THE

WORKS

OF

Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

A NEW EDITION,

IN TWELVE VOLUMES.

WITH

AN ESSAY ON HIS LIFE AND GENIUS,

BY ARTHUR MURPHY, Esq.

VOLUME THE NINTH.

LONDON:

Printed by Nichols and Son, Red-Lion-Paffage, Fleet-Street,
For H. Baldwin, J. Johnfon, G. G. and J. Robinson, P. Elmfly,
J. Nichols, R. Baldwin, H. L. Gardner, F. and C. Rivington,
W. Otridge and Son, W. J. and J. Richardfon, A. Strahan, J. Sewell,
Leigh and Sothebys, R. Faulder, G. and W. Nicol, T. Payne, W.
Lowndes, G. Wilkie, C. Davis, J. Matthews, T. Egerton, J.
Edwards, P. M Queen, Ogilvie and Son, J. Scatcherd, J. Walker,
B. C. Collins, E. Newbery, Vernor and Hood, R. Lea, J. Deighton,
Darton and Harvey, J. Nunn, Lackington Allen and Co. J. Stockdale,
G. Cuthell, D. Walker, Clarke and Son, G. Kearfley, C. Law,
J. White, Longman and Rees, Cadell jun. and Davies, J. Barker,
Carpenter and Co. T. Hurft, W. Miller, Murray and Highley, S. Bagfter,
J. Harding, J. Hatchard, J. Wallis, R. H. Evans, and J. Mawman.

(1)

COWLEY.

cow

TH

'HE Life of Cowley, notwithstanding the penury of English biography, has been written by Dr. Sprat, an author whofe pregnancy of imagination and elegance of language have deservedly fet him high in the ranks of literature; but his zeal of friendship, or ambition of eloquence, has produced a funeral oration rather than a hiftory: he has given the character, not the life, of Cowley; for he writes with fo little detail, that fcarcely any thing is diftinctly known, but all is fhewn confufed and enlarged through the mift of panegyrick.

ABRAHAM COWLEY was born in the year one thousand fix hundred and eighteen. His father was a grocer, whofe condition Dr. Sprat conceals under the general appellation of a citizen; and, what would probably not have been lefs-carefully fuppreffed, the omiffion of his name in the register of St. Dunstan's parish gives reason to suspect that his father was a fectary. Whoever he was, he died before the birth of his fon, and confequently left him to the care of his mother; whom Wood repreVOL. IX.

B

fents