1776. afforded you an amusement very feasonable at prefent, and useful for the ill. "I do not now fay any more, than that I am, with great kindness and fincerity, dear Sir, "It was last year determined by Lord Mansfield, in the Court of King's Bench, that a negro cannot be taken out of the kingdom without his own confent." "DEAR SIR, Dr. JOHNSON to Mr. BosWELL. "I MAKE hafte to write again, left my last letter should give you too much pain. If you are really oppreffed with overpowering and involuntary melancholy, you are to be pitied rather than reproached. "Now, my dear Bozzy, let us have done with quarrels and with censure. Let me know whether I have not fent you a pretty library. There are, perhaps, many books among them which you need never read through; but there are none which it is not proper for you to know, and fometimes to confult. Of thefe books, of which the ufe is only occafional, it is often fufficient to know the contents, that, when any question arifes, you may know where to look for information. "Since I wrote, I have looked over Mr. Maclaurin's plea, and think it excellent. How is the fuit carried on? If by fubfcription, I commiffion you to contribute, in my name, what is proper. Let nothing be wanting in fuch a cafe. Dr. Drummond', I fee, is fuperfeded. His father would have grieved; but he lived to obtain the pleasure of his fon's election, and died before that pleasure was abated. "Langton's lady has brought him a girl, and both are well; I dined with him the other day. "It vexes me to tell you, that on the evening of the 29th of May I was seized by the gout, and am not quite well. The pain has not been violent, 'The son of Johnson's old friend, Mr. William Drummond. (See Vol. I. p. 286.) He was a young man of fuch diftinguished merit, that he was nominated to one of the medical professorships in the College of Edinburgh, without folicitation, while he was at Naples. Having other views, he did not accept of the honour, and foon afterwards died. I but 1776. but the weakness, and tenderness were very troublesome, and what is faid to be Etat. 67. very uncommon, it has not alleviated my other diforders. Make use of youth and health while you have them; make my compliments to Mrs. Bofwell. I am, my dear Sir, "YOUR letter of the second of this month was rather a harsh medicine; but I was delighted with that spontaneous tenderness, which, a few days afterwards, fent forth fuch balfam as your next brought me. I found myself for fome time fo ill that all I could do was to preferve a decent appearance, while all within was weakness and diftrefs. Like a reduced garrison that has fome spirit left, I hung out flags, and planted all the force I could mufter, upon the walls. I am now much better, and I fincerely thank you for your kind attention and friendly counfel. "Count Manucci came here last week from travelling in Ireland. I have fhewn him what civilities I could on his own account, your's, and on that of Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. He has had a fall from his horse, and been much hurt. I regret this unlucky accident, for he seems to be a very amiable man." As the evidence of what I have mentioned at the beginning of this year, I felect from his private register the following paffage : July 25, 1776. O GOD, who haft ordained that whatever is to be defired should be fought by labour, and who, by thy bleffing, bringest honeft labour to good effect, look with mercy upon my ftudies and endeavours. Grant me, O LORD, to design only what is lawful and right; and afford me calmness of mind, and fteadiness of purpose, that I may fo do thy will in this fhort life, as to obtain happiness in the world to come, for the fake of JESUS CHRIST Our Lord. Amen 3. • A Florentine nobleman, mentioned by Johnfon, in his "Notes of his Tour in France." I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with him in London, in the fpring of this year. Prayers and Meditations, p. 151. It appears from a note fubjoined, that this was compofed when he 1776. «purposed to apply vigorously to study, particularly of the Greek and Italian Atat. 67 tongues. Such a purpose, so expreffed, at the age of fixty-feven, is admirable and encouraging; and it must impress all the thinking part of my readers with a confolatory confidence in habitual devotion, when they fee a man of fuch enlarged intellectual powers as Johnson, thus in the genuine earneftness of fecrecy, imploring the aid of that Supreme Being, "from whom cometh down every good and every perfect gift." Mr. BOSWELL to Dr. JOHNSON. Edinburgh, Auguft 30, 1776. [After giving him an account of my having examined the chefts of books which he had sent to me, and which contained what may be truly called a numerous and miscellaneous Stall Library, thrown together at random :—] "Lord Hailes was against the decree in the cafe of my client, the minifter, not that he justified the minister, but because the parishioner both provoked and retorted. I fent his Lordship your able argument upon the cafe for his perufal. His observation upon it in a letter to me was, Dr. Johnson's Suaforium is pleasantly and artfully compofed. I fufpect, however, that he has not convinced himself; for, I believe that he is better read in ecclefiaftical history, than to imagine that a Bishop or a Prefbyter has a right to begin cenfure or discipline è cathedra". "For the honour of Count Manucci, as well as to obferve that