rather,' which he cites under rather: This is, I think, a barbarous expression of late intrusion into our language, for which it is better to say will rather.

thee. The prince is not consistent in his use of these archaic and poetical forms; cf. 26: 11-16, 24; 31: 21, 27, etc.

23: 8, some desire. See 89: 23 for a similar thought.

16, invention. Johnson defines as 'To feign; to make by the imagination.'

24, gratifications. A favorite word: cf. 36 : 28; 57: 1. 27, I did not find them wiser. Is this a reminiscence in regard to Johnson's own teachers at Oxford? Cf. Life, I. p. 59 and note 3.

29, initiate . . . in. According to the quotations in the Dictionary, Locke used this idiom, More and Addison preferring initiate into. Cf. 48: 5.

24: 2, parsimony. Used here in the sense of ' frugality,' one of the meanings in the Dictionary.

10, We. Note that there is no explicit antecedent for this we -a somewhat faulty construction.

17, sciences. Constantly used in the unrestricted sense of knowledge of any kind. See Dictionary.

18, obliged. 1. To bind to impose obligation; to compel to something.' Cf. 110: 28.

31, Surat. An important port of India on the west coast of Hindostan. Founded at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and soon rising to the rank of chief commercial city of India, it was probably the most populous city of India during the eighteenth century. Later its trade was transferred to Bombay, and the city lost its position of importance. Originally its trade with Africa was an important feature. Surat is mentioned in Lobo, P. 140.

25: 25, naval. present.

Note the more restricted use of this word at

26: 26, Agra. The chief city of the Mogul empire, founded by Akbar the Great in the sixteenth century. It remained the provincial capital till the mutiny of 1857, although its prestige had long before passed to Surat, Bombay, and other cities.

27, Indostan, Older form of the word, used also in Rambler,

Great Mogul. A term first applied to Akbar the Great, a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth and real founder of an Indian empire larger than that which had ever acknowledged the sway of a single ruler. See Encyc. Brit., XII. p. 794.

27: 10, astonished at his wisdom. This reflects Johnson's own reverence for royalty. Like Imlac in his interview with the Indian emperor, he was himself similarly impressed by an unimportant conversation of a few minutes with George III.; cf. Life, II. 33.

26, Persia. Imlac made his journey, no doubt, by one of the great overland routes from India to the west, or possibly by the waterway from India up the Persian Gulf. Note that Imlac makes no mention of returning to Persia from Arabia, whither he had gone (28: 1), but says that he went from Persia' (31: 28), through Syria, to Palestine.

28, accommodations. 2. In the plural, conveniences, things requisite to ease or refreshment.'-Dict. Cf. also 57: 24.

Persians. 'As they were observed anciently to be of all men the most civil and obliging, they retain the same disposition to this day, especially toward foreigners, who admire their hospitality and benevolence."-Harris's Collection of Voyages (1744), II. 892. 28: 2, nation . . . who. Note the lack of grammatical concord between the antecedent and the relative; cf. 39: 9.

4, herds. The first edition reads herbs, obviously a misprint. 9, Poetry. It may seem strange that the dissertation upon poetry should be suggested by travels in Persia and Arabia, but cf. note on 29: 4. II, learning. 1. Literature, skill in language or sciences; generally scholastic knowledge.'—Dict. Cf. for a similar use of the word, Goldsmith's Inquiry into the State of Polite Learning in Europe.

14, most ancient poets. "The reverence due to writings that have long subsisted arises therefore, not from any credulous confidence in the superior wisdom of past ages, or gloomy persuasion of the degeneracy of mankind, but is the consequence of acknowledged and indubitable positions, that what has been longest known has been most considered, and what is most considered is best understood."-Preface to Shakespeare.

22, first writers. "Some advantage they [the ancients] might gain merely by priority, which put them in possession of the most natural sentiments and left us nothing but servile repetition or forced conceits."-Rambler, 169.

29: 4, poets of Persia. "No people have greater genius for poetry [than the Persians], insomuch that there is not a festival or entertainment made but a poet is introduced and desired to oblige the company with his composition.”—Harris's Collection of Voyages, II. 892. 5, the volumes. It was an Arab custom to suspend in some public place, as a mosque, works which had received the highest praise at the festival of Okad. Seven of these, belonging to the sixth century, were designated Muallakat 'suspended' and became a sort of standard for Arabic poetry in after times. There is a tradition that these were kept in the Kaaba within the Mosque of Mecca; cf. Encyc. Brit., II. 263.

