Remarks on Dr. JoHNSON's Lives of the Posts. (Continued from p. 510.) PRIOR. Vol. III. p. 3: "He was perhaps willing enough to leave his birth unfettled, in hope, like Don Quixote, that the hiftorian of his actions might find him fome illuftrious alliance." This does not well agree with his own epitaph, "Nobles and heralds," &c. which breathes a fpirit of bravado against ancestry. P. 12. "There was now a call for writers, who might convey intelligence of paft abafes, &c." There feems to be at prefent "a call for writers" to explore the reafon why all the world almoft have confpired against a nation which has spent its blood and treafures in defence of the rights of mankind. P. 39. "Whatever Prior obtains above mediocrity, feems the effect of struggle and toil. He has many vigorous, but few happy, lines; he has every thing by purchafe, and nothing by gift; he had no nightly vii tations of the Mufe, no infufions of fentiment or felicities of fancy." It requires fuch a judge as Dr. Johnfon to make thefe difcriminations; who, upon the whole, allows Prior wit, art, and metre, but not genius; and if he had not the gift of poetical fleep, he had a coufiderable share in procuring repofe to Europe. CONGREVE. P. 48. "The Old Batchelor was written for amufement, in the languor of convalefcence." "Languor of convalefcence." A truly Johnfonian expreffion. P. 66. "By fate of war to prove It is making very free with the ladies' epithet "fair," to apply it to a heifer. Though a more modern poet might with propriety compare their heads to bulls faces. P. 68. "The general character of his Mifcellanies is, that they thew little wit, and little virtue." The Doctor and I can never agree as to wit, who prefume there are fometimes, if not too much wit, too many witticisms. BLACKMORE. P. 87. "The reft of the Lay Monks feem to be but feeble mortals, in comparison with the gigantick Johnfon; who yet, with all his abilities, and the help of the fraternity, could drive the publication but to forty papers, which were afterwards collected into a volume, and called in the title A Sequel to the Spectators*. Thefe biographies form together the literary hiftory of a whole century. However, there feems to be here a mistake about Hughes, who, our author informs us, "wrote every third paper." Now it is well known, that he contributed largely to the Spectator, and therefore, according to the account of "the bookfeller to the reader," prefixed to the eighth volume of the Speriator, could have no hand in the Lay Monoftery t. P. 88. "His [Blackmore's] account of Wit will fhew with how little clearuefs he is content to think, and how little his thoughts are recommended by his language." This cenfure, though fevere, is too juft. As Blackmore at one time wrote in the style of the merchant and trader, fo in this defcription of genius rather than of wit, he difcovers the phyfician. P. 92. "One paffage, which I have found already twice, I will here exhibit, becaufe I think it better imagined, and better expreffed, than could be expected from the common tenour of his profe." It is clear that many put confidence in an accidental profeffion of a religion without the practice, and in a thoughtless care of their country, without any regard for it. The former are calculated for the Romish religion, and the latter for French patrio. tifm. I have often wondered at a peculiar inconfiftency in perfons who will difpute for ever about a perch of ground, which they would not mifs, at the fame time that they will give or throw away fifty times the va lue. As to a human being's entire contiftence with himfelf, it is no more to be ex pected than perfection. Video meliora, proboque, FENTON. P. 113. "Mariamne is written in lines of ten fyllables, with few of thofe redundant terminations which the drama not only admits but requires, as more nearly approaching to real dialogue." I imagine our author, by "redundant tetminations," means eleven fyllables, of which This is a mistake. In the volume now lying before us, they are entitled only "The Lay Monaftery, confifting of effays, difcourfis, &c. published fingly under the title of the Lay Monks. London, 1714." EDIT. And he The book feller, in the above-mentioned account, averred, that "no papers, which had appeared under the title of Sp-ator fince the clofing of the eighth volume, were written by any of thofe gentlemen who had a hand in that or the former volumes." faid true. For the Lay Monafery was published before, the last of thofe papers being dated Fb. 15, 1713, and the firft of the eighth volume of the Spedator June 18, 1714. Nor was the former (as above-mentioned) ftyled Spectater. That Mr. Hughes wrote the Fri day's papers in the Lay Monattery, is most certain, from a letter of his to Mr. Addifon in the 1 colume of Letters of Eminent Perfons, [.124. EDIT. GENT. MAO. Decomber, 1781. Shak P. 225. "He was fo much afhamed of having been reduced to appear as a player, that he always blotted out his name from the lift, when a copy of