that he dictated them, while Bathurst wrote." I read to him Mrs. Williams' account: he smiled, and said nothing.

I am not quite satisfied with the casuistry by which the productions of one person are thus passed upon the world for the productions of another. I allow that not only knowledge, but powers and qualities of mind, may be communicated; but the actual effect of individual exertion never can be transferred, with truth, to any other than its own original cause. One person's child may be made the child of another person by adoption, as among the Romans, or by the ancient Jewish mode of a wife having children born to her upon her knees, by her handmaid. But these were children in a different sense from that of nature. It was clearly understood that they were not of the blood of their nominal parents. So in literary children, an author may give the profits and fame of his composition to another man, but cannot make that other the real author. A Highland gentleman, a younger branch of a family, once consulted me if he could not validly purchase the chieftainship of his family, from the chief who was willing to sell it. I told him it was impossible for him to acquire, by purchase, a right to be a different person from what he really was; for that the right of chieftainship attached to the blood of primogeniture, and, therefore, was incapable of being transferred. I added, that though Esau sold his birthright, or the advantages belonging to it, he still remained the first-born of his parents; and that whatever agreement a chief might make with any of the clan, the Heralds' Office could not admit of the metamorphosis, or with any decency attest that the younger was the elder but I did not convince the worthy gentleman.

Johnson's papers in the "Adventurer" are very similar to those of the "Rambler;" but, being rather more varied in their subjects, and being mixed with essays by other writers, upon topics more generally attractive than even the most elegant ethical discourses, the sale of the work, at first, was more extensive. Without meaning, however, to depreciate the "Adventurer," I must observe, that as the value of the "Rambler " came, in the progress of time, to be better known, it grew

upon the public estimation, and that its sale has far exceeded that of any other periodical papers since the reign of Queen Anne.

In one of the books of his diary I find the following entry:

"Apr. 3, 1753. I began the second vol. of my 'Dictionary,' room being left in the first for Preface, Grammar, and History, none of them yet begun.

"O GOD, who hast hitherto supported me, enable me to proceed in this labour, and in the whole task of my present state; that when I shall render up, at the last day, an account of the talent committed to me, I may receive pardon, for the sake of JESUS CHRIST. Amen.”

He this year favoured Mrs. Lenox with a Dedication* to the Earl of Orrery, of her " Shakespeare Illustrated."1

son.

1 Mrs. Charlotte Lenox was born in 1720. Her father, Colonel Ramsay, Lieutenant-Governor of New York, sent her over to England at the age of fifteen but, unfortunately, the relative to whose care she was consigned was either dead or in a state of insanity on Miss Ramsay's arrival. A lady who heard of, and pitied so extraordinary a disappointment, interested Lady Rockingham in the fate of Miss Ramsay; and the result was, that she was received into her ladyship's family, where she remained till she fancied that a gentleman who visited at the house had become enamoured of her though she is said to have been very plain in her perThis fancied passion led her into some extravagancies of vanity and jealousy, which terminated her residence with Lady Rockingham. Her moral character, however, was never impeached, and she obtained some countenance and protection from the Duchess of Newcastle; but was chiefly dependent for a livelihood on her own literary exertions. In 1747, she published a volume of poems, and became, probably about that time, known to Mr. Strahan, the printer, in consequence of which she became acquainted with and married a Mr. Lenox, who was in Mr. Strahan's employ, but in what capacity is not known. She next published, in 1751, the novel of Harriot Stuart, in which it is supposed she gave her own history. The Duchess of Newcastle honoured her by standing godmother to her first child, who was called Henrietta Holles, and did her the more substantial benefits of procuring for Mr. Lenox the place of tidewaiter in the Customs, and for herself an apartment in Somerset House. Nothing more is remembered of Mr. Lenox, except that he, at a later period of life, put forward some claim to a Scottish peerage. Mrs. Lenox lost her apartments by the pulling down of Somerset House; and, in the latter part of her life, was reduced to great distress. Besides her acquaintance with Dr. Johnson (who was always extremely kind to her), and other literary characters, she had the good fortune to become

In 1754 I can trace nothing published by him, except his numbers of the "Adventurer," and "The Life of Edward Cave," in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for February. In biography there can be no question that he excelled, beyond all who have attempted that species of composition; upon which, indeed, he set the highest value. To the minute selection of characteristical circumstances,' for which the ancients

acquainted, at Mr. Strahan's, with the late Right Hon. George Rose, who liberally assisted her in the latter years of her life-particularly in her last illness, and was at the expense of her burial in the beginning of January, 1804. For most of the foregoing details, I am indebted to my friend the Right Hon. Sir George Rose, whose venerable mother still (1831) remembers Mrs. Lenox.-Croker.

Hawkins (Life of Johnson, p. 286) gives a graphic account of a Johnsonian orgy in honour of Mrs. Lenox.

