the progrefs hereafter not fuch as you have a right to expect, you can easily 1738. ftimulate a negligent translator. "If any or all of thefe have contributed to your difcontent, I will endeavour to remove it; and defire you to propose the queftion to which you wish for an answer. I am, Sir, Atat. 29. "Your humble fervant, "SAM. JOHNSON." To Mr. CAVE. [No date.] « SIR, "I AM pretty much of your opinion, that the Commentary cannot be profecuted with any appearance of fuccefs; for as the names of the authours concerned are of more weight in the performance than its own intrinfick merit, the publick will be foon fatisfied with it. And I think the Examen fhould be pushed forward with the utmost expedition. Thus, This day, &c. . An Examen of Mr. Pope's Effay, &c. containing a fuccinct Account of the Philofophy of Mr. Leibnitz on the Syftem of the Fatalifts, with a Confutation of their Opinions, and an Illustration of the Doctrine of Free-will;' [with what else you think proper]. "It will, above all, be neceffary to take notice, that it is a thing distinct from the Commentary. "I was fo far from imagining they stood ftill, that I conceived them to have a good deal beforehand, and therefore was lefs anxious in providing them more. But if ever they ftand ftill on my account, it must doubtless be charged to me; and whatever else shall be reasonable, I fhall not oppose; but beg a fufpenfe of judgement till morning, when I must intreat you to fend me a dozen propofals, and you shall then have copy to fpare. I am, Sir, "Your's, impranfus, "SAM. JOHNSON." "Pray mufter up the Propofals if you can, or let the boy recall them from the booksellers." But although he correfponded with Mr. Cave concerning a tranflation of Croufaz's Examen of Pope's Effay on Man, and gave advice as one anxious for its fuccefs, I was long ago conivnced by a perufal of the Preface, The compofitors in Mr. Cave's printing-office, who appear by this letter to have then waited for copy. N. that that this tranflation was erroneously afcribed to him; and I have found this point afcertained, beyond all doubt, by the following article in Dr. Birch's Manufcripts in the British Museum: "ELISIA CARTERE. S. P. D. THOMAS BIRCH. "Verfionem tuam Examinis Croufaziani jam perlegi. Summam ftyli et elegantiam, et in re difficillima proprietatem, admiratus. "Dabam Novemb. 27° 1738'." Indeed Mrs. Carter has lately acknowledged to Mr. Seward, that she was the tranflator of the Examen. It is remarkable, that Johnson's laft quoted letter to Mr. Cave concludes with a fair confeffion that he had not a dinner; and it is no less remarkable, that, though in this ftate of want himself, his benevolent heart was not infenfible to the neceffities of an humble labourer in literature, as appears from the very next letter: "DEAR SIR, To Mr. CAVE. [No date.] "YOU may remember I have formerly talked with you about a Military Dictionary. The eldeft Mr. Macbean, who was with Mr. Chambers, has very good materials for fuch a work, which I have seen, and will do it at a very low rate. I think the terms of War and Navigation might be comprised, with good explanations, in one 8vo. Pica, which he is willing to do for twelve shillings a fheet, to be made up a guinea at the fecond impression. If you think on it, I will wait on you with him. I am, Sir, "Your humble fervant, "Pray lend me Topfel on Animals." "SAM. JOHNSON." I must not omit to mention, that this Mr. Macbean was a native of Scotland. In the Gentleman's Magazine of this year, Johnfon gave a Life of Father Paul; and he wrote the Preface to the Volume,† which, though prefixed to it when bound, is always published with the Appendix, and is therefore the last compofition belonging to it. The ability and nice adaptation with which he could draw up a prefatory addrefs, was one of his peculiar excellencies. 3 Birch MSS. Brit. Muf. 4320. It appears too, that he paid a friendly attention to Mrs. Elizabeth Carter; for, in a letter from Mr. Cave to Dr. Birch, November 28, this year, I find "Mr. Johnfon advises Mifs C. to undertake a tranflation of Boethius de Cons. because there is profe and verfe, and to put her name to it when published." This advice was not followed, probably from an apprehenfion that the work was not fufficiently popular for an extenfive fale. How well Johnson himself could have executed a tranflation of this philofophical poet, we may judge from a fpecimen which he has given in the Rambler‡: "O qui perpetuâ mundum ratione gubernas, « Terrarum cælique fator! "Disjice terrenæ nubulas et pondera molis, Atque tuo fplendore mica! Tu namque ferenum, "O THOU whose power o'er moving worlds prefides, "With filent confidence and holy rest; "From thee, great GOD! we fpring, to thee we tend, In 1739, befide the affiftance which he gave to the Parliamentary Debates, 1739. Etat. 39. 