Herculean strength and a Stentorian voice,
Of wit a fund, of words a countless choice;
In learning rather various than profound,
In truth intrepid, in religion sound:
A trembling form and a distorted sight,
But firm in judgment and in genius bright;
In controversy seldom known to spare,
But humble as the publican in prayer;
To more than merited his kindness kind,
And, though of manners harsh, of friendly mind;
Deep-tinged with Melancholy's blackest shade,
And, though prepared to die, of death afraid :
Such JOHNSON was. Of him with justice vain,
When will this nation see his like again?

RICHARD CUMBERLAND.

LIFE OF
OF JOHNSON.

AMUEL JOHNSON was born in Lichfield in Stafford

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shire on the 18th of September, 1709; his father, Michael, being a native of Derbyshire who settled in Lichfield as a bookseller and stationer, and his mother, Sarah, tracing her descent from an ancient family of substantial yeomen of the name of Ford in Warwickshire. From the one parent he derived "the vile melancholy" which so sorely tried his mental fortitude, while to the other belongs the credit of having sedulously imprinted those lessons of piety on his infant mind which never lost their influence over him during his whole career.

Anecdotes of youthful precocity are seldom wanting in the lives of eminent men, and many such are related of Johnson; but, whether they are or are not exactly confirmed, it is evident that as a child he gave promise of that vigour of mind which afterwards asserted itself so successfully. Boswell records, in point of power of memory, that Lucy Porter once related in Johnson's own presence that, when he was a child in petticoats, his mother one morning directed him to get by heart the collect for the day out of the Book of Common Prayer, and went upstairs, leaving him to study it. Before she had reached the second floor, however, she heard her son following her; and, inquiring the reason, she found him prepared to repeat itwhich he did "distinctly, though he could not have read it more than twice."

Another anecdote, also reposing on the authority of his. step-daughter (who, it may be added, maintained to Boswell, in

Johnson's presence, that there could be no doubt of its truth, "for she had heard it from his mother"), is dismissed by his biographer as unauthentic. When a child of three years old, he trod upon a duckling, the eleventh of a brood, and killed it; wheupon, according to tradition, he dictated to his mother the following epitaph:

Here lies good master Duck,

Whom Samuel Johnson trod on;

If it had lived, it had been good luck,
For then we'd had an odd one.

Boswell affirms that Johnson assured him that his father made the verses, and foolishly wished to pass them off as his child's ; and Croker, whose critical airs are not a little amusing, of course lays it down most confidently that the authenticity of this anecdote is disproved "both by internal and by external evidence." Hannah More's unimpeachable testimony to the precocity of Macaulay evidently would not avail against such resolute acuteness. Anyhow we have it on record that "he always seemed more mortified at the recollection of the bustle his parents made with his wit than pleased with the thoughts of possessing it;" and this remarkable juvenile effusion will, we fear, continue to be treasured as one of his genuine sallies, in spite of critical protests.

In 1712 he was brought to London to be touched by Queen Anne for the scrofula or king's evil; but unhappily he derived no benefit from the operation; and all that survived to him, in mature life, of that interview with Her Majesty was, as he put it, "a confused but somehow a sort of solemn recollection of a lady in diamonds and a long black hood." His vision was painfully affected by this malady; yet it is curious to read of his observation being so nice that a ribbon out of place did not escape him. Thus he once insisted upon Mrs. Thrale changing her dress before he would consent to be seen out of doors in her company. "It is very strange," he protested, "that such eyes

If I had sight only
Memorable,

as yours cannot discern propriety of dress. half as good, I think I should see to the centre." too, is the victory he gained in this respect over a lady little accustomed to contradiction, who had arrayed herself for church at Streatham one Sunday morning in a style he could not endure. So pungent were his criticisms of the several items of her attire that she hastened to change them; and, when she returned quite another figure, it is recorded that she received his applause and-what amazed her husband "who could scarcely believe his own ears"-thanked Johnson for the reproof he had administered to her. 'Blinking Sam's" optics certainly had a singular penetration of their own, disdaining all the rules of the Faculty.

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To

Indeed, explain it as we may, he was (in spite of his visual defect) most observant of the dress of the fair sex. One or two examples may well be given here. A lady whose accomplishments he appreciated came to the Thrale household one day, superb with diamonds and feathers and other adornments. the surprise of Mrs. Thrale, it was noticed that he evinced an indisposition to chat with his friend as usual; and inquiry disclosed the reason of his coolness. "Why, Madam,” he replied, "her head looked so like that of a woman who shows puppets, and her voice so confirmed the fancy, that I could not bear her to-day. When she wears a large cap, I can talk to her." Again: By way of testing his taste as to what he regarded as adornment becoming children, Mrs. Thrale, who had often been reproved by Johnson for not dressing her children better than she did, presented to him a little girl covered with shining ornaments. "Well, sir," inquired Mrs. Thrale after the departure of their tiny guest, "how did you like little miss? I hope she was fine enough." "It was the finery of a beggar," he answered; "and you know it was. She looked like a native of Cow Lane dressed up to be carried to Bartholomew Fair."

To resume the thread of our discourse, however. Between the

years 1716 and 1726 his youthful mind was under regulation at schools in Lichfield and Stourbridge, where the ease and rapidity with which he acquired knowledge easily secured for him the first place. The next two years were passed at home, not in settled study but in the gathering of miscellaneous information, which his father's bookshelves readily yielded to his wide though irregular researches. A happy future, he might have thought, was in store for him; but the paternal affairs had become so involved that all hope of going to either University was at an end. The kindness of a wealthy neighbour, however, enabled him to enter Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1728; and there he continued for about three years, when through stress of adverse circumstances he was compelled to leave without taking a degree. memory there survives the lapse of years; and the gate of Pembroke, under which the needy and rebellious scholar was wont to harangue an admiring circle of young students, is adorned with the effigy of its famous student.

His

Returning to his native city, he experienced adversity in full measure; for in the winter of 1731 he lost his father; and, with twenty pounds received from the estate of the unsuccessful bookseller, Johnson was thrown upon the world on his own resources. In the succeeding year his necessities compelled him to accept the post of usher in the school of Market-Bosworth in Leicestershire, the drudgery of which office he soon found to be intolerable; an additional aggravation being the harshness he experienced at the hands of the patron of the school, in whose house he officiated somewhat in the capacity of domestic chaplain to the extent, at any rate, of saying grace at table.

From all these troubles he was withdrawn to Birmingham by the kind hospitality of his old schoolfellow and intimate friend, Mr. Hector; under whose roof he executed a translation rom the Latin of the Portuguese Jesuit Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia. Early in 1734 he returned to Lichfield; and in August of that year he issued a proposal for printing by sub