[49] See Victoria's Letter, RAMBLER, No. 130.--"I was never permitted to sleep till I had passed through the cosmetick discipline, part of which was a regular lustration performed with bean-flower water and may-dews; my hair was perfumed with a variety of unguents, by some of which it was to be thickened, and by others to be curled. The softness of my hands was secured by medicated gloves, and my bosom rubbed with a pomade prepared by my mother, of virtue to discuss pimples, and clear discolorations." [50] Dr. Johnson's extraordinary facility of composition is well known from many circumstances. He wrote forty pages of the Life of Savage in one night. He composed seventy lines of his Imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal, and wrote them down from memory, without altering a word. In the Prologue on opening Drury-Lane theatre, he changed but one word, and that in compliment to Mr. Garrick. Some of his _Ramblers_ were written while the printer's messenger was waiting to carry the copy to the press. Many of the _Idlers_ were written at Oxford; Dr. Johnson often began his talk only just in time not to miss the post, and sent away the paper without reading it over. [51] See his admirable _Lives of the Poets_, and particularly his Disquisition on metaphysical and religious poetry. [52] See his Review of Soame Jennings's _Essay on the Origin of Evil_; a masterpiece of composition, both for vigour of style and precision of ideas. [53] Pope's or rather Bolingbroke's system was borrowed from the Arabian metaphysicians. [54] The scheme of the _Essay on Man_ was given by Lord Bolingbroke to Pope. [55] See that sublime and beautiful Tale, _The Prince of Abyssinia_; and _The Rambler_, No. 65, 204, &c. &c. [56] "The world is disposed to call this a discovery of Dr. Franklin's, (from his paper inserted in the Philosophical Transactions) but in this they are much mistaken. Pliny, Plutarch, and other naturalists were acquainted with it."--"Ea natura est olei, ut lucem afferat, ac tranquillar omnia, etiam mare, quo non aliud elementum implacabilius." _Memoirs of the Society of Manchester._ [57] _London_, a Satire, and _The Vanity of Human Wishes_, are both imitations of Juvenal. On the publication of _London_ in 1738, Mr. Pope was so much struck by it, that he desired Mr. Dodsley, his bookseller, to find out the author. Dodsley having sought him in vain for some time, Mr. Pope said, he would very soon be _deterre_. Afterwards Mr. Richardson the painter found out Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Pope recommended him to Lord Gower. [58] See the Prologue spoken by Mr. Garrick in 1747, on the opening of Drury-Lane theatre. [59] "Inter _ignotae_ strepitus _loquelae_."--Ode to Mrs. Thrale.