This is one of two sets of exercises in the library of Pembroke College, Oxford (Archive Catalogue, 62/1/53), composed while Johnson was an undergraduate there between October 1728 and December 1729 (Handlist I, no. 14). Like most of the dozens of exercises preserved from the same period, including some by William Blackstone, Richard Graves, and William Shenstone, this exercise, as well as the one following, is written on a folded half sheet, each of the quarto leaves measuring about 21 by 16.5 centimeters. The recto of the first leaf contains a Latin prose composition headed by a quotation from Horace and signed “Johnson,” with the Z-flourish that he used at this time. The recto of the second leaf contains the verses relating to the topic with the Z-flourish by itself, without his name. The Pembroke documents are used with the kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Pembroke College, Oxford.

Once a week during term, Oxford students were required to hand in a composition to their tutor on entering the hall, later declaiming it from a second copy. Johnson, however, appears to have written out one copy for his tutor the morning it was due, trusting his memory when it came time to recite it (Reade, V.7–8; Johns. Misc., I.165). Both sets of verses were printed by John Wilson Croker in his 1831 edition of Boswell’s Life (I.44) and have since been reprinted in collections of Johnson’s poems, including Yale, VI.27–28.1 Although the poems appear elsewhere in the Yale Edition, we include them here because they are part of the prose exercises and should be read in that context.

The heading of this exercise is from Horace, Epistles 2.2.43. In this autobiographical passage, Horace speaks of the polish his sojourn at Athens added to his Roman education. As he no doubt intended to, Johnson converts Horace’s remark into a panegyric on university education.

For all peoples whom the more humane studies have softened, it has been a prime concern that their youth obtain a sound education. In order to facilitate this, certain societies were founded, in which the untrained entrants would devote themselves faithfully, under suitable professors to the art to which they had dedicated themselves. Here the wisdom of our forebears happily discerned that youth can learn good conduct and the liberal arts most easily. The academy is the camp of the Muses. By daily exercises the powers of the mind are strengthened; and the whole scholarly art of arms is also learned. Nor are precepts more important than examples; indeed, he who lives his life in solitude is utterly destitute of examples, is neither kindled by the praise of others, nor deterred by evil repute. Besides, when many are striving with equal pace to the same goal, they advance more joyfully, they feel the weariness lighter, they more easily overcome the harshness of the difficulties. The company of the learned adds the most advantage to study; only in the academy will it be possible to enjoy it. For here all come together who either are learned or think themselves learned. The academy forms and polishes the rough and rude mind, and whatever gifts Nature has imparted, it calls forth and displays. From the inexhaustible well of the academy, springs of learning flow throughout the land; while that flourishes, the land will flourish, and when that perishes, the land will perish.

The gifts Nature has given, the Academy brings forth; the Muse enables the mind to shine by means of its own possessions. Thus the earth furnishes marble, the material of a statue; but it is the hand of Phidias that makes the stone image breathe.