'Et genus et virtus, nisi cum re, vilior algâ est.'

And in lib. i. Epist. vi. 37.

'Et genus et formam Regina Pecunia donat.'

And in the celebrated contest between Ajax and Ulysses, Ovid's Metamorph. lib. xiii. 140:

'Nam genus et proavos, et quæ non fecimus ipsi,

Vix ea nostra voco.'

"Homines nullius originis, for nullis orti majoribus, or nullo loco nati, is, 'you are afraid, barbarous.'

"Origo is used to signify extraction, as in Virg. Æneid i. 286:

'Nascetur pulchrâ Trojanus origine Cæsar :'

and in Æneid x. 618:

'Ille tamen nostrâ deducit origine nomen.'

and as nullus is used for obscure, is it not in the genius of the Latin language to write nullius originis, for obscure extraction?

"I have defended myself as well as I could.

"Might I venture to differ from you with regard to the utility of vows? I am sensible that it would be very dangerous to make vows rashly, and without a due consideration. But I cannot help thinking that they may often be of great advantage to one of a variable judgment and irregular inclinations. I always remember a passage in one of your letters to our Italian friend Baretti; where, talking of the monastic life, you say you do not wonder that serious men should put themselves under the protection of a religious order, when they have found how unable they are to take care of themselves. For my own part, without affecting to be a Socrates, I am sure I have a more than ordinary struggle to maintain with the Evil Principle; and all the methods I can devise are little enough to keep me tolerably steady in the paths of rectitude.

"I am ever, with the highest veneration, your affectionate humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL."

It appears from Johnson's diary, that he was this year at Mr. Thrale's,' from before Midsummer till after Michaelmas,

1 "In the year 1766, Mr. Johnson's health grew so bad, that he could not stir out of his room, in the court he inhabited, for many weeks together -I think months. Mr. Thrale's attentions and my own now became so

and that he afterwards passed a month at Oxford. He had then contracted a great intimacy with Mr. Chambers of that University, afterwards Sir Robert Chambers, one of the Judges in India.

He published nothing this year in his own name; but the noble Dedication to the King, of Gwyn's "London and Westminster Improved," was written by him; and he furnished the Preface, † and several of the pieces, which compose a volume of Miscellanies by Mrs. Anna Williams, the blind lady who had an asylum in his house. Of these, there are his acceptable to him, that he often lamented to us the horrible condition of his mind, which he said was nearly distracted; and though he charged us to make him odd solemn promises of secrecy on so strange a subject, yet when we waited on him one morning, and heard him, in the most pathetic terms, beg the prayers of Dr. Delap [Rector of Lewes], who had left him as we came in, I felt excessively affected with grief, and well remember that my husband involuntarily lifted up one hand to shut his mouth, from provocation at hearing a man so wildly proclaim what he could at last persuade no one to believe, and what, if true, would have been so very unfit to reveal. Mr. Thrale went away soon after, leaving me with him, and bidding me prevail on him to quit his close habitation in the court and come with us to Streatham, where I undertook the care of his health, and had the honour and happiness of contributing to its restoration." Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 126-7.—Croker.

In this work Mr. Gwyn proposed the principle, and in many instances the details, of the most important improvements which have been made in the metropolis in our day. A bridge near Somerset House-a great street from the Haymarket to the New Road-the improvement of the interior of St. James's Park-quays along the Thames-new approaches to London Bridge the removal of Smithfield market, and several other suggestions on which we pride ourselves as original designs of our own times, are all to be found in Mr. Gwyn's able and curious work. It is singular, that he denounced a row of houses then building in Pimlico, as intolerable nuisances to Buckingham Palace, and of these very houses the public voice now calls for the destruction. Gwyn had, what Lord Chatham called, "the prophetic eye of taste."-Croker.

? The following account of this publication was given by Lady Knight (see antè, note 2, pp. 183-184). "As to her poems, she many years attempted to publish them, the half-crowns she had got towards the publication, she confessed to me, went for necessaries, and that the greatest pain she ever felt was from the appearance of defrauding her subscribers: 'but what can I do? the Doctor [Johnson] always puts me off with "Well, we'll think about it ;" and Goldsmith says, "Leave it to me.""

