Life and correspondence of Samuel Johnson

Front matter

Class Al^Vi^

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

/h

Preface

The materials for a volume of this kind are rarely accessible after the lapse of a century. Letters and papers of historic value are so often scattered and destroyed, that unless the biographer attends to his task in season, he may find it difficult to gather the information that he needs for writing with fullness and satisfaction. " If a life," said Dr. Johnson, the great name which is the pride and glory of English literi'ji'e. " be delayed till interest and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but must expect little intelligence."

Though this work is published one hundred years after the death of its distinguished subject, yet I trust it will be found that' besides being impartial, I have escaped the caustic criticism of giving " little intelligence." In writing the History of the Church in Connecticut, I fell upon original sources of information, which seemed never to have been carefully explored. Chandler's " Life of Johnson," brief and unsatisfactory as it may be, was very well for the day in which it appeared, and I should not have attempted an ampler biography, if I had not felt that it was now

Vi PREFACE.

due to the memory of one of the most important names in American history.

The Johnson MSS., not a tithe of which could have passed under the inspection of- Chandler, have all been kindly placed in my hands, and unless I had been familiar with them by previous acquaintance, the preparation of this work would have been much more laborious, and its publication longer delayed. As it is, the hours of leisure during a period of three years, if the busy Eector of a city parish may be supposed to have any leisure, have been devoted to it, and nothing has been overlooked which was calculated to shed any new light upon the character of Johnson, and the times in which he lived.

By introducing large portions of his correspondence with eminent men in this country, and with Bishops and leading minds in the Church of England, I have made him in a measure his own biographer, and at the same time rescued from oblivion faded manuscripts which the accidents of another generation might have put quite beyond our reach. One gets a better idea of a man from seeing him in his letters and writings than from the estimates of those who weigh him in their own scales, and describe him in their own language.

It was a remark of Bishop Jebb that " the lives of good men are an invaluable portion of a clergyman's library ; " but it is to be hoped that these pages will not be limited to readers of this class. All who are interested in Yale College, its early struggles and

PREFACE. vii

first endowments, the gifts of Berkeley and the influence of his Philosophy, all who would know anything of the origin of King's (now Columbia) College, New York, and of the progress of liberal education in this country, and all who would thoroughly understand the "efforts to secure the American Episcopate, the strange opposition to it, and the movements which led to the Revolution and the Independence of the Colonies, will find many fresh historical facts in this volume, and wonder why they were not before given to the public.

The engraving which forms the frontispiece is made from a portrait in the possession of his great grandson, Mr. William Samuel Johnson of Stratford. The painting, though there is nothing but a tradition in the family to support the statement, is without doubt from the pencil of Smibert, the artist who accompanied Dean Berkeley to America, and remained in Boston after the return of his friend and patron to England. It has the touch of Berkeley's own portrait by the same painter, which is among the treasures of Art that adorn the walls of Yale College.

New Haven, December, 1873. *

COl^TEIsrTS.

Chapter I

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE ; EARLY EDUCATION AND STATE OF LEARNING IN THE COUNTRY ; BACHELOR'S DEGREE FROM THE COLLEGE AT SAYBROOK ; THE COLLEGE REMOVED TO NEW HAVEN, AND JOHNSON APPOINTED ONE OP THE TUTORS. HIS SETTLEMENT AT WEST HAVEN AND THE INFLUENCE OF A PRAYER-BOOK AND AVORKS IN ENGLISH THEOLOGY ... 1

CHAPTER H.

the declaration of johnson and his friends ; struggle between feelings and duty; debate before governor saltonstall and its results; extracts from notes of days ; voyage to england for ordination ; arrival and reception; private journal 18

SICKNESS AND DEATH OF BROWN ; FURTHER EXTRACTS FROM PRIVATE journal; VISITS TO OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE; AR- RIVAL OP MR. WETMORE ; DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND, AND VOYAGE HOME ; SETTLEMENT AT STRATFORD ; LETTERS TO THE BISHOP OF LONDON; MARRIAGE 38

POLEMICS AND INFIDELITY; BIRTH OF A SON; PERSONAL AC- QUAINTANCE WITH DEAN BERKELEY ; VISITS TO HIM AT NEW- PORT, AND A CONVERT TO HIS VIEWS ; ALCIPHRON, OR THE MINUTE PHILOSOPHER ; RETURN OF BERKELEY TO ENGLAND,

X CONTENTS.

