probably, that this kind feeling formed his chief claim to attention from the philosopher; and that, having intruded upon him at first with no slight degree of intrepidity, as being young, unknown, and without claim to such an honour, and continued it by perseverance, submission could alone enable him to retain hold upon his affection. He was proud, and not unreasonably so, of being known as an attached friend of the first literary man of the age; but jealous to excess of others who enjoyed an honour which he seemed to think ought to be exclusively his own.

***

"From these proofs of attachment and kindness to one who has so many claims on our regard as Johnson, if we cannot altogether respect Boswell, it is difficult to dislike him. He was goodhumoured, free from malignity, and, excepting when some jealousy or prejudice interfered, and for which he may have thought he had sufficient reason, seldom unjust to those of whom he had occasion to speak. His social propensities were well known; and a contemporary, Mr. Courtenay, thus laments his absence:

No Boswell joys o'er wine.'

Want of candour is rarely among his defects. On the contrary, he opens his mind so freely that we discover much of what is passing there even possibly when such disclosure was not meant; for, had he been conscious of the light in which we are often obliged to view him, it is difficult to believe he would not have shown more caution, although at the expense of the interest attached to his book."

Mr. BOSWELL to Bp. PERCY.

"MY DEAR LORD, Edinburgh, 8 March 1784. "The heavy loss which your Lordship suffered by the death of your son, soon after my being entertained by your Lordship with very kind hospitality at Carlisle, made it so difficult for me to write to you that I hope you will be good enough to forgive my long delay of expressing my sincere thanks, and I beg your Lordship may at the same time be assured that none of your friends sympathised more with you in your distress. The consolations with which your Lordship's mind is stored have, I trust, had their benignant effect, so that we may again hope for the benefit of your literary labours.

"The state of the nation has for some time been such that in my opinion every good subject is called upon to defend the constitution by supporting the crown. I enclose a pamphlet which I have published on the subject, and which I am truly happy to find has had considerable influence. I rejoice that the Irish appear to be so loyal. If your Lordship thinks that my pamphlet will promote the laudable spirit, and any of the Dublin publishers choose to run the risk of reprinting it, I shall be glad to hear of its success.

"Be so obliging, my dear Lord, as to let me hear from you, and tell me particularly how your lady and daughters like the new situation in which you are placed. If you write soon please to direct to me at Auchinlech, near Ayr, by Portpatrick. I intend to be in London about the end of this month, chiefly to attend upon Dr. Johnson with respectful affection. He has for some time been very ill with dropsical and asthmatical complaints, which at his age are very alarming. I wish to publish, as a regale to him, a neat little volume, The Praises of Dr. Samuel Johnson, by cotemporary Writers.' It will be about the size of Selden's Table Talk, of which your Lordship made me a present, with an inscription on the blank leaf in front, which does me honour. It is placed in the library at Auchinlech. Will your Lordship take the trouble to send me a note of the writers you recollect have praised our much respected friend. My address when in London is at General Paoli's, Portman Square.

"An edition of my pamphlet has been published in London, and the first line of the advertisement was,

'Reprinted for the People of England.' This should be adopted in Dublin, mutato nomine.

"I ever am, my dear Lord, your Lordship's faithful humble servant, JAMES BOSWELL."

"MY DEAR LORD, Carlisle, 8 July 1784. "Having met with Mr. Buckby, a clergyman of your Lordship's diocese, as a fellow traveller, I take the opportunity of his going to Ireland to write a few lines, begging to know if your Lordship received in Spring last a letter from me, with a political pamphlet ?

"I have left Dr. Johnson wonderfully recovered, but by no means well. I hope he will go to Italy before winter. I have at length resolved, with his approbation, to try my fortune at the English bar, a scheme of which your Lordship talked to me in an animating strain, when I was hospitably entertained by you at this place.

"May I hope to hear from your Lordship at Edinburgh? I beg to have my best compliments presented to Mrs. Percy and the young ladies; and I ever am, my dear Lord, your Lordship's faithful humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL."

Auchinleck, 20 March, 1785.

"MY DEAR LORD, "Instead of apologising for not thanking your Lordship sooner, for your last kind letter, which was valued by me as it ought to be, I shall follow the maxim ad eventum festina, and proceed directly to a subject which affects us mutually-the death of our illustrious friend Dr. Johnson. I certainly need not enlarge on the shock it gave my mind. I do not expect to recover from it. I mean I do not expect that I can ever in this world have so mighty a loss supplied. I gaze after him with an eager eye; and I hope again to be with him.

