AN

ESSAY

ON THE

LIFE AND GENIUS

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

WHEN the works of a great Writer, who has bequeathed to pofterity a lafting legacy, are presented to the world, it is naturally expected, that fome account of his life fhould accompany the edition. The Reader wishes to know as much as poffible of the Author. The circumstances that attended him, the features of his private character, his converfation, and the means by which he rose to eminence, become the favourite objects of VOL. I. enquiry.

a

enquiry. Curiofity is excited; and the admirer of his works is eager to know his private opinions, his course of study, the particularities of his conduct, and, above all, whether he pursued the wisdom which he recommends, and practifed the virtue which his writings infpire. A principle of gratitude is awakened in every generous mind. For the entertainment and instruction which genius and diligence have provided for the world, men of refined and sensible tempers are ready to pay their tribute of praise, and even to form a pofthumous friendship with the author.

In reviewing the life of fuch a writer, there is, befides, a rule of juftice to which the publick have an undoubted claim. Fond admiration and partial friendship should not be fuffered to reprefent his virtues with exaggeration; nor fhould malignity be allowed, under a fpecious difguife, to magnify mere defects, the ufual failings of human nature, into vice or grofs deformity. The lights and shades of the character fhould be given; and, if this be done with a strict regard to truth, a just estimate of Dr. Johnson will afford

afford a lesson perhaps as valuable as the moral doctrine that speaks with energy in every page of his works.

The present writer enjoyed the converfation and friendship of that excellent man more than thirty years. He thought it an honour to be fo connected, and to this hour he reflects on his lofs with regret: but regret, he knows, has fecret bribes, by which the judgement may be influenced, and partial affection may be carried beyond the bounds of truth. In the prefent cafe, however, nothing needs to be disguised, and exaggerated praise is unneceffary. It is an observation of the younger Pliny, in his Epiftle to his Friend Tacitus, that hiftory ought never to magnify matters of fact, becaufe worthy actions require nothing but the truth. Nam nec hiftoria debet egredi veritatem, et honefte factis veritas fufficit. This rule the present biographer promises shall guide his pen throughout the following nar

rative.

It may be faid, the death of Dr. Johnson kept the public mind in agitation beyond all

former example. No literary character ever excited fo much attention; and, when the prefs has teemed with anecdotes, apophthegms, essays, and publications of every kind, what occafion now for a new tract on the fame threadbare fubject? The plain truth shall be the answer. The proprietors of Johnfon's Works thought the life, which they prefixed to their former edition, too unwieldy for republication. The prodigious variety of foreign matter, introduced into that perfor mance, feemed to overload the memory of Dr. Johnson, and in the account of his own life to leave him hardly visible. They wished to have a more concife, and, for that reason, perhaps a more fatisfactory account, fuch as may exhibit a just picture of the man, and keep him the principal figure in the fore ground of his own picture. To comply with that requeft is the design of this effay, which the writer undertakes with a trembling hand. He has no difcoveries, no fecret anecdotes, no occafional controverfy, no fudden flashes of wit and humour, no private conversation, and no new facts, to embellish his work. Every thing has been gleaned. Dr. Johnson said of himself, "I am not uncandid, nor fevere: I

"fome

"fometimes fay more than I mean, in jeft, "and people are apt to think me ferious *." The exercise of that privilege, which is enjoyed by every man in society, has not been allowed to him. His fame has given importance even to trifles; and the zeal of his friends has brought every thing to light. What should be related, and what thould not, has been published without distinction. Dicenda tacenda locuti! Every thing that fell from him has been caught with eagerness by his admirers, who, as he fays in one of his letters, have acted with the diligence of fpies upon his conduct. To fome of them the following lines, in Mallet's Poem on Verbal Criticism, are not inapplicable :

"Such that grave bird in Northern feas is found, "Whofe name a Dutchman only knows to found; "Where-e'er the king of fish moves on before, "This humble friend attends from fhore to shore; "With eye still earneft, and with bill inclin'd, "He picks up what his patron drops behind, "With those choice cates his palate to regale, And is the careful TIBBALD of A WHALE."

Bofwell's Life of Johnfon, Vol. II. p. 465.