ridicule among the wits of the day. Indeed, its general details went so minutely into the memorabilia (if the expression may be used) of Johnson's temper, person, and character, for the time being, and portrayed, upon the whole, so many incongruous and ludicrous features, that it could not fail to afford a handle for satire. It was next to impossible that such a volume, on such a subject, should escape mockery from the muses, but more particularly the muse of Peter Pindar. Accordingly, the public had hardly ceased to smile at Mr. Boswell's good-humoured egotism, with his literary and travelling absurdities, when their risible faculties were again called into action by the facetious PETER's Poeti eal and Congratulatory Epistle.

This poem, which is at once playfully humorous and bitterly sarcastic, is in Peter's happiest vein; and, unlike many other personal satires, will at all times constitute a bonne bouche for the amateurs of that sort of writing. The characters, personal as well as literary, both of Johnson and Boswell, may be said to be now identified with the English language. He that is familiar with the one, must henceforth necessarily be familiar with the other. The ridicule in this instance, therefore, must, to an English reader, be just as fresh and piquant at the distance of a century, as it was at the very period in which it first dropped from the pen of its author.

BOZZY AND PIOZZI.

This mock-pastoral is generally allowed to be wrought up in the happiest manner of its author. The wit and ridicule it contains, are all directed against the absurd zeal displayed by Mr. Boswell and Mrs. Piozzi, in raking together so many minute and trifling incidents of Dr. Johnson's life, and afterward retailing them in their respective Biographies of him. According to the argument of the poem "these two Parties are supposed by the author to have in contemplation the LIFE OF JOHNSON, and to prove their biographical abilities, they are made to appeal to Sir John Hawkins (another Biogra

pher of the Rambler) for his decision on their respective merits, by quotations (versified) from their printed anecdotes of the Doctor. Sir John hears them with uncommon patience, and determines very properly on the pretensions of the contending parties." The reader will readily perceive how successfully the poet has executed this plan, and in how ludicrous a light the contending Biographers are exhibited.

HEROIC EPISTLE TO SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS, KNIGHT.

As an official personage, Sir William Chambers was of no small note in his time, holding among other good gifts the Comptroller-Generalship of His Majesty's Works; but not contented with such solid advantages, Sir William must needs sigh after the "bubble reputation," and become an author. He accordingly pubJished a bulky Dissertation on Oriental Gardening, in which he attempted to depreciate the natural designs of English Gardeners, and to introduce among his countrymen a taste for all 'the extravagant monstrosities usually exhibited in the Gardens of the Chinese. It was in ridicule of this ill-judged attempt that the Heroic Epistle was written, and the author completely succeeded in exposing the tasteless absurdity of Sir William, and his Eastern system. A fine vein of solemn irony, and delicate_though keen satire, runs through the whole poem. But the Comptroller-General and his work are not the only objects of its derision. His patrons, the King and the Courtiers, are alike involved in the charge of barbarism and bad taste, and all are compelled to writhe under the lash of the poet's ridicule and wit.

It has never been completely determined who was the writer of this satire. A person of the name of M'Gregor, published it and took the credit of its author ship, but it is generally understood that the real author, was Mr. Mason the Poet. The Heroic postscript to the public is a continuation of the poem by the same hand, on the same subject, and quite in the same spirit.

LONDON.

As a general satire, this poem is admitted to be one of the finest productions in the English language. it was originally published anonymously, but its merit was so conspicuous, that it reached a second edition in a single week, and at once stamped its author with the reputation of a man of genius. The biographers of Johnson state that he was then living in a sort of literary obscurity, as a mere contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine; and when he offered the poem to Mr. Cave, the publisher, it was "to dispose of for the benefit of the author, under very disadvantageous circumstances of fortune." "Cave," say they, "who had so much distinguished himself by his generous encouragement of poetry," communicated it to Dodsley, the bookseller, who had taste enough to perceive its merit, and who agreed to give ten guineas for the copyright; a sum utterly disproportioned to the author's labour and ingenuity; but he was actually in such distress, that the small profit which so short a poem could yield, was counted as a "relief," and received with gratitude. It came out on the same morning with Pope's satire, entitled "1738,"-and the general inquiry was-Whc, can be the author? Lyttleton, the instant it appeared, carried it in rapture to Pope, who then filled the poetical throne without a rival, and who was so struck with its merit, that he sought to discover the author, and prophesied his future fame, "Whoever he is," said he, "he will soon be deterre." Future events verified the prognostication, and Johnson came afterward to be in the literary world, what Pope then was-Lord of the ascendant.

The poem of London breathes the true vehement and contemptuous indignation of its Roman prototype, the third satire of Juvenal. It blazes forth with original fire in the liveliness of its correspondent allusions, the energy of its expressions, and the frequency of its apostrophes. Sometimes, however, the English poet takes from the Roman nothing more than the hiert

proving and illustrating it according to the originality of his own conceptions, or the warmth of his own fancy; and sometimes, in the true spirit of independent genius and power, he deserts him altogether-for it is not only where the modesty of an English ear, and the inapplicability of the original to modern customs require it, that he does so; but it is in places where the topics and the moral use are as applicable to London as they are to ancient Rome. Boileau has imitated the same satire with great success, applying it to Paris as Johnson has applied it to London; but it is generally admitted, on a comparison of the two poems, that the latter bears away the palm.

THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES.

In January 1749, eleven years after the publication of his London, Dr. Johnson gave to the world this second imitation of the Roman Satirist, with his name. Though his reputation as an author had, in the interval, been progressively advancing, yet he got from Dodsley only fifteen guineas for the copy right, with a reservation to print one edition for his own behoof. This production, generally speaking, is not equal as a whole to his poem of London: but in some particulars it may be considered superior. It has less of common life and the exaggeration of party spirit,-more of philosophic dignity, and sublime morality; and from beginning to end there is a nearer approximation to the lofty and energetic tone of the great Roman original. Indeed it has been said by some that it challenges a comparison with Juvenal in every line, and in several instances surpasses that perfect composition of which it only professes to be a paraphrase. In the original the Roman poet has taken his subject from the second "Alcibiades" of Plato, and intermixes various sentiments of Socrates, concerning the object of prayers offered up to the Deity. The general proposition is, that good and evil are so little understood by mankind, that their wishes, when granted, are always destructive. This is exemplified in a variety of instances,

The author of this poem is generally reputed the most merciless of English satirists. He is at all events, the most rough, vehement, and indiscriminate; but, withal, the most manly and vigorous of any that appeared betwixt his own times and those of Pope. The Rosciad, which was his first attempt in poetry, owed its birth to the success which attended a similar attempt by Lloyd, under the title of "The Actor," which was published in 1760. The applause with which that poem was received, induced Churchill to try his powers in the same line, though on a more personal plan. Having been always fond of dramatic entertainments, he had been a constant attendant of the Theatre, and an accurate observer of the several performers. His various observations on these ne imbodied in verse, and gave to the public anonymously in 1761, under the title of The Roscic; but, as the poem was invidiously ascribed to Thomson, Colman, and Lloyd, at that time the reigning triumvirate in the world of wit, he immediately reprinted it with his name, and claimed the honours of a satirical poet. Few poems have ever been better received by the public, and none more generally read. The subject was fami liar to every body-of course all entered into the spirit