(St), the Baptist, the fore-runner of Jesus Christ, was the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth. He retired into a desert, where he lived on locusts and wild honey; and about the year 29 began to preach repentance, and to declare the coming of the Messiah. He baptized his disciples, and the following year Christ himself was baptized by him in the river Jordan. Some time after, having reproved Herod Antipas, who had a criminal correspondence with Herodias his brother Philip's wife, he was cast into prison, where he was beheaded. His head was brought to Herodias; who, according to St Jerome, pierced his tongue with the bodkin she used to fasten up her hair, to revenge herself after his death for the freedom of his reproaches.

(St), the apostle, or the evangelist, was the brother of St James the Great, and the son of Zebedee. He quitted the business of fishing to follow Jesus, and was his beloved disciple. He was witness to the actions and miracles of his Master; was present at his transfiguration on mount Tabor; and was with him in the garden of Olives. He was the only apostle who followed him to the cross; and to him Jesus left the care of his mother. He was also the first apostle who knew him again after his resurrection. He preached the faith in Asia; and principally resided at Ephesus, where he maintained the mother of our Lord. He is said to have founded the churches of Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. He is also said to have preached the gospel amongst the Parthians, and to have addressed his first epistle to that people. It is related, that, when at Rome, the emperor Domitian caused him to be thrown into a caldron of boiling oil, when he came out unhurt; on which he was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote his Apocalypse. After the death of Domitian, he returned to Ephesus, where he composed his Gospel, about the year 96; and died there, in the reign of Trajan, about the year 100, aged 94.

Gospel of St John, a canonical book of the New Testament, containing a recital of the life, actions, doctrine, and death, of our Saviour Jesus Christ, written by St John the apostle and evangelist.

St John wrote his Gospel at Ephesus, after his return. turn from the isle of Patmos, at the desire of the Christians of Asia. St Jerome says, he would not undertake it, but on condition that they should appoint a public fast to implore the assistance of God; and that, the fast being ended, St John, filled with the Holy Ghost, broke out into these words, "In the beginning was the Word," &c. The ancients assign two reasons for this undertaking: the first is, because, in the other three Gospels, there was wanting the history of the beginning of Jesus Christ's preaching, till the imprisonment of John the Baptist, which therefore he applied himself particularly to relate. The second reason was, in order to remove the errors of the Corinthians, Ebionites, and other sects. But Mr Lampe and Dr Lardner have urged several reasons to show that St John did not write against Cerinthus or any other heretics in his Gospel.

Revelation of St John. See Apocalypse.

John of Salisbury, bishop of Chartres in France, was born at Salisbury in Wiltshire, in the beginning of the 12th century. Where he imbibed the rudiments of his education, is unknown; but we learn, that in the year 1136, being then a youth, he was sent to Paris, where he studied under several eminent professors, and acquired considerable fame for his application and proficiency in rhetoric, poetry, divinity, and particularly in the learned languages. Thence he travelled to Italy: and, during his residence at Rome, was in high favour with pope Eugenio III. and his successor Adrian IV. After his return to England, he became the intimate friend and companion of the famous Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, whom he attended in his exile, and is said to have been present when that haughty prelate was murdered in his cathedral. What preferment he had in the church during this time, does not appear; but in 1176 he was promoted by king Henry II. to the bishopric of Chartres in France, where he died in 1182. This John of Salisbury was really a phenomenon. He was one of the first reformers of the Greek and Latin languages in Europe; a classical scholar, a philosopher, a learned divine, and an elegant Latin poet. He wrote several books; the principal of which are, his Life of St Thomas of Canterbury, a collection of letters, and Polycraticon.

Pope John XXII., a native of Cahors, before called James d'Eyle, was well skilled in the civil and canon law; and was elected pope after the death of Clement V. on the 7th of August 1316. He published the constitutions called Clementines, which were made by his predecessor; and drew up the other constitutions called Extravagantes. Lewis of Bavaria being elected emperor, John XXII. opposed him in favour of his competitor; which made much noise, and was attended with fatal consequences. That prince, in 1329, caused the antipope Peter de Corbiero, a cordelier, to be elected, who took the name of Nicholas V. and was supported by Michael de Cefenne, general of his order; but that antipope was the following year taken and carried to Avignon, where he begged pardon of the pope with a rope about his neck, and died in prison two or three years after. Under this pope arose the famous question among the cordeliers, called the bread of the cordeliers; which was, Whether those monks had the property of the things given them, at the time they were making use of them? for example, whether the bread belonged to them when they were eating it, or to the pope, or to the Roman church? This frivolous question gave great employment to the pope; as well as those which turned upon the colour, form, and stuff, of their habits, whether they ought to be white, grey, or black; whether the cowl ought to be pointed or round, large or small; whether their robes ought to be full, short, or long; of cloth, or of serge, &c. The disputes on all these minute trifles were carried so far between the minor brothers, that some of them were burned upon the occasion. He died at Avignon in 1334, aged 90.

John, king of England. See England, no 135, 147.

John of Fordoun. See Fordoun.

John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, a renowned general, father of Henry IV. king of England, died in 1438.

John of Leyden, otherwise called Buccold. See Anabaptists.

John Sobieski of Poland, one of the greatest warriors in the 17th century, was, in 1665, made grand-marshal of the crown; and, in 1667, grand-general of the kingdom. His victories obtained over the Tartars and the Turks procured him the crown, to which he was elected in 1674. He was an encourager of arts and sciences, and the protector of learned men. He died in 1666, aged 72.

