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.

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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)P 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; altera 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 nulo voco 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.

"I have now vexed you enough, and will try to please you. Your resolution to obey your father I sincerely approve; but do not accustom yourself to enchain your volatility by vows; they will sometime leave a thorn in your mind, which you will, perhaps, never be able to extract or eject. Take this warning; it is of great importance.

"The study of the law is what you very justly term it, copious and generous ('); and in adding your name to its professors, you have done exactly what I always wished, when I wished you best. I hope that you will continue to pursue it vigorously and constantly. You gain, at least, what is no small advantage, security from those troublesome and wearisome discontents, which are always obtruding themselves upon a mind vacant, unemployed, and undetermined.

"You ought to think it no small inducement to diligence and perseverance, that they will please your father. We all live upon the hope of pleasing somebody, and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest, and at last always will be greatest, when our endeavours are exerted in consequence of our duty.

"Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent: deliberation which those who begin it by prudence, and continue it with subtilty, must, after long expense of thought, conclude by chance. To prefer one future mode of life to another, upon just reasons, requires faculties which it has not pleased our Creator to give us.

"If, therefore, the profession you have chosen has some unexpected inconveniences, console yourself by reflecting that no profession is without them; and that

(1) This alludes to the first sentence of the Prooemium of my Thesis. "Jurisprudentiæ studio nullum uberius, nullum generosius: in legibus enim agitandis, populorum mores, variasque fortunæ vices ex quibus leges oriuntur, contemplari simul

solemus."

all the importunities and perplexities of business are softness and luxury, compared with the incessant cravings of vacancy, and the unsatisfactory expedients of idleness.

Hæc sunt quæ nostrâ potui te voce monere;

Vade, age.'

"As to your History of Corsica, you have no materials which others have not, or may not have. You have, somehow or other, warmed your imagination. I wish there were some cure, like the lover's leap, for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession. Mind your own affairs, and leave the Corsicans to theirs.- I am, dear Sir, your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

LETTER 101. TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

"Auchinlech, Nov. 6. 1766.

"MUCH ESTEEMED AND DEAR SIR,-I plead not guilty to

· (1) "Having thus, I hope, cleared myself of the charge brought against me, I presume you will not be displeased if I escape the punishment which you have decreed for me unheard. If you have discharged the arrows of criticism against an innocent man, you must rejoice to find they have missed him, or have not been pointed so as to wound him.

"To talk no longer in allegory, I am, with all deference, going to offer a few observations in defence of my Latin, which you have found fault with.

"You think I should have used spei primæ instead of spei altera. Spes is, indeed, often used to express

(1) The passage omitted explained the transaction to which the preceding letter had alluded.

TAT. 57.

BOSWELL'S THESIS.

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something on which we have a future dependence, as in Virg. Eclog. i. l. 14.

modo namque gemellos

Spem gregis, ah! silice in nudâ connixa reliquit :'

and in Georg. iii. 1. 473.

'Spemque gregemque simul,'

for the lambs and the sheep. Yet it is also used to express any thing on which we have a present dependence and is well applied to a man of distinguished influence,our support, our refuge, our præsidium, as Horace calls Mæcenas. So, Æneid xii. 1. 57., Queen Amata addresses her son-in-law, Turnus :-Spes tu nunc una :' and he was then no future hope, for she adds,decus imperiumque Latini

6

Te penes;'

which might have been said of my Lord Bute some years ago. Now I consider the present Earl of Bute to be Excelsa familia de Bute spes prima;' and my Lord Mountstuart, as his eldest son, to be spes altera.' So in Æneid xii. 1. 168., after having mentioned Pater Æneas, who was the present spes, the reigning spes, as my German friends would say, the spes prima, the poet adds,

Et juxta Ascanius, magnæ spes altera Romæ.'(1)

"You think altera ungrammatical, and you tell me it should have been alteri. You must recollect, that in

(1) It is very strange that Johnson, who in his letter quotes the Eneid, should not have recollected this obvious and decisive authority for spes altera, nor yet the remarkable use of these words, attributed to Cicero, by Servius and Donatus; the expressions of the latter are conclusive in Mr. Boswell's favour: "At cum Cicero quosdam versus (Virgilii) audisset, in fine ait: Magnæ spes altera Romæ.'- Quasi ipse linguæ Latina spes prima fuisset, et Maro futurus esset secunda." Donat. vit. Vir. $ 41.-CROKER.