Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/163

 Preface.

��more than I can persuade myself to consider the river Jenisca x as superior to the Nile, because the first receives near seventy tributary streams in the course of its unmarked progress to the sea, while the great parent of African plenty, flowing from an almost invisible source, and unenriched by any extraneous waters, except eleven nameless rivers 2, pours his majestic torrent into the ocean by seven celebrated mouths.

But I must conclude my Preface, and begin my book, the first I ever presented before the Public ; from whose awful appear ance in some measure to defend and conceal myself, I have thought fit to retire behind the Telamonian shield 3, and shew as little of myself as possible ; well aware of the exceeding differ ence there is, between fencing in the school and fighting in the

field. Studious however to avoid offending, and careless of

that offence which can be taken without a cause, I here not unwillingly submit my slight performance to the decision of that glorious country, which I have the daily delight to hear applauded in others, as eminently just, generous, and humane.

��1 The Yenisei. In Brookes's Gazet teer (1762) it is called the Jenisa.

2 Had she read Johnson's transla tion of Lobo's Abyssinia she would not have made so absurd a state ment.

3 In this short Preface Johnson is

��an oak, Trajan's column, the Nile, and Ajax Telamonius. Mrs. Piozzi herself is the archer who retires behind his comrade's shield, because fencing in the school is so different from fighting in the field.

��VOL. I.

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