his friend Mr. John Nichols, what perhaps he alone could have done, a list of the authours of the Universal History,' mentioning their several shares in that work. It has, according to his direction, been deposited in the British Museum, and is printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for December, 1784. account of the writers; with reasons for selection, and criticism upon styles; remarks on each letter, if needful. "A collection of Proverbs from various languages. Jan. 6-53. "A Dictionary to the Common Prayer, in imitation of Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible. March-52. "A Collection of Stories and Examples, like :hose of Valerius Maximus. Jan. 10-53. "From Ælian, a volume of select Stories, perhaps from others. Jan. 28-53. "Collection of Travels, Voyages, Adventures, and Descriptions of Countries. "Dictionary of Ancient History and Mythology. "Treatise on the Study of Polite Literature, containing the history of learning, directions for editions, commentaries, &c. "Maxims, Characters, and Sentiments, after the manner of Bruyère, collected out of ancient authours, particularly the Greek, with Apophthegms. "Classical Miscellanies, Select Translations from ancient Greek and Latin authours. "Lives of illustrious persons, as well of the active as the learned, in imitation of Plutarch. "Judgement of the learned upon English authours. "Poetical Dictionary of the English tongue. "Considerations upon the present state of London. "Collection of Epigrams, with notes and observations. "Observations on the English language, relating to words, phrases, and modes of Speech. "Minutia Literariæ, Miscellaneous reflections, criticisms, emendations, notes. "History of the Constitution. Comparison of Philosophical and Christian Morality, by sentences collected from the moralists and fathers. "Plutarch's Lives in English, with notes. "POETRY and works of Imagination. During his sleepless nights he amused himself by translating into Latin verse, from the Greek, many of the epigrams in the Anthologia. These translations, with some other poems by him in Latin, he gave to his friend Mr. Langton, who, having added a few notes, sold them Johnson's extraordinary facility of composition, when he shook off his constitutional indolence, and resolutely sate down to write, is admirably described by Mr. Courtenay, in his "Poetical Review," which I have several times quoted: "While through life's maze he sent a piercing view, His mind expansive to the object grew. With various stores of erudition fraught, The lively image, the deep-searching thought, Slept in repose ;-but when the moment press'd, As womb'd with fire the cloud electrick flies, We shall in vain endeavour to know with exact precision every production of Johnson's pen. He owned to me, that he had written about forty sermons; but as I understood that he had given or sold them to different persons, who were to preach them as their own, he did not consider himself at liberty to acknowledge them. Would those who were thus aided by him, who are still alive, and the friends of those who are dead, fairly inform the world, it would be obligingly gratifying a reasonable curiosity, to which there should, I think, now be no objection.-I have lying before me, in his hand-writing, a fragment of twenty quarto leaves, of a translation into English of Sallust, De Bello Catalinario. When it was done I have no notion; but it seems to have no very superior merit to mark it as his. Besides those publications, which with all my chronological care I have ascertained in the course of this work, I am satisfied, from internal evidence, to admit also as genuine the following: "Considerations on the Case of Dr. Trapp's Sermons," + published in 1739, in the Gentleman's Magazine. It is a very ingenious defence of the right of abridging an authour's work, without being held as infringing his property. This is one of the nicest questions in the Law of Literature; and I cannot help thinking, that the indulgence of abridging is often exceedingly injurious to authours and booksellers, and should in very few cases be permitted. Dedication for Mrs. Lennox to the Earl of Middlesex, of her "Female Quixote," in 1762.+ Preface to the Catalogue of the Artists' Exhibition in 1762.† Preface to Baretti's "Easy Lessons in Italian and English," in 1775.† But, though it has been confidently ascribed to him, I cannot allow that he wrote a Dedication to both Houses of Parliament of a book entitled "The Evangelical History Harmonized." He was no croaker; no declaimer against the times. He would not have written, "That we are fallen upon an age in which corruption is not barely universal, is universally confessed." Nor, "Rapine preys on the publick without opposition, and perjury betrays it without inquiry.' Nor would he, to excite a speedy reformation, have conjured up such phantoms of terrour as these : "A few years longer, and perhaps all endeavours will be in vain. We may be swallowed by an earthquake; we may be delivered to our enemies." This is not Johnsonian. There are indeed, in this Dedication, several sentences constructed upon the Cor. et Ad.