and fuch a great bushy uncombed wig as he constantly wore, to the fight of Mr. Browne, whom he found fitting at the upper end of a long table, in a cloud of tobacco-fmoke, had his curiofity gratified.

Johnson faw very clearly thofe offenfive particulars that made a part of Cave's character; but, as he was one of the most quick-fighted men I ever knew in discovering the good and amiable qualities of others, a faculty which he has difplayed, as well in the life of Cave, as in that of Savage, printed among his works, fo was he ever inclined to palliate their defects; and, though he was above courting the patronage of a man, whom, in refpect of his mental endowments he confidered as his inferior, he difdained not to accept it, when tendered with any degree of complacency.

And this was the general tenor of Johnfon's behaviour; for, though his character through life was marked with a roughness that approached to ferocity, it was in the power of almost every one to charm him ⚫ into mildness, and to render him gentle and placid, and even courteous, by such a patient and respectful attention as is due to every one, who, in his discourse, fignifies a defire either to inftruct or delight. Bred to no profeffion, without relations, friends, or intereft, Johnson was an adventurer in the wide world, and had his fortunes to make: the arts of infinuation and address were, in his opinion, too flow in their operation to answer his purpose; and, he rather chose to display his parts to all the world, at the rifque of being thought arrogant, than to wait for the affiftance of fuch friends as he could make, or the patronage of fome individual that had power or influence, and who might have the kindness to take him by the hand, and

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lift him into notice. With all that afperity of manners with which he has been charged, and which kept at a distance many, who, to my knowledge, would have been glad of an intimacy with him, he poffeffed the affections of pity and compaffion in a most eminent degree. In a mixed company, of which I was one, the conversation turned on the peftilence which raged in London, in the year 1665, and gave occafion to Johnson to speak of Dr. Nathanael Hodges, who, in the height of that calamity, continued in the city, and was almoft the only one of his profeffion that had the courage to oppose the endeavours of his art to the spreading of the contagion. It was the hard fate of this perfon, a short time after, to die a prifoner for debt, in Ludgate: Johnson related this circumftance to us, with the tears ready to ftart from his eyes; and, with great energy faid, Such a man would not have been 'fuffered to perish in these times.'

It seems by the event of this firft expedition, that Johnson came to London for little elfe than to look about him: it afforded him no opportunity of forming connections, either valuable in themselves, or available to any future purpofe of his life. Mr. Pope had seen and commended his tranflation of the Meffiah; but Johnson had not the means of accefs to him; and, being a stranger to his perfon, his spirit would not permit him to folicit fo great a favour from one, who must be supposed to have been troubled with fuch kind of applications. With one perfon, however, he commenced an intimacy, the motives to which, at first view, may probably feem harder to be accounted for, than any one particular in his life. This perfon was Mr. Richard Savage, whofe misfortunes, together with his vices, had driven him to St. John's gate, and thereby

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thereby introduced him to the acquaintance of Johnfon, which, founded on his part in compaffion, foon improved into friendship and a mutual communication of sentiments and counfels. The hiftory of this man is well known by the life of him written by Johnfon; which, if in no other refpect valuable, is curious, in that it gives to view a character felf-formed, as owing nothing to parental nurture, and scarce any thing to moral tuition, and defcribes a mind, in which, as in a neglected garden, weeds, without the least obstruction, were fuffered to grow into luxuriance: nature had endowed him with fine parts, and thofe he cultivated as well as he was able; but his mind had received no moral culture; and for want thereof, we find him to have been a ftranger to humility, gratitude, and thofe other virtues that tend to conciliate the affections of men, and insure the continuance of friendship.

It may be conjectured that Johnson was captivated by the address and demeanour of Savage, at his first approach; for it must be noted of him, that, though he was always an admirer of genteel manners, he at this time had not been accustomed to the converfation of gentlemen; and Savage, as to his exterior, was, to a remarkable degree, accomplished: he was a handfome, well-made man, and very courteous in the modes of falutation. I have been told, that in the taking off his hat and difpofing it under his arm, and in his bow, he difplayed as much grace as thofe actions were capable of; and that he understood the exercife of a gentleman's weapon, may be inferred from the ufe he made of it in that rah encounter which is related in his life, and to which his greatest misfortunes were owing. Thefe accomplishments,

and

and the ease and pleasantry of his converfation, were, probably, the charms that wrought on Johnson, and hid from his view thofe bafer qualities of Savage, with which, as his hiftorian, he has nevertheless been neceffitated to mark his character. The fimilarity of their circumstances might farther conduce to beget an unreserved confidence in each other; they had both felt the pangs of poverty and the want of patronage: Savage had let loose his refentment against the poffeffors of wealth, in a collection of poems printed about the year 1727, and Johnfon was ripe for an avowal of the fame fentiments: they feemed both to agree in the vulgar opinion, that the world is divided into two claffes, of men of merit without riches, and men of wealth without merit; never confidering the poffibility that both might concenter in the fame perfon, just as when, in the comparison of women, we say, that virtue is of more value than beauty, we forget that many are poffeffed of both.

In fpeculations of this kind, and a mutual condolence of their fortunes, they paffed many a melancholy hour, and thofe at a time when, it might be fuppofed, the reflection on them had made repofe defirable: on the contrary, that very reflection is known to have interrupted it. Johnson has told me, that whole nights have been spent by him and Savage in converfations of this kind, not under the hofpitable roof of a tavern, where warmth might have invigorated their fpirits, and wine difpelled their care; but in a perambulation round the fquares of Weftminster, St. James's in particular, when all the money they could both raise was less than fufficient to purchase for them the fhelter and fordid comforts of a night cellar.

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Of the refult of their converfation little can now be known, fave, that they gave rise to those principles of patriotism, that both, for some years after, avowed; they both with the fame eye faw, or believed they faw, that the then minifter meditated the ruin of this country; that excise laws, standing armies, and penal statutes, were the means by which he meant to effect it; and, at the rifque of their liberty, they were bent to oppose his measures; [they might poffibly have been encouraged by the fuccefs of Swift in his endeavours to obstruct the circulation of Wood's halfpence*, who was prompted by his patriotifm to say, 'Give me pen, ink, and paper, and ensure me against prosecution, and I will engage to write down any ministry whatever.'] But Savage's spirit was broken by the sense of his indigence, and the preffure of thofe misfortunes which his imprudence had brought on him, and Johnson was left alone to maintain the contest.

The character and manners of Savage were fuch, as leave us little room to think, that Johnfon could profit by his converfation: whatever were his parts and accomplishments, he had no reading, and could furnish no intelligence to fuch a mind as Johnson's: his vagrant course of life had made him acquainted with the town and its vices; and though I am not warranted to fay, that Johnfon was infected with them, I have reason to think, that he reflected with as little approbation on the hours he spent with Savage as on any period of his life.

Doubtless there is in the demeanour and converfation of fome men a power that fascinates, and fufpends the operation of our own will: to this power in

* Of this contract I once heard Dr. Birch fay, it was one of the faireft ever made between a minifter and an adventurer.

Savage,