Juftified, as I truft, thus far in the opinion of the reader, I may, neverthelefs, ftand in need of his excuse; for that, in the narration of facts that respect others, I have oftener spoke of myself, and in my own person, than the practice of some writers will warrant. To this objection, if any fhall pleafe to make it, I answer, that the reverse of wrong is not always right. By the office I have undertaken I stand engaged to relate facts to which I was a witness, converfations in which I was a party, and to record memorable fayings uttered only to myself. Whoever attends to thefe circumftances, muft, befides the difguft which fuch an affectation of humility would excite, be convinced, that in fome instances, the avoiding of egotifms had been extremely difficult, and in many impoffible. SAMUEL JOHNSON, the fubject of the following memoirs, was the elder of the two fons of Michael Johnson, of the city of Lichfield, bookfeller, and of Sarah his wife, a fifter of Dr. Joseph Ford, a phyfician of great eminence, and father of the famous Cornelius otherwife called Parfon Ford.* He was born, as I find it noted in his diary, on the feventh day of September, 1709: his brother, named Nathanael, was born fome years after. Mr. Johnfon was a man of eminence in his trade, and of fuch reputation in the city abovementioned, that he, more than once, bore, for a year, the office of bailiff or chief magistrate thereof, and difcharged the duties of that exalted ftation with honour Land Of this person, who yet lives in the remembrance of a few of his affociates, little can be related but from oral tradition. He was as I have heard Johnson say, a man of great wit and ftupendous parts, but of very profligate manners. He was chaplain to Lord Chesterfield during his refidence at the Hague; but, as his lordship was ufed to tell him, precluded all hope of preferment by the want of a vice, namely, hypocrify. It was fuppofed that the parfon in Hogarth's modern midnight converfation, was intended to represent him in his hour of feftivity, four in the morning. and applaufe. It may here be proper, as it will account for fome particulars refpecting the character of his fon Samuel, to mention, that his political principles led him to favour the pretenfions of the exiled family, and that though a very honeft fenfible man, he, like many others inhabiting the county of Stafford, was a Jacobite. It may farther be fuppofed, that he was possessed of fome amiable qualities either moral or perfonal, from at circumftance in his early life, of which evidence is yet remaining. While he was an apprentice at Leek in Staffordshire, a young woman of the fame town fell in love with him, and upon his removal to Lichfield followed him, and took lodgings opposite his house. Her paffion was not unknown to Mr. Johnfon, but he had no inclination to return it, till he heard that it so affected her mind that her life was in danger, when he vifited. her, and made her a tender of his hand, but feeling the approach of death, fhe declined it, and fhortly after died, and was interred in Lichfield cathedral. In pity to her fufferings, Mr. Johnson caused a stone to be placed over her grave with this infcription: Here lies the body of Mrs. ELIZABETH BLANEY, a stranger. 2d of September, 1694. The first born child of Mr. Johnfon and his wife, their fon Samuel, had the misfortune to receive, together with its nutriment derived from a hired nurse, the feeds of that disease which troubled him through life, the struma, or, as it is called, the king's-evil; for the cure whereof his mother, agreeable to the opinion. then entertained of the efficacy of the royal touch, presented him to Queen Anne, who, for the last time, as it is faid, that the ever performed that office, with her accustomed grace and benignity administered to the child as much of that healing quality as it was in her power to dispense, and hung about his neck the · ufual amulet of an angel of gold, with the impress of St. Michael the archangel on the one fide, and a ship under full fail on the other.* It was probably this disease Ita * This healing gift is faid to have been derived to our princes from Edward the Confeffor, and is recorded by his hiftorian, Alured Rivallenfis, In Stow's annals we have a relation of the first cure of this kind which Edward performed; but, as it is rather disgusting to fead it, I chufe to give it in the words of the author from whence it is apparently taken, with this remark, that the kings of France lay claim to the fame miraculous power. Adolefcentula quædam tradita ⚫ nuptiis duplici laborabat incommodo. Nam faciem ejus morbus deformaverat, amorem viri fterilitas prolis ademerat: Tub faucibus quippe quafi glandes ei fuccreverant, quæ totam faciem deformi tu↳ more fœdantes, putrefactis fub cute humoribus, fanguinem in faniem verterant, inde nati vermes odorem teterrimum exhalabant. viro incutiebat morbus horrorem, fterilitas minuebat affectum. • Vivebat infelix mulier odiofa marito, parentibus onerofa. Rarus ad eam vel amicorum acceffus propter fætorem, vel afpectus viri propter horrorem. Hinc dolor, hinc lacrima, hinc die noctuque fufpiria, cum ei vel