me with this anecdote, he repeated a very pointed Epigram by Johnson, on George the Second and Colley Cibber, which has never yet appeared, and of which I know not the exact date. Dr. Johnson afterwards gave it to me himself :

'Augustus still survives in Maro's strain,
And Spenser's verse prolongs Eliza's reign;
Great George's acts let tuneful Cibber sing,

For nature form'd the poet for the king.'

In 1741 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine the 'Preface' [+], 'Conclusion of his Lives of Drake and Barretier ' [*], 'A free Translation of the Jests of Hierocles, with an Introduction; and, I think, the following pieces: - 'Debate on the Proposal of Parliament to Cromwell, to assume the Title of King, abridged, modified, and digested' [+]; 'Translation of Abbé Guyon's Dissertation on the Amazons' [+]; 'Translation of Fontenelle's Panegyric on Dr. Morin' [+]. Two notes upon this appear to me undoubtedly his. He this year, and the two following, wrote the 'Parliamentary Debates.' He told me himself that he was the sole composer of them for those three years only. He was not, however, precisely exact in his statement, which he mentioned from hasty recollection; for it is sufficiently evident that his composition of them began November 19, 1740, and ended February 23, 1742-43.

It appears from some of Cave's letters to Dr. Birch, that Cave had better assistance for that branch of his Magazine than has been generally supposed, and that he was indefatigable in getting it made as perfect as he could.

Thus, 21st July 1735:

'I trouble you with the enclosed, because you said you could easily correct what is here given for Lord Chesterfield's speech. I beg you will do so as soon as you can for me, because the month is far advanced."

And 15th July 1737:

'As you remember the debates so far as to perceive the speeches already printed are not exact, I beg the favour that you will peruse the enclosed, and, in the best manner your memory will serve, correct the mistaken passages, or add

various readings is remarkable, as it is the germ of Johnson's concluding line:

'Exalted soul, thy various sounds could please
The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love;
Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,

And meet thy SAVIOUR'S consort in the skies.'

Dr. Wilkes, the author of these lines, was a Fellow of Trinity College in Oxford, and Rector of Pitchford In Shropshire. He collected materials for a history of that county, and is spoken of by Brown Willis, in his History of Mitred Abbies, vol. ii. p. 189. But he was a native of Staffordshire, and to the antiquities of that county was his attention chiefly confined. Mr. Shaw has had the use of his papers.-J. BLAKEWAY.

anything that is omitted. I should be very glad to have something of the Duke of New castle's speech, which would be particularly of service.

'A gentleman has Lord Bathurst's speech to add something to.'

And July 3, 1744:

'You will see what stupid, low, abominable stuff is put upon your noble and learned friend's character, such as I should quite reject, and endeavour to do something better towards doing justice to the character. But as I cannot expect to attain my desire in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work, to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post, and others by the speakers themselves, who have been pleased to visit St. John's Gate, and show particular marks of their being pleased.'3

There is no reason, I believe, to doubt the veracity of Cave. It is, however, remarkable that none of these letters are in the years during which Johnson alone furnished the debates, and one of them is in the very year after he ceased from that labour. Johnson told me, that as soon as he found that the speeches were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more of them: 'for he would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood.' And such was the tenderness of his conscience, that a short time before his death he expressed his regret for his having been the author of fictions which had passed for realities.

He nevertheless agreed with me in thinking, that the debates which he had framed were to be valued as orations upon questions of public importance. They have accordingly been collected in volumes, properly arranged, and recommended to the notice of parliamentary speakers by a preface written by no inferior hand. I must, however, observe, that although there is in those debates a wonderful store of political information and very powerful eloquence, I cannot agree that they exhibit the manner of each particular speaker, as Sir John Hawkins seems to think. But, indeed, what opinion can we have of his judgment, and taste in public speaking, who presumes to give as the characteristics of two celebrated orators, 'the

CHAPTER VI. 1741-1744.

THIS year I find that his tragedy of Irene had been for some time ready for the stage, and that his necessities made him desircus of getting as much as he could for it without delay; for there is the following letter from Mr. Cave to Dr. Birch in the same volume of manuscripts in the British Museum from which I copied those above quoted. They were most obligingly pointed out to me by Sir William Musgrave, one of the Curators of that noble repository :'Sept. 9, 1741.

'I have put Mr. Johnson's play into Mr. Gray's hands, in order to sell it to him, if he is inclined to buy it; but I doubt whether he will or not. He would dispose of the copy, and whatever advantage may be made by acting it. Would your society or any gentleman, or body of men that you know, take such a bargain? He and I are very unfit to deal with theatrical persons. Fleetwood was to have acted in it last season, but Johnson's diffidence or prevented it.'

I have already mentioned that Irene was not brought into public notice till Garrick was manager of Drury Lane Theatre.

