MSS. ["TO MRS. LUCY PORTER. "1st March, 1759 2. "DEAR MADAM,-I thought your Pearson last letter long in coming; and did not require or expect such an inventory of little things as you have sent me. I could have taken your word for a matter of much greater value. I am glad that Kitty is better; let her be paid first, as my dear, dear mother ordered, and then let me know at once the sum necessary to discharge her other debts, and I will send it you very soon. "I beg, my dear, that you would act for me without the least scruple, for I can repose myself very confidently upon your prudence, and hope we shall never have reason to love each other less. I shall take it very kindly if you make it a rule to write to me once at least every week, for I am now very desolate, and am loth to be universally forgotten. I am, dear sweet, your affectionate servant, ED. "SAM. JOHNSON," Soon after his mother's death, he wrote his "RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA: [which he modestly calls, in a subsequent letter to Miss Porter, "a little story-book"] concerning the publication of which Sir John Hawkins guesses vaguely and idly3, instead of having taken the trouble to inform himself with authentick precision. Not to trouble my readers with a repetition of the knight's reveries, I have to mention, that the late Mr. Strahan the printer told me, that Johnson wrote it, that with the profits he might defray the expense of his mother's funeral, and pay some little debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he composed it in the evenings of one week 4, sent it to the press [But it is observable that the Idlers which now bear the dates of the 13th and 20th January are on trivial subjects, and are even written in a vein of pleasantry.--ED.] 2 [Johnson had written the figure 8 instead of 9, which is evidently a mistake.-HARWOOD. See ante, p. 144.-ED.] 3 [Sir John Hawkins does not "guess vaguely and idly," but after saying that there were vague reports on the subject, he gives an account substantially the same as Mr. Boswell's. The only difference is, that Sir J. Hawkins says that he had before meditated such a work, the execution of which was now accelerated by the spur of necessity.-ED.] 4 RASSELAS was published in March or April, 1759.-BoswELL. | in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over 5. Mr. Strahan, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodsley, purchased it for a hundred pounds, but afterwards paid him twenty-five pounds more, when it came to a second edition. Considering the large sums which have been received for compilations, and works requiring not much more genius than compilations, we cannot but wonder at the very low price which he was content to receive for this admirable performance; which, though he had written nothing else, would have rendered his name immortal in the world of literature. None of his writings has been so extensively diffused over Europe; for it has been translated into most, if not all, of the modern languages. This tale, with all the charms of oriental imagery, and all the force and beauty of which the English language is capable, leads us through the most important scenes of human life, and shows us that this stage of our being is full of "vanity and vexation of spirit.' To those who look no further than the present life, or who maintain that human nature has not fallen from the state in which it was created, the instruction of this sublime story will be of no avail. But they who think justly, and feel with strong sensibility, will listen with eagerness and admiration to its truth and wisdom. Voltaire's CANDIDE, written to refute the system of Optimism, which it has accomplished with brilliant success, is wonderfully similar in its plan and conduct to Johnson's RASSELAS; insomuch, that I have heard Johnson say, that if they had not been published so closely one after the other that there was not time for imitation, it would have been in vain to deny that the scheme of that which came latest was taken from the other. Though the proposition illustrated by both these works was the same, namely, that in our present state there is more evil than good, the intention of the writers was very different. Voltaire, I am afraid, meant only by wanton profaneness to obtain a sportive victory over religion, and to discredit the belief of Johnson meant, by showing the unsatisfaca superintending Providence: tory nature of things temporal, to direct the hopes of man to things eternal. Rasselas, ed lady, may be considered as a more enlargas was observed to me by a very accomplished and more deeply philosophical discourse in prose, upon the interesting truth, which in his " Vanity of Human Wishes," he had so successfully enforced in verse. The fund of thinking which this work contains is such, that almost every sentence * See under June 2, 1781. Finding it then accidentally in a chaise with Mr. Boswell, he read it eagerly.