The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes by Samuel Johnson

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Learned Sir,
Your sincere wellwishers and humble servants,
The AUTHORS of the Universal History.

A Letter from the learned Mr. Robert Ainsworth, author of the Latin and
English Dictionary, to Mr. Lauder.

LEARNED AND WORTHY SIR,

These wait on you, to thank you for the honour you have done a person,
equally unknown as undeserving, in your valuable present, which I did
not receive till several weeks after it was sent: and since I received
it, my eyes have been so bad, and my hand so unstable, that I have been
forced to defer my duty, as desirous to thank you with my own hand. I
congratulate to your nation the just honour ascribed to it by its
neighbours and more distant countries, in having bred two such excellent
poets as your Buchanan and Johnston, whom to name is to commend; but am
concerned for their honour at home, who being committed together, seem
to me both to suffer a diminution, whilst justice is done to neither.
But at the same time I highly approve your nation's piety in bringing
into your schools sacred instead of profane poesy, and heartily wish
that ours, and all Christian governments, would follow your example
herein. If a mixture of _utile dulci_ be the best composition in poetry,
(which is too evident to need the judgment of the nicest critick in the
art,) surely the _utile_ so transcendently excels in the sacred hymns,
that a Christian must deny his name that doth not acknowledge it: and if
the _dulce_ seem not equally to excel, it must be from a vitiated taste
of those who read them in the original, and, in others, at second-hand,
from translations. For the manner of writing in the east and west is
widely distant, and which to a paraphrast must render his task exceeding
difficult, as requiring a perfect knowledge in two languages, wherein
the idioms and graces of speech, caused by the diversity of their
religion, laws, customs, &c. are as remote as the inhabitants, wherein,
notwithstanding, your poets have succeeded to admiration.

Your main contest seems to me, when stript of persons, whether the easy
or sublime in poesy be preferable; if so,

Non opis est nostrae tantam componere litem:

nor think I it in your case material to be decided. Both these have
their particular excellencies and graces, and youth ought to be taught
wherein (which the matter ought chiefly to determine) the one hath
place, and where the other. Now since the hymns of David, Moses, and
other divine poets, intermixt with them, (infinitely excelling those of
Callimachus, Alcaeus, Sappho, Anacreon, and all others,) abound in both
these virtues, and both your poets are acknowledged to be very happy in
paraphrasing them, it is my opinion, both of them, without giving the
least preference to either, should be read alternately in your schools,
as the tutor shall direct. Pardon, learned Sir, this scribble to my age
and weakness, both which are very great, and command me wherein I may
serve you, as,

Learned Sir,

Your obliged, thankful, and obedient servant,

ROBERT AINSWORTH.

Spitalfields, Sept. 1741.

A Letter from the Authors of the Universal History to Mr. Auditor
Benson.

SIR,

It is with no small pleasure that we see Dr. Johnston's translation of
the Psalms revived in so elegant a manner, and adorned with such a just
and learned display of its inimitable beauties. As we flatter ourselves
that the character we gave it, in our first volume of the Universal
History, did, in some measure, contribute to it, we hope, that in
justice to that great poet, you will permit us to cast the following
mites into your treasury of critical notes on his noble version. We
always thought the palm by far this author's due, as upon many other
accounts, so especially for two excellencies hitherto not taken notice
of by any critic, that we know of, and which we beg leave to transmit to
you, and if you think fit, by you to the public, in the following
observations.

We beg leave to subscribe ourselves,

Sir, &c.

The AUTHORS of the Universal History.

Dr. Isaac Watts, D.D. in his late book, entitled, The Improvement of the
Mind, Lond. 1741, p. 114.

Upon the whole survey of things, it is my opinion, that for almost all
boys who learn this tongue, [the Latin,] it would be much safer to be
taught Latin poesy, as soon, and as far as they can need it, from those
excellent translations of David's Psalms, which are given us by Buchanan
in the various measures of Horace; and the lower classes had better read
Dr. Johnston's translation of those Psalms, another elegant writer of
the Scots nation, instead of Ovid's Epistles; for he has turned the same
Psalms, perhaps, with greater elegancy, into elegiac verse, whereof the
learned W. Benson, esq. has lately published a new edition; and I hear
that these Psalms are honoured with an increasing use in the schools of
Holland and Scotland. A stanza, or a couplet of those writers would now
and then stick upon the minds of youth, and would furnish them
infinitely better with pious and moral thoughts, and do something
towards making them good men and Christians.

