doubted not would be executed con amore. His answer was, ' I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary : it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know of V And the event was evidence to me, that in this speech he declared his genuine sentiments ; for neither in the first place did he set himself to collect early editions of his author 2 , old plays, translations of histories, and of the classics, and other materials necessary for his purpose, nor could he be prevailed on to enter into that course of reading, without which it seemed impossible to come at the sense of his author 3 . It was pro voking to all his friends to see him waste his days, his weeks, and his months so long, that they feared a mental lethargy had seized him, out of which he would never recover. In this, however, they were happily deceived, for, after two years in activity, they found him roused to action, and engaged not in the prosecution of the work, for the completion whereof he stood doubly bound, but in a new one, the furnishing a series of periodical essays, intitled, and it may be thought not improperly,
- The Idler Y as his motive to the employment was aversion to
a labour he had undertaken, though in the execution, it must be owned, it merited a better name. (Page 361.)
About this time he had, from a friend who highly esteemed him, the offer of a living 5 , of which he might have rendered himself capable by entering into holy orders : it was a rectory, in a pleasant country, and of such a yearly value as might have tempted one in better circumstances than himself to accept it ; but he had scruples about the duties of the ministerial function, that he could not, after deliberation, overcome. f l have not/ said he, ' the requisites for the office, and I cannot, in my
1 Life, iii. 19 ; ante, ii. 90. When have not found the collectors of these he had finished his Shakespeare he rarities very communicative.' Works, wrote: 'To tell the truth, as I felt v. 146.
no solicitude about this work, I re- 3 Ante, i. 473.
ceive no great comfort from its con- 4 Ante, \, 415 ; Life, i. 330.
elusion.' Letters, i. 123. 5 It was a living in Lincolnshire,
2 ' I collated such copies as I could offered him by Bennet Langton's procure, and wished for more, but father. Ib. i. 320.
conscience
�� �
