1 1729. opinion, when they had fuch undoubted proofs that it was totally fallacious; though it is by no means furprising that those who wish to depreciate him, Etat. 20. fhould, fince his death, have laid hold of this circumstance, and infifted upon it with very unfair aggravation. Amidst the oppreffion and distraction of a disease which very few have felt in its full extent, but many have experienced in a flighter degree, Johnson, in his writings, and in his conversation, never failed to display all the varieties of intellectual excellence. In his march through this world to a better, his mind still appeared grand and brilliant, and impreffed all around him with the truth of Virgil's noble fentiment-" Igneus eft ollis vigor et cæleftis origo." The history of his mind as to religion is an important article. I have mentioned the early impreffions made upon his tender imagination by his mother, who continued her pious care with affiduity, but, in his opinion, not with judgement. "Sunday (faid he) was a heavy day to me when I was a boy. My mother confined me on that day, and made me read The Whole Duty of Man,' from a great part of which I could derive no inftruction. When, for inftance, I had read the chapter on theft, which from my infancy I had been taught was wrong, I was no more convinced that theft was wrong than before; fo there was no acceffion of knowledge. A boy should be introduced to fuch books, by having his attention directed to the arrangement, to the stile, and other excellencies of compofition; that the mind being thus engaged by an amufing variety of objects, may not grow weary." He communicated to me the following particulars upon the subject of his religious progrefs. "I fell into an inattention to religion, or an indifference about it, in my ninth year. The church at Lichfield, in which we had a feat, wanted reparation, fo I was to go and find a feat in other churches; and having bad eyes, and being aukward about this, I used to go and read in the fields on Sunday. This habit continued till my fourteenth year; and ftill I find a great reluctance to go to church. I then became a fort of lax talker against religion, for I did not much think against it; and this lafted till I went to Oxford, where it would not be fuffered. When at Oxford, I took up 'Law's Serious Call to the Unconverted,' expecting to find it a dull book, (as fuch books generally are,) and perhaps to laugh at it. But I found Law quite an overmatch for me; and this was the firft occafion of my thinking in earnest of religion, after I became capable of rational inquiry 4." From this time forward, Mrs. Piozzi has given a ftrange fantaftical account of the origin of Dr. Johnfon's belief in our moft holy religion, "At the age of ten years his mind was difturbed by fcruples of infidelity, which preyed 1729. Etat. 20. forward, religion was the predominant object of his thoughts; though, with the just sentiments of a confcientious chriftian, he lamented that his practice of its duties fell far fhort of what it ought to be. This inftance of a mind fuch as that of Johnson being firft difpofed, by an unexpected incident, to think with anxiety of the momentous concerns of eternity, and of " what he should do to be faved,” may for ever be produced in oppofition to the fuperficial and fometimes profane contempt that has been thrown upon those occafional impreffions which it is certain many chriftians have experienced; though it must be acknowledged that weak minds, from an erroneous fuppofition that no man is in a state of grace who has not felt a particular converfion, have, in fome cafes, brought a degree of ridicule upon them; a ridicule, of which it is inconfiderate or unfair to make a general application. How seriously Johnfon was impreffed with a fenfe of religion, even in the vigour of his youth, appears from the following paffage in his minutes kept by way of diary: "Sept. 7, 1736. I have this day entered upon my 28th year. Mayeft thou, O GOD, enable me, for JESUS CHRIST's fake, to fpend this in fuch a manner, that I may receive comfort from it at the hour of death, and in the day of judgement! Amen." preyed upon his fpirits, and made him very uneafy, the more fo, as he revealed his uneafinefs to none, being naturally (as he faid) of a fullen temper, and reserved difpofition. He fearched, however, diligently, but fruitlessly, for evidences of the truth of revelation; and, at length, recollecting a book he had once feen [I suppose at five years old] in his father's fhop, intitled De veritate Religionis, &c. he began to think himself highly culpable for neglecting fuch a means of information, and took himfelf severely to task for this fin, adding many acts of voluntary, and, to others, unknown pennance. The first opportunity which offered, of courfe, he feized the book with avidity; but, on examination, not finding himself fcholar enough to perufe its contents, fet his heart at reft; and not thinking to enquire whether there were any English books written on the fubject, followed his ufual amufements, and confidered his confcience as lightened of a crime. He redoubled his diligence to learn the language that contained the information he most wished for; but from the pain which guilt [namely, having omitted to read what he did not understand] had given him, he now began to deduce the foul's immortality, [a fenfation of pain in this world being an unquestionable proof of existence in another] which was the point that belief first stopped at; and from that moment refolving to be a Chriftian, became one of the moft zealous and pious ones our nation ever produced." Anecdotes, p. 17. This is one of the numerous mifreprefentations of this lively lady, which it is worth while to correct; for if credit should be given to such a childish, irrational, and ridiculous statement of the foundation of Dr. Johnfon's faith in Chriftianity, how little credit would be due to it. Mrs. Piozzi feems to wifh, that the world fhould think Dr. Johnfon also under the influence of that eafy logick, Stet pro ratione voluntas. The The particular course of his reading while at Oxford, and during the time of vacation which he paffed at home, cannot be traced. Enough has been faid of his irregular mode of ftudy. 