tion. While at Oxford he showed signs of the morbid state of his brain and nervous system which affected him in all his after life; but by skilful treatment, and the strong will of the patient, the disease was held in check, and the threatened wreck of intellect averted. He remained at the university about 3 years, and left on account of poverty without a degree. Only a few weeks later his father died, leaving but little property, and Johnson procured employment as an usher in a school at Market Bosworth, Leicestershire. He next spent some time at Birmingham, which was then an inconsiderable country town, with a bookseller, who also published a small newspaper, to which Johnson contributed. Here he became acquainted with the family of Mr. Porter, a linen draper, whose widow he afterward married. About this time he executed his first literary work, a translation of Father Lobo's "Voyage to Abyssinia." He soon after issued proposals to publish by subscription the Latin poems of Politian, with a history of Latin poetry from the age of Petrarch to the time of Politian; but the work was never completed. He spent his time alternately at Birmingham and Lichfield, till after two years he was married to Mrs. Porter, a lady of nearly twice his age, and then he opened a private academy at Edial Hall, near Lichfield. But he obtained only three pupils, two of whom were David Garrick and his younger brother; and after trial of a year and a half the enterprise was abandoned. In the spring of 1737 he set out for London accompanied by Garrick, determined to force his fortune in the world of letters. How he disposed of himself on his arrival in London is only partially known. He sought employment among the booksellers, and lived at the most economical rates, bearing all his privations and discour agement with a sullen fortitude. With Cave, the publisher of the "Gentleman's Magazine,' he had a slight second-hand acquaintance before he left Lichfield, which was now turned to account, and Johnson became a steady contributor and at length assistant editor to that publication. It was while thus occupied that he first became known to the London public by the publication of "London," a poem (1738), in imitation of the third satire of Juvenal, which was received with decided favor. His experience of life in London, however, made him quite willing to accept the mastership of a school at Appleby, to which he was recommended; but on application it was found that his want of a degree disqualified him, by the statutes of the corporation. A like difficulty stood in the way of his entering the legal profession, to which he next turned, and so he continued his labors in the service of the publishers. He now wrote still more extensively for the "Gentleman's Magazine," contributing a class of papers in biography and general literature which gave a new and higher character to that work. He also wrote two or three political pamphlets against Walpole and the whig administration. At the beginning of

the session of parliament in Nov. 1740, Johnson took charge of the debates, as published in the magazine. As the session advanced, his reports attracted no little attention. The eloquence, force of argument, and splendor of diction displayed in the speeches excited universal admiration. It was his method to ascertain the order in which the several speakers rose, and the general drift of their arguments, and, guided by this information and his knowledge of the style and manner of each speaker, he would write out the debates as they appeared in the successive issues of the magazine. The secret of their authorship was not revealed till some years later. The sale of the magazine was greatly increased during their publication; but after a little more than two years Johnson relinquished the position, because he doubted the morality of the deception he was practising upon the world, though he still retained his connection with the magazine. Early in 1744 was published the "Life of Richard Savage," which Johnson had promised to the public immediately upon the death of its subject, a few months before. The book contributed very considerably to fix the reputation of its author. The next year, among other literary labors, he wrote the preface and index to the Harleian miscellany. That famous collection of old and valuable pamphlets from the library of the earl of Oxford, which had been purchased by the bookseller Osborne, required also a great amount of physical labor in its preparation. In that painful drudgery Johnson toiled as a day laborer, and was treated by Osborne accordingly. The insolence of this "most rapacious and brutal of booksellers" once provoked Johnson to knock him down. Of this affair many stories were told. Johnson, when asked by Boswell what the truth was, replied: "Sir, he was impertinent to me and I beat him; but it was not in his shop, it was in my own chamber." The same year he issued a pamphlet entitled "Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth," to which he affixed