made him really ashamed of himself, though I fear,' said he, 'I was too proud to own it.'

"I have heard from some of his contemporaries that he was generally seen lounging at the college gate, with a circle of young students round him, whom he was entertaining with wit, and keeping from their studies, if not spiriting them up to rebellion against the college discipline, which in his maturer years he so much extolled."1

He very early began to attempt keeping notes or memorandums, by way of a diary of his life. I find, in a parcel of loose leaves, the following spirited resolution to contend against his natural indolence: "Oct. 1729. Desidia valedixi; syrenis istius cantibus surdam posthac aurem obversurus. I bid farewell to Sloth, being resolved henceforth not to listen to her syren strains." I have also in my possession a few leaves of another Libellus, or little book, entitled "ANNALES," in which some of the early particulars of his history are registered in Latin.

I do not find that he formed any close intimacies with his fellow

There are preserved, in Pembroke College, some of these themes, or exercises, both in prose and verse; the following, though the two first lines are awkward, has more point and pleasantry than his epigrams usually have. It may be surmised that the college beer was at this time indifferent:

Johnson repeated this idea in the Latin verses on the termination of his Dictionary, entitled IN2O ZEAYTON, but not, as 1 think, so elegantly as in the epigram.-CROKER. [The thought is beautifully expressed in the Spectator, by Addison, No. 415.]

collegians. But Dr. Adams told me, that he contracted a love and regard for Pembroke College, which he retained to the last. A short time before his death, he sent to that college a present of all his works,' to be deposited in their library: and he had thoughts of leaving to it his house at Lichfield; but his friends who were about him very properly dissuaded him from it, and he bequeathed it to some poor relations. He took a pleasure in boasting of the many eminent men who had been educated at Pembroke. In this list are found the names of Mr. Hawkins the Poetry Professor, Mr. Shenstone, Sir William Blackstone, and others; not forgetting the celobrated popular preacher, Mr. George Whitefield, of whom, though Dr. Johnson did not think very highly, it must be acknowledged that his eloquence was powerful, his views pious and charitable, his assiduity almost incredible; and that, since his death, the integrity of his character has been fully vindicated. Being himself a poet, Johnson was peculiarly happy in mentioning how many of the sons of Pembroke were poets; adding, with a smile of sportive triumph, Sir, we are a nest of singing-birds."

2

He was not, however, blind to what he thought the defects of his own college and I have, from the information of Dr. Taylor, a very strong instance of that rigid honesty which he ever inflexibly preserved. Taylor had obtained his father's consent to be entered of Pembroke, that he might be with his schoolfellow Johnson, with whom, though some years older than himself, he was very intimate. This would have been a great comfort to Johnson. But he fairly told Taylor that he could not, in conscience, suffer him to enter where he knew he could not have an able tutor. He then made enquiry all round the university, and having found that Mr. Bateman, of Christ-church, was the tutor of highest reputation, Taylor was entered of that college. Mr. Bateman's lectures were so excellent,

1 Certainly, not all; and those which we have are not all marked as presented by him.

HALL.

2 To the list should be added, Francis Beaumont, the dramatic writer; Sir Thomas Browne, whose life Johnson wrote; Sir James Dyer, twenty-four years Chief Justice of the King's Bench; Lord Chancellor Harcourt; the celebrated John Pym; Francis Rous, the Speaker of Cromwell's parliament, and the infamous Bishop Bonner.-W. SMITH, Jr.

Circumstantially as this story is told, there is good reason for disbelieving it. Taylor was admitted commoner of Christ-church, June 27, 1780: but it will be seen, that Johnson left Oxford six months before.-CROKER.

that Johnson used to come and get them at second-hand from Taylor, till his poverty being so extreme, that his shoes were worn out, and his feet appeared through them, he saw that this humiliating sircumstance was perceived by the Christ-church men, and he came no more. He was too proud to accept of money, and somebody having set a pair of new shoes at his door, he threw them away with indignation. How must we feel when we read such an anecdote of Samuel Johnson !

His spirited refusal of an eleemosynary supply of shoes arose, no doubt, from a proper pride. But, considering his ascetic disposition at times, as acknowledged by himself in his Meditations, and the exaggeration with which some have treated the peculiarities of his character, I should not wonder to hear it ascribed to a principle of superstitious mortification; as we are told by Tursellinus, in his Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, that this intrepid founder of the order of Jesuits, when he arrived at Goa, after having made a severe pilgrimage through the eastern deserts, persisted in wearing his miserable shattered shoes, and when new ones were offered him, rejected them as an unsuitable indulgence.

