dinary vigour and vivacity constituted one | gossiping; but besides its being swelled out of the first features of his character; and as with long unnecessary extracts from various I have spared no pains in obtaining materi- works (even one of several leaves from Os als concerning him, from every quarter borne's Harleian Catalogue, and those not where I could discover that they were to compiled by Johnson, but by Oldys), a ve be found, and have been favoured with the ry small part of it relates to the person who most liberal communications by his friends; is the subject of the book; and in that there is I flatter myself that few biographers have such an inaccuracy in the statement of facts, entered upon such a work as this with more as in so solemn an authour is hardly excu advantages; independent of literary abilities, sable, and certainly makes his narrative ve in which am not vain enough to compare ry unsatisfactory. But what is still worse, myself with some great names who have there is throughout the whole of it a dark gone before me in this kind of writing. uncharitable cast, by which the most unfavourable construction is put upon almost every circumstance in the character and conduct of my illustrious friend; who, I trust, will, by a true and fair delineation, be vindicated both from the injurious misrepresentations of this authour, and from the slighter aspersions of a lady who once lived in great intimacy with him. Since my work was announced, several Lives and Memoirs of Dr. Johnson have been published, the most voluminous of which is one compiled for the booksellers of London, by Sir John Hawkins, Knt.1, a man, whom, during my long intimacy with Dr. Johnson, I never saw in his company, I think, but once, and I am sure not above twice. Johnson might have esteemed him for his decent, religious demeanour, and his knowledge of books and literary history; but from the rigid formality of his manners, it is evident that they never could have lived together with companionable ease and familiarity; nor had Sir John Hawkins that nice perception which was necessary to mark the finer and less obvious parts of Johnson's character. His being appointed one of his executors gave him an opportunity of taking possession of such fragments of a diary and other papers as were left; of which, before delivering them up to the residuary legatee, whose property they were, he endeavoured to extract the substance. In this he has not been very successful, as I have found upon a perusal of those papers, which have been since transferred to me. Sir John Hawkins's ponderous labours, I must acknowledge, exhibit a farrago, of which a considerable portion is not devoid of entertainment to the lovers of literary The greatest part of this book was written while Sir John Hawkins was alive; and I avow, that one object of my strictures was to make him feel some compunction for his illiberal treatment of Dr. Johnson. Since his decease, I have suppressed several of my remarks upon his work. But though I would not "war with the dead" offensively, I think it necessary to be strenuous in defence of my illustrious friend, which I cannot be, without strong animadversions upon a writer who has greatly injured him. Let me add, that though I doubt I should not have been very prompt to gratify Sir John Hawkins with any compliment in his lifetime, I do now frankly acknowledge, that, in my opinion, his volume, however inadequate and improper as a life of Dr. Johnson, and however discredited by unpardonable inaccuracies in other respects, contains a collection of curious anecdotes and observations, which few men but its author could have brought together.-BoswWELL. There is, in the British Museum, a letter from Bishop Warburton to Dr. Birch, on the subject of biography; which, though I am aware it may expose me to a charge of artfully raising the value of my own work, by contrasting it with that of which I have spoken, is so well conceived and expressed, that I cannot refrain from here in serting it. "24th Nov. 1737. "I shall endeavour," says Dr. Warburton, "to give you what satisfaction I can in any thing you want to be satisfied in any subject of Milton, and am extremely glad you intend to write his life. Almost all the life-writers we have had before Toland and Desmaiseaux, are indeed strange insipid creatures; and yet I had rather read the worst of them, than be obliged to go through with this of Milton's, or the other's life of Boileau, where there is such a dull, heavy succession of long quotations of disinteresting passages, that it makes their method quite nauseous. But the verbose, tasteless Frenchman, seems to lay it down as a principle, that every life must be a book; and what's worse, it proves a book without a life; for what do we know of Boileau, after all his tedious stuff? You are the only one (and I speak it without a compliment), that by the vigour of your style and sentiments, and the real importance of your materials, have the art (which one would imagine no one could have missed) of adding ject in the world, which is literary history 2." the agreements to the most agreeable sub Instead of melting down my materials into one mass, and constantly speaking in my own person, by which I might have appeared to have more merit in the execution of the work, I have resolved to adopt and 2 British Museum, 4320, Ayscough's Catal. Sloane MSS.