the labours of life and his literary function 1 . But he'certainly did not communicate to every intruder every uneasy sensation of mind and body 2 . Who, it may be asked, can determine of the pleasure and pain of others ? True and solemn are the lines of Prior, in his Solomon 3 :
' Who breathes must suffer, and who thinks must mourn ; And he alone is blest, who ne'er was born.'
Johnson thought he had no right to complain of his lot in life, or of having been disappointed : the world had not used him ill : it had not broke its word with him : it had promised him nothing : he aspired to no elevation : he had fallen from no height 4 . Lord Gower endeavoured to obtain for him, by the interest of Swift, the mastership of a grammar-school of small income, for which Johnson was not qualified by the statutes to become a candidate. His lordship's letter, published some years ago, is to the honour of the subject : in praise of his abilities and integrity, and in commiseration of his distressed situation 5 . Johnson wished, for a moment, to fill the chair of a professor, at Oxford, then become vacant, but he never applied for it. He was offered a good living, by Mr. Langton, if he would accept it, and take orders: but he chose not to put off his lay habit 6 . He would have made an admirable library-keeper 7 : like
1 ' It pleased God to grant him 4 ' JOHNSON. " Sir, I have never almost thirty years of life, after this complained of the world, nor do I time [the death of his wife] ; and think that I have reason to corn- once, when he was in a placid frame plain."' Life, iv. 116. 'The world of mind, he was obliged to own to is not so unjust or unkind as it is me that he had enjoyed happier peevishly represented.' Letters, ii. days, and had many more friends, 215. See also ante, i. 315.
since that gloomy hour than before.' 5 Ante, i. 373 ; Life, i. 133.
Life, i. 299. 6 Ante, ii. 107 ; Life, i. 320.
2 Boswell, writing of the year 1769, 7 'Mr. Levet this day shewed me says : * His Meditations strongly Dr. Johnson's library, which was prove that he suffered much both in contained in two garrets over his body and mind. . . . Every generous Chambers. I found a number of and grateful heart . . . now that his good books, but very dusty and in unhappiness is certainly known, must great confusion. The floor was respect that dignity of character strewed with manuscript leaves, in which prevented him from complain- Johnson's own hand-writing.' Life, ing.' Ib. ii. 66. i. 435.
3 Bk. iii. 1. 240.
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