JOHNSON, or Jonson, Ben, one of the most distinguished dramatic poets of the Elizabethan age, whether we consider the number or the merit of his productions. He was born at Westminster in 1574, and was educated at the public school there, under the great Camden. He was descended from a Scottish family; but as his father, who had lost his estate under Queen Mary, died before our poet was born, and his mother married a brick-layer for her second husband, Ben was taken from school to work at his father-in-law's trade. Not being captivated with this employment, however, he went into the Low Countries, and distinguished himself in a military capacity. On his return to England, he entered himself at St John's College, Cambridge; and having killed a person in a duel, he was condemned, and narrowly escaped execution. After this he turned actor; and Shakspeare is said to have first introduced him to the world, by recommending a play of his to the stage, after it had been rejected. His Alchymist gained him such reputation, that in 1619 he was, at the death of Mr Daniel, made poet-laureate to King James I. and master of arts at Oxford. As we do not find Jonson's economical virtues anywhere recorded, it is the less to be wondered that, after this, we should find him petitioning King Charles, on his accession, to enlarge his father's allowance of a hundred merks into pounds; and soon afterwards we learn that, being very poor and sick, he lodged in an obscure alley. On this occasion it was that Charles, having been moved in his favour, sent him ten guineas, upon which Ben remarked, "His majesty sent me ten guineas because I am poor, and live in an alley; go and tell him that his soul lives in an alley." He died in August 1637, at the age of sixty-three, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The most complete edition of his works was that printed in 1756, in 7 vols. 8vo.

Johnson, Dr Samuel, one of the brightest ornaments of the eighteenth century, was born in the city of Litchfield, in Staffordshire, on the 18th of September 1709. His father Michael was a bookseller, and must have had some reputation in the city, as he more than once held the office of chief magistrate. By what casuistry he reconciled his conscience to the oaths required to be taken by all who occupy such stations cannot now be known; but it is certain that he was zealously attached to the exiled family of Stuart, and instilled the same principles into the youthful mind of his son. So earnest was he in this, and at so early a period did he commence it, that when Dr Sacheverell, in his memorable tour through England, came to Litchfield, Mr Johnson carried his son, not then quite three years of age, to the cathedral, and placed him on his shoulders, that he might see as well as hear the famous preacher.

But political prejudices were not the only doubtful qualities which young Sam inherited from his father. He derived from the same source a morbid melancholy, which, though it neither depressed his imagination, nor clouded his perceptions, filled him with dreadful apprehensions of insanity, and rendered him wretched through life. From his nurse he contracted the scrofula or king's evil, which made its appearance at a very early period, disfigured a face naturally well-formed, and deprived him of the sight of one of his eyes.

When he had arrived at a proper age for receiving grammatical instruction, he was placed in the free school of Litchfield, of which Mr Hunter was then master; a man whom his illustrious pupil thought "very severe, and wrongheadedly severe," because he would beat a boy for not answering questions which the latter could not expect to be asked of him. He was, however, a skilful teacher; and Johnson, when he stood in the very front of learning, was sensible how much he owed to him; for upon being asked how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of the Latin tongue, he replied, "My master beat me very well; without that, Sir, I should have done nothing."

At the age of fifteen, Johnson was removed from Litchfield to the school of Stourbridge in Worcestershire, at which he remained little more than a year, and then returned home, where he staid two years without any settled plan of life or any regular course of study. But he read a great deal in a desultory manner, as chance threw books in his way, and as inclination directed him through them; so that when, in his nineteenth year, he entered a commoner of Pembroke College, Oxford, his mind was stored with a variety of such knowledge as is not often acquired in universities, where boys seldom read any books but those which are put into their hands by their tutors. He had given very early proofs of his poetical genius, both in his school exercises and in other occasional compositions; but what is perhaps more remarkable, as evincing that he must have thought a good deal on a subject on which other boys of that age seldom think at all, he had, before he was fourteen, entertained doubts of the truth of revelation. From the melancholy of his temper, these naturally preyed upon his spirits, and gave him great uneasiness; but they were happily removed by a proper course of reading; for his studies being honest, ended in conviction. He found that religion was true; and what he had learned by inquiry, he ever afterwards endeavoured to teach to mankind.

Concerning his residence at the university, and the means by which he was there supported, his two principal biographers contradict each other; and hence on these points it is impossible to write with certainty. According to Sir John Hawkins, the time of his continuance at Oxford is divisible into two periods; but Mr Boswell represents it as only one period, with the usual interval of a long vacation. Sir John says that he was supported at college by Mr Andrew Corbet, in quality of assistant to his son. But Mr Boswell assures us, that though he was promised pecuniary aid by Mr Corbet, that promise was not in any degree fulfilled. With regard to the knight's account of this transaction, it seems to be inconsistent with itself. He says, that the two young men were entered in Pembroke on the same day; that Corbet continued in the college two years; but that Johnson was driven home in little more than one year, because, by the removal of Corbet, he was deprived of his pension. A story of which one part contradicts the other cannot be wholly true. Sir John adds, that "meeting with another source, the bounty, as is supposed, of some one or more of the members of the cathedral of Litchfield, he returned to college, and made up the whole of his residence in the university about three years." Mr Boswell has told us nothing more than that Johnson, though his father was unable to support him, continued three years in college, and that he was then driven from it by extreme poverty.

These gentlemen differ likewise in their accounts of Johnson's tutors. Sir John Hawkins says that he had two, Mr Jordan and Dr Adams. Mr Boswell affirms that Dr Adams could not be his tutor, because Jordan did not quit the college till 1731, the year in the autumn of which Johnson himself was compelled to leave Oxford. Yet the same author represents Dr Adams as saying, "I was Johnson's nominal tutor, but he was above my mark;" a speech of which it is not easy to discover the meaning, if it formed no part of Johnson's duty to attend upon Adams's prelections. In most colleges we believe there are two tutors in different departments of education; and therefore it is not improbable that Jordan and Adams may have been at the same time tutors to Johnson, the one in languages, and the other in science. Jordan was a man of such mean abilities, that though his pupil loved him for the goodness of his heart, he would often risk the payment of a small fine rather than attend his prelections; nor was he studious to conceal the reason of his absence. Upon occasion of one such imposition, Johnson is reported to have said, "Sir, you have scounced me twopence for non-attendance at a lecture not worth a penny." For some transgression or absence his tutor imposed upon him, as a Christmas exercise, the task of translating into Latin verse Pope's Messiah. This Johnson performed, and on his translation being shown to the author of the original, the latter, after perusal, returned it with this observation, "The writer of this poem will leave it a question for posterity, whether his or mine be the original." The particular course of his reading whilst in college, and during the vacation which he passed at home, cannot be traced. That at this period he read much, we have his own evidence in what he afterwards told the king; but his mode of study was never regular, and at all times he thought more than he read. He informed Mr Boswell, that what he read solidly at Oxford was Greek, and that the study of which he was fondest was that of metaphysics.

In the year 1731 Johnson left the university without a degree; and as his father, who died in the month of December of that year, had suffered great misfortunes in trade, he was driven out as a commoner of nature, and excluded from the regular modes of profit and prosperity. Having therefore not only a profession, but the means of subsistence, to seek, he, in the month of March 1732, accepted an invitation to the office of under-master of a free school at Market-Bosworth, in Leicestershire; but not knowing, as he said, whether it was more disagreeable for him to teach or for the boys to learn the rules of grammar, and being likewise disgusted at the treatment which he had received from the patron of the school, he in a few months relinquished a situation which he ever afterwards recollected with horror. Being thus again without any fixed employment, and with very little money in his pocket, he translated Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia, for the trifling sum, it is said, of five guineas, which he received from a bookseller in Birmingham. This was the first attempt which he made to procure pecuniary assistance by means of his pen; and it must have held forth very little encouragement to his commencing author by profession.

