteen years of the Society (numbers 1-90) are available in paperbound units of six issues at $16.00 per unit, from the Kraus Reprint Company, 16 East 46th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017.

Publications in print are available at the regular membership rate of $5.00 yearly. Prices of single issues may be obtained upon request.

William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: University of California, Los Angeles

THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

2520 CIMARRON STREET, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90018

_General Editors_: William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library; George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles; Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles

_Corresponding Secretary_: Mrs. Edna C. Davis, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

The Society's purpose is to publish rare Restoration and eighteenth-century works (usually as facsimile reproductions). All income of the Society is devoted to defraying costs of publication and mailing.

Correspondence concerning memberships in the United States and Canada should be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 2520 Cimarron Street, Los Angeles, California. Correspondence concerning editorial matters may be addressed to the General Editors at the same address. Manuscripts of introductions should conform to the recommendations of the MLA _Style Sheet_. The membership fee is $5.00 a year in the United States and Canada and £1.16.6 in Great Britain and Europe. British and European prospective members should address B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, England. Copies of back issues in print may be obtained from the Corresponding Secretary.

Publications of the first fifteen years of the Society (numbers 1-90) are available in paperbound units of six issues at $16.00 per unit, from the Kraus Reprint Company, 16 East 46th Street, New York, N. Y. 10017.

Make check or money order payable to THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

REGULAR PUBLICATIONS FOR 1968-1969

133. John Courtenay, _A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the Late Samuel Johnson_ (1786). Introduction by Robert E. Kelley.

134. John Downes, _Roscius Anglicanus_ (1708). Introduction by John Loftis.

135. Sir John Hill, _Hypochondriasis, a Practical Treatise on the Nature and Cure of that Disorder Call'd the Hyp or Hypo_ (1766). Introduction by G. S. Rousseau.

136. Thomas Sheridan, _Discourse ... Being Introductory to His Course of Lectures on Elocution and the English Language_ (1759). Introduction by G. P. Mohrman.

137. Arthur Murphy, _The Englishman From Paris_ (1756). Introduction by Simon Trefman. Previously unpublished manuscript.

138. [Catherine Trotter], _Olinda's Adventures_ (1718). Introduction by Robert Adams Day.

SPECIAL PUBLICATION FOR 1968-1969

_After THE TEMPEST._ Introduction by George Robert Guffey.

Next in the continuing series of special publications by the Society will be _After THE TEMPEST_, a volume including the Dryden-Davenant version of _The Tempest_ (1670); the "operatic" _Tempest_ (1674); Thomas Duffet's _Mock-Tempest_ (1675); and the "Garrick" _Tempest_ (1756), with an Introduction by George Robert Guffey.

Already published in this series are:

1. John Ogilby, _The Fables of Aesop Paraphras'd in Verse_ (1668), with an Introduction by Earl Miner.

2. John Gay, _Fables_ (1727, 1738), with an Introduction by Vinton A. Dearing.

3. Elkanah Settle, _The Empress of Morocco_ (1673) with five plates; _Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco_ (1674) by John Dryden, John Crowne and Thomas Shadwell; _Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco Revised_ (1674) by Elkanah Settle; and _The Empress of Morocco. A Farce_ (1674) by Thomas Duffet; with an Introduction by Maximillian E. Novak.

Price to members of the Society, $2.50 for the first copy of each title, and $3.25 for additional copies. Price to non-members, $4.00. Standing orders for this continuing series of Special Publications will be accepted. British and European orders should be addressed to B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, England.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics indicated by underscore _italics_.

The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

Misprints corrected: "ther" corrected to "their" (footnote 23) "Crticiz'd" corrected to "Criticiz'd" (advertisements)