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of those who had no expectation of his fkill in fuch matters, from the fight of a figure which, precluded all poffibility of perfonal prowess; though, because he faw Mr. Thrale one day leap over a cabriolet ftool, to fhew that he was not tired after a chace of fifty miles or more, he fuddenly jumped over it too; but in a way fo frange and fo unwieldy, that our terror left he should break his bones, took from us even the power of laughing.

Michael Johnfon was paft fifty years old when he married his wife, who was upwards of forty; yet I think her fon told me the remained three years childlefs before he was born into the world, who fo greatly contributed to improve it. In three years more fhe brought another fon Nathaniel, who lived to be twenty-feven or twenty-eight years old, and of whofe manly fpirit I have heard his brother speak with pride and pleasure, mentioning one circumftance, particular enough, that when the company were one day lamenting the badness of the roads, he enquired where they could be, as he travelled the country more than most people, and had never feen a bad road in his life. The two brothers did not, however, much delight in each other's company, being always rivals for the mother's fondness; and many of the fevere reflections on domeftic life in Raffelas, took their fource from, its author's keen recollections of the time paffed in his early years. Their father Michael died of an inflammatory fever, at the age of seventy-fix, as Mr. Johnfon told me; their mother at eightynine, of a gradual decay. She was flight in her perfon, he faid, and rather below than above the common fize. So excellent was her character, and fo blameless her life, that when an oppreffive, neighbour once endeavoured to take from her a little field the poffeffed, he could perfuade no attorney to undertake the caufe against a woman to beloved in her narrow circle: and it is this incident he alludes to in the ine of his vanity of human wishes, calling her,

The general favourite as the general friend."

Nor could any one pay more willing homage to fuch a character, though fhe had not been related to him, than did Dr. Johnfon on every occafion that offered: his Difquifition on Pope's epitaph placed over Mrs. Corbet, is a proof of that preference always given by him to a noifelefs

life over a bustling one; but however tafte begins, we almoft always fee that it ends in fimplicity; the glutton finishes by lofing his relifh for any thing highly fauced, and calls for his boiled chicken at the close of many years spent in the fearch of dainties: the connoiffeurs are foon weary of Rubens, and the critics of Lucan; and the refinements of every kind heaped upon civil life, always ficken their poffeffors before the close of it.

At the age of two years Mr. Johnson was brought up to London by his mother, to be touched by Queen Anne for the fcrophulous evil, which terribly af flicted his childhood, and left such marks as greatly disfigured a countenance naturally haf and rugged, beside doing irreparable damage to the auricular organs, which never could perform their functions fince I knew him; and it was owing to that horrible diforder, too, that one eye was perfectly ufelefs to him; that defect, however, was not obfervable, the eyes looked both alike. As Mr. Johnfon had an aftonishing memory, I asked him, if he could remember Queen Anne at all? "He had he faid, a confufed, but fomehow a fort of folemn recollection of a lady in diamonds, and a long black hood.".

Mr. Johnfon's mother was daughter to a gentleman in the country, fuch as there were many of in those days, who poffeffing, perhaps, one or two hundred pounds a year in land, lived on the profits, and fought not to increase their income: the was therefore inclined to think higher of herself than of her husband, whose conduct in money matters being but indifferent, fhe had a trick of teizing him about it, and was, by her fon's account, very importunate with regard to her fears of fpending more than they could afford, though the never arrived at knowing how much that was; a fault common, as he faid to most women who pride themfelves on their economy. They did not however, as I could underftand, live ill toge ther on the whole: "my father (fays he) could always take his horfe and ride away for orders when things went badly." The lady's maiden name was Ford; and the parfon who fits next to the punch-bow! in Hogarth's Modern Midnight Converfation was her brother's fon. This Ford was a man who chofe to be eminent only for vice, with talents that might have made him confpicuous in literature, and refpectable in any profeffion he could have chofen; his coufin has mentioned him in the lives of Fenton and of Broome; ar pd wh JA

