Nor was his energy confined alone As Nile's proud waves, swoln from their oozy bed, Johnson's language, however, must be allowed to be too masculine for the delicate gentleness of female writing. His ladies, therefore, seem strangely formal, even to ridicule; and are well denominated by the names which he has given them, as Misella, Zozima, Properantia, Rhodoclia.1 It has of late been the fashion to compare the style of Addison and Johnson, and to depreciate, I think very unjustly, the style of Addison as nerveless and feeble, because it has not the strength and energy of that of Johnson. Their prose may be balanced like the poetry of Dryden and Pope. Both are excellent, though in different ways. Addison writes with the ease of a gentleman. His readers fancy that a wise and accomplished companion is talking to them; so that he insinuates his sentiments and tastes into their minds by an imperceptible influence. Johnson writes like a teacher. He dictates to his readers as if from an academical chair. They attend with awe and admiration; and his precepts are impressed upon them by his commanding eloquence. Addison's style, like a light wine, pleases everybody from the first. Johnson's, like a liquor of more body, seems too strong at first, but, by degrees, is highly relished; and such is the melody of his periods, so much do they captivate the ear, and seize upon the attention, that there is scarcely any writer, however inconsiderable, who does not aim, in some degree, at the same species of excellence. But let us not ungratefully undervalue that beautiful style, which has pleasingly conveyed to us much instruction and entertainment. Though compara 1 Mr. Burke said pleasantly, that "his ladies were all Johnsons in petticoats."-Croker. tively weak, opposed to Johnson's Herculean vigour, let us not call it positively feeble. Let us remember the character of his style, as given by Johnson himself: "What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy.' Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar, but not coarse, and elegant, but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison."" Though the "Rambler" was not concluded till the year 1752, I shall, under this year, say all that I have to observe upon it. Some of the translations of the mottos by himself, are admirably done. He acknowledges to have received "elegant translations" of many of them from Mr. James Elphinston; and some are very happily translated by a Mr. F. Lewis, of whom I never heard more, except that Johnson thus described him to Mr. Malone: "Sir, he lived in London, and hung loose upon society." The concluding paper of his 3 1 When Johnson showed me a proof sheet of the character of Addison, in which he so highly extols his style, I could not help observing, that it had not been his own model, as no two styles could differ more from each other. "Sir, Addison had his style, and I have mine." When I ventured to ask him, whether the difference did not consist in this, that Addison's style was full of idioms, colloquial phrases, and proverbs; and his own more strictly grammatical, and free from such phraseology and modes of speech as can never be literally translated or understood by foreigners; he allowed the discrimination to be just. Let any one who doubts it, try to translate one of Addison's Spectators into Latin, French, or Italian; and though so easy, familiar, and elegant, to an Englishman, as to give the intellect no trouble; yet he would find the transfusion into another language extremely difficult, if not impossible. But a Rambler, Adventurer, or Idler of Johnson, would fall into any classical or European language, as easily as if it had been originally conceived in it.—Burney. 2 I shall probably, in another work, maintain the merit of Addison's poetry, which has been very unjustly depreciated. Mr. Boswell never, that I know of, executed this intention.-Croker. 3 In the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1752, p. 468, he is styled the Rev. Francis Lewis, of Chiswick. The late Lord Macartney, while he resided at Chiswick, at my request, made some inquiry concerning N "Rambler" is at once dignified and pathetic. I cannot, however, but wish, that he had not ended it with an unnecessary Greek verse,' translated also into an English couplet. It is too much like the conceit of those dramatic poets, who used to conclude each act with a rhyme; and the expression in the first line of his couplet, "Celestial powers," though proper in Pagan poetry, is ill suited to Christianity, with "a conformity" to which he consoles himself. How much better would it have been to have ended with the prose sentence, “I shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if I can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth." His friend, Dr. Birch, being now engaged in preparing an edition of Ralegh's smaller pieces, Dr. Johnson wrote the following letter to that gentleman: TO DR. BIRCH. 66 Gough Square, May 12. 1750. "SIR, 'Knowing that you are now preparing to favour the public with a new edition of Ralegh's miscellaneous pieces, I have taken the liberty to send you a manuscript, which fell by chance within my notice. I perceive no proofs of forgery in my examination of it; and the owner tells me, that, as he has heard, the hand-writing is Sir Walter's. If you should find reason to conclude it genuine, it will be a kindness to the owner, a blind person,' to recommend it to the booksellers. I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." His just abhorrence of Milton's political notions was ever strong. But this did not prevent his warm admiration of him at that place, but no intelligence was obtained. The translations supplied by Mr. Elphinston to the first thirty numbers of the Rambler were published in the Gentleman's Magazine for September, 1750.