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1729.

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The particular course of his reading while at Oxford, and during the time of vacation which he passed at home, cannot be traced. Enough has been Ætat. 20. faid of his irregular mode of study. He told me, that from his earliest years he loved to read poetry, but hardly ever read any poem to an end; that he read Shakspeare at a period so early, that the speech of the Ghost in Hamlet terrified him when he was alone; that Horace's Odes were the compositions in which he took most delight, and it was long before he liked his Epistles and Satires. He told me what he read folidly at Oxford was Greek; not the Grecian historians, but Homer and Euripides, and now and then a little Epigram; that the study of which he was most fond was Metaphyficks, but he had not read much, even in that way. I always thought that he did himself injustice in his account of what he had read, and that he must have been speaking with reference to the vast portion of study which is possible, and to which a few scholars in the whole history of literature have attained; for when I once asked him whether a person whose name I have now forgotten, studied hard, he answered "No, Sir. I do not believe he studied hard. I never knew a man who studied hard. I conclude, indeed, from the effects, that some men have studied hard, as Bentley and Clarke." Trying him by that criterion upon which he formed his judgement of others, we may be abfolutely certain, both from his writings and his conversation, that his reading was very extensive. Dr. Adam Smith, than whom few are better judges on this fubject, once observed to me that "Johnfon knew more books than any man alive." He had a peculiar facility in seizing at once what was valuable in any book, without fubmitting to the labour of perusing it from beginning to end. He had, from the irritability of his constitution, at all times, an impatience and hurry when he either read or wrote. A certain apprehenfion, arifing from novelty, made him write his first exercise at College twice over; but he never took that trouble with any other composition; and we shall fee that his most excellent works were struck off at a heat, with rapid exertion.

Yet he appears, from his early notes or memorandums, in my poffeffion, to have at various times attempted, or at least planned, a methodical course of study, according to computation, of which he was all his life fond, as it fixed his attention steadily upon something without, and prevented his mind from preying upon itself. Thus I find in his hand-writing the number of lines in each of two of Euripides's Tragedies, of the Georgicks of Virgil, of the first fix books of the Æneid, of Horace's Art of Poetry, of three of the books of Ovid's Metamorphofis, of some parts of Theocritus, and of the tenth

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1729.

Satire of Juvenal; and a table, shewing at the rate of various numbers a Etat day, (I fuppose verses to be read) what would be, in each cafe, the total amount in a week, month, and year.

Ætat. 20.

No man had a more ardent love of literature, or a higher refpect for it, than Johnfon. His apartment in Pembroke College was that upon the second floor, over the gateway. The enthusiasts of learning will ever contemplate it with veneration. One day, while he was fitting in it quite alone, Dr. Panting, then master of the College, whom he called " a fine Jacobite fellow," overheard him uttering this soliloquy in his strong emphatick voice : "Well, I have a mind to see what is done in other places of learning. I'll go and visit the Universities abroad. I'll go to France and Italy. I'll go to Padua.And I'll mind my business. For an Athenian blockhead is the worst of all blockheads 5."

Dr. Adams told me, that Johnson, while he was at Pembroke College, " was caressed and loved by all about him, was a gay and frolicksome fellow, and passed there the happiest part of his life." But this is a striking proof of the fallacy of appearances, and how little any of us know of the real internal state even of those whom we see most frequently; for the truth is, that he was then depressed by poverty, and irritated by disease. When I mentioned to him this account as given me by Dr. Adams, he said, "Ah, Sir, I was mad and violent. It was bitterness which they mistook for frolick. I was miferably poor, and I thought to fight my way by my literature and my wit; so I disregarded all power and all authority."

The Bishop of Dromore observes in a letter to me, "The pleasure he took in vexing the tutors and fellows has been often mentioned. But I have heard him say, what ought to be recorded to the honour of the present venerable master of that College, the Reverend William Adams, D. D. who was then very young, and one of the junior fellows; that the mild but judicious expoftulations of this worthy man, whose virtue awed him, and whose learning he revered, made him really ashamed of himself, 'though I fear (faid he) I was too proud to own it.'

" I have heard from some of his cotemporaries that he was generally feen lounging at the College gate, with a circle of young students round him, whom he was entertaining with wit, and keeping from their studies, if not

5 I had this anecdote from Dr. Adams, and Dr. Johnson confirmed it. Bramston, in his "Man of Taste," has the same thought:

" Sure, of all blockheads, scholars are the worst."

spiriting

spiriting them up to rebellion against the College discipline, which in his maturer years he so much extolled."

He very early began to attempt keeping notes or memorandums, by way of a diary of his life. I find, in a parcel of loose leaves, the following spirited resolution to contend against his natural indolence : "Oft. 1729. Defidiæ valedixi; fyrenis istius cantibus furdam pofthac aurem obverfurus. I bid farewell to Sloth, being resolved henceforth not to liften to her fyren strains." I have also in my possession a few leaves of another Libellus, or little book, entitled ANNALES, in which some of the early particulars of his hiftory are registered in Latin.

I do not find that he formed any close intimacies with his fellow-collegians. But Dr. Adams told me, that he contracted a love and regard for Pembroke College, which he retained to the last. A short time before his death he sent to that College a present of all his works, to be deposited in their library, and he had thoughts of leaving to it his house at Lichfield; but his friends who were about him very properly diffuaded him from it, and he bequeathed it to some poor relations. He took a pleasure in boasting of the many eminent men who had been educated at Pembroke. In this lift are found the names of Spenser, Mr. Hawkins the Poetry Professor, Mr. Shenstone, Sir William Blackstone, and others, not forgetting the celebrated popular preacher, Mr. George Whitefield, of whom, though Dr. Johnson did not think very highly, it must be acknowledged that his eloquence was powerful, his views pious and charitable, his affiduity almost incredible; and, that fince his death, the integrity of his character has been fully vindicated. Being himself a poet, Johnson was peculiarly happy in mentioning how many of the fons of Pembroke were poets; adding, with a smile of sportive triumph, "Sir, we are a nest of finging birds."