proposals for a new edition of Shakespeare. This plan was laid aside for some years, but the pamphlet fell into the hands of Warburton, who was then engaged in a similar work, and was commended by him, as evidently the work of "a man of parts." In 1747 Garrick became joint manager of Drury Lane theatre, and Johnson was requested to prepare a prologue to be spoken at its opening under the new management. Though a piece of only about 60 lines, it added greatly to its author's reputation. In this year he issued proposals for his "Dictionary of the English Language." How he was first led to that great undertaking is not very clearly determined, though he had evidently contemplated it a long time. The plan of the work, as then published, indicates a thorough acquaintance with the subject, and a comprehensive knowledge of the inethod to be pursued in its prosecution. The "Plan" was addressed to the earl of Chesterfield, then one of the secretaries of state, who

was known to be ambitious of the reputation of a patron of learning, and had expressed a warm interest in the enterprise. The language used was at once dignified and complimentary, and the impression made upon the noble lord was decidedly favorable; but the association of two characters so unlike and yet so unyielding could be neither cordial nor lasting. Five publishing houses, among them Dodsley and the Longmans, were concerned in the contract. Johnson was to receive £1,575, which amount however was to cover all the incidental expenses of preparing the work for the press. To facilitate his work he removed to Gough square in Fleet street, where he had rooms properly arranged for its prosecution, being assisted by 6 copyists. He availed himself of whatever helps were offered in the extant works on English philology and lexicography, but relied chiefly on his own original labors, gathering his materials from the unharvested fields of English literature. This great work occupied its author, though not exclusively, during the next 7 years. A trip to Tunbridge Wells, in the summer of 1748, brought him into contact with some of the celebrities of the metropolis, among them William Pitt, Lord Lyttelton, Speaker Onslow, and Garrick. The marked attention paid to him by these distinguished personages was the more acceptable to him, since, though it was new, he felt that it was not undeserved. To facilitate his intercourse with his literary associates, he also this year originated a club, called from its place of meeting the "Ivy Lane Club." At its organization it consisted of 10 members, of whom Johnson, Hawkins, and Dyer afterward belonged to the celebrated "Literary Club." Meanwhile he continued his contributions to the periodical press. In 1748 Dodsley brought out his "Preceptor," a compilation of choice pieces for young persons, in which first appeared the "Vision of Theodore, the Hermit of Teneriffe." To this year also belongs his second and best poetical production, "The Vanity of Human Wishes," an imitation of the 10th satire of Juvenal. It was printed by Dodsley, and brought its author 15 guineas. While yet residing at Lichfield Johnson had commenced a tragedy, in 5 acts, called "Irene," which he finished during his first two or three years in London. It had since then been an unsuccessful suitor for a place on the metropolitan stage, until Garrick, soon after his accession to the management of Drury Lane theatre, undertook to bring it out. The play, however, was ill adapted to the stage, and despite the remonstrances of the author, it was necessary to make very considerable changes, and to lop off some of its most elaborate portions. Its success was but partial. It was acted for 9 successive nights, before tolerably large and highly respectable audiences, and was received with a good share of favor. The author's profits amounted to £200, and the copyright brought him another £100, making together a larger amount than he had hitherto received on any one occasion. The merits of "Irene" have been

very differently estimated. It confessedly lacks the vivacity, the keenness, and especially the dramatic illusions required in writings for the stage; but simply as a poem to be read in private it has many excellences.-On March 20, 1750, Johnson issued, unheralded, the first number of the "Rambler," being chiefly an elaborate preliminary essay, introducing a series of miscellaneous papers, which were promised for each succeeding Saturday and Tuesday. The new periodical made little stir at first, but by degrees the public became sensible of its excellence. Its authorship was not publicly confessed, but it was readily identified by all who knew any thing of Johnson's style, nor did he affect any great secrecy in the matter. For two years the semi-weekly issues were continued without omission; the character of the essays was sustained to the end, and the last number admirably concluded the whole with a dignified valedictory. In projecting and carrying forward this work, Johnson had neither counsellors nor