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yet more substantially gratified by the eagerness with which his lives of the poets were read and praised. He enjoyed likewise another satisfaction which it appears he thought not unnecessary to the reputation of a great writer. He was attacked on all sides for his contempt of Milton's politics, and the sparing praise, or direct censure he had bestowed on the poetry of Prior, Hammond, Collins, Gray and a few others. The errours, indeed, which on any other subject might have passed for errours of judgment, were by the irascible tempers of his adversaries magnified into high treason against the majesty of poetic genius. During his life, these attacks were not few, nor very respectful to a veteran whom common consent had placed at the head of the literature of his country; but the courage of his adversaries was observed to rise very considerably after his death, and the name which public opinion had consecrated, was reviled with the utmost malignity. Even some who during his life were glad to conceal their hostility, now took an opportunity to retract the admiration in which they had joined with apparent cordiality: and to discover faults in a body of criticism which, after all reasonable exceptions are admitted, was never equalled, and perhaps never will be equalled for justice, acuteness and elegance. Where can we hope to find discussions that can be com pared with those introduced in the lives of Cowley, Milton, Dryden and Pope? His abhorrence indeed of Milton's political conduct led him to details and observations which can never be acceptable to a certain class of politicians, but when he comes to analyze his poetry, and to fix his reputation on its proper basis, it must surely be confessed that no man, since the first appearance of Paradise Lost, has ever bestowed praise with a more munificent hand. He appears to have collected his whole energy to immortalize the genius of Milton, nor has any advocate for Milton's democracy appeared who has not been glad to surrender the guardian. ship of his poetical fame to Johnson.

In 1782, the public demand rendered it necessary to print an edition of the Lives in four octavo volumes; and in 1783, another edition of the same number, but considerably enlarged, altered and corrected by the author. I cannot here sup. press a circumstance communicated by my worthy friend, Mr. Nichols, which may check the murmurs of the public respecting improved editions. Although the corrections and alterations of the edition of 1783 were printed separately and offered gratis to the purchasers of the former, not ten copies were called for!

With this work the public labours of Johnson ended, and when we consider his advanced time of life, and the almost unabated vigour of his mind, it may be surely added, that his sun set with unrivalled splendour. But the infirmities of age were now undermining a constitution that had kept perpetual war with hereditary disease, and his most valued friends were dropping into the grave before him. He lost Mr. Thrale and Mrs. Williams: his home became cheerless, and much visiting was no longer convenient. His health began to decline more visibly from the month of June 1783, when he had a paralytic stroke, and although he recovered so far as to be able to take another journey to Litchfield and Oxford towards the close of the year, symptoms of a dropsy indicated the probability of his dissolution at no distant period. Some relief, however, having been administered, he rejoined the society of his friends, and with a mind still curious, intelligent, and active, renewed his attention to the concerns of literature, dic

fating information wherever it was wanted, and trying his faculties by Latin translations from the Greek poets. Nothing was so much the subject of alarm with him, as the decay of memory and judgment, of which, however, to the last he never betrayed the least symptom.

In Midsummer 1784, he acquired sufficient strength to go for the last time into Derbyshire. During his absence, his friends, who were anxious for the preservation of so valuable a life, endeavoured to procure some addition to his pension, that he might be enabled to try the efficacy of a tour to the southern part of the continent. Application was accordingly made to the lord chancellor Thurlow, who seconded it in the proper quarter, but without success. He evinced, however, his high respect for Johnson, by offering to advance the sum of five hundred pounds, and Johnson, when the circumstance was communicated, thanked his lordship in a letter, clevated beyond the common expressions of gratitude, by a dignity of sentiment congenial to the feelings of his noble and liberal correspondent. Dr. Brocklesby also made a similar offer, although of a lesser sum; and such indeed was the estimation in which Johnson was held, that nothing would have been wanting which money or affection could procure, either to protract his days, or to make them comfortable.

But these offers were not accepted. The scheme of a continental tour, which he once thought necessary, was never much encouraged by his physicians, and had it promised greater effects, was now beyond his strength. The dropsy and asthma were making hasty approaches, and although he longed for life, and was anxiously desirous that every means might be used to gain another day, he soon became convinced that no hopes were left. During this period, he was alternately resigned' to die, and tenacious of life, tranquil in the views of eternity, and disturbed by gloomy apprehensions, but at last his mind was soothed with the consolatory hopes of religion, and although the love of life occasionally recurred, he adjusted his worldly concerns with composure and exactness, as one who was conscious that he was soon to give an account. On Monday the 13th of December, he tried to obtain a temporary relief by puncturing his legs, as had been before performed by the surgeon, but no discharge followed the operation, and about seven o'clock in the evening he breathed his last, so gently, that some time elapsed before his death was perceived.

