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finking into negligence of reputation. Left the fear of difgrace destroy activity.

"Confidence in himself. Long tract of life before him.-No thought of ficknefs.-Émbarrafment of affairs.-Diftraction of family.-Publick calamities. No fenfe of the prevalence of bad habits.-Negligent of time-ready to undertake-carelefs to purfue-all changed by time.

"Confident of others-unfufpecting as unexperienced-imagining himself fecure against neglect, never imagines they will venture to treat him ill. Ready to trust; expecting to be trufted. Convinced by time of the selfishness, the meannefs, the cowardice, the treachery of men.

"Youth ambitious, as thinking honours eafy to be had.

"Different kinds of praise pursued at different periods. Of the gay in youth. dang. hurt, &c. defpifed.

"Of the fancy in manhood. Ambit.-ftocks-bargains. Of the wife and fober in old age-seriousness-formality-maxims, but general-only of the rich, otherwife age is happy-but at laft every thing referred to riches-no having fame, honour, influence, without fubjection to caprice.

"Horace.

"Hard it would be if men entered life with the fame views with which they leave it, or left as they enter it.-No hope-no undertaking-no regard to benevolence-no fear of difgrace, &c.

"Youth to be taught the piety of age-age to retain the honour of youth."

This, it will be observed, is the fketch of No. 196 of the Rambler. I fhall gratify my readers with another specimen :

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"Seldom in war a match for single persons-nor in peace; therefore kings make themselves abfolute. Confederacies in learning-every great work the work of one. Bruy. Scholars' friendship like ladies. Scribebamus, &c. Mart. The apple of difcord—the laurel of difcord-the poverty of criticism. Swift's opinion of the power of fix geniuses united. That union scarce poffible. His remarks juft;-man a social, not steady`nature. Drawn to man by words, repelled by paffions. Orb drawn by attraction rep. [repelled] by centifrugal.

"Common

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1750.

"Common danger unites by crushing other paffions-but they return.

Etat. 41. Equality hinders compliance. Superiority produces infolence and envy. Too much regard in each to private intereft-too little.

"The mischiefs of private and exclufive focieties-the fitnefs of focial attraction diffused through the whole. The mischiefs of too partial love of our country. Contraction of moral duties os & Pix©.

"Every man moves upon his own center, and therefore repels others from too near a contact, though he may comply with fome general laws.

"Of confederacy with fuperiours, every one knows the inconvenience. With equals, no authority;-every man his own opinion-his own interest.

"Man and wife hardly united;-scarce ever without children. Computation, if two to one against two, how many against five? If confederacies were easy-useless;-many oppreffes many.-If poffible only to fome, dangerous. Principum amicitias.'

Here we see the embryo of No. 45 of the Adventurer; and it is a confirmation of what I have mentioned, that the papers in that collection marked T. were written by Johnson.

This fcanty preparation of materials will not, however, much diminish our wonder at the extraordinary fertility of his mind; for the proportion which they bear to the number of effays which he wrote, is very small; and it is remarkable, that those for which he had made no preparation, are as rich and as highly finished, as those for which the hints were lying by him. It is also to be observed, that the papers formed from his hints are worked up with fuch strength and elegance, that we almost lofe fight of the hints, which become like "drops in the bucket." Indeed, in feveral instances, he has made a very slender use of them, fo that many of them remain still unapplied3.

Sir John Hawkins has felected from this little collection of materials, what he calls the "Rudiments of two of the papers of the Rambler." But he has not been able to read the manufcript diftinctly. Thus he writes, p. 266, "Sailors fate any manfion;" whereas the original is Sailor's life my averfion." He has alfo tranfcribed the unappropriated hints on Writers for bread, in which he decyphers these notable paffages, one in Latin, fatui non famæ, instead of fami non fama; Johnson having in his mind what Thuanus fays of the learned German antiquary and linguift, Xylander, who, he tells us, lived in fuch poverty, that he was fuppofed fami non famæ fcribere; and another in French, Degente de fate et affame d'argent, instead of Degouté de fame, (an old word for fame) et affamé d'argent. The manufcript being written in an exceedingly small hand, is indeed very hard to read; but it would have been better to have left blanks than to write nonfenfe.

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As the Rambler was entirely the work of one man, there was, of course, fuch an uniformity in its texture, as very much to exclude the charm of variety; and the grave and often folemn caft of thinking, which diftinguished it from other periodical papers, made it, for fome time, not generally liked. So flowly did this excellent work, of which twelve editions have now iffued from the prefs, gain upon the world at large, that even in the closing number the authour fays, "I have never been much a favourite of the publick."

Yet, very foon after its commencement, there were who felt and acknowledged its uncommon excellence. Verses in its praise appeared in the newfpapers; and the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine mentions, in October, his having received feveral letters to the fame purpose from the learned. "The Student, or Oxford and Cambridge Mifcellany," in which Mr. Bonnell Thornton and Mr. Colman were the principal writers, defcribes it as “a work that exceeds any thing of the kind ever published in this kingdom, some of the Spectators excepted,-if indeed they may be excepted." And afterwards, "May the publick favours crown his merits, and may not the English, under the aufpicious reign of GEORGE the Second, negle& a man, who, had he lived in the first century, would have been one of the greatest favourites of AUGUSTUS." This flattery of the monarch had no effect. It is too well known, that the second George never was an Augustus to learning or genius. Johnson told me, with an amiable fondnefs, a little pleafing circumstance relative to this work. Mrs. Johnson, in whofe judgement and taste he had great confidence, faid to him, after a few numbers of the Rambler had come out, "I thought very well of you before; but I did not imagine you could have written any thing equal to this." Diftant praife, from whatever quarter, is not fo delightful as that of a wife whom a man loves and esteems. Her approbation may be faid to "come home to his bofom ;" and being fo near, its effect is moft fenfible and permanent.

