have received, though, indeed I am promised fomething of that fort from Sweden. "How my new edition will be received I know not; the fubfcription has not been very fuccefsful. I fhall publish about March. "If you can direct me how to fend proposals, I should wish that they were in fuch hands. "I remember, Sir, in fome of the first letters with which you favoured me, you mentioned your lady. May I enquire after her? In return for the favours which you have fhewn me, it is not much to tell you, that I wish you and her all that can conduce to your happiness. I am, Sir, "Your moft obliged "And most humble fervant, 1757. Etat. 48. "Gough-fquare, Dec. 24, 1757 SAM. JOHNSON." In 1758 we find him, it should seem, in as easy and pleasant a state of 1758. existence, as conftitutional unhappiness ever permitted him to enjoy. "SIR, To Mr. BURNEY, at Lynne, Norfolk. "YOUR kindness is fo great, and my claim to any particular regard from you fo little, that I am at a lofs how to exprefs my fenfe of your favours; but I am, indeed, much pleafed to be thus diftinguished by you. "I am ashamed to tell you that my Shakspeare will not be out fo foon as I promised my fubfcribers; but I did not promise them more than I promised myself. It will, however, be published before fummer. "I have sent you a bundle of propofals, which, I think, do not profess more than I have hitherto performed. I have printed many of the plays, and have hitherto left very few paffages unexplained; where I am quite at a loss, I confefs my ignorance, which is feldom done by commentators. "I have, likewise, inclofed twelve receipts; not that I mean to impose upon you the trouble of pushing them with more importunity than may feem proper, but that you may rather have more than fewer than you fhall want. The propofals you will diffeminate as there fhall be opportunity. I once printed them at length in the Chronicle, and fome of my friends (I believe 5 Of Shakspeare. This letter was an answer to one in which was enclosed a draft for the payment of fome fubfcriptions to his Shakspeare, 1758. Etat. 49. Mr. Murphy, who formerly wrote the Gray's-Inn Journal) introduced them with a splendid encomium. "Since the Life of Browne, I have been a little engaged, from time to time, in the Literary Magazine, but not very lately. I have not the collection by me, and therefore cannot draw out a catalogue of my own parts, but will do it, and fend it. Do not buy them, for I will gather all thofe that have any thing of mine in them, and fend them to Mrs. Burney, as a small token of gratitude for the regard which fhe is pleased to bestow upon me. "Your most obliged I am, Sir, "London, March 8, 1758. "And most humble fervant, SAM. JOHNSON." Dr. Burney has kindly favoured me with the following memorandum, which I take the liberty to infert in his own genuine easy ftyle. I love to exhibit sketches of my illuftrious friend by various eminent hands. "Soon after this, Mr. Burney, during a vifit to the capital, had an interview with him in Gough-fquare, where he dined and drank tea with him, and was introduced to the acquaintance of Mrs. Williams. After dinner, Mr. Johnfon proposed to Mr. Burney to go up with him into his garret, which being accepted, he there found about five or fix Greek folios, a deal writingdesk, and a chair and a half. Johnson giving to his guest the entire seat, tottered himself on one with only three legs and one arm. Here he gave Mr. Burney Mrs. Williams's hiftory, and fhewed him fome volumes of his Shakspeare already printed, to prove that he was in earnest. Upon Mr. Burney's opening the first volume, at the Merchant of Venice, he observed to him, that he feemed to be more fevere on Warburton than Theobald. O poor Tib.! (faid Johnson) he was ready knocked down to my hands; Warburton ftands between me and him.' But, Sir, But, Sir, (faid Mr. Burney,) you'll have Warburton upon your bones, won't you?' 'No, Sir; he'll not come out: he'll only growl in his den.' But you think, Sir, that Warburton is a fuperiour critick to Theobald?'-O, Sir, he'd make two-and-fifty Theobalds, cut into flices! The worst of Warburton is, that he has a rage for faying fomething, when there's nothing to be faid.'-Mr. Burney then asked him whether he had feen the letter which Warburton had written in answer to a pamphlet addreffed To the most impudent Man alive.' He answered in the negative. Mr. Burney told him it was fuppofed to be written by Mallet. The controverfy now raged between the friends of Pope and Bolingbroke; and Warburton and Mallet were the leaders of the feveral parties. Mr. Burney afked him then if he had seen Warburton's book against Bolingbroke's Philofophy? No, 1758. Sir; I have never read Bolingbroke's impiety, and therefore am not interested Etat. 49. about its confutation." On the fifteenth of April he began a new periodical paper, entitled "THE IDLER,*" which came out every Saturday in a weekly newspaper, called “ The Univerfal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette," published by Newberry. These effays were continued till April 5, 1760. Of one hundred and three, their total number, twelve were contributed by his friends; of which, Numbers 33, 93, and 96, were written by Mr. Thomas Warton; No. 67 by Mr. Langton; and No. 76, 79, and 82 by Sir Joshua Reynolds; the concluding words of No. 82, "and pollute his canvas with deformity," being added by Johnson, as Sir Joshua informed me. The IDLER is evidently the work of the fame mind which produced the RAMBLER, but has lefs body, and more fpirit. It has more variety of real life, and greater facility of language. He defcribes the miferies of idleness, with the lively fenfations of one who had felt them; and in his private memorandums while engaged in it, we find "This year I hope to learn diligence”.” Many of thefe excellent effays were written as hastily as an ordinary letter. Mr. Langton remembers Johnson, when on a vifit