ndulged themselves till morning in such frolics as came in their way,
Johnson and Beauclerk were so well pleased with their diversion, that
they continued it through the rest of the day; while their less
sprightly companion left them, to keep an engagement with some ladies at
breakfast, not without reproaches from Johnson for deserting his friends
"for a set of unidea'd girls."

In 1753, he gave to Dr. Bathurst, the physician, whom he regarded with
much affection, and whose practice was very limited, several essays for
the Adventurer, which Hawkesworth was then publishing; and wrote for
Mrs. Lenox a Dedication to the Earl of Orrery, of her Shakspeare
illustrated; and, in the following year, inserted in the Gentleman's
Magazine a Life of Cave, its former editor.

Previously to the publication of his Dictionary, it was thought
advisable by his friends that the degree of Master of Arts should be
obtained for him, in order that his name might appear in the title page
with that addition; and it was accordingly, through their intercession,
conferred on him by the University of Oxford. The work was presented by
the Earl of Orrery, one of his friends then at Florence, to the Delia
Crusca Academy, who, in return, sent their Dictionary to the author. The
French Academy paid him the same compliment. But these honours were not
accompanied by that indispensable requisite, "provision for the day that
was passing over him." He was arrested for debt, and liberated by the
kindness of Richardson, the writer of Clarissa, who became his surety.
To prevent such humiliation, the efforts of his own industry were not
wanting. In 1756, he published an Abridgement of his Dictionary, and an
Edition of Sir Thomas Browne's Christian Morals, to which he prefixed a
Life of that writer; he contributed to a periodical miscellany, called
the Universal Visitor, by Christopher Smart,[9] and yet more largely to
another work of the same kind, entitled, the Literary Magazine; and
wrote a dedication and preface for Payne's Introduction to the Game of
Draughts, and an Introduction to the newspaper called the London
Chronicle, for the last of which he received a single guinea. Yet either
conscientious scruples, or his unwillingness to relinquish a London
life, induced him to decline the offer of a valuable benefice in
Lincolnshire, which was made him by the father of his friend, Langton,
provided he could prevail on himself to take holy orders, a measure that