life miferable, from the impoffibility he found of making theirs happy; when every favour he bestowed on one, was wormwood to the reft. If, however, I ventured to blame their ingratitude, and condemn their conduct, he would inftantly fet about foftening the one, and justifying the other; and finished commonly by telling me, that I knew not to make allowances for fituations I never experienced :

To thee no reason, who know'ft only good,
But evil haft not try❜d.

Milton."

In 1777, the fate of Dr. Dodd excited Johnson's compaffion, and called forth the ftrenuous exertion of his vaft comprehenfive mind. He thought his sentence just ; yet, perhaps, fearing that religion might fuffer from the errors of one of its minifters, he endeavoured to prevent the last ignominious fpectacle. He wrote for that unhappy man, his Speech to the Recorder of

London, at the Old Bailey, when the fentence of death was about to be pronounced upon him; The Convict's Addrefs to his unhappy Brethren, a fermon delivered by him in the chapel of Newgate; two Letters, one to Lord Chancellor Bathurft, and one to Lord Mansfield; A Petition from Dr. Dodd to the King; A Petition from Mrs. Dodd to the Queen; Obfervations in the newspapers on occafion of Earl Percy's having prefented a petition for mercy to Dodd, figned by twenty thousand people; A Petition from the City of London; and Dr. Dodd's Laft Solemn Declaration, which he left with the sheriff at the place of execution,

In the fummer, he wrote a Prologue to Kelly's comedy of " A Word to the Wife,' acted at Covent-Garden Theatre, for one night, for the benefit of the author's widow and children. He alfo made fome additions to the life of Bishop Pearce (who affifted him with fome etymologies in the

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compilation of his Dictionary), prefixed to his pofthumous works, in 2 vols. 4to, and wrote the Dedication to the King.

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This year he engaged to write a concife account of the Lives of the English Poets, whofe works were inferted in an edition undertaken by the London bookfellers, at that time, in oppofition to the edition of the" British Poets," printing by the Martins at Edinburgh, and to be fold by Mr. Bell in London. As a recompence for an undertaking, as he thought, not very tedious or difficult," he bargained for two hundred guineas; and was afterwards prefented by the proprietors with one hundred pounds. His defign was only to have allotted to every poet an Advertisement, like that which we find in the French mifcellanies, containing a few dates, and a general character, which would have conferred not much reputation upon the writer, nor have communicated much information to

his readers. Happily for both, "the honeft defire of giving useful pleasure," led him beyond his first intention. In executing this limited defign, he found his attention fo much engaged, that he enlarged his fcheme, and entered more fully into the merits and value of the principal writers; and produced an ample, rich, and entertaining view of them in every respect. The first four volumes of this work were published in 1779, under the title of Biographical and Critical Prefaces, and the remaining five in 1781. "Some time in March," he fays, in his Meditations, "I finished the Lives of the Poets, which I wrote in my ufual way, dilatorily and haftily; unwilling to work, and working with vigour and hafte." In a 'memorandum previous to this, he fays of them: Written, I hope, in fuch a manner, as may tend to the promotion of piety."

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In the felection of the poets he had no refponfible concern; but Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden, were inferted by his recommendation; and Mr. Nichols tells us, he was frequently confulted during the printing of the collection, and revised many of the fheets.

This was the laft of Johnfon's literary làbours; and though completed when he was in his feventy-firft year, fhows that his faculties were in as vigorous a ftate as ever. His judgment and his tafte, his quickness in the difcrimination of motives, and facility of moral reflection, shine as strongly in these narratives, as in any of his more early performances; and his style, if not fo energetic, is at least more smoothed down to the taste of the generality of critical objectors.

The Lives of the English Poets formed a memorable era in Johnfon's life. It is a work which has contributed to immor