An Act of the Commission of the General Assembly of the Kirk of
Scotland, recommending Dr. Arthur Johnston's Latin Paraphrase of the
Psalms of David, &c.

At Edinburgh, 13th of November, 1740, post meridiem.

A Petition having been presented to the late General Assembly, by Mr.
William Lauder, teacher of humanity in Edinburgh, craving, That Dr.
Arthur Johnston's Latin Paraphrase on the Psalms of David, and Mr.
Robert Boyd, of Trochrig, his Hecatombe Christiana, may be recommended
to be taught in all grammar schools; and the assembly having appointed a
committee of their number to take the desire of the foresaid petition
into their consideration, and report to the commission: the said
committee offered their opinion, that the commission should grant the
desire of the said petition, and recommend the said Dr. Johnston's
Paraphrase to be taught in the lower classes of the schools, and Mr.
George Buchanan's Paraphrase on the Psalms, together with Mr. Robert
Boyd of Trochrig's, Hecatombe Christiana in the higher classes of
schools, and humanity-classes in universities. The commission having
heard the said report, unanimously approved thereof, and did, and hereby
do, recommend accordingly.

Extracted by

WILLIAM GRANT[1], Cl. Ecl. Sc.
[1] This honourable gentleman is now his Majesty's Advocate for
Scotland.

A Letter from the learned Mr. Abraham Gronovius, Secretary to the
University of Leyden, to Mr. Lauder, concerning the Adamus Exsul of
Grotius.

Clarissimo Viro, Wilhelmo Laudero, Abrahamus Gronovius, S.P.D.

Postquam binae literae tuae ad me perlatae fuerunt, duas editiones
carminum H. Grotii, viri vere summi, excussi; verum ab utraque
tragoediam, quam Adamum Exsulem inscripsit [Greek: O AEAPY], abesse
deprehendi; neque ullum ejusdem exemplar, quamvis tres[1] editiones
exstare adnotaveram, ullibi offendere potui, adeo ut spe, quam vorabam
desiderio tuo satisfaciendi, me prorsus excidisse existimarem.

Verum nuperrime forte contigit, ut primam tragoediae Grotianae
editionem, Hagae, an. 1601. publicatam, beneficio amicissimi mihi viri
nactus fuerim, ejusque decem priores paginas, quibus, praeter chorum,
actus primus comprehenditur, a Jacobo meo, optimae spei adolescente,
transcriptas nunc ad te mitto. Vale, vir doctissime, meque, ut facis,
amare perge. Dabam Lugd. Bat. A. D, IV. Id. Sept. A. D. MDCCXLVI.

[1] Though Gronovius here mentions only three editions of this noble and
curious performance, the Adamus Exsul of Grotius; yet it appears from
the catalogue of his works, that no fewer than four have been printed,
two in quarto, and two in octavo, in the years 1601, 1608, and 1635; two
having been made, one in quarto, the other in octavo, anno 1601.

A second Letter from the same gentleman to Mr. Lauder, on the same
subject.

Clarissime atque eruditissime vir,

Posteaquam, tandem Jacobus meus residuam partem, quam desiderabas,
tragoediae Grotianae transcripserat, ut ea diutius careres, committere
nolui: quod autem citius illam ad finem perducere non potuerit,
obstiterunt variae occupationes, quibus districtus fuit. Nam, praeter
scholastica studia, quibus strenue incubuit, ipsi componenda erat
oratio, qua rudimenta linguae Graecae Latinseque deponeret, eamque, quod
vehementer laetor, venuste, et quidem stilo ligato, composuit, et in
magna auditorum corona pronuntiavit. Quod autem ad exemplar ipsum, quo
Adamus Exsul comprehenditur, spectat, id lubens, si meum foret, ad te
perferri curarem, verum illud a clarissimo possessore tanti aestimatur,
ut perrsuasum habeam me istud minime ab ipso impetraturum: et sane sacra
carmina Grotii adeo raro obvia sunt, ut eorundem exemplar apud ipsos
remonstrantium ecclesiastas frustra quaesiverim.

