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"We now come to the latest and, all things considered, the best edition -'Boswell's Life of Johnson, including Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales, edited by George Birbeck Hill.' (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1887, 6 vols. 8vo.) The typography, illustrations and binding are admirable. The third edition of Boswell (1799) has been used as the basis of the text of the 'Life,' and the third edition (1786) as that of the 'Tour.' Johnson's Journey in North Wales in 1774' is chiefly from Croker's collation of the original MS. Boswell's spelling has been preserved. The notes and appendices are very complete. Parallel passages from Johnson's own writings render the 'Life' a kind of concordance to his complete works. The backward and forward references to other parts of the 'Life' are also very useful. Much new information is presented for the first time, such as fifteen unpublished letters of Johnson, a long extract from his manuscript diary, Boswell's polyglot letters of acceptance of the office of secretary for foreign correspondence to the Royal Academy, the proposal for a geographical dictionary issued for Dr. Bathurst, and Longley's record of his conversation with Johnson on Greek metres. Among the appendices, special attention may be drawn to those on Johnson's sentiments towards his fellow-subjects in America, George Psalmanazar, Johnson's love of travelling, his altercation with Dean Barnard, the Ivy Lane and Essex Head Clubs, Miss Burney's account of Johnson's last days, notes on his will, &c. We have already mentioned the unrivalled index, compiled upon a scale of unusual completeness. Every name and fact in the book is tabulated, and subject-headings under the names reduce into a system what would otherwise be an unwieldy mass of confused references.

"An abridgment of Boswell was compiled by F. Thomas in 1792 and published in a 12mo volume. Johnson's Table Talk' (1798, 8vo) was drawn from Boswell."

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An edition entitled "The Life and Conversations," &c. (1874, 8vo) excited as much ridicule as astonishment, owing to the preface by Mr. G. H. Lewes, which commended the editor's system of condensing the original and the substitution of more effective phrases as the true mode of presenting Boswell's work.

It is remarkable that Boswell's "Life" has never received the honour of a translation into a foreign language.

London, 1888.

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A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS;

AND

VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,

NEVER BEFORE PUBblished.

THE WHOLE exhibiting a VIEW OF Literature and LITERARY MEN IN GREAT Britain, for NEAR HALF-A-Century, DURING WHICH He flourished.

WITH THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES.

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DEDICATION.1

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TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

MY DEAR SIR,

EVERY liberal motive that can actuate an Authour in the dedication of his labours, concurs in directing me to you, as the person to whom the following work should be inscribed.

If there be a pleasure in celebrating the distinguished merit of a contemporary, mixed with a certain degree of vanity not altogether inexcusable, in appearing fully sensible of it, where can I find one in complimenting whom I can with more general approbation gratify those feelings? Your excellence, not only in the Art over which you have long presided with unrivalled fame, but also in Philosophy and elegant Literature, is well known to the present, and will continue to be the admiration of future ages. Your equal and placid temper, your variety of conversation, your true politeness, by which you are so amiable in private society, and that enlarged hospitality which has long made your house a common centre of union for the great, the accomplished, the learned, and the ingenious; all these qualities I can, in perfect confidence of not being accused of flattery, ascribe to you.

1 His title-page caused Boswell much thought and trouble. As he first settled it, it ran, "The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.; comprehending an account of his studies and various works, in chronological order, his conversations with many eminent persons, a series of his letters to celebrated men, and several original pieces of his compositions. The whole, &c." Later it seemed to him that this was not full enough, and he consulted his friend Malone, whom he considered "Johnsonianissimus." Mr. John Taylor used laughingly to claim a share in the work on the ground of hav

ing suggested an alteration in the title-
page. Boswell meeting him in the street,
took it out of his pocket to show him,
when Taylor objected to the word "con-
taining,"
," "as being more appropriate to
a lost trunk." The author ran to Sir
Archibald Macdonald, who was passing,
and, after due consultation, admitted the
objection, and made the change. This
taking advice in the open street, and the
carrying his proofs in his pocket, supports
his own declaration, that "he often ran
about half London in search of an autho-
rity," and is highly characteristic.

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If a man may indulge an honest pride, in having it known to the world, that he has been thought worthy of particular attention by a person of the first eminence in the age in which he lived, whose company has been universally courted, I am justified in availing myself of the usual privilege of a Dedication, when I mention that there has been a long and uninterrupted friendship between us.

If gratitude should be acknowledged for favours received, I have this opportunity, my dear Sir, most sincerely to thank you for the many happy hours which I owe to your kindness-for the cordiality with which you have at all times been pleased to welcome me for the number of valuable acquaintances to whom you have introduced me for the noctes cœnæque Deûm, which I have enjoyed under your roof.

If a work should be inscribed to one who is master of the subject of it, and whose approbation, therefore, must ensure it credit and success, the Life of Dr. Johnson is, with the greatest propriety, dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was the intimate and beloved friend of that great man; the friend, whom he declared to be "the most invulnerable man he knew; with whom, if he should quarrel, he should find the most difficulty how to abuse." You, my dear Sir, studied him, and knew him well you venerated and admired him. Yet, luminous as he was upon the whole, you perceived all the shades which mingled in the grand composition, all the little peculiarities and slight blemishes which marked the literary Colossus. Your very warm commendation of the specimen which I gave in my "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," of my being able to preserve his conversation in an authentick and lively manner, which opinion the Publick has confirmed, was the best encouragement for me to persevere in my purpose of producing the whole of my stores.

In my

In one respect this work will in some passages be different from the former. "Tour " I was almost unboundedly open in my communications; and from my eagerness to display the wonderful fertility and readiness of Johnson's wit, freely shewed

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