discovery." I should be sorry to add to the many doubts already expressed of the accuracy of this lady's memory, by calling in question this excuse; but surely no writer ever had fewer means and less art to escape discovery. What could the absence of a motto do to conceal Dr. JOHNSON'S style? Sitting, however, with this lively lady one day, he recollected a few mottos, which she wrote down, and which are here copied as part of the history of the IDLER: For No. 39. Nec genus ornatus unum, quod quamque decebit

Eligat- Qv. ARS AMAN. 3. 135. No. 17. Surge tandem Carnifex-MECENAS to AUGUSTUs.

No. 88. Hodie quid egiste?

No. 22. Oh. nomen dulse libertatis! Oh jus

examium nostræ civitatis.

No. 62, 64. Quid faciam? præscribe.

Queiscas.

CIC.

HOR.

No. 101. Carpe hilaris-fuget heu! non revo

canda dies.

No. 96. Qui se volet esse potentem,

Animos domet ille feroces:

Nec victa libidine colla,

Fadis submittat habenis. BOETHIUS. No. 71. Celan le selve angui, leoni, ed orgi Dentro il lor verde. AMINTA DEL

deri.

TASSO.

No. 46. Fugit ad salices, sed se cupit ante viVIRG. During the publication of the IDLERS, they were frequently copied into contemporary_publications, without any acknowledgment. The au

thor who, as already mentioned, was also a proprietor of the Universal Chronicle, hurled his vengeance on these pirates in the following "Hue and Cry," which as coming from Dr. JOHNSON'S pen, may justly be deemed a literary curiosity.

"London, Jan. 5, 1759, ADVERTISEMENT. The proprietors of the paper, entitled “The Idler," having found that those essays are inserted in the newspaper and magazines with so little regard to justice or decency, that the Universal Chronicle, in which they first appear, is not always mentioned, think it necessary to declare to the publishers of those collections, that however patiently they have hitherto endured these injuries, made yet more injurious by contempt, they have now determined to endure them no longer. They have already seen essays for which a very large price is paid, transferred with the most shameless rapacity, into the weekly or monthly compilations, and their right, at least for the present, alienated from them, before they could themselves be said to enjoy it. But they would not willingly be thought to want tenderness even for men by whom no tenderness hath been shewn. The past is without remedy, and shall be without resentment. But those who have been thus busy with their sickles in the fields of their neighbours, are henceforward to take notice, that the time of impunity is at an end. Whoever shall without our leave, lay the hand of rapine upon our papers, is to expect that we shall vindicate our due, by the means which justice prescribes, and which are warranted by the immemorial prescriptions of honourable trade. We shall lay hold, in our turn, on their

copies, degrade them from the pomp of wide margin, and diffuse typography, contract them into a narrow space, and sell them at an humble price; yet not with a view of growing rich by confiscations, for we think not much better of money got by punishment than by crimes: we shall, therefore, when our losses are repaid, give what profit shall remain to the Magdalens: for we know not who can be more properly taxed for the support of penitent prostitutes, than prostitutes in whom there yet appears neither penitence nor shame."

The effect of this singular manifesto is not now known; but if "essays for which a large price has been paid," be not words of course, they may prove that the author received an immediate remuneration for his labour, independent of his share in the general profits.

When the second edition appeared, the author informed his readers that "from the 9, 15, 33, 42, 54, 67, 76, 79, 82, 93, 96 and 98th papers, he claimed no other praise than that of having given them to the public." The short letter in No. 9, was from an unknown correspondent, but the remarks on it are evidently Dr. JOHNSON'S. Nos. 15, 42, 54 and 98, are also from correspondents whose names have not been discovered.

Nos. 33, 93 and 96, were written by Mr. THOMAS WARTON. Of these No. 33, is a paper of genuine humour, the Journal of a Senior Fellow, but Dr. JOHNSON thought proper to omit some parts, and to introduce it with a remark "that the Journal of the Citizen in the SPECTATOR has almost precluded the attempt of any future wri

VOL, XXXIII.

ter." Many imitations, however, of that Journal may be found in these volumes, and although they cannot be said to equal ADDISON's original sketch, have considerable merit in placing idleness and dissipation in a ridiculous light. It is curious, if not important, to trace the history of certain species of humour. The annotators on the SPECTATOR inform us that the Citizen's Journal was a banter on the member of a congregation of dissenters called independents, where a Mr. NESBIT officiated at that time as minister. The person ridiculed "led just such a life as is described and ridiculed here, and was continually asking or quoting his pastor's opinion on every subject." This is too extravagant, however, for strict truth, although we have in ASHMOLE'S Diary some particulars as trifling as any the citizen his recorded.-No. 93, is a humourous portrait of a citizen whose employments and sentiments are misplaced; it was drawn from an original in real life, a relation of his own; and No. 96 is a short tale calculated to demonstrate the miseries of effeminacy and luxury.

*

The writer of these, THOMAS WARTON, the younger brother of Dr. JOSEPH WARTON, was born in the year 1728, and was educated by his father, a clergyman of learning and probity. At the age of sixteen, he was entered a commoner of Trinity College, Oxford. Like the greater part of the ESSAYISTS, he began his literary career as a poet. In 1745 he published five pastoral eclogues, beautifully descriptive of the miseries of war, to which the shepherds of Germany * See Preface to the ADVENTUrer.

were exposed:* in 1745, "The Pleasures of Melancholy;" in 1746 "The Progress of Discontent:" in 1750, a very celebrated poem, "The Triumph of Isis: in 1751, " Newmarket, a Satire," and "An Ode for Music:" in 1762 several Poems in the "Oxford Sausage." These he reprinted in one volume in 1777: and in 1782, wrote verses on Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS' painted Window in New College Chapel, and from 1785, when he succeeded to the Laureatship, to 1790, various New years and Birth-day Odes. His prose works were" Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser, 1754: "A description of Winchester:" "The life of Sir Thomas Pope," first published in the Biographia, and republished in 1772. "The life and Literary Remains of Ralph Bathust, M. D. 1761." "History of English Poetry," from the close of the 11th to the commencement of the 18th century, vol. 1, 1774, vol. 2, 1778, vol. 3, 1781, "Specimen of a History of Oxfordshire, 1783." "An Enquiry into the authenticity of the Poems attributed to Rowley, 1782." He was also Editor of "Anthologie Grace a Canstantino Cephala condita libri tres, 1766;" "Theocritis Syracusii qua supersunt, cum Scholiis Græcis, 1770:" and of "Poems on several occasions by Milton, with notes critical and explanatory, 1785." He also

Mr. Mant, who since the first Edition of the British Essayists, has published a Life of Mr. Warton, prefixed to his poetical works, informs us that Warton disclaimed these Eclogues. He assigns 1747, as the date of the Pleasures of Melancholy. The Progress of Discontent was probably written in 1746, but not published until the appearance of the "Student" to which Mr. Warton was a contributor.