Opus ipsum inscriptum est HENRICO BORBONIO, PRINCIPI CONDAEO; et forma
libri est in quarto, ut nullo pacto literis includi possit. Ceterum, pro
splendidissima et Magnes Britanniae principe, cui merito dicata est,
digna editione Psalmorum, ex versione metrica omnium fere poetarum
principis JONSTONI maximas tibi grates habet agitque Jacobus. Utinam
illustrissimus Bensonus in usum serenissimi principis, atque ingeniorum
in altiora surgentium, eadem forma, lisdemque typis exarari juberet
divinos illos Ciceronis de Officiis libros, dignos sane, quos diurna
nocturnaque manu versaret princeps, a quo aliquando Britannici regni
majestas et populi salus pendebunt! Interim tibi, eruditissime vir,
atque etiam politissimo D. Caveo, pro muneribus literariis, quae per
nobilissimum Lawsonium [1] ad me curastis, magno opere me obstrictum
agnosco, cademque, summa cum voluptate, a me perlecta sunt.

Filius meus te plurimum salutat.

Vale, doctissime vir, meisque verbis D. Caveum saluta, atque amare
perge,

Tuum,

ABRAHAMUM GRONOVIUM.

Dabam Leidis, A. D. xiv. KAL.
Maias, A. D. MDCCXLVII.

[1] The person here meant was the learned and worthy Dr. Isaac Lawson,
late physician to the English army in Flanders; by whom Mr. Gronovius
did me the honour to transmit to me two or three acts of the Adamus
Exsul of Grotius, transcribed by his son, Mr. James. The truth of this
particular consists perfectly well with the knowledge of the Doctor's
brother, John Lawson, esq. counsellor at law; who also had the same
thing lately confirmed to him by Mr. Gronovius himself in Holland.

POSTSCRIPT.

And now my character is placed above all suspicion of fraud by
authentick documents, I will make bold, at last, to pull off the mask,
and declare sincerely the true motive that induced me to interpolate a
few lines into some of the authors quoted by me in my Essay on Milton,
which was this: Knowing the prepossession in favour of Milton, how
deeply it was rooted in many, I was willing to make trial, if the
partial admirers of that author would admit a translation of his own
words to pass for his sense, or exhibit his meaning; which I thought
they would not: nor was I mistaken in my conjecture, forasmuch as
several gentlemen, seemingly persons of judgment and learning, assured
me, they humbly conceived I had not proved my point, and that Milton
might have written as he has done, supposing he had never seen these
authors, or they had never existed. Such is the force of prejudice! This
exactly confirms the judicious observation of the excellent moralist and
poet:

Pravo favore labi mortales solent;
Et pro judicio dum stant erroris sui,
Ad poenitendum rebus manifestis agi.

For, had I designed, as the vindicator of Milton supposes, to impose a
trick on the publick, and procure credit to my assertions by an
imposture, I would never have drawn lines from Hog's translation of
Milton, a book common at every sale, I had almost said, at every stall,
nor ascribed them to authors so easily attained: I would have gone
another way to work, by translating forty or fifty lines, and assigning
them to an author, whose works possibly might not be found till the
world expire at the general conflagration. My imposing, therefore, on
the publick in general, instead of a few obstinate persons, for whose
sake alone the stratagem was designed, is the only thing culpable in my
conduct, for which again I most humbly ask pardon: and that this, and
this only, was, as no other could be, my design, no one, I think, can
doubt, from the account I have just now given; and whether that was so
criminal, as it has been represented, I shall leave every impartial mind
to determine.

AN ACCOUNT OF AN ATTEMPT TO ASCERTAIN THE LONGITUDE[1].

FIRST PRINTED IN THE YEAR 1755.

It is well known to seamen and philosophers, that, after the numerous
improvements produced by the extensive commerce of the later ages, the
great defect in the art of sailing is ignorance of longitude, or of the
distance to which the ship has passed eastward or westward, from any
given meridian.

That navigation might be at length set free from this uncertainty, the
legislative power of this kingdom incited the industry of searchers into
nature, by a large reward proposed to him who should show a practicable
method of finding the longitude at sea; and proportionable recompenses
to those, who, though they should not fully attain this great end, might
yet make such advances and discoveries as should facilitate the work to
those that might succeed them.

By the splendour of this golden encouragement many eyes were dazzled,
which nature never intended to pry into her secrets. By the hope of
sudden riches many understandings were set on work very little
proportioned to their strength, among whom whether mine shall be
numbered, must be left to the candour of posterity: for I, among others,
laid aside the business of my profession, to apply myself to the study
of the longitude, not, indeed, in expectation of the reward due to a
complete discovery; yet, not without hopes that I might be considered as
an assistant to some greater genius, and receive from the justice of my
country the wages offered to an honest and not unsuccessful labourer in
science.