In 1735, being then in his twenty-sixth year, he married Mrs Porter, the widow of a mercer in Birmingham; a woman whose age was almost double his, whose external form had never been captivating, and whose fortune amounted to scarcely £800. That she had a superiority of understanding and talents, is extremely probable, both because she certainly inspired him with a more than ordinary passion, and because she was herself so delighted with the charms of his conversation as to overlook his external disadvantages, which were many and great. He now set up a private academy, for which purpose he had hired a large house, well situated, near his native city; but his name having then nothing of that celebrity which afterwards commanded the Johnson's attention and respect of the world, this undertaking did not succeed. The only pupils who are known to have been placed under his care, were the celebrated David Garrick, his brother George Garrick, and a young gentleman of fortune, of the name of Offley. He kept this academy only a year and a half; and it was during the period in question that he constructed the plan and wrote the greater part of his tragedy of *Irene*.

The respectable character of his parents, and his own merit, had secured him a kind reception in the best families at Litchfield; and he was particularly distinguished by Mr Walmsley, registrar of the ecclesiastical court, a man of great worth, and of extensive and various erudition. That gentleman, upon hearing part of Irene read, thought so highly of Johnson's abilities as a dramatic writer, that he advised him by all means to complete the tragedy and produce it on the stage. To men of genius the stage holds forth temptations almost irresistible. The profits arising from a tragedy, including the representation and printing of it, and the connections which it sometimes enables the author to form, were in Johnson's imagination inestimable. Flattered, it may be supposed, with these hopes, he, in the year 1737, set out for London, with his pupil David Garrick, leaving Mrs Johnson to take care of the house and the wreck of her fortune. The two adventurers carried with them from Mr Walmsley an earnest recommendation to the Reverend Mr Colson, then master of an academy, and afterwards Lucasian professor of mathematics in the university of Cambridge; but from that gentleman it does not appear that Johnson ever found either protection or encouragement.

How he spent his time upon his arrival in London is not particularly known. His tragedy was refused by the managers of the day; and for some years the Gentleman's Magazine seems to have been his principal resource for employment and support. To enumerate his various communications to that miscellany would be equally tedious and unnecessary. It is sufficient to say, that his connection with Cave the proprietor became very close; that he wrote prefaces, essays, reviews of books, and poems; and that he was occasionally employed in correcting the papers written by other correspondents. When the complaints of the nation against the administration of Sir Robert Walpole became loud, and on the 13th of February 1740 a motion was made to remove him from his majesty's counsels for ever, Johnson was pitched upon by Cave to write what was in the Magazine entitled "Debates in the Senate of Lilliput," but was understood to be the speeches of the most eminent members in both houses of parliament. These orations, which induced Voltaire to compare British with ancient eloquence, were hastily sketched by Johnson whilst he was not yet thirty-two years of age, but little acquainted with life, and struggling, not for distinction, but for existence. Perhaps in none of his writings has he given a more conspicuous proof of a mind prompt and vigorous almost beyond conception. They were composed from scanty notes taken by illiterate persons employed to attend in both houses; and sometimes he had nothing communicated to him but the names of the several speakers, and the part which they took in the debate.

His separate publications which at this time attracted the greatest notice were, *London*, a poem in imitation of Juvenal's third Satire; *Marmor Norfolcense*, or an Essay on an ancient prophetical Inscription in Monkish Rhyme, discovered near Lynne, in Norfolk; and a complete Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage from the malicious and scandalous aspersions of Mr Brook, author of *Gustavus Vasa*. The poem, which was published in 1738, by Dodsley, is universally known and admired as the most spirited instance in the English language of ancient sentiments adapted to modern topics. Pope, who then filled the poetical throne without a rival, being informed that the author's name was Johnson, and that he was an obscure person, replied, "He will soon be deterr'd." The two pamphlets, which were published in 1739, are filled with keen satire on the government. Sir John Hawkins has thought fit to declare that they display neither learning nor wit; but Pope was of a different opinion; for in a note of his preserved by Mr Boswell, he says, that "the whole of the Norfolk prophecy is very humorous."

Mrs Johnson, who went to London soon after her husband, now lived sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, sometimes in the city and sometimes at Greenwich; but Johnson himself was oftener to be found at St John's Gate, where the Gentleman's Magazine was published, than in his own lodgings. It was there that he became acquainted with Savage, with whom he was induced, probably by the similarity of their circumstances, to contract a very close friendship; and such were their extreme necessities, that they often wandered during whole nights in the street, for want of money to procure them a lodging. In one of these nocturnal rambles, when their distress was almost incredible, so far were they from being depressed by their situation, that, in high spirits and brimful of patriotism, they traversed St James's Square for several hours, inveighed against the minister, and, as Johnson said in ridicule of himself, his companion, and all such penniless patriots, "resolved that they would stand by their country." In 1744, he published the life of his unfortunate companion; a work which, had he never written anything else, would have placed him very high in the rank of authors. His narrative is remarkably smooth and well disposed; his observations are just, and his reflections disclose the inmost recesses of the human heart. But, to say nothing of the pretended birth of Savage, whom Mr Boswell considered as an impostor, the moral character of this person was undoubtedly unworthy of such a biographer; and it is not easy to discover any thing either in his intellectual or poetical qualifications which could reasonably have entitled him to the prominent place amongst English poets which the partiality of Johnson has assigned to his companion in misfortune.

In 1749, when Drury-lane theatre was opened under the management of Garrick, Johnson wrote for the occasion a prologue, which, for just dramatic criticism, as well as poetical excellence, is confessedly unrivalled. This year is also distinguished in his life as the epoch when his arduous and important work, the *Dictionary of the English Language*, was announced to the world by the publication of its plan or prospectus, addressed to the Earl of Chesterfield. From that nobleman Johnson was certainly led to expect patronage and encouragement; and it seems equally certain that his lordship expected, when the book made its appearance, to be honoured with the dedication. But the expectations of both were disappointed. Lord Chesterfield, after once or twice seeing the lexicographer, suffered him to be repulsed from his door; but afterwards thinking to conciliate him when the work was upon the eve of publication, he wrote two papers in *The World*, warmly recommending it to the public. This artifice was seen through; and Johnson, in very polite language, rejected his lordship's advances, letting him know that he was unwilling the public should consider him as owing that to a patron which Providence had enabled him to do for himself. This great and laborious work its author expected to complete in three years; but he was certainly employed upon it seven years; for we know that it was begun in 1747, and that the last sheet was sent to the press in the end of the year 1754. When we consider the nature of the undertaking, it is indeed astonishing that it was finished so soon, since it was writ- ten, as he says, "with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow." The sorrow to which he here alludes is probably that which he felt for the loss of his wife, who died in March 1752, and the loss of whom he continued to lament as long as he lived.

The Dictionary did not occupy his whole time; for whilst he was pushing it forward, he fitted his tragedy for the stage, wrote the lives of several eminent men for the Gentleman's Magazine, published an Imitation of the tenth Satire of Juvenal, entitled the Vanity of human Wishes, and began and finished The Rambler. This last work is so well known, that it is hardly necessary to say that it was a periodical paper, published twice a week, from the 20th of March 1750 to the 14th of March 1752 inclusive; but to convey some notion of the vigour and promptitude of the author's mind, it may not be improper to observe, that notwithstanding the severity of his other labours, all the assistance which he received did not amount to five papers; and that many of the most masterly of these essays were written on the spur of the occasion, and were never seen entire by the author till they returned to him from the press.

Soon after the Rambler was concluded, Dr Hawkesworth projected The Adventurer, upon a similar plan; and, by the assistance of friends, he was enabled to carry it on with almost equal merit. For a short time, indeed, it was the more popular work of the two; and the papers with the signature T, which are confessedly the most splendid in the whole collection, are now known to have been communicated by Johnson, who received for each the sum of two guineas. This was double the price for which he sold sermons to such clergymen as either would not or could not compose their own discourses; indeed he seems to have made a kind of trade of sermon-writing.