-This was doubtless long after his declaration to Sir Joshua Reynolds.—MALONE. of it may furnish a subject of long medita- | man. I restrain myself from quoting passages from this excellent work, or even referring to them, because I should not know what to select, or, rather, what to omit. I shall, however, transcribe one, as it shows how well he could state the arguments of those who believe in the appearance of departed spirits; a doctrine which it is a mistake to suppose that he himself ever positively held: "If all your fear be of apparitions (said the prince), I will promise you safety: there is no danger from the dead; he that is once buried will be seen no more. "That the dead are seen no more (said Imlac), I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth; those that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues, confess it by their fears." pretty hard course of experience, and would, from sincere benevolence, impress upon all who honour this book with a perusal, that until a steady conviction is obtained, that the present life is an imperfect state, and only a passage to a better, if we comply with the divine scheme of progressive improvement; and also that it is a part of the mysterious plan of Providence, that intellectual beings must "be made perfect through suffering;" there will be a continual recurrence of disappointment and uneasiness. But if we walk with hope in " the mid-day sun" of revelation, our temper and disposition will be such, that the comforts and enjoyments in our way will be relished, while we patiently support the inconveniences and pains. After much speculation and various reasonings, I acknowledge myself convinced of the truth of Voltaire's conclusion, " Après tout c'est un monde passable.' But we must not think too deeply: Impressive truth, in splendid fiction drest, Checks the vain wish, and calms the troubled breast; Notwithstanding my high admiration of Rasselas, I will not maintain that the "mor-O'er the dark mind a light celestial throws, bid melancholy" in Johnson's constitution And sooths the angry passions to repose; may not, perhaps, have made life appear to | As oil effus'd illumes and smooths the deep, him more insipid and unhappy than it gen-When round the bark the foaming surges sweep." erally is: for I am sure that he had less enjoyment from it than I have. Yet, whatever additional shade his own particular sensations may have thrown on his representation of life, attentive observation and close inquiry have convinced me, that there is too much reality in the gloomy picture. The truth, however, is, that we judge of the happiness and misery of life differently at different times, according to the state of our changeable frame. I always remember a remark made to me by a Turkish lady, educated in France: "Ma foi, monsieur, notre bonheur depend de la façon qae notre sang circule?" This have I learnt from a [This is a mere sophism; all ages and all nations are not agreed on this point, though such a belief may have existed in particular persons, in all ages and all nations. He might as well have said that insanity was the natural and true state of the human mind, because it has existed in all nations and all ages.-ED.] [Mr. Boswell no doubt fancied these words It will be recollected, that during all this year he carried on his Idler. This paper was in such high estimation before it was collected into volumes, that it was seized on with avidity by various publishers of newspapers and magazines, to enrich their publications. Johnson, to put a stop to this unfair proceeding, wrote for the Universal Chronicle the following advertisement; in which there is, perhaps, more pomp of words than the occasion demanded: "London, Jan. 5, 1759. ADVERTISEpaper entitled MENT. The proprietors of the 'The Idler,' having found that those essays are inserted in the newspapers and magazines with so little regard to justice or decency, that the Universal Chronicle, in which they first appear, is not always mentioned, think it necessary to declare to the had some meaning, or he would hardly have quoted them; but what that meaning is the editor cannot guess.