St John's Day, the name of two Christian festivals; one observed on June 24th, kept in commemoration of the wonderful circumstances attending the birth of John the Baptist; and the other on December 27th, in honour of St John the evangelist.

St John's Wort. See Hypericum.

John's (St), an island of the East-Indies, and one of the Philippines, east of Mindanayo, from which it is separated by a narrow strait. E. Long. 125° 25'. N. Lat. 7° 0'.

John's (St), an island of North-America, in the bay of St Lawrence, having New-Scotland on the south and west, and Cape Breton on the east. The British got possession of it when Louisbourg was surrendered to them, on July 26, 1758.

Johnson (Ben), one of the most considerable dramatic poets of the last age, whether we consider the number or the merit of his productions. He was born at Westminster in 1574, and was educated at the public school there under the great Camden. He was descended from a Scottish family; and his father, who lost his estate under Queen Mary, dying before our poet was born, and his mother marrying a bricklayer for her second husband, Ben was taken from school to work at his father-in-law's trade. Not being captivated with this employment, he went into the Low Countries, and distinguished himself in a military capacity. On his return to England, he entered himself at St John's college, Cambridge; and having killed a person in a duel, was condemned, and narrowly escaped execution. After this he turned actor; and Shakespeare is said to have first introduced him to the world, by recommending a play of his to the stage, after it had been rejected. His Alchymist gained him such reputation, that in 1619 he was, at the death of Mr Mr Daniel, made poet-laureat to King James I and master of arts at Oxford. As we do not find Johnson's economical virtues anywhere recorded it is the less to be wondered at, that after this we find him petitioning king Charles, on his accession, to enlarge his father's allowance of 100 merks into pounds; and quickly after we learn, that he was very poor and sick, lodging in an obscure alley; on which occasion it was, that Charles, being prevailed on in his favour, sent him ten guineas; which Ben receiving, said, "His majesty has lent me ten guineas, because I am poor and live in an alley; go and tell him, that his soul lives in an alley." He died in August 1627, aged 63 years, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.—The most complete edition of his works was printed in 1756, in 7 vols 8vo.

Johnson (Samuel), an English divine, remarkable for his learning, and readiness in suffering for the principles of the revolution in 1688. He was born in 1649; and, entering into orders, obtained in 1670 the rectory of Corringham in the hundreds of Essex, worth no more than £80 a year; which was the only church-preference he ever had. The air of this place not agreeing with him, he was obliged to place a curate on the spot, at the expense of half his income, while he settled at London; a situation much more to his liking, as he had a strong propensity to politics. The times were turbulent: the duke of York declaring himself a Papist, his succession to the crown began to be warmly opposed; and Mr Johnson, who was naturally of no submissive temper, being made chaplain to lord William Russell, engaged the ecclesiastical champion for passive obedience Dr Hicks, in a treatise entitled Julian the apostate, &c., published in 1682. He was answered by Dr Hicks in a piece intitled Jovian, &c. To which he drew up, and printed, a reply, under the title of Julian's arts to undermine and extirpate Christianity, &c.; but by the advice of his friends suppressed the publication. For this unpublished work he was committed to prison; but not being able to procure a copy, the court prosecuted him for writing the first tract, condemned him to a fine of 500 merks, and to lie in prison until it was paid. By the influence of Mr Hambden, who was his fellow-prisoner, he was enabled to run into farther troubles; for on the encampment of the army on Hounslow-heath, in 1686, he printed and dispersed, An humble and hearty address to all the Protestants in the present army; for this he was sentenced to a second fine of 500 merks, to be degraded from the priesthood, to stand twice in the pillory, and to be whipped from Newgate to Tyburn. It happened luckily, that, in the degradation, they omitted to strip him of his caplock; which circumstance, slight as it may appear, rendered his degradation imperfect, and afterwards preserved his living to him. Intercession was made to get the whipping omitted; but James replied, "That since Mr Johnson had the spirit of martyrdom, it was fit he should suffer;" and he bore it with firmness, and even with alacrity. On the Revolution, the parliament resolved the proceedings against him to be null and illegal; and recommended him to the king, who offered him the rich deanery of Durham; but this he refused, as inadequate to his services and sufferings, which he thought to merit a bishopric. The truth was, he was passionate, self-opinioned, and turbulent; and though, through Dr Tillotson's means, he obtained a pension of 300l. a-year, with other gratifications, he remained discontented; pouring forth all his uneasiness against a standing army, and the great favours shown to the Dutch. He died in 1703, and his works were afterwards collected in one volume folio.

Johnson (Dr Samuel), who has been styled the brightest ornament of the 18th century, was born in the city of Litchfield in Staffordshire on the 18th of September N.S. 1709. His father Michael was a bookseller; and must have had some reputation in the city, as he more than once bore the office of chief magistrate. By what artifical reasoning he reconciled his conscience to the oaths required to be taken by all who occupy such stations, cannot now be known; but it is certain that he was zealously attached to the exiled family, and infilled the same principles into the youthful mind of his son. So much was he in earnest in this work, and at so early a period did he commence it, that when Dr Sachaverel, in his memorable tour through England, came to Litchfield, Mr Johnson carried his son, not then quite three years old, to the cathedral, and placed him on his shoulders, that he might see as well as hear the far-famed preacher.

