where I may find them, and send any pamphlets, &c., relating to them to Mr. Cave, to be perused for a few days, by, Sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

His circumstances were at this time embarrassed; yet his affection for his mother was so warm, and so liberal that he took upon himself a debt of hers, which, though small in itself, was then considerable to him. This appears from the following letter which he wrote to Mr. Levett, of Lichfield, the original of which lies now before me.

"SIR, "I am extremely sorry that we have encroached so much upon your forbearance with respect to the interest, which a great perplexity of affairs hindered me from thinking of with that attention that I ought, and which I am not immediately able to remit to you, but will pay it (I think twelve pounds) in two months. I look upon this, and on the future interest of that mortgage, as my own debt; and beg that you will be pleased to give me directions how to pay it, and not to mention it to my dear mother. If it be necessary to pay this in less time, I believe I can do it; but I take two months for certainty, and beg an answer whether you can allow me so much time. I think myself very much obliged to your forbearance, and shall esteem it a great happiness to be able to serve you. I have great opportunities of dispersing any thing that you may think it proper to make public. I will give a note for the money, payable at the time mentioned, to any one here that you shall appoint. I am, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant,

“At Mr. Osborne's, bookseller, in Gray's Inn.”

"SAM. JOHNSON.

It does not appear that he wrote anything in 1744 for the "Gentleman's Magazine," but the "Preface," + His life of Barretier was now republished in a pamphlet by itself. But he produced one work this year, fully sufficient to maintain the high reputation which he had acquired, This was "The Life of Richard Savage; a man of whom

it is difficult to speak impartially, without wondering that he was for some time the intimate companion of Johnson; for his character' was marked by profligacy, insolence, and ingratitude: yet, as he undoubtedly had a warm and vigorous, though unregulated mind, had seen life in all its varieties, and been much in the company of the statesmen and wits of his time, he could communicate to Johnson an abundant supply of such materials as his philosophical curiosity most eagerly desired; and as Savage's misfortunes and misconduct had reduced him to the lowest state of wretchedness as a writer for bread, his visits to St. John's Gate naturally brought Johnson and him together.2

1 As a specimen of his temper, I insert the following letter from him to a noble Lord [Tyrconnel], to whom he was under great obligations, but who, on account of his bad conduct, was obliged to discard him. The original was in the hands of the late Francis Cockayne Cust, Esq., one of his Majesty's counsel learned in the law :

"Right Honourable BRUTE and BOOBY,-I find you want (as Mr. is pleased to hint) to swear away my life, that is, the life of your creditor, because he asks you for a debt. The public shall soon be acquainted with this, to judge whether you are not fitter to be an Irish evidence, than to be an Irish peer. I defy and despise you. I am, your determined adversary, R. S."

2 Sir John Hawkins, Life, p. 52, gives the world to understand, that Johnson, "being an admirer of genteel manners, was captivated by the address and demeanour of Savage, who, as to his exterior, was, to a remarkable degree, accomplished." But Sir John's notions of gentility must appear somewhat ludicrous, from his stating the following circumstance as presumptive evidence that Savage was a good swordsman "That he understood the exercise of a gentleman's weapon, may be inferred from the use made of it in that rash encounter which is related in his Life." The dexterity here alluded to was, that Savage, in a nocturnal fit of drunkenness, stabbed a man at a coffee-house and killed him: for which he was tried at the Old Bailey, and found guilty of murder.

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Johnson, indeed, describes him as having a grave and manly deportment, a solemn dignity of mien; but which, upon a nearer aequaintance, softened into an engaging easiness of manners.' How highly Johnson admired him for that knowledge which he himself so much cultivated, and what kindness he entertained for him, appears from the following lines in the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1738, p. 210, which I am assured were written by Johnson :

"Ad Ricardum Savage.

Humani studium generis cui pectore fervet

O colat humanum te foveatque genus."

Mr. Croker justly expresses his reluctance to believe that Johnson wrote this "sad stuff."-Editor.

It is melancholy to reflect, that Johnson and Savage were sometimes in such extreme indigence,' that they could not pay for a lodging; so that they have wandered together whole nights in the street. Yet in these almost incredible scenes of distress, we may suppose that Savage mentioned many of the anecdotes with which Johnson afterwards enriched the life of his unhappy companion, and those of other poets.

He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that one night in particular, when Savage and he walked round St. James's Square for want of a lodging, they were not at all depressed by their situation; but, in high spirits and brimful of patriotism, traversed the square for several hours, inveighed against the minister, and "resolved they would stand by their country."

I am afraid, however, that by associating with Savage, who was habituated to the dissipation and licentiousness of the town, Johnson, though his good principles remained steady, did not entirely preserve that conduct, for which, in days of greater simplicity, he was remarked by his friend Mr. Hector; but was imperceptibly led into some indulgences which occasioned much distress to his virtuous mind. That Johnson was anxious that an authentic and favourable account of his extraordinary friend should first get possession of the public attention, is evident from a letter which he wrote in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for August of the year preceding its publication.

