The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.

500

THE LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON.

1784. times expressed his thoughts with great force, and an elegant choice of language, the effect of which was 75. aided by his having a loud voice, and a slow deliberate utterance. In him were united a most logical head with a most fertile imagination, which gave him an extraordinary advantage in arguing: for he could reason close or wide, as he saw best for the moment. Exulting in his intellectual strength and dexterity, he could, when he pleased, be the greatest sophist that ever contended in the lists of declamation; and, from a spirit of contradiction, and a delight in shewing his powers, he would often maintain the wrong side with equal warmth and ingenuity; so that, when there was an audience, his real opinions could seldom be gathered from his talk; though when he was in company with a single friend, he would discuss a subject with genuine fairness; but he was too conscientious to make errour permanent and pernicious, by deliberately writing it; and, in all his numerous works, he earnestly inculcated what appeared to him to be the truth; his piety being constant, and the ruling principle of all his conduct.

Such was SAMUEL JOHNSON, a man whose talents, acquirements, and virtues, were so extraordinary, that the more his character is considered, the more he will be regarded by the present age, and by posterity, with admiration and reverence.

sustain a conversation. Those who know Menage only by his books, might think he resembled those learned men: but if you shew the MENAGIANA, you distinguish him from them, and make him known by a talent which is given to very few learned men. There it appears that he was a man who spoke offhand a thousand good things. His memory extended to what was ancient and modern; to the court and to the city; to the dead and to the living languages; to things serious and things jocose; in a word, to a thousand sorts of subjects. That which appeared a trifle to some readers of the Menagiana, who did not consider circumstances, caused admiration in other readers, who minded the difference between what a man speaks without preparation, and that which he prepares for the press. And, therefore, we cannot sufficiently commend the care which his illustrious friends took to erect a monument so capable of giving him immortal glory. They were not obliged to rectify what they had heard him say: for, in so doing, they had not been faithful historians of his conversation."

INDEX.

......

ABERCROMBIE, JAMES, Esq. of Philadelphia, his communi-
cations concerning Dr. Johnson, vol. ii. p. 55.

Abingdon, Lord, bon-mot of, iii. 133.

Abington, Mrs. ii. 151, 154, 157.

Abjuration, oath of, ii. 152.

Absentees from their estates, how far justifiable, ii. 427, 428, 487.
Abyssinia, see Lobo, Rasselas.

Academy, Royal, instituted, i. 440.

Action in publick speaking, ii. 59.

Actors, i. 136, 137, 159, 456; ii. 77, 217, 268, 433; iii. 146,
339, 340.

Adams, Rev. Dr. i. 8, 52, 53, 62, 63, 107, 109, 144, 150, 157,
206, 207, 208, 224; ii. 251; iii. 378, 388, 389, 455.

Adams, Miss, iii. 378, 383.

Addison, Johnson's opinion of, i. 202, 333; ii. 169, 312; iii. 52.
- his style compared with Johnson's, i. 202.

Johnson's Life of, iii. 181, 216.

Adye, Miss Mary, i. 36; ii. 270; iii. 112.

Adventurer,' Hawkesworth's, i. 165, 185, 197, 198, 199, 200.
Adultery, i. 432; ii. 88; iii. 59, 60.

Egri Ephemeris, Johnson's, iii. 460.

Agar, W. E. Esq. ii. 374, n.

Agutter, Rev. Mr. his sermon on Johnson's death, iii. 494.
Agriculture, i. 241.

Akenside's Poetry, ii. 20, 301.

- his early friendship with Charles Townshend, ii. 280.
Akerman, Mr. Keeper of Newgate, character and anecdotes of,
128, 129.

Alfred, i. 144.

· his Will, iii. 251.

Allen, Mr. the printer, i. 366; ii. 503; iii. 433, 458.

Johnson's letter to, iii. 326.

America and Americans, ii. 129, 130, 145, 146, 147, 449, 450;

Amyat, Dr. his anecdote of Dr. Johnson, i. 297.
Anderson, Professor, at Glasgow, ii. 375.
Angeloni's letters, iii. 232.

Angels, iii. 382.

Anthologia, iii. 463.

Antiquities, study of, iii. 114.

Arbuthnot, iii. 333.

Argyle, Archibald, Duke of, iii. 334.

Armorial bearings, as ancient as the Siege of Troy, ii. 32.

Armstrong, Dr. i. 275, n ; ii. 373.

Arnold, Dr. on insanity, ii. 426.

Articles, thirty-nine, i. 465; ii. 10.

Ascham, Roger, Johnson's Life of, i. 363.

