MAECENAS AND HIS HAPPENINGS 165 



camera, or other ingenious marvel Banks would observe 

 that he had an insuperable objection to becoming the 

 depository of other men's secrets, lest he should bear the 

 blame of disclosing what other persons had not been able 

 to keep private. With all this, he did not like being 

 imposed upon. Neither was he willing to abet any 

 questionable attempts upon the resources of the Govern- 

 ment. As he once said to a correspondent, " I find myself 

 so completely outnumbered by those who consider the 

 giving away of public money as a good-natured thing." 



Banks's manner of refusal seldom appears to have been 

 downright repellent. Few persons had cause to hold 

 themselves finally disposed of. Some would return to 

 the attack after a decent interval of time. As the furtive 

 fly, misunderstanding the gentle action which has brushed 

 it away, comes back again to the feast, so these feeble 

 dwellers on providence persisted in hovering near the 

 generous fount of benevolence. An occasional applicant 

 of this sort, and a very sanguine one, was Henry Johnson. 



Mr. Johnson propounded a method to Sir Joseph 

 (" with no other apology but the Voice of the World 

 declaring him to be the Encourager of Science and 

 Improvements ") for composing and printing, by entire 

 words and radices and terminations instead of single 

 letters as was hitherto the practice. Banks evidently 

 listened to these proposals, for Johnson presently writes 

 to say that his machine is set up, and can be seen in 

 operation. He hopes Sir Joseph will take the trouble 

 to come and see it. The invention was called Logography. 

 It appears to have been in actual use for some time. Sir 

 Joseph was one of the financial promoters ; and we find 

 the name of J. Walter, bookseller, Charing Cross, printer 

 of a newspaper, and founder of the Times, also among 

 them. 1 



The inventor was presently as poor as ever. Four years 



1 v. An Introduction to Logography, by H. Johnson (London, 1783). 