-ED.] publishers of those collections, that however patiently they have hitherto endured these injuries, made yet more injurious by contempt, they have now determined to endure them no longer. They have already seen essays, for which a very large price is paid, transferred, with the most shameless rapacity, into the weekly or monthly compilations, and their right, at least for the present, alienated from them, before they could themselves be said to enjoy it. But they would not willingly be thought to want tenderness, even for men by whoin no tenderness hath been shown. The past is without remedy, and shall be without resentment. But those who have been thus busy with their sickles in the fields of their neighbours are henceforward to take notice, that the time of impunity is at an end. Whoever shall, without our leave, lay the hand of rapine upon our papers, is to expect that we shall vindicate our due, by the means which justice prescribes, and which are warranted by the immemorial prescriptions of honourable trade. We shall lay hold, in our turn, on their copies, degrade them from the pomp of wide margin and diffuse typography, contract them into a narrow space, and sell them at an humble price; yet not with a view of growing rich by confiscations, for we think not much better of money got by punishment than by crimes. We shall therefore, when our losses are repaid, give what profit shall remain to the Magdelens; for we know not who can be more properly taxed for the support of penitent prostitutes, than prostitutes in whom there yet appears neither penitence nor shame." No doubt he was also proceeding, though slowly, in his edition of Shakspeare. He, however, from that liberality which never failed, when called upon to assist other labourers in literature, found time to translate, for Mrs. Lenox's English version of Brumoy, "A Dissertation on the Greek Comedy" and "The General Conclusion of the Bookt." I would ascribe to this year the following letter to a son of one of his early friends at Lichfield, Mr. Joseph Simpson, barrister, and authour of a tract, entitled "Reflections on the Study of the Law." 66 TO JOSEPH SIMPSON, ESQ. "DEAR SIR,-Your father's inexorability not only grieves but amazes me: he is your father; he was always accounted a wise man; nor do I remember any thing to the disadvantage of his good nature; but in his refusal to assist you there is neither good nature, fatherhood, nor wisdom. It is the practice of good nature to overlook faults which have already, by the consequences, punished the delinquent. It is natural for a father to think more favourably than others of his children; and it is always wise to give assistance, while a little help will prevent the necessity of greater. "If you married imprudently, you miscarried at your own hazard, at an age when you had a right of choice. It would be hard if the man might not choose his own wife, who has a right to plead before the judges of his country. 66 If your imprudence has ended in difficulties and inconveniences, you are yourself to support them; and, with the help of a little better health, you would support them and conquer them. Surely, that want which accident and sickness produce is to be supported in every region of humanity, though there were neither friends nor fathers in the world. You have certainly from your father the highest claim of charity, though none of right: and therefore I would counsel you to omit no decent nor manly degree of importunity. Your debts in the whole are not large, and of the whole but a small part is troublesome. Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger. You must, therefore, be An inquiry into the state of foreign coun-enabled to discharge petty debts, that you tries was an object that seems at all times to have interested Johnson. Hence Mr. Newbery found no great difficulty in persuading him to write the introduction* to a collection of voyages and travels published by him under the title of "The World Displayed:" the first volume of which appeared this year, and the remaining volumes in subsequent years. [In Mr. Park's edition of the Noble Authours (vol. iv. p. 259), it is stated that Mrs. Lenox's Translation of Brumoy's Greek Theatre had a "Preface," written by Lord Orrery; who also translated "The Discourse upon the Theatre of the Greeks, the Origin of Tragedy, and the Parallel of the Theatres," but he cites no authority.-ED.] may have leisure, with security, to struggle with the rest. Neither the great nor little debts disgrace you. I am sure you have my esteem for the courage with which you contracted them, and the spirit with which you endure them. I wish my esteem could be of more use. I have been invited, or have invited myself, to several parts of the kingdom; and will not incommode my dear ent lodging is of any use to her 2. I hope, Lucy by coming to Lichfield, while her presin a few days, to be at leisure, and to make visits. Whither I shall fly is matter of no importance. A man unconnected is at home every where; unless he may be said to be at home no where. I am sorry, dear sir, that where you have parents, a man of your merits should not have a home. I wish I could give it you. I am, my dear sir, affectionately yours, "SAM. JOHNSON." He now refreshed himself by an excursion to Oxford, of which the following short characteristical notice, in his own words, is preserved: Gent. Mag. me. 1785. p. 288. - is now making tea for I have been in my gown ever since I came