ner, with the aid of Mr. Hector's active friendship, the book was completed, and was published in 1735, with London upon the title-page, though it was in reality printed at Birmingham, a device too common with provincial publishers. For this work, he had from Mr. Warren only the sum of five guineas. This being the first prose work of Johnson, it is a curious object of inquiry how much may be traced in it of that style which marks his subsequent writings with such peculiar excellence; with so happy an union of force, vivacity, and perspicuity. I have perused the book with this view, and have found that here, as I believe in every other translation, there is in the work itself no vestige of the translator's own style; for the language of translation being adapted to the thoughts of another person, insensibly follows their cast, and as it were runs into a mould that is ready prepared. Thus, for instance, taking the first sentence that occurs at the opening of the book, p. 4:"I lived here above a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which time some letters were received from the fathers of Ethiopia, with an account that Sultan Segned, Emperor of Abyssinia, was converted to the church of Rome; that many of his subjects had followed his example, and that there was a great want of missionaries to improve these prosperous beginnings. Every body was very desirous of seconding the zeal of our fathers, and of sending them the assistance they requested; to which we were the more encouraged, because the Emperor's letter informed our Provincial that we might easily enter his dominions by the way of Dancala; but, unhappily, the secretary wrote Geila for Dancala, which cost two of our fathers their lives.' Every one acquainted with Johnson's manner will be sensible that there is nothing of it here; but that this sentence might have been composed by any other man. But, in the Preface, the Johnsonian style begins to appear; and though use had not yet taught his wing a permanent and equable flight, there are parts of it which exhibit his best manner in full vigour. I had once the pleasure of examining it with Mr. Edmund Burke, who confirmed me in this opinion, by his superior critical sagacity, and was, I remember, much delighted with the following specimen: "The Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen, has amused his reader with no romantic absurdity, or incredible fictions; whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable; and he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability, has a right to demand that they should believe him who cannot contradict him. "He appears by his modest and unaffected narration, to have described things as he saw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have consulted his senses, not his imagination. He meets with no basilisks that destroy with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their prey without tears, and his cataracts fall from the rocks without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants. "The reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness, or blest with spontaneous fecundity; no perpetual gloom, or unceasing sunshine; nor are the nations here described, either devoid of all sense of humanity, or consummate in all private or social virtues. Here are no Hottentots without religious policy or articulate language; no Chinese perfectly polite, and completely skilled in all sciences; he will discover, what will always be discovered by a diligent and impartial inquirer, that wherever human nature is to be found, there is a mixture of vice and virtue, a contest of passion and reason; and that the Creator doth not appear partial in his distributions, but has balanced, in most countries, their particular inconveniences by particular favours." Here we have an early example of that brilliant and energetic expression, which, upon innumerable occasions in his subsequent life, justly impressed the world with the highest admiration. Nor can any one, conversant with the writings of Johnson, fail to discern his hand in this passage of the Dedication to John Warren, Esq., of Pembrokeshire, though it is ascribed to Warren the bookseller. "A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity;* nor is that curiosity ever more agreeably or usefully employed, than in examining the laws and customs of foreign nations. I hope, therefore, the present I now presume to make will not be thought improper, which, however, it is not my business as a dedicator to commend, nor as a bookseller to depreciate." It is reasonable to suppose, that his having been thus accidentally led to a particular study of the history and manners of Abyssinia, was the remote occasion of his writing, many years afterwards, his admirable philosophical tale, the principal scene of which is laid in that country.