ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PRESENT EDITION. THE Life, the Tour, and the volume entitled Johnsoniana, have been carefully revised for this impression. The errors of the press which had crept into the text and notes have been corrected; and to the notes a few additions have been made. A series of interesting letters from Boswell to Sir David Dalrymple has been printed in Johnsoniana. Extracts, indeed, from these had been previously published in Mr. Rogers' "Boswelliana" (1874), but never before have they been given in extenso. These letters are not only in themselves full of interest, but illustrate the deep and broad foundation which Boswell had early laid for his work. The index, also, has been carefully revised, and considerable additions have been made to it. The editor desires to express his sincere thanks to Mr. Edward Bell, for his careful and constant supervision of this edition; nor would he conceal that Mrs. Napier has watched its progress from the first to the last line of it. ALEXANDER NAPIER. Holkham Vicarage, TABLE OF CONTENTS. Introductory remarks, on the arduous character of the Traditional story of Johnson's infancy Story of his early precocity refuted Johnson afflicted with scrofula 1731. Translates Pope's Messiah into Latin verse, Christmas, 1728 Prostrated by an attack of hypochondria during the Boswell's reflections on this malady. Disdains the eleemosynary pair of shoes Compelled to leave College in the autumn of 1731, returns 33 |