1739. Ætat. 30. ' there is here no occafion to refort to internal evidence; for my Lord Bishop of Carlisle has affured me, that it was written by Guthrie. His feparate publications were, "A Complete Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage, from the malicious and fcandalous Afperfions of Mr. Brooke, Authour of Gustavus Vafa,*" being an ironical Attack upon them for their Suppreffion of that Tragedy; and, "Marmor Norfolcienfe; or an Effay on an ancient prophetical Infcription in monkish Rhyme, lately discovered near Lynne in Norfolk, by PROBUS BRITANNICUS.*" In this performance, he, in a feigned infcription, supposed to have been found in Norfolk, the county of Sir Robert Walpole, then the obnoxious prime minifter of this country, inveighs against the Brunswick fucceffion, and the measures of government confequent upon it. To this fuppofed prophecy he added a Commentary, making each expreffion apply to the times, with warm Anti-Hanoverian zeal. This anonymous pamphlet, I believe, did not make fo much noife as was expected, and, therefore, had not a very extenfive circulation. Sir John Hawkins relates, that "warrants were iffued, and meffengers employed to apprehend the authour; who, though he had forborne to fubfcribe his name to the pamphlet, the vigilance of thofe in purfuit of him had discovered;" and we are informed, that he lay concealed in Lambeth-marfh till the fcent after him grew cold. This, however, is altogether without foundation; for Mr. Steele, one of the Secretaries of the Treasury, who, amidst a variety of important business, politely obliged me with his attention to my inquiry, informs me, that "he directed every poffible fearch to be made in the records of the Treasury and Secretary of State's Office, but could find no trace whatever of any warrant having been iffued to apprehend the authour of this pamphlet." "Marmor Norfolcienfe" became exceedingly fcarce, fo that I, for many years, endeavoured in vain to procure a copy of it. At laft I was indebted to the malice of one of Johnfon's numerous petty adverfaries, who, in 1775, published a new edition of it, "with Notes and a Dedication to SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. by TRIBUNUS;" in which fome puny fcribbler invidiously attempted to found upon it a charge of inconfiftency against its authour, because he had accepted of a pension from his prefent Majefty, and had written in fupport of the measures of government. As a mortification to fuch impotent malice, of which there are so many inftances towards men of eminence, I am happy to relate, that this telum imbelle did not reach its exalted object, till about a year after it thus appeared, when I mentioned it to him, fuppofing that he knew of the re-publication. To my furprize, he had not yet 1739. yet heard of it. He requested me to go directly and get it for him, which I did. He looked at it and laughed, and feemed to be much diverted with the Atat. 30. feeble efforts of his unknown adversary, who, I hope, is alive to read this account. "Now (faid he) here is fomebody who thinks he has vexed me fadly; yet, if it had not been for you, you rogue, I should probably never have feen it." As Mr. Pope's note concerning Johnfon, alluded to in a former page, refers both to his "London," and his "Marmor Norfolcienfe," I have deferred inferting it till now. I am indebted for it to Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, who permitted me to copy it from the original in his poffeffion. It was presented to his Lordship by Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom it was given by the son of Mr. Richardfon the painter, the perfon to whom it is addreffed. I have tranfcribed it with minute exactnefs, that the peculiar mode of writing, and imperfect spelling of that celebrated poet, may be exhibited to the curious in literature. It juftifies Swift's epithet of “ paperfparing Pope," for it is written on a flip no larger than a common meffagecard, and was fent to Mr. Richardson, along with the Imitation of Juvenal. "This is imitated by one Johnson who put in for a Publick School " in Shropshire, but was Disappointed. He has an Infirmity of the "convulfive kind, that attacks him fometimes, fo as to make Him a "fad Spectacle. Mr. P. from the Merit of This Work which was all "the knowledge he had of Him endeavour'd to ferve Him without his "own application; & wrote to my Ld. gore, but he did not fucceed. "Mr. Johnson publish'd afterw3s, another Poem in Latin with Notes the "whole very Humerous call'd the Norfolk Prophecy. "P." Johnson had been told of this note by Pope; and Sir Joshua Reynolds informed him of the compliment which it contained, but, from delicacy, avoided fhewing him the paper itself. When Sir Joshua obferved to Johnson that he seemed very defirous to fee Pope's note, he answered, "Who would not be proud to have fuch a man as Pope fo folicitous in inquiring about him?” The infirmity to which Mr. Pope alludes, appeared to me alfo, as I have elsewhere obferved, to be of the convulfive kind, and of the nature of that diftemper called St. Vitus's dance; and in this opinion I am confirmed by the + See note, p. 67. Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 8. La |