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1734.

degree of curiofity; nor is that curiofity ever more agreeably or usefully employed, than in examining the laws and customs of foreign nations. I hope, Etat. 25. therefore, the present I now prefume to make, will not be thought improper; which, however, it is not my business as a dedicator to commend, nor as a bookfeller to depreciate."

It is reasonable to fuppofe, that his having been thus accidentally led to a particular study of the history and manners of Abyffinia, was the remote occafion of his writing, many years afterwards, his admirable philosophical tale, the principal scene of which is laid in that country.

Johnson returned to Lichfield early in 1734, and in August that year he made an attempt to procure fome little fubfiftence by his pen; for he published proposals for printing by subscription the Latin poems of Politian: “ « Angeli Politiani Poemata Latina, quibus, Notas, cum hiftoriâ Latinæ poefeos, à Petrarcha evo ad Politiani tempora deductâ, et vitá Politiani fufius quam antibac enarratâ, addidit SAM. JOHNSON

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It appears that his brother Nathanael had taken up his father's trade; for it is mentioned, that " fubfcriptions are taken in by the Editor, or N. Johnson, bookfeller, of Lichfield," Notwithstanding the merit of Johnson, and the cheap price at which this translation, with its accompanyments, was offered, there were not fubfcribers enough to insure a fufficient fale; fo the work never appeared, and, probably, never was executed.

We find him again this year at Birmingham, and there is preserved the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave', the original compiler and editor of the Gentleman's Magazine :

To Mr. CAVE.

"SIR,

Nov. 25, 1734.

"AS you appear no lefs fenfible than your readers of the defects of your poetical article, you will not be displeased, if, in order to the improvement of it, I communicate to you the fentiments of a perfon, who will undertake, on reasonable terms, fometimes to fill a column.

* The book was to contain more than thirty fheets, the price to be two fhillings and fix-pence at the time of subscribing, and two fhillings and fix-pence at the delivery of a perfect book in quires.

Mifs Cave, the Grand-niece of Mr. Edward Cave, has obligingly fhewn me the originals of this and the other letters of Dr Johnson, to him, which were first published in the Gentleman's Magazine, with notes by Mr. John Nichols, the worthy and indefatigable editor of that valuable mifcellany, figned N; fome of which I fall occafionally transcribe in the course of this work.

1734.

Etat. 25.

"His opinion is, that the publick would not give you a bad reception, if, befide the current wit of the month, which a critical examination would generally reduce to a narrow compafs, you admitted not only poems, infcriptions, &c. never printed before, which he will fometimes fupply you with; but likewise fhort literary differtations in Latin or English, critical remarks on authours ancient or modern, forgotten poems that deserve revival, or loofe pieces, like Floyer's, worth preferving. By this method your literary article, for fo it might be called, will, he thinks, be better recommended to the publick, than by low jefts, aukward buffoonery, or the dull fcurrilities of either party.

2.

"If fuch a correspondence will be agreeable to you, be pleafed to inform me in two posts, what the conditions are on which you fhall expect it. Your late offer gives me no reason to diftruft your generosity. If you engage in any literary projects besides this paper, I have other defigns to impart, if I could be secure from having others reap the advantage of what I should hint. "Your letter, by being directed to S. Smith, to be left at the Castle in Birmingham, Warwickshire, will reach

"Your humble fervant."

But

Mr. Cave has put a note on this letter, " Answered Dec. 2." whether any thing was done in confequence of it we are not informed. Johnson had, from his early youth, been fenfible to the influence of female charms. When at Stourbridge school, he was much enamoured of Olivia Lloyd, a young quaker, to whom he wrote a copy of verfes, which I have not been able to recover; and I am affured by Mifs Seward, that he conceived a tender paffion for Miss Lucy Porter, daughter of the lady whom he afterwards married. Mifs Porter was fent very young on a visit to Lichfield, where Johnson had frequent opportunities of feeing and admiring her; and he addreffed to her the following verfes, on her presenting him with a nosegay of myrtle:

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2 A prize of fifty pounds for the best poem " on Life, Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell." See Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. IV. p. 560. N.

"In myrtle shades oft fings the happy swain,
"In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain;
"The myrtle crowns the happy lovers' heads,
"The unhappy lovers' grave the myrtle spreads:
"O then the meaning of thy gift impart,
"And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart!
"Soon must this bough, as you fhall fix his doom,
"Adorn Philander's head, or grace his tomb3.

His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very tranfient; and it is certain, that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever. Mr. Hector, who lived with him in his younger days in the utmost intimacy and focial freedom, has affured me, that even at that ardent season his conduct was strictly virtuous in that respect; and that though he loved to exhilarate himfelf with wine, he never knew him intoxicated but once.

In a man whom religious education has fecured from licentious indulgences, the paffion of love, when once it has feized him, is exceedingly ftrong; being unimpaired by diffipation, and totally concentrated in one object. This was experienced by Johnson, when he became the fervent admirer of Mrs. Porter, after her firft husband's death. Mifs Porter told me, that when he was first introduced to her mother, his appearance was very forbidding: He was then lean and lank, fo that his immenfe ftructure of bones was hideously striking to the eye, and the scars of the fcrophula were deeply vifible. He also wore his hair, which was straight and stiff, and separated behind; and he often had, feemingly, convulfive starts and odd gefticulations, which tended to excite at once furprise and ridicule. Mrs. Porter was so much engaged by his conversation that the overlooked all these external disadvantages, and faid to her daughter, "this is the most sensible man that I ever faw in my life."

