furmises, or threats of either foolish or wicked men, is the worst of all flavery: of him who cannot defy every attempt of this kind to difturb his peace, but must be whining and complaining of that enmity which, perhaps, does him honour, and fcribbling to refute thofe calumnies which no one will believe, it may be faid, as we fay of a man labouring under a mortal disease: He is no man for this world.' If he chooses a contrary course to that above recommended, he does the work of those that hate him, and will be fure to feel the pangs of refentment, and forego the enjoyment of a tranquil mind, and a confcience void of offence, fo feelingly defcribed in this fentence of lord Bacon: Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in Charity, reft in Providence, and turn upon the poles of Truth.'

If Johnson could ever be faid to be idle, now was the time. He had, for nine years, been employed in his great work, and had finished it: he had closed the Rambler; and the Adventurer was clofed on him. He had it now in his choice to reaffume fome one or other of thofe various literary projects, which he had formed in the early part of his life, and are enumerated in a foregoing page of thefe memoirs; but the powers of his mind, diftended by long and fevere exercise, became relaxed, and required reft to bring them to their tone, and it was fome time before he could refolve on any employment, fuited to his abilities, that carried with it any profpect of pleasure, or hope of reward. This remiffion of his labour, which feemed to be no more than nature herself called for, Johnson, in those fevere audits to which

it

it was his practice to fummon himself, would frequently condemn, ftyling it a waste of his time, and a mifapplication of the talents with which he was gratefully confcious that God had endowed him. Yet herein was he greatly mistaken; for though Milton fays of the fervants of God,

thousands at his bidding speed,

'And post o'er land and ocean without rest;'

he adds, that

'They also serve who only ftand and wait,'

Sonnet on his blindness.

Johnson's intellectual faculties could never be unemployed when he was not writing he was thinking, and his thoughts had ever a tendency to the good of mankind; and that indolence, which, in his hours of contrition, he cenfured as criminal, needed little expiation.

This recefs from literary occupation continued, however, no longer than was abfolutely neceffary. It has already been fhewn, that he was not only a friend to fuch vehicles of literary intelligence as Magazines and other epitomes of large works, but that he was a frequent contributor to them. He had occafionally, for Cave's Magazine, written the lives of Father Paul Sarpi, Boerhaave, the admirals Drake and Blake, Barretier, and divers other eminent perfons; and alfo, fundry philological effays, particularly a state of the controverfy between Croufaz and Warburton refpecting the 'Effay on Man,' and a vifion intitled The Apotheofis of Milton.' Cave,

being now dead, he ceafed to furnish articles for that publication, and either voluntarily offered, or fuffered himself to be retained as a writer in others of a like kind accordingly, in 1756, he wrote for The Univerfal Visitor, or Monthly Memorialist,' printed for Gardner *, two of three letters therein inferted, on the fubject of agriculture; and in the fame and fubfequent year he affumed or fubmitted to the office of a reviewer, as it is called, for the publisher of a monthly collection, intituled, The Literary Magazine,' of which one Faden, a printer, was the editor. In this he wrote the addrefs to the public; also, reviews of the following books, viz. Soame Jenyns's free enquiry into the nature and origin of evil; Dr. Blackwell's Memoirs of the court of Auguftus; he wrote also therein, Obfervations on the state of affairs in 1756, and the Life of the prefent king of Pruffia; and, Hanway's journal coming in his way, which contained in it a fevere cenfure of the practice of tea-drinking, he officially, as I may fay, and with a degree of alacrity proportioned to his avowed love of that liquor, undertook to criticise the book, and refute the arguments of the author.

To render this controverfy intelligible, it is neceffary Ifhould state the grounds on which it proceeded.--Mr. Jonas Hanway had, in the year 1755, undertaken and performed a journey from Portfmouth to Kingston upon Thames, through Southampton, Wiltshire, &c. which, though completed in the space of eight days,

The writers in this publication were, Chriftopher Smart, Richard Rolt, Mr. Garrick, and Dr. Percy, now bishop of Dro more. Their papers are figned with the initals of their furnames ; Johnfon's have this mark *

and

and attended with no extraordinary circumstances, was, it feems, in his judgment, worthy of being recorded, and, by means of the prefs, tranfmitted to pofterity; and accordingly he gave a relation of it to the public, in two octavo volumes. It may be needless to fay, that this work abounds with mifcellaneous thoughts, moral and religious,and alfo political reflections; for of which of all his numerous productions cannot the fame be faid? Connected with it is An Effay on Tea, confidered as pernicious to health, obstructing industry, and impoverishing the nation, with an account of its growth, and great confump'tion in these kingdoms *.'

As I do not mean to follow this author in the courfe of an argument conducted in no method, interrupted by a redundancy of foreign matter, and which violates every rule in logic, I fhall content myself with remarking, that though every one of his

three

Mr. Hanway feems not very accurate in his ftate of the time when tea was first brought into England. He fays, that lord Arlington and lord Offory introduced it in 1666, and that it was then admired as a new thing. Waller has a poem addressed to the queen, Maria d'Efte, wife of James II. in 1683, On tea com'mended by her Majefty,' whereby it feems, that even then it was a new thing.

6

It is a queftion of fome curiofity, and worthy investigation, what were the viands of a morning meal with people of condition, for which tea with its concomitants is now the fubstitute; and I am glad to be able to refolve it by the following extract from the Northum berland houfhold book, in which are contained the regulations and establishment of the houshold of Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth earl of Northumberland, at his caftles of Wrefill and Leckinfield in Yorkshire, begun anno Domini 1512.

Breakfaftis for FLESH DAYS.

Braikfaftis for my Lorde and my Lady.

Furft, a loof of brede in trenchors, 2 mauchetts, 1 quart

A a

· of

three affertions may be true, he has fucceeded in the proof of no one of them. That tea is a luxury, and not a fit aliment for the poor, is implied in a sarcasm of Swift to this purpose, that the world must be encompaffed, that is to fay, by a voyage to the East Indies for tea, and another to the Weft for fugar, before a washerwoman can fit down to breakfast. That it is pernicious to health is difputed by phyficians: Quincy commends it, as an elegant and wholefome beverage; Cheyne condemns it, as prejudicial to the nervous fyftem. Bishop Burnet, for many

of bere, a quart of wine, half a chyne of mutton, or ells a chyne ⚫ of beif boiled.

Braikfaftis for the Nurcy, for my Lady Margaret,
and Mr. Yngram Percy.

Item, a manchet, 1 quarte of bere, and 3 muton bonys • boiled.

• Braikfaftis for my Ladys Gentylwomen.

Item, a loif of houfhold breid, a pottell of beire, and 3 'muton bonys boyled, or ells a pece of beif boiled.

Furft, a loif of brede in trenchors, 2 manchets, a quart of bere, a quart of wyne, 2 pecys of faltfisch, 6 baconn'd herring, 4 white herring or a dyfche of fproits.

• Braik fafte for the Nurcy, for my Lady Margaret,
and Maifter Ingeram Percy.

Item, a manchet, a quarte of bere, a dyfch of butter, a pece of faltfifch, a difch of fproits, or 3 white heriying.

Braikfafte for my Ladis Gentyllwomen.

Item, a loof of brede, a pottell of bere, a pece of faltfifche, or 3 white herrynge.'

years,