desired. It is not certain that the same method will not preserve the Highland language, for the purposes of learning, and abolish it from daily use. When the

Highlanders read the Bible, they will naturally wish to have its obscurities cleared, and to know the history, collateral or appendant. Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propa gate itself. When the Highlanders once desire to learn, they will naturally have recourse to the nearest language by which that desire can be gratified; and one will tell another that if he would attain knowledge, he must learn English.

This speculation may, perhaps, be thought more subtle than the grossness of real life will easily admit. Let it, however, be remembered, that the efficacy of ignorance has long been tried, and it has not produced the consequence expected. Let knowledge, therefore, take its turn; and let the patrons of privation stand awhile aside, and admit the operation of positive principles.

Be pleased, sir, to assure the worthy man who is employed in the new translation, that he has my wishes for his success; and that, if here or at Oxford, I can be of any use, I shall think it more than honour to promote his undertaking..

I am sorry that I delayed so long to write.

I am,
sir,

Your most humble servant,

Samuel Johnson.

LETTER XII.

To Mrs. Lucy Porter, his daughter-in-law.

My dear madam,

Oxford, April 18, 1768.

You have had a very great loss.To lose an old friend, is to be cut off from a great part of the little pleasure that this life allows. But such is the condition of our nature, that as we live on we must see those whom we love drop successively, and find our circle of relation grow less and less, till we are almost unconnected with the world; and then it must soon be our turn to drop into the grave. There is always this consolation, that we have one Protector who can never be lost but by our own fault; and every new experience of the uncertainty of all other comforts, should determine us to fix our hearts where true joys are to be found. All union with the inhabitants of earth must in time be broken; and all the hopes that terminate here, must, on one part or other, end in disappointment.

When I return to London, I will take care of your reading-glass. Whenever I can do any thing for you, remember, my dear, that one of my greatest pleasures is to please you.

The punctuality of your correspondence I consider as a proof of great regard. When we shall see each other, I know not; but let us often think on each other, and think with tenderness. Do not forget me in your prayers. I have for a long time been very poorly: but of what use is it to complain?

Write often, for your letters always give great pleasure to, my dear,

Your most affectionate &c.

Samuel Johnson.

Dear sir,

LETTER XIII.

To James Boswell, esq.

I am ashamed to think that since I received your letter, I have passed so many days without answering it.

There seems no great difficulty in resolving your doubts. The reasons for which you are inclined to visit London, are, I think, not of sufficient strength to answer the objections. That you should delight to come once a year to the fountain of intelligence and pleasure, is very natural; but the desire both of information and of pleasure, must be regulated by propriety. Pleasure, which cannot be obtained but by unreasonable or unsuitable expense, must always end in pain: and pleasure, which must be enjoyed at the expense of another's pain, can never be such as a worthy mind can fully delight in. What improvement you might gain by coming to London, you may easily supply, or easily compensate, by enjoining yourself some particular study at home, or opening some new avenue to information. Edinburgh is not yet exhausted ; and I am sure you will find no pleasure here which can deserve either that you should anticipate any part of your future fortune, or that should condemn yourself and your lady to penurious frugality for the rest of the year.

you

I need not tell you what regard you owe to Mrs. Boswell's entreaties; or how much you ought to study the happiness of her, who studies yours with so much diligence, and of whose kindness you enjoy so good effects. Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions. She permitted you to ramble last year; you must permit her now to keep you at home.

Your last reason is so serious, that I am unwilling to oppose it. Yet you must remember, that your image of worshiping once a year in a certain place, in imitation of the Jews, is but a comparison, and "simile non est idem." If the annual resort to Jerusalem was a duty to the Jews, it was a duty, because it was commanded: and you have no such command; therefore, no such duty. It may be dangerous to receive too readily, and indulge too fondly, opinions (from which perhaps no pious mind is wholly disengaged) of local sanctity and local devotion. You know what strange effects they have produced over a great part of the Christian world. I am now writing, and you, when you read this, are reading, under the eye of Omnipresence.

To what degree Fancy is to be admitted into religious offices, it would require much deliberation to determine. I am far from intending totally to exclude it. Fancy is a faculty bestowed by our Creator; and it is reasonable that all his gifts should be used to his glory, that all our faculties should co-operate in his worship: but they are to co-operate according to the will of HIM who gave them; according to the order which His wisdom has established. As ceremonies prudential or convenient are less obligatory than positive ordinances; as bodily worship is only the token to others or ourselves of mental adoration; so Fancy is always to act in subordination to Reason. We may take Fancy for a companion; but we must follow Reason as our guide. We may allow Fancy to suggest certain ideas in certain places; but Reason must always be heard, when she tells us, that those ideas and those places have no natural or necessary relation. When we enter a church, we habitually recall to mind the duty of adoration; but we must not omit adoration for want of a temple: because we know, and

we ought to remember, that the Universal Lord is. every where present; and that, therefore, to come to Iona, or to Jerusalem, though it may be useful, cannot be necessary.

Thus I have answered your letter; and I have not answered it negligently. I love you too well to be careless when you are serious.

I think I shall be very diligent next week about our travels, which I have too long neglected.

This letter will not, I hope, reach you many days before me. In a distress which can be so little relieved, nothing remains for a friend, but to come, and partake it.

Dear, sweet, little boy! When I read the letter this day to Mrs. Aston, she said: "Such a death is the next to translation." But however I may convince myself of this, the tears are in my eyes: and yet I could not love him as you loved him; nor reckon upon him for a future comfort as you and his father reckoned upon him.

He is gone, and we are going! We could not have enjoyed him long; and we shall not long be separated from him. He has probably escaped many such pangs as you are now feeling.

Nothing remains, but that with humble confidence we resign ourselves to Almighty Goodness: and fall down, without irreverent murmurs, before the Sovereign Distri butor of good and evil, with hope that though sorrow