LIFE.

SAMUEL JOHNSON was born in the Cathedral City of Lichfield, in the year 1709. His father was Michael Johnson, a magistrate and bookseller in that city, and like many booksellers of the present day, a man of culture and learning. Of his mother we know but little; JOHNSON says of her, "that like the children of other poor parents, he loved, but did not respect her."

Young SAMUEL was the subject of king's evilthe secret cause of a stream of tendency in society, which makes for drink and crime, insanity and suicide. To get deliverance from this affliction, his parents were superstitious enough to take the child to London, to be prayed over by the Court chaplain, and touched by the royal hand. The

prayer and the royal touch both passed away; but the evil remained.

Regarding his childhood, wonderful stories have been related by his parents, nurses, and biographers; many of which we do not believe, and will not here record.

Stella, Swift's friend, when she happened to meet in company any absurdly foolish person, at once acquiesced with them, "as it kept down noise, and saved time." We shall follow her example, rather than dispute the marvellous stories of JOHNSON'S childhood, many of which, in after years, he himself indignantly denied. We shall accept as an axiom, that all children, until they come to the years of discretion, are prodigies of learning, wit, and beauty; and with that acknowledgment pass

on.

From six to sixteen SAMUEL had a variety of teachers. His first was Dame Oliver, who kept an infant school. This worthy lady, when she heard that young JOHNSON was going to Oxford, went to say good-bye, presented him with a cake of ginger-bread, and said that he was the best scholar

that ever left her school. She had taught him the alphabet, and g-o go. His next instructor was Tom Brown, who wrote a spelling book, which he dedicated to the universe. Whether the universe I called for a second edition we know not. His third teacher was Mr. Hawkins, the under Master of Lichfield Grammar School, "a man," said JOHNSON, "very skilful in his little way." After two years of his tuition, he passed on to the head master, a Mr., afterwards Dr. Hunter, who was a vain man, and never entered the school without his "gown and wig." "He was also," says JOHNSON, "very severe and wrong headedly severe. He used to beat us unmercifully; and he did not distinguish between ignorance and negligence. He never taught a boy in his life, he whipped, and they learned." He managed to whack into SAMUEL a respectable knowledge of Latin, which he retained through life.

From the Lichfield schools, to which he was sometimes borne in triumph on the backs of his playfellows, he went to school in Stourbridge, in Worcestershire, where he remained a year. The

head master was a Mr. Wentworth, whom JOHNSON describes as an able, but idle man; very severe, but who taught him a great deal. He entered Oxford in 1728, from which he was driven in 1731, by the bankruptcy of his father, and the faithlessness of a friend, to whom he had looked for pecuniary help.

At School and College he was the dictator among his companions, as in after years he became the dictator of the literary world. A controversy has arisen as to the length of JOHNSON'S stay at Oxford. Croker affirms that he only remained there fourteen months. Boswell, however, who had access to the best sources of information, such as Dr. Adams, JOHNSON'S Tutor at Oxford, and Taylor, and Edwards, both college chums of JOHNSON, positively asserts that he was there three years. In a letter of Professor Chandlers, quoted in a recent publication, statistics are given from the Battels of Pembroke College, which prove conclusively that JOHNSON's residence extended. through three years. These statistics show that though the entries that refer to JOHNSON are not