made an early impreffion, which habits confirmed, and which reafon, if ever exerted, could not efface. At the latter part of his life thefe terrors had a confiderable effect; nor was their influence loft, till disease had weakened his powers, and blunted his feelings.

The year following, 1730, Mr Corbet left the univerfity, and his father, to whom, according to Sir John Hawkins, he trusted for fupport, declined contributing any farther to Johnson's maintenance, than paying for his Commons. His father's business was by no means lucrative. His remittances, confequently, were too small even to fupply the decencies of external appearance; and the very fhoes that he wore were so much torn, that they could no longer conceal his feet. So jealous, however, was he of appearing an object of eleemofynary contribution, that a new pair having been placed at his door, by

fome unknown hand, he flung them away with indignation.

While thus oppreffed by want, he seems to have yielded to that indifference to fame and improvement, which is the offfpring of defpair. He was generally feen," fays Dr. Percy,

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lounging at the

college gate, with a circle of young ftudents round him, whom he was entertaining with wit, and keeping from their studies, if not spiriting them up to rebellion against the college difcipline, which, in his maturer years, he fo much extolled." The account of his conduct given by Dr. Adams, who was at least his nominal tutor for fome time before he quitted the college, is more favourable to his happinefs, but is lefs true. Johnson," fays

he," while he was at Pembroke College, was careffed and loved by all about him; he was a gay and frolicfome fellow, and paffed there the happiest part of his life.".

But his own comment upon this opinion, when mentioned to him. by Mr Bofwell, fhows how fallacious.it is to estimate human happiness by external appearances: "Ah Sir, I was mad and violent. It was bitterness which they mistook for frolic. I was miferably poor, and I thought to fight my way by my literature and my wit; fo I difregarded all power, and all authority."

He ftruggled for another year in this unequal conflict, and profeffed a defire to practise either the Civil or the Common Law; but his debts in college increafing, and his fcanty remittances from Litchfield, which had all along been made with great difficulty, being difcontinued, his father having fallen into a state of infolvency, he was compelled, by irrefiftible neceffity, to relinquish his scheme, and left the college in autumn 1735, without a degree, having been a member of it little more than three

years. This was a circumftance, which, in the fubfequent part of his life, he had occafion to regret, as the want of it was an obstacle to his obtaining a fettlement, whence he might have derived that subsistence of which he was certain by no other means.

From the university he returned to his native city, deftitute, and not knowing how he should gain even a decent livelihood. But he was fo far fortunate, that the respectable character of his parents, and his own merit, fecured him a kind reception in the best families of Litchfield. Mr. Gilbert Walmsley, Regifter of the Prerogative Court at Litchfield," was one of the first friends that Literature procured" him; and he paffed much time in the families of Mr. Howard, and Dr. Swinfen, Mr. Simpfom, Mr. Levett, and Captain Garrick, father of the great ornament of the British ftage. He has drawn the character of Mr. Walmsley in his "Life of Smith,"

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in the glowing colours of gratitude, intermingled with the dark hues of political prejudice. In his abhorrence of whiggism, he has imputed to his friend and benefactor," all the virulence and malevolence of his party.” Yet Mr. Walmsley, whose real character is a noble one loved Johnfon enough to endure in him the principles he despised.

In the circles of Litchfield, he was frequently in the company of ladies, particularly at Mr. Walmsley's, whose wife and fifter-in-law, of the name of Afton, and the daughters of a Baronet, were remarkable for elegance and good breeding. Of Mifs Molly Afton, who was afterwards married to Captain Brodie of the Navy, he used to speak with the warmest admiration. Molly" (faid he) was a

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beauty and a scholar, a wit and a whig, and fhe talked all in praise of liberty; and fo