THE LIFE O F SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. BY SIR JOHN HAWKINS, KNT. PRINTED BY CHAMBERS FOR MESSRS. CHAMBERLAIN, COLLES, BURNET, THE general fenfe of mankind, and the practice of the learned in all ages, have given a sanction to biographical history, and concurred to recommend that precept of the wife fon of Sirach, in which we are exhorted to praise famous men, fuch as by their counfels and by their knowledge of learning were meet for the people, and were wife and eloquent in their inftructions, and fuch as recited verfes in writing. In each of these faculties did the person, whofe history I am about to write, fo greatly excel, that, except for my prefumption in the attempt to difplay his worth, the undertaking may be thought to need no apology; efpecially if we contemplate, together with his mental endowments, thofe moral qualities which distinguished him, and reflect that, in an age when literary acquifitions and scientific improvements are rated at their utmost value, he rested not in the applause which these procured him ; but adorned the character of a scholar and a philofopher with that of a christian. * Ecclus. Chap. XLIV Verse. 1, et feqq. |