The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [119]
‘Cum eum in finem gradus academici ä majoribus nostris instituti fuerint, ut viri ingenio et doctrinä prcestantes titulis quoque prceter cceteros insignirentur; curnque vir doctissimus Samuel Johnson e Collegio Pembrocbiensi, scriptis suis popularium mores informantibus dudum literato orbi innotuerit; quin et Ungute patrice turn ornandce turn stabiliendce (Lexicon scilicet Anglicanum summo studio, summo ä se judicio congestum propediem editurus) etiam nunc utilissimam impendat operam; Nos igitur Cancellarius, Magistri, et Scbolares antedicti, ne virum de literis bumanioribus optime meritum diutius inbon-oratum prcetereamus, in solenni Convocatione Doctorum, Magistrorum, Regentium, et non Regentium, decimo die Mensis Februarii Anno Domini Millesimo Septingentesimo Quinquagesimo quinto babitä, prcefatum virum Samuelem Johnson (conspirantibus omnium suffragiis) Magistrum in Artibus renunciavimus et constituimus; eumque, virtute prcesentis diplomatis, singulis juribus privilegiis et bonoribus ad istum gradum quäquä pertinentibus frui et gaudere jussimus.
‘In cujus rei testimonium sigillum Universitatis Oxoniensis prcesentibus apponi fecimus.
‘Datum in Domo nostra Convocationis die 20o Mensis Feb.
Anno Dom. prcedicto.
‘Diploma supra scriptum per Registrarium lectum erat, et ex decreto vener-abilis Domus communi Universitatis sigillo munitum.’119
‘DOM. DOCTORI HUDDESFORD, OXONIENSIS ACADEMIC VICE-CANCELLARIO.
‘INGRATUS plane et tibi et mibi videar, nisi quanto me gaudio affecerint, quos nuper mibi bonores (te credo auctore) decrevit Senatus Academicus, literarum, quo tarnen nibil levius, officio, significem: ingratus etiam, nisi comitatem, qua vir eximiusa mibi vestri testimonium amoris in manus traaiait, agnoscam et laudem. Si quid est unde rei tarn grates accedat gratia, hoc ipso magis mibi placet, quod eo tempore in ordines Academicos denuo cooptatus sim, quo tuam imminuere auctoritatem, famamque Oxonii Icedere, omnibus modis conantur homines vafri, nee tarnen acuti: quibus ego, prout viro umbratico licuit, semper restiti, semper restiturus. Qui enim, inter has rerum procellas, vel Tibi vel Academics defuerit, ilium virtuti et literis, sibique et posteris, defuturum existimo.120 ’S. JOHNSON.’b
‘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, 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?c
‘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; –vastä mole superbus.121 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.
‘[London,] March 20, 1755.’ ‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
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,122 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.123 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; 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.