202 



JOHNSON. 



Johnson, of suitable contrition. Johnson's conduct has been 

 S*mucL A praised for doing so. He could do nothing less, unless 

 X """Y" 1 ' he had deliberately resolved to consign his own charac- 

 ter to infamy. Though his circumstances were at this 

 time far from being easy, his humane and charitable 

 disposition was constantly exerting itself. Mrs. Anna 

 Williams, daughter of a very ingenious Welch Physi- 

 cian, and a woman of more than ordinary talents and 

 literature, having come to London in hopes of being 

 cured of a cataract in both her eyes, which afterwards 

 ended in total blindness, was kindly received as a con- 

 stant visitor at his house while Mrs. Johnson lived ; 

 and, after her death, having come under his roof to 

 have an operation upon her eyes performed with more 

 comfort to her than in lodgings, she had an apartment 

 from him during the rest of her life, at all times when 

 he had a house. Three days after the conclusion of 

 the Rambler, he lost his wife ; whose loss there is every 

 reason to suppose he felt as deeply as he deplored it. 

 When he had recovered ' from the first shock of this 

 event, he contributed several papers to the Adventu- 

 rer, then conducted by Dr. Hawkesworth. His dic- 

 tionary was now drawing to a conclusion ; and Ches- 

 terfield, who had left him to struggle with difficulties 

 during the compilation of it, meanly began to court a 

 renewal of his acquaintance, in the hopes of the work 

 being dedicated to him on its appearance. For this 

 purpose he wrote two essays in the World, anticipating 

 the high character of the dictionary, and sent a friend 

 to sound Johnson on the subject of the dedication. 

 Johnson, although he had once condescended to be in- 

 debted for 10 to his Lordship, treated the shewy pa- 

 tronage of the peer with deserved contempt, and sent 

 him that letter of rebuke which has been so often tran- 

 scribed, containing these memorable words: " The 

 notice which you nave been pleased to take of my la- 

 bours, had it been early, had been kind ; but it has 

 been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it 

 till I am solitary, and cannot impart it till I am 

 known, and do not want it.' 7 In 1755, the degree of 

 Master of Arts was conferred on him by the University 

 of Oxford, after which, in May, his Dictionary came 

 out. From the just value of this great and useful work, 

 we are neither competent nor willing to detract. Con- 

 sidered as the work of one individual, it is a monument 

 of Herculean strength ; but when Johnson's lexicogra- 

 phical success is compared with that of the forty French 

 academicians, and even preferred to it, the parallel can 

 only be regarded as an illusion of national prejudice. 

 For promoting works of poetry and imagination in a 

 language, dictionaries are not the best receipts. The 

 close definition of words deprives them of that halo of 

 indistinct associations which delights the fancy it 

 prunes and trims the vegetation of language beyond the 

 natural wildness of poetry ; but for prose composition 

 for logical eloquence and for science, dictionaries and 

 close definitions are not only important, but essential. 

 The language of France has owed much more to this 

 species of pruning, for it cannot be called cultivation, 

 than our own ; and evidently has owed much more 

 than our own to its Dictionary. Its prose is superior 

 to our own its poetry incomparably inferior. With- 

 out regretting that we have no academy like that of 

 our neighbours, we ought, in justice, to acknowledge, 

 that Johnson has not given, perhaps, even the fortieth 

 part of the distinctness and definition to our tongue 

 that the French academicians have bestowed upon 

 theirs. Johnson had great reading, and still more sa- 

 gacity ; but he was a bad etymologist, and very little 

 acquainted with philological niceties. 



In a pecuniary light, he derived very little benefit Johnson, 

 from the publication of his Dictionary ; for, when it 

 was finished, he had beenpaid more than the stipulat- 

 ed sum. He was, therefore, still entijply dependent on 

 the exertions of the day for his support ; and, it is me- 

 lancholy to find, that a writer, esteemed an honour to 

 his country, was, in the subsequent year, (1756,) in his 

 45th year, under an arrest for five pounds eighteen 

 shillings. It is no wonder that his constitutional me- 

 lancholy should at this time have exerted a peculiar 

 sway over his mind. 



About this period he was offered a living of consi- 

 derable value in Lincolnshire, if he were inclined to 

 enter into holy orders. It was a rectory in the gift of 

 Mr. Langton, the father of one of his most intimate 

 friends ; but he did not accept of it, partly, says Mr. 

 Boswell, I believe, from a conscientious motive, being 

 persuaded that his. temper and habits rendered him un- 

 fit for that assiduous and familiar instruction of the vul- 

 gar and ignorant, which he held to be an essential duty 

 in a clergyman, and partly, because his love of a Lon- 

 don life was so strong, that he would have thought 

 himself an exile in any other place, particularly if re- 

 siding in the country. In the same year, 1756, he en- 

 gaged to superintend a monthly publication, entitled, 

 the Literary Magazine, or Universal Register. To this 

 he contributed a great many articles, enumerated by 

 Mr. Boswell, and several reviews of new books. The 

 most celebrated of his reviews, and one of his most 

 finished compositions, both in point of style, argument, 

 and wit, was that of Soame Jenyns' Free Inquiry into 

 the Nature and Origin of Evil. This attracted so much 

 attention, that the bookseller was encouraged to pub- 

 lish it separately, and two editions were rapidly sold. 

 He wrote also, in 1756, some essays in the Universal 

 Visitor, another magazine, which lasted only a year. 

 His proposal for an edition of Shakespeare was again re- 

 vived, but it did not go to press for many years after. 



In April 1758, he began a new periodical paper, en- 

 titled, the Idler, which came out every Saturday, in a 

 weekly newspaper, " The Universal Chronicle, or Week- 

 ly Gazette," published by Newberry. These essays were 

 continued till the April of 1760, amounting in number to 

 one hundred and three, twelve of which were contribut- 

 ed by his friends, Mr. T. Warton, Mr Langton, and 

 Sir Joshua Reynolds. Though evidently the work of 

 the same mind that produced the Rambler; yet as his 

 biographer justly remarks, " it has less body, and more 

 spirit." Many of these essays were written as hasti- 

 ly as an ordinary letter. Mr. Langton remembers John- 

 son, when on a visit at Oxford, asking him one evening 

 how long it was till the post went out; and, on being 

 told about half an hour, then, he exclaimed, we shall 

 do very well. He upon this instantly sat down and 

 finished an Idler. Mr. Langton having signified a 

 wish to read it : " Sir," said he, " you shall not do more 

 than I have done myself." He then folded it Up, and 

 sent it off. No. 41 of the Idler alludes to the death of 

 his mother, which took place in 1 759. He had ever 

 been a dutiful son, and liad contributed to her support, 

 often when he knew not where to recruit his finances. 

 On the event of her death, he wrote his Rasselas, 

 Prince of Abyssinia, that he might be enabled to r-u'sea 

 sum sufficient to defray the expences of her funeral, and 

 pay some little debts she had left. He told Sir Joshua 

 Reynolds, that he composed it in the evenings of one 

 week sent it to the press in portions after it was writ- 

 ten and never read it again, till at the distance of se- 

 veral years. None of his writings have been so exten- 

 sively diffused over Europe ; for it has been translated 



