unsettled turn of mind which prevented his ever fixing in any profession." 1725 ÆTAT. 16.-AFTER having resided for some time at the house of his uncle, Cornelius Ford, Johnson was, at the age of fifteen, removed to the school of Stourbridge, in Worcestershire, of which Mr. Wentworth was then master. This step was taken by the advice of his cousin, the Reverend Mr. Ford, a man in whom both talents and good dispositions were disgraced by licentiousness,' but who was a very able judge of what was right. At this school he did not receive so much benefit as was expected. It has been said, that he acted in the capacity of an assistant to Mr. Wentworth, in teaching the younger boys. "Mr. Wentworth (he told me) was a very able man, but an idle man, and to me very severe; but I cannot blame him much. I was then a big boy; he saw I did not reverence him; and that he should get no honour by me. I had brought enough with me, to carry me through; and all I should get at his school would be ascribed to my own labour, or to my foriner master. Yet he taught me a great deal.” He thus discriminated, to Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, his progress at his two grammar-schools. "At one, I learnt much in the school, but little from the master; in the other, I learnt much from the master, but little in the school." The Bishop also informs me, that " Dr. Johnson's father, before he was received at Stourbridge, applied to have him admitted as a scholar and assistant to the Reverend Samuel Lea, M. A. head master of 5 He is said to be the original of the parson in Hogarth's Modern Midnight Conversation. Newport school, in Shropshire; (a very diligent good teacher, at that time in high reputation, under whom Mr. Hollis is said, in the Memoirs of his Life, to have been also educated.) This application to Mr. Lea was not successful; but Johnson had afterwards the gratification to hear that the old gentleman, who lived to a very advanced age, mentioned it as one of the most memorable events of his life, that " he was very near having that great man for his scholar." He remained at Stourbridge little more than a year, and then returned home, where he may be said to have loitered, for two years, in a state very unworthy his. uncommon abilities. He had already given several proofs of his poetical genius, both in his school-exercises and in other occasional compositions. Of these I have obtained a considerable collection, by the favour of Mr. Wentworth, son of one of his masters, and of Mr. Hector, his schoolfellow and friend; from which I select the following specimens: Translation of VIRGIL. Pastoral I. MELIBUS. Now, Tityrus, you, supine and careless laid, Play on your pipe beneath this beechen shade; While wretched we about the world must roam, And leave our pleasing fields and native home, Here at your ease you sing your amorous flame, And the wood rings with Amarillis' name. "As was likewise the Bishop of Dromore many years afterwards TITYRUS. Those blessings, friend, a deity bestow'd, Their blood the consecrated stones shall dye: MELIBUS. My admiration only I exprest, (No spark of envy harbours in my breast) Here I, though faint myself, must drive my goats, Translation of HORACE. Book I. Ode xxii. THE man, my friend, whose conscious heart Though Scythia's icy cliffs he treads, Or horrid Africk's faithless sands; } For while by Chloe's image charm'd, No savage more portentous stain'd Dire nurse of raging lions, bore. Place me where no soft summer gale With horrid gloom the frowning skies: Place me beneath the burning line, Translation of HORACE. Book II. Ode ix. CLOUDS do not always veil the skies, Or storms afflict the ruffled main. Nor, Valgius, on th' Armenian shores Or bends with violent force the trees. But you are ever drown'd in tears, For Mystes dead you ever mourn; No setting Sol can ease your care, But finds you sad at his return. The wise experienc'd Grecian sage So much lament his slaughter'd son. Leave off, at length, these woman's sighs, To whom all nations tribute bring. Niphates rolls an humbler wave, At length the undaunted Scythian yields, Content to live the Roman's slave, And scarce forsakes his native fields. Translation of part of the Dialogue between HECTOR and ANDROMACHE; from the Sixth Book of HOMER'S ILIAD. SHE ceas'd; then godlike Hector answer'd kind, Acquired by wounds and battles bravely fought! That Priam's house, and Priam's self shall bleed : Yet Hecuba's, nor Priam's hoary age, Whose blood shall quench some Grecian's thirsty rage, |