When he was three years old he was carried by his father to
the cathedral to hear Dr. Sacheverell preach. This gentleman, who was a
Church of England minister and a great political preacher, was born in
1672. He was so extremely bitter against the dissenters and their Whig
supporters that he was impeached before the House of Lords, and
suspended for three years, while his sermon on "Perils of False
Brethren," which had had an enormous sale, was burnt by the common
hangman! It was said that young Johnson's conduct while listening to the
doctor's preaching on that occasion was quite exemplary.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO SAMUEL JOHNSON, LICHFIELD.]
Johnson was educated at the Lichfield Grammar School under Dr. Hunter,
who was a very severe schoolmaster, and must have been one of those who
"drove it in behind," for Johnson afterwards wrote: "My Master whipt me
very well. Without that I should have done nothing." Dr. Hunter boasted
that he never taught a boy anything; he whipped and they learned. It was
said, too, that when he flogged them he always said: "Boys, I do this to
save you from the gallows!" Johnson went to Oxford, and afterwards, in
1736, opened a school near Lichfield, advertising in the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ for young gentleman "to be boarded and taught the Latin and
Greek languages, by Samuel Johnson.
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