assistants. Of its 208 numbers he was the sole author of all but 8, and of these 4 were partly written by him. It is pretty well ascertained that when the first number was printed none of its successors were written; and of the 200 pieces by the author's own hand, not more than 30 were from materials previously arranged. Such a work would have seemed a great one had it been the sole occupation of the writer during the period of its progress, but at the same time he was chiefly occupied with his dictionary, which was then rapidly approaching its completion. During this portion of his life his mind was remarkably vigorous and fruitful, and its vast accumulations were thrown off in profusion and with great facility. The "Rambler, though greatly admired by the most competent judges, was coldly received by the public as a periodical; but when collected into volumes it became immediately popular. Its last issue was a noble effort of self-possessed greatness, calmly reviewing its own accomplished work and justly estimating its value. About this period Johnson was concerned in an affair that for a time exposed him to the suspicion of even some of his best friends-an attempt to prove Milton guilty of a wholesale plagiarism in his "Paradise Lost." One Lauder, a Scotch schoolmaster, pretended to have found a large share of the best portions of Milton's great poem among the works of the modern Latin poets; his proofs of this grave charge were embodied in a pamphlet, to which Johnson was induced to write a preface and postscript, thus by implication approving the whole production. That he was the dupe of the impudent Scotchman is very evident, though it is scarcely less certain that his own political prejudices had a determining influence upon his mind. But the whole affair was presently brought to the light, and the intended disgrace of the great poet made to recoil upon the libellous critic and his abettors. Lauder's pretended quotations from the modern Latin pocts were found to be either

taken from Hogg's Latin version of "Paradise Lost," or pure forgeries. Johnson was deeply chagrined, and at once acknowledged his own error, and compelled Lauder to publicly confess his falsehood. Though Johnson had a strong dislike of Milton's politics, he still highly appreciated his genius, and of this he about this time gave a practical demonstration. There was then residing in London a granddaughter of the great poet, in deep poverty, for whose benefit it was arranged that the "Comus" of Milton should be produced in Drury Lane theatre. Johnson entered into the arrangement with characteristic zeal, and wrote the prologue for the occasion, which was spoken by Garrick. Early in the spring of 1752 a dark shadow was thrown over Johnson's otherwise brightening affairs by the death of his wife. Notwithstanding the disparity of their ages, it was evident that the passionate affection in which their union began had only on his part changed into a settled esteem, of which he gave sufficient proofs while she lived, but still more on the occasion of her decease. At her bedside he was so convulsed with grief that he seemed to lose all selfcontrol till soothed by the exercises of religion; and yet while she lay a corpse awaiting burial he composed a funeral sermon to be spoken over her remains. His published "Prayers and Meditations" indicate the depth and permanence of his sorrow at that event. He contemplated his departed wife as only removed from his sensible observation, though probably not from his presence. He therefore prayed that, if agreeable to the will of God, he might be favored with her guardianship, and with intimations of her presence, “by appearances, impulses, dreams, or in any other manner agreeable to the divine government." In 1752 Johnson engaged with Dr. Hawkesworth in the publication of the "Adventurer," a series of periodical essays on the plan of the "Rambler." Of these 140 numbers appeared, 29 of which were written by Dr. Johnson. In 1755 the dictionary was completed. Lord Chesterfield, sensible of the value of a dedication from a man who was now acknowledged as one of the first living writers, tried to soothe Johnson's wounded pride and obliterate the remembrance of the coolness with which he had received the "Plan" by two laudatory let ters in "The World," shortly before the work was printed. But Johnson's manly spirit rejected these tardy advances, and he addressed to his noble patron such a letter as only insulted dignity in distress could indite to supercilious meanness inflated with vanity. The dictionary was accordingly issued without a dedication. The original preface was at once a characteristic and a highly valuable essay. It enumerated some of the difficulties attending such a work, and the methods the author had used to overcome them, and also dwelt at some length upon his desolations, but only in the spirit of indomitable independence. The merits of Johnson's dictionary are too well known to require any statement in this place. It first brought order

