and, as Johnson said twenty-five years later, the best speaker in the House of Lords.' Johnson's compliance with their wish was, he said, a casual excuse for laziness.' Evidently he had some interview with Chesterfield, and addressed to him the Plan or Prospectus of the work. But the patron thus solicited took no notice of him, and seems a year later to have insulted Johnson, who had come as a visitor to his house. Johnson, who was at once sensitive, proud, and brave, resolved to dedicate the Dictionary to no man. Allusions to the affair appear in The Vanity of Human Wishes, and are not uncommon in The Rambler; the last essay expresses his stout resolution not to dedicate that work at all.

On the eve of publication Chesterfield wrote two flippant puffs of the expected Dictionary for The World. Both were certain to offend Johnson by their tone and their indecent allusion. I have sailed a long and painful voyage around the world of the English language; and does he now send out two cockboats to tow me into harbor?' Years later he said to Boswell: Sir, after making great professions, he had for many years taken no notice of me; but when my Dictionary was coming out, he fell a scribbling in The World about it. Upon which I wrote him a letter expressed in civil terms, but such as might show him that I did not mind what he said or wrote, and that I was done with him.'

The letter is essentially a Declaration of Independence for literature. It became the talk of the town, and the redoubtable Warburton congratulated Johnson. No doubt it encouraged many an obscure and struggling author. Goldsmith never dedicated except to his brother and his friends, Reynolds and Johnson. Chesterfield, quite as proud as Johnson, tried to pass off the affair with affected disinterest, even showing the letter and praising its style. But this attitude could not obliterate its significance, or lessen the admiration of Johnson's 'defensive pride' in generations to come.

To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield

MY LORD:

February 7, 1755.

I have lately been informed by the proprietor of The World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your 5 Lordship. To be so distinguished is an honor which, being very little accustomed to favors from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.

When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited 10 your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address; and I could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself 'Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre'; that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contend- 15 ing; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I 20 had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

Seven years, my Lord, have now passed, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work 25 through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favor. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before.

30

The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.

Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, 5 when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till 10I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the Public should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. 15 Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favorer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself 20 with so much exultation,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most humble,

Most obedient servant,

SAM. JOHNSON.

PREFATORY NOTE ON THE PREFACE

THE Preface to the Dictionary was composed rapidly at the completion of that great work. Johnson once said to Sir Joshua Reynolds: There are two things which I am confident that I can do very well: One is an introduction to any literary work, stating what it is to contain, and how it should be executed in the most perfect manner; the other is a conclusion showing from various causes why the execution has not been equal to what the author promised to himself and to the public.' The Preface is one of his noblest utterances. It is sublime with his splendid confidence in his powers, yet graced with his modesty and his confession of disappointment. It is ennobled with his independence, and deeply impressive with the melancholy which pervades it.

The year of publication seems to have been the most depressing of his life. Many upon whose affection he was most dependent had died, and very few of the friendships that consoled his later life were yet formed. He had not yet come to know Boswell, Goldsmith, the Thrales, or the Burneys. But apart from outward conditions, it is wholly natural for one of Johnson's temperament to experience a strong depression rather than an elevation of spirits, on completing a work to which he had so long been devoting his best energies and powers.

Preface to the English Dictionary

IT is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced 5 by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward.

Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries; whom mankind have considered, not as the 10 pupil, but the slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their 15 progress. Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.

I have, notwithstanding this discouragement, at20 tempted a Dictionary of the English Language, which, while it was employed in the cultivation of every species of literature, has itself been hitherto neglected; suffered to spread, under the direction of chance, into wild exuberance; resigned to the tyranny of time and 25 fashion; and exposed to the corruptions of ignorance, and caprices of innovation.

When I took the first survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without order, and energetic without rule: wherever I turned my view, there was 30 perplexity to be disentangled and confusion to be regu