* pofterity, are forgotten, for the very reafon for which they might expect to be remembered. It has been long lamented, that the duration of the monuments of genius and study, as well as of wealth and power, depends in no fmall measure on their bulk; and that volumes, confiderable only for their fize, are handed down from one age to another, when compendious treatifes, of far greater importance, are fuffered to perifh, as the compacteft bodies fink into the water, while thofe of which the extenfion bears a greater ⚫ proportion to the weight, float upon the furface.

This obfervation hath been fo often confirmed by experience, that, in the neighbouring nation, the ⚫ common appellation of finall performances is derived from this unfortunate circumftance; a flying sheet, or a fugitive piece, are the terms by which they are diftinguifhed, and diftinguished with too great propriety, as they are fubject, after having amufed mankind for a while, to take their flight and disappear for

.

ever.

• What are the loffes which the learned have already * fuftained, by having neglected to fix thofe fugitives ' in fome certain refidence, it is not easy to fay; but there is no doubt that many valuable obfervations have been repeated, because they were not preferved; and that, therefore, the progrefs of knowledge has been retarded, by the neceffity of doing what had been already done, but was done for those who forgot C their benefactor.

C

The obvious method of preventing these loffes, of ⚫ preferving to every man the reputation he has merited by long affiduity, is to unite thefe fcattered

'pieces into volumes, that those which are too fmall to preferve themselves, may be fecured by their combination with others; to confolidate these atoms of learning into fyftems, to collect thefe difunited that their light and their fire may become per

rays,

ceptible.

Of encouraging this ufeful design, the studious and inquifitive have now an opportunity, which, perhaps, was never offered them before, and which, if it should now be loft, there is not any probability that they will ever recover. They may now con'ceive themselves in poffeffion of the lake into which ⚫ all those rivulets of fcience have for many years been flowing but which, unless its waters are turned into proper channels, will foon burft its banks, or be difperfed in imperceptible exhalations.

с

In the Harleian library, which I have purchased, < are treasured a greater number of pamphlets and fmall treatifes, than were perhaps ever yet feen in one place; productions of the writers of all parties, and of every age, from the reformation; collected with an unbounded and unwearied curiofity, without • exclufion of any fubject.

So great is the variety, that it has been no fmall labour to perufe the titles, in order to reduce them to a rude divifion, and range their heaps under general heads; of which the number, though not yet increased by the fubdivifion which an accurate survey will neceffarily produce, cannot but excite the curiofity of all the ftudious, as there is scarcely any part of knowledge which fome of thefe articles do not

comprehend.

[Then

[Then follows an enumeration of articles to the amount of more than an hundred and fifty, which it is needlefs here to infert.]

As many of these tracts must be obfcure by 'length of time, or defective for want of thofe difcoveries which have been made fince they were written, there will be added fome hiftorical, explanatory, or fupplemental notes, in which the occafion of the treatise will be fhewn, or an account given of the ' author, allufions to forgotten facts will be illuftrated, or the fubject farther elucidated from other ? writers.'

We may well conclude that the proposal met with all due encouragement, as the pieces recommended in it were in the year 1749, published in eight quarto volumes. To the first of them was prefixed, as an introduction, an essay on the origin and importance of fmall tracts and fugitive pieces.

Osborne was an opulent tradefman, as may be judged from his ability to make fo large a purchase as that above-mentioned; he was used to boast that he was worth forty thousand pounds, but of bookfellers he was one of the moft ignorant: of title-pages or editions he had no knowledge or remembrance, but in all the tricks and arts of his trade he was moft expert. Johnfon, in his life of Pope fays, that he was entirely destitute of shame, without fenfe of any disgrace, but that of poverty. He purchased a number of unfold copies of Mr. Pope's Iliad, of the folio fize, printed on an inferior paper and without cuts, and cutting off the top and bottom margins, which were very large, had the impudence to call them the fubfcription books, and

to vend them as fuch*. His infolence to his cuftomers was alfo frequently paft bearing. If one came for a book in his catalogue, he would endeavour to force on him fome new publication of his own, and, if he refufed, would affront him.

I mention the above particulars of this worthless fellow as an introduction to a fact refpecting his behaviour to Johnson, which I have often heard related, and which himself confeffed to be true. Johnfon, while employed in selecting pieces for the Harleian Mifcellany, was neceffitated, not only to perufe the title-page of each article, but frequently to examine its contents, in order to form a judgment of its worth and importance, in the doing whereof, it must be fuppofed, curiofity might fometimes detain him too long, and whenever it did, Ofborne was offended. Seeing Johnfon one day deeply engaged in perufing a book, and the work being for the inftant at a stand, he reproached him with inattention and delay, in fuch coarfe language as few men would use, and ftill fewer could brook: the other in his juftification afferted fomewhat, which Ofborne anfwered by giving him the lie; Johnfon's anger at fo foul a charge, was not fo great as to make him forget that he had weapons at hand he feized a folio that lay near him, and with it felled his adverfary to the ground, with fome exclamation, which, as it is differently related, I will not venture to repeat.

This tranfaction, which has been feldom urged with any other view than to fhew that Johnfon was of

See a note on the Dunciad, Book ii. verfe 167, in the later editions.

an

an irafcible temper, is generally related as an entertaining story with me it has always been a subject of melancholy reflection. In our eftimation of the enjoyments of this life, we place wisdom, virtue, and learning in the first clafs, and riches and other adventitious gifts of fortune in the laft. The natural fubordination of the one to the other we fee and approve, and when that is disturbed we are forry. How then muft it affect a fenfible mind to contemplate that misfortune, which could fubject a man endued with a capacity for the highest offices, a philofopher, a poet, an orator, and, if fortune had fo ordered, a chancellor, a prelate, a ftatefman, to the infolence of a mean, worthlefs, ignorant fellow, who had nothing to justify the fuperiority he exercised over a man fo endowed, but thofe advantages which Providence indifcriminately difpenfes to the worthy and the worthlefs! to fee fuch a man, for the fupply of food and raiment, fubmitting to the commands of his inferior, and, as a hireling, looking up to him for the reward of his work, and receiving it accompanied with reproach and contumely, this, I fay, is a fubject of melancholy reflection,

Having completed the Harleian catalogue and mifcellany, and thereby difengaged himself from Ofborne, Johnfon was at liberty to purfue fome scheme of profit, lefs irksome than that in which he had fo lately been employed. Biography was a kind of writing that he delighted in; it called forth his powers of reflection, and gave him occafion to contemplate human life and manners. He had made fome effays of his talent in the lives of Barretier and Boerhaave, men unknown to him, and was now prompted to give to the