Lungs in the 'Alchymist,' making ether. This being told by Mr. Murphy in company, 'Come, come,' said DR. JOHNSON, 'the story is black enough; but it was a happy day that brought you first to my house." Even Goldsmith himself has acknowledged his indebtedness. He admits that the character of Crocker in the "Good Natured Man" is borrowed from "An Account of Suspiruis, the human Screech Owl," ("Rambler," 59.)

Dickens in his "Old Curiosity Shop" is doubtless indebted also to the "Rambler." He acknowledges that the thought of Nell's Grandfather wandering about after her death, as if looking for her, was suggested to him by these beautiful lines of Roger, "And long thou mightst have seen an old man wandering as if in quest of something he could not find; he knew not what." Perhaps Dickens did not know that Rogers had not only borrowed the thought, but almost the very words, from the allegorical history of Rest and Labour, "Rambler," No. 33, where JOHNSON says, "Nothing was seen on every side but multitudes,

wandering about they knew not whither, in quest of they knew not what."

Lord Macaulay in his essay on JOHNSON, has laboured in a strongly marked antithetical sentence to show that the influence of JOHNSON lay not in his literature but in his personality; yet it is rather significant, that the literary form of that sentence is borrowed almost bodily, from JOHNSON himself. Says Macaulay, "The memory of other authors is kept alive by their works, but the memory of JOHNSON keeps many of his works. alive." Will it be believed that this famous sentence has almost its exact prototype in the writings of the man who is so indulgently patronised? JOHNSON in his "Lives of the Poets," treating of Granville, speaking of personality in authorship, says, "Writers commonly derive their reputation from their works; but there are works which owe their reputation to the character of the writer." "Modern writers," says JOHNSON, "are the moons of literature; they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the Ancients." That aphorism is true; in fact, we all borrow

consciously or unconsciously less or more, from one another. Indeed, JOHNSON himself has given a very good illustration of the truth of his aphorism, when he said of Lord Chesterfield, "He is a wit among lords, and a lord among wits." Had he forgotten that Pope had written, "A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits." Perhaps neither of them remembered that Quintillian, ages ago, had said, "Qui stultis eruditi videri volunt eruditis stulti videntur."*

We shall conclude our observations on the "Rambler" by a quotation from Dr. Nathan Drake, a contemporary of DR. JOHNSON, and of no mean authority in literature: "The publication of the 'Rambler,"" he says, "produced a very rapid revolution in the tone of English composition,—an elevation and dignity, a harmony and energy, a precision and force of style, previously unknown in the history of our literature, speedily became objects of daily emulation; that it soon embraced

* We do not ourselves pretend to be immaculate as to this, and once for all beg to say, that in the course of this book, there may have crept in expressions of others, unconsciously to ourselves.

the greater part of the rising literary characters of the day, and was consequently founded on such a basis as will not easily be shaken by succeeding modes."

After the gigantic labours of his great "Dictionary," he seems to have rested from all literary work for a couple of years, with the exception of writing some Reviews for the Literary Magazine. In 1756, he negotiated with the booksellers, money being the motive power, for a new edition of Shakespeare, but through JOHNSON'S procrastination, it was not published until 1765. In 1758, he commenced the "Idler," which Macaulay says was "livelier, and weaker than the 'Rambler." The character of Sober in the "Idler" JOHNSON intended as a delineation of himself. The portrait which he has drawn is faithful and without flattery, "a result not common in autobiography." The "Idler" only continued two years—the last number being issued in the spring of 1760, the profits from this periodical, and the subscriptions for the new edition of Shakespeare, being the only means of his support for two or three years.

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Nichols related the following story regarding the subscription list to JOHNSON's Shakespeare. "In the year 1763 a young bookseller, who was an apprentice to Mr. Whiston, waited on him with a subscription to his Shakespeare; and observing that the doctor made no entry in any book of the subscriber's name, ventured diffidently to ask whether he would please to have the gentleman's address, that it might be properly inserted in the printed list of subscribers? 'I shall print no list of subscribers,' said JOHNSON, with great abruptness; but almost immediately recollecting himself, added, very complacently, 'Sir, I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers; -one, that I have lost all the names, the other, that I have spent all the money." Macaulay says that the Preface added nothing to JOHNSON'S fame, and criticises it rather severely. again, such as the learned Dr. Parr, who was as great a critic in his age as Macaulay was in ours, and an infinitely greater scholar, speaks of it with unmeasured approbation. Perhaps the truth lies midway between their opinions. It is not our pro

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