might be an useful and profitable publication, Mr. Warren and Mr. Hector joined in urging him to undertake it. He accordingly agreed; and the book not being to be found in Birmingham, he borrowed it of Pembroke College. A part of the work being very foon done, one Osborn, who was Mr. Warren's printer, was fet to work with what was ready, and Johnson engaged to fupply the prefs with copy as it fhould be wanted; but his constitutional indolence foon prevailed, and the work was at a stand. Mr. Hector, who knew that a motive of humanity would be the most prevailing argument with his friend, went to Johnfon, and represented to him, that the printer could have no other employment till this undertaking was finished, and that the poor man and his family were fuffering. Johnson upon this exerted the powers of his mind, though his body was relaxed. He lay in bed with the book, which was a quarto, before him, and dictated while Hector wrote. Mr. Hector carried the sheets to the prefs, and corrected almost all the proof sheets, very few of which were even feen by Johnson. In this manner, with the aid of Mr. Hector's active friendship, the book was completed, and was published in 1735, with LONDON upon the title-page, though it was in reality printed at Birmingham, a device too common with provincial publishers. For this work he had from Mr. Warren only the fum of five guineas. This being the firft profe work of Johnfon, it is a curious object of Inquiry how much may be traced in it of that ftyle which marks his subfequent writings with fuch peculiar excellence; with fo happy an union of force, vivacity, and perfpicuity. I have perused the book with this view, and have found that here, as I believe in every other tranflation, there is in the work itself no veftige of the tranflator's own ftyle; for the language of tranflation being adapted to the thoughts of another perfon, infenfibly follows their caft, and, as it were, runs into a mould that is ready prepared. Thus, for inftance, taking the firft fentence that occurs at the opening of the book, p. 4. "I lived here above a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which time fome letters were received from the fathers in Ethiopia, with an account that Sultan Segned, Emperour of Abyffinia, was converted to the church of Rome; that many of his fubjects had followed his example, and that there was a great want of miffionaries to improve these profperous beginnings. Every body was very defirous of feconding the zeal of our fathers, and of fending them the affiftance they requested; to which we were the more encouraged, becaufe the Emperour's letter informed our Provincial, that we might eafily enter his dominions by the way of Dancala; but, 1733. Etat. 24. 1733. Ætat. 24. but, unhappily, the fecretary wrote Geila for Dancala, which coft two of our fathers their lives." Every one acquainted with Johnson's manner will be fenfible that there is nothing of it here, but that this fentence might have been compofed by any other man. But, in the Preface, the Johnfonian ftyle begins to appear; and though use had not yet taught his wing a permanent and equable flight, there are parts of it which exhibit his best manner in full vigour. I had once the pleasure of examining it with Mr. Edmund Burke, who confirmed me in this opinion, by his fuperiour critical fagacity, and was, I remember, much delighted with the following fpecimen : "The Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen, has amused his reader with no romantick absurdity, or incredible fictions; whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable; and he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability, has a right to demand that they should believe him who cannot contradict him. "He appears, by his modeft and unaffected narration, to have described things as he faw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have confulted his fenfes, not his imagination. He meets with no bafilisks that destroy with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their prey without tears, and his cataracts fall from the rocks without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants. "The reader will here find no regions curfed with irremediable barrenness, or blessed with spontaneous fecundity; no perpetual gloom, or unceasing funfhine; nor are the nations here defcribed either devoid of all fenfe of humanity, or confummate in all private or focial virtues. Here are no Hottentots without religious polity or articulate language; no Chinese perfectly polite, and completely skilled in all sciences; he will discover, what will always be discovered by a diligent and impartial enquirer, that wherever human nature is to be found, there is a mixture of vice and virtue, a conteft of paffion and reafon; and that the Creator doth not appear partial in his distributions, but has balanced, in moft countries, their particular inconveniencies by particular favours." Here we have an early example of that brilliant and energetick expreffion, which, upon innumerable occafions in his fubfequent life, justly impressed the world with the highest admiration. Nor can any one, converfant with the writings of Johnson, fail to difcern his hand in this paffage of the Dedication to John Warren, Efq. of Pembrokeshire, though it is afcribed to Warren the bookfeller. "A generous and elevated mind is diftinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree 1734. degree of curiofity; nor is that curiofity ever more agreeably or usefully employed, than in examining the laws and customs of foreign nations. I hope, Etat. 25. therefore, the present I now presume to make, will not be thought improper; which, however, it is not my business as a dedicator to commend, nor as a bookfeller to depreciate." It is reasonable to fuppofe, that his having been thus accidentally led to a particular study of the hiftory and manners of Abyffinia, was the remote occafion of his writing, many years afterwards, his admirable philofophical tale, the principal scene of which is laid in that country. Johnson returned to Lichfield early in 1734, and in August that year he made an attempt to procure fome little fubfiftence by his pen; for he published