Though, during the time that he was employed on the Dictionary, he had exhausted more than the sum for which the booksellers had bargained as the price of the copy, yet, by means of the Rambler, Adventurer, sermons, and other productions of his pen, he now found himself in greater affluence than he had ever before been; and as the powers of his mind, distended by long and severe exercise, required relaxation to restore them to their proper tone, he appears to have done little or nothing from the close of the Adventurer till the year 1756, when he undertook the office of reviewer in the Literary Magazine. Of his reviews, by far the most valuable is that of Soame Jenyns's Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil. Never were wit and metaphysical acuteness more closely united than in that criticism, which exposes the weakness and holds up to contempt the reasonings of those vain mortals who presumptuously attempt to grasp the scale of existence, and to form plans of conduct for the Creator of the universe. But the furnishing of magazines, reviews, and even newspapers, with literary intelligence, and authors of books with dedications and prefaces, was considered as an employment unworthy of Johnson. It was therefore proposed by the booksellers that he should give a new edition of the dramas of Shakspeare; a work which he had projected many years before, and of which he had published a specimen which was commended by Warburton. When one of his friends expressed a hope that this employment would furnish him with amusement, and add to his fame, he replied, "I look upon it as I did upon the Dictionary; it is all work; and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know of." He issued proposals, however, of considerable length, in which he showed that he knew perfectly what a variety of research such an undertaking required; but his indolence prevented him from pursuing it with diligence, and it was not published till many years afterwards.

On the 15th of April 1783, he began a new periodical paper entitled The Idler, which came out every Saturday, in a weekly newspaper called the Universal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette, published by Newberry. Of these essays, which were continued till the 5th of April 1760, many were written as hastily as an ordinary letter; and one in particular, composed at Oxford, was begun only half an hour before the departure of the post which carried it to London. About this time he had the offer of a living, of which he might have rendered himself capable by entering into orders. It was a rectory, in a pleasant country, of such yearly value as would have been an object to one in much better circumstances; but, sensible, as is supposed, of the asperity of his temper, he declined it, saying, "I have not the requisites for the office, and I cannot in my conscience shear the flock which I am unable to feed."

In the month of January 1759, his mother died, at the advanced age of ninety; an event which deeply affected him, and gave birth to the forty-first paper in the Idler, in which he laments, that "the life which made his own life pleasant was at an end, and that the gate of death was shut upon his prospects." Soon afterwards he wrote his Raselas, Prince of Abyssinia, that with the profits he might defray the expense of his mother's funeral, and pay some debts which she had left. He told a friend that he received for the copy L.100, and L.25 more when it came to a second edition; that he wrote it in the evenings of a week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it.

Hitherto, notwithstanding his various publications, he was poor, and obliged to provide by his labour for the wants of the day that was passing over him; but having been, early in 1762, represented to the king as a very learned and good man, without any certain provision, his majesty was pleased to grant him a pension, which Lord Bute, then first minister, assured him, "was not given for any thing which he was to do, but for what he had already done." But a fixed annuity of three hundred pounds, if it diminished his distress, increased his indolence; for as he constantly avowed that he had no other motive in writing than to gain money, as he had now what was abundantly sufficient for all his purposes, and as he delighted in conversation, and was visited and admired by the witty, the elegant, and the learned, very little of his time was passed in solitary study. Solitude was indeed his aversion; and, that he might avoid it as much as possible, Sir Joshua Reynolds and he, in 1764, instituted a club, which existed long without a name, but was afterwards known by the title of the Literary Club. It consisted of some of the most enlightened men of the age, who met at the Turk's Head in Gerard Street, Soho, one evening in every week, at seven, and till a late hour enjoyed "the feast of reason and the flow of soul."

In 1765, when Johnson was more than usually oppressed with constitutional melancholy, he was fortunately introduced into the family of Mr Thrale, one of the most eminent brewers in England, and member of parliament for the borough of Southwark; and it is but justice to acknowledge, that to the assistance which Mr and Mrs Thrale gave him, to the shelter which their house afforded him for sixteen or seventeen years, and to the pains which they took to soothe or repress his uneasy fancies, the public is probably indebted for some of the most masterly as well as the most popular works which he ever produced. At length, in the October of this year, he gave to the world his edition of Shakspeare, which is chiefly valuable for the preface, where the excellencies and defects of that immortal bard are displayed with a judgment which must please every man whose taste is not regulated by the stand- Johnson, and of fashion or national prejudice, and where the question of the unities is discussed with an ability and force of reasoning which leaves nothing to be added or desired on the subject. In 1767 he was honoured by a private conversation with the king, in the library at the queen's house; and two years afterwards, upon the establishment of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, he was nominated professor of ancient literature; an office merely honorary, and conferred on him, as is supposed, at the recommendation of his friend the president.

In the variety of subjects on which he had hitherto exercised his pen, he had forborne, since the administration of Sir Robert Walpole, to meddle with the disputes of contending factions; but having seen with indignation the methods which, in the business of Mr Wilkes, were taken to work upon the populace, he published in 1770 a pamphlet, entitled *The False Alarm*, in which he asserts, and labours to prove by a variety of arguments founded on precedents, that the expulsion of a member of the House of Commons is equivalent to exclusion, and that no such calamity as the subversion of the constitution was to be feared from an act warranted by usage, and conformable to the law of parliament. Whatever may be thought of the principles maintained in this publication, it unquestionably contains much wit and argument, expressed in the author's best style of composition; and yet it is known to have been written between eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve o'clock on the Thursday night, when it was read to Mr Thrale upon his return from the House of Commons. In 1771 he published another political pamphlet, entitled *Thoughts on the Late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands*, in which he attacked Junius; and he ever afterwards delighted himself with the thought of having vanquished that able writer, whom he certainly rivalled in nervous language and pointed ridicule.

In 1773, he, in company with Mr Boswell, visited some of the most considerable of the Hebrides or Western Islands of Scotland, and published an account of his journey, in a volume which abounds in extensive philosophical views of society, ingenious sentiments, and lively descriptions, but which offended many persons by the vehement attack which it contained on the authenticity of the poems attributed to Ossian. For the degree of offence that was taken, the book can hardly be thought to contain a sufficient reason; and if the antiquity or genuineness of these poems be yet doubted, this is owing more to the conduct of their editor than to the violence of Johnson. In 1774, the parliament being dissolved, he addressed to the electors of Great Britain a pamphlet, entitled *The Patriot*; of which the design was to guard them from imposition, and teach them to distinguish true from false patriotism. In 1775 he published *Taxation no Tyranny, in Answer to the Resolutions and Address of the American Congress*. In this performance his admirer Mr Boswell cannot, he says, perceive that ability of argument or felicity of expression for which on other occasions Johnson was remarkable. This seems a singular criticism. To the assumed principle upon which the reasoning of the pamphlet rests many have objected, and perhaps their objections are well founded; but if it be admitted that "the supreme power of every community has the right of requiring from all its subjects such contributions as are necessary to the public safety or public prosperity," it will be found a difficult task to break the chain of argument by which it is proved that the British parliament had a right to tax the Americans. As to the style of the pamphlet, the reader who adopts the maxim recorded in the *Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides*, that a controversialist "ought not to strike soft in battle," must acknowledge that it is uncommonly happy, and that the whole performance is one of the most brilliant as well as correct pieces of composition that ever fell from the pen of its author. These essays drew upon him numerous attacks, all of which he heartily despised; for though it has been supposed that a Letter addressed to Dr Samuel Johnson occasioned by his Political Publications, gave him great uneasiness, the contrary is manifest, from his having, after the appearance of that letter, collected them into a volume under the title of *Political Tracts by the Author of the Rambler*. In 1765 Trinity College, Dublin, had created him doctor of laws by diploma; and he now received the same honour from the University of Oxford, an honour with which, though he did not boast of it, he was highly gratified. In 1777 he was induced, by a case of an extraordinary nature, to exercise that humanity which in him was obedient to every call. Dr William Dodd, a clergyman, under sentence of death for the crime of forgery, found means to interest Johnson in his behalf, and procured from him two of the most energetic compositions ever written; the one being a petition from himself to the king, and the other a similar address from his wife to the queen. But these petitions failed of success. Lord Mansfield's opinion was unfavourable to Dodd, and the reverend forger underwent the last punishment of the law.

