Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  ‘The situation of every Country with its Provinces and dependencies according to its present state, and latest observation.

  ‘The description of all remarkable Cities, Towns, Castles, Fortresses, and places observable for their situation, products or other particulars.

  ‘An account of the considerable Rivers, their Springs, Branches, Course,

  Outlets, how far navigable, the Produce and Qualities of their waters.

  ‘The course of Voyages, giving directions to sailors for navigating from one place of the World to another, with particular attention to the Traffic of these Kingdoms.

  ‘An account of all the principal Ports and Harbours of the known World, in which will be laid down the Pilotage, Bearings, depth of water, danger from Sands or Rocks, firmness or uncertainty of Anchorage, and degree of safety from particular Winds.

  ‘An exact account of the Commodities of each Country, both natural and artificial.

  ‘A description of the remarkable Animals in every Country, whether

  Beasts, Birds or Fishes.

  ‘An account of the Buildings, whether ancient or modern, and of Ruins or other remains of Antiquity.

  ‘Remarks upon the soil, air, and waters of particular Places, their several qualities and effects, the accidents to which every Region is exposed, as Earthquakes and Hurricanes, and the diseases peculiar to the Inhabitants or incident to strangers at their arrival.

  ‘The political State of the World, the Government of Countries, and the

  Magistracy of Cities, with their particular Laws, or Privileges.

  ‘The most probable and authentic Calculations of the number of Inhabitants of each place.

  ‘The military state of Countries, their Forces, manner of making War,

  Weapons, and naval Power.

  ‘The Commercial State, extent of their Trade, Number and strength of their Colonies, quantity of Shipping.

  ‘The pretensions of Princes with their Alliances, Relations and

  Genealogies.

  ‘The customs of Nations with regard to Trade, and receptions of strangers, their domestic Customs, as Rites of Marriage and Burial. Their particular Laws. Their habits, recreations and amusements.

  ‘The religious Opinions of all Nations.

  ‘These and many other heads of observation will be collected, not merely from the Dictionaries now extant in many Languages, but from the best Surveys, Local Histories, Voyages, and particular accounts, among which care will be taken to select those of the best authority, as the basis of the Work, and to extract from them such observations as may best promote Knowledge and gratify Enquiry, so that it is to be hoped, there will be few remarkable places in the known World, of which the Politician, the Merchant, the Sailor, or the Man of Curiosity may not find a useful and pleasing account, of the credit of which the Reader may always judge, as the Authors from whom it is taken will be regularly quoted, a caution which if some, who have attempted such general works, had observed, their labours would have deserved, and found more favour from the Publick.’

  This letter must have been written about the year 1753, for Bathurst is described as a physician of about eight years’ standing. He took his degree as Bachelor of Medicine at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1745, and did not, it should seem, proceed to the higher degree. In 1757 he was at the Havannah, where he died (ante, i. 242, n. i). He was Johnson’s beloved friend, of whom ‘he hardly ever spoke without tears in his eyes’ (ante, i. 190, n. 2). The Proposal, I have no doubt, was either written, or at all events revised, by Johnson. It is quite in his style. It may be assumed that it is in Bathurst’s handwriting.

  II.

  An apologetical letter about some work that was passing through the press; undated, but probably written about the years 1753-5.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]

  ‘DEAR SIR,

  ‘What you tell me I am ashamed never to have thought on — I wish I had known it sooner — Send me back the last sheet; and the last copy for correction. If you will promise me henceforward to print a sheet a day, I will promise you to endeavour that you shall have every day a sheet to print, beginning next Tuesday.

  ‘I am Sir, Your most, &c.

  ‘SAM. JOHNSON.’

  ‘To Mr. Strahan.’

  In all likelihood Johnson is writing about the Dictionary. The absence of a date, as I have already said, is strong evidence that the letter was written comparatively early. As the first edition of the Dictionary was in folio a sheet consisted of four pages. Johnson writing on April 3, 1753 says, ‘I began the second vol. of my Dictionary, room being left in the first for Preface, Grammar, and History, none of them yet begun’ (ante, i. 255). As the book was published on April 15, 1755 (ante, i. 290, n. 1), the printing must have gone on very rapidly, when a start was once made. By copy he means his manuscript for printing.

