1762. of that gentleman's work, entitled "A complete Syftem of aftronomical Chronology, unfolding the Scriptures." He had certainly looked at this work Atat. 53. before it was printed; for the concluding paragraph is undoubtedly of his compofition, of which let my readers judge: "Thus have I endeavoured to free Religion and Hiftory from the darkness of a disputed and uncertain chronology; from difficulties which have hitherto appeared infuperable, and darkness which no luminary of learning has hitherto been able to diffipate. I have established the truth of the Mofaical account, by evidence which no tranfcription can corrupt, no negligence can lofe, and no interest can pervert. I have fhewn that the universe bears witness to the inspiration of its hiftorian, by the revolution of its orbs and the fucceffion of its feasons; that the ftars in their courses fight against incredulity, that the works of God give hourly confirmation to the law, the prophets, and the gospel, of which one day telleth another, and one night certifieth another; and that the validity of the facred writings never can be denied, while the moon fhall increase and wane, and the fun shall know his going down." The following letter, which, on account of its intrinfick merit, it would have been unjust both to Johnson and the publick to have with-held, was obtained for me by the folicitation of my friend Mr. Seward: To Dr. STAUNTON, (now Sir GEORGE STAUNTON, Bart.) "DEAR SIR, "I MAKE hafte to answer your kind letter, in hope of hearing again from you before you leave us. I cannot but regret that a man of your qualifications should find it neceffary to feek an establishment in Gaudaloupe, which if a peace should reftore to the French, I fhall think it fome alleviation of the lofs, that it must restore likewife Dr. Staunton to the English. "It is a melancholy confideration, that fo much of our time is neceffarily to be spent upon the care of living, and that we can feldom obtain eafe in one respect but by refigning it in another; yet I fuppofe we are by this difpenfation not lefs happy in the whole, than if the fpontaneous bounty of Nature poured all that we want into our hands. A few, if they were thus left to themselves, would, perhaps, spend their time in laudable purfuits; but the greater part would prey upon the quiet of each other, or, in the want of other objects, would prey upon themselves. "This, however, is our condition, which we must improve and folace as we can and though we cannot choose always our place of refidence, we may 1762. Etat. 53. in every place find rational amufements, and poffefs in every place the comforts of piety and a pure confcience. "In America there is little to be obferved except natural curiofities. The new world must have many vegetables and animals with which philofophers are but little acquainted. I hope you will furnish yourself with fome books. of natural hiftory, and fome glaffes and other inftruments of obfervation. Trust as little as you can to report; examine all you can by your own fenfes. I do not doubt but you will be able to add much to knowledge, and, perhaps, to medicine. Wild nations trust to simples; and, perhaps, the Peruvian bark is not the only fpecifick which thofe extenfive regions may afford us, "Wherever you are, and whatever be your fortune, be certain, dear Sir, that you carry with you my kind wifhes; and that whether you return hither, or stay in the other hemifphere, to hear that you are happy will give pleasure to, Sir, "June 1, 1762. "Your most affectionate humble fervant, SAM. JOHNSON." A lady having at this time folicited him to obtain the Archbishop of Canterbury's patronage to have her fon fent to the Univerfity, one of those folicitations which are too frequent, where people, anxious for a particular object, do not confider propriety, or the opportunity which the persons whom they folicit have to affift them, he wrote to her the following anfwer; with a copy of which I am favoured by the Reverend Dr. Farmer, Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge. ❝ MADAM, "I HOPE you will believe that my delay in answering your letter could proceed only from my unwillingness to deftroy any hope that you had formed. Hope is itself a fpecies of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the exceffes of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, muft end in difappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly anfwer, that it is fuch expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by defire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken. "When "When you made your request to me, you should have confidered, Madam, what you were afking. You afk me to folicit a great man to whom I never spoke, for a young perfon whom I had never feen, upon a fuppofition which I had no means of knowing to be true. There is no reason why, amongst all the great, I fhould chufe to fupplicate the Archbishop, nor why, among all the poffible objects of his bounty, the Archbishop fhould chufe your fon. I know, Madam, how unwillingly conviction is admitted, when intereft opposes it; but furely, Madam, you must allow, that there is no reason why that fhould be done by me, which every other man may do with equal reason, and which, indeed, no man can do properly, without fome very particular relation both to the Archbishop and to you. If I could help you in this exigence by any proper means, it would give me pleasure; but this propofal is fo very remote from all ufual methods, that I cannot comply with it but at the risk of fuch answer and fufpicions as I believe you do not wish me to undergo. "I have feen your fon this morning; he feems a pretty youth, and will, perhaps, find fome better friend than I can procure him; but, though he fhould at last miss the University, he may ftill be wife, ufeful, and happy. I am, Madam, " June 8, 1762. "SIR, "Your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON.", To