early life with the scrofula, which not only disfigured a countenance naturally coarse, but well formed, but, hurt his sight so much, as to deprive him of the use of one of his eyes for some time. Dame Oliver, one of those humble, but useful matrons, who first "teach the young idea how to shoot," had the honour of instructing him in the rudiments of education, until he could read the black letter, with which it was then somewhat necessary to become acquainted, as many bibles in common use were printed in that character. When he had reached the height of Dame Oliver's acquirements, he was placed under the care of Mr. Hawkins of Litchfield school, with whom he remained two years. At the age of fifteen, young Johnson was removed to Stourbridge school, where he remained a year, and then returned home. Two years were passed with his father, if not in inglorious ease, at least, without any settled plan of study, although his mind became stored with desultory reading, which a retentive memory greatly facilitated. At the age of nineteen, through the kindness of Mr. Corbet, a gentleman living near Litchfield, young Johnson was entered as a Commoner of Pembroke College, Oxford, as a companion to his son. Here he remained for some time, without displaying much of those talents which afterwards burst upon the world, although a translation in Latin hexameter of Pope's Messiah, gave an earnest of his future fame, on account of the spirit with which it was written. Three years were passed at the University, a portion of which was accompanied by penury, and tainted by that morbid melancholy, which from his youth had been constitutional with him.

The inability of his father, and the neglect of his patron, compelled him to leave the University in 1731, without obtaining a degree, and to return home without the apparent means of gaining a respectable livelihood; the death of his father soon afterwards, compelled him to accept the place of usher to the grammar school of Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, having received twenty pounds from his father's effects. The irksome duty of a country schoolmaster, was as much beneath the talents of Johnson, as it was unsuited to his impatient and irritable disposition.

After remaining in this situation some time, he repaired to Birmingham, on a visit to his friend and school-fellow Mr. Hector, whose guest he was for about six months. During his residence here, he wrote some literary essays, which are lost in the ephemeral columns of a country newspaper; he also translated, in an abridged form from the French, Father Lobo's Account of a Voyage to Abyssinia, a work which is generally believed to have suggested the History of Rasselas. On his return to Litchfield, he gave a singular instance of his ignorance of the world, by issuing proposals, for publishing by subscription, the Latin poem of Politian, with a history of Latin poetry from the era of Petrarch. Such a project would not meet with encouragement at the present day, in any provincial town, and therefore it is by no means surprising that it failed nearly a century ago. Johnson was more successful in his next adventure, which was in the lottery of matrimony; in 1735 he entered into what he called "a love match on both sides" with Mrs. Porter, a lady who compensated for

her age, which was double that of her husband, and for her want o accomplishments, by a fortune of 800%. He now took a large house at Edial, near Lichfield, which he opened as a boarding school. The only event connected with this establishment, (which he did not long continue,) worthy of notice is, that the British Roscius, David Garrick, was one of his scholars, and, that in March, 1787, the master and the pupil arrived in London; Johnson with his unfinished tragedy of "Irene" in his pocket, and a mind richly fraught with that sterling ore, which, in the metropolis, was sure one day to be coined into current money.

Cave appears to have been Johnson's first employer, and his acquaintance with Savage, the first memorable incident of his life. While at Birmingham, Johnson had suggested many improvements in the Gentleman's Magazine, which were adopted; and on his first arrival in town, he had some employment on that journal, as a reporter of the proceedings in Parliament, and never were the debates written with such force and eloquence. It is true that they were by no means literal reports, and that Johnson in after life declared, that the only part of his writings, which gave him any compunction, was the debates, his custom being "to fix upon a speaker's name, then to make an argument for him, and to conjure up an answer."

Johnson had not remained long in London before he attracted notice, and gained some share of popularity, by the publication of his satirical poem of" London," which, after having been rejected by several booksellers, was published by Dodsley, who gave the author. 10%. No wonder Johnson felt disgusted with authorship, and offered himself a candidate for the mastership of a free school in Leicestershire, which he failed in procuring, from his not being authorized to add those essential initials M. A. to his name.

