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this disease that deprived him of the fight of his left eye, for he has been heard to fay, that he never remembered to have enjoyed the use of it.

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'minuebat affectum. Vivebat infelix mulier odiofa marito, pa⚫rentibus 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 generaret. 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, 'Domine, ut de vinculo improperii hujus abfolvas 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 fanitatem. Expergefacta 'mulier, fexus fimul et conditionis oblita, prorumpit in curiam, regis fe repræfentat obtutibus, exponit oraculum, auxilium de'precatur. Ille more fuo victus pietate, nec fordes cavit, nec fætorem exhorruit. Allata denique aqua, partes corporis quas ⚫ morbus fœdaverat propriis manibus lavit, locaque tumentia contrectans digitis fignum fanétæ 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 virtu'tem. Paucis vero diebus fubftitit in curia mulier regiis mi⚫niftris neceffaria miniftrantibus, donec obducta vulneribus ci< catrice incolumis rediret ad propria. Verum ut nichil deeffet ' regi ad gloriam, pauperculæ nichil ad graciam, donatur fte⚫rili inopina fœcunditas, ventrifque fui defiderato fructu ditata, ⚫ facile fibi mariti gratiam conciliavit.'

The reader will find much curious matter relating to the royal touch, in Mr. Barrington's obfervations on ancient ftatues 107, and in Chambers's dictionary, art. EVIL, to which I shall add, that the vindication of this power, as inherent in the pretender, by Mr. Carte, destroyed the credit of his intended hiftory of England, and put a stop to the completion of it.

The ritual for this office is to be found in Bishop Sparrow's collection of articles, canons, &c. and alfo in all or most of the im preffions of the Common Prayer Book, printed in Queen Anne's reign, but in thefe latter with great variations.

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 hiftory. When he was about three years old, his mother had a brood of eleven ducklings, which the 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 she, what must I write? Why write, anfwered he, fo: Here lies good Mafter Duck,

That Sanuel Johnfon trod on,

If't had liv'd 'twould have been good luck,
For then there'd been an odd one.

and fhe wrote accordingly.

Being arrived at a proper age for grammatical instruction, 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 distinguished him from the reft of the school, he was bold, active and enterprising, so that without affecting it, the feniors in the school looked on him as their head and leader, and readily acquiefced in whatever he propofed 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 whose houfe on holidays and in fchool-vacations he was ever welcome. The children in the family, perhaps offended with the rudenefs of his behaviour, would frequently call him the great boy, which the father once over

hearing,

hearing, 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 fchoolboy, and of his behaviour at fchool, I find in a paper now before me, written by a perfon yet living, and of which the following is a copy:

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'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 exceed⚫ed 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 whose backs, fupported by the other two, he rode triumphantly to school. 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 himself than his companion. Verses ⚫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 severely talked, return to fchool an hour ⚫ earlier in the morning, and begin one of his exercifes, in which he purpofely left fome faults, in ' order to gain time to finish the rest.

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'I never knew him corrected at fchool, unless it was for talking and diverting other boys from their bufinefs,

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bufinefs, by which, perhaps, he might hope to keep his afcendancy. He was uncommonly inquifitive, and his memory fo tenacious, that whatever he read or heard he never forgot. I remem⚫ber rehearsing to him eighteen verfes, which after a little paufe he repeated verbatim, except one epithet, which improved the line.

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• After a long abfence from Lichfield, when he • returned I was apprehenfive of fomething wrong in his conftitution, which might either impair his intellect or endanger his life, but, thanks to Almighty God, my fears have proved falfe.'

In the autumn of the year 1725, he received an invitation from his coufin, Cornelius Ford, to spend a few days with him at his houfe, which I conjecture to have been on a living of his in one of the counties bordering upon Staffordshire; but it seems that discovering that the boy was poffeffed of uncommon parts, he was unwilling to let him return, and to make up for the lofs he might fuftain by his abfence from fchool, became his inftructor in the claffics, and farther affifted him in his ftudies; fo that it was not till the Whitfuntide following, that Johnfon went back to Lichfield. Whether Mr. Hunter was difpleased to find a vifit of a few days protracted into a vacation of many months, or that he refented the interference of another perfon in the tuition of one of his fcholars, and he one of the most promifing of any under his care, cannot now be known; but, it feems, that at Johnfon's return to Lichfield, he was not received into the fchool of that city; on the contrary, I am informed, by a perfon who was his fchool-fellow there, that he was placed in one at Stourbridge in Worcef

tershire,

tershire,under the care of a master named Winkworth, but who, affecting to be thought allied to the Strafford family, affumed the name of Wentworth.

When his school education was finished, his father, whose circumstances were far from affluent, was for some time at a lofs how to difpofe of him: he took him home, probably with a view to bring him up to his own trade; for I have heard Johnson fay, that he himself was able to bind a book. This fufpenfe continued about two years, at the end whereof, a neighbouring gentleman, Mr. Andrew Corbet, having a fon, who had been educated in the same school with Johnson, whom he was about to fend to Pembroke college in Oxford, a propofal was made and accepted, that Johnson should attend this fon thither, in quality of affiftant in his studies; and according ly, on the 31st day of October, 1728, they were both entered, Corbet as a gentleman-commoner, and Johnson as a commoner.

The college tutor, at that time, was a man named Jordan, whom Johnson, though he loved him for the goodness of his nature, fo contemned for the meanness of his abilities, that he would oftener rifque the payment of a small fine than attend his lectures; nor was he ftudious to conceal the reafon of his absence. Upon occafion of one fuch impofition, he said to Jordan, Sir, you have fconced me two-pence for non⚫ attendance at a lecture not worth a penny.'

Whether it was this discouragement in the outfet of their studies, or any other ground of disinclination that moved him to it, is not known, but this is certain, that young Corbet could not brook fubmiffion to a man who seemed to be little more learned than him

felf,

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