Here we have it assumed as an incontrovertible principle, that in this 1756. country the people are the superintendants of the conduct and measures of Etat. 47. those by whom government is administered, of the beneficial effect of which the present reign afforded an illustrious example, when addresses from all parts | of the kingdom controuled an audacious attempt to introduce a new power fubversive of the crown. A still stronger proof of his patriotick spirit appears in his review of an "Effay on Waters, by Dr. Lucas;" of whom, after describing him as a man well known to the world for his daring defiance of power, when he thought it exerted on the side of wrong, he thus speaks: "The Irish ministers drove him from his native country by a proclamation, in which they charged him with crimes of which they never intended to be called to the proof, and oppreffed him by methods equally irresistible by guilt and innocence. "Let the man thus driven into exile for having been the friend of his country, be received in every other place as a confeffor of liberty; and let the tools of power be taught in time, that they may rob, but cannot impoverish." Some of his reviews in this magazine are very short accounts of the pieces noticed, and I mention them only that Dr. Johnson's opinion of the works may be known; but many of them are examples of elaborate criticism, in the most masterly style. In his review of the "Memoirs of the Court of Augustus," he has the resolution to think and speak from his own mind, regardless of the cant tranfmitted from age to age, in praise of the ancient Romans. Thus: "I know not why any one but a school-boy in his declamation should whine over the Common-wealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as foon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption fold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another." Again, "A people, who while they were poor robbed mankind; and as foon as they became rich, robbed one another." In his review of the Mifcellanies in prose and verse, published by Elizabeth Harrison, but written by many hands, he gives an eminent proof at once of his orthodoxy and candour. "The authours of the essays in prose seem generally to have imitated, or tried to imitate, the copiousness and luxuriance of Mrs. Rowe. This, however, is not all their praife; they have laboured to add to her brightness of imagery, her purity of fentiments. The poets have had Dr. Watts before their eyes; a writer, who, if he stood not in the first class of genius, compensated that defect by a ready application of his powers to the promotion of piety. The attempt to employ the ornaments of romance in the decoration of religion, was, I think, first made by Mr. Boyle's Martyrdom of Theodora; but Boyle's philofophical studies Z2 1756. Etat. 47. Fat studies did not allow him time for the cultivation of style; and the completion of the great design was referved for Mrs. Rowe. Dr. Watts was one of the first who taught the Diffsenters to write and speak like other men, by shewing them that elegance might consist with piety. They would have both done honour to a better society, for they had that charity which might well make their failings be forgotten, and with which the whole Christian world might wish for communion. They were pure from all the heresies of an age, to which every opinion is become a favourite that the universal church has hitherto detested! "This praise, the general interest of mankind requires to be given to writers who please and do not corrupt, who instruct and do not weary. But to them all human eulogies are vain, whom I believe applauded by angels, and numbered with the just." His defence of tea against Mr. Jonas Hanway's violent attack upon that elegant and popular beverage, shews how very well a man of genius can write upon the flightest subject, when he writes, as the Italians say, con amore: I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of that fragrant leaf than Johnson. The quantities which he drank of it at all hours were fo great, that his nerves must have been uncommonly strong, not to have been extremely relaxed by such an intemperate use of it. He assured me, that he never felt the least inconvenience from it; which is a proof that the fault of his conftitution was rather a too great tenfion of fibres, than the contrary. Mr. Hanway wrote an angry answer to Johnson's review of his Essay on Tea, and Johnson, after a full and deliberate pause, made a reply to it; the only instance, I believe, in the whole course of his life, when he condescended to oppose any thing that was written against him. I suppose when he thought of any of his little antagonists, he was ever justly aware of the high fentiment of Ajax in Ovid: " Iste tulit pretium jam nunc certaminis hujus, But, indeed, the good Mr. Hanway laid himself so open to ridicule, that The generofity with which he pleads the cause of Admiral Byng is highly to the honour of his heart and fpirit. Though Voltaire affects to be witty upon the fate of that unfortunate officer, observing that he was shot " pour encourager les autres," the nation has long been satisfied that his life was facrificed to the political fervour of the times. In the vault belonging to the Torrington 1756. family, in the church of Southill, in Bedfordshire, there is the following Ætat, 47Epitaph upon his monument, which I have transcribed : Johnson's most exquisite critical essay in the Literary Magazine, and indeed any where, is his review of Soame Jennings's "Inquiry into the Origin of Evil." Jennings was possessed of lively talents, and a style eminently pure and easy, and could very happily play with a light subject, either