Mr. Douglas, which Lauder signed, and published in the year 1751. That
piece will remain a lasting memorial of the abhorrence, with which
Johnson beheld a violation of truth. Mr. Nichols, whose attachment to
his illustrious friend was unwearied, showed him, in 1780, a book,
called Remarks on Johnson's Life of Milton; in which the affair of
Lauder was renewed with virulence; and a poetical scale in the Literary
Magazine, 1758, (when Johnson had ceased to write in that collection,)
was urged as an additional proof of deliberate malice. He read the
libellous passage with attention, and instantly wrote on the margin: "In
the business of Lauder I was deceived, partly by thinking the man too
frantick to be fraudulent. Of the poetical scale, quoted from the
magazine, I am not the author. I fancy it was put in after I had quitted
that work; for I not only did not write it, but I do not remember it."
As a critic and a scholar, Johnson was willing to receive what numbers,
at the time, believed to be true information: when he found that the
whole was a forgery, he renounced all connexion with the author.

In March, 1752, he felt a severe stroke of affliction in the death of
his wife. The last number of the Rambler, as already mentioned, was on
the 14th of that month. The loss of Mrs. Johnson was then approaching,
and, probably, was the cause that put an end to those admirable
periodical essays. It appears that she died on the 28th of March, in a
memorandum, at the foot of the Prayers and Meditations, that is called
her Dying Day. She was buried at Bromley, under the care of Dr.
Hawkesworth. Johnson placed a Latin inscription on her tomb, in which he
celebrated her beauty. With the singularity of his prayers for his
deceased wife, from that time to the end of his days, the world is
sufficiently acquainted. On Easter day, 22nd April, 1764, his memorandum
says: "Thought on Tetty, poor dear Tetty! with my eyes full. Went to
church. After sermon I recommended Tetty in a prayer by herself; and my