While we acknowledge the justness of Thomson's beautiful remark,
'Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
And teach[1] the young idea how to shoot!'
we must consider that this delight is perceptible only by 'a mind at ease,' a mind at once calm and clear; but that a mind gloomy and impetuous like that of Johnson, cannot be fixed for any length of time in minute attention, and must be so frequently irritated by unavoidable slowness and errour in the advances of scholars, as to perform the duty, with little pleasure to the teacher, and no great advantage to the pupils[2]. Good temper is a most essential requisite in a Preceptor. Horace paints the character as bland:
'. . . . Ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi
Doctores, elemanta velint ut discere prima[3].'
Johnson was not more satisfied with his situation as the master of an academy, than with that of the usher of a school; we need not wonder, therefore, that he did not keep his academy above a year and a half. From Mr. Garrick's account he did not appear to have been profoundly reverenced by his pupils. His oddities of manner, and uncouth gesticulations, could not but be the subject of merriment to them; and, in particular, the young rogues used to listen at the door of his bed-chamber, and peep through the keyhole, that they might turn into ridicule his tumultuous and awkward fondness for Mrs. Johnson, whom he used to name by the familiar appellation of Tetty or Tetsey, which,
- ↑ In the original To Teach. Seasons, Spring, 1. 1149. Thomson is speaking, not of masters, but of parents.
- ↑ In the Life of Milton, Johnson records his own experience. 'Every man that has ever undertaken to instruct others can tell what slow advances he has been able to make, and how much patience it requires to recall vagrant inattention, to stimulate sluggish indifference, and to rectify absurd misapprehension.' Johnson's Works, vii. 76.
- ↑ 'As masters fondly soothe their boys to read
With cakes and sweetmeats.'
Francis, Hor. i. Sat. I. 25.