AND BENEFACTIONS TO YALE COLLEGE ; RELIGIOUS CONTRO- VERSY, AND PUBLICATION OF PAMPHLETS 60

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE ; MEMORIAL TO THE GENERAL AS- SEMBLY OF CONNECTICUT ; LETTERS TO BERKELEY ; WHITE- FIELD IN NEW ENGLAND AND RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM; COM- PLAINT TO THE commissary; THE CLERGY OF CONNECTICUT PETITIONING FOR A RESIDENT COMMISSARY, AND ASKING THAT JOHNSON BE appointed; DOCTOR'S DEGREE FROM THE UNI- VERSITY OF OXFORD .92

INCREASE OF HIS PARISH AND NEW CHURCH AT STRATFORD ; MORE CONTROVERSY ; SYSTEM OF MORALITY ; STUDY OF HE- BREW, AND HUTCHINSON'S PRINCIPLES ; PHILOSOPHICAL' COR- RESPONDENCE ; EDUCATION OF SONS, AND LETTERS TO THE ELDER ; PROJECT OF A COLLEGE AT PHILADELPHIA, AND JOHNSON INVITED TO ITS CHARGE . . ._ . . .119

CHAPTER Vn.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRANKLIN ; DECLINES PHILADELPHIA ; " ELEMENTA PHILOSOPHICA " ; DEATH OF BERKELEY AND LET- TER FROM HIS SON ; ENGLISH EDITION OF " ELEMENTS OF PHI- LOSOPHY " ; SPECULATIVE INQUIRIES, AND NOTIONS ABOUT EDUCATION 157

PROPOSED COLLEGE AT NEW YORK; JOHNSON INVITED TO THE PRESIDENCY ; OBSTACLES TO A CHARTER, AND FINALLY GRANT- ED ; LETTERS TO PRESIDENT CLAP; REMOVAL TO NEW YORK AND LECTURER IN TRINITY CHURCH ; HIS YOUNGER SON CHOSEN TUTOR IN KING'S COLLEGE ; GOES TO ENGLAND FOR OR- DINATION AND DIES THERE OF THE SMALL-POX . . .189

CONTENTS. xi

CHAPTER IX.

GRIEF FOR THE DEATH OF HIS SON AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS ; PROGRESS OF THE COLLEGE AND ERECTION OF A BUILDING ; LEAVES THE CITY ON ACCOUNT OF THE SMALL- POX ; DEATH OF HIS WIFE ; FIRST COMMENCEMENT ; AND IN- CLINATIONS TO RESIGN 225

SMALL-POX AGAIN IN NEW YORK, AND RETIREMENT TO STRAT- FORD ; MORE affliction; third' commencement; letters

TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY; PUBLICATIONS ON PRAYER, AND DEFENCE OF THE LITURGY 247

CHAPTER XI.

FOURTH commencement ; SECOND MARRIAGE ; BENEFACTIONS TO THE COLLEGE ; DR. JAY AUTHORIZED TO MAKE COLLECTIONS IN ENGLAND ; ARRIVAL OF REV. MYLES COOPER ; RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY'; AND FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE . . . 265

THE SMALL-POX IN NEW Y'ORK ; DEATH OF HIS WIFE ; RESIGNA- TION OF THE PRESIDENCY AND RETIREMENT TO STRATFORD ; CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS IN ENGLAND ; RE-APPOINT- MENT TO HIS FORMER MISSION ; ADDRESS TO THE BISHOP OF LONDON ; THE STAMP ACT ; CONTINUED INTEREST IN THE COL- LEGE ; AND CLERICAL CONVENTION 286

REVIEW OF HUTCHINSON'S PHILOSOPHY ; STUDY OF HEBREW AND PUBLICATION OF GRAMMAR ; INDIAN SCHOOL ; DEPARTURE OF HIS SON FOR ENGLAND ; CHANDLER'S APPEAL ; CORRESPON- DENCE WITH HIS SON ; ENGLISH ANCESTRY ; AND DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP SECKER . . . 305 xii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIV.

