JOHNSON, SAMUEL. 35 office of a scholiast. It was treated with great illibe- | first time with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, and Mr. Baretti, rality by Dr. Kenrick in the first part of a review and returned to England in about two months after of it, which was never completed. But it must be he quitted it. Foote, who happened to be in Paris at acknowledged that what he did as a commentator has the same time, said that the French were perfectly asno small share of merit. He has enriched his edition tonished at his figure and manner, and at his dress, with a concise account of each play, and of its cha- which was exactly the same with what he was accusracteristic excellence. In the sagacity of his emen- tomed to in London-his brown clothes, black stockdatory criticisms, and the happiness of his interpret-ings, and plain shirt. Of the occurrences of this tour ation of obscure passages, he surpasses every other he kept a journal, in all probability with a design of editor of this poet. Mr. Malone confesses that John-writing an account of it, but for want of leisure and son's vigorous and comprehensive understanding inclination he never carried it into execution. threw more light on this author than all his predecessors had done. His preface has been pronounced by Mr. Malone to be the finest composition in our language; and it must be admitted, whether we consider the beauty and vigour of its composition, the abundance and classical selection of its allusions, the justness of the general precepts of criticism, and its accurate estimates of the excellence or defects of its author, it is equally admirable. This year he published an account of his tour to the Hebrides, under the title of "A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland," octavo. The narrative it must be admitted, is written with an undue prejudice against both the country and the people of Scotland, which is highly reprehensible, though it abounds in extensive philosophical views of society, ingenious sentiments, and lively descriptions. Among many other disquisitions he expresses his disbelief of the In February 1767 Johnson was honoured by a pri-authenticity of the poems of Ossian presented to the vate conversation with the king in the library at Buck-public as a translation from the Erse. This excited ingham House, which, as is pointedly expressed by one the resentment of Mr. Macpherson, who sent a threatof his biographers, gratified his monarchic enthu- ening letter to the author, and Johnson answered him siasm. The interview was sought by the king with- with the following stern defiance :out the knowledge of Johnson. His majesty among "I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any other things asked the author of so many valuable violence offered me I shall do my best to repel, and works if he intended to publish any more. Johnson what I cannot do for myself the law shall do for me. modestly answered that he thought he had written I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what enough. "And so should I too," replied the king, I think a cheat by the menaces of a ruffian! What "if you had not written so well." Johnson was highly would you have me retract? I thought your book an pleased with his majesty's courteousness, and after-imposture, I think it an imposture still. For this wards observed to a friend, "Sir, his manners are those of as fine a gentleman as we may suppose Louis XIV. or Charles II." In 1770 he published a political pamphlet entitled "The False Alarm," intended to justify the conduct of ministry and the majority of the house of commons, for having virtually assumed it as an axiom, that the expulsion of a member of parliament was equivalent to an exclusion; and their having declared Colonel Luttrell to be duly elected for the county of Middlesex, notwithstanding Mr. Wilkes had a great majority of votes. This being considered as a gross violation of the right of election, an alarm for the constitution extended itself all over the kingdom. To prove this alarm to be false was the purpose of Johnson's pamphlet; but his arguments failed of effect, and the house of commons afterwards erased the offensive resolution from the journals. opinion I have given my reasons to the public, which I here dare you to refute; your rage I defy; your abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable; and what I hear of your morals inclines me to pay regard not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. You may print this if you will." The threats alluded to in this letter were never attempted to be put into execution. But Johnson, as a provision of defence, furnished himself with a large oaken plant six feet in height, of the diameter of an inch at the lower end, increasing to three inches at the top and terminating in a head (once the root) of the size of a large orange. This he kept in his bedchamber, so near his chair as to be within his reach. In 1777 the fate of Dr. Dodd excited Johnson's compassion, and called forth the strenuous exertion of his comprehensive mind. He thought his sentence just, yet, perhaps fearing that religion might suffer from the errors of one of its ministers, he endeavoured to prevent the last ignominious spectacle by writing several petitions as well as observations in the newspapers in his favour. He likewise wrote a prologue to Kelly's comedy of "A Word to the Wise," which was acted at Covent Garden theatre for the benefit of the author's widow and