In 17425 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine the 'Preface' [†], the 'Parliamentary Debates' [*], 'Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough' [*], then the popular topic of conversation. This essay is a short but masterly performance. We find him, in No. 13 of his Rambler, censuring a profligate sentiment in that 'Account,' and again insisting upon it strenuously in conversation. 'An Account of the Life of Peter Burman' [*], I believe chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much

Sir J. Hawkins's Life of Johnson.-BosWELL. 2 A London bookseller.-BOSWELL.

* Not the Royal Society, but the Society for the Encouragement of Learning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading member. Their object was to assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when, having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved.-BoSWELL.

There is no erasure here, but a mere blank, to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture.

-BOSWELL.

5 From one of his letters to a friend, written in June 1742, it should seem that he then purposed to write a play on the subject of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, and to have it ready for the ensuing winter. The pas

sage alluded to, however, is somewhat ambiguous, and the work which he then had in contemplation may have been a history of that monarch.-MALONE.

• Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d ed. p. 167.BOSWELL.

retier' [*]; 'The Life of Sydenham' [*], afterwards prefixed to Dr. Swan's edition of his works; 'Proposals for printing the Bibliotheca Harleiana, or a catalogue of the Library of the Earl of Oxford' [*]. His account of that celebrated collection of books, in which he displays the importance to literature of what the French call a catalogue raisonné, when the subjects of it are extensive and various, and it is executed with ability, cannot fail to impress all his readers with admiration of his philological attainments. It was afterwards prefixed to the first volume of the Catalogue, in which the Latin accounts of books were written by him. He was employed in this business by Mr. Thomas Osborne the bookseller, who purchased the library for £13,000, a sum which Mr. Oldys says in one of his manuscripts was not more than the binding of the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it. It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. 'Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop; it was in my own chamber.'

A very diligent observer may trace him where we should not easily suppose him to be found. I have no doubt that he wrote the little abridgment entitled 'Foreign History,' in the Magazine for December.

To prove it, I shall quote the introduction:'As this is that season of the year in which Nature may be said to command a suspension of hostilities, and which seems intended, by putting a short stop to violence and slaughter, to afford time for malice to relent, and animosity to subside, we can scarce expect any other account than of plans, negotiations, and treaties, of proposals for peace and preparations for war.'

As also this passage :

'Let those who despise the capacity of the Swiss, tell us by what wonderful policy, or by what happy conciliation of interests, it is brought to pass, that in a body made up of different communities and different religions, there should be no civil commotions, though the people are so warlike, that to nominate and raise an army is the same.'

I am obliged to Mr. Astle1 for his ready permission to copy the two following letters, of which the originals are in his possession. Their contents show that they were written about this time, and that Johnson was now engaged in preparing an historical account of the British

Parliament.

1 Mr. Thomas Astle, keeper of the Records in the Tower. He died 1803.

'TO MR. CAVE.

[No date.]

-all the magazines that have anything of his or relating to him.

'You mentioned the proposal of printing in numbers, as an alteration in the scheme; but I believe you mistook, some way or other, my meaning. I had no other view than that you might rather print too many of five sheets, than of five-and-thirty.

'With regard to what I shall say on the manner of proceeding, I would have it understood as wholly indifferent to me, and my opinion only, not my resolution. Emptoris sit eligere.

'I think the insertion of the exact dates of the most important events in the margin, or of so many events as may enable the reader to regulate the order of facts with sufficient ex

'SAM. JOHNSON.

'The boy found me writing this almost in the dark, when I could not quite easily read yours.

'I have read the Italian:-nothing in it is well.

'I had no notion of having anything for the inscription. I hope you don't think I kept it to extort a price. I could think of nothing till to-day. If you could spare me another guinea for the history, I should take it very kindly tonight; but if you do not, I shall not think it an injury.

'I am almost well again."

'TO MR. CAVE.

which ranges facts according to their dependence on each other, and postpones or anticipates according to the convenience of narration. I

think the work ought to partake of the spirit of history, which is contrary to minute exactness, and of the regularity of a journal, which is inconsistent with spirit. For this reason I neither admit numbers or dates, nor reject them.

'I am of your opinion with regard to placing most of the resolutions, etc., in the margin, and think we shall give the most complete account of parliamentary proceedings that can be contrived. The naked papers, without an historical treatise interwoven, require some other book to make them understood. I will date the succeeding facts with some exactness, but I think in the margin. You told me on Saturday that I had received money on this work, and found set down £13, 2s. 6d., reckoning the half guinea of last Saturday. As you hinted to me that you had many calls for money, I would not press you too hard, and therefore shall desire only, as I send it in, two guineas for a sheet of copy; the rest you may pay me when it may be more convenient; and even by this sheetpayment I shall, for some time, be very expensive.

'The Life of Savage I am ready to go upon; and in great primer and pica notes, I reckon on sending in half a sheet a day; but the money for that shall likewise lie by in your hands till it is done. With the debates, shall not I have business enough? if I had but good pens.

