and in which he has first had an opportunity to see himself in print, without the risk of exposing his name. I myself recollect such impressions from the "Scots Magazine," which was begun at Edinburgh in the year 1739, and has been ever conducted with judgment, accuracy, and propriety. I yet cannot help thinking of it with an affectionate regard. Johnson has dignified the "Gentleman's Magazine" by the importance with which he invests the life of Cave; but he has given it still greater lustre by the various admirable essays which he wrote for it.

Though Johnson was often solicited by his friends to make a complete list of his writings, and talked of doing it, I believe with a serious intention that they should all be collected on his own account, he put it off from year to year, and at last died without having done it perfectly. I have one in his own handwriting, which contains a certain number; I indeed doubt if he could have remembered every one of them, as they were so numerous, so various, and scattered in such a multiplicity of unconnected publications; nay, several of them published under the names of other persons, to whom he liberally contributed from the abundance of his mind. We must, therefore, be content to discover them, partly from occasional information given by him to his friends, and partly from internal evidence.1

His first performance in the " Gentleman's Magazine," which for many years was his principal source of employment and support, was a copy of Latin verses, in March, 1738, addressed to the editor in so happy a style of compliment, that Cave must have been destitute both of taste and sensibility, had he not felt himself highly gratified.

'While, in the course of my narrative, I enumerate his writings, I shall take care that my readers shall not be left to waver in doubt, between certainty and conjecture, with regard to their authenticity, and for that purpose shall mark with an asterisk (*) those which he acknowledged to his friends, and with a dagger (†) those which are ascertained to be his by internal evidence. When any other pieces are ascribed to him I shall give my reasons.

Ad URBANUM.*

URBANE, nullis fesse laboribus,
URBANE, nullis victe calumniis,
Cui fronte sertum in eruditâ
Perpetuò viret et virebit ;
Quid moliatur gens imitantium,
Quid et minetur, solicitus parùm,
Vacare solis perge Musis,

Juxta animo studiisque felix.

Linguæ procacis plumbea spicula,
Fidens, superbo frange silentio ;
Victrix per obstantes catervas
Sedulitas animosa tendet.

Intende nervos, fortis, inanibus
Risurus olim nisibus æmuli;
Intende jam nervos, habebis
Participes operæ Camoenas.

Non ulla Musis pagina gratior,
Quam quæ severis ludicra jungere
Novit, fatigatamque nugis
Utilibus recreare mentem.

Texente Nymphis serta Lycoride,
Rosæ ruborem sic viola adjuvat

Immista, sic Iris refulget

Æthereis variata fucis.1

S. J.

A translation of this Ode, by an unknown correspondent, appeared in the Magazine for the month of May following.

"Hail Urban! indefatigable man,

Unwearied yet by all thy useful toil!
Whom num'rous slanderers assault in vain ;
Whom no base calumny can put to foil.

But still the laurel on thy learned brow
Flourishes fair, and shall for ever grow.

"What mean the servile, imitating crew,

What their vain blust'ring, and their empty noise,
Ne'er seek but still thy noble ends pursue,

:

Unconquer'd by the rabble's venal voice.

It appears that he was now enlisted by Mr. Cave as a regular coadjutor in his Magazine, by which he probably obtained a tolerable livelihood. At what time, or by what means, he had acquired a competent knowledge both of French and Italian, I do not know; but he was so well skilled in them, as to be sufficiently qualified for a translator. That part of his labour which consisted in emendation and improvement of the productions of other contributors, like that employed in levelling ground, can be perceived only by those who had an opportunity of comparing the original with the altered copy. What we certainly know to have been done by him in this way was the debates in both houses of Parliament, under the name of "The Senate of Lilliput," sometimes with feigned denominations of the several speakers, sometimes with denominations Still to the Muse thy studious mind apply, Happy in temper as in industry.

"The senseless sneerings of an haughty tongue,
Unworthy thy attention to engage,

Unheeded pass and tho' they mean thee wrong,
By manly silence disappoint their rage.
Assiduous diligence confounds its foes,
Resistless, tho' malicious crowds oppose.

"Exert thy powers, nor slacken in the course,
Thy spotless fame shall quash all false reports:
Exert thy powers, nor fear a rival's force,

But thou shalt smile at all his vain efforts;
Thy labours shall be crowned with large success:
The Muses' aid thy magazine shall bless.

"No page more grateful to th' harmonious Nine,
Than that wherein thy labours we survey,
Where solemn themes in fuller splendour shine.
(Delightful mixture,) blended with the gay,
Where in improving, various joys we find,
A welcome respite to the wearied mind.

"Thus when the nymphs in some fair verdant mead,
Of various flow'rs a beauteous wreath compose,

The lovely violet's azure-painted head

Adds lustre to the crimson blushing rose.

Thus splendid Iris, with her varied dye,

Shines in the aether, and adorns the sky.”—Briton.

G