: I should conclude it, if less be possible, with "Most obedient servant, "While this was the talk of the town (says Dr. Adams, in a letter to me,) I happened to visit Dr. Warburton, who, finding that I was acquainted with Johnson, desired me earnestly to carry his compliments to him, and to tell him, that he honoured him for his manly behaviour in rejecting these condescensions of Lord Chesterfield, and for resenting the treatment he had received from him with a proper spirit. Johnson was visibly pleased with this compliment, for he had always a high opinion of Warburton."+ Indeed, the force of mind which appeared in this letter, was congenial with that which Warburton himself amply pos sessed. There is a curious minute circumstance which struck me, in comparing the various editions of Johnson's Imitations of Juvenal. In the tenth Satire, one of the couplets upon the vanity of wishes, even for literary distinction, stood thus: "Yet think what ills the scholar's life assail, Toil, envy, want, the garret, and the jail" But after experiencing the uneasiness which Lord Chesterfield's fallacious patronage made him feel, he dismissed the word garret from the sad group, and in all the subsequent editions the line stands, "Toil, envy, want, the Patron, and the jail." That Lord Chesterfield must have been mortified by the lofty contempt, and polite, yet keen, satire with which Johnson exhibited him to himself in this letter, it is impossible to doubt. He, however, with that glossy duplicity which was his constant study, affected to be quite unconcerned. Dr. Adams mentioned to Mr. Robert Dodsley that he was sorry Johnson had written his letter to Lord Chesterfield. Dodsley, with the true feelings of trade, said, "he was very sorry too; for that he had a property in the Dictionary, to which his Lordship's • Upon comparing this copy with that which Dr. Johnson dictated to me from recollection, the variations are found to be so slight, that this must be added to the many other proofs which he gave of the wonderful extent and accuracy of his memory. To gratify the curious in composition, I have deposited both the copies in the British Musewn. ↑ Soon after Edwards's "Canons of Criticism" came out, Johnson was dining at Tonson the Bookseller's, with Hayman the Painter and some more company. Hayman related to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that the conversation having turned upon Edwards's book, the gentlemen praised it much, and Johnson allowed its merit. But when they went farther, and appeared to put that author upon a level with Warburton, "Nay (said Johnson), he has given him some smart hits to be sure; but there is no proportion between the two men; they must not be named together. A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still." "I patronage might have been of consequence." He then told Dr. Adams, that Lord Chesterfield had shewn him the letter. should have imagined (replied Dr. Adams) that Lord Chesterfield would have concealed it." "Poh! (said Dodsley) do you think a letter from Johnson could hurt Lord Chesterfield? Not at all, Sir. It lay upon his table, where any body might see it. He read it to me; said, this man has great powers,' pointed out the severest passages, and observed how well they were expressed." This air of indifference, which imposed upon the worthy Dodsley, was certainly nothing but a specimen of that dissimulation which Lord Chesterfield inculcated as one of the most essential lessons for the conduct of life. His Lordship endeavoured to justify himself to Dodsley from the charges brought against him by Johnson; but we may judge of the flimsiness of his defence, from his having excused his neglect of Johnson, by saying, that "he had heard he had changed his lodgings, and did not know where he lived;" as if there could have been the smallest difficulty to inform himself of that circumstance, by inquiring in the literary circle with which his Lordship was well acquainted, and was, indeed, himself, one of its orna ments. Dr. Adams expostulated with Johnson, and suggested, that his not being admitted when he called on him, was probably not to be imputed to Lord Chesterfield; for his Lordship had declared to Dodsley, that “he would have turned off the best servant he ever had, if he had known that he denied him to a man who would have been always more than welcome;" and in confirmation of this, he insisted on Lord Chesterfield's general affability and easiness of access, especially to literary men. "Sir, (said Johnson,) that is not Lord Chesterfield; he is the proudest man this day existing." "No, (said Dr. Adams,) there is one person, at least, as proud; I think, by your own account, you are the prouder man of the two." "But mine (replied Johnson instantly) was defensive pride.' This, as Dr. Adams well observed, was one of those happy turns for which he was so remarkably ready. Johnson, having now explicitly avowed his opinion of Lord Chesterfield, did not refrain from expressing himself concerning that nobleman with pointed freedom: "This man, (said he,) I thought had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords." And when his Letters to his natural son were published, [Johnson's character of Chesterfield seems to be imltated from-inter doctos nobilissimus, inter nobiles doctissimus, inter utrosque optimus (ex Aupeleio. v. Erasm. -Dedication of Adagies to Lord Mountjoy); and from ἰδιώτης ἐν φιλοσόφοις, φιλόσοφος ἐν ἰδιώταις. Proclus de Critia. K.] he observed, that "they teach the morals | self, but left half a crown to a beggarly of a whore, and the manners of a dancingmaster."