No man had a more ardent love of literature,or a higher respect for it than Johnson.His apartment in Pembroke College was that upon the second floor,over the gateway.The enthusiasts of learning will ever contemplate it with veneration.One day,while he was sitting in it quite alone,Dr.Panting,then master of the College,whom he called 'a fine Jacobite fellow,'overheard him uttering this soliloquy in his strong,emphatick voice:'Well,Ihave a mind to see what is done in other places of learning.I'll go and visit the Universities abroad.I'll go to France and Italy.
I'll go to Padua.--And I'll mind my business.For an Athenian blockhead is the worst of all blockheads.'
Dr.Adams told me that Johnson,while he was at Pembroke College,'was caressed and loved by all about him,was a gay and frolicksome fellow,and passed there the happiest part of his life.'But this is a striking proof of the fallacy of appearances,and how little any of us know of the real internal state even of those whom we see most frequently;for the truth is,that he was then depressed by poverty,and irritated by disease.When I mentioned to him this account as given me by Dr.Adams,he said;'Ah,Sir,I was mad and violent.It was bitterness which they mistook for frolick.I was miserably poor,and I thought to fight my way by my literature and my wit;so I disregarded all power and all authority.'
The Bishop of Dromore observes in a letter to me,'The pleasure he took in vexing the tutors and fellows has been often mentioned.But I have heard him say,what ought to be recorded to the honour of the present venerable master of that College,the Reverend William Adams,D.D.,who was then very young,and one of the junior fellows;that the mild but judicious expostulations of this worthy man,whose virtue awed him,and whose learning he revered,made him really ashamed of himself,"though Ifear (said he)I was too proud to own it."
'I have heard from some of his cotemporaries 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.'
I do not find that he formed any close intimacies with his fellow-collegians.But Dr.Adams told me that he contracted a love and regard for Pembroke College,which he retained to the last.Ashort time before his death he sent to that College a present of all his works,to be deposited in their library;and he had thoughts of leaving to it his house at Lichfield;but his friends who were about him very properly dissuaded him from it,and he bequeathed it to some poor relations.He took a pleasure in boasting of the many eminent men who had been educated at Pembroke.
In this list are found the names of Mr.Hawkins the Poetry Professor,Mr.Shenstone,Sir William Blackstone,and others;not forgetting the celebrated popular preacher,Mr.George Whitefield,of whom,though Dr.Johnson did not think very highly,it must be acknowledged that his eloquence was powerful,his views pious and charitable,his assiduity almost incredible;and,that since his death,the integrity of his character has been fully vindicated.
Being himself a poet,Johnson was peculiarly happy in mentioning how many of the sons of Pembroke were poets;adding,with a smile of sportive triumph,'Sir,we are a nest of singing birds.'
He was not,however,blind to what he thought the defects of his own College;and I have,from the information of Dr.Taylor,a very strong instance of that rigid honesty which he ever inflexibly preserved.Taylor had obtained his father's consent to be entered of Pembroke,that he might be with his schoolfellow Johnson,with whom,though some years older than himself,he was very intimate.
This would have been a great comfort to Johnson.But he fairly told Taylor that he could not,in conscience,suffer him to enter where he knew he could not have an able tutor.He then made inquiry all round the University,and having found that Mr.
Bateman,of Christ Church,was the tutor of highest reputation,Taylor was entered of that College.Mr.Bateman's lectures were so excellent,that Johnson used to come and get them at second-hand from Taylor,till his poverty being so extreme that his shoes were worn out,and his feet appeared through them,he saw that this humiliating circumstance was perceived by the Christ Church men,and he came no more.He was too proud to accept of money,and somebody having set a pair of new shoes at his door,he threw them away with indignation.How must we feel when we read such an anecdote of Samuel Johnson!
The res angusta domi prevented him from having the advantage of a complete academical education.The friend to whom he had trusted for support had deceived him.His debts in College,though not great,were increasing;and his scanty remittances from Lichfield,which had all along been made with great difficulty,could be supplied no longer,his father having fallen into a state of insolvency.Compelled,therefore,by irresistible necessity,he left the College in autumn,1731,without a degree,having been a member of it little more than three years.
And now (I had almost said POOR)Samuel Johnson returned to his native city,destitute,and not knowing how he should gain even a decent livelihood.His father's misfortunes in trade rendered him unable to support his son;and for some time there appeared no means by which he could maintain himself.In the December of this year his father died.
Johnson was so far fortunate,that the respectable character of his parents,and his own merit,had,from his earliest years,secured him a kind reception in the best families at Lichfield.Among these I can mention Mr.Howard,Dr.Swinfen,Mr.Simpson,Mr.