THE

LIFE

O F

Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

T

HE general sense of mankind, and the practice of the learned in all ages, have given a fanction to biographical hiftory, and concurred to recommend that precept of the wife fon of Sirach, in which we are exhorted to praise famous men, fuch as by their counfels and by their knowledge of learning were meet for the people,-and were wife and eloquent in their inftructions, and fuch as recited verfes in writing*.' In each of these faculties did the perfon, whofe hiftory I am about to write, fo greatly excel, that, except for my prefumption in the attempt to display his worth, the undertaking may be thought to need no apology; efpecially if we contemplate, together with his mental endowments, thofe moral qualities which diftinguished him, and reflect that, in an age when literary acquifitions and Ecclus. Chap. XLIV. Verfe 1, et feqq.

VOL. I,

B

fcientific

fcientific improvements are rated at their utmoft value, he refted not in the applaufe which thefe procured him; but adorned the character of a scholar and a philofopher with that of a chriftian.

Juftified, as I truft, thus far in the opinion of the reader, I may, nevertheless, ftand in need of his excufe; for that, in the narration of facts that refpect others, I have oftener fpoke of myfelf, and in my own perfon, than the practice of fome writers will warrant. To this objection, if any fhall please to make it, I anfwer, that the reverfe of wrong is not always right. By the office I have undertaken I ftand engaged to relate facts to which I was a witnefs, converfations in which I was a party, and to record memorable fayings uttered only to myfelf. Whoever attends to thefe circumftances, muft, befides the difguft which fuch an affectation of humility would excite, be convinced, that in fome inftances, the avoiding of egotifims had been extremely difficult, and in many impoffible.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, the fubject of the following memoirs, was the elder of the two fons of Michael Johnfen, of the city of Lichfield bookfeller, and of Sarah his wife, a fifter of Dr. Jofeph Ford, a phyfician of great eminence, and father of the famous Cornelius otherwife called Parfon Ford.* He was born, as I

find

Of this perfon, who yet lives in the remembrance of a few of his afiociates, little can be related but from oral tradition. He was, as I have heard Johnfon fy, a man of great wit and ftupendous parts, but of very profligate manners. He was chaplain to Lord Cleerfield during his refidence at the Hague; but, as his lordship

was

find it noted in his diary, on the feventh day of September, 1709: his brother, named Nathanael, was born fome years after. Mr. Johnson was a man of eminence in his trade, and of fuch reputation in the city abovementioned, that he, more than once, bore, for a year, the office of bailiff or chief magiftrate thereof, and discharged the duties of that exalted ftation with honour and applaufe. It may here be proper, as it will account for fome particulars refpecting the character of his fon Samuel, to mention, that his political principles led him to favour the pretenfions of the exiled family, and that though a very honeft and fenfible man, he, like many others inhabiting the county of Stafford, was a Jacobite.

It may farther be fuppofed, that he was poffeffed of some amiable qualities either moral or perfonal, from a circumstance in his early life, of which evidence is yet remaining. While he was an apprentice at Leek in Staffordshire, a young woman of the fame town fell in love with him, and upon his removal to Lichfield followed him, and took lodgings oppofite his houfe. Her paffion was not unknown to Mr. Johnfon, but he had no inclination to return it, till he heard that it fo affected her mind that her life was in danger, when he vifited her, and made her a tender of his hand, but feeling the approach of death, fhe declined it, and fhortly after died, and was interred in Lichfield cathedral. In pity

was used to tell him, precluded all hope of preferment by the want of a vice, namely, hypocrify. It was fuppofed that the parfon in Hogarth's modern midnight converfation, was intended to reprefent him in his hour of feftivity, four in the morning.

to her fufferings, Mr. Johnfon caufed a ftone to be placed over her grave with this infcription :

Here lies the body of

Mrs. ELIZABETH BLANEY, a stranger.

She departed this life,

2d of September, 1694.