STRUGGLE FOR AMERICAN BISHOPS CONTINUED ; FOREIGN COR- RESPONDENCE ; BISHOP LOWTH AND HEBREW GRAMMAR; AS- SISTANT MINISTER ; MARRIAGE OF GRANDDAUGHTER ; AND PROLONGED ABSENCE OF HIS SON * 324

DESIRE FOR AMERICAN BISHOPS UNQUENCHED ; LETTERS FROM DR. BERKELEY AND THE BISHOP OF LONDON ; JOY AT THE RE- TURN OF HIS SON ; WISH FOR A PEACEFUL EXIT ; DEATH AND burial; CONCLUSION 341

Appendix A 361

Appendix B 366

SAMUEL JOHNSO:tT.

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE ; EARLY EDUCATION AND STATE OF LEARN- ING IN THE COUNTRY; BACHELOR'S DEGREE FROM THE COL- LEGE AT SAYBROOK; THE COLLEGE REMOVED TO NEW HAVEN, AND JOHNSON APPOINTED ONE OF THE TUTORS. HIS SETTLE- MENT AT WEST HAVEN AND THE INFLUENCE OF A PRAYER- BOOK AND WORKS IN ENGLISH THEOLOGY.

It would not be worth while to write the life of Samuel Johnson, if it was as barren of incident and historic interest as the lives of most clergymen. But he lived in eventful times, and the part which he bore in the literary, ecclesiastical, and educational affairs of the country will warrant the publication of fuller memorials than those hitherto given to the public.

He was born in Guilford, Connecticut, on the 14 th

of October, 1696, 0. S., and was the great grandson of

Robert Johnson, who with his wife Adaline and four

sons, Robert, Thomas, John, and William, came from

Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, and first appeared at New Haven in 1641. Eobert, the eldest of these sons, finished his academic education at Harvard College, and graduated in the class of 1645. He went to Rowley, in Massachusetts, where a brother of his father had settled, and was pursuing his studies with a view to the sacred ministry, when he sickened and died. In his will, dated " 13th of the 7th mo. 1649," and probated at Ipswich " the 26th of the 1st mo. 1650," he directed his executors to distribute a portion of his goods to the poor of Rowley, and to return the remainder to his father, Robert Johnson, at New Haven. Thomas, the second son, died a bachelor. John married, and his descendants settled in Wallingford and Middle town.

William, the grandfather of Samuel Johnson, and who was twelve years old when the family emigrated from England, removed to Guilford, and became one of the leading men in that town and a deacon in the Congregational Church. He married July 2, 1651, Elizabeth Bushnell, daughter of Francis Bushnell of Saybrook, and had eight daughters and two sons — the youngest, Nathaniel, dying not long after his birth, and surviving his mother but a few weeks. Samuel, the father of the subject of this volume, was born in 1670, and at twenty-six married Mary, daughter of David Sage of Middletown, by whom he had eleven children, six sons and five daughters. He was a successor to his father in the office of a Congregational deacon at Guilford, and the distinguished son, late in life, speaking of them both, and giving some account of their character to one of his own children, said, they were " well esteemed for men of good sense

OF SAMUEL JOIINSOK 3

and piety, but neither of them had much more of a turn for worldly wisdom than I have."

Samuel, though not the first-born of his parents, was the eldest child that lived beyond infancy, and he appears to have . been a pet of his grandfather, William, who taught him to read and commit to memory not only passages of Scripture, but the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. He was very proud of his progress, and occasionally took the boy with him in visiting his neighbors, and made him repeat for their entertainment specimens of the knowledge which he had acquired. Among his earliesji recollections Samuel mentions the finding in a book of his grandfather's, several Hebrew words which excited his curiosity, but no one could tell him their meaning, or explain them further than to say they belonged to the original language in which the Old Testament was written. This but increased his desire for learning, and as the project of establishing a college in the colony at Saybrook, in the neighborhood of Guilford, had just then taken shape, he was marked out in the mind of the household as a future candidate for its course of instruction. Upon the death of his grandfather, however, which happened when he was six years old, the design was relinquished, and it might not have been renewed had not his fondness for books continued and the prospect of bringing him up to other business become discourao-ing;.

