vice, with talents that might have made him conspicuous in literature, and respectable in any profession he could have chosen his cousin has mentioned him in the lives of Fenton and of Broome '; and when he spoke of him to me, it was always with tenderness, praising his acquaintance with life and manners, and recollecting one piece of advice that no man surely ever followed more exactly: 'Obtain (says Ford) some general principles of every science; he who can talk only on one subject, or act only in one department, is seldom wanted, and perhaps never wished for; while the man of general knowledge can often benefit, and always please.' He used to relate, however, another story less to the credit of his cousin's penetration, how Ford on some occasion said to him, 'You will make your way the more easily in the world, I see, as you are contented to dispute no man's claim to conversation excellence; they will, therefore, more willingly allow your pretensions as a writer.' Can one, on such an occasion, forbear recollecting the predictions of Boileau's father, when stroaking the head of the young satirist, Ce petit bon homme (says he) n'à [sic] point trop d'esprit, mais il ne dira jamais mal de personne3. Such are the prognostics formed by In the Life of Fenton he describes Ford as 'a clergyman at that time [1723] too well known, whose abilities, instead of furnishing convivial merriment to the voluptuous and dissolute, might have enabled him to excel among the virtuous and the wise.' Works, viii. 57. 'At his college Broome lived for some time in the same chamber with the wellknown Ford.' Ib. p. 229. See Life, i. 49; iii. 348. Broome entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1708. In the Gent. Mag., 1731, p. 354, is recorded the death on August 22 of 'The Rev. Mr. Ford, esteem'd for his polite, agreeable conversation.' 2Paschal had before enforced the same maxim. "You tell me that such a person is a good mathematician, but I have nothing to do with mathematics. You assert of another men of wit and sense, as these two certainly were, concerning the future character and conduct of those for whose welfare they were honestly and deeply concerned; and so late do those features of peculiarity come to their growth, which mark a character to all succeeding generations. Dr. Johnson first learned to read of his mother and her old maid Catharine, in whose lap he well remembered sitting while she explained to him the story of St. George and the Dragon. I know not whether this is the proper place to add, that such was his tenderness, and such his gratitude, that he took a journey to Litchfield fifty-seven years afterwards to support and comfort her in her last illness; he had enquired for his nurse, and she was dead. The recollection of such reading as had delighted him in his infancy, made him always persist in fancying that it was the only reading which could please an infant; and he used to condemn me for putting Newbery's books into their hands as too trifling to engage their attention. 'Babies do not want (said he) to hear about babies; they like to be told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and stimulate their little minds.' When in answer I would urge the numerous editions and quick sale of Tommy Prudent or Goody Two Shoes: Remember always (said he) that the parents buy the 'Mrs. Piozzi is speaking of Catherine Chambers, who died in 1767 (ante, p. 45). She and Johnson were of the same age; moreover it was not till about 1724,' when he was fifteen years old, that she came to live with his mother. Ib. 2 Ante, p. 130. 3 The author of Caleb Williams [William Godwin], who had been a child's publisher himself, had always a strong persuasion that Goldsmith wrote Goody Two Shoes. Forster's Goldsmith, i. 346. Goldsmith introduces Newbery in the Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xviii, as the philanthropic bookseller in St. Paul's Church-yard, who has written so many little books for children: he called himself their friend, but he was the friend of all mankind.' Johnson at Rochester maintained 'that Jack the Giant-Killer, Parisenus and Parismenus, and The Seven Champions of Christendom were fitter for children than Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer.' Life, iv. 8. Boswell wrote on the fly-leaf of the first volume of a collection of Chap Books which he bought in 1763:— 'Having when a Boy been much entertained with Jack the Giant Killer, I went to the Printing office in Bow Churchyard and bought this collection. I shall certainly, some books, books, and that the children never read them.' Mrs. Barbauld however had his best praise, and deserved it; no man was more struck than Mr. Johnson with voluntary descent from possible splendour to painful duty 1. At eight years old he went to school, for his health would not permit him to be sent sooner2; and at the age of ten years his mind was disturbed by scruples of infidelity, which preyed upon his spirits, and made him very uneasy; the more so, as he revealed his uneasiness to no one, being naturally (as he said) 'of a sullen temper and reserved disposition.' He searched, however, diligently but fruitlessly, for evidences