1774. columnæ, the booksellers expect another book. I am impatient to see your Tour to Scotland and the Hebrides. Might you not fend me a copy by the Etat. 65. poft as foon as it is printed off?” "DEAR SIR, TO JAMES BOSWELL, Efq. "YESTERDAY I returned from my Welch journey. I was forry to leave my book fufpended fo long; but having an opportunity of feeing, with so much convenience, a new part of the island, I could not reject it. I have been in five of the fix counties of North Wales; and have feen St. Afaph and Bangor, the two feats of their bishops; have been upon Penmanmaur and Snowden, and paffed over into Anglefea. But Wales is fo little different from England, that it offers nothing to the fpeculation of the traveller. "When I came home, I found several of your papers, with fome pages of Lord Hailes's Annals, which I will confider. I am in hafte to give you fome account of myself, left you should suspect me of negligence in the preffing business which I find recommended to my care, and which I knew nothing of till now, when all care is vain. "In the diftribution of my books I purpose to follow your advice, adding fuch as fhall occur to me. I am not pleased with your notes of remembrance added to your names, for I hope I fhall not easily forget them. "I have received four Erfe books, without any direction, and suspect that they are intended for the Oxford library. If that is the intention, I think it will be proper to add the metrical pfalms, and whatever else is printed in Erse, that the prefent may be complete. The donor's name fhould be told. "I wish you could have read the book before it was printed, but our diftance does not eafily permit it. "I am forry Lord Hailes does not intend to publish Walton; I am afraid it will not be done fo well, if it be done at all. I purpofe now to drive the book forward. Make my compliments to Mrs. Bofwell, and let me hear often from you. I am, dear Sir, "Your affectionate humble fervant, "London, Octob. 1, 1774. SAM. JOHNSON." 4 I had written to him, to requeft his interpofition in behalf of a convict, who I thought was very unjustly condemned. This 1774. This tour to Wales, which was made in company with Mr. and Mrs. Etat. 65. Thrale, though it no doubt contributed to his health and amusement, did not give occafion to fuch a difcurfive exercise of his mind as our tour to the Hebrides. I do not find that he kept any journal or notes of what he saw there. All that I heard him fay of it was, that inftead of bleak and barren mountains, there were green and fertile ones; and that one of the castles in Wales would contain all the caftles that he had feen in Scotland. Parliament having been diffolved, and his friend Mr. Thrale, who was a steady supporter of government, having again to encounter the ftorm of a contested election, he wrote a short political pamphlet, entitled "The Patriot,* addreffed to the electors of Great-Britain; a title which, to factious men, who confider a patriot only as an oppofer of the measures of government, will appear strangely mifapplied. It was, however, written with energetick vivacity; and, except those paffages in which it endeavours to vindicate the glaring outrage of the Houfe of Commons in the cafe of the Middlefex election, and to justify the attempt to reduce our fellow-fubjects in America to unconditional fubmiffion, it contained an admirable difplay of the properties of a real patriot, in the original and genuine fenfe,-a fincere, steady, rational, and unbiaffed friend to the interefts and profperity of his King and country. It must be acknowledged, however, that both in this and his two former pamphlets, there was, amidst many powerful arguments, not only a confiderable portion of fophiftry, but a contemptuous ridicule of his opponents, which was very provoking. "DEAR SIR, TO JAMES BOSWELL, Efq. "THERE has appeared lately in the papers an account of a boat overfet between Mull and Ulva, in which many paffengers were loft, and among them Maclean of Col. We, you know, were once drowned; I hope, therefore, that the story is either wantonly or erroneously told. Pray fatisfy me by the next poft. "I have printed two hundred and forty pages.-I am able to do nothing much worth doing to dear Lord Hailes's book. I will, however, fend back the fheets; and hope, by degrees, to anfwer all your reasonable expectations. "Mr. Thrale has happily furmounted a very violent and acrimonious oppofition; but all joys have their abatements: Mrs. Thrale has fallen from In the newfpapers. her her horse, and hurt herself very much. The rest of our friends, I believe, "London, Octob. 27, 1774. SAM. JOHNSON." This letter, which fhews his tender concern for an amiable young gentleman to whom we had been very much obliged in the Hebrides, I have inferted according to its date, though before receiving it I had informed him of the melancholy event that the young Laird of Col was unfortunately drowned. "DEAR SIR, To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq. "LAST night I corrected the laft page of our Journey to the Hebrides.' The printer has detained it all this time, for I had, before I went into Wales, written all except two sheets. The Patriot' was called for by my political friends on Friday, was written on Saturday, and I have heard little of it. So vague are conjectures at a distance. As foon as I can, I will take care that copies be fent to you, for I would wish that they might be given before they are bought; but I am afraid that Mr. Strahan will fend to you and to the booksellers at the fame time. Trade is as diligent as courtefy. I have mentioned all that you recommended. Pray make my