But political prejudices were not the only bad things which young Sam inherited from his father; he derived from the same source a morbid melancholy, which, though it neither depressed his imagination, nor clouded his perspicacity, filled him with dreadful apprehensions of insanity, and rendered him wretched through life. From his nurse he contracted the scrophula or king's evil, which made its appearance at a very early period, disfigured a face naturally well-formed, and deprived him of the sight of one of his eyes.

When arrived at a proper age for grammatical instruction, he was placed in the free school of Litchfield, of which one Mr Hunter was then master; a man whom his illustrious pupil thought "very severe, and wrong-headedly severe," because he would beat a boy for not answering questions which he could not expect to be asked. He was, however, a skilful teacher; and Johnson, when he stood in the very front of learning, was sensible how much he owed to him; for upon being asked how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of the Latin tongue, he replied, "My master beat me very well; without that, Sir, I should have done nothing."

At the age of 15 Johnson was removed from Litchfield to the school of Stourbridge in Worcestershire, at which he remained little more than a year, and then returned home, where he staid two years without any settled plan of life or any regular course of study. He read, however, a great deal in a delusive manner, as chance threw books in his way, and as inclination directed him through them; so that when in his 19th year he was entered a commoner of Pembroke college Oxford, his mind was stored with a variety of such knowledge as is not often acquired in universities, where boys seldom read any books but what are put into their hands by their tutors. He had given very early proofs of his poetical genius both in his school exercises and in in other occasional compositions; but what is perhaps more remarkable, as it shows that he must have thought much on a subject on which other boys of that age seldom think at all, he had before he was 14 entertained doubts of the truth of revelation. From the melancholy of his temper these would naturally prey upon his spirits, and give him great uneasiness; but they were happily removed by a proper course of reading (a); for "his studies being honest, ended in conviction. He found that religion is true; and what he had learned, he ever afterward endeavoured to teach."

Concerning his residence in the university, and the means by which he was there supported, his two principal biographers contradict each other; so that these are points of which we cannot write with certainty. According to Sir John Hawkins, the time of his continuance at Oxford is divisible into two periods: Mr Bofwell represents it as only one period, with the usual interval of a long vacation. Sir John says, that he was supported at college by Mr Andrew Corbet in quality of assistant in the studies of his son: Mr Bofwell assures us, that though he was promised pecuniary aid by Mr Corbet, that promise was not in any degree fulfilled. We should be inclined to adopt the knight's account of this transaction, were it not palpably inconsistent with itself. He says, that the two young men were entered in Pembroke on the same day; that Corbet continued in the college two years; and yet that Johnson was driven home in little more than one year, because by the removal of Corbet he was deprived of his pension. A story, of which one part contradicts the other, cannot wholly be true. Sir John adds, that "meeting with another source, the bounty, as it is supposed, of some one or more of the members of the cathedral of Lichfield, he returned to college, and made up the whole of his residence in the university about three years." Mr Bofwell has told us nothing but that Johnson, though his father was unable to support him, continued three years in college, and was then driven from it by extreme poverty.

These gentlemen differ likewise in their accounts of Johnson's tutors. Sir John Hawkins says that he had two, Mr Jordan and Dr Adams. Mr Bofwell affirms that Dr Adams could not be his tutor, because Jordan did not quit the college till 1731; the year in the autumn of which Johnson himself was compelled to leave Oxford. Yet the same author represents Dr Adams as saying, "I was Johnson's nominal tutor, but he was above my mark:" a speech of which it is not easy to discover the meaning, if it was not Johnson's duty to attend Adam's lectures. In most colleges we believe there are two tutors in different departments of education; and therefore it is not improbable that Jordan and Adams may have been tutors to Johnson at the same time, the one in languages, the other in science. Jordan was a man of such mean abilities, that though his pupil loved him for the goodness of his heart, he would often risk the payment of a small fine rather than attend his lectures; nor was he studious to conceal the reason of his absence. Upon occasion of one such imposition, he said, "Sir, you have scounced me two-pence for non-attendance at a lecture not worth a penny." For some transgression or absence his tutor imposed upon him as a Christmas exercise the task of translating into Latin verse Pope's Messiah; which being shown to the author of the original, was read and returned with this encomium, "The writer of this poem will leave it a question for posterity, whether his or mine be the original." The particular course of his reading while in college and during the vacation which he passed at home, cannot be traced. That at this period he read much, we have his own evidence in what he afterwards told the king; but his mode of study was never regular, and at all times he thought more than he read. He informed Mr Bofwell, that what he read solidly at Oxford was Greek, and that the study of which he was most fond was metaphysics.

