1755. し the English Tongue, prefixed to the Dictionary: " H feldom, perhaps never, Ætat. 46. begins any but the first syllable." In an essay printed in the Publick Advertiser, this lively writer enumerated many instances in opposition to this remark; for example, "The authour of this observation must be a man of a quick appre-benfion, and of a most compre-hensive genius." The position is undoubtedly expressed with too much latitude. This light fally, we may suppose, made no great impression on our Lexicographer, for we find that he never altered the passage. He had the pleasure of being treated in a very different manner by his old pupil Mr. Garrick, in the following complimentary Epigram : On JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY. "TALK of war with a Briton, he'll boldly advance, Johnson this year gave at once a proof of his benevolence, quickness of apprehenfion, and admirable art of composition, in the assistance which he gave to Mr. Zachariah Williams, father of the blind lady whom he had humanely received under his roof. Mr. Williams had followed the profession of physick in Wales; but having a very strong propensity to the study of natural philosophy, had made many ingenious advances towards a discovery of the longitude, and repaired to London in hopes of obtaining the great parliamentary reward. He failed of success; but Johnson having made himself 3 The number of the French Academy employed in fettling their language, master master of his principles and experiments, wrote for him a pamphlet, published 1755. In July this year he had formed some scheme of mental improvement, the particular purpose of which does not appear. But we find in his "Prayers and Meditations," p. 24, a prayer entitled "On the Study of Philofophy, as an Instrument of living;" and after it follows a note, "This study was not pursued." In 1756 Johnfon found that the great fame of his Dictionary had not set 1756. him above the necessity of " making provision for the day that was passing over him." No royal or noble patron extended a munificent hand to give f independence to the man who had conferred stability on the language of his country. We may feel indignant that there should have been such unworthy neglect; but we must, at the same time, congratulate ourselves, that to this very neglect, operating to rouse the natural indolence of his constitution, we owe many valuable productions, which otherwise, perhaps, might never have appeared. He had fpent, during the progress of the work, the money for which he had contracted to write his Dictionary. We have seen that the reward of his labour was only fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds; and when the expence of amanuenfes and paper, and other articles are deducted, his clear profit was + See note by Mr. Warton, p. 149. 5" On Saturday the 12th, about twelve at night, died Mr. Zachariah Williams, in his eightythird year, after an illness of eight months, in full possession of his mental faculties. He has been long known to philosophers and seamen for his skill in magnetism, and his proposal to afcertain the longitude by a peculiar system of the variation of the compass. He was a man of industry indefatigable, of conversation inoffenfive, patient of adversity and disease, eminently fober, temperate, and pious; and worthy to have ended life with better fortune." 1 1 1756. very inconfiderable. I once faid to him " I am forry, Sir, you did not get Ætat. 47. more for your Dictionary." His answer was, "I am forry too. But it was very well. The booksellers are generous liberal-minded men." He, upon all occafions, did ample justice to their character in this respect. He confidered them as the patrons of literature; and, indeed, although they have eventually been confiderable gainers by his Dictionary, it is to them that we owe its having been undertaken and carried through at the risk of great expence, for they were not absolutely fure of being indemnified. 1 On the first day of this year we find from his private devotions, that he had then recovered from fickness; and in February that his eye was restored to its use 7. The pious gratitude with which he acknowledges mercies upon every occasion is very edifying; as is the humble fubmiffion which he breathes when it is the will of his heavenly Father to try him with afflictions. As such dispositions become the state of man here, and are the true effects of religious difcipline, we cannot but venerate in Johnson one of the most exercised minds that our holy religion hath ever formed. If there be any thoughtless enough to suppose such exercise the weakness of a great understanding, let them look up to Johnfon, and be convinced that what he so earnestly practifed must have a rational foundation. His works this year were, an abstract or epitome, in octavo, of his folio Dictionary, and a few essays in a monthly publication, entitled, "THE UNIVERSAL VISITER." Christopher Smart, with whose unhappy vacillation of mind he fincerely sympathised, was one of the stated undertakers of this mifcellany; and it was to assist kim that Johnson sometimes employed his pen. All the essays marked with two asterisks have been ascribed to him; but I am confident, from internal evidence, that of these, neither "The Life of Chaucer," "Reflections on the State of Portugal," nor an "Effay on Architecture," were written by him. I am equally confident, upon the fame evidence, that he wrote "Further Thoughts on Agriculture,†" being the sequel of a very inferiour essay on the same subject, and which, though carried on as if by the fame hand, is both in thinking and expression so far above it, and so strikingly peculiar, as to leave no doubt of its true parent; and that he also wrote "A Differtation on the State of Literature and Authours,t" and "A Differtation on the Epitaphs written by Pope.