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There is a circumftance in his life fomewhat romantick, but fo well authenticated, that I fhall not omit it. A young woman of Leek, in Staffordshire, while he ferved his apprenticeship there, conceived a violent paffion for him; and though it met with no favourable return, followed him to Lichfield, where she took lodgings oppofite to the house in which he lived, and indulged her hopeless flame. When he was informed that it so preyed upon her mind that her life was in danger, he with a generous humanity went to her and offered to marry her, but it was then too late: Her vital power was exhaufted; and fhe actually exhibited one of the very rare inftances of dying for love. She was buried in the cathedral of Lichfield; and he, with. a tender regard, placed a stone over her grave with this infcription:

Here lies the body of

Mrs. ELIZABETH BLANEY, a ftranger.
She departed this life

20 of September, 1694.

Johnfon's mother was a woman of distinguished understanding. I asked his old fchool-fellow Mr. Hector, furgeon, of Birmingham, if she was not vain of her fon. He faid, "fhe had too much good fenfe to be vain, but she knew her fon's value." Her piety was not inferiour to her understanding; and to her must be afcribed thofe early impreffions of religion upon the mind of her fon, from which the world afterwards derived fo much benefit. He told me, that he remembered distinctly having had the first notice of Heaven" a place to which good people went," and Hell" a place to which bad people went," communicated to him by her, when a little child in bed with her; and that it might be the better fixed in his memory, she sent him to repeat it to Thomas Jackson, their man-servant. He not being in the way, this was not done; but there was no occasion for any artificial aid for its preservation.

In following fo very eminent a man from his cradle to his grave, every minute particular, which can throw light on the progrefs of his mind, is interefting. That he was remarkable, even in his earliest years, may easily be fuppofed; for to ufe his own words in his Life of Sydenham, "That the strength of his understanding, the accuracy of his difcernment, and ardour of his curiofity, might have been remarked from his infancy, by a diligent obferver, there is no reafon to doubt. For, there is no inftance of any man,

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1712.

Ætat. 3.

whofe history has been minutely related, that did not in every part of life discover the fame proportion of intellectual vigour.”

In all fuch investigations it is certainly unwife to pay too much attention to incidents which the credulous relate with eager fatisfaction, and the more fcrupulous or witty enquirer confiders only as topicks of ridicule: Yet there is a traditional story of the infant Hercules of toryifm, fo curiously characteristick, that I fhall not withhold it. It was communicated to me in a letter from Mifs Mary Adye, of Lichfield.

"When Dr. Sacheverel was at Lichfield, Johnson was not quite three years old. My grandfather Hammond obferved him at the cathedral perched upon his father's fhoulders, listening, and gaping at the much celebrated preacher. Mr. Hammond asked Mr. Johnfon how he could poffibly think. of bringing fuch an infant to church, and in the midst of so great a croud. He answered, because it was impoffible to keep him at home; for, young as he was, he believed he had caught the publick spirit and zeal for Sacheverel, and would have ftaid for ever in the church, fatisfied with beholding him.”

Nor can I omit a little inftance of that jealous independence of spirit, and impetuofity of temper, which never forfook him. The fact was acknowledged to me by himself, upon the authority of his mother. One day, when the fervant who used to be sent to school to conduct him home, had not come in time, he fet out by himself, though he was then fo near-fighted, that he was obliged to ftoop down on his hands and knees to take a view of the kennel before he ventured to step over it. His schoolmistress, afraid that he might miss his way, or fall into the kennel, or be run over by a cart, followed him at some distance. He happened to turn about and perceive her. Feeling her careful attention as an infult to his manliness, he ran back to her in a rage, and beat her, as well as his ftrength would permit..

Of the strength of his memory,, for which he was all his life eminent to a degree almost incredible, the following early inftance was told me in his prefence at Lichfield, in 1776, by his ftep-daughter, Mrs. Lucy Porter, as related to her by his mother. When he was a child in petticoats, and had learnt to read, Mrs. Johnson one morning put the common prayer-book into his hands, pointed to the collect for the day, and said, “Sam, you "Sam, you must get this by heart." She went up ftairs, leaving him to ftudy it. But by the time she had reached the second floor, she heard him following her. "What's the matter?" said fhe. "I can fay it," he replied; and repeated it distinctly,, though he could not have read it over more than twice.

But

But there has been another story of his infant precocity generally circulated, and generally believed, the truth of which I am to refute upon his own authority. It is told, that, when a child of three years old, he chanced to tread upon a duckling, the eleventh of a brood, and killed it; upon which, it is faid, he dictated to his mother the following epitaph:

"Here lies good master duck,

Whom Samuel Johnson trod on;
If it had liv'd, it had been good luck,
For then we'd had an odd one."

There is furely internal evidence that this little compofition combines in it, what no child of three years old could produce, without an extension of its faculties by immediate inspiration; yet Mrs, Lucy Porter, Dr. Johnson's step-daughter, pofitively maintained to me, in his prefence, that there could be no doubt of the truth of this anecdote, for fhe had heard it from his mother. So difficult is it to obtain an authentick relation of facts, and fuch authority may there be for errour; for he affured me, that his father made the verses, and wished to pass them for his child's. He added, "my father was a foolish old man; that is to fay, foolish in talking of his children'.”

Young Johnson had the misfortune to be much afflicted with the fcrophula, or king's evil, which disfigured a countenance naturally well formed, and

Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson by Hefter Lynch Piozzi, p. 11.-Life of Dr. Johnson by Sir John Hawkins. p. 6.

