The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [200]
“Nam huic altera; patria qux sit profecto nescio.”237
Plautus is, to be sure, an old comick writer; but in the days of Scipio and Lelius, we find, Terent. Heautontim. act ii. scene 3,
“––––––hoc ipsa in itinere altera;
Dum narrat, forte audivi.”238
‘You doubt my having authority for using genus absolutely, for what we call family, that is, for illustrious extraction. Now I take genus in Latin, to have much the same signification with birth in English; both in their primary meaning expressing simply descent, but both made to stand $$$$,239 for noble descent. Genus is thus used in Hor. lib. ii. Sat. v. l. 8,
“Et genus et virtus, nisi cum re, vilior alga est.”240
And in lib. i. Epist. vi. l. 37,
“Et genus et formam Regina pecunia donat.”241
And in the celebrated contest between Ajax and Ulysses, Ovid’s Metamorph. lib. xiii. l. 140,
“Nam genus et proavos, et quce non fecimus ipsi,
Vix ea nostra voco.”242
‘Homines nullius originis, for nullis orti majoribus, or nullo loco nati, is, you are “afraid, barbarous.”
‘Origo is used to signify extraction, as in Virg. æneid i. l. 286,
“Nascetur pulcbrä Trojanus origine Ccesar.”243
And in æneid x. l. 618,
“Ille tarnen nosträ deducit origine nomen.”244
And as nullus is used for obscure, is it not in the genius of the Latin language to write nullius originis, for obscure extraction?
I have defended myself as well as I could.
‘Might I venture to differ from you with regard to the utility of vows? I am sensible that it would be very dangerous to make vows rashly, and without a due consideration. But I cannot help thinking that they may often be of great advantage to one of a variable judgement and irregular inclinations. I always remember a passage in one of your letters to our Italian friend Baretti; where talking of the monastick life, you say you do not wonder that serious men should put themselves under the protection of a religious order, when they have found how unable they are to take care of themselves. For my own part, without affecting to be a Socrates, I am sure I have a more than ordinary struggle to maintain with the Evil Principle; and all the methods I can devise are little enough to keep me tolerably steady in the paths of rectitude.… I am ever, with the highest veneration, your affectionate humble servant,
‘JAMES BOSWELL.’
It appears from Johnson’s diary, that he was this year at Mr. Thrale’s, from before Midsummer till after Michaelmas, and that he afterwards passed a month at Oxford. He had then contracted a great intimacy with Mr. Chambers of that University, afterwards Sir Robert Chambers, one of the Judges in India.
He published nothing this year in his own name; but the noble dedication∗ to the King, of Gwyn’s London and Westminster Improved, was written by him; and he furnished the Preface,! and several of the pieces, which compose a volume of Miscellanies by Mrs. Anna Williams, the blind lady who had an asylum in his house. Of these, there are his ‘Epitaph on Philips,’∗ ‘Translation of a Latin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer,’f ‘Friendship, an Ode,’∗ and, ‘The Ant,’∗ a paraphrase from the Proverbs, of which I have a copy in his own hand-writing; and, from internal evidence, I ascribe to him, ‘To Miss —, on her giving the Authour a gold and silk net-work Purse of her own weaving;’! and, ‘The happy Life.’†
Most of the pieces in this volume have evidently received additions from his superiour pen, particularly ‘Verses to Mr. Richardson, on his Sir Charles Grandison;’ ‘The Excursion;’ ‘Reflections on a Grave digging in Westminster Abbey.’ There is in this collection a poem ‘On the Death of Stephen Grey, the Electrician;’∗ which, on reading it, appeared to me to be undoubtedly Johnson’s. I asked Mrs. Williams