here!. It was, at my first coming, quite new and handsome. I have swum thrice, which I had disused for many years. I have proposed to Vansittart climbing over the wall, but he has refused me. And I have clapped my hands till they are sore, at Dr. King's speech3." His negro servant, Francis Barber, having left him, and been some time at sea, not pressed as has been supposed, but with his own consent, it appears from a letter to John Wilkes, Esq. from Dr. Smollett, that his master kindly interested himself in procuring his release from a state of life of which Johnson always expressed the utmost abhorrence. He once said, "No 1773. Samuel Johnson. His black servant, whose name is Francis Barber, has been pressed on board the Stag frigate, Captain Angel, and our lexicographer is in great distress. He says the boy is a sickly lad, of a delicate frame, and particularly subject to a malady in his throat, which renders him very unfit for his majesty's service. You know what matter of animosity the said Johnson has against you: and I dare say you desire no other opportunity of resenting it, than that of laying him under an obligation. He was humble enough to desire my assistance on this occasion, though he and I were never cater-cousins; and I gave him to understand that I would make application to my friend Mr. Wilkes, who, perhaps, by his interest with Dr. Hay and Mr. Elliot, might be able to procure the discharge of his lacquey. It would be superfluous to say more on the subject, which I leave to your own consideration; but I cannot let slip this opportunity of declaring that I am, with the most inviolable esteem and attachment, dear sir, your affectionate, obliged, humble servant, "T. SMOLLETT." Mr. Wilkes, who upon all occasions has acted, as a private gentleman, with most polite liberality, applied to his friend Sir George Hay, then one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty; and Francis Barber was discharged, as he has told me, without any wish of his own. He found his old master Chambers in the Inner temple, and returned to his service. Aug. 31, man will be a sailor who has contriv-in ance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned." And at another time, "A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company." The letter was as follows: Sept. 23, 1773. "Chelsea, 16th March, 1759. DEAR SIR,-I am again your petitioner, in behalf of that great CHAM4 of literature, [Lord Stowell informs me that he prided himself in being, during his visits to Oxford, accurately academic in all points; and he wore his gown almost ostentatiously.-ED.] 2 See ante, p. 136, and post, vol. ii. p. 000. ED.] 3 [Dr. King's speech at the installation of the Earl of Westmoreland as chancellor of the university.-ED.] 4 In my first edition this word was printed Chum, as it appears in one of Mr. Wilkes's Miscellanies, and I animadverted on Dr. Smollett's ignorance; for which let me propitiate the manes of that ingenious and benevolent gentleman. CHUм was certainly a mistaken reading for CHAM, the title of the Sovereign of Tartary, which is well applied "Johnson, the Monarch of Literature ;" and was an epithet familiar to Ed. [The date of Dr. Johnson's first acquaintance with Mrs. Montagu is not ascertained, but it probably began about this period. We find, in this year, the first of the many applications which he is known to have made to the extensive and unwearied charity of that excellent woman.] Smollett. See "Roderick Random," chap. 56. For this correction I am indebted to Lord Palmerston, whose talents and literary acquirements accord well with his respectable pedigree of Temple.-BOSWELL. After the publication of the second edition of this work, the authour was furnished by Mr. Abercrombie, of Philadelphia, with the copy of a letter written by Dr. John Armstrong, the poet, to Dr. Smollett, at Leghorn, containing the following paraghraph: "As to the K. Bench patriot, it is hard to say from what motive he published a letter of yours asking some trifling favour of him in behalf of somebody for whom the great CHAM of literature, Mr. Johnson, had interested himself."— MALONE. 5 [He was not discharged till June, 1760. How the discharge (if, indeed, it was granted on this application) came to be so, long delayed does not appear.-ED.] "MADAM.