his tragedy was to be fhewn to his friends." This foolish pride almoft "blots out"' one's feelings for his fufferings. He had the two greatest curfes incident to humanity in their full extent, poverty and pride. I believe they engender each other. P. 245. "He always himself denied that he was drunk, as had been generally re P. 127. "His friends perfuaded him to fell_ported." his fhare" [of the South Sea ftock in 1720.] With all due fubmiffion to the Lexicographer, apprehend that " endeavoured to perfuade" would have been more proper; perfuade to" being nearly fynonymous to "prevail with." P. 137. "His Fables feem to have been a favourite work; for, having published one volume, he left another behind him." Experience proves them to be excellent. The form of them, I think, is original, and they have not yet, nor will foon be, equalled. If they may not justly be called Fables, I am fure Dryden's tranflations, known by that appellation, have no claim to it. The lady's remark on Gay is in general juft. He was not a great genius, but a witty and adroit writer; and had much nature as well as true burleique. It is observed, that Pope has remarked his fimplicity, and Johnfon his vanity. LANSDOWN, We may perceive, was a lord and a lover. P. 163. "Awhile th' Almighty wonder ing ftood." It cannot be fuppofed that this was meant literally. TICKELL. P. 179. "To Tickell, however, cannot be refufed a high place among the minor poets." If by the term "minor poet" the bulk of his poetry be meant, he may properly be fo called; but if the quality, it is a difparagement to him, who was doubtlefs an excellent writer. In the latter fenfe I think Gay more properly denominated a "minor poet,' who was a pretty writer, but much inferior to Tickell. I fcruple not to prefer his poetry to Addifon's, but that age did not afford a rival to the latter in profe. HAMMOND. P. 186. "He was unextinguishably amorous, and his miftrefs inexorably cruel." Poor man! P. 187. "Dryden, whofe knowledge of SAVAGE. That, I am fure, did not mend the matter. I fuppofe then that he called it a duel in warm blood; and an extraordinary one it was with Sinclair, and still more fo with the maid. P. 261. Good is the confequence of evil," is a pofition which ought to be quali fied. Who would not do evil, if good were to come of it? P. 264. "That he fold fo valuable a performance +, &c." He was in an extraordinary manner at once careless about the prefent and the future, with a quick fenfe of both; it being difficult to determine which he valued moft, a good dinner, or reputation. So Horace fays, Carpe diem, and Exegi monumentum, &c. P. 265. "The farther we read, the more we are convinced of the ftrange oppofition in his character. He was kind to his perjured accufer, and ungrateful to a generous patron. He was precife and extravagant, tragical and capricious. P. 274. "He had never fuffered any thought fo unpleafing to fink into his mind." Prudence and genius are feldom united. By culling this biography, and arranging the felections, an excellent account of genius might be obtained. What a happy thoughtleffuefs did he poffefs, whe could at cafe entertain his companions and himself with gibes and pleasantry, when an empty pocket would have been continually in the thoughts of another! So comes the reck'ning, when the banquet's o'er, The dreadful reck'ning, and men smile no more, was not anticipated by him. I cannot help dwelling on his inconfiliency, to accurate and careless, witty and foolish, fenfible and wrong-headed, as he was. P. 276." He was then able to difcern, that, if mifery be the effect of virtue, it ought to be reverenced; if of ill-fortune, to be pitied; and if of vice, not to be infulted; because it is perhaps itself a punishment adequate to the crime by which it was produced." The last part of this fentence is inadvertently too favourable to vice; inculcating that vice, may perhaps be expiated by its "A female critic," who, Dr. J. fays, ftyled him " a poet of a lower order," ↑ The Wanderer. inverted inverted reward, and confequently weaken- It is ftrange, that, in fuch a country as this, fuch outrages fhould be heard of, and that the fufferer had better fit down quietly, than feek legal redrefs. At least, this was the cafe before the paffing of the laft privilege-bill; which, excellent as it is, wants one amendment to render it efficacious; which is this, that where the jury give damages to a certain amount, to be fpecified, the plaintiff thould have, not nominal, but real, costs of fuit, with a privilege, however, for the defendant to tax them. This would at once be a check on the shame ful impofitions of attorneys, and transfer the additional expence of afcertaining them from the injured to the injurer. P. 280. "The fpirit of Mr. Savage, indeed, never fuffered him to folicit a reconciliation." I prefume, that it may be pronounced impoffible for a gentleman of fpirit to live long contentedly in a state of dependence on a fellow-fubject. Mankind are too wayward