THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION, ON AN ENLARGED PLAN.

A British Philippic. Occasioned by the Insults of the

Spaniards and the present Preparations for War...... 220

THE

LIFE OF MARK AKENSIDE.

BY

DR. JOHNSON.

MARK AKENSIDE was born on the ninth of November, 1721, at Newcastle upon Tyne. His father, Mark, was a butcher, of the Presbyterian sect; his mother's name was Mary Lumsden. He received the first part of his education at the grammar-school of Newcastle; and was afterwards instructed by Mr. Wilson, who kept a private academy.

At the age of eighteen he was sent to Edinburgh, that he might qualify himself for the office of a dissenting minister, and received some assistance from the fund which the Dissenters employ in educating young men of scanty fortune. But a wider view of the world opened other scenes, and prompted other hopes: he determined to study physic, and repaid that contribution, which, being received for a dif ferent purpose, he justly thought it dishonourable to retain.

Whether, when he resolved not to be a dissenting minister, he ceased to be a dissenter, I know not. He certainly retained an unnecessary and outrageous zeal for what, he called and thought liberty; a zeal which sometimes disguises from the world, and not

THE

LIFE OF MARK AKENSIDE.

BY

DR. JOHNSON.

MARK AKENSIDE was born on the ninth of Novem
ber, 1721, at Newcastle upon Tyne. His father,
Mark, was a butcher, of the Presbyterian sect; his
mother's name was Mary Lumsden. He received
the first part of his education at the grammar-school
of Newcastle; and was afterwards instructed by
Mr. Wilson. who kept
ht

.S

and

the

es dery labyKed little,

that praise

fabrication of

know by other writer of

his pauses are

verses is com