1734.

Etat. 25.

3 Mrs. Piozzi, in her "Anecdotes," afferts that Johnson wrote this effufion of elegant tenderness not in his own perfon, but for a friend who was in love. But that lively lady is as inaccurate in this instance as in many others; for Mifs Seward writes to me-" I know those verses were addreffed to Lucy Porter, when he was enamoured of her in his boyish days, two or three years before he had seen her mother, his future wife. He wrote them at my grandfather's, and gave them to Lucy in the prefence of my mother, to whom he fhewed them on the inftant. She used to repeat them to me, when I asked her for the verses Dr. Johnson gave her on a sprig of myrtle, which he had ftolen or begged from her bofom. We all know honeft Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying to herself a compliment not intended for her.”

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1735.

Though Mrs. Porter was double the age of Johnfon, and her person and Etat. 26. manner, as described to me by the late Mr. Garrick, were by no means pleafing to others, she must have had a fuperiority of understanding and talents, as fhe certainly infpired him with a more than ordinary passion; and she having fignified her willingness to accept of his hand, he went to Lichfield to ask his mother's confent to the marriage, which he could not but be conscious was a very imprudent scheme, both on account of their disparity of years, and her want of fortune. But Mrs. Johnfon knew too well the ardour of her fon's temper, and was too tender a parent to oppose his inclinations.

I know not for what reafon the marriage ceremony was not performed at Birmingham; but a refolution was taken that it should be at Derby, for which place the bride and bridegroom set out on horseback, I suppose in very good humour. But though Mr. Topham Beauclerk used archly to mention Johnson's having told him, with much gravity, "Sir, it was a love-marriage upon both fides," I have had from my illuftrious friend the following curious 9th July. account of their journey to church upon the nuptial morn. "Sir, fhe had read the old romances, and had got into her head the fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her lover like a dog. So, Sir, at first she told me that I rode too fast, and she could not keep up with me; and, when I rode a little flower, fhe paffed me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the flave of caprice; and I refolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore pushed on briskly, till I was fairly out of her fight. The road lay between two hedges, fo I was fure fhe could not mifs it; and I contrived that she should foon come up with me. When fhe did, I obferved her to be in tears."

This, it must be allowed, was a fingular beginning of connubial felicity; but there is no doubt that Johnson, though he thus fhewed a manly firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to the last moment of Mrs. Johnson's life; and in his "Prayers and Meditations," we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceased, even after her death.

He now fet up a private academy, for which purpose he hired a large house, well fituated near his native city. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1736, there is the following advertisement: "At Edial, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are boarded and taught the Latin and Greek languages, by SAMUEL JOHNSON." But the only pupils that were put under his care were the celebrated David Garrick and his brother George, and a

Mr.

1735.

Mr. Offely, a young gentleman of good fortune, who died early. As yet, his name had nothing of that celebrity which afterwards commanded the tat. 26. highest attention and refpect of mankind. Had fuch an advertisement appeared after the publication of his LONDON, or his RAMBLER, or his DICTIONARY, how would it have burst upon the world! with what eagerness would the great and the wealthy have embraced an opportunity of putting their fons under the learned tuition of SAMUEL JOHNSON. The truth, however, is, that he was not fo well qualified for being a teacher of elements, and a conductor in learning by regular gradations, as men of inferiour powers of mind. His own acquifitions had been made by fits and starts, by violent irruptions into the regions of knowledge; and it could not be expected that his impatience would be fubdued, and his impetuofity reftrained, fo as to fit him for a quiet guide to novices. The art of communicating inftruction, of whatever kind, is much to be valued; and I have ever thought that those who devote themselves to this employment, and do their duty with diligence and fuccefs, are entitled to very high respect from the community, as Johnson himself often maintained. Yet I am of opinion, that the greatest abilities are not only not required for this office, but render a man lefs fit for it. While we acknowledge the juftness of Thomfon's beautiful remark,

"Delightful tafk! to rear the tender thought,

"And teach the young idea how to shoot!"

we must confider that this delight is perceptible only by "a mind at ease," a mind at once calm and clear; but that a mind gloomy and impetuous like that of Johnfon, cannot be fixed for any length of time in minute attention, and must be so frequently irritated by unavoidable flowness and errour in the advances of scholars, as to perform the duty with little pleasure to the teacher, and no great advantage to the pupils. Good temper is a most effential requifite in a preceptor. Horace paints the character as bland:

"Ut pueris olim dant cruftula blandi

"Doctores, elementa velint ut difcere prima."

Johnson was not more fatisfied with his fituation as the mafter of an academy, than with that of the ufher of a school; we need not wonder, therefore, that he did not keep his academy above a year and a half. From Mr. Garrick's account he did not appear to have been profoundly reverenced by his pupils. His oddities of manner, and uncouth gefticulations, could not but be the fubject of merriment to them; and, in particular, the young rogues used to listen at the door of his bed-chamber, and peep through the

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