kingdom, some of the Spectators excepted, care. In this, as in many other cases, I go -if indeed they may be excepted." And wrong, in opposition to conviction; for I afterwards, "May the public favours crown think scarce any temporal good equally to his merits, and may not the English, under be desired with the regard and familiarity the auspicious reign of GEORGE the Second, of worthy men. I hope we shall be some neglect a man, who, had he lived in the first time nearer to each other, and have a more century, would have been one of the great-ready way of pouring out our hearts. est favourites of Augustus." This flattery of the monarch had no effect. It is too well known, that the second George never was an Augustus to learning or genius. Johnson told me, with an amiable fondness, a little pleasing circumstance relative to this work. Mrs. Johnson, in whose judgement and taste he had great confidence, said to him, after a few numbers of the Rambler had come out, "I thought very well of you before; but I did not imagine you could have written any thing equal to this." Distant praise, from whatever quarter, is not so delightful as that of a wife whom a man loves and esteems. Her ap. probation may be said to "come home to his bosom," and being so near, its effect is most sensible and permanent. Mr. Jaines Elphinston, who has since published various works, and who was ever esteemed by Johnson as a worthy man, happened to be in Scotland while the Rambler was coming out in single papers at London. With a laudable zeal at once for the improvement of his countrymen, and the reputation of his friend, he suggested and took the charge of an edition of those Essays at Edinburgh, which followed progressively the London publication. The following letter written at this time, though not dated, will shew how much pleased Johnson was with this publication, and what kindness and regard he had for Mr. Elphinston. "TO MR. JAMES ELPHINSTON. "DEAR SIR, [No date.] "I CANNOT but confess the failures of my correspondence, but hope the same regard which you express for me on every other occasion, will incline you to forgive me. I am often, very often ill; and when I am well, am obliged to work: and, indeed, have never much used myself to punctuality. You are, however, not to make unkind inferences, when I forbear to reply to your kindness; for be assured, I never receive a letter from you without great pleasure, and a very warm sense of your generosity and friendship, which I heartily blame myself for not cultivating with more It was executed in the printing-office of Sands, Murray, and Cochran, with uncommon elegance, upon writing paper, of a duodecimo size, and with the greatest correctness; and Mr. Elphinston enriched it with translations of the mottos. When completed, it made eight handsome volumes. It is, unquestionably, the most accurate and beautiful edition of this work; and there being but a small impression, it is now become scarce, and sells at a very high price. 66 "I am glad that you still find encourage ment to proceed in your publication, and shall beg the favour of six niore volumes to add to my former six, when you can, with any convenience, send them me. Please to present a set, in my name, to Mr. Ruddiman, of whom I hear, that his learning is not his highest excellence. I have transcribed the mottos, and returned them. I hope not too late, of which I think many very happily performed. Mr. Cave has put the last in the magazine, in which I think he did well. I beg of you to write soon, and to write often, and to write long letters, which I hope in time to repay you; but you must be a patient creditor. I have, however, this of gratitude, that I think of you with regard, when I do not, perhaps, give the proofs which I ought, of being, Sir, "Your most obliged and "Most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." man another letter upon a mournful occa This year he wrote to the same gentle sion. "TO MR. JAMES ELPHINSTON. "DEAR SIR, September 25, 1758 "You have, as I find by every kind of evidence, lost an excellent mother; and I hope you will not think me incapable of partaking of your grief. I have a mother, now eighty-two years of age, whom, therefore, I must soon lose, unless it please God that she should rather mourn for me. I read the letters in which you relate your mother's death to Mrs. Strahan, and think I do mar self honour, when I tell you that I res! them with tears; but tears are neither t you nor to me of any farther use, when once the tribute of nature has been paid. The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues of which we are lamenting our deprivation. The greatest benefit which one friend can confer upon another, is to guard, and excite, and elevate, his virtues. This your mother will still perform, if yea diligently preserve the memory of her Lite Mr. Thomas Ruddiman, the learned GrammarİK of Scotland, well known for his