Johnson's most exquisite critical essay in the Literary Magazine, and indeed any where, is his review of Soame Jenyns's "Inquiry into the Origin of Evil." Jenyns was possessed of lively talents, and a style eminently pure and easy, and could very happily play with a light subject, either in prose or verse: but when he speculated on that most difficult and excruciating question, the Origin of Evil, he "ventured far beyond his depth," and, accordingly, was exposed by Johnson, both with acute argument and brilliant wit. I remember when the late Mr. Bicknell's humorous performance, entitled "The Musical Travels of Joel Collyer," in which a slight attempt is made to ridicule Johnson, was ascribed to Soame Jenyns, "Ha! (said Johnson) I thought I had given him enough of it." His triumph over Jenyns is thus described by my friend Mr. Courtenay, in his "Poetical Review of the literary and moral character of Dr. Johnson;" a performance of such merit, that had I not been honoured with a very kind and partial notice in it, I should echo the sentiments of men of the first taste loudly in its praise : "When specious sophists with presumption scan 1 Some time after Dr. Johnson's death, there appeared in the newspapers and magazines [the following) illiberal and petulant attack upon him, in the form of an Epitaph, under the name of Mr. Soame Jenyns, very unworthy of that gentleman, who had quietly submitted to the critical lash while Johnson lived. It assumed, as characteristics of him, all the vulgar circumstances of abuse which had circulated amongst the ignorant : "Here lies poor JOHNSON. Reader, have a care, Tread lightly, lest you rouse a sleeping bear; Religious, moral, generous, and humane He was but self-sufficient, rude, and vain; Ill-bred and overbearing in dispute, A scholar and a Christian-yet a brute. Would you know all his wisdom and his folly, Will tell you how he wrote, and talk'd, and cough'd, and This was an unbecoming indulgence of puny resentment, at a time when he himself was at a very advanced age, and had a near prospect of descending to the grave. I was truly sorry for it; for he was then become an avowed and (as my Lord Bishop of London, who had a serious conversation with him on the subject, assures me) a sincere Christian. He could not expect that Johnson's numerous friends would patiently bear to have the memory of their master stigmatized by no mean pen, but that, at least, one would be found to retort. Accordingly, this unjust and sarcastic epitaph was n.et in the same public field by an answer, in terms by no means soft, and such as wanton provocation only could justify: - Dedication to the Earl of Rochford,* and a Preface,* both of which are admirably adapted to the treatise to which they are prefixed. Johnson, I believe, did not play at draughts after leaving College; by which he suffered; for it would have afforded him an innocent soothing relief from the melancholy which distressed him so often. I have heard him regret that he had not learnt to play at cards; and the game of draughts we know is peculiarly calculated to fix the attention without straining it. There is a composure and gravity in draughts which insensibly tranquillises the mind; and, accordingly, the Dutch are fond of it, as they are of smoking, of the sedative influence of which, though he himself never smoked, he had a high opinion. Besides, there is in draughts some exercise of the faculties; and accordingly, Johnson, wishing to dignify the subject in his Dedication with what is most estimable in it, observes, "Triflers may find or make any thing a trifle: but since it is the great characteristic of a wise man to see events in their causes, to obviate consequences, and ascertain contingencies, your lordship will think nothing a trifle by which the mind is inured to caution, foresight, and circumspection." As one of the little occasional advantages which he did not disdain to take by his pen, as a man whose profession was literature, he this year accepted of a guinea from Mr. Robert Dodsley, for writing the Introduction to "The London Chronicle," an evening newspaper; and even in so slight a performance exhibited peculiar talents. This Chronicle still subsists, and from what I observed, when I was abroad, has a more extensive circulation upon the continent than any of the English newspapers. It was constantly read by Johnson himself; and it is but just to observe, that it has all along "EPITAPH "Prepared for a creature not quite dead yet. "Here lies a little ugly nauseous elf, A mighty Genius at this elf displeased, With a strong critic grasp the urchin squeezed. For thirty years its coward spleen it kept, Till in the dust the mighty Genius slept; Then stunk and fretted in expiring snuff, And blink'd at JOHNSON with its last poor puff." — BOSWELL The answer was no doubt by Mr. Boswell himself, and does more credit to his zeal than his poetical talents. This Review was so successful that Johnson re-published it in a separate pamphlet. Jenyns was born in 1705, and died in 1787 He was for near forty years in Parliament, and published some poetry; but his best known work is his Source of the Nile; also, Evidences of the Christian Religion, published in 1774. Of this work, the seriousness and sincerity was much questioned, which is the occasion of Mr. Boswell's observation as to his being a sincere Christian."