children. In 1773 he published a new edition of his dictionary, with additions and corrections, and in the autumn of the same year he gratified a desire which he had long entertained of visiting the Hebrides or western isles of Scotland. He was accompanied by Mr. Boswell, whose acuteness he afterwards observed would help his enquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility of manners were sufficient to coun- This year he engaged to write a concise account of teract the inconveniences of travel in countries less the lives of the English poets; as a recompence for hospitable than those they were to pass. In the course an undertaking as he thought not very tedious or diffiof the years 1773 and 1774 he published a number cult, he bargained for two hundred guineas, and was of pamphlets in vindication of the conduct of minis- afterwards presented by the proprietors with 1007. In try, to whom as a pensioner he had become wholly the selection of the poets he had no responsible condevoted. These he collected into a volume and pub-cern; but Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden, lished under the title of "Political Tracts, by the Author of "The Rambler," octavo. In March he was gratified by the title of doctor of laws, conferred on him by the university of Oxford, at the solicitation of Lord North. In September he visited France for the were inserted by his recommendation. This was the last of Johnson's literary labours, and, though completed when he was in his seventy-first year, shows that his faculties were in as vigorous a state as ever. His judgment and his taste, his quickness in the dis 36 JOHNSON, SAMUEL. crimination of motives, and facility of moral reflections, shine as strongly in these narratives as in any of his more early performances; and his style, if not so energetic, is at least more smoothed down to the taste of the generality of readers. The "Lives of the English Poets" formed a memorable era in Johnson's life. It is a work which has contributed to immortalize his name, and has secured that rational esteem which party or partiality could not procure, and which even the injudicious zeal of his friends has not been able to lessen. From the close of this work the malady that persecuted him through life came upon him with redoubled force. His constitution rapidly declined, and the fabric of his mind seemed to be tottering. The contemplation of his approaching end dwelt constantly upon his mind, and the prospect of death he declared was terrible. In 1781 he lost his valuable friend Thrale, who appointed him executor with a legacy of 2007. "I felt," he said, "almost the last flutter of his pulse, and looked for the last time upon that face that for fifteen years had never been turned upon me but with respect and benignity." Of his departed friend he has given a true character in a Latin epitaph to be seen in the church-yard of Streatham. and kind attachment of his numerous friends. Dr. Heberden, Dr. Brocklesby, Dr. Warren, and Mr. Cruikshank, generously attended him without accepting any fees; but his constitution was decayed beyond the restorative powers of the medical art. Previous to his dissolution he burned indiscriminately large masses of paper, and amongst the rest two volumes containing a full and most particular account of his own life. He expired on the 13th of December, 1785, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and was buried in Westminster abbey, near the foot of Shakspeare's monument and close to the coffin of his friend Garrick. Agreeable to his own request a large blue flagstone was placed over his grave, with this inscription: SAMUEL JOHNSON, L L. D. M,DCC,LXXXV. ÆTATIS SUÆ LXXV. A monument for Johnson in the cathedral church of St. Paul, in conjunction with one to the benevolent Howard, was resolved upon with the approbation of the dean and chapter, and supported by a most respectable contribution. It was completed in 1795. Having no near relations, he left the bulk of his property, amounting to 1500l., to his faithful servant Francis Barber, whom he looked upon as particularly under his protection, and whom he had long treated as an humble friend. He appointed Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir John Hawkins, and Sir William Scott, his executors. His death attracted the public attention in an uncommon degree, and was followed by an unprecedented accumulation of literary honours, in the various forms of sermons, elegies, memoirs, lives, count of his life than by any laboured and critical comments. Yet it may not be superfluous here to attempt to collect from his several biographers into one view his most prominent excellencies and distinguishing peculiarities. After the death of Mr. Thrale his visits to Streatham, where he no longer looked upon himself as a welcome guest, became less and less frequent; and on the 5th of April, 1783, he took his final leave of Mrs. Thrale, to whom for near twenty years he had been under the highest obligations. A friendly correspondence continued, however, between Johnson and Mrs. Thrale without interruption till the summer following, when she retired to Bath, and informed him that she was going to dispose of herself in marriage to Signior Piozzi, an Italian music-master. Johnson essays, and anecdotes. endeavoured to dissuade her from the match, but The religious, moral, political, and literary characwithout effect; for her answer to his letter on the sub-ter of Johnson will be better understood by the acject