-BOSWELL. inently instructive and entertaining; and of which the specimens that I have given upon a former occasion have been received with so much approbation, that I have good grounds for supposing that the world will not be indifferent to more ample communications of a similar nature. enlarge upon the excellent plan of Mr. Ma- | tains of Johnson's conversation, which is son, in his Memoirs of Gray. Wherever universally acknowledged to have been emnarrative is necessary to explain, connect and supply, I furnish it to the best of my abilities; but in the chronological series of Johnson's life, which I trace as distinctly as I can, year by year, I produce, wherever it is in my power, his own minutes, letters, or conversation, being convinced that this mode is more lively, and will make my rea- That the conversation of a celebrated man, ders better acquainted with him than even if his talents have been exerted in convermost of those were who actually knew him, sation, will best display his character, is, I but could know him only partially; where- trust, too well established in the judgment as there is here an accumulation of intelli- of mankind to be at all shaken by a sneergence from various points, by which his ing observation of Mr. Mason, in his mecharacter is more fully understood and il-moirs of Mr. William Whitehead, in lustrated. which there is literally no life, but a mere dry narrative of facts. I do not think it was quite necessary to attempt a depreciation of what is universally esteemed, because it was not to be found in the immediate object of the ingenious writer's pen; for in truth, from a man so still and so tame, as to be contented to pass many years as the domestick companion of a superannuated lord and lady, conversation could no more be expected than from a Chinese mandarin on a chimneypiece, or the fantastick figures on a gilt leather skreen. Indeed I cannot conceive a more perfect mode of writing any man's life, than not only relating all the most important events of it in their order, but interweaving what he privately wrote, and said, and thought; by which mankind are enabled as it were to see him live, and to "live o'er each scene" with him, as he actually advanced through the several stages of his life. Had his other friends been as diligent and ardent as I was, he might have been almost entirely preserved. As it is, I will venture to say that he will be seen in this work more completely than any man who has ever yet lived. And he will be seen as he really was; for I profess to write not his panegyrick, which must be all praise, but his life, which, great and good as he was, must not be supposed | to be entirely perfect. To be as he was, is oral, nal morgni rokav. "Nor is it alindeed subject of panegyrick enough to any ways in the most distinguished achieveman in this state of being; but in every pic- ments that men's virtues or vices may be best ture there should be shade as well as light, discerned; but very often an action of small and when I delineate him without reserve, note, a short saying, or a jest, shall distinI do what he himself recommended, both guish a person's real character more than by his precept and his example. the greatest sieges or the most important battles 2." "If the biographer writes from personal knowledge, and makes haste to gratify the publick curiosity, there is danger lest his interest, his fear, his gratitude, or his tenderness, overpower his fidelity, and tempt him to conceal, if not to invent. There are many who think it an act of piety to hide the faults or failings of their friends, even when they can no longer suffer by their detection; we therefore see whole ranks of characters adorned with uniform panegyrick, and not to be known from one another but by extrinsick and casual circumstances. 'Let me remember,' says Hale, when I find myself inclined to pity a criminal, that there is likewise a pity due to the country.' If we owe regard to the memory of the dead, there is yet more respect to be paid to knowledge, to virtue, and to truth 1." What I consider as the peculiar value of the following work, is the quantity it con 16 Rambler, No. 60.-BosWELL. ενεστι If authority be required, let us appeal to Plutarch, the prince of ancient biographers. Ούτε ταις επιφανεσταταις πράξεσι πάντως das agerns n xaxias, αλλα πραγμα βραχυ πολλακις, και ρήμα, και παιδία τις εμφασιν ήθους εποίησεν μάλλον η μαχαι μυριονεκροί, παρατάξεις αν To this may be added the sentiments of the very man whose life I am about to exhibit. "The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestick privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, where exteriour appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and by virtue. The account of Thuanus is with great propriety said by its authour to have been written, that it might lay open to posterity the private and familiar character of that man, cujus ingenium et candorem ex ipsius scriptis sunt olim semper miraturi, whose candour and genius will to the end of time be by his writings preserved in admiration. "There are many invisible circumstances Plutarch's Life of Alexander-Langhorne's translation.