'"
On Johnson's return from Cornelius Ford, Mr. Hunter, then master of the
free school at Lichfield, refused to receive him again on that
foundation. At this distance of time, what his reasons were, it is vain
to inquire; but to refuse assistance to a lad of promising genius must
be pronounced harsh and illiberal. It did not, however, stop the
progress of the young student's education. He was placed at another
school, at Stourbridge in Worcestershire, under the care of Mr.
Wentworth. Having gone through the rudiments of classic literature, he
returned to his father's house, and was probably intended for the trade
of a bookseller. He has been heard to say that he could bind a book. At
the end of two years, being then about nineteen, he went to assist the
studies of a young gentleman, of the name of Corbet, to the university
of Oxford; and on the 31st of October, 1728, both were entered of
Pembroke college; Corbet as a gentleman-commoner, and Johnson as a
commoner. The college tutor, Mr. Jordan, was a man of no genius; and
Johnson, it seems, shewed an early contempt of mean abilities, in one or
two instances behaving with insolence to that gentleman. Of his general
conduct at the university there are no particulars that merit attention,
except the translation of Pope's Messiah, which was a college exercise
imposed upon him as a task by Mr.
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