For some years after this, Johnson's literary career is only to be traced in the Gentleman's Magazine, with the exception of a clever pamphlet published in 1739, entitled "Marmor Norfolciensi." The "Life of Savage," which was published a few years afterwards, displayed the manliness and integrity of his opinions, and his knowledge of the human character; nothing, however, had yet been done to place him in the proud pre-eminence, which he was destined to attain, and his dictionary of a language of which he was so complete a master, was necessary to the full developement of his talents. The prospectus in which he announced the work, was circulated in 1747 in the form of a pamphlet, addressed to the Earl of Chesterfield, who gave the author no encouragement until the first part of the work was nearly ready for publication, when he wrote two papers in favour of it, in the "World."

Johnson now quitted his obscure lodgings, and took a house in Gough Square, which has been recently taken down. The intervals of compiling his dictionary were not idly occupied, for in 1747 he wrote a Prologue, on the opening of Drury Lane Theatre, for his friend Garrick; and in 1749 he published "The Vanity of Human Wishes," one of the best classical imitations in the English language. In the same year his tragedy of " Irene" was produced at Drury Lane

Theatre, and sustained by the excellent acting of Garrick, Barry, Mrs. Pritchard, and Mrs. Cibber, it ran thirteen nights, when its race was terminated never more to recommence. Irene is a play full of just sentiment, poetical and correct, though not dramatic language. Its great defect was the total absence of pathos, without which, however much the judgment may admire, the heart will not feel or applaud.

Johnson seems to have felt that dramatic writing was not his forte, and he never attempted it afterwards; his next work was "The Rambler," which was commenced in March, 1750, and was continued at the rate of two papers a week until March, 1752. The sale of the work was at first very inconsiderable, not exceeding five hundred; and it is a very remarkable circumstance, that the only paper which could be said to be popular, and had a prosperous sale, was one which Johnson did not write. This was No. 97, which was written by Richardson. It has been objected to the "Rambler," that the diction is too pompous, and that there is a triteness of sentiment, and a sameness of style and matter; it is, however, a singular instance of fertility of invention, and will always be admired for its advocacy of the principles of religion and morality; the papers on literary criticism are certainly superior to those which represent actual life and manners, for Johnson had studied books more than men. The "Rambler," has now, however, taken a permanent place among the first works of this class, and there are few compositions in which practical Ethics, are treated with more acuteness of observation, dignity of expression, or richness of illustration, than in many of these essays.

In 1752, Johnson lost his wife, an affliction which he felt and spoke of to the end of his life, and although not accustomed or partial to elegant female society, he took into his house as an inmate, Mrs. Ann Williams, the daughter of a physician, who had spent his time and his fortune, in attempting to discover the longitude. The destitute situation of this lady, who was blind, and in poverty, excited the benevolence of Johnson, who took care that she should not want.

Johnson has often been accused of jealousy in authorship, a charge which is certainly not justified by his conduct towards Dr. Hawkesworth, when in imitation of the Rambler, he brought out the " Adventurer," for which he wrote several papers, and obtained contributions from the Rev. Thomas Warton. In order to give greater weight to his name in the publication of his Dictionary, Mr. Warton obtained from the University of Oxford, the degree of M. A. for the author. The Dictionary was completed in the year 1755, by which time both the author and the publisher were completely weary of each other. Johnson derived no pecuniary advantage from it, beyond a temporary support, and it is melancholy to think, that a writer who had achieved such a monument of industry and talents, should within twelve months afterwards be under arrest for a sum of 5l. 188.! From this period to the year 1759, he was employed in his periodical" The Idler," an edition of Shakspeare, and in writing for the Gentleman's Magazine. On the last illness of his mother, during that year, he wrote his History of Rasselas. It was an offering of filial piety, being written for the avowed purpose of assisting his mother, and