- CROKER. 2 See post, August 19. 1773. Hawkins heard Johnson say, that insanity had grown more frequent since smoking had gone out of fashion. - CROKER. 3 The London Chronicle, or Universal Evening Post, was published three times a week. The first number, coutaining Johnson's Introduction, appeared Jan. 1. 1757. Mr. Boswell often wrote in this journal. - CROKER. been distinguished for good sense, accuracy, moderation, and delicacy. Another instance of the same nature has been communicated to me by the Reverend Dr. Thomas Campbell, who has done himself considerable credit by his own writings. "Sitting with Dr. Johnson one morning alone, he asked me if I had known Dr. Madden, who was author of the premium-scheme in Ireland. On my answering in the affirmative, and also that I had for some years lived in his neighbourhood, &c., he begged of me that when I returned to Ireland, I would endeavour to procure for him a poem of Dr. Madden's called Boulter's Monument.' 3 The reason (said he) why I wish for it, is this: when Dr. Madden came to London, he submitted that work to my castigation; and I remember I blotted a great many lines, and might have blotted many more without making the poem worse. However, the Doctor was very thankful, and very generous, for he gave me ten guineas, which was to me at that time a great sum." 5 4 He this year resumed his scheme of giving an edition of Shakspeare with notes. He issued Proposals of considerable length 6, in which he shewed that he perfectly well knew what a variety of research such an undertaking required; but his indolence prevented him from pursuing it with that diligence which alone can collect those scattered facts, that genius, however acute, penetrating, and luminous, cannot discover by its own force. It is remarkable, that at this time his fancied activity was for the moment so vigorous, that he promised his work should be published before Christmas, 1757. Yet nine years elapsed before it saw the light. His throes in bringing it forth had been severe and remittent; and at last we may almost conclude that the Cæsarian operation was performed by the knife of Churchill, whose 1 See post, April 6. 1775.-C. In the College of Dublin, four quarterly examinations of the students are held in each year, in various prescribed branches of literature and science; and premiums, consisting of books impressed with the College Arms, are adjudged by examiners (composed generally of the Junior Fellows), to those who have most distinguished themselves in the several classes, after a very rigid trial, which lasts two days. This regulation, which has subsisted about seventy years, has been attended with the most beneficial effects. Dr. Samuel Madden was the first proposer of those premiums. They were instituted about the year 1734. He was also one of the founders of the Dublin Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Agriculture. In addition to the premiums which were and are still annually given by that society for this purpose, Dr. Madden gave others from his own fund. Hence he was usually called "Premium Madden." - MALONE. 3 Dr. Hugh Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland. He died Sept. 27. 1742, at which time he was, for the thirteenth time, one of the Lords Justices of that kingdom. Johnson speaks of him in high terms of commendation, in his Life of Ambrose Philips. BOSWELL. 4 Dr. Madden wrote very bad verses. The few lines in 'Boulter's Monument' that rise above mediocrity, may be attributed to Johnson. - CROKER. 5 Such casual emoluments as these," says Hawkins, "Johnson frequently derived from his profession of an author." About this time, as it is supposed, for sundry beneficed clergymen that requested him, he composed pulpit discourses, and for these, he made no scruple of confessing, he was paid; his price, I am informed, was a moderate one, —a guinea; and such was his notion of justice, that having upbraiding satire, I dare say, made Johnson's friends urge him to dispatch. "He for subscribers baits his hook, And takes your cash; but where's the book? But what, to serve our private ends, About this period he was offered a living of considerable value in Lincolnshire 7, if he were inclined to enter into holy orders. It was a rectory in the gift of Mr. Langton, the father of his much valued friend. But he did not accept of it; partly, I believe, from a conscientious motive, being persuaded that his temper and habits rendered him unfit for that assiduous and familiar instruction of the vulgar and ignorant, which he held to be an essential duty in a clergyman; and partly because his love of a London life was so strong, that he would have thought himself an exile in any other place, particularly if residing in the country. Whoever would wish to see his thoughts upon that subject displayed in their full force, may peruse the Adventurer, Number 126. 