† Johnson returned to Lichfield early in 1734, and in August that year he made an attempt to procure some little subsistence by his pen; for he published proposals for printing by subscription the Latin Poems of "Politian ; Angeli Politiani Poemata Latina, quibus, Notas cum historid Latina poeseos à Petrarchæ ævo ad Politiani tempora deductâ, et vitâ Politiani fusius quam antehac enarrata, addidit SAM. JOHNSON.§ It appears that his brother Nathaniel had taken up his father's trade; for it is mentioned that "subcriptions are taken in by the Editor, or N. Johnson, bookseller, of Lichfield." Nothwithstanding the merit of Johnson, and the cheap price at which this book was offered, there were not subscribers enough to ensure a sufficient sale; so the work never appeared, and probably, never was executed. See "Rambler," No. 103, "Curiosity is the thirst of the soul," &c.-BOSWELL. +"Rasselas." May we not trace a fanciful similarity between Politian and Johnson? Huetius, speaking of Paulus PelisAngelo Politiano, deformitatem oris excellentis ingenii sonius Fontanerius, says, "in quo Natura, ut olim in præstantiâ compensavit." Comment. de reb. ad eum pertin. Edit. Amstel., 1718, p. 200.-BOSWELL. The book was to contain more than thirty sheets, the price to be two shillings and sixpence at the time of subscribing, and two shillings and sixpence at the delivery of a perfect book in quires.-BOSWELL. "As you appear no less sensible than your readers of the defects of your poetical article, you will not be displeased, if, in order to the improvement of it, I communicate to you the sentiments of a person, who will undertake on reasonable terms, sometimes to fill a column. "His opinion is, that the public would not give you a bad reception, if, beside the current wit of the month, which a critical examination would generally reduce to a narrow compass, you admitted not only poems, inscriptions, &c., never printed before, which he will sometimes supply you with, but likewise short literary dissertations in Latin or English, critical remarks on authors, ancient or modern, forgotten poems, that deserve revival, or loose pieces, like Floyer's, † worth preserving. By this method, your literary article, for so it might be called, will, he thinks, be better recommended to the public than by low jests, awkward buffoonery, or the dull scurrilities of either party. "If such a correspondence will be agreeable to you, be pleased to inform me in two posts, what the conditions are on which you shall expect it. Your late offert gives me no reason to distrust your generosity. If you engage in any literary projects besides this paper, I have other designs to impart, if I could be secure from having others the advantage of what I should hint. reap Your letter by being directed to S. Smith, to be left at the Castle, in Birmingham, Warwickshire, will reach "Your humble servant." Mr. Cave has put a note to this letter, Answered Dec. 2." But whether anything was done in consequence of it we are not informed. Johnson had, from his early youth, been sensible to the influence of female charms. When at Stourbridge school, he was much enamoured of Olivia Lloyd, a young quaker, to whom he wrote a copy of verses, which I have not been able to recover;§ but with what facility and elegance he • Miss Cave, the grand-niece of Mr. Edward Cave, has obligingly shown me the originals of this and the other letters of Dr. Johnson to him, which were first published in the "Gentleman's Magazine," with notes by Mr. John Nichols, the worthy and indefatigable editor of that valuable miscellany, signed N.; some of which I shall occasionally transcribe in the course of this work. BOSWELL. could warble the amorous lay, will appear from the following lines which he wrote for his friend Mr. Edmund Hector : VERSES to a LADY, on receiving from her a SPRIG "What hopes, what terrors does thy gift create, however, very transient; and it is certain, that mother, then Miss Hickman, playing on the Spinet. J. Turton." Dr. Turton, the physician, the writer of this certificate, who died in April, 1806, in his 71st year, was born in 1735. The verses in question therefore, which have been printed in some late editions of Johnson's poems, must have been written before that year.-Miss Hickman, it is believed, was a lady of Staffordshire. The concluding lines of this early copy of verses have much of the vigour of Johnson's poetry in his maturer years: "When old Timotheus struck the vocal string, Mrs. Piozzi gives the following account of this little composition from Dr. Johnson's own relation to her, on her inquiring whether it was rightly attributed to him. "I think it is now, just forty years ago, that a young fellow had a sprig of myrtle given him by a girl he courted, and asked me to write him some verses that he might present her in return. I promised, but forgot: and when he called for his lines at the time agreed onSit still a moment,' says I, dear Mund, and I'll fetch them thee'-so stepped aside for five minutes, and wrote the nonsense you now keep such a stir about."