[1278] Letter to Rutland on Travel, 16mo. 1569. BOSWELL. This letter is contained in a little volume entitled, Profitable Instructions; describing what special observations are to be taken by travellers in all nations, states and countries; pleasant and profitable. By the three much admired, Robert, late Earl of Essex, Sir Philip Sidney, and Secretary Davison. London. Printed for Benjamin Fisher, at the Sign of the Talbot, without Aldersgate. 1633. (Lowndes gives the date of 1613, but the earliest edition seems to be this of 1633.) The letter from which Boswell quotes is entitled, The late E. of E. his advice to the E. of R. in his Travels. It is dated Greenwich, Jan. 4, 1596. Mr. Spedding (Bacon's Works, ix. 4) suggests that 'it may have been (wholly or in part) written by Bacon.'
[1279] Boswell (Boswelliana, p. 210) says that this 'impudent fellow' was Macpherson.
[1280] Boswell repeated this saying and some others to Paoli. 'I felt an elation of mind to see Paoli delighted with the sayings of Mr. Johnson, and to hear him translate them with Italian energy to the Corsican heroes.' Here Boswell describes the person as 'a certain authour.' Boswell's Corsica, p. 199
[1281] Boswell thus takes him off in his comic poem The Court of Session Garland:—
'"This cause," cries Hailes, "to judge I can't pretend, For justice, I percieve, wants an e at the end."'
Mr. R. Chambers, in a note on this, says:—'A story is told of Lord Hailes once making a serious objection to a law-paper, an in consequence to the whole suit, on account of the word justice being thus spelt. Traditions of Edinburgh, ii. 161. Burke says that he 'found him to be a clever man, and generally knowing.' Burke's Corres. iii. 301. See ante p. 267, and post May 12, 1774 and Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 17, 1773.
[1282] 'Ita feri ut se mori sentiat.' Suetonius, Caligula, chap. xxx.
[1283] Johnson himself was constantly purposing to keep a journal. On April 11, 1773, he told Boswell 'that he had twelve or fourteen times attempted to keep a journal of his life,' post, April 11, 1773. The day before he had recorded:—'I hope from this time to keep a journal.' Pr. and Med. p. 124. Like records follow, as:—'Sept. 24, 1773. My hope is, for resolution I dare no longer call it, to divide my time regularly, and to keep such a journal of my time, as may give me comfort in reviewing it.' Ib. p. 132. 'April 6, 1777. My purpose once more is To keep a journal.' Ib. p. 161. 'Jan. 2, 1781. My hope is To keep a journal.' Ib. p. 188. See also post, April 14, 1775, and April 10, 1778.
[1284] Boswell, when he was only eighteen, going with his father to the [Scotch] Northern Circuit, 'kept,' he writes, 'an exact journal.' Letters of Boswell, p. 8. In the autumn of 1762 he also kept a journal which he sent to Temple to read. Ib. p. 19.
[1285] 'It has been well observed, that the misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated.' Johnson's Works, viii. 333. 'The main of life is indeed composed of small incidents and petty occurrences.' Ib. ii. 322. Dr. Franklin (Memoirs, i. 199) says:—'Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.'