Collegia Pembrochiensi, scriptis suis popularium mores informantibus dudum literato orbi innotuerit; quin et linguæ patricæ tum ornandæ tum stabiliendæ (Lexicon scilicet Anglicanum summo studio, summo à se judicio congestum propediem editurus) etiam nunc utilissimam impendat operam; Nos igitur Cancellarius, Magistri, et Scholares antedicti, nè virum de literis humanioribus optimè meritum diulius inhonoratum prætereamus, in solenni Convocatione Doctorum, Magistrorum, Regentium, et non Regentium, decimo die Mensis Februarii Anno Domini Millesimo Septingentesimo Quinquagesimo quinto habitú, præfatum virum Samuelem Johnson (_conspirantibus omnium suffragiis) Magistrum in Artibus renunciavimus et constituimus; eumque, virtute præsentis diplomatis, singulis juribus privilegiis et honoribus ad istum gradum quòquà pertinentibus frui et gaudere jussimus.
‘In cujiis rei testimonium sigillum Universitatis Oxoniensis præsentibus apponi fecimus.
‘Datum in Domo nostræ Convocationis die 20° Mensis Feb. Anno Dom. prædicto.
‘Diploma supra scriptum per Registrarium Iectum erat, et ex decreto venerabilis Domús communi Universitatis sigillo munitum_’[830].’
‘DOM. DOCTORI HUDDESFORD, OXONIENSIS ACADEMIÆ VICE-CANCELLARIO.
‘INGRATUS planè 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, quá vir eximius[831] mihi vestri testimonium amoris in manus tradidit, agnoscam et laudem. Si quid est undè rei lam gratæ accedat gratia, hoc ipso magis mihi placet, quod eo tempore in ordines Academicos denuo cooptatus sim, quo tuam imminuere auctoritatem, famamque Oxonii Iædere[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 Academiæ 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;—vastâ 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. Ætat 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 Bibliothèque, 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 Bibliothèque 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. ‘How, Sir, (said Dr. Adams,) can you think of doing it alone? All branches of knowledge must be considered in it. Do you know Mathematicks? Do you know Natural History?’ Johnson answered, ‘Why, Sir, I must do as well as I can. My chief purpose is to give my countrymen a view of what is doing in literature upon the continent; and I shall have, in a good measure, the choice of my subject, for I shall select such books as I best understand.’ Dr. Adams suggested, that as Dr. Maty had just then finished his Bibliothèque Britannique[837], which was a well-executed work, giving foreigners an account of British publications, he might, with great advantage, assume him as an assistant. ‘He, (said Johnson) the little black dog! I’d throw him into the Thames[838].’ The scheme, however, was dropped.
[Page 285: Dr. Birch’s letter. Ætat 46.]
In one of his little memorandum-books I find the following hints for his intended Review or Literary Journal:
‘The Annals of Literature, foreign as welt as domestick. Imitate Le Clerk—Bayle—Barbeyrac. Infelicity of Journals in England. Works of the learned. We cannot take in all. Sometimes copy from foreign Journalists. Always tell.’
‘To DR. BIRCH.
‘March 29, 1755.
‘SIR,
‘I have sent some parts of my Dictionary, such as were at hand, for your inspection. The favour which I beg is, that if you do not like them, you will say nothing. I am, Sir,
‘Your most affectionate humble servant,
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘To MR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
Norfolk-street, April 23, 1755.
Sir,
‘The part of your Dictionary which you have favoured me with the sight of has given me such an idea of the whole, that I most sincerely congratulate the publick upon the acquisition of a work long wanted, and now executed with an industry, accuracy, and judgement, equal to the importance of the subject. You might, perhaps, have chosen one in which your genius would have appeared to more advantage; but you could not have fixed upon any other in which your labours would have done such substantial service to the present age and to posterity. I am glad that your health has supported the application necessary to the performance of so vast a task; and can undertake to promise you as one (though perhaps the only) reward of it, the approbation and thanks of every well-wisher to the honour of the English language. I am, with the greatest regard,
‘Sir,
‘Your most faithful and
‘Most affectionate humble servant,
‘THO. BIRCH.’
Mr. Charles Burney, who has since distinguished himself so much in the science of Musick, and obtained a Doctor’s degree from the University of Oxford, had been driven from the capital by bad health,