It was in the year 1731 that Johnson left the university without a degree; and as his father, who died in the month of December of that year, had suffered great misfortunes in trade, he was driven out a commoner of nature, and excluded from the regular modes of profit and prosperity. Having therefore not only a profession but the means of subsistence to seek, he accepted, in the month of March 1732, an invitation to the office of under-master of a free school at Market Bosworth in Leicestershire: but not knowing, as he said, whether it was more disagreeable for him to teach or for the boys to learn the grammar-rules, and being likewise disgusted at the treatment which he received from the patron of the school, he relinquished

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(a) Mrs Piozzi says, that at the age of 10 Johnson's mind was disturbed by scruples of infidelity, which preyed upon his spirits and made him very uneasy, and that they were afterwards removed by the study of Grotius de veritate, &c. This account of the early state of Johnson's mind with respect to religion, Mr Bofwell affects to turn into ridicule, as if it were a thing absolutely impossible that a boy of 10 years should have any religious scruples. He says, that Johnson became inattentive to religion at nine; talked, but did not think much, against it at 14; and was first made to think about it in earnest by a casual perusal of Law's serious call to the unconverted, which he had taken up with a view to laugh at it. That it is not common for boys of 10 to have scruples of infidelity, must be granted; but that some have had them so early, the writer of this article knows by the most complete evidence; and if that be admitted of Johnson, which has been true of others, Mrs Piozzi's narrative is natural, and honourable to him of whom it is written. But that a melancholy person should talk without thinking against religion, or that he should think against it with a disposition to laughter, and not be at the time a confirmed atheist, is in itself so extremely incredible, that we cannot help suspecting Mr Bofwell to have on this occasion mistaken the words of his great friend. "Law's serious call" is a very good book; but surely it is not so well adapted to carry conviction to a reasoning mind as Grotius de veritate; and there is in Mr Bofwell's two volumes sufficient evidence that Johnson was of our opinion. in a few months a situation which he ever afterwards recollected with horror. Being thus again without any fixed employment, and with very little money in his pocket, he translated Lobo's voyage to Abyssinia, for the trifling sum, it is said, of five guineas, which he received from a bookseller in Birmingham. This was the first attempt which it is certain he made to procure pecuniary assistance by means of his pen; and it must have held forth very little encouragement to his commencing author by profession.

In 1735, being then in his 26th year, he married Mrs Porter, the widow of a mercer in Birmingham; whose age was almost double his; whose external form, according to Garrick and others, had never been captivating; and whose fortune amounted to hardly £800l. That she had a superiority of understanding and talents is extremely probable, both because she certainly inspired him with a more than ordinary passion, and because she was herself so delighted with the charms of his conversation as to overlook his external disadvantages, which were many and great. He now set up a private academy; for which purpose he hired a large house well situated near his native city: but his name having then nothing of that celebrity which afterwards commanded the attention and respect of mankind, this undertaking did not succeed. The only pupils who are known to have been placed under his care, were the celebrated David Garrick, his brother George Garrick, and a young gentleman of fortune whose name was Offely. He kept his academy only a year and a half; and it was during that time that he constructed the plan and wrote a great part of his tragedy of Irene.

The respectable character of his parents and his own merit had secured him a kind reception in the best families at Lichfield; and he was particularly distinguished by Mr Walmley register of the ecclesiastical court, a man of great worth and of very extensive and various erudition. That gentleman, upon hearing part of Irene read, thought so highly of Johnson's abilities as a dramatic writer, that he advised him by all means to finish the tragedy and produce it on the stage. To men of genius the stage holds forth temptations almost irresistible. The profits arising from a tragedy, including the representation and printing of it, and the connections which it sometimes enables the author to form, were in Johnson's imagination incalculable. Flattered, it may be supposed, with these hopes, he set out some time in the year 1737 with his pupil David Garrick for London, leaving Mrs Johnson to take care of the house and the wreck of her fortune. The two adventurers carried with them from Mr Walmley an earnest recommendation to the reverend Mr Colton, then master of an academy, and afterwards Lucanian professor of mathematics in the university of Cambridge; but from that gentleman it does not appear that Johnson found either protection or encouragement.

How he spent his time upon his first going to London is not particularly known. His tragedy was refused by the managers of that day; and for some years the Gentleman's Magazine seems to have been his principal resource for employment and support. To enumerate his various communications to that far-famed miscellany, would extend this article beyond the limits which we can afford. Suffice it to say, that his connection with Cave the proprietor became very close; that he wrote prefaces, essays, reviews of books, and poems; and that he was occasionally employed in correcting the papers written by other correspondents. When the complaints of the nation against the administration of Sir Robert Walpole became loud, and a motion was made, February 13th 1740-1, to remove him from his majesty's councils for ever, Johnson was pitched upon by Cave to write what was in the Magazine entitled Debates in the Senate of Lilliput, but was understood to be the speeches of the most eminent members in both houses of parliament. These orations, which induced Voltaire to compare British with ancient eloquence, were hastily sketched by Johnson while he was not yet 32 years old, while he was little acquainted with life, while he was struggling not for distinction but for existence. Perhaps in none of his writings has he given a more conspicuous proof of a mind prompt and vigorous almost beyond conception: for they were compiled from scanty notes taken by illiterate persons employed to attend in both houses; and sometimes he had nothing communicated to him but the names of the several speakers, and the part which they took in the debate.

His separate publications which at this time attracted the greatest notice were, "London, a Poem in imitation of Juvenal's third Satire;" "Marmor Norfolcense," or an Essay on an ancient prophetical Inscription in Monkish Rhyme, lately discovered near Lynne in Norfolk;" and "A complete Vindication of the Libelers of the Stage from the malicious and scandalous aspersions of Mr Brook author of Gustavus Vasa." The poem, which was published 1738 by Dodsley, is universally known and admired as the most spirited instance in the English language of ancient sentiments adapted to modern topics. Pope, who then filled the poetical throne without a rival, being informed that the author's name was Johnson, and that he was an obscure person, replied, "he will soon be deterr'd." The other two pamphlets, which were published in 1739, are filled with keen satire on the government: and though Sir John Hawkins has thought fit to declare that they display neither learning nor wit, Pope was of a different opinion; for in a note of his preserved by Mr Boswell, he says, that "the whole of the Norfolk prophecy is very humorous."

