fcrupulous authenticity, has occafioned a degree of trouble far beyond that of any other fpecies of compofition. Were I to detail the books which I have confulted, and the inquiries which I have found it necessary to make by various channels, I should probably be thought ridiculously oftentatious. Let me only obferve, as a specimen of my

trouble, that I have fometimes had to run half over London, in order to fix a date correctly; which, when I had accomplished, I well knew would obtain me no praise, though a failure would have been to my difcredit. And after all perhaps, hard as it may be, I shall not be furprized if omiffions or mistakes be pointed out with invidious feverity. I have also been extremely careful as to the exactness of my quotations; holding that there is a respect due to the Publick which should oblige every Authour to attend to this, and never to prefume to introduce them with-" I think I have read;"-or," If I remember right;"when the originals may be examined.

I beg leave to express my warmest thanks to those who have been pleased to favour me with communications and advice in the conduct of my Work. But I cannot fufficiently acknowledge my obligations to my friend Mr. Malone, who was fo good as to allow me to read to him almost the whole of my manufcript, and made fuch remarks as were greatly for the advantage of the Work; though it is but fair to him to mention, that upon many occafions I differed from him, and followed my own judgement. I regret exceedingly that I was deprived of the benefit of his revision, when but about one half of the book bad passed through the prefs; but after having completed his very laborious and admirable edition of Shakespeare, for

which he generously would accept of no other reward but that fame which be has fo defervedly obtained, be fulfilled his promise of a long-wished-for visit to his relations in Ireland; from whence his fafe return finibus Atticis is defired by his friends here, with all the claffical ardour of Sic te Diva potens Cypri; for there is no man in whom more elegant and worthy qualities are united; and whose fociety therefore is more valued by those who know him.

It is painful to me to think, that while I was carrying on this Work, feveral of those to whom it would have been most interesting have died. Such melancholy disappointments we know to be incident to humanity; but we do not feel them the less. Let me particularly lament the Reverend Thomas Warton, and the Reverend Dr. Adams. Mr. Warton, amidst his variety of genius and learning, was an excellent Biographer. His contributions to my Collection are highly eftimable; and as he had a true relish of my "Tour to the Hebrides," I trust I should now have been gratified with a larger share of his kind approbation. Dr. Adams, eminent as the Head of a College, as a writer, and as a most amiable man, had known Johnson from his early years, and was his friend through life. What reason I had to hope for the countenance of that venerable Gentleman to this Work, will appear from what he wrote to me upon a former occafion from Oxford, November 17, 1785:-" Dear Sir, I hazard this letter, not knowing where it will find you, to thank you for your very agreeable 'Tour,' which I found here on my return from the country, and in which you have depicted our friend so perfectly to my fancy, in every attitude, every scene and situation, that I have thought myself in the

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company,

company, and of the party almost throughout. It has given very general fatisfaction; and those who have found most fault with a passage here and there, have agreed that they could not help going through, and being entertained through the whole. I wish, indeed, some few gross expreffions had been softened, and a few of our hero's foibles had been a little more shaded; but it is useful to see the weaknesses incident to great minds; and you have given us Dr. Johnson's authority that in history all ought to be told."

Such a fanction to my faculty of giving a just representation of Dr. Johnson I could not conceal. Nor will I fupprefs my fatisfaction in the consciousness, that by recording so confiderable a portion of the wisdom and wit of “ the brightest ornament of the eighteenth century *," I have largely provided for the instruction and entertainment of mankind.

his letter to Johnson on his Dictionary, Boufflers, Mad. de, i. 513.
i. 158.