breakfasted with his landlord and Mrs. Williams every morning, though Johnson used to say, that Levitt was indebted to him for little more than house-room, his share of a penny loaf at breakfast, and now and then a dinner on Sunday.

Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, used to tell of Johnson's manner at breakfast, with his curious little parasite-he would seize hold of the penny loaf, tear out the | crum and throw the crust to Levitt. Mr. Malone states that he had frequently seen this strangely-mated pair at breakfast or rather, Johnson breakfasting, attended by Levitt, who always had the management of the tea-kettle-and that he was never treated contemptuously. After breakfasting and making the toilet of his host, he would sally forth upon his round of professional calls, which was usually a wide one with numerous patients, made up exclusively from the poorest classes of society. His evenings, whenever it was practicable, were devoted to hearing lectures, or, in some way other than by reading, gathering up medical knowledge. "All his knowledge," said Johnson, "and it is not inconsiderable, was obtained through the ear." This, however, was not from want of books, of which he made a very good collection, though he seems never to have made much use of them.

Levitt possessed some very good traits of character. He was strictly honest, and always diligent; he had great tenderness of spirit, and his gratitude toward his benefactor knew no bounds. He would indeed sometimes come home overcome by liquor-the effects of a habit into which he was led by his avarice. Often in the course of his practice he would find himself compelled to take his fees in drams or do without them; and he was too much of an economist to forego the only opportunity of obtaining the reward of his labors, though the manner in which the payment was made rendered it much worse than worthless. Johnson used to say that "had all his patients maliciously combined to reward him with meat and strong liquor instead of money, he would either have burst like the dragon in the Apocrypha, through repletion, or been scorched up like Portia by swallowing fire." Yet was he liberal to the poor among the poor, and was never known to enforce a payment by legal compulsion.

Before he was fully domiciliated with Johnson he had married; but with him, as in more elevated walks of life, "the course of true love never did run smooth." He had been led to believe that his chosen one was an heiress defrauded by a relative of a large fortune, which however would be easily obtained when duly prosecuted; and she considered him a physician already established in practice. He had been married but a few months when the bailiffs were after him for debts contracted by his wife; but he eluded his pursuers, and at length was enabled to defy the minions of the law by the protection of a foreign minister to whom he became, by the favor of Johnson, nominally attached. Mrs. Levitt was soon after arrested for picking pockets, and though acquitted by the court, an entire separation from her husband took place, who about this time was received into Johnson's garret.

In stature he was about middle-sized and thin; his visage swarthy, scorched, and wrinkled. His conversation, outside of the beaten track of his daily round of duties and studies, was entirely barren. Indeed he seldom spoke except in answer to direct questions. When in dishabille he might have been mistaken for an alchemist, whose complexion had been burnt by the fumes of the crucible, and whose clothes had suffered from the spark of the furnace. Even Johnson confessed that his external appearance and manners disgusted the rich and terrified the poor; yet he esteemed him as no mean practitioner of the healing art, and congratulated himself on having so near him at all times one who was at once his physician, surgeon, and apothecary, and who would account it his highest honor in any way to serve his illustrious friend and benefactor. He resided with Johnson something more than twenty years, and his death was mourned with sincere though unostentatious sorrow.

Another of the household favorites of our mighty genius was his body servant, Mr. Francis Barber. He was a negro, a native of Jamaica, where he had been the slave of Colonel Bathurst, the father of Johnson's much-loved friend, and by whom he had been brought to England and put to school, and afterward emancipated. After the decease of Col. Bathurst, he resided with his son, Dr. Bathurst, by whom, upon his departure for the West Indies, Francis was transferred to Johnson. This

"The uses he was intended to serve," shrewdly observes Hawkins, "were not very apparent, for Diogenes himself never wanted a servant less than Johnson seemed to do. His great bushy wig, by the closeness of texture that it had contracted and been suffered to retain, was nearly as impenetrable by a comb as a quickset hedge; and little of the dust that had once settled on his outer garment was ever known to have been disturbed by the brush."

Francis appears to have been on the whole a kind and dutiful servant, though not wholly free from the faults of his class. He remained with Johnson about five

JOHNSON AND BARBER.

years, and then went to sea, but whether voluntarily or by impressment is not determined. Two years later he was again in the port of London, and Johnson interfered to obtain his release from impressment, which had been made upon him either at his first going to sea or at this time. In this his master seems to have been actuated by purely benevolent motives. The life of a sailor was esteemed by him the most dreadful that could be suffered, and he loudly declared that "no man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail with the chance of being drowned." In this Johnson availed himself of the favor of Dr. Smollet, who at once wrote to the celebrated John Wilkes, then a person of great influence, soliciting his aid in the matter. In this letter Smollet remarked:

"You know what matter of animosity the said Johnson has against you, and I dare say you desire no other opportunity of resenting it than that of laying him under an obligation. He was humble enough to desire my assistance on this occasion, though he and I were never cater cousins, and I gave him to understand that I would make application to my friend Wilkes."

