p. 8.

that it was not till the Whitsuntide following, that Hawk. Johnson went back to Lichfield. Whether Mr. Hunter was displeased to find a visit of a few days protracted into a vacation of many months, or that he resented the interference of another person in the tuition of one of his scholars, and he one of the most promising of any under his care, cannot now be known; but, it seems, that at Johnson's return to Lichfield, he was not received into the school of that city;] and he was, at the age of fifteen, removed to the school of Stourbridge, in Worcestershire, of which Mr. Wentworth was then master.

This step was taken by the advice of his cousin, the Rev. Mr. Ford, a man in whom both talents and good dispositions were disgraced by licentiousness— (he is said to be the original of the parson in Hogarth's Modern Midnight Conversation')-but who was a very able judge of what was right. [Johnson Piozzi, always spoke of his cousin to Mrs. Piozzi with tender- p. 10. ness, praising his acquaintance with life and manners, and recollecting one piece of advice that no man surely ever followed more exactly: "Obtain (says Ford) some general principles of every science; he who can talk only on one subject, or act only in one department, is seldom wanted and perhaps never wished for; while the man of general knowledge can often benefit and always please." He used to relate, however, another story less to the credit of his cousin's penetration, how Ford on some occasion said to him, " You will

1 [This fact has been doubted; but the blameable levity of his character, Johnson himself admits. In his Life of Fenton, he mentions "Ford, a clergyman at that time too well known, whose abilities, instead of furnishing convivial merriment to the voluptuous and dissolute, might have enabled him to excel among the virtuous and the wise." In the Historical Register for 1731, we find, "Died Aug. 22, the Rev. Mr. Ford, well known to the world for his great wit and abilities." And the Gentleman's Magazine of the same date states that he was "esteemed for his polite and agreeable conversation " Mr. Murphy asserts that he was chaplain to Lord Chesterfield, but gives no authority. ED.]

Piozzi, make your way more easily in the world, I see, as p. 11. you are contented to dispute no man's claim to conversation excellence; they will, therefore, more willingly allow your pretensions as a writer."]

At the school of Stourbridge he did not receive so much benefit as was expected. It has been said, that he acted in the capacity of an assistant 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 severe; but I cannot blame him much. I was then a big boy; he saw 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 school would be ascribed to my own labour, or to my former master. Yet he taught me a great deal."

He thus discriminated, to Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, his progress at his two grammar-schools. "At one [Lichfield], I learned much in the school, but little from the master; in the other [Stourbridge], I learnt much from the master, but little in the school.".

The bishop also informs me that "Dr. Johnson's father, before he was received at Stourbridge, applied to have him admitted as a scholar and assistant to the Rev. Samuel Lea, M. A., head-master of Newport school, in Shropshire (a very diligent good teacher, at that time in high reputation, under whom Mr. Hollis is said, in the Memoirs of his Life, to have been also educated)'. This application to Mr. Lea was not successful; 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.”

As was likewise the Bishop of Dromore many years afterwards.-BoSWELL.

He remained at Stourbridge little more than a year, and then he returned home, where he may be said to have loitered, for two years, in a state very unworthy his uncommon abilities. [His father was for some Hawk. time at a loss how to dispose of him: he probably had P. 9. a view to bring him up to his own trade; for Sir J. Hawkins heard Johnson say, that he himself was able to bind a book.] He had already given several proofs of his poetical genius, both in his school-exercises and in other occasional compositions. Of these I have obtained a considerable collection, by the favour of Mr. Wentworth, son of one of his masters, and of Mr. Hector, his schoolfellow and friend; from which I select some specimens [which will be found in the Appendix].

