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« YOU will receive this by Mr. Baretti, a gentleman particularly intitled to the notice and kindness of the profeffor of poefy. He has time but for a short stay, and will be glad to have it filled up with as much as he can hear and fee.

"In recommending another to your favour, I for the kindness which you have fhewn to myself. on Shakspeare? I fhall be glad of them.

ought not to omit thanks Have you any more notes

"I fee your pupil' fometimes; his mind is as exalted as his ftature. I am half afraid of him; but he is no lefs amiable than formidable. He will, if the forwardness of his fpring be not blasted, be a credit to you, and to the University. He brings fome of my plays with him, which he has my permiffion to fhew you, on condition you will hide them from every body elfe.

2

"I am, dear Sir, &c.

[London,] June 1, 1758.

SAM. JOHNSON."

$759.

In 1759, in the month of January, his mother died, at the great age of ninety, an event which deeply affected him, not that " his mind had acquired no firmness by the contemplation of mortality'," but that his reverential affection for her was not abated by years, as indeed he retained all his tender feelings even to the latest period of his life. I have been told that he regretted much his not having gone to vifit his mother for feveral years previous to her death. But he was conftantly engaged in literary labours, which confined him to London; and though he had not the comfort of feeing his aged parent, he contributed liberally to her support.

Soon after this event, he wrote his "RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA; concerning the publication of which Sir John Hawkins gueffes vaguely and idly, inftead of having taken the trouble to inform himself with authentick precifion. 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

"Mr. Langton."

2" Part of the impreffion of the Shakspeare, which Dr. Johnson conducted alone, and publifhed by fubfcription. This edition came out in 1765.”

Hawkins's Life of Johnfon, p. 365.

wrote

1759.

wrote it, that with the profits he might defray the expence of his mother's funeral, and pay some little debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Atat. 50. Reynolds that he composed it in the evenings of one week, fent it to the prefs in portions as it was written, and had never fince read it over. Mr. Strahan, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodfley purchased it for a hundred pounds, but afterwards paid him twenty-five pounds more when it came to a fecond edition.

Confidering the large fums 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 elfe, would have rendered his name immortal in the world of literature. None of his writings has been fo extenfively diffufed over Europe; for it has been tranflated 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 fhews us that this stage of our being is full of "vanity and vexation of spirit." To those who look no further than the prefent life, or who maintain that human nature has not fallen from the state in which it was created, the inftruction of this fublime ftory will be of no avail. But they who think justly, and feel with strong sensibility, will liften 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 fuccefs, is wonderfully fimilar in its plan and conduct to Johnson's RASSELAS; infomuch, 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 fame, '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 difcredit the belief of a superintending Providence: Johnson meant, by fhewing the unfatisfactory nature of things temporal, to direct the hopes of man to things eternal. Raffelas, as was observed to me by a very accomplished lady, may be considered as `a more enlarged and more deeply philofophical difcourfe in profe, upon the interesting truth, which in his "Vanity of human Wishes" he had so fuccefffully enforced in verse.

The fund of thinking which this work contains is fuch, that almoft every fentence of it may furnish a subject of long meditation. I am not fatisfied if a Bb

year

1759.

Etat. 50.

year paffes without my having read it through; and at every perufal, my admiration of the mind which produced it is fo highly raised, that I can scarcely believe that I had the honour of enjoying the intimacy of fuch a man.

I restrain myself from quoting paffages from this excellent work, or even referring to them, because I should not know what to felect, or, rather, what to omit. I fhall, however, transcribe one, as it fhews how well he could state the arguments of those who believe in the appearance of departed fpirits, a doctrine which it is a mistake to fuppose that he himself ever pofitively held.

"If all your fear be of apparitions, (faid the Prince,) I will promife you fafety: there is no danger from the dead; he that is once buried will be seen

no more.

"That the dead are feen no more (faid 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 diffufed, could become univerfal only by its truth; thofe 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 fingle cavillers, can very little weaken the general evidence; and fome who deny it with their tongues, confefs it by their fears."

