EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
679
ige, was eventually a most lucrative bargain to le publisher. During the appearance of the tambler, in single nunKten, Mr. James Elphin-
- oue, a friend of Johnson's, and brother-in-law
) Mr. Strahan, the printer, undertook to pub- sh them in Edinburgh, and the following ad- ertisement is copied from an Edinburgh news- taper of this date:
" Just published, on a fine writing paper, and n a small 8ro. size, fit for binding in pocket olumes. The Rambler. To be continued on Tuesdays and Fridays. NulUiu addictui, fee. Edinburgh: printed for the author; sold by Villiam Gordon and C. Wright, at dieir shops Q Parliament-close, price one penny each num- >er, and regularly delivered to subscribers in own, or sent to the country by post."
The Rambler is a title, by no means happily
- bosen, as it corresponds not with the tenor of
he work, of which the great characteristic is iniform dignity.
The assistance which Johnson received in the
- omposition of the Rambler amounted (with the
sxception of four billets by Mrs. Chapone,*) >nlv to four numbers, the productions of Miss Fafbot,! Samuel Richardson,^ and Mrs. Carter.§
" What has once passed the press is irrevo- cable. Though the printing house may properly be compared to the infernal regions for the facility of its entrance, and the difficulty with which authors return to it ; yet there is this dif- ference, that a great genius can never return to his former state bv a happy draught of the waters of oblivion."— iJomitn-, No. 16.
On the termination of the Rambler, Dr. Johnson says, " I shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if I can be numMred among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth."
- Hn. Heater Chapone mn boni of a rapectaUe
family named Molso, at Twywell in Noithamptonshire. October 37, 17S7. She wrote the intereitiiig gbarj of Fidelia, in the JUMnturer, and a poem pnAxed to the translation of Kpictetiu, by Mrs. Carter. Her literary repntation, however, rests npon her Letttrt on the /m. provement of tht Mini, addressed to a youn; lady, and printed in 1775. She also wrote a volume of Miscellanies, containing moral essays and poems. Mrs. Chapone died at Hadley. in Middlesex, December as, I7gi, aged 7t.
t Catharine Talbot, the only daughter of the rev. Edward Talbot, archdeacon of Berks, was born in the year 1730. She resided chiefly in Lambeth palace, where she r«feiTed all the advantages of the most accomplished education, and early exhibited strong marlu of a feeling heart, a warm imagination, and a powerful nndetstand- ing. Her chief work is entitled Bifiectiau on the Sevtn Dapi of tht Wedt, which forms one of the works dis- tributed by the ScKiety for Promoting Christian Know- ledge. Shedied January g, 1770.
t It is a remarkable and curious (rail of the age, that the only paper in the Rambler whidi had a prosperous sale, and maybe said to have been popular, was one which Dr. Johnson did not write. This was No. iJ, which was said to have been written by Richardson. The sale was very inconstderaUe, and seldom exceeded five hundred.
I Elizabeth Carter was the daughter of the rev. Dr. Carter, rector ofi)eal In Kent, where she was l>oTn, December Ifl, 1717. She acquired a considerabie know- ledge of the Latin and Greek languages, as appears by her excellent translation of Bpiclttut into Kngllsh. She wrote two papers in the Rambler, and in 1/96 she pub- lished a volume of poenM, many of which are elegant. Miss Carter, who was never married, died in London, December l», 1800.
Dr. Johnson, in speaking of newspapers, says, "To these compositions is required neither genius or knowledge,neither industry nor spright- finess, but contempt of shame and indifierence to truth are absolutely necessary." He then talks of their increase in the time of war, and con- cludes by afiBrming " that a peace wUl equally leave the warrior and the newspaper writer desti- tute of employment ; and T Know not whether more is to be dreaded from streets filled with soldiers, accustomed to plunder, or from gar- rets filled with scribblers accustomed to lie." Again, he sa.js, " If nothing may be published but what civil authority shall have previously approved, power must always be the standard of truth; if every dreamer of innovation may propagate his projects, there can be no settle- ment; if every murmnrer at government may diffuse discontent, there can be no peace ; and if every sceptic in theology mav teach his follies, there can be no religion. The remedy a^nst these evils is to punish the authors; for it is yet allowed, that every society mav punish, though not prevent, the publication of opinions, which that society shall think pernicious; but this punishment, though it may crush the author, promotes the book; and it seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing un- restrained because writers may be afterwards censured, than it would be to sleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief."
1749. TTie Ladies Magazine, by GasperGood- will, of Oxford.
1749. Manchester Vindicated; in a complete collection of the papers published ia defence of that town, in the Chester Courant, with those on the other nde of the question, printed in the Manchester Magazine or elsewhere, which are answered in the said Chester Courant. Chester : printed by and for Elizabeth Adams, and sold in London by Mrs. Mary Cooper, at the Globe, in Patemoster-row. 324 pages, 24 mo. Price 3s.
1750. It appears that a press was at work in this year, at Kagland castle, in Monmouthshire; for a book is extant, called, A Collection of Loyal Songs, Poems, &c., said to be privately printed at Ragland castle, in this year. " A collection of Jacobite poems ; although it is stated to be privately pnnted, I apprehend it was sold, al- though from the nature of the collection very cautiously." — Martin's Private Presses, page 36.
1750, July 12. Died, Thomas Willis, esq., citizen and stationer, who was fined for the office of sheriff. He left 600 to the poor of St. Mar- garet's, Westminster, not having alms ; JC500 to Uie Westminster infirmarv ; and £6,000 to the farmers about Tothill-fields, who had suffered by the cow distemper.
1760, Oct. 27. Died, Thomas James, printer, of Cambridge, aged forty: he was buried in the church of St. Michael in that town. Mr. James, Mr. La Butte, and Robert Walker, left London for Cambridge, where they commenced printing a weekly newspaper, and, to establish the sale of it, they printea,in 8vo. lord Clarendon's /fwfory
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