-I am desired by Mrs. Montagu Williams to sign receipts with her MSS. name for the subscribers which you have been pleased to procure, and to return her humble thanks for your favour, which was conferred with all the grace that elegance can add to beneficence. I am, madam, your most obedient and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] What particular new scheme of life Johnson had in view this year, I have not discovered; but that he meditated one of some sort, is clear from his private devotions, in which we find, [24th March,]" the change of outward things which I am now to " and "Grant me the grace of thy make; Holy Spirit, that the course which I am now beginning may proceed according to thy laws, and end in the enjoyment of thy favour." But he did not, in fact, make any external or visible change. ED. At this time there being a competition among the architects of London to be employed in the building of Blackfriars-bridge, a question was very warmly agitated whether semicircular or elliptical arches were preferable. In the design offered by Mr. Mylne, the elliptical form was adopted, and therefore it was the great object of his rivals to attack it. Johnson's regard for his friend Mr. Gwyn induced him to engage in this controversy against Mr. Mylne 3; and 3 Sir John Hawkins has given a long detail of it, in that manner vulgarly, but significantly, called rigmarole; in which, amidst an ostentatious exhibition of arts and artists, he talks of of the human figure, and adjusted by Nature"proportions of a column being taken from that of the head, and in a woman sesquinonal; nor masculine and feminine-in a man, sesquioctave has he failed to introduce a jargon of musical terms, which do not seem much to correspond with the subject, but serve to make up the heterogeneous mass. To follow the knight through all this, would be an useless fatigue to myself, and not a little disgusting to my readers. I shall, therefore, only make a few remarks upon his statement. He seems to exult in having detected Johnson in procuring " from a person eminently [The change of life of which Mr. Boswell could discover no trace was probably the breaking up his establishment in Gough-square, where he had resided for ten years, and retiring to chambers in Sta-skilled in mathematicks and the principles of archiple-inn; while Mrs. Williams went into lodgings. This economical arrangement, as we learn from the following letter, communicated by Mrs. Pearson, through Dr. Harwood, took place just at this period. Pearson MSS. "TO MRS. LUCY PORTER. "23d March, 1759. "DEAR MADAM,-I beg your pardon for having so long omitted to write. One thing or other has put me off. I have this day moved my things, and you are now to direct to me at Staple-inn, London. I hope, my dear, you are well, and Kitty mends. I wish her success in her trade. I am going to publish a little story book, which I will send you when it is out. Write to me, my dearest girl, for I am always glad to hear from you, am, my dear, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] [This and several other letters, which will be found in the proper places, (marked in the margin Montagu MSS.), the Editor owes to the kindness and liberality of the present Lord Rokeby, the nephew and heir of Mrs. Montagu, and the Editor of her Letters-a work which the literary world desires to see continued. It is necessary to request the attention of the reader to the warm terms in which Johnson so frequently expresses his admiration and esteem for Mrs. Montagu, as we shall see that he afterwards took another tone.-ED.] [Johnson here alludes to his "Rasselas."HARWOOD.] tecture, answers to a string of questions drawn up by himself, touching the comparative strength of semicircular and elliptical arches." Now I can not conceive how Johnson could have acted more wisely. Sir John complains that the opinion of that excellent mathematician, Mr. Thomas Simpson, did not preponderate in favour of the semicircular arch. But he should have known, that however eminent Mr. Simpson was in the higher parts of abstract mathematical science, he was litthe versed in mixed and practical mechanicks. Mr. Muller, of Woolwich Academy, the scholas tick father of all the great engineers which this country has employed for forty years, decided the question by declaring clearly in favour of the elliptical arch. It is ungraciously suggested, that Johnson's motive for opposing Mr. Mylne's scheme may have been his prejudice against him as a native of North Britain; when in truth, as has been stated, he gave the aid of his able pen to a friend, who was one of the candidates; and so far was he from having any illiberal antipathy to Mr. Mylne, that he afterwards lived with that gentleman upon very agreeable terms of acquaintance, and dined with him at his house. Sir John Hawkins, indeed, gives full vent to his own prejudice in abusing Blackfriars-bridge, calling it "an edifice, in which beauty and symmetry are in vain sought for; by which the citizens of London have perpetuated their own disgrace, and subjected a whole nation to the reproach of foreigners." Whoever has contemplated placido lumine, this stately, elegant, and airy structure, which has so fine an effect, especially on approaching the capital on that quarter, must wonder at such unjust and illtempered censure; and I appeal to all foreigners of good taste, whether this bridge be not one of the |