Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/313

 Anecdotes.

��ledge 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 V Mr. Johnson often said, ' that there was too much stress laid upon literature as indispensably necessary : there is surely no need that every body 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 ringers, and to count their money, before they are caring for the classics 2 ; 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 Nulhim numen adest ni sit prudentia V

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 any thing she has been taught, or of any thing she is desirous to know ; and I suppose if one wanted a little run tea, she might be a proper person enough to apply to V

1 'We must own,' said Johnson, So that the question of publick or

' that neither a dull boy, nor an idle private education is not properly a

boy, will do so well at a great school general one ; but whether one or the

as at a private one. For at a great other is best for my son.' Life, v.

school there are always boys enough 85. See also ib. iii. 12 ; iv. 312.

to do well easily, who are sufficient 3 Ante, p. 281.

to keep up the credit of the school ; 3 ' I heard Johnson once say,

and after whipping being tried to ' 'Though the proverb Nullum numen

no purpose, the dull or idle boys are abest, si sit prudentia, does not

left at the end of a class, having the always prove true, we may be certain

appearance of going through the of the converse of it, Nullum numen

course, but learning nothing at all. adest, si sit imprudentia" ' Life,

Such boys may do good at a private iv. 180. See Juvenal, Satires, x.

school, where constant attention is 365.

paid to them, and they are watched. 4 Life, v. 449, n. i.

When

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