Considering the various means by which this important inquiry has been
pursued, I found that the observation of the eclipses, either of the
primary or secondary planets, being possible but at certain times, could
be of no use to the sailor; that the motions of the moon had been long
attended, however accurately, without any consequence; that other
astronomical observations were difficult and uncertain, with every
advantage of situation, instruments, and knowledge; and were, therefore,
utterly impracticable to the sailor, tost upon the water, ill provided
with instruments, and not very skilful in their application. The hope of
an accurate clock or time-keeper is more specious. But when I began
these studies, no movements had yet been made that were not evidently
unaccurate and uncertain: and even of the mechanical labours which I now
hear so loudly celebrated, when I consider the obstruction of movements
by friction, the waste of their parts by attrition, the various pressure
of the atmosphere, the effects of different effluvia upon metals, the
power of heat and cold upon all matter, the changes of gravitation and
the hazard of concussion, I cannot but fear that they will supply the
world with another instance of fruitless ingenuity, though, I hope, they
will not leave upon this country the reproach of unrewarded diligence. I
saw, therefore, nothing on which I could fix with probability of
success, but the magnetical needle, an instrument easily portable, and
little subject to accidental injuries, with which the sailor has had a
long acquaintance, which he will willingly study, and can easily
consult. The magnetick needle, from the year 1300, when it is generally
supposed to have been first applied by Flavio Gioia, of Amalfi, to the
seaman's use, seems to have been long thought to point exactly to the
north and south by the navigators of those times; who sailing commonly
on the calm Mediterranean, or making only short voyages, had no need of
very accurate observations; and who, if they ever transiently observed
any deviations from the meridian, either ascribed them to some
extrinsick and accidental cause, or willingly neglected what it was not
necessary to understand.

But when the discovery of the new world turned the attention of mankind
upon the naval sciences, and long courses required greater niceties of
practice, the variation of the needle soon became observable, and was
recorded, in 1500, by Sebastian Cabot, a Portuguese, who, at the expense
of the king of England, discovered the northern coasts of America.

As the next century was a time of naval adventures, it might be expected
that the variation once observed, should have been well studied: yet it
seems to have been little heeded; for it was supposed to be constant,
and always the same in the same place, till, in 1625, Gellibrand noted
its changes, and published his observations.

From this time the philosophical world had a new subject of speculation,
and the students of magnetism employed their researches upon the gradual
changes of the needle's direction, or the variations of the variation,
which have hitherto appeared so desultory and capricious, as to elude
all the schemes which the most fanciful of the philosophical dreamers
could devise for its explication. Any system that could have united
these tormenting diversities, they seem inclined to have received, and
would have contentedly numbered the revolutions of a central magnet,
with very little concern about its existence, could they have assigned
it any motion, or vicissitude of motions, which would have corresponded
with the changes of the needle.

Yet upon this secret property of magnetism I ventured to build my hopes
of ascertaining the longitude at sea. I found it undeniably certain that
the needle varies its direction in a course eastward or westward between
any assignable parallels of latitude: and, supposing nature to be in
this, as in all other operations, uniform and consistent, I doubted not
but the variation proceeded in some established method, though, perhaps,
too abstruse and complicated for human comprehension.

This difficulty, however, was to be encountered; and by close and steady
perseverance of attention I at last subdued, or thought myself to have
subdued it: having formed a regular system in which all the phenomena
seemed to be reconciled; and, being able, from the variation in places
where it is known, to trace it to those where it is unknown; or from the
past to predict the future; and, consequently, knowing the latitude and
variation, to assign the true longitude of any place.

With this system I came to London, where, having laid my proposals
before a number of ingenious gentlemen, it was agreed that during the
time required to the completion of my experiments, I should be supported
by a joint subscription to be repaid out of the reward, to which they
concluded me entitled. Among the subscribers, was Mr. Rowley, the
memorable constructor of the orrery; and among my favourers was the lord
Piesley, a title not unknown among magnetical philosophers. I frequently
showed, upon a globe of brass, experiments by which my system was
confirmed, at the house of Mr. Rowley, where the learned and curious of
that time generally assembled.

At this time great expectations were raised by Mr. Whiston, of
ascertaining the longitude by the inclination of the needle, which he
supposed to increase or diminish regularly. With this learned man I had
many conferences, in which I endeavoured to evince what he has at last
confessed in the narrative of his life, the uncertainty and inefficacy
of his method.