for each other to preferve a due medium. The fuperior will generally act the rigid churchman, and the inferior the ftubborn puritan. "Mrs. Oldfield had formerly P. 291. given him the fame allowance." The liberality of this actress deferves to be recorded in a work that bids fair for im mortality. Thefe lives, in the ease and familiarity of the manner, much resemble thofe of Plutarch, and much exceed them by the vein of pleafantry interfperfed. If we may judge by the numerous paltry fayings of his heroes, the Greek biographer had but an indifferent idea of bon mots; the few recorded by Johnfon are greatly fuperior. It is remarkable, that one immortal writer immortalifes numbers, and even his enemies whom he corrects. P. 297. "Mr. Savage thought it neceffary, to his own vindication, to profecute him in the King's Bench." A law-redrefs was wanting to complete his ruin. P. 316. "On a bulk, in a cellar, or in a glafs-houfe among thieves and beggars, was to be found the author of the Wanderer." What answer would a curious enquirer have to the question, whether there are pleafures peculiar to every fituation? "the want of lodging and food" was forely one of the worft confequences of "negle&t." P. 328. When he had wandered about without any fortunate adventure by which he was led into a tavern, &c." Yet he was wifer in fpending his money at a tavern, than a gamefter who gives it to a fharper. In this Gay was not unlike him. P. 346. He attempted in Wales to promote a fubfcription for his works, and had once hopes of fuccefs; but in a fhort time afterwards formed a refolution of leaving that part of the country." It was as impoffible for Mercury to stand ftill, as for him to be fatisfied or at reft any where. P. 347. "But it must be granted, &c." Savage might be compared to a barrel of gun-powder. He was fo combuftible, that the leaft fpark was fure to blow him up. There is no doubt that he thought his Welsh Aphelion accompanied with a hard froft, deteftable. P. 372. "It is not without fome fatisfaction, that I can produce the fuffrage of Savage in favour of human nature." He appears to have been little fenfible of his own waywardness and wrong-headednefs. And it is hard to conceive what elfe fhould induce him to think well of mankind. This life is written in fo entertaining and difcriminating a manner, that if I had an inclination to cavil, I fee fcarce any occafion. Having been published many years ago by itself, it is more copious than the others, but few, I believe, will think our author prolix, or guilty of tautology. Nor is it poffible, in nice difcriminations, to avoid paffages nearly inconfiftent, without circumlocution and explanatious, which the reader must himself fupply. It is in niceties that excellence of ftyle is confpicuous. Moft writers would have found the life of Savage a maze in which they would have nearly been loft. Our author has, with great skill, divided the wheat from the chaff. Savage was cut out for and cut off from high life. He knew wherein its pleafa.es confift. Befides his moft extraordinary reafon for prolonging evening converfations, he knew, that fuppers and late hours are the times for conviviality, "For manly, for rational mirth to the foul O'er the focial fweet joys of the full-flowing bowl," in towns efpecially, when the local ftory, the jeft and the glass, are not interrupted by intruding bufinefs, when fnugnefs is fecured by the fhades of night, and reft may fucceed fatiety. Agreeably to her ufual perverfeneis, Fortune placed him at Briftol, instead of Bath, where pounds fterling were undoubredly preferred to his wit. Yet his colloquial powers had weight even there. His was altogether a moft ftriking character. Ld. Tyrconnel. P. 323. "The great hardships of poverty were to Savage not the want of lodging or food, but the negligence and contempt which it drew upon him." This is an odd affertion, and not very confiftens with one three pages before. Befides, SWIFT. P. 401. ed, of which the nation was then firft informed, that the war was unneceffarily protracted, to fill the pockets of Marlborough." It is to be feared, that there was fome truth in this affertion. That is now no longer doubt P. 420. "Gulliver's Travels." Our author feems at a loss how to criticife this piece. As to its being "written (p. 421) ia open defiance of truth and regularity," to which "mankind" might have been added; it is pot more fo than romances and feveral heroick poems. His knowledge of fea terms appears extraordinary. I believe I may obferve of this piece, as I did of the Beggar's Opera, that it is an original not likely to be imitated, nevertheis not faultlefs. P. 426. "Swift never mentioned her [Stella] without a figh." His conduct to her has been always deemed frange, cruel, and myfterious; nor does our author give us much fatisfaction in this point. He writes, which is very unufual with him, without imparting knowledge. P. 445. "From the letters that paffed between him and Pope it might be inferred, that