'To MR. RICHARDSON.
'Tuesday, Feb. 19, 1756.
'DEAR SIR,
'I return you my sincerest thanks for the favour which you were pleased to do me two nights ago. Be pleased to accept of this little book, which is all that I have published this winter. The inflammation is come again into my eye, so that I can write very little. I am, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
The 'little book' is not (as Mr. Croker suggests) Williams's Longitude, for it was published in Jan. 1755 (Gent. Mag. xxv. 47); but the Abridgment of the Dictionary, which was advertised in the Gent. Mag. for Jan. 1756. Murphy says (Life, p. 86), that he has before him a letter in Johnson's handwriting, which shows the distress of the man who had written The Rambler, and finished the great work of his Dictionary. It is directed to Mr. Richardson, and is as follows:—
'SIR,—I am obliged to entreat your assistance. I am now under an arrest for five pounds eighteen shillings. Mr. Strahan, from whom I should have received the necessary help in this case, is not at home, and I am afraid of not finding Mr. Millar. If you will be so good as to send me this sum, I will very gratefully repay you, and add it to all former obligations. I am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
'SAMUEL JOHNSON.
'Gough-Square, 16 March.'
In the margin of this letter there is a memorandum in these words:—'March 16, 1756. Sent six guineas. Witness, Win. Richardson.' In the European Mag., vii. 54, there is the following anecdote recorded, for which Steevens most likely was the authority:—'I remember writing to Richardson' said Johnson, 'from a spunging-house; and was so sure of my deliverance through his kindness and liberality, that before his reply was brought I knew I could afford to joke with the rascal who had me in custody, and did so over a pint of adulterated wine, for which at that instant I had no money to pay.' It is very likely that this anecdote has no other foundation than Johnson's second letter to Richardson, which is dated, not from a spunging-house, but from his own residence. What kind of fate awaited a man who was thrown into prison for debt is shown by the following passage in Wesley's Journal (ii. 267), dated Feb. 3, 1753:—'I visited one in the Marshalsea prison, a nursery of all manner of wickedness. O shame to man, that there should be such a place, such a picture of hell upon earth!' A few days later he writes:—'I visited as many more as I could. I found some in their cells under ground; others in their garrets, half starved both with cold and hunger, added to weakness and pain.'