'Steriles nec legit arenas,
Ut caneret paucis, mersitque hoc pulvere verum.'
(Lucan).
Johnson has thus translated:—
'Canst thou believe the vast eternal mind
Was e'er to Syrts and Libyan sands confin'd?
That he would choose this waste, this barren ground,
To teach the thin inhabitants around,
And leave his truth in wilds and deserts drown'd?'
[952] It was added to the January number of 1758, but it was dropped in the following numbers.
[953] According to the note in the Gent. Mag. the speech was delivered 'at a certain respectable talking society.' The chairman of the meeting is addressed as Mr. President. The speech is vigorously written and is, I have no doubt, by Johnson. 'It is fit,' the speaker says, 'that those whom for the future we shall employ and pay may know they are the servants of a people that expect duty for their money. It is said an address expresses some distrust of the king, or may tend to disturb his quiet. An English king, Mr. President, has no great right to quiet when his people are in misery.'
[954] See post, May 19, 1777.
[955] See post, March 21, 1772.
[956] 'I have often observed with wonder, that we should know less of Ireland than of any other country in Europe.' Temple's Works, iii. 82.
[957] The celebrated oratour, Mr. Flood has shewn himself to be of Dr. Johnson's opinion; having by his will bequeathed his estate, after the death of his wife Lady Frances, to the University of Dublin; 'desiring that immediately after the said estate shall come into their possession, they shall appoint two professors, one for the study of the native Erse or Irish language, and the other for the study of Irish antiquities and Irish history, and for the study of any other European language illustrative of, or auxiliary to, the study of Irish antiquities or Irish history; and that they shall give yearly two liberal premiums for two compositions, one in verse, and the other in prose, in the Irish language.' BOSWELL.