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THE

LIFE

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D.

COMPREHENDING

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS

STUDIES AND NUMEROUS WORKS,

IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER;

A SERIES OF HIS

EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE AND CONVERSATIONS
WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS;

AND VARIOUS

ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED;

THE WHOLE EXHIBITING

A Wiew of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain

FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED.

BY JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND BIOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATIONS,
BY MALONE.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. IV.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. RICHARDSON AND CO.; G. OFFOR; THOMAS TEGG;
W. SHARPE AND SON; G. WALKER; R. DOBSON;

ROBINSON AND CO.; J. EVANS AND SONS; J. JONES; AND J. JOHNSON,
ALSO, J. CARFRAE, AND J. SUTHERLAND, EDINBURGH;

AND R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW.

C. Whittingham, College House, Chiswick.

THE

LIFE

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D.

THIS year the Reverend Dr. Franklin having published a translation of "Lucian," inscribed to him the Demonax thus:

"To DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, the Demonax of the present age, this piece is inscribed by a sincere admirer of his respectable talents,

"THE TRANSLATOR."

Though upon a particular comparison of Demonax and Johnson, there does not seem to be a great deal of similarity between them, this Dedication is a just compliment from the general character given by Lucian of the ancient Sage, αριστον ων οιδα εγω φιλοσοφων γενομενον, the best philosopher whom I have ever seen or known."

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In 1781, Johnson at last completed his "Lives of the Poets," of which he gives this account: "Some time in March I finished the 'Lives of the Poets,' which I wrote in my usual way, dilatorily and hastily, unwilling to work, and working with vigour and haste'. In a memorandum previous to this, he says of them: "Written, I

VOL. IV.

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Prayers and Meditations, p. 190.

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