advances, or courting an intimacy with Johnfon. Upon the first approach of a ftranger, his practice was to continue fitting, a pofture in which he was ever to be found, and, for a few minutes, to continue filent: if were contained fundry geographical and other plates. Each of these he infcribed to one or other of his friends; and, among the reft, one • To Majes Browne.' With this blunt and familiar defignation of his perfon, Mr. Browne was justly offended: to appease him, Cave directed an engraver, to introduce with a caret under the line, Mr. and thought, that in fo doing, he had made ample amends to Mr. Browne for the indignity done him. Mr. John Duick, alfo a pen-cutter, and a near neighbour of Cave, was a frequent contributor to the Magazine, of thort poems, written with spirit and cafe. He was a kinfman of Browne, and the author of a good copy of encomiastic verfes prefixed to the collection of Browne's poems above-mentioned. Mr. Fofter Webb, a young man who had received his education in Mr. Watkins's academy in Spital-fquare, and afterwards became clerk to a merchant in the city, was, at first, a contributor to the Magazine, of enigmas, à fpecies of poetry in which he then delighted, but was diffuaded from it by the following lines, which appeared in the Magazine for October, 1740, after a few successful effays in that kind of writing: Too modeft bard, with enigmatic veil Burft thro' the gloom, and brighten into fame.' After this friendly exhortation, Mr. Webb, in thofe hours of leifure which bufinefs afforded, amufed himself with tranflating from the Latin claffics, particularly Ovid and Horace : from the latter of these he rendered into English verse, with better success than any that had before attempted it, the odes Quis multa ⚫ gracilis te puer in rofa ;' Solvitur acris hyems grata vice veris, & Favoni,' 'Parcus Deorum cultor & infrequens;' and Diffugêre ni⚫ves, redeunt jam gramina campis ;' all which are inferted in Cave's Magazine. if at any time he was inclined to begin the discourse, it was generally by putting a leaf of the Magazine, then in the prefs, into the hand of his vifitor, and asking his opinion of it. I remember that, calling in on him Magazine. His fignature was fometimes Telarius, at others Vedaftus. He was a modeft, ingenious, and fober young man ; but a consumption defeated the hopes of his friends, and took him off in the twenty-fecond year of his age. Mr. John Smith, another of Mr. Watkins's pupils, was a writer in the Magazine, of profe effays, chiefly on religious and moral fubjects, and died of a decline about the fame time. Mr. John Canton, apprentice to the above-named Mr. Watkins, and also his fucceffor in his academy, was a contributor to the Magazine, of verfes, and afterwards, of papers on philofophical and mathematical fubjects. The discoveries he made in electricity and magnetism are well known, and are recorded in the tranfactions of the Royal Society, of which he afterwards became a member. Mr. William Rider, bred in the fame prolific feminary, was a writer in the Magazine, of verfes figned Philargyrus. He went from school to Jefus college, Oxford, and, some years after his leaving the fame, entered into holy orders, and became fur-mafter of St. Paul's fchool, in which office he continued many years, but at length was obliged to quit that employment by reason of his deafness. Mr. Adam Calamy, a fon of Dr. Edmund Calamy, an eminent non-conformist divine, and author of the Abridgment of Mr.Baxter's Hiftory of his Life and Times, was another of Mr. Watkins's pupils, that wrote in the Magazine; the subjects on which he chiefly exercifed his pen were effays in polemical theology and republican politics; and he diftinguished them by the affumed fignature of A confiftent proteftant.' He was bred to the profeffion of an attorney, and was brother to Mr. Edmund Calamy, a diffenting teacher, of eminence for his worth and learning. A seminary, of a higher order than that above-mentioned, viz. the academy of Mr. John Eames in Moorfields, furnished the Magazine with a number of other correfpondents in mathematics and other branches of science and polite literature. This was an institution fupported him once, he gave me to read the beautiful poem of Collins, written for Shakespeare's Cymbeline, To fair Fidele's graffy tomb,' which, though adapted to a particular circumftance in the play, Cave was for inferting in his Magazine, without any reference to the fubject: I told him it would lofe of its beauty if it were so published: this he could not fee; nor could he be convinced of the propriety of the name Fidele : he thought Pastora a better, and so printed it. He was so incompetent a judge of Johnson's abili ties, that, meaning at one time to dazzle him with the fplendor of fome of those luminaries in literature who favoured him with their