"It is a great consolation to me now, that I was so assiduous in collecting the wisdom and wit of that wonderful man. It is long since I resolved to write his lifeI may say his life and conversation. He was well informed of my intention, and communicated to me a thousand particulars from his earliest years upwards to that dignified intellectual state in which we have beheld him with awe and admiration.

6

"I am first to publish the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides,' in company with him, which will exhibit a specimen of that wonderful conversation in which wisdom

and wit were equally conspicuous. My talent for recording conversation is handsomely acknowledged by your Lordship upon the blank leaf of 'Selden's Table Talk,' with which you was so good as present me. The 'Life' will be a large work enriched with letters and other original pieces of Dr. Johnson's composition; and, as I wish to have the most ample collection I can make, it will be some time before it is ready for publication.

"I am indebted to your Lordship for a copy of Pope's Note' concerning him, and for a list of some of his works which was indeed written down in his presence uncontradicted; but he corrected it for me when I pressed him. If your Lordship will favour me with any thing else of or concerning him I shall be much obliged to you. You must certainly recollect a number of anecdotes. Be pleased to write them down, as you so well can do, and send them to me.

"I am now, as your Lordship once observed to me, your neighbour. For, while here, at the romantic seat of my ancestors, I am at no great distance from Ireland. I hope we shall yet visit as neighbours. At present, however, I am on the wing for London, where letters addressed to me at General Paoli's, Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, will find me. I beg to have my best compliments presented to Mrs. Percy and the young ladies, and I have the honour to remain, your Lordship's faithful humble "JAMES BOSWELL."

servant,

"MY DEAR LORD, London, July 12th, 1786. "My friend Malone undertook to convey to your Lordship a copy of my Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides,' which I hope you have received.

"Your Lordship's last letter to me, which had been unaccountably mislaid in some corner of my house at Edinburgh, has at last been found. I am very sorry that it is now too late to obey your Lordship's commands to procure you a copy of our Scottish regulations, of which I understand from the Bishop of Killalce you have formed, for your Royal Society, the best in the world. But I beg leave to renew my solicitation, and to remind your Lordship of your obliging promise to let me have any materials in your possession that can illustrate the Life of Dr. Johnson, which I am now preparing for the press. I beg that your Lordship may be kind enough to favour me with

them as soon as you can, as I now have occasion for all that I can get. Be pleased to direct for me at Mr. Dilly's, bookseller, London. Though the magnitude and lustre of his character make Dr. Johnson an object of the public attention longer than almost any person whom we have known, yet there is some danger that if the publication of his life be delayed too long, curiosity may be fainter. I am, therefore, anxious to bring forth my quarto. Pray, then, send me your kind communications without delay.

"I am much pleased with the edition of the 'Tatler,' with notes; but I should have been better pleased had the notes been all by one hand; your Lordship will understand me.* I long to have the Spectator, my early favourite, illustrated in the same manner.

"What a dreary thing (I cannot help feeling it) is it to have one's friends removed to a distant country! When I recollect the many pleasing hours which I have passed with Dr. Percy in London, and the few at Alnwick, and the few at Edinburgh, and a good many at Carlisle, how much do I wish that he were well established in England! I am resolved, however, some time or other, to see Ireland all over; and with what glee shall we talk over old stories at Dromore!

"I am now at the English bar, of which I long wished to make a fair trial. How long I shall continue will depend upon circumstances.

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"I beg to have my best compliments presented to Mrs. Percy and the young ladies; and I have the honour to be, my dear Lord, your faithful humble servant,

"JAMES BOSWELL."

Bp. PERCY to Mr. BOSWELL.

"DEAR SIR, Dublin, March 5th, 1787. "My delay in answering your obliging letters I beg you will ascribe to the true cause, the not being able to satisfy myself that any particulars I could recover concerning our friend Dr. Johnson were worth your notice, much less would answer expectations I had formed myself, or excited in you, when we talked of the subject at a distance. Yet I have often reproached myself for not submitting them to your perusal such as they were, and at length have determined to send them to you, with the

* "The Bishop of Dromore had no hand in this edition. T. D." VOL. VII. X