-BOSWELL. which, whether we read as inquirers after | sation, and how happily it is adapted for natural or moral knowledge, whether we intend to enlarge our science or increase our virtue, are more important than publick Occurrences. Thus Sallust, the great master of nature, has not forgotten, in his account of Catiline, to remark, that his walk was now quick, and again slow, as an indication of a mind revolving with violent commotion. Thus the story of Melancthon affords a striking lecture on the value of time, by informing us, that when he had made an appointment, he expected not only the hour, but the minute to be fixed, that the day might not run out in the idleness of suspense; and all the plans and enterprises of De Wit are now of less importance to the world than that part of his personal character, which represents him as careful of his health, and negligent of his life. the petty exercise of ridicule, by men of superficial understanding, and ludicrous fancy; but I remain firm and confident in my opinion, that minute particulars are frequently characteristic, and always amusing, when they relate to a distinguished man. I am therefore exceedingly unwilling that any thing, however slight, which my illustrious friend thought it worth his while to express, with any degree of point, should perish. For this almost superstitious reverence, I have found very old and venerable authority, quoted by our great modern prelate, Secker, in whose tenth sermon there is the following passage: "Rabbi David Kimchi, a noted Jewish commentator, who lived about five hundred years ago, explains that passage in the first psalm, 'His leaf also shall not wither,' from Rabbins yet older than himself, thus: That even the idle talk, so he expresses it, of a good man ought to be regarded; the most superfluous things he saith are always of some value. And other ancient authours have the same phrase, nearly in the same sense." "But biography has often been allotted to writers, who seem very little acquainted with the nature of their task, or very negligent about the performance. They rarely afford any other account than might be collected from publick papers, but imagine themselves writing a life, when they exhib- Of one thing I am certain, that considerit a chronological series of actions or pre-ing how highly the small portion which we ferments; and have so little regard to the manners or behaviour of their heroes, that more knowledge may be gained of a man's real character, by a short conversation with one of his servants, than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended with his funeral. "There are, indeed, some natural reasons why these narratives are often written by such as were not likely to give much instruction or delight, and why most accounts of particular persons are barren and useless. If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but must expect little intelligence; for the incidents which give excellence to biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory, and are rarely transmitted by tradition. We know how few can pourtray a living acquaintance, except by his most prominent and observable particularities, and the grosser features of his mind; and it may be easily imagined how much of this little knowledge may be lost in imparting it, and how soon a succession of copies will lose all resemblance of the original 1." I am fully aware of the objections which may be made to the minuteness on some occasions of my detail of Johnson's conver 1 Rambler, No. 60.-BoswELL. have of the table-talk and other anecdotes of our celebrated writers is valued, and how earnestly it is regretted that we have not more, I am justified in preserving rather too many of Johnson's sayings, than too few; especially as from the diversity of dispositions it cannot be known with certainty beforehand, whether what may seem trifling to some, and perhaps to the collector himself, may not be most agreeable to many; and the greater number that an authour can please in any degree, the more pleasure does there arise to a benevolent mind. To those who are weak enough to think this a degrading task, and the time and labour which have been devoted to it misemployed, I shall content myself with opposing the authority of the greatest man of any age, Julius Cæsar, of whom Bacon ob serves, that "in his book of apophthegms which he collected, we see that he esteemed it more honour to make himself but a pair of tables, to take the wise and pithy words of others, than to have every word of his own to be made an apophthegm or an oracle2." Having said thus much by way of introduction, I commit the following pages to the candour of the publick. 2 Bacon's "Advancement of Learning," Book I.-BOSWELL. THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. SAMUEL JOHNSON was born at Lichfield, | Lichfield, and to ride the circuit of Accou the county the day after his son's of Life, birth, which was a ceremony then performed with great pomp, was asked Account of Life, p. 9. in Staffordshire, on the 18th of September, N. S. 1709, [as he himself states, adding, "that his mother had a very difficult and dangerous labour, and was assisted by George Hector, a man-midwife of great reputation. He was born almost dead, and could not cry for some time."] His initiation into the Christian church was not delayed; for his baptism is recorded, in the register of St. Mary's parish in that city, to have been performed on the day of his birth: his father is there styled Gentleman, a circumstance of which an ignorant panegyrist has praised him for not being proud; when the truth is, that the appellation of Gentleman, though now lost in the indiscriminate assumption of Esquire, was commonly taken by those who could not boast of gentility 2. His father was Michael Johnson, a native of Derbyshire, of obscure extraction, who settled in Lichfield as a bookseller and stationer 3 [He-being that year sheriff of [To have been born almost dead has been related of many eminent men, amongst others of Addison, Lord Lyttelton, and Voltaire.-ED.] 2 [The title Gentleman had still, in 1709, some degree of its original meaning, and as Mr. Johnson served the office of sheriff of Lichfield in that year, he seems to have been fully entitled to it. The Doctor, at his entry on the books of Pembroke college, and at his matriculation, designated himself as filius generosi.