cius Florus;"
Florus Delphini was the phrase. "And my mother," said he, "thought it
had something to do with Delphos; but of that I know nothing." "Who
founded Rome, then ?" inquired Mr. Thrale. The lad replied, "Romulus."
"And who succeeded Romulus?" said I. A long pause, and apparently
distressful hesitation, followed the difficult question. "Why will you
ask him in terms that he does not comprehend?" said Mr. Johnson, enraged.
"You might as well bid him tell you who phlebotomised Romulus. This
fellow's dulness is elastic," continued he, "and all we do is but like
kicking at a woolsack."

The pains he took, however, to obtain the young man more patient
instructors were many, and oftentimes repeated. He was put under the
care of a clergyman in a distant province; and Mr. Johnson used both to
write and talk to his friends concerning his education. It was on that
occasion that I remember his saying, "A boy should never be sent to Eton
or Westminster School before he is twelve years old at least; for if in
his years of babyhood he escapes that general and transcendent knowledge
without which life is perpetually put to a stand, he will never get it at
a public school, where, if he does not learn Latin and Greek, he learns
nothing." Mr. Johnson often said, "that there was too much stress laid
upon literature as indispensably necessary: there is surely no need that
everybody should be a scholar, no call that every one should square the
circle. Our manner of teaching," said he, "cramps and warps many a mind,
which if left more at liberty would have been respectable in some way,
though perhaps not in that. We lop our trees, and prune them, and pinch
them about," he would say, "and nail them tight up to the wall, while a
good standard is at last the only thing for bearing healthy fruit, though
it commonly begins later. Let the people learn necessary knowledge; let
them learn to count their fingers, and to count their money, before they
are caring for the classics; for," says Mr. Johnson, "though I do not
quite agree with the proverb, that Nullum numen abest si sit prudentia,
yet we may very well say, that Nullum numen adest--ni sit prudentia."

We had been visiting at a lady's house, whom as we returned some of the
company ridiculed for her ignorance. "She is not ignorant," said he, "I
believe, of anything she has been taught, or of anything she is desirous
to know: and I suppose if one wanted a little _run tea_, s