8 In 1757 it does not appear that he published any thing, except some of those articles in the Literary Magazine, which have been mentioned. That magazine, after Johnson ceased to write in it, gradually declined, though the popular epithet of Antigallican was added to it; and in July, 1758, it expired. He probably prepared a part of his Shakspeare this year, and he dictated a speech on the subject of an address to the Throne, after the expedition to Rochfort, which was delivered by one of his friends, I know not in what public meeting. It is printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1785, as his, and bears sufficient marks of authenticity. By the favour of Mr. Joseph Cooper been paid, he considered them so absolutely the property of the purchaser, as to renounce all claim to them. He reckoned that he had written about forty sermons; but, except as to some, knew not in what hands they were. "I have," said he, "been paid for them, and have no right to inquire about them." This practice is of very doubtful propriety. In the case of an elective chapel, it might, as the Bishop Elrington observed to me, amount to an absolute fraud, as a person might be chosen for the merits of a sermon not written by himself. See antè, p. 82. — CROKER. 6 They have been reprinted by Mr. Malone, in the Preface to his edition of Shakspeare. - BOSWELL. 7 Langton, near Partney.-CROKER. 8 Hawkins, who first told this fact on Johnson's own authority, does not mention this latter and lower motive for Johnson's refusal. "It was," he says, "in a pleasant country, and of such yearly value, as might have tempted one in better circumstances, but he had scruples about the duties of the ministerial functions." "I have not," Johnson said, "the requisites for the office, and I cannot in conscience shear the flock which I am unable to feed." And Hawkins further informs us that about this period he was in circumstances more straitened than usual, and even his ordinary relaxation of his club failed him. "About the year 1756, time had produced a change in the situation of many of Johnson's friends, who were used to meet him in Ivy-lane. Death had taken from them M Ghie; Barker went to settle as a practising physician at Trowbridge; Dyer went abroad; Hawkesworth was busied in forming new connections; and I had lately made one that removed from me all temptations to pass my evenings from home. The consequence was, that our symposium at the King's Head broke up."- CROKER. Walker, of the Treasury, Dublin, I have obtained a copy of the following letter from Johnson to the venerable author of "Dissertations on the History of Ireland." JOHNSON TO CHS. O'CONNOR, ESQ. "London, April 9. 1757. "SIR,I have lately, by the favour of Mr. Faulkner, seen your account of Ireland, and cannot forbear to solicit a prosecution of your design. Sir William Temple complains that Ireland is less known than any other country, as to its ancient state. The natives have had little leisure, and little encouragement for inquiry; and strangers, not knowing the language, have had no ability. "I have long wished that the Irish literature were cultivated. Ireland is known by tradition to have been once the seat of piety and learning; and surely it would be very acceptable to all those who are curious either in the original of nations, or the affinities of languages, to be further informed of the revolution of a people so ancient, and once so illustrious. "What relation there is between the Welsh and Irish language, or between the language of Ireland and that of Biscay, deserves inquiry. Of these provincial and unextended tongues, it seldom happens that more than one are understood by any one man; and, therefore, it seldom happens that a fair comparison can be made. I hope you will continue to cultivate this kind of learning, which has too long lain neglected, and which, if it be suffered to remain in oblivion for another century, may, perhaps, never be retrieved. As I wish well to all useful undertakings, I would not forbear to let you know how much you deserve, in my opinion, from all lovers of study, and how much pleasure your work has given to, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." JOHNSON TO THOMAS WARTON. "[London,] June 21. 