1734. Atat. 25. Mr. Cave has put a note on this letter, "Anfwered Dec. 2." But whether any thing was done in confequence of it we are not informed. Johnfon had, from his early youth, been fenfible to the influence of female charms. When at Stourbridge fchool, he was much enamoured of Olivia Lloyd, a young quaker, to whom he wrote a copy of verses, which I have not been able to recover; but with what facility and elegance he could warble the amorous lay, will appear from the following lines which he wrote for his friend Mr. Edmund Hector. VAR RSES to a LADY, on receiving from her a SPRIG "What hopes, what terrours does thy gift create, And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart! His * Mrs. Piozzi gives the following account of this little compofition from Dr. Johnson's own relation to her, on her inquiring whether it was rightly attributed to him" I think it is now just forty years ago, that a young fellow had a sprig of myrtle His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very tranfient; and it is certain, that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever. Mr. Hector, who lived with him in his younger days in the utmost intimacy and focial freedom, has affured me, that even at that ardent feafon his conduct was strictly virtuous in that refpect; and that though he loved to exhilirate himfe.: with wine, he never knew him intoxicated but once. given him by a girl he courted, and afked me to write him fome verfes that he might prefent her in return. I promifed, but forgot; and when he called for his lines at the time agreed on→→→ Sit fill a moment, (fays I) dear Mund, and I'll fetch them theeSo ftepped afide for five minutes, and wrote the nonsense you now keep fuch a ftir about." Anecdotes, p. 34. 1734. Atat. 25. In my first edition I was induced to doubt the authenticity of this account, by the following circumftantial statement in a letter to me from Mifs Seward, of Lichfield :—“ Į know thofe verfes were addreffed to Lucy Porter, when he was enamoured of her in his boyish days, two or three years before he had seen her mother, his future wife. He wrote them at my grandfather's, and gave them to Lucy in the prefence of my mother, to whom he fhowed them on the inftant. She ufed to repeat them to me, when I asked her for the verfes Dr. Johnson gave her on a sprig of myrtle, which he had ftolen or begged from her bosom. We all know honeft Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying to herself a compliment not intended for her,” Such was this lady's statement, which I make no doubt she suppofed to be correct; but it shows how dangerous it is to trust too implicitly to traditional teftimony and ingenious inference; for Mr. Hector has lately affured me that Mrs. Piozzi's account is in this inftance accurate, and that he was the perfon for whom Johnfon wrote those verses, which have been erroneously ascribed to Mr. Hammond. I am obliged in fo many inftances to notice Mrs. Piozzi's incorrectness of relation, that I gladly feize this opportunity of acknowledging, that however often, she is not always inaccurate. 1734. Etat. 25. In a man whom religious education has fecured from licentious indulgences, the paffion of love, when once it has feized him, is exceedingly strong; being unimpaired by diffipation, and totally concentrated in one object. This was experienced by Johnfon, when he became the fervent admirer of Mrs. Porter, after her first husband's death. Mifs Porter told me, that when he was first introduced to her mother, his appearance was very forbidding: he was then lean and lank, fo that his immenfe ftructure of bones was hideously striking to the eye, and the scars of the fcrophula were deeply vifible, He also wore his hair, which was straight and stiff, and separated behind; and he often had, feemingly, convulfive starts and odd gefticulations, which tended to excite at once surprize and ridicule. Mrs. Porter was so much engaged by his conversation that fhe overlooked all thefe external difadvantages, and faid to her daughter, "this is the most sensible man that I ever faw in my life." Though Mrs. Porter was double the age of Johnson, and her perfon and manner, as described to me by the late Mr. Garrick, were by no means pleafing to others, she must have had a fuperiority of understanding and talents, as fhe certainly infpired him with a more than ordinary paffion; and The having fignified her willingness to accept of his hand, he went to Lichfield to afk his mother's confent to the marriage, which he could not but be conscious was a very imprudent scheme, both on account of their disparity of years, and her want of fortune. But Mrs. Johnson knew too well the ardour ardour of her fon's temper, and was too tender a parent to oppofe his inclinations. 1735. Ætat. 26. I know not for what reafon the marriage cercremony was not performed at Birmingham; but a refolution was taken that it fhould be at Derby, for which place the bride and bridegroom set out on horseback, I suppose in very good humour. But though Mr. Topham Beauclerk used archly to mention Johnson's having told him, with much gravity, "Sir, it was a love marriage on both fides," I have had from my illuftrious friend the following curious account of their journey to church upon the nuptial morn. - Sir, fhe had read the old 9 July. romances, and had got into her head the fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her lover like a dog. So, Sir, at first she told me that I rode too fast, and she could not keep up with me; and, when I rode a little flower, she passed me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the flave of caprice; and I refolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore pushed on briskly, till I was fairly out of her fight. The road lay between two hedges, fo I was fure fhe could not mifs it; and I contrived that she should foon come up with me. When she did, I observed her to be in tears." This, it must be allowed, was a fingular beginning of connubial felicity; but there is no doubt that Johnson, though he thus fhowed a manly firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to the laft moment of Mrs. Johnfon's life: and in his Prayers and Meditations," we find " Atat. 26. 1735 very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceafed, even after her death. He now fet up a private academy, for which purpose he hired a large houfe, well fituated near his native city. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1736, there is the following advertisement: "At Edial, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young gen'tlemen are boarded and taught the Latin and Greek languages, by SAMUEL JOHNSON." But the only pupils that were put under his care were the celebrated David Garrick and his brother George, and a Mr. Offely, a young gentleman of good fortune, who died early. As yet, his name had nothing of that celebrity which afterwards commanded the highest attention and refpect of man'kind. Had fuch an advertisernent appeared after the publication of his LONDON, or his RAMBLER, or his DICTIONARY, how would it have burst upon the world! with what eagerness would the great and the wealthy have embraced an opportunity of putting their fons under the learned tuition of SAMUEL JOHNSON. The truth, however, is, that he was not fo well qualified for being a teacher of elements, and a conductor in learning by regular gradations, as men of inferiour powers of mind. His own acquifitions had been made by fits and ftarts, by violent irruptions into the regions of knowledge; and it could not be expected that his impatience would be fubdued, and his impetuofity reftrained, fo as to fit him for a quiet guide to novices. The art of communicating inftruction, of whatever kind, is much to be valued, and I have ever thought that thofe who devote them |