JOHNSON. 25 



ment and offended with it, took his revenge by affecting 

 to be a common mechanic, and asking Reynolds " how 

 much he thought they could earn in a week if they 

 wrought to their utmost." 



The ordinary literary labour of his life in magazines, 

 reviews, prefaces, and smaller essays, for the booksellers, 

 in correcting the works of authors, and even superin- 

 tending the press for publishers, appears to have been, 

 during these five-and-twenty years, carried on almost 

 like a trade, and without any scruples as to receiving 

 the most humble remuneration. Thus, on one occasion, 

 he received from Dodsley a guinea for writing a pro- 

 spectus to a new weekly paper; and on another he 

 praised the generosity of some Irish dignitary, who gave 

 him ten guineas for correcting a bad poem, in which he 

 blotted out many lines, and might, he said, have blotted 

 many more. Beside the more regular employment of 

 the 'Gentleman's Magazine/ he wrote a number of articles 

 for the 'Literary Magazine/ in 1756; among others his 

 review of Soame Jenyns on the 'Origin of Evil/ reckoned, 

 and justly, one of his happiest performances, perhaps his 

 best prose work, and which stands high in the first class 

 of severe, but not unjust criticisms. But his humbler 

 labours during this period were relieved by works of a 

 much higher order, one of which, the 'London/ has been 

 mentioned. In 1749 he produced his imitation of the 

 Tenth Satire, under the title of the 'Vanity of Human 

 Wishes/ and greatly extended his poetical reputation by 

 that admirable piece. The price paid for the copyright, 

 however, did not exceed fifteen guineas. Nor indeed 

 could a work of such moderate size easily obtain a large 

 remuneration. 