* The character of a 66 respectable Hottentot," in Lord Chesterfield's letters, has been generally understood to be meant for Johnson, and I have no doubt that it was. But I remember, when the Literary Property of those letters was contested in the Court of Session in Scotland, and Mr. Henry Dundas,+ one of the counsel for the proprietors, read this character as an exhibition of Johnson, Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, one of the Judges, maintained, with some warmth, that it was not intended as a portrait of Johnson, but of a late noble Lord, distinguished for abstruse science. I have heard Johnson himself talk of the character, and say that it was meant for George Lord Lyttelton, in which I could by no means agree; for his Lordship had nothing of that violence which is a conspicuous feature in the composition. Finding that my illustrious friend could bear to have it supposed that it might be meant for him, I said, laughingly, that there was one trait which unquestionably did not belong to him; "he throws his meat any where but down his throat." "Sir, (said he,) Lord Chesterfield never saw me eat in his life." On the 6th of March came out Lord Bo lingbroke's works, published by Mr. David Mallet. The wild and pernicious ravings, under the name of " Philosophy," which were thus ushered into the world, gave great offence to all well-principled men. Johnson, hearing of their tendency, which nobody disputed, was roused with a just indignation, and pronounced this memorable sentence upon the noble author and his ediSir, he was a scoundrel, and a coward: a scoundrel, for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had no resolution to fire it off him tor. That collection of letters cannot be vindicated from the serious charge, of encouraging, in some passages, one of the vices most destructive to the good order and comfort of society, which his Lordship represents as mere fashionable gallantry; and, in others, of inculcating the base practice of dissimulation, and recommending, with disproportionate anxiety, a perpetual attention to external elegance of manners. But it must, at the same time, be allowed, that they contain many good precepts of conduct, and much genuine information upon life and manners, very happily expressed; and that there was considerable merit in paying so much attention to the improvement of one who was dependant upon his Lordship's protection: it has, probably, been exceeded in no instance by the most exemplary parent; and though I can by no means approve of confounding the distinction between lawful and illicit offspring, which is, in effect, insulting the civil establishment of our country, to look no higher; I cannot help thinking it laudable to be kindly attentive to those, of whose existence we have, in any way, been the cause. Mr. Stanhope's character has been unjustly represented as diametrically opposite to what Lord Chesterfield wished him to be. He has been called dull, gross, and awkward: but I knew him at Dresden, when he was Envoy to that court; and though he could not boast of the graces, he was, in truth, a sensible, civil, well-behaved man. † Now [1792] one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State. Scotchman, to draw the trigger after his death!" Garrick, who, I can attest from my own knowledge, had his mind seasoned with pious reverence, and sincerely disap proved of the infidel writings of severa whom, in the course of his almost universal gay intercourse with men of eminence, be treated with external civility, distinguished himself upon this occasion. Mr. Pelham having died on the very day on which Lord Bolingbroke's works came out, he wrote an elegant Ode on his death, beginning "Let others hail the rising sun, I bow to that whose course is run;" in which is the following stanza: "The same sad morn, to Church and State Black as the whirlwinds of the North, Johnson this year found an interval of leisure to make an excursion to Oxford, for the purpose of consulting the libraries there Of this, and of many interesting circumstances concerning him, during a part of his life when he conversed but little with the world, I am enabled to give a particular ac count, by the liberal communications of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Warton, who oblig ingly furnished me with several of our conmon friend's letters, which he illustrated with notes. These I shall insert in ther proper places. "TO THE REV. MR. THOMAS WARTON. "SIR, "It is but an ill return for the book with which you were pleased to favour me to have delayed my thanks for it till now. I am too apt to be negligent; but I can never deliberately shew my disrespect to a man of your character: and I now pay you a very honest acknowledgement, for the advancement of the literature of our native country. You have shewn to all, who shall hereafter attempt the study of our ancient authors, the way