[1153] See _ante_, i. 189, note 2, 296, 297; and Johnson's _Works_, v.
23.

[1154] Of his two imitations Boswell means _The Vanity of Human Wishes_,
of which one hundred lines were written in a day. _Ante_, i. 192,
and ii. 15.

[1155] Johnson, it should seem, did not allow that there was any
pleasure in writing poetry. 'It has been said there is pleasure in
writing, particularly in writing verses. I allow you may have pleasure
from writing after it is over, if you have written well; but you don't
go willingly to it again.' _Ante_, iv. 219. What Johnson always sought
was to sufficiently occupy the mind. So long as that was done, that
labour would, I believe, seem to him the pleasanter which required the
less thought.

[1156] Nathan Bailey published his _English Dictionary_ in 1721.

[1157]

'Woolston, the scourge of scripture, mark with awe!
And mighty Jacob, blunderbuss of law.'

_The Dunciad_, first ed., bk. iii. l. 149. Giles Jacob published a _Law
Dictionary_ in 1729.

[1158] _Ante_, p. 393.

[1159] A writer in the _Gent. Mag._ 1786, p. 388, with some reason
says:--'I heartily wish Mr. Boswell would get this Latin poem translated.'

[1160] Boswell, briefly mentioning the tour which Johnson made to Wales
in the year 1774 with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, says:--'I do not find that
he kept any journal or notes of what he saw there' (_ante_, ii. 285). A
journal had been kept however, which in 1816 was edited and published by
Mr. Duppa. Mrs. Piozzi, writing in October of that year, says that three
years earlier she had been shewn the MS. by a Mr. White, and that it was
genuine. 'The gentleman who possessed it seemed shy of letting me read
the whole, and did not, as it appeared, like being asked how it came
into his hands.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 177. According to Mr. Croker
(Croker's _Boswell_, p. 415) 'it was preserved by Johnson's servant,
Barber. How it escaped Boswell's research is not known.' A fragment of
Johnson's _Annals_, also preserved by Barber, had in like manner never
been seen by Boswell; _ante_, i. 35, note 1. The editor of these
_Annals_ says (Preface, p. v):--'Francis Barber, unwilling that all the
MSS. of his illustrious master should be utterly lost, preserved these
relicks from the flames. By purchase from Barber's widow they came into
the possession of the editor.' It seems likely that Barber was afraid to
own what he had done; though as he was the residuary legatee he was safe
from