relation of Gentleman, mmonly taken by those manry in Warwickshire. They - male in years when they married, more than two children, both her irst-bern, who lived to be ts: icter whose various excelmies ur to record, and Natha- doin us twenty-fifth year.' La Tohnson was a man of a large and and of a strong and active mind; -de mest selleks veins of unsound 19 of 27 iiscovered, there was in avure of that disease, the nature of allas de mist minute inquiry, though cts are well known to be a weariness of Lavuncera abent those things which agiON THEILT PAZ vf mankind, and a general Sony wretchedness. From him, serakrted, with some other qualities, my which, in his too strong * sa isturbance of the mind, La moi at us life, at least not sober.'" ves tow, er, forced by the narrowness justar vs to be very gent in busi1 „* shun hat by occasionally itivne in the neighbour1.1 at a consilerable 4 as time booktowns of England CRUYF?t one even y market-day. He was a shur, and a citizen so rene of the magistrates Nalga man f god sense, and to sepuroi a reasonable share KAN bower be Lterwards lost 3p ongis 16 Tistocessfully in He was a real us stea vel að ubi novust, U and retained his deuse of Stuart, 9 am 7. br casustical ar RYAN, RAsety, to take the fordshire, while he served his apprenticeship | done; but there was no occasion for any artificial there, conceived a violent passion for him; and aid for its preservation. though it met with no favourable return, followed him to Lichfield, where she took lodgings opposite to the house in which he lived, and indulged her hopeless flame. When he was informed that it so preyed upon her mind that her life was in danger, he, with a generous humanity, went to her and offered to marry her; but it was then too late her vital power was exhausted; and she actually exhibited one of the very rare instances of dying for love. She was buried in the Cathedral of Lichfield; and he, with a tender regard, placed a stone over her grave with this inscription: Here lies the body of Mrs. ELIZABETH BLANEY, a Stranger. 1 Johnson's mother was a woman of distinguished understanding. I asked his old schoolfellow, Mr. Hector, surgeon, of Birmingham, if she was not vain of her son. He said, 'She had too much good sense to be vain, but she knew her son's valne.' Her piety was not inferior to her understanding; and to her must be ascribed those early impressions of religion upon the mind of her son, from which the world afterwards derived so much benefit. He told me, that he remembered distinctly having had the first notice of Heaven, a place to which good people went,' and Hell, 'a place to which bad people went,' communicated to him by her, when a little child in bed with her; and that it might be the better fixed in his memory, she sent him to repeat it to Thomas Jackson, their manservant. He not being in the way, this was not It was not, however, much cultivated, as we may collect from Dr. Johnson's own account of his early years, published by R. Phillips, Svo, 1805, a work undotedly authentic, and which, though short, is curious, and well worthy of perusal. My father and ttner,' says Johnson, had not much happiness from chother. They seldom conversed: for any father call not bear to talk of his atlairs; and my mother, lng vnacquainted with books, cared not to talk of anything else. Had my mother been more literate, they had been better companions. She might have sometimes introduced her unwelcome topic with more cess, if she could have diversified her conversa tin. Of business she had no distinct conception; and therefore her discourse was composed only of mplaint, fear, and suspicion. Neither of them ever tried to calculate the profits of trade, or the expenses of living. My mother concluded that we were poor, because we lost by some of our trades; but the truth was, that my father, having in the early part of his afe contracted debts, never had trade sufficient to enalde him to pay them and to maintain his family: he get something, but not enough. It was not till about 176% that I thought to calculate the returns of my father's trade, and by that estimate his probable pro. a. This, I believe, my parents never did,'-MALONE. In following so very eminent a man from his cradle to his grave, every minute particular, which can throw light on the progress of his mind, is interesting. That he was remarkable, even in his earliest years, may easily be supposed; for, to use his own words in his Life of Sydenham, That the strength of his understanding, the accuracy of his discernment, and the ardour of his curiosity, might have been remarked from his infancy by a diligent observer, there is no reason to doubt; for there is no instance of any man, whose history has been minutely related, that did not in every part of life discover the same proportion of intellectual vigour.' In all such investigations it is certainly unwise to pay too much attention to incidents which the credulous relate with eager satisfaction, and the more scrupulous or witty inquirer considers only as topics of ridicule: yet there is a traditional story of the infant Hercules of Toryism, so curiously characteristic, that I shall not withhold it. It was communicated to me in a letter from Miss Mary Adye, of Lichfield : 'When Dr. Sacheverel was at Lichfield, Johnson was not quite three years old. My grandfather Hammond observed him at the cathedral perched upon his father's shoulders, listening and gaping at the much-celebrated preacher, Mr. Hammond asked Mr. Johnson how he could possibly think of bringing such an infant to church, and in the midst of so great a crowd. He answered, Because it was impossible to keep him at home; for, young as he was, he believed he had caught the public spirit and zeal for Sacheverel, and would have stayed for ever in the church, satisfied with beholding him.' Nor can I omit a little instance of that jealous independence of