the _Britannia_ steam-ship,
across the Atlantic, inquired of the author the origin of his signature,
"Boz." Mr. Dickens replied that he had a little brother who resembled
so much the Moses in the _Vicar of Wakefield_, that he used to call him
Moses also; but a younger girl, who could not then articulate plainly,
was in the habit of calling him Bozie or Boz. This simple circumstance
made him assume that name in the first article he risked to the public,
and therefore he continued the name, as the first effort was approved
of.

* * * * *

BOSWELL'S "LIFE OF JOHNSON."

Sir John Malcolm once asked Warren Hastings, who was a contemporary and
companion of Dr. Johnson and Boswell, what was his real estimation
of Boswell's _Life of Johnson_? "Sir," replied Hastings, "it is the
_dirtiest_ book in my library;" then proceeding, he added: "I knew
Boswell intimately; and I well remember, when his book first made its
appearance, Boswell was so full of it, that he could neither think nor
talk of anything else; so much so, that meeting Lord Thurlow hurrying
through Parliament-street to get to the House of Lords, where an
important debate was expected, for which he was already too late,
Boswell had the temerity to stop and accost him with "Have you read my
book?" "Yes," replied Lord Thurlow, with one of his strongest curses,
"every word of it; I could not help it."

* * * * *

PATRONAGE OF AUTHORS.

In the reigns of William III., of Anne, and of George I., even such men
as Congreve and Addison could scarcely have been able to live like
gentlemen by the mere sale of their writings. But the deficiency of the
natural demand for literature was, at the close of the seventeenth, and
at the beginning of the eighteenth century, more than made up by the
artificial encouragement--by a vast system of bounties and premiums.
There was, perhaps, never a time at which the rewards of literary merit
were so splendid--at which men who could write well found such easy
admittance into the most distinguished society, and to the highest
honours of the state. The chiefs of both the great parties into which
the kingdom was divided, patronized literature with emulous munificence.

Congreve, when he had scarcely attained his majority, was rewarded for
his first comedy with places which made him independent for life. Rowe
was not only poet laureate, but land-surveyor of the Customs in the p