The principal booksellers in London having determined to publish a body of English poetry, Johnson was prevailed upon to write the lives of the poets, and give a character of the works of each. This task he undertook with alacrity, and upon the whole executed it in a manner worthy of his reputation. The work was published in ten small volumes, of which the first four appeared in 1778, and the others in 1781. Whilst the world in general was filled with admiration of the great powers of the man who at the age of seventy-two, and labouring under a complication of diseases, could produce a work which displays so much genius and learning, there were narrow circles in which prejudice and resentment were fostered, and whence attacks of different sorts issued against him. But these gave him not the smallest disturbance. When told of the feeble though shrill outcry that had been raised, he replied, "Sir, I considered myself as intrusted with a certain portion of truth. I have given my opinion sincerely; let them show where they think me wrong."

He had hardly begun to reap the laurels gained by this performance, when death deprived him of Mr Thrale, in whose house he had enjoyed the most comfortable hours of his life; but it abated not in Johnson that care for the interests of those whom his friend had left behind him, and whom he thought himself bound to cherish, in duty as one of the executors of his will, and in gratitude for the kindness he had experienced at his hands. On this account, his visits to Streatham, Mr Thrale's villa, were for some time after his death regularly made on Monday, and prolonged till Saturday, as they had been during his life; but they soon became less frequent, and at length he studiously avoided the mention of the place or the family. Mrs Thrale, who ere long changed her name for that of Mrs Piozzi, says, indeed, that "it grew extremely perplexing and difficult to live in the house with him when the master of it was no more, because his dislikes grew capricious, and he could scarce bear to have any body come to the house whom it was absolutely necessary for her to see." The person whom she thought it most necessary for her to see may perhaps be guessed at without any extraordinary share of sagacity; and if these were the visits which Johnson could not bear, posterity, so far from thinking his dislikes capricious, though they may have been perplexing, would, if he had acted otherwise, have blamed him for the want of gratitude to the friend whose "face for fifteen years had never been turned upon him but with respect or benignity."

About the middle of June 1783, his constitution sustained a severer shock than it had ever before experienced, from a stroke of the palsy, which was so sudden and so violent, that it awakened him out of a sound sleep, and rendered him for a short time speechless. As usual, he had recourse, under this affliction, to piety, which in him was constant, sincere, and fervent. He tried to repeat the Lord's prayer, first in English, then in Latin, and afterwards in Greek; but succeeded only in the last attempt, immediately after which he was again deprived of the power of articulation. From this alarming attack he in a short time recovered, but it left behind it presages of a dropsical affection; and he was soon afterwards seized with a spasmodic asthma of such violence that he was confined to the house in great pain, whilst his dropsy increased, notwithstanding all the efforts of the most eminent physicians. He had, however, such an interval of ease as enabled him, in the summer of 1784, to visit his friends at Oxford, Litchfield, and Ashbourne in Derbyshire. One day the Roman Catholic religion being introduced as the topic of conversation when he was in the house of Dr Adams, Johnson said, "If you join the Papists externally, they will not interrogate you strictly as to your belief in their tenets. No reasoning Papist believes every article of their faith. There is one side on which a good man might be persuaded to embrace it. A good man of a timorous disposition, in great doubt of his acceptance with God, and pretty credulous, might be glad of a church where there are so many helps to go to heaven. I would be a Papist if I could. I have fear enough; but an obstinate rationality prevents me. I should never be a Papist unless on the near approach of death, of which I have very great terror." His constant dread of death was indeed so great, that it astonished all who had access to know the piety of his mind and the virtues of his life. Attempts have been made to account for it in various ways; but that probably is the true account which is given by an elegant and pious writer, in the Olla Podrida. "That he should not be conscious of the abilities with which Providence had blessed him was impossible. He felt his own powers; he felt what he was capable of having performed; and he saw how little, comparatively speaking, he had performed. Hence his apprehension on the near prospect of the account to be made, viewed through the medium of constitutional and morbid melancholy, which often excluded from his sight the bright beams of divine mercy." This, however, was the case only whilst death was approaching from a distance. From the time that he was certain it was near, all his fears were calmed; and he died on the 13th of December 1784, full of resignation strengthened by faith, and joyful in hope.

Dr Johnson was a man of herculean form of body, as well as of great powers of mind. His stature was tall, his limbs were large, his strength was more than common, and his activity in early life had been greater than such a form gave reason to expect; but he was subject to an infirmity of the convulsive kind, resembling the distemper called St Vitus's dance; and he had the seeds of so many diseases sown in his constitution, that a short time before his death he declared that he hardly remembered to have passed one day wholly free from pain. He possessed extraordinary powers of understanding, which were much cultivated by reading, and still more by meditation and reflection. His memory was retentive, his imagination vigorous, and his judgment penetrating. He read with great rapidity, retained with wonderful exactness what he so easily collected, and possessed the power of reducing to order and system the scattered hints on any subject which he had gathered from different books. It would not be safe to claim for him the highest place amongst his contemporaries in any single department of literature; but Johnston brought more mind to every subject, and had a greater variety of knowledge ready for all occasions, than any other man that could easily be named. Though prone to superstition, he was in other respects so incredulous, that Hogarth observed, whilst Johnson firmly believed the Bible. Of the importance of religion he had a strong sense; his zeal for its interests was always awake, whilst profaneness of every kind was abashed in his presence. The same energy which he displayed in his literary productions, or even greater, was exhibited also in his conversation, which was various, striking, and instructive. Like the sage in Rasselas, he spoke, and attention watched his lips; he reasoned, and conviction closed his period. When he pleased, he could be the greatest sophist that ever contended in the lists of declamation; and perhaps no man ever equalled him in nervous and pointed repartees. His veracity, from the most trivial to the most solemn occasions, was strict even to severity. He scorned to embellish a story with fictitious circumstances; for what is not a representation of reality, he used to say, is not worthy of our attention. As his purse and his house were ever open to the indigent, so was his heart tender to those who wanted relief, and his soul susceptible of gratitude, and every kind impression. He had a roughness in his manner which subdued the saucy and terrified the meek; but it was only in his manner, for no man was more loved than Johnson by those who knew him; and his works will be read with admiration as long as the language in which they are written shall be understood.

JOHNSTON, ARTHUR, a very eminent Latin poet, was the fifth son of George Johnston of Caskieben, by Christian the daughter of Lord Forbes.1 The father, who was possessed of extensive estates, had a numerous family, six sons and seven daughters having reached the age of maturity. Arthur was born at Caskieben in the county of Aberdeen in the year 1587, but the day of his birth is not mentioned. The first elements of classical learning he acquired at the neighbouring town of Kintore, and he afterwards became a student in Marischal College, Aberdeen. Caskieben, Kintore, Inverury, and Aberdeen are all commemorated in his poems. Whether he resided in the university long enough to take a degree in arts, we are not informed; but it is probable that he proceeded to the continent at a very early age, for he took the degree of M.D. at Padua on the 11th of June 1610. This university was long celebrated as a school of physic as well as law; and Benson supposes that it may have afforded him a favourable opportunity for the cultivation of his talents for Latin poetry.

In an elegy addressed to Wedderburn, he has supplied us with some information respecting his personal history.

