very generous, for he gave me ten guineas; which was to me at that time a great sum*.” This splendid tribute of gratitude to the memory of the benevolent Primate of Ireland †, bears a strong impression of the pen of Johnson in many passages.

In the year 1746, which was marked by a civil war in Britain, when a rash attempt was made to restore the house of Stuart to the throne, his literary career appears to have been almost totally suspended. His attachment to that unfortunate family is well known. Some may imagine that a sympathetic anxiety impeded the exertion of his intellectual powers; but it is probable that he was, during that time, employed upon his Shakespeare, or sketching the outlines of his Dictionary of the English Language; a project which had occupied the wits of Queen Anne's reign, and had long been the object of his contemplation.

Having formed and digested the plan of his great philological work, which might then be Boswell's Life, &c. Vol. i. p. 280.

+He spent a long life" in honouring his Maker and doing good to men;" and left his fortune, when he died, 1742, to charitable uses. The whole of his donations, public and private, make near L,100,000.

esteemed one of the desiderata of English li terature, he communicated it to the public in 1747, in a pamphlet entitled, The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language, addressed to the Right Honourable Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield, one of his Majesty's Secretaries of State. The hint of undertaking this national work is said to have been first suggested to Johnson several years before this period, by Dodsley; but he told Mr Boswell, that" it had grown upon his mind insensibly." The booksellers who contracted with him for the execution of it were Mr Robert Dodsley, Mr Charles Hitch, Mr Andrew Millar, the two Messrs. Longman, and the two Messrs. Knapton. The price sti

pulated was L1575, part of which was to be from time to time advanced, in proportion to the progress of the work.

The Plan is written with peculiar exactness and perspicuity of method, and exhibits a very distinct view of what he proposed to execute;"

a dictionary, by which the pronunciation of our language may be fixed, and its attainment facilitated; by which its purity may be preserved, its use ascertained, and its duration

lengthened." It has not only the substantial merit of comprehension, perspicuity, and precision, but the language of it is unexceptionably excellent; and never was there a more dignified strain of compliment than that in which he courts the attention of Chesterfield, a nobleman celebrated for his eloquence, his wit, and the graces of polite behaviour; who was very ambitious of literary distinction, and who, upon being informed of the design of so great and desirable a work, had expressed himself in terms very favourable to its success. The way in which," he told Mr Boswell," it came to be inscribed to Lord Chesterfield was this: I had neglected to write it by the time appointed. Dodsley suggested a desire to have it addressed to Lord Chesterfield. I laid hold of this as a pretext for delay, that it might be better done, and let Dodsley have his desire." The Plan itself, however, proves that the Earl not only favoured the design, but that there had been a particular communication with his Lordship concerning it, and that he had been persuaded to believe he would be a respectable patron.

"With regard to questions of purity and propriety," he says, "I have been determined by your Lordship's opinion to interpose my own judgment; and I may hope, that since you, whose authority in our language is so generally acknowledged, have commissioned me to declare my opinion, I shall be considered as exercising a kind of vicarious jurisdiction." The manuscript got accidentally into the hands of Mr Whitehead, afterwards poet-laureat; through whose intervention it was communicated to Chesterfield; the consequence was an invitation from his Lordship to Johnson. sits were repeated; but the reception was discouraging, and finally repulsive. The connection between the uncourtly scholar, towering in the pride of genius and independence, and the accomplished courtier, fashioned into the perfection of elegance of manners and artificial grace, was unnatural, and terminated in mutual disgust. Johnson expected the patronage of the Mæcenas of literature, "fed with soft dedications," and puffed by every quill," and was dissappointed; but he proceeded, with undaunted spirit; in the execution

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of his laborious task, confiding in his own abilities, and looking forward to the approbation of the public as his best reward.

The irreconcileable difference in manners and principles between Chesterfield and Johnson, is strongly expressed in the character given by that nobleman of his visitor, in one of his "Letters to his Son."

"There is a man, whose moral character, deep learning, and superior parts, I acknowledge, admire, and respect; but whom it is so impossible for me to love, that I am almost in a fever whenever I am in his company. His figure (without being deformed) seems made to disgrace or ridicule the common structure of the human body. His legs and arms are never in the position which, according to the situation of his body, they ought to be in, but constantly employed in committing acts of hostility upon the graces. He throws anywhere but down his throat whatever he means to drink, and mangles what he means to carve, Inattentive to all the regards of social life, he mistimes and misplaces every thing. He disputes