compliments to Mrs. Bofwell and the younglings. The club has, I think, not yet met. "Tell me, and tell me honestly, what you think and others fay of our travels. Shall we touch the continent?? I am, dear Sir, "Nov. 26, 1774. "Your moft humble fervant, SAM. JOHNSON." In his manuscript diary of this year, there is the following entry: "Nov. 27. Advent Sunday. I confidered that this day, being the beginning of the ecclefiaftical year, was a proper time for a new course of life. I began to read the Greek Teftament regularly at 160 verfes every Sunday. This day I began the Acts. "In this week I read Virgil's Paftorals. I learned to repeat the Pollio and Gallus. I read carelessly the firft Georgick." • Alluding to a paffage in a letter of mine, where speaking of his "Journey to the Hebrides," I fay, "But has not The Patriot' been an interruption, by the time taken to write it, and the time luxuriously spent in listening to its applauses ?" 7 We had projected a voyage together up the Baltick, and talked of vifiting fome of the more northern regions. 1774. Etat. 65. 1774. Etat. 65. 1775 many dif Such evidences of his unceafing ardour, both for "divine and human lore," when advanced into his fixty-fourth year, and notwithstanding his turbances from disease, must make us at once honour his fpirit, and lament that it should be fo grievously clogged by its material tegument. It is remarkable, that he was very fond of the precifion which calculation produces. Thus we find in one of his manufcript diaries, " 12 pages in 4to Gr. Teft. and 30 pages in Beza's folio, comprize the whole in 40 days.” "DEAR SIR, Dr. JOHNSON to JOHN HOOLE, Efq. "I HAVE returned your play, which you will find underscored with red, where there was a word which I did not like. The red will be washed off with a little water. "The plot is fo well framed, the intricacy fo artful, and the disentanglement so easy, the fufpenfe fo affecting, and the paffionate parts fo properly interpofed, that I have no doubt of its fuccefs. I am, Sir, December 19, 1774. "Your most humble fervant, SAM. JOHNSON." The firft effort of his pen in 1775, was, " Propofals for publishing the Works of Mrs. Charlotte Lennox,t" in three volumes quarto. In his diary, January 2, I find this entry: "Wrote Charlotte's Propofals." But, indeed, the internal evidence would have been quite fufficient. Her claim to the favour of the publick was thus enforced : appro "Moft of the pieces, as they appeared fingly, have been read with bation, perhaps above their merit, but of no great advantage to the writer. She hopes, therefore, that fhe fhall not be confidered as too indulgent to vanity, or too ftudious of intereft, if, from that labour which has hitherto been chiefly gainful to others, fhe endeavours to obtain at last some profit for herself and her children. She cannot decently enforce her claim by the praise of her own performances; nor can fhe fuppofe, that, by the most artful and laboured addrefs, any additional notice could be procured to a publication, of which Her MAJESTY has condefcended to be the PATRONESS." "YOU never did ask for a book by the poft till now, and I did not think on it. You fee now it is done. I fent one to the King, and I hear he likes it. 8" Cleonice." "I fhall "I fhall fend a parcel into Scotland for prefents, and intend to give to many of my friends. In your catalogue you left out Lord Auchinleck. "Let me know, as fast as you read it, how you like it; and let me know if any mistake is committed, or any thing important left out. I wish you could have seen the fheets. nica, and to all my friends. "January 14, 1775. My compliments to Mrs. Bofwell, and to Vero- SAM. JOHNSON:" Mr. BOSWELL to Dr. JOHNSON. Edinburgh, Jan. 19, 1775. "BE pleased to accept of my best thanks for your Journey to the Hebrides,' which came to me by last night's poft. I did really afk the favour twice; but you have been even with me, by granting it fo fpeedily. Bis dat qui cito dat. Though ill of a bad cold, you kept me up the greatest part of the last night; for I did not ftop till I had read every word of your book. I looked back to our first talking of a vifit to the Hebrides, which was many years ago, when sitting by ourselves in the Mitre tavern, in London, I think about witching time o'night; and then exulted in contemplating our scheme fulfilled, and a monumentum perenne of it erected by your fuperiour abilities. I fhall only say, that your book has afforded me a high gratification. I shall afterwards give you my thoughts on particular paffages. In the mean time, I hasten to tell you of your having mistaken two names, which you will correct in London, as I fhall do here, that the gentlemen who deferve the valuable compliments which you have paid them, may enjoy their honours. In page 106, for Gordon read Murchison; and in page 357, for Maclean read Macleod. "But I am now to apply to you for immediate aid in my profeffion, which you have never refused to grant when I requested it. I enclose you a petition for Dr. Memis, a physician at Aberdeen, in which Sir John Dalrymple has exerted his talents, and which I am to answer as Counsel for the managers of the Royal Infirmary in that city. Mr. Jopp, the Provoft, who delivered to you your freedom, is one of my clients, and, as a citizen of Aberdeen, you will fupport him. "The fact is fhortly this. In a tranflation of the charter of the Infirmary from Latin into English, made under the authority of the managers, the fame phrafe in the original is in one place rendered Phyfician, but when applied to Dr. Memis is rendered Doctor of Medicine. Dr. Memis complained of this LII 2 before 1775 Ætat. 66. |