AEtat 46.]
'Mr. Vice-Chancellor, and Gentlemen,
'Your affectionate friend and servant,
'ARRAN[829].'
'Grosvenor-street, Feb. 4, 1755.'
Term. Seti. Hilarii. 1755
'DIPLOMA MAGISTRI JOHNSON.
'CANCELLARIUS, Magistri et Scholares Universitatis Oxoniensis omnibus ad quos hoc presens scriptum pervenerit, salutem in Domino sempiternam.
'Cum eum in finem gradus academici a majoribus nostris instituti fuerint, ut viri ingenio et doctrine praestantes titulis quoque prater caeeteros insignirentur; cumque vir doctissimus Samuel Johnson e Collegia Pembrochiensi, scriptis suis popularium mores informantibus dudum literato orbi innotuerit; quin et linguae patricae tum ornandae tum stabiliendae (Lexicon scilicet Anglicanum summo studio, summo a se judicio congestum propediem editurus) etiam nunc utilissimam impendat operam; Nos igitur Cancellarius, Magistri, et Scholares antedicti, ne virum de literis humanioribus optime meritum diulius inhonoratum praetereamus, in solenni Convocatione Doctorum, Magistrorum, Regentium, et non Regentium, decimo die Mensis Februarii Anno Domini Millesimo Septingentesimo Quinquagesimo quinto habitu, praefatum virum Samuelem Johnson (conspirantibus omnium suffragiis) Magistrum in Artibus renunciavimus et constituimus; eumque, virtute praesentis diplomatis, singulis juribus privilegiis et honoribus ad istum gradum quoqua pertinentibus frui et gaudere jussimus.
'In cujiis rei testimonium sigillum Universitatis Oxoniensis praesentibus apponi fecimus.
'Datum in Domo nostrae Convocationis die 20 deg. Mensis Feb. Anno Dom. praedicto.
'Diploma supra scriptum per Registrarium Iectum erat, et ex decreto venerabilis Domus communi Universitatis sigillo munitum'[830].'
'DOM. DOCTORI HUDDESFORD, OXONIENSIS ACADEMIAE VICE-CANCELLARIO.
'INGRATUS plane et tibi et mihi videar, nisi quanto me gaudio affecerint quos nuper mihi honores (te credo auctore) decrevit Senatus Academicus, Iiterarum, quo lamen nihil levius, officio, significem: ingratus etiam, nisi comitatem, qua vir eximius[831] mihi vestri testimonium amoris in manus tradidit, agnoscam et laudem. Si quid est unde rei lam gratae accedat gratia, hoc ipso magis mihi placet, quod eo tempore in ordines Academicos denuo cooptatus sim, quo tuam imminuere auctoritatem, famamque Oxonii Iaedere[832], omnibus modis conantur homines vafri, nec tamen aculi: quibus ego, prout viro umbratico licuit, semper restiti, semper restiturus. Qui enim, inter has rerum procellas, vel Tibi vel Academiae defuerit, illum virtuti et literis, sibique et posteris, defuturum existimo.
'S. JOHNSON.'
[Page 282: Johnson's letter of thanks. A.D. 1755.]
'To THE REVEREND MR. THOMAS WARTON.
'DEAR SIR,
'After I received my diploma, I wrote you a letter of thanks, with a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, and sent another to Mr. Wise; but have heard from nobody since, and begin to think myself forgotten. It is true, I sent you a double letter[833], and you may fear an expensive correspondent; but I would have taken it kindly, if you had returned it treble: and what is a double letter to a petty king, that having fellowship and fines, can sleep without a Modus in his head[834]?
'Dear Mr. Warton, let me hear from you, and tell me something, I care not what, so I hear it but from you. Something I will tell you:--I hope to see my Dictionary bound and lettered, next week;--vasta mole superbus. And I have a great mind to come to Oxford at Easter; but you will not invite me. Shall I come uninvited, or stay here where nobody perhaps would miss me if I went? A hard choice! But such is the world to, dear Sir,
'Your, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'[London] March 20, 1755.'
[Page 283: A projected Review. AEtat 46.]
To THE SAME.
'DEAR SIR,
'Though not to write, when a man can write so well, is an offence sufficiently heinous, yet I shall pass it by, I am very glad that the Vice-Chancellor was pleased with my note. I shall impatiently expect you at London, that we may consider what to do next. I intend in the winter to open a Bibliotheque, and remember, that you are to subscribe a sheet a year; let us try, likewise, if we cannot persuade your brother to subscribe another. My book is now coming in luminis oras[835]. What will be its fate I know not, nor think much, because thinking is to no purpose. It must stand the censure of the great vulgar and the small[836]; of those that understand it, and that understand it not. But in all this, I suffer not alone: every writer has the same difficulties, and, perhaps, every writer talks of them more than he thinks.
[Page 284: Dr. Maty. A.D. 1755.]
'You will be pleased to make my compliments to all my friends: and be so kind, at every idle hour, as to remember, dear Sir,
'Your, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'[London,] March 25, 1755.'
Dr. Adams told me, that this scheme of a Bibliotheque was a serious one: for upon his visiting him one day, he found his parlour floor covered with parcels of foreign and English literary journals, and he told Dr. Adams he meant to undertake a Review.