'He for subscribers bates his hook,
And takes your cash; but where's the book?
No matter where; wise fear, you know,
Forbids the robbing of a foe;
But what, to serve our private ends,
Forbids the cheating of our friends[948]?'
[Page 320: Johnson refuses a country living. A.D. 1757.]
About this period he was offered a living of considerable value in Lincolnshire, if he were inclined to enter into holy orders. It was a rectory in the gift of Mr. Langton, the father of his much valued friend. But he did not accept of it; partly I believe from a conscientious motive, being persuaded that his temper and habits rendered him unfit for that assiduous and familiar instruction of the vulgar and ignorant which he held to be an essential duty in a clergyman[949]; and partly because his love of a London life was so strong, that he would have thought himself an exile in any other place, particularly if residing in the country[950]. Whoever would wish to see his thoughts upon that subject displayed in their full force, may peruse The Adventurer, Number 126[951].
1757: ÆTAT. 48.].—In 1757 it does not appear that he published any thing, except some of those articles in The Literary Magazine, which have been mentioned. That magazine, after Johnson ceased to write in it, gradually declined, though the popular epithet of Antigallican[952] was added to it; and in July 1758 it expired. He probably prepared a part of his Shakspeare this year, and he dictated a speech on the subject of an Address to the Throne, after the expedition to Rochfort, which was delivered by one of his friends, I know not in what publick meeting.[953] It is printed in The Gentleman's Magazine for October 1785 as his, and bears sufficient marks of authenticity.
[Page 321: Irish literature. Ætat 48.]
By the favour of Mr. Joseph Cooper Walker, of the Treasury, Dublin, I have obtained a copy of the following letter from Johnson to the venerable authour of Dissertations on the History of Ireland.
[Page 322: The affinities of language. A.D. 1757.]
'To CHARLES O'CONNOR, ESQ.[954]
'SIR,
'I have lately, by the favour of Mr. Faulkner,[955] seen your account of Ireland, and cannot forbear to solicit a prosecution of your design. Sir William Temple complains that Ireland is less known than any other country, as to its ancient state.[956] The natives have had little leisure, and little encouragement for enquiry; and strangers, not knowing the language, have had no ability.