I have lately been informed by the proprietor of The World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended

impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be un5 willing that the public should consider me as owing that to a patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.

Having carried on my work thus far

to the public, were written by your lord- 10 with so little obligation to any favorer of ship. To be so distinguished is an honor which, being very little accustomed to favors from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.

learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in 15 which I once boasted myself with so much exultation,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most humble,
Most obedient servant,
SAM. JOHNSON.

When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address; and I could not forbear to wish that I might 20 boast myself 'Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre' [conqueror of the conqueror of the earth]; that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so 25 do my best to repel; and what I cannot

little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and courtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

un- 30

Seven years, my lord, have now passed, 3 since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favor. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before.

The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.

40

45

Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man strug- 50 gling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been 55 delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot

MR. JAMES MACPHERSON:

I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered me I shall

do for myself the law shall do for me. I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian.

What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture; I think it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to the public, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable; and what I hear of your morals, inclines me to pay regard not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. You may print this if you will.

SAM. JOHNSON. (1775)

To the Reverend Dr. Taylor, Ashbourne,
Derbyshire
DEAR SIR:

What can be the reason that I hear nothing from you? I hope nothing disables you from writing. What I have seen, and what I have felt, gives me reason to fear everything. Do not omit giving me the comfort of knowing, that after all my losses I have yet a friend left.

I want every comfort. My life is very solitary and very cheerless. Though it has pleased God wonderfully to deliver

JAMES BOSWELL (1740-1795)

James Boswell was the son of a Scotch laird at Auchinleck, in Ayrshire, and was prepared for the bar at Edinburgh and Glasgow. He also studied at Utrecht, later, entered the Middle Temple in London, and, in 1786, was admitted to the English bar. He traveled widely, cultivated assiduously the society of famous men, and made literary stock of their conversation and correspondence. During one of his tours he gratified his curiosity much in dining with Jean Jacques Rousseau,' then an exile in the wilds of Neufchatel.' At another time, he got as far as Corsica, published an Account on his return, and, when Paoli, the Corsican patriot, took refuge in London in 1776, became his constant guest. But the acquaintance which was particularly fruitful for English literature was that with Dr. Samuel Johnson, begun in 1763 and lasting until Johnson's death. Boswell was gifted with a high degree of curiosity, acute perception and a retentive memory, and he early formed the habit of keeping an exact journal. It is reported of him that he would lay down his knife and fork, and take out his tablets to record a good anecdote.' In spite of toadyism and vanity and his habit of taking notes, he had the faculty of making himself agreeable as a companion and, in 1773, Johnson got him elected to the Literary Club, thus vastly extending his opportunities for observation. The same year, the two toured the Hebrides together. During this journey Boswell allowed Johnson to read portions of his journal, and the great man acknowledged that it was a very exact picture of a portion of his life.' The year after Johnson's death Boswell published his Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Dr. Johnson, and during the next few years, he brought to completion the Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791). This remarkable book is as vital and intimate as a masterpiece of fiction and has the additional interest that it is an authentic transcript from the life of a great and influential man of peculiar social qualities, the whole exhibiting,' as the title page has it, a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain for near half a century, during which he flourished.'

FROM THE LIFE OF JOHNSON

avowed principles, and become the tool of a government which he held to be founded in usurpation. I have taken care to have it in my power to refute 5 them from the most authentic information. Lord Bute told me that Mr. Wedderburne, now Lord Loughborough, was the person who first mentioned this subject to him. Lord Loughborough told me 10 that the pension was granted to Johnson solely as the reward of his literary merit, without any stipulation whatever, even tacit understanding that he should write for the administration. His lordship added, that he was confident the political tracts which Johnson afterwards did write, as they were entirely consonant with his own opinions, would have been written by him though no pension had been granted to him.

