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650. Citations from Garrick.

Boswell relates (says a correspondent), that Garrick being asked by Johnson what people said of his Dictionary, told him, that among other animadversions, it was objected that he cited the authorities which were beneath the dignity of such a work, and mentioned Richardson. 66 Nay," said Johnson, " I have done worse than that; I have cited thee, David." This anecdote induced me to turn over the leaves of his Dictionary, that I might note the citations from each writer. Two only I found from Garrick, viz.

"Our bard's a fabulist, and deals in fiction.

"I know you all expect, from seeing me,

Some formal lecture, spoke with prudish face."

The quotations from Richardson are at least eighty in number; almost all from his Clarissa.

651. Johnsonian Words.

In Kett's "Elements of General Knowledge," I read (says another correspondent) as follows: "Our literature, indeed, dates a new era from the publication of Johnson's Works: many of his words are rarely to be met with in former writers, and some are purely of his own fabrication. Note,-'Resuscitation, orbity, volant, fatuity, divaricate, asinine, narcotic, vulnirary, empireumatic, obtund, disruption, sensory, cremation, horticulture, germination, decussation, eximious,' &c. If these words be not peculiarly Johnson's, I know not where they are to be found!" Now, upon turning over Johnson's Dictionary, I find all the above words occur in Pope, Bacon, Wilkins, Milton, Arbuthnot, Grew, Quincy, Wiseman, Harvey, Woodward, Newton, Glanville, and Ray; except horticulture, which may be found in Tusser's Husbandry; eximious, in Lodge's Letters; and cremation, for which, at present, I have no authority. So much for the research of Mr. Kett!

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The brightest feature in Johnson's character was the perfect consciousness of his failings. This the Doctor seems to have had in the nicest degree: it always accompanied him, and, joined to his irresolution, embittered many of his days and nights. If the publication of his Prayers and Meditations still wants to be justified, let it be on this score, that they prove Johnson to have been a man whose inward struggles were always directed to overcome habits of which he was painfully conscious; that he did not seek to excuse those failings by the delusions of scepticism or sophistry, but that he prayed, resolved, and earnestly contended against them. What more have the greatest and best men in all ages done, though, perhaps, with better success? (1)

(1) This and the following prayer are not in Mr. Strahan's collection:

"Easter-day, 15th April, 1759. "Almighty and most merciful Father, look down with pity upon my sins. I am a sinner, good Lord; but let not my sins burthen me for ever. Give me thy grace to break the chain of evil custom. Enable me to shake off idleness and sloth: to will and to do what thou hast commanded, grant me chaste in thoughts, words, and actions; to love and frequent thy wor ship, to study and understand thy word; to be diligent in my calling, that I may support myself and relieve others.

"Forgive me, O Lord, whatever my mother has suffered by my fault, whatever I have done amiss, and whatever duty I have neglected. Let me not sink into useless dejection; but so sanctify my affliction, O Lord, that I may be converted, and healed; and that, by the help of thy Holy Spirit, I may obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

"And, O Lord, so far as it may be lawful, I commend unto thy fatherly goodness my father, brother, wife, and mother, beseeching thee to make them happy for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen."

"SCRUPLES.

"O Lord, who wouldst that all men should be saved, and who knowest that without thy grace we can do nothing acceptable to thee, have mercy upon me. Enable me to break the chain of my sins, to reject sensuality in thought, and to overcome and suppress vain scruples; and to use such diligence in lawful employment as may enable me to support myself and do good to others. O Lord, forgive me the time lost in idleness; pardon the sins which I have committed, and grant that I may redeem the time mispent, and be reconciled to thee by true repentance, that I may live and die in peace, and be received to everlasting happiness. Take not from me, O Lord, thy Holy Spirit, but let me have support and comfort for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

"Transc. June 26. 1768. Of this prayer there is no date, nor can I conjecture when it was composed."

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653. "Ocean."

