21 4 J A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



Dr. Johnson commenced his great biographical work in the 68th 

 year of his age, and concluded it in the 74th : it is now universally 

 allowed to be the most entertaining, as well as the most elegant, 

 of his literary productions, and demonstrated the truth of the as- 

 sertion that his genius suffered no diminution by the advance of 

 old age. The first four volumes were published in 1779, and the 

 remainder in 1781, when his employers presented him with c100. 

 more than the stipulated sum. The avidity with which his Lives of 

 the Poets were read, and the general approbation of the public, ren- 

 dered it necessary to print them detached from the poetry : a second 

 edition was published in 1781, and a third edition, enlarged and 

 corrected by the author, was published in 1783, and thus terminated 

 the literary labours of the most elegant writer in English prose 

 that adorned the eighteenth century. Envy of his established fame, 

 and partiality for particular poets, induced several writers to pub- 

 lish animadversions on his Lives of the Poets. He was accused of 

 prejudice for his unqualified condemnation of Milton's democratic 

 principles, and the occasional praise and censure with which he 

 criticised the poems of Gray, Hammond, and Prior ; but the grati- 

 fication afforded to the true admirers of poetry by his masterly and 

 unparalleled delineations of character, and eulogiums on poetic 

 genius, in his Lives of Cowley, Milton, Dryden, and Pope, at once 

 stamped his reputation as the most faithful and elegant biographer 

 that had ever written in the English language. Since the appear- 

 ance of his Lives of the Poets, indeed, biography, always popular, 

 has become the favourite study of the intelligent part of the com- 

 munity, and numerous writers have produced the Lives of eminent 

 men, but none of them have caught the inspiring mantle of Johnson. 

 After this conclusion, and it may be said consummation of hia 

 various and useful literary labours, Dr. Johnson appeared but little 

 in public. The infirmities of old age increased ; several of his inti- 

 mate friends were dead, particularly Mr. Thrale, Miss Williams, 

 and Dr. Goldsmith. He had removed from his former residence 

 to a house in Bolt-court, Fleet-street, where, in June 1783, he had 

 a paralytic stroke, which deprived him of the powers of speech. 

 He awoke with the attack., and immediately rung the bell ; but o 

 the approach of his servant could not articulate a syllable. H 

 made signs for pen, ink, and paper, and wrote the following note 

 to Mr. Allen, a printer, who lived next door to him ; an honest, 

 virtuous man, who had been \m intimate and confidential friend for 

 many years ; 