to success; by directing them to the perusal of the books which those authors had read. Of this method, Hughes,§ and men much greater than Hughes, seem never to have thought. The reason why the authors which are read, of the sixteenth century, are so little understood, is, that they are read alone and no help is borrowed from those who lived with them, or before them. Some part of this ignorance I hope to remove by my book, which now draws towards its end; but which I cannot finish to my mind, without visiting the libraries of Ŏxford, which : "Observations on Spenser's Faery Queen, the first edition of which was now published." § Hughes published an edition of Spenser." "His Dictionary." Of his conversation while at Oxford at this time, Mr. Warton preserved and communicated to me the following memorial, which, though not written with all the care and attention which that learned and elegant writer bestowed on those compositions which he intended for the public eye, is so happily expressed in an easy style, that I should injure it by any alteration: "When Johnson came to Oxford in 1754, the long vacation was beginning, and most people were leaving the place. This was the first time of his being there, after quitting the University. The next morning af ter his arrival, he wished to see his old College, Pembroke. I went with him. He was highly pleased to find all the College hexameter. I did not tell him, it was not "In the course of this visit, (1754,) Johnson and I walked three or four times to Ellsfield, a village beautifully situated about three miles from Oxford, to see Mr. Wise, Radclivian librarian, with whom Johnson servants which he had left there still remainwas much pleased. At this place, Mr. Wise ing, particularly a very old butler; and exhad fitted up a house and gardens in a sinpressed great satisfaction at being recognised by them, and conversed with them fami- gular manner, but with great taste. Here liarly. He waited on the master, Dr. Rad- valuable collection of books in Northern liwas an excellent library; particularly, a cliffe, who received him very coldly. Jehn- terature, with which Johnson was often very son at least expected, that the master would busy. One day, Mr. Wise read to us a disorder a copy of his Dictionary, now near sertation which he was preparing for the publication; but the master did not choose press, entitled,' A History and Chronology to talk on the subject, never asked Johnson to dine, nor even to visit him, while he stay-of Thrace, related to the Titans, and called of the fabulous Ages.' Some old Divinities ed at Oxford. After we had left the lodg- the CABIRI, made a very important part of ings, Johnson said to me, There lives a man, who lives by the revenues of literature, and tion afterwards, Mr. Wise talked much of his the theory of this piece; and in conversawill not move a finger to support it. If I CABIRI. As we returned to Oxford in the come to live at Oxford, I shall take up my evening, I outwalked Johnson, and he cried abode at Trinity.' We then called on the Reverend Mr. Meeke, one of the fellows, from his mouth with peculiar grace, and was out Sufflamina, a Latin word which came and of Johnson's standing. Here was a most as much as to say, Put on your drag-chain. Becordial greeting on both sides. On leaving fore we got home, I again walked too fast for him, Johnson said, 'I used to think Meeke him; and he now cried out, Why you walk had excellent parts, when we were boys toas if you were pursued by all the CABIRI in gether at the college: but, alas! a body. In an evening we frequently took long walks from Oxford into the country, returning to supper. Once, in our way home, we viewed the ruins of the abbeys of Oseney and Rewley, near Oxford. After at least an hour's silence, Johnson said, 'I viewed them with indignation! We had then a long conversation on Gothic buildings; and in talking of the form of old halls, he said, 'In these halls the fire-place was anciently always in the middle of the room, till the Whigs removed it on one side.' About this time there had been an execution of two or three criminals at Oxford, on a Monday. Soon afterwards, one day at dinner, I was saying that Mr. Swinton, the chaplain of the jail, and also a frequent preacher before the University, a learned man, but often thought ⚫ Lost in a convent's solitary gloom!" I remember, at the classical lecture in the Hall, I could not bear Meeke's superiority, and I tried to sit as far from him as I could, that I might not hear him construe.' "As we were leaving the College, he said, Here I translated Pope's Messiah. Which do you think is the best line in it?