The accession of George the Third to the throne of these kingdoms, opened a new and brighter prospect to men of literary merit, who had been honored with no mark of royal favor in the preceding reign. His present Majesty's education in this country, as well as his taste and beneficence, prompted him to be the patron of science and the arts; and early this year, Johnson having been represented to him as a very learned and good man, without any certain provision, his Majesty was pleased to grant him a 15 pension of three hundred pounds a year. The Earl of Bute, who was then prime minister, had the honor to announce this instance of his sovereign's bounty, concerning which, many and various stories, 20 all equally erroneous, have been propagated; maliciously representing it as a political bribe to Johnson, to desert his

or

Mr. Thomas Sheridan and Mr. Murphy, who then lived a good deal both with him and Mr. Wedderburne, told me

enforce obligation. You have conferred favors on a man who has neither alliance nor interest, who has not merited them by services, nor courted them by officiousness; 5 you have spared him the shame of solicitation, and the anxiety of suspense.

'What has been thus elegantly given, will, I hope, be not reproach fully enjoyed; I shall endeavor to give your Lordship the only rec

gratification of finding that your benefits are
not improperly bestowed. I am, my Lord,
'Your Lordship's most obliged,
'Most obedient, and most humble servant,
'SAM JOHNSON.'

that they previously talked with Johnson upon this matter, and that it was perfectly understood by all parties that the pension was merely honorary. Sir Joshua Reynolds told me, that Johnson called on him after his Majesty's intention had been notified to him, and said he wished to consult his friends as to the propriety of his accepting this mark of the royal favor, after the definitions 10 ompense which generosity desires, the which he had given in his Dictionary of 'pension' and 'pensioners.' He said he should not have Sir Joshua's answer till next day, when he would call again, and desired he might think of it. Sir 15 Joshua answered that he was clear to give his opinion then, that there could. be no objection to his receiving from the king a reward for literary merit; and that certainly the definitions in his 20 Dictionary were not applicable to him. Johnson, it should seem, was satisfied, for he did not call again till he had accepted the pension, and had waited on Lord Bute to thank him. He then told Sir 25 Joshua that Lord Bute said to him expressly, 'It is not given you for anything you are to do, but what you have done.' His lordship, he said, behaved in the handsomest manner. He repeated the 30 words twice, that he might be sure Johnson heard them, and thus set his mind perfectly at ease.

* * *

This year his friend, Sir Joshua Reynolds, paid a visit of some weeks to his native county, Devonshire, in which he was accompanied by Johnson, who was much pleased with this jaunt, and declared he had derived from it a great accession of new ideas. He was entertained at the seats of several noblemen and gentlemen in the west of England, but the greatest part of this time was passed at Plymouth, where the magnificence of the navy, the ship-building and all its circumstances, afforded him a grand Subject for contemplation. The commissioner of the dockyard paid him the compliment of ordering the yacht to convey him and his friend to the Eddystone, to which they accordingly sailed. But the

could not land. * * *

But I shall not detain my readers longer by any words of my own, on a 35 weather was so tempestuous that they subject on which I am happily enabled, by the favor of the Earl of Bute, to present them with what Johnson himself wrote; his lordship having been pleased to communicate to me a copy of the fol- 40 lowing letter to his father, which does great honor both to the writer and to the noble person to whom it is addressed:

Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom I was obliged for my information concerning this excursion, mentions a very characteristical anecdote of Johnson while at Plymouth. Having observed that, in consequence of the dock-yard, a new town had arisen about two miles off as a rival to the old; and knowing, from his

To the Right Honorable the Earl of 45 sagacity and just observation of human Bute

'July 20, 1762.

'MY LORD-When the bills were yesterday delivered to me by Mr. Wedderburne, I was informed by him of the future favors 50 which his Majesty has, by your Lordship's recommendation, been induced to intend for

me.

'Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed; your Lordship's kindness includes every circumstance that can gratify delicacy, or

nature, that it is certain, if a man hates at all, he will hate his next neighbor, he concluded that this new and rising

In or

1 At one of these seats Dr. Amyat, physician in London, told me he happened to meet him. der to amuse him till dinner should be ready, he was taken out to walk in the garden. The master of the house, thinking it proper to introduce something scientific into the conversation, addressed him thus: Are you a botanist, Dr. Johnson?' No, 55 sir,' answered Johnson, 'I am not a botanist; and (alluding no doubt to his near-sightedness), should I wish to become a botanist, I must first turn myself into a reptile.'