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character, such as I should quite reject, and endeavour to do something better towards doing justice to the character. But as I cannot expect to attain my desire in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work, to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post, and others by the speakers themselves, who have been pleased to visit St. John's Gate, and show particular marks of their being pleased."—[Birch's MSS. in Brit. Mus. 4302.]

There is no reason, I believe, to doubt the veracity of Cave. It is, however, remarkable that none of these letters are in the years during which Johnson alone furnished the Debates, and one of them is in the very year after he ceased from that labour. Johnson told me, that as soon as he found that the speeches were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more of them; "for he would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood." And such was the tenderness of his conscience, that a short time before his death he expressed his regret for his having been the author of fictions, which had passed for realities.

He nevertheless agreed with me in thinking that the debates which he had framed were to be valued as orations upon questions of public importance. They have accordingly been collected in volumes, properly arranged, and recommended to the notice of parliamentary speakers by a preface, written by no inferior

hand.' I must, however, observe, that, although there is in those debates a wonderful store of political information, and very powerful eloquence, I cannot agree that they exhibit the manner of each particular speaker, as Sir John Hawkins seems to think. But, indeed, what opinion can we have of his judgment and taste in public speaking, who presumes to give, as the characteristics of two celebrated orators, "the deep-mouthed rancour of Pulteney, and the yelping pertinacity of Pitt ?"2

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1 I am assured that the editor is Mr. George Chalmers, whose commercial works are well known and esteemed.BOSWELL. This collection is stated in the Preface to the Parliamentary History, vol. x., to be very incomplete: of thirty-two debates, twelve are given under wrong dates, and several of Johnson's best compositions are wholly omitted; amongst others the important debate of Feb. 13 1741, on Mr. Sandys's motion for the removal of Sir Robert Walpole : other Omissions, equally striking, are complained of. CROKER. 2 Sir J. Hawkins's account of the origin and progress of this system of reporting the debates and of Johnson's share in it is too long (pp. 94-132) to be introduced here, but is curious and worth consulting. Hawkins, however, seems (as well as the other biographers) to have overrated the value, to Cave and the public, of Johnson's Parliamentary Debates. It is shown in the preface to the Parliamentary History for 1738 (ed. 1812), that one of Cave's rivals, the London Magazine, often excelled the Gentleman's Magazine, in the priority and accuracy of its parliamentary reports, which were contributed by Gordon, the translator of Tacitus. Of the reports in the Gentleman's Magazine, Mr. Murphy says: That Johnson was the author of the debates was not generally known; but the secret transpired several years afterwards, and was avowed by himself on the following occasion:- Mr. Wedderburne (afterwards Lord Loughborough and Earl of Rosslyn), Dr. Johnson, Dr. Francis (the translator of Horace), Murphy himself, and others, dined with the late Mr. Foote. An important debate towards the end of Sir Robert Walpole's administration being mentioned, Dr. Francis observed, "that Mr. Pitt's speech on that Occasion was the best he had ever read." He added, “that he had employed eight years of his life in the study of Demosthenes, and finished a translation of that celebrated orator, with all the decorations of style and language within the reach of his capacity; but he had met with nothing equal to the speech above mentioned." Many of the company remembered the debate; and some passages were cited with the approbation and applause of all present. During the ardour of conversation, Johnson remained silent. As soon as the warmth of praise subsided, he opened with these words: "That speech I wrote in a garret in Exeter Street."

