effays, particularly a state of the controversy between Croufaz and Warburton refpecting the 'Effay on Man,' and a vifion intitled the Apotheofis of Milton.' Cave being now dead, he ceased to furnish articles for that publication, and either voluntarily offered, or fuffered himself to be retained as a writer in others of a like kind: accordingly, in 1756, he wrote for the Univerfal Visitor, or Monthly Memorialist,' printed for Gardner*, two of three letters therein inferted, on the fubject of agriculture; and in the fame and subsequent year, he assumed or submitted to the office of a reviewer, as it is called, for the publisher of a monthly collection, intitled, The Literary Magazine,' of which one Faden, a printer, was the editor. In this he wrote the addrefs to the public; alfo, reviews of the following books, viz. Soame Jenyns's free enquiry into the nature and origin of evil; Dr. Blackwell's Memoirs of the court of Auguftus; he wrote alfo therein, Observations on the ftate of affairs in 1756, and the Life of the present king of Pruffia; and, Hanway's journal coming in his way, which contained in it a fevere cenfure of the practice of tea-drinking, he officially, as I may say, and with a degree of alacrity proportioned to his avowed love of that liquor, undertook to criticife the book, and refute the arguments of the author.

To render this controverfy intelligible, it is neceffary I fhould ftate the grounds on which it proceeded.-Mr. Jonas Hanway had, in the year 1755, undertaken and

The writers in this publication were, Chriftopher Smart, Richard Rolt, Mr. Garrick, and Dr. Percy, now bishop of Dromore. Their papers are figned with the initials of their furnames; Johnfon's have this mark • •.

performed

performed a journey from Portsmouth to Kingston upon Thames, through Southampton, Wiltshire, &c. which, though completed in the space of eight days, and attended with no extraordinary circumftances, was, it feems, in his judgment, worthy of being recorded, and, by means of the prefs, tranfmitted to pofterity; and accordingly he gave a relation of it to the public, in two octavo volumes. It may be needless to fay, that this work abounds with miscellaneous thoughts, moral and religious, and also political reflec• tions; for of which of all his numerous productions cannot the fame be faid? Connected with it is An Effay on Tea, confidered as pernicious to health, obftructing industry, and impoverishing the nation, with an account of its growth, and great confumption in thefe kingdoms *.

As

*Mr. Hanway feems not very accurate in his state of the time when tea was first brought into England. He fays, that lord Arlington and lord Offory introduced it in 1666, and that it was then admired as a new thing. Waller has a poem addressed to the queen, Maria d'Efte, wife of Ja. II. in 1683, On tea commended by her majefty,' whereby it feems, that even then it was a new thing.

It is a queftion of fome curiofity, and worthy investigation, what were the viands of a morning meal with people of condition, for which tea with its concomitants is now the fubftitute; and I am glad to be able to refolve it by the following extract from the Northumberland houfhold book, in which is contained the regulations and eftablishment of the houfhold of Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth earl of Northumberland, at his caftles of Wrefill and Leckinfield in Yorkshire, begun anno domini 1512.

Braikfaftis for my Lorde and my lady.

Furft, a loof of brede in trenchors, 2 manchetts, 1 quart

of

As I do not mean to follow this author in the course of an argument conducted in no method, interrupted by a redundancy of foreign matter, and which violates every rule in logic, I fhall content myself with remarking, that though every one of his three affertions may be true, he has fucceeded in the proof of no one of them. That tea is a luxury, and not a fit aliment for the poor, is implied in a farcasm of Swift to this purpose, that the world must be encompaffed, that is to fay, by a voyage to the East Indies for tea, and another to the Weft for fugar,

* of bere, a quart of wine, half a chyne of mutton, or ells a chyne * of beif boiled.

Braikfaftis for the Nurcy, for my Lady Margaret,

and Mr. Yngram Percy.

Item, a manchet, 1 quarte of bere, and 3 muton bonys boiled.

Braikfaftis for my Ladys Gentylwomen.

< Item, a loif of houshold breid, a pottell of beire, and 3 muton bonys boyled, or ells a pece of beif boiled.

LENT.

• Braikfafte for my Lorde and my Lady.

• Furft, à loif of brede in trenchors, 2 manchets, a quart of bere, a quart of wyne, 2 pecys of faltfisch, 6 baconn'd herrying, white herring or a dyfche of fproits.

Braikfafte for the Nurcy, for my Lady Margaret,

and Maifter Ingeram Percy.

Item, a manchet, a quarte of bere, a dyfch of butter, a pece of faltfisch, a difch of fproits, or 3 white herrying.

Braikfafte for my Ladis Gentyllwomen.

Item, a loof of brede, a pottell of bere, a pece of faltfische, or 3 white herrynge.'

VOL. I.

A 2

before *

before a washerwoman can fit down to breakfast. That it is pernicious to health is difputed by phyficians: Quincy commends it, as an elegant and wholefome beverage; Cheyne condemns it, as prejudicial to the nervous fyftem. Bishop Burnet, for many years, drank fixteen large cups of it every morning, and never complained that it did him the leaft injury. The two laft objections, that tea is an obftruction to industry, and that it impoverishes the nation, are political queftions which I am not able to decide upon.

Epictetus fomewhere advifes us to confider the gratification of the calls of hunger and thirst, as acts of neceffity; to be performed as it were by the bye, but by no means to be estimated among the enjoyments of life; and by a precept no lefs than divine, we are exhorted to take no thought what we shall eat or what we fhall drink. Johnfon looked upon the former as a very ferious bufinefs, and enjoyed the pleasures of a fplendid table equally with moft men. It was, at no time of his life, pleafing to see him at a meal; the greedinefs with which he ate, his total inattention to thofe among whom he was feated, and his profound filence in the hour of refection, were circumstances that at the inftant degraded him, and fhewed him to be more a fenfualift than a philofopher. Moreover, he was a lover of tea to an excefs hardly credible; whenever it appeared, he was almoft raving, and by his impatience to be ferved, his inceffant calls for thofe ingredients which make that liquor palatable, and the hafte with which he fwallowed it down, he feldom failed to make that a fatigue to every one else, which was intended as a general refreshment. Such

figns of effeminacy as thefe, fuited but ill with the appearance of a man, who, for his bodily ftrength and ftature, has been compared to Polyphemus.

This foible in Johnson's character being known, it will excite no wonder in the reader to be told, that he readily embraced the opportunity of defending his own practice, by an examen of Hanway's book. Accordingly, he began his remarks on it in the Literary Magazine, Number VII *, but receiving from this author an injunction to forbear proceeding in his cenfure till a fecond edition fhould appear, he submitted, though it was a prohibition that could neither be reasonably impofed, nor by any means inforced; yet, fuch was its effect, that Mr. Hanway's journal was not remarked on, till he had been allowed every advantage that could protect it from cenfure.

Such candour on the part of him, on whofe opinion perhaps many were waiting to form theirs, might have relieved the author from any dread of unfair treatment; but Johnson, who paid all proper deference to good intentions, did not think this tacit indication of the temper in which he fat down to review Mr Hanway's journal, fufficient: he, therefore, in refuming the difpute, promifes him, that he fhall find no malignity of cenfure, and draws a very handsome inference from the contents of his thirty-two letters, that he is a man whofe failings may well be pardoned for his virtues.

The criticifm on this fecond edition appeared in the Literary Magazine, Number XII †, and extends

From 15th Oct. to 15th Nov. 1756.

+ From 15th April to 15th May, 1757.

A a 2

chiefly