But his enlarged and lively mind could not be satisfied without more
diversity of employment, and the pleasure of animated relaxation. He
therefore not only exerted his talents in occasional composition
very different from Lexicography, but formed a club in Ivy-lane,
Paternoster-row, with a view to enjoy literary discussion, and amuse his
evening hours. The members associated with him in this little society
were his beloved friend Dr. Richard Bathurst, Mr. Hawkesworth,
afterwards well known by his writings, Mr. John Hawkins, an attorney,
and a few others of different professions.
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.
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