There is a circumftance in his life fomewhat romantick, but fo well authenticated, that I fhall not omit it. A young woman of Leek, in Staffordshire, while he served his apprenticeship there, conceived a violent passion for him; and though it met with no favourable return, followed him to Lichfield, where fhe took lodgings oppofite to the houfe in which he lived, and indulged her hopeless flame. When he was informed that it so 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 fhe 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 stone over her grave with this infcription:

Here lies the body of

Mrs. ELIZABETH BLANEY, a ftranger.
She departed this life

20 of September, 1694.

Johnfon's mother was a woman of distinguished understanding. I asked his old fchool-fellow Mr. Hector, furgeon, of Birmingham, if she was not vain of her fon. He said, "fhe had too much good fenfe to be vain, but she knew her fon's value." Her piety was not inferiour to her understanding; and to her must be ascribed thofe 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 Jackson, their man-fervant. He not being in the way, this was not done; but there was no occafion for any artificial aid for its prefervation.

In following fo very eminent a man from his cradle to his grave, every minute particular, which can throw light on the progress of his mind, is interefting. That he was remarkable, even in his earliest years, may easily be fuppofed; for to use his own words in his Life of Sydenham, "That the ftrength 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,

1712.

Ætat. 3.

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, Johnfon was not quite three years old. My grandfather Hammond obferved him at the cathedral perched upon his father's fhoulders, liftening, and gaping at the much celebrated preacher. Mr. Hammond asked Mr. Johnson how he could poffibly think of bringing such an infant to church, and in the midft of fo great a croud. He answered, becaufe 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 staid for ever in the church, fatisfied with beholding him.'

Nor can I omit a little inftance of that jealous independence of spirit, 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 sent to school to conduct him home, had not come in time, he fet out by himself, though he was then fo 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 ftep over it. His, fchoolmistress, 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 insult 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 step-daughter, Mrs. Lucy Porter, as related to her by his mother. When he was a child in petticoats, and had learnt to read, Mrs. Johnfon one morning put the common prayer-book into his hands, pointed to the collect for the day, and faid, "Sam, you must get this by heart." She went up ftairs, leaving him to ftudy it: But by the time she had reached the fecond floor, she heard him following her. "What's the matter?" faid fhe. "I can fay it," he replied; and repeated it distinctly,, though he could not have read it over more than twice.

But:

But there has been another story of his infant precocity generally circulated, and generally believed, the truth of which I am to refute upon his own authority. It is told, that, when a child of three years old, he chanced to tread upon a duckling, the eleventh of a brood, and killed it; upon which, it is faid, he dictated to his mother the following epitaph :

"Here lies good mafter duck,

Whom Samuel Johnfon trod on;
If it had liv'd, it had been good luck,
For then we'd had an odd one."

There is furely internal evidence that this little compofition combines in it, what no child of three years old could produce, without an extension of its faculties by immediate inspiration; yet Mrs. Lucy Porter, Dr. Johnson's ftep-daughter, pofitively maintained to me, in his prefence, that there could be no doubt of the truth of this anecdote, for fhe had heard it from his mother. So difficult is it to obtain an authentick relation of facts, and fuch authority may there be for errour; for he affured me, that his father made the verses, and wished to pass them for his child's. He added, " my was a foolish old man; that is to say, foolish in talking of his children.” Young Johnson had the misfortune to be much afflicted with the fcrophula, or king's evil, which disfigured a countenance naturally well formed, and

father

9 Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson by Hefter Lynch Piozzi, p. 11.-Life of Dr. Johnson by Sir John Hawkins. p. 6.

This anecdote of the duck, though disproved by internal and external evidence, has neverthelefs, upon fuppofition of its truth, been made the foundation of the following ingenious and fanciful reflections by Mifs Seward, amongft the communications concerning Dr. Johnson with which she has been pleased to favour me." Thefe infant numbers contain the feeds of those propenfities which through his life so strongly marked his character, of that poetick talent which afterwards bore fuch rich and plentiful fruits; for, excepting his orthographick works, every thing which Dr. Johnfon wrote was Poetry, whofe effence confifts not in numbers, or in jingle, but in the strength and glow of a fancy, to which all the ftores of nature and of art stand in prompt administration; and in an eloquence which conveys their blended illustrations in a language more tuneable than needs or rhyme or verse to add more harmony.'

