'An Address to the Reader;'† 'An Epigram both in Greek and Latin to Eliza[1],'* and also English verses to her[2];* and, 'A Greek Epigram to Dr. Birch[3].'* It has been erroneously supposed, that an Essay published in that Magazine this year, entitled 'The Apotheosis of Milton,' was written by Johnson; and on that supposition it has been improperly inserted in the edition of his works by the Booksellers, after his decease. Were there no positive testimony as to this point, the style of the performance, and the name of Shakspeare not being mentioned in an Essay professedly reviewing the principal English poets, would ascertain it not to be the production of Johnson. But there is here no occasion to resort to internal evidence; for my Lord Bishop of Salisbury (Dr. Douglas) has assured me, that it was written by Guthrie. His separate publications were[4] 'A Complete Vindication of the Licensers of
- ↑ Gent. Mag. viii. 210, and Johnson's Works, i. 170.
- ↑ What these verses are is not clear. On p. 372 there is an epigram Ad Elisam Popi Horto Lauros carpentem. of which on p. 429 there are three translations. That by Urbanus may be Johnson's.
- ↑ Ib. p. 654, and Johnson's Works, i. 170. On p. 211 of this volume of the Gent. Mag. is given the epigram 'To a lady who spoke in defence of liberty.' This was 'Molly Aston' mentioned ante, p. 96.
- ↑ To the year 1739 belongs [[Considerations on the Case of Dr. T[rapp]'s Sermons]]. Abridged by Mr. Cave, 1739; first published in the Gent. Mag. of July 1787. (See Post under Nov. 5, 1784, note.) Cave had begun to publish in the Gent. Mag. an abridgment of four sermons preached by Trapp against Whitefield. He stopped short in the publication, deterred perhaps by the threat of a prosecution for an infringement of copyright. 'On all difficult occasions,' writes the Editor in 1787, 'Johnson was Cave's oracle; and the paper now before us was certainly written on that occasion.' Johnson argues that abridgments are not only legal but also justifiable. 'The design of an abridgment is to benefit mankind by facilitating the attainment of knowledge . . . for as an incorrect book is lawfully criticised, and false assertions justly confuted . . . so a tedious volume may no less lawfully be abridged, because it is better that the proprietors should suffer some damage, than that the acquisition of knowledge should be obstructed with unnecessary difficulties, and the valuable hours of thousands thrown away.' Johnson's Works, v. 465. Whether we have here Johnson's own opinion cannot be known. He was writing as Cave's advocate. See also Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 20, 1773.
