at London, Mr James Elphinston* suggested, and took charge of an edition at Edinburgh, “for the honour of his friend, and the improvement of his country," which followed progressively the original copies, printed by Sands, Murray, and Cochran," for the AUTHOR," on a writing paper, of the duodecimo size, sold, in single numbers, by W. Gordon and C. Wright, Parliament Close, price one penny, and completed in eight volumes, with translations of the mottos at the close of each volume t. Soon * The translator of Martial, and author of "Principles of the English Language," and other works on education. He was the son of a clergyman of the Scottish episcopal church, many years master of an academy at Kensington, and much esteemed by Johnson for his learning, piety, and benevolence. He died in 1809. A second edition of the Edinburgh Rambler, which is a literal transcript of the first folio, was printed in 1752. Both editions, printed in handsome pocket volumes, are extremely scarce. Among the recollections of his school-boy days, when these volumes were in the hands of the present writer, the Edinburgh Rambler is recollected with many agreeable associations of youthful study. 1 after the folio edition was concluded, it was reprinted in London, in 6 vols. 12mo, and again in 4 vols. 8vo, 1752, corrected with the most anxious and scrupulous attention to the structure of every sentence, and the weight of every expression *, and accommodated with versions of the mottos, many of them from the pen of Johnson, and the remainder by Mr Elphinston, and Mr F. Lewis, of whom nothing is known †. Johnson thought " many of Mr Elphinston's mottos very happily performed;" but "he translated not another motto after he understood that the author had sold the copy, though he continued to the last his care of the Scottish edition." See "Forty years Correspondence," &c. vol. 1. p. 35. * By collating the second and third editions with the/ first folio, Mr Chalmers, the editor of the " British Essayists," has discovered above six thousand various readings. Many of the alterations are inconsiderable; but the labour which Johnson endured in repairing "the mischiefs of haste or negligence" is remarkable; and the process which he observed in supplying deficiencies, and removing deformities, not very obvious, is interesting to those who are nicely critical in composition. See "Preface to the Rambler," in "British Essayists," vol. 19. +"He lived," said Johnson, "in London, and hung loose upon society." The Rambler was afterwards furnished with K This production of solitary labour, unavoidably uniform in its texture, and distinguished from other periodical papers by a grave and often solemn cast of thinking, gained slowly upon the world at large, on its first appearance; but as soon as it was collected into volumes, its circle of attraction began rapidly to enlarge, and the author lived to see a just tribute paid to its merit in the extensiveness of the sale; ten numerous editions of it having been printed in London before his death, besides those of Scotland, Ireland, and America. Of the extraordinary fertility of his mind there cannot be a stronger proof than that, besides "his other great business," he answered the stated calls of the press, twice a-week, for the whole number of essays, amounting to two hundred and eight, having received no assistance, in the progress of the paper, except four billets in No. 10. by Miss Mulso, afterwards Mrs Chapone, No. an Index, compiled by Mr Flexman, a dissenting minister, who offended Johnson by his minute exactness in setting down the name of Milton thus-Milton, Mr John. See Boswell's Life, &c. Vol. iv, p. 340. 30. by Miss Catharine Talbot, Nos. 44. and 100. by Miss Carter, No. 97. by Mr Samuel Richardson," an author who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue," and the second letters in Nos. 15. and 107. by unknown correspondents. These admirable essays, we are told by Mr Boswell, were written in haste, just as they were wanted for the press, without even being read by him before they were printed. Making every allowance for powers far exceeding the usual lot of man, still there are bounds which we must set to our belief upon this head. It is not at every season that the mind can concentrate its faculties to a particular subject with equal strength, or that the fancy can create imagery spontaneously to adorn and enforce its reasonings. That Johnson sometimes selected his subject, culled his images, and arranged his arguments for these papers, is evident from the notes of his Common-place Book, preserved by Sir John Hawkins and Mr Bos well*. When he planned some essays with such minute carefulness, it is not likely that he trusted wholly to the sudden effusions of his mind for the remainder. Those which are taken from the notes of his Common-place Book, do not manifest, by an excellence superior to the rest, peculiar labours of mind in the conception, or pains in the composition; and we cannot suppose a man so happy in his genius, that the new-born offspring of his brain should invariably appear as strong and perfect as those which have been matured, fashioned, and polished by sedulous reflection. This, therefore, appears to be most probable, with respect to the wonderful faculty which he is said to have manifested in this and other of his works, that, during his sleepless nights and frequent abstractions from company, he con * He marked upon the first blank leaf, " To the 128th page, Collections for the Rambler;" and, in another place, (probably after the work was finished), he added, "In all, taken of provided materials, 30." See Boswell's Life, &e. Vol. 1, p. 172. |