"Epitaph on Philips," * "Translation of a Latin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer;" † "Friendship, an Ode;" * and, "The Ant," a paraphrase from the Proverbs, of which I have a copy in his own handwriting; and, from internal evidence, I ascribe to him, "To Miss, on her giving the Author a gold and silk network Purse of her own weaving;" +1 and "The happy Life." +-Most of the pieces in this volume have evidently received additions from his superior pen, particularly "Verses to Mr. Richardson, on his 'Sir Charles Grandison;"" "The Excursion;" "Reflections on a Grave digging in Westminster Abbey." There is in this collection a poem, "On the death of Stephen Grey, the Electrician ;"* which, on reading it, appeared to me to be undoubtedly Johnson's. I asked Mrs. Williams whether it was not his. " Sir," said she, with some warmth, "I wrote that poem before I had the honour of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance." I, however, was so much impressed with my first notion, that I mentioned it to Johnson, repeating, at the same time, what Mrs. Williams had said. His answer was, "It is true, Sir, that she wrote it before she was acquainted with me; but she has not told you that I wrote it all over again, except two lines." 2 "The Fountains," + a

However, two of her friends, under her directions, made a new subscription at a crown, the whole price of the work, and in a very little time raised sixty pounds. Mrs. Carter was applied to by Mrs. Williams's desire, and she, with the utmost activity and kindness, procured a long list of names. At length the work was published, in which is a fine written but gloomy [fairy] tale of Dr. Johnson. The money (£150) Mrs. Williams had various uses for, and a part of it was funded.”—Malone.

1 See antè, note, p. 136, where it is shown that the "Verses on the Purse" are by Hawkesworth. It is strange that Boswell should there state his belief that both the Latin epitaph on Hanmer and its translation were Johnson's, when it appears on the face of Mrs. Williams's volume, that it (I presume the Latin) was "written by Dr. Friend," who was celebrated for this species of composition.-Croker.

2 These lines record a memorable fact which I have not seen elsewhere noticed. Miss Williams, it seems, in her earlier life, had been an assistant to Gray in his electrical experiments, and mention is made of

beautiful little Fairy tale in prose, written with exquisite simplicity, is one of Johnson's productions; and I cannot withhold from Mrs. Thrale the praise of being the author of that admirable poem, "The Three Warnings."

He wrote this year a letter, not intended for publication, which has, perhaps, as strong marks of his sentiment and style, as any of his compositions. The original is in my possession. It is addressed to the late Mr. William Drummond, bookseller, in Edinburgh, a gentleman of good family, but small estate, who took arms for the house of Stuart in 1745; and during his concealment in London till the act of general pardon came out, obtained the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, who justly esteemed him as a very worthy man. It seems some of the members of the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge had opposed the scheme of translating the Holy Scriptures into the Erse or Gaelic language, from political considerations of the disadvantage of keeping up the distinction between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of North Britain. Dr. Johnson being informed of this, I suppose by Mr. Drummond, wrote with a generous indignation as follows:

"SIR,

TO MR. WILLIAM DRUMMOND.

"Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, Aug. 13, 1766.

"I did not expect to hear that it could be, in an assembly convened for the propagation of Christian knowledge, a question whether any nation uninstructed in religion should receive instruction; or whether that instruction should be imparted to them by a translation of the holy books into their own language. If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness, and knowledge of his will be necessary to obedience, I know not how he that withholds this knowledge, or delays it, can be said to love his neighbour as himself. He that voluntarily continues ignorance is guilty of all the crimes which To which is appended a note, saying, "The publisher of this Miscellany, as she was assisting Mr. Gray in his experiments, was the first that observed and notified the emission of the electric spark from the human body." Misc., p. 42.-Croker.

F F

ignorance produces; as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a light-house, might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks. Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity; and as no man is good but as he wishes the good of others, no man can be good in the highest degree, who wishes not to others the largest measures of the greatest good. To omit for a year, or for a day, the most efficacious method of advancing Christianity, in compliance with any purposes that terminate on this side of the grave, is a crime of which I know not that the world has yet had an example, except in the practice of the planters of America,—a race of mortals whom, I suppose, no other man wishes to resemble.

"The Papists have, indeed, denied to the laity the use of the Bible; but this prohibition, in few places now very rigorously enforced, is defended by arguments, which have for their foundation the care of souls. To obscure, upon motives merely political, the light of revelation, is a practice reserved for the reformed; and, surely, the blackest midnight of popery is meridian sunshine to such a reformation. I am not very willing that any language should be totally extinguished. The similitude and derivation of languages afford the most indubitable proof of the traduction of nations, and the genealogy of mankind. They add often physical certainty to historical evidence; and often supply the only evidence of ancient migrations, and of the revolutions of ages which left no written monuments behind them.

"Every man's opinions, at least his desires, are a little influenced by his favourite studies. My zeal for languages may seem, perhaps, rather over-heated, even to those by whom I desire to be well esteemed. To those who have nothing in their thoughts but trade or policy, present power, or present money, I should not think it necessary to defend my opinions; but with men of letters I would not unwillingly compound, by wishing the continuance of every language, however narrow in its extent, or however incommodious for common purposes, till it is reposited in some version of a known book, that it may be always hereafter examined and compared with other languages, and then permitting its disuse. For this purpose, the translation of the Bible is most to be desired. It is not certain that the same method will not preserve the Highland language, for the purposes of learning, and abolish it from daily use. When the Highlanders read the Bible, they will naturally wish to have its obscurities cleared, and to know the history, collateral or appendant. Knowledge always desires increase it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some ex