[Transcriber's Note: Printers' errors have been marked with the notation ** . There are a few special characters in the section on Erasmus Darwin; macrons (a straight line over a letter) are denoted [=x] and breves (the bottom half of a circle over a letter) are denoted [)x].] * * * * * _By the same Author_, THE EARLY FRENCH POETS, A SERIES OF NOTICES AND TRANSLATIONS: WITH AN _Introductory Sketch of the History of French Poetry._ BY THE REV. HENRY CARY, M.A. MDCCCXLVI. * * * * * _Shortly will be published_, THE ODES OF PINDAR, IN ENGLISH VERSE. SECOND EDITION, WITH NOTES, EDITED BY THE REV. HENRY CARY, M.A. * * * * * _Preparing for the Press_, THE LITERARY JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF THE REV. HENRY FRANCIS CARY. _WITH A MEMOIR_. BY HIS SON, THE REV. HENRY CARY, M.A. * * * * * LIVES OF ENGLISH POETS, FROM JOHNSON TO KIRKE WHITE, DESIGNED AS A CONTINUATION OF JOHNSON'S LIVES. BY THE LATE REV. HENRY FRANCIS CARY, M.A. TRANSLATOR OF DANTE. MDCCCXLVI. * * * * * EDITOR'S PREFACE. The papers of which this volume is composed originally appeared in the London Magazine, between the years 1821 and 1824. It was the author's intention to continue the series of Lives to a later period, but a change in the proprietorship of the Magazine prevented the completion of his plan. They are now for the first time published in a separate form, and under their author's name. In seeing the work through the press, the Editor has had occasion only to alter one or two particulars in the Life of Goldsmith, which the labours of that Poet's more recent biographer, Mr. Prior, have subsequently elucidated. HENRY CARY. WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD. _Dec_. 1, 1845. CONTENTS. SAMUEL JOHNSON JOHN ARMSTRONG RICHARD JAGO RICHARD OWEN CAMBRIDGE TOBIAS SMOLLETT THOMAS WARTON JOSEPH WARTON CHRISTOPHER ANSTEY WILLIAM MASON OLIVER GOLDSMITH ERASMUS DARWIN WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE JAMES BEATTIE WILLIAM HAYLEY SIR WILLIAM JONES THOMAS CHATTERTON HENRY KIRKE WHITE LIVES OF ENGLISH POETS. * * * * * SAMUEL JOHNSON. There is, perhaps, no one among our English writers, who for so great a part of his life has been an object of curiosity to his contemporaries as Johnson. Almost every thing he said or did was thought worthy of being recorded by some one or other of his associates; and the public were for a time willing to listen to all they had to say of him. A mass of information has thus been accumulated, from which it will be my task to select such a portion as shall seem sufficient to give a faithful representation of his fortunes and character, without wearying the attention of the reader. That any important addition should be made to what has been already told of him, will scarcely be expected.