P. 21.

"And this I do to save you from the gallows." Johnson, upon all occasions, expressed his approbation of enforcing instruction by means of the rod1. I would rather (said he) have the rod to be the general terror 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 sisters. The rod produces an effect which terminates in itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his task, and there's an end on 't; whereas, by exciting emulation and comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting mischief: you make brothers and sisters hate each other."

When Johnson saw some young ladies in Lincolnshire who were remarkably well behaved, owing to their mother's strict discipline and severe correction, he exclaimed, in one of Shakspeare's lines, a little varied 2,

"Rod, I will honour thee for this thy duty."

Piozzi, [Yet when talking of a young fellow, who used to come often to Mr. Thrale's house, who was about fifteen years old or less, and had a manner at once sullen and sheepish-"That lad (said Johnson) looks like the son of a schoolmaster; which (added he) is one of the very worst conditions of childhood; such a boy has no father, or worse than none; he never can reflect on his parent but the reflection brings to his mind some idea of pain inflicted, or of sorrow suffered."

Piozzi,

p. 16.

He was, indeed, himself exceedingly disposed to the general indulgence of children, and was even

' Johnson's observations to Dr. Rose, on this subject, may be found in a subsequent part of this work, near the end of the year 1775.-BURNEY. More than a little. The line is in KING HENRY VI. Part ii. act iv. sc. last: "Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed."-MALONE.

[It is to be hoped that Mr. Boswell was mistaken as to the sex and age of the children: the idea of disciplining young ladies by the rod is absurd and disgusting.-ED.]

p. 16,17.

scrupulously and ceremoniously attentive not to of- Piozzi, fend them: he had strongly persuaded himself of the difficulty people always find to erase early impressions, either of kindness or resentment, and said, "he should never have so loved his mother when a man, had she not given him coffee she could ill afford, to gratify his appetite when a boy." "If you had had children, sir," said Mrs. Piozzi, "would you have taught them any thing?" "I hope (replied he) that I should have willingly lived on bread and water to obtain instruction for them; but I would not have set their future friendship to hazard for the sake of thrusting into their heads knowledge of things for which they might not perhaps have either taste or necessity. You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets, and wonder when you have done that they do not delight in your company. No science can be communicated by mortal creatures without attention from the scholar; no attention can be obtained from children without the infliction of pain, and pain is never remembered without resentment." That something should be learned was, however, so certainly his opinion, that Mrs. Piozzi heard him say, that education had been often compared to agriculture, yet that it resembled it chiefly in this: "that if nothing is sown, no crop can be obtained."]

That superiority over his fellows, which he maintained with so much dignity in his march through life, was not assumed from vanity and ostentation, but was the natural and constant effect of those extraordinary powers of mind, of which he could not but be conscious by comparison; the intellectual difference, which in other cases of comparison of characters, is often a matter of undecided contest, being as clear in his case as the superiority of stature in some men above others. Johnson did not strut or stand on tip

toe; he only did not stoop. From his earliest years, his superiority was perceived and acknowledged. He was from the beginning Ava avògav, a king of men. His schoolfellow, Mr. Hector, has obligingly furnished me' with many particulars of his boyish days; and assured me that he never knew him corrected at school, but for talking and diverting other boys from their business. He seemed to learn by intuition; for though indolence and procrastination were inherent in his constitution, whenever he made an exertion he did more than any one else. In short, he is a memorable instance of what has been often observed, that the boy is the man in miniature; and that the distinguishing characteristicks of each individual are the same, through the whole course of life. His favourites used to receive very liberal assistance from him; and such was the subinission and deference with which he was treated, such the desire 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 sat upon his back, and one on each side supported 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 nature3. Talking to me once himself of his being much distinguished at school, he told me," they never thought to raise me by comparing me to any one; they never said, Johnson is as good a scholar as such a one, but such a one is as All these par

[This is not quite candid on the part of Mr. Boswell. ticulars are found in a paper furnished (it would seem) by Mr. Hector to Sir J. Hawkins, and published in extenso by him.-ED.]

[This is not consistent with Johnson's own statement, ante, p. 19.-ED.] 3["This ovation Mr. Boswell believed to have been an honour paid to the early predominance of his intellectual powers alone; but they who remember what boys are, and who consider that Johnson's corporeal prowess was by no means despicable, will be apt to suspect that the homage was enforced, at least as much by awe of the one as by admiration of the other."-Anderson's Life of Johnson.-ED.]

good a scholar as Johnson; and this was said but of one-but of Lowe 1; 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 inquisitive; and his memory was so 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.

2

He never joined with the other boys in their ordinary diversions: 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 size was remarkably large. His defective sight, indeed, prevented him from enjoying the common sports; and he once pleasantly remarked to me, "how wonderfully well he had contrived to be idle without them." Lord Chesterfield, however, has justly observed 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 listless torpor of doing nothing alone deserves that name. Of this dismal inertness of disposition, Johnson had all his life too great a share. Mr. Hector relates, that " he could not oblige him more than by sauntering away the hours of vacation in the fields, during which he was more engaged in talking to himself than to his com

1 [See ante, p. 19.-ED.]

2 [Mr. Hector, in the paper printed by Hawkins, only says, "He never associated with any of us in our diversions, except in winter, when the ice was firm enough to be drawn along by a boy barefooted;" but this does not justify the absurd assertion that Johnson had no amusement whatsoever except in winter, and then only this one: other amusements he doubtless had, though probably not of a gregarious nature.—ED.]

p. 8.

Hawk. panion." [Mr. Hector concludes by saying, "After a long absence from Lichfield, when he returned I was apprehensive of something wrong in his constitution, which might either impair his intellect or endanger his life, but, thanks to Almighty God, my fears have proved false."]

Hawk. p. 8.

Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, who was long intimately acquainted with him, and has preserved 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 fondness for them through life'; so that (adds his lordship) spending part of a summer at my parsonage-house in the country, he chose for his regular reading the old Spanish romance of FELIXMARTE OF HIRCANIA, in folio, which he read quite through. Yet I have heard him attribute to these extravagant fictions that unsettled turn of mind which prevented his ever fixing in any profession."

[In the autumn of the year 1725, he received an invitation from his uncle, Cornelius Ford, to spend a few days with him at his house, which I conjecture to have been on a living of his in one of the counties bordering upon Staffordshire; but it seems that the uncle, discovering that the boy was possessed of uncommon parts, was unwilling to let him return, and to make up for the loss he might sustain by his absence from school, became his instructor in the classics, and farther assisted him in his studies; so

[In one of his journeys we shall see (27th March, 1776), that he took with him "Il Palmerino d'Inghilterra" in Italian, but then it was for exercise in the language, and he took no pleasure in the work itself. ED.]

2 Cornelius Ford, according to Sir John Hawkins, was his cousin-german, being the son of Dr. Joseph [Q. Nathanael ?] Ford, an eminent physician, who was brother to Johnson's mother.-MALONE. [Sir John Hawkins, in this passage of his first edition, distinctly calls Cornelius Ford his uncle, as Boswell also does, but it was probably an error, as Hawkins corrected it in the second edition to cousin.-ED.]