contained a vindication of her conduct and her fame, an inhibition of Johnson from following her to Bath, and a farewell, concluding, "till you have changed your opinion of let us converse no more!" From this time the narrative of his life is little more than a recital of the pressures of melancholy and disease, and of numberless excursions taken to calm his anxiety and soothe his apprehensions of the terrors of death, by flying as it were from himself. In the beginning of 1784 he was seized with a spasmodic asthma, which was soon accompanied with some degree of dropsy. From the latter of these complaints, however, he was greatly relieved by a course of medicine. Having expressed a desire of going to Italy for the recovery of his health, and his friends not deeming his pension adequate to the support of the expenses incidental to the journey, application was made to the minister by Mr. Boswell and Sir Joshua Reynolds unknown to Johnson, through Lord Chancellor Thurlow, for an augmentation of it by 2001. The application was unsuccessful, but the lord chancellor offered to let him have 500l. out of his own purse, under the appellation of a loan, but with the intention of conferring it as a present. It is also recorded to the honour of Dr. Brocklesby, that he offered to contribute 100%. per annum during his residence abroad; but Johnson declined the offer with becoming gratitude; indeed he was now approaching fast to a state in which money could be of no avail. During his illness Johnson experienced the steady As a literary character, Johnson has eminently distinguished himself as a philologist, a biographer, a critic, a moralist, a novelist, a political writer, and a poet. As a philologist we need only to refer to his dictionary of the English language, as its utility is universally acknowledged, and its popularity its best eulogium. The etymologies, however, though they exhibit learning and judgment, are not in every instance entitled to unqualified praise. The definitions exhibit astonishing proofs of acuteness of intellect and precision of language. His introducing his own opinions and even prejudices under general definitions of words, as Tory, Whig, Pension, Excise, &c., must be placed to the account of capricious and humorous indulgence. Mr. Murphy, who has given a fair and candid estimate of the literary character of Johnson, remarks that "the dictionary, though in some instances abuse has been loud, and in others malice has endeavoured to undermine its fame, still remains the Mount Atlas of English literature." As a biographer, his merit is certainly great. His narrative is in general vigorous, connected, and perspicuous, and his reflections numerous, apposite, and moral. But it must be owned that he neither dwells with pleasure nor success upon those minuter anec JOHNSON, dotes of life which oftener show the genuine man than actions of greater importance. Sometimes also his colouring receives a tinge from prejudice, and his judgment is insensibly warped by the particularity of his private opinion. SAMUE L. 37 the essays, except eight or ten, coming from the same fountain-head, no wonder that they have the raciness of the soil from which they sprung. Of this uniformity Johnson was sensible; he used to say, that if he had joined a friend or two who would have been able to intermix papers of a sprightly turn, the collection would have been more miscellaneous, and by consequence more agreeable to the generality of readers. As a critic, he is entitled to the praise of being the greatest that our nation has produced. This praise he has merited by his preface to Shakspeare, and the detached pieces of criticism which appear among his works; but his critical powers shine with more con- As a novelist, he displays in the oriental tales in centrated radiance in the lives of the poets. Of "The Rambler," an unbounded knowledge of men many passages in these compositions it is not hyper- and manners; but his great work in this department bolical to affirm that they are executed with all the of literature is his "Rasselas." None of his writings skill and penetration of Aristotle, and animated and have been so extensively diffused over Europe. The embellished with all the fire of Longinus. The "Pa- language enchants us with harmony, the arguments radise Lost" is a poem which the mind of Milton only are acute and ingenious, and the reflections novel yet could have produced; the criticism upon it is such just. It astonishes by the sublimity of its sentiments as perhaps the pen of Johnson only could have writ- and the fertility of its illustrations, and delights by the ten. His estimate of Dryden and Pope challenges abundance and propriety of its images. The fund of Quintilian's remarks upon Demosthenes and Cicero, thinking which it contains is such that almost every and rivals the finest specimens of elegant composition sentence of it may furnish a subject of long meditaand critical acuteness in the English language. But tion; but it is not without its faults, being barren of though Johnson is entitled to this high eulogium, interesting incidents, and destitute of originality or yet in many instances it is evident that an affectation distinction of characters. There is little difference in of singularity, or some other principle, not immedi- the manner of thinking and reasoning of the philosoately visible, frequently betrays him into a dogina-pher and the female, of the prince and the waiting tical spirit of contradiction to received