at Oxford, afking him one evening how long it was till the poft went out; and on being told about half an hour, he exclaimed, "then we fhall do very well." He upon this inftantly sat down and finished an Idler, which it was neceffary fhould be in London the next day. Mr. Langton having fignified a wish to read it, "Sir, (faid he) you fhall not do more than I have done myself." He then folded it up, and fent it off. Yet there are in the Idler several papers which fhew as much profundity of thought, and labour of language, as any of this great man's writings. No. 14, "Robbery of time;" No. 24, "Thinking;" No. 41, "Death of a friend;" No. 43, Flight of time;" No. 51, "Domestick greatness unattainable;" No. 52, "Self-denial;" No. 58, "Actual, how fhort of fancied excellence;" No. 89, " Physical evil moral good;" and his concluding paper on "The horrour of the last," will prove this affertion. I know not why a motto, the usual trapping of periodical papers, is prefixed to very few of the Idlers, as I have heard Johnson commend the cuftom; and he never could be at a lofs for one, his memory being ftored with innumerable paffages of the clafficks. In this series of effays he exhibits admirable instances of grave humour, of which he had 7 Prayers and Meditations, p. 30. an 1758. an uncommon share. Nor on fome occafions has he repreffed that power of Etat. 49. fophiftry which he poffeffed in fo eminent a degree. In No. 11, he treats with the utmost contempt the opinion that our mental faculties depend, in fome degree, upon the weather; an opinion, which they who have never experienced its truth are not to be envied, and of which he himfelf could not but be fenfible, as the effects of weather upon him were very visible. Yet thus he declaims: "Surely, nothing is more reproachful to a being endowed with reason, than to refign its powers to the influence of the air, and live in dependance on the weather and the wind for the only bleffings which Nature has put into our power, tranquillity and benevolence.-This diftinction of seasons is produced only by imagination operating on luxury. To temperance, every day is bright; and every hour is propitious to diligence. He that fhall refolutely excite his faculties, or exert his virtues, will foon make himself fuperiour to the seasons; and may fet at defiance the morning mift and the evening damp, the blasts of the east, and the clouds of the fouth." Alas! it is too certain, that where the frame has delicate fibres, and there is a fine sensibility, fuch influences of the air are irresistible. He might as well have bid defiance to the ague, the palfy, and all other bodily diforders. Such boafting of the force of mind is falfe elevation. "I think the Romans call it Stoicifm." But in this number of his Idler his spirits feem to run riot; for in the wantonnefs of his difquifition he forgets, for a moment, even the reverence for that which he held in high refpect; and defcribes "the attendant on a Court," as one "whofe business is to watch the looks of a being, weak and foolish as himself." His unqualified ridicule of rhetorical gesture or action is not, furely, a test of truth; yet we cannot help admiring how well it is adapted to produce the effect which he wifhed. "Neither the judges of our laws, nor the reprefentatives of our people, would be much affected by laboured gesticulation, or believe any man the more because he rolled his eyes, or puffed his cheeks, or fpread abroad his arms, or ftamped the ground, or thumped his breast, or turned his eyes fometimes to the cieling, and fometimes to the floor." A cafual coincidence with other writers, or an adoption of a fentiment or image which has been found in the writings of another, and afterwards appears in the mind as one's own, is not unfrequent. The richness of Johnson's fancy, which could fupply his page abundantly on all occafions, and the ftrength of his memory, which at once detected the real owner of any thought, made him lefs liable to the imputation of plagiarism than, perhaps, any of our writers. 4 1758. writers. In the Idler, however, there is a paper, in which conversation is affimilated to a bowl of punch, where there is the fame train of comparison Etat. 49as in a poem by Blacklock, in his collection published in 1756; in which a parallel is ingeniously drawn between human life and that liquor. It ends, To the Idler, when collected in volumes, he added (befide the Effay on Epitaphs, and the Differtation on those of Pope,) an Effay on the Bravery of the English common Soldiers. To the Reverend Mr. THOMAS WARTON. "DEAR SIR, notes. "YOUR notes upon my poet were very acceptable. I beg that you will be so kind as to continue your fearches. It will be reputable to my work, and fuitable to your profefforfhip, to have fomething of yours in the As you have given no directions about your name, I fhall therefore put it. I wish your brother would take the fame trouble. A commentary must arise from the fortuitous discoveries of many men in devious walks of literature. Some of your remarks are on plays already printed: but I purpose to add an Appendix of Notes, fo that nothing comes too late. "You give yourself too much uneafinefs, dear Sir, about the lofs of the papers. The lofs is nothing, if nobody has found them; nor even then, perhaps, if the numbers be known. You are not the only friend that has had the fame mifchance. You may repair your want out of a stock, which is depofited with Mr. Allen, of Magdalen-Hall; or out of a parcel which I have just fent to Mr. Chambers, for the ufe of any body that will be so kind as to want them. Mr. Langtons are well; and Mifs Roberts, whom I have at laft brought to fpeak, upon the information which you gave me, that she had something to say. ་་ A "I am, &c. "[London,] April 14, 1758. SAM. JOHNSON." છું દ Receipts for Shakspeare." "Then of Lincoln College. Now Sir Robert Chambers, one of the Judges in India." Το |