Notwithstanding the high admiration of Raffelas, I will not maintain that the "morbid melancholy" in Johnson's conftitution may not, perhaps, have made life appear to him more infipid and unhappy than it generally is; for I am fure that he had lefs enjoyment from it than I have.. Yet, whatever additional shade his own particular fenfations may have thrown on his reprefentation of life, attentive obfervation and clofe inquiry have convinced me, that there is too much of reality in the gloomy picture. The truth, however, is, that we judge of the happiness and mifery of life differently at different times, according to the ftate of our changeable frame. I always remember a remark made to me by a Turkish lady, educated in France, «Ma foi, Monfieur, notre bonheur depend du façon que notre fang circule." This have I learnt from a pretty hard courfe of experience, and would, from fincere benevolence, impress upon all who honour this book with a perufal, that until a fteady conviction is obtained, that the prefent life is an imperfect state, and only a paffage to a better, if we comply with the divine scheme of progreffive improvement; and alfo that it is a part of the mysterious plan of Providence, that intellectual beings muft "be made perfect through fuffering;" there will be a continual recurrence of difappointment and uneafinefs. But

if we walk with hope in "the mid-day fun" of revelation, our temper and difpofition will be fuch, that the comforts and enjoyments in our way will be relished, while we patiently fupport the inconveniencies and pains. After much speculation and various reasonings, I acknowledge myself convinced of the truth of Voltaire's conclufion, "Apres tout c'est un monde paffable." But we muft not think too deeply:

"Where ignorance is blifs, 'tis folly to be wife,"

is, in many respects, more than poetically juft. Let us cultivate, under the command of good principles, "La theorie des fenfations agréables ;" and, as Mr. Burke once admirably counfelled a grave and anxious gentleman, « live pleasant."

The effect of Raffelas, and of Johnson's other moral tales, is thus beautifully illuftrated by Mr. Courtenay:

"Impreffive truth, in fplendid fiction drest,

"Checks the vain wish, and calms the troubled breast ;

"O'er the dark mind a light celeftial throws,

"And fooths the angry paffions to repofe;

"As oil effus'd illumes and fimooths the deep,

"When round the bark the fwelling furges fweep."

It will be recollected, that during all this year he carried on his IDLER 3, and, no doubt, was proceeding, though flowly, in his edition of Shakspeare.

Literary and moral Character of Dr. Johnfon.

He,

5 This paper was in fuch 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. Johnfon, to put a stop to this unfair proceeding, wrote for the Univerfal Chronicle the following advert isement, in which there is, perhaps, more pomp of words than the occafion demanded :

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"London, January 5, 1759. Advertisement. The proprietors of the paper entitled The Idler,' having found that thofe effays are inferted in the newfpapers and magazines with fo little regard to justice or decency, that the Univerfal Chronicle, in which they first appear, is not always mentioned, think it neceffary to declare to the 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 feen effays, 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 prefent, alienated from them, before they could themselves be faid to enjoy it. But they would not willingly be thought to want tenderness, even for men by whom no tenderness hath been fhewn. The paft is without remedy, and fhall be without Bb 2

resentment.

1759

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1759.

Etat. 50.

He, however, from that liberality which never failed, when called upon to affift other labourers in literature, found time to tranflate for Mrs. Lennox's English version of Brumoy, " A Differtation on the Greek Comedy,t" and the General Conclufion of the book.†

I would ascribe to this year the following letter to a fon of one of his early friends at Lichfield, Mr. Jofeph Simpfon, Barrifter and authour of a tract entitled "Reflections on the Study of the Law."

"DEAR SIR,

To JOSEPH SIMPSON, Eq.

"YOUR father's inexorability not only grieves but amazes me : he is your father: he was always accounted a wife man; nor do I remember any thing to the disadvantage of his good nature; but in his refufal to affift you there is neither good-nature, fatherhood, nor wifdom. It is the practice of good-nature to overlook faults which have already, by the confequences, punished the delinquent. It is natural for a father to think more favourably than others of his children; and it is always wife to give affiftance while a little help will prevent the neceffity 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.

"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 fupport them and conquer them. Surely, that want which accident and sickness produces, is to be fupported 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

refentment. But those who have been thus bufy with their fickles 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 juftice prescribes, and which are warranted by the immemorial prescriptions of honourable trade. We fhall 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 fell them at an humble price; yet not with a view of growing rich by confifcations, for we think not much better of money got by punishment than by crimes. We fhall, therefore, when our loffes are repaid, give what profit shall remain to the Magdalens ; for we know not who can be more properly taxed for the fupport of penitent prostitutes, than prostitutes in whom there yet appears neither penitence nor fhame,"

I would

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