has collected some specimens, of which the two versions from Horace are, by many degrees, the best. It is probable, indeed, that as he never embraced any profession, the plan, if it can be so termed, that he now pursued, and which he continued, with few exceptions, through life, was the one best calculated for the situation that he was destined to fill in the republic of letters; it was adapted, in fact, for the acquisition of uncommon and multifarious knowledge.

Owing to the poverty of his parents, it was not likely that Johnson should ever enjoy the benefits to be derived from an University; fortunately, however, when about nineteen, he was selected by Mr. Corbet, of Shropshire, to attend and assist the studies of his son at Oxford; this young man had been the school-fellow of Johnson, and on the 31st of October, 1728, they were both entered of Pembroke College: it is uncertain, however, notwithstanding a previous promise of support, whether Johnson received any pecuniary assistance from Mr. Corbet; at least, his poverty, which, during his short residence at college, was sometimes extreme, seems strongly, to indicate a disgraceful failure on the part of his supposed friend.

His studies whilst at Oxford were, as they had hitherto been, vigorous, but unmethodical.

What he read solidly at Oxford, he told Mr. Boswell, was Greek; not the Grecian historians, but Homer and Euripides, and now and then a little epigram; that the study of which he was the most fond was metaphysicks, but he had not read much, even in that way. What materially contributed to produce irregularity both in his manners and literary pursuits, was the insufficiency of his tutor, Mr. Jorden, who, though a man of moral worth, possessed no abilities of a superior kind; and while Johnson loved the man, he held his literature in contempt. The consequence of this was, a neglect of his stated duties and attendance, and an attempt to seduce others into the same conduct. "I have heard from some of his contemporaries," relates Dr. Percy, "that he was generally seen lounging at the college-gate, with a circle of young students round him, whom he was entertaining with wit, and keeping from their studies, if not spiriting them up to rebellion against the college discipline, which in his maturer years he so much extolled."

It must not be inferred, however, from this account, that he neglected the cultivation of his intellectual powers; he was, in fact, during the three years which he spent at Pembroke College, an intense, though desultory reader, and stored

up a vast fund of useful and varied knowledge. He was, also, highly esteemed in the university," for his facility and harmony in the composition of Latin verse, to which, from an early period, at school, he had been strongly attached. A trans lation of Pope's Messiah into Latin hexameters, performed at the request of Mr. Jorden for a Christmas exercise, was the first production of Johnson's which was published; his father, with an excusable vanity, having printed it at Lichfield without the consent of his son, and it afterwards appeared in a Poetical Miscellany at Oxford, in 1731. With this version Pope was so much, delighted, that he returned a copy of it to Mr. Arbuthnot, with this declaration: "the author will leave it a question to posterity, whether his poem or mine be the original." It is, indeed, a performance, which, from the dignity and me lody of the versification, and the ease and accuracy with which the ideas of the original are transfused, merits much applause.

For mathematics and physics, Johnson appears to have had little relish; theology, ethics, and philosophy, were his favourite departments, and in these he made great progress during his academical life. In religion his opinions had been very lax and unsettled; and it was not until the accidental perusal of Law's Serious Call to

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the Unconverted," whilst at Oxford, that he entered earnestly into the inquiry. He took up Law, he relates, expecting to find it a very dull book, and with a view of ridiculing it; but he soon discovered that the author was an overmatch for him; and from this era, piety, sincere though often gloomy, was a predominant feature. in his character!*

It was about this period, likewise, while spending the college vacation at Lichfield, and in his twentieth year, that he was first violently attacked with that hypochondriac affection from which, during the residue of life, he was seldom altogether free! Like Cowper, though by no means. in so intense a degree, his judgment was frequently subjected to the partial influence of a disordered imagination. In the former instance, a permanent derangement of many years was, unhappily, the result; but, in the latter, no shade of insanity was ever produced; for, though often languid and. inefficient to such a degree, that he sometimes could not distinguish the hour upon the town clock, yet was he always able to correct, though; he could not preclude, the aberrations of fancy. The apprehension of approaching insanity, in a great measure the unavoidable consequence of morbid sensation, was the ingredient in Johnson's cup which poisoned the blessings of life. He

endured, however, with pious resignation, though. in gloom and horror; and often exhibited, in his worst paroxysms of dejection, the most astonishing efforts of mental power. Of this he gave a remarkable proof in his first sufferance under the complaint, by drawing up a statement of his case, with so much judgment, perspicuity, and eloquence, that Dr. Swinfen of Lichfield, to whom it was addressed, inconsiderately and indelicately circulated it among his friends, as an instance of extraordinary sagacity and research; a proceeding which so much and so justly offended his patient, that the Doctor, though his godfather, was never perfectly forgiven.

He returned to college, however, in the year 1730, in tolerable health, and continued to avail himself of its numerous opportunities for literary research, until the autumn of 1731; when, no longer able to support himself in the university, owing to the distressed circumstances of his father, who had become insolvent, he returned to Lichfield without a degree, destitute with regard to pecuniary resources, and totally undetermined what plan of life he should pursue. Soon after this event, in December 1731, his father died, in' the seventy-ninth year of his age; and the share of his effects, which, after providing for his mother, he received on his decease, did not