when he spoke of him to me it was always with tenderness, praifing his acquaintance with life and manners, and recollecting one piece of advice that no man furely ever followed more exactly: Obtain (fays Ford) fome general principles of every fcience; he who can talk only on one fubject, or act only in one department, is feldom wanted, and perhaps never wished for; while the man of general knowledge can often benefit, and always pleafe." He ufed to relate, however, another story lefs to the eredit of his coufin's penetration, how Ford on fome occafion faid to him, "You will make your way the more cafily in the world, I fee, as you are confented to dispute no man's claim to converfation excellence; they will, therefore, more willingly allow your pretenfions as a writer." Can one, on fuch an occafion, forbear recollecting the predictions of Boileau's father, when froaking the head of the young faririft, Ce petit bon homme (fays he) n'a point trop d'efprit, mais il ne dira jamais mal de perfonne. Such are the prognoftics formed by men of wit and fenfe, as thefe two certainly were, concerning the future character and conduct of thofe for whofe welfare they were honeftly and deeply concerned; and fo late do thofe features of peculiarity come to their growth, which mark a character to all fucceeding generations.

His early Religious Scruples.

At eight years old he went to fchool, for his health would not permit him to be fent fooner; and at the age of ten years his mind was disturbed by fcruples of inEdelity, which preyed upon his fpirits, and made him very uneafy; the more fo, as he revealed his uneafinefs to no one, being naturally (as he faid)" of a fullen temper and referved difpofition." He fearched, however, diligently but fruitJefsly, for evidences of the truth of revelation; and at length recollecting a book he had once feen in his father's fhop, intitled, De Veritate Religionis, &c. he began to think himself highly culpable for neglecting fuch a means of information, and took himself feverely to task for this fin, adding many acts of voluntary, and to others unknown penance. The first opportunity which offered, (of courfe) he feized the book with avidity; but on examination, not finding himself fcholar enough to perufe its contents, fet his heart at reft: and, not thinking to enquire whether there were any English books written

on the fubject, followed his usual amusements, and confidered his confcience as lightened of a crime. He redoubled his diligence to learn the language that con tained the information he most wished for but from the pain which guilt had given him, he now began to deduce the foul's immortality, which was the point that behef firft ftopped at; and from that mo ment refolving to be a Chriftian, became one of the most zealous and pious ones our nation ever produced. When he had told me this odd anecdote of his childhood; "I cannot imagine (faid he), what makes me talk of myself to you fo, for I really never mentioned this foolish ftory to any body except Dr. Taylor, not even to my dear dear Bathurst, whom I loved better than ever I loved any human creature: but poor Bathurst is dead!!!"-Here a long paufe and a few tears enfued. Why Sir, faid I, how like is all this to Jean Jacques Rouffeau? as like, I mean, as the fenfations of froft and fire, when my child complained yesterday that the ice the was eating burned her mouth. Mr. Johnfon laughed at the incongruous ideas; but the fift thing which prefented itfelf to the mind of an ingenious and learned friend whom I had the pleafure to pafs fome time with here at Florence, was the fame refemblance, though I think the two characters had little in common, further than an early attention to things beyond the capacity of other babies, a keen fenfibility of right and wrong, and a warmth of imagination little confiftent with found and perfect health. I have heard him relate another odd thing of himfelf too, but it is one which every body has heard as well as me; how, when he was about nine years old, having got the play of Hamlet in his hand, and reading it quietly in his father's kitchen, he kept on fteadily enough, till coming to the Ghoft fcene, he fuddenly hurried up ftairs to the street door that he might fee people about him: fuch an incident, as he was not unwilling to relate it, is probably in every one's poffeffion now; he told it as a teftimony to the merits of Shakespear: but one day when my fon was going to fchool, and dear Dr. Johnfon followed as far as the garden gate, praying for his falvation, in a voice which thofe who liftened attentively, could hear plain enough, he faid to me fuddenly, "Make your boy tell you his dreams: the first corruption that entered into my heart was communicated to me in a dream." What was it, Sir? faid J. "Do not ask me," replied he with much