The company was struck with astonishment. After staring at each other in silent amaze, Dr. Francis asked how that speech could be written by him?" Sir," said Johnson, "I wrote it in Exeter Street. I never have been in the gallery of the House of Commons but once. Cave had interest with the door-keepers. He, and the persons employed under him, gained admittance: they brought away the subject of discussion, the names of the speakers, the sides they took, and the order in which they rose, together with notes of the arguments advanced in the course of the debate. The whole was afterwards communicated to me, and I composed the speeches in the form which they now have in the Parliamentary Debates." To this discovery Dr. Francis made answer:-" Then, sir, you have exceeded Demosthenes himself, for to say that you have exceeded Francis's Demosthenes, would be saying nothing" The rest of the company bestowed lavish encomiums on Johnson: one, in particular, praised his impartiality; observing, that he dealt out reason and eloquence with an equal hand to both parties. "That is not quite true," said Johnson; "I saved appearances tolerably well, but I took care that the WHIG DOGS should not have the best of it."- Murphy.

The speech of Mr. Pitt's referred to was, no doubt, the celebrated reply to old Horace Walpole, beginning "The atrocious crime of being a young man," March 10. 1741; but there is in the statement a slight inaccuracy, arising, perhaps, from a slip of Johnson's memory, who, by Mr. Boswell's list of Johnson's residences, appears not to have resided in Exeter Street after his return to London in 1737. But he may have resided there a second time, or, after the lapse of so many years, have forgotten the exact place. There can be no doubt that Murphy's report was accurate.

It is very remarkable that Dr. Maty, who wrote the Life and edited the Works of Lord Chesterfield, with the use of his Lordship's papers, under the eye of his surviving friends, and in the lifetime of Johnson, should have published, as "specimens of his Lordship's eloquence, in the strong nervous style of Demosthenes, as well as in the witty ironical manner of Tully," three speeches, which are certainly Johnson's composition. See Chesterfield's Works, vol. ii. p.319. and post, May 13. 1778. CROKER.

in the British Museum, from which I copied those above quoted. They were most obligingly pointed out to me by Sir William Musgrave, one of the curators [trustees] of that noble repository.

44

'Sept. 9, 1741.

"I have put Mr. Johnson's play into Mr. Gray's 1

hands, in order to sell it to him, if he is inclined to buy it; but I doubt whether he will or not. He would dispose of the copy, and whatever advantage may be made by acting it. Would your society, or any gentleman, or body of men that you know, take such a bargain? He and I are very unfit to deal with theatrical persons. Fleetwood was to have acted it last season, but Johnson's diffidence or 3 ' prevented it."

I have already inentioned that "Irene" was not brought into public notice till Garrick was manager of Drury-lane Theatre.

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In 17424 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine, the "Preface,"† the " Parliamentary Debates,' "Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough,"* then the popular topic of conversation. This Essay is a short but masterly performance. We find him, in No. 13. of his Rambler, censuring a profligate sentiment in that "Account, "5 and again (10th Sept. 1773) insisting upon it strenuously in conversation. "An Account of the Life of Peter Burman," I believe chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much about Burman; "Additions to his Life of Barretier," The Life of Sydenham," afterwards prefixed to Dr. Swan's edition of his works; "Proposals for printing Bibliotheca Harleiana, or a Catalogue of the Library of the Earl of Oxford."* His account of that celebrated collection of books, in which he displays the importance to literature, of what the French call a catalogue raisonné, when the subjects of it are extensive and various, and it is executed with ability, cannot fail to impress all his readers with admiration of his philological attainments. It was afterwards prefixed to the first volume of the Catalogue, in which the Latin accounts of books were written by him. He was employed in this business by Mr. Thomas Osborne6 the bookseller, who purchased the library for

John Gray was a bookseller, at the Cross Keys in the Poultry, the shop formerly kept by Dr. Samuel Chandler. Like his predecessor, he became a dissenting minister; but he afterwards took orders in the church, and held a living at Ripon in Yorkshire. WRIGHT.

Not the Royal Society [as Boswell in his two first editions had strangely stated], but the " Society for the Encouragement of Learning," of which Dr. Birch was a leading member. Their object was, to assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when, having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved. — BOSWELL.

3 There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture. - BosWELL. Probably something equivalent to the reverse of diffidence. CROKER.