various excellent work », and for his accurate editions of several authors. He was also a man of a most worthy private character. H zeal for the royal house of Stuart did not render him less estimable in Dr. Johnson's eye. [If the Magazine here referred to be that for Oct ber, 1752, (see GENT. MAG. vol. 22, p. 468, then th letter belongs to a later period. If it relates to the Mgazine for Sept. 1750, (see GENT. MAG. vol. 20, p. 46, then it may be ascribed to the month of October in that year, and should have followed the subsequent letter. M. and of her death: a life, so far as I can learn, useful, wise, and innocent; and a death resigned, peaceful, and holy. I cannot forbear to mention, that neither reason nor revelation denies you to hope, that you may increase her happiness by obeying her precepts; and that she may, in her present state, look with pleasure upon every act of virtue to which her instructions or example have contributed. Whether this be more than a pleasing dream, or a just opinion of separate spirits, is, indeed, of no great importance to us, when we consider ourselves as acting under the eye of GOD: yet, surely, there is something pleasing in the belief, that our separation from those whom we love is merely corporeal; and it may be a great incitement to virtuous friendship, if it can be made probable, that that union that has received the divine approbation shall continue to eternity. presence. "There is one expedient by which you may. in some degree, continue her If you write down minutely what you remember of her from your earliest years, you will read it with great pleasure, and receive from it many hints of soothing recollection, when time shall remove her yet far. ther from you, and your grief shall be matured to veneration. To this, however painful for the present, I cannot but advise you, as to a source of comfort and satisfaction in the time to come; for all comfort and all satisfaction is sincerely wished you by, Dear Sir, your most obliged, most obedient, "And most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." The Rambler has increased in fame as in age. Soon after its first folio edition was concluded, it was published in six duodecimo volumes, and its author lived to see ten numerous editions of it in London, beside those of Ireland and Scotland. I profess myself to have ever entertained a profound veneration for the astonishing force and vivacity of mind, which the Rambler exhibits. That Johnson had penetration enough to see, and seeing would not disguise, the general misery of man in this state of being, may have given rise to the superficial notion of his being too stern a philosopher. But men of reflection will be sensible that he has given a true represen [This is not quite accurate. In the GENT. MAG for Nov. 1751, while the work was yet proceeding, is an advertisement, announcing that four volumes of the Rambler would speedily be published; and it is believed they were published in the next month. The fifth and sixth volumes, with tables of contents and translations of the mottos, were published in July 1752, by Payne (the original publisher), three months after the close of the work. When the Rambler was collected into volumes, Johnson revised and corrected it throughout. The original octavo edition not having fallen into Mr. Boswell's hands, he was not aware of this circumstance, which has lately been pointed out by Mr. Alexander Chalmers m a new edition of these and various other periodical Essays, ander the title of the British Essayists. M.] tation of human existence, and that he has, at the same time, with a generous benevolence displayed every consolation which our state affords us; not only those arising from the hopes of futurity, but such as may be attained in the immediate progress through life. He has not depressed the soul to despondency and indifference. He has every where inculcated study, labour, and exertion. Nay, he has shewn, in a very odious light, a man whose practice is to go about darkening the views of others, by perpetual complaints of evil, and awakening those considerations of danger and distress, which are, for the most part, lulled into a quiet oblivion. This he has done very strongly in his character of Suspirius,+ from which Goldsmith took that of Croaker, in his comedy of "The Good-natured Man," as Johnson told me he acknowledged to him, and which is, indeed, very obvious. To point out the numerous subjects which the Rambler treats, with a dignity and perspicuity which are there united in a manner which we shall in vain look for any where else, would take up too large a portion of my book, and would, I trust, be superfluous, considering how universally those volumes are now disseminated. Even the most condensed and brilliant sentences which they contain, and which have very properly been selected under the name of "BEAUTIES," are of considerable bulk. But I may shortly