Page:The Life of Mr. Richard Savage - Johnson (1727).djvu/13

 That by the great Natural Genius he discover'd, this School has had ample Retribution for the little Assistance he receiv'd from it, for as he never was favour'd with any Academical Learning, so it was no Secret to those he most familiarly conversed with, that his Knowledge of the Classics was very slender and imperfect: Tho', with humble Submission to the Judgment of those Gentlemen who are such bigotted sticklers for the Ancients, he had something in the Force and Sprightliness of his own Imagination, that more than made amends for the want of it.

It was while he was at this School, that his Father, the Earl Rivers, died, who had several Times made Enquiry after him, but could never get any satisfactory Account of him; and when on his Death-Bed, he more strenuously demanded to know what was become of him, in order to make him a Partaker in the Distribution of that very handsome Estate he left among his natural Children, he was positively told he was dead: Thus was he, whilst, (as he expressed it himself) legally the Son of one Earl, and naturally the Son of another, by the Management of his own Mother, denied the Benefit of belonging to either of them. In a Piece that was printed, but, for some weighty Reasons, never made publick, he tells us, That when he was about Fifteen, her Affection began to awake; and he was sollicited to be bound Apprentice to a