THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHNSON. HE city of Lichfield, a hundred and twenty years ago, was reckoned, next to Exeter, the most considerable town in all the midland counties of England. It was the seat of a bishopric, and possessed its venerable cathedral. In yet earlier times also it was a place of some note; a castle crowned its hill-top, where scenes of war and revelry were witnessed by turns. In the times of the heptarchy, Lichfield was the capital of the kingdom of Marcia; and after their junction, of Marcia and East Anglia. Though not the shire-town of Staffordshire, in which it was situated, it enjoyed, by virtue of its franchises, most of the immunities of a county-town; and, in fact, its municipal corporation embraced in its domain a large portion of the county of Stafford, quite outside of the city. In the progress of affairs, during the seventeenth century and the former part of the eighteenth, this region kept pace with other parts of the kingdom. Its population was a settled one, chiefly occupied in husbandry, but not more rustic than the same classes in other parts. Among the principal families were a fair proportion of educated persons, whose attainments and social position entitled them to the, at that time, somewhat definite distinction of "the gentry." Out of these old families have arisen, especially during the last century, a large number of individuals who have achieved for themselves imperishable reputations. Compared with modern English towns of very moderate pretensions, however, Lichfield, in 1732, was a place of but little elegance or wealth. It was a long straggling town lying on both sides of the Trent, with only a few good houses, and in its whole aspect evincing very little taste or regard for personal convenience in its inhabitants. It might, indeed, boast of its cathedral, its free-school, and an extensive hospital for the sick and the poor. It had, however, but little trade, and its manufactures were inconsiderable. It lay on the great post-route leading to the northwest, and was a resting-place for the royal mail stages; so that the town was often filled with travelers, and its taverns were its most important establishments. But even then the growth of trade was beginning to effect those changes by which so thorough a revolution has been wrought in the social affairs of the nation. The old families that had long enjoyed hereditary opulence, with incomes of two or three hundred pounds, were, by the relative depreciation of money, becoming reduced to comparative poverty. Thus forced to increased activity, the younger members of such families began to seek more lucrative occupations, by which to maintain their position in society. In this manner began the movement of the country people to the cities and larger towns, by which the urban population has been greatly increased, and the interests of commerce and manufactures advanced beyond those of agriculture. Into this city of Lichfield, with all its provincial simplicity, we must now follow the subject of our observations. the death of my mother, which I pray may be far off. I am henceforth to fashion my own fortune. In the mean time let me take care that my spirit be not depressed by poverty, and that want do not betray me into baseness." He had now come to the threshold over which he must pass from the protection of parental care and go forth alone to the battle of life. The world was indeed rising up before him, but without smiles or promises. Everything in prospect was dark, cold and forbidding. The respectability of Johnson's parents, as well as his own good character and Johnson's connection with the univer- education, gave him ready access to the sity ceased, nominally, on the eighth of best society in Lichfield, and it is known October, 1732, but it had virtually term- that he maintained a good degree of ininated some months before that time. Intimacy with some of the best families of addition to the personal affliction already | the place. He has himself informed us, named, pecuniary want stood in the way in his Life of Edmund Smith, of his intiof his completing his academical educa- macy with and esteem for the family of tion. The resource on which he had de- Mr. Gilbert Walmsley, Registrar of the pended when he first went to Oxford had Ecclesiastical Court of Lichfield, a man failed in consequence of the return home of much learning and politeness, to whose of young Corbett; and the remittances conversation Johnson confessed himself from his father, which had never been always indebted. He was also on terms large, were now wholly suspended by rea- of friendship with the family of Captain son of the almost complete wreck of the Garrick, father of him who has made that affairs of the Lichfield bookseller. He, name renowned throughout the world. therefore, left college finally, without a The professional relations of Dr. Swindegree, and returned home, himself wholly fen to his father's family and to himself destitute of the means of a livelihood, and individually, readily opened an intimacy his father's fortunes in ruins. between them. Besides these there were others of the same class of society to whom Johnson had ready access, and by whom he was treated with the consideration due to his character and the social condition of his family. Intercourse with such society probably did something toward smoothing the natural roughness of his manners, and also toward giving him practical notions of social life. There are periods in human life when the severest calamities seem to come in troops, overwhelming all earthly hopes in a common ruin. Such seemed now to be Johnson's case. Only two months after the formal dissolution of his connection with Pembroke College his father died; and such was the reduced condition of his