The two years which he spent at home, after his return from Stourbridge, he passed in what he thought idleness, and was scolded by his father for his want of steady application. He had no settled plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a desultory manner, without any scheme of study, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them. He used to mention one curious instance of his casual reading, when but.a boy. Having imagined that his brother had hid some apples behind a large folio upon an upper shelf in his father's shop, he climbed

up
to search for them. There were no apples; but
the large folio proved to be Petrarch', whom he had
seen mentioned, in some preface, as one of the restorers
of learning. His curiosity having been thus excited,
he sat down with avidity, and read a great part of
the book. What he read during these two years, he
told me, was not works of mere amusement," not

[This was probably the folio edition of Petrarch's Opera Omnia quæ extant, Bas. 1554. It could have been only the Latin works that Johnson read, as there is no reason to suppose that he was, at this period, able to read Italian.-ED.]

voyages and travels, but all literature, sir, all ancient writers, all manly: though but little Greek, only some of Anacreon and Hesiod: but in this irregular manner (added he) I had looked into a great many books, which were not commonly known at the Universities, where they seldom read any books but what are put into their hands by their tutors; so that when I came to Oxford, Dr. Adams, now master of Pembroke College, told me, I was the best qualified for the University that he had ever known come there."

In estimating the progress of his mind during these two years, as well as in future periods of his life, we must not regard his own hasty confession of idleness; for we see, when he explains himself, that he was acquiring various stores; and, indeed, he himself concluded the account, with saying, "I would not have you think I was doing nothing then." He might, perhaps, have studied more assiduously; but it may be doubted, whether such a mind as his was not more enriched by roaming at large in the fields of literature, than if it had been confined to any single spot. The analogy between body and mind is very general, and the parallel will hold as to their food, as well as any other particular. The flesh of animals who feed excursively is allowed to have a higher flavour than that of those who are cooped up. May there not be the same difference between men who read as their taste prompts, and men who are confined in cells and colleges to stated tasks1?

That a man in Mr Michael Johnson's circumstances should think of sending his son to the expensive university of Oxford, at his own charge,

[Dr. Johnson's prodigious memory and talents enabled him to collect from desultory reading a vast mass of general information; but he was in no science, and indeed we might almost say in no branch of literature, what is usually called a profound scholar-that character is only to be carned by laborious study; and Mr. Boswell's fanciful allusion to the flavour of the flesh of animals scenis fallacious, not to say foolish.-ED.]

seems very improbable. The subject was too delicate to question Johnson upon; but I have been assured by Dr. Taylor, that the scheme never would have taken place, had not a gentleman of Shropshire, one of his schoolfellows, spontaneously undertaken to support him at Oxford, in the character of his companion: though, in fact, he never received any assistance whatever from that gentleman.

P. 9, 10.

[Sir John Hawkins thus states this circumstance: Hawk. A neighbouring gentleman, Mr. Andrew Corbett, having a son, who had been educated in the same school with Johnson, whom he was about to send to Pembroke College in Oxford, a proposal was made and accepted, that Johnson should attend this son thither, in quality of assistant in his studies; and accordingly, on the 31st day of October, 1728, they were both entered, Corbett as a gentleman commoner, and Johnson as a commoner. Whether it was discouragement in the outset of their studies, or any other ground of disinclination that moved him to it, is not known, but this is certain, that young Corbett could not brook submission to a man who seemed to be little more learned than himself, and that having a father living, who was able to dispose of him in various other ways, he, after about two years' stay, left the college, and went home. But the case of Johnson was far different; his fortunes were at sea; his title to a stipend was gone, and all that he could obtain from the father of Mr. Corbett was an agreement, during his continuance at college, to pay for his commons1.]

Mr. Murphy, in his Life of Johnson, follows Hawkins; but the date of [Mr. Corbett's entry into and retirement from college does not tally with either Boswell's or Hawkins's account. Andrew Corbett appears, from the books of Pembroke College (as Dr. Hall informs me), to have been admitted 24th February, 1727, and his name was removed from the books February 21, 1732: so that, as Johnson entered in Oct. 1728, and does not appear to have returned after Christmas, 1729, Corbett was of the University twenty months before, and twelve or thirteen months after Johnson. And, on re