The res angusta domi prevented him from having the advantage of a complete academical education. The friend to whom he had trusted for support had deceived him. His debts in college, though not great, were increasing; and his scanty remittances from Lichfield, which had all along been made with great difficulty, could be supplied no longer, his father having fallen into a state of insolvency. Compelled, therefore, by irresistible necessity, he left the college in autumn, 1731, without a degree, having been a member of it little more than three years.'

1 It will be observed, that Mr. Boswell slurs over the years 1729, 1780, and 1781, under the general inference that they were all spent at Oxford; but Dr. Hall's accurate statement of dates from the college books proves, that Johnson personally left College Dec. 12, 1729, though his name remained on the books till Oct. 8, 1781. Here, then, are two important years, the 21st and 22d of his age, to be accounted for; and Mr. Boswell's assertion (a little farther on), that he could not have been assistant to Anthony Blackwall, because Blackwall died in 1780, before Johnson had left college, falls to the ground. That these two years were not pleasantly or profitably spent, may be inferred from the silence of Johnson and all his friends about them. It is due to Pembroke to note particularly this absence, because that institution possesses two scholarships, to one of which Johnson would have been eligible, and probably (considering his claims) elected, in 1780, had he been a candidate.—CROKER.

Dr. Adams, the worthy and respectable master of Pembroke College, has generally had the reputation of being Johnson's tutor. The fact, however, is, that in 1731, Mr. Jorden quitted the college, and his pupils were transferred to Dr. Adams; so that had Johnson returned, Dr. Adams would have been his tutor. It is to be wished, that this connection had taken place. His equal temper, mild disposition, and politeness of manners, might have insensibly softened the harshness of Johnson, and infused into him those more delicate charities, those petites morales, in which, it must be confessed, our great moralist was more deficient than his best friends could fully justify. Dr. Adams paid Johnson this high compliment. He said to me at Oxford, in 1776, "I was his nominal tutor; but he was above my mark." When I repeated it to Johnson, his eyes flashed with grateful satisfaction, and he exclaimed, "That was liberal and noble." 1

1 If Adams called himself his nominal tutor, only because the pupil was above his mars, the expression would be liberal and noble; but if he was his nominal tutor, only because te would have been his tutor if Johnson had returned, the case is different, and Boswell is, either way, guilty of an inaccuracy.-CROKER. Johnson's name, after the retirement o

Jorden, must have appeared on the College books among the pupils of Adams. "There was nothing marked in Dr. Adams's connection with Dr. Johnson, from which hi might, with propriety, be styled his tutor."-Dr. PARR, Nichols's Illust. vol. v. p. 277.

Johnson leaves Oxford-Death of his Father-Mr. Gilbert Walmesley-Captain Garrick— Mrs. Hill Boothby-" Molly Aston”—Johnson becomes Usher of Market-Bosworth SchoolRemoves to Birmingham-Translates Lobo's Voyages to Abyssinia-Returns to LichfieldProposes to print the Latin Poems of Politian-Offers to write for the Gentleman's Magazine -His juvenile Attachments-Marries-Opens a private Academy at Edial-David Garrick his Pupil-Commences "Irene."

AND now (I had almost said poor) Samuel Johnson returned to his native city, destitute, and not knowing how he should gain even a decent livelihood. His father's misfortunes in trade rendered him anable to support his son;1 and for some time there appeared no means by which he could maintain himself. In the December of this year his father died.

The state of poverty in which he died appears from a note in one of Johnson's little diaries of the following year, which strongly displays his spirit and virtuous dignity of mind.

"1732, Julii 15. Undecim aureos deposui, quo die quicquid ante matris funus (quod serum sit precor) de paternis bonis sperari licet, viginti scilicet libras, accepi. Usque adeo mihi fortuna fingenda est. Interea, ne paupertate vires animi languescant, nec in flagitia egestas abigat, cavendum. I layed by eleven guineas on this day, when I received twenty pounds, being all that I have reason to hope for out of my father's effects, previous to the death of my mother; an event which I pray God may be very remote. I now therefore see that I must make my own fortune. Meanwhile, let me take care that the powers of my mind be not debilitated by poverty, and that indigence do not force me into any criminal act.”

1 Johnson's father, either during his continuance at the university, or possibly before, had been by misfortunes rendered insolvent, if not, as Johnson told me, an actual bankrupt. → HAWKINS, p. 17.