  III, IV.

  Two undated letters about printing the Dictionary.[In the possession of Mr. John Waller, 2, Artesian Road, Westbourne Grove.]

  ‘DEAR SIR,

  ‘I must desire you to add to your other civilities this one, to go to Mr. Millar and represent to him the manner of going on, and inform him that I know not how to manage. I pay three and twenty shillings a week to my assistants, in each instance having much assistance from them, but they tell me they shall be able to pull better in method, as indeed I intend they shall. The Point is to get two Guineas.

  ‘Sir, Your humble Servant,

  ‘SAM. JOHNSON.’

  (Address on back.) ‘To Mr. Strahan.’

  ‘SIR,

  ‘I have often suspected that it is as you say, and have told Mr. Dodsley of it. It proceeds from the haste of the amanuensis to get to the end of his day’s work. I have desired the passages to be clipped close, and then perhaps for two or three leaves it is done. But since poor Stuart’s time I could never get that part of the work into regularity, and perhaps never shall. I will try to take some more care but can promise nothing; when I am told there is a sheet or two I order it away. You will find it sometimes close; when I make up any myself, which never happens but when I have nobody with me, I generally clip it close, but one cannot always be on the watch.

  ‘I am Sir, Your most, &c.

  ‘SAM. JOHNSON.’

  These letters refer to the printing of the Dictionary, of which Dodsley and Millar were two among the proprietors, and Strahan the printer. Francis Stuart or Stewart was one of Johnson’s amanuenses (ante, i. 187). In 1779 Johnson paid his sister a guinea for an old pocket-book of her brother’s (ante, iii. 418), and wrote on April 8,1780 (ante, iii. 421):— ‘The memory of her brother is yet fresh in my mind; he was an ingenious and worthy man.’ In February 1784 he gave her another guinea for a letter relating to himself that he had found in the pocket-book (ante, iv. 262). A writer in the Gent. Mag. for 1799, p. 1171, who had been employed in Strahan’s printing-works, says that ‘Stewart was useful to Johnson in the explanation of low cant phrases; all words relating to gambling and card-playing, such as All-Fours, Catch-honours [not in Johnson’s Dictionary], Cribbage [merely defined as A game at cards], were said to be Stewart’s corrected by the Doctor.’ He adds that after the printing had gone on some time ‘the proprietors of the Dictionary paid Johnson through Mr. Strahan at the rate of a guinea for every sheet of MS. copy delivered. The copy was written upon quarto post, and in two columns each page. Johnson wrote in his own hand the words and their explanation, and generally two or three words in each column, leaving a space between each for the authorities, which were pasted on as they were collected by the different amanuenses employed: and in this mode the MS. was so regular that the sheets of MS. which made a sheet of print could be very exactly ascertained.’ The same writer states that Stewart in a night ramble in Edinburgh with some of his drinking companions ‘met with the mob conducting Captain Porteous to be hanged; they were next day examined about it before the Town Council, when, as Stewart used to say, “we were found to be too drunk to have any hand in the business.” H
e gave an accurate account of it in the Edinburgh Magazine of that time.’

  V.

  A letter about Miss Williams, taxes due, and a journey; undated, but perhaps written at Oxford in 1754.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]

  ‘SIR,

  ‘I shall not be long here, but in the mean time if Miss Williams wants any money pray speak to Mr. Millar and supply her, they write to me about some taxes which I wish you would pay.

  ‘My journey will come to very little beyond the satisfaction of knowing that there is nothing to be done, and that I leave few advantages here to those that shall come after me.

  ‘I am Sir, &c.

  ‘SAM. JOHNSON.’

  ‘My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.

  To Mr. Strahan.’

  Miss Williams came to live with Johnson after his wife’s death in 1752 (ante, i. 232). The fact that Strahan is asked to supply her with money after speaking to Mr. Millar seems to show that this letter was written some time before the publication of the Dictionary in April 1755. Millar ‘took the principal charge of conducting its publication,’ and Johnson ‘had received all the copy-money, by different drafts, a considerable time before he had finished his task’ (ante, i. 287).

