(Vol. iv, p. 277, n. 1.)
I am informed by my friend, Mr. W. R. Morfill, M.A., of Oriel College, Oxford, who has, I suppose, no rival in this country in his knowledge of the Slavonic tongues, that no Russian translation of the Rambler has been published. He has given me the following title of the Russian version of Rasselas, which he has obtained for me through the kindness of Professor Grote, of the University of Warsaw:--
'Rasselas, printz Abissinskii, Vostochnaya Poviest Sochinenie Doktora Dzhonsona Perevod s'angliiskago. 3 chasti, Moskva. 1795.
'Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia, An Eastern Tale, by Doctor Johnson. Translated from the English. 2 parts, Moscow, 1795.'
'It has not wit enough to keep it sweet.'
(Vol. iv, p. 320.)
'Heylyn, in the Epistle to his Letter-Combate, addressing Baxter, and speaking of such "unsavoury pieces of wit and mischief" as "the Church-historian" asks, "Would you not have me rub them with a little salt to keep them sweet?" This passage was surely present in the mind of Dr. Johnson when he said concerning The Rehearsal that "it had not wit enough to keep it sweet."' --J. E. Bailey's Life of Thomas Fuller, p. 640.
Pictures of Johnson.
(Vol. iv, p. 421, n. 2.)
In the Common Room of Trinity College, Oxford, there is an interesting portrait of Johnson, said to be by Romney. I cannot, however, find any mention of it in the Life of that artist. It was presented to the College by Canon Duckworth.
The Gregory Family.
(Vol. v, p. 48, n. 3.)
Mr. P. J. Anderson (in Notes and Queries, 7th S. iii. 147) casts some doubt on Chalmers' statement. He gives a genealogical table of the Gregory family, which includes thirteen professors; but two of these cannot, from their dates, be reckoned among Chalmers' sixteen.
The University of St. Andrews in 1778.
(Vol. v, p. 63, n. 2.)
In the preface to Poems by George Monck Berkeley, it is recorded (p. cccxlviii) that when 'Mr. Berkeley entered at the University of St. Andrews [about 1778], one of the college officers called upon him to deposit a crown to pay for the windows he might break. Mr. Berkeley said, that as he should reside in his father's house, it was little likely he should break any windows, having never, that he remembered, broke one in his life. He was assured that he would do it at St. Andrews. On the rising of the session several of the students said, "Now for the windows. Come, it is time to set off, let us sally forth!" Mr. Berkeley, being called upon, enquired what was to be done? They replied, "Why, to break every window in college." "For what reason?" "Oh! no reason; but that it has always been done from time immemorial."' The Editor goes on to say that Mr. Berkeley prevailed on them to give up the practice. How poor some of the students were is shown by the following anecdote, told by the College Porter, who had to collect the crowns. 'I am just come,' he said, 'from a poor student indeed. I went for the window croon; he cried, begged, and prayed not to pay it, saying, "he brought but a croon to keep him all the session, and he had spent sixpence of it; so I have got only four and sixpence."' His father, a labourer, who owned three cows, 'had sold one to dress his son for the University, and put the lamented croon in his pocket to purchase coals. All the lower students study by fire-light. He had brought with him a large tub of oatmeal and a pot of salted butter, on which he was to subsist from Oct. 20 until May 20.' Berkeley raised 'a very noble subscription' for the poor fellow.
In another passage (p. cxcviii) it is recorded that Berkeley 'boasted to his father, "Well, Sir, idle as you may think me, I never have once bowed at any Professor's Lecture." An explanation being requested of the word bowing, it was thus given: "Why, if any poor fellow has been a little idle, and is not prepared to speak when called upon by the Professor, he gets up and makes a respectful-bow, and sits down again."' Berkeley was a grandson of Bishop Berkeley.
Johnson's unpublished sermons.
(Vol. v, p. 67, n. i.)
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO JAMES ABERCROMBIE, ESQ., of Philadelphia.
'June 11, 1792.
"I have not yet been able to discover any more of Johnson's sermons besides those left for publication by Dr. Taylor. I am informed by the Lord Bishop of Salisbury, that he gave an excellent one to a clergyman, who preached and published it in his own name on some public occasion. But the Bishop has not as yet told me the name, and seems unwilling to do it. Yet I flatter myself I shall get at it."' --Nichols's Literary History, vii. 315.
Tillotson's argument against the doctrine of transubstantiation.
(Vol. v, p. 71.)
Gibbon, writing of his reconversion from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism in the year 1754, after allowing something to the conversation of his Swiss tutor, says:--
'I must observe that it was principally effected by my private reflections; and I still remember my solitary transport at the discovery of a philosophical argument against the doctrine of transubstantiation-- that the text of scripture which seems to inculcate the real presence is attested only by a single sense-- our sight; while the real presence itself is disproved by three of our senses--the sight, the touch, and the taste.' --Memoirs of Edward Gibbon, ed.