have not been able to ascertain. He probably got a little money from Mr. Warren; and we are certain that he executed here one piece of literary labour, of which Mr. Hector has favoured me with a minute account. Having mentioned that he had read at Pembroke College a “Voyage to Abyssinia," by Lobo,' a Portuguese Jesuit, and that he thought an abridgment and translation of it from the French into English might be an useful and profitable publication, Mr. Warren and Mr. Hector joined in urging him to undertake it. He accordingly agreed; and the book not being to be found in Birmingham, he borrowed it of Pembroke College. A part of the work being very soon done, one Osborn, who was Mr. Warren's printer, was set to work with what was ready, and Johnson engaged to supply the press with copy as it should be wanted; but his constitutional indolence soon prevailed, and the work was at a stand. Mr. Hector, who knew that a motive of humanity would be the most prevailing argument with his friend, went to Johnson, and represented to him that the printer could have no other employment till this undertaking was finished, and that the poor man and his family were suffering. Johnson, upon this, exerted the powers of his mind, though his body was relaxed. He lay in bed with the book, which was a quarto, before him, and dictated while Hector wrote. Mr. Hector carried the sheets to the press, and corrected almost all the proof sheets, very few of which were even seen by Johnson. In this manner, with the aid of Mr. Hector's active friendship, the book was completed, and was published in 1735, with London upon the title-page, though it was in reality printed at Birmingham, a device too common with provincial publishers. For this work he had from Mr. Warren only the sum of five guineas.

1 Father Jerome Lobo was born at Lisbon, about 1595, and died in 1678. At the early age of fifteen he entered the order of Jesuits, and was sent as a missionary to the Indies. In his vogage thither he was wrecked, and after many dangers escaped to Goa, and thence began his famous voyage and expedition to Abyssinia. The result of his observations and experience he published under the title: Historia de Ethiopia, in folio. Coimbra, 1659. A French translation of this appeared in folio, Paris, 1674; and from this an abridgment was made by Abbé Le Grand. Paris, 1728. This was the book which Johnson translatedDidot's Biog. Génér.—Editor.

This being the first prose work of Johnson, it is a curious object of inquiry how much may be traced in it of that style which marks his subsequent writings with such peculiar excellence; with so happy an union of force, vivacity, and perspicuity. I have perused the book with this view, and have found that here, as I believe in every other translation, there is in the work itself no vestige of the translator's own style; for the language of translation being adapted to the thoughts of another person, insensibly follows their cast, and, as it were, runs into a mould that is ready prepared.

Thus, for instance, taking the first sentence that occurs at the opening of the book, p. 4:

"I lived here above a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which time some letters were received from the fathers of Ethiopia, with an account that Sultan Segned, Emperor of Abyssinia, was converted to the church of Rome; that many of his subjects had followed his example, and that there was a great want of missionaries to improve these prosperous beginnings. Every body was very desirous of seconding the zeal of our fathers, and of sending them the assistance they requested; to which we were the more encouraged, because the Emperor's letter informed our Provincial, that we might easily enter his dominions by way of Dancala; but, unhappily, the secretary wrote Zeila for Dancala, which cost two of our fathers their lives."

Every one acquainted with Johnson's manner will be sensible that there is nothing of it here; but that this sentence might have been composed by any other man. But, in the Preface the Johnsonian style begins to appear; and though use had not yet taught his wing a permanent and equable flight, there are parts of it which exhibit his best manner in full vigour. I had once the pleasure of examining it with Mr. Edmund Burke, who confirmed me in this opinion, by his superior critical sagacity, and was, I remember, much delighted with the following specimen :

"The Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen, has amused his reader with no romantic absurdities, or incredible fictions; whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable; and he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability, has a right to demand that they should believe him who cannot contradict him

"He appears, by his modest and unaffected narration, to have described things as he saw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have consulted his senses, not his imagination. He meets with no basilisks that destroy with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their prey without tears, and his cataracts fall from the rocks without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants.

"The reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness, or blest with spontaneous fecundity; no perpetual gloom, or unceasing sunshine; nor are the nations here described either devoid of all sense of humanity, or consummate in all private and social virtues; here are no Hottentots without religion, polity or articulate language; no Chinese perfectly polite, and completely skilled in all sciences; he will discover, what will always be discovered by a diligent and impartial inquirer, that wherever human nature is to be found, there is a mixture of vice and virtue, a contest of passion and reason; and that the Creator doth not appear partial in his distribution, but has balanced, in most countries, their particular inconveniences by particular favours."

Here we have an early example of that brilliant and energetic expression, which, upon innumerable occasions in his subsequent life, justly impressed the world with the highest admiration. Nor can any one, conversant with the writings of Johnson, fail to discern his hand in this passage of the Dedication to John Warren, Esq., of Pembrokeshire, though it is ascribed to Warren the bookseller:

:

"A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity; 1 nor is that curiosity ever more agreeably or usefully employed, than in examining the laws and customs of foreign nations. I hope, therefore, the present I now presume to make will not be thought improper; which, however, it is not my business as a dedicator to commend, nor as a bookseller to depreciate."

