In 1737 he was articled to the attorney John Scott, and, during the five years prior to his admission to practice in the courts of common law, he rose regularly at four in the morning to read law and literature before being called to his daily chores. He also submitted essays and poems to the periodicals, his first identifiable effort being an "Essay on Honesty" published in the
Gentleman's Magazine in March 1739. Thereafter literature, music, and the law were to shape much of the course of his life.
The "Essay on Honesty," which perhaps brought Hawkins into association with Johnson, was followed by others of a moral or social turn, along with a poem in imitation of John Donne's "The Canonization," remarkable only because Donne's poetry had few admirers in the eighteenth century. At the same time Hawkins was pursuing his musical interests by cultivating acquaintances with the composers William Boyce and John Stanley, both of whom set verses of his to music.
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