ftudy was never regular, and at all times he thought more than he read. He informed Mr. Bofwell, that what he read folidly at Oxford was Greek, and that the study of which he was moft fond was metaphyfics.

It was in the year 1731 that Johnson left the univerfity without a degree; and as his father, who died in the month of December of that year, had fuffered great misfortunes in trade, he was driven out a commoner of nature, and excluded from the regular modes of profit and profperity. Having therefore not only a profeffion, but the means of fubfiftence to feek, he accepted, in the month of March 1732, an invitation to the office of under-mafter of a free school at Market Bosworth in Leicefterfhire: but not knowing, as he faid, whether it was more difagrecable for him to teach or for the boys to learn the grammar-rules, and being likewife difgufted at the treatment which he received from the patron of the school, he relinquished in a few months a fituation which he ever afterwards recollected with horror. Being thus again without any fixed employment, and with very little money in his pocket, he tranflated Lobo's voyage to Abyffinia, for the trifling fum, it is faid, of five guineas, which he received from a bookfeller in Birmingham. This was. the first attempt which it is certain he made to procure pecuniary affiftance by means of his pen; and it muft have held forth very little encouragement to his commencing author by profeffion.

In 1735, being then in his 26th year, he married Mrs. Porter, the widow of a mercer in Birmingham; whofe age was almoft double his; whose external form, according to Garrick and others, had never been captivating; and whose fortune amounted to hardly 800l. That the had a fuperiority of understanding and talents is extremely probable, both because the certainly infpired him with a more than ordinary paffion, and becaufe fhe was herfelf fo delighted with the charms of

his converfation as to overlook his external difadvan tages, which were many and great. He now fet up a private academy; for which purpose he hired a large houfe well fituated near his native city: but his name having then nothing of that celebrity which afterwards commanded the attention and refpect of mankind, this undertaking did not fucceed. The only pupils who are known to have been placed under his care, were the celebrated David Garrick, his brother George Garrick, and a young gentleman of fortune whofe name was Offely. He kept his academy only a year and a half; and it was during that time that he conftructed the plan and wrote a great part of his tragedy of Irene.

The refpectable character of his parents and his own merit had fecured him a kind reception in the best families at Litchfield; and he was particularly diffinguished by Mr. Walmsley, register of the ecclefiaftical court, a man of great worth and of very extenfive and various erudition. That gentleman, upon hearing part of Irene read, thought fo highly of Johnson's abilities as a dramatic writer, that he adyised him by all means to finish the tragedy and produce it on the stage. To men of genius the stage holds forth temptations almost refiftlefs. The profits arifing from a tragedy, including the representation and printing of it, and the connections which it fometimes enables the author to form, were in Johnfon's imagination ineftimable. Flattered, it may be fuppofed, with thefe hopes, he fet out fome time in the year 1737, with his pupil David Garrick, for London, leaving Mrs. Johnson to take care of the house and the wreck of her fortune. The two adventurers carried with them from Mr. Walmfley an earnest recommendation to the reverend Mr. Colfon, then mafter of an academy, and afterwards Lucafian pr feffor of mathematics in the univerfity of Cambridge; but from that gentleman it does not appear that Johnson found either protection or encouragement.

How

How he spent his time upon his first going to London is not particularly known. His tragedy was refused by the managers of that day; and for fome years the Gentleman's Magazine feems to have been his principal refource for employment and support. To enumerate his various communications to that far-famed miscellany, would extend this article beyond the limits which we can afford. Suffice it to fay, that his connection with Cave the proprietor, became very clofe; that he wrote prefaces, effays, reviews of books, and poems; and that he was occafionally employed in correcting the papers written by other correfpondents. When the complaints of the nation against the adminiftration of Sir Robert Walpole became loud, and a motion was made, February 13th 1740-1, to remove him from his majesty's counfels for ever, Johnfon was pitched upon by Cave to write what was in the Magazine intitled Debates in the Senate of Lilliput, but was underftood to be the fpeeches of the most eminent members in both houses of parliament. Thefe orations, which induced Voltaire to compare British with ancient eloquence, were haftily fketched by Johnfon while he was not yet 32 years old, while he was little acquainted with life, while he was ftruggling not for diftinction but for existence. Perhaps in none of his writings has he given a more confpicuous proof of a mind prompt and vigorous almoft beyond conception: for they were compofed from fcanty notes taken by illiterate perfons employed to attend in both houfes; and fometimes he had nothing communicated to him but the names of the feveral speakers, and the part which they took in the debate.

