66 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 transla tion. "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 afternoon. "Practise 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.2 "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. Elian the instruction of youth," is a bold and illogical assertion. It may even be doubted whether it is good as far as it goes, and whether the beginning with authors of inferior latinity, and allowing the assistance of translations, be, indeed, the most proper course of classical instruction; nor are we, while ignorant of the peculiar circumstances for which the paper was drawn up, entitled to conclude that it contains Dr. Johnson's mature and general sentiments on even the narrow branch of education to which it refers. Indeed, in the second paper, Johnson advises his friend not to read "the latter authors till you are well versed in those of the purer ages. "-CROKER. 1 Dr. Edward Leedes, head master of the grammar-school at Bury St. Edmunds. 2 Mr. Boswell has printed these as one paper; but it seems clear that they are two separate schemes, the first for a school, the second for the individual studies of some young friend.— CROKER. "Thus you will be tolerably skilled in all the dialects, beginning with the Attic, to which the rest must be referred. "In the study of Latin, it is proper not to read the latter authors, till you are well versed in those of the purest ages; as Terence, Tully, Cæsar, Sallust, Nepos, Velleius Paterculus, Virgil, Horace, Phædrus. The greatest and most necessary task still remains, to obtain a habit of expression, without which knowledge is of little use. This is necessary in Latin, and more necessary in English; and can only be acquired by a daily imitation of the best and correctest authors. 1 "SAM. JOHNSON." While Johnson kept his academy, there can be no doubt that he was insensibly furnishing his mind with various knowledge; but I have not discovered that he wrote anything 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 possibly 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. 1 Of Knolles's History of the Turks, Johnson says, in the Rambler, "it displays all the excellencies that narration can admit, and nothing could have sunk its author in obscurity, but the remoteness and barbarity of the people whose story he relates." No. 122. "The reverse of Johnson's decision we conceive to be more just. Knolles owes his fame, in a great degree, to his subject. The young imagination of Byron is said to have been strongly excited by the kindling pages of this historian: we suspect, however, that it was the Turkish character, its stern vigour, and its imposing and somewhat mysterious dignity, even, perhaps, the haughty and ferocious visages, in their noble and picturesque costume, which struck the congenial mind of the poet."-Quarterly Review, vol xlix. p. 285. CHAPTER V. 1737-1738. Johnson goes to London with David Garrick-Takes Lodgings in Exeter Street-Retires to Greenwich, and proceeds with "Irene "-Projects a Translation of the History of the Council of Trent-Returns to Lichfield, and finishes "Irene "-Removes to London with his Wife-Becomes a Writer in the Gentleman's Magazine. 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." 2 They were recommended to Mr. Colson, an eminent mathema 1 Both of them used to talk pleasantly of this their first journey to London. Garrick, evidently meaning to embellish a little, said one day in my hearing, "We rode and tied." And the Bishop of Killaloe (Dr. Barnard) informed me, that at another time, when Johnson and Garrick were dining together in a pretty large company, Johnson humourously ascertaining the chronology of something, expressed himself thus :-"That was the year when I came to London with two-pence halfpenny in my pocket." Garrick overhearing him, exclaimed, "Eh? what do you say? with two-pence halfpenny in your pocket?" Johnson-" Why, yes; when I came with two-pence half-penny in my pocket, and thou, Davy, with three-halfpence in thine."-BOSWELL. This may have been said in raillery, but could not have been true. Indeed, Boswell, in the next page, acknowledges that Johnson had a little money at his arrival; but, however that may be, Garrick, a young gentleman coming to town, not as an adventurer, but to complete his education and prepare for the bar, could not have been in such indigent circumstances.CROKER. 