observe, that the Rambler furnishes such an assemblage of discourses on practical religion and moral duty, of critical investigations, and allegorical and oriental tales, that no mind can be thought very deficient that has, by constant study and meditation, assimilated to itself all that may be found there. No. 7, written in Passion-week, on abstraction and self-examination, and No. 110, on penitence and the placability of the Divine Nature, cannot be too often read. No. 54, on the effect which the death of a friend should have upon us, though rather too dispiriting, mind. Every one must suppose the writer may be occasionally very medicinal to the to have been deeply impressed by a real scene; but he told me that was not the case; which shews how well his fancy could conduct him to the "house of mourning." Some of these more solemn papers, I doubt not, particularly attracted the notice of Doctor Young, the author of "The Night Thoughts," of whom my estimation is such, as to reckon his applause an honour even to Johnson. I have seen volumes of Doctor + No. 55. Dr. Johnson was gratified by seeing this selection, and wrote to Mr. Kearsley, bookseller, in Fleet-street, the following note: "Mr. Johnson sends compliments to Mr. Kearsley, and begs the favour of seeing him as soon as he can. Mr. Kearsley is desired to bring with him the last edition of what he has honoured with the name of BEAUTIES." "May 20, 1782." Young's copy of the Rambler, in which he has marked the passages which he thought particularly excellent, by folding down a corner of the page; and such as he rated in a super-eminent degree, are marked by double folds. I am sorry that some of the volumes are lost. Johnson was pleased when toid of the minute attention with which Young had signified his approbation of his Essays. I will venture to say, that in no writings whatever can be found more bark and steel for the mind, if I may use the expression ; more that can brace and invigorate every manly and noble sentiment. No. 32, on patience, even under extreme misery, is wonderfully lofty, and as much above the rant of stoicism, as the Sun of Revelation is brighter than the twilight of Pagan philoso- | phy. I never read the following sentence without feeling my frame thrill: "I think there is some reason for questioning whether the body and mind are not so proportioned, that the one can bear all which can be inflicted on the other; whether virtue cannot stand its ground as long as life, and whether a soul well principled will not be sooner separated than subdued." cy, and acurate description of real life, I a peal to No. 19, a man who wanders from profession to another, with most plausible reasons for every change: No. 34, female fastidiousness and timorous refinement: No 82, a Virtuoso who has collected curiosities: No. 88, petty modes of entertaining a c pany, and conciliating kindness: No. fortune-hunting: No. 194-195, a tutor account of the follies of his pupil: No. 15 -198, legacy-hunting: He has given a spe cimen of his nice observation of the ma external appearances of life, in the following passage in No. 179, against affectation. thi frequent and most disgusting quality: “Be that stands to contemplate the crowds that fill the streets of a populous city, will see many passengers, whose air and motions i will be difficult to behold without contem and laughter; but if he examine what the appearances that thus powerfully excite his risibility, he will find among them ne ther poverty nor disease, nor any invol tary or painful defect. The disposition to derision and insult is awakened by the saf ness of foppery, the swell of insolence. the liveliness of levity, or the solemnity deur; by the sprightly trip, the statera the formal strut, and the lofty me gestures intended to catch the eye, zd Tooks elaborately formed as evidences of Though instruction be the predominant purpose of the Rambler, yet it is enlivened with a considerable portion of amusement. Nothing can be more erroneous than the no-portance." tion which some persons have entertained, that Johnson was then a retired author, ignorant of the world; and, of consequence, that he wrote only from his imagination, Every page of the Rambler shews a mind teeming with classical allusion and poeticl imagery: illustrations from other writers are, upon all occasions, so ready, and ming so easily in his periods, that the whole appears of one uniform vivid texture. when he described characters and manners. He said to me, that before he wrote that work, he had been "running about the The style of this work has been censured world," as he expressed it, more than almost and any body; and I have heard him relate, turgid, and abounding with antiquated and with much satisfaction, that several of the hard words. So ill-founded is the first part characters in the Rambler were drawn so of this objection, that I will challenge al naturally, that when it first