proposals for printing by fubfcription the Latin poems of Politian: "Angeli Politiani Poemata Latina, quibus, Notas, cum hiftoriâ Latinæ poefeos, à Petrarcha avo ad Politiani tempora deducta, et vita Politiani fufius quam antibac enarratâ, addidit SAM. JOHNSON *." It appears that his brother Nathanael had taken up his father's trade; for it is mentioned, that " fubfcriptions are taken in by the Editor, or N. Johnson, bookfeller, of Lichfield," Notwithstanding the merit of Johnson, and the cheap price at which this tranflation, with its accompanyments, was offered, there were not fubfcribers enough to infure a fufficient fale; fo the work never appeared, and, probably, never was executed. We find him again this year at Birmingham, and there is preferved the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave', the original compiler and editor of the Gentleman's Magazine: To Mr. CAVE. « SIR, Nov. 25, 1734. "AS you appear no lefs fenfible than your readers of the defects of your poetical article, you will not be displeased, if, in order to the improvement of it, I communicate to you the fentiments of a perfon, who will undertake, on reasonable terms, fometimes to fill a column. The book was to contain more than thirty fheets, the price to be two fhillings and fix-pence at the time of fubfcribing, and two fhillings and fix-pence at the delivery of a perfect book in quires. Mifs Cave, the Grand-niece of Mr. Edward Cave, has obligingly fhewn me the originals of this and the other letters of Dr Johnson, to him, which were first published in the Gentleman's Magazine, with notes by Mr. John Nichols, the worthy and indefatigable editor of that valuable mifcellany, figned N; fome of which I fhall occafionally tranfcribe in the course of this work. G "His 1734. Atat. 25. "His opinion is, that the publick would not give you a bad reception, if, befide the current wit of the month, which a critical examination would generally reduce to a narrow compafs, you admitted not only poems, infcriptions, &c. never printed before, which he will fometimes fupply you with; but likewife fhort literary differtations in Latin or English, critical remarks on authours ancient or modern, forgotten poems that deferve revival, or loofe pieces, like Floyer's, worth preferving. By this method your literary article, for fo it might be called, will, he thinks, be better recommended to the publick, than by low jefts, aukward buffoonery, or the dull fcurrilities of either party. "If fuch a correspondence will be agreeable to you, be pleased to inform me in two posts, what the conditions are on which you shall expect it. Your late offer gives me no reafon to diftruft your generofity. If you engage in any literary projects befides this paper, I have other defigns to impart, if I could be fecure from having others reap the advantage of what I should hint. "Your letter, by being directed to S. Smith, to be left at the Castle in Birmingham, Warwickshire, will reach "Your humble fervant." But Mr. Cave has put a note on this letter, "Answered Dec. 2." whether any thing was done in confequence of it we are not informed. Johnfon had, from his early youth, been sensible to the influence of female charms. When at Stourbridge school, he was much enamoured of Olivia Lloyd, a young quaker, to whom he wrote a copy of verfes, which I have not been able to recover; and I am affured by Mifs Seward, that he conceived a tender paffion for Miss Lucy Porter, daughter of the lady whom he afterwards married. Mifs Porter was fent very young on a vifit to Lichfield, where Johnson had frequent opportunities of feeing and admiring her; and he addreffed to her the following verfes, on her prefenting him with a nosegay of myrtle: A prize of fifty pounds for the best poem " on Life, Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell." See Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. IV. p. 560. N. "In myrtle shades oft fings the happy swain, His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very tranfient; and it is certain, that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever. Mr. Hector, who lived with him in his younger days in the utmost intimacy and focial freedom, has affured me, that even at that ardent season his conduct was ftrictly virtuous in that refpect; and that though he loved to exhilarate himfelf with wine, he never knew him intoxicated but once. 1734. Ætat. 25. In a man whom religious education has fecured from licentious indulgences, the paffion of love, when once it has feized him, is exceedingly strong; being unimpaired by diffipation, and totally concentrated in one object. This was This was experienced by Johnfon, when he became the fervent admirer of Mrs. Porter, after her firft hufband's death. Mifs Porter told me, that when he was firft introduced to her mother, his appearance was very forbidding: He was then lean and lank, fo that his immenfe ftructure of bones was hideously striking to the eye, and the fcars of the fcrophula were deeply visible. He also wore his hair, which was straight and stiff, and separated behind; and he often had, feemingly, convulfive ftarts and odd gefticulations, which tended to excite at once furprise and ridicule. Mrs. Porter was fo much engaged by his converfation that fhe overlooked all these external disadvantages, and faid to her daughter, "this is the most fenfible man that I ever faw in my life." 3 Mrs. Piozzi, in her "Anecdotes," afferts that Johnson wrote this effufion of elegant tendernefs not in his own perfon, but for a friend who was in love. But that lively lady is as inaccurate in this inftance as in many others; for Mifs Seward writes to me-" I know those verses were addreffed to Lucy Porter, when he was enamoured of her in his boyish days, two or three years before he had feen her mother, his future wife. He wrote them at my grandfather's, and gave them to Lucy in the presence of my mother, to whom he fhewed them on the inftant. She used to repeat them to me, when I asked her for the verfes Dr. Johnfon gave her on a sprig of myrtle, which he had ftolen or begged from her bofom. We all know honeft Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying to herself a compliment not intended for her.” |