Quas ego non terras, qua non vagas sequora pressi, Hae licet ingenio sint minus apta meo? Bis mibi trajeceae vicinae nubibus Alpes; Tybris et Eridani pota bis unda mibi est. Proebuit hospitium bis binis Gallia lustris: Conjugis haece titulum terra patriisque dedit. Me Gota, me Batavus, me vidit Cimber et Anglus, Et qua Teutonica terra sub axe riget. Non tot Dulichius pater est erroribus actus, Dum petet patrios per vada savia lares. Quinta Caledonia me rursus Olympias ore Reddidi effluctum, dissimillemoque mel. Numina jam decies et ter fecere parentem; Pignora sex superant, caetera turba fuit. Bis mibi quassivi, nec ab una gente, maritam: Bis conjunxi, bis jam me reror esse senem.

From these verses we learn that he had twice crossed the

---

1 Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, p. 36. Johnston's Genealogical Account of the Family of Johnston of that ilk, formerly of Caskieben, p. 7. Edinb. 1632, 4to. Alps, and had twice visited Rome; that he had travelled in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and England; that he had resided twenty years in France, and had there become a husband and a father; and that two wives, who were of different nations, had born him thirteen children. The fifth Olympiad restored him to his native country. The term Olympias more properly denotes a period of four years, but here, as in other instances, it is evidently employed to denote a period of five: for it appears that he had spent twenty years in France, and he mentions his peregrinations in other countries. He must therefore have returned to Scotland before the completion of the twenty-first year. Sir Thomas Urquhart has stated that "before he was full three and twenty years of age, he was laureated poet at Paris, and that most deservedly." He spent a considerable time in the university of Sedan, where his very learned countryman Andrew Melville became a professor of divinity in the year 1611. With him and the other divinity professor, Daniel Tilenus, he appears to have lived on intimate terms; and the names of both are familiar to the readers of his poems. As he resided so long in France, it has been supposed that he there followed the profession of a physician. The names of his two wives are not mentioned; but one of them is described as a woman of honourable birth. The one he married in France, and the other belonged to the vicinity of Mechlin, a city in Brabant. In an elegy addressed "Ad Sedum Mechlinensem, adversus Hampstrem militem Bullionensem," he speaks of her in the subsequent terms:

Quid memorem lacrymas quas nunc, absente marito, Fundit in ignota flebilis uxor humo? Per patriam rogat illa suam, patrioque penates, Quos dirimit vestra quartus ab urbe lapis.

He appears to have left her in Britain, and to have repaired to Mechlin for the purpose of prosecuting against this rude soldier some claim which probably accrued to him by marriage. After many delays and much anxiety, he obtained a decision in his favour; and his feelings during the progress of this litigation are elegantly recorded in various poems.

Before his return to Britain, he had acquired considerable reputation by the exercise of his poetical talents. Dr Eglisham, another Scottish physician, had endeavoured to detract from the reputation of Buchanan, by publishing an acrimonious criticism upon his version of the hundred and fourth psalm; but in one respect he was a very fair critic, for he at the same time exhibited in contrast a version of his own. Instead of attempting a serious refutation of his animadversions, Johnston wrote a very bitter, though a very elegant satire, in which he treated his case as one of decided insanity. This poem was speedily published under the title of "Consilium Collegii Medici Parisiensis de Mania G. Eglisheimi, quam proditid scripto, cui titulus Duellum Poeticum," &c., Edinburgi, excudebat Andreas Hart, 1619, 8vo. A Paris edition of the same date is likewise mentioned. This publication is anonymous; and when he inserted the poem in the collection of his Parerga, he suppressed the name of Eglisham, and substituted that of Hypermorus Medicaster. Not satisfied with inflicting so signal a castigation, he assailed the unfortunate rival of Buchanan in another poem, entitled Onopordus Furens. Paris, 1620, 8vo. During the same year, Dr Barclay, another learned physician, refuted the captious criticisms of Eglisham, and exposed the puerility of the version to which the author's vanity had assigned so conspicuous a place.

Dr Johnston's next publication bears the title of "Elegia in Obitum Jacobi Pacifici, Magnae Britanniae, Franciae, et Hiberniae Regis, Fideique Defensoris," Lond. 1625, 4to. Lauder has stated that he returned to his native country in 1632, and continued for some years to reside at Aberdeen; but Dempster, who died in 1625, mentions, though with some degree of hesitation, that he had already returned at the period when he himself wrote. Benson conjectures that he was appointed physician to the king in the year 1633, but this conjecture is refuted by the title-page of one of his publications. "Elegiae duae; una ad Episcopum Aberdeenensem, de Fratris Obitu; altera de Pace rupta inter Scotos et Gallos; autore Arturo Jonstono, Medico Regio." Aberdonie, 1628, 4to. After an interval of a few years, he published "Parerga Arturi Jonstoni Scoti, Medici Regii." Aberd. 1632, 8vo. And at the same time appeared "Epigrammata Arturi Jonstoni Scoti, Medici Regii." Aberd. 1632, 8vo. The first of these collections he dedicated in verse to Sir John Scot, and the second to the Earl of Lauderdale. He soon afterwards published "Cantici Salomonis Paraphrasis poetica," Lond. 1633, 8vo. This paraphrase, which he dedicated to the king, is accompanied with a specimen of his version of the psalms. The specimen includes the seven penitential, and the seven consolatory psalms; the former being dedicated to Laud bishop of London, and the latter to Lesley bishop of Raphoe. Dempster mentions his having translated the psalms into very elegant elegiac verse; and it is therefore to be presumed that Johnston long delayed the publication in order to give his version all the advantage of a deliberate revision. He next produced a collection of short poems, entitled "Muse Aulice," Lond. 1635, 8vo. They are accompanied with an English translation by Sir Francis Kinaston. This little work was followed by his complete version of the psalms. "Paraphrasis poetica Psalmorum Davidis, autore Arturo Jonstono Scocto. Accesserunt ejusdem Cantica Evangelica, Symbolum Apostolicum, Oratio Dominica, Decalogus." Aberd. 1637, 8vo. It is dedicated in elegant and panegyrical verse to the Countess Marischal. Benson supposes the work to have been printed in London during the same year; but as it was printed there in 1657, the one edition may have been confounded with the other. About the same time he lent his aid to the publication of the "Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum hujus ævi illustrium." Amst. 1637, 2 tom. 12mo. These volumes were neatly printed by Bleau, at the expense of Sir John Scot, who himself appears in the list of contributors, and who doubtless retained the power of admitting or rejecting. Johnston has frequently been considered as the editor, from the circumstance of his having written the dedication to Scot, and prefixed the "Musarum Elogia," addressed to the same individual. His contributions are more extensive than those of any other writer. The entire collection forms a conspicuous monument of the scholarship, ingenuity, and taste of our countrymen; and the poems of Johnston may safely be brought into competition with those of any other writer whose name is to be found in the catalogue of contributors.

---

1 Urquhart's Discovery of a most exquisite Jewel, p. 200. Lond. 1652, 8vo. 2 McRee's Life of Melville, vol. ii. p. 443. 3 Duellum Poeticum, contententissim Georgio Eglisemnio, Medico Regio, et Georgio Buchanano, Regio Praeposete, pro Dignitate Paraphrasco Psalmini centesimi quarti. Additio Prophylacticus adversus Andreae Melvini Cavillum in Aram Regiam, allisque Epigrammatum. Lond. 1618, 4to.—Among other works, Eglisham published "Prodomus Vindictae in Ducent Buckinghamiae, pro vilissima Castle contentissim Magnae Britanniae Regis Jacobi; nec non Marchionis Hamiltoni, ac aliorum virorum principum." Francofurti, 1620, 8vo. Sir Henry Wotton has stated that this work was "published and printed in divers languages," about the time of the king's death. (Reliquiae Wottonianæ, p. 554.) There is an English edition of a more recent date. 4 The Fore-runner of Revenge: being two Petitions, &c. Lond. 1642, 4to. 5 Dempster Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scoctorum, p. 393. On the 24th of June 1637, Johnston was elected rector of King's College, Aberdeen. The appointment is annual and is considered as honourable. Dr. Johnston, who describes him as principal of Marischal College, must apparently have been misled by his imperfect recollection of this academical office; nor is this the only mistake into which he has fallen with respect to the same university. Thus, for example, he makes the extraordinary statement that "whoever is a master may, if he pleases, immediately become a doctor." In this city Johnston appears to have had many learned and distinguished friends, of whom we find various memorials in his works. Among these was the worthy bishop of the diocese, Patrick Forbes, who, like himself, was descended from the noble family of that name; the bishop's son, John Forbes, professor of divinity in King's College; William Forbes, principal of Marischal College, and afterwards bishop of Edinburgh; Robert Baron, professor of divinity in the same college, and afterwards bishop elect of Orkney; and David Wedderburn, professor of humanity in King's, and rector of the grammar school of Aberdeen. This was indeed a brilliant era in the history of the university. Dr. Baron, a great adept in scholastic philosophy and theology, seems to have enjoyed a large share of his esteem, and is highly extolled in his verses. Wedderburn was the companion of his early youth, and, cultivating the same elegant studies, continued to be the friend of his maturest years. Johnston addressed to him a long elegy, in which he recounted some of the events of his life, and Wedderburn replied in another elegy, expressive of the same unaltered regard.

