come which, to many would appear indigent, and to most, scanty. How he lived, therefore, every man has an interest in knowing. His death, I hope, was peaceful; it was surely happy.

"I wish I had written sooner, lest, writing now, I should renew your grief; but I would not forbear saying what I have now said.

go on.

"This loss is, I hope, the only misfortune of a family to whom no misfortune at all should happen, if my wishes could avert it. Let me know how you all Has Mr. Langton got him the little horse that I recommended? It would do him good to ride about his estate in fine weather.

"Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Langton, and to dear Miss Langton, and Miss Di, and Miss Juliet, and to every body else.

"THE CLUB holds very well together. well together. Monday is my night. I continue to rise tolerably well, and read

so much with his income, was, that he paid for every thing as soon as he had it, except, alone, what were current accounts, such as rent for his house and servants' wages; and these he paid at the stated times with the utmost exactness. He gave notice to the tradesmen of the neighbouring market towns, that they should no longer have his custom, if they let any of his servants have any thing without their paying for it. Thus he put it out of his power to commit those imprudences to which those are liable that defer their payments by using their money some other way than where it ought to go. And whatever money he had by him, he knew that it was not demanded elsewhere, but that he might safely employ it as he pleased.

"His example was confined, by the sequestered place of his abode, to the observation of few, though his prudence and virtue would have made it valuable to all who could have known it. These few particulars, which I knew myself, or have obtained from those who lived with him, may afford instruction, and be an incentive to that wise art of living, which he so successfully practised."

i of his being in the chair of THE LITERARY CLUB, which at this time met once a week in the evening.

more than I did. I hope something will yet come on

it. I am, Sir,

"Your most affectionate servant,

"May 10, 1766,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

"Johnson's-court, Fleet-street.”

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 then wrote to me as follows:

66 TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

66 DEAR SIR,

"THE reception of your Thesis put me in mind of my debt to you. Why did you

** * *

I will punish you for it, by telling you that your Latin wants correction.' In the beginning, Spei altera, not

* The passage omitted alluded to a private transaction. 'This censure of my Latin relates to the Dedication, which was as follows:

VIRO NOBILISSIMO, ORNATISSIMO,

JOANNI,

VICECOMITI MOUNTSTUART,

ATAVIS EDITO REGIBUS,

EXCELSE FAMILIE DE BUTE SPEI ALTERÆ;

LABENTE SECULO,

QUUM HOMINES NULLIUS ORIGINIS

GENUS EQUARE OPIBUS AGGREDIUNTUR,

to urge that it should be alteræ should be alteri. 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, Nullo loco nati, is, as I am afraid, barbarous.-Ruddiman is dead.

prima, is not grammatical : In the next line you seem to

"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

.m

SANGUINIS ANTIQUI ET ILLUSTRIS

SEMPER MEMORI,

NATALIUM SPLENDOREM VIRTUTIBUS AUGENTI:

AD PUBLICA POPULI COMITIA

JAM LEGATO;

IN OPTIMATIUM VERO MAGNE BRITANNIA SENATU,
JURE HÆREDITARIO,

IN ITALIE VISITANDE ITINERE,

SOCIO SUO HONORATISSIMO,

HASCE JURISPRUDENTIÆ PRIMITIAS,
DEVINCTISSIME AMICITIA ET OBSERVANTIÆ

MONUMENTUM,

D. D. C. Q.

JACOBUS BOSWELL.

This alludes to the first sentence of the Proœmium of my "JURISPRUDENTIE studio nullum uberius, nullum genero

Thesis.

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 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 nostra 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 sius: in legibus enim agitandis, populorum mores variasque fortunæ vices, ex quibus leges oriuntur, contemplari simul solemus.”

unreasonable and irregular possession. Mind your own affairs, and leave the Corsicans to theirs. I am, dear Sir,

66

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 prima, instead of spei altera. Spes is, indeed, often used to express something on which we have a future dependance, as in Virg. Eclog. i. l. 14.

Spem gregis, ah! silice in nuda connixa reliquit.'

and in Georg. iii. 1. 473.

for the lambs and the sheep. Yet it is also used to express any thing on which we have a present dependance, and is well applied to a man of distinguished influence,—our support, our refuge, our præsidium, as Horace calls Mæcenas. So, in Æneid xii. 1. 57, Queen

"The passage omitted explained the transaction to which the preceding letter had alluded.