‘596 
you every inward and outward help, in 
a your time of need. Nor can I 
tee but that the religion and virtue, 
© cause you have*so effectually 
espoused, will support, under every pres- 
Pe their brave, their faithful advocate. 
-in this persuasion, as in every good wish 
to.Mr. Johnson, I must be joined, not 
only by my dearest, who feels most ten- 
derly for him; but by all the sensible, and 
the worthy, of this kingdom; who, though 
mourning that the Rambler is come to 
the end of his labours, cannot bat con- 
giatuiate themselves, as well as him, thet 
his labours have ended as they began. 
How happy must I therefore deem my- 
self, in privately sharing with you, sor- 
_ Tow or joy, and in styling myself, with 
€qual tenderness and truth, 
Dear Sir, 
Your affectionate servant, 
; James ELPHINSTON. 
Edinburgh, March 26, 1752. 
—— 
To DR. JOHNSON. 
Dear Sir, 
T have just learned my new debt of 
condolence, of which the vreatness does 
put me 1 mind, hew little you need its 
payment. WhileI must, however, grieve. 
with you, through a friendship, where 
gratitude is but a feebler impulse, it is 
some Joy for me to understand, that no 
distance either of place, or of time; no 
ammediace attention, of whatever impor- 
tance, has been able even to blunt those 
filial feelings, which are inseparable from 
anoble mind. But though affection and 
sympathy claim both their indulgence, 
Scarce Tracts, Kc. 
[Jan. i, 
T may at least return the kind hint you 
lent me, on a like occasion, that “ tears 
are neither to you, nor to me, of any 
farther use, when once the tribute of 
nature has been paid,” mee 
I need not, dear Sir, insinuate to: you 
that neither your parent, nor mine, was 
called away till weary with age, and ripe 
for Heaven, any more than that the 
longer we were blest with their company 
on earth, the shorter shall be our sepa- 
ration from them. | 
‘lean time, [ think but again with you, 
that duty, even to the dead, as well as toa 
the living, bids us moderate that grief: 
we would not stifle; and return, as soon 
as possible, to the exercise of those 
faculues, which the worthies we mourn 
have transmitted us for the service of a 
world, that never stands more in need of 
their aid, than when she seems least to 
deserve it, 
I hope to find you, the first day the 
weather will allow me, enforcing those 
precepts you both publicly and privately 
inculcate, with so singular power, by a 
still more powerful example. For as 
every solace is your due, from, at least, 
every Briton, as proud must I be to con- 
tribute my little peculiar, as to think 
how peculiarly it is your due, from, - 
Dearest Sir, 
Your obliged, 
Brompton, 
James ELPHINSTON, 
Feb. 22, 1759. 
Erratum.—In the Memoirs of Mr. El. 
phinstun, page 489, column 1, line 8, for 
<¢ competent,” read, ** complete.” 
SCARCE TRACTS, WITH EXTRACTS, AND ANALYSES OF 
SCARCE BOOKS. ‘ 
Jt is proposed in future to devote a few Pages of the Monthly Magazine to the 
Insertion of such Scarce Tracis as are of an interesting Nature, with the Use 
of which we muy be favoured by our Correspondents; and under the same Head io 
antroduce also ihe Analyses of scarce and curious Books. — 
ae 
& Chaucer's Ghoust : or, a Piece of An- 
tiguity. Containing twelve pleasant 
Fables of Ovid, penned after the an- 
“cient Manners of writing in England, 
which makes them prove Mock- Poems to 
the present Poetry. W2ih the History of 
Prince Corniger, and his Champion, Sir 
Crucifrag, that run a Tilt likewise at 
the present Historiographers. By a Lo- 
wer of Antiquity.”—Multa renascentur 
que jam cecidere, &c—Hor. Lond. 
1672. duod. p. 121. 
y E are ignorant even of the name of 
the author of this scarce littie work. 
re 3 
In. order to exhibit a specimen of his 
style and manner, we shall transcribe 
his address to the readers, and one of his 
“ pleasant fables.” . 
To the Readers. ' 
New books and pamphlets, Sirs, now 
a-days, thrust so fast out of the press, that 
they will not give the readers time to 
breathe; this was the misery of Juvenal’s 
time, and I may cry as he did, Semper 
ego auditor tantum ? But yet there is 
one remedy, peritureé non parcere 
charte. Yet what shall be the subject ? 
Novelty. No—Hang it, then, must a 
e meas ate | ‘ 