'Towards Mr. Savage's Life, what more have you got? I would willingly have his trial, etc., and know whether his defence be at Bristol, and would have his collection of poems, on account of the Preface; - The Plain Dealer,1

The Plain Dealer was published in 1724, and contained some account of Savage.-BOSWELL.

fident was never printed. I think it will not do by itself, or in any other place so well as the Mag. Extraordinary. If you will have it all, I believe you do not think I set it high; and I will be glad if what you give, you will give quickly.

'You need not be in care about something to print, for I have got the State Trials, and shall extract Layer, Atterbury, and Macclesfield from them, and shall bring them to you in a fortnight; after which I will try to get the South Sea Report.' [No date, nor signature.]

I would also ascribe to him an 'Essay on the Description of China, from the French of Du Halde' [+].

His writings in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1743 are: the 'Preface' [+]; the 'Parliamentary Debates' [†]; 'Considerations on the Dispute between Crousaz and Warburton on Pope's Essay on Man' [†]; in which, while he defends Crousaz, he shows an admirable metaphysical acuteness and temperance in controversy: 'Ad Lauram parituram Epigramma3[*]; and, 'A Latin Translation of Pope's verses on his Grotto;' and as he could employ his pen with equal success upon a small matter as a great, I

1 Perhaps the Runic inscription; Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xii. p. 132. MALONE.

ment for Osborne concerning the great Harleian Catalogue.

But I should think myself much wanting, both to my illustrious friend and my readers, did I not introduce here, with more than ordinary respect, an exquisitely beautiful Ode, which has not been inserted in any of the collections of Johnson's poetry, written by him at a very early period, as Mr. Hector informs me, and inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine of this year:

FRIENDSHIP, AN ODE.[*]
Friendship, peculiar boon of heaven,
The noble mind's delight and pride,
To men and angels only given,

To all the lower world denied.

While love unknown among the blest,
Parent of thousand wild desires,
The savage and the human breast
Torments alike with raging fires;

With bright, but oft destructive, gleam,
Alike o'er all his lightnings fly;
Thy lambent glories only beam
Around the fav'rites of the sky.

Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys
On fools and villains ne'er descend:
In vain for thee the tyrant sighs,
And hugs a flatterer for a friend.
Directress of the brave and just,

O guide us through life's darksome way !
And let the tortures of mistrust

On selfish bosoms only prey.
Nor shall thine ardour cease to glow,
When souls to blissful climes remove;
What rais'd our virtue here below,
Shall aid our happiness above.

Johnson had now an opportunity of obliging his schoolfellow Dr. James, of whom he once observed, 'No man brings more mind to his

AD ORNATISSIMAM PUELLAM.

Vanæ sit arti, sit studio modus,
Formosa virgo! sit speculo quies,
Curamque quærendi decoris

Mitte, supervacuosque cultus.
Ut fortuitis verna coloribus
Depicta vulgo rura magis placent,
Nec invident horto nitenti

Divitias operosiores:

Lenique fons cum murmure pulcrior Obliquat ultro præcipitem fugam Inter reluctantes lapillos, et

Ducit aquas temere sequentes: Utque inter undas, inter et arbores, Jam vere primo dulce strepunt aves, Et arte nulla gratiores

Ingeminant sine lege cantus:

Nativa sic te gratia, te nitor
Simplex decebit, te Veneres tuæ;
Nudus Cupido suspicatur
Artifices nimis apparatus.

Medicinal Dictionary, in three volumes folio. Johnson, as I understood from him, had written, or assisted in writing, the proposals for this work; and being very fond of the study of physic, in which James was his master, he furnished some of the articles. He, however, certainly wrote for it the Dedication to Dr. Mead [+], which is conceived with great address, to conciliate the patronage of that very eminent man.1

It has been circulated, I know not with what authenticity, that Johnson considered Dr. Birch as a dull writer, and said of him, 'Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties.' That the literature of this country is much indebted to Birch's activity and diligence must certainly be acknowledged. We have seen that Johnson honoured him with a Greek Epigram; and his correspondence with him during many years proves that he had no mean opinion of him.

'TO DR. BIRCH.

'Thursday, Sept. 29, 1743.

'SIR, -I hope you will excuse me for troubling you on an occasion on which I know not whom else I can apply to. I am at a loss for the Lives and Characters of Earl Stanhope, the two

Ergo fluentum tu, male sedula,
Ne sæva inuras semper acu comam
Nec sparsa odorato nitentes
Pulvere dedecores capillos;

Quales nec olim Ptolemæia
Jactabat uxor, sidereo in chore
Utcunque devotæ refulger,
Verticis exuviæ decori;

Nec diva mater, cum similem tuse
Mentita formam, et pulcrior adspici,
Permisit incomtas protervis

Fusa comas agitare ventis.

In vol. xiv. p. 46 of the same work, an elegant Epigram was inserted, in answer to the foregoing Ode, which was written by Dr. Inyon of Norfolk, a physician, and an excellent classical scholar :