RAMBLER AND IDLER.--In 1750 he commenced _The Rambler_, a periodical like
_The Spectator_, of which he wrote nearly all the articles, and which
lived for two years. Solemn, didactic, and sonorous, it lacked the variety
and genial humor which had characterized Addison and Steele. In 1758 he
started _The Idler_, in the same vein, which also ran its respectable
course for two years. In 1759 his mother died, and, in order to defray the
expenses of her funeral, he wrote his story of _Rasselas_ in the evenings
of one week, for two editions of which he received L125. Full of moral
aphorisms and instruction, this "Abyssinian tale" is entirely English in
philosophy and fancy, and has not even the slight illusion of other
Eastern tales in French and English, which were written about the same
time, and which are very similar in form and matter. Of _Rasselas_,
Hazlitt says: "It is the most melancholy and debilitating moral
speculation that was ever put forth."
THE DICTIONARY.--As early as 1747 he had begun to write his English
Dictionary, which, after eight years of incessant and unassisted labor,
appeared in 1755.
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