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Works of Samuel Johnson
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Table of Contents
  • Audiet Pugnas vitio Parentum / Rara Juventus. Hor: Young men—the few who are left after the crimes of their fathers—will hear of battles. [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Bonae leges ex malis moribus proveniunt: Good laws spring from bad habits [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Malos tueri haud tutum: Save a thief from the gallows and he’ll cut your throat [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam Praemia si tollas?: For who embraces virtue herself, if you take away the reward? [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Adjecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae: Kind Athens Added a Little More Skill [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Mea nec Falernae Temperant Vites, neque Formiani Pocula Colles: Neither Falernian vines nor Formian hills mellow my cups [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Scheme for the Classes of a Grammar School
  • Advertisement for the School at Edial
  • Observations on Common Sense
  • Preface to the 1738 Volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine
  • Letter to the Gentleman's Magazine on Political Journalism
  • Appeal to the Publick
  • To the Reader. [Gentleman’s Magazine]
  • Considerations on the case of Dr T.—s Sermons abridg’d by Mr Cave
  • The Jests of Hierocles
  • Preface to the 1741 Volume of the Gentleman's Magazine
  • Review of An Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough
  • Proposals for Printing, by Subscription, the Two First Volumes of Bibliotheca Harleiana
  • An Account of the Harleian Library
  • Notice in Volume Two of Catalogus Bibliothecae Harleianae
  • Proposals for Printing, by Subscription, the Harleian Miscellany with An Account of this Undertaking
  • Introduction to the Harleian Miscellany: An Essay on the Origin and Importance of Small Tracts and Fugitive Pieces
  • Preface to the 1742 Volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine
  • Dedication for Robert James's Medicinal Dictionary
  • Preface to the 1743 Volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine
  • PROPOSALS For Printing every Fortnight, (Price Sixpence) THE PUBLISHER: CONTAINING MISCELLANIES In PROSE and VERSE. Collected by J. CROKATT, Bookseller.
  • Proposals for Printing Anchitell Grey's Debates
  • Some Remarks on the Progress of Learning Since the Reformation
  • Proposals for Printing by Subscription Hugonis Grotii Adamus Exul
  • Postscript to Lauder’s Essay on Milton’s Use and Imitation of the Moderns
  • A Letter to the Reverend Mr. Douglas
  • Preface to The Preceptor
  • The signification of WORDS how varied
  • Letter Concerning the Benefit Performance of Comus for Milton's Granddaughter
  • Proposals for printing by subscription, Essays in Verse and Prose.
  • Notice of The life of Harriot Stuart
  • Dedication to The Female Quixote
  • Dedication to Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully
  • Dedication to Philander
  • Dedication to The Greek Theatre of Father Brumoy
  • Dedication to Henrietta, 2nd Ed.
  • Proposals for Printing by Subscription The Original Works of Mrs. Charlotte Lennox
  • Letter to the Daily Advertiser concerning James Crokatt
  • Preface to A General Index of the First Twenty Volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine
  • Preface to the 1753 Volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine
  • An Account of an Attempt to Ascertain the Longitude by Sea, by an Exact Theory of the Variation of the Magnetical Needle
  • Dedication and Preface to An Introduction to the Game of Draughts (1756)
  • Dedication to An Introduction to Geometry (1767)
  • Preface to Richard Rolt, A New Dictionary of Trade and Commerce
  • Reflections on the Present State of Literature
  • TO THE PUBLIC
  • Review of John Armstrong, The History of the Island of Minorca (1756)
  • Review of Stephen White, Collateral Bee-Boxes (1756)
  • Review of Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society, vols. 1–2 (1756)
  • Review of Arthur Murphy, The Gray’s-Inn Journal, 2 vols. (1756)
  • Review of Joseph Warton, An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope (1756)
  • Review of James Hampton, The General History of Polybius (1756)
  • Review of Thomas Blackwell, Memoirs of the Court of Augustus (1753–56)
  • Review of Alexander Russell, The Natural History of Aleppo (1756)
  • Review of Four Letters from Newton to Bentley (1756)
  • Review of William Borlase, Observations on the Islands of Scilly (1756)
