[855] I have since heard that the report was not well founded; but the elation discovered by Johnson in the belief that it was true, shewed a noble ardour for literary fame. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote on Feb. 9:—'One thing which I have just heard you will think to surpass expectation. The chaplain of the factory at Petersburgh relates that the Rambler is now, by the command of the Empress, translating into Russian, and has promised, when it is printed, to send me a copy.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 349. Stockdale records (Memoirs, ii. 98) that in 1773 the Empress of Russia engaged 'six English literary gentlemen for instructors of her young nobility in her Academy at St. Petersburgh.' He was offered one of the posts. Her zeal may have gone yet further, and she may have wished to open up English literature to those who could not read English. Beauclerk's library was offered for sale to the Russian Ambassador. Ante, iii. 420. Miss Burney, in 1789, said that a newspaper reported that 'Angelica Kauffmann is making drawings from Evelina for the Empress of Russia.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, v. 35.

[856]

'—me peritus
Disect Iber, Rhodanique potor.'
'To him who drinks the rapid Rhone
Shall Horace, deathless bard, be known.'
FRANCIS. Horace, Odes, ii. 20. 19.

[857] See ante, iii. 49.

[858] See post, June 12, 1784.

[859] See ante, p. 126.

[860] H. C. Robinson (Diary, i. 29) describes him as 'an author on an infinity of subjects; his books were on Law, History, Poetry, Antiquities, Divinity, Politics.' He adds (ib. p. 49l):—'Godwin, Lofft, and Thelwall are the only three persons I know (except Hazlitt) who grieve at the late events'—the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. He found long after his death 'a MS. by him in these words:—"Rousseau, Euripides, Tasso, Racine, Cicero, Virgil, Petrarch, Richardson. If I had five millions of years to live upon this earth, these I would read daily with increasing delight."' Ib. iii. 283.

[861] Dunciad, iv. 394, note.

[862] The King opened Parliament this day. Hannah More during the election found the mob favourable to Fox. One night, in a Sedan chair, she was stopped with the news that it was not safe to go through Covent Garden. 'There were a hundred armed men,' she was told, 'who, suspecting every chairman belonged to Brookes's, would fall upon us. A vast number of people followed me, crying out "It is Mrs. Fox; none but Mr. Fox's wife would dare to come into Covent Garden in a chair; she is going to canvas in the dark."' H. More's Memoirs, i. 316. Horace Walpole wrote on April 11:—'In truth Mr. Fox has all the popularity in Westminster.' Letters, viii. 469.

[863] See post, under June 9, 1784, where Johnson describes Fox as 'a man who has divided the kingdom with Caesar.'