Existence. The Bishop of Dromore heard Dr. Johnson say, that he thought this was the best thing he ever wrote.'

In January, 1749, he published "The Vanity of Human Wishes, being the Tenth Satire of Juvenal imitated."* He, I believe, composed it the preceding year. Mrs. Johnson, for the sake of country air, had lodgings at Hampstead, to which he resorted occasionally, and there the greatest part, if not the whole, of this imitation was written. The fervid rapidity with which it was produced, is scarcely credible. I have heard him say, that he composed seventy lines of it in one day, without putting one of them upon paper till they were finished. I remember when I once regretted to him that he had not given us more of Juvenal's Satires, he said he probably should give more, for he had them all in his head: by which I understood, that he had the originals and correspondent allusions floating in his mind, which he could, when he pleased, embody and render permanent without much labour. Some of them, however, he observed, were too gross for imitation.

The profits of a single poem, however excellent, appear to have been very small in the last reign, compared with what a publication of the same size has since been known to yield. I have mentioned, upon Johnson's own authority, that for his "London" he had only ten guineas; and now, after his fame was established, he got for his "Vanity of Human Wishes" but five guineas more, as is proved by an authentic document in my possession.3

It will be observed, that he reserves to himself the right of

1 The Bishop told Mr. Tyers, that Johnson composed it, in one night, after finishing an evening at Holborn.-Croker.

2 Sir John Hawkins, with solemn inaccuracy, represents this poem as a consequence of the indifferent reception of his tragedy. But the fact is, that the poem was published on the 9th of January, and the tragedy was not acted till the 6th of the February following.

3

"Nov. 25. 1748, I received of Mr. Dodsley fifteen guineas, for which I assign to him the right of copy of an Imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal, written by me, reserving to myself the right of printing one edition. SAM. JOHNSON."-London 29 June 1786. "A true copy, from the original in Dr. Johnson's handwriting, Jas. Dodsley."