circulated in who may honour this book with a perusal t numbers, a club, in one of the towns of Es- point out any English writer whose sex, imagined themselves to be severally ex-guage conveys his meaning with equal fore hibited in it, and were much incensed against and perspicuity. It must, indeed, be allow a person who, they suspected, had thus made ed, that the structure of his sentences is exthem objects of public notice; nor were panded, and often has somewhat of the in they quieted till authentic assurance was version of Latin; and that he delighted to given them, that the Rambler was written express familiar thoughts in philosophical of them. Some of the characters are be- crates, who, it is said, reduced philosophy to life, particularly that of Prospero from Gar- attend to what he himself says in his con rick, who never entirely forgave its pointed satire. For instances of fertility of fancy, [That of GELIDUS in No. 24, from Professor Col son, (see p. 23, of this vol.) and that of EUPHUES in the same paper, which, with many others, was doubtless cluding paper: "When common words were less pleasing to the ear, or less distinct e their signification, I have familiarized the terms of philosophy, by applying them to as to the second part popular ideas."+ And, a of this objection, upon a late careful revi drawn from the life. EUPHUES, I once thought, might sion of the work, I can with confidence say, have been intended to represent either Lord Chesterfield or Soame Jenyns; but Mr. Bindley, with more probability, thinks, that George Bubb Dodington, who was remarkable for the homeliness of his person, and the finery of his dress, was the person meant under that character. M.] that it is amazing how few of those words, Yet his style did not escape the harmless shafts of pleasant humour; for the ingenious Bonnel Thornton published a mock Rambler in the Drury-lane Journal. for which it has been unjustly charactersed, are actually to be found in it; I am sure, not the proportion of one to ach paper. This idle charge has been echoed from one babbler to another, who have confounded Johnson 3 Essays with Johnson's Dictionary; and because he thought it right in a Lexicon of our language to collect many words which had fallen into disuse, but were supported by great authorities, it has been imagined that all of these have been interwoven into his own compositions. That some of them have been adopted by him unnecessarily, may, perhaps, be allowed; but, in general, they are evidently an advantage, for without them his stately ideas would be confined and cramped. "He that thinks with more extent than another, will want words of larger meaning.' ." He once told me, that he had formed his style upon that of Sir William Temple, and upon Chambers's Proposal for his Dictionary. He certainly was mistaken; or, if he imagined at first that he was imitating Temple, he was very unsuccessful; for nothing can be more unlike than the simplicity of Temple, and the richness of Johnson. Their styles differ as plain cloth and brocade. Temple, indeed, seems equally erroneous in supposing that he himself had formed his style upon Sandys's View of the State of Religion in the Western parts of the World. The style of Johnson was, undoubtedly, much formed upon that of the great writers in the last century, Hooker, Bacon, Sanderson, Hakewell, and others; those “GIANTS," as they were well characterised by A GREAT PERSONAGE, whose authority, were 1 to name him, would stamp a reverence on the opinion. We may, with the utmost propriety, apply to his learned style that passage of Horace, a part of which he has taken as the motto to his Dictionary; "Cum tabulis animum censoris sumet honesti : Idler, No. 70. [The Paper here alluded to, was, I believe, Chambers's Proposal for a second and improved edition of his Dictionary, which I think, appeared in 1738. This Proposal was probably in circulation in 1737, when Johnson first came to London. M.] [The author appears to me to have misunderstood Johnson in this instance. He did not, I conceive, mean to say, that, when he first began to write, he made Sir William Temple his model, with a view to form a style that should resemble his in all its parts; but that he formed his style on that of Temple and others; by taking from each those characteristic excellencies which were most worthy of imitation.