—Anecdotes, p. 34. In my first edition I was induced to doubt the authenticity of this account, by the following circumstantial statement in a letter to me from Miss Seward, of Lichfield: "I know those verses were addressed to Lucy Porter, when he was enamoured of her in his boyish days, two or three years before he had seen her mother, his future wife. He wrote them at my grandfather's, and + Sir John Floyer's Treatise on Cold Baths. "Gentlegave them to Lucy in the presence of my mother, to man's Magazine," 1734, p. 197.-BOSWELL. whom he showed them on the instant. She used to reA prize of fifty pounds for the best poem "on Life, peat them to me, when I asked her for the Verses Dr. Death. Judgment. Heaven, and Hell." See "Gentle-Johnson gave her On a Sprig of Myrtle' which he man's Magazine," vol. iv. p. 560.-NICHOLS. had stolen or begged from her bosom. We all know honest Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying to herself a compliment not intended for her." Such was this lady's statement, which I make no doubt she supposed to be correct; but it shows how dangerous it is to trust too implicitly to traditional testimony and ingenious inference; for Mr. Hector has lately assured me that Mrs. Piozzi's account is in this instance accurate, and that he was the person for whom Johnson He also wrote some amatory verses, before he left Staffordshire, which our author appears not to have seen. They were addressed "To Miss Hickman, playing on the Spinet." At the back of this early poetical effusion. of which the original copy, in Johnson's handwriting, was obligingly communicated to me by Mr. John Taylor, is the following attestation: "Written by the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, on my days in the utmost intimacy and social freedom, has assured me, that even at that ardent season his conduct was strictly virtuous in that respect; and that though he loved to exhilarate himself with wine, he never knew him intoxicated but once. In a man whom religious education has secured from licentious indulgences, the passion of love, when once it has seized him, is exceedingly strong; being unimpaired by dissipation and totally concentrated in one object. This was experienced by Johnson, when he became the fervent admirer of Mrs. Porter, after her first husband's death.* Miss Porter told me, that when he was first introduced to her mother, his appearance was very forbidding; he was then lean and lank, so that his immense structure of bones was hideously striking to the eye, and the scars of the scrofula were deeply visible. He also wore his hair, which was straight and stiff, and separated behind; and he often had, seemingly, convulsive starts and odd gesticulations, which tended to excite at once surprise and ridicule. Mrs. Porter was so much engaged by his conversation that she overlooked all these external disadvantages, and said to her daughter, "this is the most sensible man that I ever saw in my life." Though Mrs. Porter was double the age of Johnson,+ and her person and manner, as de I am sorry to see you are engaged in altercation with a lady who seems unwilling to be convinced of her errors. Surely it would be more ingenuous to acknowledge than to persevere. Lately, in looking over some papers I meant to burn, I found the original manuscript of "The Myrtle," with the date on it, 1731, which I have enclosed. "The true history (which I could swear to) is as follows:-Mr. Morgan Graves, the elder brother of a worthy clergyman near Bath, with whom I was acquainted, waited upon a lady in this neighbourhood, who at parting presented him the branch. He showed it me, and wished much to return the compliment in verse. applied to Johnson, who was with me, and a about half an hour dictated the verses which I sent to my friend. I "I most solemnly declare, at that time, Johnson was an entire stranger to the Porter family; and it was almost two years after that I introduced him to the acquaintance of Porter, whom I bought my clothes of. "If you intend to convince this obstinate woman, and to exhibit to the public the truth of your narrative, you are at liberty to make what use you please of this statement. "I hope you will pardon me for taking up so much of your time. Wishing you multos et felices annos, I shall subscribe myself Your obliged humble servant, "E. HECTOR, "Birmingham, Jan. 9, 1794."-BOSWELL. It appears, from Mr. Hector's letter, that Johnson became acquainted with her three years before he married her.-MALONE. +Mrs. Johnson's maiden name was Jervis.