fterilitas opprobrium, vel contemptum infirmitas géneraret. Induftriam medicorum avertebat inopia. Quid ageret mifera? Quod folum fupererat, ubi humanum deerat divinum precabatur auxilium, quafi in illam illius æque miferæ mulieris vocem erumpens, Peto, Dimine, ut de vinculo improperii kujus abJolvas me, aut certe fuper terram eripias me. Jubetur tandem in fomnis adire palacium, ex regiis manibus fperare remedium, quibus fi lota, fi tacta, fi fignata foret, reciperet ejus meritis sani'tatem. Expergefacta mulier, fexus fimul et conditionis oblita, prorumpit in curiam, regis fe repræfentat obtutibus, exponit oracuClum, auxilium deprecatur. Ille more fuo victus pietate, nec fordes cavit, nec fætorem exhorruit. Allatá denique aqua, partes corporis quas morbus fœdaverat propriis manibus lavit, locaque tumentia contrectans digitis fignum fanctæ crucis impreffit. Quid plura ? Subito rupta cute, cum fanie vermes ebulliunt, refedit tumor, dolor ⚫ omnis abceffit: ammirantibus qui aderant tantam fub purpura fanctitatem, tantam fceptrigeris manibus ineffe virtutem. vero diebus fubftitit in curia mulier regiis miniftris neceffaria miniftrantibus, donec obducta vulneribus cicatrice incolumis rediret ad propria. Verum ut nichil deeffet regi ad gloriam, pauperculæ • nichil ad gratiam, donatur sterili inopina fœcunditas, ventrifque fui ' defiderato fructu ditata, facile fibi mariti gratiam conciliavit.' ་ Paucis The disease that deprived him of the fight of his left eye, for he has been heard to say, that he never remembered to have enjoyed the ufe of it. It may feem a ridiculous attempt to trace the dawn of his poetical faculty fo far back as to his very infancy; but the following incident I am compelled to mention, as it is well attefted, and therefore makes part of his history. When he was about three years old, his mother had a brood of eleven ducklings, which fhe permitted him to call his own. It happened that in playing about he trod on and killed one, of them, upon which running to his mother, he, in great emotion bid her write. Write, child? faid fhe, what must I write? Why write, answered he, fo: Here lies good Mafter Duck, That Samuel Johnfon trod on, If't had liv'd 'twould have been good luck, For then there'd been an odd one. and she wrote accordingly. Being arrived at a proper age for grammatical inftruction, he was placed in the free school of Lichfield, of which Mr. Hunter was then mafter. The progress he made in his learning foon attracted the notice of his teachers; and among other difcernible qualities that diftinguished him from the reft of the fchool, he was bold, active and enterprifing, fo that without affecting it, the seniors in the fchool looked on him as their head B 3 The reader will find much curious matter relating to the royal touch, in Mr. Barrington's obfervations on ancient statutes 107, and in Chambers's dictionary, art. evil, to which I fhall add, that the vindication of this power, as inherent in the pretender, by Mr. Carte, deftroyed the credit of his intended history of England, and put a stop to the completion of it. The ritual for this is to be found in Bishop Sparrow's collection of articles, canons, &c. and also in all or most of the impreffions of the Common Prayer Book, printed in Queen Anne's reign, but in these latter with great variations. head and leader, and readily acquiefced in whatever he proposed or did. There dwelt at Lichfield a gentleman of the name of Butt, the father of the reverend Mr. Butt, now a King's Chaplain, to whofe houfe on holidays and in school-vacations he was ever welcome. The children in the family, perhaps offended with the rudeness of his behaviour, would frequently call him the great boy, which the father once overhearing, faid, • you call him the great boy, but take my word for it, he will one day prove a great man' A more particular character of him while a schoolboy, and of his behaviour at fchool, I find in a paper now before me, written by a person yet living, and of which the following is a copy: • Johnson and I were, early in life, fchool-fellows at • Lichfield, and for many years in the fame class. As • his uncommon abilities for learning far execeeded us, • we endeavoured by every boyish piece of flattery to gain his affiftance, and three of us, by turns used to call on him in a morning, on one of whofe backs, fupported by the other two, he rode triumphantly to fchool. He never affociated with us in any of our diverfions, except in the winter when the ice was firm, to be drawn along by a boy bare-footed. His ⚫ ambition to excel was great, though his application to books, as far as it appeared, was very trifling. I could not oblige him more than by fauntering away • every vacation, that occurred, in the fields, during which time he was more engaged in talking to himfelf than his companion. Verfes or themes he would dictate to his favourites, but he would never be at the trouble of writing them. His diflike to bufinefs was fo great, that he would procrastinate his exercifes to the laft hour. I have known him after a long vacation, in which we were rather feverely tasked, return to fchool an hour earlier in the morn |