1759. Burns and Pitt born. 1760. Boswell's first visit to Lon-1760. George III. king. don. 1761. Richardson died. 1762. Lady Montagu died. 1764. Hogarth died. Intimacy 1765. Young died. Edition 1762. Macpherson's Ossian. 1763. Wedgwood potteries estab-1763. Lady Montagu's Letters. lished. 1764. Walpole's Castle of Otranto. Steam-engine 1764. Spinning-Jenny invented. 1765. Stamp Act. invented. 1772. Coleridge born. Sweden borg died. 1773. Boston Tea Party. 1775. Journey to the Hebrides, and 1775. Lamb, Jane Austen, and 1775. Battle of Bunker Hill. Taxation no Tyranny. De 1775. Sheridan's Rivals. 1776. American Declaration of In- 1776. Gibbon's Decline and Fall dependence. of the Roman Empire. 1739. Mrs. Thrale born CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE. 1738. First Methodists in London. 1740. Frederick, Emperor of Ger- 1740. Richardson's Pamela. 1744. Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination. 1746. Charles Edward defeated at 1746. Collins's Odes. Culloden. 1748. Richardson's Clarissa Har- 1749. Fielding's Tom Jones. 1751. Gray's 1755. Lisbon earthquake. 1756-63. Seven Years' War. Elegy. Fielding's Amelia. Smollett's Peregrine Pickle. 1759. Burns and Pitt born. 1760. Boswell's first visit to Lon- 1760. George III. king. don. 1761. Richardson died. 1762. Lady Montagu died. 1764. Hogarth died. Intimacy 1765. Young died. Edition 1762. Macpherson's Ossian. 1763. Wedgwood potteries estab-1763. Lady Montagu's Letters. lished. 1764. Walpole's Castle of Otranto. Steam-engine 1764. Spinning-Jenny invented. 1765. Stamp Act. invented. 1776. American Declaration of In-1776. Gibbon's Decline and Fall dependence. of the Roman Empire. Smith's Wealth of Nations. 1772. Coleridge born. Swedenborg died. 1773. Boston Tea Party. 1774. Southey born. Goldsmith died. 1775. Journey to the Hebrides, and 1775. Lamb, Jane Austen, and 1775. Battle of Bunker Hill. Taxation no Tyranny. De gree of D.C.L. Paris. 1775. Sheridan's Rivals. SAMUEL JOHNSON (DECEMBER, 1856) 1. SAMUEL JOHNSON, one of the most eminent English writers of the eighteenth century, was the son of Michael Johnson, who was, at the beginning of that century, a magistrate of Lichfield, and a bookseller of great note in the midland counties. Michael's abilities and attainments 5 seem to have been considerable. He was so well acquainted with the contents of the volumes which he exposed to sale, that the country rectors of Staffordshire and Worcestershire thought him an oracle on points of learning. Between him and the clergy, indeed, there was a strong reli- 10 gious and political sympathy. He was a zealous churchman, and, though he had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in possession, was to the last a Jacobite in heart. At his house, a house which is still pointed out to every traveller who visits Lichfield, 15 Samuel was born on the 18th of September, 1709. In the child, the physical, intellectual, and moral peculiarities which afterwards distinguished the man were plainly discernible; great muscular strength accompanied by much awkwardness and many infirmities; great quickness of 20 parts, with a morbid propensity to sloth and procrastination; a kind and generous heart, with a gloomy and irritable temper. He had inherited from his ancestors a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove. His parents were weak enough to believe 2 that the royal touch was a specific for this malady. In his third year he was taken up to London, inspected by the |