Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/175

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upon which the Doctor replied ' No, Sir I believe not ; they may not all belong to an individual, but they are collectively true of old age V Then rolling about his head, as if snuffing up his recollection, he suddenly broke out :

' Ille humero, hie lumbis,' &c

down to ' et nigra veste senescant.'

(Satire x. 227-245.)

Some time previous to Dr. Hawkesworth's publication of his beautiful Ode on Life 2 , he carried it down with him to a friend's house in the country to retouch. Dr. Johnson was of this party ; and as Hawkesworth and the Doctor lived upon the most inti mate terms 3 , the former read it to him for his opinion. ' Why, Sir,' says Johnson, ' I can't well determine on a first hearing, read it again, second thoughts are best'; Dr. Hawkesworth complied, after which Dr. Johnson read it himself, approved of it very highly, and returned it.

Next morning at breakfast, the subject of the poem being re newed, Dr. Johnson, after again expressing his approbation of it, said he had but one objection to make to it, which was, that he doubted its originality. Hawkesworth, alarmed at this, challenged him to the proof; when the Doctor repeated the whole .of the poem, with only the omission of a very few lines ; f What do you say now, Hawkey ? ' says the Doctor. ' Only this,' replied the other, ' that I shall never repeat any thing I write before you again, for you have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world.'

I have now the poem before me, and I find it contains no less than sixty -eight lines. (Page 100.)

His life reflected the purity and integrity of his writings. His friendships, as they were generally formed on the broad basis of virtue, were constant, active, and unshaken. And what rendered

��1 Life, iii. 337. the Life of Swift, speaking of

  • Gentleman's Magazine, 1747, p. Hawkesworth, mentions 'the inti-

337. macy of our friendship.' See ante,

3 Johnson at the beginning of i. 166.

them

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