1758.

Etat, 49.

"I have, likewife, inclofed twelve receipts; not that I mean to impofe upon you the trouble of pushing them with more importunity than may feem proper, but that you may rather have more than fewer than you fhall want. The proposals you will diffeminate as there fhall be opportunity. I once printed them at length in the Chronicle, and fome of my friends (I believe Mr. Murphy, who formerly wrote the Gray's-Inn Journal) introduced them with a fplendid encomium.

"Since the Life of Browne, I have been a little engaged, from time to time, in the Literary Magazine, but not very lately. I have not the collection by me, and therefore cannot draw out a catalogue of my own parts, but will do it, and fend it. Do not buy them, for I will gather all those that have any thing of mine in them, and fend them to Mrs. Burney, as a small token of gratitude for the regard which she is pleased to bestow upon me, I am, Sir,

"Your moft obliged

"And most humble fervant,

London, March 8, 1758.

SAM. JOHNSON."

Dr. Burney has kindly favoured me with the following memorandum, which I take the liberty to infert in his own genuine eafy ftyle. I love to exhibit sketches of my illuftrious friend by various eminent hands.

"Soon after this, Mr. Burney, during a visit to the capital, had an interview with him in Goughfquare, where he dined and drank tea with him, and was introduced to the acquaintance of Mrs.

Williams.

Williams. After dinner, Mr. Johnfon propofed to Mr. Burney to go up with him into his garret, which being accepted, he there found about five or fix Greek folios, a deal writing-defk, and a chair and a half. Johnfon giving to his gueft the entire seat, tottered himself on one with only three legs and one arm. Here he gave Mr. Burney Mrs. William's hiftory, and fhewed him fome volumes of his Shakspeare already printed, to prove that he was in earnest. Upon Mr. Burney's opening the first volume, at the Merchant of Venice, he observed to him, that he feemed to be more severe on Warburton than Theobald.

O poor Tib.! (faid Johnson) he was ready knocked down to my hands; Warburton ftands. between me and him.' But, Sir, (faid Mr. Burney,) you'll have Warburton upon your bones, won't you?' No, Sir; he'll not come out: he'll

only growl in his den.'

But you think, Sir, that Warburton is a fuperiour critick to Theobald?'O, Sir, he'd make two-and-fifty Theobalds, cut into flices! The worft of Warburton is, that he has a rage for faying fomething, when there's nothing to be faid.'-Mr. Burney then afked him whether he had feen the letter which Warburton had written in anfwer to a pamphlet addreffed To the most impudent Man alive.' He answered in the negative. Mr. Burney told him it was fuppofed to be written by Mallet. The controverfy now raged between the friends of Pope and Bolingbroke; and Warburton and Mallet were the leaders of the feveral parties. Mr. Burney asked him then if he had feen Warburton's book against Bolingbroke's

3

1758. Etat. 49.

1758.

Etat. 49.

broke's Philofophy? No, Sir; I have never read Bolingbroke's impiety, and therefore am not interested about its confutation."

On the fifteenth of April he began a new periodical paper, entitled "THE IDLER," which came out every Saturday in a weekly news-paper, called "The Univerfal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette," published by Newbery. Thefe effays were continued till April 5, 1760. Of one hundred and three, their total number, twelve were contributed by his friends; of which, Numbers 33, 93, and 96, were written by Mr. Thomas Warton; No. 67 by Mr. Langton; and No. 76, 79, and 82, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; the concluding words of No. 82, "and pollute his canvas with deformity," being added by Johnfon, as Sir Joshua informed

me.

The IDLER is evidently the work of the fame mind which produced the RAMBLER, but has lefs body and more fpirit. It has more variety of real life, and great facility of language. He defcribes the miseries of idleness, with the lively fenfations of one who has felt them; and in his private memorandums while engaged in it, we find "This year I hope to learn diligence"." Many of these excellent effays were written as haftily as an ordinary letter. Mr. Langton remembers Johnson, when on a vifit at Oxford, afking him one evening how long it was till the post went out; and on being told about half an hour, he exclaimed, "then we fhall do very well." He upon this inftantly fat down

Prayers and Meditations, p. 30.

and

1758.

and finished an Idler, which it was necessary should be in London the next day. Mr. Langton having a 49 fignified a wish to read it, "Sir, (faid he) you fhall

not do more than I have done myfelf." He then folded it up, and fent it off.

14,

No. 41,

Yet there are in the Idler feveral papers which fhew as much profundity of thought, and labour of language, as any of this great man's writings. No. Robbery of time;" No. 24, "Thinking;" "Death of a friend," No. 43, "Flight of time;" No. 51, "Domeftick greatnefs unattainable:" No. 52, "Self-denial," No. 53," Actual, how short of fancied excellence;" "No. 89, "Phyfical evil moral good;" and his concluding paper on "The horrour of the laft," will prove this affertion. I know not why a motto, the ufual trapping of periodical papers, is prefixed to very few of the Idlers, as I have heard Johnfon commend the cuftom: and he never could be at a lofs for one, his memory being ftored with innumerable paffages of the clafficks. In this feries of effays he exhibits admirable instances of grave humour, of which he had an uncommon fhare. Nor on fome occafions has he repreffed that power of fophiftry which he poffeffed in fo eminent a degree. In No. 11, he treats with the utmost contempt the opinion that our mental faculties depend, in fome degree, upon the weather; an opinion, which they who have never experienced its truth are not to be envied, and of which he himself could not but be fenfible, as the effects of weather upon him were very visible. Yet thus he declaims: "Surely, nothing is more reproachful to a being

endowed

Atat. 49.

1758. endowed with reafon, than to refign its powers to the influence of the air, and live in dependence on the weather and the wind for the only bleffings which nature has put into our power, tranquillity and benevolence.-This diftinction of feafons is produced only by imagination operating on luxury. To temperance, every day is bright; and every hour is propitious to diligence. He that shall refolutely excite his faculties, or exert his virtues, will foon make himself fuperiour to the seasons and may fet at defiance the morning mist and the evening damp, the blafts of the eaft, and the clouds of the fouth."

;

Alas! it is too certain, that where the frame has delicate fibres, and there is a fine fenfibility, fuch influences of the air are irrefiftible. He might as well have bid defiance to the ague, the palfy, and all other bodily disorders. Such boasting of the mind is falfe elevation.

"I think the Romans call it Stoicifm."

But in this number of his Idler his spirits seem to run riot; for in the wantonnefs of his difquifition he forgets, for a moment, even the reverence for that which he held in high refpect; and describes "the attendant on a Court," as one "whofe bufifiness is to watch the looks of a being, weak and foolish as himself."

His unqualified ridicule of rhetorical gefture or action is not, furely, a teft of truth; yet we cannot help admiring how well it is adapted to produce the effect which he wished. "Neither the judges of our laws, nor the representatives of our people,

would