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SIR,

• When I took the liberty of writing to you a few • days ago, I did not expect a repetition of the fame • pleasure so soon, for a pleasure I shall always think ' it to converse in any manner with an ingenious and • candid man; but having the inclosed poem in my • hands to dispose of for the benefit of the author (of

whose abilities I shall say nothing fince I send you ⚫ his performance,) I believed I could not procure more • advantageous terms from any person than from you, • who have so much distinguished yourself by your • generous encouragement of poetry, and whose judg• ment of that art, nothing but your commendation of • my trifle can give me any occafion to call in question. • I do not doubt but you will look over this poem • with another eye, and reward it in a differnt manner from a mercenary bookseller, who counts the lines

he is to purchase, and confiders nothing but the bulk. • I cannot help taking notice that, besides what the • author may hope for on account of his abilities, he • has likewife another claim to your regard, as he lies • at present under very disadvantageous circumstances ' of fortune. I beg, therefore, that you will favour • me with a letter to-morrow, that I may know what • you can afford to allow him, that he may either part • with it to you, or find out (which I do not expect) • fome other way more to his fatisfaction.

• I have only to add, that I am sensible I have tran• scribed it very coarsely, which, after having altered ' it, I was obliged to do. I will, if you please to tranf• mit the sheets from the press, correct it for you, and ' will take the trouble of altering any stroke of fatire • which you may dislike.

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• By exerting on this occafion your usual generosity,

you will not only encourage learning and relieve • distress,

• distress, (though it be in comparison of the other • motives of very small account) oblige in a very fen• fible manner, Sir,

SIR,

• Your very humble servant,

• SAM. JOHNSON.

Monday, No. 6, Caftle-street.

I am to return you thanks for the present you

• were so kind to fend me, and to intreat that you

• will be pleased to inform me, by the Penny-Post,

If you

• whether you resolve to print the poem. • please to send it me by the post, with a note to • Dodsley, I will go and read the lines to him, that we may have his consent to put his name in the • title page. As to the printing, if it can be set im• mediately about, I will be so much the anthor's • friend, as not to content myself with mere folicita⚫tions in his favour. I propose, if my calculation be • near the truth, to engage for the reimbursement of • all that you shall lose by an impression of 500, pro

vided, as you very generously propose, that the pro• fit, if any, be set aside for the author's use, excepting • the present you made, which, if he be a gainer, it is • fit he should repay. I beg you will let one of your • servants write an exact account of the expence of fuch • an impreffion, and fend it with the poem, that I • may know what I engage for. I am very sensible, • from your generofity on this occafion, of your regard • to learning, even in its unhappiest state; and cannot • but think such a temper deferving of the gratitude • of those, who suffer so often from a contrary dispo• fition.

• I am, Sir,

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Johnson and Dodsley were foon agreed; the price afked by the one and assented to by the other, was, as I have been informed, fifty pounds; a reward for his labour and ingenuity, that induced Johnson ever after to call Dodsley his patron. It is pretty certain that in his offer of the poem to Dodsley, Cave stipulated for the Printing of it, for it came abroad in the year abovementioned with the name of Cave as the printer, though without that of the author. Lord Lyttelton, the instant it was published, carried it in rapture to Mr. Pope, who, having read it, commended it highly, and was very importunate with Dodsley to know the author's name; but, that being a fecret the latter was bound not to reveal, Pope assured him that he could not long be unknown, recollecting, perhaps, a paffage, recorded of Milton, who, feeing a beautiful young lady pass him whom he never had seen before, turned to look at her, and said, 'Whoever thou art, thou • canst not long be concealed.'

The topics of this spirited poem, so far as it respects this country, or the time when it was written, are evidently drawn from those weekly publications, which, to answer the view of a malevolent faction, first created, and for some years supported, a distinction between the interests of the government and the people, under the feveral denominations of the court and the country parties: these publications were carried on under the direction of men, profeffing themselves to be whigs and friends of the people, in a paper intitled, The Country Journal or the Craftsman,' now deservedly forgotten, the end whereof was, to blow the flame of national discontent, to delude the honest and well-meaning people of this country into a belief that the minifter was its greatest enemy, and that his opponents, only, meant its welfare. To this end it was necessary to furnish them with fubjects of complaint, and these were plentifully plentifully disseminated among them, the chief of them were, that science was unrewarded, and the arts neglected; that the objects of our politics were peace and the extenfion of commerce; that the wealth of the nation was unequally divided, for that, while some were poor, others were able to raise palaces and purchase manors; that restraints were laid on the stage; that the land was plundered, and the nation cheated; our senators hirelings, and our nobility venal; and, lastly, that in his visits to his native country, the king drained this of its wealth.

That Johnfon has adopted these vulgar complaints, his poem must witness. I shall not take upon me to demonftrate the fallacy of most of the charges contained in it, nor animadvert on the wickedness of those, who, to effect their own ambitious designs, fcruple not to oppose the best endeavours of the person in power, nor shall I mark the folly of those who fuffer themselves to be so deluded: the succession of knave to knave, and fool to fool, is hereditary and interminable: our fathers were deceived by the pretenfions of false patriots; the delusion stopped not with their children, nor will it with our's.

The publication of this poem was of little advantage to Johnson, other than the relief of his immediate wants: it procured him fame, but no patronage. He was therefore disposed to embrace any other profpect of advantage that might offer; for, a short time after, viz. in August 1738, hearing that the mastership of Appleby school in Leicestershire was become vacant, he, by the advice of Sir Thomas Griefly a Derbyshire baronet, and other friends, went to Appleby, and offered himself as a candidate for that employment: but the statutes of the school requiring, that the person chofen should be a Master of Arts, his application was checked. To get over this difficulty, he found means

to

to obtain from the late Lord Gower, a letter to a friend of his, foliciting his interest with Dean Swift towards procuring him a master's degree from the univerfity of Dublin: the letter has appeared in print, but with a mistaken date of the year, viz. 1737; for it mentions Johnson's being the author of the poem of • London,' which, as I have above fixed it, was written in 1738. It is as follows:

• SIR,

• Mr. Samuel Johnson, (author of London a fatire, • and some other poetical pieces,) is a native of this country, and much respected by some worthy gentlemen in his neighbourhood, who are trustees of a • charity school now vacant, the certain salary of which ' is 60l. per year, of which they are defirous to make • him master; but, unfortunately, he is not capable of receiving their bounty, which would make him happy for life, by not being a Master of Arts, which, by • the statutes of this school, the master of it must be. • Now these gentleinen do me the honour to think, ⚫ that I have interest enough in you to prevail upon you to write to Dean Swift, to perfuade the university • of Dublin to send a diploma to me, constituting this poor man Master of Arts in their university. They • highly extol the man's learning and probity, and will ⚫ not be perfuaded that the university will make any • difficulty of conferring such a favour upon a stranger, • if he is recommended by the Dean. They say he • is not afraid of the strictest examination, though he

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is of so long a journey, and will venture it if the • Dean thinks it neceffary, choofing rather to die upon ⚫ the road, than to be starved to death in tranflating ⚫ for booksellers, which has been his only subsistence

$ for some time past.

• I fear

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