1757. “Dear Sir, — Dr. Marsili, of Padua, a learned gentleman, and good Latin poet, has a mind to see 1 Mr. Walker was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, author of the "Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards," an "Historical Memoir on Italian Tragedy," &c. He died in 1810. CROKER. Mr. Walker writes to me as follows:-"Perhaps it would gratify you to have some account of Mr. O'Connor. He is an amiable, learned, venerable old gentleman, of an independent fortune, who lives at Ballynegar, in the county of Roscommon: he is an admired writer, and member of the Irish Academy. The above letter is alluded to in the preface to the second edition of his Dissert.' p. 3." Mr. O'Connor afterwards died at the age of eighty-two, July 1. 1791. See a well-drawn character of him in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for August, 1791. BOSWELL. Of this gentleman, who died at his seat at Ballynegar, in the county of Roscommon, July, 1791, in his eighty-second year, some account may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine of that date. Of the Dissertations on the History of Ireland" a second and much improved edition was published In 1776. MALONE. See another letter from him, post, May 9. 1777. CROKER. 3 The celebrated orator, Mr. Flood, [who died, December, 1791] has shown himself to be of Dr. Johnson's opinion; having by his will bequeathed his estate, after the death of his wife, Lady Frances, to the University of Dublin; "desiring that immediately after the said estate shall come into their possession, they shall appoint two professors, one for the study of the native Erse or Irish Language, and the other for the study of Irish antiquities and Irish history, and for the study of any other European language illustrative of, or auxiliary to, the study of Irish antiquities or Irish history; Oxford. I have given him a letter to Dr. Huddesford, and shall be glad if you will introduce him, and shew him any thing in Oxford. "I am printing my new edition of Shakspeare. "I long to see you all, but cannot conveniently come yet. You might write to me now and then, if you were good for any thing. But honores mutant mores. Professors forget their friends. I shall certainly complain to Miss Jones I am, your, &c., SAM. JOHNSON." "Please to make my compliments to Mr. Wise. " JOHNSON TO [THOMAS WARTON.]* "Oct. 27. 1757. "DEAR SIR,I have been thinking and talking with Mr. Allen about some literary business for an plausibly proposed, but at present these may be inhabitant of Oxford. Many schemes might be sufficient. 1. An Ecclesiastical History of England. In this there are a great many materials This book must not exceed 4 vols. 8vo. which must be compressed into a narrow compass. 2. A History of the Reformation, (not of England only, but of Europe;) this must not exceed the same bulk, and will be full of and very entertaining. 3. The Life of Richard the First. 4. The Life of Edward the Confessor. "All these are works for which the requisite materials may be found at Oxford, and any of them well executed would be well received. I impart these designs to you in confidence, that what you do not make use of yourself shall revert to me uncommunicated to any other. The schemes of a writer are his property and his revenue, and therefore they must not be made common. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." JOHNSON TO BENNET LANGTON, Of Trinity College, Oxford. "Jan. 28. 1758.7 "DEAR SIR, Though I might have expected to hear from you, upon your entrance into a new state of life at a new place, yet recollecting (not without some degree of shame) that I owe you a letter and that they shall give yearly two liberal premiums for two compositions, one in verse, and the other in prose, in the Irish language."- BOSWELL. Since the above was written (May, 1793), Mr. Flood's will has been set aside, after a trial at bar, in the Court of Exchequer in Ireland. - MALONE 4 Mr. Warton was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in the preceding year. WARTON. 5 Miss Jones lived at Oxford, and was often of our parties. She was a very ingenious poetess, and published a volume of poems; and, on the whole, was a most sensible, agreeable, and amiable woman. She was sister to the Rev. River Jones, Chanter of Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford, and Johnson used to call her the Chantress. I have heard him often address her in this passage from "Il Penseroso :" "Thee, Chantress, oft the woods among I woo," &c. She died unmarried. WARTON. 6 This letter was found by Mr. Peter Cunningham, in the papers of Allen, the printer, and was intended, no doubt, for Thomas Warton, though, perhaps, from some change of opinion, not forwarded to him.-CROKER. 7 This letter is dated June 28. 1758, and so placed by Mr. Boswell; but this must be a mistake; for it is evidently written on Mr. Langton's entrance into college life; now Langton entered Trinity College, Oxford, 7th July, 1757, and no doubt began to reside in the following autumn, and we shall see in a subsequent letter dated June 1. 