THE L I F F E OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. COMPREHENDING AN'ACCOUNT OF HIS STUDIES, AND NUMEROUS WORKS, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER; A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS; AND VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED: THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND LITERARY DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED. LONDON: MDCCCIV. THE L I F E OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. was a Having left Ashburne in the evening, we stopped to change horses at Derby, and availed ourselves of a moment to enjoy the conversation of my countryman, Dr. Butter, then physician there. He in great indignation because Lord Mountstuart's bill for a Scotch militia had been lost. Dr. Johnson was as violent against it. “I am glad, (said he,) ) that Parliament has had the spirit to throw it out. You wanted to take advantage of the timidity of our - scoundrels ; (meaning, I suppose, the ministry.) It · may be observed, that he used the epithet scoundrel very commonly not quite in the sense in which it is generally understood, but as a strong term of disapprobation; as when he abruptly answered Mrs. Thrale, who had asked him how he did, “ Ready to become a scoundrel, Madam ; with a little more spoiling you will, I think, make me 2 complete rascal :”-he meant, easy to become a |