The application was accordingly made to the Commissioners of Admiralty, and about a year later the discharge was granted, when the liberated sailor, who knew nothing of nor desired this interference in his favor, returned again to his old master. In writing to Wilkes, Smollet designated Johnson that great "Cham of literature," which term was afterward printed "Chum," and this Bos

well took in dudgeon, and soundly belabored Smollet for his ignorance in the matter. Afterward, when the blunder was rectified, and Cham was understood to be "the title of the sovereign of Tartary," he wished to "propitiate the manes of that ingenious and learned gentleman," and acknowledged that the title

66

was well applied." He seems, however, to have thought only of the notion of sovereignty expressed by the strange epithet; the Tartarian feature quite escaped his notice.

Johnson's growing reputation was now steadily extending the horizon of the social sphere in which he dwelt, and so increasing the number of his personal friends and acquaintances. Few men ever set a higher value on the pleasures of social intercourse, and that he might increase his facilities for this kind of pleasure, he closed his door against no visitor, nor repulsed any aspirant to his society, who would receive it on the terms upon which it was offered. Some, indeed, who would have gladly enjoyed his conversation, were repulsed by his dogmatical manner, which he used alike to nearly all who approached him; and towards those whom he disliked he was often cruelly and even discourteously sarcastic. Yet, on the list of his familiar friends, from even a comparatively early period, were found a large number of the leading men of learning of his times.

Signor Giuseppe (Anglice, Joseph) Baretti was a native of Turin, the son of an eminent architect of that city. He received a respectable education, but as he

An angler in the tide of fame.

Having accidentally met with Mr. Lenox, the husband of the novelist, his services were engaged as Italian instructor to Mrs. Lenox, who, being on terms of intimacy with Johnson, introduced them to each other. An acquaintance, thus accidentally brought about, presently grew to an intimacy, and at length to a steady friendship. Having now been in England for nearly ten years, in which time he had made many friends and greatly improved his affairs, he revisited his native country. During his absence an epistolary correspondence was kept up between him and Johnson, in which the strength of their friendship is abundantly evinced. At the suggestion of his friend, Baretti made notes of whatever arrested his attention in the countries through which he passed on his journey, which being marked by great good humor and playfulness, and at the same time distinguished by much philosophic discrimination, constituted, when published, a highly valuable work. After his return to England, he enjoyed the friendship of many of the better class of society, and though his mercurial temper and supersensitiveness exposed him to some inconveniences, his career was on the whole highly successful. Few persons enjoyed Johnson's friendship in a higher degree than did this forlorn but fiery Italian.

When or how he became acquainted with Christopher Smart, the poet, we are not told; but Smart was now among the esoteric disciples of our great master of wisdom, and earnestly availed himself of the opportunities thus offered. Johnson's conversation is celebrated as of unrivaled richness, and possessing the peculiar faculty of making other persons also talk their very best. Smart himself declared that in their first conversation, such was its length and variety, they began with poetry and ended at fluxions.

Mr. Smart, about this time, brought with him at one of his visits to Goughsquare a Mr. Tyers-commonly known in Johnson's letters and conversations as

Tom Tyers-the son of the originator

of Vauxhall Garden. He had been bred

to the law; but having a handsome fortune, and possessing great vivacity of temper and an eccentric spirit, he could not confine himself to the regular duties of his profession. He accordingly became a gentleman of leisure, wandering at pleasure from place to place, and everywhere commending himself by his desultory conversation and pleasant carelessness. He was learned, sprightly, and complaisant, and having much leisure, he was often in Johnson's company, with whom he was something of a favorite. Boswell, though his rival, acknowledges, that he lived in as easy a manner with Johnson as almost any of his acquaintances. Like several others who held the same relation, he wrote a biographical sketch of his former friend-just such a production as would be expected from such a person-careless and straggling in style, abounding in anecdotes, and altogether constituting an entertaining collection of gossip and fragments.

Not long before this time, also commenced his acquaintance with Mr. Arthur Murphy-a name well known in the literary annals of the times, especially as a dramatic writer, and the translator of Tacitus-who also has left an essay on the Life and Genius of Johnson. The beginning of his personal acquaintance with Johnson was somewhat curious. Murphy, who was then quite a young man, published during the latter part of the year 1752, and most of the two following years, a periodical paper called the "Grey's Inn Journal," one of the numerous tribe to which the great reputation of "The Ram

ARTHUR MURPHY.

bler" gave being. Some time in the summer of 1754, while in the country, to save himself the labor of preparing an original paper, he translated an essay from a French Magazine that had fallen into his hands, and sent it forward for publication. The essay, however, proved to be one of the papers of "The Rambler," which had been translated into the French, thus placing the editor of the journal in a rather awkward position.

Mr. Murphy deemed it but just for him to make his excuse to Johnson; and accordingly he sought and obtained an introduction, and as the offense was venial, and perhaps had not been detected by Johnson, pardon was readily obtained. After the first visit, Murphy became more intimate with his new-made acquaintance, and presently was enrolled among his cherished friends and associates.

