Johnson wrote four letters to George Strahan, when he was a boy at school, and one letter when he was at College. (See Croker’s Johnson, pp. 129, 130, 161, 168.) In this last letter, dated May 25, 1765, he writes:  ’Do not tire yourself so much with Greek one day as to be afraid of looking on it the next; but give it a certain portion of time, suppose four hours, and pass the rest of the day in Latin or English.  I would have you learn French, and take in a literary journal once a month, which will accustom you to various subjects, and inform you what learning is going forward in the world.  Do not omit to mingle some lighter books with those of more importance; that which is read remisso animo is often of great use, and takes great hold of the remembrance.  However, take what course you will, if you be diligent you will be a scholar.’

George Strahan attended Johnson on his death-bed, and published the volume called Prayers and Meditations composed by Samuel Johnson. Ante, i. 235, n. i; iv. 376, n. 4.

William Strahan’s ‘affair with the University’ was very likely connected with the lease of the University Printing House.  From the ’Orders of the Delegates of the Press,’ 1758, I have been permitted to copy the following entry, which bears a date but six days later than that of Johnson’s letter.

’Tuesday, Oct. 30, 1764.  At a meeting of the Delegates of the Press.

’Ordered,

’That the following articles be made the foundation of the new lease to be granted of the moiety of the Printing House; that a copy of them be delivered to Mr. Baskett and Mr. Eyre, and that they be desired to give in their respective proposals at a meeting to be held on Tuesday the sixth of November.’ (P. 41.)

The chief part of the lease consisted of the privilege to print Bibles and Prayer Books.  I conjecture that Strahan had hoped to get a share in the lease.

VIII.

A letter about a cancel in Johnson’s ’Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’, dated Nov. 30, 1774.[In the possession of Messrs. Pearson and Co., 46, Pall Mall.]

’SIR,

’I waited on you this morning having forgotten your new engagement; for this you must not reproach me, for if I had looked upon your present station with malignity I could not have forgotten it.  I came to consult you upon a little matter that gives me some uneasiness.  In one of the pages there is a severe censure of the clergy of an English Cathedral which I am afraid is just, but I have since recollected that from me it may be thought improper, for the Dean did me a kindness about forty years ago.  He is now very old, and I am not young.  Reproach can do him no good, and in myself I know not whether it is zeal or wantonness.  Can a leaf be cancelled without too much trouble? tell me what I shall do.  I have no settled choice, but I would not wish to allow the charge.  To cancel it seems the surer side.  Determine for me.