e _Demonax_ thus:--

'To DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, the Demonax of the present age, this piece is
inscribed by a sincere admirer of his respectable[121] talents,

'THE TRANSLATOR.'

Though upon a particular comparison of Demonax and Johnson, there does
not seem to be a great deal of similarity between them, this Dedication
is a just compliment from the general character given by Lucian of the
ancient Sage, '[Greek: ariston on oida ego philosophon genomenon], the
best philosopher whom I have ever seen or known.'

1781: AETAT. 72.--In 1781 Johnson at last completed his _Lives of the
Poets_, of which he gives this account: 'Some time in March I finished
the _Lives of the Poets_, which I wrote in my usual way, dilatorily and
hastily, unwilling to work, and working with vigour and haste[122].' In
a memorandum previous to this, he says of them: 'Written, I hope, in
such a manner as may tend to the promotion of piety[123].'

This is the work which of all Dr. Johnson's writings will perhaps be
read most generally, and with most pleasure. Philology and
biography[124] were his favourite pursuits, and those who lived most in
intimacy with him, heard him upon all occasions, when there was a proper
opportunity, take delight in expatiating upon the various merits of the
English Poets: upon the niceties of their characters, and the events of
their progress through the world which they contributed to illuminate.
His mind was so full of that kind of information, and it was so well
arranged in his memory, that in performing what he had undertaken in
this way, he had little more to do than to put his thoughts upon paper,
exhibiting first each Poet's life, and then subjoining a critical
examination of his genius and works. But when he began to write, the
subject swelled in such a manner, that instead of prefaces to each poet,
of no more than a few pages, as he had originally intended[125], he
produced an ample, rich, and most entertaining view of them in every
respect. In this he resembled Quintilian, who tells us, that in the
composition of his _Institutions of Oratory[126], Latius se tamen
aperiente materia, plus quam imponebatur oneris sponte suscepi._ The
booksellers, justly sensible of the great additional value of the
copy-right, presented him with another hundred pounds, over and above
two hundred, for which his agreement was to furnish such prefaces as he
thought fit[127].

This was, however, but a small recompense for such a collec