HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [191 



15. " A Translation of John Francis Spina's Book of the Ca- 

 tastrophe of the World ; to which is subjoined, Ambrose Merlin's 

 Prophecy/' 



16. Collections, Remarks, and Notes, on Books and MSS." 

 17." " Memoirs of the Life of that learned Antiquary Elias Ash- 

 mole, Esq. Written by Himself, by way of Diary, with an Appen- 

 dix of Original Letters/* Published by Charles Burnum, Esq. 

 London, 1717, 12mo. 



DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. 



Individuals pre-eminent for their genius, learning, and moral 

 excellence, undoubtedly confer a degree of celebrity upon their 

 birth-place, which it could never otherwise have attained. Like 

 beautiful and odoriferous plants, they diffuse their influence around, 

 cheering and invigorating all within the sphere of their attraction ; 

 for their productions, and their lives, are equally conducive to the 

 public weal, by affording superior examples of social utility, re- 

 fined manners, and exalted rectitude. Lichfield, with its numerous 

 pretensions to the approbation of the visitor and the resident, owes 

 much of its consequence to the great men which it has produced, 

 and among them Samuel Johnson claims undoubted pre-eminence. 



SAMUEL JOHNSON, the eldest son of Michael Johnson, book- 

 seller and stationer, in Lichfield, was born in that city, on the 7th 

 of September, o. s. 1709. His father was a native of Cubley, in 

 Derbyshire, and his grandfather was an honest and industrious 

 husbandman ia that village. This circumstance has been mentioned 

 by some biographers as a derogation of the dignity of our great 

 Moralist, as if the ancestry of all mankind could not be traced to 

 one common stock; and certainly it is more honourable to have 

 among our more immediate forefathers men of sober and industri- 

 ous habits of life, than profligate, though more refined beings, who 

 can only display the mere glitter of heraldic distinction without 

 personal merit. 



Michael Johnson was a meritorious and successful adventurer, 

 who, by application to business, rose to respectability as a citizen 

 of Lichfield. He kept his shop as a bookseller in a very conspicu- 

 ous situation, in the corner bouse of the Market-square, opposite 