In the eleventh year of his age, he was sent to a school, in his native place, kept at that time by Jared Eliot, a young man who had graduated at the new college, a son of the then recently deceased minister of Guilford, and whose affection for his pupil ripened into friendly relations in after life. But he was not long to enjoy the happiness of such an instructor. Before the year expired, Mr. Ehot relinquished the school to prepare for his settlement in the ministry at Killingworth, now Clinton, and the lad, impatient to learn, was finally sent from home and placed under the care of Joseph Smith, pastor of a newly organized church in Upper Middletown, now Cromwell. Though a graduate of Harvard College, Mr. Smith was not a scholar who inspired his pupil with much respect for his attainments, and after trying in vain for six months to make progress in his studies, he left his poorly qualified master and returned to Guilford.

Here he fell first into the hands of Daniel Chapman, another graduate of the new college, who was an improvement upon his last instructor, and with whom he continued for nearly two years. At length he found in the person of Mr. James, who had b6en educated in England, a respectable classical scholar, and notwithstanding some eccentricities of character, a very good teacher. Under his tuition he made rapid advancement in Latin , and Greek, and by the time he had attained the age of fourteen years, he was pronounced fit to join the College at Saybrook.

There was not much to be proud of at this period in the state of learning throughout the country. The old scholars and Puritan divines of the Connecticut and Massachusetts colonies, who came with the early emigrants, had descended to their graves, and the generation that succeeded them, not having had the advantages of the Universities in England, fell behind the fathers, and was greatly deficient, if tested by a high standard of education. The course of studies prescribed in the new college was brief, for " the utmost as to classical learning that was now generally aimed at, " says Johnson in his Autobiography,^ " and indeed for twenty or thirty years after, was no more than to construe five or six of Tully's Orations, and as many books of Virgil poorly, and most of the Greek Testament," with a portion of the Hebrew Psalter. His first tutor at college was Joseph Noyes, one of the nine graduates of the institution in 1709, and afterwards for forty-five years pastor of the First Ecclesiastical Society in New Haven. His " tutorial renown " according to President Stiles, " was then great and excellent," and having some knowledge of Hebrew, he encouraged his pupil to devote the little leisure he might have, to the study of a language which he was chiefly desirous to understand, and which soon became his favorite branch of philology. The tutor in the department of mathematics and mental and moral philosophy, was Phineas Fisk, and his instructions, like those of his colleague in the classics, had a limited range, and were confined to the imperfect systems not yet brushed away by the scientific discoveries of Descartes, Boyle, Locke, and Newton. When Johnson graduated in 1714, something had been heard of these great names, as well as of a new philosophy that was attracting attention in England, but the young men were cautioned against receiving it, and told that it would corrupt the pure religion of the country and bring in another system of divinity. Ames's '^ Medulla Theologias " and " Cases of Conscience " and " Wollebius," had been established as the standard of orthodoxy, and no variation from these was admissible. The trustees of the institution, at the

1 MS.

outset, made a fundamental rule that special care should be taken to "ground the students well in theoretical divinity," and the Kector was forbidden to teach or allow others to teach any system contrary to their order.

It was less difficult to confine attention to the old scholastic systems, for the reason that, books of learning in the land were rare, and opportunities for improvement small. The few works brought over from England by the first settlers were treatises published a century before ; and Johnson early acquired a reputation for skill by making a synopsis of them, and reducing to some method all parts of learning then known, — "a curious cobweb of distributions and definitions " as he himself termed it, — "which only served to blow him up with a great conceit that he was now an adept." But his pride of opinion was afterwards thoroughly humbled. He accidentally fell in with a copy of Lord Bacon's "Instauratio Magna," or "Advancement of Learning," — possibly the only one then in the country — and purchasing it immediately, he lost no time in devouring its contents. It opened to him a new world of thought. With an unprejudiced mind he read its pages, and considered and reconsidered the whole circle of sciences as they had been investigated and arranged by this remarkable man. He was thus led to see his own littleness in comparison with Lord Bacon's greatness, and to use his own words, he " found himself like one at once emerging out of the glimmer of twilight into the full sunshine of open day."

After completing his collegiate course and receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he followed the example of Eliot, and entered upon the labor of teaching a school of the higher order in Guilford. His classmate and intimate friend, Daniel Brown, acted in the like capacity at New Haven, and the correspondence carried on between them at this period was full of affection, and bore upon theology, and questions that related to " philosophy in general and logic in particular." The concerns of the College, too, Avere much in their thoughts. Brown, in one of his letters dated August 3, 1716, wrote: "As to domestic affairs, please to be informed, that July 18, Mr. Moss, Hemingway, and Noyes, went to consecrate your chapel at the North Village. . . . This town hath given eight acres of land hard joining to the town plot, for the use of the College, if it comes here. Considerable of money is subscribed also."

