“ Seven years, my lord, have now passed, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door."-Johnson's Letter to Lord Chesterfield, p. 177

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

ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED:

THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN IN GREAT
BRITAIN, FOR NEARLY HALF A CENTURY DURING WHICH

HE FLOURISHED

BY JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

Quo fit ut OMNIS
Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella
VITA SENIS-

HORAT,

A NEW EDITION,

ELUCIDATED BY COPIOUS NOTES,

AND

ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS, VIEWS, AND
CHARACTERISTIC DESIGNS, ENGRAVED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.-

VOL. I.

LONDON:

OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY,

“ After my death I wish no other herald,

No other speaker of my living actions,
To keep mine honour from corruption,
But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.”1

SHAKSPEARE,

Henry VIII.

1 See Dr. Johnson's letter to Mrs. Thrale, dated Ostick in Skie, September 30, 1773 : “ Boswell writes a regular Journal of our travels, which I think contains as much of what 1

say and do, as of all other occurrences together ; " for such a faithful chronicler is Griffith."-Boswell.