-Though there was a great disparity of years between her and Dr. scribed to me by the late Mr. Garrick, were by no means pleasing to others, she must have had a superiority of understanding and talents,† as she certainly inspired him with a more than ordi'nary passion; and she having signified her wil Johnson, she was not quite so old as she is here represented, having only completed her forty-eighth year in the month of February preceding her marriage, as appears by the following extract from the parish register of Great Peatling, in Leicestershire, which was obligingly made, at my request, by the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Ryder, Rector of Lutterworth in that county: "Anno Dom. 1688-9. Elizabeth, the daughter of William Jervis, Esq., and Mrs. Anne, his wife, born the fourth day of February and mané, baptised 16th day of the same month by Mr. Smith, Curate of Little Peatling. John Allen, Vicar.' The family of Jervis, Mr. Ryder informs me, once possessed nearly the whole lordship of Great Peatling (about 2000 acres), and there are many monuments of them in the church; but the estate is now much reduced. The present representative of this ancient famliy is Mr. Charles Jervis, of Hinckley, Attorney-at-Law.-MALONE. That in Johnson's eyes she was handsome, appears from the epitaph which he caused to be inscribed on her be found in a subsequent page, under the year 1752.tombstone not long before his own death, and which may MALONE. The following account of Mrs. Johnson and her family, is copied from a paper (chiefly relating to Mrs. Anna Williams) written by Lady Knight, at Rome, and transmitted by her to the late John Hoole, Esq., the translator of "Metastasio," &c., by whom it was inserted in the "European Magazine," for October, 1799: "Mrs. Williams's account of Mrs. Johnson was, that she had a good understanding, and great sensibility, but inclined to be satirical. Her first husband died insolvent; her sons were much disgusted with her for her second marriage, perhaps because they, being struggling to get advanced in life, were mortified to think she had allied herself to a man who had not any visible means of being useful to them; however, she always retained her affection for them. While they [Dr. and Mrs. Johnson] resided in Gough Square, her son, the officer, knocked at the door, and asked the maid if her mistress was at home. She answered, 'Yes, sir, but she is sick in bed.' 'Oh.' says he, if it's so, tell her that her son Jervis called to know how she did;' and was going away. The maid begged she might run up to tell her mistress, and, without attending his answer, left him. Mrs. Johnson, enraptured to hear her son was below, desired the maid to tell him she longed to embrace him. When the maid descended, the gentleman was gone, and poor Mrs. Johnson was much agitated by the adventure: it was the only time he ever made an effort to see her. Dr. Johnson did all he could to console his wife, but told Mrs. Williams, Her son is uniformly undutiful; so I conclude, like many other sober men, he might, once in his life, be drunk, and in that fit nature got the better of his pride.'" The following anecdotes of Dr. Johnson are recorded by the same lady: "One day that he came to my house to meet many others, we told him that we had arranged our party to go to Westminster Abbey: would not he go with us? No,' he replied, not while I can keep out.' "Upon our saying that the friends of a lady had been in great fear lest she should make a certain match, he said, 'We that are his friends have had great fears for him.' "Dr. Johnson's political principles ran high, both in Church and State; he wished power to the King and to the Heads of the Church, as the laws of England have established; but I know he disliked absolute power; and I am very sure of his disapprobation of the doctrines of the Church of Rome; because, about three weeks before we came abroad, he said to my Cornelia, 'You are going where the ostentatious pomp of Church ceremonies attracts. the imagination; but, if they want to persuade you to change, you must remember, that by increasing your faith, you may be persuaded to become Turk.' If these were not the words, I have kept up to the express meaning."