violence,

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violence, and walked away in apparent agitation. I never durft make any fur her enquiries. He retained a strong aver fion for the memory of Hunter, one of his fchoolmafters, who, he faid, once was a brutal fellow: "fo brutal (added he), that no man who had been educated by him ever fent his fon to the fame fchool." I have however heard him acknowledge his fcholarship to be very great. His next after he defpifed, as knowing lefs han himfelf, I found; but the naine of that gentleman has flipped his memory. Mr. Johofon was himfelf exceedingly difpofed to the general indulgence of chilren, and was even ferupulously and ceremoniously attentive not to offend them; be had frongly perfuaded himself of the difficulty people always find to erafe early impreffions either of kindnefs or refentment, and faid," he should never have fo loved his mother when a man, had the nor given him coffee the could ill afford, to gratify his appetite when a boy." If you had had children, Sir, faid 1, would you have taught them any thing?" I hope (replied he), that I fhould have willingly lived on bread and water to obtain inftruction for them; but I would not have fet their future friendship to hazard for the fake of thrufting into their heads know. ledge of things for which they might not perhaps have either taste or neceflity. You teach your daughters the diameters of The planets, and wonder when you have done that they do not delight in your company. No fcience can be communicated by mortal creatures without attention from the fcholar; no attention can be obtained from children without the infliction of pain, and pain is never remembered withpui refentment." That fomething fhould be learned, was, however, fo certainly his opinion, that I have heard him fay, how education had been often compared to agriculture, yet that it refembled it chiefly In this: that if nothing is fown, no rop (fays he) can be obtained" His conxempt of the lady who fancied her fon could be eminent without ftudy, becaufe Shakespeare was found wanting in fchoaftic learning, was expreffed in terms fo grofs and fo well known, I will not repeat them here.

At the age of eighteen Dr. Johnfon quitted fchool, and elcaped from the tuition of thote he hated or thofe he defpifed, I have heard him relate very few college adventures. He ufed to fay that our beft accounts of his behaviour there would be gathered from Dr. Adams and Dr. Tay,

lor, and that he was fure they would al ways tell the truth. He told me however one day, how, when he was first entered at the university, he paffed a morning, in compliance with the customs of the place, at his tutor's chambers; but finding him no fcholar, went no more. In about ten days after, meeting the fame gentleman, Mr. Jordan, in the ftrect, he offered to pals by without faluting him; but the tutor ftopped, and enquired, not roughly neither, What he had been doing?" Shiding on the ice," was the reply; and fo turned away with difdain. He laughed very heartily at the recollection of his own infolence, and faid they endured it from him with wonderful acquiefcence, and a gentlenefs that, whenever he thought of it, aftonifhed himself. He told me too, that when he made his first declamation, he wrote over but one copy, and that coarfely; and having given it into the hand of the tutor who stood to receive it as he palled, was obliged to begin by chance and continue on how he could, for he had got but little of it by heart; fo fairly trufting to his prefent powers for immediate fupply, he finished by adding aftonishment to the applaufe of all who knew how little was owing to ftudy. A prodigious rifque, however, faid fome one: Not at all, exclaims Johnfon, no man I fuppofe leaps at once into deep water who does not know how to fwim."

I doubt not but this fory will be told by many of his biographers, and faid fo to him when he told it me on the 18th of July 1773. And who will be my biographer (faid he), do you think "Gold, finith, no doubt, replied I, and be will do it the best among us. "The dog

i

would write it beft to be fure, replied he but his particular malice towards me, and general difregard for the truth, would make the book ufelefs to all, and injurious to my character." Oh! as to that, faid I, we fhould all faßten upon him, and force him to do you justice but the wor is, the Doctor does not know your life; nor can I tell indeed who does, except Dr. Taylor of Afhbourne, "Why Taylor, faid he, is better acquainted with my heart than any man or woman now alive; and the hiftory of my Oxford exploits lies all between him and Adams; but Dr. James knows my very early days better than he,

After my coming to London to drive the world about a little, you must all go to Jack Hawkefworth for anecdotes, I lived in

great

great familiarity with him (though I think there was not much affection) from the year 1753, till the time Mr. Thrale and you took me up. I intend, however, to dif appoint the rogues, and either make you write the life, with Taylor's intelligence; or, which is better, do it myself, after outliving you all. I am now (added he), keeping a diary, in hopes of ufing it for that purpose fome time.”