opinion. Of this there needs no further proof than his almost uniform attempt to depreciate the writers of blank verse, and his degrading estimate of the admirable compositions of Prior, Hammond, Collins, Gray, Shenstone, and Akenside. In his judgment of these poets he may be justly accused of being warped by prejudice, and resolutely blind to merit. woman. As a political writer, his productions are more distinguished by subtlety of disquisition, poignancy of satire, and energy of style, than by truth, equity, or candour. In perusing his representations of those who differed from him in political subjects, we are sometimes inclined to assent to a proposition of his own, that "there is no credit due to a rhetorician's As a moralist, his periodical papers are distin-account either of good or evil." Many positions are guished from those of other writers who derived ce- laid down in admirable language, and in highly polebrity from similar publications. He has neither lished periods, which are inconsistent with the printhe wit nor the graceful ease of Addison, nor has he ciples of the British constitution, and repugnant to the humour and classic suavity of Goldsmith. His the common rights of mankind. In apology for him, powers are of a more grave, energetic, and dignified it may be admitted that he was attached to Tory prinkind than any of his competitors, and if he entertains ciples, and that most of what he wrote on political us less, he instructs us more. He shows himself subjects was conformable to his real sentiments. Mr. master of all the recesses of the human mind, able to Murphy observes that "Johnson's political pamdetect vice when disguised in its most specious form, phlets, whatever was his motive for writing them, and equally possessed of a corrosive to eradicate, or whether gratitude for his pension or the solicitation a lenitive to assuage, the follies and sorrows of the of men in power, did not support the cause for which heart. But his genius was only formed to chastise they were undertaken. They are written in a style graver faults, which require to be touched with a truly harmonious, and with his usual dignity of lanheavier hand. His "Rambler" furnishes such an guage. When it is said that he advanced positions assemblage of discourses on practical religion and repugnant to the common rights of mankind, the vimoral duty, of critical investigation and allegorical rulence of party may be suspected. It is perhaps and oriental tales, that no mind can be thought very true that in the clamour raised throughout the kingdeficient that has by constant study and meditation dom Johnson overheated his mind; but he was a assimilated to itself all that may be found there. friend to the rights of man, and he was greatly suEvery page of "The Rambler" shows a mind teeming perior to the littleness of spirit that might induce with classical allusion and poetical imagery; illustra-him to advance what he did not think and firmly tions from other writers are upon all occasions so ready, and mingle so easily in his periods, that the whole appears of one uniform vivid texture. believe." The style of Johnson's prosaic writings has been censured, applauded, and imitated to extremes equally Mr. Murphy observes that "The Rambler" may be dangerous to the purity of the English language. He considered as Johnson's great work. It was the ba- has no doubt innovated upon our language by his sis of that high reputation which went on increasing adoption of Latin derivatives; but the danger from to the end of his days. In this collection Johnson his innovation would be trifling if those alone would is the great moral teacher of his countrymen; his copy him who can think with equal precision; for essays form a body of ethics; the observations on few passages can be pointed out from his works in life and manners are acute and instructive; and the which his meaning could be accurately expressed by papers, professedly critical, serve to promote the cause such words as are in more familiar use. His comof literature. It must however be acknowledged that prehension of mind was the mould for his language. a settled gloom hangs over the author's mind, and ail | Had his comprehension been narrower, his expres 38 JOHNSON, sion would have been easier. And it is to be remembered that while he has added harmony and dignity to our language, he has neither violated it by the insertion of foreign idioms, nor the affectation of anomaly in the construction of his sentences; upon the whole it is certain that his example has given a general elevation to the language of his country, for some of our best writers have approached very near to him. As a poet, the merit of Johnson, though considerable, yet falls short of that which he has displayed in those provinces of literature in which we have already surveyed him. Ratiocination prevailed in Johnson more than sensibility. He has no daring sublimities nor gentle graces, he never glows with the fire of enthusiasm or kindles a sympathetic emotion in the bosoms of his readers. His poems are the plain and sensible effusions of a mind never hurried beyond itself, to which the use of rhyme adds no beauty, and from which the use of prose would detract no force. His versification is smooth, flowing, and unrestrained, but his pauses are not sufficiently varied to rescue him from the imputation of monotony. He seems never at a loss for rhyme, or destitute of a proper expression; and the manner of his verse appears admirably