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 m, 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 said, he dictated to his mother the following epitaph:

Here lies good master duck,

Whom Samuel Johnson trod on;

If it had liv'd, it had been good luck,
For then we'd had an odd one.

There is surely internal evidence that this little composition 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 stepdaughter, positively maintained to me, in his presence, that there could be no doubt of the truth of this anecdote, for she had heard it from his mother. So difficult is it to obtain an authentick relation of facts, and such authority may there be for errour; for he assured me, that his father made the verses, and wished to pass them for his child's. He added, my father was a foolish old man; that is to say, foolish in talking of his children "."

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m Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, by Hester 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, nevertheless, upon supposition of its truth, been made the foundation of the following ingenious and fanciful reflections of Miss Seward, amongst the communications concerning Dr. Johnson with which she has been pleased to favour me: These infant numbers contain the seeds of those propensities which through his life so strongly marked his character, of that poetick talent which afterwards bore such rich and plentiful fruits; for, excepting his orthographick works, every thing which Dr. Johnson wrote was poetry, whose essence consists not in numbers, or in jingle, but in the strength and glow of a fancy to which all the stores 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 verses also show that superstitious bias which 'grew with his growth, and strengthened with his strength,' and, of late years particularly, injured his happiness, by presenting to him the gloomy side of religion, rather

Young Johnson had the misfortune to be much afflicted with the scrofula, or kingsevil, which disfigured a countenance naturally well formed, and hurt his visual nerves so much, that he did not see at all with one of his eyes, though its appearance was little different from that of the other. There is amongst his prayers, one inscribed, 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 supposed him to be only nearsighted; and indeed I must observe, that in no other respect could I discern any defect in his vision; on the contrary, the force of his attention and perceptive quickness made him see 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 observed resembled a cone, he corrected my inaccuracy, by showing me, that it was indeed pointed at the top, but that one side 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 dress. When I found that he saw the romantick beauties of Islam, in Derbyshire, much better than I did, I told him that he résembled an able performer upon a bad instrument. How false and contemptible then are all the remarks which have been made to the prejudice either of his candour or of his philosophy, founded upon a supposition that he was almost blind. It has been said that he

than that bright and cheering one which gilds the period of closing life with the light of pious hope."

This is so beautifully imagined, that I would not suppress it. But, like many other theories, it is deduced from a supposed fact, which is, indeed, a fiction *. BOSWELL.

* Johnson always evinced mortification at his father's anxiety to exhibit him as an infant prodigy. "That," said he to Mrs. Piozzi, "is the great misery of late marriages; the unhappy produce of them becomes the plaything of dotage." Anecdotes, p. 14.-ED.

P Speaking himself of the imperfection of one of his eyes, he said to Dr. Burney, "the dog was never good for much."--BURNEY.

His

contracted this grievous malady from his nurse. mother, yielding to the superstitious notion, which, it is wonderful to think, prevailed so long in this country, as to the virtue of the regal touch; a notion which our kings encouraged, and to which a man of such inquiry and such judgment as Carte could give credit; carried him to London', where he was actually touched by queen Annes. Mrs.

q "I was, by my father's persuasion, put to one Marclew, commonly called Bellison, the servant or wife of a servant of my father, to be nursed, in Georgelane. Here it was discovered that my eyes were bad, and an issue was cut in my left arm. Dr. Swinfen told me that the scrofulous sores which afflicted me proceeded from the bad humours of the nurse, whose son had the same distemper, and was likewise short-sighted, but both in a less degree. My mother thought my diseases derived from her family. In ten weeks I was taken home, a poor diseased infant, nearly blind. Dr. Swinfen used to say, he never knew any child reared with so much difficulty.” See " An Account of the Life of Dr. Johnson, from his birth to his eleventh year, written by himself;" from which work, though of little general value, the above extract is made.-Ed.