-MALONE. lingness to accept of his hand, he went to Lich-violent irruptions into the regions of knowledge; field to ask his mother's consent to the marriage, and it could not be expected that his impatience which he could not but be conscious was a very would be subdued, and his impetuosity restrained, imprudent scheme, both on account of their dis- so as to fit him for a quiet guide to novices. The parity of years, and her want of fortune. But art of communicating instruction, of whatever Mrs. Johnson knew too well the ardour of her kind, is much to be valued; and I have ever son's temper, and was too tender a parent to thought that those who devote themselves to this oppose his inclinations. employment, and do their duty with diligence and success, are entitled to very high respect from the community, as Johnson himself often maintained. Yet I am of opinion, that the greatest abilities are not only not required for this office, but render a man less fit for it. While we acknowledge the justness of Thomson's beautiful remark, I know not for what reason the marriage ceremony was not performed at Birmingham; but a resolution was taken that it should be at Derby, for which place the bride and bridegroom set out on horseback, I suppose in very good humour. But though Mr. Topham Beauclerk used archly to mention Johnson's having told him with much gravity, 66 'Sir, it was a love marriage on both sides," I have heard from my illustrious friend the following curious account of their journey to church upon the nuptial morn [9th July]:-"Sir, she had read the old romances, and had got into her head the fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her lover like a dog. So, Sir, at first she told me that I rode too fast, and she could not keep up with me: and, when I rode a little slower, she passed me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the slave of caprice; and I resolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore pushed on briskly, till I was fairly out of her sight. The road lay between two hedges, so I was sure she could not miss it; and I contrived that she should soon come up with me. When she did, I observed her to be in tears." This, it must be allowed, was a singular beginning of connubial felicity; but there is no doubt that Johnson, though he thus showed a manly firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to the last moments of Mrs. Johnson's life: and in his "Prayers and Meditations," we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceased, even after her death. "Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, we must consider that this delight is perceptible Johnson was not more satisfied with his situation as the master of an academy, than with that of the usher of a school; we need not wonder, therefore, that he did not keep his academy above a year and a half. From Mr. Garrick's account he did not appear to have been profoundly reverenced by his pupils. His oddities He now set up a private academy, for which of manner and uncouth gesticulations, could not purpose he hired a large house, well situated near but be the subject of merriment to them; and in his native city. In the "Gentleman's Magazine" particular, the young rogues used to listen at the for 1736, there is the following advertisement :- door of his bedchamber, and peep through the “At EDIAL, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, tumultuous and awkward fondness for Mrs. Johnkey-hole, that they might turn into ridicule his young gentlemen are boarded and taught the Latin and Greek languages, by SAMUEL JOHN-pellation of Tetty or Tetsey, which, like Betty or son, whom he used to name by the familiar ap SON." But the only pupils that were put under his care were the celebrated David Garrick and his brother George, and a Mr. Offely, a young gentleman of good fortune who died early. As yet his name had nothing of that celebrity which afterwards commanded the highest attention and respect of mankind. Had such an advertisement appeared after the publication of his "London," or his "Rambler," or his "Dictionary," how would it have burst upon the world! with what eagerness would the great and the wealthy have embraced an opportunity of putting their sons under the learned tuition of SAMUEL JOHNSON, The truth, however, is, that he was not so well qualified for being a teacher of elements, and a conductor in learning by regular gradations, as men of inferior powers of mind. His own acquisitions had been made by fits and starts, by Betsey, is provincially used as a contraction for Elizabeth, her Christian name, but which to us seems ludicrous, when applied to a woman of her age and appearance. Mr. Garrick described her to me as very fat, with a bosom of more than ordinary protuberance, with swelled cheeks, of a florid red, produced by thick painting, and increased by the liberal use of cordials; flaring and fantastic in her dress, and affected both in her speech and her general behaviour. I have seen Garrick exhibit her, by his exquisite talent of mimicry, so as to excite the heartiest bursts of laughter; but he, probably, as is the case in all such representations, considerably aggravated the picture. That Johnson well knew the most proper course to be pursued in the instruction of youth, is authentically ascertained by the following paper in his own handwriting, given about this ር period to a relation, and now in the possession of no doubt that he was insensibly furnishing his Mr. John Nichols : SCHEME FOR THE CLASSES OF A GRAMMAR