terruption every Tuesday and Friday till the 17th of March 1752, when it closed. In carrying on this periodical publication he seems neither to have courted, nor to have met with much assistance; the papers contributed by others amounting only to five in number. These admirable essays we are told by Mr. Boswell, were written in haste, just as they were wanted for the press, without ever being read over by him before they were printed. The Rambler was not successful as a periodical work, not more than five hundred copies of any one number having been ever sold. Soon after the first folio edition was concluded, it was published in four octavo volumes, and the author lived to see a just tribute of approbation paid to its merit in the extensiveness of its sale, ten numerous editions of it having been printed in London, before his death, besides those in Ireland and Scotland.

Sir John Hawkins relates that in the spring of 1751, he indulged himself in a frolic of midnight revelling. This was to celebrate the birth-day of Mrs. Lennox's first literary child, the novel of Harriet Stuart.' He drew the members of the Ivy Lane club, and others, to the number of twenty, to the Devil tavern, where Mrs. Lennox and her husband met them. Johnson, after an invocation of the muses, and some other ceremonies of his own invention, invested the authoress with a laurel crown. The festivity was protracted till morning, and Johnson throughout the night was a Bacchanalian without the use of wine..

Though his circumstances at that time were far from being easy; he received as a constant visitor at his house, Miss Anna Williams, daughter of a Welsh physician, and a woman of more than ordinary talents and literature, who had just lost her sight. She

had contracted a close intimacy with his wife, and after her death she had an apartment from him at all times when he had a house. In 1755, Garrick gave her a benefit which produced 2001. She afterwards published a quarto volume of miscellanies, and thereby increased her little stock to 3001. This, and Johnson's protection supported her during the rest of her life.

In 1752 he lost his wife, after a cohabitation of seventeen years, and in this melancholy event felt the most poignant distress. In the interval between her death and burial he composed a funeral sermon for her which was never preached, but being given to a friend, it has been published since his death. The following authentic and artless account of his situation after his wife's death was given to Mr. Boswell, by Francis Barber, his faithful negro-servant, who was brought from Jamaica by Colonel Bathurst, father of his friend Doctor Bathurst, and came into the family about a week after the dismal event,

He was in great affliction, Miss Williams was then living in his house, which was in Gough Square. He was busy with his dictionary; Mr. Shiels and some others of the gentlemen who had written for him, used to come about him. He had then little for himself, but frequently sent money to Mr. Shiels when in distress. The friends who vited him at that time were chiefly Dr. Bathurst, and Mr. Diamond, an apothecary in Cork Street, Burlington Gardens, with whom he and Miss Williams generally dined every Sunday. There were also Mr. Cave, Dr. Hawkesworth, Mrs. Masters, the poetess who lived with Mr. Cave, Mrs. Carter, and sometimes Mrs. Macaulay; Mr. (afterwards Sir Joshua) Reynolds, Mr. Millar, Mr. Dodsley, Mr. Payne, Mr. Strahan, the Earl of

Orrery, Lord Southwell and Mr. Garrick.' Johnson seems to have sought a remedy for the deprivation of domestic society in the loss of his wife, in the company of this circle of his acquaintance, who conceived for him the most sincere veneration and esteem.

Soon after the Rambler ceased, Dr. Hawkesworth projected the Adventurer, in conjunction with Bonnel Thornton, Dr. Bathurst, and others. The first number was published 7th November, 1752, and the paper continued twice a week till March 9th, 1754. Thornton's assistance was soon withdrawn, and he set up a new paper in conjunction with Colman called the Connoisseur. Johnson was zealous for the success of the Adventurer, which was at first rather more popular than the Rambler. He engaged the assistance of Dr. Warton, whose admirable essays were well known. Johnson began to write in the Adventurer April 16th, 1753, marking his papers with the signature T. His price was two guineas for each paper. Of all the papers he wrote he gave both the fame and the profit to Dr. Bathurst. Indeed the latter wrote them, while Johnson dictated; tho' he considered it as a point of honour not to own them. He even used to say he did not write them, on the pretext that he dictated them only, allowing himself by this casuistry to be accessary to the propagation of falsehood, though his conscience had been hurt by even the appearance of imposition in writing the Parliamentary Debates. This year he wrote for Mrs. Lennox the Dedication to the Earl of Orrery,' of her Shakespeare illustrated, in two volumes 12mo.

The death of Mr. Cave, January the 10th, 1754, afforded Johnson an opportunity of shewing his regard for his early patron by writing his life, which was published in the Gentleman's Magazine for Fe

bruary in the end of July he found leisure to make an excursion to Oxford for the purpose of consulting the libraries there. He stayed,' says Mr. Warton, ' about five weeks, but he did not collect any thing in the libraries for his dictionary.'

As the arduous work of the dictionary drew towards a conclusion, Lord Chesterfield, who had treated Johnson with great contempt, now meanly condescended to court a reconciliation with him, in hopes of being immortalized in a dedication. With this view he wrote two essays in the "World," in praise of the dictionary, and, according to Sir John Hawkins, sent Sir Thomas Robinson to him for the same purpose. But Johnson rejected the advances of the noble Lord, and spurned his proffered patronage, in the following letter, which is worthy of being preserved, as it affords the noblest lesson to both patrons and authors that stands upon record in the annals of literary history.

I have been lately informed by the proprietor of the "World," that two papers in which my dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your Lordship. To be distinguished is an honour, which being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.

When upon some slight encouragement I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered like the rest of mankind by your address, and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainquieur du vainquier de la terre, that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your lordship in public, I had ex

hausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

'Seven years, my Lord, have now passed, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties of which it is useless to complain, and have brought is at last to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before.

The Shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.

Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent and cannot enjoy it, till I am known and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity, not to confess obligations, where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as owing that to a patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.

'Having carried on my work thus far, with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long awakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation.

My Lord, your's, &c. &c. Johnson however acknowledged, to a friend, that he once received ten pounds from Lord Chesterfield;