departure and his own, he was continually struggling against his penurious circumstances, and unable to make a requisite appearance after all. But JOHNSON's literary character was to be formed in a wider school: he derived little advantage from Oxford, and Oxford little credit from her under-graduate.

JOHNSON once more returned to Lichfield, and the death of his father in 1731, to whom he administered in full, put him in possession barely of twenty pounds. The world was all before him, and now, with a determination neither to be crushed nor corrupted by poverty, he made his first start in life as usher to the grammar-school of Market Bosworth, in Leicestershire. But disgusted by the arrogance of Sir WOLSTAN DIXIE, the patron of the school, he threw up his office with contempt, and ever afterwards spoke of it with detestation. At this juncture, he received an invitation to visit his old schoolfellow, Mr. HECTOR, a surgeon, practising at Birmingham. Mr. HECTOR lodged in the house of Mr. WARREN, who was a bookseller, and the proprietor of a newspaper; and for him JOHNSON furnished several essays, and other literary articles. Here, also, he translated the Voyage to Abyssinia, by JEROME LOBO, the Portuguese Jesuit. It was JOHNSON'S maiden production, and lays no claim to very remarkable elegance; but in the preface there is much of that characteristic manner and style, the vein of thought and structure of period, that afterwards distinguished this colossal writer.

In 1734, he returned to Lichfield, and issued

proposals for printing by subscription the Latin poems of POLITIAN, with his life, and a History of Latin Poetry, from the era of PETRARCH to the time of POLITIAN; but the design was abandoned, for want of sufficient encouragement. He next offered his assistance to CAVE, the proprietor of the Gentleman's Magazine, who accepted his proposal, but it is not known upon what terms. Doubtless, they were not adequate to JOHNSON'S maintenance; and he now made a bold effort to better his condition by marriage.

Mrs. PORTER, the widow of a mercer, in Birmingham, had long admired his talents, and possessed eight hundred pounds. JOHNSON summoned the garrison, and it surrendered without the formality of an investment. He tells us that it was a love-match on both sides; but the lady was twice his age, and utterly destitute of all personal attractions, and it is besides notorious, that there had been a tenderness between him and the daughter. The real truth is, that Mrs. PORTER was ambitious and JOHNSON necessitous; and this is the grand secret of the connexion. That JOHNSON, however, became attached to her after their marriage, and that he regarded her through life with real affection, the frequent mention which he makes of her in his prayers, and the epitaph which he inscribed upon her monument, sufficiently testify.

Our author was now possessed of a considerable capital, and turned his thoughts to the best means of improving it. Accordingly, he lost no time in advertising his in

tention to educate young people in the classics; and he fitted up a large house at Edial, near Lichfield, for the reception of his scholars. With these, however, he was so scantily supplied, that he was compelled to break up his establishment at the year's end, and try other schemes of advancement. Among his very few pupils was DAVID GARRICK, afterwards the so celebrated actor; and GARRICK at that time being nearly as connexionless as his tutor, they both agreed to set off for London together, and there seek in companionship their fortunes and their fame. Mr. GILBERT WALMSLEY, registrar of the ecclesiastical court at Lichfield, and who had patronised JOHNSON on a former occasion, furnished him with a letter of introduction to the Rev. Mr. COULSTON, a mathematician of considerable eminence, and under whose tuition it was arranged that GARRICK should remain to complete his education. This was, probably, the same COULSTON who had signalized himself by opposing the immaterialism of Bishop BERKELEY. But JOHNSON met

with no patronage nor friendship in this man, whose frigid and inhospitable reception very deservedly procured him afterwards the designation of Gelidus, in the 24th number of the RAMBLER.

In March, 1737, the distinguished adventurers arrived in London :-GARRICK, destined to follow the law, but reserved for a splendid accident; and JOHNSON, hoping high from his unfinished tragedy of IRENE, and looking forward to literary gain and glory, little conscious that he was to reap the first so scantily,

and to be confirmed in the last so tardily. What became of GARRICK is well known. He gave the reins to his inclination in defiance of all soberer counsel, and within four years from his arrival in London, grew up in one night by a coup de fortune at Goodman's-fields into instantaneous popularity and affluence. It was not so with JOHNSON, whose road even to competence was beset with difficulties, and who has more than once in his unfriended career promenaded the streets of the metropolis from midnight till morning, hungry and thirsty, and without money to procure refreshment. In these rounds, which it makes the heart bleed to chronicle, the elegant but unhappy SAVAGE was his almost constant companion*.

When JOHNSON had been rather more than three months in London, he applied to CAVE, for whom he had hitherto written anonymously, by a letter signed with his own name, for employment; and proposed to publish a History of the Council of Trent, translated from the Italian, with the notes of Dr. LE COURAYER, from the French. With this proposal, CAVE subsequently closed, and JoHNSON received

It is melancholy to reflect that JOHNSON and SAVAGE were sometimes in such extreme indigence, that they could not pay for a lodging; so that they have wandered together whole nights in the streets. Yet in these almost incredible scenes of distress, we may suppose that SAVAGE mentioned many of the anecdotes with which JOHNSON afterwards enriched the Life of his unhappy companion, and those of the other poets. He told Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS, that one night in particular, when SAVAGE and he walked round St. James's-square for want of a lodging, they were not at all distressed by their situation; but in high spirits and brimful of patriotism, traversed the square for several hours, inveighed against the minister, and "resolved they would stand by their country."—BoswELL's Life of JOHNSON, vol. i. p. 126.

for a part execution of his task forty-nine pounds, seven shillings; but the work was thrown aside in consequence of a rival translation by another Samuel Johnson, who was patronised by PEARCE, Bishop of Rochester. Some literary skirmishes past between the two translators, but the ultimate effect of their rivalry was the suppression of both works. Shortly after this, JOHNSON was engaged as a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, to which he became a frequent contributor, and almost ever afterwards derived some permanent advantage from his connexion with CAVE.

But what first displayed his transcendent powers, and gave the world assurance of the MAN,' was his LONDON, a poem, in imitation of the third Satire of JUVENAL;' which came out in May this year (1738), and burst forth with a splendour, the rays of which will for ever encircle his name*. It is remarkable that Mr. CAVE not only did not publish this poem, but that its purchase at any price was declined by several booksellers, who thus exemplified the proverb of the pearls and the swine. Mr. ROBERT DODSLEY at last perceived its uncommon merit,' and bought the manuscript of JOHNSON for ten guineas. So difficultly could genius recommend itself to dulness, and so paltrily was it appreciated, even when its worth became known!

Between the publication of this poem, and the commencement of the RAMBLER-an interval of twelve years-JOHNSON appeared repeatedly before the world in works of va

* BOSWELL.