rences. "There are many invifible circumftances, which whether we read as enquirers after natural or moral knowledge, whether we intend to enlarge our fcience, or increase our virtue, are more important than publick occurThus Salluft, the great mafter of nature, has not forgot in his account of Catiline to remark, that his walk was now quick, and again flow, as an indication of a mind revolving with violent commotion. Thus the story of Melancthon affords a striking lecture on the value of time, by informing us, that when he had made an appointment, he expected not only the hour, but the minute to be fixed, that the day might not run out in the idleness of suspence; and all the plans and enterprizes of De Wit are now of lefs importance to the world than that part of his perfonal character, which represents him as careful of his health, and negligent of his life. "But biography has often been allotted to writers, who feem very little acquainted with the nature of their tafk, or very negligent about the performance. They rarely afford any other account than might be collected from publick papers, but imagine themselves writing a life, when they exhibit a chronological series of actions or preferments; and have fo little regard to the manners or behaviour of their heroes, that more knowledge may be gained of a man's real character, by a short converfation with one of his fervants, than from a formal and ftudied narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended with his funeral. "There are, indeed, fome natural reasons why thefe narratives are often written by such as were not likely to give much inftruction or delight, and why most accounts of particular perfons are barren and ufelefs. If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but must expect little intelligence; for the incidents which give excellence to biography are of a volatile and evanefcent kind, such as foon escape the memory, and are transmitted by tradition. We know how few can pourtray a living acquaintance, except by his moft prominent and obfervable particularities, and the groffer features of his mind; and it may be easily imagined how much of this little knowledge may be loft in imparting it, and how foon a fucceffion of copies will lofe all resemblance of the original"." I am fully aware of the objections which may be made to the minuteness on some occafions of my detail of Johnson's conversation, and how happily it is Rambler, No. 60. adapted adapted for the petty exercise of ridicule by men of fuperficial understanding, and ludicrous fancy; but I remain firm and confident in my opinion, that minute particulars are frequently characteristick, and always amufing, when they relate to a distinguished man. I am therefore exceedingly unwilling that almost any thing which my illuftrious friend thought it worth his while to exprefs, with any degree of point, should perish. For this almost superftitious reverence, I have found very old and venerable authority, quoted by our great modern prelate, Secker, in whofe tenth fermon there is the following paffage : "Rabbi David Kimchi, a noted Jewish commentator who lived above five hundred years ago, explains that paffage in the first Pfalm, His leaf also shall not wither, from Rabbins yet older than himself, thus: That even the idle talk, fo he expreffes it, of a good man ought to be regarded; the most fuperfluous things he faith are always of fome value. And other ancient authours have the fame phrafe, nearly in the fame fenfe." Of one thing I am certain, that confidering how highly the fmall portion which we have of the table-talk and other anecdotes of our celebrated writers is valued, and how earnestly it is regretted that we have not more, I am justified in preserving rather too many of Johnfon's fayings than too few; especially as from the diverfity of difpofitions it cannot be known with certainty beforehand, whether what may seem trifling to fome, and perhaps to the collector himself, may not be most agreeable to many; and the greater number that an authour can please in any degree, the more pleasure does there arife to a benevolent mind. To those who are weak enough to think this a degrading task, and the time and labour which have been devoted to it mifemployed, I fhall content myself with opposing the authority of the greatest man of any age, JULIUS CÆSAR, of whom Bacon obferves, that "in his book of Apothegms which he collected, we fee that he esteemed it more honour to make himself but a pair of tables, to take the wife and pithy words of others, than to have every word of his own to be made an apothegm or an oracle"." Having faid thus much by way of introduction, I commit the following pages to the candour of the publick. 7 Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Book I. SAMUEL 1709. SAMUEL JOHNSON was born at Lichfield, in Staffordshire, on the 18th of September, N. S. 1709; and his initiation into the Christian church was not delayed; for his baptism is recorded, in the register of St. Mary's parish in that city, to have been performed on the day of his birth: His father is there ftiled Gentleman, a circumftance of which an ignorant panegyrift has praised him for not being proud; when the truth is, that the appellation of Gentleman, though now loft in the indifcriminate affumption of Efquire, was commonly taken by thofe who could not boaft of gentility. His father was Michael Johnson, a native of Derbyshire, of obscure extraction, who settled in Lichfield as a bookfeller and ftationer. His mother was Sarah Ford, defcended of an ancient race of fubftantial yeomanry in Warwickshire. They were well advanced in years when they married, and never had more than two children, both fons; Samuel, their first born, who lived to be the illuftrious character whofe various excellence I am to endeavour to record, and Nathanael, who died in his twenty-fifth year. Mr. Michael Johnson was a man of a large and robust body, and of a ftrong and active mind; yet, as in the most folid rocks veins of unfound subftance are often difcovered, there was in him a mixture of that disease, the nature of which eludes the most minute enquiry, though the effects are well known to be a weariness of life, an unconcern about those things which agitate