to Mr Johnson, for having undertaken and executed so great and desirable a work. Perfection is not to be expected from man; but if we are to judge by the various works of Johnson already published, we have good reason to believe, that he will bring this as near to perfection as any man could do. The plan of it, which he published some years ago, seems to me to be a proof of it. Nothing can be more rationally imagined, or more accurately and elegantly expressed. I therefore recommend the previous perusal of it to all those who intend to buy the Dictionary, and who, I suppose, are all those who can afford it. "It must be owned, that our language is, at present, in a state of anarchy, and hitherto, perhaps, it may not have been the worse for it. During our free and open trade, many words and expressions have been imported, adopted, and naturalised from other languages, which have greatly enriched our own. Let it still preserve what real strength and beauty it may have borrowed from others; but let it not, like the Tarpeian maid, be overwhelmed and crushed by unnecessary ornaments. The time for discrimination seems to be now come. Toleration, adoption, and naturalisation have run their length. Good order and authority are now necessary. But where shall we find them, and at the same time, the obedience due to them? We must have recourse to the old Roman expedient in times of confusion, and choose a dictator. Upon this principle, I give my vote for Mr Johnson, to fill that great and arduous post, and I hereby declare, that I make a total surrender of all my rights and privileges in the English language, as a free-born British subject, to the said Mr Johnson, during the term of his dictatorship. Nay, more-I will not only obey him like an old Roman, as my dictator, but, like a modern Roman, I will implicitly believe in him as my Pope, and hold him to be infallible while in the chair, but no longer. More than this, he cannot well require; for, I presume, that obedience can never be expected, when there is neither terror to enforce, nor interest to invite it. . . . . "But a Grammar, a Dictionary, and a History of our Language, through its several stages, were still wanting at home, and importunately called for from abroad. Mr Johnson's labours will now, I dare say, very fully supply that want, and greatly contribute to the farther spreading of our language in other countries. Learners were discouraged by finding no standard to resort to; and, consequently, thought it incapable of any. They will now be undeceived and encouraged." This courtly device failed of its effect. Johnson, who thought that "all was false and hollow," despised the honeyed words, and was even indignant that Lord Chesterfield should, for a moment, imagine that he could be the dupe of such an artifice. His expression to me concerning Lord Chesterfield, upon this occasion, was: Sir, after making great professions, he had, for many years, taken no notice of me; but when my Dictionary was coming out, he fell a scribbling in 'The World' about it. Upon which I wrote him a letter expressed in civil terms, but such as might show him that I did not mind what he said or wrote, and that I had done with him." This is that celebrated letter of which so much has been said, and about which curiosity has been so long excited, without being gratified. I for many years solicited Johnson to favour me with a copy of it, that so excellent a composition might not be lost to posterity. He delayed from time to time to give it me;* till at last, in 1781, when we were on a visit at Mr Dilly's, at Southill, in Bedfordshire, he was pleased to dictate it to me from memory. He afterwards found among his papers a copy of it, which he had dictated to Mr Baretti, with its title and corrections, in his own handwriting. This he gave to Mr Langton; adding, that if it were to come into print, he wished it to be from that copy. By Mr Langton's kindness, I am enabled to enrich my work with a perfect transcript of what the world has so eagerly desired to see. "TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. "MY LORD, "February 7, 1775. "I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of 'The World,' that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. "When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address, and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre;-that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little. "Seven years, my lord, have now passed since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and * Dr Johnson appeared to have had a remarkable delicacy with respect to the circulation of this letter; for Dr Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury, informs me that, having many years ago pressed him to be allowed to read it to the second Lord Hardwicke, who was very desirous to hear it (promising at the same time, that no copy of it should be taken), Johnson seemed much pleased that it had attracted the attention of a nobleman of such a respectable character; but after pausing some time, declined to comply with the request, saying, with a smile, “No, Sir; I have hurt the dog too much already," or words to that purpose. have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before. "The shepherd in 'Virgil' grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks. "Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a 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 public 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 