Two such candidates for fame, perhaps never, before
that day, entered the metropolis together. Their stock of money was soon
exhausted. In his visionary project of an academy, Johnson had probably
wasted his wife's substance; and Garrick's father had little more than
his half-pay.--The two fellow-travellers had the world before them, and
each was to choose his road to fortune and to fame. They brought with
them genius, and powers of mind, peculiarly formed by nature for the
different vocations to which each of them felt himself inclined. They
acted from the impulse of young minds, even then meditating great
things, and with courage anticipating success. Their friend, Mr.
Walmsley, by a letter to the reverend Mr. Colson, who, it seems, was a
great mathematician, exerted his good offices in their favour. He gave
notice of their intended journey: "Davy Garrick," he said, "will be with
you next week; and Johnson, to try his fate with a tragedy, and to get
himself employed in some translation, either from the Latin or French.
Johnson is a very good scholar and a poet, and, I have great hopes, will
turn out a fine tragedy-writer. If it should be in your way, I doubt not
but you will be ready to recommend and assist your countrymen." Of Mr.
Walmsley's merit, and the excellence of his character, Johnson has left
a beautiful testimonial at the end of the life of Edmund Smith.
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