†" The last of these, indeed, he afterwards added to his "Idler." Why the essays truly written by him are marked in the fame manner with some he did not write, I cannot explain; but with deference to those who have ascribed to him the three essays which • Prayers and Meditations, p. 25. 7 Ibid, p. 27. I have rejected, they want all the characteristical marks of Johnfonian 1756. composition. Ætat. 47. He engaged also to fuperintend and contribute largely to another monthly publication, entitled "THE LITERARY MAGAZINE, OR UNIVERSAL REVIEW;" the first number of which came out in May this year. What were his emoluments from this undertaking, and what other writers were employed in it, I have not discovered. He continued to write in it, with intermiffions, till the fifteenth number; and I think that he never gave better proofs of the force, acuteness, and vivacity of his mind, than in this miscellany, whether we confider his original essays, or his reviews of the works of others. The " Preliminary Address" to the publick is a proof how this great man could embellish even so trite a thing as the plan of a magazine with the graces of fuperiour compofition. His original essays are, " An Introduction to the political State of GreatBritain;†" "Remarks on the Militia Bill;†" "Observations on his Britannick Majesty's Treaties with the Empress of Russia and the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel;†" "Observations on the present State of Affairs;†" and, "Memoirs of Frederick III. King of Prussia.t" In all these he displays extensive political knowledge and sagacity, expressed with uncommon energy and perfpicuity, without any of those words which he sometimes took a pleafure in adopting, in imitation of Sir Thomas Browne, of whose " Chriftian Morals" he this year gave an edition, with his " Life *" prefixed to it, which is one of Johnson's best biographical performances. In one instance only in these essays has he indulged his Brownism. Dr. Robertson, the historian, mentioned it to me, as having at once convinced him that Johnfon was the authour of the "Memoirs of the King of Prussia." Speaking of the pride which the old King, the father of his hero, took in being master of the tallest regiment in Europe, he says, "To review this towering regiment was his daily pleasure, and to perpetuate it was so much his care, that when he met a tall woman he immediately commanded one of his Titanian retinue to marry her, that they might propagate procerity." For this Anglo-Latian word procerity, Johnfon had, however, the authority of Addifon. His reviews are of the following books: "Birch's History of the Royal Society;†" "Murphy's Gray's-Inn Journal;†" "Warton's Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope. Vol. I.t" " Hampton's Translation of Polybius;†" " Blackwell's Memoirs of the Court of Augustus;†" "Ruffel's Natural History of Aleppo;†" "Sir Ifaac Newton's Arguments in Proof of a Deity ;†" "Borlase's History of the Isles of Scilly;†" "Home's Experi 1756. Ætat. 47. ments on Bleaching;†" " Browne's Christian Morals ;†" "Hales on distilling Sea-Water, Ventilators in Ships, and curing an ill Taste in Milk ;†” “Lucas's Essay on Waters;†" "Keith's Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops ;†" "Browne's History of Jamaica;†" "Philofophical Transactions. Vol. XLIX. †" "Mrs. Lennox's Translation of Sully's Memoirs; *" "Miscellanies by Elizabeth Harrison;†" "Evans's Map and Account of the middle Colonies in America;†" "Letter on the Case of Admiral Byng;*" "Appeal to the People concerning Admiral Byng;*" "Hanway's Eight Days Journey, and Effay on Tea;*" "The Cadet, a military Treatife;†" "Some further Particulars in Relation to the Case of Admiral Byng, by a Gentleman of Oxford ;*" "The Conduct of the Ministry relating to the present War impartially examined;†" "A Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil.*" All these, from internal evidence, were written by Johnfon; fome of them I know he avowed, and have marked them with an afterisk accordingly. Mr. Thomas Davies, indeed, ascribed to him the Review of Mr. Burke's "Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful;" and Sir John Hawkins, with equal difcernment, has inferted it in his collection of Johnson's works. Whereas it has no resemblance to Johnson's composition, and is well known to have been written by Mr. Murphy, who has acknowledged it to me and many others. It is worthy of remark, in justice to Johnson's political character, which has been mifrepresented as abjectly fubmissive to power, that his "Obfervations on the present State of Affairs," glow with as animated a spirit of constitutional liberty as can be found any where. Thus he begins, "The time is now come, in which every Englishman expects to be informed of the national affairs, and in which he has a right to have that expectation gratified. For whatever may be urged by ministers, or those whom vanity or interest make the followers of minifters, concerning the necessity of confidence in our governours, and the presumption of prying with profane eyes into the recesses of policy, it is evident that this reverence can be claimed only by counsels yet unexecuted, and projects suspended in deliberation. But when a design has ended in miscarriage or fuccess, when every eye and every ear is witness to general discontent, or general fatisfaction, it is then a proper time to disentangle confufion and illuftrate obscurity, to shew by what causes every event was produced, and in what effects it is likely to terminate; to lay down with distinct particularity what rumour always huddles in general exclamation, or perplexes by indigefted narratives; to fhew whence happiness or calamity is derived, and whence it may be expected; and honestly to lay before the people what inquiry can gather of the past, and conjecture can estimate of the future." Here |