afterwards attained. The two following years he accuses himself of
wasting in idleness at home; but we must doubt whether he had much
occasion for self-reproach, when we learn that Hesiod, Anacreon, the
Latin works of Petrarch, and "a great many other books not commonly
known in the Universities," were among his studies.

His father, though a man of strong understanding, and much respected in
his line of life, was not successful in business. He must, therefore,
have had a firm reliance on the capacity of his son; for while he chided
him for his want of steady application, he resolved on making so great
an effort as to send him to the University; and, accompanying him
thither, placed him, on the 31st of October, 1728, a commoner at
Pembroke College, Oxford. Some assistance was, indeed, promised him from
other quarters, but this assistance was never given; nor was his
industry quickened by his necessities. He was sometimes to be seen
lingering about the gates of his college; and, at others, sought for
relief from the oppression of his mind in affected mirth and turbulent
gaiety. So extreme was his poverty, that he was prevented by the want of
shoes from resorting to the rooms of his schoolfellow, Taylor, at the
neighbouring college of Christ Church; and such was his pride, that he
flung away with indignation a new pair that he found left at his door.
His scholarship was attested by a translation into Latin verse of Pope's
Messiah; which is said to have gained the approbation of that poet. But
his independent spirit, and his irregular habits, were both likely to
obstruct his interest in the University; and, at the end of three years,
increasing debts, together with the failure of remittances, occasioned
by his father's insolvency, forced him to leave it without a degree. Of
Pembroke College, in his Life of Shenstone, and of Sir Thomas Browne, he
has spoken with filial gratitude. From his tutor, Mr. Jorden, whom he
described as a "worthy man, but a heavy one," he did not learn much.