THE

LIVES

OF THE MOST EMINENT

ENGLISH POETS:

WITH

CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS

ON THEIR

Works.

BY SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

AND HIS

POETICAL WORKS.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED FOR PETER HILL, PRINTER TO THE CHURCH

OF SCOTLAND.

1815.

讀

Sketch of the

LIFE

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D.

DR SAMUEL JOHNSON, who has been justly styled the brightest ornament of the 18th century, was born in the city of Litchfield, in Staffordshire, on the 18th of September, 1709. His father, Michael, was a bookseller; and must have had some reputation in the city, as he more than once bore the office of chief magistrate. By what casuistical reasoning he reconciled his conscience to the oaths required to be taken by all who occupy such stations, cannot now be known; but it is certain, that he was zealously attached to the exiled family, and instilled the same principles into the youthful mind of his son. So much was he in earnest in this work, and at so early a period did he commence it, that when Dr Sacheverel, in his memorable tour through England, came to Litchfield, Mr Johnson carried his son, not then quite three years old, to the cathedral, and placed him on his shoulders, that he might see as well as hear that far-famed preacher. BUT political prejudices were not the only bad things which young Sam inherited from his father: he derived from the same source a morbid melancholy, which, though it neither depressed his imagination, nor clouded his perspicuity, filled him with dreadful apprehensions of insanity, and rendered him wretched through life. From his nurse