1750. Etat. 41. The following letter written at this time, though not dated, will fhow 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 pleafure, 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 fome time nearer to each other, and have a more ready way of pouring out our hearts. "I am glad that you still find encouragement to proceed in your publication, and fhall beg the favour of fix more volumes to add to my former six, when you can, with any convenience, fend them me. Please to present a set, in my name, to Mr. Ruddiman', of whom, I hear, that his learning is not "Your most obliged and moft humble fervant, 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 small 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 also a man of a most worthy private character. His zeal for the Royal Houfe of Stuart did not render him less estimable in Dr. Johnfon's eye. Some Soon after this he wrote to the fame gentleman another letter, upon a mournful occafion. To Mr. JAMES ELPHINSTON. "DEAR SIR, September 25, 1750. "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 soon 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 bufinefs of life fummons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of thofe 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 reafon 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 inftructions or example have contributed. Whether this be more than a pleafing dream, or a juft opinion of separate fpirits, is, indeed, of no great importance to us, when we confider ourselves as acting under the eye of GoD: yet, furely, there is fomething pleasing 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 fome 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 present, I cannot but advise you, as to a fource of comfort and fatisfaction in the time to come; for all comfort and all fatisfaction is fincerely wifhed you by, dear Sir, "Your most obliged, moft obedient, 1750. Etat. 41. "And moft humble fervant, "SAM. JOHNSON. The The Rambler has increafed in fame as in age. Soon after its firft folio edition was concluded, it was published in four octavo volumes; and its authour lived to fee ten numerous editions of it in London, befide thofe of Ireland and Scotland. I profefs myself to have ever entertained a profound veneration for the aftonishing force and vivacity of mind, which the Rambler exhibits. That Johnfon had penetration enough to fee, and feeing would not difguife the general mifery of man in this state of being, may have given rise to the superficial notion of his being too ftern a philofopher. But men of reflection will be fenfible that he has given a true reprefentation of human existence, and that he has, at the fame time, with a generous benevolence, difplayed every confolation. which our state affords us; not only those arifing from the hopes of futurity, but fuch as may be attained in the immediate progrefs through life. He has not depreffed the foul to defpondency and indifference. He has every where inculcated study, labour, and exertion. Nay, he has fhewn, in a very odious light, a man whofe practice is to go about darkening the views of others, by perpetual complaints of evil, and awakening thofe confiderations of danger and distress, which are, for the most part, lulled into a quiet oblivion. This he has done very strongly in his character of Sufpirius, from which Goldsmith took that of Croaker, in his comedy of "The Good-natured Man," as Johnfon told me he acknowledged to him, and which is, indeed, very obvious. To point out the numerous fubjects which the Rambler treats with a dignity and perfpicuity which are there united in a manner which we shall in vain look for any where elfe, would take up too large a portion of my book, and would, I trust, be fuperfluous, confidering how univerfally thofe volumes are now diffeminated. Even the most condenfed and brilliant fentences which they contain, and which have very properly been felected under the name of "BEAUTIES," are of confiderable bulk. But I may fhortly obferve, that the Rambler furnishes fuch an affemblage of difcourfes on practical religion and moral duty, of critical investigations, and allegorical and oriental 2 No. 55. 3 Dr. Johnfon was gratified by fecing this felection, and wrote to Mr. Kearfley, bookfeller in Ficet ftreet, the following note: "Mr. Johnson sends compliments to Mr. Kearsley, and begs the favour of feeing him as foon as he can. Mr. Kearfley is defired to bring with him the laft edition of what he has honoured with the name of BEAUTIES." "May 20, 1782." tales, tales, that no mind can be thought very deficient that has, by constant study and meditation, affimilated to itself all that may be found there. No. 7, written in Paffion-week on abstraction and felf-examination, and No. 110, on penitence and the placability of the Divine Nature, cannot be too often read. No. 54, on the effect which the death of a friend fhould have upon us, though rather too difpiriting, may be occafionally very medicinal to the mind. Every one must suppose the writer to have been deeply impreffed by a real scene; but he told me that was