"The reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness, or blest with spontaneous fecundity; no perpetual gloom, or unceasing sunshine; nor are the nations here described either devoid of all sense of humanity, or consummate in all private or social virtues. Here are no Hottentots without religious policy or articulate language; no Chinese perfectly polite, and completely skilled in all sciences; he will discover, what will always be discovered by a diligent and impartial enquirer, that wherever human nature is to be found, there is a mixture of vice and virtue, a contest of passion and reason; and that the Creator doth not appear partial in his distributions, but has balanced, in most countries, their particular inconveniences by particular favours."

Here we have an early example of that brilliant and energetic expression, which, upon innumerable occasions in his subsequent life, justly impressed the world with the highest admiration. Nor can any one, conversant with the writings of Johnson, fail to discern his hand in this passage of the Dedication to John Warren, Esq. of Pembrokeshire, though it is ascribed to Warren the bookseller:

"A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity (1); nor is that curiosity ever more agreeably or usefully employed, than in examining the laws and customs of foreign nations. I hope, therefore, the present I now presume to make, will not be thought improper; which, however, it is not my business as a dedicator to commend, nor as a bookseller to depreciate."

(1) See Rambler, No. 103. ["Curiosity is the thirst of the soul," &c.]

It is reasonable to suppose, that his having been thus accidentally led to a particular study of the history and manners of Abyssinia, was the remote occasion of his writing, many years afterwards, his admirable philosophical tale, the principal scene of which is laid in that country.

Johnson returned to Lichfield early in 1734, and in August that year he made an attempt to procure some little subsistence by his pen; for he published proposals for printing by subscription the Latin Poems of Politian (1): "Angeli Politiani Poemata Latini, quibus Notas, cum historia Latina poeseos à Petrarchæ ævo ad Politiani tempora deductâ, et vitá Politiani fusius quam antehac enarrata, addidit SAM. JOHNSON." (2)

It appears that his brother Nathaniel had taken up his father's trade; for it is mentioned, "that subscriptions are taken in by the Editor, or N. Johnson,

(1) May we not trace a fanciful similarity between Politian and Johnson? Huetius, speaking of Paulus Pelissonius Fontanerius, says in quo natura, ut olim in Angelo Politiano, deformitatem oris excellentis ingenii præstantiâ compensavit." Comment. de reb. ad eum pertin. Edit. Amstel. 1718. p. 200.

BOSWELL.

In this learned masquerade of Paulus Pelissonius Fontanerius, we have some difficulty in detecting Madame de Sevigne's friend, M. Pelisson, of whom M. de Guilleragues used the phrase, which has since grown into a proverb, "qu'il abusait de la permission qu'ont les hommes d'être laids."-See Madame de Sevigné's Letter, Jan. 5. 1674. Huet, bishop of Avranche, wrote Memoirs of his own time, in Latin, from which Boswell has extracted this scrap of pleasantry. CROKER.

[For a full account of Politian and his Poems, see Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo of Medici.]

(2) The book was to contain more than thirty sheets, the price to be two shillings and sixpence at the time of subscribing, and two shillings and sixpence at the delivery of a perfect book in quires.

bookseller, of Lichfield." (')

Notwithstanding the

merit of Johnson, and the cheap price at which this book was offered, there were not subscribers enough to insure a sufficient sale; so the work never appeared, and, probably, never was executed. (2)

We find him again this year at Birmingham, and there is preserved the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave, the original compiler and editor of the Gentleman's Magazine. (3)

"Sir,

"Nov. 25. 1734.

As you appear no less sensible than your readers of the defects of your poetical article, you will

(1) Nathaniel kept the shop as long as he lived, as did his mother, after him, till her death. Miss Seward tells us, that Miss Lucy Porter, from the age of twenty to her fortieth year (when she was raised to a state of competency by the death of her eldest brother), "had boarded in Lichfield with Dr. Johnson's mother, who still kept that little bookseller's shop by which her husband had supplied the scanty means of subsistence: meantime Lucy Porter kept the best company in our little city, but would make no engagement on market-days, lest Granny, as she called Mrs. Johnson, should catch cold by serving in the shop. There Lucy Porter took her place, standing behind the counter, nor thought it a disgrace to thank a poor person who purchased from her a penny battledoor." Lett. 1. 117. CROKER.

