1749:  AETAT. 40.]—­In January, 1749, he published the Vanity of human Wishes, being the Tenth Satire of Juvenal imitated.  He, I believe, composed it the preceding year.  Mrs. Johnson, for the sake of country air, had lodgings at Hampstead, to which he resorted occasionally, and there the greatest part, if not the whole, of this Imitation was written.  The fervid rapidity with which it was produced, is scarcely credible.  I have heard him say, that he composed seventy lines of it in one day, without putting one of them upon paper till they were finished.  I remember when I once regretted to him that he had not given us more of Juvenal’s Satires, he said he probably should give more, for he had them all in his head; by which I understood that he had the originals and correspondent allusions floating in his mind, which he could, when he pleased, embody and render permanent without much labour.  Some of them, however, he observed were too gross for imitation.

The profits of a single poem, however excellent, appear to have been very small in the last reign, compared with what a publication of the same size has since been known to yield.  I have mentioned, upon Johnson’s own authority, that for his London he had only ten guineas; and now, after his fame was established, he got for his Vanity of Human Wishes but five guineas more, as is proved by an authentick document in my possession.

His Vanity of Human Wishes has less of common life, but more of a philosophick dignity than his London.  More readers, therefore, will be delighted with the pointed spirit of London, than with the profound reflection of The Vanity of Human Wishes.  Garrick, for instance, observed in his sprightly manner, with more vivacity than regard to just discrimination, as is usual with wits:  ’When Johnson lived much with the Herveys, and saw a good deal of what was passing in life, he wrote his London, which is lively and easy.  When he became more retired, he gave us his Vanity of Human Wishes, which is as hard as Greek.  Had he gone on to imitate another satire, it would have been as hard as Hebrew.’

Garrick being now vested with theatrical power by being manager of Drury-lane theatre, he kindly and generously made use of it to bring out Johnson’s tragedy, which had been long kept back for want of encouragement.  But in this benevolent purpose he met with no small difficulty from the temper of Johnson, which could not brook that a drama which he had formed with much study, and had been obliged to keep more than the nine years of Horace, should be revised and altered at the pleasure of an actor.  Yet Garrick knew well, that without some alterations it would not be fit for the stage.  A violent dispute having ensued between them, Garrick applied to the Reverend Dr. Taylor to interpose.  Johnson was at first very obstinate.  ’Sir, (said he) the fellow wants me to make Mahomet run mad, that he may have an opportunity of tossing his hands and kicking his heels.’  He was, however, at last, with difficulty, prevailed on to comply with Garrick’s wishes, so as to allow of some changes; but still there were not enough.