By means of a paper which I have now before me, I am able to furnish, what I take to have been his method or plan of inftitution; and, as it may be deemed a curiofity, and may ferve the purpose of future inftructors of youth, I here infert it:

When the introduction or formation of nouns and verbs is perfectly mastered, the pupils learn

Corderius, by Mr. Clarke; beginning at the fame time to translate out of his introduction. They then proceed to

Erasmus, reading him with Clarke's translation. These books form the first class.

Class II.

Read Eutropius and Cornelius Nepos, or Juftin with the tranflation. The first class to repeat by memory, in the morning, the rules they had learned before; and, in the afternoon, the Latin rules of the nouns and verbs. They are alfo, on Thursdays and Saturdays to be examined in the rules they have learned.

The fecond clafs does the fame while in Eutropius; afterwards, they are to get and repeat the irregular nouns and verbs; and alfo, the rules for making and scanning verfes, in which they are to be examined as the first class.

Clafs III. Read Ovid's Metamorphofes in the morning, and Cæfar's Commentaries in the afternoon. Continue the Latin rules till they are perfect in them. Proceed then to Leeds's Greek Grammar, and are examined as before.

They then proceed to Virgil, beginning at the fame time to compofe themes and verfes,* and learn Greek, and from thence pass on to Horace, Terence, and Salluft. The Greek authors afterwards read are, firft, those in the Attic dialect, which are Cebes, Ælian, Lucian by Leeds, and Xenophon : next Homer in the Ionic, Theocritus Doric, Euripides Attic and Doric.

From two letters, first inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine, and fince in fundry other publications, from Mr. Walmsley to his friend the reverend Mr. Colfon, a mathematician, and, in his later years, Lucasian profeffor at Cambridge, little is to be learnt respecting the history of Johnfon and Garrick, at this period: the one wants the date of the month, the other that of the year; and though, in the order of their publication, the one immediately follows the other, there must have been fome interval between the times of writing the first and the laft. The first is dated in 1737, and, as it contains a recommendation of Garrick to Mr. Colfon, for inftruction in mathematics, philosophy, and human learning, leads us to fuppofe, that before the time of writing it, Johnson's scheme of taking in boarders had proved abortive. The latter, written in what year we know not, and inferted below, recommends both Johnfon and Garrick to his notice, the former as a good fcholar and one that gave hopes

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

of turning out a fine tragedy-writer; and, we are from good authority affured, that in March, in the year laft above-mentioned, they, on horse-back, arrived in town together.

'Dear Sir,

Lichfield, March 2.

I had the favour of yours, and am extremely 'obliged to you; but cannot fay, I had a greater 'affection for you upon it, than I had before, being long fince fo much endeared to you, as well by an early friendship, as by your many excellent and valuable qualifications. And, had I a fon of my own, it would be my ambition, instead of sending him to the univerfity, to difpofe of him as this young gen⚫tleman is.

C

• He and another neighbour of mine, one Mr. S. Johnson, fet out this morning for London together. Davy Garrick is to be with you early the next week, and Mr. Johnson to try his fate with a tragedy, and to fee to get himself employed in fome ⚫ tranflation either from the Latin or the French. Johnson is a very good scholar and a poet, and, I have great hopes, will turn out a fine tragedy< writer. If it fhould any ways lay in your way, 'doubt not but you would be ready to recommend and affift your countryman.

G. WALMSLEY.'

The hope fuggefted in this letter is grounded on a circumftance which will lead us back to about the year before he quitted his school at Edial. It must be imagined, the inftruction of fo fmall a number of scholars as were under his care, left him at leisure to purfue his

private studies and amufements, which, for the most part, confifted in defultory reading. Let it not excite wonder in any that fhall perufe thefe memoirs, to be told, that Burton on Melancholy was a book that he frequently reforted to for the purpose of exhilaration, or that, at times, he fhould find entertainment in turning over Knolles's voluminous and neglected hiftory of the Turks. In the many hours of leisure which he may be faid rather to have endured than enjoyed, we must suppose fome employed in the contemplation of his fortunes, the means of improving them, and of refifting the adverfe accidents to which human life is expofed, and of which he had already had fome experience. The stage holds forth temptations to men of genius, which many have been glad to embrace : the profits arifing from a tragedy, including the representation and printing of it, and the connections it fometimes enables the author to form, were in Johnfon's idea ineftimable; and, it is not impoffible, but that Garrick, who, before this time, had manifefted a propenfity towards the ftage, had fuggefted to him the thought of writing one: certain it is, that during his refidence at Edial, and under the eye of his friend Mr. Walmsley, he planned and completed that poem which gave this gentleman occafion to fay, he was likely to become a fine tragedy-writer.

He chofe for his story an action related by Knolles in his history above-mentioned with all the powers of the most affecting eloquence: to give it at large would be to tranfgrefs the limits I have prefcribed myself, and to abridge it would injure it: I will do neither; but referring the reader to the hiftorian himfelf, will relate it as a bare hiftorical fact.

Mahomet

Mahomet the Great, firft emperor of the Turks, in the year 1453 laid fiege to the city of Conftantinople, then poffeffed by the Greeks, and, after an obftinate refiftance, took and facked it. Among the many young women whom his commanders thought fit to lay hands on and prefent to him, was one, named Irene, a Greek, of incomparable beauty and fuch rare perfection of body and mind, that the emperor becoming enamoured of her, neglected the care of his government and empire for two whole years, and thereby fo exasperated the Janizaries and other of his warlike fubjects, that they mutinied, and threatened to dethrone him. To prevent this mischief, Mustapha Baffa, a perfon of credit with him, undertook to repregreat fent to him the great danger to which he lay expofed by the indulgence of his paffion: he called to his remembrance the characters, actions, and atchievements of many of his predeceffors, and the state of his government; and, in fhort, so roused him from his lethargy, that he took a horrible refolution to filence the clamours of his people, by the facrifice of this admirable creature: accordingly, on a future day, he commanded her to be dreffed and adorned in the richest manner that fhe and her attendants could devife, and against a certain hour iffued orders for the nobility and leaders of his army to attend him in the great hall of his palace. When they were all affembled, himself appeared with great pomp and magnificence, leading his late captive, but now abfolute mistress, by the hand, unconfcious of guilt and ignorant of his defign. With a furious and menacing look, he gave the beholders to understand, that he knew the cause of their discontent, and that he meant

to