7, imitation. "The imitator treads a beaten walk, and with all his diligence can only hope to find a few flowers or branches untouched by his predecessor, the refuse of contempt or the omissions of negligence."-Rambler, 86; cf. same, 121.

16, no kind of knowledge. "All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable that I would not rather know it than not."-Life, II. 357.

30: 11, business of a poet. Ruskin in Modern Painters, pp. xxxviii, xlvi, xlix, has a similar statement as to the aim of the painter. Note that the realist in art opposes this view.

25, condition. Here used as often in the sense of rank,' the sixth definition in the Dictionary. Johnson quotes Tempest, III. i. 59.

31: 1, abstracted.

This use corresponds to Johnson's definition 'refined, purified,' for which he quotes Donne's 'abstracted spiritual love.'

3, transcendental.

As here used the word is nearly equivalent to 'general,' corresponding to the definition 'general, pervading many particulars,' of the Dictionary.

4, slow progress. All this Johnson was himself realizing in his

own struggle with poverty and neglect. Cf. the well-known line of London,

"Slow rises worth by poverty depressed."

8, legislator. Johnson thought of poetry mainly as a vehicle for the expression of moral sentiments. He praised Shakespeare because, he said, 'it may be doubted whether from all his successors more maxims of theoretical knowledge, or more rules of practical prudence can be collected, than he alone has given to his country.'-Preface to Shakespeare.

32: 12, commerce. British commerce, which Johnson no doubt was thinking of especially, had increased greatly in the first half of the eighteenth century. For example, in 1663 the exports and imports of England amounted to about £6,000,000. In 1761 the total trade of Great Britain was £26,000,000. The exports alone had risen from £6,000,000, in 1699 to £16,000,000 in 1761. This was great increase compared with all previous time, though dwarfed by the development of trade in the present century. See the History of Commerce in Europe, by H. De B. Gibbins.

14, By what means. When in June, 1781, Johnson read Rasselas for the first time since its publication, he pointed out this passage (11. 14-26) and said to Boswell, "This, Sir, no man can explain otherwise."—Life, IV. 119.

18, natural. Used in the sense of native,' although no such meaning is given in the Dictionary.

27, When . . shall I. When putting these words into the mouth of the prince, Johnson may have had in mind the following: “The Abyssins were much addicted to pilgrimages into the Holy Land."-Lobo, p. 254.

28, mighty confluence. See Encyc. Brit., XIII. 644, for a description of Jerusalem at Easter.

33:5, many . . sects. After the Reformation pilgrimages were no longer kept up by Protestants, though still continued by Roman Catholics.

24, our religion. The Abyssinians traced their Christianity directly to Palestine in the time of the Apostles, although their conversion did not actually take place till 330 A. D., when Frumentius was made bishop of Abyssinia by Athanasius of Alexan

dria. According to the native account Queen Candace, "being converted by Inda, her eunuch whom St. Philip baptized, prevailed with her subjects to quit the worship of idols and profess the faith of Jesus Christ."-Lobo, p. 45.

28, some place. "Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona."-Journey to the Western Islands. On the other hand Johnson wrote to Boswell, who had cited the Jewish custom of worshipping at Jerusalem : "It may be dangerous to receive too readily and indulge too fondly opinions, from which perhaps no pious mind is wholly disengaged, of local sanctity and local devotion. We know and ought to remember that the universal Lord is everywhere present, and that to come to Iona or to Jerusalem, though it may be useful, cannot be necessary."—Life, II. 276.

34: 11, knowledge. "A desire of knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind, and every human being whose mind is not debauched will be willing to give all that he has to get knowledge."-Life, I. 458. See also the incident occasioning the

remark.

29, communication. In the eighteenth century great improvements had been made in roads, and foreign travel also became exceedingly common among Englishmen; cf. Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century, VI. 176-179. Yet, as Hill points out, Johnson never visited Lichfield during the twenty-six years that his mother lived there after his removal to London. It must be remembered, however, that the journey was twenty-six hours by coach, as Johnson tells us in one of his letters.

31, policy. Johnson's first definition is, 'The art of government, chiefly with respect to foreign powers.'

35:9, Human life. "Philosophers there are who try to make themselves believe that this life is happy, but they believe it only while they are saying it, and never yet produced conviction in a single mind."-Johnson in Piozzi Letters, I. 150.

"

36: 8, At last. 'The man of business, wearied with unsatis