"ful voyage round the world of the English language; and does he now send out two "cockboats to tow me into harbour ?" He had said, in the last number of the Rambler, that, having laboured to maintain "the dignity of virtue, I will not now de grade it by the meanness of dedication." Such a man, when he had finished his Dictionary, "not," as he says himself, “in the "soft obscurities of retirement, or under the "shelter of academick bowers, but amidst in"convenience and distraction, in sickness and "in sorrow, and without the patronage of "the Great," was not likely to be caught by the lure thrown out by lord Chesterfield. He had in vain sought the patronage of that nobleman; and his pride, exasperated by disappointment, drew from him the following letter, dated in the month of February, 1755. "To the Right Honourable the Earl of "CHESTERFIELD. "MY LORD, "I have been lately informed, by the proprietors of the World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended “to the publick, were written by your Lord "ship. "ship. To be so distinguished is an honour "which, being very little accustomed to "favours from the Great, I know not well "how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. 66 66 "When upon some slight encouragement, "I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address, and could "not forbear to wish, that I might beast myself le vainqueur du vainqueur de leterre; "that I might obtain that regard for which "I saw the world contending. But I found c my attendance so little encouraged, that "neither pride nor modesty would suffer me 66 to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in publick, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing, which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done "all that I could; and no man is well pleased "to have his all neglected, be it ever so "little. "Seven years, my Lord, have now passed "since I waited in your outward room, or was "repulsed from your door; during which 66 time "time I have been pushing on my work er through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication, without one act of as"sistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not 66 expect, for I never had a patron before. "The Shepherd in Virgil grew acquainted "with Love, and found him a native of the "rocks. "Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks "with unconcern on a man struggling for "life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The "notice which you have been pleased to take "of my labours, had it been early, had been "kind; but it has been delayed till I am “indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been re❝ceived; or to be unwilling that the publick "should consider me as owing that to a patron, which Providence has enabled me "to do for myself. 66 "Having Having carried on my work thus far "with so little obligation to any favourer "of learning, I shall not be disappointed, though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long "wakened' from that dream of hope, in "which I once boasted myself with so much "exultation, "MY LORD, "Your Lordship's most humble It is said, upon good authority, that Johnson once received from Lord Chesterfield the sum of ten pounds. It were to be wished that the secret had never transpired. It was mean to receive it, and meaner to give it. It may be imagined, that for Johnson's ferocity, as it has been called, there was some foundation in his finances; and, as his Dictionary was brought to a conclusion, that money was now to flow in upon him. The reverse was the case. For his subsistence, during the progress of the work, he had re ceived at different times the amount of his contract; and when his receipts were pro duced 66 duced to him at a tavern-dinner, given by the booksellers, it appeared, that he had been paid a hundred pounds and upwards more than his due. The author of a book, called Lexiphanes *, written by a Mr. CampIrell, a Scotchman, and purser of a man of war, endeavoured to blast his laurels, but in vain. The world applauded, and Johnson never replied. Abuse," he said, "is of"ten of service: there is nothing so dange❝rous to an author as silence; his name, "like a shuttlecock, must be beat backward "and forward, or it falls to the ground." Lexiphanes professed to be an imitation of the pleasant manner of Lucian; but humour was not the talent of the writer of Lexiphanes. As Dryden says, "He had too much horseplay in his raillery." It was in the summer 1754, that the present writer became acquainted with Dr. Johnson. The cause of his first visit is related by Mrs. Piozzi nearly in the following manner. "Mr. Murphy being engaged in a perio 1 *This work was not published until the year 1767, when Dr. Johnson's Dictionary was fully established in |