—ED.] 3 [There seems some difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory opinion as to Michael Johnson's real condition and circumstances. That in the latter years of his life he was poor, is certain; and Doctor Johnson (in the "Account of his early Life,") not only admits the general fact of poverty, but gives several instances of what may be called indigence: yet, on the other hand, there is evidence that for near fifty years he occupied a respectable rank amongst his fellow-citizens, and appears in the annals of Lichfield on occasions not bespeaking poverty. In 1687, a subscription for recasting the cathedral bells was set on foot, headed by 2 VOL. I. p. 2. In the bishop, dean, &c. aided by the neighbouring X p. 9. Piozzi, p. 2, 5. by Mrs. Johnson, "whom he would in- [The elder Johnson was, as his vite to the Riding?" and answered, "all son informed Mrs. Piozzi, a very the town now." He feasted the citizens pious and worthy man, but wrong-headed, with uncommon magnificence, and was positive, and afflicted with melancholy: the last but one that maintained the his business, however, leading him to be splendour of the Riding.] His mother much on horseback, contributed to the was Sarah Ford, descended of an ancient preservation of his bodily health, and menrace of substantial yeomanry in Warwick-tal sanity; which, when he stayed long at shire; [Mrs. Piozzi states her to home, would sometimes be about to give Piozzi, have been the daughter of a gen-way; and Dr. Johnson said, that when his tleman in the country, such as workshop, a detached building, had fallen there were many of in those days, who half down for want of money to repair it, possessing, perhaps, one or two hundred his father was not less diligent to lock the pounds a year in iand, lived on the profits, door every night, though he saw that any and sought not to increase their income.] body might walk in at the back part, and They were well advanced in years when knew that there was no security obtained they married, [he past fifty, and she above by barring the front door. "This (said his forty,] and never had more than two chil- son) was madness, you may see, and would dren, both sons; Samuel, their first-born, have been discoverable in other instances who lived to be the illustrious character of the prevalence of imagination, but that whose various excellence I am to endeavour poverty prevented it from playing such to record, and Nathanael, who died in his tricks as riches and leisure encourage." twenty-fifth year1, [and of whose Michael was a man of still larger size and Piozzi, manly spirit Mrs. Piozzi heard his greater strength than his son, who was brother speak with pride and plea- reckoned very like him, but did not delight The two brothers did not, how- in talking much of his family-" One has ever, much delight in each other's company, (says he) so little pleasure in reciting the being always rivals for their mother's fond- anecdotes of beggary!" One day, however, ness; and many of the severe reflections on hearing Mrs. Piozzi praise a favourite friend: domestic life in Rasselas took their source "Why do you like that man's acquaintance from its authour's keen recollections of his so?" said he. "Because," replied she, early years.] "he is open and confiding, and tells me stories of his uncles and cousins: I love the p. 5, 6. sure. Mr. Michael Johnson was a man of a large and robust body, and of a strong and active mind; yet, as in the most solid rocks veins observed, carefully suppressed by domestic or of unsound substance are often discovered, professional delicacy. This is natural and even there was in him a mixture of that disease, laudable; yet there are several important reasons the nature of which eludes the most minute why the obscurity in which such facts are usually inquiry, though the effects are well known buried may be regretted. Morally, we should to be a weariness of life, an unconcern about wish to know, as far as may be permitted to us, those things which agitate the greater part the nature of our own intellect, its powers and its of mankind, and a general sensation of weaknesses;-medically, it might be possible, by gloomy wretchedness. From him then his early and systematic treatment, to avert or mitigate the disease which, there is reason to supson inherited, with some other qualities, "a pose, is now often unknown or mistaken;-legalvile melancholy," which in his too strongly, it would be desirable to have any additional expression of any disturbance of Sept. 16, the mind, "made him mad all his life, at least not sober2." 1773. 1 Nathanael was born in 1712, and died in 1737. Their father, Michael Johnson, was born at Cubley in Derbyshire, in 1656, and died at Lichfield, in 1731, at the age of seventy-six. Sarah Ford, his wife, was born at King's Norton, in the county of Worcester, in 1669, and died at Lichfield in January, 1759, in her ninetieth year.-King's Norton Dr. Johnson supposed to be in Warwickshire (see his inscription for his mother's tomb), but it is in Worcestershire, probably on the confines of the county of Warwick.-MALONE. 2 [One of the most curious and important chapters in the history of the human mind is still to be written, that of hereditary insanity. The symptomatic facts by which the disease might be traced are generally either disregarded from ignorance of their real cause and charact r, or when tune, and of ascertaining with more precision the |