iew of the Seat and Ruins at Kingsgate,
in Kent, 1766
Translation from Statius
Gray on himself

SMOLLETT'S POEMS.

The Life of Tobias Smollett
Advice: a Satire
Reproof: a Satire
The Tears of Scotland. Written in the year 1746
Verses on a Young Lady playing on a Harpsichord and Singing
Love Elegy, in imitation of Tibullus
Burlesque Ode
Ode to Mirth
Ode to Sleep
Ode to Leven Water
Ode to Blue-Eyed Ann
Ode to Independence
Songs

THE POETICAL WORKS

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON.

THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON.

We feel considerable trepidation in beginning a life of Johnson, not
so much on account of the magnitude of the man--for in Milton, and one
or two others, we have already met his match--but on account of the
fact that the field has been so thoroughly exhausted by former
writers. It is in the shadow of Boswell, the best of all biographers,
and not in that of Johnson, that we feel ourselves at present
cowering. Yet we must try to give a rapid account of the leading
incidents in Johnson's life, as well as a short estimate of his vast,
rugged genius.

Samuel Johnson was born at Lichfield, Staffordshire, on the 18th of
September 1709, and was baptized the same day. His father was Michael
Johnson, a bookseller and stationer, and his mother, Sarah Ford.
Samuel was the first-born of the family. Nathaniel, who died in his
twenty-fifth year, was the second and the last. Johnson very early
began to manifest both his peculiar prejudices and his peculiar
powers. When a mere child, we see him in Lichfield Cathedral, perched
on his father's shoulders, gazing at Sacheverel, the famous Tory
preacher. We hear him, about the same time, roaring to his mother, who
had given him, a minute before, a collect in the Common Prayer-Book to
get by heart as his day's task,--"Mother, I can say it already!" His
first teacher, Dame Oliver, a widow, thought him, as she well might,
the best scholar she ever had. From her he passed into the hands of
one Tom Brown, an original, who once published a spelling-book, and
dedicated it "to the Universe!"--without permission, we presume. He
began to learn Latin first with a Mr Hawkins, and then with a Mr
Hunter, head-master of Lichfield,--a petty tyrant, although a good
scholar, under whom, to use Gay's language, Johnson was

"Lash'd into Latin by the tingling rod."

At the age of fifteen, he was transferred to Stourbridge school, and
to the care of a Mr Went