lation of Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia. In Feb. 1784, he returned to his native city, and in August following published proposals for printing the Latin Poems of Politian; but this prospect failed for want of encouragement.

Our author's next expedient was to offer his assistance under a feigned name, to Cave, the projector of the Gentleman's Magazine. His proposals were accepted, and he was retained as a correspondent and contributor to the Magazine. In 1735, he made overtures to the Rev. Mr. Budworth, master of a grammar-school at Brerewood, in Staffordshire, to become his assistant; but this proposition did not succeed. Another mode of advancement presented itself about this time. Mrs. Porter, the widow of a mercer in Birmingham, admired his talents. She had about 8001. and that sum, to a person in Johnson's circumstances, was an affluent fortune. A marriage took place; and he soon afterwards projected the scheme of an academy for education at Edial, near Litchfield. The celebrated Garrick, then about eighteen, was placed in the new seminary. An accession of seven or eight pupils was the most that could be obtained; and the undertaking consequently proved abortive.

Johnson, having now abandoned all hopes of promoting his fortune in the country, determined to become an adventurer in the world at large.... Young Garrick had formed the same resolution; and in March 1737, they arrived in London together. Their stock of money was soon exhausted. In three or four years afterward, Garrick came forth with talents that astonished the public. He chose a lucrative profession, and soon emerged from all his difficulties: but Johnson was left to

toil in the humble walks of literature. His tragedy of Irene was the whole of his stock: it was offered to Fleetwood, and rejected. He now made himself known to Cave, and became connected with him in business, and in a close and intimate acquaintance. Cave was his first and most useful patron. About this time commenced his intimacy with the well-known Richard Savage.

In 1738 he published his admirable poem called London; and in August of that year offered himself a candidate for the mastership of a school at Appleby, in Leicestershire; but this scheme miscarried. Johnson was now thrown back on the metropolis. Bred to no profession, without relations, friends, or interest, he was condemned to drudgery in the service of Cave, his only patron. With a mind naturally vigorous, and quickened by necessity, he formed a multiplicity of projects; but most of them failed. A number of small tracts now issued from his pen with wonderful rapidity....It is a mortifying reflection, that Johnson, with a store of learning and extraordinary talents, was not able at the age of thirty, to force his way to the favour of the public. Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd. "He was still," as he says himself, " to provide for "the day that was passing over him." In November, 1740, he began to compile the parliamentary speeches for the Magazines, and continued them till February, 1742-3. In 1743-4, he was employed in the painful drudgery of making the catalogue of the Earl of Oxford's library, and in compiling the Harleian Miscellany. In 1744, he published the Life of Savage; and then projected a new edition of Shakspeare. But the attention of the public was not excited, there was no friend to promote a sub

scription; and the project died, to revive at a future day.

A new undertaking, however, was soon after proposed....An English Dictionary, upon an enlarged plan. Several opulent booksellers had meditated a work of this kind; and the agreement was soon adjusted between the parties. Johnson had hitherto lodged with his wife in courts and alleys about the Strand; but now, for the purpose of carrying on his arduous undertaking, and to be near his printer and friend, Mr. Strahan, he ventured to take a house in Gough-square, Fleet-street.

In 1747, the playhouse being under Garrick's direction, Johnson thought of his tragedy. It was put in rehearsal in Jan. 1749; and to awaken the public attention, the Vanity of Human Wishes was published the same month. Irene was acted on the 6th of February, and on the twelve following nights; since which time it has not been acted on any stage. He was now forty years old; his fame was widely diffused; and he had made his agreement with the booksellers for his Dictionary, at 1500 guineas; part of which was to be advanced in proportion to the progress of the work. He now established a weekly club in Ivy-lane; and this is the first scene of social life to which Johnson can be traced out of his own home. At this time he had projected the He communicated his plan to none of his friends; he desired no assistance, relying entirely on his own fund and the protection of the Divine Being, which he implored in a solemn form of prayer, composed for the occasion. The first number was published, March 20, 1750; and the last, March 14, 1752.

RAMBLER.

In 1750, one Lauder pretended that he had detected a multitude of plagiarisms in Milton: Johnson in common with many others, was induced to give credit to his assertions, and wrote a preface to Lauder's book. The arts of this impostor were at length detected. Johnson then renounced all connection with him, and drew up a recantation, in a letter to Dr. Douglas, which Lauder signed; and it was published in 1751.

On the 28th of March, 1752, Johnson felt a severe stroke of affliction in the death of his wife.... Mrs. Johnson left a daughter [Lucy Porter] by her first husband. She had contracted a friendship with Mrs. Anne Williams, daughter of Zachary Williams, a physician of eminence in South Wales.... This lady possessed uncommon talents, and though blind, had an alacrity of mind that made her conversation desirable. To relieve melancholy reflections, Johnson took her home to his house in Gough-square. Garrick gave her a benefit-play, which produced 2001. a volume of Miscellanies increased her stock to 3001. and this fund, with Johnson's protection, supported her through the remainder of her life.

While the Rambler was carried on, the Diction❤ ary proceeded slowly. In May 1752, having composed a prayer preparatory to his return from tears and sorrow to the duties of life, he resumed his grand design, and went on with vigour; giving however occasional assistance to his friend Dr. Hawkesworth in the Adventurer, which began soon after the Rambler was laid aside. The Dictionary was completed towards the end of 1754, and was published in May, 1755. Johnson was desirous

that it should come from one who had obtained academical honours; and his friend, the Rev. T. Warton, had obtained for him, in February, a diploma for a master's degree from Oxford.

His mind, at this time strained and over-laboured by constant exertion, called for an interval of repose and indolence, but indolence was the time of danger: it was then that his spirits, not employ ed abroad, turned with inward hostility against himself. His reflections on his own life and conduct were always severe; and, wishing to be immaculate, he destroyed his own peace by unnecessary scruples. He tells us, that when he surveyed his past life, he discovered nothing but a barren waste of time, with some disorders of body and disturbances of mind, very near to madness. His life, he says, from his earliest years, was wasted in a morning bed; and his reigning sin was a general sluggishness, to which he was always inclined, and, in part of his life, almost compelled, by morbid melancholy and weariness of mind. This was his constitutional malady, derived, perhaps, from his father, who was, at times, overcast with a gloom that bordered on insanity: when to this it is added, that Johnson, about the age of twenty, drew up a description of his infirmities for Dr. Swinfen, at that time an eminent physician in Staffordshire; and received an answer to his letter, importing that the symptoms indicated a future privation of reason; who can wonder that he was troubled with melancholy and dejection of spirit! An apprehension of the worst calamity that can befal human nature hung over him all the rest of his life, like the sword of the tyrant suspended over his guest.