4 From one of his letters to a friend, written in June, 1742, it should seem that he then purposed to write a play on the subject of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, and to have it ready for the ensuing winter. The passage alluded to, however, is somewhat ambiguous; and the work which he then

13,000l., a sum which Mr. Oldys says, in one of his manuscripts, was not more than the binding of the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it. It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. "Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber." A very diligent observer may trace him where we should not easily suppose him to be found. I have no doubt that he wrote the little abridgment entitled "Foreign History," in the Magazine for December. To prove it, I shall quote the Introduction:

"As this is that season of the year in which Nature may be said to command a suspension of hostilities, and which seems intended, by putting a short stop to violence and slaughter, to afford time for malice to relent, and animosity to subside; we can scarce expect any other account than of plans, negotiations, and treaties, of proposals for peace, and preparations for war.'

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As also this passage: —

"Let those who despise the capacity of the Swiss, tell us by what wonderful policy, or by what happy conciliation of interests, it is brought to pass, that in a body made up of different communities and different religions, there should be no civil commotions, though the people are so warlike, that to nominate and raise an army is the same."

I am obliged to Mr. Astle for his ready permission to copy the two following letters, of which the originals are in his possession. Their contents show that they were written about this time, and that Johnson was now engaged in preparing an historical account of the British Parliament.

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had in contemplation may have been a history of that monarch. MALONE.

5"A late female minister of state has been shameless enough to inform the world, that she used, when she wanted to extract any thing from her sovereign, to remind her of Montaigne's reasoning; who has determined, that to tell a secret to a friend is no breach of fidelity, because the number of persons trusted is not multiplied, a man and his friend being virtually the same." Rambler, No. 13. WRIGHT.

6 The same who is introduced into the Dunciad under disgusting circumstances, which disgrace Pope rather than Osborne, of whom Johnson says in his Life of the poet, that his impassible dulness" would not feel the satire. He died in 1767. CROKER.

7 See Censura Literaria, vol. i. p. 438. — WRIght.

8 Thomas Astle, Esq., many years Keeper of the Records in the Tower, one of the Keepers of the Paper Office, and Trustee of the British Museum. He contributed many articles to the Archæologia; but his principal work was the "Origin and Progress of Writing, as well Hieroglyphic as Elementary." He died Dec. 1. 1803.-WRIGHT.

numbers as an alteration in the scheme, but I believe you mistook, some way or other, my meaning; I had no other view than that you might rather print too many of five sheets, than of five and thirty.

"With regard to what I shall say on the manner of proceeding, I would have it understood as wholly indifferent to me, and my opinion only, not my resolution. Emptoris sit eligere.

"I think the insertion of the exact dates of the most important events in the margin, or of so many events as may enable the reader to regulate the order of facts with sufficient exactness, the proper medium between a journal, which has regard only to time, and a history, which ranges facts according to their dependence on each other, and postpones or anticipates according to the convenience of narration. I think the work ought to partake of the spirit of history, which is contrary to minute exactness, and of the regularity of a journal, which is inconsistent with spirit. For this reason, I neither admit numbers or dates, nor reject them.

"I am of your opinion with regard to placing most of the resolutions, &c. in the margin, and think we shall give the most complete account of parliamentary proceedings that can be contrived. The naked papers, without an historical treatise interwoven, require some other book to make them understood. I will date the succeeding facts with some exactness, but I think in the margin.

"You told me on Saturday that I had received money on this work, and found set down 131. 2s. 6d. reckoning the half guinea of last Saturday. As you hinted to me that you had many calls for money, would not press you too hard, and therefore shall desire only, as I send it in, two guineas for a sheet of copy; the rest you may pay me when it may be more convenient; and even by this sheet payment

I shall, for some time, be very expensive.

"The Life of Savage I am ready to go upon; and in great primer and pica notes, I reckon on sending in half a sheet a day; but the money for that shall likewise lie by in your hands till it is done. With the debates, shall not I have business enough if I had but good pens?

