vp

once the pleasure of examining it with Mr. Edmund Burke, who confirmed me in this opinion by his superiour critical sagacity, and was, I remember, much delighted with the following specimen:

nam, he borrowed it of Pembroke College. | cala, which cost two of our fathers their
A part of the work being very soon done, lives."
one Osborn, who was Mr. Warren's print- Every one acquainted with Johnson's
er, was set to work with what was ready, manner will be sensible that there is noth-
and Johnson engaged to supply the pressing of it here; but that this sentence might
with copy as it should be wanted; but his have been composed by any other man.
constitutional indolence soon prevailed, and But, in the Preface, the Johnsonian style
the work was at a stand. Mr. Hector, begins to appear; and though use had not
who knew that a motive of humanity yet taught his wing a permanent and equa
would be the most prevailing argument with ble flight, there are parts of it which ex-
his friend, went to Johnson, and represent-hibit his best manner in full vigour. I had
ed to him that the printer could have no
other employment till this undertaking was
finished, and that the poor man and his fa-
mily 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 correct-
ed 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 com-
mon with provincial publishers. For this
work he had from Mr. Warren only the sum
of five guineas.

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:

"The Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen, has amused his reader with no romantick absurdity, 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 or social virtues. Here are no Hottentots without religious policy 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 distribu tions, but has balanced, in most countries, their particular inconveniences by particu

Here we have an early example of that brilliant and energetick expression, which, upon innumerable occasions in his subsequent life, justly impressed the world with the highest admiration.

"I lived here above a year, and complet-
ed my studies in divinity; in which time
some letters were received from the fathers
of Ethiopia, with an account that Sultan
Segned, Emperour of Abyssinia, was con-lar favours."
verted to the church of Rome; that many
of his subjects had followed his example,
and that there was a great want of mis-
sionaries to improve these prosperous be-
ginnings. Every body was very desirous of
seconding the zeal of our fathers, and of
sending them the assistance they request-
ed; to which we were the more encouraged,
because the emperour's letter informed our
provincial that we might easily enter his
dominions by the way of Dancala; but, un-
happily, the secretary wrote Geila for Dan-

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 'listin

mentioned that "subscriptions are taken in by the Editor, or N. Johnson, bookseller, of Lichfield." Notwithstanding the merit of Johnson, and the cheap price at which this book was offered, there were not sub. scribers enough to ensure a sufficient sale so the work never appeared, and, probably never was executed.

guished by nothing more certainly than an |
eminent degree of curiosity1; nor is that cu-
riosity ever more agreeably or usefully em-
ployed, than in examining the laws and
customs of foreign nations. I hope, there-
fore, the present I now presume to make,
will not be thought improper; which, how-
ever, it is not my business as a dedicator to
commend, nor as a bookseller to depreciate."
It is reasonable to suppose, that his hav-
ing been thus accidentally led to a particular
study of the history and manners of Abys-
sinia, was the remote occasion of his writ-man's Magazine:
ing, many years afterwards, his admirable
philosophical tale, the principal scene of
which is laid in that country.

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 2:

Angeli Politiani Poemata Latina, quibus, Notas cum historiâ Latinæ poeseos à Petrarchæ ævo ad Politiani tempora deductà, et vitâ Politiani fusius quam antehac enarratâ, addidit SAM. JOHNSON 3."

It appears that his brother Nathanael had taken up his father's trade4; for it is

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

2 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 præstantia compensavit." -Comment. de reb. ad eum pertin. Edit. Amstel. 1718. p. 200.-BOSWELL. [In this learned inasquerade of Paulus Pelissonius Fontanerius, we have some difficulty in detecting Madame de Sevigné's friend, M. Pelisson, of whom another of that lady's friends, M. de Guilleragues, used the phrase, which has since grown into a proverb, "qu'il abusait de la permission qu'ont les hommes d'etre laids."-See Madame de Sevigne's letter, 5th Jan. 1674.-Huet, Bishop of Avranche, wrote Memoirs of his own time, in Latin, from which Boswell has extracted this scrap of pedantry.-ED.]

3 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.-BosWELL.

4 [Nathanael kept the shop as long as he lived, as did his mother, after him, till her death, though on somewhat, it is to be presumed, of a lowered scale. Miss Seward, who, in such a matter as this, may perhaps be trusted, tells us that Miss Lucy Porter, 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), "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 com

We find him again this year at Birming ham, and there is preserved the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave5, the original compiler and editor of the Gentle

"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 publick would not give you a bad reception, if, beside the current wit of the 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 authours ancient or modern, forgotten poems that deserve revival, or loose pieces, like Floyer's 6, worth preserving. By this method, your literary article, for so it might be called, will, he thinks, be better recommended to the publick than by low jests, awkward buffoonery, or the dull scurrilities of either party.

"If such a correspondence will be agree

pany 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."-Lett. 1. 117.-ED.]

5 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.-BOSWELL.

[The present editor has felt justified by this and many other testimonies to the accuracy of Mr. Nichols, to admit into his notes and even into the text the information supplied by him.-En.]