He was not, however, blind to what he thought the defects of his own College; and I have, from the information of Dr. Taylor, a very strong instance of that rigid honesty which he ever inflexibly preserved. Taylor had obtained his father's consent to be entered of Pembroke, that he might be with his schoolfellow Johnson, with whom, though some years older than himself, he was very intimate. This would have been a great comfort to Johnfon. But he fairly told Taylor that he could not, in confcience, fuffer him to enter where he knew he could not have an able tutor. He then made inquiry all round the University, and having found that Mr. Bateman, of

See Nash's History of Worcestershire, Vol. I. p. 529.

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1730. Ætat. 21, 1731.

Atat, 22.

Chrift-Church, was the tutor of highest reputation, Taylor was entered of that College. Mr. Bateman's lectures were so excellent, that Johnson used to come and get them at second-hand from Taylor, till his poverty being fo extreme, that his shoes were worn out, and his feet appeared through them, he faw that this humiliating circumstance was perceived by the Christ-churchmen, and he came no more. He was too proud to accept of money, and fomebody having fet a pair of new shoes at his door, he threw them away with indignation. How must we feel when we read fuch an anecdote of Samuel Johnfon!

His fpirited refusal of an eleemofynary supply of shoes, arose, no doubt, from a proper pride. But, confidering his afcetick disposition at times, as acknowledged by himself in his Meditations, and the exaggeration with which fome have treated the peculiarities of his character; I should not wonder to hear it ascribed to a principle of fuperftitious mortification; as we are told by Turfsellinus, in his Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, that this intrepid founder of the order of Jesuits, when he arrived at Goa, after having made a severe pilgrimage through the eastern deferts, perfifted in wearing his miferable shattered shoes, and when new ones were offered him, rejected them as an unfuitable indulgence.

The res angufta domi prevented him from having the advantage of a com◆plete academical education. The friend to whom he had trusted for fupport had deceived him. His debts in College, though not great, were increasing; and his fcanty remittances from Lichfield, which had all along been made with great difficulty, could be supplied no longer, his father having fallen into a state of insolvency. Compelled, therefore, by irrefiftible neceffity, he left the College in autumn, 1731, without a degree, having been a member of it little more than three years.

Dr. Adams, the worthy and respectable master of Pembroke College, has generally had the reputation of being Johnson's tutor. The fact, however, is, that in 1731 Mr. Jorden quitted the College, and his pupils were tranfferred to Dr. Adams; so that had Johnson returned, Dr. Adams would have been bis tutor. It is to be wished, that this connection had taken place. His equal temper, mild disposition, and politeness of manners, might have inferrsibly softened the harshness of Johnson, and infused into him those more delicate charities, that petite morale, in which, it must be confefsed, our great moralist was more deficient than his best friends could fully justify. Dr. Adams paid Johnson this high compliment. He faid to me at Oxford, in 1776, "I was his nominal tutor, but he was above my mark." When I repeated

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repeated it to Johnson, his eyes flashed with grateful fatisfaction, and he exclaimed, "That was liberal and noble."

And now (I had almost said poor) Samuel Johnson returned to his native city, destitute, and not knowing how he should gain even a decent livelihood. His father's misfortunes in trade rendered him unable to support his fon; and for fome time there appeared no means by which he could maintain himself. In the December of this year his father died.

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The state of poverty in which he died, appears from a note in one of Johnson's little diaries of the following year, which strongly displays his spirit and virtuous dignity of mind. 1732, Julii 15. Undecim aureos deposui, quo die quicquid ante matris funus (quod ferum fit precor) de paternis bonis fperari licet, viginti Jcilicet libras accepi. Ufque adeo mihi fortuna fingenda est. Interea, ne paupertate vires animi languefcant, nec in flagitia egestas abigat, cavendum.I layed by eleven guineas on this day, when I received twenty pounds, being all that I have reason to hope for out of my father's effects, previous to the death of my mother; an event which I pray God may be very remote. I now, therefore, see that I must make my own fortune. Meanwhile, let me take care that the powers of my mind may not be debilitated by poverty, and that indigence do not force me into any criminal act."

Johnson was fo far fortunate, that the respectable character of his parents, and his own merit, had, from his earliest years, secured him a kind reception in the best families at Lichfield. Among these I can mention Mr. Howard, Dr. Swinfen, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Levett, Captain Garrick, father of the great ornament of the British stage; but above all, Mr. Gilbert Walmsley", Regifter of the Prerogative Court of Lichfield, whose character, long after his decease, Dr. Johnson has, in his life of Edmund Smith, thus drawn in the glowing colours of gratitude:

"Of Gilbert Walmsley, thus presented to my mind, let me indulge myself in the remembrance. I knew him very early; he was one of the first friends that literature procured me, and I hope that, at least, my gratitude made me worthy of his notice.

"He was of an advanced age, and I was only not a boy; yet he never received my notions with contempt. He was a whig, with all the virulence

Mr. Warton informs me, "that this early friend of Johnson was entered a Commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, aged 17, in 1698; and is the authour of many Latin verse tranflations in the Gentleman's Magazine. One of them is a tranflation of

"My time, O ye Muses, was happily spent, &c."

1731. Ætat. zz.

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