was afterwards the biographer of his first and most useful patron.  To be engaged in the translation of some important book was still the object which Johnson had in view.  For this purpose, he proposed to give the history of the council of Trent, with copious notes, then lately added to a French edition.  Twelve sheets of this work were printed, for which Johnson received forty-nine pounds, as appears by his receipt, in the possession of Mr. Nichols, the compiler of that entertaining and useful work, The Gentleman’s Magazine.  Johnson’s translation was never completed:  a like design was offered to the public, under the patronage of Dr. Zachary Pearce; and, by that contention, both attempts were frustrated.  Johnson had been commended by Pope, for the translation of the Messiah into Latin verse; but he knew no approach to so eminent a man.  With one, however, who was connected with Pope, he became acquainted at St. John’s gate; and that person was no other than the well-known Richard Savage, whose life was afterwards written by Johnson with great elegance, and a depth of moral reflection.  Savage was a man of considerable talents.  His address, his various accomplishments, and, above all, the peculiarity of his misfortunes, recommended him to Johnson’s notice.  They became united in the closest intimacy.  Both had great parts, and they were equally under the pressure of want.  Sympathy joined them in a league of friendship.  Johnson has been often heard to relate, that he and Savage walked round Grosvenor square till four in the morning; in the course of their conversation reforming the world, dethroning princes, establishing new forms of government, and giving laws to the several states of Europe, till, fatigued at length with their legislative office, they began to feel the want of refreshment, but could not muster up more than four-pence-halfpenny.  Savage, it is true, had many vices; but vice could never strike its roots in a mind like Johnson’s, seasoned early with religion, and the principles of moral rectitude.  His first prayer was composed in the year 1738.  He had not, at that time, renounced the use of wine; and, no doubt, occasionally enjoyed his friend and his bottle.  The love of late hours, which followed him through life, was, perhaps, originally contracted in company with Savage.  However that may be, their connexion was not of long duration.  In the year 1738, Savage was reduced to the last distress.  Mr. Pope, in a letter to him, expressed his concern for “the miserable withdrawing of his pension after the death of the queen;” and gave him hopes that, “in a short time, he should find himself supplied with a competence, without any dependance on those little creatures, whom we are pleased to call the great.”  The scheme proposed to him was, that he should retire to Swansea in Wales, and receive an allowance of fifty pounds a year, to be raised by subscription:  Pope was to pay twenty pounds.  This plan, though finally established, took more than a year before it was carried into execution.  In the mean time, the intended retreat of Savage called to Johnson’s mind the third satire of Juvenal, in which that poet takes leave of a friend, who was withdrawing himself from all the vices of Rome.  Struck with this idea, he wrote that well-known poem, called London.  The first lines manifestly point to Savage.