-My own favourite is, Vallis aromaticas fundit Saronica nubes.' I told him, I thought it a very sonorous "He came to Oxford within a fortnight, and stayed about five weeks. He lodged at a house called Kettel-hall, near Trinity College. But during this visit at - Oxford, he collected nothing in the libraries for his Dictionary," less and absent, preached the condemnation sermon on repentance, before the convicts, on the preceding day, Sunday; and that in the close he told his audience, that he should give them the remainder of what he had to say on the subject, the next Lord's Day. Upon which, one of our company, a Doctor of Divinity, and a plain matter-offact man, by way of offering an apology for Mr. Swinton, gravely remarked, that he had probably preached the same sermon before the University: Yes, Sir, (says Johnson,) but the University were not to be hanged the next morning.' we shall all be glad to hear from you, when "Nov. 21, 1754" The degree of Master of Arts, which, it has been observed, could not be obtained for him at an early period of his life, was DOW considered as an honour of considerable importance, in order to grace the title-page af his Dictionary; and his character in the liter ary world being by this time deservedly high, his friends thought that, if proper exertions were made, the University of Oxford would 66 "I forgot to observe before, that when he left Mr. Meeke (as I have told above), he add-pay him the compliment. ed, About the same time of life, Meeke was left behind at Oxford to feed on a Fellowship, and I went to London to get my liv. ing: now, Sir, see the difference of our literary characters!'" TO THE REV. MR. THOMAS WARTON. "DEAR SIR, The following letter was written by Dr. Johnson to Mr. Chambers, of Lincoln College, afterwards Sir Robert Chambers, one of the judges in India :* "TO MR. CHAMBERS, OF LINCOLN COLLEGE. "DEAR SIR, "THE Commission which I delayed to trouble you with at your departure, I am now obliged to send you; and beg that you will be so kind as to carry it to Mr. War ton, of Trinity, to whom I should have written immediately, but that I know not if he be yet come back to Oxford. "In the Catalogue of MSS. of Gr. Brit. see vol. i. pag. 18. MSS. Bodl. MARTYRIUM XV martyrum sub Juliano, auctore Theophylacto. "It is desired that Mr. Warton will inquire, and send word, what will be the cost of transcribing this manuscript. "Vol. ii. p. 32. Num. 1022. 58. COLL. Nov.-Commentaria in Acta Apostol.-Comment. in Septem Epistolas Catholicas. "He is desired to tell what is the age of each of these manuscripts: and what it will cost to have a transcript of the two first pages of each. If Mr. Warton be not in Oxford, you may try if you can get it done by any body else; or stay till he comes, according to your own convenience. It is for an Italian literato. "The answer is to be directed to his Excellency Mr Zon, Venetian Resident, SohoSquare. "I hope, dear Sir, that you do not regret the change of London for Oxford. Mr. Baretti is well, and Miss Williams ;+ and • Communicated by the Reverend Mr. Thomas Warton, who had the original. "I presume she was a relation of Mr. Zachariah Williams, who died in his eighty-third year, July 12, 1755. When Dr. Johnson was with me at Oxford, in 1756, he gave to the Bodleian Library a thin quarto of "I AM extremely obliged to you and to Mr. Wise, for the uncommon care which you have taken of my interest : if you can ly take me a little habitation among you. accomplish your kind design, I shall certain. "The books which I promised to Mr. Wise,§ I have not been able to procure; but I shall send him a Finnick Dictionary, the only copy, perhaps, in England, which was presented me by a learned Swede: but I keep it back, that it may make a set of my own books of the new edition, with which I shall accompany it, more welcome. will assure him of my gratitude. You "Poor dear Collins!-Would a letter give him any pleasure?" I have a mind to write. twenty-one pages, a work in Italian, with an English translation on the opposite page. The English tre page is this: An Account of an Attempt to ascertain the Longitude at Sea, by an exact Variation of the Magnetical Needle, &c. By Zachariah Williams, Londen, printed for Dodsley, 1755. The English translation, from the strongest internal marks, is unquestionably the work of Johnson. In a blank leaf, Johnson has written the age, and time of death, of the author, Z Williams, as I have said above. On another blank leaf, is pasted a paragraph from a newspaper, of the death and character of Williams, which is plainly written by Johnson. He was very anxious about placing this book in the Bodleian: and, for fear of any omission or mus take, he entered, in the great Catalogue, the title page of it with his own hand." [In this statement there is a slight mistake. The English account, which was written by Johnson, was the original: the Italian was a translation, done by Baretti. See p. 272. M.] "In procuring him the degree of Master of Arts by diploma at Oxford." "Lately fellow of Trinity College, and at this time Radclivian librarian, at Oxford. He was a man of very considerable learning, and eminently skilled Roman and Anglo-Saxon antiquities. He died in 1767-* "Collins (the poet) was at this time at Oxford, on a visit to Mr. Warton; but labouring under the most deplorable languor of body and dejection of mind." In a letter to Dr. Joseph Warton, written sorse months before, (March 8, 1754,) Dr. Johnson thus sponks of Collins: But how little can we venture to exult in any tellectual powers or literary attainments, when we com sider the condition of poor Collins. I knew him a few years ago, full of hopes, and full of projects, versed in many languages, high in fancy, and strong in retention This busy and forcible mind is now under the gover ment of those, who lately could not have been able to comprehend