This anecdote of the duck, though difproved by internal and external evidence, has nevertheless, upon fuppofition of its truth, been made the foundation of the following ingenious and fanciful reflections by Mifs Seward, amongst the communications concerning Dr. Johnfon with which she has been pleased to favour me." Thefe infant numbers contain the feeds of thofe propenfities which through his life fo ftrongly marked his character, of that poetick talent which afterwards bore fuch rich and plentiful fruits; for, excepting his orthographick works, every thing which Dr. Johnson wrote was Poetry, whofe effence confifts not in numbers, or in jingle, but in the strength and glow of a fancy, to which all the stores of nature and of art stand in prompt administration; and in an eloquence which conveys their blended illuftrations in a language ⚫ more tuneable than needs or rhyme or verfe to add more harmony.' "The above little verfes alfo fhew that fuperftitious bias which grew with his growth, and ftrengthened with his ftrength,' and of late years particularly injured his happiness, by prefenting to him the gloomy fide of religion, rather than that bright and cheering one which gilds the period of clofing life, with the light of pious hope."

This is fo beautifully imagined, that I would not fupprefs it. But, like many other theories, it is deduced from a fuppofed fact, which is, indeed, a fiction.

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hurt his vifual nerves fo much, that he did not fee at all with one of his eyes, though its appearance was little different from that of the other. There is amongst his prayers, one infcribed "When my EYE was restored to its use2," which afcertains a defect that many of his friends knew he had, though I never perceived it. I fuppofed him to be only near-fighted; and indeed I must observe, that in no other refpect could I difcern any defect in his vifion; on the contrary, the force of his attention and perceptive quicknefs made him fee and distinguish all manner of objects, whether of nature or of art, with a nicety that is rarely to be found. When he and I were travelling in the Highlands of Scotland, and I pointed out to him a mountain which I obferved refembled a cone, he corrected my inaccuracy by fhewing me, that it was indeed pointed at the top, but that one fide of it was larger than the other. And the ladies with whom he was acquainted agree, that no man was more nicely and minutely critical in the elegance of female drefs. When I found that he faw the romantick beauties of Islam, in Derbyshire, much better than I did, I told him that he resembled an able performer upon a bad inftrument. How falfe and contemptible then are all the remarks which have been made to the prejudice either of his candour or of his philofophy, founded upon a fuppofition that he was almost blind. It has been faid, that he contracted this grievous malady from his nurfe. His mother yielding to the fuperftitious notion, which, it is wonderful to think, prevailed fo long in this country, as to the. virtue of the regal touch; a notion, which our kings encouraged, and to which a man of fuch inquiry and fuch judgement as Carte could give credit; carried him to London, where he was actually touched by Queen Anne. Mrs. Johnfon indeed, as Mr. Hector informed me, acted by the advice of the celebrated Sir John Floyer, then a physician in Lichfield. Johnfon used to talk of this very frankly; and Mrs. Piozzi has preserved his very picturesque description of the scene, as it remained upon his fancy. Being afked if he could remember Queen Anne, "He had (he faid) a confused, but somehow a fort of folemn recollection of a lady in diamonds, and a long black hood "." This touch, however, was without any effect. I ventured to say to him, in allufion to the political principles in which he was educated, and of which he ever retained fome odour, that " his mother had not carried him far enough; fhe fhould have taken him to ROME."

He was first taught to read English by Dame Oliver, a widow, who kept a fchool for young children in Lichfield. He told me fhe could read the

• Prayers and Meditations, p. 27.

3 Anecdotes, p. 10.

black

black letter, and asked him to borrow for her, from his father, a bible in that character. When he was going to Oxford, fhe came to take leave of him, brought him, in the fimplicity of her kindness, a prefent of gingerbread, and said he was the best scholar fhe had ever had. He delighted in mentioning this early compliment; adding, with a smile, that "this was as high a proof of his merit as he could conceive." His next inftructor in English was a mafter, whom, when he fpoke of him to me, he familiarly called Tom Brown, who, faid he, published a fpelling-book, and dedicated it to the UNIVERSE;-but, I fear, no copy of it can now be had."

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He began to learn Latin with Mr. Hawkins, usher, or under-master of Lichfield fchool, "a man (faid he) very skilful in his little way.' With him he continued two years, and then rofe to be under the care of Mr, Hunter the head-mafter, who, according to his account, cc " was very fevere, and wrong-headedly fevere. He used (faid he) to beat us unmercifully; and he did not distinguish between ignorance and negligence; for he would beat a boy equally for not knowing a thing, as for neglecting to know it. He would ask a boy a queftion; and if he did not answer it, he would beat him, without considering whether he had an opportunity of knowing how to answer it. For instance, he would call up a boy and ask him Latin for a candlestick, which the boy could not expect to be afked. Now, Sir, if a boy could answer every queftion, there would be no need of a master to teach him."

It is, however, but justice to the memory of Mr. Hunter to mention, that though he might err in being too fevere, the school of Lichfield was very respectable in his time. The late Dr. Taylor, Prebendary of Westminster, who was educated under him, told me, that he was an excellent master, and that his ufhers were most of them men of eminence; that Holbrook, one of the most ingenious men, best scholars, and best preachers of his age, was ufher during the greatest part of the time that Johnson was at school. Then came Hague, of whom as much might be faid, with the addition that he was an elegant poet. Hague was fucceeded by Green, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, whose character in the learned world is well known. In the fame form with Johnfon was Congreve, who afterwards became chaplain to Archbishop Boulter, and by that connection obtained good preferment in Ireland. He was a younger fon of the ancient family of Congreve, in Staffordshire, of which the poet was a branch. His brother fold the eftate. There was alfo

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