The beginning of the institution was a contribution of about forty folio volumes, almost all theological, and given by different ministers of the colony " for founding a college in Connecticut." The next year, 1701, this library was increased by another private donation, and in 1714, Jeremiah Dummer, the agent of the colony in England, sent over a valuable collection of eight hundred volumes, some of which were his own gift, and the remainder had been obtained at his sohcitation from various English gentlemen and authors. The whole number of books was now about one thousand, and amono; them were works of eminent writers of the Church of England, both clergymen and laymen. Johnson and his literary friends eagerly embraced opportunities of becoming acquainted with the new collection, and read for the first time the works of some of the best English divines and philosophers. The hbrary was placed at Saybrook, where the instruction was carried on by two tutors, and where the private commencements were held. But no college building had been erected there ; and as the original charter gave to the trustees the right of selecting the town in which the institution should be permanently fixed, a diversity of opinion arose on the subject, and sharp controversies sprung up which led to disorder and dissatisfaction among the students. They complained of the want of proper accommodations at Saybrook, and entertained so httle respect for their tutors as to break out into open rebellion towards the end of the year 1715. Those from towns on the Connecticut River, acting under the guidance of Timothy Woodbridge and Thomas Buckingham, ministers at Hartford and trustees of the College, collected together at Wethersfield, where instruction was set up in a collegiate way by two tutors, and in which place or in Hartford these trustees wished the institution to be finally located. Other students from the sea-side towns put themselves under the care and tuition of Mr. Johnson at Guilford, while Mr. Andrew, the rector |9ro tern., who resided at Milford, appears to have taken upon himself the instruction and oversight of the senior class.

The breach thus made in the colony could not be readily healed, and the Collegiate School, for so it was denominated at that time, continued in a disordered state till September, 1716, when a majority of the trustees, of which number was Governor Saltonstall, voted to remove it to New Haven. The sanction of the General Assembly, which met the following month, was asked and obtained for the removal, and

OF SAMUEL johnso:jt. 9

then the trustees proceeded to elect Mr. Johnson one of the tutors ; and with a view of concihating the opposition, they chose Samuel Smith, who was of the Wethersfield party, to be the other. But the dissatisfaction was not appeased, and at Saybrook forcible resistance was made to the removal of the library, so that the Governor and Council deemed it expedient to convene there, and aid the sheriff in the performance of his duty. Besides other lawless acts, the carts provided for transporting the books were destroyed in the night time, the bridges between Saybrook and New Haven were rendered impassable, and during the week in which the library was upon the road, many valuable books and papers were lost. An attempt to supersede Governor Saltonstall at the next election, for his activity in the matter, was Avellnigh successful,^ and the feud in the government was not diminished when a subscription was set on foot in New Haven, " and in all the neighboring towns, for building a college ; and one Mr. Caner of Boston was procured to undertake the work, who directly applied himself to the business . "^ Mr. Johnson, under a commission from the trustees, waited on Mr. Smith to induce him to accept the office of tutor and bring his scholars with him to New Haven, but he and his party were inexorable, and resolved to maintain their ground and carry on their design. Johnson, therefore, was obliged to enter upon the tutorship alone, and with about fifteen students from the sea-side began his course of instruction at New Haven, being assisted by Mr. Noyes, the minister of the town. In 1718 the trustees appointed Daniel Brown to be

1 Prof. Kingsley's Sketch of Yale College, p. 7. 2 Johnson MSS.

his colleague, — the classmate whose turn of mind and thirst for knowledge not only made him an agreeable companion, but a hearty supporter of new studies in the line of philosophy and mathematics. By the autumn of that year several apartments were finished in the college building, and Johnson first lodged and set up housekeeping therein, and shortly his colleague followed his example. The institution was now gaining friends and a good reputation. The General Assembly had hitherto, for the sake of peace, connived at the faction in Wethersfield, hoping it would die out of itself J but at the October session in 1718, an act was passed requiring all the students to repair to the established college. " They made an appearance of submission, and came all at once in a caravan ; but it soon appeared that they had no good intention ; they found fault with everything, and made all the mischief they could, as they were doubtless instructed to do ; " -^ and after six weeks they withdrew and rejoined the old faction. At the next session of the General Assembly measures were concerted to reconcile the conflicting interests, and finally the difference was compromised in this way : the scholars should return to their duty and abide at New Haven ; and in case they did, the degrees which had been given at Wethersfield should be allowed good, " and a State House should be built at the public expense a»o Hartford." Thus the unhappy controversy — a manuscript history of which by Johnson has been preserved — was terminated, and liberal donations of money and of books by Governor Yale gave to the college a new impulse, and the name which it now

1 Johnson MSS.

bears was then conferred on it in honor of him for his timely benefactions.

