Johnson, Master of Arts, and command, that he anjoy and exercise all the rights, privileges, and honours to that degree appertaining. Upon the receipt of this inftrument, Johnson teftified his gratitude for the honour done him, in a letter to the vice-chancellor, which, as a specimen of a fine Latin style, I here insert : • Reverendo admodum viro G. Huddesford, S. T. P. • Oxonienfis academiæ Vice-cancellario digniffimo. Ingratus plane et tibi et mihi videar, nifi quanto 'me gaudio affecerint, quos nuper mihi honores, te • credo auctore, decrevit fenatus academicus, literarum, quo tamen nihil levius, officio fignificem : ingratus etiam, nifi comitatem, qua vir eximius * mihi veftri teftimonium amoris in manus tradidit, agnofcam et laudem. Siquid eft, unde rei tam gratæ accedat gratia, hoc ipfo magis mihi placet, quod co tempore in ordines academicos denuo cooptatus fim, quo tuam imminuere auctoritatem, <famamque Oxoniæ lædere, omnibus modis conantur ⚫ homines vafri nec tamen acuti: quibus ego, prout 'viro umbratico licuit, femper reftiti, femper reftiturus. Qui enim, inter has rerum procellas, vel tibi vel academiæ defuerit, illum virtuti, et literis, fibique, et pofteris, defuturum existimo.' S. JOHNSON, So near perfection had the author brought his dictionary, that, upon a review of it previous to his drawing up the preface, he declares, he is unable to detect the cafual omiffion of more than one article, The Vir eximius above-mentioned is Dr. King of St. Mary hall, who delivered the diploma to Johnson in London. the the appellative OCEAN. Nor has he, as I know, been charged with any other defect, or with any mifinterpretation of a word, fave in an inftance or two, where, being moved by party-prejudice, he has impofed fignifications on a few words that are indefenfible. Let these be imputed to a mind agonized, at various periods during the profecution of this laborious work, with indigence, with forrow, and pain; and let the piteous description of his circumstances and feelings, which the preface contains, induce us to bury our refentment of a few petulant expreffions, in the reflection, that this ftupendous compilation was undertaken and completed by the care and industry of a single perfon. Upon occafion of publishing the dictionary, Mr. Garrick celebrated the author in the following lines : "Talk of war with a Briton, he'll boldly advance, toil, • Can their strength be compar'd to Locke, Newton, and Boyle? Let them rally their heroes, fend forth all their pow'rs, Their verse-men and profe-men; then match them with ours: First Shakespeare and Milton, like Gods in the fight, Have put their whole drama and epic to flight; In fatires, epiftles, and odes, would they cope, Their numbers retreat before Dryden and Pope; And Johnson, well-arm'd like a hero of yore, Has beat forty French, and will beat forty more.' It has already been mentioned, that Johnson's inducement to this undertaking was the offer of a liberal reward. The term liberal is indefinite, and, after the lapfe of twenty years, during which fuch fums as from three to eight thousand pounds have been paid for copies, would hardly be allowed to fifteen hundred and feventy-five †, which was the fum ftipulated for the dictionary. Of this, Johnfon, who was no very accurate accountant, thought a great part would be coming to him on the conclufion of the work; but upon producing, at a tavern-meeting for the purpofe of fettling, receipts for fums advanced to him, which were indeed the chief means of his subsistence, it was found, not only that he had eaten his cake, but that the balance of the account was greatly against him. His debtors were now become his creditors; but they, in a perfect confiftency with that liberal fpirit, which, in fundry inftances, the great bookfellers are known to have exercised towards authors, remitted the difference, and confoled him for his dif appointment by making his entertainment at the tavern a treat §. The • The number of the French academy employed in fettling their language, From the original contract now in my hand, dated 18th June 1746, between Johnson on the one part, and the two Knaptons, the two Longmans, Charles Hitch, Andrew Millar, and Robert Dodfley on the other. § Mr. William Caflon the letter-founder, grandfather of the prefent The The pointing out the utility of fuch a work as vernacular lexicon is needlefs, and the displaying the merits of that of which I am fpeaking, is a labour which the fuffrage of the public has faved me. learned world had long wifhed for its appearance, and the circulation of the book was proportionate to the impatience which the promise of it had excited. Lord Corke, being at Florence at the time when it was published, presented it, in the author's name, to the academy della Crufca, and that learned body transmitted to him a fine copy of their Vocabulario. The French academy alfo fignified their approbation of his labours, by a prefent of their Dictionnaire, of which Mr. Langton was the bearer. To these testimonies of public respect, it is a small but ludicrous addition to fay, that Dr. Robertfon, the Scots hiftorian, told Johnson, that he had fairly perufed his dictionary twice over, and that Johnson was pleased at the hearing it. The dictionary was a library-book, and not adapted to common ufe: the book fellers knowing this, and being encouraged by its fuccess, eafily prevailed on the author to abridge it in two octavo volumes, and made him a liberal recompence. of It was doubtless a great fatisfaction to Johnson to have completed this great work; and though we may prefent Mr. Caflon, once told me, that the bookfellers with whom Mr. Chambers had contracted for his dictionary, finding that the work fucceeded beyond their expectations, made him a voluntary prefent of, I think, 500l. Other inftances of the like generofity have been known of a profeffion of men, who, in the debates of the queftion of literary property, have been described as scandalous monopolizers, fattening at the expence of other mens' ingenuity, and growing opulent by oppreffion believe believe him in the declaration at the end of the preface thereto, that he difmiffed it with frigid tranquility, we cannot but fuppofe that he was pleased with the reception it met with. One and only one writer, excited by that envy and malice which had been long rankling in his breast, attempted to disturb the quiet which possessed him, by animadverting on this and other of his writings: this was a Dr. Kenrick, the author of many fcurrilous publications now deservedly forgotten, who, in a small volume intitled 'Lexiphanes,' endeavoured to turn many paffages in the Rambler, and interpretations in the dictionary, into ridicule; gratifying his fpleen alfo with a number of malevolent cenfures of Dr. Akenfide's Pleasures of Imagination.' It was the purpose of this libel to provoke both or one of the perfons who were the fubjects of it, to a controverfy, from which, whatever fhould be the event, he hoped, as it is faid Ulyffes did in his conteft with Ajax, to derive honour. Ifte tulit pretium jam nunc certaminis hujus; 'Quo cum victus erit, mecum certaffe feretur.' OVID. Met. lib. xiii. v. 19. Lofing he wins, because his name will be • Ennobled by defeat, who durft contend with me.' DRYDEN. But in this he was difappointed. Akenfide was too proud to difpute with an inferior, and Johnson's filence proceeded not more from his contempt of fuch an adversary, than from a fettled refolution he had formed, of declining all controversy in defence either of himself or his writings. Against perfonal abuse |