shall 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." + "While this was the talk of the town," says Dr Adams, in a letter to me, "I happened to visit Dr Warburton, who, finding that I was acquainted with Johnson, desired me earnestly to carry his compliments to him, and to tell him that he honoured him for his manly behaviour in rejecting these condescensions of Lord Chesterfield, and of resenting the treatment he had received from him with a proper spirit. Johnson was visibly pleased with this compliment, for he had always a high opinion of Warburton." § The following note is subjoined by Mr Langton:-" Dr Johnson, when he gave me this copy of his letter, desired that I would annex to it his information to me, whereas it is said in the letter that no assistance has been received,' he did once receive from Lord Chesterfield the sum of ten pounds; but as that was so inconsiderable a sum, he thought the mention of it could not properly find a place in a letter of the kind that this was." In this passage Dr Johnson evidently alludes to the loss of his wife. We find the same tender recollection recurring to his mind upon innumerable occasions: and, perhaps, no man ever more forcibly felt the truth of the sentiment so elegantly expressed by my friend, Mr Malone, in his Prologue to Mr Jephson's tragedy of "Julia:" "Vain-wealth, and fame, and fortune's fostering care, Upon comparing this copy with that which Dr Johnson dictated to me from recollection, the variations are found to be so slight, that this must be added to the many other proofs which he gave of the wonderful extent and accuracy of his memory. To gratify the curious in composition, I have deposited both the copies in the British Museum. Soon after Edwards's "Canons of Criticism" came out, Johnson was dining at Tonson the bookseller's, with Hayman the painter, and some more company. Hayman related to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that the conversation having turned upon Edwards's book, the gentleman praised it much, and Johnson allowed its merit. But when they went farther, and appeared Indeed, the force of mind which appeared in this letter was congenial with that which Warburton himself amply possessed. There is a curious minute circumstance which struck me, in comparing the various editions of "Johnson's imitations of Juvenal." In the tenth Satire one of the couplets upon the vanity of wishes even for literary distinction, stood thus: "Yet think what ills the scholar's life assail. Toil, envy, want, the garret, and the jail." But after experiencing the uneasiness which Lord Chesterfield's fallacious patronage made him feel, he dismissed the word garret from the sad group, and in all the subsequent editions the line stands "Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail." That Lord Chesterfield must have been mortified by the lofty contempt, and polite, yet keen, satire with which Johnson exhibited him to himself in this letter, it is impossible to doubt. He, however, with that glossy duplicity which was his constant study, affected to be quite unconcerned. Dr Adams mentioned to Mr Robert Dodsley that he was sorry Johnson had written his letter to Lord Chesterfield. Dodsley, with the true feelings of trade, said, "he was very sorry too; for that he had a property in the Dictionary, to which his Lordship's patronage might have been of consequence." He then told Dr Adams that Lord Chesterfield had shown him the letter. "I should have imagined," replied Dr Adams, "that Lord Chesterfield would have concealed it." "Poh!" said Dodsley, "do you think a letter from Johnson could hurt Lord Chesterfield? Not at all, sir. It lay upon his table, where anybody might see it. He read it to me; said, 'This man has great powers,' pointed out the severest passages, and observed how well they were expressed." This air of indifference, which imposed upon the worthy Dodsley, was certainly nothing but a specimen of that dissimulation which Lord Chesterfield inculcated as one of the most essential lessons for the conduct of life. His lordship endeavoured to justify himself to Dodsley from the charges brought against him by Johnson; but we may judge of the flimsiness of his defence, from his having excused his neglect of Johnson by saying that, "he had heard he had changed his lodgings, and did not know where he lived;" as if there could have been the smallest difficulty to inform himself of that circumstance, by inquiring in the literary circle with which his lordship was well acquainted, and was indeed, himself, one of its ornaments. Dr Adams expostulated with Johnson, and suggested that his not being admitted when he called on him, was probably not to be imputed to Lord to put that author upon a level with Warburton, "Nay," said Johnson, "he has given him some smart hits to be sure; but there is no proportion between the two men; they must not be named together. A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse, and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still." Chesterfield; for his lordship had declared to Dodsley, that "he would have turned off the best servant he ever had, if he had known that he denied him to a man who would have been always more than welcome :" and in confirmation of this, he insisted on Lord Chesterfield's general affability and easiness of access, especially to literary men. "Sir," said Johnson, "that is not Lord Chesterfield; he is the proudest man this day existing." "No," said Dr Adams, "there is one person, at least, as proud; I think, by your own account, you are the prouder man of the two." "But mine," replied Johnson instantly, "was defensive pride." This, as Dr Adams well observed, was one of those happy turns for which he was so remarkably ready. Johnson having now explicitly avowed his opinion of Lord Chesterfield, did not refrain from expressing himself concerning that nobleman with pointed freedom: "This man," said he, "I thought had been a lord among wits, but I find, he is only a wit among lords!" And when his Letters to his natural son were published, he observed that "they teach the morals of a whore, and the manner of a dancing master."