364 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
road to knowledge, and to languages, their conductors. He made such progress in Hebrew, in a few lessons, that surprized his guide in that tongue. In company with Dr. Barnard and the fellows at Eton, he astonished them all with the display of his critical, classical, and prosodical treasures, and also himself, for he protested, on his return, he did not know he was so rich x .
Christopher Smart was at first well received by Johnson 2 . This writer owed his acquaintance with our author, which lasted thirty years, to the introduction of that bard. Johnson, whose hearing was not always good, understood he called him by the name of Thy er, 'that eminent scholar, librarian of Manchester, and a Nonjuror. This mistake was rather beneficial than other wise to the person introduced. Johnson had been much indis posed all that day, and repeated a psalm he had just translated, during his affliction, into Latin verse, and did not commit to paper. For so retentive was the memory of this man, that he could always recover whatever he lent to that faculty. Smart in return recited some of his own Latin compositions. He had translated with success/ and to Mr. Pope's satisfaction, his St. Cecilian Ode 3 . Come when you would, early or late, for he desired to be called from bed, when a visitor was at the door ; the tea-table was sure to be spread', Te veniente die, Te decedente*. With tea he cheered himself in the morning, with tea he solaced himself in the evening 5 ; for in these, or in equivalent words, he exprest himself in a printed letter to Jonas Han way, who had just told the public that tea was the ruin of the nation, and of the nerves of every one who drank it 6 . The
1 For Dr. Barnard see ante, i. 168, 3 ' When Smart offered himself as and for the invitation given to John- a candidate for a university scholar- son to visit Eton, Life, v. 97. Bos- ship he is said to have translated well visited the College in 1789. Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia 's Day into
- I was asked by the Headmaster to Latin.' Chalmers's Biog. Diet, xxviii.
dine at the Fellows' table, and made 77.
a creditable figure. ... I had my 4 Virgil, Georgics, iv. 466.
classical quotations very ready.' Ib. s ( Who with tea amuses the even-
v. 15, n. 5. ing, with tea solaces the midnight,
2 Tyers seems to imply that later and with tea welcomes the morning.' on Johnson did not receive Smart Life, i. 313, n. 4.
well. At all events he befriended 6 Ib. i. 313. him. Ib. ii. 345.
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