36 JOHNSON'S YOUTHFUL COMPOSITIONS Though Scythia's icy cliffs he treads, Dire nurse of raging lions, bore. Place me where no soft summer gale Her heav'nly voice, and beauteous face. Translation of HORACE. Book II. Ode ix. Nor showers immerse the verdant plain; Or storms afflict the ruffled main. Nor, Valgius, on th' Armenian shores Do the chain'd waters always freeze; Or bends with violent force the trees. For Mystes dead you ever mourn; So much lament his slaughter'd son. To whom all nations tribute bring. Niphates rolls an humbler wave, At length the undaunted Scythian yields, Content to live the Roman's slave, And scarce forsakes his native fields. JOHNSON'S YOUTHFUL COMPOSITIONS 37 Translation of part of the Dialogue between HECTOR and ANDROMACHE; from the Sixth Book of HOMER'S ILIAD. SHE ceas'd: then godlike Hector answer'd kind, Acquired by wounds and battles bravely fought! That Priam's house, and Priam's self shall bleed : Whose blood shall quench some Grecian's thirsty rage, As the sad thought of your impending fate : When some proud Grecian dame shall tasks impose, And, fainting, scarce support the liquid weight: Tears, at my name, shall drown those beauteous eyes, To a YOUNG LADY on her BIRTH-DAY 1. THIS tributary verse receive my fair, Thy form more lovely, more adorn'd thy mind; May powerful nature join with grateful art, Alas! 'tis hard for beauty to be just. Those sovereign charms with strictest care employ ; 1 Mr. Hector informs me, that this was made almost impromptu, in his presence. 38 JOHNSON'S YOUTHFUL COMPOSITIONS With his own form acquaint the forward fool, Teach mimick censure her own faults to find, THE YOUNG AUTHOUR 1. WHEN first the peasant, long inclin'd to roam, This thought once form'd, all council comes too late, EPILOGUE, intended to have been spoken by a LADY who was to personate the Ghost of HERMIONE 2. YE blooming train, who give despair or joy, Bless with a smile, or with a frown destroy; 1 This he inserted, with many alterations, in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1743 [p. 378]. 2 Some young ladies at Lichfield having proposed to act The Distressed Mother, Johnson wrote this, and gave it to Mr. Hector to convey it privately to them. JOHNSON'S YOUTHFUL COMPOSITIONS 39 In whose fair cheeks destructive Cupids wait, And scents ambrosial breathe in every gale: Far hence are banish'd vapours, spleen, and tears, Expell'd and exil'd from the blissful seats, Vex ev'ry eye, and every bosom tear; No maid to flatter, and no paint to hide. Then melt, ye fair, while crouds around you sigh, With pity soften every awful grace, And beauty smile auspicious in each face; To ease their pains exert your milder power, So shall you guiltless reign, and all mankind adore.' The two years which he spent at home, after his return from Stourbridge, he passed in what he thought idleness, and was scolded by his father for his want of steady application. He had no settled plan of life, nor looked forward at 40 HIS WIDE READING [1728 all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a desultory manner, without any scheme of study, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them. He used to mention one curious instance of his casual reading, when but a boy. Having imagined that his brother had hid some apples behind a large folio upon an upper shelf in his father's shop, he climbed up to search for them. There were no apples; but the large folio proved to be Petrarch, whom he had seen mentioned in some preface, as one of the restorers of learning. His curiosity having been thus excited, he sat down with avidity, and read a great part of the book. What he read during these two years he told me, was not works of mere amusement, not voyages and travels, but all literature, Sir, all ancient writers, all manly: though but little Greek, only some of Anacreon and Hesiod; but in this irregular manner (added he) I had looked into a great many books, which were not commonly known at the Universities, where they seldom read any books but what are put into their hands by their tutors; so that when I came to Oxford, Dr. Adams, now master of Pembroke College, told me I was the best qualified for the University that he had ever known come there.' In estimating the progress of his mind during these two years, as well as in future periods of his life, we must not regard his own hasty confession of idleness; for we see, when he explains himself, that he was acquiring various stores; and, indeed he himself concluded the account with saying, 'I would not have you think I was doing nothing then.' He might, perhaps, have studied more assiduously; but it may be doubted whether such a mind as his was not more enriched by roaming at large in the fields of literature than if it had been confined to any single spot. The analogy between body and mind is very general, and the parallel will hold as to their food, as well as any other particular. The flesh of animals who feed excursively, is allowed to have a higher flavour than that of those who are cooped up. May there not be the same difference between men who read as their taste prompts and men who are confined in cells and colleges to stated tasks? That a man in Mr. Michael Johnson's circumstances |