illuftrious character whofe various excellence I am to endeavour to record, and Nathanael, who died in his twenty-fifth year. Mr. Michael Johnfon 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 fubftance 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 wearinefs 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 circumftances to be very diligent in business, not only in his shop, but by occafionally reforting to several towns in the neighbourhood, fome of which were at a confiderable 8 Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 213. Extract of a Letter, dated "Trentham, St. Peter's day, 1716," written by the Rev. George Plaxton, Chaplain at that time to Lord Gower, which may ferve to fhow the great estimation in which the Father of our great Moralift was held :"Johnson, the Litchfield Librarian, is now here; he propagates learning all over this diocefe, and advanceth knowledge to its juft height; all the Clergy here are his Pupils, and fuck all they have from him; Allen cannot make a warrant without his precedent, nor our quondam John Evans draw a recognizance fine directione Michaelis." Gentleman's Magazine, October, 1791. distance 1709 distance from Lichfield. At that time bookfellers' fhops in the provincial towns of England were very rare, so that there was not one even in Birmingham, in which town old Mr. Johnfon used to open a shop every market-day. He was a pretty good Latin scholar, 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 unsuccessfully 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 imposed by the prevailing power. There is a circumstance in his life fomewhat romantick, but so well authenticated, that I fhall not omit it. A young woman of Leek, in Staffordshire, while he served his apprenticeship there, conceived a violent paffion for him; and though it met with no favourable return, followed him to Lichfield, where fhe took lodgings oppofite to the House in which he lived, and indulged her hopelefs 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 exhaufted; and fhe actually exhibited one of the very rare inftances of dying for love. She was buried in the cathedral of Lichfield; and he he, with a tender regard, placed a stone over her grave with this inscription: Here lies the body of Mrs. ELIZABETH BLANEY, a stranger. 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 sense 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 firft 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, the fent him to repeat it to Tho-. mas 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 progrefs 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 strength of his understanding, the accuracy of his discernment, and ardour of his curiofity, might have been remarked from his infancy, by a diligent obferver, there is no reafon to doubt. For, there is no instance of any man, whofe 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 toryism, fo curiously characteristick, that I fhall not withhold it. It was communicated to me in a letter from Miss 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, listening and gaping at the much celebrated preacher. Mr. Hammond afked Mr. Johnson how he could poffibly think of bringing fuch an infant to church, and in the midst of fo 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 fpirit 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 fpirit, and impetuofity of temper, which never forfook him. The fact was acknow ledged 1712. ledged to me by himself, upon the authority of his mother. One day, when the fervant who used to be Etat. 3. fent to school to conduct him home, had not come in time, he fet out by himfelf, though he was then fo near-fighted, that he was obliged to stoop down on his hands and knees to take a view of the kennel before he ventured to step over it. His schoolmistress, afraid that he might mifs his way, or fall into the kennel, or be run over by a cart, followed him at fome diftance. 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 power of his memory, for which he was all his life eminent to a degree almoft incredible, the following early inftance was told me in his prefence at Lichfield, in 1776, by his stepdaughter, Mrs. Lucy Porter, as related to her by his mother. When he was a child in petticoats, and had learnt to read, Mrs. Johnson oné 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 study it: But by the time she had reached the fecond floor, fhe heard him following her, "What's the matter?" faid fhe. "I can fay it," he replied; and repeated it diftinctly, though he could not have read it more than twice. But there has been another ftory of his infant precocity generally circulated, and generally believed, the truth of which I am to refute upon his VOL, I. C own |