"Towards Mr. Savage's Life what more have you got? I would willingly have his trial, &c.,

**The Plain Dealer" was published in 1724, and contained some account of Savage. - BOSWELL.

2 Perhaps the Runic Inscription, Gent. Mag. vol. xii. - MALONE.

Certainly not-that was published in March, 1742, at least seventeen months before this letter was written; nor does there appear in the Magazine any inscription to which this can refer. It seemed at first sight probable that it might allude to the translation of Pope's Inscription on his Grotto, which appeared (with an apology for haste) in the next Magazine; but the expression "I could think of nothing till to day," negatives that supposition. The inscription, then, was I suppose one which Cave requested Johnson to devise, and for which, when Johnson after a long delay produced it, Cave surprised him by paying. — CROKER.

I have not discovered what this was.-BOSWELL.

3 Mr. Hector was present when this Epigram was made impromptu. The first line was proposed by Dr. James, and Johnson was called upon by the company to finish it, which he instantly did. - BOSWELL

Angliacas inter pulcherrima Laura puellas,
Mos uteri pondus depositura grave,
Adsit, Laura, tibi facilis Lucina dolenti,
Neve tibi noceat prænituisse Dea.

**Laura, of British girls the loveliest flower,
Soon to lay down the burden of thy womb;
O may Lucina help thy painful hour,

Nor harm thee, envious of thy brighter bloom.

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"I thought my letter would be long, but it is now ended; and I am, Sir, yours, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." "The boy found me writing this almost in the dark, when I could not quite easily read yours. "I have read the Italian : nothing in it is

well. "I had no notion of having any thing for the Inscription. I hope you don't think I kept it to extort a price. I could think of nothing till to-day. If you could spare me another guinea for the history, I should take it very kindly, tonight; but if you do not I shall not think it an injury. I am almost well again."

JOHNSON TO CAVE.

"SIR, - You did not tell me your determination about the Soldier's Letter, which I am confident was never printed. I think it will not do by itself, or in any other place, so well as the Mag. Extraordinary. If you will have it all, I believe you do not think I set it high; and I will be glad if what you give you will give quickly.

"You need not be in care about something to print, for I have got the State Trials, and shall extract Layer, Atterbury, and Macclesfield from them, and shall bring them to you in a fortnight; after which I will try to get the South Sea Report."

[No date, nor signature.]

I would also ascribe to him an "Essay on the Description of China, from the French of Du Halde."†

His writings in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1743, are, the Preface †, the Parliamentary "Considerations on the Dispute Debates †, between Crousaz and Warburton, on Pope's Essay on Man;"† in which, while he defends Crousaz, he shows an admirable metaphysical acuteness and temperance in controversy: "Ad Lauram parituram Epigramma :" :"3* and, "A

This version is, I am conscious, awkward enough, but not more so, I hope, than the original, which indeed, seems hardly worth the distinction of being specially quoted. If the first line was proposed as a thesis, we cannot much admire the style in which it was followed up the designation, surely, of the lady as puella, would lead us to expect any thing rather than the turn which the epigram takes. Is not the second line gross and awkward; the third pedantic; and the conceit of the fourth not even classical for Lucina was never famed for her beauty; and does not the whole seem a very strange subject for poetical compliment? - CROKER, 1831.

An article in the Edinburgh Review, No. 107. p. 9., since republished in Mr. Macaulay's Essays, censures the foregoing note; and, somewhat superfluously, reminds us, that Horace talks of laborantes utero puellas. I never said or supposed that a person in that condition might not be still called "puella," but I thought and think that if, as Boswell states, the first line was given as a thesis for the poet to pursue ad libitum in praise of the prettiest girl in England," one never would have expected the turn the compliment takes, of telling her, in very coarse terms, that she is about to be brought to bed, and of adding, by way of consolation, that she is handsomer than the midwife: for this learned critic has further discovered that “Lucina was one of the names of Diana, and the beauty of Diana is extolled by all the most orthodox doctors of ancient mythology." By this style of metonymy Hecate also might be made a partaker of Diana's beauty. See Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine for Nov. 1831.CROKER, 1846.