affording her some comfort if living, or defraying the expenses of her funeral should she die. He wrote it in the evenings of a single week, sending to press every morning, the portion he had finished the preceding evening; and it is said, that he never re-perused it when finished. But with whatever haste it may have been written, Rasselas bears no marks of slovenliness in its composition, for it is one of the most splendid productions of Johnson's prolific pen; and the somewhat gloomy view of human life which it takes, may be supposed to have been reflected from the state of his own mind at the time. Rasselas is a philosophical romance, in which the moral, though not new, has, perhaps, never been before so ably, so eloquently, inculcated. The experience of ages and of individuals has proved that there is no happiness in this world without what Shakspeare calls" some mixture of vexation in't ;" and our author is not the first moralist that has taught us, that virtue affords a quiet conscience and a steady prospect of a future state, and that, armed with such a shield, we ought to bear calamity with patience; but few authors have so enriched a moral romance with acute remarks on human passions and human weakness, couched in language the most elegant, clothed in imagery so splendid, or borne up by arguments so mighty. The public felt this, and Rasselas, from the moment of its first appearance to the present day, has continued in undiminished popularity, not only in England, but it has been translated into several languages of the continent, where it has always been much admired.

In the year 1762, Johnson, who had passed some time in what his biographer Murphy calls " poverty, total idleness, and the pride of literature," received a pension of 300l. a-year from his late Majesty, for which the author was rather harshly treated on account of the sarcastic definition he had given of the word pensioner in his Dictionary, although few persons ever presented a stronger claim to the liberality of his country than Samuel Johnson.

The literary fame of Johnson was now complete, and his income was such as to enable him to relax from the Herculean exertions which he had so long maintained: he now became a member of the Weekly Literary Club, which met for some time in Gerard-street; and in 1765, he gained an additional source of enjoyment in the acquaintance he formed with Mr. Thrale, an opulent brewer at Streatham, at whose hospitable mansion he often remained for several months. During this year his long-promised edition of Shakspeare appeared, and, in some degree, disappointed the public, who expected from so acute a critic a better elucidation of the text of our great dramatist.

A few political pamphlets, an occasional article in some periodical work, and a prologue or epilogue for some new play, with a Narrative of a Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, made in company with James Boswell, Esq. in 1773, and published two years afterwards, constitute the whole of his literary labours at this period.

Previous to this time he had received the title of Doctor of Laws from the University of Dublin, but he did not assume it, until in 1775, when, through the interest of Lord North, the same title was conferred on him by the University of Oxford. In the latter part of the same

year he visited France in company with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale and Mr. Baretti; but, although he kept a journal of his tour, he never published it.

In 1779, Dr. Johnson commenced his Lives of the Poets, which he finished in 1781. They were written at the request of the London booksellers, for a new edition of the works of the British poets, which they had determined on publishing. The Lives of the Poets, though strongly tinctured with prejudices, particularly the life of Milton, are a valuable addition to English biography and criticism, and remain a standard book to the present day.

Declining health, the loss of friends, and a sort of constitutional dread of death, the prospect of which he could not contemplate with composure, embittered the latter years of his life. In the month of June, 1783, he had a paralytic affection, which greatly alarmed him, and all his philosophy fled at the thoughts of death, though religion at length came to his aid, and shed its tranquil influence over the closing scene. On the 13th of December, 1785, he died, leaving the whole of his property, with the exception of a few legacies, to his negro servant. Dr. Johnson had the honour of a public funeral; and his remains were interred in Westminster Abbey, whither they were accompanied by many friends, with whom he had long been acquainted. A monumental statue has since been erected to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Dr. Johnson was in person rugged and unwieldy, but of rather Herculean stature: in conversation he was dictatorial and overbearing, and somewhat intolerant in his opinions; but, although his rudeness might sometimes seem to trespass on the bounds of humanity, yet there was a warmth of affection, and a fund of benevolence in his nature, which showed itself through the stern and rugged garb it assumed; this made one of his friends observe of him, that he had nothing of the bear but his skin.

As a writer he was the first of the age in which he lived; and his style forms an era in English composition-a model which has been frequently, though not very successfully imitated. In inculcating moral maxims he was particularly forcible, while all his definitions were clear and precise; in sarcasm he was keen; and if there is any fault in his style, it is that he too often clothed with the grandeur of his elegant diction, subjects in themselves so insignificant, as almost to verify the adage, that from the sublime to the ridiculous is but one step; as a writer, however, few persons have done more for literature and morality than Dr. Johnson.