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 fo early, that the speech of the Ghost in Hamlet terrified him when he was alone; that Horace's Odes were the compofitions in which he took most delight, and it was long before he liked his Epiftles and Satires. He told me what he read folidly at Oxford was Greek; not the Grecian hiftorians, but Homer and Euripides, and now and then a little Epigram; that the study of which he was moft 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 poffible, and to which a few scholars in the whole hiftory of literature have attained; for when I once asked him whether a perfon whofe name I have now forgotten, ftudied 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 fome 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 converfation, that his reading was very extenfive. Dr. Adam Smith, than whom few are better judges on this fubject, once obferved to me that "Johnfon knew more books than any man alive." He had a peculiar facility in feizing at once what was valuable in any book, without fubmitting to the labour of perufing it from beginning to end. He had, from the irritability of his conftitution, at all times, an impatience and hurry when he either read or wrote. A certain apprehenfion, arifing from novelty, made him write his firft exercise at College twice over; but he never took that trouble with any other compofition; and we shall fee that his moft excellent works were ftruck 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 leaft planned, a methodical course of study, according to computation, of which he was all his life fond, as it fixed his attention steadily upon fomething 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 firft fix books of the Æneid, of Horace's Art of Poetry, of three of the books of Ovid's Metamorphofis, of fome parts of Theocritus, and of the tenth 729. 1729. Etat. 20. Satire of Juvenal; and a table, fhewing at the rate of various numbers a day, (I fuppofe verfes to be read) what would be, in each cafe, the total amount in a week, month, and year. No man had a more ardent love of literature, or a higher refpect for it, than Johnson. 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 foliloquy in his strong emphatick voice: " Well, I have a mind to see what is done in other places of learning. I'll go and vifit 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 "." Dr. Adams told me, that Johnson, while he was at Pembroke College, "was careffed and loved by all about him, was a gay and frolickfome 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 fee moft frequently; for the truth is, that he was then depreffed by poverty, and irritated by disease. When I mentioned to him this account as given me by Dr. Adams, he faid, “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; fo I difregarded all power and all authority." The Bishop of Dromore obferves in a letter to me, "The pleasure he took in vexing the tutors and fellows has been often mentioned. But I have heard him fay, 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, whofe virtue awed him, and whofe 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 fome 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 s I had this anecdote from Dr. Adams, and Dr. Johnfon confirmed it. Bramfton, in his Man of Tafte," has the fame thought: "Sure, of all blockheads, fcholars are the worst," fpiriting fpiriting them up to rebellion against the College difcipline, which in his maturer years he fo 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 loofe leaves, the following fpirited refolution to contend against his natural indolence: "Ot. 1729. Defidiæ valedixi; fyrenis iftius cantibus furdam pofthac aurem obverfurus.-I bid farewell to Sloth, being refolved henceforth not to listen to her fyren strains." I have alfo in my poffeffion a few leaves of another Libellus, or little book, entitled ANNALES, in which fome of the early particulars of his history 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 fhort time before his death he fent to that College a prefent of all his works, to be depofited 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 fome 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 Spenfer, Mr. Hawkins the Poetry Profeffor, 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 fmile of sportive triumph, "Sir, we are a neft 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 ftrong inftance of that rigid honesty which he ever inflexibly preferved. Taylor had obtained his father's confent to be entered of Pembroke, that he might be with his fchoolfellow Johnfon, with whom, though fome years older than himself, he was very intimate. This would have been a great comfort to Johnson. But he fairly told Taylor that he could not, in confcience, suffer him to enter where he knew he could not have an able tutor. He then made inquiry all round the Univerfity, and having found that Mr. Bateman, of See Nafh's Hiftory of Worcestershire, Vol. I. p. 529. F Chrift 1730. Etat. 21. |