6 Sir John Floyer's Treatise on Cold Baths. Gent. Mag. 1734, p. 197.

7 [Is the use of will and shall in this sentence quite grammatical? Dr. Johnson seems sometimes to have used the word shall where it is now

G

The myrtle, ensign of supreme command,
Consign'd by Venus to Melissa's hand;
Not less capricious than a reigning fair,
Now grants, and now rejects a lover's prayer.
In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain,
In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain:
The myrtle crowns the happy lovers' heads,
The unhappy lover's grave the myrtle spreads;
O then the meaning of thy gift impart,
And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart!
Soon must this bough, as you shall fix his doom,
Adorn Philander's head, or grace his tomb1."

1 Mrs. Piozzi gives the following account of this little composition from Dr. Johnson's own relation to her, on her inquiring whether it was rightly attributed to him." I think it is now just forty years ago, that a young fellow had a sprig of myrtle given him by a girl he courted, and asked me to write him some verses that he might present her in return. I promised, but forgot; and when he called for his lines at the time agreed on —Sit still a moment, (says I) dear Mund, and I'll fetch them thee-so stepped aside for five minutes, and wrote the nonsense you now keep such a stir about."-Anecdotes, p. 34.

His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very transient: and it is certain, that he formed no criminal connexion whatsoever. Mr. Hector, who lived with him in his younger days in the utmost intimacy and social freedom, has assured me, that even at that ardent season his conduct was strictly virtuous in that respect; and that though he loved to exhilarate himself with wine, he never knew him

intoxicated but once.

In a man whom religious education has secured from licentious indulgences, the passion of love, when once it has seized him, is exceedingly strong; being unimpaired by dissipation, and totally concentrated in one object. This was experienced by Johnson, when he became the fervent admirer of Mrs. Porter, after her first husband's death. Miss Porter told me, that when he was first introduced to her mother, his appearance was very forbidding; he was then lean and lank, so that his immense structure of bones was hideously striking to the eye, and the scars of the scrofula were deeply visible. He also wore his hair, which was straight and stiff, and separated behind; and he often had, seemingly, convulsive starts and odd gesticulations, which tended to excite at once surprise and ridicule. Mrs. Porter was SO

myrtle, with the date on it, 1731, which I have enclosed.

"The true history (which I could swear to) is as follows: Mr. Morgan Graves, the elder brother of a worthy clergyman near Bath, with whom I was acquainted, waited upon a lady in this neighbourhood, who at parting presented him the branch. He showed it me, and wished much to return the compliment in verse. I applied to Johnson, who was with me, and in about half an hour dictated the verses which I sent to my friend.

In my first edition I was induced to doubt the authenticity of this account, by the following circumstantial statement in a letter to me from Miss Seward of Lichfield:-" I know those verses were addressed to Lucy Porter, when he was enamoured of her in his boyish days, two or three years before he had seen her mother, his future wife. He wrote them at my grandfather's [Mr. Hunter, the schoolmaster], and gave them to Lucy in the presence of my mother, to whom he showed them on the instant. She used to repeat them to me, when I asked her for the Verses Dr. Johnson gave her on a Sprig of Myrtle, which he had stolen or begged from her bosom. We all know honest Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying to herself a compliment not intended for her," Such was this lady's statement, which I make no doubt she supposed to be correct; but it shows how dangerous it is to trust too implicitly to traditional testimony and ingenious inference; for Mr. Hector has lately assured me that Mrs. Piozzi's account is in this instance accurate, and that he was the person [as his name Edmund additionally proves] for whom Johnson wrote those verses, which have been erroneously ascribed to Mr. Hammond. I am obliged in so many instances to notice Mrs. Piozzi's incorrectness of relation, that I glad-please of this statement. ly seize this opportunity of acknowledging, that however often, she is not always inaccurate.

The authour having been drawn into a controversy with Miss Anna Seward, in consequence of the preceding statement (which may be found in 'the Gentleman's Magazine," vol. lxiii. and Ixiv.), received the following letter from Mr. Hector, on the subject:

"DEAR SIR,-I am sorry to see you are engaged in altercation with a lady, who seems unwilling to be convinced of her errors. Surely it would be more ingenuous to acknowledge than to

"I most solemnly declare, at that time, Johnson was an entire stranger to the Porter family; and it was almost two years after that I introduced him to the acquaintance of Porter, whom I bought my clothes of.

"If you intend to convince this obstinate woman, and to exhibit to the publick the truth of your narrative, you are at liberty to make what use you

"I hope you will pardon me for taking up so much of your time. Wishing you multos et felices annos, I shall subscribe myself your obliged humble servant, E. HECTOR.-Birmingham, Jan. 9th, 1794."-BOSWELL. [Of the supposed attachment of Dr. Johnson to the daughter of his wife there is no evidence whatsoever, but the assertion of Miss Seward, whose anecdotes have turned out to be in almost every instance worse than nothing; and, in this case, if it were worth while to seek for any evidence beyond Mr. Hector's, the dates would disprove Miss Seward's statement, which it is but too evident that she made with the view of disparaging and ridiculing Dr. Johnson.-ED.]