Posterity will be astonished when they are told, upon the authority of Johnson himself, that many of these discourses, which we should suppose had been laboured with all the slow attention of literary leisure, were written in haste as the moments pressed, without even being read over by him before they were printed.  Such was his peculiar promptitude of mind.  He was wont to say, “A man may write at any time if he will set himself doggedly to it.”

Though Johnson’s circumstances were at this time—­1751—­far from being easy, his humane and charitable disposition was constantly exerting itself.  Mrs. Anna Williams, daughter of a very ingenious Welsh physician, and a woman of more than ordinary talents in literature, having come to London in hopes of being cured of a cataract in both her eyes, which afterwards ended in total blindness, was kindly received as a constant visitor at his house while Mrs. Johnson lived; and after her death, having come under his roof in order to have an operation upon her eyes performed with more comfort to her than in lodgings, she had an apartment from him until the rest of her life at all times when he had a house.

In 1752 he wrote the last papers of “The Rambler,” but he was now mainly occupied with his “Dictionary.”  This year, soon after closing his periodical paper, he suffered a loss which affected him with the deepest distress.  For on March 17 his wife died.  That his sufferings upon her death were severe, beyond what are commonly endured, I have no doubt, from the information of many who were then about him.

The circle of Johnson’s friends, indeed, at this time was extensive and various, far beyond what has been generally imagined.  To trace his acquaintance with each particular person were unprofitable.  But exceptions are to be made, one of which must be a friend so eminent as Sir Joshua Reynolds, with whom he maintained an uninterrupted intimacy to the last hour of his life.

When Johnson lived in Castle Street, Cavendish Square, he used frequently to visit two ladies who lived opposite to him—­Miss Cotterells, daughters of Admiral Cotterell.  Reynolds used also to visit there, and thus they met.  Mr. Reynolds had, from the first reading of his “Life of Savage,” conceived a very high admiration of Johnson’s powers of writing.  His conversation no less delighted him, and he cultivated his acquaintance with the laudable zeal of one who was ambitious of general improvement.

His acquaintance with Bennet Langton, Esq., of Langton, in Lincolnshire, another much valued friend, commenced soon after the conclusion of the “Rambler,” which that gentleman, then a youth, had read with so much admiration that he came to London chiefly with the view of endeavouring to be introduced to its author.  By a fortunate chance he happened to take lodgings in a house where Mr. Levett frequently visited, who readily obtained Johnson’s permission to bring Mr. Langton to him; as indeed, Johnson, during the whole course of his life, had no shyness, real or affected, but was easy of access to all who were properly recommended, and even wished to see numbers at his levee, as his morning circle of company might, with strict propriety, be called, for he received his friends when he got up from bed, which rarely happened before noon.