2 "SOON after this event,1 Johnson wrote his 'Rasselas.' 2 The late Mr. Strahan, the printer, told me that Johnson wrote it that with the profits he might defray the expense of his mother's funeral, and pay some little debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds that he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over.3 Mr. Strahan, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodsley purchased it for a hundred pounds, but afterwards paid him twenty-five pounds more, when it came to a second edition. . . . We cannot but wonder at the very price which he was content to receive for this admirable performance, which, though he had written nothing else, would have rendered his name immortal in the world of literature. None of his writings has been so extensively diffused over Europe; for it has low The death of Johnson's mother, which occurred in January, 1759. 2 "Rasselas" was published in March or April, 1759. 3 Just before his death, however, he one day chanced to see the book in Boswell's hands, and "seized upon it with avidity." been translated into most, if not all, of the modern languages. "This tale, with all the charms of Oriental imagery, and all the force and beauty of which the English language is capable, leads us through the most important scenes of human life, and shows us that this stage of our being is full of 'vanity and vexation of spirit.' To those who look no further than the present life, or who maintain that human nature has not fallen from the state in which it was created, the instruction of this sublime story will be of no avail. But they who think justly and feel with sensibility will listen with eagerness and admiration to its truth and wisdom. Voltaire's Candide,' written to refute the system of Optimism, which it has accomplished with brilliant success, is wonderfully similar in its plan and conduct to Johnson's 'Rasselas;' insomuch, that I have heard Johnson say that if they had not been published so closely one after the other that there was not time for imitation, it would have been in vain to deny that the scheme of that which came latest was taken from the other. Though the proposition illustrated by both these works was the same, - namely, that in our present state there is more evil than good, the intention of the writers was very different. Voltaire, I am afraid, meant only by wanton profaneness to obtain a sportive victory over religion, and to discredit the belief of a superintending Providence; Johnson meant, by showing the unsatisfactory nature of things temporal, to direct the hopes of man to things eternal. 'Rasselas ' may be considered as a more enlarged and more deeply philosophical discourse in prose upon the interesting truth which in his 'Vanity of Human Wishes' he had so successfully enforced in verse. PREFATORY NOTE. 5 "The fund of thinking which this work contains is such, that almost every sentence of it may furnish a subject of long meditation. . . . Notwithstanding my high admiration of 'Rasselas,' I will not maintain that the 'morbid melancholy' in Johnson's constitution may not perhaps have made life appear to him more insipid and unhappy than it generally is. . . . Yet whatever additional shade his own particular sensations may have thrown on his representation of life, attentive observation and close inquiry have convinced me that there is too much reality in the gloomy picture. The truth, however, is, that we judge of the happiness and misery of life differently at different times, according to the state of our changeable frame. I always remember a remark made to me by a Turkish lady, educated in France, 'Ma foi, Monsieur, notre bonheur dépend de la façon que notre sang circule.' This I have learnt from a pretty hard course of experience, and would, from sincere benevolence, impress upon all who honor this book with a perusal, that until a steady conviction is obtained that the present life is an imperfect state and only a passage to a better, if we comply with the Divine scheme of progressive improvement, and also that it is a part of the mysterious plan of Providence that intellectual beings must be 'made perfect through suffering,' there will be a continual recurrence of disappointment and uneasiness. But if we walk with hope in the mid-day sun' of revelation, our temper and disposition will be such that the comforts and enjoyments in our way will be relished, while we patiently support the inconveniences and pains. After much speculation and various reasonings, I acknowledge myself convinced of the truth of Voltaire's conclusion, Après tout, c'est un monde passable." |