352

Payment for the DICTIONARY.

[A.D. 1756. No royal or noble patron extended a munificent hand to give independence to the man who had conferred stability on the language of his country. We may feel indignant that there should have been such unworthy neglect; but we must, at the same time, congratulate ourselves, when we consider, that to this very neglect, operating to rouse the natural indolence of his constitution, we owe many valuable productions, which otherwise, perhaps, might never have appeared.

He had spent, during the progress of the work, the money for which he had contracted to write his Dictionary. We have seen that the reward of his labour was only fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds; and when the expence of amanuenses and paper, and other articles are deducted, his clear profit was very inconsiderable. I once said to him, 'I am sorry, Sir, you did not get more for your Dictionary.' His answer was, 'I am sorry, too. But it was very well. The booksellers are generous, liberal-minded men'.'

He,

In the margin of this letter there is a memorandum in these words:'March 16, 1756. Sent six guineas. Witness, Wm. Richardson.' In the European Mag., vii. 54, there is the following anecdote recorded, for which Steevens most likely was the authority:-'I remember writing to Richardson' said Johnson, 'from a spunging-house; and was so sure of my deliverance through his kindness and liberality, that before his reply was brought I knew I could afford to joke with the rascal who had me in custody, and did so over a pint of adulterated wine, for which at that instant I had no money to pay.' It is very likely that this anecdote has no other foundation than Johnson's second letter to Richardson, which is dated, not from a spunginghouse, but from his own residence. What kind of fate awaited a man who was thrown into prison for debt is shown by the following passage in Wesley's Journal (ii. 267), dated Feb. 3, 1753:-'I visited one in the Marshalsea prison, a nursery of all manner of wickedness. O shame to man, that there should be such a place, such a picture of hell upon earth! A few days later he writes:-'I visited as many more as I could. I found some in their cells under ground; others in their garrets, half starved both with cold and hunger, added to weakness and pain.'

'In a Debate on the Copy-right Bill on May 16, 1774, Governor Johnstone said :—‘It had been urged that Dr. Johnson had received an after gratification from the booksellers who employed him to com

upon

Johnson's opinion of booksellers.

353

Aetat. 47.] upon all occasions, did ample justice to their character in this respect'. He considered them as the patrons of literature; and, indeed, although they have eventually been considerable gainers by his Dictionary, it is to them that we owe its having been undertaken and carried through at the risk of great expence, for they were not absolutely sure of being indemnified.

On the first day of this year we find from his private devotions, that he had then recovered from sickness; and in February that his eye was restored to its use. The pious gratitude with which he acknowledges mercies upon every occasion is very edifying; as is the humble submission which he breathes, when it is the will of his heavenly Father to try him with afflictions. As such dispositions become the state pile his Dictionary. He had in his hand a letter from Dr. Johnson, which he read, in which the doctor denied the assertion, but declared that his employers fulfilled their bargain with him, and that he was satisfied.' Parl. Hist. xvii. 1105.

'He more than once attacked them. Thus in An Appeal to the Public, which he wrote for the Gent. Mag. in 1739 (Works, v. 348), he said: Nothing is more criminal in the opinion of many of them, than for an author to enjoy more advantage from his own works than they are disposed to allow him. This is a principle so well established among them, that we can produce some who threatened printers with their highest displeasure, for their having dared to print books for those that wrote them.' In the Life of Savage (ib. viii. 132), written in 1744, he writes of the 'avarice, by which the booksellers are frequently incited to oppress that genius by which they are supported.' In the Life of Dryden (ib. vii. 299), written in 1779, he speaks of an improvement. 'The general conduct of traders was much less liberal in those times than in our own; their views were narrower, and their manners grosser. To the mercantile ruggedness of that race the delicacy of the poet was sometimes exposed.'

* Prayers and Meditations, p. 40 [25]. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote to Miss Boothby on Dec. 30, 1755-If I turn my thoughts upon myself, what do I perceive but a poor helpless being, reduced by a blast of wind to weakness and misery? . . . Mr. Fitzherbert sent to-day to offer me some wine; the people about me say I ought to accept it. I shall therefore be obliged to him if he will send me a bottle.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 393.

'Prayers and Meditations, p. 27. BOSWELL.

I.-23

of

354

Christopher Smart.

[A.D. 1756.

of man here, and are the true effects of religious discipline, we cannot but venerate in Johnson one of the most exercised minds that our holy religion hath ever formed. If there be any thoughtless enough to suppose such exercise the weakness of a great understanding, let them look up to Johnson and be convinced that what he so earnestly practised must have a rational foundation.

