1750. fignification, I have familiarifed the terms of philofophy, by applying them to popular ideas." And, as to the fecond part of this objection, upon a late Etat. 41. careful revifion of the work, I can with confidence fay, that it is amazing how few of thofe words, for which it has been unjustly characterised, are actually to be found in it; I am fure, not the proportion of one to each paper. This idle charge has been echoed from one babbler to another, who have confounded Johnfon's Effays with Johnfon's Dictionary; and because he thought it right in a Lexicon of our language to collect many words which had fallen into difufe, but were fupported by great authorities, it has been imagined that all of thefe have been interwoven into his own compofitions. That fome of them have been adopted by him unneceffarily, may, perhaps, be allowed; but, in general they are evidently an advantage, for without them his ftately 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 ftyle upon that of Sir William Temple, and upon Chambers's Propofal 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 fimplicity of Temple, and the richness of Johnson. Their styles differ as plain cloth and brocade. Temple, indeed, feems equally erroneous in fuppofing that he himself had formed his ftyle upon Sandys's Hiftory of all Religions. The style of Johnson was, undoubtedly, much formed upon that of the great writers in the laft century, Hooker, Bacon, Sanderson, Hakewell, and others; thofe "GIANTS," as they were well characterised by one whose authority, were I to name him, would stamp a reverence on the opinion. We may, with the utmost propriety, apply to his learned ftyle that paffage of Horace, a part of which he has taken as the motto to his Dictionary : "Cum tabulis animum cenforis fumet honefti : "Audebit quæcumque parùm fplendoris habebunt "Et fine pondere erunt, et honore indigna ferentur, "Verba movere loco, quamvis invita recedant, "Et verfentur adhuc intra penetralia Vestæ. Obfcurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque Proferet in lucem fpeciofa vocabula rerum, ◆ Yet his style did not escape the harmless shafts of pleasant humour; for the ingenious Bonnell Thornton published a mock Rambler in the Drury-lane Journal. To fo great a mafter of thinking, to one of fuch vaft and various knowledge as Johnfon, might have been allowed a liberal indulgence of that licence which Horace claims in another place: Si fortè neceffe eft "Indiciis monftrare recentibus abdita rerum, Continget, dabiturque licentia fumpta pudenter: Yet Johnson affured me, that he had not taken upon him to add more than four or five words to the English language, of his own formation; and he was very much offended at the general licence by no means "modeftly taken” in his time, not only to coin new words, but to ufe many words in senses quite different from their established meaning, and thofe frequently very fantastical. 典 Sir Thomas Brown, whofe life Johnfon wrote, was remarkably fond of Anglo-Latian diction; and to his example we are to afcribe Johnson's fometimes indulging himself in this kind of phrafeology. Johnson's comprehension 6 Horat. Epift. Lib. II. Epift. ii. 7 Horat. De Arte Poeticâ. The observation of his having imitated Sir Thomas Brown has been made by many people; and lately it has been infifted on and illuftrated by a variety of quotations from Brown in one of the popular Essays written by the Reverend Mr. Knox, mafter of Tunbridge school, whom I have fet down in my lift of those who have fometimes not unfuccefsfully imitated Dr. Johnson's ftyle. of ·1750. of mind was the mould for his language. Had his conceptions been narrower, his expreffion would have been easier. His fentences have a dignified Atat. 41. march; and, it is certain, that his example has given a general elevation to the language of his country, for many of our best writers have approached very near to him; and, from the influence which he has had upon our compofition, scarcely any thing is written now that is not better expreffed than was ufual before he appeared to lead the national taste. This circumftance, the truth of which must strike every critical reader, has been fo happily enforced by Mr. Courtenay, in his "Moral and Literary Character of Dr. Johnfon," that I cannot prevail on myself to withhold it, notwithstanding his, perhaps, too great partiality for one of his friends: сс By Nature's gifts ordain'd mankind to rule, 1750. Etat. 41, "Amid these names can BOSWELL be forgot, "As Nile's proud waves, fwol'n from their oozy bed, Johnson's language, however, must be allowed to be too mafculine for the delicate gentleness of female writing. His ladies, therefore, feem ftrangely formal, even to ridicule; and feem well denominated by the names which he has given them, as, Mifella, 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 ftyle of Addison as nerveless and feeble, because it has not the ftrength and energy of that of Johnson. Their profe 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 wife and accomplished companion is talking to them, so that he infinuates his fentiments 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 impreffed upon them by his commanding The following obfervation in Mr. Bofwell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides may sufficiently account for that gentleman's being now scarcely esteem'd a Scot" by many of his countrymen: "If he [Dr. Johnfon] was particularly prejudiced against the Scots, it was because they were more in his way; because he thought their fuccefs in England rather exceeded the due proportion of their real merit; and because he could not but fee in them that nationality which, I believe, no liberal-minded Scotchman will deny." Mr. Bofwell, indeed, is fo free from national prejudices, that he might with equal propriety have been defcribed as "Scarce by South Britons now esteem'd a Scot." COURTENAY. eloquence. 1750. eloquence. Addison's ftyle, like a light wine, pleafes every body from the first. Johnson's, like a liquor of more body, seems too strong at first, but, by Etat. 41. degrees, is highly relished; and fuch is the melody of his periods, fo much do they captivate the ear, and seize upon the attention, that there is scarcely any writer, however inconfiderable, who does not aim, in fome degree, at the fame fpecies of excellence. But let us not ungratefully undervalue that beautiful ftyle, which has pleafingly conveyed to us much inftruction and entertainment. Though comparatively weak, when opposed to Johnson's Herculean vigour, let us not call it pofitively feeble. Let us remember the character of his style, as given by Johnson himself: "What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetick; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His fentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarfe, and elegant but not oftentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addifon '." Though the Rambler was not concluded till the year 1752, I fhall, under this year, fay all that I have to obferve upon it. Some of the tranflations of the mottos by himself, are admirably done. He acknowledges to have received" elegant tranflations" of many of them from Mr. James Elphinston; and fome are very happily tranflated by a Mr. F. Lewis, of whom I never heard more, except that Johnson thus defcribed him to Mr. Malone: "Sir, he lived in London, and hung loofe upon fociety." The concluding paper of his Rambler is at once dignified and pathetick. I cannot, however, but wish, that he had not ended it with an unneceffary Greek verse, translated also into an English couplet. It is too much like the conceit of those dramatick poets, who used to conclude each act with a rhyme; and the expression in the first line of his couplet, " Celestial powers," though proper in Pagan poetry, is ill fuited to Chriftianity, with a conformity to which he confoles himself. How much better would it have been, to have ended with the prose sentence, “I shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other caufe, if I can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth." His friend Dr. Birch being now engaged in preparing an edition of Raleigh's maller pieces, Dr. Johnson wrote the following letter to that gentleman: I shall probably, in another work, maintain the merit of Addifon's poetry, which has been very unjustly depreciated. |