ceived and sketched much of impending work; that, though he had in some degree preconceived his materials, he committed nothing to paper, just as he is known to have done in composing his Vanity of Human Wishes. If this supposition strips the account of wonder, it invests it with probability; since a man of his powers of mind and habits of composition might well write an essay at a sitting, and without a blot, when he had little more to attend to than to clothe his conceptions in vigorous language, modulated into sonorous periods *.

* Johnson's manner of composing has not been rightly understood. He was so extremely short-sighted, from the defect in his eyes, that writing was inconvenient to him; for whenever he wrote, he was obliged to hold the paper close to his face. He, therefore, never composed what we call a foul draft on paper of any thing he published, but used to revolve the subject in his mind, and turn and form every period, till he had brought the whole to the highest correctness and the most perfect arrangement. Then his uncommonly retentive memory enabled him to deliver a whole essay, properly finished, whenever it was called for. The writer of this note has often heard him humming and forming periods, in low whispers to himself, when shallow observers thought he was muttering prayers,

Although the solemnity and general sameness of the style and matter of The Rambler prevented it, as a periodical paper, from obtaining an extensive popularity, yet the excellence of the precepts of practical morality, the sagacity of the decisions of literary criticism, and the dignity of expression, were very soon appreciated by men of taste and genius, and obtained from competent judges a just proportion of praise. Richardson, in a letter to Mr Cave, dated Aug. 9. 1750, thus expresses his opinion.

"I am inexpressibly pleased with the Ramblers. I remember not any thing in the "Spectators" that half so much struck me; and yet I think of them highly. I hope the world tastes them; for its own sake I hope

&c. But Johnson is well known to have represented his own practice, in the following passage, in his Life of Pope. "Of composition there are different methods. Some employ at once memory and invention; and, with little intermediate use of the pen, form and polish large masses by continued meditation, and write their productions only when, in their own opinion, they have completed them." BISHOP PERCY.

the world tastes them. The author I can

only guess at. There is but one man, I think, that could write them.

"I have, from the first five, spoke of them with honour. I have the vanity to think, that I have procured them admirers; that is to say, readers *"

Mr Cave, in a letter written Aug. 13. 1750, informs the author of " Clarissa," "that Mr Johnson is the Great Rambler," and acknowledges an early and zealous support of the paper by persons of rank and learning,

"When the author was to be kept private, (which was the first scheme), two gentlemen belonging to the Prince's court came to me to enquire his name, in order to do him service. As I was not at liberty, an inference was drawn that I was desirous to keep to myself so excellent a writer. Soon after Mr Dodington t sent a letter, directed

* Richardson's Correspondence &c.

1

4 Afterwards Lord Melcombe, a statesman distin. guished, through a long life, by the cultivation and patronage of literature and poetry, and dishonoured, since

to the Rambler, inviting him to his house, when he should be disposed to enlarge his acquaintance. In a subsequent number, a kind of excuse was made, with a hint, that a good writer might not appear to advantage in con

versation.

"I have had letters of approbation from Dr Young, Dr Hartley, Dr Sharpe, Miss C—, &c. &c. most of them, like you, setting them in a rank equal, and some superior, to the Spectators *"

The author of the " Night Thoughts," it is said, was particularly struck "with the

his death, by the unblushing confession of political versatility, in his posthumous " Diary," 8vo. 1785. The passage in the Rambler, alluded to by Cave, as an apology for Johnson declining his invitation, occurs in No. 14. "A transition from an author's book, to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large, city, after a distant prospect. Remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples, and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur, and magnificence; but when we have passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke."

Richardson's Correspondence, &c.

more solemn papers ;" and, in his copy of the Rambler, which was inspected by Mr Boswell, "the passages which he thought particularly excellent were marked, by folding down a corner of the page; and such as he rated in a supereminent degree, were marked by double folds."

Johnson was highly gratified by the minute attention of Young; and not less by the praise of one who was peculiarly dear to him. "Johnson told me," says Mr Boswell," with an amiable fondness, that Mrs Johnson, in whose judgment and taste he had great confidence, said to him, after a few numbers of The Rambler had come out, I thought very well of you before, but I did not imagine you could have written any thing equal to this.' Distant praise, from whatever quarter, is not so delightful as that of a wife whom a man loves and esteems. Her approbation may be said to come home to his bosom;' and being so near, its effect is most sensible and permanent *."

* Boswell's Life, &c. Vol. 1, p. 178.