duced Dr. Lawrence to give up lecturing, and betake himself to the general exercife of his profeffion. In his endeavours to attain to eminence, it was his misfortune to fail: he was above those arts by which popularity is acquired, and had befides fome perfonal defects and habits which stood in his way; a vacuity of countenance very unfavourable to an opinion of his learning or fagacity, and certain convulfive motions of the head and features that gave pain to the beholders, and drew off attention to all that he faid *. He delighted much in naval architecture, and was able with his own hands, and a variety of tools of his own contrivance, to form a model of a fhip of war of any rate; first framing it with ribs and fuch other timbers as are requifite in a fhip for fervice, and afterwards covering it with planks of the thickness of a half-crown piece, and the breadth of about an inch, which he faftened to the ribs with wooden pins of a proportionable fize, and in this manner of working he completed many fuch models, elegantly wrought and most beautiful in their forms. He was alfo a lover of mufic, and was able to play his part in concert on the violoncellot till hindered by deafness, a disorder that It will hardly be believed, how much fuch particularities as these, obftruct the progrefs of one who is to make his way in a profeffion: a ftammering, or a bad articulation, fpoil an orator, and a difguling appearance hurts a phyfician, Pemberton, the Gresham profeffor, a great man in his time, was configned to indigence, by a habit of distorting the muscles of his face, which was become irresistible. ↑ He had a younger brother named Charles, a folicitor of great practice, who also played on the violoncello, and, having been a that came upon him about the middle of his life, and at length drove him to feek a retreat from the world and all its cares at Canterbury, where, about the year 1783, he died. To confole him under fome family difappointments, Johnfon addreffed to him a fine Latin ode, which is inferted in his works. He wrote the life of his friend Dr. Nicholls, in very elegant Latin, but it was never published: his fole defign in printing it being to gratify thofe of his own profeffion. In the fame language, he wrote the life of Dr. William Harvey, prefixed to an edition of his works, published by the college of phyficians in 1766, in one volume 4to. The fincere and lafting friendship, that fubfifted between Johnfon and Levett, may ferve to fhew, that although a fimilarity of difpofitions and qualities has a tendency to beget affection, or fomething very nearly refembling it, it may be contracted and fubfift where this inducement is wanting, for hardly were ever two men lefs like each other, in this refpect, than were they. Levett had not an understanding capable of comprehending the talents of Johnfon: the mind of Johnfon was therefore, as to him, a blank; and Johnson, had the eye of his mind been more penetrating than it pupil on that inftrument, of Caporale, was the best performer on it of any gentleman in England. About the year 1740, I was used to meet both the brothers at a tavern in Gracechurch ftreet, where was a private concert, to which none but fuch as could join in it were admitted. Many of those who frequented it were great masters, namely, Mr. Stanley, who played the first violin, the above Sig. Caporale, Vincent, the hautboy player, and Balicourt, who performed on the German flute: the rest were organists and gentlemen performers. was, could not difcern, what did not exist, any par ticulars in Levett's character that at all refembled his own. He had no learning, and confequently was an unfit companion for a learned man; and though it may be faid, that having lived fome years abroad, he must have seen and remarked many things that would have afforded entertainment in the relation, this advantage was counterbalanced by an utter inability for continued converfation, taciturnity being one of the most obvious features in his character: the confideration of all which particulars almoft impels me to fay, that Levett admired Johnfon because others admired him, and that Johnson in pity loved Levett, because few others could find any thing in him to love. And here I cannot forbear remarking, that, almost throughout his life, poverty and diftreffed circumftances feemed to be the strongest of all recommendations to his favour. When asked by one of his most intimate friends, how he could bear to be furrounded by fuch neceffitous and undeferving people as he had about him, his anfwer was, 'If I did not affift them no one else would, and they must be loft for want." Among many others, whom he thus patronized, was a worthless fellow, a dancing-mafter by profeffion, and an affiftant in teaching to the famous Noverre the favourite of Mr. Garrick. This man, notwithstanding the nature of his employment, which was a genteel one, and led to no fuch connections, delighted in the company and converfation of marfhal's-court attornies, and of bailiffs and their followers, and others of a lower clafs, fharpers and fwindlers, who, when they had made him drunk, would get him to fign notes and engagements of various kinds, which, he not being able to discharge, they had him arrested upon, and this was fo frequently the cafe, that much of his time was paffed in confinement. His wife, through Mrs. Williams, got at Johnson, and told him her tale, which was, that her husband was, at that inftant, detained for a small debt in a fpunging-houfe, and he conceiving it to be a piteous one, and an additional proof that in human life the evil accidents outnumber the good, fent her to me for advice. I heard her ftory, and learned from it, that all the merit of the fellow lay in his heels, that he had neither principle nor difcretion, and, in fhort, was a cully, the dupe of every one that would make him drunk. I therefore difmiffed her with a meffage to Johnfon to this effect: that her husband made it impoffible for his friends to help him, and muft fubmit to his deftiny. When I next faw Johnson, I told him that there feemed to be as exact a fitnefs between the character of this man and his affociates, as is between the web of a spider and the wings of a fly, and I could not but think he was born to be cheated. Johnfon feemed to acquiefce in my opinion; but I believe, before that, had fet him at liberty by paying the debt. Another of Johnson's diftreffed friends was, Mr. Edmund Southwell, a younger brother of Thomas lord Southwell, of the kingdom of Ireland. This gentleman, having no patrimony, was, in his younger days, a cornet of horfe; but having in a duel, into which he was forced, flain his antagonist, he quitted the fervice, and trufted to Providence for a fupport. He was a man of wonderful parts, of lively and entertaining conversation, and well acquainted with the world; he was alfo a brother in affliction with Johnfon, that is to fay, he laboured under a depreffion of mind, occafioned by the mifadventure above-mentioned, that often approached to infanity. Being without employment, his practice was to wander about the streets of London, and call in at fuch coffee-houses, for inftance, the Smyrna and Cocoatree in Pall-Mall, and Child's and Batfon's in the city, as were frequented by men of intelligence, or where any thing like converfation was going forward: in these he found means to make friends, from whom he derived a precarious fupport. In the city he was fo well known, and fo much beloved and pitied, that many, by private donations, relieved his wants. In particular, Sir Robert Ladbroke, an alderman thereof, and a man of opulence, made him frequent prefents of money to fupply his neceffities, and Mr. Bates, the mafter of the Queen's-arms tavern in St. Paul's church-yard, fuffered him, as often as he pleafed, to add to an ideal account fubfifting between them, the expence of a dinner. A gentleman of great worth in the city, who knew and pitied his diftreffes, procured, unknown to him, from a lady famous for her beneficence, a penfion of a hundred pounds a year, which he lived but few years to receive. Johnfon was a great lover of penitents, and of all fuch men as, in their converfation, made profeflions of piety; of this man he would fay, that he was one of the most pious of all his acquaintance, but in this, as he frequently was in the judgment he formed of others, |