THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. COMPREHENDING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STUDIES AND NUMEROUS WORKS, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER; A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE AND CONVERSATIONS AND VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED; THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A View of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED. BY JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND BIOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATIONS, IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. IV. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. RICHARDSON AND Co.; G. OFFOR; THOMAS TEGG; ROBINSON AND CO.; J. EVANS AND SONS; J. JONES; AND J. JOHNSON, AND R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW. 1823. THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. THIS year the Reverend Dr. Franklin having published a translation of "Lucian," inscribed to him the Demonax thus: "To DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, the Demonax of the present age, this piece is inscribed by a sincere admirer of his respectable talents, "THE TRANSLATOR." Though upon a particular comparison of Demonax and Johnson, there does not seem to be a great deal of similarity between them, this Dedication is a just compliment from the general character given by Lucian of the ancient Sage, αριστον ων οιδα εγω φιλοσοφων γενομενον, the best philosopher whom I have ever seen or known." In 1781, Johnson at last completed his "Lives of the Poets," of which he gives this account: "Some time in March I finished the Lives of the Poets,' which I wrote in my usual way, dilatorily and hastily, unwilling to work, and working with vigour and haste'." In a memorandum previous to this, he says of them: "Written, I VOL. IV. 1 Prayers and Meditations, p. 190. B |