LIFE

THE

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

IN

O F

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STUDIES
AND NUMEROUS WORKS,

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER;

COMPREHENDING

A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE
AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS;

BY

VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,

NEVER BEFORE

PUBLISHED.

IN TWO

AND

THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN
IN GREAT-BRITAIN, FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY,
DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED.

VOLUMES.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY HENRY BALDWIN,

FOR CHARLES DILLY, IN THE POULTRY.

M DCC XCI.

TOTH

700

DEDICATIO N.

т о
то

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

MY DEAR SIR,

E

VERY liberal motive that can actuate an Authour dedication of his labours, concurs in directing me to you, as the person to whom the following work fhould be inscribed.

If there be a pleasure in celebrating the diftinguished merit of a contemporary, mixed with a certain degree of vanity not altogether inexcufable, in appearing fully fenfible of it, where can I find one in complimenting whom I can with more general approbation gratify those feelings? Your excellence, not only in the Art over which you have long prefided with unrivalled