estate, that upon its distribution, only twenty pounds fell to his eldest son. In a little diary kept by Johnson at that time, is the following significant entry, indicating at once his poverty and the greatness of his spirit in that dark hour: "I this day lay by eleven guineas, having received twenty pounds from my father's estate, which is all I can expect before The entry is in Latin, as follows: "Undecim aureos deposui, quo die quicquid ante matris funus (quod serum sit precor) de paternis bonis sperari licet, viginti scilicet libras accepi. Usque adeo mihi fortuna fingenda est. Interea, ne paupertate vires animi languescant, nec in flagitia egestas abigat, cavendum." There was a time in the history of most persons who have achieved their fortune, and risen from poverty and obscurity to independence and renown, when the first wants of our nature became the all-engrossing subjects of interest, when the questions, "What shall I eat?" and, "What shall I drink?" and, "Wherewithal shall I be clothed?" were painfully forced upon the attention, much less by avarice than by stern necessity. That period was to them a season of discipline, in which their souls gathered the strength by which subsequent triumphs were made, though many sink under its burdens and are heard of no more. Upon this probation Johnson was now entering, and for a somewhat protracted season he must be contemplated in the low valley of humiliation, struggling against want, and looking forward with only a dim and distant prospect, to the great world before him. The improved condition of his health, both physical and mental, not long after the death of his father, enabled him to comply with the demands of his circumstances, and look about for some remunerative employment. MARKET-BOSWORTH SCHOOL. The situation of usher in the school of Market-Bosworth, in Lichfield, was accordingly accepted by him; but, as might have been anticipated, that occupation proved irksome to the last degree. In a letter to a friend, a companion of his childhood, Mr. Hector of Birmingham, he complained of it as altogether intolerable, and declared that because of its monotonous routine of daily duties, one day contained as much as a whole lifetime; and that he scarcely knew whether it were more disagreeable for him to teach or for the boys to learn the grammar rules. To his discomforts in the school were added yet greater trials in his domestic affairs. He was domiciliated in the family of Sir Wolston Dixie, the patron of the school, where he officiated as a kind of domestic chaplain, and was treated with so much indignity that his situation became intolerable, and such was the impression made on his mind, that in his subsequent life this period was never referred to without evident horror. It is very probable that his host was proud, and of a violent temper, and looking upon his usher-chaplain as a kind of domestic servant, he treated him accordingly; but in forming a judgment of the whole matter the state of Johnson's mind and nervous system should not be forgotten. After enduring the complicated misery of his situation for a few months, he relinquished it with most positive disgust. Not long afterward he visited Birmingham at the invitation of Mr. Hector, but without any definite purpose as to finding employment there. Birmingham was then an inconsiderable country town, giving very little promise of the activity and progress that has raised it to the grade of a second-class city of the present time, and made it one of the most extensive seats of industry in the whole world. A few years before, there was no bookseller's shop in all the town, and the father of Dr. Johnson was accustomed to open a stall there on market days. But at this time a Mr. Warren had become established there as a bookseller; with him Mr. Hector boarded and lodged, and Johnson also now became an inmate of his house. The acquaintance thus accidentally formed seemed fortunate for both parties, as Johnson was able to be serviceable to his host both in his shop and in furnishing matter for a small newspaper issued by him. It is matter for regret that none of these earliest productions of the pen that afterward achieved so much in that very department, remain to the present time; for though their intrinsic value might be small, yet, as the first essays of a mighty genius, they could not fail to possess great interest. Having no settled plan of life, he remained at Birmingham longer than he expected when he first came there. The list of his acquaintances was gradually enlarged; and among the families with whom he became somewhat intimate were those of Mr. Porter, a mercer-whose widow he afterward married-and Mr. Taylor, who subsequently accumulated a fortune by his mechanical ingenuity. His principal inducements for continuing at Birmingham were, however, the pleasure of being near his friend, Mr. Hector, and the employment and remuneration afforded him by Mr. Warren. It was while he was thus tarrying at this place, that he undertook and executed the first literary work, which deserves to be ranked in the long list of the productions of his pen. An arrangement was made between himself and Mr. Warren, that the one should translate out of the French, and the other publish, the account of a voyage to Abyssinia, by Father Lobo, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, which Johnson had read at Pembroke College, and now spoke of in high terms of praise. The volume was accordingly procured, and a part of the work speedily accomplished, which was at once put into the hands of the printer; but the whole work was presently brought to a stand, by the indomitable indolence, or rather mental and bodily lassitude, of the translator. In this emergency his friend Hector, who knew his character, plied him with a motive to action that he