His Predilection for Oxford.

Dr. Johnfon delighted in his own partiality for Oxford; and one day at my house, entertained five members of the other university, with various instances of the fuperiority of Oxford, enumerating the gigantic names of many men whom it hed produced with apparent triumph. At laft I faid to him, why there happens to be no less than five Cambridge men in the room now." I did not (faid he) think of that till you told me; but the wolf don't count the fheep." When the com pany were retired, we happened to be talking of Dr. Barnard, the Provoft of Eron, who died about that time; and after a long and juft eulogium on his wit, his learning, and his goodness of heart: "He was the only man too (fays Mr. Johafon quité feriously) that did juftice to my good breeding; and you may obferve that I am well bred to a degree of needlefs fcrupulofity. No man, (continued he, not obferving the amazement of his hearers) no man is fo cautious not to intérrupt another; no man thinks it fo nèceffary to appear attentive when others are fpeaking; no man fo fteadily refufes preference to himself, or fo willingly bestows it on another, as I do? no body holds fo ftrongly as I do the neceffity of ceremony and the ill effects which follow the breach of it: yet people think me rude; but Bar pard did me juftice." Tis pity, faid I laughing, that he had not heard you com pliment the Cambridge men after dinner to-day." Why (replied he) I was inclined to down them fure enough; but then a fellow deferves to be of Oxford that talks fo." I have heard him at other times relate how he ufed to fit in fome coffee-house there, and turn M's C-r-at-e-s into ridicule for the diverfion of himself and of chance comers-in. "The Elfda (fays he) was too exquifitely pretty; I could make no fun out of that. When upon fome occafions he would exprefs his aftonishment that he Should have an enemy in the world, while

he had been doing nothing but good to his
neighbours, I ufed to make him recollect
thefe circumftances: why child (faid he)
what harm could that do the fellow: İ
-n for
always thought very well of M-
a Cambridge man; he is, I believe, a
mighty blameless character." Such tricks
were, however, the more unpardonable in
Mr. Johnfon, because no one could arran-
gue like him, about the difficulty always
found in forgiving petty injuries, or in
provoking by needlefs offence. Mr. Jor-
dan his tutor, had much of his affection,
though he defpifed his want of fcholaftic
learning."That creature would (faid
he) defend his pupils to the laft: no
young lad under his care fhould fuffer for
committing fight improprieties, while he
had breath to defend, or power to protect
them. If I had had fons to fend to college
(added he) Jordan should have been their
tutor."

Sir William Browne the physician, who lived to a very extraordinary age, and was in other refpects an odd mortal, with more genious than understanding, and more felf-fufficiency than wit, was the only person who ventured to oppofe Mr. Johnfon, when he had a mind to fhine by exalting his favourite univerfity, and to exprefs his contempt of the whiggifh notions which prevail at Cambridge. He did it once with furprifing félicity; his antagonist having repeated with an air of triumph the famous epigram written by Dr. Trapp,

Our royal mafter faw with heedful eyes,
The wants of his two univerfities:
Troops he to Oxford fent, as knowing why
That learned body wanted loyalty:
But books to Cambridge gave, as, well
difcerning,

That that right foyal body wanted learning,

Which fays Sir William, might well be anfwered thus:

The King to Oxford fent his troop of horfe
For tories own no argument but force;
With equal care to Cambridge books he fent,
For wigs allow no force bat argument.

Mr. Johnfon did him the justice to fay, it was one of the happieft extemporaneous productions he ever met with; though he once comically confeffed, that he hated, to repeat the wit of a wig, urged in fupport of whiggifm. Says Garrick to him one day, why did not you make me atory, when we lived fo much together, you love to make people tories?" Why (fays John

fon,

fon, pulling a heap of halfpence from his pocket) did not the King make thefe guineas?"

