appear afterwards, both Mr. BOSWELL and Sir JOHN HAWKINS have made use of in their assignments of these papers to their respective authors.

Mr. BOSWELL proceeds to say, that “it cannot be known how much Dr. BATHURST actually contributed." We have, however, the express authority of Sir JOHN HAWKINS, that Dr. BATHURST wrote the papers signed A. and without depending implicitly upon this authority, which is certainly wrong, we may safely assert, that if Dr. BATHURST did not write these papers, he did not write any part of the work, for all the other are appropriated upon undoubted authority to Drs. HAWKESWORTH, JOHNSON, and WARTON, with the exception of two or three, the authors of which were unknown to the editor, or are pointed out in this edition.

papers

Still Mr. BOSWELL is unwilling to give up the point that Dr. JOHNSON wrote for Dr. BATHURST under the signature T. although in the passages already quoted, he supposes that Dr. BATHURST wrote them himself. In Dr. JOHNSON's letter to Dr. WARTON, mentioned in the beginning of this preface, it is said, "I have no part in the paper beyond now and then a motto.' "" This Mr. BosWELL thinks may seem inconsistent with his being the author of the papers marked T. and defends the expression in this manner: "But he had at this time, written only one number; and besides, even at any after period, he might have used the same expression, considering it as a point of honour not to own them; for Mrs. WILLIAMS told me that, as he had given those essays to Dr. BATHURST, who sold them at two guineas each, he

fever would own them, nay he used to say he did not write them; but the fact was that he dictated them, while BATHURST wrote.' I read to him Mrs. WILLIAMS' account; he smiled and said nothing."

Dr. JOHNSON, it is not improbable, smiled to see his friend puzzling himself with a difficulty which a plain question could in a moment have removed. But admitting the literal truth of Mrs. WILLIAMS' narrative, what does it amount to but this, that Dr. JOHNSON was the author of the papers signed T. and by employing Dr. BATHURST as an amanuensis, gave him the profits? Dr. BATHURST could have no more share in the merit of these papers than the servant who carried them to the printing-office. The papers in question were as certainly Dr. JOHNSON'S, as his RAMBLERS; they are acknowledged as such by Dr. HAWKESWORTH, and the whole set are regularly marked with a T. while BATHURST's, or what we suppose at present to have been BATHURST's, were marked with an A. To these signatures Dr. HAWKESWORTH was particularly attentive, and in the original edition, when by accident the A. was in one instance omitted, it was noticed as an erratum in the next number.

The papers marked A. amount to eight, all of the humorous cast. These formed the resource which Dr. HAWKESWORTH, in No. 140, says,

soon failed," probably by the author's going abroad, if indeed the author was BATHURST, but it must not be concealed that the writer of BONNEL THORNTON'S Life in the Biographical Dictionary, VOL. XXIII.

has assigned these papers to him, and notwithstanding Sir JOHN HAWKINS' assertion, I have not the least doubt that they were the production of THORNTON, who quitted the ADVENTURER to become a joint partner in the CONNOISSEUR.

'The contributions of the author of the RAMBLER come next to be considered, and concerning them there can be no dispute. He wrote twenty-nine papers, the general character of which is the same with that of his preceding work, but being more at leisure, he appears more easy and more lively in his selection of subjects. He did not begin to write for the ADVENTURER until No. 34, March 3, 1753. Much of the interval between the conclusion of the RAMBLER, and this date was consumed in regret for the loss of his wife, to whom, although his biographers have not represented her in a very amiable light, he was sincerely attached, and whose loss he never forgot, either in conversation or prayer *. Having, however, recovered from the violence of this shock, he began to write for the ADVENTURER, with the story of Misargyrus, which he continued in No. 41, 53, and 62, and which shews an intimate acquaintance with London life. No. 84, A Journey in a Stage Coach, will probably never be exceeded for delicate humour. The account of the ADMIRABLE CRICHTON is one of those which he is said to have dictated, not to BATHURST, but to Dr. HAWKESWORTH. It is an excellent summary of CRICHTON'S Life from MACKENZIE'S "Writers of the Scotch Nation," but of this wonderful man, a more authentic and

* JOHNSON's Prayers and Meditations, passim.

impartial account, drawn up by the EARL of BUCHAN, and Dr. KIPPIS, has since appeared in the Biographia Britannica.

In No. 85, 95, 115, 137, and 138, we find him expatiating on his favourite topic, the concerns and interests of literature and literary men. In No. 120, he again indulges in reflections on "the bitterness of being," and indeed exhibits his whole system of human misery, concluding, however, as usual, with suitable consolation. It is singular that the succeeding paper by Dr. HAWKESWORTH contains the "Adventures of a Louse," which concludes its melancholy story, with a hope to find some dwelling, where no comb shall ever enter, and no nails scratch; which neither pincers nor razor shall approach, where the remainder of life may be passed in perfect security and repose, amidst the smiles of society, and the profusion of plenty." And this hope "so extravagant and ri diculous, uttered with such solemnity of diction and manner," is followed by the writer's reflection, "that the life of MAN is not less exposed to evil, and that all his expectations of security and happiness in temporal possessions, are equally chimerical and absurd." The junction of these papers was probably accidental, but the coincidence of "dolorous declamation" between the man and the reptile, has, in some degree, the mirthful air of a parody.

Dr. JOHNSON revised his ADVENTURERS for a second edition, with the same attention he bestowed on the RAMBLER, but as he had now more leisure to write, his corrections and alterations are not so frequent, unless in the first three or four papers.

Mr. BOSWELL has discovered from internal evidence, that No. 39, on sleep, was written by him, but a proof of that kind would not have been wanted, if he had consulted the original, or any of the early editions, in which the paper is marked with a T. Sir JOHN HAWKINS from neglecting this precaution, when he collected Dr. JOHNSON'S works for an uniform edition in 1786-7, has omitted no less than five of his ADVENTURERS, No. 39, 67, 74, 81, and 128 *.

The next assistant in the ADVENTURER was Dr. JOSEPH WARTON, to whom, in the original plan, the province of criticism and literature was consigned.

This elegant scholar was born about the year 1722: his father, THOMAS WARTON, B. D. was Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, Poetry Professor from the year 1718 to 1728, and Vicar of Basingstoke, in Hampshire, and Cobham, in Surrey. He married ELIZABETH, daughter of the Reverend JOSEPH RICHARDSON, Rector of Dunfold, in Surrey, by whom he had three children, JOSEPH, the object of this article; THOMAS, the late poet and historian of English poetry, who died in 1790; and a daughter now living. He was the author of a volume of poems published by subscription in the year 1745, among which is the celebrated epigram on the king's sending a troop of horse to Oxford, at the same time he gave a collection of books to the University of Cambridge. This has usually been, attributed to Dr. TRAPP.

They have been restored to Dr. JOHNSON's Works pub lished in 1806.