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felf, and that having a father living, who was able to dispose of him in various other ways, he, after about two years ftay, left the college, and went home.

But the cafe of Johnson was far different: his fortunes were at fea; his title to a ftipend was gone, and all that he could obtain from the father of Mr. Corbet, was, an agreement, during his continuance at college, to pay for his commons. With no exhibition, or other means of support in the prosecution of his ftudies, he had nothing to depend on, fave the affiftance of a kind and indulgent parent. At that time the trade of a country bookfeller, even in a city where was a cathedral and an incorporation of ecclefiaftics, was lefs profitable than it is now; for though it may be faid, that during the reign of Queen Anne, multitudes of controverfial books and pamphlets were publishing, yet thefe yielded but fmall advantage to the mere venders of them: there were then no such publications for the mere amusement of young readers or idle perfons as the press now daily fends forth; nor had any bookseller entertained in his mind the project of a circulating library: from hence it is evident, that his father, having no other means of subsisting himfelf and his children, than the ordinary income of his fhop, was but little able to afford him any other than a fcanty maintenance.

of.

The want of that affiftance, which scholars in general derive from their parents, relations, and friends, foon became visible in the garb and appearance Johnson, which, though in fome degree concealed by a fcholar's gown, and that we know is never deemed the lefs honourable for being old, was fo apparent as to

excite pity in fome that faw and noticed him. Shall I be particular, and relate a circumftance of his diftress, that cannot be imputed to him as an effect of his own extravagance or irregularity, and confequently reflects no difgrace on his memory? He had scarce any change of raiment, and, in a fhort time after Corbet left him, but one pair of fhoes, and those fo old, that his feet were feen through them: a gentleman of his college, the father of an eminent clergyman now living, directed a fervitor one morning to place a new pair at the door of Johnson's chamber, who, feeing them upon his first going out, fo far forgot himfelf and the spirit that must have actuated his unknown benefactor, that, with all the indignation of an infulted man, he threw them away.

He may be supposed to have been under the age of twenty, when this imaginary indignity was offered him, a period of life at which, fo far as concerns the knowledge of mankind, and the means of improving adverfe circumstances, every one has much to learn: he had, doubtlefs, before this time, experienced the proud man's contumely;' and in this fchool of affliction might have first had reason to say,

Slow rifes worth by poverty depreft.'

his fpirit was, nevertheless, too great to fink under this depreffion. His tutor, Jordan, in about a year's fpace, went off to a living which he had been prefented to, upon giving a bond to refign it in favour of a minor, and Johnson became the pupil of Mr. Adams, a person of far fuperior endowments, who afterwards attained a doctor's degree, and is at this time head of his college. Encouraged, by a change fo propitious to his

ftudies,

fludies, he profecuted them with diligence, attended both public and private lectures, performed his exercifes with alacrity, and in fhort, neglected no means or opportunities of improvement. He had at this time a great emulation, to call it by no worse a name, to excel his competitors in literature. There was a young gentleman of his college, named Meekes, whofe exercises he could not bear to hear commended; and whenever he declaimed or difputed in the hall, Johnfon would retire to the farthest corner thereof, that he might be out of the reach of his voice.

In this course of learning, his favourite objects were claffical literature, ethics, and theology, in the latter whereof he laid the foundation by studying the Fathers. If we may judge from the magnitude of his Adverfaria, which I have now by me, his plan for ftudy was a very extenfive one. The heads of fcience, to the extent of fix folio volumes, are copiously branched throughout it; but, as is generally the cafe with young ftudents, the blank far exceed in number the written leaves.

To fay the truth, the courfe of his ftudies was far from regular: he read by fits and starts, and, in the intervals, digefted his reading by meditation, to which he was ever prone. Neither did he regard the hours of ftudy, farther than the difcipline of the college compelled him. It was the practice in his time, for a fervitor, by order of the mafter, to go round to the rooms of the young men, and knocking at the door, to enquire if they were within, and, if no answer was returned, to report them abfent: Johnfon could not endure this intrufion, and would frequently be filent, when the utterance of a word would have infured him from cenfure; and, farther to be revenged for being disturbed

when

when he was as profitably employed as perhaps he could be, would join with others of the young men in the college in hunting, as they called it, the fervitor, who was thus diligent in his duty; and this they did with the noise of pots and candlesticks, finging to the tune of Chevy-chace, the words in that old ballad,

< To drive the deer with hound and horn,' &c. not feldom to the endangering the life and limbs of the unfortunate victim.

These, and other fuch levities, marked his behaviour for a short time after his coming to college; but he foon convinced thofe about him, that he came thither for other purposes than to make fport either for himfelf or them. His exercifes were applauded, and his tutor was not fo fhallow a man, but that he could difcover in Johnson great skill in the claffics, and also a talent for Latin verfification, by fuch compofitions as few of his standing could equal *. Mr. Jordan taking advantage, therefore, of a tranfgreffion of this his pupil, the abfenting himself from early prayers, impofed on him for a vacation exercise, the task of tranflating into Latin verfe the Meffiah of Mr. Pope, which being fhewn to the author of the original, by a fon of Dr. Arbuthnot, then a gentleman-commoner of Chrift-church, and brother of the late Mr. Arbuthnot of the Exchequer-office, was read, and returned with this encomium: The writer of this poem will leave it a question for pofterity, whether his or mine

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Johnson had through his life a propensity to Latin compofition: he fhewed it very early at fchool, and while there made fome Latin verfes, for which the Earl of Berkshire, who was a good scholar, and had always a Horace in his pocket, gave him a guinea.

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⚫ be the original'.* This tranflation found its way into a miscellany published by fubfcription at Oxford, in the year 1731, under the name of J. Husbands.

He had but little relifh for mathematical learning, and was content with such a degree of knowledge in phyfics, as he could not but acquire in the ordinary exercises of the place: his fortunes and circumstances had determined him to no particular course of study, and were fuch as feemed to exclude him from every one of the learned profeffions. He, more than once, fignified to a friend who had been educated at the same school with him, then at Christchurch, and intended for the bar, an inclination to the practice of the civil or the common law; the former of these required a long courfe of academical inftitution, and how to fucced in the latter, he had not learned; † but his father's inability to fupport him checked

Mr. Pope, in another inftance, gave a proof of his candor and difpofition to encourage the effays of young men of genius. When Smart published his Latin tranflation of Mr. Pope's ode on St. Cecilia's day, Mr. Pope having read it, in a letter to Newbery the bookseller fome time after, returned his thanks to the author, with an affurance, that it exceeded his own original. This fact Newbery himself told me, and offered to fhew me the letter in Mr. Pope's hand-writing.

In the two profeffions of the civil and common law, a notable difference is difcernible: the former admits fuch only as have had the previous qualification of an univerfity education; the latter receives all whofe broken fortunes drive, or a confidence in their abilities tempts to feek a maintenance in it. Men of low extraction, domeftic fervants, and clerks to eminent lawyers, have become special pleaders and advocates; and, by an unrestrained abuse of the liberty of fpeech, have acquired popularity and wealth. A remarkable inftance of this kind occurs in the account of a famous lawyer of the last century, lord chief juftice Saunders, as exhibited in the life of the lord keeper Guilford, Page 223.

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