man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind ; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the publick should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, My Lord Your Lordship's most humble most obedient servant SAM JOHNSON. CXLVII. In this instance, however, we find Dr. Johnson gracefully apologising for unwittingly wounding the pride of the house of Rasay. Dr. Samuel Johnson to the Laird of Rasay. London: May 6, 1775. Dear Sir, Mr. Boswell has this day shewn me a letter, in which you complain of a passage in the Journey to the Hebrides.' My meaning is mistaken. I did not intend to say that you had personally made any cession of the rights of your house, or any acknowledgement of the superiority of M'Leod of Dunvegan. I only designed to express what I thought generally admitted, that the house of Rasay allowed the superiority of the house of Dunvegan. Even this I now find to be erroneous, and will therefore omit or retract it in the next edition. Though what I had said had been true, if it had been disagreeable to you, I should have wished it unsaid; for it is not my business to adjust precedence. As it is mistaken, I find myself disposed to correct it, both by my respect for you, and my reverence for truth. As I know not when the book will he reprinted, I have desired Mr. Boswell to anticipate the correction in the Edinburgh papers. This is all that can be done. I hope I may now venture to desire that my compliments may be made, and my gratitude expressed, to Lady Rasay, Mr. Malcolm M'Leod, Mr. Donald M'Queen, and all the gentlemen and all the ladies whom I saw in the Island of Rasay; a place which I remember with too much pleasure and too much kindness, not to be sorry that my ignorance, or hasty persuasion, should, for a single moment, have violated its tranquillity. I beg you all to forgive an undesigned and involuntary injury, and to consider me as, Sir, your most obliged, and most humble servant SAM JOHNSON. CXLVIII. This question of precedence, so common North of the Tweed, reminds one of Sir Walter Scott's favourite letter in which Lord Macdonald makes reply to the head of the Glengarry family. My dear Glengarry, As soon as you can prove yourself to be my chief I MACDONALD. The three following letters tell of the final rupture of the friendship, extending over twenty years, of Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale. On June 30, 1784, Dr. Johnson, in common with the other executors under Mr. Thrale's will, received an intimation that Mrs. Thrale was actually married, or about to be married, to Mr. Piozzi, an Italian music-master. Dr. Samuel Johnson to Mrs. Piozzi. July 2, 1784. Madam,-If I intepret your letter right, you are ignominiously married if it is yet undone, let us once more talk together. If you have abandoned your children and your religion, God forgive your wickedness; if you have forfeited your fame and your country, may your folly do no further mischief. If the last act is yet to do, I who have loved you, esteemed you, reverenced you, and served you, I who long thought you the first of womankind, entreat that, before your fate is irrevocable, I may once more see you. I was, I once was, Madam, most truly yours, I will come down, if you permit it. SAM JOHNSON. CXLIX. Dr. Samuel Johnson to Mrs. Piozzi. London: July 8, 1784. Dear Madam,-What you have done, however I may lament it, I have no pretence to resent, as it has not been injurious to me. I therefore breathe out one sigh more of tenderness, perhaps useless, but at least sincere. I wish that God may grant you every blessing, that you may be happy in this world for its short continuance, and eternally happy in a better state; and whatever I can contribute to your happiness I am very ready to repay, for that kindness which soothed twenty years of a life radically wretched. Do not think slightly of the advice which I now presume to offer. Prevail upon Mr. Piozzi to settle in England: you may live here with more dignity than in Italy, and with more security; your rank will be higher, and your fortune more under your own eye. I desire not to detail all my reasons, but every argument of prudence and interest is for England, and only some phantoms of imagination seduce you to Italy. I am afraid, however, that my counsel is vain, yet I have eased my heart by giving it. When Queen Mary took the resolution of sheltering herself in England, the Archbishop of St. Andrew's, attempting to dissuade her, attended on her journey; and when they came to the irremeable stream that separated the two Kingdoms, walked by her side into the water, in the middle of which he seized her bridle, and with earnestness proportioned to her danger and his own affection pressed her to return. The Queen went forward.-If the parallel reaches thus far, may it go no farther.-The tears stand in my eyes. I am going into Derbyshire, and hope to be followed by your good wishes, for I am, with great affection, Yours, &c. R CL. Mrs. Piozzi to Dr. Samuel Johnson. July 4, 1784. Sir, I have this morning received from you so rough a letter in reply to one which was both tenderly and respectfully written, that I am forced to desire the conclusion of a correspondence which I can bear to continue no longer. The birth of my second husband is not meaner than that of my first; his sentiments are not meaner; his profession is not meaner, and his superiority in what he professes acknowledged by all mankind. It is want of fortune, then, that is ignominious; the character of the man I have chosen has no other claim to such an epithet. The religion to which he has been always a zealous adherent will, I hope, teach him to forgive insults he has not deserved; mine will, I hope, enable me to bear them at once with dignity and patience. To hear that I have forfeited my fame is indeed the greatest insult I ever yet received. My fame is as unsullied as snow, or I should think it unworthy of him who must henceforth protect it. I write by the coach the more speedily and effectually to prevent your coming hither. Perhaps by my fame (and I hope it is so) you mean only that celebrity which is a consideration of a much lower kind. I care for that only as it may give pleasure to my husband and his friends. Farewell, dear Sir, and accept my best wishes. You have always commanded my esteem, and long enjoyed the fruits of a friendship, never infringed by one harsh expression on my part during twenty years of familiar talk. Never did I oppose your will, nor can your unmerited severity itself lessen my regard; but till you have changed your opinion of Mr. Piozzi, let us God bless you. converse no more. CLI. The controversy raised by James Macpherson's publication of some poems which he attributed to Ossian, a Highland poet who flourished in the third century, was a long and bitter one. It lasted during the latter half of Macpherson's life and continued for several years after his death. It was alleged that fragments of ancient poetry, sung in Gaelic by the natives of the North of Scotland, and transmitted orally from singer to singer, and from age to age, had been discovered in manuscript at the homes of the Highland peasantry; and a subscription was raised in Edinburgh to enable Macpherson to extend his researches, and produced the two epic poems Fingal' and 'Temora.' Among the earliest admirers of Macpherson were Dr. Blair, and our poets Shenstone and Gray; but Dr. Johnson at once denied the authenticity of the poems. Subsequently a committee of the Highland Society of Edinburgh reported that they had failed to discover any one poem the same in title and tenor with the 'poems of Ossian.' David Hume to Edinburgh: August 16, 1760. Sir, I am surprised to find by your letter, that Mr. Gray should have entertained suspicions with regard to the authenticity of these fragments of our Highland poetry. The first time I was shown the copies of some of them in manuscript, by our friend John Home, I was inclined to be a little incredulous on that head; but Mr. Home removed my scruples, by informing me of the manner in which he procured them from Mr. Macpherson, the translator. These two gentlemen were drinking the waters together at Moffat last autumn, when their conversation fell upon Highland poetry, which Mr. Macpherson extolled very highly. Our friend, who knew him to be a good scholar, and a man of taste, found his curiosity excited, and asked whether he had ever translated any of them. Mr. Macpherson replied, that he never had attempted any such thing, and doubted whether it was possible to transfuse such beauties into our language; but, for Mr. Home's satisfaction, and in order to give him a general notion of the strain of that wild poetry, he would endeavour to turn one of them into English. He accordingly brought him one next day, which our friend was so much pleased with, that he never ceased soliciting Mr. Macpherson, |