SCHOOL. "When the introduction, or formation of nouns and verbs, is perfectly mastered, let them learn "Corderius by Mr. Clarke, beginning at the same time to translate out of the introduction, that by this means they may learn the syntax. Then let them proceed to "Erasmus, with an English translation, by the same author. "Class II. Learns Eutropius and Cornelius Nepos, or Justin, with the translation. "N.B. The first class gets for their part every morning the rules which they have learned before, and in the afternoon learns the Latin rules of the nouns and verbs. "They are examined in the rules which they have learned, every Thursday and Saturday. "The second class does the same whilst they are in Eutropius; afterwards their part is in the irregular nouns and verbs, and in the rules for making and scanning verses. They are examined as the first. "Class III. Ovid's Metamorphoses in the morning, and Cæsar's Commentaries in the after noon. "Practice in the Latin rules till they are perfect in them; afterwards in Mr. Leeds's Greek Grammar. Examined as before. "Afterwards they proceed to Virgil, beginning at the same time to write themes and verses, and to learn Greek; from thence passing on to Horace, &c., as shall seem most proper. "I know not well what books to direct you to, because you have not informed me what study you will apply yourself to. I believe it will be most for your advantage to apply yourself wholly to the languages, till you go to the university, The Greek authors I think it best for you to read are these: Cebes. "Thus you will be tolerably skilled in all the dialects, beginning with the Attic, to which the rest must be referred. mind with various knowledge; but I have not discovered that he wrote any thing except a great part of his tragedy of "Irene." Mr. Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, told me that he remembered Johnson's borrowing the Turkish History of him, in order to form his play from it. When he had finished some part of it, he read what he had done to Mr. Walmesley, who objected to his having already brought his heroine into great distress, and asked him, "How can you contrive to plunge her into deeper calamity?" Johnson, in sly allusion to the supposed oppressive proceedings of the court of which Mr. Walmesley was registrar, replied, "Sir, I can put her into the Spiritual Court!" Mr. Walmesley, however, was well pleased with this proof of Johnson's abilities as a dramatic writer, and advised him to finish the tragedy and produce it on the stage. CHAPTER III.—1737-1738. Johnson now thought of trying his fortune in London, the great field of genius and exertion, where talents of every kind have the fullest scope, and the highest encouragement. It is a memorable circumstance that his pupil, David Garrick, went thither at the same time,* with intent to complete his education, and follow the profession of the law, from which he was soon diverted by his decided preference for the stage. This joint expedition of those two eminent men to the metropolis, was many years afterwards noticed in an allegorical poem on Shakspeare's Mulberry-tree, by Mr. Lovibond, the ingenious author of "The Tears of Old May-day." They were recommended to Mr. Colson,† an eminent mathematician and master of an academy, by the following letter from Mr. Walmesley : Both of them used to talk pleasantly of this their first journey to London. Garrick, evidently meaning to em"In the study of Latin, it is proper not to read bellish a little, said one day in my hearing, "We rode the latter authors, till you are well versed with and tied." And the Bishop of Killaloe (Dr. Barnard) those of the purest ages; as Terence, Tully, Garrick were dining together in a pretty large company, informed me, that at another time, when Johnson and Cæsar, Sallust, Nepos, Velleius Paterculus, Vir-Johnson humorously ascertaining the chronology of gil, Horace, Phædrus. something, expressed himself thus: "That was the year "The greatest and most necessary task still when I came to London with twopence halfpenny in my remains, to attain a habit of expression, without what do you say; with twopence halfpenny in your pocket." Garrick overhearing him, exclaimed, "Eh? which knowledge is of little use. This is neces-pocket?"-Johnson: "Why, yes; when I came with sary in Latin, and more necessary in English; twopence halfpenny in my pocket, and thou, Davy, with and can only be acquired by a daily imitation of three halfpence in thine."-BOSWELL. the best and correctest authors. "SAM. JOHNSON." While Johnson kept his academy, there can be + The Reverend John Colson was bred at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and in 1728, when George the Second visited the University, was created Master of Arts. About that time he became First Master of the Free School at Rochester, founded by Sir Joseph |