Nature and Origin of Evil.

In the spring of 1758 Johnson put forth the first of a series of
essays, entitled the Idler. During two years these essays
continued to appear weekly. They were eagerly read, widely
circulated, and indeed, impudently pirated, while they were still
in the original form, and had a large sale when collected into
volumes. The Idler may be described as a second part of the
Rambler, somewhat livelier and somewhat weaker than the first
part.

While Johnson was busied with his Idlers, his mother, who had
accomplished her ninetieth year, died at Lichfield. It was long
since he had seen her; but he had not failed to contribute
largely, out of his small means, to her comfort. In order to
defray the charges of her funeral, and to pay some debts which
she had left, he wrote a little book in a single week, and sent
off the sheets to the press without reading them over. A hundred
pounds were paid him for the copyright; and the purchasers had
great cause to be pleased with their bargain; for the book was
Rasselas.

The success of Rasselas was great, though such ladies as Miss
Lydia Languish must have been grievously disappointed when they
found that the new volume from the circulating library was little
more than a dissertation on the author's favourite theme, the
Vanity of Human Wishes; that the Prince of Abyssinia was without
a mistress, and the princess without a lover; and that the story
set the hero and the heroine down exactly where it had taken them
up. The style was the subject of much eager controversy. The