Mr. Malone states, that an elegant Latin Ode" Ad orna

Latin Translation of Pope's Verses on his Grotto:" and, as he could employ his pen with equal success upon a small matter as a great, suppose him to be the author of an advertisement for Osborne, concerning the great Harleian Catalogue.

But I should think myself much wanting, both to my illustrious friend and my readers, did I not introduce here, with more than ordinary respect, an exquisitely beautiful Ode, which has not been inserted in any of the collections of Johnson's poetry, written by him at a very early period, as Mr. Hector informs me, and inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine of this year.

FRIENDSHIP, AN ODE."

"Friendship, peculiar boon of Heaven, The noble mind's delight and pride, To men and angels only given,

To all the lower world denied.

"While love, unknown among the blest, Parent of thousand wild desires, The savage and the human breast Torments alike with raging fires; "With bright, but oft destructive, gleam, Alike o'er all his lightnings fly; Thy lambent glories only beam Around the favourites of the sky. "Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys

On fools and villains ne'er descend: In vain for thee the tyrant sighs,

And hugs a flatterer for a friend.

"Directress of the brave and just,

O guide us through life's darksome way! And let the tortures of mistrust

On selfish bosoms only prey.

"Nor shall thine ardour cease to glow,

When souls to blissful climes remove :
What rais'd our virtue here below,

Shall aid our happiness above."

Johnson had now an opportunity of obliging his schoolfellow Dr. James, of whom he once observed, "No man brings more mind to his profession." James published this year his "Medicinal Dictionary," in three volumes folio. Johnson, as I understood from him, had

tissimam Puellam," which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743 (vol. xiii. p. 548.), was, many years ago, pointed out to James Bindley, Esq., as written by Johnson, and may safely be attributed to him. I do not think so: it appears to me to be in a different and (may I venture to add?) better style than Johnson's; and I find, in the New Foundling Hospital for Wit, that it is attributed to Bishop Lowth.-CROKER.

SIR, That the Medicinal Dictionary is dedicated to you, is to be imputed only to your reputation for superior skill in those sciences which I have endeavoured to explain and facilitate and you are, therefore, to consider this address, if it be agreeable to you, as one of the rewards of merit; and, if otherwise, as one of the inconveniences of eminence.

"However you shall receive it, my design cannot be disappointed; because this public appeal to your judgment will show that I do not found my hopes of approbation upon the ignorance of my readers, and that I fear his censure least whose knowledge is most extensive. I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, R. JAMES."-BOSWELL.

written, or assisted in writing, the proposals for this work; and being very fond of the study of physic, in which James was his master, he furnished some of the articles. He, however, certainly wrote for it the Dedication to Dr. Mead †, which is conceived with great address, to conciliate the patronage of that very eminent man.'

It has been circulated 2, I know not with what authenticity, that Johnson considered Dr. Birch as a dull writer, and said of him, "Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties." That the literature of this country is much indebted to Birch's activity and diligence, must certainly be acknowledged. We have seen that Johnson honoured him with a Greek Epigram; and his correspondence with him, during many years, proves that he had no mean opinion of him.

"SIR,

JOHNSON TO BIRCH.

Thursday, Sept. 29. 1743. I hope you will excuse me for troubling you on an occasion on which I know not whom else I can apply to: I am at a loss for the lives and characters of Earl Stanhope, the two Craggs, and the minister Sunderland; and beg that you will inform [me] where I may find them, and send any pamphlets, &c. relating to them to Mr. Cave, to be perused for a few days, by, Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."

His circumstances were at this time embarrassed; yet his affection for his mother was so warm, and so liberal, that he took upon himself a debt of hers, which, though small in itself, was then considerable to him. This appears from the following letter which he wrote to Mr. Levett, of Lichfield, the original of which lies now before me.

