432. Milton.

Johnson hated Milton from his heart; and he wished to be himself considered as a good Latin poet, which, however, he never was, as may be seen by his translation of Pope's "Messiah."

433. Boswell's "Tour."

I have just gone through Boswell's book. He is very good to me, as Dr. Johnson always was; and I am very grateful to both: but I cannot approve the plan of such a work. To publish a man's letters, or his conversation, without his consent, is not, in my opinion, quite fair: for how many things, in the hour of relaxation, or in friendly correspondence, does a man throw out, which he would never wish to hear of again; and what a restraint would it be on all social intercourse, if one were to suppose that every word one utters would be entered in a register! Mr. Boswell indeed says, that there are few men who need be under any apprehension of that sort. This is true; and the argument he founds on it would be good, if he had published nothing but what Dr. Johnson and he said and did; for Johnson, it seems, knew that the publication would be made, and did not object to it: buí Mr. Boswell has published the sayings and doings of other people, who never consented to any such thing; and who little thought, when they were doing their best to entertain and amuse the two travellers, that a story would be made of it, and laid before the public. I approve of the Greek proverb, that says, "I hate a bottle companion with a memory." If my friend, after eating a bit of mutton with me, should go to the coffee-house, and there give an account of every thing that had passed, I believe I should not take it well.

PART XVIII.

ANECDOTES OF DR. JOHNSON,

BY THE RT. HƠN. W. WINDHAM.(')

To the kindness of Thomas Amyot, Esq. F.R.S., the Editor is indebted for the following Memoranda, extracted from Mr. Windham's Diary for 1784, of the Conversations he had with Dr. Johnson during his visit at Ashbourne; where he arrived on the 30th of August, “leaving it,” as he states, "with regret, at half-past one on the 1st of September."]

434. Homer.

"THE source of every thing, either in or out of nature, that can serve the purpose of poetry, is to be found in Homer; every species of distress, every modification of heroic character, battles, storms, ghosts, incantations, &c."

435. Odyssey.

"Dr. Johnson said, he had never read through ine Odyssey completely in the original."

436. Johnson's first Declamation.

"Anecdote of his first declamation at College, that having neglected to write it till the morning of his being to repeat it, and having only one copy, he got part of it by heart, while he was walking into the Hall,

(1) [In a letter to Dr. Brocklesby, dated September 2., Johnon says "Windham has been here to see me: he came, I think, forty miles out of his way, and stayed about a day and a half; perhaps I make the time shorter than it was. Such conversation I shall not have again till I come back to the regions literature; and there Windham is inter stellas Luna minores."]

and the rest he repeated as well as he could extem pore." (1)

437. The Ramei.

"Anecdote of his tutor, who told them that th Ramei, the followers of Ramus, were so called from Ramus, a bow."

438. Johnson's Idleness.

Description of himself as very idle and neglectful of his studies."

439. Latin.

"His opinion, that I could not name above five of my college acquaintance who read Latin with case sufficient to make it pleasurable. The difficulties of the language overpower the desire of reading the author. "That he read Latin with as much ease when he went to college as at present."

Wood.

440. Ovid's Fasti.- Wotton. "Recommended the reading the Fasti of Ovid, – also Wotton, and Wood on Homer."

441. Death of Hercules.

"Commended Ovid's description of the death of Hercules - doubted whether Virgil would not have loaded the description with too many fine words."

442. Styles.

Opinion that there were three ways in which writing might be unnatural; -- by being bombastic and above nature-affected and beside it, fringing events with ornaments which nature did not afford or weak and below nature. That neither of the first would please long. That the third might indeed please a good while, or at least please many; because imbecility.

and consequently a love of imbecility might be found in many.”

443. A Good Work.

"Baretti had told him of some Italian author, who said that a good work must be that with which the vulgar were pleased, and of which the learned could tell why it pleased—that it must be able to employ the learned, and detain the idle. Chevy Chase pleased the vulgar, but did not satisfy the learned; it did not fill a mind capable of thinking strongly. The merit of Shakspeare was suc' as the ignorant could take in, and the learned add nothing to."

444. "Sta. magni nominis," &c.

"Stat magni nominis umbra he would construe as, umbra quæ est magni nominis, h. e. celebrata."

445. Rowe's Lucan.

Opinion of Rowe's translation of Lucan, that it would have been improved, if Rowe had had a couple of years to render i. less paraphrastical."

446. Virgil.

Latin language from the time

greater than known in any The story of Dido is in Ovid's Virgil's invention there'Take from his what is in

"Vast change of the of Virgil to Lucretius; other, even the French. Fasti, also of Mezentius. fore is less than supposed. Homer, what do you leave him ?'”

447. Latin.

The pretensions of the English to the reputation of writing Latin is founded not so much on the specimens in that way which they have produced, as on the quantity of talent diffused through the country."

448. Erasmus.

"Erasmus appears to be totally ignorant of science and natural knowledge. But one Italian writer is mentioned in Erasmus; whence Johnson conjectured that he did not understand Italian."

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449. Turnpike Roads.

Opinion about the effect of turnpike roads. Every place communicating with each other. Before, there were cheap places and dear places. Now all refuges are destroyed for elegant or genteel poverty. Want of such a last hope to support men in their struggle through life, however seldom it might be resorted to. Disunion of families by furnishing a market to each man's abilities, and destroying the dependence of one man on another."

[The following interesting Account of Mr. Windham's Conversations with Dr. Johnson, a few Days before his Death, is extracted from the same Journal.]

P. M.

450. Johnson's last Illness and Death. Tuesday, December 7. 1784.-Ten minutes past 2, After waiting some short time in the adjoining room, I was admitted to Dr. Johnson in his bedchamber, where, after placing me next him in the chair (he sitting in his usual place, on the east side of the room, and I on his right hand), he put into my hands two small volumes (an edition of the New Testament, as he afterwards told me), saying, "Extremum hoc munus morientis habeto."

He then proceeded to observe that I was entering upon a life which would lead me deeply into all the business of the world: that he did not condemn civil employment, but that it was a state of great danger, and that he had therefore one piece of advice earnestly