you call him the great boy, but take my word for it, he will one day prove a great man.'

A more particular character of him while a fchoolboy, and of his behaviour at fchool, I find in a paper now before me, written by a perfon yet living, and of which the following is a copy:

'Johnson and I were, early in life, fchool-fellows at < Lichfield, and for many years in the fame clafs. As his uncommon abilities for learning far exceeded us, • we endeavoured by every bovih piece of flattery to 'gain his affiftance, and three of us, by turns, ufed to ⚫ call on him in a morning, on one of whofe backs, fupported by the other two, he rode triumphantly to school. He never affociated with us in any of our diverfions, except in the winter when the ice was 'firm, to be drawn along by a boy bare footed. His • ambition to excel was great, though his application to books, as far as it appeared, was very trifling. I ⚫ could not oblige him more than by fauntering away every vacation, that occurred, in the fields, during which time he was more engaged in talking to him felf than his companion. Verfes or themes he would dictate to his favourites, but he would never be at the trouble of writing them. His diflike to bufinefs was fo great, that he would procraftinate his exercifes to the laft hour. I have known him after a

long vacation, in which we were rather feverely ⚫ tasked, return to school an hour earlier in the morn

ing, and begin one of his exercifes, in which he pur

pofely left fome faults, in order to gain time to finish ⚫ the rest.

I never knew him corrected at fchool, unless it was for talking and diverting other boys from their • bufinefs,

B 4

bufinefs, by which, perhaps, he might hope to keep his afcendancy. He was uncommonly inquifitive, and his memory fo tenacious, that whatever he read ' or heard he never forgot. I remember rehearsing ⚫ to him eighteen verfes, which after a little pause he repeated verbatim, except one epithet, which improved the line.

After a long abfence from Lichfield, when he returned I was apprehenfive of fomething wrong in his conftitution, which might either impair his intellect or endanger his life, but, thanks to Almighty God, fears have proved falfe.'

my

In the autumn of the year 1725, he received an invitation from his uncle, Cornelius Ford, to spend a few days with him at his houfe, which I conjecture to have been on a living of his in one of the counties bordering upon Staffordshire; but it feems that the uncle, discovering that the boy was poffeffed of uncommon parts, was unwilling to let him return, and to make up for the lofs he might fuftain by his abfence from fchool, became his inftructor in the claflics, and farther affifted him in his ftudies; fo that it was not till the Whitfuntide following, that Johnson went back to Lichfield. Whether Mr. Hunter was difpleafed to find a vifit of a few days protracted into a vacation of many months, or that he refented the interference of another person in the tuition of one of his scholars, and he one of the most promifing of any under his care, cannot now be known; but, it feems, that at Johnfon's return to Lichfield, he was not received into the school of that city; on the contrary, I am informed, by a perfon who was his fchool-fellow there, that he was placed in one at Stourbridge in Worcefterfhire, under the care of a mafter named Winkworth,

but who, affecting to be thought allied to the Strafford family, affumed the name of Wentworth.

When his fchool education was finished, his father, whofe circumstances were far from affluent, was for some time at a lofs how to dispose of him: he took him home, probably with a view to bring him up to his own trade; for I have heard Johnfon fay, that he himself was able to bind a book. This fufpenfe continued about two years, at the end whereof, a neighbouring gentleman, Mr. Andrew Corbet, having a fon, who had been educated in the fame school with Johnson, whom he was about to fend to Pembroke college in Oxford, a propofal was made and accepted, that Johnfon fhould attend this fon thither, in quality of affiftant in his ftudies; and accordingly, on the 31st day of October, 1728, they were both entered, Corbet as a gentleman-commoner, and Johnson

as a commoner.

The college tutor, at that time, was a man named Jordan, whom Johnson, though he loved him for the goodness of his nature; fo contemned for the meannefs of his abilities, that he would oftener rifque the payment of a small fine than attend his lectures; nor was he ftudious to conceal the reafon of his abfence. Upon occafion of one fuch impofition, he faid to Jordan, Sir, you have sconced me two-pence for nonattendance at a lecture not worth a penny.'

Whether it was this difcouragement in the outfet of their studies, or any other ground of difinclination that moved him to it, is not known, but this is certain, that young Corbet could not brook fubmiffion to a man who seemed to be little more learned than himself, and

that

that having a father living, who was able to difpofe 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 fupport in the profecution 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 controversial books and pamphlets were publishing, yet thefe yielded but small advantage to the mere venders of them: there were then no fuch publications for the mere amusement of young readers or idle persons as the press now daily fends forth; nor had any bookfeller entertained in his mind the project of a circulating library: from hence it is evident, that his father, having no other means of fubfifting himself and his children, than the ordinary income of his fhop, was but little able to afford him any other than a fcanty main

tenance.

The want of that affistance, which scholars in gene ral derive from their parents, relations, and friends, foon became visible in the garb and appearance of Johnson, which, though in fome degree concealed by a fcholar's gown, and that we know is never deemed the less 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 diftrefs, 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 fcarce any change of raiment, and, in a fhort time after Corbet left him, but one pair of fhoes, and those so 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 go: ing out, fo far forgot himself and the spirit that muft 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, so 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 school 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 perfon 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

studies,