SEVERAL valuable letters, and other curious matter, having been communicated to the author too late to be arranged in that chronological order which he had endeavoured uniformly to observe in his work, he was obliged to introduce them in his second edition, by way of Addenda, as commodiously as he could. In the present edition they have been distributed in their proper places. In revising his volumes for a new edition he had pointed out where some of these materials should be inserted; but unfortunately, in the midst of his labours, he was seized with a fever, of which, to the great regret of all his friends, he died on the 19th of May, 1795. All the Notes that he had written in the margin of the copy which he had in part revised, are here faithfully preserved; and a few new Notes have been added, principally by some of those friends to whom the author in the former editions acknowledged his obligations. Those subscribed with the letter B. were communicated by Dr. Burney; those to which the letters J. B. are annexed, by the Rev. J. B. Blakeway, of Shrewsbury, to whom Mr. Boswell acknowledged himself indebted for some judicious remarks on the first edition of his work; and the letters J. B.-O. are annexed to some remarks furnished by the author's second son, a student of BrazenNose College, in Oxford. Some valuable observations were communicated by James Bindley, Esq., First Commissioner in the Stamp Office, which have been acknowledged in their proper places. For all those without any signature Mr. Malone is answerable.-Every new remark, not written by the author, for the sake of distinction, has been inclosed within crotchets; in one instance, however, the printer, by mistake, has affixed this mark to a note relative to the Rev. Thomas Fysche Palmer (see vol. iv. p. 92), which was written by Mr. Boswell, and therefore ought not to have been thus distinguished.

I have only to add, that the proof-sheets of the present edition not having passed through my hands, I am not answerable for any typographical errors that may be found in it. Having, however, been printed at the very accurate press of Mr. Baldwin, I make no doubt it will be found not less perfect than the former edition; the greatest care having been taken, by correctness and elegance, to do justice to one of the most instructive and entertaining works in the English language.

April 8, 1799.

EDM. MALONE.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

In this edition are inserted some new letters of which the greater part has been obligingly communicated by the Reverend Doctor Vyse, Rector of Lambeth. Those written by Dr. Johnson concerning his mother in her last illness, furnish a new proof of his great piety and tenderness of heart, and therefore cannot but be acceptable to the readers of this very popular work. Some new Notes also have been added, which, as well as the observations inserted in the third edition, and the letters now introduced, are carefully included within crotchets, that the author may not be answerable for anything which had not the sanction of his approbation. The remarks of his friends are distinguished as formerly, except those of Mr. Malone, to which the letter M. is now subjoined. Those to which the letter K. is affixed were communicated by my learned friend, the Reverend Doctor Kearney, formerly Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and now beneficed in the diocese of Raphoe in Ireland, of which he is Archdeacon.

Of a work which has been before the public for thirteen years with increasing approbation, and of which near four thousand copies have been dispersed, it is not necessary to say more; yet I cannot refrain from adding, that, highly as it is now estimated, it will, I am confident, be still more valued by posterity a century hence, when all the actors in the scene shall be numbered with the dead; when the excellent and extraordinary man, whose wit and wisdom are here recorded, shall be viewed at a still greater distance; and the instruction and entertainment they afford will at once produce reverential gratitude, admiration, and delight. E. M.

June 20, 1804.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIFTH EDITION.

In this fifth edition some errors of the press, which had crept into the text and notes, in consequence of repeated impressions, have been corrected. Two letters written by Dr. Johnson, and several new notes, have been added; by which, it is hoped, this valuable work is still further improved.

January 1, 1807.

E. M.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SIXTH EDITION.

GREAT pains have been taken to make this sixth edition accurate, in point of typography. With this view the entire work has been read over by the author's second son, James Boswell, of the Inner Temple, Esq.; by which means many errors of the press, occasioned by repeated impressions, have been discovered. All these have been carefully amended.-Several new notes and some letters have been added; and in the Index,—a very useful appendage to a book containing so much miscellaneous and unconnected matter,—many new articles have been inserted.

By these improvements, the present impression has been rendered the amplest, and it is hoped, will be found the most correct edition of this valuable work, which has yet appeared.

May 2, 1811.

E. M.

This edition (the 6th) is the last that was published under the superintendence of the accurate and judicious Malone. He was in the author's confidence (as will be seen on reference to the first advertisement) in the original preparation of the work. After Boswell's death, Malone brought out the third and subsequent editions, up to the sixth inclusive, receiving in the course of his labours that various and valuable assistance to which he adverts in the notices prefixed to his successive publications.

Malone's last edition is dated May, 1811 (about twenty years after the first appearance of the work); and he died in the same month of the following year. This edition we have followed, as fairly settling the text of the work.

March, 1851.

This edition of "Boswell's Life of Johnson" has been divided into chapters for the reader's convenience, in the perusal of so great a body of matter.

The Chronological List of the works of Dr. Johnson, prepared by Boswell, will be found at the end of the Biography.

To write the Life of him who excelled all mankind in writing the lives of others, and who, whether we consider his extraordinary endowments, or his various works, has been equalled by few in any age, is an arduous, and may be reckoned in me a presumptuous task.

Had Dr. Johnson written his own Life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given,' that every man's life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited. But although he at different times, in a desultory manner, committed to writing many particulars of the progress of his mind and fortunes, he never had persevering diligence enough to form them into a regular composition. Of these memorials a few have been preserved; but the greater part was consigned by him to the flames, a few days before his death.

As I had the honour and happiness of enjoying his friendship for upwards of twenty years; as I had the scheme of writing his life constantly in view; as he was well apprised of this circumstance, and from time to time obligingly satisfied my inquiries, by communicating to me the incidents of his early years; as I acquired a facility in recollecting, and was very assiduous in recording, his conversation, of which the extraordinary vigour and vivacity constituted one of the first features of his character; and as I have spared no pains in obtaining

1 Idler, No. 84:-"Those relations are commonly of most value, in which the writer tells his own story."-BOSWELL.