  • Review of Archibald Bower, Affidavit (1756); John Douglas, Six Letters and Review of Mr. Bower’s Answer (1757); and John Douglas, Bower and Tillemont Compared (1757)
  • Review of Francis Home, Experiments on Bleaching (1756)
  • Review of Stephen Hales, An Account of a Useful Discovery (1756)
  • Review of Charles Lucas, An Essay on Waters (1756)
  • Review of Robert Keith, A Large New Catalogue of the Bishops (1756)
  • Review of Patrick Browne, The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica (1756)
  • Review of Charles Parkin, An Impartial Account of the Invasion under William Duke of Normandy (1756)
  • Review of A Scheme for Preventing a Further Increase of the National Debt (1756)
  • Review of Conferences and Treaties (1756)
  • Review of Philosophical Transactions (1756)
  • Review of Richard Lovett, The Subtil Medium Prov’d (1756)
  • Review of Benjamin Hoadley and Benjamin Wilson, Observations on a Series of Electrical Experiments (1756)
  • Review of Johann Georg Keyssler, Travels (1756)
  • Review of Elizabeth Harrison, Miscellanies (1756)
  • Review of Jonas Hanway, A Journal of Eight Days Journey (1757)
  • Review of Jonas Hanway, A Journal of Eight Days Journey, Second Edition (1757)
  • Reply to a Letter from Jonas Hanway in the Gazetteer (1757)
  • Review of Samuel Bever, The Cadet (1756)
  • Review of the Test and Con-Test (1756)
  • Review of William Whitehead, Elegies (1757)
  • Review of A Letter to a Gentleman in the Country on the Death of Admiral Byng (1757)
  • Preliminary Discourse in the London Chronicle
  • Advertisement for Francis Barber in the Daily Advertiser
  • "Dedication to John Lindsay, Evangelical History of Our Lord Jesus Christ Harmonized
  • Introduction to the Universal Chronicle (1758)
  • Of the Duty of a Journalist (1758)
  • Advertisement Against Unauthorized Reprints of the Idler (1759)
  • Advertisement for the Public Ledger in the Universal Chronicle (1760)
  • To The Public in the Public Ledger (1760)
  • The Weekly Correspondent Number I [Public Ledger]
  • The Weekly Correspondent Number II [Public Ledger]
  • The Weekly Correspondent Number III [Public Ledger]
  • Preface to J. Elmer, Tables of Weights and Prices
  • From The Italian Library Containing an Account of the Lives and Works of the most valuable authors of Italy (1757)
  • Proposals for Printing by Subscription, Le Poesie di Giuseppe Baretti (1758)
  • Dedication to A Dictionary of the English and Italian Languages (1760)
  • Preface to Easy Phraseology, for the Use of Young Ladies Who Intend to Learn the Colloquial Part of the Italian Language (1775)
  • Advertisement [For The World Displayed]
  • Introduction (1759) [From The World Displayed]
  • Advertisement for Pilgrim's Progress
  • Letter I. [Daily Gazetteer]
  • Letter II. [Daily Gazetteer]
  • Letter III. [Daily Gazetteer]
  • Letter to the Society of Arts (26 February 1760)
  • Letter to the Society of Arts (8 December 1760)
  • Address of the Painter’s, Sculptors, &Architects to George III (1761)
  • Preface to A Catalogue of the Pictures, Sculptures, Models, Drawings, Prints, &c Exhibited by the Society of Artists of Great-Britain at the Great Room in Spring Gardens Charing Cross May the 17th Anno 1762 Being the Third year of their Exhibition (1762)
  • Review of William Tytler, Historical and Critical Enquiry into the Evidence Produced … Against Mary Queen of Scots
  • Contributions to John Kennedy, A Complete System of Astronomical Chronology, Unfolding the Scriptures
  • Proposals and Advertisement [for Anna Williams, Miscellanies in Prose and Verse] (1762)
  • Advertisement [for Anna Williams, Miscellanies in Prose and Verse] (1766)
  • Dedication to Jerusalem Delivered (1763)
  • Dedication to The Works of Metastasio (1767)
  • Dedication to Cyrus: A Tragedy (1768)
  • Review of Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller
  • Dedication for Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
  • 23 Sept. 1765 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 1–4 Oct. 1765. [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 20 Nov. 1765. [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 19 Dec. 1765. [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 24 December 1765 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 3 March 1768 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 8 March 1768 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 14 March 1768 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 23 March 1768 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 23 March 1768 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 13 March 1769 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 1 October 1774 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 4 October 1774 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 13 October 1774 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 4 September 1780 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 4 September 1780 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 5 Sept. 1780 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • Dedication for George Adams, A Treatise Describing and Explaining the Construction and Use of New Celestial and Terrestrial Globes