Although he probably continued to pay occasional visits to Aberdeenshire, he must have chiefly resided in England after the date of his appointment as physician to the king; for it is evident from some of his verses that this appointment was not merely honorary, but required his attendance at court. In his native county he appears to have acquired some real property: under the great seal, 12 June 1629, there is a charter of confirmation, in his favour, of the lands of New Leslie in the parish of Alford. Soon after his return from the continent, he was engaged in a lawsuit before the court of session; and of advocates and attornies his experience seems to have led him to form no very favourable opinion. But his career, which was sufficiently brilliant, was not destined to be long: at the age of fifty-four, he died at Oxford in the year 1641, while on a visit to one of his daughters, who was married to a clergyman of the established church. His death was affectionately bewailed by his learned friend Wedderburn, whose Suspiria were printed at Aberdeen during the same year.

Johnston possessed a masterly command of Latin diction; and to this attainment he added great skill in the art of versification. He was likewise distinguished by no mean portion of poetical feeling and fancy, united with an elegant and classical taste. Although it cannot be affirmed that he never employs a word or phrase which does not belong to the best age of Latinity, his diction generally displays a great degree of purity; and his ear had attained to exquisite nicety in the harmony of Roman numbers, particularly those of hexameter and pentameter verse.

Such was his predilection for this combined metre, that he introduced it into almost all his compositions; and even his satires are written in the elegiac measure. His poems are very numerous, and are sufficiently miscellaneous. Some of them are obscure, not from the nature of the composition, but from their abounding in allusions to persons and circumstances not easily traced or recognized. Many of his epigrams are well turned; and his satirical powers are conspicuously displayed in his poems against Eglisham, and in several others. His version of the psalms has often received, and is evidently entitled to very high commendation. After the brilliant success of Buchanan, such an attempt might justly be considered as not a little hazardous; but it cannot be asserted that Johnston had made a delusive estimate of his own powers, for if he does not surpass or equal so great a master, he at least makes a near approach to his poetic excellence. In this version, he has adhered almost uniformly to his favourite elegiac verse: it is only in the hundred and nineteenth psalm that his metre is varied, and there every part is exhibited in a new species of verse. Buchanan's plan of varying the measure according to the characteristics of the poem, was evidently more eligible in a writer who possessed such versatility of talent. The Latin paraphrases of the psalms amount to a very large number; nor do we incur much hazard in averring that the two Scottish poets have excelled all their competitors.

Dr. Beattie, who has passed a general condemnation on poetical paraphrases of the psalms, is by no means disposed to exempt those of Buchanan and Johnston from this sentence. "If we look into Buchanan, what can we say, but that the learned author, with great command of Latin expression, has no true relish for the emphatic conciseness, and unadorned simplicity, of the inspired poets? Arthur Johnston is not so verbose, and has of course more vigour: but his choice of a couplet, which keeps the reader always in mind of the puerile epistles of Ovid, was singularly injudicious. As psalms may, in prose, as easily as in verse, be adapted to musick, why should we seek to force those divine strains into the measures of Roman or of modern song? He who transformed Livy into lambicks, and Virgil into monkish rhyme, did not in my opinion act more absurdly. In fact, sentiments of devotion are rather depressed than elevated by the arts of the European versifier." These opinions of an elegant and tasteful writer appear to be somewhat hypercritical, nor do we feel entirely disposed to acquiesce in any of the dogmas which he has thus delivered. The charge of verbosity seems to be very unadvisedly brought against Buchanan; for, to adopt the words of Ruddiman, we know of no modern poet who has "better preserved that masculine and elegant simplicity, which we so much admire in the ancient writers, and whose stile is farther removed from all gaudiness and affectation."

The reputation of Johnston did not die with himself.

---

1 Johnston's Journey to the Western Islands, p. 30. "One of its ornaments is the picture of Arthur Johnston, who was principal of the college, and who holds among the Latin poets of Scotland the next place to the elegant Buchanan." 2 Wedderburn was likewise a contributor to the "Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum." He published the following grammatical works. "A Short Introduction to Grammar," Aberd. 1634, 8vo. "Institutiones Grammaticae," Aberd. 1634, 8vo. "Vocabula, cum aliis Latinae Linguae Subsidia," communis subjunctis ad Simsonis Rudimenta Grammaticae. See Ruddiman's Bibliotheca Romana, p. 62. Vossius addresses Wedderburn as "haec eruditissimus, beneque promerens de studiis juventutis." (Epistolae, p. 304. Lond. 1690, fol.) His merit as a grammarian is highly extolled in David Leitch's "Philosophia illachrymans, hoc est, Quæstra Philosophiae, et Philosophorum Scotorum (presertim verò Borealium) oratorice expressa." Aberdeen, 1637, 4to. His posthumous edition of Persius was published by his brother Alexander. "Persius emelieatus: sive Commentarius exactissimus et maxime perspicuus in Persium, poëtarum omnium difficillimum, studio Davidis Wedderburni, Scoti, Abredonensis. Opus posthumum." Amst. 1664, 12mo. 3 "Arturus Jonstonus," says Morhof, "in palmarum versione, quædam medium et in operibus ceteris, ubique purus et tersus est, ut ego quidem nihil in illo desiderare possim." (Polyhistor, tom. i. p. 1065.) Some objectionable words and phrases, used by Johnston, are enumerated in Ruddiman's Vindication of Buchanan, p. 70. 4 Beattie's Dissertations, Moral and Critical, p. 645. Lond. 1793, 4to. Soon after his death, a collection of his poems was published under the superintendence of William Spang, minister of the Scottish church at Campvere, whose name is well known to the readers of Baillie's Letters. "Arturi Jonstoni Scoti, Medici Regii, Poemata omnia." Middelz. Zeland. 1642, 1670. This collection, which is printed in a very diminutive form, includes his version of the psalms, and the various works which have already been enumerated, together with some shorter poems published for the first time. It was followed by "Arturi Jonstoni Scoti Psalmorum Davidis Paraphrasis poetica, nunc demum castigatus edita." Amst. 1705, 12mo. The editor was David Hoogstraten, well-known for his edition of Phaedrus; and the volume is inscribed to Janus Broukhusius, an eminent scholar, at whose suggestion the edition was undertaken. After a short interval, Ruddiman published "Canctici Solomonis Paraphrasis poetica, Arthuro Jonstono Scoeto, Medico Regio, auctore: editio nova, summo studio recognita, ac notis illustrata." Edinb. 1709, 4to. Edinb. 1717, 8vo. Johnston found a more zealous admirer in William Laidler, who inserted his sacred poems in a collection entitled "Poetarum Scotorum Musae Sacrae: sive quatuor Sacri Codicis Scriptorum, Davidis et Solomonis, Jobi et Jeremiae, Poetici Libri, per totidem Scotos, Arct. Jonstonum et Jo. Kerrum, P. Adamsonum et G. Hogreum, Latino carmine redditi: quibus, ob argumenti similitudinem, adnectuntur alia, Scotorum itidem, Opuscula Sacra." Edinb. 1739, 2 tom. 8vo. The first volume contains a life of Johnston, together with the testimonies of various learned writers. His paraphrase was also published separately; and the editor obtained from the general assembly a recommendation that it should be taught in the lower forms of grammar schools, as a precursor to that of Buchanan. An elegant edition of the latter, "cum notis variiorum," had been published in 1737 by Robert Hunter and John Love, the one professor of Greek at Edinburgh, and the other master of Dalkeith school. Love now thought it incumbent upon him to extol Buchanan, and to censure Johnston; Laidler was far from being satisfied with his criticisms, and an acrimonious controversy ensued between them. Johnston's cause was espoused with great warmth by Mr Benson, who began his operations by publishing "A Prefatory Discourse to a new Edition of the Psalms of David, translated into Latin verse by Dr Arthur Johnston, Physician to King Charles the First: to which is added, a Supplement, containing a Comparison betwixt Johnston and Buchanan." Lond. 1741, 8vo. This precursor was speedily followed by "Arturi Jonstoni Psalmi Davidici, interpretatione, argumentis, notisque illustrati, in usum Serenissimi Principis." Lond. 1741, 4to & 8vo. Each of these editions is elegantly printed, and contains a portrait of Johnston, engraved by G. Vertue. The life of the poet, we are informed, was translated into Latin by Dr Ward, professor of rhetoric in Gresham College; and it may be conjectured that he also lent his aid in the preparation of the notes and interpretation, which are modelled on those of the editions for the use of the Dauphin.