Mrs Johnson, who went to London soon after her husband, now lived sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, sometimes in the city and sometimes at Greenwich: but Johnson himself was oftener to be found at St John's Gate, where the Gentleman's Magazine was published, than in his own lodgings. It was there that he became acquainted with Savage, with whom he was induced, probably by the similarity of their circumstances, to contract a very close friendship; and such was their extreme necessities, that they have often wandered whole nights in the street for want of money to procure them a lodging. In one of these nocturnal rambles, when their distress was almost incredible, so far were they from being depressed by their situation, that in high spirits and brimful of patriotism, they traversed St James's Square for several hours, inveighed against the minister; and, as Johnson said in ridicule of himself, his companion, and all such patriots, "resolved that they would stand by their country!" In 1744, he published the life of his unfortunate companion; a work which, had he never written any thing else, would have placed him very high in the rank of authors (b). His narrative is remarkably smooth and well disposed; his observations are just, and his reflections disclose the inmost recesses of the human heart.

In 1749, when Drury-lane theatre was opened under the management of Garrick, Johnson wrote a prologue for the occasion; which for just dramatic criticism on the whole range of the English stage, as well as for poetical excellence, is confessedly unrivalled. But this year is, in his life, distinguished as the epoch when his arduous and important work, the Dictionary of the English Language, was announced to the world by the publication of its plan or prospectus, addressed to the earl of Chesterfield. From that nobleman Johnson was certainly led to expect patronage and encouragement; and it seems to be equally certain that his lordship expected, when the book should be published, to be honoured with the dedication. The expectations of both were disappointed. Lord Chesterfield, after seeing the lexicographer once or twice, suffered him to be repulsed from his door; but afterwards thinking to conciliate him when the work was upon the eve of publication, he wrote two papers in "The World," warmly recommending it to the public. This artifice was seen through; and Johnson, in very polite language, rejected his Lordship's advances, letting him know, that he was unwilling the public should consider him as owing to a patron that which Providence had enabled him to do for himself. This great and laborious work its author expected to complete in three years: but he was certainly employed upon it seven; for we know that it was begun in 1747, and the last sheet was sent to the press in the end of the year 1754. When we consider the nature of the undertaking, it is indeed astonishing that it was finished so soon, since it was written, as he says, "with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow." The sorrow, to which he here alludes, is probably that which he felt for the loss of his wife, who died on the 17th of March O.S. 1752, and whom he continued to lament as long as he lived.

The Dictionary did not occupy his whole time; for while he was pushing it forward, he fitted his Tragedy for the stage; wrote the lives of several eminent men for the Gentleman's Magazine; published an Imitation of the 10th Satire of Juvenal, intitled "The Vanity of human Wishes;" and began and finished "The Rambler." This last work is so well known, that it is hardly necessary to say that it was a periodical paper, published twice a-week, from the 20th of March 1750 to the 14th of March 1752 inclusive: but to give our readers some notion of the vigour and promptitude of the author's mind, it may not be improper to observe, that notwithstanding the severity of his other labours, all the assistance which he received does not amount to five papers; and that many of the most masterly of those unequalled essays were written on the spur of the occasion, and never seen entire by the author till they returned to him from the press (c).

Soon after the Rambler was concluded, Dr Hawkesworth

(b) From the merit of this work Mr Boswell has endeavoured to detract, by insinuating, that the person called Richard Savage was an impostor, and not the son of the earl of Rivers and the countess of Macclesfield. See our account of Savage.

(c) The style of the Rambler has been much praised and much censured, sometimes perhaps by men who paid little attention to the author's views. It has been compared with the style of Addison; to which it is thought superior by some, and inferior by others. Its defects have been petulantly caricatured, and its merits unduly exalted. To attempt a defence of all the words in it which are derived from the Latin, would be in vain; for though many of them are elegant and expressive, others are harsh, and do not easily assimilate with the English idiom. But it would be as easy to defend the use of Johnson's words as the structure of all Addison's sentences; for though many of these are exquisitely beautiful, it must be confessed that others are feeble, and offend at once the ear and the mind. An ingenious essayist says, that in the Rambler "the constant recurrence of sentences in the form of what have been called triplets, is disagreeing to all readers." The recurrence is indeed very frequent; but it certainly is not constant, nor we hope always disagreeing; and as what he calls the triplet is unquestionably the most energetic form of which an English sentence is susceptible, we cannot help thinking, that it should frequently recur in detached essays, of which the object is to inculcate moral truths. He who reads half a volume of the Rambler at a sitting, will feel his ear fatigued by the close of similar periods so frequently recurring; but he who reads only one paper in the day, will experience nothing of this weariness. For purposes merely didactic, when something is to be told that was not known before, Addison's style is certainly preferable to Johnson's, and Swift's is preferable to both; but the question is, Which of them makes the best provision against that inattention by which known truths are suffered to lie neglected? There are very few moral truths in the Spectator or in the Rambler of which the reader can be totally ignorant; but there are many which may have little influence on his conduct, because they are seldom the objects of his thought. If this be so, that style should be considered as best which most rouses the attention, and impresses deeply in the mind the sentiments of the author; and therefore, to decide between the style of Addison and that of Johnson, the reader should compare the effects of each upon his own memory and imagination, and give the preference to that which leaves the most lasting impression. But it is said that Johnson himself must have recognized the fault of perpetual triplets in his style, since they are by no means frequent in his last productions. Is this a fair state of the case? His last production was "the Lives of the British Poets," of which a great part consists of the narration of facts; and such a narration in the style of the Rambler would be ridiculous. worth projected "The Adventurer" upon a similar plan; and by the assistance of friends he was enabled to carry it on with almost equal merit. For a short time, indeed, it was the most popular work of the two; and the papers with the signature T, which are confessedly the most splendid in the whole collection, are now known to have been communicated by Johnson, who received for each the sum of two guineas. This was double the price for which he sold sermons to such clergymen as either would not or could not compose their own discourses; and of sermon-writing he seems to have made a kind of trade.

