"I have been long wakened from that dream "of hope, in which I once boasted myself with "so much exultation, "MY LORD, "Your Lordship's most humble It is said, upon good authority, that Johnson once received from Lord Chesterfield the sum of ten pounds. It were to be wished that the secret had never transpired. It was mean to receive it, and meaner to give it. It may be imagined, that for Johnson's ferocity, as it has been called, there was some foundation in his finances; and, as his Dictionary was brought to a conclusion, that money was now to flow in upon him. The reverse was the case. For his subsistence, during the progress of the work, he had received at different times the amount of his contract; and when his receipts were produced to him at a tavern dinner, given by the booksellers, it appeared, that he had been paid a hundred pounds and upwards more than his due. The author of a book, called Lexiphanes*, written by a Mr. Campbell, a Scotchman, and purser of a man of war, endeavoured to blast his laurels, but in vain. The world plauded, and Johnson never replied. "Abuse," he said," is often of service: there is nothing "so dangerous to an author as silence; his ap * This work was not published until the year 1767, when Dr. Johnson's Dictionary was fully established in reputation. ር. 66 name, like a shuttlecock, must be beat back"ward and forward, or it falls to the ground." Lexiphanes professed to be an imitation of the pleasant manner of Lucian; but humour was not the talent of the writer of Lexiphanes. As Dryden says," He had too much horse-play in his raillerv." It was in the summer 1754, that the present writer became acquainted with Dr. Johnson. The cause of his first visit is related by Mrs. Piozzi nearly in the following manner. "Mr. Murphy being engaged in a periodical paper, "the Gray's-Inn Journal, was at a friend's "house in the country, and, not being disposed "to lose pleasure for business, wished to con"tent his bookseller by some unstudied essay. "He therefore took up a French Journal Lite"raire, and translating something he liked, 66 sent it away to town. Time, however, dis"covered that he translated from the French "a Rambler, which had been taken from the "English without acknowledgement. Upon "this discovery Mr. Murphy thought it right "to make his excuses to Dr. Johnson.' He "went next day, and found him covered with 66 soot, like a chimney-sweeper, in a little room, "as if he had been acting Lungs in the Alche"mist, making ather. This being told by Mr. "Murphy in company, Come, come, said Dr. "Johnson, the story is black enough; but it "was a happy day that brought you first to my "house." After this first visit, the author of this narrative by degrees grew intimate with Dr. Johnson. The first striking sentence, that he heard from him, was in a few days after the publication of Lord Bolingbroke's posthumous works. Mr. Garrick asked him, "If he had 66 seen them?” Yes, I have seen them." "What do vou think of them?" "Think of "them!" He made a long pause, and then replied : "Think of them! A scoundrel and a "coward! A scoundrel, who spent his life in charging a gun against Christianity; and a "coward, who was afraid of hearing the report of his own gun; but left half a crown to 66 66 a hungry Scotchman to draw the trigger after "his death." His mind, at this time strained and over-laboured by constant exertion, called for an interval of repose and indolence. But indolence was the time of danger: it was then that his spirits, not employed abroad, turned with inward hostility against himself. His reflections on his own life and conduct were always severe; and, wishing to be immaculate, he destroyed his own peace by unnecessary scruples. He tells us, that when he surveyed his past life, he discovered nothing but a barren waste of time, with some disorders of body, and disturbances of mind, very near to madness. His life, he says, from his earliest years, was wasted in a morning bed; and his reigning sin was a general sluggishness, to which he was always inclined, aad in part of his life, almost compelled, by morbid melancholy, and weariness of mind. This was his constitutional malady, derived, perhaps, from his father, who was, at times, overcast with a gloom that bordered on insanity. When to this it is added, VOL. I. that Johnson, about the age of twenty, drew up a description of his infirmities, for Dr. Swinfen, at that time an eminent physician in Staffordshire; and received an answer to his letter, importing, that the symptoms indicated a future privation of reason; who can wonder that he was troubled with melancholy and dejection of spirit? An apprehension of the worst calamity that can befal human nature hung over him all the rest of his life, like the sword of the tyrant suspended over his guest. In his sixtieth year he had a mind to write the history of his melancholy; but he desisted, not knowing whether it would not too much disturb him. In a Latin poem, however, to which he has prefixed as a title, INNOI EEAYTON, he has left a picture of himself, drawn with as much truth, and as firm a hand, as can be seen in the portraits of Hogarth or Sir Joshua Reynolds. The learned reader will find the original poem in this volume, and it is hoped, that a translation, or rather imitation, of so curious a piece will not be improper in this place. KNOW YOURSELF. (AFTER REVISING AND ENLARGING THE ENGLISH LEXICON, OR DICTIONARY.) When Scaliger, whole years of labour past, Beheld his Lexicon complete at last, And weary of his task, with wond'ring eyes, The drudgery of words the damn'd would know, Yes, you had cause, great Genius to repent; And amidst rolling worlds the Great First Cause explore; To fix the æras of recorded time, And live in ev'ry age and ev'ry clime; Record the Chiefs, who propt their Country's cause; Yet warn'd by me, ye pigmy Wits, beware, * See Scaliger's Epigram on this subject, communicated without doubt by Dr. Johnson, Gent. Mag. 1748, p. 8. |