The manuscript of the following exercise was formerly owned by Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., and is now in the Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Eng 1386/64). David Fleeman describes it in Handlist I (no. 17) as a college exercise, though others have called it a school exercise. The heading from Juvenal, who was not often taught in schools, suggests Fleeman is correct, though it is difficult to be sure. The single piece of paper, written on both sides, is headed with a quotation from Juvenal’s Satire X (ll. 141–42), known as and loosely translated by Johnson as The Vanity of Human Wishes. The theme is succinctly expressed in Cicero’s honos alit artes (Tusculan Disputations I.2.4)—“honor fosters the arts”—which Edmund Waller used in a speech that Johnson included in his Life of Waller (Yale, XXI.274). Dryden translated Juvenal’s lines as: “For who would Virtue for herself regard, / Or wed, without the portion of reward?” In The Vanity of Human Wishes, Johnson covered the lines with the more general remark: “This pow’r has praise, that virtue scarce can warm, / Till fame supplies the universal charm” (183–84). Some graffitist—perhaps Johnson himself— indignant at so cynical a remark, scribbled on the manuscript beneath the epigraph “Quisquis” (anyone) and (in Roman characters) the Greek “Andres” (men). There is an unexplained numeral “4,” not in Johnson’s hand, in the upper right-hand corner of the recto. One large tear (affecting lines 2–3 and 18 below) suggests the paper may have been pulled away from some fastening. If this was once a numbered page in a notebook, Johnson may have borrowed the leaf from a friend, as notebooks were usually numbered by their users. On the other hand, the number may have been added to the manuscript when it was included in an autograph album. Donald Greene published a facsimile, transcription, and translation, with notes, of this exercise in A Note on Samuel Johnson’s Latin School and College Exercises (1984). He also included the transcription and translation, with notes, in his anthology Samuel Johnson (1984), pp. 39–40 and 799. Bengt Löfstedt commented on Greene’s work and made corrections in the transcription, which we incorporate herewith.2 Barry Baldwin has written more extensively on the small piece, suggesting classical sources for many of Johnson’s phrases.3

Nothing is more advantageous to a ruler concerned for the public welfare than that he promote good men by giving them titles and honors, and take the severest action against the bad. For as all are deterred by seeing themselves despised, so if they receive rewards worthy of their deeds, they try to rise to higher things by the same path. An unsubdued and invincible desire of honor and praise is planted in our hearts, which I would believe wise Nature (for she does nothing in vain) has instilled in us to spur us to praiseworthy deeds. Nearly all the arts, it is agreed, have been advanced in the end by heaping the practitioners with rewards. The first physicians were related to the gods, and temples were built in their honor. Although virtue is its own reward, yet if the favor of the prince is wanting, if good men remain in backwoods obscurity while the infamous obtain praetorships and consulships, others will scarcely imitate them. It is generally agreed that the arts do not flourish unless they are cultivated with great effort, nor do such great talents appear when tyrants rule and kingdoms are aflame with war as under a really good ruler. But everyone will conform to the examples of kings; if the Muses are scorned by him, they will at the same time be despised by others. Unless by his own example he draws the people to respect for religion and the gods, all piety will quickly be sullied. In the early ages of the Roman republic, when good men, irrespective of their origin, were raised to high honor, virtue every day increased; but in later times, when morals became depraved, it was overthrown by vice.