work with pleasure, which no man shall diminish or augment. I shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if I can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth.” The whole number of Essays amounted to two hundred and eight. Addison's, in the Spectator, are more in number, but not half in point of quantity: Addison was not bound to publish on stated days; he could watch the ebb and flow of his genius, and send his paper to the press when his own taste was satisfied. Johnson's case was very

different. He wrote singly and alone. In the whole progress of the work he did not receive more than ten essays. This was a scanty contribution. For the rest, the author has described his situation : " He that condemns himself to compose on a stated day, will often bring to his task an attention dissipated, a memory embarrassed, an imagination overwhelmed, a mind distracted with anxieties, a body languishing with disease: he will labour on a barren topic, till it is too late to change it; or, in the ardour of invention, diffuse his thoughts into wild exuberance, which the pressing hour of publication cannot suffer judgment to examine or reduce."

Of this excellent production the number sold on each day did not amount to five hundred : of course the bookseller, who paid the author four guineas a week, did not carry on a successful trade. His generosity and perseverance deserve

. to be commended; and happily, when the collection appeared in volumes, were amply rewarded. Johnson lived to see his labours flourish in a tenth edition. His posterity, as an ingenious French writer has said on a similar occasion, began in his lifetime.

A short time before the commencement of the Rambler, Johnson incurred some discredit by hastily adopting the imposture by which Lauder attempted to fix a charge of plagiarism upon Milton; nor will it be easily believed, that the political enmity with which he regarded that great poet, and which he afterwards so acrimoniously displayed in his Life of Milton, did not give him a bias towards a hostile credulity on this occasion. He decorated Lauder's attack with a preface and postscript, the style of which betrayed the writer. That he was really deceived in the matter cannot be doubted; and after Dr. Douglas's detection of the fraud, he drew up for Lauder's signature a recantation in the most express terms, which he

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insisted upon his making public. It may be regarded as an amende honorable that he wrote a prologue to Comus when acted at Drurylane theatre for the benefit of Milton's granddaughter.

The death of his wife, in 1751, was a severe affliction to him. He had been too little accustomed wo elegant female society, to receive disgust from her defects, and he seems always to have recollected her with tenderness and

gratitudc. To the end of his life she was a frequent subject of his prayers ; for he agreed with the Roman-catholic church in conceiving that prayer might properly and usefully be offered for the dead. Not long afterwards he took into his house as an inmate Mrs. Anne Williams, the daughter of a physician in South Wales who had consumed his time and fortune in pursuit of the longitude. Her destitute condition, aggravated by blindness, with her talents for writing and conversation, recommended her to the benevolence of Johnson.

The Adventurer, conducted by Dr. Hawksworth, succeeded the Rambler as a periodical work; and Johnson, through friendship io the editor, interested himself in its success. He supplied it with several papers of his own writing, and obtained the contributions of the reverend Thomas Warton. The year 1755 was distinguished by the first publication of his Dictionary. As the author of a work of so much consequence, he thought it advisable to appear under a literary title, and accordingly, through the means of Mr. Warton, procured a diploma for the degree of M. A. from Oxford. The approaching publication of this work had been favourably announced some months bcm fore in two papers of The World, by Lord Chesterfield. This civility was by Johnson regarded as an advance from that nobleman for the purpose of obtaining from him a dedication as patron of the work.

Conscious that during its progress he had experienced none of the benefits of patronage, although, from his lordship's declared approbation of the undertaking, he might have expected it, Johnson determined to repel the supposed advance; and accordingly wrote a letter to Lord Chesterfield, in which he employed all the force of pointed sarcasm and manly disdain to make him ashamed of his conduct. It would, perhaps, have been more dignified to have passed the matter over in silence; the letter, however, remains an admirable les son of reproof to those who, presuming upon

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fortune and title, think they can maintain the character of patrons of literature, while they treat its professors with the haughtiness of distant notice, and the indifference of cold neglect. The Dictionary was received by the public with general applause, and its author was ranked among the greatest benefactors of his native tongue. It underwent some ridicule un account of pomposity and some criticism on account of errors, but was in general judged to be as free from imperfections as could be expected in a work of such extent, conducted by one man. In a pecuniary light the author received only a temporary benefit from it, for at the time of publication he had been paid more than the stipulated sum. He was therefore still entirely dependent upon the exertions of the day for his support; and it is melancholy to find that a writer, esteemed an honour to his country, was under an arrest for £5 18s. in the subsequent year.

It is no wonder that his constitutional melancholy should at this time have exerted peculiar sway over his mind.

An edition of Shakspeare, another periodical work, entitled, The Idler, and occasional contributions to a literary Magazine or Review, were the desultory occupation of some years.