Of Mr. Johnson's toryifm the world has long been witnefs, and the political pamphlets written by him in defence of his party, are vigorous and elegant. He often delighted his imagination with the thoughts of having destroyed Junius, an anonymous writer, who flourished in the years 1769 and 1770, and who kept himSelf fo ingeniously concealed from every indeavour to detect him, that no probable guefs was, I believe, ever formed concerning the author's name, though at that time the subject of general converfation. Mr. Johafon made us all laugh one day, because I had received a remarkably fine filton cheese as a prefent from fome perfon who had packed and directed it carefully, but without mentioning whence it came. Mr. Thrale defirous to know who we were obliged to, asked every friend as they came in, but nobody owned it: "Depend upon it, (Sir fays Johnson) it was fent by Junius."

A Key to the Rambler.

The fine Rambler on the subject of Procraftination was haftly compofed, as I have heard, in Sir Joshua Reynolds's parlour, while the boy waited to carry it to prefs and numberlefs are the inftances of his writing under immediate preffure of importunity or diftrefs. He told me that the character of Sober in the Idler, was by himself intended as his own portrait; and that he had his own outset into life in his eye when he wrote the eastern story of Gelaleddin. Of the allegorical papers in the Rambler, Labour and Reft was his favourite; but Serotinus, the man who returns late in life to receive honours in his native country, and meets with mortification inftead of refpect, was by him confidered as a masterpiece in the fcience of life and manners. The character of Profpero in the fourth volume, Garrick took to be his; and I have heard the author fay, that he never forgave the offence. Sophron was likewife a picture drawn from reality; and by Gelidus the philofopher, he meant to reprefent Mr. Coulfon, a mathematician, who formerly lived at Rochester. The man immortalized for purring like a cat was, as he told me, one Busby a proctor in the Commons. He who barked fo ingeniously, and then called the drawer to drive away the dog, was father to Dr. Salter of the Charter

houfe. He who fung a fong, and by correfpondent motions of his arm chalked out a giant on the wall, was one Richardfon an attorney. The letter figned Sunday, was written by Mifs Talbot; and he fancied the billets in the first volume of the Rambler, were fent him by Mifs Mulfo, now Mrs. Chapone. The papers contri-, buted by Mrs. Carter, had much of his esteem, though he always blamed me for preferring the Letter figned Charieffa to the Allegory, where religion and fuper ftition are indeed moft mafterly delineat ed.

When Dr. Johnson read his own fatire in which the life of a fcholar is painted, with the various obftructions thrown in his way to fortune and to fame, he burft into a paffion of tears one day: the family and Mr. Scott only were prefent, who, in a jocofe way, clapped him on the back, and faid, What's all this, my dear Sir? Why you, and I, and Hercules, you know, were all troubled with melancholy. As there are many gentlemen of the fame name, I should fay, perhaps, that it was a Mr. Scott who married Mifs Robinfon, and that I think I have heard Mr. Thrale call him George Lewis, or George Au guftus, I have forgot which. He was a very large man, however, and made out the triumvirate with Johnfon and Hercules comically enough. The Doctor was fo delighted at his odd fally, that he fuddenly embraced him, and the fubject was immediately changed. I never faw Mr. Scott but that once in my life.

Dr. Johnfon was liberal enough in granting literary affistance to others, I think; and innumerable are the prefaces, fermons, lectures, and dedications which he used to make for people who begged of him. Mr. Murphy related in his and my hearing one day, and he did not deny it, that when Murphy joked him the week before for having been fo diligent of late between Dodd's fermon and Kelly's prologue, that Dr. Johnfon replied, "Why, Sir, when they come to me with a dead ftay-maker and a dying parfon, what can a man do ?" He faid, however, that he hated to give away literary performances, or even to fell them too cheaply: the next generation fhall not accufe me (added he) of beating down the price of literature; one hates, befides, ever to give that which one has been accuftomed to fell; would not you, Sir, (turning to Mr. Thrale) rather give away money than porter?"

(To be continued.)

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