he abandoned his factious principles, and became a loyal fubject. In a grateful fense of his obligations to lord Le Defpenfer, he directed, that after his decease, his heart, inclosed in a veffel for the purpose, fhould be presented to him, which being done, his lordship caused it to be depofited in his church of West Wycomb.

Dr. Thompson was one of the many physicians who, in this country, have enjoyed a fhort-lived reputation, acquired by methods unknown to any but themselves. The earlieft of his practice was among men of eminence, Mr. Pope and others, who, deceived by his confidence and a certain contempt with which he ever spoke of the rest of his profeffion as being bigotted to theories and fyftems, looked upon him as a man of an inventive genius, who had reduced the art of healing to an epitome. The fact was, that, affecting to be a free-thinker in his faculty, he fet at nought the discoveries and improvements of others, and treated with ridicule that practice which he did not understand. He was an everlasting prater on politics and criticifm, and faw fo deep into the councils of the king of Pruffia, that he could affign the motives of all his actions, during the laft war in which he was engaged. At taverns, in coffeehoufes, at the cyder-cellar in Maiden lane, he was frequently to be found holding forth on these subjects without interruption, in a tone of voice which Mr. Garrick would fay was like the buz of an humblebee in a hall-window. This man enjoyed the favour of lord Melcombe, and, what was of greater benefit to him, an apartment in his houfe, with a protection from arrefts, founded on the privilege which the law grants,

not only to peers, but to the lowest of their menial fervants.

Quin once told me a story of this man, which I will relate in as few words as I am able.-Quin walking up and down, one Sunday evening, in the Bedford coffee-house, obferved a man in a dark corner leaning his forehead on the table, and every now and then fending forth a figh, that seemed to come from his heart. Moved with compaffion, he went up to him, and enquiring the cause of his grief, was told by him, that his name was Thompson, that he was a phyfician rifing into practice, but that, for want of fifty pounds, his chariot could not go abroad the next day, and his patients must remain unvifited. Quin bid him be comforted, and, ftepping to his lodgings in Bedford street, returned with a bank-note for that fum, which he told Thompfon he would not expect till he was able to repay it: the other anfwered, that a month was as long as he wifhed to retain it; but Quin told him that he could fpare it for three, or even fix months, and took his leave. Six months elapfed, and no apology made for non-payment of the money. Quin, in a civil letter, reminded Thompson of the terms on which it was lent, but receiving no answer to that and others that he wrote, he was obliged to fend him one by his attorney, which produced a notification from the duke of Newcastle's office, that the name of Dr. Thompson was there entered as of a perfon privileged from arrefts, and that it would be at Mr. Quin's peril if he proceeded to violate that protection which he claimed, and the law granted him. Being thus prohibited from the restraint of his person, Quin was obliged to wait the re-payment of his money,

which, at the expiration of fome months, he received, but without the leaft acknowledgment of his kindness in lending it.

This was a man whom Whitehead, in the fimplicity of his heart, held in fuch estimation, that I have seen him, for hours together, listening, with his lips unclofed, to the torrents of nonfenfe he was pouring forth: he addreffed an epiftle to him, wherein he celebrates his medical abilities and moral qualities, and makes the number of perfons daily restored by him to health, equal to those who were fent to their longhomes by Wilmot and the other eminent phyficians his rivals and contemporaries.

Notwithstanding the advantages with which he fet out, and the extravagant encomiums of Fielding and others, of him and his practice, Thompson funk into contempt and obfcurity. Like Paracelfus, he performed a few cures, that neither himself nor any others were ever able to account for; and in a cafe of furgery he was once known, by dint of mere obftinacy, to have faved a limb. A fon of a friend of mine, an officer, being in the fervice in Germany, and at the head of a fkirmishing-party on horfeback, received a wound with a fabre that separated the tendons and ligaments which connect the foot with the leg at a confultation on his cafe of two of the most eminent furgeons, Thompson, as being the family physician, was called to aflift, who, in oppofition to their opinion that an amputation was inevitable, fwore that his friend fhould not undergo it: the operation was deferred, and by the help of the Malvern waters, the patient recovered fuch an ufe of the whole limb as enabled him to walk with scarce any variation of his accustomed gait. Z 2

Had

Had Johnson accepted of Mr. Dodington's invita tion, it cannot be supposed that he would have been much pleased with the company of thefe and fuch other perfons as it was likely to introduce him to. His declining it feems, therefore, an act of great prudence, and indeed he was exempted from the neceffity of feeking connections; for many perfons were of Dodington's mind, and were defirous of adding him to the number of their friends. Invitations to dine with fuch of those as he liked, he fo feldom declined, that, to a friend of his, he faid, 'I never but once, upon a ⚫ refolution to employ myself in study, balked an in⚫vitation out to dinner, and then I stayed at home and

did nothing.' Little, however, did that laxity of temper, which this confeffion feems to imply, retard the progress of the great work in which he was employed the conclufion, and alfo the perfection of his dictionary, were objects from which his attention was not to be diverted: the avocations he gave way to were fuch only as, when complied with, ferved to invigorate his mind to the performance of his engagements to his employers and the public, and haften the approach of the day that was to reward his labour with applause.

That day it was his happiness to fee; for, by the end of the year 1754, he had completed his copy, not more to his own eafe and fatisfaction, than to the joy of Millar the bookfeller, the principal proprietor of the work, and the guardian or treasurer of the fund out of which the payments were from time to time iffued. To fay the truth, his joy on the occafion was fo great, that he could not refrain from expreffing it fomewhat intemperately, as appears by the following acknowledgment

acknowledgment of the receipt of the last sheet of the manufcript:

Andrew Millar fends his compliments to Mr. Samuel Johnson, with the money for the last sheet of copy of the Dictionary, and thanks God he has done with him.'

To which Johnson returned this good-humoured and brief anfswer:

• Samuel Johnfon returns his compliments to Mr. Andrew Millar, and is very glad to find, as he does by his note, that Andrew Millar has the grace to thank God for any thing.'

The publication of this great work foon followed, as may be imagined, the interchange of these two very laconic epiftles; and the month of May 1755, put the world in poffeffion of a treasure, the value whereof it will require the experience of years to find out. To recommend it to the notice of foreigners, he was defirous it fhould appear to come from one who had attained academical honours: he therefore applied, by his friend Mr. Thomas Warton, to the university of Oxford for a master's degree, and obtained it by a diploma, dated the tenth day of February 1755, the tenour whereof is, that the most learned Samuel Johnfon, of Pembroke college, having distinguished himself in the literary world by his writings, tending to form the popular manners; and having, for the adorning and fettling his native language, compiled, and being about to publish an English dictionary, the chancellor, masters, and scholars of the faid University, in folemn convocation affembled, do therefore conftitute and appoint the faid Samuel Johnson,

Z3