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 slower, she passed me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the slave of caprice; and I resolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore pushed on briskly, till I was fairly out of her sight. The road lay between two hedges, so I was sure she could not miss it; and I contrived that she should soon come up with me. When she did, I observed her to be in tears."

This, it must be allowed, was a singular beginning of connubial felicity: but there is no doubt, that Johnson, though he thus showed 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.

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He now set up a private academy, for which purpose he hired a large house, well situated near his native city. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1736(1) 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." (2)

(1) This project must have been formed before his marriage, for the advertisement appears in the Magazine for June and July, 1736. Is it not possible, that the obvious advantage of having a woman of experience to superintend an establishment of this kind may have contributed to a match so disproportionate in point of age?. CROKER.

(2) [A view of "Edial Hall, the residence of Dr. Samuel Johnson," is given in Harwood's History of Lichfield, 1809; where it is stated, that "the house has undergone no material alteration since it was inhabited by this illustrious tenant."]

But the only pupils that were put under his care were the celebrated David Garrick and his brother George, and a Mr. Offely (1), a young gentleman of good fortune, who died early. As yet, his name had nothing of that celebrity which afterwards commanded the highest attention and respect of mankind. Had such 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 sons under the learned tuition of Samuel Johnson! The truth, however, is, that he was not so well qualified for being a teacher of elements, and a conductor in learning by regular gradations, as men of inferior powers of mind. His own acquisitions had been made by fits and starts, by violent irruptions in the regions of knowledge; and it could not be expected that his impatience would be subdued, and his impetuosity restrained, so as to fit him for a quiet guide to novices. The art of communicating instruction, 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 success, are entitled to very high respect from the community, as Johnson himself often maintained. Yet I am of opinion,

(1) [Son of Mr. Offely, of Whichenoure Park, in Staffordshire, the ancient manor of the Somervilles, held, like Dunmow in Essex, by the memorable service of giving a flitch of bacon as a reward to any husband and wife who could say, that they never had had the least difference within the space of twelve months after marriage.- ANDERSON.]

that the greatest abilities are not only not required for this office, but render a man less fit for it. While we acknowledge the justness of Thomson's beautiful remark,

"Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, And teach the young idea how to shoot!"(1)

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we must consider 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 Johnson, cannot be fixed for any length of time in minute attention, and must be so frequently irritated by unavoidable slowness and error in the advances of scholars, as to perform the duty, with little pleasure to the teacher, and no great advantage to the pupils. (2) Good temper is a most essential requisite in a preceptor. Horace paints the character as bland:

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Ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi

Doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima.” (3)

Johnson was not more satisfied with his situation as the master of an academy, than with that of the usher of a school; we need not wonder, therefore, that he did not keep his academy above a year and

(1) Thomson's beautiful remark is just, only because the poet applies it to the first education of a child by its own fond parents. and not to the drudgery of hired instruction in the advanced stages of learning. - CROKER.

(2) A good schoolmaster minces his precepts for children to swallow, hanging clogs on the nimbleness of his own soul, thứ his scholars may go along with him.-FULLER.]

(3) ["As masters fondly soothe their boys to read

With cakes and sweetmeats-let us now proceed."

FRANCIS.

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 gesticulations, could not but be the subject of merriment to them; and, in particular, the young rogues used to listen at the door of his bedchamber, and peep through the key-hole, that they might turn into ridicule his tumultuous and awkward fondness for Mrs. Johnson, whom he used to name by the familiar appellation of Tetty or Tetsey, which, like Betty or Betsey, is provincially used as a contraction for Elizabeth, her Christian name, but which to us seems ludicrous, when applied to a woman of her age and appearance. Mr. Garrick described her to me as very fat, with a bosom of more than ordinary protuberance, with swelled cheeks, of a florid red, produced by thick painting, and increased by the liberal use of cordials; flaring and fantastic in her dress, and affected both in her speech and her general behaviour. (1) I have seen Garrick exhibit her, by his exquisite talent of mimicry, so as to excite the heartiest bursts of laughter; but he, probably, as is the case in all such representations, considerably aggravated the picture.

That Johnson well knew the most proper course to be pursued in the instruction of youth is authentically ascertained by the following paper (2) in his

(1) [As Johnson kept Garrick much in awe when present, David, when his back was turned, repaid the restraint with ridicule of him and his dulcinea, which should be read with great abatement. - PERCY.]

(2) That this crude Sketch for the arrangement of the lower classes of a grammar-school "authentically ascertains that John