'I am, &c.

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'London, Dec. 24, 1783.'

'A happy and pious Christmas; and many happy years to you, your lady,
and children.'

The late ingenious Mr. Mickle[781], some time before his death, wrote me
a letter concerning Dr. Johnson, in which he mentions,--

'I was upwards of twelve years acquainted with him, was frequently in
his company, always talked with ease to him, and can truly say, that I
never received from him one rough word.'

In this letter he relates his having, while engaged in translating the
_Lusiad_, had a dispute of considerable length with Johnson, who, as
usual, declaimed upon the misery and corruption of a sea life, and used
this expression:--'It had been happy for the world, Sir, if your hero
Gama, Prince Henry of Portugal, and Columbus, had never been born, or
that their schemes had never gone farther than their own imaginations.'

'This sentiment, (says Mr. Mickle,) which is to be found in his
_Introduction to the World displayed_[782], I, in my Dissertation
prefixed to the _Lusiad_, have controverted; and though authours are
said to be bad judges of their own works[783], I am not ashamed to own
to a friend, that that dissertation is my favourite above all that I
ever attempted in prose. Next year, when the Lusiad was published, I
waited on Dr. Johnson, who addressed me with one of his good-humoured
smiles:--"Well, you have remembered our dispute about Prince Henry, and
have cited me too. You have done your part very well indeed: you have
made the best of your argument; but I am not convinced yet."

'Before publishing the _Lusiad_, I sent Mr. Hoole a proof of that part
of the introduction, in which I make mention of Dr. Johnson, yourself,
and other well-wishers to the work, begging it might be shewn to Dr.
Johnson. This was accordingly done; and in place of the simple mention
of him which I had made, he dictated to Mr. Hoole the sentence as it now
stands[784].

'Dr. Johnson told me in 1772, that, about twenty years before that time,
he himself had a design to translate the _Lusiad_, of the merit of which
he spoke highly, but had been prevented by a number of other
engagements.'

Mr. Mickle reminds me in this letter of a conversation, at dinner one
day at Mr. Hoole's with Dr. Johnson, when Mr. Nicol the King's
bookseller and I attempted to controvert the maxim, 'better that ten
guilty should escape, than one innocent person suffer;' and were
answered by Dr. Johnson with g