Joshua Reynolds
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece to_ VOL. V.

12. FACSIMILE OF BOSWELL'S HANDWRITING, 1792, from a Letter in the
Bodleian Library
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. V, _to follow Frontispiece_.

13. MAP OF JOHNSON AND BOSWELL'S TOUR THROUGH SCOTLAND AND
THE HEBRIDES
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. V, _to face_ p. 5.

14. CHART OF JOHNSON'S CONTEMPORARIES
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece to VOL. VI.




PREFACE.


Fielding, it is said, drank confusion to the man who invented the fifth
act of a play. He who has edited an extensive work, and has concluded
his labours by the preparation of a copious index, might well be
pardoned, if he omitted to include the inventor of the Preface among the
benefactors of mankind. The long and arduous task that years before he
had set himself to do is done, and the last thing that he desires is to
talk about it. Liberty is what he asks for, liberty to range for a time
wherever he pleases in the wide and fair fields of literature. Yet with
this longing for freedom comes a touch of regret and a doubt lest the
'fresh woods and pastures new' may never wear the friendly and familiar