out of the chaos of the language; and though it has been generally superseded by later compilations, yet the fundamental excellences of all modern dictionaries of the English language have their elements in that work, and its author must always stand the confessed founder of English lexicography.-The publication of the dictionary greatly enhanced its author's reputation, but it brought no relief to his finances. His poverty pressed upon him as painfully as at any former time. He was still compelled to labor unremittingly for the means of daily subsistence, and in one case was actually arrested for a debt of £5, and escaped imprisonment only through the solicited aid of a friend. Among other writings, he published at this time a large number of reviews in Newbery's "Literary Magazine." The proposal for an edition of Shakespeare made some years before, but not prosecuted, was renewed and a subscription opened, but the work still lingered on his hands through 9 years. He next engaged with the publishers of the "Universal Chronicle," a weekly newspaper, to furnish a series of miscellaneous essays, and the numbers of the "Idler," written by Johnson, appeared in regular order for two successive years, beginning in April, 1758. As compared with the "Rambler," the "Idler" is more sprightly and varied, but less profound and serious; its style is more natural and simple, but its matter is less valuable intrinsically. Of its 103 numbers Johnson wrote all but 12; but it was quite evident that they cost him but little more labor than the manual exercise of writing. In the spring of 1759 he issued "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia," probably the most celebrated of all his productions. Like many other of his works, this was the creature of an immediately pressing occasion. His mother, whom he had left in her widowhood at Lichfield more than 20 years before, and had never since visited, though he had shared with her his scanty income, died early in this year. Her death made a new demand on his purse, to meet which, in the evenings of one week, he wrote the whole of " Rasselas," and sent it to the printer as it was first written, receiving for it £100, out of which he paid the expenses of his mother's funeral. In its scene and imagery the story has an oriental character, but its style and matter are purely Johnsonian. The vanity of life, as in most of his moral writings, is the lesson it teaches, and over against this is placed the divine providence and the intrinsic excellence and practical worth of virtue. But if Johnson's literary labors had failed to provide him a competence, they had procured for him a greatly advanced social position, and secured him a large circle of admirers. His constitutional indolence had however become positively morbid, and he indulged in idleness just as far as his immediate necessities would allow. He seldom went abroad, lay in bed till past noon, and spent the rest of the day in promiscuous conversations with whomsoever called upon him; or moped in morbid melancholy if left

to himself, which, however, was not often the case. To his guests he devoted a large share of each afternoon, meanwhile regaling himself with his favorite tea, with which he solaced both his earlier and his later hours. Among his personal associates, and those who sought him at this period of his history, were several persons of distinction, and some whose names have come down to the present time, as Richardson the novelist, Garrick, Joshua Reynolds, Warton of Oxford (through whose good of fices he had just before received the degree of M.A., which was first publicly recognized in the title page of the first edition of the dictionary), Baretti, Arthur Murphy, Dr. Charles Burney, Dr. (afterward Bishop) Percy, Bennet Langton, and Topham Beauclerk. He was all this time domiciled at Gough square, where he had passed the greater portion of the years of his residence in London. Here, some time before the decease of his wife, he had begun to gather about him a family group, which was afterward much enlarged, made up of a strangely assorted set of dependants and pensioners upon his charity. Mrs. Anna Williams, a blind lady, the daughter of a Welsh physician; "Doctor" Robert Levett, an odd little man who practised medicine among the poorest of the poor, and often received his fees in liquor; Mrs. Desmoulins and her daughter, who had no other claim upon his benevolence than the service which that lady's father, Dr. Swinfen, had rendered to Johnson in a professional capacity in his youth; and Francis Barber, his negro servant, were among the inmates of his house.