Not satisfied with the honour thus paid to a favourite Johnston poet, he soon afterwards published "Arturi Jonstoni Psalmi Davidici, cum Metaphrasi Graeca Jacobi Duporti, Graecae Linguae apud Cantabrigienses Exprofessoris Reguli." Lond. 1742, 8vo. This volume is without preface or annotations; nor is the name of Benson appended to any of these publications. The learned Ruddiman, who was roused to some degree of indignation by his disparaging animadversions on Buchanan, prepared an elaborate volume, consisting of nearly four hundred pages, and bearing the following copious title: "A Vindication of Mr George Buchanan's Paraphrase of the Book of Psalms, from the Objections rais'd against it by William Benson, Esq. Auditor in Exchequer, in the Supplement and Conclusion he has annex'd to his Prefatory Discourse to his new Edition of Dr Arthur Johnston's Version of that sacred book: in which also, upon a comparison of the performances of those two poets, the superiority is demonstrated to belong to Buchanan: wherein likewise several passages of the original are occasionally illustrated: together with some useful observations concerning the Latin Poetry and Arts of Versification: in a Letter to that learned Gentleman." Edinb. 1745, 8vo. This volume, which displays a masterly knowledge of the Latin language and literature, may still be read for the valuable information which it contains. Although he gives a decided preference to Buchanan, he is far from being insensible to the eminent merit of Johnston, on whom he here bestows no mean commendation. "I have as high an opinion of Dr Johnston's extraordinary genius as most men have, at least as I think it ought to have; and am satisfied that, for the elegance and purity of his diction, the sweetness and smoothness of his verse, in short all the other ingredients that are required to the composition of a great and masterly poet, he was inferior to none, and superior to most of the age he lived in. Nay, I will allow farther that, in my judgement, he deserves the preference to the far greater part of those that have lived since or before him." And in the last work which he gave to the public, he speaks of him in terms of warm and discriminating praise. "The other I shall name is Dr Arthur Johnston, physician to King Charles I., whom I will not be so foolish as, with Mr Auditor Benson, to exalt above the poets of the Augustan age, or even to prefer him to Buchanan, but this I can and will say, that the few of them may have more of pomp and grandeur, of force and energy in their poetry, yet for the sweetness and smoothness, the delicacy and harmoniousness of his numbers, he is not to be equalled in any nation since Ovid's time."

His youngest brother, William Johnston, M.D., is mentioned by Urquhart as "a good poet in Latine, and a good mathematician." He was educated in Marischal College, Aberdeen, and afterwards visited several foreign universities. He successively taught humanity and philosophy in the university of Sedan, where he is said to have acquired much reputation. In the year 1626 he was appointed professor of mathematics in Marischal College, and here he continued till the time of his death, which took place on the 15th of June 1640. With his academical labours he probably combined the practice of physic; and his circumstances were so prosperous that he purchased the estate of Beidelstone in the parish of Dyce and county of Aberdeen. By his wife, who was the youngest daughter of Abraham Forbes of Blackstoun, he left a son and two daughters.

Another Latin poet, John Johnston, was likewise connected with this family. He was the son of Johnston of Crimond in Aberdeenshire; and after completing the usual course in King's College, he prosecuted his studies on the continent, where he continued to reside for the space of eight years. He successively studied in the universities of Helmstadt, Rostock, and Geneva. After having visited England, he at length returned to his native country, and in 1593 was appointed professor of divinity in the university of St Andrews, where he was associated with Andrew Melville. He married Catharine Melville, of the family of Carnbee, and lived to lament her loss, and that of two children. He died on the 20th of October 1611. Among other works, he published the two following: "Inscriptiones Historice Regum Scothorum, continuata annorum serie a Ferguson primo regni conditore ad nostra tempora; Joh. Jonstono Abredonense Scothi autore. Praefixus est Gathelus, sive de Gentis Origine Fragmentum An. Melvini." Amst. 1602, 4to. "Heroes ex omni Historia Scotica lectissimi, auctore Johan. Jonstono Abredonense Scothi." Lugd. Bat. 1603, 4to. Both works consist of short inscriptions, written in elegiac verse, and exhibiting a vein of ancient simplicity. Besides a prose work, entitled Consolatio Christiana, he is likewise the author of some sacred poems, printed at Saumur in 1611.

John Johnston, M.D. must not be confounded with the professor of divinity. He was born at Sambter in Poland, on the 3rd of September 1603, but was descended of Scottish ancestors; who, according to his continental biographers, were of "the illustrious family of Johnston of Crogborn," meaning perhaps Craigburn. His native country was formerly replenished with Scottish emigrants; and during the seventeenth century, as we are assured by Lithgow, it contained no fewer than thirty thousand Scottish families. Part of his education he received at St Andrews, and he afterwards prosecuted his studies in several other universities. On returning to Poland in 1632, he was engaged to accompany two young gentlemen on their travels; and, during a period of four years and a half, they visited France, Italy, and various other countries. He took his doctor's degree at Leyden, and was admitted ad eundem at Cambridge. The unsettled state of his own country induced him to seek another place of abode; and he withdrew to the duchy of Lignitz in lower Silesia, where he purchased the estate of Ziebendorf, and united the practice of physic with a variety of learned pursuits. By his writings he acquired so much reputation, that he was successively offered a medical chair in the university of Frankfort and in that of Leyden; but Johnston, preferring a more retired mode of life, he continued to reside at his own seat till the period of his death, which took place on the 8th of June 1675. His remains were interred at Lessno in Poland on the 30th of September. Johnston was twice married, and by his second wife had several children. The most elaborate of his works bears the title of Historia Naturalis, and is divided into five volumes folio. His other publications, which amount to a very considerable number, chiefly relate to natural history and medicine. He published a short compendium of civil history, entitled Polyhistor, and a treatise "De Festis Hebræorum et Graecorum."