The first born child of Mr. Johnfon and his wife, their fon Samuel, had the misfortune to receive, together with its nutriment derived from a hired nurse, the feeds of that difeafe which troubled him through life, the ftruma, or, as it is called, the king's-evil; for the cure whereof his mother, agreeable to the opinion then entertained of the efficacy of the royal touch, prefented him to Queen Anne, who, for the laft time, as it is faid, that the ever performed that office, with her accustomed grace and benignity adminiftered to the child as much of that healing quality as it was in her power to difpenfe, and hung about his neck the ufual amulet of an angel of gold, with the imprefs of St. Michael the archangel on the one fide, and a fhip under full fail on the other. It was probably

this

This healing gift is faid to have been derived to our princes from Edward the Confeffor, and is recorded by his hiftorian, Alured Rivallenfis. In Stow's annals we have a relation of the first cure of this kind which Edward performed; but, as it is rather difgufting to read it, I chufe to give it in the words of the author from whence it is apparently taken, with this remark, that the kings of France lay claim to the fame miraculous power. Adolefcentula quædam tradita nuptiis duplici laborabat incommodo. Nam faciem ejus morbus de⚫ formaverat, amorem viri fterilitas prolis ademerat: fub faucibus quippe quafi glandes ei fuccreverant, quæ totam faciem deformi tumore fudantes, putrefactis fub cute humoribus, fanguinem in faniem

verterant,

this disease that deprived him of the fight of his left eye, for he has been heard to fay, that he never remembered to have enjoyed the use of it.

⚫verterant, inde nati vermes odorem teterrimum exhalabant. Ita ⚫ viro incutiebat morbus horrorem, fterilitas minuebat affectum. • Vivebat infelix mulier odiofa marito, parentibus onerofa. Rarus ⚫ ad eam vel amicorum acceffus propter fætorem, vel afpectus viri ⚫ propter horrorem. Hinc dolor, hinc lacrimæ, hinc die noctuque fufpiria, cum ei vel fterilitas opprobrium, vel contemptum infir⚫mitas generaret. Induftriam medicorum avertebat inopia. Quid • ageret mifera ? Quod folum fupererat, ubi humanum deerat divinum precabatur auxilium, quafi in illam illius æque miferæ mulieris vocem erumpens, Peto, Domine, ut de vinculo improperii hujus abfolvas me, aut certe fuper terram eripias me. Jubetur tandem in • fomnis adire palacium, ex regiis manibus fperare remedium, quibus fi lota, fi tacta, fi fignata foret, reciperet ejus meritis fanitatem. Expergefacta mulier, fexus fimul et conditionis oblita, ⚫ prorumpit in curiam, regis se repræfentat obtutibus, exponit oraculum, auxilium deprecatur. Ille more fuo victus pietate, nec fordes cavit, nec fætorem exhorruit. Allata denique aqua, partes corporis quas morbus fœdaverat propriis manibus lavit, locaque tumentia ⚫ contrectans digitis fignum fanétæ crucis impreffit. Quid plura ? ⚫ Subito rupta cute, cum fanie vermes ebulliunt, refedit tumor, dolor omnis abceffit: ammirantibus qui aderant tantam fub purpura fanctitatem, tantam fceptrigeris manibus ineffe virtutem. Paucis vero diebus fubftitit in curia mulier regiis miniftris neceffaria mi⚫niftrantibus, donec obducta vulneribus cicatrice incolumis rediret ad propria. Verum ut nichil deeffet regi ad gloriam, pauperculæ ⚫ nichil ad gratiam, donatur fterili inopina fœcunditas, ventrisque sui ⚫ defiderato fructu ditata, facile fibi mariti gratiam conciliavit.'

The reader will find much curious matter relating to the royal touch, in Mr. Barrington's obfervations on ancient statutes 107, and in Chambers's dictionary, art. EVIL, to which I shall add, that the vindication of this power, as inherent in the pretender, by Mr. Carte, deftroyed the credit of his intended hiftory of England, and put a stop to the completion of it.

The ritual for this is to be found in Bishop Sparrow's collection of articles, canons, &c. and alfo in all or moft of the impreffions of the Common Prayer Book, printed in Queen Anne's reign, but in these latter with great variations.