cup,

r He was only thirty months old when his mother took him up to London. cup and His mother then purchased for him a small silver which spoon, said he, "was one of the last pieces of plate which dear Tetty sold in our distress. I have now the spoon. She bought at the same time two teaspoons, and, p. 18.--ED. till my manhood, she had no more." See An Account, etc. as above,

s Edward the confessor is said to have transmitted this royal gift of healing to his successors. In Stow's Annals may be found an account of the first cure of the kind which the benevolent Saxon monarch performed. A piece of gold was given to all those who were touched, which may partially exculpate the poorer part of our ancestors from the imputation of implicit credulity. Fabian Phillips, in his treatise on Purveyance, asserts, that the angels issued by the kings of England on these occasions amounted to a charge of three thousand pounds per annum, p. 257. Queen Elizabeth was so tired of touching those who desired to be cured of the evil, that, in Gloucestershire, during one of her progresses, she told those who were pressing on her, that God only could relieve them from their complaints. Fuller's Ch. Hist. p. 146, citing Cambden's Elizabeth. Gemelli, the famous traveller, also gives an account of sixteen hundred persons being presented for this purpose to Louis XIV. on Easter Sunday, 1686. Gemelli was himself present at this ceremony, and says the words used were, "Le Roi te touche, Dieu te guérisse." Every Frenchman received fifteen sous, and every foreigner thirty, after being touched to some of the supposed patients the king said, Are you sick too? For other curious particulars on this interesting subject, see Barrington on Ancient Statutes, p. 107. Queen Anne was the last of our sovereigns who practised this delusion. In the London Gazette for 1707, is a proclamation, inviting her diseased subjects to submit themselves to her healing hand. The ritual for this office may be found in bishop Sparrow's Collection of Articles, Canons, etc. and in most of our common-prayer books printed in queen Anne's time.-Ed.

:

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 de-. scription 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 sort of solemn recollection of a lady in diamonds, and a long black hood'." This touch, however, was without any effect. I ventured to say to him, in allusion to the political principles in which he was educated, and of which he ever retained some odour, that "his mother had not carried him far enough; she should have taken him to Rome."

He was first taught to read English by dame Oliver, a widow, who kept a school for young children in Lichfield. He told me she could read the black letter, and asked him to borrow for her, from his father, a Bible in that character. When he was going to Oxford, she came to take leave of him, brought him, in the simplicity of her kindness, a present of gingerbread, and said he was the best scholar she ever had. He delighted in mentioning this early compliment; adding, with a smile, that "this was as high a proof of his merit as he could conceive." His next instructer in English was a master, whom, when he spoke of him to me, he familiarly called Tom Brown, who, said he, published a spelling-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, usher or under master of Lichfield school, "a man," said he, "very skilful in his little way." With him he continued two years, and then rose to be under the care of Mr. Hunter, the head master, who, according to his account, " was very severe, and wrong-headedly severe. He used," said 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 question, and if he did not answer it, he t Anecdotes, p. 10.

VOL. I.

C

would beat him, without considering whether he had an opportunity of knowing how to answer it. For instance, he would call up a boy and ask him Latin for a candlestick, which the boy could not expect to be asked. Now, sir, if a boy could answer every question, 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 severe, 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 master, and that his ushers were most of them men of eminence; that Holdbrook, 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 school. Then came Hague, of whom as much might be said, with the addition that he was an elegant poet. Hague was succeeded by Green, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, whose character in the learned world is well known. In the same form with Johnson was Congreve, who afterwards became chaplain to archbishop Boulter, and by that connexion obtained good preferment in Ireland. He was a younger son of the ancient family of Congreve, in Staffordshire, of which the poet was a branch. His brother sold the estate. There was also Lowe, afterwards canon of Windsor.

Indeed Johnson was very sensible how much he owed to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Langton one day asked him how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of Latin, in which,

u Besides Dr. Taylor, and others mentioned above, he had for his schoolfellows, Dr. James, author of the Medicinal Dictionary, and inventor of the far-famed fever powder; and Mr. Hector, surgeon, in Birmingham, whose name will so constantly be repeated in these memoirs. Among other eminent men, Addison, Wollaston, Garrick, and bishop Newton, were educated at this school. There were, at one period, five judges upon the bench of that school: lord chief justice Willis, lord chief baron Parker, Mr. Justice Noel, sir Robert Lloyd, baron of the exchequer, and Mr. Justice, afterwards lord chief justice Wilmot. See Addisoniana. I. Biog. Brit. and Dr. Anderson, Life of Johnson, prefixed to the works of the British Poets.-ED.