On the 20th, his body was interred with great solemnity in Westminster Abbey, close to the grave of his friend Garrick. Of the other honours paid to his memory, it may suffice to say that they were more in number and quality than were ever paid to any man of literature. It was his singular fate that the age, which he contributed to improve, repaid him by a veneration of which we have no example in the annals of literature; and that when his failings as well as his virtues were exhibited without disguise and without partiality, he continued to be revered by the majority of the nation, and is now, after scrutiny and censure have done their worst, enrolled among the greatest names in the history of English genius.

But to delineate the character of Johnson is a task which the present writer wishes to decline. Five large editions of Mr. Boswell's Life have familiarized Johnson to the knowledge of the public so intimately, that it would be impossible to advance any thing with which every reader is not already acquainted. The

suffrages of the nation have been taken, and the question is finally decided. On mature consideration, there appears no reason to depart from-the generally re ceived opinions as to the rank Johnson holds among men of genius and virtue, a rank which those who yet capriciously dwell on his failings, will find it difficult to disturb. His errours have been brought forward with no sparing hand both by his friends and his enemies, yet when every fair deduction is made from the reputed excellence of his character as a man and a writer, enough, in my opinion, will remain to gratify the partiality of his admirers, and to perpetuate the public esteem.

It is unpleasant, however, to quit a subject which the more it is revolved, serves to gladden the mind with pleasing recollections. There are surely circumstances in the history of Johnson which compel admiration in defiance of prejudice or envy. That a man of obscure birth, of manners by no means prepossessing, whose person was forbidding, whose voice was rough, inharmonious and terrifying, whose temper was frequently harsh and overhearing; that such a man should have forced his way into the society of a greater number of eminent characters than perhaps ever gathered round an individual; that he should not only have gained but increased their respect to a degree of enthusiasm, and preserved it unabated for so long a series of years; that men of all ranks in life, and of the highest degrees of mental excellence, should have thought it a duty, and found it a pleasure, not only to tolerate his occasional roughness, but to study his humour, and submit to his controul, to listen to him with the submission of a scholar, and consult him with the hopes of a client; all this surely affords the strongest presump'tion that such a man was remarkable beyond the usual standard of human excellence. Nor is this inference inconsistent with the truth, for it appears that whatever merit may be attributed to his works, he was perhaps yet more to be envied in conversation, where he exhibited an inexhaustible fertility of imagination, an elegance and acuteness of argument, and a ready wit, such as never appear to have been combined in one man. And it is not too much to say, that whatever opinion was entertained by those who knew him only in his writings, it never could have risen to that pitch of admiration which has been excited by the labours of his industrious biographer.

His death formed a very remarkable era in the literary world. For a consider. able time, the periodical journals, as well as general conversation, were eagerly occupied on an event which was the subject of universal regret; and every man hastened with such contributions as memory supplied, to illustrate a character in which all took a lively interest. Numerous anecdotes were published, some authentic and some imaginary, and the general wish to know more of Johnson was for some years insatiable.

At length the proprietors of his printed works met to consider of a complete and uniform edition ; but as it was feared that the curiosity which follows departed genius might soon abate, some doubt was entertained of the policy of a collection of pieces, the best of which were already in the hands of the public in various forms; but this was fortunately over-ruled, and in the course of the last year (1806) these collected works were printed for the fourth time, and will probably be long considered as a standard book in every library. Less fortunately, however, sis

John Hawkins, who was one of Johnson's executors, and professed to be in possession of materials for his life, was engaged to write that life, as well as to collect his works. They accordingly appeared in 1787, in eleven volumes 8vo. Of the Life it is unnecessary to add any thing to the censure so generally passed. Sir John spoke his mind, perhaps honestly, but his judgment must have been as defective as his memory, when he decided with so much prejudice and so little taste or candour, on the merits of his author, and of other eminent persons, whom, as a critic humorously said "he brought to be tried at the Middlesex quarter sessions." In collecting the works, he inserted some which no man could suspect to be Johnson's, while he omitted other pieces that had been acknowledged. A more correct arrangement, however, has been since adopted.

