"I Pray often for you; do you pray for me.-I 1759. have nothing to add to my last letter. "I am, dear, dear Mother, "Your dutiful Son, "Jan. 16, 1759. "SAM. JOHNSON." 66 TO MRS. JOHNSON, IN LICHFIELD. 66 DEAR HONOURED MOTHER, "I FEAR you are too ill for long letters; therefore I will only tell you, you have from me all the regard that can possibly subsist in the heart. I pray GOD to bless you for evermore, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. "Let Miss write to me every post, however short. "I am, dear Mother, Etat. 50. "Jan. 18, 1759. "Your dutiful Son, "SAM. JOHNSON." TO MISS PORTER, AT MRS. JOHNSON'S, IN LICHFIELD 66 DEAR MISS, I WILL, if it be possible, come down to you. GOD grant I may yet [find] my dear mother breathing and sensible. Do not tell her, lest I disappoint her. If I miss to write next post, I am on the road. ❝ I am, "NEITHER your condition nor your character make it fit for me to say much. You have been the best mother, and I believe the best woman in the world. I thank you for your indulgence to me, and beg forgiveness of all that I have done ill, and all that [This letter was written on the second leaf of the preceding, addressed to Miss Porter. M.] 1759. I have omitted to do well.' GOD grant you his Holy Etat. Spirit, and receive you to everlasting happiness, for 50. Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Lord Jesus receive your "I am, dear, dear Mother, spirit. Amen. "Jan. 20, 1759. "Your dutiful Son, "SAM. JOHNSON." TO MISS PORTER, IN LICHFIELD. "You will conceive my sorrow for the loss of my mother, of the best mother. If she were to live again, surely I should behave better to her. But she is happy, and what is past is nothing to her; and for me, since I cannot repair my faults to her, I hope repentance will efface them. I return you and all those that have been good to her my sincerest thanks, and pray GOD to repay you all with infinite advantage. Write to me, and comfort me, dear child. I shall be glad likewise, if Kitty will write to me. I shall send a bill of twenty pounds in a few days, which I thought to have brought to my mother; but GoD suffered it not. I have not power or composure to say much more. God bless you, and bless us all. "I am, dear Miss, "Your affectionate humble servant, "Jan. 23, 1759.s Soon after this event, he wrote his "RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA; concerning the publication of which Sir John Hawkins guesses vaguely and idly, instead of having taken the trouble to inform himself with authentick precision. Not to trouble my readers with a repetition of the Knight's reveries, I have to mention, that the late Mr. Strahan the printer told me, [So, in the Prayer which he composed on this occasion: "Almighty GoD, merciful Father, in whose hands are life and death, sanctify unto me the sorrow which I now feel. Forgive me whatever I have done unkindly to my mother, and whatever I have omitted to do kindly. Make me to remember her good precepts and good example, and to reform my life according to thy holy word, &c. PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS, p. 31. M.] [Mrs. Johnson probably died on the 20th or 21st of January, and was buried on the day this letter was written. M.] that Johnson wrote it, that with the profits he might 1759. defray the expence of his mother's funeral, and pay Etat. some little debts which she had left. He told Sir 50. Joshua Reynolds, that he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over.' Mr. Strahan, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodsley, purchased it for a hundred pounds, but afterwards paid him twentyfive pounds more, when it came to a second edition. Considering the large sums which have been received for compilations, and works requiring not much more genius than compilations, we cannot but wonder at the very low price which he was content to receive for this admirable performance; which, though he had written nothing else, would have rendered his name immortal in the world of literature. None of his writings has been so extensively diffused over Europe; for it has been translated into most, if not all, of the modern languages. This Tale, with all the charms of oriental imagery, and all the force and beauty of which the English language is capable, leads us through the most important scenes of human life, and shews us that this stage of our being is full of "vanity and vexation of spirit." To those who look no further than the pres ent life, or who maintain that human nature has not fallen from the state in which it was created, the instruction of this sublime story will be of no avail. But they who think justly, and feel with strong sensibility, will listen with eagerness and admiration to its truth and wisdom. Voltaire's CANDIDE, written to refute the system of Optimism, which it has accomplished with brilliant success, is wonderfully similar in its plan and conduct to Johnson's RASSELAS; insomuch, that I have heard Johnson say, that if they had not been published so closely one after the other that there was not time for imitation, it would have been in vain to deny that the scheme of that which came latest was taken 9 [RASSELAS was published in March or April 1759.] [See vol. iii. under June 2, 1781. Finding it then accidentally in a chaise with Mr. Boswell, he read it eagerly. This was doubtless long after his declaration to Sir Joshua Reynolds. M.] Etat. 1759. from the other. Though the proposition illustrated by both these works was the same, namely, that in our 50. present state there is more evil than good, the intention of the writers was very different. Voltaire, I am afraid, meant only by wanton profaneness to obtain a sportive victory over religion, and to discredit the belief of a superintending Providence: Johnson meant, by shewing the unsatisfactory nature of things temporal, to direct the hopes of man to things eternal. Rasselas, as was observed to me by a very accomplished lady, may be considered as a more enlarged and more deeply philosophical discourse in prose, upon the interesting truth, which in his " Vanity of Human Wishes" he had so successfully enforced in verse. The fund of thinking which this work contains is such, that almost every sentence of it may furnish a subject of long meditation. I am not satisfied if a year passes without my having read it through; and at every perusal, my admiration of the mind which produced it is so highly raised, that I can scarcely believe that I had the honour of enjoying the intimacy of such a man. I restrain myself from quoting passages from this excellent work, or even referring to them, because I should not know what to select, or, rather what to omit. I shall, however, transcribe one, as it shews how well he could state the arguments of those who believe in the appearance of departed spirits; a doctrine which it is a mistake to suppose that he himself ever positively held : "If all your fear be of apparitions, (said the Prince,) I will promise you safety: there is no danger from the dead; he that is once buried will be seen no more. "That the dead are seen no more, (said Imlac,) I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which prevails as far as human nature is dif fused, could become universal only by its truth; those that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make cred- 1759. ible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very Etat. little weaken the general evidence; and some who de- 50. ny it with their tongues, confess it by their fears." Notwithstanding my high admiration of Rasselas, I will not maintain that the "morbid melancholy" in Johnson's constitution may not, perhaps, have made life appear to him more insipid and unhappy than it generally is; for I am sure that he had less enjoyment from it than I have. Yet, whatever additional shade his own particular sensations may have thrown on his representation of life, attentive observation and close enquiry have convinced me, that there is too much reality in the gloomy picture. The truth, however, is, that we judge of the happiness and misery of life differently at different times, according to the state of our changeable frame. I always remember a remark made to me by a Turkish lady, educated in France: "Ma foi, Monsieur, notre bonheur depend de la façon que notre sang circule." This have I learnt from a pretty hard course of experience, and would, from sincere benevolence, impress upon all who honour this book with a perusal, that until a steady conviction is obtained, that the present life is an imperfect state, and only a passage to a better, if we comply with the divine scheme of progressive improvement; and also that it is a part of the mysterious plan of Providence, that intellectual beings must "be made perfect through suffering;" there will be a continual recurrence of disappointment and uneasiness. But if we walk with hope in "the mid-day sun" of revelation, our temper and disposition will be such, that the comforts and enjoyments in our way will be relished, while we patiently support the inconveniencies and pains. After much speculation and various reasonings, I acknowledge myself convinced of the truth of Voltaire's conclusion, Apres tout c'est un monde passable." But we must not think too deeply; 46 |