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 abserved 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 companion." 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." After having resided for some time at the house of his uncle, Cornelius Ford, Johnson 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 1 Thomas Percy was born at Bridgnorth 1728, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. In 1778 he was made Dean of Carlisle; in 1782 was consecrated Bishop of Dromore; and died at his episcopal palace, Dromore, Sept. 30, 1811, in his eighty-third year. In 1765 he published his celebrated Reliques of Ancient English Poetry; a book which forms an era in the history of English literature.-Editor.. talents and good dispositions were disgraced by licentiousness,' but who was a very able judge of what was right. At this school 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, I learned much in the school, but little from the master; in the other, 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." 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. 1 He is said to be the original of the parson in Hogarth's Midnight Modern Conversation. See note 3, p. 10.-Editor. * Memoirs, Lond. 1780. 4to., 2 vols.-Editor. 'As was likewise the Bishop of Dromore many years afterwards. Yet here his genius was so distinguished that, although little better than a school-boy, he was admitted into the best company of the place, and had no common attention paid to him; of which remarkable instances were long remembered there.-Percy. 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 the following specimens: TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL. Pastoral I. Melibaus. Now, Tityrus, you, supine and careless laid, Tityrus. Those blessings, friend, a deity bestow'd, Melibaus. My admiration only I exprest (No spark of envy harbours in my breast), TRANSLATION OF HORACE. Book I. Ode xxii. THE man, my friend, whose conscious heart Nor taints with death the envenom'd dart, Though Scythia's icy cliffs he treads, For while by Chloe's image charm'd, No savage more portentous stain'd Dire nurse of raging lions, bore. Place me where no soft summer gale With horrid gloom the frowning skies: Place me beneath the burning line, A clime denied to human race : I'll sing of Chloe's charms divine, Her heavenly voice and beauteous face. TRANSLATION OF HORACE. Book II. Ode ix CLOUDS do not always veil the skies, Nor showers immerse the verdant plain; Nor do the billows always rise, Or storms afflict the ruffled main. Teach mimic censure her own faults to find, THE YOUNG AUTHOR.' WHEN first the peasant, long inclin'd to roam, More false, more cruel, than the seas or wind. This thought once form'd, all counsel comes too late, The pamphlet spreads, incessant hisses rise, To some retreat the baffled writer flies; 1 This he inserted, with many alterations, in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1743, p. 378. He, however, did not add his name.-Malone. |