THE

LI 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
MEN IN GREAT-BRITAIN, FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY

DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR T, CADELL AND W. DAVIES, IN THE STRAND,

MDCCCIV.

THE

LIFE

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL D.

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 was 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 a complete rascal :'"-he meant, easy to become a