L I I 64 FE O F SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. Died Dec: 13-1784. Ct. 75. BY SIR JOHN HAWKINS, KNT. Died in, LONDON: Printed for J. Buckland, J. Rivington and Sons, T. Payne and Sons, H. Baldwin, J. Robson, J. Johnson, C. Dilly, T. Vernor, W. Nicoll, G. G. J. and J. Robinson, T. Cadell, T. Carnan, J. Nichols, J. Bew, R. Baldwin, N. Conant, P. Elmily, W. Goldsmith, J. Knox, R. Faulder, Leigh & Sotheby, G. Nicol, J. Murray, A. Strahan, W. Lowndes, T. Evans, W. Bent, S. Hayes, G. and T. Wilkie, D. Ogilvie, B. Collins, and E. Newbery. M. DCC.LXXXVII. TH of the learned in all ages, have given a sanction to biographical hiftory, and concurred to recommend that precept of the wife fon of Sirach, in which we are exhorted to praife famous men, fuch as by their counfels and by their knowledge of learning were meet for the people,—and were wife and eloquent in their inftructions,—and fuch as recited verfes in writing*.' In each of these faculties did the perfon, whofe hiftory I am about to write, fo greatly excel, that, except for my prefumption in the attempt to difplay his worth, the undertaking may be thought to need no apology; efpecially if we contemplate, together with his mental endowments, thofe moral qualities which diftinguished him, and reflect that, in an age when literary acquifitions and Ecclus. Chap. XLIV. Verfe 1, et feqq. VOL. I. B fcientific |