young authors then present themselves to the public, was at first conveyed by Johnson to Cave as the production of one, who was under very disadvantageous circumstances of fortune, and was willing not only to correct the press, but even to alter any stroke of satire that the printer might disapprove.' Cave, whose heart appears to advantage in this transaction, made him a present for the use of his poor friend, and recommended to him Dodsley as a purchaser. With Dodsley's offer, ten guineas, he not only declared himself fully satisfied, but was ever afterward ready to acknowledge his useful patronage.

The difficulties however which he encountered in the capital led him, in 1739, to solicit the mastership of a country free-school, at a salary of 60l. per ann.! Yet even this humble situation he could not attain. It was necessary, that he should be a Master of Arts; and Lord Gower solicited a friend of Swift's to procure for him, through the Dean's interest, the degree required from Trinity College, Dublin. But his application* was unsuccessful; † and there is great reason to believe, that this was the source of that dislike to

Thirty Eight,' and was so eagerly bought up that a second edition became necessary in less than a week.

* From his Lordship's letter, which has been printed, the following paragraph is extracted, as affording a striking picture of a man of genius in distress, under the eye of a nobleman capable of feeling his merit! "They say, he is not afraid of the strictest examination, though he is of so long a journey. And yet he will venture it, if the Dean think it necessary; choosing rather to die upon the road, than to be starved to death in translating for booksellers, which has been his only subsistence for some time past."

+From Swift's letters of that date (August, 1738) it appears, that he was then incapable of attending to any business.

Swift, which Johnson subsequently manifested both in his conversation and in his writings.

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His engagement in the Gentleman's Magazine' furnished occasion to the exercise of his powers in a new way. The parliamentary proceedings were originally given to the public, in that Miscellany, under the fiction of Debates in the Senate of Lilliput,' and the speakers were disguised by feigned names. Guthrie, a writer of history, for a while composed these speeches from such heads as could be brought away in the memory. Johnson first assisted in this department, and then entirely filled it;* and the public were delighted with the extraordinary eloquence displayed in these compositions, though almost exclusively the product of his own invention. In process of time, he came to consider this deceit as an unjustifiable imposition upon the world.

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In 1739, he published A complete Vindication of the Licenser of the Stage from the malicious and scandalous Aspersions of Mr. Brooke, author of Gustavus Vasa;' an ironical attack upon the Lord Chamberlain, for his unjustifiable suppression of that tragedy. During the same year, likewise, he wrote his Marmor Norfolciense; or an Essay on an ancient prophetical Inscription in Monkish Rhyme,

* Guthrie composed these speeches from July 1736 to November 1740; and by Johnson they were continued till February 1742-3: from that time, till 1760, they were written by Dr. Hawkesworth. That Johnson adhered in them, generally, to the tenor of argument really employed by the respective speakers, may fairly be supposed: otherwise, they would scarcely have been received as genuine, He owned, however, that in dealing out his reason and rhetoric he was not quite impartial; but 'took care, that the Whig dogs should not have the best of it."

lately discovered near Lynn in Norfolk, by Probus Britannicus: in which, as Norfolk was the county of Sir Robert Walpole, he took an opportunity of inveighing against the British succession, and the measures of government connected with that arrangement. The appended commentary, also, was extremely unfavourable to the family upon the throne.

Of this work, which (whether not understood, or not regarded) made little impression on the public, Sir John Hawkins affirms a prosecution was ordered; but no traces of such a measure are to be found in the public offices. It was reprinted, in 1775, by one of his political enemies, to show what a change had been effected in his principles by a pension: but, perhaps, it was the object rather than the character of his politics, which had undergone alteration.

He had, previously, circulated proposals for printing the History of the Council of Trent, translated from the Italian of Father Paul Sarpi; with the Author's Life, and Notes Theological, Historical, and Critical, from the French Edition of Dr. Le Courayer.' Twelve sheets of this were printed, in 4to. by Cave, for which Johnson received forty nine pounds; but the work was never finished.* He drew up, however, a Memoir of that author. In 1744, he published in 8vo. his Life of Richard Savage.' His acquaintance with Savage was one of the most memorable incidents of his life at this period. That unfortunate and misguided man to his literary talents added an easy politeness of manner and elegance of conversation, which had at least their full value in

* A rival version by another translator, who was also called Samuel Johnson, librarian of St. Martin's in the Fields, was announced about the same time, but was never completed.

the eyes of a rustic scholar. Johnson sympathised in his misfortunes, and was captivated with his society, to such a degree as to become his companion in nocturnal rambles, in which he was a spectator of the vice and disorder of the metropolis, and a sharer in the hardships of penury and irregularity. This connexion, it is said, produced a short separation from his wife, who was now come to London: but the breach speedily closed; and whatever temporary injury the morals of Johnson might receive from it, the stain was soon obliterated by the influence of rooted principles of piety and virtue. The Life itself is generally admired, both as an interesting and curious individual portrait, and as the vehicle of many admirable reflexions on life and manners. The facility, with which it was composed, deserves to be recorded. He actually wrote forty eight pages of the printed copy in the course of twelve hours !

In the same year, also, he supplied the preface to the Harleian Miscellany.' The year following, he published a pamphlet entitled, Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with Remarks on Sir Thomas Hanmer's Edition of Shakspeare,' to which he affixed Proposals for a new edition of that poet.' But little notice was taken of his project : and Warburton was known to be engaged in a similar undertaking. Warburton, however, had the liberality to praise his Observations on Macbeth,' as the production of a man of parts and genius; and Johnson never forgot the favour. Praise was, indeed, then" of value" to him. Yet, when Johnson's edition of the great Dramatic Bard appeared, Warburton's opinion was altered: "Of this Johnson," he says to Dr. Hurd, "you and I, I believe,

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think alike." In a letter to another friend, he ob serves, "The remarks he makes in every page on my Commentaries are full of insolence and malignant reflexions, which had they not in them as much folly as malignity, I should have reason to be offended with. As it is, I think myself obliged to him, in thus setting before the public so many of my notes, with his remarks upon them: for though I have no great opinion of that trifling part of the public, which pretends to judge of this part of literature in which boys and girls decide, yet I think nobody can be mistaken in this comparison. Though I think their thoughts have never yet extended thus far as to reflect, that to discover the corruption in an author's text, and by a happy sagacity to restore it to sense, is no easy task; but when the discovery is made, then to cavil at the conjecture, to propose an equivalent and defend nonsense, by producing out of the thick darkness it occasions a weak and faint glimmering of sense (which has been the business of this editor throughout) is the easiest, as well as dullest, of all literary efforts."

At length after a number of abortive projects, some deserted by himself and others coldly received by the public, he settled in earnest to a work which was to form the basis of his philological fame, and entitle him to the gratitude of a long succession of writers in his native language. In 1747, he addressed the Plan of his Dictionary of the English Language' to the Earl of Chesterfield, at that time

* One of his plans to emancipate himself from the drudgery of authorship was, to be introduced to the Bar at Doctors' Commons; but there the want of a degree in Civil Law proved an insurmountable impediment.