It is reasonable to suppose, that his having been thus accidentally led to a particular study of the history and manners of Abyssinia, was the remote occasion of his writing, many years afterwards, his admirable philosophical tale, the principal scene of which is laid in that country.

1 See Rambler, No. 103. [“ Curiosity is the thirst of the soul,” &c.]

Johnson returned to Lichfield early in 1734, and in August that year he made an attempt to procure some little subsistence by his pen; for he published proposals for printing by subscription the Latin Poems of Politian:1 Angeli Politiani Poemata Latina, quibus, Notas, cum historia Latina poeseos à Petrarchæ ævo ad Politiani tempora deductâ, et vitâ Politiani fusius quam antehac enarrata, addidit SAM. JOHNSON." "

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It appears that his brother Nathaniel had taken up his father's trade; for it is mentioned, "that subscriptions are taken in by the Editor, or N. Johnson, bookseller, of Lichfield." 3 ."3 Notwithstanding the merit of Johnson, and the cheap price at which this translation, with its accompaniments, was offered, there were not subscribers enough to insure a sufficient sale; so the work never appeared, and, probably, never was executed.

We find him again this year at Birmingham, and there is

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May we not trace a fanciful similarity between Politian and Johnson? Huetius, speaking of Paulus Pelissonius Fontanerius, says, in quo natura, ut olim in Angelo Politiano, deformitatem oris excellentis ingenii præstantiâ compensavit.” "Comment. de reb. ad eum pertin." Edit. Amstel. 1718, p. 200.

In this learned masquerade of "Paulus Pelissonius Fontanerius," we have some difficulty in detecting Madame de Sevigné's friend, Pelisson, of whom M. de Guilleragues used the phrase, which has since grown into a proverb, "qu'il abusait de la permission qu'ont les hommes d'êtro laids."-See Madame de Sevigné's Letter, 5 Jan., 1674. Huet, bishop of Avranche, wrote Memoirs of his own time, in Latin, from which Boswell has extracted this scrap of pedantry.-Croker.

2 The book was to contain more than thirty sheets, the price to be two shillings and sixpence at the time of subscribing, and two shillings and sixpence at the delivery of a perfect book in quires.

3 Nathaniel kept the shop as long as he lived, as did his mother, after him, till her death. Miss Seward, who in such a matter as this may perhaps be trusted, gives us an amiable, still life picture of Miss Porter, and tells us, that "from the age of twenty to her fortieth year (when she was raised to a state of competency by the death of her eldest brother), she had boarded in Lichfield with Dr. Johnson's mother, who still kept that little bookseller's shop by which her husband had supplied the scanty means of subsistence: meantime Lucy Porter kept the best company in our little city, but would make no engagement on market-days lest Granny, as she called Mrs. Johnson, should catch cold by serving in the shop. There Lucy Porter took her place, standing behind the counter, nor thought it a disgrace to thank a poor person who purchased from her a penny battledoor."-Miss Seward's Letters, vol. i., p. 117.-Croker.

preserved the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave, the original compiler and editor of the "Gentleman's Magazine.” 1

TO MR. CAVE.

"Nov. 25, 1734.

“SIR,

"As you appear no less sensible than your readers of the defects of your poetical article, you will not be displeased, if, in order to the improvement of it, I communicate to you the sentiments of a person who will undertake, on reasonable terms, sometimes to fill a column.

"His opinion is, that the public would not give you a bad reception, if, beside the current wit of your month, which a critical examination would generally reduce to a narrow compass, you admitted not only poems, inscriptions, &c. never printed before, which he will sometimes supply you with, but likewise short literary dissertations in Latin or English, critical remarks on authors ancient or modern, forgotten poems that deserve revival, or loose pieces, like Floyer's, worth preserving. By this method, your literary article, for so it might be called, will, he thinks, be better recommended to the public than by low jests, awkward buffoonery, or the dull scurrilities of either party.

2

"If such a correspondence will be agreeable to you, be pleased to inform me in two posts what the conditions are on which you shall expect it. Your late offer gives me no reason to distrust your generosity. If you engage in any literary projects besides

1 Miss Cave, the grand-niece of Mr. Edw. Cave, has obligingly shown me the originals of this and the other letters of Dr. Johnson to him, which were first published in the Gentleman's Magazine, with notes by Mr. John Nichols, the worthy and indefatigable editor of that valuable miscellany, signed N.; some of which I shall occasionally transcribe in the course of this work.

2 "A letter from the late Sir John Floyer, in recommendation of the Cold Bath."-Gentleman's Magazine, 1734, p. 197.

This letter was probably sent by Johnson himself; who, a very short time before his death, pressed Mr. Nichols to give to the public some account of the life and works of Sir John Floyer, "whose learning and piety," he said, " deserve recording."-See Literary Anecdotes, vol. v., p. 19.-Wright.

3 A prize of fifty pounds for the best poem "On Life, Death, Judg. ment, Heaven, and Hell." See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. iv., p. 560. -Nichols.