Let them rally their heroes-send forth all their powers- Our author having spent, during the progress of his laborious work, the money which he had contracted to execute it, was still under the necessity of exerting his talents, as he himself expresses it, in making provision for the day that was passing over him. The subscriptions taken in for his edition of Shakespeare, and the profit of his miscellaneous essays, were now his principal resource for subsistence; and it appears from the following letter to Mr. Richardson, dated Gough Square, March 16, 1756, that they were not sufficient to ward off the distress of an arrest on a particular emergency. 'I am obliged to entreat your assistance; I am now under an arrest for five pounds eighteen shillings; Mr. Strahan from whom I should have the necessary help in this case is not at home, and I am afraid of not finding Mr. Millar. If you would be so good as to send me this sum, I will very gratefully repay you, and add it to all former obligations. In the margin of this letter there is a memorandum in these words,-March 16, 1756. Sent six guineas, Witness William Richardson." The same year he engaged to superintend, and contribute largely to another monthly publication, entitled-The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review.' For this periodical work, he wrote original essays, and critical reviews: his essays evince extensive judgment; some of his reviews are short accounts of the production noticed, but many of them are examples of elaborate criticism in the most masterly style. About this period he was offered by a particular friend, a church living of considerable value in Lincolnshire, if he would take orders and accept it; but he chose to decline the clerical function. This year the Ivy Lane club was dissolved by the dispersion of the members. In april 1758, he began the Idler, which appeared statedly in a weekly newspaper, called The Universal Chronicle,' and was continued till April, 1760. The Idler evidently appears to be the production of the same genius as the Rambler; but it has more of real life as well as ease of language. Soon after the death of his mother, which happened in the beginning of 1759, he wrote his Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, that with the profits he might defray the expense of her funeral; and pay some little debts which he had contracted. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds that he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over. He received for the copy 1001.; and 251. when it came to a second edition. The applause with which this work was received, bore ample testimony to its merit; indeed, its reception was such, that it has been translated into various modern languages, and admitted into the politest libraries of Europe. In 1760, Mr. Murphy conceiving himself illiberally treated by Dr. Franklin, a cotemporary writer, in his dissertation on Tragedy; published an animated vindication of himself in a Poetical Epistle to Samuel Johnson, A. M. in which he complimented Johnson in a just and elegant manner. An acquaintance first commenced between Johnson and Mr. Murphy in the following manner: Mr. Murphy, during the publication of his 'Gray's Inn Journal,' happened to be in the country with Foote, the modern Aristophanes; and, having mentioned that he was obliged to go to London, to get ready for the press one of the numbers, Foote said to him-'You need not go on that account-here is a French magazine, in which you will find a very pretty original tale; translate that and send it to your printer.' Mr. Murphy having read the tale, was highly pleased with it, and followed Foote's advice. When he arrived in town, this tale was pointed out to him in the Rambler, from whence it had been translated into the French magazine; Mr. Murphy then waited upon Johnson to explain the curious incident, and a friendship was formed between them, that continued without interruption till the death of Johnson. In 1762, Fortune, which had hitherto left our author to struggle with the inconveniences of a precarious subsistence, arising entirely from his own labours, gave him the independence which his literary talents certainly deserved. His present Majesty, in the month of July, granted him a pension of 3001. per annum, as a recompense for the honour which the excellence of his writings had been to these kingdoms. He obtained it through the interference of the Earl of Bute, then First Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, upon the suggestion of Mr Wedderburn, since Lord Chancellor of Great Britain; at the instance of Mr. Murphy and the late Mr. Sheridan, father of the present proprietor of Drury Lane theatre, and eminent for his Lectures on Oratory, as well as Dictionary of the English Langurge. Johnson from this circumstance was censured by some as an apostate, and ridiculed by others for becoming a pensioner. The North Briton was furnished with arguments against the minister for rewarding a Tory and a Jacobite; and Churchill satirized his political versatility with the most poignant severity in the following lines: How to all principles untrue, Not fix'd to old friends, nor to new, His acceptance of the royal bounty undoubtedly subjected him to the appellation of pensioner, to which he had annexed an ignominious defini tion in his dictionary. It is with great propriety remarked upon this occasion, that, 'having received a favour from two Scotchmen, against whose country he joined in the rabble-cry of indiscriminate invective; it was thus that even-handed Justice commended the poisoned chalice to his own lips, and compelled him to an awkward, though not unpleasant penance, for indulging in a splenetick prejudice, equally unworthy of his head and heart.' In 1763, Mr. Boswell, from whose account the principal circumstances in these memoirs are taken, was introduced to our author; and continued to live in great intimacy with him, from that time till his death. Churchill in his 'Ghost,' availed himself of the common opinion of Johnson's credulity, and drew a caricature of him under the name of Pomposo, representing him as one of the believers of the story of the ghost in Cock Lane, which in 1762 had gained very great credit in London. Johnson made no reply, for it seems that, with other wise folks, he sat up with the ghost. Contrary however to the common opinion of Johnson's credulity, Mr. Boswell asserts that he was a principal agent in detecting the imposture; and undeceived the world by publishing an account of it in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1762. In February 1764, to enlarge the circle of his literary acquaintance, and afford opportunities for conversation, he founded a society which afterwards became distinguished by the title of the |