"Mrs. Lenox, a lady now well known to the literary world, had written a novel, entitled The Life of Harriot Stuart, which in the spring of 1751 was ready for publication. One evening at the [Ivy Lane] Club, Johnson proposed to us the celebrating the birth of Mrs. Lenox's first literary child, as he called her book, by a whole night spent in festivity. Upon his mentioning it to me, I told him I had never sat up a whole night in my life; but he continuing to press me, and saying, that I should find great delight in it, I, as did all the rest of our company, consented. The place appointed was the Devil Tavern, and there, about the hour of eight, Mrs. Lenox and her husband, and a lady of her acquaintance, still [1785] living, as also the club, and friends to the number of near twenty, assembled. The supper was elegant, and Johnson had directed that a magnificent hot apple-pie should make a part of it, and this he would have stuck with bay leaves, because, forsooth, Mrs. Lenox was an authoress, and had written verses; and further, he had prepared for her a crown of laurel, with which, but not till he had invoked the Muses by some ceremonies of his own invention, he encircled her brows. The night passed, as must be imagined, in pleasant conversation and harmless mirth, intermingled, at different periods, with the refreshments of coffee and tea. About five, Johnson's face shone with meridian splendour, though his drink had been only lemonade; but the far greater part of the company had deserted the colours of Bacchus, and were with difficulty rallied to partake of a second refreshment of coffee, which was scarcely ended when the day began to dawn. This phenomenon began to put us in mind of our reckoning; but the waiters were all so overcome with sleep, that it was two hours before a bill could be had, and it was not till near eight that the creaking of the street door gave the signal for our departure."

1 This is not Johnson's appropriate praise; and, indeed, his want of

were remarkable, he added a philosophical research, and the most perspicuous and energetic language. Cave was certainly a man of estimable qualities, and was eminently diligent and successful in his own business, which, doubtless, entitled him to respect. But he was peculiarly fortunate in being recorded by Johnson; who, of the narrow life of a printer and publisher, without any digressions or adventitious circumstances, has made an interesting and agreeable narrative.'

The "Dictionary," we may believe, afforded Johnson full occupation this year. As it approached to its conclusion, he probably worked with redoubled vigour, as seamen increase their exertion and alacrity when they have a near prospect of their haven.

Lord Chesterfield, to whom Johnson had paid the high compliment of addressing to his lordship the plan of his "Dictionary," had behaved to him in such a manner as to excite his contempt and indignation. The world has been for many attention to details is his greatest, if not his only fault, as a biographer. In the whole Life of Savage there is but one date-the birth of Savageand that date is wrong; and no one, from his Life of Cave, would have imagined that Cave (as appears from the same letter) had been invited to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales, at a country house. Several details and corrections of errors, with which he was furnished for his Lives of the Poets, were wholly neglected. But, in truth, "the minute selection of characteristic circumstances" was neither the style of Johnson, nor the fashion of his day, and Mr. Boswell himself has, more than any other writer, contributed to create the public taste for biographical details. Croker.

Mr. Croker in asserting that in the whole Life of Savage there is but one date the birth of Savage-—and that date wrong, is, to use a favourite expression of his own, " indubitably" wrong. For, irrespective of the date of birth, there are, in the Life of Savage, six dates, as any reader may see, who cares to turn to vol. viii., pp. 120, 122, 166, 173, 182, 187, of the Oxford edition of Johnson's works, 1825. We apprehend also that Boswell, when he speaks of "the minute selection of characteristical circumstances," did not mean to identify this with mere precision in the statement of dates, however praiseworthy such precision may be.-Editor. The introductory passage to the life of Cave, the absence of which in "all editions of Johnson's works" was lamented by Mr. Croker, was given in the Oxford edition, published in 1825-six years before the first edition of Mr. Croker's Boswell.-Editor.

1

years amused with a story' confidently told, and as confidently repeated with additional circumstances, that a sudden disgust was taken by Johnson upon occasion of his having been one day kept long in waiting in his lordship's antechamber, for which the reason assigned was, that he had company with him; and that at last, when the door opened, out walked Colley Cibber; and that Johnson was so violently provoked when he found for whom he had been so long excluded, that he went away in a passion, and never would return. I remember having mentioned this story to George Lord Lyttelton, who told me he was very intimate with Lord Chesterfield; and, holding it as a well-known truth, defended Lord Chesterfield by saying, that " Cibber, who had been introduced familiarly by the back-stairs, had probably not been there above ten minutes." It may seem strange even to entertain a doubt concerning a story so long and so widely current, and thus implicitly adopted, if not sanctioned, by the authority which I have mentioned; but Johnson himself assured me, that there was not the least foundation for it. He told me, that there never was any particular incident which produced a quarrel between Lord Chesterfield and him; but that his lordship's continued neglect was the reason why he resolved to have no connection with him.

When the "Dictionary" was upon the eve of publication, Lord Chesterfield, who, it is said, had flattered himself with expectations that Johnson would dedicate the work to him, attempted, in a courtly manner, to soothe and insinuate himself with the sage, conscious, as it should seem, of the cold indifference with which he had treated its learned author; and further attempted to conciliate him, by writing two papers in "The World," in recommendation of the work: and it must be confessed, that they contain some studied compliments, so

1 The story alluded to, Hawkins' Life, p. 189, was asserted, as we see in the text, by Johnson, who was veracity itself, to be without the least foundation. It has, therefore, no claim to appear here, but should rather be regarded as stamped out of honourable existence.— Editor.