new habits, and indulge himself in thofe exercises of his imagination, which had been the employment of his happiest hours. The place fixed on for his refidence was Swanfea in Wales; but as it was fome time before the fubfcription could be completed, his retirement thither was retarded. In this fufpenfe of Savage's fortunes, Johnson seems · to have confirmed himself in a refolution of quarrelling with the adminiftration of public affairs, and becoming a fatirift on the manners of the times; and because he thought he faw a refemblance between his own and thofe of Rome in its decline, he chofe to exprefs his fenfe of modern depravity by an imitation of the third fatire of Juvenal, in which, with great judgment, and no less afperity, he drew a parallel between the corruptions of each, and exemplified it by characters, then fubfifting. In it he anticipated the departure of his friend Thales, i. e. Savage, whom he defcribes as < refolv'd, from vice and London far, To this exercife of his talent he was, probably, excited by the fuccefs of Mr. Pope, who had done the fame by fome of the fatires of Horace, and had vindicated, by the example of Dr. Donne a divine, that fpecies of writing, even in Chriftian times, from the imputation of malevolence and the want of that charity which is not eafily provoked, and endureth all 6 things.' The The poem was finished, as appears by a manufcript note of the author in his own corrected copy, in 1738. While he was writing it, he lodged in an upper room of a house in Exeter ftreet, behind Exeter 'change, inhabited by one Norris, a ftay-maker; a particular which would have been hardly worth noticing, but that it, in fome measure, befpeaks his circumstances at the time, and accounts for his having, more than once, mentioned in the poem, and that with seeming abhorrence, the dungeons of the Strand. It is not unlikely that his averfion to fuch an abode was increafed by the reflection on that distress, which by this time had brought his wife to town, and obliged her to participate in the inconveniences of a dwelling too obscure to invite refort, and to be a witness of the difficulties with which he was struggling. Having completed his poem, he looked round for a bookfeller, to whom, with a likelihood of obtaining the value of it, he might treat for the fale of it. His friend Cave, in refpect of publications, was a haberdasher of fmall wares; the greateft of his undertakings being a tranflation of Du Halde's History of China, which was never completed. Johnson thinking him a man for his purpose, made him an offer of his poem, in a letter in which, with great art, but without the least violation of truth, he conceals that himself was the author of it. The letter I here infert, as also another of his on the fame fubject. • SIR, When I took the liberty of writing to you a few f days ago, I did not expect a repetition of the fame pleasure < pleasure fo foon, for a pleasure I fhall always think my it to converse in any manner with an ingenious and candid man; but having the inclosed poem in hands to difpofe of for the benefit of the author (of whofe abilities I fhall fay nothing fince I fend you his performance,) I believed I could not procure more advantageous terms from any perfon than from you, who have fo much diftinguifhed yourself by < your generous encouragement of poetry, and whofe judgment of that art, nothing but your commenda⚫tion of my trifle can give me any occafion to call in question. I do not doubt but you will look over this poem with another eye, and reward it in a different manner from a mercenary bookfeller, who counts the lines he is to purchafe, and confiders nothing but the bulk. I cannot help taking notice that, befides what the author may hope for on account of his abilities, he has likewife another claim to your regard, as he lies at prefent under very disadvantageous circumstances of fortune. I beg, therefore, that you will favour me with a letter to-morrow, that I may know what you can afford to allow him, that he may either part with it to you, or find out (which I do not expect) fome other way more to his fatisfac < tion. I have only to add, that I am fenfible I have < tranfcribed it very coarily, which, after having altered it, I was obliged to do. I will, if you please to tranfinit the fheets from the prefs, correct it for you, and will take the trouble of altering any stroke of fatire which you may diflike. By exerting on this occafion your ufual generosity, you will not only encourage learning and relieve 'diftrefs, <diftrefs, but (though it be in comparison of the other • motives of very small account) oblige in a very sen<fible manner, Sir, I am to return you thanks for the prefent you fo kind to fend me, and to intreat that you ⚫ will be pleased to inform me, by the Penny-Poft, ◄ whether you resolve to print the poem. If you please to fend it me by the poft, with a note to Dodley, I will go and read the lines to him, that we may have his confent to put his name in the title page. As to the printing, if it can be fet immediately about, I will be fo much the author's friend, as not to content myself with mere folicita• tions in his favour. I propose, if my calculation be near the truth, to engage for the reimbursement of ⚫ all that you shall lofe by an impreffion of 500, pro vided, as you very generously propofe, that the pro<fit, if any, be fet aside for the author's use, excepting the present you made, which, if he be a gainer, it is • fit he should repay. I beg you will let one of your ⚫ fervants write an exact account of the expence of fuch an impreffion, and send it with the poem, that I may know what I engage for. I am very fenfible, ⚫ from your generofity on this occafion, of your regard to learning, even in its unhappiest state; and cannot but think fuch a temper deferving of the gratitude ⚫ of thofe, who fuffer fo often from a contrary difpo‹ I am, Sir, • fition. Your most humble fervant, SAM. JOHNSON.' Johnson Johnson and Dodfley were foon agreed; the price afked by the one and affented to by the other, was, as I have been informed, fifty pounds; a reward for his labour and ingenuity, that induced Johnfon ever after to call Dodfley his patron. It is pretty certain that in his offer of the poem to Dodfley, Cave ftipulated for the printing of it, for it came abroad in the year abovementioned with the name of Cave as the printer, though without that of the author. Lord Lyttelton, the inftant it was publifhed, carried it in rapture to Mr. Pope, who, having read it, commended it highly, and was very importunate with Dodfley to know the author's name; but, that being a fecret the latter was bound not to reveal, Pope affured him that he could not long be unknown, recollecting, perhaps, a passage recorded of Milton, who, feeing a beautiful young lady pafs him whom he never had feen before, turned to look at her, and faid, Whoever thou art, thou 'canft not long be concealed.' The topics of this fpirited poem, fo far as it refpects this country, or the time when it was written, are evidently drawn from thofe weekly publications, which, to answer the view of a malevolent faction, first created, and for fome years fupported, a diftinction between the interefts of the government and the people, under the feveral denominations of the court and the country parties thefe publications were carried on under the direction of men, profeffing themfelves to be whigs and friends of the people, in a paper intitled, The Country Journal or the Craftsman,' now defervedly forgotten, the end whereof was, to blow the flame of national difcontent, to delude the honeft and well-meaning people of this country into a belief that the minifter was |