they, with Arbuthnot and Gay, had engroffed all the understanding of mankind; that their merits filled the world; or that there was no hope of more." plane to the eye, the intersection of this ray with the plane is called the perfpective projection of that point of the object, upon the interpofed plane. If all the boundary lines of the object, and of the several parts of the object, be projected in like manner on an interpofed plane, this is called the Sebenography, or view of the object in perspective. It i evident that the rays from the feveral points or lines of fuch a perfpective drawing, when viewed in the proper place, fall on the eye in the fame manner as if they came from the correfponding points or lines of the object itfelf; and hence it is concluded that fuch a drawing, properly coloured and thaded, must of neceffity excite the fame idea that the object itself does. However plaufible this may feem, it is by no means univerfally true. In many cafes experience, and the fuggeftions of the other fenfes, greatly alter the ideas originally acquired by fight only. Nothing fhews this fo plainly as viewing any landfcape, first in that posture in which we are accustomed to fee all objects, and then in any unusual posture; as lying along on one tide, looking between the legs, &c. * In the latter cafe these objects will appear both remote and diminished. The ideas excited in the mind, though the rays fall in the fame manner on the eye, are yet very different. The fame is true, if a natural landfcape be feen by reflection, efpecially in a convex mirFor; which, though it diminishes the whole picture, alters not the proportion of the several parts; yet when fo feen, the view look vaftly more picturefque than when feen as ufual by the naked eye; and it is now become a fashion among the opticians to make convex-glaffes for this purpose, which they call Claude Lorrains. Again, if from the eye there be drawn a line perpendicular to the plane on which the projection is made, the point where this line cats the drawing, is called the centre of the picture; this line, continued on to the object, fhews what part of the object is projected into the centre of the picture. Now that the rays from the picture may fall upon the eye in the fame Before I close this volume I must obferve, manner as if they came from the object itthat, by adopting a ftyle familiar and nearly felf, the eye muft be placed in that line, and colloquial, Dr. Johnfon rather talks than at the fame diftance from the picture as when writes to his reader; that he directs him on the projection was made. But we find by a new-made road to knowledge as if prefent, experience, that though the eye be neither informs him of the characters, circumftan-placed in that line, nor at that distance, yet ces, and incidents of the inhabitants as he paffes along, and ftops with him now and then for refreshment, becoming his friend as well as fellow-traveller. It must be confeffed, that whatever was their virtue, there was no knot of friends, after the diffolution of Button's, that could rival half a dozen of them in genius. P. 447. "Delany is willing to think, that Swift's mind was not much tainted with this grofs corruption before his long vifit to Pope." This is the first time I ever heard that Swift learned naflinefs from Pope. Whether it was the effect of his delicacy, or he really loved naftiness, his descriptions were original and his own. The Doctor has characterifed Swift's poetry with accuracy and concifenefs. But" proper words in proper places" is not, in my opinion, a very fatisflory definition of style. the idea fuggefted by the picture will not be altered, unless the change of place be very great. Although the rays do not come in their original direction to the eye, yet if the colouring, the light and fhade (Chiaroscuro), be properly executed, the true idea of the obj& ittelf will be excited. In the former cafe the ideas were different, though the rays fell in the fame manner on the eye; in the latter, the ideas are the fame, though the rays fall on the eye in a different manner. Certain it is, that no pretence will appear true in perspective, except when the eye is placed oppofite to what is called the point of fight. EDIT. It follows from what has been faid, that, if we would have a picture excite the very fame idea with the object itself, we muft, in many cafes, depart from the geometrical rules of perfpective. The affociation of ideas we form in our minds, muft be humoured. Thefe affociations are amazingly quick and forcible; we fee how very few lines, artfully drawn, will inftantly fuggeft the whole idea of a man's perfon with whom we are acquainted. It is impoffible to enumerate thofe cafes in which the rules of art are fuperfeded by the rules of nature. The fanciful affociations on which depends our estimate in idea of diftanes, magnitudes, and many other appearances, are so fubtile that they elude our most diligent enquiries. From what affociation of ideas it is that