Notes and Queries, Number 40, August 3, 1850

Mr. Markland's ascertainment (Vol. i., p. 481.) of the origin of Johnson's From China to Peru, where, however, I sincerely believe our great moralist intended not so much to borrow the phrase as to profit by its temporary notoriety and popularity, reminds me of a conversation, many years since, with the late William Wordsworth, at which I happened to be present, and which now derives an additional interest from the circumstance of his recent decease.
Some mention had been made of the opening lines of the tenth satire of Juvenal:
Omnibus in terris, quae sunt a Gadibus usque
Auroram, et Gangem pauci dignoscere possunt
Vera bona, atque illis multum diversa, remotâ
Erroris nebulâ.
Johnson's translation of this, said Wordsworth, is extremely bad:
'Let Observation, with extensive view,
Survey mankind from China to Peru.'
And I do not know that Gifford's is at all better:
'In every clime, from Ganges' distant stream,