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it incumbent on me to point out. Talking of Mr. Garrick’s having signified his willingness to let Johnson have the loan of any of his books to assist him in his edition of Shakspeare;1238 Sir John says (p. 444), ‘Mr. Garrick knew not what risque he ran by this offer. Johnson had so strange a forgetfulness of obligations of this sort, that few who lent him books ever saw them again.’ This surely conveys a most unfavourable insinuation, and has been so understood. Sir John mentions the single case of a curious edition of Politian,1239 which he tells us, ‘appeared to belong to Pembroke College, and which, probably, had been considered by Johnson as his own, for upwards of fifty years.’ Would it not be fairer to consider this as an inadvertence, and draw no general inference? The truth is, that Johnson was so attentive, that in one of his manuscripts in my possession, he has marked in two columns, books borrowed, and books lent.

In Sir John Hawkins’s compilation, there are, however, some passages concerning Johnson which have unquestionable merit. One of them I shall transcribe, in justice to a writer whom I have had too much occasion to censure, and to shew my fairness as the biographer of my illustrious friend: ‘There was wanting in his conduct and behaviour, that dignity which results from a regular and orderly course of action, and by an irresistible power commands esteem. He could not be said to be a stayed man, nor so to have adjusted in his mind the balance of reason and passion, as to give occasion to say what may be observed of some men, that all they do is just, fit, and right.’1240 Yet a judicious friend1241 well suggests, ‘It might, however, have been added, that such men are often merely just, and rigidly correct, while their hearts are cold and unfeeling; and that Johnson’s virtues were of a much higher tone than those of the stayed, orderly man, here described.’

a The following circumstance, mutually to the honour of Johnson, and the corporation of his native city, has been communicated to me by the Reverend Dr. Vyse, from the Town-Clerk: – ‘Mr. Simpson has now before him, a record of the respect and veneration which the Corporation of Lichfield, in the year 1767, had for the merits and learning of Dr. Johnson. His father built the corner-house in the Market-place, the two fronts of which, towards Market and Broad-market-street,1242 stood upon waste land of the Corporation, under a forty years’ lease, which was then expired. On the 15th of August, 1767, at a common-hall of the bailiffs and citizens, it was ordered (and that without any solicitation,) that a lease should be granted to Samuel Johnson, Doctor of Laws, of the encroachments at his house, for the term of ninety-nine years, at the old rent, which was five shillings. Of which, as Town-Clerk, Mr. Simpson had the honour and pleasure of informing him, and that he was desired to accept it, without paying any fine on the occasion, which lease was afterwards granted, and the Doctor died possessed of this property.’

b See p. 25.

a Mr. Burke suggested to me as applicable to Johnson, what Cicero, in his Cato Major, says of Appius: ‘Intentum enim animum tanquam arcum habebat, nec languescens succumbebat senectuti’;1245 repeating at the same time, the following noble words in the same passage: ‘Ita enim senectus honesta est, si se ipsa defendit, si jus suum retinet, si nemini emancipata est, si usque ad extremum vitæ spiritum vindicet jus suum’.1246

a It is a most agreeable circumstance attending the publication of this Work, that Mr. Hector has survived his illustrious schoolfellow so many years; that he still retains his health and spirits; and has gratified me with the following acknowledgement: ‘I thank you, most sincerely thank you, for the great and long continued entertainment your Life of Dr. Johnson has afforded me, and others, of my particular friends.’ Mr. Hector, besides setting me right as to the verses on a sprig of Myrtle (see p. 55 note), has favoured me with two English odes, written by Dr. Johnson, at an early period of his life,