Ash, John, M. D. founder of the Eumelian Club, iii. 472.
Ashbourne, mistress of an inn there, ii. 451.
Astle, Thomas, Esq. iii. 250.

. Rev. Mr. iii. 399.

Aston, Molly, i. 68; iii. 53, 186, n.

Mrs. her maiden sister, ii. 389; iii. 112.

Athol porridge, iii. 206.

Atterbury, Bishop, his funeral sermon on Lady Cutts, ii. 470.
Attornies, Johnson's notion of them, i. 486.

Avarice, iii. 37.

Auchinleck, Lord, (the Authour's father) ii. 226.

- place of, ii. 224.

Authours, of deciding on their MSS. ii. 44, 494; iii. 35, 36, 81.

of their writing for profit, ii. 414.

respect due to them, iii. 28, 233.

See Books.

should put as much into their books as they will hold, ii. 79.

- had better be attacked than unnoticed, iii. 82.

Authour, the young, (Johnson's poem,) i. 49.
Authourship, iii. 46.

Bacon, Lord Verulam, ii. 440, 441.

his rules for conversation, iii. 334.

Badcock, Rev. Mr. iii. 483.

Bagshaw, Rev. Thomas, ii. 98, n.

Johnson's letters to, ii. 98; iii. 431.

Baker, Sir George, iii. 485.

Ballads, (ancient) ii. 60.

Balloons, iii. 437.

Ballow, Thomas, Esq. (the lawyer,) ii. 294.

Baltick, Johnson's proposed expedition to the, ii. 391.

Banks, Sir Joseph's Epigram on his Goat, ii. 3.

his Voyages, ii. 7.

Barber, Mr. Francis, i. 187, 189, 275, 437; ii. 6 ; iii. 478.
Johnson's letters to him, i. 475, 476.

Barclay, Mr. the young authour, i. 388.

Barclay, Mr. one of Mr. Thrale's successors, iii. 236.
Baretti, Joseph, i. 238, 278, 285, 433; ii. 256, 424; iii. 166.
the first who received copy money in Italy, ii. 415.

his frustra litteraria, ii. 424.

his trial, i. 459.

Johnson's letters to him, i. 285, 292, 299.

Barnard, Rev. Dr. (Bishop of Limerick,) i. 141, 342; iii. 233.
Barretier, J. P. Johnson's Life of, i. 120, 121.

Barrington, Hon. Daines, ii. 89; iii. 31.
Barrow, Rev. Dr. his Sermons, iii. 226, n.

Barrowby, Dr. iii. 384.

Barry, Sir Edward, M. D. his notion that pulsation occasions death

by attrition refuted by Johnson, ii. 303.

James, Esq. (the painter,) Johnson's letter to, iii. 306.

- his paintings, iii. 323.

Barter, the enthusiast, ii. 20.

Bateman, Edward, Tutor of Christ's Church, his lectures, i, 64.

Bath, Johnson's visit to, ii. 310.

Bathurst, Dr. Richard, i. 148, 153, 191, 197, 199; iii. 162, 166.
Baxter, Richard, his works, ii. 94; iii. 294, 324.

Anacreon, iii. 277, 339, 360.

Bayle's Dictionary, i. 333.

Beech, Thomas, ii. 82, n.

Beattie, Dr. i. 498; ii. 5, 102; iii. 295.

letter from Johnson to, iii. 131.

Beauclerk, Topham, Esq. i. 194; ii. 128; iii. 4, 93, 123, 148, 290,
his violent altercation with Johnson, iii. 88.

- -

his death, iii. 123.

Beauty, manly, described by Shakspeare and Milton, iii. 201.

Beauties of Johnson, i. 171; iii. 264.

Bedlam, ii. 192; iii. 311.

Beggars, iii. 102, 250.

Beggars Opera,' ii. 185, 186; iii. 36.

Belchier, Surgeon, ii. 319.

Bellamy, Mrs. her letter to Johnson, iii. 341.

Belsham, Mr. his Essay on Dramatick Poetry,' i. 306, n.

Bentham, the Rev. Dr. ii. 253.

Bentley, Dr. verses by, iii. 158.

Berenger, Richard, Esq. iii. 215.

Beresford, Mrs. and Miss, iii. 376.

Berkeley, Bishop, i. 367, 490; iii. 162.

Berwick, Duke of, his Memoirs, iii. 9.

Bevill, Rev. Mr. his ingenious defence of Hammond, iii. 192, n.
Bewley, Mr. his enthusiastick veneration for Johnson, iii. 251.
Bible, the, should be read with the comments by Lowth, Patrick,
and Hammond, ii. 320.