JOHNSON TO MR. LEVETT,
In Lichfield.

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2 By Hawkins. Life, p. 209. There seems no reason to doubt that Dr. Birch's conversation exceeded his writings in vivacity, but the phrase itself is, as Mr. P. Cunningham observes, borrowed from Beau Nash, who said of himself that "his pen was a torpedo, which, when he grasped it, benumbed all his faculties." Goldsmith's Life of Nash. - CROKER.

3 No doubt, as the case has turned out, Birch is honoured by Johnson's compliment; but at the time when it was written, Birch was of eminence in the literary world, and (what affected Johnson more nearly) high in the estimation of Cave; and Johnson's learned flatteries of him, Miss Carter, and Mr. Urban, were all probably prompted by a desire to propitiate Cave. - CROKER.

4 Dr. Johnson was no doubt an affectionate son, and even to indifferent persons the most charitable of men; but the praises which Boswell lavishes on this particular affair are uncalled for, as the debt was hardly so much Johnson's mother's as his own. It has already appeared that he had something of his father's property to expect after his mother's death (p. 19.); this was the house in Lichfield,

think twelve pounds) in two months. I look upon this, and on the future interest of that mortgage, as my own debt; and beg that you will be pleased to give me directions how to pay it, and not to mention it to my dear mother. If it be necessary to pay this in less time, I believe I can do it; but I take two months for certainty, and beg an answer whether you can allow me so much time. I think myself very much obliged to your forbearance, and shall esteem it a great happiness to be able to serve you. I have great opportunities of dispersing any thing that you may think it proper to make public. I will give a note for the money, payable at the time mentioned, to any one here that you shall appoint. I am, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON.

"At Mr. Osborne's, bookseller, in Gray's Inn.”

It does not appear that he wrote any thing in 1744 for the Gentleman's Magazine, but the Preface. His life of Barretier was now republished in a pamphlet by itself. But he produced one work this year, fully sufficient to maintain the high reputation which he had acquired. This was The Life of Richard Savage;"* a man, of whom it is difficult to speak impartially, without wondering that he was for some time the intimate companion of Johnson; for his character was marked by profligacy, insolence, and ingratitude: yet, as he undoubtedly had a warm and vigorous, though unregulated mind, had seen life in all

which was, it seems, mortgaged to Mr. Levett: by the nonpayment of the interest Levett would have been entitled to get possession of the property; and in that case Johnson would have lost his reversion, so that he very justly says, that he looks upon this and the future interest on the mortgage as his own debt"-CROKER.

In this and the two next years, Mr. Boswell has not assigned to Johnson any contributions to the Gentleman's Magazine; yet there seems little doubt that from his connection with that work he derived, for some years, the chief and almost the only means of subsistence for himself and his wife: perhaps he may have acted as general editor with an annual allowance, and he no doubt employed himself on more literary works than have been acknowledged In this point the public loss is, perhaps, not great. What he was unwilling to arow, we need not be very solicitous to discover. Indeed, his personal history is, about this period, a blank, hidden, it is to be feared, in the obscurity of indigence - if there was not also some political motive for concealment. (See post, p. 54. n. 2.) - CROKER.

2 As a specimen of Savage's temper, I insert the following letter from him to a noble Lord [Tyrconnel], to whom he was under great obligations, but who, on account of his bad conduct, was obliged to discard him. The original was in the bands of the late Francis Cockayne Cust, Esq., one of his Majesty's counsel learned in the law:

Right Honourable BRUTE and BOOBY, I find you want (as Mr. is pleased to hint) to swear away my life, that is, the life of your creditor, because he asks you for a debt. The public shall soon be acquamted with this, to judge whether you are not fitter to be an Irish evidence, than to be an Irish peer. I defy aud despise you. I am, your determined adversary, R. S."- BoswELL.

