[[67]] "The Hindu God, to whom the following poem is addressed, appears evidently the same with the Grecian Eros, and the Roman Cupido.——His favourite place of resort is a large tract of country round Agra, and principally the plains of Matra, where Krishen also and the nine Gopia, who are clearly the Apollo and Muses of the Greeks, usually spend the night with musick and dance." Preface to the Hymn to Camdeo, translated from the Hindu language into Persian, and re-translated by Sir William Jones.
There can be little doubt, considering the antiquity and early civilisation of Hindostan, that both the philosophy and beautiful mythology of the Greeks were drawn from that part of Asia.
[[68]] The following observation in Mr. Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, may sufficiently account for that gentleman's being "now scarcely esteem'd a Scot" by many of his countrymen; "If he [Dr. Johnson] was particularly prejudiced against the Scots it was because they were more in his way; because he thought their success in England rather exceeded the due proportion of their real merit; and because he could not but see in them that nationality which, I believe, no liberal-minded Scotchman will deny." Mr. Boswell indeed is so free from national prejudices, that he might with equal propriety have been described as—
"Scarce by South Britons now esteem'd a Scot."
[[69]] When Dr. Johnson repeated to Mr. Boswell Goldsmith's beautiful eulogium on the English nation, his eyes filled with tears.—Boswell's Tour, p. 431.—See also the Dissertation on the Bravery of the English common Soldiers, at the end of the Idler.
[[70]] See Taxation no Tyranny.
[[71]] Though Dr. Johnson has called Hamden the zealot of rebellion, yet that distinguished patriot could not have expressed himself with more ardour in the cause of liberty, than Dr. Johnson does in the following passage in his Life of Swift: "In the succeeding reign [that of George I.] he delivered Ireland from plunder and oppression; and shewed that wit, confederated with truth, had such force as authority was unable to resist.—It was from the time when he first began to patronize the Irish, that they may date their riches, and prosperity. He taught them first to know their own interest, their weight and their strength, and gave them spirit to assert that equality with their fellow-subjects to which they have been ever since making vigorous advances, and to claim those rights which they have at last established."
The truth indeed seems to be, that Dr. Johnson, though he had been bred in high-church principles, and always expressed himself in controversial argument like a Tory, possessed a high independent spirit, and appears to have been a friend to the rights of man. His definition of the word Caitiff, in his Dictionary, may throw some light on this part of his character. "Caitiff. [cattivo, Ital. a slave; whence it came to signify a bad man, with some implication of meanness; as knave in English, and fur in Latin; so certainly does slavery destroy virtue.
'Ημισυ τῆς αρετῆς ἀποαινυται δουλιον ἤμαρ.
A slave and a scoundrel are signified by the same words in many languages.] A mean villain," &c. See also that animated passage in his London, beginning, "Here let those reign," &c.
[[72]] It is observable that Dr. Johnson did not prefix a dedication to any one of his various works.