* The character of a "respectable Hottentot," in Lord Chesterfield's Letters, has been generally understood to be meant for Johnson, and I have no doubt that it was.39 But I remember when the Literary Property of those letters was contested in the Court of Session in Scotland, and Mr Henry Dundas, † one of the counsel for the proprietors, read this character as an exhibition of Johnson, Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, one of the judges, maintained with some warmth, that it was not intended as a portrait of Johnson, but of a late noble lord, distinguished for a abstruse science. I have heard Johnson himself talk of the character, and say that it was meant for George Lord Lyttleton, in which I could by no means agree; for his lordship had nothing of that violence which is a conspicuous feature in the composition. Finding that my illustrious friend could bear to have it supposed that it might be meant for him, I said, laughingly, that there was one trait which unquestionably did not belong to him, "he throws his meat any * That collection of letters cannot be vindicated from the serious charge, encouraging in some passages one of the vices most destructive to the good order and comfort of society, which his lordship represents as mere fashionable gallantry; and, in others, of inculcating the base practice of dissimulation, and recommending, with disproportionate anxiety, a perpetual attention to external elegance of manners. But it must at the same time be allowed that they contain many good precepts of conduct, and much genuine information upon life and manners, very happily expressed, and that there was considerable merit in paying so much attention to the improvement of one who was dependent upon his lordship's protection; it has, probably, been exceeded in no instance by the most exemplary parent; and though I can by no means approve of confounding the distinc tion between lawful and illicit offspring, which is, in effect, insulting the civil establishment of our country, to look no higher; I cannot help thinking it laudable to be kindly atten tive to those, of whose existence we have, in any way, been the cause. Mr Stanhope's character has been unjustly represented as diametrically opposite to what Lord Chesterfield wished him to be. He has been called dull, gross, and awkward: but I knew him at Dresden, when he was Envoy to that court, and though he could not boast of the graces, he was, in truth, a sensible, civil, well-behaved man. Now one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State. where but down his throat." "Sir," said he, "Lord Chesterfield never saw me eat in his life." On the 6th of March came out Lord Bolingbroke's works, published by Mr David Mallet. The wild and pernicious ravings, under the name of "Philosophy," which were thus ushered into the world, gave great offence to all well-principled men. Johnson, hearing of their tendency, which nobody disputed, was roused with a just indignation, and pronounced this memorable sentence upon the noble author and his editor: "Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution to fire it off himself, but left half-a-crown to a beggarly Scotchman, to draw the trigger after his death!" Garrick, who, I can attest from my own knowledge, had his mind seasoned with pious reverence, and sincerely disapproved of the infidel writings of several, whom in the course of his almost universal gay intercourse with men of eminence he treated with external civility, distinguished himself upon this occasion. Mr Pelham having died on the very day on which Lord Bolingbroke's works came out, he wrote an elegant ode on his death, beginning "Let others hail the rising sun, I bow to that whose course is run !" in which is the following stanza :— "The same sad morn, to Church and State Johnson this year found an interval of leisure to make an excursion to Oxford, for the purpose of consulting the libraries there. Of this, and of many interesting circumstances concerning him, during a part of his life when he conversed but little with the world, I am enabled to give a particular account, by the liberal communications of the Rev. Mr Thomas Warton, who obligingly furnished me with several of our common friend's letters, which he illustrated with notes. These I shall insert in their proper places. "SIR, "[London] July 16, 1754. "It is but an ill return for the book with which you were pleased to favour me,* to have delayed my thanks for it till now. I am too apt to be negligent; but I can never deliberately show my disrespect to a man of your character: and I now pay you a very honest acknowledgment, for the advancement of the literature of our native country. You have shown to all, who shall hereafter attempt the study of our ancient authors, the