  • Dedication to John Gwynn, London and Westminster Improved
  • Preface to Alexander MacBean, A Dictionary of Ancient Geography
  • Meditation on a Pudding
  • Hereford Infirmary Appeal
  • Dedication for A General History of Music (1776)
  • From A General History of Music, Vol. II (1782)
  • Dedication to An Account of the Musical Performance . . . in Commemoration of Handel (1785)
  • Advertisement for the Spectator
  • Dedication to Zachary Pearce, A Commentary, with Notes, on the Four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles
  • Letter of 16 May 1777
  • The Petition of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council Assembled, Friday 6 June 1777
  • Letter to Lord Bathurst, the Lord Chancellor, 8 June 1777
  • Letter to William Murray, First Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, Wednesday, 11 June 1777
  • Petition of Mrs. Mary Dodd to the Queen
  • Dodd’s Letter to the King, Sunday, 22 June 1777
  • Petition of William Dodd to the King, Monday, 23 June 1777
  • Dodd’s Last Solemn Declaration, Wednesday, 25 June 1777
  • Johnson’s Observations on the Propriety of Pardoning William Dodd, Wednesday, 25 June 1777
  • Introduction and Conclusion to Occasional Papers (1777)
  • Proposal for Printing William Shaw, An Analysis of the Scotch Celtic Language
  • Dedication to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Seven Discourses
  • Preface to Thomas Maurice, Oedipus Tyrannus
  • The Case of Collier v. Flint
  • Translation of Sallust, De Bello Catilinario
  • General Rules of the Essex Head Club
  • On the Character and Duty of an Academick
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Adjecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae: Kind Athens Added a Little More Skill [School and College Latin Exercises]
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By Johnson, Samuel

Samuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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Adjecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae
Kind Athens Added a Little More Skill [School and College Latin Exercises]
This is one of two sets of exercises in the library of Pembroke College, Oxford (Archive Catalogue, 62/1/53), composed while Johnson was an undergraduate there between October 1728 and December 1729 (Handlist I, no. 14). Like most of the dozens of exercises preserved from the same period, including some by William Blackstone, Richard Graves, and William Shenstone, this exercise, as well as the one following, is written on a folded half sheet, each of the quarto leaves measuring about 21 by 16.5 centimeters. The recto of the first leaf contains a Latin prose composition headed by a quotation from Horace and signed “Johnson,” with the Z-flourish that he used at this time. The recto of the second leaf contains the verses relating to the topic with the Z-flourish by itself, without


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his name. The Pembroke documents are used with the kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Pembroke College, Oxford.
Once a week during term, Oxford students were required to hand in a composition to their tutor on entering the hall, later declaiming it from a second copy. Johnson, however, appears to have written out one copy for his tutor the morning it was due, trusting his memory when it came time to recite it (Reade, V.7–8; Johns. Misc., I.165). Both sets of verses were printed by John Wilson Croker in his 1831 edition of Boswell’s Life (I.44) and have since been reprinted in collections of Johnson’s poems, including Yale, VI.27–28.1 Although the poems appear elsewhere in the Yale Edition, we include them here because they are part of the prose exercises and should be read in that context.
The heading of this exercise is from Horace, Epistles 2.2.43. In this autobiographical passage, Horace speaks of the polish his sojourn at Athens added to his Roman education. As he no doubt intended to, Johnson converts Horace’s remark into a panegyric on university education.
