1766.

Etat. 57.

altera, not to urge that it should be prima, is not grammati be alteri. In the next line you feem to use genus abfolutely, family, that is, for illuftrious extraction, I doubt without a nullius originis, for Nullis orti majoribus, or, Nullo love barbarous.-Ruddiman is dead.

"I have now vexed you enough, and will try to ple lution to obey your father I fincerely approve; but do 1. to enchain your volatility by vows: they will fometime ... mind, which you will, perhaps, never be able to extract warning, it is of great importance.

"The ftudy of the law is what you very juftly term
rous'; and in adding your name to its profeffors, you b
I always wifhed, when I wished you beft. I hope th
purfue it vigorously and conftantly. You gain, at l
advantage, fecurity from thofe troublesome and wear
are always obtruding themselves upon a mind vaca
undetermined.

"You ought to think it no fmall inducement to dilige that they will please your father. We all live up fomebody; and the pleasure of pleafing ought to ! always will be greatest, when our endeavours are exc our duty.

"Life is not long, and too much of it must not r
how it shall be spent ; deliberation, which thofe who !.
continue it with fubtilty, muft, after long expence
chance. To prefer one future mode of life to and
requires faculties which it has not pleased our Creator -
"If, therefore, the profeffion you have chofen ha
veniencies, confole yourfelf by reflecting that no I'
and that all the importunities and perplexities of
luxury, compared with the inceffant cravings of vac
expedients of idlenefs.

Hæc funt que noftrâ potui te voce
Vade, age."

This alludes to the first fentence of the Prow

ftudio nullum uberius, nullum generofius: in legibus en
vices ex quibus leges oriuntur, contemplar

1766.

Etat. 57.

which might have been faid of my Lord Bute fome years ago. Now I confider the present Earl of Bute to be Excelfa familia de Bute fpes prima;' and my Lord Mountstuart, as his eldest fon, to be fpes altera. So in Æneid xii. 1. 168, after having mentioned Pater Æneas, who was the prefent fpes, the reigning fpes, as my German friends would fay, the fpes prima, the poet adds,

Et juxta Afcanius, magna fpes altera Roma.'

"You think altera ungrammatical, and you tell me it fhould have been alteri. You must recollect, that in old times alter was declined regularly; and when the ancient fragments preferved in the Juris Civilis Fontes were written, it was certainly declined in the way that I ufe it. This, I fhould think, may protect a lawyer who writes altera in a differtation upon part of his own science. But as I could hardly venture to quote fragments of old law to fo claffical a man as Mr. Johnfon, I have not made an accurate fearch into these remains, to find examples of what I am able to produce in poetical compofition. We find in Plaut. Rudens, act iii. fcene 4,

• Nam huic alteræ patria quæ fit profecto nefcio."

Plautus is, to be fure, an old comick writer: but in the days of Scipio and
Lelius, we find, Terent. Heautontim. act ii. scene 3,

boc ipfa in itinere alteræ

Dum narrat, forte audivi.'

"You doubt my having authority for using genus abfolutely, for what we call family, that is, for illuftrious extraction. Now I take genus in Latin, to have much the fame fignification with birth in English; both in their primary meaning expreffing fimply defcent, but both made to stand xar'onnu, for noble descent. Genus is thus ufed in Hor. lib. ii. Sat. v. 1. 8,

Et genus et virtus, nifi cum re, vilior alga eft.

And in lib. i. Epift. vi. 1. 37,

• Et genus et formam Regina pecunia donat.'

And in the celebrated conteft between Ajax and Ulyffes, Ovid's Metamorph.
lib. xiii. 1. 140,

Nam genus et proavos, et quæ non fecimus ipfi,
Vix ea noftra voco.'

« Homines

1766.

Ætat. 57.

"Homines nullius originis, for nullis orti majoribus, or nullo loco nati, is, you are afraid, barbarous.

