[2] To show the great estimation in which the father of our great moralist was held, we may quote a letter, dated "Trentham, St. Peter's Day, 1716," written by the Rev. George Plaxton, then chaplain to Lord Gower:--"Johnson, the Lichfield librarian, is now here. He propagates learning all over this diocese, and advanceth knowledge to its just height. All the clergy here are his pupils, and suck all they have from him; Allen cannot make a warrant without his precedent, nor our quondam John Evans draw a recognizance _sine directione Michaelis_."--_Gent. Mag. Oct. 1791_. [3] Boswell, vol. i. p. 14. [4] Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines EXCISE "a hateful tax, levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the _common judges_ of property, but by _wretches_ hired by those to whom excise is paid;" and, in the _Idler_ (No. 65) he calls a _commissioner of excise_ "one of the _lowest_ of all human beings." This violence of language seems so little reasonable, that the editor was induced to suspect some cause of _personal animosity_; this mention of the trade in parchment (an _excisable_ article) afforded a clue, which has led to the confirmation of that suspicion. In the records of the Excise Board is to be found the following letter, addressed to the supervisor of excise at Lichfield:--"July 27, 1725--The commissioners received yours of the 22nd instant; and since the justices would not give judgment against Mr. Michael Johnson, the _tanner_, notwithstanding the facts were fairly against him, the board direct that the next time he offends, you do not lay an information against him, but send an affidavit of the fact, that he may be prosecuted in the Exchequer." It does not appear whether he offended again, but here is sufficient cause of his son's animosity against commissioners of excise, and of the allusion in the Dictionary to the _special_ jurisdiction under which that revenue is administered. The reluctance of the justices to convict will not appear unnatural, when it is recollected that Mr. Johnson was, _this very year_, chief magistrate of the city.--_Note to Boswell, by Croker_, vol. i. Johnson's mother was a woman of distinguished understanding and piety; and to her must be ascribed those early impressions of religion upon the mind of her son, from which the world afterwards derived so much benefit. Johnson was the elder of two sons, the younger of whom died in his infancy.