  His ‘journey’ may have been his visit to Oxford in the summer of 1754. He went there, because, ‘I cannot,’ he said, ‘finish my book [the Dictionary] to my mind without visiting the libraries’ (ante, i. 270). According to Thomas Warton ‘he collected nothing in the libraries for his Dictionary’ (ib n. 5). It is perhaps to this failure that the latter part of the letter refers, Johnson’s visit, however, was one of five weeks, while the first line of the letter shews that he intended to be away from London but a short time.

  VI.

  A letter about ‘Rasselas,’ dated Jan. 20, 1759.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]

  ‘When I was with you last night I told you of a story which I was preparing for the press. The title will be

  “The Choice of Life

  or

  The History of … Prince of Abissinia.”

  ‘It will make about two volumes like little Pompadour, that is about one middling volume. The bargain which I made with Mr. Johnson was seventy five pounds (or guineas) a volume, and twenty five pounds for the second edition. I will sell this either at that price or for sixty, the first edition of which he shall himself fix the number, and the property then to revert to me, or for forty pounds, and I have the profit that is retain half the copy. I shall have occasion for thirty pounds on Monday night when I shall deliver the book which I must entreat you upon such delivery to procure me. I would have it offered to Mr. Johnson, but have no doubt of selling it, on some of the terms mentioned.

  ‘I will not print my name, but expect it to be known.

  I am Dear Sir, Your most humble servant,

  SAM. JOHNSON.

  Jan. 20, 1759.

  Get me the money if you can.’

  This letter is of unusual interest, as it proves beyond all doubt that Rasselas was written some weeks before Candide was published (see ante, i. 342, n. a). Baretti, as I have shewn (i. 341, n. 3), says that ‘any other person with the degree of reputation Johnson then possessed would have got £400 for the work, but he never understood the art of making the most of his productions.’ We see, however, by this letter that Johnson did ask for a larger sum than the booksellers allowed him. He received but one hundred pounds for the first edition, but he had made a bargain for one hundred and fifty pounds or guineas. Johnson, the bookseller, seems to have been but in a small way of business as a publisher. I do not find in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1758 any advertisement of books published by him, and only one in 1759 (P. 339). Cowper’s publisher in 1778 was Joseph Johnson of St. Paul’s Churchyard. (Cowper’s Works by Southey, i. 285; see also Nichols’ Literary Anecdotes, iii. 461-464.)

  By ‘little Pompadour’ Johnson, no doubt, means the second and cheaper edition of The History of the Marchioness de Pompadour. The first edition was published by Hooper in one volume, price five shillings (Gent. Mag. for October 1758, p. 493). and the second in two volumes for three shillings and sixpence (Gent. Mag. for November, 1758, p. 543).

  Johnson did not generally ‘print his name.’ He published anonymously his translation of Lobos Voyage to Abyssinia; London; The Life of Savage; The Rambler, and The Idler, both in separate numbers and when collected in volumes; Rasselas; The False Alarm; Falkland’s Islands; The Patriot;, and Taxation no Tyranny; (when these four pamphlets were collected in a volume he published them with the title of Political Tracts, by the Authour of the Rambler). He gave his name in The Vanity of Human Wishes, Irene, the Dictionary, his edition of Shakespeare, the Journey to the Western Islands, and the Lives of the Poets.

  VII.

  A letter about George Strahan’s election to a scholarship at University College, Oxford, and about William Strahan’s ‘affair with the University’; dated October 24, 1764.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]

  ‘SIR,

  ‘I think I have pretty well disposed of my young friend George, who, if you approve of it, will be entered next Monday a Commoner of University College, and will be chosen next day a Scholar of the House. The Scholarship is a trifle, but it gives him a right, upon a vacancy, to a Fellowship of more than sixty pounds a year if he resides, and I suppose of more than forty if he takes a Curacy or small living. The College is almost filled with my friends, and he will be well treated. The Master is informed of the particular state of his education, and thinks, what I think too, that for Greek he must get some private assistance, which a servitour of the College is very well qualified and will be very willing to afford him on very easy terms.