Mr. JOSEPH BARETTI, at Milan. London, July 20, 1762. « HOWEVER justly you may accuse me for want of punctuality in correfpondence, I am not fo far loft in negligence as to omit the opportunity of writing to you, which Mr. Beauclerk's paffage through Milan affords me. "I fuppofe you received the Idlers, and I intend that you fhall foon receive Shakspeare, that you may explain his works to the ladies of Italy, and tell them the story of the editor, among the other ftrange narratives with which your long refidence in this unknown region has fupplied you. "As you have now been long away, I fuppofe your curiofity may pant for fome news of your old friends. Mifs Williams and I live much as we did. Mifs Cotterel ftill continues to cling to Mrs. Porter, and Charlotte is now big of the fourth child. Mr. Reynolds gets fix thousands a year. Levet is lately married, not without much fufpicion that he has been wretchedly cheated in 1762. Etat. 53. his match. Mr. Chambers is gone this day, for the first time, the circuit. with the Judges. Mr. Richardfon is dead of an apoplexy, and his fecond daughter has married a merchant. My vanity, or my kindnefs, makes me flatter myself, that you would rather hear of me than of those whom I have mentioned; but of myself I have very little which I care to tell. Laft winter I went down to my native town, where I found the streets much narrower and shorter than I thought I had left them, inhabited by a new race of people, to whom I was very little known. My play-fellows were grown old, and forced me to fufpect that I was no longer young. My only remaining friend has changed his principles, and was become the tool of the predominant faction. My daughter-in-law, from whom I expected moft, and whom I met with fincere benevolence, has loft the beauty and gaiety of youth, without having gained much of the wisdom of age. I wandered about for five days, and took the first convenient opportunity of returning to a place, where, if there is not much happiness, there is at least fuch a diverfity of good and evil, that flight vexations do not fix upon the heart". "I think in a few weeks to try another excurfion; though to what end? Let me know, my Baretti, what has been the result of your return to your own country: whether time has made any alteration for the better, and whether, when the first raptures of falutation were over, you did not find your thoughts confeffed their disappointment. "Moral fentences appear oftentatious and tumid, when they have no greater occafions than the journey of a wit to his own town: yet fuch pleasures and fuch pains make up the general mass of life; and as nothing is little to him that feels it with great fenfibility, a mind able to fee common incidents in their real state, is disposed by very common incidents to very serious contemplations. Let us trust that a time will come, when the present moment shall be no longer irksome; when we shall not borrow all our happiness from hope, which at laft is to end in difappointment. "I beg that you will fhew Mr. Beauclerk all the civilities which you have in your power; for he has always been kind to me. "I have lately feen Mr. Stratico, Profeffor of Padua, who has told me of your quarrel with an Abbot of the Celestine order; but had not the particulars very ready in his memory. When you write to Mr. Marfili, let him know that I remember him with kindness. This is a very juft account of the relief which London affords to melancholy minds. " May "May you, my Baretti, be very happy at Milan, or fome other place 1762. nearer to, Sir, "Your most affectionate humble fervant, Ætat. 53. To the fame. "SAM. JOHNSON." Dec. 21, 1762. « SIR, "YOU are not to fuppofe, with all your conviction of my idleness, that I have paffed all this time without writing to my Baretti. I gave a letter to Mr. Beauclerk, who, in my opinion, and in his own, was hastening to Naples for the recovery of his health; but he has stopped at Paris, and I know not when he will proceed. Langton is with him. "I will not trouble you with fpeculations about peace and war. The good or ill fuccefs of battles and embaffies extends itfelf to a very fmall part of domestick life: we all have good and evil, which we feel more sensibly than our petty part of publick mifcarriage or profperity. I am forry for your disappointment, with which you feem more touched than I should expect a man of your refolution and experience to have been, did I not know that general truths are feldom applied to particular occafions; and that the fallacy of our felf-love extends itself as our intereft or affections. Every man believes that miftreffes are unfaithful, and patrons capricious; but he excepts his own mistress and his own patron. We have all learned that greatness is negligent and contemptuous, and that in Courts life is often languished away in ungratified expectation; but he that approaches greatness, or glitters in a Court, imagines that destiny has at last exempted him from the common lot. "Do not let fuch evils overwhelm you as thousands have fuffered, and thousands have furmounted; but turn your thoughts with vigour to some other plan of life, and keep always in your mind, that, with due fubmiffion to Providence, a man of genius has been feldom ruined but by himself. Your patron's weakness or infenfibility will finally do you little hurt, if he is not affifted by your own paffions. Of your love I know not the propriety, nor can estimate the power; but in love, as in every other paffion, of which hope is the effence, we ought always to remember the uncertainty of events. There is, indeed, nothing that fo much feduces reafon from vigilance, as the thought of paffing life with an amiable woman; and if all would happen that a lover fancies, I know not what other terrestrial happiness would deferve pursuit. But love and marriage are different ftates. Those who are to fuffer the evils Dd 2 together, |