delighted himself with the thought of having destroyed that able writer, whom he certainly furpaffed in nervous language and pointed ridicule.

In 1773, he vifited with Mr. Bofwell fome of the moft confiderable of the Hebrides or Western Islands of Scotland, and published an account of his Journey in a volume which abounds in extenfive philofophical views of fociety, ingenious fentiments, and lively de fcription, but which offended many perfons by the violent attack which it made on the authenticity of the poems attributed to Offian. For the degree of offence that was taken, the book can hardly be thought to contain a fufficient 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 Johnfon. In 1774, the parliament being diffolved, he addreffed to the electors of Great Britain a pamphlet, intitled "The Patriot;" of which the defign was to guard them from impofition, and teach them to diftinguish true from falfe patriotifm. In 1775 he published "Taxation no Tyranny," in anfwer to the Refolutions and Addrefs of the American Congrefs. These effays drew upon him numerous attacks, all of which he heartily defpifed; for though it has been supposed that "A letter addreffed to Dr. Samuel Johnfon, occafioned by his Political Publications," gave him great uneafinefs, the contrary is manifeft, 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 fame honour from the Univerfity of Oxford; an honour with which, though he did not boast of it, he was highly gratified. In 1777 he was induced, by a cafe of a very extraordinary nature, to exercise that humanity which in him was obedient to every call. Dr. William Dodd, a clergyman under fentence of death for the crime of forgery, found

means

means to intereft Johnson in his behalf, and procured from him two of the most energetic compofitions of the kind ever feen; the one a petition from himself to the king, the other a like addrefs from his wife to the queen. These petitions failed of success.

The principal bookfellers in London having deter+ mined 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 fuch 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 fmall volumes, of which the firft four came abroad 1778, and the others in 1781. While the world in general was filled with admiration of the ftupendous powers of that man, who at the age of feventy-two, and labouring under a complication of difeafes, could produce a work which displays fo much genius and fo much learning, there were narrow circles in which prejudice and refentment were foftered, and whence attacks of different forts iffued against him. Thefe gave him not the fmallest disturbance. When told of the feeble, though fhrill, outcry that had been raifed, he faid"Sir, I confidered myself as entrusted with a certain portion of truth. I have given my opinion fincerely: let them fhow 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 whofe house he had enjoyed the most comfortable hours of his life.

About the middle of June 1783 his conftitution fuftained a feverer fhock than it had ever before felt, by a stroke of the palfy, fo fudden and fo violent, that it awakened him out of a found fleep, and rendered him for a fhort time fpeechlefs. As ufual, his recourfe under this affliction was to piety, which in him was

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conftant, fincere, and fervent. He tried to repeat the Lord's prayer first in English, then in Latin, and afterwards in Greek; but fucceeded 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 presages of an hydropic affection; and he was foon afterwards feized with a fpafmodic asthma of such violence, that he was confined to the house in great pain, while his dropfy increafed, notwithstanding all the efforts of the most eminent phyficians in London and Edinburgh. He had, however, such an interval of ease, as enabled him in the summer 1784 to vifit his friends at Oxford, Litchfield, and Afhbourne in Derbyshire.

His conftant dread of death was great, that it astonished all who had access to know the piety of his mind and the virtues of his life. Attempts have been made to account for it in various ways; but doubtless 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 fhould not be conscious of the abilities with which Providence had bleffed him was impoffible. He felt his own powers; he felt what he was capable of having performed; and he faw how little, comparatively fpeaking, he had performed. Hence his apprehenfion on the near profpect of the account to be made, viewed through the medium of conftitutional and morbid melancholy, which often excluded from his fight the bright beams of divine mercy." This, however, was the cafe only while death was approaching from fome diftance. 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 refignation, strengthened by faith, and joyful in hope.

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For a juft 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 ftature was tall, his limbs were large, his ftrength was more than common, and his activity in early life had been greater than fuch a form gave reafon to expect: but he was fubject to an infirmity of the convulfive kind, refembling the diftemper called St. Vitus's dance and he had the feeds of fo many diseases fown in his constitution, that a fhort time before his death he declared that he hardly remembered to have paffed one day wholly free from pain. He poffeffed 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 judgement keen and penetrating. He read with great rapidity, retained with wonderful exactness what he fo eafily collected, and poffeffed the power of reducing to order and fyftem the fcattered hints on any fubject which he had gathered from different books. It would not perhaps be fafe to claim for him the highest place, among his contemporaries, in any fingle department of literature; but, to ufe one of his own expreffions, he brought more mind to every fubject, and had a greater variety of knowledge ready for all occafions, than any other man that could be eafily named.Though prone to fuperftition, he was in all other refpects fo remarkably incredulous, that Hogarth faid, while Johnfon firmly believed the Bible, he feemed determined to believe nothing but the Bible. Of the importance of religion he had a ftrong fenfe, and his zeal for its interefts were always awake, fo that profaneness of every kind was abafhed in his prefence.The fame energy which was difplayed in his literary productions, was exhibited alfo in his converfation, which was various, ftriking, and inftructive: like the

fage

fage in Raffelas, he fpoke, and attention watched his lips; he reafoned, and conviction clofed his periods: when he pleased, he could be the greateft fophift that ever contended in the lifts of declamation; and perhaps no man ever equalled him in nervous and pointed repartees. His veracity, from the moft trivial to the moft folemn occafions, was ftrict even to severity: he fcorned to embellifh a story with fictitious circumftances; for what is not a reprefentation of reality, he ufed to fay, is not worthy of our attention. As his purse and his houfe were ever open to the indigent, fo was his heart tender to those who wanted relief, and his foul was fufceptible of gratitude and every kind impreffion. He had a roughness in his manner which fubdued the faucy and terrified the meek: but it was only in his manner; for no man was more loved than Johnson 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 fhall be understood.

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