1 The following striking proof of Johnson's extreme indigence, when he published the Life of Savage, was communicated to the author, by Mr. Richard Stow, of Apsley, in Bedfordshire, from the information of Mr. Walter Harte, author of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus :

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"Soon after Savage's Life was published, Mr. Harte dined with Edward Cave, and occasionally praised it. Soon after, meeting him, Cave said, 'You made a man very happy t'other day.'-'How could that be?' says Harte; nobody was there but ourselves.' Cave answered, by reminding him that a plate of victuals was sent behind a screen, which was to Johnson, dressed so shabbily that he did not choose to appear; but, on hearing the conversation, he was highly delighted with the encomiums on his book." (Note in the third edition, vol. i., p. 136.)

TO MR. URBAN.

"As your collections show how often you have owed the ornaments of your poetical pages to the correspondence of the unfortunate and ingenious Mr. Savage, I doubt not but you have so much regard to his memory as to encourage any design that may have a tendency to the preservation of it from insults or calumnies; and therefore, with some degree of assurance, intreat you to inform the public, that his Life will speedily be published by a person who was favoured with his confidence, and received from himself an account of most of the transactions which he proposes to mention, to the time of his retirement to Swansea in Wales.

"From that period, to his death in the prison of Bristol, the account will be continued from materials still less liable to objection; his own letters, and those of his friends, some of which will be inserted in the work, and abstracts of others subjoined in the margin.

"It may be reasonably imagined, that others may have the same design; but as it is not credible that they can obtain the same materials, it must be expected they will supply from invention the want of intelligence; and that under the title of 'The Life of Savage,' they will publish only a novel, filled with romantic adventures and imaginary amours. You may, therefore, perhaps, gratify the lovers of truth and wit, by giving me leave to inform them in your Magazine, that my account will be published in 8vo. by Mr. Roberts, in Warwick Lane."

[No signature.]

In February, 1744, it accordingly came forth from the shop of Roberts, between whom and Johnson I have not traced any connection, except the casual one of this publi cation. In Johnson's "Life of Savage," although it must

I find that J. Roberts printed in April, 1744, The Life of Barretier, probably a reprint from the Gentleman's Magazine, but I have not seen it. Cave sometimes permitted the name of another printer to appear on the title-pages of books of which he was, in fact, the publisher, as Miss Carter's Examen was printed under the name of Dodd. In this case the fact is certain; as it appears from the letter to Cave, August, 1743, that Johnson sold the work to him even before it was written.-Croker..

Cave was the purchaser of the copyright, and the following is a copy of Johnson's receipt for the money:-"The 14th day of December, received of Mr. Ed. Cave the sum of fifteen guineas, in full, for compiling and writing The Life of Richard Savage, Esq.' deceased; and in full for all

be allowed that its moral is the reverse of "Respicere exemplar vitæ morumque jubebo," a very useful lesson is inculcated, to guard men of warm passions from a too free indulgence of them; and the various incidents are related in so clear and animated a manner, and illuminated throughout with so much philosophy, that it is one of the most interesting narratives in the English language.1 Sir Joshua Reynolds told me, that upon his return from Italy he met with it in Devonshire, knowing nothing of its author, and began to read it while he was standing with his arm leaning against a chimney-piece. It seized his attention so strongly, that, not being able to lay down the book till he had finished it, when he attempted to move, he found his arm totally benumbed. The rapidity with which this work was composed is a wonderful circumstance. Johnson has been heard to say, "I wrote forty-eight of the printed octavo pages of the Life of Savage' at a sitting; but then I sat up all night."

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He exhibits the genius of Savage to the best advantage, in the specimens of his poetry which he has selected, some of which are of uncommon merit. We, indeed, occasionally find such vigour and such point, as might make us suppose that the generous aid of Johnson had been imparted to his friend. Mr. Thomas Warton made this remark to me; and, in support of it, quoted from the poem entitled "The Bastard," a line in which the fancied superiority of one 'stamped in Nature's mint with extasy," is contrasted with a regular lawful descendant of some great and ancient family:

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"No tenth transmitter of a foolish face."

materials thereto applied, and not found by the said Edward Cave. I say, received by me, SAM. JOHNSON. December 14, 1743."-Wright.

It gives, like Raphael's Lazarus, or Murillo's Beggar, pleasure as a work of art, while the original could only excite disgust. Johnson has spread over Savage's character the veil of stately diction and extenuating phrases, but cannot prevent the observant reader from seeing that the subject of this biographical essay was, as Boswell calls him, an ungrateful and insolent profligate;" and so little do his works show of that poetical talent for which he had been celebrated, that, if it were not for Johnson's embalming partiality, his works would probably be now as unheard of as they are unread.-Croker.

2 Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, third edition, p. 35.