Sir John Hawkins gives the world to understand, that Johnson," being an admirer of genteel manners, was captivated by the address and demeanour of Savage, who, as to his exterior, was, to a remarkable degree, accomplished." — Hawkins's Life, p. 52. But Sir John's notions of gentility must appear somewhat ludicrous, from his stating the following circumstance as presumptive evidence that Savage was a good swordsman:-" That he understood the exercise of a gentleman's weapon, may be inferred from the use made of it in that rash encounter related in his Life." The dexterity bere alluded to was, that Savage, in a nocturnal fit of drunkenness, stabbed a man at a coffee-house, and killed him: for which he was tried at the Old Bailey, and found gu lty of murder.

Johnson, indeed, describes him as having "a grave and manly deportment, a solemn dignity of mien; but which,

its varieties, and been much in the company of the statesmen and wits of his time, he could communicate to Johnson an abundant supply of such materials as his philosophical curiosity most eagerly desired; and as Savage's misfortunes and misconduct had reduced him to the lowest state of wretchedness as a writer for

bread, his visits to St. John's Gate naturally brought Johnson and him together.3

It is melancholy to reflect, that Johnson and Savage were sometimes in such extreme indigence, that they could not pay for a lodg ing; so that they have wandered together whole nights in the street. Yet in these almost incredible scenes of distress, we may suppose that Savage mentioned many of the anecdotes with which Johnson afterwards enriched the life of his unhappy companion, and those of other poets.

He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that one night in particular, when Savage and he walked round St. James's Square for want of a lodging, they were not at all depressed by their situation; but, in high spirits and brimful of patriotism, traversed the square for several hours, inveighed against the minister, and "resolved they would stand by their country."

I am afraid, however, that by associating with Savage, who was habituated to the dissipation and licentiousness of the town, Johnson,

upon a nearer acquaintance, softened into an engaging easiness of manners." How highly Johnson admired him for that knowledge which he himself so much cultivated, and what kindness he entertained for him, appears from the following lines in the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1758, which I am assured were written by Johnson:

"Ad Ricardum Savage.

Humani studium generis cui pectore fervet

O colat humanum te foveatque genus."- BOSWELL. "Thou, whose warm heart for all mankind can beat, In all mankind should friends and favourers meet."-C. Boswell should have stated his authority for attributing this poor and obscure couplet to Johnson; and he should not have suppressed the absurd original title —

"Ad Ricardum Savage, Arm.
Humani generis amatorem."

"To Richard Savage, Esq.. -the lover of the Human race." I am reluctant to believe that Johnson wrote this sad stuff, which was certainly written shortly before Johnson became personally acquainted with Savage; and if it be Johnson's, was probably intended to propitiate Cave, in whose favour Johnson supposed Savage to stand high. The exact date of the commencement of this acquaintance is no where given; but it was not earlier than April, 1738. This is of some importance; because Johnson has been reproached with an early intimacy with this profligate and unhappy man. In the Gent. Mag, 1785, p. 476., he is said to have written Savage's defence at his trial, and is called "an apologist for murder;" and another writer (p. 679.) takes some pains to extenuate that culpable fact. Now the trial was in 1727-8, ten years before Johnson ever saw Savage.

4 The following striking proof of Johnson's extreme indigence, when he published the Life of Savage, was communicated to Mr. Boswell, by Mr. Richard Stowe, of Apsley, in Bedfordshire, from the information of Mr. Walter Harte, author of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus: "Soon after Savage's Life was published, Mr. Harte dined with Edward Cave, and occasionally praised it. Soon after, meeting him, Cave said, You made a man very happy t'other day.'How could that be?' says Harte; nobody was there but ourselves.' Cave answered, by reminding him that a plate of victuals was sent behind a screen, which was to Johnson, dressed so shabbily, that he did not choose to appear; but, on hearing the conversation, he was highly delighted with the encomiums on his book."- MALONE

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