of the truth of revelation; and at length recollecting a book he had once seen in his father's shop, intitled, De Veritate Religionis, &c. he began to think himself highly culpable for neglecting such a means of information, and took himself severely to task for this sin, adding many acts of voluntary, and to others unknown, penance. The first opportunity which offered (of course) he seized the book with avidity; but on examination, not finding himself scholar enough to peruse its contents, set his heart at rest; and, not thinking to enquire whether there were any English books written on the subject, followed his usual amusements, and considered his time or other, write a little Story Book in the style of these. I shall be happy to succeed, for he who pleases children will be remembered by men.' Sale Catalogue of the Auchinleck Library, Sotheby & Co., June 23, 1893, Lot 91. ''A voluntary descent from the dignity of science is perhaps the hardest lesson that humility can teach.' Johnson's Works, viii. 385. See also ib. vii. 99, 110 for a kind of humble dignity' which he praises in Milton. For his abuse of Mrs. Barbauld see Life, ii. 408. Lamb wrote on Oct. 23, 1802 :'Mrs. Barbauld's stuff has banished all the old classics of the nursery; and the shopman at New conscience as lightened of a crime. He redoubled his diligence to learn the language that contained the information he most wished for; but from the pain which guilt had given him, he now began to deduce the soul's immortality, which was the point that belief first stopped at; and from that moment resolving to be a Christian, became one of the most zealous and pious ones our nation ever produced'. When he had told me this odd anecdote of his childhood; 'I cannot imagine (said he) what makes me talk of myself to you so, for I really never mentioned this foolish story to any body except Dr. Taylor, not even to my dear dear Bathurst, whom I loved better than ever I loved any human creature; but poor Bathurst is dead!!!"'— Here a long pause and a few tears ensued. Why Sir, said I, how like is all this to Jean Jaques Rousseau!3 as like, I mean, as the sensations of frost and fire, when my child complained yesterday that the ice she was eating burned her mouth. Mr. Johnson laughed at the incongruous ideas; but the first thing which presented itself to the mind of an ingenious and learned friend whom I had the pleasure to pass some time with here at Florence, was the same resemblance, though I think the two characters had little in common, further than an early attention to things beyond the capacity of other babies, a keen sensibility of right and wrong, and a warmth of imagination little consistent with sound and perfect health. I have heard him relate another odd thing of himself too, but it is one which every body has heard as well as I: how, when he was about nine years old, having got the play of Hamlet in his hand, and reading it quietly in his father's kitchen, he kept on steadily enough, till coming to the Ghost scene, he suddenly hurried up stairs to the street door that he might see people about him: such an incident, as he was not unwilling to relate it, is probably in ' For Boswell's criticism of 'this strange fantastical account' see Life, i. 68, n. 3. The book entitled De Veritate Religionis was, no doubt, Grotius's. work. 2 Ante, p. 29. 3 In his Confessions. He told Boswell also of this terror that came upon him. Life, i. 70. In his Observations on Macbeth he says:-'He that peruses Shakespeare looks round alarmed, and starts to find himself alone.' Works, v. 71. every one's possession now; he told it as a testimony to the merits of Shakespeare: but one day when my son was going to school, and dear Dr. Johnson followed as far as the garden gate, praying for his salvation', in a voice which those who listened attentively could hear plain enough, he said to me suddenly, 'Make your boy tell you his dreams: the first corruption that entered into my heart was communicated in a dream.' What was it, Sir? said I. 'Do not ask me,' replied he with much violence, and walked away in apparent agitation. I never durst make any further enquiries. He retained a strong aversion for the memory of Hunter, one of his schoolmasters, who, he said once, was a brutal fellow: 'so brutal (added he), that no man who had been educated by him ever sent his son to the same school.' I have however heard him acknowledge his scholarship to be very great2. His next master he despised, as knowing less than himself, I found; but the name of that gentleman has slipped my memory 3. Mr. Johnson was himself exceedingly disposed to the general indulgence of children, and was even scrupulously and ceremoniously attentive not to offend them*: he had strongly persuaded himself of the difficulty people always find to erase early impressions either of kindness or resentment, and said, 'he should never have so loved his mother when a man, had she not given him coffee' she could ill afford, to gratify his appetite when a boy.' If you had had children Sir, said I, would you have taught them any thing? 'I hope (replied he), that I should have willingly lived on bread and water to obtain |