adapted to didactic or satiric poetry, for which his powers were equally and perhaps alone qualified. SAMUEL. Each gift of nature, and each grace of art, As a man, Dr. Johnson was in mind, as in person, powerful and rugged, but he was capable of acts of benevolence and of substantial generosity, which do honour to human nature. His strong prejudices have been already mentioned, and it is to be regretted that his admirable conversational and argumentative powers were sullied by dictatorial arrogance and the most offensive impatience of contradiction-qualities Mr. Murphy, in his estimate of the literary cha- that were unhappily heightened by the extreme deracter of Johnson, observes that his English poetry ference and lavish admiration with which he was is such as leaves room to think, if he devoted himself treated on arriving at the summit of his reputation. to the Muses, that he would have been the rival of The effect was more injurious to himself than his Pope. His first production of this kind was "Lon- hearers, as it evidently fostered the seeds of bigotry don," a poem in imitation of the third satire of Ju- and intolerance with which he set out in life. Upon venal. The vices of the metropolis are placed in the the whole, however, both the moral and intellectual room of ancient manners. The author has heated his character of Dr. Johnson stands very high, and he mind with the ardour of Juvenal, and, having the may be regarded, without hesitation, as one of the skill to polish his numbers, he became a sharp ac-most eminent of the distinguished writers of the cuser of the times. The "Vanity of Human Wishes" eighteenth century. His works were published colis an imitation of the tenth satire of the same author. lectively in eleven volumes, with a life of the author, Though it is translated by Dryden, Johnson's imita- by Sir John Hawkins, in 1787, and in twelve volumes, tion approaches nearest to the original. by Murphy, in 1792. The last edition of "Boswell's Life of Johnson" was edited by Mr. Croker, and the value of the work may be best shown by the feelings of the editor as exhibited in the preface:-" With respect to the spirit towards Dr. Johnson himself by which the editor is actuated, he begs leave to say, that he feels, and has always felt a great, but he hopes not a blind admiration of Dr. Johnson. For his writings he feels that admiration undivided and uninterrupted." In his personal conduct and conversation there may be occasionally something to regret and (though rarely) something to disapprove, but less, perhaps, than there would be in those of any other man, whose words, actions, and even thoughts, should be exposed to public observation so nakedly as, by a strange concurrence of circumstances, Dr. Johnson's have been. Having no domestic ties or duties, the latter portion of his life was, as Mrs. Piozzi observes, nothing but conversation, and that conversation was watched and recorded from night to night, and from hour to hour, with zealous attention and unceasing diligence. No man, the most staid or the most guarded, is always the same in health, in spirits, and opinions. Human life is a series of inconsistencies; and when Johnson's early misfortunes, his protracted poverty, his strong passions, his violent prejudices, and, above all, his mental infirmities, are considered, it is only wonderful It is generally admitted that of Johnson's poetical compositions the imitations of Juvenal are the best they are perhaps the noblest imitations to be found in any language. It has been remarked with nice discrimination, that if Johnson's imitations of Juvenal are not so close as those done by Pope from Horace, they are infinitely more spirited and energetic. In Pope the most peculiar images of Roman life are adapted with singular address to our own times. In Johnson the similitude is only in general passages, suitable to every age in which refinement has degenerated into depravity. We have space but for a single illustration. It is from his imitation of the tenth satire of Juvenal, and will serve to exhibit his peculiar style of versification, which is much less known than his prose compositions. "Let observation, with extensive view, JOHNSON, SAMUEL -JOHNSTON, ARTHUR. 39 that a portrait so laboriously minute, and so pain-ple at large, as a schismatic and apostate and confully faithful, does not exhibit more of blemish, in- tinually thwarted, the object being to drive him from congruity, and error." the country. This treatment he endured with patience and firmness. In 1743 the university of Öxford made him a doctor of divinity. In 1754 he was chosen president of the college just established at New York, and filled the office with much credit until 1763, when he resigned and returned to Stratford, where he resumed his pastoral functions, and continued them till his death, January 1772, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He was a man of great learning, quickness of perception, soundness of judgment, and benevolence. While Bishop Berkeley was residing in Rhode Island, which he did two years and a half from the time of his arrival in 1729, Dr. Johnson became acquainted with him and embraced his theory of idealism. Dr. Johnson's publications were chiefly controversial. JOHNSON, THOMAS, an eminent classical scholar, who was born in the middle of the seventeenth century. He was educated at Cambridge, and became in succession usher at several large schools. He is best known as the editor of "Sophocles," and