About the year 1729, my subscribers explained my pretensions to the
lords of the Admiralty, and the lord Torrington declared my claim just
to the reward assigned, in the last clause of the act, to those who
should make discoveries conducive to the perfection of the art of
sailing. This he pressed with so much warmth, that the commissioners
agreed to lay my tables before Sir Isaac Newton, who excused himself, by
reason of his age, from a regular examination: but when he was informed
that I held the variation at London to be still increasing; which he and
the other philosophers, his pupils, thought to be then stationary, and
on the point of regression, he declared that he believed my system
visionary. I did not much murmur to be for a time overborne by that
mighty name, even when I believed that the name only was against me: and
I have lived till I am able to produce, in my favour, the testimony of
time, the inflexible enemy of false hypotheses; the only testimony which
it becomes human understanding to oppose to the authority of Newton.

My notions have, indeed, been since treated with equal superciliousness
by those who have not the same title to confidence of decision; men who,
though, perhaps, very learned in their own studies, have had little
acquaintance with mine. Yet even this may be borne far better than the
petulance of boys, whom I have seen shoot up into philosophers by
experiments which I have long since made and neglected, and by
improvements which I have so long transferred into my ordinary practice,
that I cannot remember when I was without them.

When Sir Isaac Newton had declined the office assigned him, it was given
to Mr. Molineux, one of the commissioners of the Admiralty, who engaged
in it with no great inclination to favour me; but, however, thought one
of the instruments, which, to confirm my own opinion, and to confute Mr.
Whiston's, I had exhibited to the Admiralty, so curious or useful, that
he surreptitiously copied it on paper, and clandestinely endeavoured to
have it imitated by a workman for his own use.

This treatment naturally produced remonstrances and altercations, which,
indeed, did not continue long, for Mr. Molineux died soon afterwards;
and my proposals were for a time forgotten.

I will not, however, accuse him of designing to condemn me, without a
trial; for he demanded a portion of my tables to be tried in a voyage to
America, which I then thought I had reason to refuse him, not yet
knowing how difficult it was to obtain, on any terms, an actual
examination.

About this time the theory of Dr. Halley was the chief subject of
mathematical conversation; and though I could not but consider him as
too much a rival to be appealed to as a judge, yet his reputation
determined me to solicit his acquaintance and hazard his opinion. I was
introduced to him by Mr. Lowthorp and Dr. Desaguliers, and put my tables
into his hands; which, after having had them about twenty days under
consideration, he returned in the presence of the learned Mr. Machin,
and many other skilful men, with an entreaty that I would publish them
speedily; for I should do infinite service to mankind.

It is one of the melancholy pleasures of an old man, to recollect the
kindness of friends, whose kindness he shall experience no more. I have
now none left to favour my studies; and, therefore, naturally turn my
thoughts on those by whom I was favoured in better days: and I hope the
vanity of age may be forgiven, when I declare that I can boast among my
friends, almost every name of my time that is now remembered: and that,
in that great period of mathematical competition, scarce any man failed
to appear as my defender, who did not appear as my antagonist.

By these friends I was encouraged to exhibit to the Royal Society, an
ocular proof of the reasonableness of my theory by a sphere of iron, on
which a small compass moved in various directions, exhibiting no
imperfect system of magnetical attraction. The experiment was shown by
Mr. Hawkesbee, and the explanation, with which it was accompanied, was
read by Dr. Mortimer. I received the thanks of the society; and was
solicited to reposit my theory, properly sealed and attested, among
their archives, for the information of posterity. I am informed, that
this whole transaction is recorded in their minutes.

After this I withdrew from publick notice, and applied myself wholly to
the continuation of my experiments, the confirmation of my system, and
the completion of my tables, with no other companion than Mr. Gray, who
shared all my studies and amusements, and used to repay my
communications of magnetism, with his discoveries in electricity. Thus I
proceeded with incessant diligence; and, perhaps, in the zeal of
inquiry, did not sufficiently reflect on the silent encroachments of
time, or remember, that no man is in more danger of doing little, than
he who flatters himself with abilities to do all. When I was forced out
of my retirement, I came loaded with the infirmities of age, to struggle
with the difficulties of a narrow fortune; cut off by the blindness of
my daughter from the only assistance which I ever had; deprived by time
of my patron and friends; a kind of stranger in a new world, where
curiosity is now diverted to other objects, and where, having no means
of ingratiating my labours, I stand the single votary of an obsolete
science, the scoff of puny pupils of puny philosophers.

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