powers of classic allusion and brilliant wit."

Mrs. Piozzi's next publication was "Letters To and From the late
Samuel Johnson, LL.D., &c." In the Preface she speaks of the
"Anecdotes" having been received with a degree of approbation she
hardly dared to hope, and exclaims, "May these Letters in some
measure pay my debt of gratitude! they will not surely be the
_first_, the _only_ thing written by Johnson, with which our nation
has not been pleased." ... "The good taste by which our countrymen
are distinguished, will lead them to prefer the native thoughts and
unstudied phrases scattered over these pages to the more laboured
elegance of his other works; as bees have been observed to reject
roses, and fix upon the wild fragrance of a neighbouring heath."

Whenever Johnson took pen in hand, the chances were, that what he
produced would belong to the composite order; the unstudied phrases
were reserved for his "talk;" and he wished his Letters to be
preserved.[1] The main value of these consists in the additional
illustrations they afford of his conduct in private life, and of his
opinions on the management of domestic affairs. The lack of literary
and public interest is admitted and excused:

[Footnote 1: "Do you keep my letters? I am not of your opinion that I
shall not like to read them hereafter."--_Letters_, vol. i. p. 295.]

"None but domestic and familiar events can be expected from a private
correspondence; no reflexions but such as they excite can be found
there; yet whoever turns away disgusted by the insipidity with which
this, and I suppose every correspondence must naturally and almost
necessarily begin--will here be likely to lose some genuine pleasure,
and some useful knowledge of what our heroic Milton was himself
contented to respect, as

"'That which before thee lies in daily life.'

"And should I be charged with obtruding trifles on the public, I
might reply, that the meanest animals preserved in amber become of
value to those who form collections of natural history; that the fish
found in Monte Bolca serve as proofs of sacred writ; and that the
cart-wheel stuck in the rock of Tivoli, is now found useful in
computing the rotation of the earth."

In "Thraliana" she thus refers to the reception of the book:

"The Letters are out. They were published on Saturday, 8th of March.
Cadell printed 2,000 copies, and says 1,100 are already sold. My
letter to Jack Rice on his marriage (Vol. i. p. 96), s