the moon, in our imagination (for it is in imagination only) appears larger when near the horizon, than when vertical, is not yet fatisfactorily made out. Neither Dr. Smith's principle, nor any one fimple principle, will account for our judgement of apparent diftances and magnitudes in all cafes. But that there are cafes where the mathematical rules of perfpective must be departed from, to make the reprefentation at all natural, we fhall fhew in one or two inftances. Suppofe a perfon to view a tall pillar of ftone at the diftance of 20 yards. Let the face of the pillar be an upright plane, all of a breadth. Let the courfes of ftone in the face be horizontal, and each one yard thick. Let it be viewed directly; that is, let a line from the eye to the middle of the pillar, and parallel to the horizon, be also perpendicular to the face of the pillar. In fuch a cafe, no one doubts but the courfes of ftone near the top of the pillar would feem less than the courfes of ftone at the bottom, which are level with the eye; and it is the practice of all painters to draw them thus, as the term for fo doing, viz. Foreshortening, implies: and this is done when the plane on which the picture is drawn is confidered as upright, and parallel to the face of the pillar, which is ufually fuppofed. But according to the rules of perfpective, the courfes of stone, both at top and bottom, fhould be drawn all of a fize, and no foreshortening allowed. All figures drawn on the upright face of the pillar, will alfo be projected into fimilar figures. A circle drawn at the top of the pillar, as well as a circle at the bottom, will in the projection be a circle; though one is feen directly, the other obliquely. Similar to this is the reprefentation of a long wall on a picture parallel to it; which, according to the rules of perfpective, fhould be drawn of the fame height at its utmost extent, as directly oppofite to the eye, notwithstanding in idea it feems of a lefs height the further it is extended. But the most fingular cafe is that of a row of columns, or round upright pillars. Suppofe a number of cylinders, equal to each other in diameter and height respectively, to ftand upright on an horizontal plane, ́in a right line, and at equal distances. Let thefe be fchenographically projected on an upright plane, parallel to the row of pillars, or parallel to that plane in which the axes of thofe cylinders do all lie. Then, first, in the perfpective reprefentation, every one of thefe pillars must be drawn of an height, the remoteft as well as the neareft. Secondly, their d'ameters will be different. The diameter of that pillar which is directly oppofite to the eye, and the gearet, will in the projection be the leaf. This falls upon the centre of the picture. The diameters of the other pillars in the projection must increase more and more as they recede from the centre of the picture, and as their real diftance from the eye continually increafes. The remoteft pillar muft be painted the largest, and the neareft pillar the leaft. This is the unavoidable confequence of the geometrical rules of perfpective; but would fuch a reprefentation be natural? It may be faid, that if the eye be in the proper place when the picture is viewed, thefe remote pillars in the projection will be fen fo obliquely, that they will appear under a lefs angle than the central pillar, though their linear dimenfions may be greater. What might be the cafe if the picture was feen through an hole, or in fuch a way that the frame and all thofe circumstances which fuggeft the idea of a flat canvas were concealed, is hard to fay: in fact, thefe, and other like circumstances neither are, nor can be concealed; and when they are, the picture fuggefts the fame idea, whether the eye be, or be not in the exact point of view. Look at any well-drawn perfpective view of a building, coloured, in the common reflecting optic box, and you will fee no difference in thifting the place of the picture in the bottom of the box. Mr. Highmore published, in 1754, “ A Critical Examination of the Paintings on the Cieling of the Banqueting House at Whitehall." His objections to a groundless violation of the rules of perfpective in thefe paintings, are juft; yet furely he blames Mr. Kirby without reafon for maintaining "that all objects ought to be painted as they appear to the eye; and fince the fallacies of vision are fo many and great, it is reafonable in fome cafes to depart from the ftrict rules of m thematical perspective." Indeed to lay down rules for afcertaining the quantity of fuch departure, as Mr. Kirby does, is abfurd in a cafe where it is determined that triết rules cannot be admitted. It is a matter of complaint that a skill in mathematics fo prejudices fome, that they This pamphlet has been thought by moft mathematicians (particularly the late Peter Devall, Efq.) and intelligent painters to have fcientifically establified a principle directly oppofite to that of this ingenious correfpondent. EDIT. |