Though he had exhausted, during the time that he was employed on the Dictionary, more than the fun for which the book-sellers had bargained for the copy; yet by means of the Rambler, Adventurer, sermons, and other productions of his pen, he now found himself in greater affluence than he had ever been before; and as the powers of his mind, distended by long and severe exercise, required relaxation to restore them to their proper tone, he appears to have done little or nothing from the close of the Adventurer till the year 1756, when he submitted to the office of reviewer in the Literary Magazine. Of his reviews by far the most valuable is that of Soame Jenyns's "Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil." Never were wit and metaphysical acuteness more closely united than in that criticism, which exposes the weaknesses and holds up to contempt the reasoning of those vain mortals, who presumptuously attempt to grasp the scale of existence, and to form plans of conduct for the Creator of the universe. But the furnishing of magazines, reviews, and even newspapers with literary intelligence, and authors of books with dedications and prefaces, was considered as an employment unworthy of Johnson. It was therefore proposed by the book-sellers that he should give a new edition of the dramas of Shakespeare; a work which he had projected many years before, and of which he had published a specimen which was commended by Warburton. When one of his friends expressed a hope that this employment would furnish him with amusement and add to his fame, he replied, "I look upon it as I did upon the Dictionary; it is all work; and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know of." He issued proposals, however, of considerable length; in which he showed that he knew perfectly what a variety of research such an undertaking required; but his indolence prevented him from pursuing it with diligence, and it was not published till many years afterwards.

On the 15th of April 1758 he began a new periodical paper intitled "The Idler," which came out every Saturday in a weekly newspaper, called "the Universal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette," published by Newbery. Of these essays, which were continued till the 5th of April 1760, many were written as hastily as an ordinary letter; and one in particular composed at Oxford was begun only half an hour before the departure of the post which carried it to London. About this time he had the offer of a living, of which he might have rendered himself capable by entering into orders. It was a rectory in a pleasant country, of such yearly value as would have been an object to one in much better circumstances; but sensible, as it is supposed, of the alacrity of his temper, he declined it, saying, "I have not the requisites for the office, and I cannot in my conscience shear the flock which I am unable to feed."

In the month of January 1759 his mother died at the great age of 90; an event which deeply affected him, and gave birth to the 4th Idler, in which he laments that "the life which made his own life pleasant was at an end, and that the gate of death was shut upon his prospects." Soon afterwards he wrote his "Raffles Prince of Abyssinia;" that with the profits he might defray the expense of his mother's funeral, and pay some debts which she had left. He told a friend, that he received for the copy 100l. and 25l. more when it came to a second edition; that he wrote it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over.

Hitherto, notwithstanding his various publications, he was poor, and obliged to provide by his labour for the wants of the day that was passing over him; but having been early in 1762 represented to the king as a very learned and good man without any certain provision, his majesty was pleased to grant him a pension, which Lord Bute, then first minister, assured him "was not given for anything which he was to do, but for what he had already done." A fixed annuity of three hundred pounds a-year, if it diminished his distress, increased his indolence; for as he constantly avowed that he had no other motive for writing than to gain money, as he had now what was abundantly sufficient for all his purposes, as he delighted in conversation, and was visited and admired by the witty, the elegant, and the learned, very little of his time was past in solitary study. Solitude was indeed his aversion; and that he might avoid it as much as possible, Sir Joshua Reynolds and he, in 1764, instituted a club, which existed long without a name, but was afterwards known by the title of the Literary Club. It consisted of some of the most enlightened men of the age, who met at the Turk's Head in Gerard-street, Soho one evening in every week at seven, and till a late hour enjoyed "the feast of reason and the flow of soul."

