patron of the school, in whose house, I have been told, he officiated as a kind of domestic chaplain, so far, at least, as to say grace at table, but was treated with what he represented as intolerable harshness; and, after suffering for a few months such complicated misery, he relinquished a situation which all his life afterwards he recollected with the strongest aversion, and even a degree of horror. But it is probable that at this period, whatever uneasiness he may have endured, he laid the foundation of much future eminence by application to his studies.

Being now again totally unoccupied, he was invited by Mr. Hector to pass some time with him at Birmingham, as his guest, at the house of Mr. Warren, with whom Mr. Hector lodged and boarded. Mr. Warren was the first established bookseller in Birmingham, and was very attentive to Johnson, who he soon found could be of much service to him in his trade, by his knowledge of literature; and he even obtained the assistance of his pen in furnishing some numbers of a periodical essay, printed in the newspaper of which Warren was proprietor. After very diligent inquiry, I have not been able to recover those early specimens of that particular mode of writing by which Johnson afterwards so greatly distinguished himself.

He continued to live as Mr. Hector's guest for about six months, and then hired lodgings in another part of the town,' finding himself as well situated at Birmingham as he supposed he could be any where, while he had no settled plan of life, and very scanty means of subsistence. He made some valuable acquaintances there, amongst whom were Mr. Porter, a mercer, whose widow he afterwards married, and Mr. Taylor, who, by his ingenuity in mechanical inventions, and his success in trade, acquired an immense fortune. But the comfort of being near Mr. Hector, his old schoolfellow and intimate friend, was Johnson's chief inducement to continue here.

In what manner he employed his pen at this period, or whether he derived from it any pecuniary advantage, I

1 Sir John Hawkins states, from one of Johnson's diaries, that, in June, 1733, he lodged in Birmingham, at the house of a person named Jervis, probably a relation of Mrs. Porter, whom he afterwards married, and whose maiden name was Jervis.—Malone.

have not been able to ascertain. He probably got a little money from Mr. Warren; and we are certain that he executed here one piece of literary labour, of which Mr. Hector has favoured me with a minute account. Having mentioned that he had read at Pembroke College a "Voyage to Abyssinia," by Lobo,1 a Portuguese Jesuit, and that he thought an abridgment and translation of it from the French into English might be an useful and profitable publication, Mr. Warren and Mr. Hector joined in urging him to undertake it. He accordingly agreed; and the book not being to be found in Birmingham, he borrowed it of Pembroke College. A part of the work being very soon done, one Osborn, who was Mr. Warren's printer, was set to work with what was ready, and Johnson engaged to supply the press with copy as it should be wanted; but his constitutional indolence soon prevailed, and the work was at a stand. Mr. Hector, who knew that a motive of humanity would be the most prevailing argument with his friend, went to Johnson, and represented to him that the printer could have no other employment till this undertaking was finished, and that the poor man and his family were suffering. Johnson, upon this, exerted the powers of his mind, though his body was relaxed. He lay in bed with the book, which was a quarto, before him, and dictated while Hector wrote. Mr. Hector carried the sheets to the press, and corrected almost all the proof sheets, very few of which were even seen by Johnson. In this manner, with the aid of Mr. Hector's active friendship, the book was completed, and was published in 1735, with London upon the title-page, though it was in reality printed at Birmingham, a device too common with provincial publishers. For this work he had from Mr. Warren only the sum of five guineas.

1 Father Jerome Lobo was born at Lisbon, about 1595, and died in 1678. At the early age of fifteen he entered the order of Jesuits, and was sent as a missionary to the Indies. In his vogage thither he was wrecked, and after many dangers escaped to Goa, and thence began his famous voyage and expedition to Abyssinia. The result of his observatious and experience he published under the title: Historia de Ethiopia, in folio. Coimbra, 1659. A French translation of this appeared in folio, Paris, 1674; and from this an abridgment was made by Abbé Le Grand. Paris, 1728. This was the book which Johnson translated Didot's Biog. Génér.—Editor.

This being the first prose work of Johnson, it is a curious object of inquiry how much may be traced in it of that style which marks his subsequent writings with such peculiar excellence; with so happy an union of force, vivacity, and perspicuity. I have perused the book with this view, and have found that here, as I believe in every other translation, there is in the work itself no vestige of the translator's own style; for the language of translation being adapted to the thoughts of another person, insensibly follows their cast, and, as it were, runs into a mould that is ready prepared.

Thus, for instance, taking the first sentence that occurs at the opening of the book, p. 4:

"I lived here above a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which time some letters were received from the fathers of Ethiopia, with an account that Sultan Segned, Emperor of Abyssinia, was converted to the church of Rome; that many of his subjects had followed his example, and that there was a great want of missionaries to improve these prosperous beginnings. Every body was very desirous of seconding the zeal of our fathers, and of sending them the assistance they requested; to which we were the more encouraged, because the Emperor's letter informed our Provincial, that we might easily enter his dominions by way of Dancala; but, unhappily, the secretary wrote Zeila for Dancala, which cost two of our fathers their lives."

Johnson returned to Lichfield early in 1734, and in August that year he made an attempt to procure some little subsistence by his pen; for he published proposals for printing by subscription the Latin Poems of Politian :1 Angeli Politiani Poemata Latina, quibus, Notas, cum historia Latino poeseos à Petrarchæ ævo ad Politiani tempora deductâ, et vitâ Politiani fusius quam antehac enarratâ, addidit SAM. JOHNSON.'

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It appears that his brother Nathaniel had taken up his father's trade; for it is mentioned, "that subscriptions are taken in by the Editor, or N. Johnson, bookseller, of Lichfield." 3 Notwithstanding the merit of Johnson, and the cheap price at which this translation, with its accompaniments, was offered, there were not subscribers enough to insure a sufficient sale; so the work never appeared, and, probably, never was executed.

We find him again this year at Birmingham, and there is

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May we not trace a fanciful similarity between Politian and Johnson? Huetius, speaking of Paulus Pelissonius Fontanerius, says, in quo natura, ut olim in Angelo Politiano, deformitatem oris excellentis ingenii præstantiâ compensavit." "Comment. de reb. ad eum pertin." Edit. Amstel. 1718, p. 200.

In this learned masquerade of "Paulus Pelissonius Fontanerius," we have some difficulty in detecting Madame de Sevigné's friend, Pelisson, of whom M. de Guilleragues used the phrase, which has since grown into a proverb, "qu'il abusait de la permission qu'ont les hommes d'êtro laids."-See Madame de Sevigné's Letter, 5 Jan., 1674. Huet, bishop of Avranche, wrote Memoirs of his own time, in Latin, from which Boswell has extracted this scrap of pedantry.-Croker.

2 The book was to contain more than thirty sheets, the price to be two shillings and sixpence at the time of subscribing, and two shillings and sixpence at the delivery of a perfect book in quires.

3 Nathaniel kept the shop as long as he lived, as did his mother, after him, till her death. Miss Seward, who in such a matter as this may perhaps be trusted, gives us an amiable, still life picture of Miss Porter, and tells us, that "from the age of twenty to her fortieth year (when she was raised to a state of competency by the death of her eldest brother), she had boarded in Lichfield with Dr. Johnson's mother, who still kept that little bookseller's shop by which her husband had supplied the scanty means of subsistence: meantime Lucy Porter kept the best company in our little city, but would make no engagement on market-days lest Granny, as she called Mrs. Johnson, should catch cold by serving in the shop. There Lucy Porter took her place, standing behind the counter, nor thought it a disgrace to thank a poor person who purchased from her a penny battledoor." -Miss Seward's Letters, vol. i., p. 117.-Croker.