knew would be most likely to prevail. Representing to him that the printer could do nothing else till this was finished, and that a helpless family were depending on his labor for their sustenance, this kindhearted man entreated Johnson, for their sakes, to arouse himself to activity. The expedient was successful. Taking the volume before him, as he sat up in his bed, he dictated his translation, while Hector wrote it down from his lips. In this way the work was completed; and, though printed at Birmingham, the date on the title-page is, London, 1735. The work performed by Johnson was one of no literary pretensions, the design being simply to render into English the account of the Jesuit missionary. It however very satisfactorily demonstrated his capacity for the work of a translator. An original preface was prefixed, in which the hand of the future Johnson may be distinguished, though as yet it had not attained the force or facility that so distinguished its later performances. It appears that this narrative made an enduring and lively impression on Johnson's mind; as there can be no doubt that to this cause we are indebted for at least the form and imagery of "Rasselas," and the fiction of "Seged, King of Ethiopia," found in the Rambler. In August, 1734, a literary project was laid before the public, issuing from the city of Lichfield. This was no other than proposals to publish by subscription "the Latin poem of Politian, with a history of Latin poetry from the age of Petrarch to the times of Politian, edited by Samuel Johnson." Such an undertaking certainly evinces on the part of the proposed editor a good degree of confidence, though not an exaggerated one, in his own abilities. Not much, however, can be said in favor of the enterprise in its commercial aspects, as it could not be reasonably expected that a volume of Latin poems, issued by an obscure individual in a re mote country town, would meet with such demand as to justify the undertaking. Had the work been performed, the historical and critical portion would, doubtless, have made a valuable contribution to the history of literature; but as the progress of the undertaking depended on the success of the subscription, it is no cause of surprise that the book was never issued. The same year he was again at Birmingham, where we trace him by an affair sufficiently trifling in itself, yet connected with the circumstances by which he at length rose from his present depression. A few years previous to that time the "Gentleman's Magazine" had been projected, and given to the public by Mr. Edward Cave. This man was a native EDWARD CAVE. of Newton, in Warwickshire; but during his childhood and youth his father resided at Rugby, following the trade of a shoemaker. The celebrated grammar school at Rugby was then, as it has continued to be, among the best in the kingdom; and as by the rules of the foundation he had a right to be instructed there, the opportunity was not neglected. Having thus obtained a good classical education, young Cave was apprenticed to a printer, and thus kept in close relation with literature and learned men. His mind naturally inclined to projects and untried expedients, in many of which he engaged, and most of them proved wholly abortive. Having acquired a large amount of information on all current topics, he at length fancied that he could make his knowledge available in the form of a monthly pamphlet, which with selfcomplacent assurance he called the Gen tleman's Magazine. By great diligence and indomitable perseverance, seconded by a good degree of tact, the work became an interesting and attractive vehicle for facts, fancies, good-humored gossip, and fugitive literature. Encouraged by his success, the compiler now sought to give his magazine the character of a journal of polite literature. Being a great lover of poetry, though a very incompetent judge of that article, he offered a prize of fifty pounds for the best poem on "Life, Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell;" and supposing that so great a prize would call out all the great poets of the kingdom, he offered the allotment of the reward to the universities: but neither the great poets nor the universities would have anything to do with the business-greatly to the surprise, but not to the discouragement, of the indefatigable publisher. Cave's proposal came under Johnson's notice at Birmingham; but whether he entered the list of competitors for the prize is not known, though it is presumed he did not. He however addressed an anonymous letter to the publisher suggesting certain improvements in the conduct of the magazine, and proposing to supply him, "on reasonable terms," with "short literary dissertations, remarks on authors, ancient or modern, forgotten poems that deserve revival, and loose pieces worth preserving." The correctness of his taste and judgment, as to what a literary magazine should be, is very fully displayed in that letter. An answer was returned by the publisher, addressed as Johnson had desired; but it is not known that anything was done in the matter till some time afterward. After the experiment at the school of Market-Bosworth, Johnson would not be very likely to incline strongly to the office of a school-teacher; but the stern demands of want seldom wait upon tastes or caprices. The mastership of the grammar school of Solihull, in Warwickshire, being vacant, his faithful friend, Mr. Walmsley, endeavored to procure the place for him; but the application was unsuccessful, on account of "the roughness of his manners," and "an involuntary habit of distorting his face." A similar attempt to obtain a more humble situation in the school at Brewood, met with no better success, and for the same reasons. His affairs had certainly reached a very deep depression; and one |