'The Idler' was a series of 103 essays, all but twelve of them written by Samuel Johnson, published in the London weekly the Universal Chronicle. In the first essay, Johnson explains how he chose his pen name. “Every man is”, he says, “or hopes to be, an Idler.” He promises his readers “obloquy and satire”: “The Idler is naturally censorious; those who attempt nothing themselves, think every thing easily performed, and consider the unsuccessful always as criminal.” However, he says that this incurs no obligation and that disappointed readers will have only themselves to blame.
