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commoner, and Johnfon as a commoner. The college tutor, Mr. Jordan, was a man of no genius; and Johnfon, it feems, fhewed an early contempt of mean abilities, in one or two instances behaving with infolence to that gentleman. Of his general conduct at the univerfity there are no particulars that merit attention, except the tranflation of Pope's Meffiah, which was a college exercise impofed upon him as a task by Mr. Jordan. Corbet left the university in about two years, and Johnson's falary ceafed. He was, by confequence, ftraitened in his circumftances; but he ftill remained at college. Mr. Jordan, the tutor, went off to a living; and was fucceeded by Dr. Adams, who afterwards became head of the college, and was esteemed through life for his learning, his talents, and his amiable character. Johnfon grew more regular in his attendance. Ethics, theology, and claffic literature, were his favourite ftudies. He difcovered, notwithstanding, early symptoms of that wandering difpofition of mind which adhered to him to the end of his life. His reading was by fits and starts, undirected to any particular science. General philology, agree

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ably to his coufin Ford's advice, was the object of his ambition. He received, at that time, an early impreffion of piety, and a taste for the best authors ancient and modern. It may, notwithstanding, be queftioned whether, except his Bible, he ever read a book entirely through. Late in life, if any man praised a book in his prefence, he was fure to ask, "Did you read it through?" If the answer was in the affirmative, he did not feem willing to believe it. He continued at the univerfity till the want of pecuniary fupplies obliged him to quit the place. He obtained, however, the affiftance of a friend, and returning in a fhort time was able to complete a refidence of three years. The history of his exploits at Oxford, he used to say, was best known to Dr. Taylor and Dr. Adams. Wonders are told of his memory, and, indeed, all who knew him late in life can witnefs that he retained that faculty in the greatest vigour.

From the university Johnson returned to Lichfield. His father died foon after, December 1731; and the whole receipt out of his effects, as appeared by a memorandum in the

fon's

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fon's hand-writing, dated 15th June, 1732, was no more than twenty pounds *. In this exigence, determined that poverty fhould neither deprefs his fpirit nor warp his integrity, he became under-mafter of a Grammar-fchool at Market Bofworth in Leicestershire. refource, however, did not last long. Dif gufted by the pride of Sir Wolftan Dixie, the patron of that little feminary, he left the place in difcontent, and ever after spoke of it with abhorrence. In 1733 he went on a vifit to Mr. Hector, who had been his fchoolfellow, and was then a furgeon at Eirmingham, lodging at the houfe of Warren, a bookfeller. At that place Johnfon tranflated a Voyage to Abyffinia, written by Jerome Lobo, a Portugueze miffionary. This was the first literary work from the pen of Dr. Johnfon. His friend Hector was occafionally his

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* The entry of this is remarkable for his early refolution to preferve through life a fair and upright character. 1732, Junii 15. Undecim aureos depofui, quo die, quid"quid ante matris funus (quod ferum fit precor) de pa"ternis bonis fperare licet, viginti fcilicet libras, accepi.

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Ufque adeo mihi mea fortuna fingenda eft interea, et ne "paupertate vires animi languefcant, ne in flagitia egeftas adigat, cavendum."

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amanu

amanuenfis. The work was, probably, undertaken at the defire of Warren, the bookfeller, and was printed at Birmingham; but it appears in the Literary Magazine, or History of the Works of the Learned, for March, 1735, that it was published by Bettesworth and Hitch, Pater-nofter-row. It contains a narrative of the endeavours of a company of miffionaries to convert the people of Abyffinia to the Church of Rome. In the preface to this work Johnson obferves, "that the Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general view "of his countrymen, has amufed his readers "with no romantic abfurdities, or incredible "fictions. He appears, by his modest and "unaffected narration, to have described things

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as he saw them; to have copied nature from "the life; and to have confulted his fenfes, "not his imagination. He meets with no bafi

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lifks, that deftroy with their eyes; his cro"codiles devour their prey, without tears; aud "his cataracts fall from the rock, without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants. The "reader will here find no regions cursed with "irremediable barrennefs, or bleffed with fpon"taneous fecundity; no perpetual gloom, or unceafing

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"unceafing fun-fhine; nor are the nations, here "described, either void of all fenfe of huma"nity, or confummate in all private and social "virtues: here are no Hottentots without reli

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gion, polity, or articulate language; no Chi"nese perfectly polite, and completely skilled in "all sciences: he will discover, what will always "be discovered by a diligent and impartial en

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quirer, that wherever human nature is to be "found, there is a mixture of vice and virtue,

"a conteft of paffion and reafon; and that the "Creator doth not appear partial in his diftri"butions, but has balanced, in most countries, "their particular inconveniences by particular "favours." We have here an early fpecimen of Johnson's manner: the vein of thinking and the frame of the fentences are manifeftly his we fee the infant Hercules. The tranf

lation of Lobo's Narrative has been reprinted 1737 lately in a feparate volume, with fome other tracts of Dr. Johnfon's, and therefore forms no part of this edition; but a compendious account of fo interefting a work as Father Lobo's difcovery of the head of the Nile, will not, it is imagined, be unacceptable to the

reader.

Father

!

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