-Johnson had an implicit belief in the supernatural and invisible world. He held the Christian faith with simplicity, and accepted the Bible as divine truth. The best balanced minds often find it difficult to define the precise line of demarcation between rational belief and superstition, and Johnson made no attempts at it. He practically adopted the maxim of certain church fathers, that it is safer to believe too much than too little. He believed in the existence of disembodied spirits, and that they might be manifested to our cognizance, and so he was ready to listen to evidence going to confirm such apparitions. A case of this kind occurred in 1763, which exposed Johnson to the ridicule of his enemies. Certain strange phenomena in the form of "rappings" about the bed of a young girl, in a house in Cock lane, Clerkenwell, caused a considerable excitement, and the rector of the parish, with a number of gentlemen eminent for rank and character," of whom Johnson was one, attempted to solve the mystery. Their examinations satisfied them that the whole was a cheat and imposture, and Johnson afterward wrote out a statement of it for the "Gentleman's Magazine." But the affair was seized upon by Johnson's enemies, as exposing a vulnerable point for their attacks. Churchill, in his poem, "The Ghost," depicted Johnson in such broad caricature that it was at once recognized; and Foote the comedian proposed to

present him on the stage for the amusement of the town, but abandoned his purpose upon being assured that Johnson was preparing to chastise him if he undertook it.-In 1762 Johnson received from the king a pension of £300. He had so often in his own strong language stigmatized the whole business of giv-. ing and receiving pensions as the basest kind of bribery and espionage, that it seemed impossible that he should accept the royal bounty. But it being urged by his friends that the whole nation was his debtor for what he had written, and especially for the dictionary, and the premier assuring him that no service to the ministry would ever be expected from his pen in return for the favor, he allowed his scruples to be overcome. Early in 1765 the long promised and long delayed edition of Shakespeare made its appearance, enriched with an elaborate preface, discussing the genius and writings of the dramatist, and with a concise account of each play, and notes and commentaries, both original and selected, on various passages. But the work had been performed wholly as a task, and it was not such as the reputation of the editor had promised. He no doubt possessed many valuable qualifications for such a work, yet he was better adapted for original compositions, and in this case his powers were but moderately called into requisition. His own estimate of the work did not differ greatly from that of others. He had now fully attained the height of his ambition as a scholar and man of letters. His claim to the first place among his peers was cheerfully conceded to him with almost absolute unanimity. The university of Oxford, from which he sought in vain for the degree of M.A. when it would have been valuable to him, but which gave it unasked when he was able to do without it, now accorded a tardy recognition of his greatness by granting to him by diploma the degree of LL.D. He had received the same honor 10 years earlier from Dublin university; but after returning thanks for the honor, he declined to wear it, and would not consent to be called doctor till his own Oxford had given him the title.-About this time Johnson was introduced by Arthur Murphy to Mr. Thrale, a wealthy brewer of Southwark. Mr. Thrale was a man of a well cultivated mind, of sound judgment, and great force of character, and his wife, whose name has become intimately connected with Johnson's history, was also a person of some learning and of almost unbounded vivacity, flippant, versatile, and addicted to hero worship. The parties were mutually pleased with each other, and the acquaintance thus begun soon grew into friendship. Johnson dined with his new friends weekly during several succeeding months, when, having suffered somewhat by an attack of sickness, he was removed in 1766 to their residence, and had apartments assigned him in their house at Southwark, and also in their villa at Streatham. Mr. Thrale was a member of parliament for Southwark, and as his political creed was nearly

allied to that of his guest, Johnson became interested in the politics of the times, and there was at one time a purpose to bring him into parliament; the measure had his hearty concurrence, but the government, fearing that he would not prove sufficiently facile, did not encourage it, and so the design was abandoned. He accompanied his friends on their annual excursions, visiting various parts of the kingdom with them, and also making a visit of several weeks at Paris. His connection with this family not only brought him innumerable comforts and rational pleasures of which he must otherwise have been deprived, but it also afforded him a retreat from his own strangely assorted household, where strifes and complaints were loud and frequent. It continued till it was virtually broken up by the death of Mr. Thrale, who left no son, and the subsequent marriage of his widow to Signor Piozzi, greatly to the chagrin of her numerous friends.