  ‘I must desire your opinion of this scheme by the next post, for the opportunity will be lost if we do not now seize it, the Scholarships being necessarily filled up on Tuesday.

  ‘I depend on your proposed allowance of a hundred a year, which must the first year be a little enlarged because there are some extraordinary expenses, as

  Caution (which is allowed in his last quarter). . 7 0 0 Thirds. (He that enters upon a room pays two thirds of the furniture that he finds, and receives from his successor two thirds of what he pays; so that if he pays £20 he receives £13 6s. 8d., this perhaps may be) 12 0 0 Fees at entrance, matriculation &c., perhaps 2 0 0 His gown (I think) 2 10 0 £ 23 10 0

  ‘If you send us a Bill for about thirty pounds we shall set out commodiously enough. You should fit him out with cloaths and linen, and let him start fair, and it is the opinion of those whom I consult, that with your hundred a year and the petty scholarship he may live with great ease to himself, and credit to you.

  ‘Let me hear as soon as is possible.

  ‘In your affair with the university, I shall not be consulted, but I hear nothing urged against your proposal.

  ‘I am, Sir,

  ‘Your humble servant,

  ‘SAM. JOHNSON.’

  ‘Oct. 24, 1764.

  ‘My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.

  ‘To Mr. Strahan, Printer, in New Street, Shoe-lane, London.’

  My friend, Mr. C. J. Faulkner, Fellow and Tutor of University College, has given me the following extracts from the College records: —

  ‘Oct. 30-31, 1764. Candidatis examinatis electi sunt Gulielmus Jones et Georgius Strahan in vacuas Exhibitiones Dmi Simonis Benet Baronetti.’

  Gulielmus Jones is the famous oriental scholar, Sir William Jones, whose portrait adorns the Hall of his ancient College (ante, ii. 25, n. 2).

  On April 16, 1767, is found the election of ‘Georgium Strahan, sophistam in perpetuum hujus Collegii Socium.’

  He vacated his fellowship in 1773.

  The value of a Bennet scholarship in 1764 was ten pounds a year, with rooms added, the rent of which was reckoned as equal to two pounds more. A fellowship on the same foundation was worth about twenty pounds, with a yearly dividend added to it that amounted to about thirty pounds. ‘Fines’ (ante, iii. 323) and other
extra payments might easily raise the value to more than sixty pounds.

  The ‘caution’ is the sum deposited by an undergraduate with the College Bursar or Steward as a security for the payment of his ‘battells’ or account. Johnson in 1728 had to pay at Pembroke College the same sum (seven pounds) that George Strahan in 1764 had to pay at University College. Ante, i. 58, n. 2.

  Johnson wrote four letters to George Strahan, when he was a boy at school, and one letter when he was at College. (See Croker’s Johnson, pp. 129, 130, 161, 168.) In this last letter, dated May 25, 1765, he writes: ‘Do not tire yourself so much with Greek one day as to be afraid of looking on it the next; but give it a certain portion of time, suppose four hours, and pass the rest of the day in Latin or English. I would have you learn French, and take in a literary journal once a month, which will accustom you to various subjects, and inform you what learning is going forward in the world. Do not omit to mingle some lighter books with those of more importance; that which is read remisso animo is often of great use, and takes great hold of the remembrance. However, take what course you will, if you be diligent you will be a scholar.’

  George Strahan attended Johnson on his death-bed, and published the volume called Prayers and Meditations composed by Samuel Johnson. Ante, i. 235, n. i; iv. 376, n. 4.

  William Strahan’s ‘affair with the University’ was very likely connected with the lease of the University Printing House. From the ‘Orders of the Delegates of the Press,’ 1758, I have been permitted to copy the following entry, which bears a date but six days later than that of Johnson’s letter.

  ‘Tuesday, Oct. 30, 1764. At a meeting of the Delegates of the Press.

  ‘Ordered,

  ‘That the following articles be made the foundation of the new lease to be granted of the moiety of the Printing House; that a copy of them be delivered to Mr. Baskett and Mr. Eyre, and that they be desired to give in their respective proposals at a meeting to be held on Tuesday the sixth of November.’ (P. 41.)