I SIR, ASSURE you I esteemed your request to write to and hear from me, as an honour done me, and received your letter with much pleasure: most people, and particularly a lady, would' tremble at taking up the pen to reply to a letter from Mr. Johnson; but I had the pleasure of experiencing so much candour and goodness in the man, that I have no fear of the eminent genius, extensive learning, accurate judgment, and every other happy talent which distinguish and complete the author. In a correspondence with you, Sir, I am confident I shall be so far from hazarding any thing by a discovery of my literary poverty, that in this view I shall be so much the more a gainer: a desire to be such, will be a motive sufficient to engage your generosity to supply me out of your large stock, as far as I am capable of receiving so high an advantage. Indeed you greatly overrate my poor capacity to follow the great examples of virtue, which are deeply engraven in my heart. One of the most eminent of these you have seen, and justly admired and loved. It is but a faint ray of that brightness of virtue which shone in her, through every part of her life, which 1 Published by Mr. Richard Wright, of Lichfield, in 1805. is, as by reflection only, to be seen in me, her unworthy substitute in the care of her dearest remains. Let me beg you therefore to give honour to whom honour is due. Treat me as a Friend, dear Sir; exercise the kindest office of one towards me: tell me my faults, and assist me in rectifying them. Do not give me the least reason to doubt your sincerity by any thing that has the air of compliment. Female vanity has, I believe, no small share in the increase of the difficulties you have found in one part of your labours; I mean, that of explaining in your Dictionary the general and popular language. You should therefore treat this vanity as an enemy, and be very far from throwing any temptation in its way. I have great obligations to Dr. Laurence and his family. They have hearts like yours; and therefore I do not wonder they are partial in judging of me, who have a friendly and grateful heart. You are in the right: I should have been most heinously offended, if you had omitted a particular inquiry after my dear charge. They are all six in perfect health, and can make as much noise as any six children in England. They amply reward all my daily labours for them; the eldest has her dear mother's disposition and capacity. I am enabled to march on steadily with my shattered frame; how long, I think not of, but chearfully wait for 'kind Nature's signal of retreat.' whenever it pleases God. I hope, however, to see you the author of a Great Dictionary before I go, and to have the pleasure of joining with a whole Nation in your applause: and when you have put into their hands the means of speaking and writing the English language with as much purity and propriety as it is capable of being spoken and wrote, give me leave to recommend to you your future studies and labours-let them all be devoted to the glory of God, to exemplify the true use of all languages and tongues. The vanity of all human wishes, you have finely and forcibly proved; what is then left for you, but to seek after certain and permanent happiness, divine and eternal goods, "(These goods he grants, who grants the power to gain,)' and with all the great talents bestowed on you, to call others to the same pursuit? How should I rejoice to see your pen wholly employed in the glorious Christian cause; inviting all into the ways of pleasantness; proving and displaying the only paths to peace! Wherever you have chosen this most interesting subject of Religion in your Ramblers, I have warmly wished you never to chuse any other. You see, Sir, I am much inclined to indulge the liberty you have given me of conversing with in this way. But I will not please myself longer at the hazard of tiring you. One request, however, I must make; some of those parts of your life, which, you say, you pass in idleness, pray, for the future, bestow on one who has a great regard for you, will highly value every testimony of your esteem, and is, Sir, you Your much obliged friend and humble servant, H. BOOTHBY. My good wishes attend Miss Williams. Mr. Fitzherbert returns you his compliments. We are now at Tissington, near Ashbourn, Derbyshire." LETTER II. "Tissington, Dec. 4, 1753. DEAR SIR, You might be very sure that something extraordinary and unavoidable must keep me so long silent, to a person whom from every motive I esteem and regard, and consequently love to converse with. I will honestly own to you likewise, that I was extremely pleased with your letter, as one of the prettiest things I ever read in my life, and longed to praise you in reply to it, as á proof of my being convinced, that, as a friend, I owed you this honest tribute. But, alas! all my purposes of writing were prevented; first, by a series of family engagements and perplexities, which much affected me, and lately, by what, I believe, is in part the consequence of them, sickness. I have a very tender, weak body, and it is next to a miracle it has stood up so long as for seven months without one day's confinement to a room; but on last Friday sevennight, a violent fit of the colic seized me, and till yesterday disabled me from going out of my room. I am now, thank God, recovering, and only low, weak, and languid. My dear children have been and are all well, except some trifling colds and little disorders: and for them, nothing is too hard to suffer, too arduous to attempt! my confidence is strong, founded on a rock; and I am assured I shall be supported for them, till it pleases God to raise them up a better helper. O, certainly, I allow a friend may be a comfort, and a great one; and, I assure you, Dear Sir, your last kind notice of me brought comfort with it, for which I thank you. Please not to mention any thing more of me in Essex Street, or to any, than that various engagements and sickness have made me appear negligent. I am no complainer, but, on the contrary, think every dispensation of Providence a blessing; enjoy the sweet portion, nor quarrel with the medicinal draught, because it is bitter. What I have hinted to you, of perplexity, &c. is in the confidence of friendship. May all your labours be blest with success! Excuse my trembling hand, which cannot do more at present than assure you, I am, dear Sir, Your much obliged and sincere friend, H. BOOTHBY. Some acquaintance of mine at a distance will have it that you sometimes write an Adventurer; for this reason, because they like some of those papers better than any except the Ramblers. I have not seen any. Pray tell me if I must; for, if your pen has any share in them, I shall take it ill to be deprived of the benefit. Be so good as to let me hear from you, when you have leisure." You very obligingly say, 'Few are so busy as not to find time to do what they delight in doing.' That I have been one of those few, my not having, till now, found time to answer your last kind letter, may convince you. My indisposition, and confinement on that account, made it necessary for me to double my application for my little flock; and, as my strength increased, I found occasions to exercise its increase also; so that I really have not had a moment to spare. I know you will be better pleased to infer from hence that my health is much mended, than you would be with the finest and most artful arrangement of abstracted reasoning that ever was penned. I have been a great moralizer; and, perhaps, if all my speculative chains were linked together, they would fill a folio as large as the largest of those many wrote by the philosophical Duchess of Newcastle, and be just as useful as her labours. But I have wholly given up all attempts of this sort, convinced by experience that they could at most afford only a present relief. The one remedy for all and every kind of sorrow, the deeply-experienced Royal Prophet thus expresses: In the multitude of sorrows which I had in my heart, thy comforts have refreshed my soul.' 'The sovereign Balm for every heart-felt wound And Love inspire, which ALL things can endure.' As I think, I write; and express my thoughts in words that first offer, sans premeditation, as you see. As I have told you before, I write to the friend, not to the Mr. Johnson who himself writes better than any man. I shall comply with your request, and not inclose this; though at the same time I am conscious I have so little claim to a place among your riches, that a wastepaper drawer will be a much properer one for my poor productions: however, if they have this merit, and you regard them as proofs that I much esteem you, they will answer my purpose, which is that of being regarded as, Dear Sir, Your affectionate and sincere friend, My jewels are all well. One reason for my inclosing my former letters was the not being sure of your right direction, but I hope I have recollected one. You have not answered my question in my last postscript." |