Origo is used to fignify extraction, as in Virg. Æneid i. 1. 286,

• Ille tamen noftrâ deducit origine nomen.'

and as nullus is used for obfcure, is it not in the genius of the Latin language to write nullius originis, for obfcure extraction?

"I have defended myself as well as I could.

Might I venture to differ from you with regard to the utility of vows? I am fenfible that it would be very dangerous to make vows rashly, and without a due confideration. But I cannot help thinking that they may often be of great advantage to one of a variable judgement and irregular inclinations. I always remember a paffage in one of your letters to our Italian friend Baretti, where talking of the monaftick life, you fay you do not wonder that ferious men should put themselves under the protection of a religious order, when they have found how unable they are to take care of themselves. For my own part, without affecting to be a Socrates, I am fure I have a more than ordinary struggle to maintain with the Evil Principle; and all the methods I can devise are little enough to keep me tolerably steady in the paths of rectitude.

"I am ever, with the highest veneration,

"Your affectionate humble servant,

JAMES BOSWELL."

It appears from his diary, that he was this year at Mr. Thrale's, from before Midfummer till after Michaelmas, and that he afterwards paffed a month at Oxford. He had then contracted a great intimacy with Mr. Chambers of that University, now Sir Robert Chambers, one of the Judges in India.

He published nothing this year in his own name; but the noble Dedication* to the King, of Gwyn's "London and Westminster Improved," was written by him; and he furnished the Preface,† and feveral of the pieces, which compose a volume of Miscellanies by Mrs. Anna Williams, the blind lady who had an afylum in his houfe. Of thefe, there are his "Epitaph on Philips," "Translation of a Latin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer ;t" "Friendship, an Ode ;*" and, "The Ant,*" a paraphrafe from the Proverbs, of which I have a copy

1766.

Etat. 57.

in his own hand-writing; and, from internal evidence, I afcribe to him,
"To Mifs
on her giving the Authour a gold and silk net-work Purse
of her own weaving;t" and, "The happy Life.+"-Moft of them have
evidently received confiderable additions from his fuperiour pen, particularly
"Verfes to Mr. Richardfon, on his Sir Charles Grandifon;""The Excur-
fion;""Reflections on a Grave digging in Westminster-Abbey." There is
in this collection a poem "On the Death of Stephen Grey, the Electrician ;*"
which, on reading it, appeared to me to be undoubtedly Johnfon's. I asked
Mrs. Williams whether it was not his. "Sir, (faid fhe, with fome warmth,) I
wrote that poem before I had the honour of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance." I,
however was fo much impressed with my first notion, that I mentioned it to
Johnson, repeating, at the fame time, what Mrs. Williams had faid. His
answer was, "It is true, Sir, that fhe wrote it before fhe was acquainted with
me; but she has not told you that I wrote it all over again, except two lines."
"The Fountains,t" a beautiful little Fairy tale in profe, written with exquifite
fimplicity, is one of Johnson's productions; and I cannot with-hold from Mrs.
Thrale the praise of being the authour of that admirable poem, "The Three
Warnings."

He wrote this year a letter not intended for publication, which has, perhaps, as ftrong marks of his fentiment and style, as any of his compofitions. The original is in my poffeffion. It is addreffed to the late Mr. William Drummond, bookseller in Edinburgh, a gentleman of good family, but finall eftate, who took arms for the houfe of Stuart in 1745; and during his concealment in London till the act of general pardon came out, obtained the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, who juftly esteemed him as a very worthy man. It seems, fome of the members of the fociety in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge had opposed the scheme of tranflating the holy scriptures into the Erfe or Gaelick language, from political confiderations of the difadvantage of keeping up the distinction between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of North-Britain. Dr. Johnfon being informed of this, I fuppofe by Mr. Drummond, wrote with a generous indignation as follows:

" SIR,

To Mr. WILLIAM DRUMMOND.

"I DID not expect to hear that it could be, in an affembly convened for the propagation of Christian knowledge, a question whether any nation uninstructed in religion fhould receive inftruction; or whether that instruction

fhould