THE YOUNG AUTHOUR7.

WHEN first the peafant, long inclin'd to roam, Forfakes his rural sports and peaceful home, Pleas'd with the scene the fmiling ocean yields, He scorns the verdant meads and flow'ry fields; Then dances jocund o'er the watery way, While the breeze whispers, and the streamers play: Unbounded prospects in his bofom roll,

And future millions lift his rifing foul; In blissful dreams he digs the golden mine, And raptur'd fees the new-found ruby shine. Joys infincere! thick clouds invade the skies, Loud roar the billows, high the waves arife; Sick'ning with fear, he longs to view the shore, And vows to trust the faithlefs deep no more. So the young Authour, panting after fame, And the long honours of a lafting name, Entrufts his happiness to human kind, More false, more cruel, than the feas or wind. "Toil on, dull croud, in extacies he cries, For wealth or title, perishable prize; While I thofe tranfitory bleffings fcorn, Secure of praise from ages yet unborn." This thought once form'd, all council comes too late, He flies to prefs, and hurries on his fate; Swiftly he fees the imagin'd laurels spread, And feels the unfading wreath furround his head. Warn'd by another's fate, vain youth, be wise, Thofe dreams were Settle's once, and Ogilby's:

? This he inferted, with many alterations, in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1743.

VOL. I.

D

The

The pamphlet spreads, inceffant hiffes rife,
To fome retreat the baffled writer flies;

Where no four criticks fnarl, no fneers molest,
Safe from the tart lampoon, and stinging jeft;"
There begs of heav'n a lefs distinguish'd lot,
Glad to be hid, and proud to be forgot.

EPILOGUE, intended to have been spoken by a LADY who was to perfonate the Ghost of HERMIONE®.

YE blooming train, who give despair or joy,
Bless with a smile, or with a frown destroy;
In whose fair cheeks destructive Cupids wait,
And with unerring fhafts diftribute fate;
Whose fnowy breafts, whofe animated eyes,
Each youth admires, though each admirer dies;
Whilft you deride their pangs
in barb'rous play,
Unpitying fee them weep, and hear them pray,
And unrelenting sport ten thousand lives away;
For you, ye fair, I quit the gloomy plains;
Where fable night in all her horrour reigns;
No fragrant bowers, no delightful glades,
Receive th' unhappy ghosts of scornful maids.
For kind, for tender nymphs the myrtle blooms,
And weaves her bending boughs in pleafing glooms;
Perennial roses deck each purple vale,

And scents ambrofial breathe in every gale:
Far hence are banish'd vapours, fpleen, and tears,
Tea, fcandal, ivory teeth, and languid airs;

* Some young ladies at Lichfield having proposed to act “The Diftreffed Mother," Johnson wrote this, and gave it to Mr. Hector to convey it privately to them.

No

No pug, nor favourite Cupid there enjoys
The balmy kifs, for which poor Thyrfis dies;
Form'd to delight, they ufe no foreign arms,
Nor torturing whalebones pinch them into charms;
No confcious blushes there their cheeks inflame,
For those who feel no guilt can know no fhame;
Unfaded still their former charms they fhew,
Around them pleasures wait, and joys for ever new.
But cruel virgins meet feverer fates;

Expell'd and exil'd from the blissful feats,
To difmal realms, and regions void of peace,
Where furies ever howl, and ferpents hifs.
O'er the fad plains perpetual tempefts figh.
And pois'nous vapours, black'ning all the sky,
With livid hue the fairest face o'ercast,
And every beauty withers at the blaft:
Where e'er they fly their lover's ghosts purfue,
Inflicting all those ills which once they knew;
Vexation, Fury, Jealoufy, Defpair,
Vex ev'ry eye, and every bofom tear;
Their foul deformities by all defcry'd,
No maid to flatter, and no paint to l

hide.

Then melt, ye fair, while crouds around you figh,
Nor let difdain fit lowring in your eye;
With pity foften every awful grace,
And beauty fmile aufpicious in each face;
To ease their pains exert your milder power,
So fhall you guiltlefs reign, and all mankind adore.

The two years which he spent at home, after his return from Stourbridge, he paffed in what he thought idleness, and was fcolded by his father for his want of steady application. He had no fettled

1728.

Etat. 19.

plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a defultory manner, without any scheme of ftudy, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them. He used to mention one curious inftance of his cafual reading, when but a boy. Having imagined that his brother had hid fome apples behind a large folio upon an upper shelf in his father's fhop, he climbed up to fearch for them. There were no apples; but the large folio proved to be Petrarch, whom he had seen mentioned, in fome preface, as one of the reftorers of learning. His curiofity having. been thus excited, he fat down with avidity, and read a great part of the book. What he read during these two years, he told me, was not works of mere amusement, "not voyages and travels, but all literature, Sir, all ancient writers, all manly; though but little Greek, only fome of Anacreon and Hefiod; but in this irregular manner (added he). I had looked into a great many books, which were not commonly known at the Universities, where they feldom read any books but what are put into their hands by their tutors; fo that when I came to Oxford, Dr. Adams, now master of Pembroke College, told me, I was the beft qualified for the University that he had ever known come there."

In estimating the progrefs of his mind during thefe two years, as well as in future periods of his life, we must not regard his own hafty confeffion of idleness; for we fee, when he explains himself, that he was acquiring various stores; and, indeed,

he

1728.

he himself concluded the account, with faying, "I would not have you think I was doing nothing Etat. 19. then." He might, perhaps, have ftudied more affiduously; but it may be doubted, whether fuch a mind as his was not more enriched by roaming at large in the fields of literature, than if it had been confined to any fingle fpot. The analogy between body and mind is very general, and the parallel will hold as to their food, as well as any other particular. The flesh of animals who feed excurfively, is allowed to have a higher flavour than that of those who are cooped up. May there not be the fame difference between men who read as their taste prompts, and men who are confined in cells and colleges to ftated tasks?

That a man in Mr. Michael Johnson's circumftances fhould think of fending his fon to the expenfive University of Oxford, at his own charge, feems very improbable. The fubject was too delicate to question Johnson upon: But I have been affured by Dr. Taylor, that the scheme never would have taken place, had not a gentleman of Shropfhire, one of his fchoolfellows, fpontaneously undertaken to support him at Oxford, in the character of his companion; though, in fact, he never received any affistance whatever from that gentleman.

He, however, went to Oxford, and was entered a Commoner of Pembroke College, on the 31st of October, 1728, being then in his nineteenth

year.

The Reverend Dr. Adams, who afterwards prefided over Pembroke College with univerfal esteem, told me he was prefent, and gave me fome