Tracts by the author of the Rambler,' octavo. In March he was gratified by the title of Doctor of Laws, conferred on him by the university of Oxford, at the solicitation of Lord North. In September he visited France for the first time with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale and Mr. Baretti, and returned to England in about two months after he quitted it. Foote, who happened to be in Paris at the same time, said that the French were perfectly astonished at his figure and manner, and at his dress; which was exactly the same with what he was accustomed to in London; his brown clothes, black stockings and plain shirt. Of the occurrences of this tour, he kept a journal, in all probability with design of writing an account of it, but for want of leisure and inclination he never carried it into execution.

This year he published an account of his tour to the Hebrides, under the title of a Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, octavo.' The narrative, it must be admitted, is written with an undue prejudice against both the country and people of Scotland, which is highly reprehensible, though it abounds in extensive philosophical views of society, ingenious sentiments and lively description. Among many other disquisitions, he expresses his disbelief of the authenticity of the poems of Ossian, presented to the public as a translation from the Erse. This excited the resentment of Mr. Macpherson, who sent a threatening letter to the author, and Johnson answered him in the rough phrase of stern defiance.

'I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered me I shall do my best to repel, and what I cannot do for myself, the law shall do for me; I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat by the menaces of a ruffian! What

would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture, I think it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to the public, which I here dare you to refute; your rage I defy, your abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable, and what I hear of your morals, inclines me to pay regard, not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. You may print this if you will.'

The threats alluded to in this letter were never attempted to be put into execution. But Johnson, as a provision of defence, furnished himself with a large oaken plant, six feet in height, of the diameter of an inch at the lower end, increasing to three inches at the top, and terminating in a head (once the root) of the size of a large orange. This he kept in his bedchamber, so near his chair as to be within his reach.

In 1777 the fate of Dr. Dodd excited Johnson's compassion, and called forth the strenuous exertion of his vast comprehensive mind. He thought his sentence just, yet perhaps fearing that religion might suffer from the errors of one of its ministers, he endeavoured to prevent the last ignominious spectacle, by writing several petitions, as well as observations in the newspapers in his favour. He likewise wrote a prologue to Kelly's comedy of a Word to the Wise, which was acted at Covent Garden theatre for the benefit of the author's widow and children.

This year he engaged to write a concise account of the Lives of the English Poets; as a recompense for an undertaking as he thought not very tedious or difficult, he bargained for two hundred guineas; and was afterwards presented by the proprietors with one hundred pounds. In the selection of the poets he had no responsible concern; but Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden were inserted by his recommenda

tion. This was the last of Johnson's literary labours, and though completed when he was in his seventyfirst year, shews that his faculties were in as vigorous a state as ever. His judgment and his taste, his quickness in the discrimination of motive, and facility of moral reflections, shine as strongly in these narratives, as in any of his more early performances; and his style, if not so energetic, is at least more smoothed down to the taste of the generality of readers. The lives of the English Poets formed a memorable era in Johnson's life. It is a work which has contributed to immortalize his name, and has secured that rational esteem, which party or partiality could not procure, and which even the injudicious zeal of his friends has not been able to lessen.

From the close of this work, the malady that persecuted him through life, came upon him with redoubled force. His constitution rapidly declined, and the fabric of his mind seemed to be tottering. The contemplation of his approaching end dwelt constantly upon his mind, and the prospect of death he declared was terrible.

In 1781 he lost his valuable friend Thrale, who appointed him executor with a legacy of 2001. 'I felt,' he said, almost the last flutter of his pulse, and looked for the last time upon that face, that for fifteen years had never been turned upon me, but with respect and benignity.' Of his departed friend he has given a true character in a Latin epitaph to be seen in the church-yard of Streatham.

After the death of Mr. Thrale, his visits to Streatham, where he no longer looked upon himself as a welcome guest, became less and less frequent; and on 5th of April 1783, he took his final leave of Mrs. Thrale, to whom for near twenty years he had been

under the highest obligations; a friendly correspondence continued however between Johnson and Mrs. Thrale without interruption till the summer following, when she retired to Bath, and informed him that she was going to dispose of herself in marriage to Signior Piozzi, an Italian music master. Johnson endeavoured to dissuade her from the match, but without effect; for her answer to his letter on the subject, contained a vindication of her conduct and her fame, an inhibition of Johnson from following her to Bath, and a farewell, concluding, 'till you have changed your opinion of let us converse no

more!'

From this time the narrative of his life is little more than a recital of the pressures of melancholy and disease, and of numberless excursions taken to calm his anxiety, and sooth his apprehensions of the terrors of death, by flying as it were from himself. In the beginning of 1784, he was seized with a spasmodic asthma, which was soon accompanied with some degree of dropsy. From the latter of these complaints, however, he was greatly relieved by a course of medicine.

Having expressed a desire of going to Italy for the recovery of his health, and his friends not deeming his pension adequate to the support of the expenses incidental to the journey; application was made to the minister, by Mr. Boswell and Sir Joshua Reynolds unknown to Johnson, through Lord Chancellor Thurlow, for an augmentation of it by 2001. The application was unsuccessful; but the Lord Chancellor offered to let him have 5001. out of his own purse, under the appellation of a loan, but with the intention of conferring it as a present. It is also recorded to the honour of Dr. Broklesby that he of

fered to contribute 1001. per annum, during his residence abroad; but Johnson declined the offer with becoming gratitude; indeed he was now approaching fast to a state in which money could be of no avail.

During his illness he experienced the steady and kind attachment of his numerous friends. Dr. Heberden, Dr. Brocklesby, Dr. Warren, and Mr. Cruikshank generously attended him without accepting any fees; but his constitution was decayed beyond the restorative powers of the medical art. Previous to his dissolution he burnt indiscriminately large masses of paper, and amongst the rest two 4to. volumes, containing a full and most particular account of his own life, the loss of which is much to be regretted. He expired on the 13th of December, 1785, in the seventy fifth year of his age, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the foot of Shakespeare's monument, and close to the coffin of his friend Garrick. Agreeable to his own request, a large blue flag-stone was placed over his grave, with this inscription.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, L.L.D.
OBIIT XIII. DIE DECEMBRIS,
ANNO DOMINI
M,DCC,LXXXV.

ÆTATIS SUÆ LXXV.

A monument for Johnson in the Cathedral church of St. Paul, in conjunction with the benevolent Howard was resolved upon with approbation of the dean and chapter, and supported by a most respectable contribution. It was opened in 1795.

Having no near relations, he left the bulk of his property, amounting to 15001. to his faithful servant

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