"time I have been pushing on my work 66 through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication, without one act of as"sistance, one word of encouragement, or one "smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before. 66 "The Shepherd in Virgil grew acquainted "with Love, and found him a native of the "rocks. "Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks "with unconcern on a man struggling for "life in the water, and when he has reached "ground, encumbers him with help? The "notice which you have been pleased to take " of my labours, had it been early, had been "kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is "no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been re“ceived; or to be unwilling that the publick "should consider me as owing that to a 66 66 66 66 66 patron, which Providence has enabled me "to do for myself. Having carried on my work thus far "with so little obligation to any favourer "of learning, I shall not be disappointed, 66 though I should conclude it, if less be "possible, with less; for I have been long "wakened from that dream of hope, in "which I once boasted myself with so much "exultation, "MY LORD, "Your Lordship's most humble "SAMUEL JOHNSON." It is said, upon good authority, that Johnson once received from Lord Chesterfield the sum of ten pounds. It were to be wished that the secret had never transpired. It was mean to receive it, and meaner to give it. It may be imagined, that for Johnson's ferocity, as it has been called, there was some foundation in his finances; and, as his Dictionary was brought to a money was now to flow in conclusion, that upon him. The reverse was the case. For his subsistence, during the progress of the work, he had received at different times the amount of his contract; and when his receipts were pro duced to him at a tavern-dinner, given by the booksellers, it appeared, that he had been paid a hundred pounds and upwards more than his due. The author of a book, called Lexiphanes*, written by a Mr. Campbell, a Scotchman, and purser of a man of war, endeavoured to blast his laurels, but in vain. The world applauded, and Johnson never replied. "Abuse," he said, "is often "of service: there is nothing so dange66 rous to an author as silence; his name, "like a shuttlecock, must be beat backward "and forward, or it falls to the ground." Lexiphanes professed to be an imitation of the pleasant manner of Lucian; but humour was not the talent of the writer of Lexiphanes. As Dryden says, "He had too much horseplay in his raillery." pre It was in the summer 1754, that the sent writer became acquainted with Dr. Johnson. The cause of his first visit is related by Mrs. Piozzi nearly in the following "Mr. Murphy being engaged in manner. * This work was not published until the year 1767, when Dr. Johnson's Dictionary was fully established in reputation. C. 66 a periodical paper, the Gray's-Inn Jour“nal, was at a friend's house in the country, "and not being disposed to lose pleasure for business, wished to content his bookseller "by some unstudied essay. He therefore "took up a French Journal Litéraire, and, 66 translating something he liked, sent it away "to town. Time, however, discovered that "he translated from the French a Rambler, "which had been taken from the English "without acknowledgment. Upon this dis 66 covery Mr. Murphy thought it right to "make his excuses to Dr. Johnson. He went "next day, and found him covered with soot, "like a chimney-sweeper, in a little room, as "if he had been acting Lungs in the Al"chemist, making æther. This being told by Mr. Murphy in company, Come, come, 66 said Dr. Johnson, the story is black enough; "but it was a happy day that brought you "first to my house." After this first visit. the author of this narrative by degrees grew intimate with Dr. Johnson. The first striking sentence that he heard from him, was in a few days after the publication of Lord Bolingbroke's posthumous works. Mr. Garrick asked him, "If he had seen them?” Yes, think "I have seen them." "What do you "of them ?" "Think of them!" He made a long pause, and then replied: "Think "of them! A scoundrel, and a coward! A "scoundrel, who spent his life in charging "a gun against Christianity; and a coward, "who was afraid of hearing the report of his 66 own gun; but left half a crown to a hungry "Scotchman to draw the trigger after his "death." His mind, at this time strained and over-laboured by constant exertion, called for an interval of repose and indolence. But indolence was the time of danger: it was then that his spirits, not employed abroad, turned with inward hostility against himself. His reflections on his own life and conduct were always severe; and, wishing to be immaculate, he destroyed his own peace by unnecessary scruples. He tells us, that when he surveyed his past life, he discovered nothing but a barren waste of time, with some disorders of body, and disturbances of mind, very near to madness. His life, he says, from his earliest years, was wasted in a morning bed; and his reigning sin was a general sluggishness, to which he was always inclined, and, in part of his life, almost compelled, by |