The state of the institution demanded a resident rector, and as Mr. Andre av was advanced in hfe and disinchned to remove from Milford, the trustees chose Timothy Cutler, who had been for ten years the pastor in Stratford and a popular preacher in the colony, to be his successor. He was a native of Charlestown in Massachusetts, and graduated at Harvard College in 1701. His learning and superior talents qualified him for the station ; but the thought of his separation from them grieved his parishioners, and they resisted it for some time with much firmness. At length, however, it was accomplished, and Mr. Cutler established himself with his family at New Haven in the autumn of 1719, after which Johnson retired from the office of tutor, though not from association with his literary friends — the Rector and Mr. Brown. Theology was the study to which he had always intended to devote himself; and as the people of West Haven — a village only four miles from the college, and at that time a part of New Haven — earnestly desired him to settle among them, he yielded to their solicitations, and was ordained there in the Congregational way on the 20th of March, 1720, "having been," according to his own account, " a preacher occasionally ever since he was eighteen." ^ He might have found other fields of pastoral labor in many respects more inviting, but his desire to be near the college and the library, as well as near those for whose society he had the keenest relish, led him to forego the acceptance of better offers, and give

1 Autobtof/rapliy.

the preference to a situation of comparatively little promise.

The books most frequently in his hands at this period were not calculated to strengthen his faith in Independency, and some time before his ordination, for the purpose of '^ methodizing his thoughts," and assisting his memory, he drew up . a scheme of religion, embracing its doctrines and duties, and following the plan of John Scott in his " Christian Life," a work which he greatly admired and pronounced to be the best and most compendious that had yet fallen in his way. His inquisitive mind would not allow him to rest contented in hasty conclusions, and so early as 1715 he met with the discourse of Archbishop King on " the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God," — the reading of which helped to increase his dislike of extempore prayers, and to confirm him in the opinion that the use of pre-composed forms of public worship was more devotional, and showed much greater reverence for the Divine Majesty. He had been bred up in prejudice against the Church of England, but a good, religious man in Guilford placed in his hands a copy of the Book of Common Prayer, and this, with the treatise of Archbishop King, perused the year before, caused all his prejudices to vanish, and inspired him with a love of the Liturgy, which, contrary to his former belief, he found to be collected for the most part out of the Holy Scriptures.

The direction of his thoughts may be learned from the books which he read after retiring from his tutorship in the college. About the time of his settlement at West Haven he began a catalogue of those, which he perused with evident care, and curiously enough, at the head of this list stands the Liturgy of the Church of England, followed immediately by Potter on "Church Government," and Patrick's "Devotions;" and a little later, by " The Whole Duty of Man," Wall on " Infant Baptism," Echard's " Church History," and Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity." The shelves of the well-selected library contained other books in English theology — among them the works of such eminent divines as Barrow, Beveridge, Bull, Burnet, Hoadly, Pearson, Sharp, Sherlock, South, Taylor, Tillotson, AVake, and Whitby, and all were included in the list of those which passed under his review and consideration during the brief period of his residence at West Haven. So much was he opposed to extempore prayers in public that he provided himself with forms drawn chiefly from the Liturgy of the Church of England, and repeated them with a fervor which won the admiration not only of his own flock but of persons connected with the adjoining parishes. It was his ordinary practice to compose carefully one discourse a month ; but he read attentively the sermons of Barrow and other celebrated preachers, and so charged his mind with their thoughts that, by the help of a few notes, he delivered the substance of them in lans-uao-e of his own, and thus acquired a facility of expression which became of service to him in after life.

It is easy to foresee the influence which such a course of reading would have upon a candid and inquiring mind like that of Johnson. It threw new hght over subjects that had long embarrassed him, and he was unable to find any sufficient support for the Congregational form of church government or for the rigid