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eeptionably excellent; and never was there a more dignified strain of compliment, than that in which he courts the atten tion of Chesterfield, who was very ambibitious of literary distinction, and who, upon being informed of the defign, had expressed himself in terms very favourable to its success. The way in which it came to be inscribed to Chesterfield was this ; " I had neglected," says he, to write it by the time appointed. Dodsley suggested a defire to have it addressed to Lord Chesterfield. I laid hold of this as a pretext for delay, that it might be better done, and let Dodsley have his defire." The Plan itself, however, proves that the Earl not only favoured the design, but that there had been a particular communication with his Lordship concerning it.

To enable him to complete this vast undertaking, he hired a house in GoughSquare, Fleet-Street, fitted up one of the upper rooms after the manner of a counting-house, and employed fix amanuenfes there in tranfcribing; five of whom were natives of North Britain, Mr. Macbean, author of " A System of Ancient Geography," &c. Mr. Shiels, the principal collector and digefter of the materials for the " Lives of the Poets 1753," to which the name of Mr. Theo. Cibber is prefixed; Mr. Stewart, son of Mr. George Stewart, bookfeller in Edinburgh; and a Mr. Maitland: the fixth was Mr. Peyton, a French master, who published some elementary tracts. The words, partly taken from other dictionaries, and partly supplied by himself, having been first written down, with spaces left between them, he delivered in writing their etymologies, definitions, and various fignifications. The authorities were copied from the books themselves, in which he had marked the

passages with a black lead pencil, the traces of which could easily be effaced.

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This year he contributed to the "Gentleman's Magazine," for May, five short A tranflation of a Lapoetical pieces. tin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer," "To Miss --, on her giving the author a gold and filk net-work purse of her own weaving," " Stella in Mourning," "The Winter's Walk," ," " An Ode," and "To Lyce, an elderly Lady," diftinguished by three asterisks. In the Magazine for December, he inferted an Ode on Winter, which is one of the best of his lyric compositions.

In September, this year, his fortunate pupil, Garrick, having become joint-patentee and manager of Drury-lane theatre, he furnished him with a Prologue at the opening of it, which, for just and manly criticism, as well as for poetical excellence, is unrivalled in that species of compofition.

In 1748, while he was employed in his Dictionary, he exerted his talents in occafional composition, very different from lexicography, and formed a club that met at Horseman's chop-house in Ivy-lane, Pater-nofter Row, every Tuesday evening, with a view to enjoy literary discussion, and the pleasure of animated relaxation. The members afsociated with him in this little society, were his beloved friend, Dr. Richard Bathurst, a physician, Dr. Hawkefworth, Dr. Salter, father of the late master of the charter-house, Mr. Ryland, a merchant, Mr. John Payne, then a bookseller in Pater-nofter Row, Mr. Samuel Dyer, a learned young man, intended for the dissenting ministry, Dr. William M'Ghie, a Scotch physician, Dr. Edmund Barker, a young physician, and Sir John Hawkins. The endowments of Mr. Dyer are represented by Sir John Hawkins as of such a fuperior kind, that in fome instances

Johnson might almost be said to have looked up to him." They used to difpute in this club, about the moral fenfe and the fitness of things, but Johnson was not uniform in his opinions; contending as often for victory as truth. This infirmity attended him through life.

In this year he published, in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for May, The Life of Rofcommon, which has fince been inserted in his "Lives of the Poets." He wrote

also the Preface to Dodsley's "Preceptor," and the Vision of Theodore, the Hermit of Teneriffe, found in his cell, a most beautiful allegory of human life, under the figure of afcending the mountain of existence, which he himself thought the best of his writings.

In January 1749, he published The Vanity of Human Wishes, being the tenth Satire of Juvenal imitated, with his name. Of this poem, he composed seventy lines in one