His feparate publications, which at this time attracted the greatest notice, were, "London, a Poem in imitation of Juvenal's third Satire;" " Marmor Norfolcienfe, or an Effay on an ancient prophetical Infcription in Monkish Rhyme, lately difcovered near

Lynne in Norfolk ;" and "A complete Vindication of the Licenfers of the Stage from the malicious and fcandalous afperfions of Mr. Brook, author of Guftavus Vafa." The poem, which was published 1738 by Dodfley, is univerfally known and admired as the moft fpirited inftance in the English language of ancient fentiments adapted to modern topics. Pope, who then filled the poetical throne without a rival, being informed that the author's name was Johnson, and that he was an obscure perfon, replied, "he will foon be déterré." The other two pamphlets, which were publifhed in 1739, are filled with keen fatire on the government: and though Sir John Hawkins has thought fit to declare that they difplay neither learning nor wit, Pope was of a different opinion: for, in a note of his preferved by Mr. Bofwell, he fays, that "the whole of the Norfolk Prophecy is very humorous."

Mrs. Johnson, who went to London foon after her husband, now lived fometimes in one place and sometimes in another, fometimes in the city and fometimes - at Greenwich: but Johnson himself was oftener to be found at St. John's Gate, where the Gentleman's Magazine was published, than in his own lodgings. It was there that he became acquainted with Savage, with whom he was induced, probably by the fimilarity of their circumftances, to contract a very close friendship; and fuch was their extreme neceffities, that they have often wandered whole nights in the ftreet for want of money to procure them a lodging. In one of these nocturnal rambles, when their diftrefs was almoft incredible, fo far were they from being depreffed by their fituation, that in high fpirits, and brimful of patriotifin, they traversed St. James's Square for feveral hours, inveighed against the minifter, and, as Johnfon faid in ridicule of himself, his companion, and of all fuch patriots, "refolved that they would ftand by their country!" In 1744, he published the

life of his unfortunate companion; a work which, had he never written any thing else, would have placed him very high in the rank of authors. His narrative is remarkably fmooth and well difpofed, his obfervations are juft, and his reflections disclose the inmoft receffes of the human heart.

In 1749, when Drury-lane theatre was opened under the management of Garrick, Johnfon wrote a prologue for the occafion, which for juft dramatic criticifm on the whole range of the English stage, as well as for poetical excellence, is confeffedly unrivalled. But this year is, in his life, diftinguished as the epoch when his arduous and important work, the Dictionary of the English Language, was announced to the world by the publication of its plan or profpectus, addreffed to the Earl of Chesterfield. From that nobleman Johnfon was certainly led to expect patronage and encouragement; and it feems to be equally certain that his lordship expected, when the book fhould be publifhed, to be honoured with the dedication. The expectations of both were difappointed. Lord Chefterfield, after feeing the lexicographer once or twice, fuffered him to be repulfed from his door: but afterwards, thinking to conciliate him when the work was upon the eve of publication, he wrote two papers in "The World," warmly recommending it to the public. This artifice was feen through; and Johnson, in very polite language, rejected his lordship's advances, letting him know, that he was unwilling the public fhould confider him as owing to a patron that which Providence had enabled him to do for himself. This great and laborious work its author expected to complete in three years: but he was certainly employed upon it feven; for we know that it was begun in 1747, and the last sheet was fent to the press in the end of the year 1754. When we confider the nature of the undertaking, it is indeed aftonishing that it was finished

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