In 1765, when Johnson was more than usually oppressed with constitutional melancholy, he was fortunately introduced into the family of Mr Thrale, one of the most eminent brewers in England, and member of parliament for the borough of Southwark; and it is but justice to acknowledge, that to the assistance which

Cicero's orations are universally admired; but if Caesar's commentaries had been written in that style, who would have read them? When Johnson in his biography has any important truth to enforce, he generally employs the rounded and vigorous periods of the Rambler; but in the bare narration he uses a simpler style, and that as well in the life of Savage, which was written at an early period, as in the lives of those which were written lately. It is not, however, very prudent in an ordinary writer to attempt a close imitation of the style of the Rambler; for Johnson's vigorous periods are fitted only to the weight of Johnson's thoughts. which Mr. and Mrs. Thrale gave him, to the shelter which their house afforded him for 16 or 17 years, and to the pains which they took to soothe or repress his uneasy fancies, the public is probably indebted for some of the most matterly as well as most popular works which he ever produced. At length, in the October of this year, he gave to the world his edition of Shakespeare, which is chiefly valuable for the preface, where the excellencies and defects of that immortal bard are displayed with such judgment, as must please every man whose taste is not regulated by the standard of fashion or national prejudice. In 1767 he was honoured by a private conversation with the king in the library at the queen's house; and two years afterwards, upon the establishment of the royal academy of painting, sculpture, &c., he was nominated professor of ancient literature; an office merely honorary, and conferred on him, as is supposed, at the recommendation of his friend the president.

In the variety of subjects on which he had hitherto exercised his pen, he had forbidden, since the administration of Sir Robert Walpole, to meddle with the disputes of contending factions; but having seen with indignation the methods which, in the business of Mr. Wilkes, were taken to work upon the populace, he published in 1770 a pamphlet, intitled "The False Alarm," in which he affirms, and labours to prove by a variety of arguments founded on precedents, that the expulsion of a member of the house of commons is equivalent to exclusion, and that no such calamity as the subversion of the constitution was to be feared from an act warranted by usage, which is the law of parliament. Whatever may be thought of the principles maintained in this publication, it unquestionably contains much wit and much argument, expressed in the author's best style of composition; and yet it is known to have been written between eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve o'clock on the Thursday night, when it was read to Mr. Thrale upon his coming from the house of commons. In 1771 he published another political pamphlet, intitled, "Thoughts on the late transactions respecting Falkland's Islands," in which he attacked Junius; and he ever afterwards delighted himself with the thought of having destroyed that able writer, whom he certainly surpassed in nervous language and pointed ridicule.

In 1773 he visited with Mr. Boswell some of the most considerable of the Hebrides or Western Islands of Scotland, and published an account of his journey in a volume which abounds in extensive philosophical views of society, ingenious sentiments, and lively description, but which offended many persons by the violent attack which it made on the authenticity of the poems attributed to Ossian. For the degree of offence that was taken, the book can hardly be thought to contain a sufficient reason; if the antiquity of these poems be yet doubted, it is owing more to the conduct of their editor than to the violence of Johnson. In 1774, the parliament being dissolved, he addressed to the electors of Great Britain a pamphlet, intitled "The Patriot;" of which the design was to guard them from imposition, and teach them to distinguish true from false patriotism. In 1775 he published "Taxation no tyranny;" in answer to the resolutions and address of the American Congress. In this performance his admirer Mr. Boswell cannot, he says, perceive that ability of argument or that felicity of expression for which on other occasions Johnson was so eminent. This is a singular criticism. To the assumed principle upon which the reasoning of the pamphlet rests many have objected, and perhaps their objections are well founded; but if it be admitted that "the Supreme Power of every community has the right of requiring from all its subjects such contributions as are necessary to the public safety or public prosperity," it will be found a very difficult task to break the chain of arguments by which it is proved that the British parliament had a right to tax the Americans. As to the expression of the pamphlet, the reader, who adopts the maxim recorded in the "Journal of a tour to the Hebrides," that a controversialist ought not to strike lost in battle, must acknowledge that it is uncommonly happy, and that the whole performance is one of the most brilliant as well as most correct pieces of composition that ever fell from the pen of its author. These essays drew upon him numerous attacks, all of which he heartily despised; for though it has been supposed that "A letter addressed to Dr. Samuel Johnson occasioned by his political publications," gave him great uneasiness, the contrary is manifest, from his having, after the appearance of that letter, collected them into a volume with the title of "Political Tracts by the author of the Rambler." In 1765 Trinity College Dublin had created him LL.D. by diploma, and he now received the same honour from the University of Oxford; an honour with which, though he did not boast of it, he was highly gratified. In 1777 he was induced, by a case of a very extraordinary nature, to exercise that humanity which in him was obedient to every call. Dr. William Dodd, a clergyman, under sentence of death for the crime of forgery, found means to interest Johnson in his behalf, and procured from him two of the most energetic compositions of the kind ever seen; the one a petition from himself to the king, the other alike addressed from his wife to the queen. These petitions failed of success.

The principal booksellers in London having determined to publish a body of English poetry, Johnson was prevailed upon to write the lives of the poets, and give a character of the works of each. This task he undertook with alacrity, and executed it in such a manner as must convince every competent reader, that as a biographer and a critic, no nation can produce his equal. The work was published in ten small volumes, of which the first four came abroad 1778, and the others in 1781. While the world in general was filled with admiration of the stupendous powers of that man, who at the age of seventy-two, and labouring under a complication of diseases, could produce a work which displays so much genius and so much learning; there were narrow circles in which prejudice and resentment were fostered, and whence attacks of different sorts issued against him. These gave him not the smallest disturbance. When told of the feeble, though shrill, outcry that had been raised, he said—

"Sir, I considered myself as entrusted with a certain portion of truth. I have given my opinion sincerely; let them show where they think me wrong."

