208] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



for her infirmities, that he overlooked her peevishness. He was 

 now, in fact, seldom at home, and when he visited Johnson's 

 Court, the perverse tempers of some of his dependants drove him 

 from it to the more attractive social circle at Mr. Thrale's. 



When the Royal Academy of Arts was established in 1767, Dr. 

 Johnson was appointed Professor in Ancient Literature ; and the 

 same year he had the honour of an interview, by appointment, 

 with the King, at the Queen's library in Buckingham House. In 

 the course of conversation his Majesty asked him " Why he did not 

 continue to write ?' Why, Sire/ said Johnson, * I thought I had 

 done enough !' "So should I too, Doctor/' replied the King, " if 

 you had not written so well." 



In 1770, he wrote his first political pamphlet, "The False Alarm/' 

 tft justify the Ministry and the House of Commons for expelling 

 the celebrated Wilkes ; and in 1771, he produced " Thoughts on 

 the late Transactions respecting Falkland Islands." In the latter 

 pamphlet he eloquently pointed out the absurdity of going to war 

 with another nation about a barren island. 



Dr. Johnson was now calumniated by his enemies as a minis- 

 terial hireling ; but when some writers of the Whig party answered 

 his pamphlets, he merely said, " These fellows are only adver- 

 tising my book ; it is surely better a man should be abused than 

 forgotten." 



In 1771, an attempt was made by Mr. Thrale and Mr. Strahan 

 to get the Doctor returned as a representative for some borough, 

 and Lord North, then Premier, had two meetings with them for that 

 purpose. But the Minister finally declined the idea, which the 

 Doctor could never forgive. " That fellow," said he, speaking of 

 Lord North, "has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar cruet." 



From the year 1765, when he first entered into a familiar inter- 

 course with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale till 1781, when that intercourse 

 was interrupted by the death of the former, Dr. Johnson enjoyed 

 all the gratifications communicable by elegant society and accom- 

 modation. His fame as the first writer of the age was established 

 on the firm basis of critical approbation, and his conversation ad- 

 mired by persons of high rank and undoubted talents. 



Mrs. Thrale, after the death of her first husband, married 

 Piozzi, an Italian singer, and in 1785 published anecdotes of Dr. 

 Johnson, in which his peculiarities are minutely described; 



" The first time I ever saw this extraordinary man," says she, 

 " was in the year 1754, when Mr. Murphy, who had been long the 