-A few years previous to his connection with the Thrales, Johnson had formed another association, by which his future renown was to be very largely affected. In 1763 James Boswell, then a young man of 22 or 23, the son of a Scotch judge in the court of session, visited London, inflamed with a romantic passion to make the acquaintance of its great men; and by diligent efforts he at length obtained an introduction to Johnson. Boswell had but little that adapted him to command even ordinary respect. He was loose in his manner of living, and still more so in his conversation; conceited, meddling, and inquisitive; a sycophantic worshipper of greatness, real or imaginary, yet strongly endowed with an insight into character, and a reverential appreciation of qualities the furthest possible removed from his own. Johnson, absurdly enough, fancied this madcap lion-hunting young Scot on first acquaintance, and of course Boswell at once fastened himself upon his venerable friend. They were together almost daily from the time of their first meeting till Boswell was compelled to leave the city, rambling in the parks, supping together at the Mitre tavern, Johnson's principal resort, or wandering the streets till after midnight. Johnson was glad to have somebody as idle as himself to listen to him, and to submit to his exactions; and Boswell was quite ready to purchase the favor of the company of a great man at almost any price. From that time to the death of his great friend, Boswell lived in Johnson's shadow. Whenever it was possible he was with him, following him wherever he went, noting his words, describing his manners, and detailing the most trivial occurrences; all of which were afterward embodied in his "Life of Johnson," at once the best and the worst of biographies. It is by Boswell's biography much more than by the dictionary or the " 'Rambler," or even by Rasselas" and the "Vanity of Human Wishes," that Johnson is known to the present generation; and while the biographer has immortalized his own name as a proverb of con

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tempt, he has doubtless permanently damaged the reputation of his subject by presenting his foibles in caricature.-The founding of the "Literary Club," an institution intimately associated with the name of Johnson, belonged to this period. Reynolds took the lead in the movement, and so was called their Romulus; but Johnson was the Nestor, the Ajax, and perhaps in some sense the Thersites of the host. Among the original 9 members were Sir John Hawkins, Langton, Beauclerk, Goldsmith, and Burke. Goldsmith had a few years before become somewhat intimate with Johnson, by whom he was greatly esteemed as a writer, and cherished as an associate. Burke, too, had not long before made Johnson's acquaintance, while living as a literary adventurer among the booksellers; and though the two were widely removed from each other by diversity of age, and still more by their opinions, yet Johnson highly appreciated his young friend's genius, and from scarcely any other was he so tolerant of opposition. During its earlier years the club held weekly meetings for conversation, which contributed not a little to maintain the balance of Johnson's strangely affected mind. New members were admitted with great caution, and for several years the whole number did not exceed 12. In 1778 it had grown to 26, and two years later to 35, when 40 was fixed as its complement. The club is still in existence, but it has become rather a learned than a convivial society. Johnson's indolent and purposeless mode of life proved highly unfavorable to his spirits. His 'Prayers and Meditations," published since his decease, indicate the unhappy state of his mind. He was accustomed to write bitter things against himself in his penitential moments, and especially during Lent, which he observed somewhat exactly, as a preparation for the sacrament, which he usually received on Easter Sunday. Sometimes his melancholy assumed the form of a diseased condition, and verged almost on insanity; and again he would pass suddenly to the opposite extreme, and give way to the most extravagant bursts of hilarity. His ordinary manners, especially in his later years, were strangely eccentric. He talked much to himself, muttering in a vocal but generally inaudible undertone. He was never still, but sat with head inclined over the right shoulder, his vast trunk swaying backward and forward, and his hand keeping up a corresponding motion upon his knee. At times he would make a kind of clucking sound, and again a suppressed whistle, and still more frequently a humming noise, accompanied with a vacant smile. His conversation was often violent and discourteous in manner, and he delighted in contradictions. These were the troublesome remains of his early mental disorders, and among his more intimate friends they were understood and reckoned harmless. During the years from 1770 to 1775 he produced several rather important political pamphlets, all in the interest of the government, and designed to meet some immediate necessity. In