way to success; by directing them to the perusal of the books which those authors * Observations on Spenser's "Fairy Queen," the first edition of which was now published. had read. Of this method, Hughes,* and men much greater than Hughes, seem never to have thought. The reason why the authors, which are yet read, of the sixteenth century, are so little understood, is, that they are read alone; and no help is borrowed from those who lived with them, or before them. Some part of this ignorance I hope to remove by my book [his Dictionary], which now draws towards its end; but which I cannot finish to my mind, without visiting the libraries of Oxford, which I therefore hope to see in a fortnight.t I know not how long I shall stay, or where I shall lodge; but shall be sure to look for you at my arrival, and we shall easily settle the rest. "I am, dear Sir, your most obedient, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." Of his conversation while at Oxford at this time, Mr Warton preserved and communicated to me the following memorial, which, though not written with all the care and attention which that learned and elegant writer bestowed on those compositions which he intended for the public eye, is so happily expressed in an easy style, that I should injure it by any alteration :- "When Johnson came to Oxford in 1754, the long vacation was beginning, and most people were leaving the place. This was the first time of his being there, after quitting the University. The next morning after his arrival, he wished to see his old college, Pembroke. I went with him. He was highly pleased to find all the collegeservants which he had left there still remaining, particularly a very old butler; and expressed great satisfaction at being recognised by them, and conversed with them familiarly. He waited on the master, Dr Radcliffe, who received him very coldly. Johnson at least expected that the master would order a copy of his Dictionary, now near publication; but the master did not choose to talk on the subject, never asked Johnson to dine, nor even to visit him, while he stayed at Oxford. After we had left the lodgings, Johnson said to me,' There lives a man, who lives by the revenues of literature, and will not move a finger to support it. If I come to live at Oxford, I shall take up my abode at Trinity.' We then called on the Reverend Mr Meeke, one of the fellows, and of Johnson's standing. Here was a most cordial greeting on both sides. On leaving him, Johnson said, 'I used to think Meeke had excellent parts, when we were boys together at the college; but, alas ! "Lost in a convent's solitary gloom!" I remember, at the classical lecture in the Hall, I could not bear Meek's superiority, and I tried to sit as far from him as I could, that I might not hear him construe.' "As we were leaving the college, he said, • "Hughes published an edition of Spenser." "He came to Oxford within a fortnight, and stayed about five weeks. He lodged at a house called Kettel Hall, near Trinity College." 'Here I translated Pope's Messiah. Which do you think is the best line in it ?-My own favourite 1S "Vallis aromaticas fundit Saronica nubes,”1 I told him, I thought it a very sonorous hexameter. I did not tell him it was not in the Virgilian style. He much regretted that his first tutor was dead; for whom he seemed to retain the greatest regard. He said: 'I once had been a whole morning sliding in Christ Church meadows, and missed his lecture in logic. After dinner he sent for me to his room. I expected a sharp rebuke for my idleness, and went with a beating heart. When we were seated, he told me he had sent for me to drink a glass of wine with him, and to tell me he was not angry with me for missing his lecture. This was, in fact, a most severe reprimand. Some more of the boys were then sent for, and we spent a very pleasant afternoon.' Besides Mr Meeke, there was only one other fellow of Pembroke now resident from both of whom Johnson received the greatest civilities during this visit, and they pressed him very much to have a room in the college. "In the course of this visit (1754), Johnson and I walked three or four times to Ellesfield, a village beautifully situated about three miles from Oxford, to see Mr Wise, Radclivian librarian, with whom Johnson was much pleased. At this place, Mr Wise had fitted up a house and gardens, in a singular manner, but with great taste. Here was an excellent library, particularly a valuable collection of books in Northern literature, with which Johnson was often very busy. One day Mr Wise read to us a dissertation which he was preparing for the press, entitled, A History and Chronology of the Fabulous Ages.' Some old divinities of Thrace, related to the Titans, and called the Cabiri, made a very important part of the theory of this piece; and in conversation afterwards, Mr Wise talked much of his Cabiri. As we returned to Oxford in the evening, I outwalked Johnson, and he cried out Sufflamina, a Latin word, which came from his mouth with peculiar grace, and was as much as to say, Put on your drag chain. Before we got home, I again walked too fast for him; and now he cried out, 'Why, you walk as if you were pursued by all the Cabiri in a body.' In an evening we frequently took long walks from Oxford into the country, returning to supper. Once, on our way home, we viewed the ruins of the abbeys of Oseney and Rewley, near Oxford. After at least half an hour's silence, Johnson said, 'I viewed