Carter was published in 1807.
[608] The correspondence between her and Mrs. Carter was published in 1808.
[609] Dr. Birch says:--'The proprietor of the Rambler, Cave, told me that copy was seldom sent to the press till late in the night before the day of publication,' Croker's Boswell, p. 121, note. See post, April 12, 1776, and beginning of 1781.
Johnson carefully revised the Ramblers for the collected edition. The editor of the Oxford edition of Johnson's Works states (ii. x), that 'the alterations exceeded six thousand.' The following passage from the last number affords a good instance of this revision.
First edition.
'I have never complied with temporary curiosity, nor furnished my readers with abilities to discuss the topic of the day; I have seldom exemplified my assertions by living characters; from my papers therefore no man could hope either censures of his enemies or praises of himself, and they only could be expected to peruse them, whose passions left them leisure for the contemplation of abstracted truth, and whom virtue could please by her native dignity without the assistance of modish ornaments.' Gent. Mag. xxii. 117.
Revised edition.
'I have never complied with temporary curiosity, nor enabled my readers to discuss the topic of the day; I have rarely exemplified my assertions by living characters; in my papers no man could look for censures of his enemies, or praises of himself; and they only were expected to peruse them, whose passions left them leisure for abstracted truth, and whom virtue could please by its naked dignity.' Johnson's Works, iii. 462.
[610] 'Such relicks [Milton's early manuscripts] shew how excellence is acquired; what we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.' Johnson's Works, vii. 119.
[611] Of the first 52 Ramblers 49 were wholly by Johnson; of the last 156, 154. He seems to say that in the first 49, 17 were written from notes, and in the last 154 only 13.
[612] No. 46.
[613] Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 268 [p. 265]. BOSWELL.
[614] 'The sly shadow steals away upon the dial, and the quickest eye can distinguish no more than that it is gone.' Glanville, quoted in Johnson's Dictionary.
[615] This most beautiful image of the enchanting delusion of youthful prospect has not been used in any of Johnson's essays. BOSWELL.
[616] From Horace (Ars Poet. 1. 175) he takes his motto for the number:--
'Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum, Multa recedentes adimunt.' The blessings flowing in with life's full tide Down with our ebb of life decreasing glide.'
FRANCIS.
[617] Lib. xii. 96 [95]. 'In Tuccam aemulum omnium suorum studiorum.' MALONE.
[618] 'There never appear,' says Swift, 'more than five or six men of genius in an age; but if they were united, the world could not stand before them.' Johnson's Works, iv. 18.
[619] In the first edition this is printed [Greek: o philoi on philos]; in the second, [Greek: o philoi on philos]; in the 'Corrections' to the second, we find 'for [Greek: o] read [Greek: oi];' in the third it is printed as above. In three editions we have therefore five readings of the first word. See post, April 15, 1778, where Johnson says:
'An old Greek said, "He that has friends has no friend,"' and April 24, 1779, where he says: 'Garrick had friends but no friend.'
[620]
'gravesque Principum amicitias.' 'And fatal friendships of the guilty great.'
FRANCIS, Horace, Odes, ii. 1. 4.
[621] 3 Post, under Jan. 1, 1753.
[622] Sir John Hawkins has selected from this little collection of materials, what he calls the 'Rudiments of two of the papers of the Rambler.' But he has not been able to read the manuscript distinctly. Thus he writes, p. 266, 'Sailor's fate any mansion;' whereas the original is 'Sailor's life my aversion.' He has also transcribed the unappropriated hints on Writers for bread, in which he decyphers these notable passages, one in Latin, fatui non famae, instead of fami non famae; Johnson having in his mind what Thuanus says of the learned German antiquary and linguist, Xylander, who, he tells us, lived in such poverty, that he was supposed fami non famae scribere; and another in French, Degente de fate [fatu] et affame a'argent, instead of Degoute de fame, (an old word for renommee) et affame d'argent. The manuscript being written in an exceedingly small hand, is indeed very hard to read; but it would have been better to have left blanks than to write nonsensc. BOSWELL.
[623] When we know that of the 208 Ramblers all but five were written by Johnson, it is amusing to read a passage in one of Miss Talbot's letters to Mrs. Carter, dated Oct. 20, 1750:--'Mr. Johnson would, I fear, be mortified to hear that people know a paper of his own by the sure mark of somewhat a little excessive, a little exaggerated in the expression.' Carter Corres. i. 357.
[624] The Ramblers certainly were little noticed at first. Smart, the poet, first mentioned them to me as excellent papers, before I had heard any one else speak of them.