the least and most narrow of his desig What do you hear of him? are there hopes of his 66 "I am glad of your hinderance in your Spenserian design, yet I would not have it delayed. Three hours a day stolen from sleep and amusement will produce it. Let a Servitour + transcribe the quotations, and interleave them with references, to save time. This will shorten the work, and lessen the fatigue. "Can I do any thing to promoting the diploma? I would not be wanting to co-ope rate with your kindness: of which, whatever be the effect, I shall be, dear Sir, "Your most obliged, &c. "[London,] Nov. 28, 1754." "DEAR SIR, "SAM. JOHNSON." "TO THE SAME. "I AM extremely sensible of the favour done me, both by Mr. Wise and yourself. The book cannot, I think, be printed in less than six weeks, nor probably so soon; and I will keep back the title-page, for such an insertion as you seem to promise me. Be pleased to let me know what money I shall send you, for bearing the expense of the affair; and I will take care that you may have it ready at your hand. "I had lately the favour of a letter from your brother, with some account of poor Collins, for whom I am much concerned. I have a notion, that by very great temperance, or more properly abstinence, he may yet recover. There is an old English and Latin book of poems by Barclay, called The Ship of Fools;' at the end of which are a number of Eglogues; so he writes it, from Egloga, which are probably the first in our language. If you cannot find the book, I will get Mr. Dodsley to send it to you. "I shall be extremely glad to hear from very? or is he to pass the remainder of his life in misery and degradation? perhaps, with complete consciousness of his calamity." In a subsequent letter to the same gentleman, (Dec. 24, 1754,) he thus feelingly alludes to their unfortunate friend: "Poor dear Collins! Let me know whether you think it would give him pleasure if I should write to I have often been near his state, and therefore him. have it in great commiseration." Again, April 9, 1756: "What becomes of poor dear Collins? I wrote him a letter which he never answered. I suppose writing is very troublesome to him. That man is no common loss. The moralists all talk of the uncertainty of fortune, and the transitoriness of beauty: but it is yet more dreadful to consider that the powers of the mind are equally liable to change, that understanding may make its appearance and depart, that it may blaze and expire." See Biographical Memoirs of the late Reverend Dr. Joseph Warton, by the Reverend John Wool, A. M. 4to. 86. Mr. Collins, who was the son of a hatter at Chiches ter, was born December 25, 1720, and was released from the dismal state here so pathetically described, in 1756. M.) "Of publishing a volume of observations on the best of Spenser's works. It was hindered by my taking pupils in this College." f"Young students of the lowest rank at Oxford are so called." "His Dictionary." you again, to know if the affair proceeds.§ I have mentioned it to none of my friends, for fear of being laughed at for my disappointment. "You know poor Mr. Dodsley has lost his wife; I believe he is much affected. I hope he will not suffer so much as I yet suffer for the loss of mine. Οἴ μοι· τί δ' οἵ μοι ; θνητά τοι πεπόνθαμεν. I have ever since seemed to myself broken off from mankind; a kind of solitary wanderer in the wild of life, without any direction, or fixed point of view: a gloomy gazer on the world to which I have little relation. Yet I would endeavour, by the help of you and your brother. to supply the want o. have long the pleasure of being, dear Sir, closer union, by friendship: and hope to Most affectionately yours, "[London,] Dec. 21, 1754." "SAM. JOHNSON." In 1755 we behold him to great advantage; his degree of Master of Arts conferred upon him, his Dictionary published, his correspondence animated, his benevolence ex ercised. "TO THE REVEREND MR. THOMAS WARTON. "DEAR SIR, "I WROTE to you some weeks ago, but believe did not direct accurately, and therefore know not whether you had my letter. I would, likewise, write to your brother, but know not where to find him. I now begin to see land, after having wandered, according to Mr. Warburton's phrase, in this vast sea of words. What reception I shall meet with on the shore, I know not; whether the sound of bells, and acclamations of the people, which Ariosto talks of in his last Canto, or a general murmur of dislike, I know not: whether I shall find upon the coast a Calypso that will court, or a Polypheme that will resist. But if Polypheme comes, have at his eye. I hope, however, the critics will let me be at peace; for though I do not much fear their skill and strength, I am a little afraid of myself, and would not willingly feel so much ill-will in my bosom as literary quarrels are apt to excite. "Mr. Baretti is about a work for which he is in great want of Crescembeni, which you may have again when you please. “There is nothing considerable done or doing among us here. We are not, perhaps, as innocent as villagers, but most of us seem to be as idle. I hope, however, you are busy; and should be glad to know what you are doing. I am, dearest Sir, "Your humble servant, "[London,] Feb. 4, 1755." "Of the degree at Oxford." L |