them with indignation! We had then a long conversation on Gothic buildings; and in talking of the form of old halls, he said, 'In these halls the fire-place was anciently always in the middle of the room, till the Whigs removed it on one side.' About this time there had been an execution of two or three criminals at Oxford, on a Monday. Soon afterwards, one day at dinner, I was saying that Mr Swinton, the chaplain of the gaol, and also a frequent preacher before the University, a learned man, but often thoughtless and absent, preaches the condemnation sermon on repentance, before the convicts, on the preceding day, Sunday; and that in the close he told his audience that he should give them the remainder of what he had to say on the subject the next Lord's day. Upon which, one of our company, a Doctor of Divinity, and a plain matter-of-fact man, by way of offering an apology for Mr Swinton, gravely remarked, that he had probably preached the same sermon before the University: Yes, Sir,' says Johnson, 'but the University were not to be hanged the next morning.' "I forgot to observe before, that when he left Mr Meeke (as I have told above), he added, 'About the same time of life, Meeke was left behind at Oxford to feed on a Fellowship, and I went to London to get my living now, Sir, see the difference of our literary characters!"" The following letter was written by Dr Johnson to Mr Chambers, of Lincoln College, afterwards Sir Robert Chambers, one of the judges in India: * "The commission which I delayed to trouble you with at your departure, I am now obliged to send you; and beg that you will be so kind as to carry it to Mr Warton, of Trinity, to whom I should have written immediately, but that I know not if he be yet come back to Oxford. "In the Catalogue of MSS. of Gr. Brit. see vol. i. page 18, MSS. Bodl. MARTYRIUM XV. martyrum sub Juliano, auctore Theophylacto. "It is desired that Mr Warton will inquire, and send word, what will be the cost of transcribing this manuscript. "Vol. ii. p. 32. Num. 1022. 58. COLL. Nov.Commentaria in Acta Apostol.-Comment. in Septem Epistolas Catholicas. "He is desired to tell what is the age of each of these manuscripts: and what it will cost to have a transcript of the two first pages of each. "If Mr Warton be not in Oxford, you may try if you can get it done by anybody else; or stay till he comes, according to your own convenience. It is for an Italian literato. "The answer is to be directed to his Excellency Mr Zon, Venetian Resident, Soho Square. "I hope, dear Sir, that you do not regret the change of London for Oxford. Mr Baretti is well, and Miss Williams; † and we shall be glad * Communicated by the Reverend Mr Thomas Warton, who had the original. "I presume she was a relation of Mr Zachariah Williams, who died in his eighty-third year, July 12, 1755. When Dr Johnson was with me at Oxford, in 1755, he gave to the Bodleian Library a thin quarto of twenty-one pages, a work in Italian, with an English translation on the opposite page. The English title-page is this: 'An account of an Attempt to ascertain the Longitude at Sea, by an exact Variation of the Magnetical Needle, &c. By Zachariah Williams, London, printed for Dodsley, 1755. The English translation from the strongest internal marks, is unquestionably the work of Johnson. In a blank leaf Johnson has written the age, and time of death, of "I am extremely obliged to you and to Mr Wise for the uncommon care which you have taken of my interest.* If you can accomplish your kind design, I shall certainly take me a little habitation among you. "The books which I promised to Mr Wise,+ I have not been able to procure; but I shall send him a Finnick Dictionary, the only copy, perhaps, in England, which was presented me by a learned Swede; but I keep it back, that it may make a set of my own books of the new edition, with which I shall accompany it, more welcome. You will assure him of my gratitude. "Poor dear Collins! Would a letter give him any pleasure? I have a mind to write. "I am glad of your hindrance in your Spenserian design,§ yet I would not have it delayed. Three hours a day stolen from sleep and amusement will produce it. Let a Servitor|| transcribe the quotations, and interleave them with references, to save time. This will shorten the work, and lessen the fatigue. "Can I do anything to promoting the diploma ! I would not be wanting to COoperate with your kindness; of which, whatever be the effect, I shall be, dear Sir, "Your most obliged, &c., the author Z. Williams, as I have said above. On another blank leaf is pasted a paragraph from a newspaper, of the death and character of Williams, which is plainly written by Johnson. He was very anxious about placing this book in the Bodleian; and, for fear of any omission or mistake, he entered, in the great Catalogue, the title-page of it with his own hand." "In procuring him the degree of Master of Arts by diploma at Oxford." "Lately Fellow of Trinity College, and at this time Radclivian Librarian at Oxford. He was a man of very considerable learning, and eminently skilled in Roman and AngloSaxon antiquities. He died in 1767." "Collins (the poet) was at this time at Oxford, on a visit to Mr Warton; but labouring under the most deplorable languor of body and dejection of mind." $ "Of publishing a volume of observations on the best of Spenser's works. It was hindered by my taking pupils in this college." Young students of the lowest rank at Oxford are so called." |