20. The folly and inconvenience of affectation.. 21. The anxieties of literature not less than those of publick sta- 23. The contrariety of criticism. The vanity of objection. An authour obliged to depend upon his own judgment..... 111 24. The necessity of attending to the duties of common life. -26. The mischief of extravagance, and misery of dependance.. 124 30. The observance of Sunday recommended; an allegory.. 31. The defence of a known mistake highly culpable... 32. The vanity of stoicism. The necessity of patience...... 42. The misery of a modish lady in solitude... 43. The inconveniencies of precipitation and confidence. 44. Religion and superstition, a vision.. 45. The causes of disagreement in marriage... 46. The mischiefs of rural faction.... 47. The proper means of regulating sorrow.. 48. The miseries of an infirm constitution · · 49. A disquisition upon the value of fame 76. The arts by which bad men are reconciled to themselves.. 352 77. The learned seldom despised but when they deserve contempt 356 78. The power of novelty. Mortality too familiar to raise appre- 103. The prevalence of curiosity. The character of Nugaculus. 481 104. The original of flattery. The meanness of venal praise.... 486 105. The universal register, a dream. 106. The vanity of an authour's expectations. Reasons why good ..authours are sometimes neglected... 107. Properantia's hopes of a year of confusion. The misery of AN ESSAY ON THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. WHEN the works of a great Writer, who has bequeathed to posterity a lasting legacy, are presented to the world, it is naturally expected that some account of his life should accompany the edition. The Reader wishes to know as much as possible of the Author. The circumstances that attended him, the features of his private character, his conversation, and the means by which he rose to eminence, become the favourite objects of inquiry. Curiosity is excited; and the admirer of his works is eager to know his private opinions, his course of study, the particularities of his conduct, and, above all, whether he pursued the wisdom which he recommends, and practised the virtue which his writings inspire. A principle of gratitude is awakened in every generous mind. For the entertainment and instruction which genius and diligence have provided for the world, men of refined and sensible tempers are ready to pay their tribute of praise, and even to form a posthumous friendship with the author. In reviewing the life of such a writer, there is, besides, a rule of justice to which the public have an undoubted claim. Fond admiration and partial friendship should not be suffered to represent his virtues with exaggeration; nor should malignity be allowed, under a specious disguise, to magnify mere defects, the usual failings of human nature, into vice or gross deformity. The lights and shades b VOL. I. of the character should be given; and if this be done with a strict regard to truth, a just estimate of Dr. Johnson will afford a lesson perhaps as valuable as the moral doctrine that speaks with energy in every page of his works. The present writer enjoyed the conversation and friendship of that excellent man more than thirty years. He thought it an honour to be so connected, and to this hour he reflects on his loss with regret: but regret, he knows, has secret bribes, by which the judgment may be influenced, and partial affection may be carried beyond the bounds of truth. In the present case, however, nothing needs to be disguised, and exaggerated praise is unnecessary. It is an observation of the younger Pliny, in his Epistle to his friend Tacitus, that history ought never to magnify matters of fact, because worthy actions require nothing but the truth. Nam nec historia debet egredi veritatem, et honestè factis veritas sufficit. This rule the present biographer promises shall guide his pen throughout the following narrative. It may be said, the death of Dr. Johnson kept the public mind in agitation beyond all former example. No literary character ever excited so much attention; and, when the press has teemed with anecdotes, apophthegms, essays, and publications of every kind, what occasion now for a new tract on the same threadbare subject? The plain truth shall be the answer. The proprietors of Johnson's Works thought the life, which they prefixed to their former edition, too unwieldy for republication. The prodigious variety of foreign matter, introduced into that performance, seemed to overload the memory of Dr. Johnson, and in the account of his own life to leave him hardly visible. They wished to have a more concise, and, for that reason, perhaps, a more satisfactory account, such as may exhibit a just picture of the man, and keep him the principal figure in the fore-ground of his own picture. To comply with that request is the design of this essay, which the writer undertakes with a trembling hand. He has no discoveries, no secret anecdotes, no occasional con |