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to the world its dexterity, even when I was myself the object of it. I trusted that I should be liberally understood, as knowing very well what I was about, and by no means as simply unconscious of the pointed effects of the satire. I own, indeed, that I was arrogant enough to suppose that the tenor of the rest of the book would sufficiently guard me against such a strange imputation. But it seems I judged too well of the world; for, though I could scarcely believe it, I have been undoubtedly informed, that many persons, especially in distant quarters, not penetrating enough into Johnson's character, so as to understand his mode of treating his friends, have arraigned my judgment, instead of seeing that I was sensible of all that they could observe.

It is related of the great Dr. Clarke, that when in one of his leisure hours he was unbending himself with a few friends in the most playful and frolicksome manner, he observed Beau Nash approaching; upon which he suddenly stopped:-"My boys, (said he,) let us be grave: here comes a fool." The world, my friend, I have found to be a great fool, as to that particular, on which it has become necessary to speak very plainly. I have, therefore, in this work been more reserved; and though I tell nothing but the truth, I have still kept in my mind that the whole truth is not always to be exposed. This, however, I have managed so as to occasion no diminution of the pleasure which my book should afford; though malignity may sometimes be disappointed of its gratifications.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

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I AT last deliver to the world a Work which I have long promised, and of which, I am afraid, too high expectations have been raised! The delay of its publication must be imputed, in a considerable degree, to the extraordinary zeal which has been shewn by distinguished persons in all quarters to supply me with additional information concerning its illustrious Subject; resembling in this the grateful tribes of ancient nations, of which every individual was eager to throw a stone upon the grave of a departed Hero, and thus to share in the pious office of erecting an honourable monument to his memory.

The labour and anxious attention with which I have collected and arranged the materials of which these volumes are composed, will hardly be conceived by those who read them with careless facility." The stretch of mind and prompt assiduity by which so many conversations were preserved, I myself, at some distance of time, contemplate with wonder; and I must be of the work in other respects, as

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allowed to suggest, that the nature it consists of innumerable detached

determined him to publish it himself.— Letters to Malone, ap. Croker.

"You cannot imagine what labour, what perplexity, what vexation I have endured in arranging a prodigious multiplicity of materials; in supplying omissions; in searching for papers buried in different masses; and all this besides the exertion of composing and polishing; many a time I have thought of giving it up would it were in the booksellers' shops. Methinks if I had this magnum opus launched, the public has no further claim on me; for I have promised no more, and I may die in peace."-Bos. Lett., 312.

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particulars, all which, even the most minute, I have spared no pains to ascertain with a scrupulous authenticity, has occasioned a degree of trouble far beyond that of any other species of composition. Were I to detail the books which I have consulted, and the inquiries which I have found it necessary to make by various channels, I should probably be thought ridiculously ostentatious. Let me only observe, as a specimen of my trouble, that I sometimes had to run half over London in order to fix a date correctly; which, when I had accomplished, I well knew would obtain me no praise, though a failure would have been to my discredit. And after all perhaps, hard as it may be, I shall not be surprized if omissions or mistakes be pointed out with invidious severity. I have also been extremely careful as to the exactness of my quotations; holding that there is a respect due to the Publick which should oblige every Authour to attend to this, and never to presume to introduce them with "I think I have read; "—or,-"If I remember right; "-when the originals may be examined.

I beg leave to express my warmest thanks to those who have been pleased to favour me with communications and advice in the conduct of my Work. But I cannot sufficiently acknowledge my obligations to my friend Mr. Malone, who was so good as to allow me to read to him almost the whole of my manuscript, and made such remarks as were greatly for the advantage of the Work; though it is but fair to him to mention, that upon many occasions I differed from him, and followed my own judgement. I regret exceedingly that I was deprived of the benefit of his revision, when but about one half of the book had passed through the press; but after having completed his

1 The following is a sketch of Boswell's progress in his great task. In March, 1785, he was writing to Bishop Percy for his assistance: "It is long since I resolved to write his (Johnson's) life. I may say his life and conversation. He was very well informed of my intention, and communicated to me a thousand particulars, from his earliest years upwards."-(Nich. Illus., vii. 303.) February, 1788, he was writing to Percy that he had still seven years of Johnson to write. By January, 1789, the rough

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draft of the whole was nearly ready, and the author proposed to go to press when one half had been revised with Malone's aid. He was, perhaps, waiting, as George Steevens wrote to Bishop Percy, until Mrs. Piozzi's account should come out. By March, 1789, he had made such way that he hoped to begin printing the following week, but was interrupted by the illness and death of his wife. By October, he and Malone had gone seriously to work, and in February of the next year the MS. was at last sent to the printers, though

very laborious and admirable edition of Shakspeare, for which he generously would accept of no other reward but that fame which he has so deservedly obtained, he fulfilled his promise of a long-wished-for visit to his relations in Ireland; from whence his safe return finibus Atticis is desired by his friends here, with all the classical ardour of Sic te Diva potens Cypri; for there is no man in whom more elegant and worthy qualities are united; and whose society therefore is more valued by those who know him.

It is painful to me to think, that while I was carrying on this Work, several of those to whom it would have been most interesting have died. Such melancholy disappointments we know to be incident to humanity; but we do not feel them the less. Let me particularly lament the Reverend Thomas Warton, and the Reverend Dr. Adams. Mr. Warton, amidst his variety of genius and learning, was an excellent Biographer. His contributions to my Collection are highly estimable; and as he had a true relish of my "Tour to the Hebrides,"

the revision had not been completed.
He looked forward to having the whole
out by the month of August; but he was
again interrupted by some electioneering
schemes and his duties as Recorder at
Carlisle. Not until April the 6th, 1791,
did he find himself correcting the last
sheet. But he had still to get ready an
index, and make corrections, so that it
was not until May that he could put forth
the following advertisement, which is
evidently his own composition :-
"On Monday, the 16th of May, will be
published,

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In Two Volumes quarto, Price two guineas, in boards, Dedicated to Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS, and illustrated with the following plates : -Dr. JOHNSON, by HEATH, from the large picture painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1756, being the first, and never before engraved; facsimiles of his handwriting at different periods; and a round-robin addressed to him concerning his epitaph on Dr. Goldsmith, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

The extraordinary zeal which has been shown by distinguished persons in all quarters in supplying additional information, authentic manuscripts, and singular anecdotes of Dr. Johnson has occasioned such an enlargement of this

Work that it has been unavoidably
delayed much longer than was intended.
At the same time will be published by
Charles Dilly

The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. The 3d
edition corrected, to which is now added
a map describing the route of the tra
vellers.

N.B. The map, price 6d., may be had separately to accommodate the purchasers of the former editions."

In 1792, an edition in three handsome octavos was published at Dublin, which seems to have suggested to Boswell the model for his second edition, issued in 1793. The new volumes contained 128 pp. of additional matter. Some valuable materials reached him when a great portion of the work had been nearly printed off, and these he was obliged to insert at the end of the second volume, and at the beginning of the first. He, in fact, became rather bewildered, owing to his eagerness to present, in any shape, all the fresh matter that he had received; and was reduced to the expedient of inserting new facts and alterations of the text in his table of corrections. At the last moment he inserted a page of "additional corrections," and another "additional table of contents."

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