spirit, and impetuosity of temper, which never forsook him. The fact was acknowledged to me by himself, upon the authority of his mother. One day, when the servant who used to be sent to school to conduct him home, had not come in time, he set out by himself, though he was then so near-sighted, that he was obliged to stoop down on his hands and knees to take a view of the kennel, before he ventured to step over it. His schoolmistress, afraid that he might miss his way, or fall into the kennel, or be run over by a cart, followed him at some distance. He happened to turn about and perceive her. Feeling her careful attention as an insult to his manliness, he ran back to her in a rage, and beat her as well as his strength would permit. Of the power of his memory, for which he was all his life eminent to a degree almost incredible, the following early instance was told me in his presence at Lichfield, in 1776, by his stepdaughter, Mrs. Lucy Porter, as related to her by his mother. When he was a child in petti coats, and had learned to read, Mrs. Johnson one morning put the Common Prayer Book into his hands, pointed to the collect for the day, and said, 'Sam, you must get this by heart.' She went up-stairs, leaving him to study it; but by the time she had reached the second floor, she heard him following her. 'What's the matter?' said she. I can say it,' he replied; and he repeated it distinctly, though he could not have read it more than twice. But there has been another story of his infant precocity generally circulated, and generally believed, the truth of which I am to refute upon his own authority. It is told that, when a child of three years old, he chanced to tread upon a duckling, the eleventh of a brood, and killed it; upon which, it is said, he dictated to his mother the following epitaph : 'Here lies good master duck, Whom Samuel Johnson trod on; There is surely internal evidence that this little composition combines in it what no child of three years old could produce, without an extension of its faculties by immediate inspiration; yet Mrs. Lucy Porter, Dr. Johnson's stepdaughter, positively maintained to me, in his presence, that there could be no doubt of the truth of this anecdote, for she had heard it from his mother. So difficult is it to obtain an authentic relation of facts, and such authority may there be for error; for he assured me that his father made the verses, and wished to pass them for his child's. He added, My father was a foolish old man; that is to say, foolish in talking of his children.'1 Young Johnson had the misfortune to be much afflicted with the scrofula, or king's evil, which disfigured a countenance naturally well formed, and hurt his visual nerves so much, 1 This anecdote of the duck, though disproved by internal and external evidence, has nevertheless, upon supposition of its truth, been made the foundation of the following ingenious and fanciful reflections of Miss Seward, amongst the communications concerning Dr. Johnson with which she has been pleased to favour me: These infant numbers contain the seeds of those propensities which through his life so strongly marked his character; of that poetic talent which afterwards bore such rich and plentiful fruits: for, excepting his orthographic works, everything which Dr. Johnson wrote was poetry, whose essence consists, not in numbers or in jingle, but in the strength and glow of a fancy to which all the stores of nature and art stand in prompt administration; and in an eloquence which conveys their blended illustrations in a language "more tuneable than needs or rhyme or verse to add more harmony." The above little verses also show that superstitious bias which "grew with his growth and strengthened with his strength," and of late years particularly injured his happiness, by presenting to him the gloomy that he did not see at all with one of his eyes, though its appearance was little different from that of the other. There is amongst his prayers one inscribed, When my EYE was restored to its use,' which ascertains a defect that many of his friends knew he had, though I never perceived it.2 I supposed him to be only nearsighted: and, indeed, I must observe, that in no other respect could I discern any defect in his vision; on the contrary, the force of his attention and perceptive quickness made him see and distinguish all manner of objects, whether of nature or of art, with a nicety that is rarely to be found. When he and I were travelling in the Highlands of Scotland, and I pointed out to him a mountain which I observed resembled a cone, he corrected my inaccuracy, by showing me that it was indeed pointed at the top, but that one side of it was larger than the other. And the ladies with whom he was acquainted agree that no man was more nicely and minutely critical in the elegance of female dress. When I found that he saw the romantic beauties of Islam, in Derbyshire, much better than I did, I told him that he resembled an able performer upon a bad instrument. How false and contemptible, then, are all the remarks which have been made to the prejudice either of his candour or of his philosophy, founded upon a supposition that he was almost blind! It has been said that he contracted this grievous malady from his nurse. His mother, yielding to the superstitious notion, which it is wonderful to think prevailed so long in this country, as to the virtue of the regal touch,3-a notion which our king encouraged, and to which a man of such inquiry and such judgment as Carte could give credit,-carried him to London, where he was actually touched by Queen Anne. Mrs. Johnson, indeed, as Mr. Hector informed me, acted by the advice of the celebrated Sir John Floyer, then a physician in Lichfield. Johnson used to side of religion, rather than that bright and cheering one which gilds the period of closing life with the light of pious hope.' This is so beautifully imagined, that I would not suppress it. But, like many other theories, it is deduced from a supposed fact, which is indeed a fiction. -BOSWELL. 