the greater part of mankind, and a general fenfation of gloomy wretchedness. From him then his fon inherited, with fome other qualities, "a vile melancholy," which in his too ftrong expreffion of any disturbance of the mind, "made him mad all his life, at least not fober." Michael was, however, forced by the narrowness of his circumstances to be very diligent in business, not only in his shop, but by occafionally reforting to feveral towns in the neighbourhood, fome of which were at a considerable distance from Lichfield. At that time book fellers' fhops in the provincial towns of England were very rare, fo that there was not one even in Birmingham, in which town old Mr. Johnson used to open a shop every market-day. He was a pretty good Latin fcholar, and a citizen fo creditable as to be made one of the magiftrates of Lichfield; and, being a man of good fenfe, and skill in his trade, he acquired a reasonable share of wealth, of which however he afterwards loft the greatest part, by engaging unfuccefsfully in a manufacture of parchment. He was a zealous high-churchman and royalist, and retained his attachment to the unfortunate house of Stuart, though he reconciled himself, by cafuistical arguments of expediency and neceffity, to take the oaths impofed by the preyailing power. There is a circumftance in his life fomewhat romantick, but so well authenticated, that I fhall not omit it. A young woman of Leek, in Staffordshire, while he ferved his apprenticeship there, conceived a violent paffion for him; and though it met with no favourable return, followed him to Lichfield, where she took lodgings oppofite to the house in which he lived, and indulged her hopeless flame. When he was informed that it fo preyed upon her mind that her life was in danger, he with a generous humanity went to her and offered to marry her, but it was then too late: Her vital power was exhausted; and she actually exhibited one of the very rare inftances of dying for love. She was buried in the cathedral of Lichfield; and he, with a tender regard, placed a ftone over her grave with this infcription: Here lies the body of Mrs. ELIZABETH BLANEY, a ftranger. 20 of September, 1694. Johnson's mother was a woman of distinguished understanding. I asked his old school-fellow Mr. Hector, furgeon, of Birmingham, if she was not vain of her fon. He faid, "fhe had too much good fenfe to be vain, but fhe knew her fon's value." Her piety was not inferiour to her understanding; and to her must be ascribed those early impreffions of religion upon the mind of her fon, from which the world afterwards derived fo much benefit. He told me, that he remembered diftinctly having had the first notice of Heaven" a place to which good people went," and Hell" a place to which bad people went," communicated to him by her, when a little child in bed with her; and that it might be the better fixed in his memory, she sent him to repeat it to Thomas Jackfon, their man-fervant. He not being in the way, this was not done; but there was no occafion for any artificial aid for its preservation. In following fo very eminent a man from his cradle to his grave, every minute particular, which can throw light on the progrefs of his mind, is interefting. That he was remarkable, even in his earliest years, may easily be supposed; for to use his own words in his Life of Sydenham, "That the strength of his understanding, the accuracy of his difcernment, and ardour of his curiofity, might have been remarked from his infancy, by a diligent obferver, there is no reason to doubt. For, there is no inftance of any man, whose history has been minutely related, that did not in every part of life discover the fame proportion of intellectual vigour." In all fuch investigations it is certainly unwife to pay too much attention to incidents which the credulous relate with eager fatisfaction, and the more fcrupulous or witty enquirer confiders only as topicks of ridicule: Yet there is a traditional story of the infant Hercules of toryifm, fo curiously characteristick, that I fhall not withhold it. It was communicated to me in a letter from Mifs Mary Adye, of Lichfield. "When Dr. Sacheverel was at Lichfield, Johnson was not quite three years old. My grandfather Hammond observed him at the cathedral perched upon his father's fhoulders, listening, and gaping at the much celebrated preacher. Mr. Hammond asked Mr. Johnson how he could poffibly think of bringing fuch an infant to church, and in the midst of so great a croud. He answered, because it was impoffible to keep him at home; for, young as he was, he believed he had caught the publick spirit and zeal for Sacheverel, and would have ftaid for ever in the church, fatisfied with beholding him." Nor can I omit a little inftance of that jealous independence of fpirit, and impetuofity of temper, which never forfook him. The fact was acknowledged to me by himself, upon the authority of his mother. One day, when the fervant who used to be fent to school to conduct him home, had not come in time, he set out by himself, though he was then so near-fighted, that he was obliged to ftoop down on his hands and knees to take a view of the kennel before he ventured to step over it. His fchoolmiftrefs, afraid that he might miss his way, or fall into the kennel, or be run over by a cart, followed him at fome distance. He happened to turn about and perceive her. Feeling her careful attention as an infult to his manliness, he ran back to her in a rage, and beat her, as well as his ftrength would permit. Of the strength of his memory, for which he was all his life eminent to a degree almost incredible, the following early inftance was told me in his prefence at Lichfield, in 1776, by his ftep-daughter, Mrs. Lucy Porter, as related to her by his mother. When he was a child in petticoats, and had learnt to read, Mrs, Johnson one morning put the common prayer-book into his hands, pointed to the collect for the day, and said, "Sam, you must get this by heart." She went up stairs, leaving him to study it: But by the time she had reached the second floor, fhe heard him following her. “What's the matter?" said she. "I can fay it," he replied; and repeated it diftinctly, though he could not have read it over more than twice. But |