153, The treatment incurred by loss of fortune 154 The inefficacy of genius without learning 155 The usefulness of advice. The danger of 235 2374 240 venal praise 164 165 167 168 170 171 104 The original of flattery. The meanness of 105 The universal register, a dream V06 The vanity of an author's expectations. 107 Properantia's hopes of a year of confusion. 108 Life sufficient to all purposes if well em- 110 Repentance stated and explained. Retire- ment and abstinence useful to repentance 173 111 Youth made unfortunate by its haste and 112 Too much nicety not to be indulged. The 115 The sequel of Hymenæus's courtship 116 The young trader's attempt at politeness 117 The advantages of living in a garret. Serotinus to the place of his nativity 174 166 Favours not easily gained by the poor 167 The marriage of Hymenæus and Tranquilla 254 176 169 Poetry debased by mean expressions. An 169 Labour necessary to excellence 163 The mischiefs of following a patron HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. THIS work was written by Dr. Johnson for say, "He is the Raphael of Essay Writers." "The Universal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette," How he differed so widely from such elegant projected in the year 1751, by Mr. J. Newberry, models is a problem not to be solved, unless it be Bookseller. The preface to the Rambler contains an outline of the Life of the celebrated ters of the last century, particularly Sir Thomas true that he took an early tincture from the wriauthor of these papers; we shall therefore here Browne. Hence the peculiarities of his style, only present our readers with a few observations new combinations, sentences of an unusual struc on the style, &c. of Dr. Johnson, which he will ture, and words derived from the learned lannot find so copiously described as we could wish guages. His own account of the matter is, in our preliminary observations on the Rambler."When common words were less pleasing to the The Doctor is said to have been allowed a ear, or less distinct in their signification, I famishare in the profits of this newspaper, for which liarized the terms of philosophy, by applying he was to furnish a short essay on such subjects them to popular ideas." But he forgot the obseras might suit the taste of the times, and distin-vation of Dryden:-"If too many foreign words guish this publication from it contemporaries. are poured in upon us, it looks as if they were The first Essay appeared on Saturday, April designed, not to assist the natives, but to conquer 15th, 1753, and continued to be published on the them." There is, it must be admitted, a swell same day, weekly, until April 5th, 1760, when of language, often out of all proportion to the senthe Idler was concluded. The Rambler may be considered as Johnson's mind, and the thought seems to expand with the timent; but there is, in general, a fulness of great work. It was the basis of that high re- sound of the words. Determined to discard colputation which went on increasing to the end of loquial barbarisms and licentious idioms, he forhis days. The circulation of those periodical got the elegant simplicity that distinguishes the essays was not, at first, equal to ther merit. They writings of Addison. He had what Locke calls had not, like the Spectators, the art of charming a roundabout view of his subject; and though he by variety; and indeed how could it be expected? was never tainted, like many modern wits, with The wits of Queen Anne's reign sent their con- the ambition of shining in paradox, he may be tributions to the Spectator; and Johnson stood fairly called an Original Thinker. His reading alone. A stage-coach, says Sir Richard Steele, was extensive. He treasured in his mind whatmust go forward on stated days, whether there ever was worthy of notice, but he added to it are passengers or not. So it was with the Ram-from his own meditation. He collected, qua bler, every Tuesday and Saturday, for two years.reconderet, auctaque promeret. Addison was not In this collection Johnson is the great moral so profound a thinker. He was born to write, teacher of his countrymen; his essays form a converse, and live with ease; and he found an body of ethics; the observations on life and man-early patron in Lord Somers. ners are acute and instructive; and the papers, however, more upon a fine taste than the vigour professedly critical, serve to promote the cause of of his mind. His Latin poetry shows, that he He depended, literature. It must, however, be acknowledged, relished, with a just selection, all the refined and that a settled gloom hangs over the author's delicate beauties of the Roman classics; and mind; and all the essays, except eight or ten, when he cultivated his native language, no woncoming from the same fountain head, no wonder der that he formed that graceful style, which has that they have the raciness of the soil from which been so justly admired; simple, yet elegant; they sprung. Of this uniformity Johnson was adorned, yet never over-wrought; rich in allusensible. He used to say, that if he had joined a sion, yet pure and perspicuous; correct withfriend or two, who would have been able to inter-out labour, and, though sometimes deficient in mix papers of a sprightly turn, the collection Iwould have been more miscellaneous, and, by consequence, more agreeable to the generality of readers. It is remarkable, that the pomp of diction, which has been objected to Johnson, was first assumed in the Rambler. His Dictionary was going on at the same time, and, in the course of that work, as he grew familiar with technical and scholastic words, he thought the bulk of his readers were equally learned; or at least would admire the splendour and dignity of the style. And yet it is well known, that he praised in Cowley the ease and unaffected structure of the sentences. Cowley may be placed at the head of those who cultivated a clear and natural style. Dryden, Tillotson, and Sir William Temple, followed. Addison, Swift, and Pope, with more correctness, carried our language well nigh to perfection. Of Addison, Johnson was used to strength, yet always musical. His essays in general, are on the surface of life; if ever original, it was in pieces of humour. Sir Roger de Coverly, tioned. Johnson had a fund of humour, but he and the Tory Fox-hunter, need not to be mendid not know it, nor was he willing to descend to the familiar idiom and the variety of diction which that mode of composition required. The letter, in the Rambler, No. 12, from a young girl that wants a place, will illustrate this observation. Addison possessed an unclouded imagination, alive to the first objects of nature and of art. He reaches the sublime without any apparent effort. When he tells us, "If we consider the fixed stars as so many oceans of flame, that