in prose or verse; but when he speculated on that most difficult and excruciating question, the Origin of Evil, he " ventured far beyond his depth," and, accordingly, was exposed by Johnson, both with acute argument and brilliant wit. I remember when the late Mr. Bicknell's humourous performance, entitled "The Musical Travels of Joel Collyer," in which a flight attempt is made to ridicule Johnson, was ascribed to Soame Jennings, " Ha! (faid Johnson) I thought I had given him enough of it." His triumph over Jennings is thus defcribed by my friend Mr. Courtenay in his "Poetical Review of the literary and moral Character of Dr. Johnson," a performance of such merit, that had I not been honoured with a very kind and partial notice in it, I should echo the sentiments of men of the first taste loudly in its praise: "When specious sophifts with presumption scan "The 1756. Ætat. 47. "The bounds of knowledge marks, and points the way 1: This year Mr. William Payne, brother of the respectable bookseller of that name, published "An Introduction to the Game of Draughts," to which Johnfon contributed a Dedication to the Earl of Rochford, and a Preface,* both of which are admirably adapted to the treatise to which they are prefixed. Johnson, I believe, did not play at draughts after leaving College, by which he suffered, for it would have afforded him an innocent soothing relief from the melancholy which distressed him so often. I have heard him regret that he had not learnt to play at cards; and the game of draughts we know is peculiarly calculated to fix the attention without straining it. There is a composure and gravity in draughts which insensibly tranquillises the mind; and, accordingly, the Dutch are fond of it, as they are of smoaking, of the sedative • Some time after Dr. Johnson's death there apppeared in the newspapers and magazines an illiberal and petulant attack upon him, in the form of an Epitaph, under the name of Mr. Soame Jennings, very unworthy of that gentleman, who had quietly submitted to the critical lash while Johnson lived. It assumed, as characteristicks of him, all the vulgar circumstances of abuse which had circulated amongst the ignorant. It was an unbecoming indulgence of puny resentment, at a time when he himself was at a very advanced age, and had a near prospect of defcending to the grave. I was truly forry for it; for he was then become an avowed, and (as my Lord Bishop of London, who had a ferious conversation with him on the subject, assures me) a fincere Christian. He could not expect that Johnson's numerous friends would patiently bear to have the memory of their master stigmatized by no mean pen, but that at least one would be found to retort, Accordingly, this unjust and sarcastick Epitaph was met in the same publick field by an answer, in terms by no means soft, and such as wanton provocation only could justify; “ΕΡΙΤΑΡΗ, " Prepared for a creature not quite dead yet. "HERE lies a little ugly nauseous elf, "And blink'd at JOHNSON with its last poor puff," influence } influence of which, though he himself never smoaked, he had a high opinion9. 1756. Befides, there is in draughts some exercise of the faculties; and, accordingly, Ætat. 47. Johnson wishing to dignify the fubject in his Dedication with what is most eftimable in it, observes, "Triflers may find or make any thing a trifle; but since it is the great characteristick of a wife man to fee events in their causes, to obviate consequences, and afcertain contingencies, your Lordship will think nothing a trifle by which the mind is inured to caution, forefight, and circumspection." As one of the little occafional advantages which he did not disdain to take by his pen, as a man whose profeffion was literature, he this year accepted of a guinea from Mr. Robert Dodsley, for writing the introduction to "The London Chronicle," an evening newspaper; and even in so sflight a performance exhibited peculiar talents. This Chronicle still fubfifts, and from what I observed, when I was abroad, has a more extensive circulation upon the Continent than any of the English newspapers. It was conftantly read by Johnson himself; and it is but just to observe, that it has all along been diftinguished for good sense, accuracy, moderation, and delicacy. Another instance of the fame nature has been communicated to me by the Reverend Dr. Thomas Campbell, who has done himself confiderable credit by his own writings. "Sitting with Dr. Johnson one morning alone, he asked me if I had known Dr. Madden, who was authour of the premium-scheme in Ireland. On my answering in the affirmative, and also that I had for some years lived in his neighbourhood, &c. he begged of me that when I returned to Ireland, I would endeavour to procure for him a poem of Dr. Madden's, called 'Boulter's Monument.' The reason (faid he) why I wish for it, is this: when Dr. Madden came to London, he submitted that work to my caftigation; and I remember I blotted a great many lines, and might have blotted many more, without making the poem the worse. However, the Doctor was very thankful, and very generous, for he gave me ten guineas, which was to me at that time a great fum." He this year refumed his scheme of giving an edition of Shakspeare with notes. He iffued Proposals of confiderable length, in which he shewed that he perfectly well knew what a variety of research such an undertaking required; but his indolence prevented him from pursuing it with that diligence which alone can collect those scattered facts that genius, however acute, penetrating, and luminous, cannot discover by its own force. It is remarkable, that at 9 Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 48. |