roof of her husband, who was to me a very kind friend. Her novel, entitled " Memoirs of Miss Sydney Biddulph," contains an excellent moral, while it inculcates a future state of retribution; and what it teaches is impressed upon the mind by a series of as deep distress as can affect humanity, in the amiable

I

1 My position has been very well illustrated by Mr. Belsham of Bedford, in his Essay on Dramatick Poetry. "The fashionable doctrine (says he) both of moralists and criticks in these times is, that virtue and happiness are constant concomitants; and it is regarded as a kind of dramatick impiety to maintain that virtue should not be rewarded, nor vice punished in the last scene of the last act of every, tragedy. This conduct in our modern poets is, however, in my opinion, extremely injudicious; for it labours in vain to inculcate a doctrine in theory, which every one knows to be false in fact, viz. that virtue in real life is always productive of happiness, and vice of misery. Thus Congreve concludes the tragedy of The Mourning Bride' with the following foolish couplet:

"For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,

And, though a late, a sure reward succeeds.'

"When a man eminently virtuous, a Brutus, a Cato, or a Socrates, finally sinks under the pressure of accumulated misfortune, we are not only led to entertain a more indignant hatred of vice, than if he rose from his distress, but we are inevitably induced to cherish the sublime idea that a day of future retribution will arrive, when he shall receive not merely poetical, but real and substantial justice." Essays Philosophical, Historical, and Literary, London, 1791, Vol. II. 8vo. p. 317.

This is well reasoned and well expressed. I wish, indeed, that the ingenious authour had not thought it necessary to introduce any instance of "a man eminently virtuous;" as he would then have avoided mentioning such a ruffian as Brutus under that description. Mr. Belsham discovers in his "Essays" so much reading and thinking, and good composition, that I regret his not having been fortunate enough to be educated a member of our excellent national establishment. Had he not been nursed in nonconformity, he probably would not have been tainted with those heresies (as I sincerely, and on no slight investigation, think them) both in religion and politicks, which, while I read, I am sure, with candour, I cannot read without offence.

and pious heroine who goes to her grave unrelieved, but resigned, and full of hope of "heaven's mercy.” Johnson paid her this high compliment upon it: "I know not, madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.”

VOL. I.

F F

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Page 11, lines 21, 22. Nathanael, who died in his twentyfifth year.]-Nathanael was born in 1712, and died in 1737. Their father, Michael Johnson, was born at Cubley in Derbyshire, in 1656, and died at Lichfield in 1731, at the age of seventysix. Sarah Ford, his wife, was born at King's-Norton, in the county of Warwick, in 1669, and died at Lichfield, in January 1759, in her ninetieth year. M.

Page 13, lines 14, 15. Johnson's mother was a woman of distinguished understanding.]—It was not, however, much cultivated, as we may collect from Dr. Johnson's own account of his early years, published by R. Phillips, 8vo. 1805, a work undoubtedly authentick, and which, though short, is curious, and well worthy of perusal. 66 My father and mother (says Johnson) had not much happiness from each other. They seldom conversed; for my father could not bear to talk of his affairs; and my mother, being unacquainted with books, cared not to talk of any thing else. Had my mother been more literate, they had been better companions. She might have sometimes introduced her unwelcome topick with more success, if she could have diversified her conversation. Of business she had no distinct conception; and therefore her discourse was composed only of complaint, fear, and suspicion. Neither of them ever tried to calculate the profits of trade, or the expenses of living. My mother concluded that we were poor, because we lost by some of our trades; but the truth was, that my father, having in the early part of his life contracted debts, never had trade sufficient to enable him to pay them, and to maintain his family: he got something, but not enough. It was not till about 1768, that I thought to calculate the returns of my father's trade, and by that estimate his probable profits. This my parents never did." M.

Page 17, lines 27-29.-It has been said, that he contracted this grievous malady from his nurse.1-Such was the opinion of Dr. Swinfen. Johnson eyes were very soon discovered to be bad, and to relieve them, an issue was cut in his left arm. At the end

of ten weeks from his birth, he was taken home from his nurse,

a poor diseased infant, almost blind." See a work, already quoted, entitled "An Account of the Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, from his birth to his eleventh year; written by himself." 8vo.

1805. M.

Page 18, lines 3, 4. Queen Anne.]-He was only thirty months old, when he was taken to London to be touched for the evil. During this visit, he tells us, his mother purchased for him a small silver cup and spoon. “The cup," he affectingly adds, “was one of the last pieces of plate which dear Tetty sold in our distress. I have now the spoon. She bought at the same time two tea-spoons, and till my manhood, she had no more." Ibid. M.

Page 20, line 10. By means of the rod.]-Johnson's observations to Dr. Rose, on this subject, may be found in a subsequent part of this work. See near the end of the year 1775. B. Page 23, line 7. Cornelius Ford.]-Cornelius Ford, according to Sir John Hawkins, was his cousin-german, being the son of Dr. Joseph [Q. Nathanael] Ford, an eminent physician, who was brother to Johnson's mother.

M.

Page 42, lines 29, 30. We shall see that his most excellent works were struck off at a heat, with rapid exertion.]—He told Dr. Burney, that he never wrote any of his works that were printed, twice over. Dr. Burney's wonder at seeing several pages of his "Lives of the Poets," in manuscript, with scarce a blot or erasure, drew this observation from him. M.

Page 50, line last. Mr. Gilbert Walmsley.]-Sir Thomas Aston, Bart., who died in January 1724-5, left one son, named Thomas also, and eight daughters. Of the daughters, Catharine married Johnson's friend, the Hon. Henry Hervey; Margaret, Gilbert Walmsley. Another of these ladies married the Rev. Mr. Gastrell. Mary, or Molly Aston, as she was usually called, became the wife of Captain Brodie of the Navy. Another sister, who was unmarried, was living at Lichfield in 1776. M.

Page 51, line 23. Bishop Hurd.]-There is here (as Mr. James Boswell observes to me) a slight inaccuracy. Bishop Hurd, in the Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to his Commentary on Horace's Art of Poetry, &c. does not praise Blackwall, but the Rev. Mr. Budworth, head-master of the grammar school at Brewood in Staffordshire, who had himself been bred under Blackwall. See vol. v. near the end, where, from the information of Mr. John Nichols, Johnson is said to have applied in 1736 to Mr. Budworth, to be received by him as an assistant in his school in Staffordshire. M.