would have delivered him from literary toil for the remainder of his
days. But literary toil was the occupation for which nature had designed
him. In the April of 1758, he commenced the Idler, and continued to
publish it for two years in the Universal Chronicle. Of these Essays, he
was supplied with Nos. 33, 93, and 96, by Thomas Warton; with No. 67 by
Langton, and with Nos. 76, 79, and 82 by Reynolds. Boswell mentions
twelve papers being given by his friends, but does not say who were the
contributors of the remaining five. The Essay on Epitaphs, the
Dissertation on Pope's Epitaphs, and an Essay on the Bravery of the
English common Soldiers, were subjoined to this paper, when it was
collected into volumes. It does not differ from the Rambler, otherwise
than as the essays are shorter, and somewhat less grave and elaborate.

Another wound was inflicted on him by the death of his mother, who had
however reached her ninetieth year. His affection and his regret will
best appear from the following letter to the daughter of his deceased
wife.

_To Miss Porter, in Lichfield_.

You will conceive my sorrow for the loss of my mother, of the best
mother. If she were to live again, surely I should behave better to
her.
But she is happy, and what is past is nothing to her: and, for me,
since I cannot repair my faults to her, I hope repentance will efface
them. I return you, and all those that have been good to her, my
sincerest thanks, and pray God to repay you all with infinite
advantage. Write to me, and comfort me, dear child. I shall be glad
likewise, if Kitty will write to me. I shall send a bill of twenty
pounds in a few days, which I thought to have brought to my mother,
but God suffered it not. I have not power nor composure to say much
more. God bless you, and bless us all.

I am, dear Miss,

Your affectionate humble servant,

SAM. JOHNSON.

Her attention to his mother, as it is reported in the following words,
by Miss Seward, ensured to Johnson the sympathy of Lucy Porter.

From the age of twenty till her fortieth year, when affluence came to
her by the death of her eldest brother, she had boarded in Lichfield
with Dr. Johnson's mother, who still kept that little bookseller's shop,
by which her husband had supplied the scanty means of existence.
Meanwhile, Lucy Porter kept the best company of our little city, but
would make no engagement on market-days, lest Granny, as she called M