A gentleman once told Dr. Johnson, that a friend of his, looking into the Dictionary which the Doctor had lately published, could not find the word ocean. "Not find ocean!" exclaimed our Lexicographer; "Sir, I doubt the veracity of your information !" He instantly stalked into his library; and, opening the work in question with the utmost impatience, at last triumphantly put his finger upon the subject of research, adding, "There, Sir; there is ocean!" The gentleman was preparing to apologise for the mistake; but Dr. Johnson good-naturedly dismissed the subject, with "Never mind it, Sir; perhaps your friend spells ocean with

an s."

654. Johnson's "Limæ labor."

[From Alexander Chalmers' Historical and Biographical Preface to The Rambler: British Essayists, vol. xvii.]

The general opinion entertained by Dr. Johnson's friends was, that he wrote as correctly and elegantly in haste, and under various obstructions of person and situation, as other men can, who have health, and ease, and leisure for the lime labor. Mr. Boswell says, with great truth, that "posterity will be astonished when they are told, upon the authority of Johnson himself, that many of these discourses, which we should suppose had been laboured with all the slow attention of literary leisure, were written in haste as the moment pressed, without even being read over by him before they were printed." And Sir John Hawkins informs us, that these essays hardly ever underwent a revision before they were sent to the press; and adds, "the original manuscripts of the Rambler' have passed through my hands, and by the perusal of them I am warranted to say, as was said of Shakspeare by the players of his time, that he never blotted a line, and I believe without

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the risk of that retort which Ben Jonson made to them, Would he had blotted out a thousand !""

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Such are the opinions of those friends of Dr. Johnson who had long lived in his society, had studied his writings, and were eager to give to the public every information by which its curiosity to know the history of so eminent a character might be gratified. But by what fatality it has happened, that they were ignorant of the vast labour Dr. Johnson employed in correcting this work after it came from the first press, it is not easy to determine. This circumstance indeed might not fall within the scope of Mr. Murphy's elegant essay; but had it been known to Sir John Hawkins or to Mr. Boswell, they would undoubtedly have been eager to bring it forward as a prominent part of Dr. Johnson's literary history. Mr. Boswell has given us some various readings of the "Lives of the Poets;" and the reader will probably agree with him, that although the author's "amendments in that work are for the better, there is nothing of the pannus assutus : the texture is uniform, and indeed what had been there at first is very seldom unfit to have remained." (1) At the conclusion of these various readings he offers an apology, of which I may be permitted to avail myself: "Should it be objected, that many of my various readings are inconsiderable, those who make the objection will be pleased to consider that such small particulars are intended for those who are nicely critical in composition, to whom they will be an acceptable collection."

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Is it not surprising, that this friend and companion

(1) These were the alterations made by the author in the manuscript, or in the proof before publication for the second edition. Mr. Boswell does not seem to have known that Dr. Johnson made so many alterations for the third edition, as to induce Mr. Nichols to collect them in an octavo pamphlet of three sheets closely printed, which was given to the purchasers of the second octavo edition. - CHALMERS.

of our illustrious author, who has obliged the public with the most perfect delineation ever exhibited of any human being, and who declared so often that he was determined

"To lose no drop of that immortal man;"

that one so inquisitive after the most trifling circumstance connected with Dr. Johnson's character or history, should have never heard or discovered, that Dr. Johnson almost re-wrote the "Rambler" after the first folio edition ? Yet the fact was, that he employed the lima laborem not only on the second, but on the third edition, to an extent, I presume, never known in the annals of literature, and may be said to have carried Horace's rule far beyond either its letter or spirit:

" Vos O

carmen reprehendite, quod non

Multa dies et multa litura coercuit, atque
Perfectum decies non castigavit ad unguem.

"Never the verse approve, and hold as good,
Till many a day and many a blot has wrought
The polish'd work, and chasten'd ev'ry thought,
By tenfold labour to perfection brought."

The alterations made by Dr. Johnson in the second and third editions of the "Rambler" far exceed six thousand; a number which may perhaps justify the use of the word re-wrote, although it must not be taken in its literal acceptation. If it be asked, of what nature are these alterations, or why that was altered which the world thought perfect, the author may be allowed to answer for himself. Notwithstanding its fame while printing in single numbers, the encomiums of the learned, and the applause of friends, he knew its imperfections, and determined to remove them. He foresaw that upon this foundation his future fame would rest, and he determined that the superstructure thrown

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