Two years before this edition appeared, Mr. Boswell published his Tour to the Hebrides, and exhibited such a sample of Dr. Johnson's conversation-talents as raised very high expectations from the Life which he then announced to be in a state of preparation. Mr. Boswell's acquaintance with Dr. Johnson commenced in the year 1763, and from that time he appears to have meditated what he at length executed, the most complete and striking portrait ever exhibited of any human being. His Tour having shown the manner in which he was to proceed, Johnson's friends willingly contributed every document they could collect from memory or writing, and Mr. Boswell, who meditated one volume only, was soon obliged to extend his work to two bulky quartos. These were published in 1791, and bought up with an avidity, which their wonderful variety of entertainment, vivacity, anecdote and sentiment, amply justified. Four very large editions have since appeared, and it seems to be one of those very fortunate and fascinating books of which the public is not likely to tire.

Mr. Boswell, indeed, has proved, contrary to the common opinion, and by means which will not soon be repeated, that the life of a mere scholar may be rendered more instructive, more entertaining, and more interesting, than that of any other human being. And although the "confidence of private conversation" has been thought to be sometimes violated in this work, for which no apo. logy is here intended, yet the world seems agreed to forgive this failing in consideration of the pleasure it has afforded; that wonderful variety of subjects, of wit, sentiment, and anecdote, with which it abounds; and above all the valuable instruction it presents on many of the most important duties of life. It must be allowed that it created some enemies to Dr. Johnson among those who were not enemies before this disclosure of his sentiments. Vanity has been sometimes hurt, and vanity has taken its usual revenge. It is generally agreed, however, that Mr. Boswell's account of his illustrious friend is impartial: he conceals no failing that revenge or animosity has since been able to discover; all his foibles of manner and conversation are faithfully recorded, and recorded so frequently that it is easier to form a just estimate of doctor Johnson than of any eminent character in the whole range of biographys.

One singular effect was produced by this extraordinary book. When it was determined to discard sir John Hawkins's Life of Johnson, application was made to Mr. Murphy to furnish another to be prefixed to the second edition of the works

British Essayists, Preface to the Rambler, vol. xix. C.

published in 1793. This Mr. Murphy executed under the title (which he had used in the case of Fielding) of An Essay on the Life and Genius of Dr. Johnson; but he had conceived a prejudice of jealousy of Mr. Boswell's fame, and notwithstanding the latter had strengthened his narrative by every possible proof, Murphy persisted in taking his facts from the very inaccurate narrative of sir Johir Hawkins, and the more flippant anecdotes published by Mrs. Piozzi. In his Essay, therefore, it is not wonderful that many circumstances are grossly, and considering that proofs were within his reach, we may add, wilfully misrepresented. As Dr. Johnson has been introduced in the present collection as an English poet, it may be necessary to take some notice of the poems now presented to the reader. They are what have been published in his works, and no doubts, as far as the present writer knows, have ever been entertained of their authenticity. What he might have produced, if he had devoted himself to the Muses, it is not easy to determine. That he had not the essentials of a poet of the higher order must, I think, be allowed; but as a moral poet, his acknowledged pieces stand in a very high rank. Like Pope, he preferred reason to fancy, and his two imitations of Juvenal are not only equal to any thing that writer has produced, in the happy delineation of living manners, and in elegance of versification, but are perhaps superior to any compositions of the kind in our language. His Irene is remarkable for splendour of language, richness of sentiment, and harmony of numbers, but as a tragedy it is radically defective: it excites neither interest or passion. Of his lesser pieces, the Prologue on Opening the Theatre in 1747, and that for the benefit of Milton's grand-daughter, are perfect models of elegant and manly address." His odes are defective in imagination and description; he always undervalued this species of poetry, and certainly has not improved it. A few of his translations are more happily executed, particularly the Dove of Anacreon. The poem on the death of his humble friend Levet is one of those pathetic appeals to the heart which are irresistible.

6 The principal of these are corrected in notes appended to the last edition of Johnson's works. Murphy's narrative was in truth little more than what was compiled in 1787, from sir John Hawkins, by the Monthly Reviewers, whose style and reflections he has in general copied verbatim, without a word of acknowledgment. C.

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