175%, that Langton had been already some time the pupil of Warton. The true date, therefore, of this letter, was, probably, January and not June. - CROKER, upon an old account, I think it my part to write first. This, indeed, I do not only from complaisance but from interest; for living on in the old way, I am very glad of a correspondent so capable as yourself to diversify the hours. You have, at present, too many novelties about you to need any help from me to drive along your time. censure from the public, or with objections learned from those who had learned them from my own preface. Yours is the only letter of good-will that I have received; though, indeed, I am promised something of that sort from Sweden. "How my new edition [of Shakspeare] will be received I know not; the subscription has not been very successful. I shall publish about March. If you can direct me how to send proposals, I should wish they were in such hands. "I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this "I remember, Sir, in some of the first letters kind of observation that we grow daily less liable with which you favoured me, you mentioned your to be disappointed. You, who are very capable of lady. May I inquire after ber? In return for the anticipating futurity, and raising phantoms before favours which you have shewn me, it is not much your own eyes, must often have imagined to your to tell you, that I wish you and her all that can self an academical life, and have conceived what conduce to your happiness. I am, Sir, your most would be the manners, the views, and the conversa-obliged and most humble servant, tion of men devoted to letters; how they would choose their companions, how they would direct their studies, and how they would regulate their lives. Let me know what you expected, and what you have found. At least record it to yourself, before custom has reconciled you to the scenes before you, and the disparity of your discoveries to your hopes has vanished from your mind. It is a rule never to be forgotten, that whatever strikes strongly, should be described while the first impression remains fresh upon the mind. "I love, dear Sir, to think on you, and therefore should willingly write more to you, but that the post will not now give me leave to do more than send my compliments to Mr. Warton, and tell you that I am, dear Sir, most affectionately, your very humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." Mr. Burney having enclosed to him an extract from the review of his Dictionary in the Bibliothèque des Savans [t. iii. p. 482.] and a list of subscribers to his Shakspeare, which Mr. Burney had procured in Norfolk, he wrote the following answer: — JOHNSON TO BURNEY, At Lynne, Norfolk. "Gough Square, Dec. 24. 1757. "SIR, That I may shew myself sensible of your favours, and not commit the same fault a second time, I make haste to answer the letter which I received this morning. The truth is, the other likewise was received, and I wrote an answer; but being desirous to transmit you some proposals and receipts, I waited till I could find a convenient conveyance, and day was passed after day, till other things drove it from my thoughts; yet not so, but that I remember with great pleasure your commendation of my Dictionary. Your praise was welcome, not only because I believe it was sincere, but because praise has been very scarce. A man of your candour will be surprised when I tell you, that among all my acquaintance there were only two, who upon the publication of my book did not endeavour to depress me with threats of Here Mr. Boswell had inserted a letter to Mr. Langton, dated, by mistake, June 9. 1758, which, from its internal evidence, clearly belongs to 1759, where it will be found. -CROKER. "SAM. JOHNSON." In 1758 we find him, it should seem, in as easy and pleasant a state of existence, as constitutional unhappiness ever permitted him to enjoy.' "I have sent you a bundle of proposals, 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 passages unexplained; where I am quite at loss, I confess my ignorance, which is seldom done by commentators. "I have likewise enclosed twelve receipts; not that I mean to impose upon you the trouble of pushing them with more importunity than may seem proper, but that you may rather have more than fewer than you shall want. The proposals you will disseminate as there shall be an opportunity. I once printed them at length in the Chronicle, and some of my friends (I believe Mr. Murphy, who formerly wrote the Gray's-Inn Journal) introduced them with a splendid encomium. "Since the Life of Brown, 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 send it. Do not buy them, for I will gather all those that have anything of mine in them, and send them to Mrs. Burney, as a small token of gratitude for the regard which she is pleased to bestow upon me. "I ain, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." 2 This letter was an answer to one, in which was enclosed a draft for the payment of some subscriptions to his Shakspeare.