It was not, however, by reading that her intellect was formed.  Indeed, when her best novels were produced, her knowledge of books was very small.  When at the height of her fame, she was unacquainted with the most celebrated works of Voltaire and Moliere; and, what seems still more extraordinary, had never heard or seen a line of Churchill, who, when she was a girl, was the most popular of living poets.  It is particularly deserving of observation, that she appears to have been by no means a novel-reader.  Her father’s library was large; and he had admitted into it so many books which rigid moralists generally exclude, that he felt uneasy, as he afterwards owned, when Johnson began to examine the shelves.  But in the whole collection there was only a single novel, Fielding’s Amelia.

An education, however, which to most girls would have been useless, but which suited Fanny’s mind better than elaborate culture, was in constant progress during her passage from childhood to womanhood.  The great book of human nature was turned over before her.  Her father’s social position was very peculiar.  He belonged in fortune and station to the middle class.  His daughters seem to have been suffered to mix freely with those whom butlers and waiting-maids call vulgar.  We are told that they were in the habit of playing with the children of a wig-maker who lived in the adjoining house.  Yet few nobles could assemble in the most stately mansions of Grosvenor Square or St. James’s Square, a society so various and so brilliant as was sometimes to be found in Dr. Burney’s cabin.  His mind, though not very powerful or capacious, was restlessly active; and, in the intervals of his professional pursuits, he had contrived to lay up much miscellaneous information.  His attainments, the suavity of his temper, and the gentle simplicity of his manners, had obtained for him ready admission to the first literary circles.  While he was still at Lynn, he had won Johnson’s heart by sounding with honest zeal the praises of the English Dictionary.  In London the two friends met frequently, and agreed most harmoniously.  One tie, indeed, was wanting to their mutual attachment.  Burney loved his own art passionately; and Johnson just knew the bell of St. Clement’s church from the organ.  They had, however, many topics in common; and on winter nights their conversations were sometimes prolonged till the fire had gone out, and the candles had burned away to the wicks.  Burney’s admiration of the powers which had produced Rasselas and The Rambler, bordered on idolatry.  He gave a singular proof of this at his first visit to Johnson’s ill-furnished garret.  The master of the apartment was not at home.  The enthusiastic visitor looked about for some relique which he might carry away; but he could see nothing lighter than the chairs and the fire-irons.  At last he discovered an old broom, tore some bristles from the stump, wrapped them in silver paper, and departed as happy as Louis IX when the holy nail of St. Denis was found.  Johnson, on the other hand, condescended to growl out that Burney was an honest fellow, a man whom it was impossible not to like.