Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/753

some extent this is common to John and to his predecessors in the school of Chartres, but no other writer seems to have possessed so extensive and competent an acquaintance with the great works of Latin classical literature. Of Greek writers he appears to have known nothing at first hand, and very little in translations. The Timæus of Plato in the Latin version of Chalcidius was known to him as to his contemporaries and predecessors, and probably he had access to translations of the Phaedo and Meno. Of Aristotle he possessed, in Latin version, the whole of the Organon; he is, indeed, the first of the mediaeval writers of note to whom the whole was known. Of other Aristotelian writings he appears to have known nothing.

The Policraticus seems first to have been printed in 1476, in folio; a quarto reprint reappeared in 1513, and an octavo in the same year, but from different MS. sources; the most common edition is that of 1639. The Metalogicus was first printed in 1610; the best known edition is that of 1639. The Entheticus, or more correctly Nutheticus, was first printed in 1843 by C. Peterson. The collected editions of the works are by J. A. Giles, 5 vols., Oxford, 1848, and by Migne, in the Patrologiæ Cursus, vol. 199,—neither accurate. The most complete study of John of Salisbury is the monograph by Schaarschmidt, Johannes Sarisbcrienis nach Leben und Studien, Schriften und Philosophiee, which is a model of accurate and complete workmanship.

JOHN, Prester. See Prester John.

JOHNSON, Andrew (1808-1875), seventeenth president of the United States, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, December 29, 1808. His youth was passed in such poverty that it was not till during his apprenticeship as tailor that he learned to read. His wife taught him to write and cipher after their marriage. Settling in Greenville, Tennessee, he worked at his trade, and in 1828 began to take an active part in politics, organizing a working man's party, by which he was elected to several local offices. He served in the State legislature; from 1843 till 1853 he was member of Congress; in 1853, and again in 1855, he was elected governor of Tennessee; and in 1857 he took his seat as United States senator from Tennessee. His independence procured him prominence in the senate. In opposition to the general policy of the Democratic party, whose nominee he was, he ardently supported the homestead bill; and, though in the important presidential election of 1860 he had supported Breckenridge and Lane, the candidates of the southern wing of the Democratic party, yet, when Lincoln was elected, Johnson made a strong speech in the senate, denouncing secession, and pledging himself to unconditional support of the Union. This loyalty to the Union subjected him to grave personal danger from the secessionists of Tennessee, when he returned to the State to organize a Union party. In 1862 Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor of Tennessee, a post of difficulty and danger, in which he displayed an amount of energy and ability in dealing with the secessionists that attracted attention in the north, and led to his nomination for the vice-presidency by the Republican convention of 1864, which nominated Lincoln for the presidency. When, a few weeks after his inauguration, the assassination of Lincoln, on April 14, 1865, made Johnson president, his vigorous denunciation of treason as "a crime that must be punished" placed him for a time high in public favour. The rest of his term of office was spent in dissension with Congress as to the conditions upon which the seceding States should be allowed to return to the Union. Johnson vetoed bill after bill; but Congress passed them over his veto. In August 1866 the president, attended by members of his cabinet, made a tour through several of the northern and western States, denouncing the action of Congress as rebellious, and appealing to the people to support him. But at the congressional elections of that year the policy of Congress was endorsed by large majorities. The conflict became still more bitter, and was at last brought to a crisis by the president's attempts to remove secretary Stanton from office, after the senate had refused its approval. The Republicans in Congress claimed that Johnson had violated the tenure of office law, and on February 24, 1868, the House of Representatives passed a resolution impeaching him for high crimes and misdemeanours. At the trial before the senate the articles of impeachment were not sustained. A two-thirds majority was necessary for conviction; and thirty-five voted "guilty," nineteen "not guilty." On March 4, 1869, Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by U. S. Grant. Retiring to Greenville, he immediately prepared to re-enter public life; and in January 1875 he was elected United States senator. He died July 31, 1875.

JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784), one of the most eminent English writers of the 18th century, was the son of Michael Johnson, who was, at the beginning of that century, a magistrate of Lichfield, and a bookseller of great note in the midland counties. Michael's abilities and attainments seem to have been considerable. He was so well acquainted with the contents of the volumes which he exposed to sale that the country rectors of Staffordshire and Worcestershire thought him an oracle on points of learning. Between him and the clergy, indeed, there was a strong religious and political sympathy. He was a zealous churchman, and, though he had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in possession, was to the last a Jacobite in heart. At his house, a house which is still pointed out to every traveller who visits Lichfield, Samuel was born on the 18th of September 1709. In the child the physical, intellectual, and moral peculiarities which afterwards distinguished the man were plainly discernible: great muscular strength accompanied by much awkwardness and many infirmities; great quickness of parts, with a morbid propensity to sloth and procrastination; a kind and generous heart, with a gloomy and irritable temper. He had inherited from his ancestors a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove. His parents were weak enough to believe that the royal touch was a specific for this malady. In his third year he was taken up to London, inspected by the court surgeon, prayed over by the court chaplains, and stroked and presented with a piece of gold by Queen Anne. One of his earliest recollections was that of a stately lady in a diamond stomacher and a long black hood. Her hand was applied in vain. The boy's features, which were originally noble and not irregular, were distorted by his malady. His cheeks were deeply scarred. He lost for a time the sight of one eye; and he saw but very imperfectly with the other. But the force of his mind overcame every impediment. Indolent as he was, he acquired knowledge with such ease and rapidity that at every school to which he was sent he was soon the best scholar. From sixteen to eighteen he resided at home, and was left to his own devices. He learned much at this time, though his studies were without guidance and without plan. He ransacked his father's shelves, dipped into a multitude of books, read what was interesting, and passed over what was dull. An ordinary lad would have acquired little or no useful knowledge in such a way; but much that was dull to ordinary lads was interesting to Samuel. He read little Greek; for his proficiency in that language was not such that he could take much pleasure in the masters of Attic poetry and eloquence. But he had left school a good Latinist, and he soon acquired, in the large and miscellaneous library of which he now had the command, an extensive knowledge of Latin literature. That Augustan delicacy of taste which is the boast of the great public schools of England he never possessed. But he was early familiar with some classical writers who were quite unknown to the best