“Of Him who walked in glory and in joy,
  Following his plough along the mountain-side,”

read at first,

  “Behind his plough upon the mountain-side.”

* * * * *

In a well-preserved quarto copy of “Rasselas,” with illustrations by Smirke, which my friend picked up in London a few years ago, I found the other day an unpublished autograph letter from Dr. Johnson, so characteristic of the great man that it is worth transcribing.  It is addressed

“To the Reverend Mr. Compton.

“To be sent to Mrs. Williams_.”

And it is thus worded:—­

“Sir,

“Your business, I suppose, is in a way of as easy progress as such business ever has.  It is seldom that event keeps pace with expectation.

“The scheme of your book I cannot say that I fully comprehend.  I would not have you ask less than an hundred guineas, for it seems a large octavo.

“Go to Mr. Davis, in Russell Street, show him this letter, and show him the book if he desires to see it.  He will tell you what hopes you may form, and to what Bookseller you should apply.

“If you succeed in selling your book, you may do better than by dedicating it to me.  You may perhaps obtain permission to dedicate it to the Bishop of London, or to Dr. Vyse, and make way by your book to more advantage than I can procure you.

“Please to tell Mrs. Williams that I grow better, and that I wish to know how she goes on.  You, Sir, may write for her to,

  “Sir,

  “Your most humble Servant,

  “SAM:  JOHNSON.

  “Octo. 24, 1782.”

Dear kind-hearted old bear!  On turning to Boswell’s Life of his Ursine Majesty, we learn who Mr. Compton was.  When the Doctor visited France in 1775, the Benedictine Monks in Paris entertained him in the most friendly way.  One of them, the Rev. James Compton, who had left England at the early age of six to reside on the Continent, questioned him pretty closely about the Protestant faith, and proposed, if at some future time he should go to England to consider the subject more deeply, to call at Bolt Court.  In the summer of 1782 he paid the Doctor a visit, and informed him of his desire to be admitted into the Church of England.  Johnson managed the matter satisfactorily for him, and he was received into communion in St. James’s Parish Church.  Till the end of January, 1783, he lived entirely at the Doctor’s expense, his own means being very scanty.  Through Johnson’s kindness he was nominated Chaplain at the French Chapel of St. James’s, and in 1802 we hear of him as being quite in favor with the excellent Bishop Porteus and several other distinguished Londoners.  Thus, by the friendly hand of the hard-working, earnest old lexicographer, Mr. Compton was led from deep poverty up to a secure competency, and a place among the influential dignitaries of London society.  Poor enough himself, Johnson never shrank back, when there was an honest person in distress to be helped on in the battle of life.  God’s blessing on his memory for all his sympathy with struggling humanity!