- BoSWELL. Dr. Burney has kindly favoured me with the following memorandum, which I take the liberty to insert in his own genuine easy style. I love to exhibit sketches of my illustrious friend by various eminent hands. "Soon after this, Mr. Burney, during a visit to the capital, had an interview with him in Gough Square, where he dined and drank tea with him, and was introduced to the acquaintance of Mrs. Williams. After dinner, Mr. Johnson proposed to Mr. Burney to go up with him into his garret, which being accepted, he there found about five or six Greek folios, a deal writing-desk, 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 history, and showed him some volumes of 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 seemed to be more severe on Warburton than Theobald. O poor Tib! (said Johnson) he was ready knocked down to my hands; Warburton stands between me and him.'-'But, Sir, (said 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 superior critic to Theobald?'-'O, Sir, he'd make twoand-fifty Theobalds, cut into slices! The worst of Warburton is, that he has a rage for saying something, when there's nothing to be said. Mr. Burney then asked him whether he had seen the letter which Warburton had written in answer to a pamphlet, addressed 'To the most impudent man alive.' He answered in the negative. Mr. Burney told him it was supposed to be written by Mallet. The controversy now raged between the friends of Pope and Bolingbroke; and Warburton and Mallet were the leaders of the several parties. Mr. Burney asked him then if he had seen Warburton's book against Bolingbroke's Philosophy? - 'No, Sir; I have never read Bolingbroke's impiety, and therefore am not interested about its confutation.'" 1 of this period of his life, Hawkins says, "The profits accruing from the sale of this paper, and the subscriptions which, from the year 1756, he was receiving for the edition of Shakspeare by him proposed, were the only known means of his subsistence for a period of near four years, and we may suppose them hardly adequate to his wants, for, upon finding the balance of the account for the Dictionary against him, he quitted his house in Gough Square, and took chambers in Gray's Inn; and Mrs. Williams, upon this removal, fixed herself in lodgings at a boarding-school, in the neighbourhood of their former dwelling." And Mr. Murphy tells us, that "he retired to Gray's Inn, and soon removed to chambers in the Inner Temple Lane, where he lived in poverty, total idleness, and the pride of literature. Mr. Fitzherbert (the father of Lord St. Helen's), a man distinguished through life for his 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 Universal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette," published by Newbery. These essays were continued till April 5. 1760. Of one hundred and three, their total number, twelve were contributed by his friends; of which, Nos. 33. 93. and 96. were written by Mr. Thomas Warton; No. 67. by Mr. Langton; and Nos. 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 same mind which produced the Rambler, but has less body and more spirit. It has more variety of real life, and greater facility of language. He describes the miseries of idleness, with the lively sensations of one who has felt them; and in his private memorandums while engaged in it, we find, "This year I hope to learn diligence." [Pr. and Med., p. 30.] Many of these excellent essays were written as hastily as an ordinary letter. Mr. Langton remembers Johnson, when on a visit to Oxford, asking him one evening how long it was till the post went out; and on being told about half an hour, he exclaimed, "then we shall do very well." He upon this instantly sat down and finished an Idler, which it was necessary should be in London the next day. Mr. Langton having signified a wish to read it, "Sir, (said he) you shall not do more than I have done myself." He then folded it up and sent it off. Yet there are in the Idler several papers which show 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. Domestic greatness unattainable;" No. 52. 'Self-denial;" No. 58. " Actual, how short of 66 benevolence and other amiable qualities, used to say, that be paid a morning visit to Johnson, intending from his chambers to send a letter into the city; but, to his great surprise, he found an author by profession without pen, ink, or paper. The present Bishop of Salisbury [Douglas] was also among those who endeavoured, by constant attention, to soothe the cares of a mind which he knew to be afflicted with gloomy apprehensions."-CROKER. This is a slight mistake. The first number of * The Idler" appeared on the 15th of April, 1758, in No. 2. of the Universal Chronicle, &c., which was published by J. Payne for whom also the Rambler had been printed. On the th of April this newspaper assumed the title of " Payne's Universal Chronicle," &c. - MALONE. |