618 ÆGRI EPHEMERIS [1784 requests them to consider the peculiar plan of his biographical undertaking. Soon after Johnson's return to the metropolis, both the asthma and dropsy became more violent and distressful. He had for some time kept a journal in Latin of the state of his illness, and the remedies which he used, under the title of Agri Ephemeris, which he began on the 6th of July, but continued it no longer than the 8th of November; finding, I suppose, that it was a mournful and unavailing register. It is in my possession; and is written with great care and accuracy. Still his love of literature1 did not fail. A very few days 1 It is truly wonderful to consider the extent and constancy of Johnson's literary ardour, notwithstanding the melancholy which clouded and embittered his existence. Besides the numerous and various works which he executed, he had, at different times, formed schemes of a great many more, of which the following catalogue was given by him to Mr. Langton, and by that gentleman presented to his Majesty: 'DIVINITY. A small book of precepts and directions for piety; the hint taken from the directions in Morton's exercise. 'PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY, and LITERATURE in general. 'History of Criticism, as it relates to judging of authours, from Aristotle to the present age. An account of the rise and improvements of that art; of the different opinions of authours, ancient and modern. 'Translation of the History of Herodian. 'New edition of Fairfax's Translation of Tasso, with notes, glossary, &c. 'Chaucer, a new edition of him, from manuscripts and old editions, with various readings, conjectures, remarks on his language, and the changes it had undergone from the earliest times to his age, and from his to the present: with notes explanatory of customs, &c., and references to Boccace, and other authours from whom he has borrowed, with an account of the liberties he has taken in telling the stories; his life, and an exact etymological glossary. Aristotle's Rhetorick, a translation of it into English. A Collection of Letters, translated from the modern writers, with some account of the several authours. Oldham's Poems, with notes, historical and critical. Lives of the Philosophers, written with a polite air, in such a manner as may divert as well as instruct. 6 History of the Heathen Mythology, with an explication of the fables, both allegorical and historical; with references to the poets. History of the State of Venice, in a compendious manner. Aristotle's Ethicks, an English translation of them, with notes. Geographical Dictionary, from the French. 1784] JOHNSON'S SCHEMES OF WORKS 619 before his death he transmitted to his friend Mr. John Nichols, a list of the authours of the Universal History, mentioning 'Hierocles upon Pythagoras, translated into English, perhaps with notes. This is done by Norris. A book of Letters, upon all kinds of subjects. Claudian, a new edition of his works, cum notis variorum, in the manner of Burman. Tully's Tusculan Questions, a translation of them. Tully's De Naturâ Deorum, a translation of those books. Benzo's New History of the New World, to be translated. Machiavel's History of Florence, to be translated. History of the Revival of Learning in Europe, containing an account of whatever contributed to the restoration of literature; such as controversies, printing, the destruction of the Greek empire, the encouragement of great men, with the lives of the most eminent patrons and most eminent early professors of all kinds of learning in different countries. A Body of Chronology, in verse, with historical notes. A Table of the Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians, distinguished by figures into six degrees of value, with notes, giving the reasons of preference or degradation. 'A Collection of Letters from English authours, with a preface giving some account of the writers; with reasons for selection, and criticism upon styles; remarks on each letter, if needful. A Collection of Proverbs from various languages. Jan. 6,-53. A Dictionary to the Common Prayer, in imitation of Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible. March,-52. 'A Collection of Stories and Examples, like those of Valerius Maximus. Jan. 10,-53. 'From Ælian, a volume of select Stories, perhaps from others. Jan. 28,-53. Collection of Travels, Voyages, Adventures, and Descriptions of Countries. 'Dictionary of Ancient History and Mythology. "Treatise on the Study of Polite Literature, containing the history of learning, directions for editions, commentaries, &c. 'Maxims, Characters, and Sentiments, after the manner of Bruyère, collected out of ancient authours, particularly the Greek, with Apophthegms. 'Classical Miscellanies, Select Translations from ancient Greek and Latin authours. 'Lives of Illustrious Persons, as well of the active as the learned, in imitation of Plutarch. Judgement of the learned upon English authours. Poetical Dictionary of the English tongue. "Considerations upon the present state of London. 'Collection of Epigrams, with notes and observations. Observations on the English language, relating to words, phrases, and modes of Speech. 'Minutiæ Literariæ, Miscellaneous reflections, criticisms, emendations, notes. 620 JOHNSON'S SCHEMES OF WORKS [1784 their several shares in that work. It has, according to his direction, been deposited in the British Museum, and is printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for December, 1784. "History of the Constitution. Comparison of Philosophical and Christian Morality, by sentences collected from the moralists and fathers. 'Plutarch's Lives, in English, with notes. 'POETRY and works of IMAGINATION. 'Hymn to Ignorance. 6 The Palace of Sloth,-a vision. Coluthus, to be translated. 