as the author of a "Letter to Mr. Chandler in Vindication of a Passage in the Bishop of London's Second Pastoral Letter." JOHNSON, SAMUEL, an English divine, remarkable for his learning and steadiness in suffering for the principles of the revolution in 1688. He was born in 1649; and entering into orders obtained in 1670 the rectory of Corringham in the county of Essex, which was the only church-preferment he ever had. The air of this place not agreeing with him, he placed a curate on the spot, while he settled at London. The times were turbulent; the duke of York declaring himself a catholic, his succession to the crown began to be warmly opposed; and Mr. Johnson, who was naturally not of a submissive temper, being made chaplain to Lord William Russel, engaged the ecclesiastical champion for passive obedience, Dr. Hicks, in a treatise entitled "Julian the Apostate." He was answered by Dr. Hicks in a work intitled "Jovian." To which he published a reply, under the title of "Julian's Arts to undermine and extirpate Christianity." For this work he was committed to prison; but not being able to procure a copy, the court prosecuted him for writing the first tract, condemned him to a fine of 500 marks, and to lie in prison until it was paid. By uniting with Mr. Hambden, who was his fellow-prisoner, he got into farther troubles; for on the encampment of the army on Hounslow heath in 1686, he printed and dispersed "An Humble and Hearty Address to all the Protestants in the Present Army;" for this he was sentenced to a second fine of 500 marks, to be degraded from the priesthood, to stand twice in the pillory, and to be whipped from New- JOHNSTON, ARTHUR.-This learned classical gate to Tyburn. It happened, luckily, that in the de- scholar was born near Aberdeen in 1587, and educated gradation they omitted to strip him of his cassock; in the university of that city. He early studied mewhich circumstance, slight as it may appear, rendered dicine, and to improve himself in his favourite science his degradation imperfect, and afterwards preserved we find that he visited the principal foreign universihis living to him. Intercession was made to get the ties, of several of which he was a member. He at whipping omitted; but James replied, "that since last settled in France, where he met with great apMr. Johnson had the spirit of martyrdom, it was fit plause as a Latin poet. He lived there twenty years, he should suffer;" and he bore it with firmness and and by two wives had thirteen children. At last, afeven with alacrity. On the revolution the parliament ter twenty-four years' absence, he returned into Scotresolved the proceedings against him to be null and land, as some say in 1632, but probably much sooner, illegal, and recommended him to the king, who of- as there is an edition of his "Epigrammata" printed fered him the rich deanery of Durham; but this heat Aberdeen in 1632, in which he is styled the king's refused, as inadequate to his services and sufferings, which he thought merited a bishopric. The truth was, he was passionate, self-opiniated, and turbulent; and though through Dr. Tillotson's means he obtained a pension of 300l. a-year with other gratifications, he remained discontented, pouring forth all his uneasiness against a standing army and the great favours shown to the Dutch. He died in 1703, and his works were afterwards collected in one volume folio. JOHNSON, THOMAS, an English botanist, who was born at Selby in Yorkshire, and became first known to the public as the author of a small work entitled "Iter in Agrum Cantianum," which was followed by a new edition of "Gerard's Herbal." He was also the author of the "Mercurius Botanicus." His death took place in 1644. physician. It appears by the council books at Edinburgh that Dr. Johnston had a suit at law before that court in 1633. In the year following, Charles I. went into Scotland, and made bishop Laud, then with him, a member of the council; and by this accident it is probable the acquaintance began between the doctor and that prelate, which produced his "Psalmorum Davidis Paraphrasis Poëtica." We find that in the JOHNSON, SAMUEL.-This learned American same year the doctor printed a specimen of his psalms was born at Guildford, Connecticut. He entered the at London, and dedicated them to his lordship, which college at Saybrook at about fourteen years of age, is considered as a proof that the bishop prevailed and was graduated in 1714. In 1716 a college was upon Johnston to remove to London from Scotland, established by the general court of the colony at and then set him upon this work; neither can it be New Haven, and Mr. Johnson was appointed tutor. doubted but after he had seen this sample he also In 1720 he became a preacher at West Haven. A engaged him to perfect the whole, which took him short time afterwards he became an episcopalian, up four years; for the first edition of all the psalms and in 1722 came to England to obtain ordination. was published at Aberdeen in 1637, and at London Here he received the degree of master of arts at Ox-in the same year. In 1641 Dr. Johnston being at ford and Cambridge. In 1723 he returned and settled at Stratford, where he preached to about thirty episcopal families in the place, and about forty in the neighbouring towns. He was treated, by the peo Oxford on a visit to one of his daughters, who was married to a divine of the church of England in that place, was seized with a violent diarrhoea, of which he died in a few days. |