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 asked. Now, sir, if a boy could answer every question, 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 severe, 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 ushers were most of them men of eminence; that Holbrook,' one of the most ingenious men, best scholars, and best preachers of his age, was usher during the greatest part of the time that Johnson was at school. Then came Hague, of whom as much might be said, with the addition that he was an elegant poet. Hague was succeeded by Green, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, whose character in the learned world is well known. In the same form with Johnson was Congreve, who afterwards became chaplain to Archbishop Boulter, and by that connection obtained good preferment in Ireland. He was a younger son of the ancient family of Congreve, in Staffordshire, of which the poet was a branch. His brother sold the estate. There was also Lowe, afterwards canon of Windsor." 2 Indeed, Johnson was very sensible how much he owed to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Langton one day asked him, how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of Latin, in which, I believe, he was exceeded by no man of his time: he said, "My master whipt me very well. Without that, Sir, I should have done 'Edward Holbrook, A.M., afterwards minister of Wittenhall, near Wolverhampton, and in 1744, at the request of the corporation of Lichfield, presented by the Dean and Chapter to the vicarage of St. Mary's in that city, ob. 1772.-Croker. * Dr. John Green was born in 1706, and died, Bishop of Lincoln, in 1779. He wrote three of the Athenian Letters, but was not usher at Lichfield till after Johnson had left school.-Croker. 3 Charles Congreve, of whose latter days see Johnson's striking description, sub 22 Mar. 1776.—Croker. nothing." He told Mr. Langton, that while Hunter was flogging his boys unmercifully, he used to say, "And this I do to save you from the gallows." Johnson, upon all occasions, expressed his approbation of enforcing instruction by means of the rod. "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,' "Rod, I will honour thee for this thy duty." 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 tiptoe; he only did not stoop. From his earliest years, his superiority was perceived and acknowledged. He was from the beginning "Avat avopav, a king åvdpāv, of men. His school-fellow, Mr. Hector, has obligingly furnished me with many particulars of his boyish days; and 1 Johnson's observation to Dr. Rose on this subject deserves to be recorded. Rose was praising the mild treatment of children at school, at a time when flogging began to be less practised than formerly. "But then," said Johnson, "they get nothing else, and what they gain at one end they lose at the other."-Burney. [Third edit. vol. i. 21.] 2 This line is in King Henry VI., Part II. act iv. sc. last :- "Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed."- Malone. |