_
Ponti inter strepitus _non sacri_ munera cultus
Cessarunt, pietas hic quoque cura fuit.
_Nil opus est oeris sacra de turre sonantis
Admonitu, ipsa suas nunciat hora vices._
Quid, quod sacrifici versavit foemina libros?
_Sint pro legitimis pura labella sacris._
Quo vagor ulterius? quod ubique requiritur hic est,
Hic secura quies, hic et honestus amor.
Mr. Croker says of the third line from the end, that in a copy of these
verses in Johnson's own hand which he had seen, 'Johnson had
first written
_Sunt pro legitimis pectora pura sacris._
He then wrote
_Legitimas faciunt pura labella preces._
That line was erased, and the line as it stands in the _Works_ is
substituted in Mr. Langton's hand, as is also an alteration in the 16th
line, _velit_ into _jubet_.' _Jubet_ however is in the copy as printed
by Boswell. Mr. Langton edited some, if not all, of Johnson's Latin
poems. (_Ante_, iv. 384.)
[878] 'Boswell, who is very pious, went into the chapel at night to
perform his devotions, but came back in haste for fear of spectres.'
_Piozzi Letters_, i. 173.
[879] _Ante_ p. 169.
[880] John Gerves, or John the Giant, of whom Dr. Johnson relates a
curious story; _Works_ ix. 119.
[881] Lord Chatham in the House of Lords, on Nov. 22, 1770, speaking of
'the honest, industrious tradesman, who holds the middle rank, and has
given repeated proofs that he prefers law and liberty to gold,' had
said:--'I love that class of men.
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