He had hardly begun to reap the laurels gained by this performance, when death deprived him of Mr Thrale, in whose house he had enjoyed the most comfortable hours of his life; but it abated not in Johnson that care for the interests of those whom his friend had left behind him, which he thought himself bound to cherish, both in duty as one of the executors of his will, and from the nobler principle of gratitude. On this account, his visits to Streatham, Mr Thrale's villa, were for some time after his death regularly made on Monday and protracted till Saturday, as they had been during his life; but they soon became less and less frequent, and he studiously avoided the mention of the place or the family. Mrs Thrale, now Piozzi, says indeed, that "it grew extremely perplexing and difficult to live in the house with him when the matter of it was no more; because his dislikes grew capricious, and he could scarce bear to have any body come to the house whom it was absolutely necessary for her to see." The person whom she thought it most necessary for her to see may perhaps be guessed at without any superior share of sagacity; and if there were the visits which Johnson could not bear, we are so far from thinking his dislikes capricious, though they may have been perplexing, that if he had acted otherwise, we should have blamed him for want of gratitude to the friend whose "face for fifteen years had never been turned upon him but with respect or benignity."

About the middle of June 1783 his constitution sustained a severer shock than it had ever before felt, by a stroke of the palsy; so sudden and so violent, that it awakened him out of a sound sleep, and rendered him for a short time speechless. As usual, his recourse under this affliction was to piety, which in him was constant, sincere, and fervent. He tried to repeat the Lord's prayer first in English, then in Latin, and afterwards in Greek; but succeeded only in the last attempt; immediately after which he was again deprived of the power of articulation. From this alarming attack he recovered with wonderful quickness, but it left behind it some preludes of an hydropic affection; and he was soon afterwards seized with a spasmodic asthma of such violence that he was confined to the house in great pain, while his droopy increased notwithstanding all the efforts of the most eminent physicians in London and Edinburgh. He had, however, such an interval of ease as enabled him in the summer 1784 to visit his friends at Oxford, Lichfield, and Ashbourne in Derbyshire.

The Roman Catholic religion being introduced one day as the topic of conversation when he was in the house of Dr Adams, Johnson said, "If you join the papists externally, they will not interrogate you strictly as to your belief in their tenets. No reasoning papist believes every article of their faith. There is one side on which a good man might be persuaded to embrace it. A good man of a timorous disposition, in great doubt of his acceptance with God, and pretty credulous, might be glad of a church where there are so many helps to go to heaven. I would be a papist if I could. I have fear enough; but an obstinate rationality prevents me. I shall never be a papist unless on the near approach of death, of which I have very great terror."

His constant dread of death was indeed so great, that it astonished all who had access to know the pieties of his mind and the virtues of his life. Attempts have been made to account for it in various ways; but doubtless Johnson, that is the true account which is given in the Olla Podrida, by an elegant and pious writer, who now adorns a high station in the church of England. "That he should not be conscious of the abilities with which Providence had blessed him, was impossible. He felt his own powers; he felt what he was capable of having performed; and he saw how little, comparatively speaking, he had performed. Hence his apprehension on the near prospect of the account to be made, viewed through the medium of constitutional and morbid melancholy, which often excluded from his sight the bright beams of divine mercy." This, however, was the case only while death was approaching from some distance. From the time that he was certain it was near, all his fears were calmed; and he died on the 13th of December 1784, full of resignation, strengthened by faith, and joyful in hope.

For a just character of this great man our limits afford not room: we must therefore content ourselves with laying before our readers a very short sketch. His stature was tall, his limbs were large, his strength was more than common, and his activity in early life had been greater than such a form gave reason to expect; but he was subject to an infirmity of the convulsive kind, resembling the disorder called St Vitus's dance; and he had the seeds of so many diseases sown in his constitution, that a short time before his death he declared that he hardly remembered to have passed one day wholly free from pain. He possessed very extraordinary powers of understanding; which were much cultivated by reading, and still more by meditation and reflection. His memory was remarkably retentive, his imagination uncommonly vigorous, and his judgment keen and penetrating. He read with great rapidity, retained with wonderful exactness what he so easily collected, and possessed the power of reducing to order and system the scattered hints on any subject which he had gathered from different books. It would not perhaps be safe to claim for him the highest place, among his contemporaries, in any single department of literature; but, to use one of his own expressions, he brought more mind to every subject, and had a greater variety of knowledge ready for all occasions, than any other man that could be easily named. Though prone to superstition, he was in all other respects so remarkably incredulous, that Hogarth said, while Johnson firmly believed the Bible, he seemed determined to believe nothing but the Bible. Of the importance of religion he had a strong sense, and his zeal for its interests were always awake, so that profaneness of every kind was abashed in his presence. The same energy which was displayed in his literary productions, was exhibited also in his conversation, which was various, striking, and instructive: like the sage in Rasselas, he spoke, and attention watched his lips; he reasoned, and conviction closed his periods; when he pleased, he could be the greatest sophist that ever contended in the lists of declamation; and perhaps no man ever equalled him in nervous and pointed repartees. His voracity from the most trivial to the most solemn occasions, was strict even to severity: he scorned to embellish a story with fictitious circumstances; for what is not a representation of reality, he used to say, is not worthy of our attention. As his purse purse and his house were ever open to the indigent, so was his heart tender to those who wanted relief, and his soul was susceptible of gratitude and every kind impression. He had a roughness in his manner which subdued the saucy and terrified the meek; but it was only in his manner; for no man was more loved than Johnston was by those who knew him; and his works will be read with veneration for their author as long as the language in which they are written shall be understood.