Johnson's Life and Genius.
��understand its pronunciation, nor could he speak it himself with propriety. For the rest of the evening the talk was in Latin. Boscovich had a ready current flow of that flimsy phraseology with which a priest may travel through Italy, Spain, and Germany. Johnson scorned what he called colloquial bar barisms. It was his pride to speak his best. He went on, after a little practice, with as much facility as if it was his native tongue. One sentence this writer well remembers. Observing that Fontinelle at first opposed the Newtonian philosophy, and embraced it afterwards, his words were : Fontinellus, nifallor, in extremd senectnte fuit transfuga ad castra Newtoniana 1 .
We have now travelled through that part of Dr. Johnson's life are now to open upon him. In the month of May 1762, his Majesty, to reward literary merit, signified his pleasure to grant to Johnson a pension of three hundred pounds a year. The Earl of Bute was minister 3 . Lord Loughborough, who, perhaps, was originally a mover in the business 4 , had authority to
��1 In a note on the fourteenth of Voltaire's Lettres sur les Anglais we e"crit (1728) plus de quarante ans apres la publication du livre des Principes, toute la France dtait encore cartesienne.' On Newton's death in 1727 Fontenelle spoke the 'Eloge' on him in the Academy of Sciences. ' On attendait en Angleterre son juge- ment comme une declaration solen- nelle de la superiority dela philosophie anglaise ; mais quand on a vu que non seulement il s'e"tait tromp en rendant compte de cette philosophie, mais qu'il comparait Descartes a Newton, toute la Socie^ royale de Londres s'est souleve'e.' CEuvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819, xxiv. 67. In 1738 Voltaire was refused in France the imprimatur for his Eltmens de Newton. He printed it in Holland. Ib. xlvii. pp. 141, 165.
' In a Latin conversation with the VOL. I. E
��Pere Boscovitch,' writes Dr. Maxwell, ' at the house of Mrs. Cholmondeley, I heard Johnson maintain the su periority of Sir Isaac Newton over all foreign philosophers, with a dignity and eloquence that surprized that learned foreigner.' Life, ii. 125.
2 ' When great Augustus made
war's tempests cease, His halcyon days brought forth
the arts of peace.' Denham; quoted in John son's Dictionary.
3 It was in the month of July. On July 24, Johnson wrote to Miss Porter: 'Last Monday I was sent for by the Chief Minister the Earl of Bute, who told me that the King had empowered him to do something for me,' &c. Letters, i. 92. See also Life, i. 376.
4 Lord Bute told me,' writes Bos- well, ' that Mr. Wedderburne, now Lord Loughborough, was the person
e mention
�� �
