Cæsar, Sallust, Nepos, Velleius Paterculus, Virgil, Horace, Phædrus.

"The greatest and most necessary task still remains, to attain 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.

"SAM. JOHNSON."

"Dr. Johnson and I (says Mr. B.) one day took a sculler at the Temple-stairs, and set out for Greenwich. I asked him if he really thought a knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages an essential requisite to a good education.JOHNSON." Most certainly, Sir; for those who know them have a very great advantage over those who do not. Nay, Sir, it is wonderful what a difference learning makes upon people even in the common intercourse of life, which does not appear to be much connected with it.' "And yet (said Mr. B.) people go through the world very well, and carry on the business of life to good advantage, without learning.”—J. "Why, Sir, that may be true in cases where learning cannot possibly be of any use; for instance, this boy rows us as well without learning, as if he could sing the song of Orpheus to the Argonauts, who were the first sailors." He then called to

the boy, "What would you give, my lad, to know about the Argonauts?""Sir (said the boy), I would give what I have." Johnson was much pleased with his answer, and we gave him a double fare. The Doctor then turning to Mr. B. said, "Sir, a desire of knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being, whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all that he has to get knowledge."

To Mr. Langton when about to establish a school upon his estate, it had been suggested, that it might have a tendency to make the people less industrious. "No, Sir (said Johnson). While learning to read and write is a distinction, the few who have that distinction may be the less inclined to work; but when every body learns to read and write, it is no longer a distinction. A man who has a laced waistcoat is too fine a man to work; but if every body had laced waistcoats, we should have people working in laced waistcoats. There are no people whatever more industrious, none who work more than our manufacturers; yet they have all learnt to read and write. Sir, you must not neglect doing a thing immediately good, from fear of remote evil, from fear of its being abused. A man who has candles may sit up too late, which he would not do if he had not candles; but nobody will deny that the art of making candles, by which light is

continued to us beyond the time that the sun gives us light, is a valuable art, and ought to be preserved."-BoswELL. "But, Sir, would it not be better to follow Nature, and go to bed and rise just as Nature gives us light or withholds it?"JOHNSON. "No, Sir; for then we should have no kind of equality in the partition of our time between sleeping and waking. It would be very different in different seasons and in different places. In some of the northern parts of Scotland how little light is there in the depth of winter!"

Of education at great schools, Johnson displayed the advantages and disadvantages in a luminous manner; but his arguments preponderated much in favour of the benefit which a boy of good parts might receive at one of them.

At another time he said, "There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other."-Yet more, he observed, was learned in publick than in private schools, from emulation; "there is (said he) the collision of mind with mind, or the radiation of many minds pointing to one centre. Though few boys make their own exercises, yet if a good exercise is given up, out of a great number of boys, it is made by somebody. I hate by-roads in education. Education is as well known, and has long been as well known, as ever

VOL. I.

it can be. Endeavouring to make children prematurely wise is useless labour. Suppose they have more knowledge at five or six years than other children, what use can be made of it? It will be lost before it is wanted, and the waste of so much time and labour of the teacher can never be repaid. Too much is expected from precocity, and too little performed. Miss was an instance of early cultivation; but in what did it terminate? In marrying a little Presbyterian parson, who keeps an infant boarding-schoool, so that all her employment now is,

To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer."

She tells the children, this is a cat, and that is a dog with four legs and a tail;' see there! you are much better than a cat or a dog, for you can speak. I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning; for that is a sure good. I would let him at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention; because you have done a great deal when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He'll get better books afterwards."

Johnson advised Mr. Boswell not to refine in the education of his children. "Life (said he) will not bear refinement; you must do as other people do. Above all, accustom your children constantly to tell the truth; if a thing happened

at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end."-BosWELL. "It may come to the door: and when once an account is at all varied in one circumstance, it may by degrees be varied so as to be totally different from what really happened." A lady in the company, whose fancy was impatient of the rein, fidgeted at this, and ventured to say, Nay, this is too much. If Mr. Johnson should forbid me to drink tea I would comply, as I should feel the restraint only twice a day; but little variations in narrative must happen a thousand times a day, if one is not perpetually watching."-JOHNSON. "Well, Madam, and you ought to be perpetually watching. It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying that there is so much falsehood in the world."

Talking of instruction, "People have now-adays (said he) got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading. the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shewn. You may teach chemistry by lectures; you might teach making of shoes by lectures!"

He allowed very great influence to education.