Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/376

 368 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson

account of which struck his curiosity very much. His Rasselas it is reported, he wrote to raise a purse of pecuniary assistance to his aged mother at Lichfield 1. The first title of his manuscript, was Prince of Ethiopia' 2. Mr. Bruce is expected to give us a history of both these countries 3. The Happy valley he would hardly be able to find in Abyssinia. Dr. Young used to say, that ' Rasselas was a lamp of wisdom V He there displays an uncommon capacity for remark, and makes the best use of the description of travellers. It is an excellent romance. But his journey into the Western Islands is an original thing. He hoped, as he said, when he came back, that no Scotchman had any right to be angry with what he wrote 5. It is a book written without the assistance of books. He said, ' it was his wish and endeavour not to make a single quotation 6 .' His curiosity must have been excessive, and his strength undecayed to accomplish a journey of such length, and subject to such inconvenience. His book was eagerly read* One of the first men of the age 7 told Mr. Garrick, 'that he would forgive Johnson all his wrong notions respecting America, on account of his writing that book.' He thought himself the hardier for travelling. He took a tour into France 8 , and meditated another into Italy 9 or Portugal, for the sake of the climate. But Dr. Brocklesby, his friend and physician (and who that knows him can wish for more companionable and more professional knowledge ?) conjured him, by every argument

lord-lieutenant, the castellan of a was said in a preface to one of the

district.' Morfill's Poland, p. 346. Irish editions that Swift had never

For Johnson's love of travelling been known to take a single thought

see Life, iii. 449. from any writer, ancient or modern.

1 Ib. i. 341 ; ante, i. 285,415. This is not literally true; but per-

2 Johnson wrote to Mr. Strahan : haps no writer can easily be found 'The title will be "The Choice that has borrowed so little, or that of Life or The History of ... Prince in all his excellencies and all his of Abissinia." Letters, i. 79. defects has so well maintained his

3 Though Bruce had returned to claim to be considered as original.' England in 1774 he did not publish Works, viii. 228.

his Travels till 1790. Ante, i. 365 n. ; Johnson's book has the same claim

ii. 12. to originality.

4 Young greatly admired the Ram- 7 Perhaps Burke, who praised the bier. Life, i. 215. book. Ante, ii. 6.

5 Ib. ii. 306 ; ante, i. 430. 8 Life, ii. 389.

6 Of Swift Johnson wrote : < It 9 Ib. ii. 428 ; iv. 326 ; ante, i. 263.

in

�� �