your society,1 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 2 prevented it." I have already mentioned that " Irene," was not brought into public notice till Garrick was manager of Drury-lane Theatre. 66 66 In 17428 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.5 "An Account of the Life of Peter Burman, I believe chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much about Burman; "Additions to his Life of Barretier ;"* 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 13,0007., 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 1 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." 66 1 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 expen sive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when, having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved.-BOSWELL. 2 There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture.-BoswELL. 8 From one of his letters to a friend, written in June 1742, it should seem that he then proposed to write a play on the subject of Charles the Twelfth, of Sweden, and to have it ready for the ensuing winter. The passage alluded to, however, is somewhat ambiguous; and the work which he then had in contemplation may have been a history of that monarch.-MALONE. 4 The passage alluded to runs as follows:"A late female minister of state has been shameless enough to inform the world that she used, when she wanted to extract any thing from her sovereign, to remind her of Montaigne's reasoning-who has determined that to tell a secret to a friend is no breach of fidelity, because the number of persons is not multiplied; a man and his friend being virtually the same."-WRIGHT. 5 Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 167.-BOSWELL. 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. "SIR, "TO MR. CAVE, [No date.] "I believe I am going to write a long letter, and have therefore taken a whole sheet of paper. The first thing to be written about is our historical design. "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 exactness, the proper medium between a journal, which has regard only to time, and a history which ranges facts according to their dependance 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, &c., 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 1 Mr. Astle was keeper of the Records of the Tower, and otherwise well known in the literary world.-ED. 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 131. 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, &c., and know whether his defence be at Bristol, and would have his collection of poems, on account of the Preface;—“The Plain Dealer,” 1— all the magazines that have any thing of his or relating to him. "I thought my letter would be long, but now it is ended; and, "I am, Sir, yours, &c., "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 any thing 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, to-night; but if you do not, I shall not think it an injury. "You did not tell me your determination about the Soldier's Letter, which I am confident 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."† 66 His writings in the “ Gentleman's Magazine," in 1748, are, the Preface," the "Parliamentary Debates," "Considerations on the 1 "The Plain Dealer" was published in 1724, and contained some account of Savage.-BosWELL. 2 Perhaps the Runic Inscription; "Gent. Mag." vol. xii. p. 132.-MALONE. 8 I have not discovered what this was.-BOSWELL. Dispute between Crousaz and Warburton, on Pope's Essay on Man ;"t in which, while he defends Crousaz, he shows an admirable metaphysical acuteness and temperance in controversy; "Ad Lauram parituram Epigramma ;1* 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 suppose him to be the author of an advertisement 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 Mr. Hector was present when this Epigram was made impromptu. The first line was proposed by Dr. James, and Johnson was called upon by the company to finish it, which he instantly did.-BOSWELL. The following elegant Latin Ode, which appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1743 (vol. xiii. p. 548), was many years ago pointed out to James Bindley, Esq., as written by Johnson, and may safely be attributed to him: AD ORNATISSIMAM PUELLAM. Vanæ sit arti, sit studio modus, Formosa virgo! sit speculo quies, Mitte, supervacuosque cultus. Ut fortuitis verna coloribus Lenique fons cum murmure pulcrior Ducit aquas temere sequentes: Utque inter undas, inter et arbores, Ingeminant sine lege cantus: Nativa sic te gratia, te nitor Ergo fluentem tu, male sedula, Quales nec olim Ptolemæia period, as Mr. Hector informs ine, and inserted in "The Gentleman's Magazine" of this year. FRIENDSHIP, an Ode.* On fools and villains ne'er descend: And hugs a flatterer for a friend. Directress of the brave and just, O guide us through life's darksome way! On selfish bosoms only prey. Nor shall thine ardour cease to glow, When souls to blissful climes remove : 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 profession." James published this year his " 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 Nec diva mater, cum similem tuæ Mentita formam, et pulcrior adspici, 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 :- "Ad Authorem Carminis AD ORNATISSIMAM PUELLAM. "O cui non potuit, quia culta, placere puella, |