Omnibus, quas Humaniores artes molliverunt, Gentibus, id in pri- mis fuit curae, ut Juventus rectâ institutione utatur. Quae ut melius promoveatur, Societates quaedam, in quas Tyrones admissi fidelem, sub professoribus idoneis, arti cui se destinaverant, operam navarent, constitutae sunt. Hic Juvenem bonis moribus disciplinisque ingenuis facillime imbui posse Sapientiâ Ve- terum feliciter deprehendit.1 Academia Castra Musarum est. Quotidianis exercitationibus Mentis Vires confirmantur;


Page 13

et tota Militia erudita addiscitur. Nec magis praecepta quam exempla valent, exemplis vero qui in Solitudine Vitam agit prorsus destituitur, nec alienis laudibus accenditur, nec malâ famâ deterretur. Ad hoc, plures eo- dem nitentes, paribusque passibus incedentes laetius progre- diuntur, taedium minus sentiunt, salebrarumque asperitatem facilius superant. Doctorum consortium plurimum ad Stu- dia emolumenti adfert; non nisi in Academia frui Licebit. Huc enim omnes confluunt, qui vel docti sunt, aut se doctos putant. Mentem rudem et barbaram, Academia format Limatque, et quascunque dotes Natura impertiit, eli- cit, et promit. Ab Academiae fonte inexhausto Doctrinae scatebrae Regionem perfluunt, cum illâ florente floret, et cum pereunte, peribit.
Adjecere bonae &c
Quas Natura dedit dotes, Academia promit, Dat Menti propriis Musa nitere bonis. Materiam Statuae sic praebet Marmora Tellus, Saxea Phidiacâ spirat imago manu.2
For all peoples whom the more humane studies have softened, it has been a prime concern that their youth obtain a sound education. In order to facilitate this, certain societies were founded, in which the untrained entrants would devote themselves faithfully, under suitable professors to the art to which they had dedicated themselves. Here the wisdom of our forebears happily discerned that youth can learn


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good conduct and the liberal arts most easily. The academy is the camp of the Muses. By daily exercises the powers of the mind are strengthened; and the whole scholarly art of arms is also learned. Nor are precepts more important than examples; indeed, he who lives his life in solitude is utterly destitute of examples, is neither kindled by the praise of others, nor deterred by evil repute. Besides, when many are striving with equal pace to the same goal, they advance more joyfully, they feel the weariness lighter, they more easily overcome the harshness of the difficulties. The company of the learned adds the most advantage to study; only in the academy will it be possible to enjoy it. For here all come together who either are learned or think themselves learned. The academy forms and polishes the rough and rude mind, and whatever gifts Nature has imparted, it calls forth and displays. From the inexhaustible well of the academy, springs of learning flow throughout the land; while that flourishes, the land will flourish, and when that perishes, the land will perish.
The gifts Nature has given, the Academy brings forth; the Muse enables the mind to shine by means of its own possessions. Thus the earth furnishes marble, the material of a statue; but it is the hand of Phidias that makes the stone image breathe.
Editorial Notes
1 They are also included in Five Latin Poems by Samuel Johnson, ed. Thomas Kaminski (1991), and The Latin and Greek Poems of Samuel Johnson, ed. Barry Baldwin (1995), with full commentary.
1 Both the grammar and meaning of deprehendit are perplexing. The first definition in Adam Littleton’s Latin Dictionary (1723), which SJ owned, is “to catch one, to take him unawares, tardy or napping.” Another meaning in Littleton is “to observe or find out a thing, to come to the knowledge or understanding of it.” The translation below uses the second, more appropriate meaning, although this requires construing the grammar somewhat loosely.
2 Not signed with the usual “Johnson,” but only with the Z-shaped flourish.
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Document Details
Document TitleAdjecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae: Kind Athens Added a Little More Skill [School and College Latin Exercises]
AuthorJohnson, Samuel
Creation DateN/A
Publ. DateN/A
Alt. TitleN/A
Contrib. AuthorCroker, John Wilson
ClassificationSubject: Latin exercises; Subject: Themes; Subject: Horace; Subject: Athens; Subject: Rome; Subject: Education; Subject: Academy; Subject: Learning; Subject: Liberal arts; Subject: Scholar; Genre: Exercises
PrinterN/A
PublisherJohn Murray
Publ. PlaceLondon
VolumeSamuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand
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