198J 



A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



In 1747, at the suggestion of Dodsley, he issued his plan for 

 " A Dictionary of the English Language," and entered into an 

 agreement with the booksellers to produce the work for fifteen hun- 

 dred guineas, to be paid in sums proportionate to the quantity of 

 manuscript prepared for the press. The .plan of this great national 

 work, which conferred immortality on the author, was addressed to 

 the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield. Our author now obtained "a 

 local habitation and a name," and removed from his obscure lodg- 

 ings to a house in Gough-square. He now collected materials for 

 his Dictionary, engaged six amanuenses, and commenced a work 

 which engaged his attention for a considerable part of eight years. 

 He varied his literary labours however during that time, by the 

 production of some of his best original works. 



In 1749 he published "The Vanity of Human Wishes," a very 

 beautiful ethic poem, for the copyright of which he received fifteen 

 guineas. His friend Garrick, who was now exalted to the very 

 summit of theatrical fame, offered to bring forward Irene, and 

 suggested some judicious alterations in tho tragedy, to render it 

 more tit for representation, to which the author reluctantly agreed. 

 The tragedy had a run of nine nights, which entitled the author to 

 the profits of three nights, and he received ,100. from Dodsley for 

 the copyright. For his only dramatic production, it may there- 

 fore be safely stated, that Johnson received o500. yet Irene, how- 

 ever admirable for purity of moral sentiment, and elegance of lan- 

 guage, is no longer acted : a farce or comedy would perhaps have 

 been more successful. 



The permanent and exalted reputation obtained by Addison from 

 the Spectator, probably stimulated Johnson to aspire to equal dis- 

 tinction as an essayist, and, on Tuesday the 20th of March, 1750, 

 he published the first number of " The Rambler," and the work was 

 continued in regular numbers every Tuesday and Friday till Satur- 

 day the 17th of March 1752, on which day it closed. Mr. John 

 Payne, a bookseller in Paternoster-row, engaged to pay the author 

 two guineas for each number, besides a share of the future profits 

 of the work. Many of the numbers of this masterly production, 

 which at once raised the author to the highest place among our 

 ethical writers, were written in haste, as the moment pressed, and 

 without being read over by the author before they were printed. 

 Such is the account given by Johnson himself, and his veracity is 

 unquestionable. When Sir Joshua Reynolds asked him by what 

 means he had attained his extraordinary accuracy and flow of Ian- 



