Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson, with a Selection from his Essay on Johnson. Томас Бабингтон Маколей

J. Cotter. Macaulay. (In English Men of Letters, edited by John Morley.)

      Pattison, Mark. Macaulay. (In the Encyclopædia Britannica.)

      Stephen, Leslie. Macaulay. (In the Dictionary of National Biography; in Hours in a Library.)

      Trevelyan, G. Otto. The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, in two volumes; also two volumes in one.

London

      Besant, Walter. London in the Eighteenth Century.

      Hare, Augustus John. Walks in London.

      Hutton, Laurence. Literary Landmarks of London.

      Wheatley, Henry B. London, Past and Present.

      VI. CHRONOLOGY OF MACAULAY'S LIFE AND WORKS

      1800. Born.

      1814. Sent to boarding school.

      1818. Entered Trinity College, Cambridge.

      1822. Graduated as B.A.

      1824. Degree of M.A. Elected Fellow. First public speech.

      1825. First contribution to the Edinburgh Review: essay on Milton.

      1826. Called to the bar.

      1828. Commissioner of Bankruptcy.

      1830. Member of Parliament for Calne. First speech in Parliament.

      1831. Speeches on the Reform Bill. Essay on Boswell's Life of Johnson.

      1833. Member of Parliament for Leeds. Essay on Horace Walpole.

      1834. Essay on William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Sailed for India as legal adviser to the Supreme Council.

      1837. Penal Code finished.

      1838. His father died. Returned to England. Visited Italy.

      1839. Elected to the Club. Member of Parliament for Edinburgh. Secretary at War.

      1840. Essay on Lord Clive.

      1841. Reëlected to Parliament for Edinburgh. Essay on Warren Hastings.

      1842. Lays of Ancient Rome published.

      1843. Essay on Madame d'Arblay. Essay on the Life and Writings of Addison.

      1844. Essay on the Earl of Chatham. (The second essay on this subject, and his last contribution to the Edinburgh Review.)

      1846. Paymaster-General of the Army. Defeated in Edinburgh election.

      1848. First two volumes of his History of England.

      1849. Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow.

      1852. Again elected to Parliament from Edinburgh, although not a candidate. Failing health.

      1854. Life of John Bunyan.

      1855. Third and fourth volumes of his History of England. (The fifth volume appeared after his death.)

      1856. Resigned his seat in Parliament. Life of Samuel Johnson. Life of Oliver Goldsmith.

      1857. Became Baron Macaulay of Rothley.

      1859. Life of William Pitt. Died December 28.

      VII. CHRONOLOGY OF JOHNSON'S LIFE AND WORKS

      1709. Born September 18.

      1728. Entered Pembroke College, Oxford. Turned Pope's Messiah into Latin verse.

      1731. Left Oxford. His father died.

      1735. Married. Opened an academy at Edial.

      1737. Went to London.

      1738. His first important work: London. Began to write for The Gentleman's Magazine.

      1744. Life of Savage.

      1747. Prospectus of the Dictionary.

      1749. The Vanity of Human Wishes. Irene.

      1750–1752. The Rambler.

      1752. Death of his wife.

      1755. Letter to Chesterfield. The Dictionary appeared.

      1758–1760. The Idler.

      1759. Death of his mother. Rasselas.

      1762. Pensioned.

      1763. Met Boswell for the first time.

      1764. The Club founded.

      1765. Made Doctor of Laws by Trinity College, Dublin. Introduced to the Thrales. His edition of Shakspere published.

      1773. Spent three months in Scotland.

      1775. Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland published. Taxation no Tyranny. Received the degree of Doctor in Civil Law from Oxford.

      1779. First four volumes of his Lives of the Poets.

      1781. The remaining six volumes of the Lives.

      1784. Died December 13.

      LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON

      (December, 1856)

      1. Samuel Johnson, one of the most eminent English writers of the eighteenth century, was the son of Michael Johnson, who was, at the beginning of that century, a magistrate of Lichfield, and a bookseller of great note in the midland counties. Michael's abilities and attainments seem to have been considerable. He was so well acquainted with the contents of the volumes which he exposed to sale, that the country rectors of Staffordshire and Worcestershire thought him an oracle on points of learning. Between him and the clergy, indeed, there was a strong religious and political sympathy. He was a zealous churchman, and, though he had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in possession, was to the last a Jacobite in heart. At his house, a house which is still pointed out to every traveller who visits Lichfield, Samuel was born on the 18th of September 1709. In the child, the physical, intellectual, and moral peculiarities which afterwards distinguished the man were plainly discernible; great muscular strength accompanied by much awkwardness and many infirmities; great quickness of parts, with a morbid propensity to sloth and procrastination; a kind and generous heart, with a gloomy and irritable temper. He had inherited from his ancestors a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove. His parents were weak enough to believe that the royal touch was a specific for this malady. In his third year he was taken up to London, inspected by the court surgeon, prayed over by the court chaplains, and stroked and presented with a piece of gold by Queen Anne. One of his earliest recollections was that of a stately lady in a diamond stomacher and a long black hood. Her hand was applied in vain. The boy's features, which were originally noble and not irregular, were distorted by his malady. His cheeks were deeply scarred. He lost for a time the sight of one eye; and he saw but very imperfectly with the other. But the force of his mind overcame every impediment. Indolent as he was, he acquired knowledge with such ease and rapidity that at every school to which he was sent he was soon the best scholar. From sixteen to eighteen he resided at home, and was left to his own devices. He learned much at this time, though his studies were without guidance and without plan. He ransacked his father's shelves, dipped into a multitude of books, read what was interesting, and passed over what was dull. An ordinary lad would have acquired little or no useful knowledge in such a way: but much that was dull to ordinary lads was interesting to Samuel. He read little Greek; for his proficiency in that language was not such that he could take much pleasure in the masters of Attic poetry and eloquence. But he had left school a good Latinist; and he soon acquired, in the large and miscellaneous library of which he now had the command, an extensive knowledge of Latin literature. That Augustan delicacy of taste which is the boast of the great public schools of England he never possessed. But he was early familiar with some classical writers who were quite unknown to the best scholars in the sixth form at Eton. He was peculiarly attracted by the works of the great restorers of learning. Once, while searching for some apples, he found a huge folio volume of Petrarch's works. The name excited his curiosity; and he eagerly devoured hundreds of pages. Indeed, the diction and versification of his own Latin compositions show that he had paid at least as much attention to modern copies from the antique as to the original models.

      2.