'Prejudice,- -a poetical essay. "The Palace of Nonsense,-a vision.' Johnson's extraordinary facility of composition, when he shook off his constitutional indolence, and resolutely sat down to write, is admirably described by Mr. Courtenay, in his Poetical Review, which I have several times quoted: 'While through life's maze he sent a piercing view, With various stores of erudition fraught, The lively image, the deep-searching thought, Touch'd by the pointed steel, the lightning flows, We shall in vain endeavour to know with exact precision every production of Johnson's pen. He owned to me, that he had written about forty sermons; but as I understood that he had given or sold them to different persons, who were to preach them as their own, he did not consider himself at liberty to acknowledge them. Would those who were thus aided by him, who are still alive, and the friends of those who are dead, fairly inform the world, it would be obligingly gratifying a reasonable curiosity, to which there should, I think, now be no objection. Two volumes of them, published since his death, are sufficiently ascertained; see vol. ii. p. 139. I have before me, in his hand-writing, a fragment of twenty quarto leaves, of a translation into English of Sallust, De Bello Catilinario. When it was done I have no notion; but it seems to have no very superior merit to mark it as his. Beside the publications heretofore mentioned, I am satisfied, from internal evidence, to admit also as genuine the following, which, notwithstanding all my chronological care, escaped me in the course of this work : Considerations on the Case of Dr. Trapp's Sermons,' † published in 1739, in the Gentleman's Magazine. It is a very ingenious defence of the right of abridging an authour's work, without being held as infringing his property. This is one of the nicest questions in the Law of Literature; and I cannot help thinking, that the indulgence of abridging is 1784] HIS KNOWLEDGE OF GREEK 621 During his sleepless nights he amused himself by translating into Latin verse, from the Greek, many of the epigrams in the Anthologia. These translations, with some other poems by him in Latin, he gave to his friend Mr. Langton, who, having added a few notes, sold them to the booksellers for a small sum, to be given to some of Johnson's relations, which was accordingly done; and they are printed in the collection of his works. A very erroneous notion has circulated as to Johnson's deficiency in the knowledge of the Greek language, partly owing to the modesty with which, from knowing how much there was to be learnt, he used to mention his own compara often exceedingly injurious to authours and booksellers, and should in very few cases be permitted. At any rate, to prevent difficult and uncertain discussion, and give an absolute security to authours in the property of their labours, no abridgement whatever should be permitted, till after the expiration of such a number of years as the Legislature may be pleased to fix. · But, though it has been confidently ascribed to him, I cannot allow that he wrote a Dedication to both Houses of Parliament of a book entitled The Evangelical History Harmonized. He was no croaker; no declaimer against the times. He would not have written, That we are fallen upon an age in which corruption is not barely universal, is universally confessed.' Nor Rapine preys on the publick without opposition, and perjury betrays it without inquiry.' Nor would he, to excite a speedy reformation, have conjured up such phantoms of terrour as these: A few years longer, and perhaps all endeavours will be in vain. We may be swallowed by an earthquake: we may be delivered to our enemies.' This is not Johnsonian. There are, indeed, in this Dedication, several sentences constructed upon the model of those of Johnson. But the imitation of the form, without the spirit of his style, has been so general, that this of itself is not sufficient evidence. Even our newspaper writers aspire to it. In an account of the funeral of Edwin, the comedian, in The Diary of Nov. 9, 1790, that son of drollery is thus described: A man who had so often cheered the sullenness of vacancy, and suspended the approaches of sorrow.' And in The Dublin Evening Post, August 16, 1791, there is the following paragraph: 'It is a singular circumstance, that, in a city like this, containing 200,000 people, there are three months in the year during which no place of publick amusement is open. Long vacation is here a vacation from pleasure, as well as business; nor is there any mode of passing the listless evenings of declining summer, but in the riots of a tavern, or the stupidity of a coffeehouse.' I have not thought it necessary to specify every copy of verses written by Johnson, it being my intention to publish an authentick edition of all his Poetry, with notes. 622 IMITATIONS OF JOHNSON'S STYLE 1 [1784 tive acquisitions. When Mr. Cumberland 1 talked to him of the Greek fragments which are so well illustrated in The Observer, and of the Greek dramatists in general, he candidly acknowledged his insufficiency in that particular branch of Greek literature. Yet it may be said, that though not a great, he was a good Greek scholar. Dr. Charles Burney, the younger, who is universally acknowledged by the best judges to be one of the few men of this age who are very eminent for their skill in that noble language, has assured me, that Johnson could give a Greek word for almost every English one; and that although not sufficiently conversant in the niceties of the language, he upon some occasions discovered, even in these, a considerable degree of critical acumen. Mr. Dalzel, Professor of Greek at Edinburgh, whose skill in it is unquestionable, mentioned to me, in very liberal terms, the impression which was made upon him by Johnson, in a conversation which they had in London concerning that language. As Johnson, therefore, was undoubtedly one of the first Latin scholars in modern times, let us not deny to his fame some additional splendour from Greek. I shall now fulfil my promise of exhibiting specimens of various sorts of imitation of Johnson's style. In the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1787, there is an 'Essay on the Style of Dr. Samuel Johnson,' by the Reverend Robert Burrowes, whose respect for the great object of his criticism 2 is thus evinced in the concluding paragraph : 'I have singled him out from the whole body of English writers, because his universally-acknowledged beauties would be most apt to induce imitation; and I have treated rather on his faults than his perfections, because an essay might comprize all the observations I could make upon his faults, 1 Mr. Cumberland assures me, that he was always treated with great courtesy by Dr. Johnson, who, in his Letters to Mrs. Thrale, vol. ii. p. 68, thus speaks of that learned, ingenious, and accomplished gentleman: The want of company is an inconvenience: but Mr. Cumberland is a million.' 2 We must smile at a little inaccuracy of metaphor in the Preface to the Transactions, which is written by Mr. Burrowes. The critick of the style of JOHNSON having, with a just zeal for literature, observed, that the whole nation are called on to exert themselves, afterwards says: They are called on by every tye which can have a laudable influence on the heart of man.' |