2 The Rev. John Colson became, in 1709, first master of the free school at Rochester. In 1739, he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge; and died in December, 1759. "Mrs. Piozzi," observes Mr. Croker, "has stated that the character of Gelidus, tician and master of an academy, by the following letter from Mr. Walmesley: LETTER 2. TO THE REV. MR. COLSON. LICHFIELD, March 2, 1787. "DEAR SIR-I had the favour of yours, and am extremely obliged to you; but I cannot say I had a greater affection for you upon it than I had before, being long since so much endeared to you, as well by an early friendship, as by your many excellent and valuable qualifications; and, had I a son of my own, it would be my ambition, instead of sending him to the university, to dispose of him as this young gentleman is. "He, and another neighbour of mine, one Mr. Samuel Johnson, set out this morning for London together. Davy Garrick to be with you early the next week, and Mr. Johnson to try his fate with a tragedy, and to see to get himself employed in some translation, either from the Latin or the French. Johnson is a very good scholar and poet, and I have great hopes will turn out a fine tragedy writer. If it should any way lie in your way, doubt not but you would be ready to recommend and assist your country man, "G. WALMESLEY." How he employed himself upon his first coming to London is not particularly known.' I never heard that he found any protection or encouragement by the means of Mr. Colson, to whose academy David Garrick went. Mrs. Lucy Porter told me that Mr. Walmesley gave him a letter of introduction to Lintot, his bookseller, and that Johnson wrote some things for him; but I imagine this to be a mistake, for I have discovered no trace of it, and I am pretty sure he told me that Mr. Cave was the first publisher by whom his pen was engaged in London. He had a little money when he came to town, and he knew how he could live in the cheapest manner. His first lodgings were at in the 24th Rambler, was meant to represent Mr. Colson; but this may be doubted, for, as Mr. Colson resided constantly at Rochester till his removal to Cambridge, it is not likely that Mr. Walmesley's letter could produce any intercourse or acquaintance between him and Johnson; and it appears, from Davies's Life of Garrick (vol. i. p. 14), a work revised by Johnson, that Mr. Colson's character could have no resemblance to the absurdities of Gelidus." One curious anecdote was communicated by himself to Mr. John Nichols. Mr. Wilcox the bookseller, on being informed by him that his intention was to get his livelihood as an author, eyed his robust frame attentively, and, with a significant look, said, "You had better buy a porter's knot." He, however, added, "Wilcox was one of my best friends." the house of Mr. Norris, a staymaker, in Exeter Street, adjoining Catharine Street, in the Strand. "I dined," said he, “very well for eight-pence, with very good company, at the Pine-Apple in New Street, just by. Several of them had travelled. They expected to meet every day, but did not know one another's names. It used to cost the rest a shilling, for they drank wine; but I had a cut of meat for sixpence, and bread for a penny, and gave the waiter a penny; so that I was quite well served, nay, better than the rest, for they gave the waiter nothing."" He at this time, I believe, abstained entirely from fermented liquors a practice to which he rigidly conformed for many years together, at different periods of his life." His Ofellus, in the Art of Living in London,' I have heard him relate, was an Irish painter, whom he knew at Birmingham, and who had practised his own precepts of economy for several years in the British capital. He assured Johnson, who, I suppose, was then meditating to try his fortune in London, but was apprehensive of the expense, "that thirty pounds a year was enough to enable a man to 1 Painful as it is to relate, I have heard Dr. Johnson assert, that he subsisted himself, for a considerable space of time, upon the scanty pittance of four-pence halfpenny per day.CUMBERLAND. 2 At this time his abstinence from wine may, perhaps, be attributed to poverty, but in his subsequent life he was restrained from that indulgence by, as it appears, moral, or rather medical, considerations. He probably found by experience that wine, though it dissipated for a moment, yet eventually aggravated the hereditary disease under which he suffered; and perhaps it may have been owing to a long course of abstinence, that his mental health seems to have been better in the latter than in the earlier portion of his life. He says, in his Prayers and Meditations, "By abstinence from wine and suppers, I obtained sudden and great relief, and had freedom of mind restored to me; which I have wanted for all this year, without being able to find any means of obtaining it."-CROker. 3 ["Quæ virtus et quanta, boni, sit vivere parvo, HOR. Sat. ii. lib. ii. What and how great, the virtue and the art, POPE, Imit. The Ofellus of Horace was an honest countryman, whose patrimony had been seized by Augustus, and given to one of the soldiers that had served against Brutus and Cassius.] |