MR

Preparing for the Press, in one Volume Quarto,

THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

BY JAMES BOSWELL, Esq.

R. Boswell has been collecting materials for this work for more than twenty years, during which he was honoured with the intimate friendship of Dr. Johnson; to whose memory he is ambitious to erect a literary monument, worthy of so great an authour, and so excellent a man. Dr. Johnson was well informed of his design, and obligingly communicated to him several curious particulars. With these will be interwoven the most authentick accounts that can be obtained from those who knew him best; many sketches of his conversation on a multiplicity of subjects, with various persons, some of them the most eminent of the age; a great number of letters from him at different periods, and several original pieces dictated by him to Mr. Boswell, distinguished by that peculiar energy, which marked every emanation of his mind.

Second Edition.-Added: "Mr. Boswell takes this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging the many valuable communications which he has received to enable him to render his Life of Dr. Johnson more complete. His thanks are particularly due to the Rev. Dr. Adams, the Rev. Dr. Taylor, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Langton, Dr. Brocklesby, the Rev. Thomas Warton, Mr. Hector of Birmingham, Mrs. Porter, and Miss Seward.

"He has already obtained a large collection of Dr. Johnson's letters to his friends, and shall be much obliged for such others as yet remain in private hands; which he is the more desirous of collecting, as all the letters of that great man, which he has yet seen, are written with peculiar precision and elegance; and he is confident that the publication of the whole of Dr. Johnson's epistolary correspondence will do him the highest honour."

ERRATA.

Vol. 1, p. 195. In Second Edition, date of letter to O'Conor altered to “April 9, 1757."

P. 196, do., date of letter to Warton altered to “ 1757.”

P. 268, for "July 18,” “July 19" should be read. (Mr. Boswell's mistake.)

P. 382, line 14, for "drives" read "drove."

P. 397, line 32, for "wrote " read "written."

P. 432, line 2, for "been a witness against" read "connected with."

" read "1776."

Vol. 2, p. 61, line 6, for 1773"

(Also Mr. Boswell's mis.

P. 393, in Second Edition, "May 23" altered to "May 25."

P. 506, for " March 21, 1781," read "1782."

Vol. 3, p. 69, for "May 17," read "May 18."

P. 133, for "Oct. 20," read "Oct. 27.”1

There are also these errata in the Editor's portion of the work :—

Note to Advertisement, p. h, dele “by Mr. Croker," and for "author's edition," read "author's first edition."

Vol. 1, p. 40, last line of first column of note, after “they had” insert “laid.”

P. 159, note I to be placed above the "rule" or line. So with p. 164, note I, and p. 325, note 1.

At p. 150, after second line of Cor. et Ad., and at p. 146, after line 23 of Cor. et Ad., a "rule across the page.

P. 212, before second par. of Cor. et Ad., place the words Second Edition.

P. 233, line 6 of note 1, after "oath," insert "more."

P. 307, date of letter, "October 16, 1765," omitted.

P. 451, line 4 of note, for "they," read "Johnson's letters."

P. 528, line 10 of note 1, for " Mr.," read "Mrs."

P. 533, line 4 of note I, for "vast pile. The, &c.," read "vast pile, the, &c."
Vol. 2, p. 458, last line of Cor. et Ad., put reference 3 on line 10 of same.
Vol. 3, p. 12, line 5 of note 1, dele", and commence quotation at I have."
P. 58, line 26 of second column of notes, after "passage,” insert “above.”
P. 97, after line 9 of note I, read "Maloniana."

1 These corrections and additions, the reader may, to use Mr. Boswell's words, "make with his pen before perusing the following Life."

In his two editions Mr. Boswell fell into mistakes as to dates, often putting the wrong day of the week to the correct day of the month, and vice versa. Some of these passages have been amended by Malone and Croker. On the other hand, Boswell, in his second edition, wrongly altered some dates, in the belief that he was correcting mistakes. As at p. 179, Vol. 2, of the present edition, where June 9th was changed by him to July 9th, a date retained by Malone and sub

sequent editors; though it is evident from the context, both of that and the following letter that the date must be fixed in June. On the ground of these uncertainties, and the somewhat capricious alterations made by several hands, the original dates have been retained; but where the mistake is obvious on the face of it, the error is either pointed out in a note, or in the foregoing list of errata.

To the list of Mr. Croker's altera. tions of the text more examples could be added, notably one at p. 654 of his single volume edition, where a note of Malone's and a letter to Dr. Vyse are made part of Boswell's text.

TABLE OF CONTENTS'

TO THE LIFE OF JOHNSON,

A.

A Mrs., i. 530, 532, 535; ii. 12.

Adjuration, oath of, i. 530.

Academy, Royal, instituted, 355.

Actors, i. 102, 3, 119, 120, 371, 2, 468; ii. 92, 226, 311, 408, 9; iii. 40, 1.
Adams, Reverend Dr., i. 35, 160; ii. 78; iii. 73, 90, 141, 172.

Addison, Johnson's opinion of, i. 137, 262; ii. 10, 128.

his style compared with Johnson's, i. 137.
Johnson's life of, ii. 436, 465.

Adey, Miss, ii. 93, 382.

"Adventurer," Hawkesworth, i. 142, 152, 3, 4, 5.

Adultery, i. 347, 477; ii. 335.

Akenside's poetry, i. 420; ii. 120.

Akerman, Mr., character and Anecdotes of, ii. 396, 7.

Alfred, Johnson's desire to write his life, i. 108.

America and the Americans, i. 511, 12, 525; ii. 239, 296, 313, 417, 457.
"Anthologia," Johnson's translations from, iii. 148.
Antiquities, the study of, ii. 384.