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air at its various distances from the surface of the earth.'

The ludicrous imitators of Johnson's style are innumerable. Their general method is to accumulate hard words without considering that, although he was fond of introducing them occasionally, there is not a single sentence in all his writings where they are crowded together, as in the first verse of the following imaginary Ode by him to Mrs. Thrale,1 which appeared in the newspapers:

'Cervisial coctor's viduate dame,
Opin'st thou his gigantic fame,
Procumbing at that shrine;
Shall, catenated by thy charms,
A captive in thy ambient arms,
Perennially be thine?'

This, and a thousand other such attempts, are totally unlike the original, which the writers imagined they were turning into ridicule. There is not similarity enough for burlesque, or even for caricature.

1 Johnson's wishing to unite himself with this rich widow was much talked of, but I believe without foundation. The report, however, gave occasion to a poem, not without characteristical merit, entitled, Ode to Mrs. Thrale, by Samuel Johnson, LL.D., on their supposed approaching Nuptials': printed for Mr. Faulder, in Bond Street. I shall quote as a specimen the first three stanzas:

'If e'er my fingers touch'd the lyre,

In satire fierce, in pleasure gay;
Shall not my Thralia's smiles inspire?
Shall Sam refuse the sportive lay?
My dearest lady! view your slave,
Behold him as your very Scrub;
Eager to write as author grave,
Or govern well the brewing-tub.
To rich felicity thus raised,

My bosom glows with amorous fire,
Porter no longer shall be praised,
'Tis I myself am Thrale's Entire.'

Mr. Colman, in his Prose on several Occasions, has 'A Letter from Lexiphanes; containing Proposals for a Glossary or Vocabulary of the Vulgar Tongue: intended as a supplement to a larger Dictionary.' It is evidently meant as a sportive sally of ridicule on Johnson, whose style is thus imitated, without being grossly overcharged :-'It is easy to foresee, that the idle and illiterate will complain that I have increased their labours by endeavouring to diminish them; and that I have explained what is more easy by what is more difficult-ignotum per ignotius. I expect, on the other hand, the liberal acknowledgments of the learned. He who is buried in scholastic retirement, secluded from the assemblies of the gay and remote from the circles of the polite, will at once comprehend the definitions, and be grateful for such a seasonable and necessary elucidation of his mother-tongue.' Annexed to this letter is a short specimen of the work, thrown together in a vague and desultory manner, not even adhering to alphabetical concatenation.1

The serious imitators of Johnson's style, whether intentionally or by the imperceptible effect of its strength and animation, are, as I have had already occasion to observe, so many, that I might introduce quotations from a numerous body of writers in our

1'Higgledy-piggledy,-Conglomeration and confusion. Hodge-podge,-A culinary mixture of heterogeneous ingredients: applied metaphorically to all discordant combinations.

Tit for Tat,-Adequate retaliation.

Shilly Shally,-Hesitation and irresolution.
Fee! fa! fum!-Gigantic intonations.

Rigmarole,-Discourse, incoherent and rhapsodical.

Crincum-crancum,-Lines of irregularity and involution.

Ding dong,-Tintínabulary chimes, used metaphorically to signify

despatch and vehemence.'

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