Lowe, afterwards Canon of Windfor; who was tutor to the prefent Marquis Townshend, and his brother Charles. Indeed Johnson was very fenfible how much he owed to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Langton one day asked him how he had acquired fo accurate a knowledge of Latin, in which, I believe, he was exceeded by no man of his time, he said, "My mafter whipt me very well. Without that, Sir, I should have done nothing." He told Mr. Langton, that while Hunter was flogging his boys unmercifully, he used to say, " And this I do to fave you from the gallows." Johnfon, upon all occafions, expreffed his approbation of enforcing inftruction by means of the rod. "I would rather (said he) have the rod to be the general terrour to all, to make them learn, than tell a child, if you do thus, or thus, you will be more esteemed than your brothers or fifters. The rod produces an effect which terminates in itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his tafk, and there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation and comparisons of fuperiority, you lay the foundation of lasting mischief; you make brothers and fifters hate each other." Mr. Langton told me, that when Johnson faw fome young ladies in Lincolnshire who were remarkably well behaved, owing to their mother's strict difcipline and fevere correction, he exclaimed, in one of Shakspeare's lines a little varied, "Rod, I will honour thee for this thy duty." That fuperiority over his fellows, which he maintained with fo much dignity in his march through life, was not affumed from vanity and oftentation, but was the natural and conftant effect of thofe extraordinary powers of mind, of which he could not but be conscious by comparison; the intellectual difference, which in other cafes of comparison of characters is often a matter of undecided conteft, being as clear in his cafe as the fuperiority of ftature in some men above others. Johnson did not strut or stand on tip-toe: He only did not stoop. From his earliest years, his fuperiority was perceived and acknowledged. He was from the beginning Ava Avdpv, a king of men. His schoolfellow, Mr. Hector, has obligingly furnished me with many particulars of his boyish days; and affured me, that he never knew him corrected at school, but for talking and diverting other boys from their business. He feemed to learn by intuition; for though indolence and procrastination were inherent in his conftitution, whenever he made an exertion he did more than any one elfe. In fhort, he is a memorable inftance of what has been often obferved, that the boy is the man in miniature; and that the distinguishing characteristicks of each individual are the same, through the whole courfe of life. His favourites used to receive very liberal assistance from from him; and fuch was the fubmiffion and deference with which he was treated, fuch the defire to obtain his regard, that three of the boys, of whom Mr. Hector was sometimes one, used to come in the morning as his humble attendants, and carry him to school. One in the middle stooped, while he fat upon his back, and one on each fide fupported him; and thus he was borne triumphant. Such a proof of the early predominance of intellectual vigour is very remarkable, and does honour to human nature. Talking to me once himself of his being much diftinguished at fchool, he told me, they never thought to raise me by comparing me to any one; they never faid, Johnson is as good a scholar as fuch a one; but fuch a one is as good a scholar as Johnson; and this was said but of one, but of Lowe; and I do not think he was as good a scholar." He discovered a great ambition to excel, which roused him to counteract his indolence. He was uncommonly inquifitive; and his memory was fo tenacious, that he never forgot any thing that he either heard or read. Mr. Hector remembers having recited to him eighteen verses, which, after a little pause, he repeated verbatim, varying only one epithet, by which he improved the line. He never joined with the other boys in their ordinary diverfions; his only amusement was in winter, when he took a pleasure in being drawn upon the ice by a boy barefooted, who pulled him along by a garter fixed round him ; no very easy operation, as his fize was remarkably large. His defective fight, indeed, prevented him from enjoying the common fports; and he once pleasantly remarked to me, how wonderfully well he had contrived to be idle without them. Lord Chesterfield, however, has juftly obferved in one of his letters, when earnestly cautioning a friend against the pernicious effects of idleness, that active sports are not to be reckoned idleness in young people; and that the liftles torpor of doing nothing, alone deferves that name. Of this dismal inertness of difpofition, Johnson had all his life too great a share. Mr. Hector relates, that " he could not oblige him more than by fauntering away the hours of vacation in the fields, during which he was more engaged in talking to himself than to his companion." Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, who was long intimately acquainted with him, and has preferved a few anecdotes concerning him, regretting that he was not a more diligent collector, informs me, that " when a boy he was immoderately fond of reading romances of chivalry, and he retained his fondnefs for them through life; fo that (adds his Lordship) spending part of a fummer at my parfonage-house in the country, he chofe for his regular read ing 1725. Etat. 16. ing the old Spanish romance of FELIXMARTE OF HIRCANIA, in folio, which he read quite through. Yet I have heard him attribute to thefe extravagant fictions, that unsettled turn of mind which prevented his ever fixing in any profeffion." After having refided for fome time at the house of his uncle, Cornelius Ford, Johnfon was, at the age of fifteen, removed to the fchool of Stourbridge, in Worcestershire, of which Mr. Wentworth was then mafter. This step was taken by the advice of his coufin, the Reverend Mr. Ford, a man in whom both talents and good difpofitions were difgraced by licentiousness, but who was a very able judge of what was right. At this school he did not receive so much benefit as was expected. It has been faid, that he acted in the capacity of an affiftant to Mr. Wentworth, in teaching the younger boys. "Mr. Wentworth (he told me) was a very able man, but an idle man, and to me very fevere; but I cannot blame him much. I was then a big boy; he faw I did not reverence him; and that he should get no honour by me. I had brought enough with me, to carry me through; and all I should get at his fchool would be afcribed to my own labour, or to my former master. Yet he taught me a great deal." He thus difcriminated, to Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, his progress at his two grammar-schools. "At one, I learnt much in the fchool, but little from the master; in the other, I learnt much from the mafter, but little in the school." The Bishop alfo informs me, that "Dr. Johnfon's father, before he was received at Stourbridge, applied to have him admitted as a scholar and affiftant to the Reverend Samuel Lea, M. A. head master of Newport fchool, in Shropshire, (a very diligent good teacher, at that time in high reputation, under whom Mr. Hollis is faid, in the Memoirs of his Life, to have been alfo educated'). This application to Mr. Lea was not fuccessful; but Johnson had afterwards the gratification to hear that the old gentleman, who lived to a very advanced age, mentioned it as one of the most memorable events of his life, that " he was very near having that great man for his scholar." He remained at Stourbridge little more than a year, and then returned home, where he may be faid to have loitered, for two years, in a state very unworthy his uncommon abilities. He had already given feveral proofs of his poetical genius, both in his fchool-exercises and in other occafional He is faid to be the original of the parfon in Hogarth's Modern Midnight Converfation. 3 compofitions. compofitions. Of thefe I have obtained a confiderable collection, by the favour of Mr. Wentworth, fon of one of his mafters, and of Mr. Hector, his fchoolfellow and fiiend; from which I felect the following fpecimens: Tranflation of HORACE, Book I. Ode xxii. THE man, my friend, whofe confcious heart Nor taints with death the envenom'd dart, Though Scythia's icy cliffs he treads, For while by Chloe's image charm'd, No favage more portentous ftain'd Dire nurse of raging lions, bore. Place me where no foft fummer gale Place me beneath the burning line, A clime deny'd to human race; I'll fing of Chloe's charms divine, Her heav'nly voice, and beauteous face. Tranflation of HORACE, Book II. Ode ix. CLOUDS do not always veil the fkies, Nor do the billows always rife, Or ftorms afflict the ruffled main. Nor |