are each of them attended with a different set of planets; if we still discover new firmaments and new lights that are sunk further in those unfathomable depths of æther, we are lost in a labyrinth of suns and worlds, and confounded with the magnifi fellow at Cambridge, but, as Johnson, being himself an original thinker, always revolted from servile imitation, he has printed the piece, with an apology, importing that the journal of a citizen in the Spectator almost precluded the attempt of any subsequent writer. This account of the Idler may be closed, after observing, that the author's mother being buried on the 23d of January 1759, there is an admirable paper, occasionsame month, No. 41. The reader, if he pleases, may compare it with another fine paper in the Rambler, No. 54, on the conviction that rushes on the mind at the bed of a dying friend. cence and immensity of nature;" the ease, with which this passage rises to unaffected grandeur, is the secret charm that captivates the reader. Johnson is always lofty; he seems, to use Dryden's phrase, to be o'er informed with meaning, and his words do not appear to himself adequate to his conception. He moves in state, and his periods are always harmonious. His Oriental Tales are in the true style of eastern magnificence, and yet none of them are so much admired as the Vi-ed by that event, on Saturday the 27th of the sions of Mirza. In matters of criticism, Johnson is never the echo of preceding writers. He thinks and decides for himself. If we except the Essays on the pleasures of imagination, Addison cannot be called a philosophical critic. His moral Essays are beautiful; but in that province nothing can exceed the Rambler, though Johnson used to say, that the Essay on "The Burthens of Mankind" (in the Spectator, No. 558) was the most exquisite he had ever read. Talking of himself, Johnson said, "Topham Beauclark has wit, and every thing comes from him with ease; but when I say a good thing, I seem to labour." 'London, Jan. 5, 1759. Advertisement. The When we compare him with Addison, the con- proprietors of the paper, entitled "The Idler," trast is still stronger. Addison lends grace and having found that those essays are inserted in ornament to truth; Johnson gives it force and the newspapers and magazines with so little energy. Addison makes virtue amiable; John-regard to justice or decency, that the Universal son represents it as an awful duty. Addison insinuates himself with an air of modesty; Johnson commands like a dictator; but a dictator in his splended robes, not labouring at the plough. Addison is the Jupiter of Virgil, with placidries, made yet more injurious by contempt, they serenity talking to Venus: "Vultu, quo cœlum tempestatesque serenat." Johnson is Jupiter Tonans; he darts his lightning, and rolls his thunder, in the cause or virtue and piety. The language seems to fall short of his ideas; he pours along, familiarising the terms of philosophy, with bold inversions, and sonorous periods; but we may apply to him what Pope has said of Homer:-"It is the sentiment that swells and fills out the diction, which rises with it, and forms itself about it; like glass in the furnace, which grows to a greater magnitude, as the breath within is more powerful, and the heat more intense." It is not the design of this comparison to decide between those two eminent writers. In matters of taste every reader will chose for himself. Johnson is always profound, and of course gives the fatigue of thinking. Addison charms while he instructs; and writing, as he always does, a pure, an elegant, and idiomatic style, he may be pronounced the safest model for imitation. The Idlers, during the time of their publication, were frequently copied into contemporary works without any acknowledgment. The author, who was also a proprietor of the Universal Chronicle, in which they appeared, hurled his vengeance on the pirates in the following "Hue and Cry," which, as coming from Dr. Johnson's pen, may justly be deemed a literary curiosity. Chronicle in which they first appear, is not always mentioned, think it necessary to declare to the publishers of those collections, that however patiently they have hitherto endured these inju have now determined to endure them no longer. -They have already seen essays, for which a very large price is paid, transferred with the most shameless rapacity into the weekly or monthly compilations, and their right, at least for the present, alienated from them, before they could themselves be said to enjoy it. But they would not willingly be thought to want tenderness even for men by whom no tenderness hath been shown. The past is without remedy, and shall be without resentment. But those who have been thus busy with their sickles in the fields of their neighbours, are henceforward to take notice, that the time of impunity is at an end. Whoever shall, without our leave, lay the hand of rapine upon our papers, is to expect that we shall vindicate our due, by the means which justice prescribes, and which are warranted by the immemorial prescriptions of honourable trade. We shall lay hold, in our turn, on their copies, degrade them from the pomp of wide margin and diffuse typography, contract them into a narrow space, and sell them at an The Essays written by Johnson in the Adven-humble price; yet not with a view of growing turer may be called a continuation of the Rambler. rich by confiscations, for we think not much betThe Idler, in order to be consistent with the as-ter of money got by punishment than by crimes: sumed character, is written with abated vigour, in a style of ease and unlaboured elegance. It is the Odyssey after the Iliad. Intense thinking would not become the Idler. The first number presents a well-drawn portrait of an Idler, and from that character no deviation could be made. Accordingly, Johnson forgets his austere manner, and plays us into sense. He still continues his lectures on human life, but he adverts to common occurrences, and is often content with the topic of the day. An advertisement in the beginning of the first volume informs us, that twelve entire Essays were a contribution from different hands. One of these, No. 33, is the journal of a Senior we shall therefore, when our losses are repaid, give what profit shall remain to the Magdalens: for we know not who can be more properly taxed for the support of penitent prostitutes than pros titutes in whom there yet appears neither penitence nor shame.” The effect of this singular manifesto is not now known; but if "essays for which a large price has been paid" be not words of course, they may prove that the author received an immediate remuneration for his labour, independent of his share in the general profits. Nos. 33, 93, and 96, were written by Mr. Thomas Warton. Thomas Warton was the |