—Malone. 1 · Αὐτῶν ἐκ μακάρων ἀντάξιος είη ἀμοιβὴ. Celestial powers! that piety regard, From you my labours wait their last reward. 2 Mrs. Williams is probably the person meant. Milton's great poetical merit, to which he has done illustrious justice, beyond all who have written upon the subject. And this year he not only wrote a Prologue, which was spoken by Mr. Garrick before the acting of "Comus" at Drury Lane Theatre, for the benefit of Milton's grand-daughter, but took a very zealous interest in the success of the charity. On the day preceding the performance, he published the following letter in the "General Advertiser," addressed to the printer of that paper: "SIR, "That a certain degree of reputation is acquired merely by approving the works of genius, and testifying a regard to the memory of authors, is a truth too evident to be denied; and therefore to ensure a participation of fame with a celebrated poet, many, who would, perhaps, have contributed to starve him when alive, have heaped expensive pageants upon his grave.' "It must, indeed, be confessed, that this method of becoming known to posterity with honour, is peculiar to the great, or at least to the wealthy; but an opportunity now offers for almost every individual to secure the praise of paying a just regard to the illustrious dead, united with the pleasure of doing good to the living. To assist industrious indigence, struggling with distress and debilitated by age, is a display of virtue, and an acquisition of happiness and honour. "Whoever, then, would be thought capable of pleasure in reading the works of our incomparable Milton, and not so destitute of gratitude as to refuse to lay out a trifle in rational and elegant entertainment, for the benefit of his living remains, for the exercise of their own virtue, the increase of their reputation, and the pleasing consciousness of doing good, should appear at Drury Lane theatre tomorrow, April 5, when 'Comus' will be performed for the benefit of Mrs. Elizabeth Foster, grand-daughter to the author, and the only surviving branch of his family. "N.B. There will be a new prologue on the occasion, written by 1 Mr. Auditor Benson, in 1737, erected a monument to Milton in Westminster Abbey, and did not omit to inscribe his own name on it,—an ostentation which Pope satirises. See Dunciad, b. iii., 325 and iv., 110.-Croker. 2 She survived this benefit but three years, and died childless, 9th May, 1754. It is remarkable that none of our great, and few even of our the author of 'Irene,' and spoken by Mr. Garrick; and, by particular desire, there will be added to the Masque a dramatic satire, called 'Lethe,' in which Mr. Garrick will perform."1 In 1751 we are to consider him as carrying on both his "Dictionary" and "Rambler." But he also wrote "The Life of Cheynel," in the miscellany called "The Student;" and the Rev. Dr. Douglas having, with uncommon acuteness, clearly detected a gross forgery and imposition upon the public by William Lauder, a Scotch schoolmaster, who had, with equal impudence and ingenuity, represented Milton as a plagiary from certain modern Latin poets, Johnson, who had been so far imposed upon as to furnish a Preface and Postscript to his work, now dictated a letter for Lauder, addressed to Dr. Douglas, acknowledging his fraud in terms of suitable contrition.2 second-rate poets, have left posterity-Shakespeare, Jonson, Otway, Milton, Dryden, Rowe, Addison, Pope, Swift, Gay, Johnson, Goldsmith, Cowper, have left no inheritors of their names.-Croker. 1 The assistance given was far from liberal. Tonson, the bookseller, whose family had been enriched by the sale of the poet's writings, gave twenty pounds, and Bishop Newton, his biographer, brought a large contribution; but all their efforts, joined to the allurements of Johnson's pen and Garrick's performance, procured only £130. Anderson's Life of Johnson, p. 89.-Wright. ? Lest there should be any person, at any future period, absurd enough to suspect that Johnson was a partaker in Lauder's fraud, or had any knowledge of it, when he assisted him with his masterly pen, it is proper here to quote the words of Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of Salisbury, at the time when he detected the imposition. "It is to be hoped, nay it is expected, that the elegant and nervous writer, whose judicious sentiments and inimitable style point out the author of Lauder's Preface and Postscript, will no longer allow one to plume himself with his feathers, who appeareth so little to deserve assistance: an assistance which I am persuaded would never have been communicated, had there been the least suspicion of those facts which I have been the instrument of conveying to the world in these sheets." Milton no Plagiary, 2nd edit. p. 78. And his Lordship has been pleased now to authorise me to say, in the strongest manner, that there is no ground whatever for any unfavourable reflection against Dr. Johnson, who expressed the strongest indignation against Lauder. Lauder afterwards went to Barbadoes, where he some time taught |