Richardson. Coriat's Crudities. Gaming. Earl of Dinner at General Oglethorpe's. - Armorial Bearings. Duelling.-Prince Eugene. Siege of Belgrade.- Friend- Francis Osborne's Works.. Country Gentlemen. - Long Stories. Beattie and Robertson. Advice to Authors.- George Steevens. Letters to Mrs. Thrale, &c. Goldsmith and Evans the Bookseller.- Dalrymple's History.-- Action Shepherd."-Whigs and Tories.-Sterne.-Charles Towns- Goldsmith in Company, and in his Study. His "Talking for Victory.". - Bunyan's THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. CHAPTER I. 1765-1767. Boswell's Thesis.—Study of the Law.-Rash Vows.Streatham. Oxford. London Improvements. Dedications. Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies.— Mr. William Drummond. Translation of the Bible into the Gaelic Case of Heely. Dr. Robertson.—Cuthbert Shaw.. Tom Hervey.' Johnson's Interview with King George III. - Warburton and Lowth. Lord Lyttleton's History. Dr. Hill. Literary Journals. Visit to Lichfield. - Death of Catherine Chambers.-Lexiphanes. Mrs. Aston. - AFTER I had been some time in Scotland, I mentioned to him in a letter that " On my first return to my native country, after some years of absence, I was told of a vast number of my acquaintance who were all gone to the land of forgetfulness, and I found myself like a man stalking over a field of battle, who every moment perceives some one lying dead." I complained of irresolution, and mentioned my having made a vow as a security for good conduct. I wrote to him again without being able to move his indolence: nor did I hear from him till he had received a copy of my inaugural Exercise, or Thesis in Civil Law, which I published at my admission as an Advocate, as is the custom in Scotland. He ther wrote to me as follows: : LETTER 100. TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, August 10. 1766. "DEAR SIR, -The reception of your Thesis put me in mind of my debt to you. Why did you . . (1)? I will punish you for it, by telling you that your Latin wants correction. (2) In the beginning, Spei alteræ, not to urge that it should be primæ, is not grammatical; alteræ should be alteri. In the next line you seem to use genus absolutely, for what we call family, that is, for illustrious extraction, I doubt without authority. Homines nullius originis, for nullis orti majoribus, or nulio loco nati, is, as I am afraid, barbarous. - Ruddiman is dead. (3) (1) The passage omitted alluded to a private transaction. (2) This censure of my Latin relates to the dedication, which was as follows:-"Viro nobilissimo, ornatissimo, Joanni, Vicecomiti Mountstuart, atavis edito regibus, excelsæ familiæ de Bute spei altera; labente seculo, quum homines nullius originis genus æquare opibus aggrediuntur, sanguinis antiqui et illustris semper memori, natalium splendorem virtutibus augenti: ad publica populi comitia jam legato; in optimatium vero Magnæ Britanniæ senatu, jure hæreditario, olim consessuro: vim insitam variâ doctrinâ promovente, nec tamen se venditante, prædito: priscâ fide, animo liberrimo, et morum elegantiâ insigni: in Italiæ visitandæ itinere socio suo honoratissimo: hasce jurisprudentiæ primitias, devinctissimæ amicitiæ et observantiæ, monumentum, D. D. C. Q. Jacobus Boswell." (3) He says Ruddiman (a great grammarian) is dead — as in former days it was said that Priscian's head was broken. Ruddiman, who was born in 1674, had died in 1757. See antè, Vol. I. p. 246.-CRoker. |