of religion, found employment for all who were desirous of truth, or ambitious of fame. Learning was at that time prosecuted with that eagerness and perseverance which, in this age of indifference and dissipation, it is not easy to conceive. To teach or to learn, was at once the business and the pleasure of the academical life; and an emulation of study was raised by Cheke and Smith, to which even the present age perhaps owes many advantages, without remembering or knowing its benefactors."

From an attentive perusal of the Lives which we have now noticed, and more particularly the Life of Savage, Johnson's talent for biography may be readily ascertained. He had embraced with avidity every opportunity of which his circumstances admitted, to acquire a correct knowledge of mankind; he had, at the period when he commemorated the misfortunes of his friend, studied with uncommon attention and success the shades and variations of character which distinguish the lower and many of the middle classes of society; and his mind was singularly fertile in drawing lessons of moral wisdom from events, opinions, and modes of action. His prejudices, however, were strong and early formed, and, though he never intentionally deserts the standard

of virtue and of truth, they have sometimes warped his sentiments and feelings, sometimes induced him to overlook what should have been reprobated, and to extol what was not worthy of encomium. Yet these blemishes are not numerous in the specimens that we have been considering, and are amply atoned for by the general solidity of judgment which they display, by originality of thought, and felicity of expression.

Though the poetry and biography of Johnson had placed him high in the public esteem, they had contributed but little to exempt him even from the most pressing necessities; and in the year 1745, he had to look around for some mode of literary exertion more permanent and productive. His favourite subject had long been a "Life of Alfred," but this he now relinquished for a new edition of Shakespeare, of which he published anonymous proposals; these, however, dropped powerless from the press, owing to the well known fact that Warburton, whose reputation was then at its height, had time engaged on a similar design. It was his fortune, nevertheless, to commute this scheme for one much more important and profitable, and he contracted with the booksellers for the production of an English Dictionary; an engagement

been for some

which enabled him to live more at his ease, and to occupy a house in Gough-square, Fleet

street.

From this great work, the labour of years, and which will subsequently attract our attention, I shall turn, to state that our author, with a view to relieve his mind, now "tugging at the oar," by the charms of conversation, and the pleasures of elegant literature, instituted a club, and commenced a periodical paper.

The club, which was a weekly meeting in Ivylane, Paternoster-row, commenced with nine persons beside himself, all men of much respectability, and several of whom afterwards attained considerable celebrity in the literary world. With these select friends, who consisted of Dr. Richard Bathurst, Dr. Hawkesworth, the Rev. Dr. Salter, Mr. Ryland, a merchant, Mr. John Payne, a bookseller, Mr. Samuel Dyer, educated for a dissenting minister, Dr. William M'Ghie, a Scotch physician, Dr. Edmund Barker, a physician, and Mr. afterwards Sir John Hawkins, he spent his evening hours in the luxury of innocent. gaiety and literary discussion. For the enjoy ment of society of this description, unfettered by the restraints of domestic regulation, Johnson had a peculiar relish; a tavern-chair, he would assert, was the throne of human felicity. "As soon,"

said he, as I enter the door of a tavern, I experience an oblivion of care, and a freedom from solicitude when I am seated, I find the master courteous, and the servants obsequious to my call; anxious to know and ready to supply my wants; wine there exhilarates my spirits, and prompts me to free conversation and an interchange of discourse with those whom I most love; I dogmatize, and am contradicted, and in this conflict of opinions and sentiments I find delight." The very late hours to which Johnson had accustomed himself, and which were incompatible with the routine of a regular family, was one great motive for the assemblage of his friends beneath a tavern roof; he could there act with the independence which he loved; and to this mode of collecting his friends, though he shortly afterwards entirely relinquished the use of wine, he was partial to the close of his days.

The second relaxation to which Johnson had recourse from the fatigue of philological compilation, has given him a most exalted rank in the character of an ESSAYIST. In the year 1750, he commenced a periodical paper under the title of The Rambler; a work which, from its peculiar style and manner, and its powerful influence on language and composition, has fixed a new era in the annals of English literature.

Thirty-six years had now elapsed since the close of the eighth volume of the Spectator; a period indeed, during which, as we have already seen in the first essays of this volume, numerous attempts had been made to rival or to copy the productions of Steele and Addison. Not one, however, fully succeeded in the arduous undertaking; and of eighty-two efforts which we have enumerated, probably not more than half a dozen are, in the present day, known to have existed by any other persons than those whose curiosity may have induced them to trace the literary history of their country.

Johnson, therefore, had not to contend with any recent productions of such acknowledged excellence as might render his attempt either presumptuous or hazardous; and in the long interval which had taken place since the retreat of the Spectator, so many changes had occurred in society, literature, and manners, that to a writer of ability and observation it became no very difficult task to impress upon periodical composition the stamp of novelty and originality.

Of these changes it may be necessary, before we enter upon the history of the publication of the Rambler, to enumerate the most material, as they will serve to throw a strong light on the scope and tendency of our author's papers.