His works this year were, an abstract or epitome, in octavo, of his folio Dictionary, and a few essays in a monthly publication, entitled, The Universal Visiter. Christopher Smart, with whose unhappy vacillation of mind he sincerely sympathised, was one of the stated undertakers of this miscellany; and it was to assist him that Johnson sometimes employed his pen'. All the essays marked with two asterisks have been ascribed to him; but I am confident, from internal evidence, that of these, neither The Life of Chaucer,' Reflections on the State of Portugal,' nor an 'Essay on Architecture,' were written by him. I am equally confident, upon the same evidence, that he wrote 'Further Thoughts on Agriculture';'t being the sequel of a very inferiour essay on the same subject, and which, though carried on as if by the same hand, is both in thinking and expression so far above it, and so strikingly peculiar, as to leave no doubt of its true parent; and that he also wrote 'A Dissertation on the State of

1 See post, April 6, 1775. Kit Smart, once a Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, ended his life in the King's Bench Prison; 'where he had owed to a small subscription, of which Dr. Burney was at the head, a miserable pittance beyond the prison allowance. In his latest letter to Dr. Burney, he passionately pleaded for a fellow-sufferer, "whom I myself," he impressively adds, "have already assisted according to my willing poverty." In another letter to the same friend he said: "I bless God for your good nature, which please to take for a receipt." Memoirs of Dr. Burney, i. 205, 280.

In this Essay Johnson writes (Works, v. 315) :—'I think there is room to question whether a great part of mankind has yet been informed that life is sustained by the fruits of the earth. I was once, indeed, provoked to ask a lady of great eminence for genius," Whether she knew of what bread is made."'

Literature

Aetat. 47.]

THE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

355

Literature and Authours',' and 'A Dissertation on the Epitaphs written by Pope.'t The last of these, indeed, he afterwards added to his Idler'. Why the essays truly written by him are marked in the same manner with some which he did not write, I cannot explain; but with deference to those who have ascribed to him the three essays which I have rejected, they want all the characteristical marks of Johnsonian composition.

He engaged also to superintend and contribute largely to another monthly publication, entitled The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review;* the first number of which came out in May this year'. What were his emoluments from this

1

' In The Universal Visiter this Essay is entitled, ‘Reflections on the Present State of Literature;' and in Johnson's Works, v. 355, A Project for the Employment of Authors.' The whole world, he says, is turning author. Their number is so large that employment must be found for them. There are some reasons for which they may seem particularly qualified for a military life. They are used to suffer want of every kind; they are accustomed to obey the word of command from their patrons and their booksellers; they have always passed a life of hazard and adventure, uncertain what may be their state on the next day. . . . There are some whom long depression under supercilious patrons has so humbled and crushed, that they will never have steadiness to keep their ranks. But for these men there may be found fifes and drums, and they will be well enough pleased to inflame others to battle, if they are not obliged to fight themselves.'

He added it also to his Life of Pope.

This employment,' wrote Murphy (Life, p. 88), engrossed but little of Johnson's time. He resigned himself to indolence, took no exercise, rose about two, and then received the visits of his friends. Authors long since forgotten waited on him as their oracle, and he gave responses in the chair of criticism. He listened to the complaints, the schemes, and the hopes and fears of a crowd of inferior writers, "who," he said, in the words of Roger Ascham, "lived, men knew not how, and died obscure, men marked not when." He believed, that he could give a better history of Grub Street than any man living. His house was filled with a succession of visitors till four or five in the evening. During the whole time he presided at his teatable.' In The Rambler, No. 145, Johnson takes the part of these inferior writers :-'a race of beings equally obscure and equally indigent, who, because their usefulness is less obvious to vulgar apprehensions, undertaking,

356

Johnson's original essays.

[A.D. 1756. undertaking, and what other writers were employed in it, I have not discovered. He continued to write in it, with intermissions, till the fifteenth number; and I think that he never gave better proofs of the force, acuteness, and vivacity of his mind, than in this miscellany, whether we consider his original essays, or his reviews of the works of others. The 'Preliminary Address't to the Publick is a proof how this great man could embellish, with the graces of superiour composition, even so trite a thing as the plan of a magazine.

His original essays are, 'An Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain';'+ 'Remarks on the Militia Bill';'+ 'Observations on his Britannick Majesty's Treaties with the Empress of Russia and the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel';'Observations on the Present State of Affairs';'t and

live unrewarded and die unpitied, and who have been long exposed to insult without a defender, and to censure without an apologist.'

In this essay (Works, vi. 129) Johnson describes Canada as a 'region of desolate sterility,' ' a cold, uncomfortable, uninviting region, from which nothing but furs and fish were to be had.'

'The bill of 1756 that he considers passed through the Commons but was rejected by the Lords. It is curious as showing the comparative population of the different counties. Devonshire was to furnish 3200 men-twice as many as Lancashire. Essex, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk were each to furnish 1920 men; Lancashire, Surrey, Sussex, and Wiltshire 1600; Durham and Bedfordshire 800. From the three Ridings of Yorkshire 4800 were to be raised. The men were to be exercised every Sunday before and after service. The Literary Magazine, p. 48.

'In this paper are found the forcible words, The desperate remedy of desperate distress,' which have been used since by orators. Ib. p. 121. ⚫ Johnson considers here the war in America between the English and French, and shows a strong feeling for the natives who had been wronged by both nations. Such is the contest that no honest man can heartily wish success to either party. . . . The American dispute between the French and us is only the quarrel of two robbers for the spoils of a passenger.' The French had this in their favour, that they had treated the natives better than we. 'The favour of the Indians which they enjoy with very few exceptions among all the nations of the northern continent we ought to consider with other thoughts; this favour we might have enjoyed, if we had been careful to deserve it.' Works, vi. 114, 122.

'Memoirs