is little society
were his beloved friend Dr. Richard Bathurst, Mr. Hawkesworth,
afterwards well known by his writings, Mr. John Hawkins, an attorney,
and a few others of different professions.

1749: AETAT. 40.]--In January, 1749, he published the Vanity of human
Wishes, being the Tenth Satire of Juvenal imitated. He, I believe,
composed it the preceding year. Mrs. Johnson, for the sake of country
air, had lodgings at Hampstead, to which he resorted occasionally,
and there the greatest part, if not the whole, of this Imitation was
written. The fervid rapidity with which it was produced, is scarcely
credible. I have heard him say, that he composed seventy lines of it in
one day, without putting one of them upon paper till they were finished.
I remember when I once regretted to him that he had not given us more of
Juvenal's Satires, he said he probably should give more, for he had them
all in his head; by which I understood that he had the originals and
correspondent allusions floating in his mind, which he could, when he
pleased, embody and render permanent without much labour. Some of them,
however, he observed were too gross for imitation.

The profits of a single poem, however excellent, appear to have been
very small in the last reign, compared with what a publication of
the same size has since been known to yield. I have mentioned, upon
Johnson's own authority, that for his London he had only ten guineas;
and now, after his fame was established, he got for his Vanity of Human
Wishes but five guineas more, as is proved by an authentick document in
my possession.

His Vanity of Human Wishes has less of common life, but more of a
philosophick dignity than his London. More readers, therefore, will
be delighted with the pointed spirit of London, than with the profound
reflection of The Vanity of Human Wishes. Garrick, for instance,
observed in his sprightly manner, with more vivacity than regard to just
discrimination, as is usual with wits: 'When Johnson lived much with the
Herveys, and saw a good deal of what was passing in life, he wrote his
London, which is lively and easy. When he became more retired, he gave
us his Vanity of Human Wishes, which is as hard as Greek. Had he gone on
to imitate another satire, it would have been as hard as Hebrew.'

Garrick being now vested with theatrical power by being manager of
Drury-lane theatre, he kindly and generously made use of it to bring
out Johnson's tragedy, which ha