Poetical
Epistle

Murphy's "Transcendant Genius! whose prolifick vein
Ne'er knew the frigid poet's toil and pain;
To whom APOLLO opens all his store,
And every Muse presents her sacred lore;
Say, pow'rful JOHNSON, whence thy verse is

fraught

With so much grace, such energy of thought;
Whether thy JUVENAL instructs the age
In chaster numbers, and new points his rage;
Or fair IRENE sees, alas! too late
Her innocence exchang'd for guilty state;
Whate'er you write, in every golden line
Sublimity and elegance combine;
Thy nervous phrase impresses every soul,
While harmony gives rapture to the whole."

Again, towards the conclusion:

"Thou then, my friend, who see'st the dang'rous

strife

In which some demon bids me plunge my life,
To the Aonian fount direct my feet,
Say, where the Nine thy lonely musings meet?
Where warbles to thy ear the sacred throng,
Thy moral sense, thy dignity of song?
Tell, for you can, by what unerring art
You wake to finer feelings every heart;
In each bright page some truth important give,
And bid to future times thy RAMBLER live."

I take this opportunity to relate the manner in which an acquaintance first commenced between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Murphy. During the publication of "The Gray's-Inn Journal," a periodical

i

paper which was successfully carried on by Mr. Johnson
Murphy alone, when a very young man, he hap- and
pened to be in the country with Mr. Foote; and Murphy
having mentioned that he was obliged to go to
London in order to get ready for the press one
of the numbers of that Journal, Foote said to him,
"You need not go on that account. Here is a
French magazine, in which you will find a very
pretty oriental tale; translate that, and send it to
your printer." Mr. Murphy having read the tale,
was highly pleased with it, and followed Foote's
advice. When he returned to Town, this tale was
pointed out to him in "The Rambler," from
whence it had been translated into the French
magazine. Mr. Murphy then waited upon John-
son, to explain this curious incident. His talents,
literature, and gentleman-like manners, were soon
perceived by Johnson, and a friendship was formed
which was never broken.1

1 [When Mr. Murphy first became acquainted with
Dr. Johnson, he was about thirty-one years old. He
died at Knightsbridge, June 18, 1805, it is believed in
his eighty-second year.

In an account of this gentleman, published recently after his death, he is reported to have said, that "he was but twenty-one, when he had the impudence to write a periodical paper, during the time that Johnson was publishing the Rambler." - In a subsequent page, in which Mr. Boswell gives an account of his first introduction to Johnson, will be found a striking instance of the incorrectness of Mr. Murphy's memory; and the assertion above-mentioned, if indeed he made it, which is by no means improbable, furnishes an additional proof of his inaccuracy; for both the facts asserted are unfounded. He appears to have been eight years older than twenty-one, when he began the Gray's-Inn Journal; and that paper, instead of running a race with Johnson's

Letter to
Bennet
Langton

"TO BENNET LANGTON, Esq. AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, Lincolnshire.

" DEAR SIR,

"You that travel about the world, have more materials for letters, than I who stay at home: and should, therefore, write with frequency equal to your opportunities. I should be glad to have all England surveyed by you, if you would impart your observations in narratives as agreeable as your last. Knowledge is always to be wished to those who can communicate it well. While you have been riding and running, and seeing the tombs of the learned, and the camps of the valiant, I have only staid at home, and intended to do great things,

which I have not done. Beau 1 went away to Letter to Cheshire, and has not yet found his way back. Bennet Chambers passed the vacation at Oxford. Langton

" I am very sincerely solicitous for the preservation or curing of Mr. Langton's sight, and am glad that the chirurgeon at Coventry gives him so much hope. Mr. Sharpe is of opinion that the tedious maturation of the cataract is a vulgar errour, and that it may be removed as soon as it is formed. This notion deserves to be considered; I doubt whether it be universally true; but if it be true in some cases, and those cases can be distinguished, it may save a long and uncomfortable delay.

"Of dear Mrs. Langton you give me no account; which is the less friendly, as you know how highly I think of her, and how much I interest myself in her health. I suppose you told her of my opinion, and likewise suppose it was not followed; however, I still believe it to be right.

as seems to be stated in the text; for, in his concluding Essay, Sept. 21, 1754, we find the following paragraph:

"Besides, why may not a person rather choose an air of bold negligence, than the obscure diligence of pedants and writers of affected phraseology. For my part, I have always thought an easy style more eligible than a pompous diction, lifted up by metaphor, amplified by epithet, and dignified by too frequent insertions of the Latin idiom." It is probable that the Rambler was here intended to be censured, and that the author, when he wrote it, was not acquainted with Johnson, whom, from his first introduction, he endeavoured to conciliate. Their acquaintance, therefore, it may be presumed, did not commence till towards the end of this year 1754. Murphy however had highly praised Johnson in the preceding year, No. 14 of the second series, Dec. 22, 1753.-M.] 1753.

1.

actor

Thomas "Let me hear from you again, wherever you are, Sheridan or whatever you are doing; whether you wander or as an sit still, plant trees or make Rusticks,1 play with your sisters or muse alone; and in return I will tell you the success of Sheridan, who at this instant is playing Cato, and has already played Richard twice. He had more company the second than the first night, and will make I believe a good figure in the whole, though his faults seem to be very many; some of natural deficience, and some of laborious affectation. He has, I think, no power of assuming either that dignity or elegance which some men, who have little of either in common life, can exhibit on the stage. His voice when strained is unpleasing, and when low is not always heard. He seems to think too much on the audience, and turns his face too often to the galleries.

"However, I wish him well; and among other reasons, because I like his wife.2

"Make haste to write to, dear Sir,

"Your most affectionate servant,

"Oct. 18, 1760."

"SAM. JOHNSON."

In 1761 Johnson appears to have done little. He was still, no doubt, proceeding in his edition of Shakspeare; but what advances he made in it cannot be ascertained. He certainly was at this time not active; for, in his scrupulous examination of

1 Essays with that title, written about this time by Mr. Langton, but not published.

2 Mrs. Sheridan was authour of "Memoirs of Miss Sydney Biddulph," a novel of great merit, and of some other pieces. See her character, p. 71.