fay, a demand of five fhillings for each volume of the catalogue, to defray the expence of printing it; the volume or volumes fo purchased, to be taken in exchange for any book rated at the fame value. This paper, of which a character has already been given, was, as I conjecture, a precurfor to the catalogue, and was with great induftry circulated throughout the kingdom. It anfwered its end; the catalogue was printed in five octavo volumes, the collectors and lovers of books bought it, and Ofborne was reimburfed.

While the catalogue was compiling, Johnson was further employed by Ofborne to select from the many thoufand volumes of which the library confifted, all fuch fmall tracts and fugitive pieces as were of greatest value or were moft fcarce, with a view to the reprinting and publishing them under the title of the Harleian Mifcellany. To recommend a fubfcription for printing the collection, propofals were published containing an account of the undertaking, and an enumeration of its contents, penned by Johnfon with great art; which being very fhort, may itself be deemed a fugitive piece, and is therefore here inferted.

It has been for a long time a very just complaint among the learned, that a multitude of valuable productions, published in fmall pamphlets, or in fingle fheets, are in a fhort time, too often by accidents or negligence, deftroyed and entirely loft; and that thofe authors, whofe reverence for the public has 'hindered them from fwelling their works with repetitions, or incumbering them with fuperfluities, and

who, therefore, deferve the praife and gratitude of

pofterity,

posterity, are forgotten, for the very reason for which they might expect to be remembered. It has been long lamented, that the duration of the monuments of genius and study, as well as of wealth and power, <depends in no small measure on their bulk; and that volumes, confiderable only for their size, are handed * down from one age to another, when compendious treatifes, of far greater importance, are fuffered to perish, as the compactest bodies fink into the water, while thofe of which the extenfion bears a greater 'proportion to the weight, float upon the surface.

This obfervation hath been so often confirmed by ‹ experience, that, in the neighbouring nation, the common appellation of fmall performances is derived from this unfortunate circumstance; a flying sheet, or a fugitive piece, are the terms by which they are diftinguished, and diftinguished with too great propriety, as they are fubject, after having amufed mankind for a while, to take their flight and disappear for

ever.

• What are the loffes which the learned have already fuftained, by having neglected to fix thofe fugitives ' in fome certain refidence, it is not eafy to say; but there is no doubt that many valuable obfervations I have been repeated, because they were not preferved; ⚫ and that, therefore, the progress of knowledge has < been retarded, by the neceffity of doing what had < been already done, but was done for those who forgot their benefactor.

• The obvious method of preventing these loffes, of preferving to every man the reputation he has merited by long affiduity, is to unite these scattered

pieces into volumes, that thofe which are too fima to preferve themselves, may be fecured by their combination with others; to confolidate these atoms of learning into fyftems, to collect thefe difunited rays, that their light and their fire may become per• ceptible.

Of encouraging this ufeful defign, the ftudious and inquifitive have now an opportunity, which, perhaps, was never offered them before, and which, if it thould now be loft, there is not any probability that they will ever recover. They may now con⚫ceive themselves in poffeffion of the lake into which ⚫ all thofe rivulets of fcience have for many years been

flowing but which, unless its waters are turned into proper channels, will foon burft its banks, or be difperfed in imperceptible exhalations.

In the Harleian library, which I have purchased, are treasured a greater number of pamphlets and fmall treatifes, than were perhaps ever yet feen in one place; productions of the writers of all parties, and of every age, from the reformation; collected with an unbounded and unwearied curiofity, without exclufion of any fubject.

great is the variety, that it has been no finall labour to perufe the titles, in order to reduce them to • a rude divifion, and range their heaps under general heads; of which the number, though not yet increafed by the fubdivifion which an accurate survey will neceffarily produce, cannot but excite the curiofity of all the ftudious, as there is fcarcely any part of knowledge which fome of thefe articles do not ⚫ comprehend.

[Thea

[Then follows an enumeration of articles to the amount of more than an hundred and fifty, which it is needless here to infert.]

As many of these tracts must be obfcure by ⚫ length of time, or defective for want of those difco'veries which have been made since they were written, there will be added fome hiftorical, explanatory, or fupplemental notes, in which the occafion of the treatife will be fhewn, or an account given of the ' author, allufions to forgotten facts will be illuftrated, or the fubject farther elucidated from other

< writers.'

We may well conclude that the proposal met with all due encouragement, as the pieces recommended in it were in the year 1749, published in eight quarto volumes. To the first of them was prefixed, as an introduction, an essay on the origin and importance of fmall tracts and fugitive pieces.

Ofborne was an opulent tradefman, as may be judged from his ability to make fo large a purchase as that above-mentioned; he was used to boast that he was worth forty thousand pounds, but of bookfellers he was one of the most ignorant: of title-pages or editions he had no knowledge or remembrance, but in all the tricks and arts of his trade he was moft expert.. Johnson, in his life of Pope says, that he was entirely deftitute of shame, without fenfe of any difgrace, but that of poverty. He purchased a number of unfold copies of Mr. Pope's Iliad, of the folio fize, printed on an inferior paper and without cuts, and cutting off the top and bottom margins, which were very large, had the impudence to call them the fubfcription books, and

to vend them as fuch. His infolence to his cuftamers was alfo frequently paft bearing. If one came for a book in his catalogue, he would endeavour to force on him fome new publication of his own, and, if he refufed, would affront him.

I mention the above particulars of this worthless fellow as an introduction to a fact respecting his behaviour to Johnfon, which I have often heard related, and which himself confeffed to be true. Johnson, while employed in felecting pieces for the Harleian Mifcellany, was neceffitated, not only to perufe the title-page of each article, but frequently to examine its contents, in order to form a judgment of its worth and importance, in the doing whereof, it must be fuppofed, curiosity might fometimes detain him too long, and whenever it did, Ofborne was offended. Seeing Johnfon one day deeply engaged in perusing a book, and the work being for the inftant at a ftand, he reproached him with inattention and delay, in fuch coarfe language as few men would use, and ftill fewer could brook: the other in his juftification afferted fomewhat, which Ofborne anfwered by giving him the lie; Johnfon's anger at fo foul a charge, was not fo great as to make him forget that he had weapons at hand: he seized a folio that lay near him, and with it felled his adversary to the ground, with fome exclamation, which, as it is differently related, I will not venture to repeat.

This tranfaction, which has been feldom urged with any other view than to fhew that Johnfon was of

See a note on the Dunciad, Book ii. verse 167, in the later editions.

an