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Search - Letters Of Samuel Johnson. Vol. I

Letters Of Samuel Johnson Vol I
Author: Samuel Johnson

Letters of Samuel Johnson - VOL II - Oct. 30, 1731 - Dec. 21, 1776 - PREFACE - Honr extensive was Johnsons corrcspondence, and how much of it has been preserved, is not perhaps generally known. He rote unwillingly. I know not how it happens, he told Dr. Taylor in the year 1756, but I fancy that I write letters xvith more difficulty than some oth... more »er people who write nothing but letters at lcast I find myself very unwilling to take up a pen only to tell my friends that 1 am . ell and indeed I never did exchange letters regularly but with dear Bliss 1300thby1. Scvcn years later lie wrote to Roswell I l o l t o sce my fricnds, to hear from them, to talk to them, and to talk of them b i itt is not without a considcrable effort of resolution that I prevail upon myself to writez. 111 this lie was like Goldsmith who, apologising for his neglect in corrcspondence, said, No turnspit dog gets ul, into his whcel with more reluctance than I sit down to tvrite3. I have sccn in an Auction Catalogue an extract from a letter by Grainger, the author of the Szg-ar CCZII i C n , uliich he iays When I taxed little Goldsmith for not writing is he promised me, his ansxvcr was that he never wrote a letter in his life al d faith I believe him, unless to a bookseller for money. Kexe thcless, hoivc cr indolent a man may bc nith his corrcspondence, if hc lives to the age of seventy-five, and if his letters arc thought worth keeping, a great mass will bc preserved. Iiappily, there vas one person to whom Johnson wrote eagerly enough. His letters to Mrs. Thralc are more than 3c0 in number. When he was away from Streatl am, Post, i. 64. I-zYtt, i. 473 Forsters L17e ofGoZ isuiit e , d . 1871, i. 433. when vi Preface. when he was not, to use his own words to her, reposing at that place which your kindness and Mr. Thrales allows me to call my homex, he longed for news. He once reproached Boswell for indulging in an uneasy apprehension about his wife and children who were 400 miles away in Edinburgh. Sir, said he, consider how foolish you would think it in them to be apprehensive that you are ill2. His trade might, as Baretti said, be wisdom but there was never yet philosopher that could bear the tooth-ache patiently, and Johnson was just as foolish himself about My Master and My Mistress as Boswell was about his wife and children. One June when he was at Oxford, he was left a few days without any news from Streatham. On the 5th he complains to his Mistress that three days had gone by without a letter. On the 6th he writes I f I have not a little something from you to-day, I shall think something very calamitous has befallen us. On the 7th his apprehension is still rising. I grieve and wonder and hope and fear about my dear friends at Streatham. But I may have a letter this afternoon. Sure it will bring me no bad news. If I have a letter to-day I will go away-as soon as I can if I have none, I will stay till this may be answered, if I do not come back to town. On the afternoon of the same day he is comforted. Your letter, which ought to have come on Tuesday, came not till Wednesday. Well, now I know that there is no harm, I will take a chaise and march away towards my own country 9 He delighted in the letters which Mrs. Thrale sent him. Never imagine, he wrote, that they are long they are always too short for my curiosity. I do not know that I was ever content with a single perusal4...

ISBN-13: 9781408616161
ISBN-10: 1408616165
Publication Date: 1/31/2008
Pages: 476
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Read Books
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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