-See this matter farther explained in this work, under April 9, 1778; where, in a conversation at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, Johnson himself mentions the particular improvements which Temple made in the English style. These, doubtless, were the objects of his imitation, so far as that writer was his model. M.] -Si forte necesse est Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum, Yet Johnson assured me, that he had not taken upon him to add more than four or five words to the English language, of his own information; and he was very much "modestly taken" in his time, not only to offended at the general licence by no means coin new words, but to use many words in senses quite different from their established meaning, and those frequently very fantastical. Sir Thomas Brown, whose life Johnson diction; and to his example we are to wrote, was remarkably fond of Anglo-Latin self in this kind of phraseology. ¶ Johnson's ascribe Johnson's sometimes indulging himcomprehension of mind was the mould for his language. Had his conceptions been easier. narrower, his expression would have been march, and it is certain, that his example His sentences have a dignified has given a general elevation to the language have approached very near to him; and, of his country, for many of our best writers from the influence which he has had upon our composition, scarcely any thing is writ. ten now that is not better expressed than was usual before he appeared to lead the national taste. This circumstance, the truth of which must strike every critical reader, has been so happily enforced by Mr. Courtenay, in his" Moral and Literary Character of Dr. Johnson," that I cannot prevail on myself to withhold it, notwithstanding his, perhaps, too great partiality for one of his friends: "By nature's gifts ordain'd mankind to rule, He, like a Titian, form'd his brilliant school, § Horat. Epist. Lib. ii. Epist. 2. v. 110. The observation of his having imitated Sir Thomas Brown has been made by many people; and lately it has been insisted on, and illustrated by a variety of quotations from Brown, in one of the popular Essays written by the Reverend Mr. Knox, master of Tunbridgeschool, whom I have set down in my list of those who have sometimes not unsuccessfully imitated Dr. Johnson's style. Our boasted GOLDSMITH felt the sovereign sway; To friends around his philosophic throne; 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. 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 taste 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 every body 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 The following observation in Mr. Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides may sufficiently account for that gentleman's being "now scarcely esteemed a Scot" by many of his countrymen: "If he (Dr. Johnson) was particularly prejudiced against the Scots, it was because they were more in his way; because he thought their success in England rather exceeded the due proportion of their real merit; and because he could not but see in them that nationality which, I believe, no liberalminded Scotchman will deny." Mr. Boswell, indeed, is so free from national prejudices, that he might with equal propriety have been described as "Scarce by South Britons now esteem'd a Scot." COURTENAY. 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 spe cies of excellence. But let us not ungrate fully undervalue that beautiful style, which has pleasingly conveyed to us much instrur. tion and entertainment. Though comparatively weak, opposed to Johnson's He culean vigour, let us not call it positively feeble. Let us remember the character f his style, as given by Johnson himself: "What he attempted, he performed: he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be ener getic; he is never rapid, and he never stag nates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods though not diligently rounded, are volub and easy. Whoever wishes to attain English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Add son."+ Though the Rambler was not concluded till the year 1752, I shall, under this year, say ail that I have to observe upon it Some of the translations of the mottos by himself, are admirably done. He acknow. ledges to have received "elegant transia Elphinston; and some are very happily tions" of many of them from Mr. Jame 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 his Rambler is at once dignified and pathetic upon society." The concluding paper of [When Johnson shewed 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 be 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. B.] I shall probably, in another work, maintain the merit of Addison's poetry, which has been very unjustly depreciated. [In the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1752, p. 468, he is styled," the Rev. Francis Lewis, of Chiswick," Lord Macartney, at my request, made some inquiry concerning him at that place, but no intelligence was ob tained. The translations of the mottos supplied by Mr. E phinston, appeared first in the Edinburgh edition of the Rambler, and in some instances were revised and inproved, probably by Johnson, before they were inserted in the London octavo edition. The translations of the mottos affixed to the first thirty numbers of the Rambler, were published, from the Edinburgh edition, in the Gent. Mag. for September, 1750, before the work was collected into volumes. M.] |