I
for many years solicited Johnson to favour me with a copy of it, that so
excellent a composition might not be lost to posterity. He delayed from
time to time to give it me; till at last in 1781, when we were on a
visit at Mr. Dilly's, at Southill in Bedfordshire, he was pleased to
dictate it to me from memory. He afterwards found among his papers a
copy of it, which he had dictated to Mr. Baretti, with its title and
corrections, in his own handwriting. This he gave to Mr. Langton; adding
that if it were to come into print, he wished it to be from that copy.
By Mr. Langton's kindness, I am enabled to enrich my work with a perfect
transcript of what the world has so eagerly desired to see.
'TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD
'February 7, 1755.
'MY LORD, I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of The World,
that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the publick,
were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honour,
which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know
not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.
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