1 Johnson's Prayers and Meditations, p. 27.-Bos WELL. 2 Speaking himself of the imperfection of one of his eyes, he said, 'The dog was never good for much.'BURNEY. Edward the Confessor is said to be the first king who touched in order to heal. He was only thirty months old when he was taken to London to be touched for the evil. During this visit, he tells us, his mother purchased for him a smalı silver cup and spoon. The cup,' he affectingly adds, was one of the last pieces of plate which dear Tetty sold in her distress. I have now the spoon. She bought at the same time two teaspoons, and till my manhood she had no more.'—MALONE. talk of this very frankly; and Mrs. Piozzi has preserved his very picturesque description of the scene as it remained upon his fancy. Being asked if he could remember Queen Anne, 'He had,' he said, 'a confused but somehow a sort of solemn recollection of a lady in diamonds, and a long black hood.' This touch, however, was without any effect. I ventured to say to him, in allusion to the political principles in which he was educated, and of which he ever retained some odour, that his mother had not carried him far enough; she should have taken him to Rome.' CHAPTER III. 1716-1731. JOHNSON was first taught to read English by Dame Oliver, a widow, who kept a school for young children in Lichfield. He told me she could read the black letter, and asked him to borrow for her, from his father, a Bible in that character. When he was going to Oxford, she came to take leave of him, brought him, in the simplicity of her kindness, a present of gingerbread, and said he was the best scholar she ever had. He delighted in mentioning this early compliment; adding, with a smile, that this was as high a proof of his merit as he could conceive.' His next instructor in English was a master, whom, when he spoke of him to me, he familiarly called Tom Brown, who, said he, published a spelling-book, and dedicated it to the UNIVERSE; but I fear no copy of it can now be had.' He began to learn Latin with Mr. Hawkins, usher or under-master of Lichfield school-'a man,' said he, 'very skilful in his little way.' With him he continued two years, and then rose to be under the care of Mr. Hunter, the head-master, who, according to his account, 'was very severe, and wrongheadedly severe. He used,' said he, 'to beat us unmercifully; and he did not distinguish between ignorance and negligence; for he would beat a boy equally for not knowing a thing as for neglecting to know it. He would ask a boy a question; and if he did not answer it, he would beat him, without considering whether he had an opportunity of knowing how to answer it. For instance, he would call up a boy and ask him Latin for a candlestick, which the boy could not expect to be asked. Now, sir, if a boy could answer every question, there would be no need of a master to teach him.' It is, however, but justice to the memory of Mr. Hunter to mention that, though he might err in being too severe, the school of Lichfield was very respectable in his time. The late Dr. Taylor, Prebendary of Westminster, who was educated under him, told me that 'he was an excellent master, and that his ushers were most of them men of eminence; that Holbrook, one of the most ingenious men, best scholars, and best preachers of his age, was usher during the greatest part of the time that Johnson was at school. Then came Hague, of whom as much might be said, with the addition that he was an elegant poet. Hague was succeeded by Green, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, whose character in the learned world is well known. In the same form with Johnson was Congreve, who afterwards became chaplain to Archbishop Boulter, and by that connection obtained good preferment in Ireland. He was a younger son of the ancient family of Congreve, in Staffordshire, of which the poet was a branch. His brother sold the estate. There was also Lowe, afterwards Canon of Windsor.' Indeed, Johnson was very sensible how much he owed to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Langton one day asked him how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of Latin, in which, I believe, he was exceeded by no man of his time. He said, 'My master whipt me very well. Without that, sir, I should have done nothing.' He told Mr. Langton that, while Hunter was flogging his boys unmercifully, he used to say, ‘And this I do to save you from the gallows.' Johnson upon all occasions expressed his approbation of enforcing instruction by means of the rod. 'I would rather,' said he, 'have the rod to be the general terror to all, to make them learn, than tell a child, If you do thus, or thus, you will be more esteemed than your brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect which terminates in itself. A child is afraid of being whipped and gets his task, and there's an end on 't: whereas, by exciting emulation and comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting mischief; you make brothers and sisters hate each other.' When Johnson saw some young ladies in Lincolnshire who were remarkably well behaved, owing to their mother's strict discipline and severe correction, he exclaimed, in one of Shakspeare's lines, a little varied,1 Rod, I will honour thee for this thy duty.' That superiority over his fellows which he maintained with so much dignity in his march through life, was not assumed from vanity and ostentation, but was the natural and constant effect of those extraordinary powers of mind, of which he could not but be conscious by comparison; the intellectual difference, which in other cases of comparison of characters is often a matter of undecided contest, being as clear in his case as the superiority of stature in some men above