not the cafe, which fhews how well his fancy could conduct him to the house of mourning. Some of these more folemn papers, I doubt not, particularly attracted the notice of Dr. Young, the authour of "The Night Thoughts," of whom my eftimation is fuch, as to reckon his applaufe an honour even to Johnfon. I have feen fome volumes of Dr. Young's copy of the Rambler, in which he has marked the paffages which he thought particularly excellent, by folding down a corner of the page; and fuch as he rated in a fuper-eminent degree, are marked by double folds. I am forry that fome of the volumes are loft. Johnfon was pleased when told of the minute attention with which Young had fignified his approbation of his Effays. I will venture to fay, that in no writings whatever can be found more bark and feel for the mind, if I may ufe the expreffion; more that can brace and invigorate every manly and noble sentiment. No. 32 on patience, even under extreme mifery, is wonderfully lofty, and as much above the rant of ftoicifm, as the Sun of Revelation is brighter than the twilight of Pagan philofophy. I never read the following fentence without feeling my frame thrill: "I think there is fome reafon for questioning whether the body and mind are not fo proportioned, that the one can bear all which can be inflicted on the other; whether virtue cannot stand its ground as long as life, and whether a foul well principled will not be fooner separated than fubdued." 1750. Ætat. 41. Though inftruction be the predominant purpose of the Rambler, yet it is enlivened with a confiderable portion of amusement. Nothing can be more erroneous than the notion which fome perfons have entertained, that Johnson was then a retired authour, ignorant of the world; and, of confequence, that he wrote only from his imagination when he described characters and manners. He said to me, that before he wrote that work, he had been " running about the world," as he expreffed it, more than almost any body; and I have heard him relate, with much fatisfaction, that feveral of the characters in the Rambler were drawn fo naturally, that when it first circulated in numbers, a club in one of the towns in Effex imagined themfelves to be feverally exhihited in it, and were much incenfed against a person who, they fufpected, had thus 1750. Atat. 41. made them objects of publick notice; nor were they quieted till authentick affurance was given them, that the Rambler was written by a person who had never heard of any one of them. Some of the characters are believed to have been actually drawn from the life, particularly that of Profpero from Garrick, who never entirely forgave its pointed fatire. For inftances of fertility of fancy, and accurate description of real life, I appeal to No. 19, a man who wanders from one profeffion to another, with most plaufible reasons for every change. No. 34, female faftidiousness and timorous refinement. No. 82, a Virtuofo who has collected curiofities. No. 88, petty modes of entertaining a company, and conciliating kindness. No. 182, fortune-hunting. No. 194—195, a tutor's account of the follies of his pupil. No. 197-198, legacy-hunting. He has given a specimen of his nice obfervation of the mere external appearances of life, in this paffage in No. 179, against affectation, that frequent and most disgusting quality: "He that stands to contemplate the crouds that fill the streets of a populous city, will fee many paffengers whose air and motion it will be difficult to behold without contempt and laughter; but if he examine what are the appearances that thus powerfully excite his rifibility, he will find among them neither poverty nor disease, nor any involuntary or painful defect. The difpofition to derifion and infult, is awakened by the foftnefs of foppery, the fwell of infolence, the liveliness of levity, or the folemnity of grandeur; by the sprightly trip, the ftately ftalk, the formal ftrut, and the lofty mien; by geftures intended to catch the eye, and by looks elaborately formed as evidences of importance." Every page of the Rambler fhews a mind teeming with claffical allufion and poetical imagery: illustrations from other writers are, upon all occafions, fo ready, and mingle fo easily in his periods, that the whole appears of one uniform vivid texture. The ftyle of this work has been cenfured by fome fhallow criticks as involved and turgid, and abounding with antiquated and hard words. So ill founded is the first part of this objection, that I will challenge all who may honour this book with a perufal, to point out any English writer whose language conveys his meaning with equal force and perfpicuity. It must, indeed, be allowed, that the ftructure of his fentences is expanded, and often has fomewhat of the inverfion of Latin; and that he delighted to express familiar thoughts in philofophical language; being in this the reverse of Socrates, who, it was faid, reduced philofophy to the fimplicity of common life. But let us attend to what he himfelf fays in his concluding paper: "When common words were less pleafing to the ear, or lefs diftinct in their fignification, |