SAMUEL JOHNSOX 667 which were after-ward embodied in his " Life of Johnson," by which, much more than by the dictionary, or the "Rambler," or even by " Rasselas " and the " Vanity of Human Wish- es," Johnson is known. The founding of the " Literary Club " belonged to this period. Reynolds and Johnson led in the movement, and among the original nine members were Hawkins, Langton, Beauclerk, Goldsmith, and Burke. Goldsmith had a few years before become somewhat intimate with Johnson, by whom he was greatly esteemed as a writer and cherished as an associate. During its earlier years the club held weekly meetings for con- versation, which contributed not a little to maintain the balance of Johnson's strangely affected mind. New members were admitted with great caution, and for several years the whole number did not exceed 12. In 1778 it had grown to 26, and two years later to 35, when 40 was fixed as its complement. The club is still in existence, but it has become ra- ther a learned than a convivial society. John- son's indolent and purposeless mode of life proved highly unfavorable to his spirits. His " Prayers and Meditations," published after his death, indicate the unhappy state of his mind. He was accustomed to write bitter things against himself in his penitential moments, and especially during Lent. Sometimes his melan- choly verged almost on insanity ; and again he would pass suddenly to the most extravagant hilarity. His ordinary manners, especially in his later years, were strangely eccentric. He talked much to himself, muttering in a vocal but generally inaudible undertone. He was never still, but sat with head inclined over the right shoulder, his vast trunk swaying back- ward and forward, and his hand keeping up a corresponding motion upon his knee. At times he would make a kind of clucking sound, and again a suppressed whistle, and still more fre- quently a humming noise, accompanied with a vacant smile. His conversation was often vio- lent and discourteous, and he delighted in con- tradictions. During the years from 1770 to 1775 he produced several political pamphlets, all in the interest of the government, and de- signed to meet some immediate necessity. The last of these, " Taxation no Tyranny " (1775), was written to controvert the remonstrance of the American congress against taxation with- out representation. In this Johnson sustained the British government in its measures against the colonies, and predicted the speedy subjuga- tion of America. In 1773 he made a tour to the highlands of Scotland and the Hebrides, through the persuasion of Boswell, who became his fellow traveller, and afterward the chron- icler of the journey, of which an account was also written by Johnson. While in Scotland Johnson made inquiries respecting the original manuscripts from which Macpherson pretend- ed to have translated the poems of Ossian, and came away with the conviction that a large share of that work was a forgery, and the rest of comparatively modern origin. His avowal of this conviction after his return led to a violent controversy between himself and the professed translator. In 1774 he made a tour in Wales with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. His last considerable literary work, the " Lives of the English Poets," in four volumes, appeared from 1779 to 1781, when their author was over 70 years old; they were undertaken at the request of the booksellers, and performed by irregular impulses. In some respects this was one of the best written of all his works, simple in its style, genial and appreciative in its spirit, and full of interesting statements and valuable criticisms. About the date of the close of that work the hand of death began to be busy with those about him. Mr. Thrale died in 1781, and a few months later he removed to his own house. In 1782 Levett died, and the next year Mrs. Williams followed him. Some time be- fore the last event he had suffered temporarily from a partial paralysis of the vocal organs. In the latter part of the same summer he once more visited his native town ; but as winter drew on he was again brought down, and his whole system became swollen with dropsy. By the assiduity of his friends, and skilful medical treatment, he so far recovered that du- ring the next summer he visited Derbyshire and was again at Lichfield. Late in the fol- lowing autumn he grew worse. To physical suffering he was comparatively indifferent, and when near his end he earnestly entreated his attendants to spare no efforts, however pain- ful, to prolong his life. He anticipated death with horror ; but as his last hour approached his forebodings at length gave plaee to humble confidence in the divine clemency. Few names are more conspicuous in the annals of English literature than that of Dr. Johnson. Though scarcely reckoned among English poets, his productions in that department sufficiently vin- dicate his claim to a recognition, and not a few judicious critics have believed that with equal devotion to that kind of writing he would have rivalled Pope or Dryden. As an essayist he is ranked with Addison and Steele, whom he imi- tated only as to the form of his pieces, impress- ing whatever he thus wrote with his own in- dividuality. He lacked their vivacity and va- riety, and especially their genial good humor, but surpassed them in depth of reflection and nervous energy of style. He especially excelled in biographical writing, and among his numer- ous sketches of personal history and mental portraitures are some that may be studied as models of their kind. As a critic, his judg- ment was clear and discriminating, and such was his independence that he often condemned the popular favorites of the day, and in most cases posterity has confirmed his decisions. His fictions are chiefly moral allegories ; for so fully was he intent on inculcating the practical lesson of life, that it was constantly before him, and gave form and coloring to his purely imaginative productions. The only complete