others. Johnson did not strut or stand on tiptoe; he only did not stoop. From 1 More than a little. The line is in King Henry VI, Part ii. Act. iv. Scene last: 'Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed.' -MALONE. relates that he could not oblige him more than by sauntering away the hours of vacation in the fields, during which he was more engaged in talking to himself than to his companion.' Dr. Percy,' the Bishop of Dromore, who was long intimately acquainted with him, and has preserved a few anecdotes concerning him, regretting that he was not a more diligent collector, informs me, that when a boy he was immoderately fond of reading romances of chivalry, and he retained his fondness for them through life; so that,' adds his Lordship, 'spending part of a summer at my parsonage-house in the country, he chose for his regular reading the old Spanish romance of Felixmarte of Hircania, in folio, which he read quite through. Yet I have heard him attribute to these extravagant fictions that unsettled turn of mind which prevented his ever fixing in any profession.' his earliest years, his superiority was perceived and acknowledged. He was from the beginning ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, a king of men. His schoolfellow, Mr. Hector, has obligingly furnished me with many particulars of his boyish days, and assured me that he never knew him corrected at school, but for talking and diverting other boys from their business. He seemed to learn by intuition; for, though indolence and procrastination were inherent in his constitution, whenever he made an exertion, he did more than any one else. In short, he is a memorable instance of what has been often observed, that the boy is the man in miniature; and that the distinguishing characteristics of each individual are the same through the whole course of life. His favourites used to receive very liberal assistance from him; and such was the submission and deference with which he was treated, such the desire to obtain his regard, that three of the boys, of whom Mr. Hector was sometimes one, used to come in the morning as his humble attendants, and carry him to school. One in the middle stooped while he sat upon his back, and one on each side supported him, and thus he was borne triumphant. Such a proof of the early predominance of intellectual vigour is very re-positions were disgraced by licentiousness, but markable, and does honour to human nature. Talking to me once himself of his being much distinguished at school, he told me, They never thought to raise me by comparing me to any one they never said Johnson is as good a scholar as such a one, but such a one is as good a scholar as Johnson; and this was said but of one, but of Lowe; and I do not think he was as good a scholar.' He discovered a great ambition to excel, which roused him to counteract his indolence. He was uncommonly inquisitive; and his memory was so tenacious, that he never forgot anything that he either heard or read. Mr. Hector remembers having recited to him eighteen verses, which after a little pause he repeated verbatim, varying only one epithet, by which he improved the line. He never joined with other boys in their ordinary diversions; his only amusement was in winter, when he took a pleasure in being drawn upon the ice by a boy barefooted, who pulled him along by a garter fixed round him; no very easy operation, as his size was remarkably large. His defective sight, indeed, prevented him from enjoying the common sports; and he once pleasantly remarked to me, 'How wonderfully well he had contrived to be idle without them!' Lord Chesterfield, however, has justly observed in one of his letters, when earnestly cautioning a friend against the pernicious effects of idleness, that active sports are not to be reckoned idleness in young people, and that the listless torpor of doing nothing alone deserves that name. Of this dismal inertness of disposition, Johnson had all his life too great a share. Mr. Hector After having resided for some time at the house of his uncle, Cornelius Ford," Johnson was, at the age of fifteen, removed to the school of Stourbridge, in Worcestershire, of which Mr. Wentworth was then master. This step was taken by the advice of his cousin, the Rev. Mr. Ford, a man in whom both talents and good dis who was a very able judge of what was right. At this school he did not receive so much benefit as was expected. It has been said that he acted in the capacity of an assistant to Mr. Wentworth in teaching the younger boys. 'Mr. Wentworth,' he told me, 'was a very able man, but an idle man, and to me very severe; but I cannot blame him much. I was then a big boy: he saw I did not reverence him, and that he should get no honour by me. I had brought enough with me to carry me through; and all I should get at his school would be ascribed to my own labour, or to my former master. Yet he taught me a great deal.' He thus discriminated to Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, his progress at his two grammar schools: At one I learned much in the school, but little from the master; in the other I learned much from the master, but little in the school.' The bishop also informs me, that Dr. Johnson's father, before he was received at Stourbridge, applied to have him admitted as a scholar and assistant to the Rev. Samuel Lee, M.A., head-master of Newport school in Shropshire (a very diligent, good teacher, at that time in high reputation, under whom Mr. Hollis is said, in the Memoirs of his Life, to have been 1 Dr. Thomas Percy, the well-known editor of the Reliques, born at Bridgnorth, 1728, died 1811. 2 Cornelius Ford, according to Sir John Hawkins, was his cousin-german, being the son of Dr. Ford, an eminent physician, who was brother to Johnson's mother.-MALONE. 3 He is said to be the original of the parson in Hogarth's Modern Midnight Conversation.-BosWELL. |