New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-01-20
TWO DAYS WITH GOD
AT EXETER HALL. CONDUCTED By THE
GENERAL.


Dr. Birkbeelk Hill publishes an appeal for more
letters of Dr. johnson. He is making complete
collection of the Great Moralists epistles or Is
trying to make one and win presently issue them
in know not-snd probably he knows not-how
many volumes Should he follow the precedent
he has himself set with Hume's Letters, Johnson's
would he as big rs his dictionary DR.. Hill is an
enthusiast, and shows tendency 20 overdo his
subject. He has annotated Hume with more THAI
German minuteness, and Lord Rosebery's bundle
of Hume's letters, which is not very large one
in the manuscript original is swollen out in print
TO fat, closely printed octave Of many hundreds
of pages; with an undue proportion Of Hill to
Hume
However a collection of DR.. Johnson's letters
will be a useful compilation, and mention it be-
cause suppose some Of the unpublished ones may
be in American hands. Specimens of most good
things have TO be sought in America If there
be any, and IL the American possessor will lend
the originals to DIR. Hill, DR.. Hill will be much
Obliged to him, and so will the world of letters
in general, and the clan or club of Johnsonians
most of all Exact copies Of published letters, or
memoranda of differences between the Ms. and
published texts, win also be gratefully received
DR.. Hills edition Of Boswell, classic though
It has already become, is in some points another
example of zeal not according to knowledge.
No edition of great book was ever more praised.
and it deserves, on the whole, the praise so
plentifully poured out on it. But it has irri-
tating faults DIR. Hill carries to an unwise
degree his reverence for his author-for Boswell,
that is. and Boswell with all his surprising
exeeflences is an odd person to reverence. Be
cause Boswell expressed o desire that his
Account of Corsica should, il reprinted, be
reprinted with his own spelling, his present
editor assumed that he would ike his spelling
10 be followed in the life # johnson Also Bos-
well had no authority in such matters de
had eaprices and he is not magnate whose mere
caprices are entitled to become law to his editors
for all time. Nor was any one who wrote at the
END Of the eighteenth or any earlier century in
q position to fix the photography of the English
language. Modern editors do not follow Shakes
peare's spelling they do not know what 1t was
nor was there any nicely in his days about such
matters,.-nor even Milton's Nor was Boswell
living when the third edition Of the Life, from
which DR.. Hill takes his text, was printed
Spite of this, he goes step further, and repro
duces the punctuation, not probably Of Boswell
but Of Boswells printers, nor does he even allege
BosweTs request as justification for oil the
antiauated barbarisms and superhuous commas
which pepper his pages. His edition, he foDdly
homes is to be a monument both 10 Boswell
and to the Clarendon press Of Oxford University,
where it is printed. But 10 is none too well
printed: errors occur; the page Is too broad,
the paper not Opaque, and the use Of block letter
type conduces but little To typographical eie-
oance The binding OF the volumes Is vulgar.
These be the cavils of the mere book lover ~
distinguished from the lover Of books In most
Of the essentials of editing, DIR. HilPs edition
falls not far short OF the high standard he pro-
nosed 20 himself, and the haclyneyed phrase that
Il is without a rival may be used with truth.
was asked the other day by an American
friend 20 recommend him an English binder.
lad 70 saw that could not The English binder
has disappearcd. lie never was an artist Hc
has been at times g good workman He is now
neithsr,, enc, nor the sthss,. Bedford ir dead