At a little later period began his personal acquaintance with Dr. Charles Burney, the distinguished musician and author of a History of Music. Burney, then young and unknown, had been so well pleased with "The Rambler," and his expectations were so highly excited by the published plan of "The Dictionary," that when it was announced that that great work was about to be published, he wrote to the author, from Lynn, in Norfolkshire, whither he had retired for the benefit of his health, desiring half-a-dozen copies for himself and his friends. This letter was couched in terms of such delicate but decided compliment that it impressed Johnson very favorably, and elicited from him an answer that was equally agreeable to Burney. Other letters passed between them, and in the spring of 1758, Burney having occasion to visit the metropolis, sought and

readily obtained access to his hitherto unseen correspondent. Johnson was yet living at Gough-square, where he received his guest, who dined and drank tea with him, and was introduced to Mrs. Williams. After dinner they went into the "garret," where, says Burney, they found five or six Greek folios, a deal writing-desk, and a chair and a half. Johnson, giving his guest the entire seat, tottered himself upon the one with only three legs and one arm. Here he gave Mr. Burney Mrs. Williams's history, and also showed him some volumes of his Shakspeare already printed, to prove that he was in earnest. The impressions so favorably begun by their correspondence were more than sustained by their conversation, and the intimacy thus commenced was both cordial and enduring.

When Johnson found himself emancipated from the seven-years' bondage of "The Dictionary," he seems to have felt that the world was to be begun anew by him; for except as to his reputation and his friends, the end found him as poor as he was at the beginning. Accordingly we see him casting about for further occupations, and contemplating a more elevated standard of literary eminence, and a position better adapted to efficient action than any he had yet occupied. His plan was to publish a Bibliothèque, or, as he in another place styled it, "Annals of Literature, Foreign as well as Domestic." This plan was for some time seriously and earnestly contemplated by him; and though never accomplished according to his original design, it will presently be seen that something of the kind was actually accomplished by him.

He endeavored also to bring himself to

a more systematic mode of life, as to study and mental improvement, reproaching himself with the dilatoriness of his past course, and especially with the want of systematic devotion to his own improve ment. About the same time (July, 1755) he made out a scheme of life for Sundays. "Having lived," as he humbly expresses himself, "not without an habitual reverence for the Sabbath, yet without that attention to its religious duties which Christianity requires," he now resolved to adopt a stricter and inore systematic method of hallowing the day of the Lord. He accordingly drew up this scheme of life and devotion:

have received the necessary help in this case, is not at home, and I am afraid of not finding Mr. Miller. If you will be so good as to send me this sum, I will very gratefully repay you, and add it to all former obligations. I am, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON.

"Sent six guineas.-W. R."

Such even then was the pecuniary distress of a man whose fame filled the whole kingdom, and whose moral excellences were only seconded by the greatness of his understanding.

His literary productions during the year 1756 consisted in part of an abridgment, in octavo, of his "Dictionary," and a number of inconsiderable pieces in the "Uni

"2. To use some extraordinary devotion in the morning.

"3. To examine the tenor of my life, and particularly the last week; and to mark my advances in religion, or recession from it.

"4. To read the Scriptures methodically,

such helps as are at hand.

"5. To go to church twice.

with

rection of the "Literary Magazine and Universal Review," which was first issued in May of this year, and to which he for a while contributed largely. This was, probably, a partial realization of the contemplated "Bibliothèque," spoken of above. The first fifteen monthly numbers of that work

"7. To instruct my family.

soil contracted in the week."

At the beginning of the next year we find by the entries among his " "Prayers and Meditations," which now became more

frequent, that he was still renewing his devotion to pious duties. Relative to his conduct in this matter, it has been very appropriately said :

"The pious gratitude with which he acknowl edges mercies on every occasion is very edifying; as is the humble submission which he breathes when it is the will of his heavenly Father to try him with afflictions. As such dispositions become the state of man here, and are the true effects of religious discipline, we cannot but venerate in Johnson one of the most exercised minds that our holy religion has ever formed. If there be any thoughtless enough to suppose such exercises the weakness of a great understanding, let them look up to Johnson, and be convinced that what he so earnestly practiced

must have a rational foundation."

A painful evidence that his past labors had not made him rich was given about this time. This whole affair is concisely set forth in the annexed letter and its indorsement. It was addressed to Richardson, (the author of " Clarissa,") for whom the indorsement was made:

"GOUGH-SQUARE, 16th March, [1756.]

'SIR,—I am obliged to entreat your assistance;

ergy of thought and facility in writing than during this period.

Several of the most elaborate of these

essays related to political subjects—a kind

of discussion toward which his mind was but little to do, since his early unsuccessstrongly inclined, but with which he had had ful essays at pamphleteering; for he observed a prudent silence during the time of the disastrous efforts of the exiled Stuarts to regain the throne and kingdom. From the constitution of his mind and all his habits of thought Johnson was of that political creed that is designated by the party epithet, TORY. An indefinite veneration for legitimacy inclined him to favor the claims of the Pretender; while an intense dislike of George the Second, and of the chief ministers of that monarch, greatly heightened his partisan antipathies. But practically no man was less inclined to favor or to practice the doctrine of passive obedience than was he. He was in favor of a strong government when its strength was exercised agreeably to his own predilections; but when the case was otherwise, he could as earnestly as any one assert the native rights of every En