(2) [It is to be regretted that the project was not afterwards revived, as a new life of Politian, and a history of Latin poetry from the age of Petrarch to the time of Politian, would have been a valuable accession to Italian literature. ANDERSON.]

1

(3) [To the "Grub-Street Journal," a weekly publication of small importance, we may trace the origin of this very valuable literary miscellany. The "Journal" began in Jan. 1730: the encouragement it met with suggested to Cave an improvement on its plan; and, in 1731, he produced the first number of the "Gentleman's Magazine, or Monthly Intelligencer, by Sylvanus Urban, Gent." See Memoirs of the Society of Grub Street, p. 12.]

not be displeased, if, in order to the improvement of it, I communicate to you the sentiments of a person who will undertake, on reasonable terms, sometimes to fill a column.

"His opinion is, that the public would not give you a bad reception, if, beside the current wit of the month, which a critical examination would generally reduce to a narrow compass, you admitted not only poems, inscriptions, &c. never printed before, which he will sometimes supply you with, but likewise short literary dissertations in Latin or English, critical remarks on authors ancient or modern, forgotten poems that deserve revival, or loose pieces, like Floyer's (1), worth preserving. By this method, your literary article, for so it might be called, will, he thinks, be better recommended to the public than by low jests, awkward buffoonery, or the dull scurrilities of either party.

"If such a correspondence will be agreeable to you, be pleased to inform me in two posts what the conditions are on which you shall expect it. Your late offer (2) gives me no reason to distrust your generosity.

(1) ["A Letter from the late Sir John Floyer, in recommendation of the Cold Bath." Gent. Mag. 1734, p. 197. This letter was probably sent by Johnson himself: the Doctor, a very short time before his death, pressed Mr. Nichols to give to the public some account of the life and works of Sir John Floyer, "whose learning and piety," he said, " deserve recording." See Lit. Anec., vol. v. p. 19. Sir John Floyer was born about the year 1646, and died in Jan. 1734, at Lichfield; where an original portrait of him is preserved. Bishop Hough, in a letter dated July 4. 1730, says, "Sir John Floyer has been with me some weeks; and all my neighbours are surprised to see a man of eighty-five, who has his memory, understanding, and all his senses good, and seems to labour under no infirmity. He is of a happy temper, not to be moved with what he cannot remedy; which, I really believe, has, in a great measure, helped to preserve his health and prolong his days." The excellent prelate was himself, at the period of writing this letter, in his eightieth year.]

(2) A prize of fifty pounds for the best poem "On Life, Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell." See Ĝent. Mag. vol. iv.

If you engage in any literary projects besides this paper, I have other designs to impart, if I could be secure from having others reap the advantage of what I should hint.

"Your letter by being directed to S. Smith, to be left at the Castle in Birmingham, Warwickshire, will reach

"Your humble servant."

Mr. Cave has put a note on this letter, "Answered Dec. 2." But whether any thing was done in consequence of it we are not informed.

Johnson had, from his early youth, been sensible to the influence of female charms. When at Stourbridge school, he was much enamoured of Olivia Lloyd, a young quaker, to whom he wrote a copy of verses, which I have not been able to recover (1);

p. 560. ["Being," says Dr. Johnson, "but newly acquainted with wealth, and thinking the influence of fifty pounds very great, Cave expected the first authors of the kingdom to appear as competitors; and offered the allotment of the prize to the university. But, when the time came, no name was seen among the writers that had ever been seen before." - Life of Cave.]

(1) He also wrote some amatory verses, before he left Staffordshire, which our author appears not to have seen. They were addressed "to Miss Hickman, playing on the spinet." At the back of this early poetical effusion, of which the original copy, in Johnson's handwriting, was obligingly communicated to me by Mr. John Taylor, is the following attestation: "Written by the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, on my mother, then Miss Hickman, playing on the spinet. J. Turton." Dr. Turton, the physician, writer of this certificate, who died in April, 1806, in his 71st year, was born in 1735. The verses in question, therefore, which have been printed in some late editions of Johnson's poems, must have been written before that year. Miss Hickman, it is believed, was a lady of Staffordshire. MALONE. [She was, no doubt, the daughter of the friendly schoolmaster at Stourbridge. See antè, p. 86. n.]