"The above little verfes alfo fhew that fuperftitious bias which grew with his growth, and krengthened with his strength,' and of late years particularly injured his happiness, by presenting to him the gloomy fide of religion, rather than that bright and cheering one which gilds the period of clofing life, with the light of pious hope."

This is fo beautifully imagined, that I would not fupprefs it. But, like many other theories, it is deduced from a fuppofed fact, which is, indeed, a fiction.

hurt his vifual nerves fo much, that he did not fee at all with one of his eyes, though its appearance was little different from that of the other. There is amongst his prayers, one infcribed "When my EYE was restored to its use"," which ascertains a defect that many of his friends knew he had, though I never perceived it. I fuppofed him to be only near-fighted; and indeed I must observe, that in no other respect could I difcern any defect in his vision; on the contrary, the force of his attention and perceptive quicknefs made him fee and distinguish all manner of objects, whether of nature or of art, with a nicety that is rarely to be found. When he and I were travelling in the Highlands of Scotland, and I pointed out to him a mountain which I obferved refembled a cone, he corrected my inaccuracy by shewing me, that it was indeed pointed at the top, but that one fide of it was larger than the other. And the ladies with whom he was acquainted agree, that no man was more nicely and minutely critical in the elegance of female drefs. When I found that he faw the romantick beauties of Islam, in Derbyshire, much better than I did, I told him that he resembled an able performer upon a bad inftrument. How falfe and contemptible then are all the remarks which have been made to the prejudice either of his candour or of his philofophy, founded upon a fuppofition that he was almoft blind. It has been faid, that he contracted this grievous malady from his nurfe. His mother yielding to the fuperftitious notion, which, it is wonderful to think, prevailed fo long in this country, as to the virtue of the regal touch; a notion, which our kings encouraged, and to which a man of fuch inquiry and fuch judgement as Carte could give credit; carried him to London, where he was actually touched by Queen Anne. Mrs. Johnson indeed, as Mr. Hector informed me, acted by the advice of the celebrated Sir John Floyer, then a physician in Lichfield. Johnson used to talk of this very frankly; and Mrs. Piozzi has preserved his very picturesque defcription of the scene, as it remained upon his fancy. Being asked if he could remember Queen Anne, " He had (he said) a confused, but somehow a fort of folemn recollection of a lady in diamonds, and a long black hood "." This touch, however, was without any effect. I ventured to fay to him, in allufion to the political principles in which he was educated, and of which he ever retained fome odour, that " his mother had not carried him far enough; fhe fhould have taken him to ROME."

He was first taught to read English by Dame Oliver, a widow, who kept a fchool for young children in Lichfield. He told me he could read the

Prayers and Meditations, p. 27.

3 Anecdotes, p. 10.

black

black letter, and asked him to borrow for her, from his father, a bible in that character. When he was going to Oxford, fhe came to take leave of him, brought him, in the fimplicity of her kindness, a prefent of gingerbread, and said he was the best scholar fhe had ever had. He delighted in mentioning this early compliment; adding, with a fmile, that "this was as high a proof of his merit as he could conceive." His next instructor in English was a master, whom, when he fpoke of him to me, he familiarly called Tom Brown, who, faid he, "published a fpelling-book, and dedicated it to the UNIVERSE; but, I fear, no copy of it can now be had."

He began to learn Latin with Mr. Hawkins, ufher, or under-mafter of Lichfield school, "a man (faid he) very fkilful in his little way." With him he continued two years, and then rofe to be under the care of Mr. Hunter the head-mafter, who, according to his account, "was very severe, and wrong-headedly fevere. He used (faid he) to beat us unmercifully; and he did not distinguish between ignorance and negligence; for he would beat a boy equally for not knowing a thing, as for neglecting to know it. He would ask a boy a queftion; and if he did not answer it, he would beat him, without confidering whether he had an opportunity of knowing how to answer it. For instance, he would call up a boy and afk him Latin for a candlestick, which the boy could not expect to be asked. Now, Sir, if a boy could answer every queftion, 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 fevere, 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 mafter, and that his ufhers 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 fchool. Then came Hague, of whom as much might be faid, with the addition that he was an elegant poet. Hague was fucceeded by Green, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, whofe character in the learned world is well known. In the fame 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 fon of the ancient family of Congreve, in Staffordshire, of which the poet was a branch. His brother fold the eftate. There was alf

Lowe,