Mr. James Elphinfton, who has fince published various works, and who was ever esteemed by Johnson as a worthy man, happened to be in Scotland while the Rambler was coming out in fingle papers at London. With a laudable zeal at once for the improvement of his countrymen and the reputation of his friend, he suggested and took the charge of an edition of those Essays at Edinburgh, which followed progreffively the London publication".

The

It was executed in the printing-office of Sands, Murray, and Cochran, with uncommon elegance, upon writing paper, of a duodecimo fize, and with the greatest correctnefs; and Mr.

Elphinston

1750.

1750.

Etat. 41.

The following letter written at this time, though not dated, will show how much pleased Johnson was with this publication, and what kindness and regard he had for Mr. Elphinston..

To Mr. JAMES ELPHINSTON.

"DEAR SIR,

[No date.]

"I CANNOT but confefs the failures of my correfpondence, but hope the fame regard which you exprefs for me on every other occafion, will incline you to forgive me. I am often, very often, ill; and, when I am well, am obliged to work and, indeed, have never much used myself to punctuality. You are, however, not to make unkind inferences, when I forbear to reply to your kindness; for be affured, I never receive a letter from you without great pleasure, and a very warm sense of your generofity and friendship, which I heartily blame myself for not cultivating with more care. In this, as in many other cafes, I go wrong, in oppofition to conviction; for I think scarce any temporal good equally to be defired with the regard and familiarity of worthy men. I hope we shall be some time nearer to each other, and have a more ready way of pouring out our hearts.

"I am glad that you ftill find encouragement to proceed in your publication, and shall beg the favour of fix more volumes to add to my former fix, when you can, with any convenience, fend them me. Please to present a set,

has

in my name, to Mr. Ruddiman', of whom, I hear, that his learning is not his highest excellence. I have transcribed the mottos, and returned them, I hope not too late, of which I think many very happily performed. Mr. Cave put the laft in the magazine, in which I think he did well. I beg of you to write foon, and to write often, and to write long letters, which I hope in time to repay you; but you must be a patient creditor. I have, however, this of gratitude, that I think of you with regard, when I do not, perhaps, give the proofs which I ought, of being, Sir,

"Your most obliged and moft humble fervant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

Elphinston enriched it with translations of the mottos. When completed, it made eight handsome volumes. It is, unquestionably, the most accurate and beautiful edition of this work; and there being but a fmall impreffion, it is now become scarce, and fells at a very high price.

'Mr. Thomas Ruddiman, the learned grammarian of Scotland, well known for his various excellent works, and for his accurate editions of feveral authours. He was alfo a man of a moft worthy private character. His zeal for the Royal House of Stuart did not render him less estimable in Dr. Johnfon's eyc.

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Soon after this he wrote to the fame gentleman another letter, upon a mournful occafion.

1750.

Etat. 41.

To Mr. JAMES ELPHINSTON.

September 25, 1750.

"DEAR SIR, "YOU have, as I find by every kind of evidence, loft an excellent mother; and I hope you will not think me incapable of partaking of your grief. I have a mother, now eighty-two years of age, whom, therefore, I must foon lofe, unless it please GOD that she rather should mourn for me. I read the leters in which you relate your mother's death to Mrs. Strahan, and think I do myself honour, when I tell you that I read them with tears; but tears are neither to you nor to me of any further use, when once the tribute of nature has been paid. The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues of which we are lamenting our deprivation. The greatest benefit which one friend can confer upon another, is to guard, and excite, and elevate his virtues. This your mother will still perform, if you diligently preferve the memory of her life, and of her death: a life, fo far as I can learn, useful, wife, and innocent; and a death refigned, peaceful, and holy. I cannot forbear to mention, that neither reason nor revelation denies you to hope, that you may increase her happiness by obeying her precepts; and that she may in her present state look with pleasure upon every act of virtue to which her instructions or example have contributed. Whether this be more than a pleasing dream, or a just opinion of separate spirits, is, indeed, of no great importance to us, when we consider ourselves as acting under the eye of GOD: yet, furely, there is fomething pleafing in the belief, that our feparation from those whom we love is merely corporeal; and it may be a great incitement to virtuous friendship, if it can be made probable, that that union that has received the divine approbation fhall continue to eternity.

"There is one expedient by which you may, in some degree, continue her prefence. If you write down minutely what you remember of her from your earliest years, you will read it with great pleasure, and receive from it many hints of foothing reollection, when time fhall remove her yet farther from you, and your grief fhall be matured to veneration. To this, however painful for the prefent, I cannot but advise you, as to a fource of comfort and fatisfaction in the time to come; for all comfort and all satisfaction is fincerely wifhed you by, dear Sir,

"Your most obliged, moft obedient,

"And most humble fervant,

"SAM. JOHNSON.

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