dulcius ex ipsio fortibus, * * * * Meantime you have, indeed, my heart with you as though I were ever so much with you in presence, and if there were any good office in my power you might freely command it.
From Franklin's press was issuing at this time the sheets of a work by Johnson on Ethics, entitled Elementa Philosophica, containing chiefly Noetica, or Things relating to the Mind or Understanding; and Ethica, or things relating to the Moral Behaviour. It bears the imprint of B. Franklin and D. Hall, Philadelphia, 1752. In Johnson's letter, last referred to, he refers to this: "I thank you for sending the two sheets of my 'Noetica,' which are done with much care. I find no defects worth mentioning but what were probably my own."
A work written by Samuel Johnson, printed by Benjamin Franklin, and dedicated to Bishop Berkeley, is singular in this happy conjunction of noted names. And it is a happy coincidence that a vice Provost of the University of Pennsylvania has given us the first American Annotations on Bishop Berkeley's Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge. Dr. Krauth says "the first place in the Berkeleyan roll of honor is due to Dr. Samuel Johnson," and describes his "Elementa Philosophica as thoroughly Berkeleyan in its main features."[1]
King's College had been less Catholic in its intentions and designs than the Philadelphia Academy, and was without a leading mind to direct its early steps such as the latter was favored with. As early as 1746 a provincial act was passed authorising a lottery for a College; the results of this, to which were added some benefactions of Trinity Church, produced more than £3400. which were placed in the hands of Trustees by enactments of the Colonial Legislature in 1753, a majority of whom were Church of England men.
The Presbyterian interest, under the leadership of William Livingston, thwarted its consummation for some years; but a charter was finally granted 31 October, 1754, and Samuel Johnson accepted the Presidency; leaving his pleasant home at Stratford in April, but neither removing his family or resigning
- ↑ A Treatise, etc., with Prolegomena and Annotations, Charles V. Krauth, D. D., Philada., 1886, p. 36. See Sparks, vi. 125, note. Also letter of Franklin to Johnson about the slow sale of Noetica, 15 April, 1754, in Beardsley, 180.
