THE

LIFE

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.,

COMPREHENDING

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS
STUDIES AND NUMEROUS WORKS,

IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER;

A SERIES OF HIS
EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE AND CONVERSATIONS

WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS;

AND VARIOUS
ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED ;

THE WHOLE EXHIBITING
A Wiew of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain

FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED.

BY JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND BIOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATIONS,

BY MALONE.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. RICHARDSON AND CO.; G. OFFOR; THOMAS TEGG;

W. SHARPE AND SON; G. WALKER; R. DOBSON;
ROBINSON AND CO.; J. EVANS AND SONS; J. JONES; AND J. JOHNSON:
ALSO, J. CARFRAE, AND J. SUTHERLAND, EDINBURGH;

AND R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW.

1823.

C. Whittingham, College House, Chiswick.

THE

LIFE

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D.

He was for some time in the summer at Eas. ton Maudit, Northamptonshire, on a visit to the Reverend Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore. Whatever dissatisfaction he felt at what he considered as a slow progress in intellectual improvement, we find that his heart was tender and his affections warm, as appears from the following very kind letter:

“TO JOSHUA REYNOLDS, ESQ. IN LEICESTER

FIELDS, LONDON. “ DEAR SIR, “I did not hear of your sickness till I heard likewise of your recovery, and therefore escape that part of your pain which every man must feel to whom you are known as you are known to me.

“ Having had no particular account of your disorder, I know not in what state it has left you. If the amusement of my company can exhilarate the languor of a slow recovery, I will not delay a day to come to you; for I know not how I can so effectually promote my own pleasure as by pleasing you, or my own interest as by preserving you, in whom, if I should lose you, I should lose almost the only man whom I call a friend. VOL. II.

B