'
[_No date, nor signature_]
I would also ascribe to him an 'Essay on the Description of China, from
the French of Du Halde[455].[dagger]
His writings in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1743, are, the
'Preface[456],'[dagger] the 'Parliamentary Debates,'[dagger]
'Considerations on the Dispute between Crousaz[457] and Warburton, on
Pope's Essay on Man;'[dagger] in which, while he defends Crousaz, he
shews an admirable metaphysical acuteness and temperance in
controversy[458]; 'Ad Lauram parituram Epigramma[459];'[*] and, 'A Latin
Translation of Pope's Verses on his Grotto[460];'[*] and, as he could
employ his pen with equal success upon a small matter as a great, I
suppose him to be the authour of an advertisement for Osborne,
concerning the great Harlcian Catalogue[461].
[Page 158: Friendship, an Ode. A.D. 1743.]
But I should think myself much wanting, both to my illustrious friend
and my readers, did I not introduce here, with more than ordinary
respect, an exquisitely beautiful Ode, which has not been inserted in
any of the collections of Johnson's poetry, written by him at a very
early period, as Mr. Hector informs me, and inserted in the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ of this year.
FRIENDSHIP, _an_ ODE.[*]
'Friendship, peculiar boon of heav'n,
The noble mind's delight and pride,
To men and angels only giv'n,
To all the lower world deny'd.
While love, unknown among the blest,
Parent of thousand wild desires,
The savage and the human breast
Torments alike with raging fires;
With bright, but oft destructive, gleam,
Alike o'er all his lightnings fly;
Thy lambent glories only beam
Around the fav'rites of the sky.
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