correspondence, he told him that, if he would, in the evening, be at a certain alehouse in the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell, he might have a chance of feeing Mr. Browne and another or fupported by the Diffenters, the defign whereof was to qualify young men for their ministry. Mr. Eames was formerly the continuator of the abridgement of the Philofophical Transactions begun by Jones and Lowthorp, and was a man of great knowledge, and a very able tutor. Under him were bred many young men who afterwards became eminently distinguished for learning and abilities; among them were the late Mr. Parry, of Cirencester, the late Dr. Furneaux, and Dr. Gibbons; and, if I mistake not, the prefent Dr. Price. The pupils of this academy had heads that teemed with knowledge, which, as fast as they acquired it, they were prompted by a juvenile and laudable ambition to communicate in letters to Mr. Urban. To this account of Cave's correfpondents might be added the celebrated names of Dr. Birch, who will be spoken of hereafter, Mrs. Carter, Dr. Akenfide, the Rev. Mr. Samuel Pegge, who, by an ingenious tranfpofition of the letters of his name, formed the plausible fignature of Paul Gemfege; Mr. Luck, of Barnstaple in Devonshire; Mr. Henry Price, of Pool, in Dorsetshire; Mr. Richard Yate, of Chively, in Shropshire; Mr. John Bancks; and, that induftrious and prolific genius, Mr. John Lockman. VOL. I. E two two of the perfons mentioned in the preceding note: Johnfon accepted the invitation; and being introduced by Cave, dreffed in a loose horfeman's coat, and fuch a great bufhy uncombed wig as he conftantly wore, to the fight of Mr. Browne, whom he found fitting at the upper end of a long table, in a cloud of tobacco-smoke, had his curiofity gratified. Johnson faw very clearly those offenfive particulars that made a part of Cave's character; but, as he was one of the most quick-fighted men I ever knew in difcovering the good and amiable qualities of others, a faculty which he has difplayed, as well in the life of Cave, as in that of Savage, printed among his works, fo was he ever inclined to palliate their defects; and, though he was above courting the patronage of a man, whom, for many reasons, he could not but hold cheap, he difdained not to accept it, when tendered with any degree of complacency. And this was the general tenor of Johnfon's behaviour; for, though his character through life was marked with a roughnefs that approached to ferocity, it was in the power of almost every one to charm him into mildness, and to render him gentle and placid, and even courteous, by such a patient and respectful attention as is due to every one, who, in his discourse, fignifies a defire either to inftruct or delight. Bred to no profeffion, without relations, friends, or intereft, Johnson was an adventurer in the wide world, and had his fortunes to make: the arts of infinuation and addrefs were, in his opinion, too flow in their operation to answer his purpofe; and, he rather chofe to difplay his parts to all the world, at the rifque of being thought arrogant, than to wait for the affiftance of of fuch friends as he could make, or the patronage of fome individual that had power or influence, and who might have the kindness to take him by the hand, and lift him into notice. With all that afperity of manners with which he has been charged, and which kept at a distance many, who, to my knowledge, would have been glad of an intimacy with him, he poffeffed the affections of pity and compassion in a most eminent degree. In a mixed company, of which I was one, the conversation turned on the peftilence which raged in London, in the year 1665, and gave occafion to Johnson to speak of Dr. Nathanael Hodges, who, in the height of that calamity, continued in the city, and was almost the only one of his profeffion that had the courage to oppose the endeavours of his art to the fpreading of the contagion. It was the hard fate of this person, a fhort time after, to die a prisoner for debt, in Ludgate: Johnson related this circumftance to us, with the tears ready to start from his eyes; and, with great energy, faid, 'Such a man would not have been suffered 'to perish in these times.' It seems by the event of this firft expedition, that Johnson came to London for little elfe than to look about him: it afforded him no opportunity of forming connections, either valuable in themselves, or available to any future purpose of his life. Mr. Pope had feen and commended his translation of the Meffiah; but Johnfon had not the means of accefs to him; and, being a ftranger to his perfon, his fpirit would not permit him to folicit fo great a favour from one, who must be supposed to have been troubled with fuch kind of applications. With one perfon, however, he commenced an intimacy, the motives to which, at first |