exactness of truth which you have taught me, I must correct what I faid in a former letter. He did not fall from his horse, which might have been an imputation on his skill as an officer of cavalry; his horfe fell with him. "I have, fince I faw you, read every word of Granger's Biographical Hiftory." It has entertained me exceedingly, and I do not think him the Whig that you fuppofed. Horace Walpole's being his patron is, indeed, no good fign of his political principles. But he denied to Lord Mountstuart • Why his Lordship ufes the epithet pleasantly, when speaking of a grave piece of reasoning, I cannot conceive. But different men have different notions of pleasantry. I happened to fit by a gentleman one evening at the Opera-house in London, who, at the moment when Medea appeared to be in great agony at the thought of killing her children, turned to me with a fmile, and said, "funny enough." s Dr. Johnfon afterwards told me, that he was of opinion that a clergyman had this right. that 1776. that he was a Whig, and faid he had been accufed by both parties of parEtat. 67. tiality. It seems he was like Pope, • While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory.' I wish you would look more into his book; and as Lord Mountstuart wishes much to find a proper person to continue the work upon Granger's plan, and has defired I would mention it to you, if such a man occurs, please to let me know. His Lordship will give him generous encouragement.” I again wrote to Dr. Johnson on the 21st of October, informing him, that my father had, in the most liberal manner, paid a large debt for me, and that I had now the happiness of being upon very good terms with him; to which he returned the following anfwer: "DEAR SIR, To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq.. "I HAD great pleasure in hearing that you are at last on good terms with your father. Cultivate his kindness by all honest and manly means. Life is but short; no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real forrow, or contests upon questions seriously momentous. Let us not throw any of our days away upon useless refentment, or contend who fhall hold out longest in stubborn malignity. It is best not to be angry, and best, in the next place, to be quickly reconciled. May you and your father pass the remainder of your time in reciprocal benevolence! "Do you ever hear from Mr. Langton? I vifit him fometimes, but he does not talk. I do not like his fcheme of life; but, as I am not permitted' to understand it, I cannot fet any thing right that is wrong. His children are fweet babies. "I hope my irreconcileable enemy, Mrs. Bofwell, is well. Defire her not to tranfmit her malevolence to the young people. Let me have Alexander, and Veronica, and Euphemia, for my friends. "Mrs. Williams, whom you may reckon as one of your well-wishers, is in a feeble and languishing state, with little hope of growing better. She went for fome part of the autumn into the country, but is little benefited; and Dr. Lawrence confeffes that his art is at an end. Death is, however, at a a distance; and what more than that can we fay of ourselves? I am sorry for her pain, and more forry for her decay. Mr. Levett is found, wind and limb. "I was fome weeks this autumn at Brighthelmfton. The place was 1776. very dull, and I was not well: the expedition to the Hebrides was the most Etat. 67. pleasant journey that I ever made. Such an effort annually would give the world a little diverfification. "Every year, however, we cannot wander, and must therefore endeavour to spend our time at home as well as we can. I believe it is beft to throw life into a method, that every hour may bring its employment, and every employment have its hour. Xenophon obferves, in his Treatife of Oeconomy,' that if every thing be kept in a certain place, when any thing is worn out or confumed, the vacuity which it leaves will fhew what is wanting; fo if every part of time has its duty, the hour will call into remembrance its proper engagement. "I have not practised all this prudence myself, but I have fuffered much for want of it; and I would have you, by timely recollection and steady resolution, escape from thofe evils which have lain heavy upon me. I am, my dearest Boswell, "Your most humble fervant, SAM. JOHNSON." "Bolt-court, Nov. 16, 1776. On the 16th of November I informed him that Mr. Strahan had fent me twelve copies of the "Journey to the Western Islands," handsomely bound, instead of the twenty copies which were ftipulated, but which, I fupposed, were to be only in fheets; requested to know how they should be distributed: and mentioned that I had another fon born to me, who was named David, and was a fickly infant. "DEAR SIR, To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq. "I HAVE been for fome time ill of a cold, which, perhaps, I made an excufe to myself for not writing, when in reality I knew not what to say. "The books you must at last diftribute as you think beft, in my name, or your own, as you are inclined, or as you judge moft proper. cannot be obliged, but I wish that nobody may be offended. you can. Every body "I congratulate you on the increase of your family, and hope that little David is by this time well, and his mamma perfectly recovered. I am much pleased to hear of the re-establishment of kindness between you and your father. Cultivate his paternal tenderness as much as you can. To live at |