JOHNSTONE, ROBERT, is a Scottish historian of considerable reputation, but his personal history is very imperfectly known. We are however informed that he was the son of an honest burgess of Edinburgh, and that he was educated in the university of his native city. He took the degree of A.M. in the year 1587. His father may perhaps have been a native of Annandale, where Johnstone is still a prevalent name. The son bequeathed legacies to some of his cousins in Annandale, L500 sterling in trust to Lord Johnstone for building a bridge over the river Annan, and L1000 in trust to the same nobleman for the maintenance of a grammar school at Moffat. Whether he prosecuted his studies in some foreign university, and there took his degree of LL.D., we are not informed. He appears to have fixed his residence in London, and to have inherited or acquired a considerable fortune. Dempster, to whom we are indebted for many scattered notices of Scottish writers, has stated that he was particularly esteemed by Lord Bruce of Kinloss, and, although not a courtier, that he was acceptable to King James. His testament, extracted from the register of the prerogative court of Canterbury, has lately been printed, and reflects some additional light upon his history. He there describes himself as: "Robert Johnstone, of the parish of St Anne, Blackfriars, London, Esquire." The codicil is dated on the 12th of October 1639, and probate was granted to one of his executors six days afterwards; so that the testator must have died in that interval. The greatest part of his property he bequeathed to charitable and benevolent purposes. It is however to be suspected that his laudable intentions were in some cases frustrated: the bridge was never built over the Annan, nor did Moffat school derive much benefit from his legacy. He had been appointed one of the executors of George Heriot; and he bequeathed L1100 to the hospital. He bequeathed L1000 "towards the maintenance of eight poor scholars" in the university of Edinburgh. The destination of his library is thus expressed: "As for my books, I do appoint the books of humanity, Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, and Lexicon Graecum, to be sent unto Moffat in Annandale, when the aforesaid school is erected, with the Latin poets and commentaries: as for the Italian, French, and Spanish books, I would have them changed for books of philosophy, to be sent unto the College of Edinburgh: for my civil law books, and books of

---

speaks of Dr Johnston in the following terms: "De Gulielmo certe idem usurpare possimus, quod olim de Tito Imperat. suavissimo dictum est, Deliciæ est humanæ generis; tanta est ejus comitas, tanta urbanitas." (Panegyricus Inauguralis, quo Autores, Vindices, et Evergetes illustris Universitatis Aberdonensis justis elogis orabantur, p. 22. Aberdoniensis, 1631, 4to.)

1 Spalding's History of the Troubles in Scotland, vol. i. p. 215. 2 His testament may be found in the Miscellany of the Maitland Club, vol. i. p. 333. 3 See Dr M'Crie's Life of Melville, vol. ii. p. 512. 4 Sagittarii Introductio in Historiam Ecclesiasticam, tom. i. p. 217. Jena, 1718, 2 tom. 4to. Niceron, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Hommes Illustres dans la République des Lettres, tom. xii. p. 269. 5 Lithgow's Nineteen Years Travels, p. 402. 6 Crawford's History of the University of Edinburgh, p. 149. 7 "Robertus Johnstonus, Baronii Killosensi dum vivebat carus, vir variae lectionis, raræ eruditionis, scripsit Historiam sui Seculi Latine, lib. i. et teressimam, ut est limati judicium. Vivit adhuc Londini virtutis merito, licet non aulicus, regi acceptus." (Dempster Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scothorum, p. 394.) 8 Constable's Memoirs of George Heriot, p. 163. Edinb. 1822, 8vo. Dr Johnstone had prepared a history of his own time; and the earliest part of it, consisting of two books, appeared under the title of "Historiarum libri duo, continentes Rerum Britannicarum vicinarumque Regionum Historias maxime memorables. Sunt prater hos adhuc xx. libri, qui typographo nondum in manus venere." Amst. 1642, 12mo. It contains the author's dedication to King Charles, and the subsequent epigram, "Ad Robertum Johnstounum Scoto-Britannum," written by John Owen:

Ingenti, Johnstone, tul sum factus amator, Historiae legerem dum monumenta tuae. Nil magis ingenium, nihil ingeniosius extat Tergeminse Britonum gentis in historia: Exciplias unum Morum de rege Ricardo, Nemo Britannorum dignior invidia.

Such portions of the volume as relate to Scottish history were soon afterwards translated into English: "The Historie of Scotland during the Minority of King James: written in Latine by Robert Johnston: done into English by T. M." Lond. 1646, 12mo. This translator was perhaps Thomas Middleton, author of the Appendix to Spotswood's History. The identity of the historian and of the individual who died in 1639, is established by the testimony of the translator, who mentions his author's bequest to the university of Edinburgh. He has however magnified the eight exhibitions into eight fellowships. The entire history at length made its appearance in an ample volume: "Historia Rerum Britannicarum, ut et multarum Galliarum, Belgicarum, et Germanicarum, tam politicarum quam ecclesiasticarum, ab anno 1572 ad annum 1628." Amst. 1655, fol. The editor, under the signature of J. S., has prefixed a very brief notice, which contains an erroneous statement of the author having himself published the first two books. Buchanan's history, according to the opinion of Nicolson, has been "continu'd in the same fine language" by Johnstone; and Lord Woodhouselee describes this continuation as "a work of great merit, whether we consider the judicious structure of the narrative, the sagacity of the reflections, the acute discernment of characters, or the classical tincture of the style. In those passages of his history where there is room for a display of eloquence, he is often singularly happy in touching those characteristic circumstances which present the picture strongly to the mind of the reader, without a vain parade of words, or artificial refinement of sentiment." Of this high commendation we are however disposed to make some abatement, both as to the matter and style of Johnstone's history.

Johnstone, a modern and thriving village of Scotland, in the county of Renfrew, at the distance of about three miles west from Paisley. It owes its origin entirely to manufactures, as about forty years ago only a few cottages stood where now is seen a town consisting of two large squares, many considerable streets, and public works. It is regularly laid out, there being one main street, which is crossed by others at right angles. The houses are substantially built, and for the most part two stories high. There are within the precincts of the place seventeen cotton mills of various extent, and other three in the neighbourhood. There are also in the town two brass and two extensive iron founderies; five machine manufactories, and a public gas-work. Besides a chapel of ease belonging to the Scotch church, there is here a United Secession and Relief church, a Universalist, and Methodist chapel. In Johnstone are also a town school, a subscription library, two news-rooms, a mechanics' institution and library, and sundry benevolent and religious societies. The Ardrossan Canal from Glasgow terminates in a basin at the east end of the town. In its neighbourhood are four collieries, which are of great advantage to a place to which coal is of essential importance. The population in 1811 amounted to 3647, and in 1818 to 5000.

JOHNSTON'S ISLE, a small island in the Eastern Seas, surrounded by a cluster of others. It is covered with verdure and cocoa-nut trees. Long. 131. 12. E. Lat. 3. 11. N.

JOHORE, a town of Malacca, and capital of an independent Malay principality, situated near the southern extremity of the peninsula of Malacca, twenty miles up a river of the same name. It was founded in 1511 by the inhabitants of Malacca, who fled thither on the capture of their city by the Portuguese. In 1603 Johore was also taken by the Portuguese, but rebuilt a little higher up the river. The surrounding country abounds in pepper, tin, gold, sago, and elephants' teeth. The inhabitants bring these articles in their own prows to Prince of Wales' Island, and receive in return opium and other goods. Long. 104. 5. E. Lat. 1. 40. N.

JIGNY, an arrondissement of the department of the Yonne, in France. It extends over 774 square miles, is divided into nine cantons, and these into 110 communes, having a population of 78,687 persons. The capital, from which the circle takes its name, is a city on a hill, rising from the banks of the river Yonne. It is surrounded with walls, has a fine market-place, and 1000 houses, with 5176 inhabitants. There are some manufactures of cloth and of leather. Long. 3. 55. E. Lat. 47. 50. N.

---

1 This translation occurs in a volume entitled Scotia Rediviva, a Collection of Tracts illustrative of the History and Antiquities of Scotland, p. 361. Edinb. 1826, 8vo. 2 Nicolson's Scottish Historical Library, p. 121. 3 Woodhouselee's Memoirs of Lord Kames, vol. i. app. p. 3.