till I am solitary, and cannot impart it: till I am known, and do not want it." Lord Chesterfield is said to have concealed his feelings on this occasion with his usual art, conscious perhaps that they were not to be envied.

In 1755, the degree of master of arts was conferred upon him by the university of Oxford, after which (in May) his Dictionary was published in two large volumes folio. Of a work so well known, it is unnecessary to say more in this place, than that after the lapse of half a century, neither envy has injured, nor industry rivaled its usefulness or popularity.

In the following year, he abridged his Dictionary into an octavo size, and en gaged to superintend a monthly publication entitled the Literary Magazine, or Universal Register. To this he contributed a great many articles enumerated by Mr. Boswell, and several reviews of new books. The most celebrated of his reviews, and one of most his finished compositions, both in point of style, argument and wit, was that of Soame Jenyns's Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil. This attracted so much notice that the bookseller was encouraged to publish it separately, and two editions were rapidly sold. The Magazine continued about two years, after which it was dropt for want of encouragement. He wrote also, in 1756, some essays in the Universal Visitor, another magazine which lasted only a year. His friend Cave died in 1754, and, for whatever reason, Johnson's regular contributions appear no more in the Gentleman's Magazine. But he wrote a very elegant life of Cave, and was afterwards an occasional contributor. This, it would appear, was one of his worst years as to pecuniary matters. find him, in the month of March, arrested for the sum of five pounds eighteen shillings, and relieved by Mr. Richardson. His proposal for an edition of Shakspeare was again revived, and subscription tickets issued out, but it did not go to press for many years after.

We

In 1758, the worthy John Newbery, bookseller, who frequently employed Johnson in his literary progress, began a newspaper called the Universal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette, in conjunction with Mr. John Payne. To give it an air of novelty, Johnson was engaged to write a short periodical paper, which he eutitled The Idler. Most of these papers were written in haste, in various places where he happened to be on the eve of publication, and with very little preparation. A few of them express the train of thought which prevails in the Rambler; but in general they have more vivacity, and exhibit a species of grave humour in which Johnson excelled. When the Universal Chronicle was discontinued, these papers were collected into two small volumes, which he corrected for the press, making a few alterations, and omitting one whole paper which has since been restored.

No. 41 of the Idler alludes to the death of his mother, which took place in 1759 he had ever loved her with anxious affection 4, and had contributed to her support, often when he knew not where to recruit his finances. On this event, he wrote his Rasselas, with a view to raise a sum sufficient to defray the expenses of her funeral, and pay some little debts she had left. His mind appears to have been powerfully excited and enriched both with the subject and the

* See his very tender letters on this subject, in Boswell's Life, vol. i. p, 315, et seq. which are thus particularly referred to, as they are to be found only in the edition of 1807. C.

motive; for he wrote the whole of this elegant and philosophical fiction during the evenings of one week, and sent it to press in portions as it was written. He received one hundred pounds from Messrs. Strahan, Johnston, and Dodsley, for the copy, and twenty-five more when it came, as it soon did, to a second edition. Few works of the kind have been more generally or more extensively diffused by means of translation. Yet the author, perhaps from the pain he felt in recol lecting the melancholy occasion which called forth his pen, appears to have dismissed it with some degree of indifference, as soon as published; for from that time to the year 1781, when he found it accidentally in a chaise, while travelling with Mr. Boswell, he declared he had never looked into it. His translation of Lobo probably suggested his placing the scene in Abyssinia; but there is a little starce volume, unnoticed by his biographers, from which I suspect he took some hints. It is entitled The late Travels of S. Giacomo Baratti, an Italian Gentle man, into the remotest Countries of the Abyssins, or of Ethiopia Interior. 12mo. Lond. 1670.

Among his occasional productions about this time, were his translation of a Dis. sertation on the Greek Comedy, for Mrs. Lennox's English version of Brumoy, the general Conclusion of the book; and an Introduction to the World Displayed, a collection of voyages and travels, projected by his friend Newbery.-When a new bridge was about to be built over the Thames at Blackfriars, he wrote some papers against the plan of the architect, Mr. Mylne. His principal motive ap pears to have been his friendship for Mr. Gwyn, who had given in a plan, and probably he only clothed Gwyn's arguments in his own stately language. Such a contest was certainly not within his province, and he could derive little other advantage than the pleasure of serving his friend. He appeared more in character when he assisted his contemporaries with prefaces and dedications, which were very frequently solicited from him. Poor as he was at this time, he taught how dedications might be written without servile submission or flattery, and yet with all the courtesy, compliment and elegance, which a liberal mind could expect.

But an end was now approaching to his pecuniary embarrassments. In 1762, while he was proceeding with his edition of Shakspeare, he was surprised by the information that his present majesty had been pleased to grant him a pension of three hundred pounds a year, not, as has been invidiously asserted, in order to induce him to write for administration, but as the reward of his literary merit. Had it been otherwise, he had surely the strongest inducement to have exerted his ta lents in favour of lord Bute, by whose recommendation the pension was granted, and who at this time wanted much abler support than the hired writers of government could supply. But it is well known that he wrote no political tract for nearly eight years afterwards. He now took a house in Johnson's court, Fleetstreet, and allotted an apartment for Mrs. Williams. In 1765, he was introduced to the late Mr. Thrale and family, a circumstance which contributed much to alleviate the solicitudes of life, and furnished him with the enjoyment of an elegant table, and elegant society. Here an apartment was fitted up for him, which he occupied when he pleased, and he accompanied the family in their various summer excur sions, which tended to exhilarate his mind, and render the return of his constitutional melancholy less frequent.