-After line 34 of note, read-" At any rate, to prevent difficult and uncertain discussion, and give an absolute security to authours in the property of their labours, no abridgement whatever should be permitted, till after the expiration of such a number of years as the Legislature may be pleased to fix." to the booksellers for a small sum, to be given to some of Johnson's relations, which was accordingly done; and they are printed in the collection of his works. A very erroneous notion has circulated as to Johnson's deficiency in the knowledge of the Greek language, partly owing to the modesty with which, from knowing how much there was to be learnt, he used to mention his own comparative acquisitions. When Mr. Cumberland talked to him of the Greek fragments which are so well illustrated in "The Observer," and of the Greek dramatists in general, he candidly acknowledged his insufficiency in that particular branch of Greek literature. Yet it may be said, that though not a great, he was a good Greek scholar. Mr. Burney, who is universally acknowledged by the best judges, to be one of the few men of this age who are very eminent for their skill in that noble language, has assured me, that Johnson could give a Greek word for almost every English one; and that although not sufficiently conversant in the niceties of the language, he upon some occasions discovered, even in these, a considerable degree of critical acumen. Mr. Dalzell, Professor of Greek at Edinburgh, whose skill in it is unquestionable, mentioned to me, in very liberal terms, the impression which was made upon him by Johnson, in a conversation which they had in London concerning that language. As Johnson, therefore, was undoubtedly one of the first Latin scholars in modern times, let us not deny to his fame some additional splendour from Greek. model of those of Johnson. But the imitation of the form, without the spirit of his style, has been so general, that this of itself is not sufficient evidence. Even our news-paper writers aspire to it. In an account of the funeral of Edwin the comedian, in "The Diary" of Nov. 9, 1790, that son of drollery is thus described: "A man who had so often cheered the sullenness of vacancy, and suspended the approaches of sorrow. I have not thought it necessary to specify every copy of verses written by Johnson, it being my intention to publish an authentick edition of all his Poetry, with Notes. Mr. Cumberland assures me, that he was always treated with great courtesy by Dr. Johnson, who, in his "Letters to Mrs. Thrale," Vol. II. p. 68, thus speaks of that learned, ingenious, and accomplished gentleman: "The want of company is an inconvenience: but Mr. Cumberland is a million." Cor. et Ad.-Line 12: For "Mr. Burney," read "Dr. Charles Burney the younger." Ibid. After line 6 of notes read:"And in The Dublin Evening Post,' August 16, 1791, there is the following paragraph: 'It is a singular circumstance, that in a city like this, containing 200,000 people, there are three months in the year during which no place of public amusement is open. Long vacation is here a vacation from pleasure, as well as business; nor is there any mode of passing the listless evenings of declining summer, but in the riots of a tavern, or the stupidity of a coffee-house." 1 "Twenty pounds, to which Lady Di Beauclerk added 30. due to her hus band out of Johnson's estate.”—Haw. kins. I shall now fulfil my promise of exhibiting specimens of various sorts of imitations of Johnson's style.1 In the "Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1787," there is an "Essay on the Style of Dr. Samuel Johnson," by the Rev. Robert Burrowes, whose respect for the great object of his criticism is thus evinced in the concluding paragraph: "I have singled him out from the whole body of English writers, because his universally acknowledged beauties would be most apt to induce imitation; and I have treated rather on his faults than his perfections, because an essay might comprize all the observations I could make upon his faults, while volumes would not be sufficient for a treatise on his perfections." Mr. BURROWES has analysed the composition of Johnson, and pointed out its peculiarities with much acuteness; and I would recommend a careful perusal of his Essay to those, who being captivated by the union of perspicuity and splendour which the writings of Johnson contain, without having a sufficient portion of his vigour of mind, may be in danger of becoming bad copyists of his manner. I however cannot but observe, and I observe it to his credit, that this learned gentleman has himself caught no mean degree of the expansion and harmony which, independent of all other circumstances, characterise the sentences of Johnson. Thus, in the Preface to the volume in which his Essay appears, we find, "If it be said that in societies of this sort, too much attention is frequently bestowed on subjects barren and speculative, it may be answered, that no one science is so little connected with the rest, as not to afford many principles whose use may extend considerably beyond the science to which they primarily belong; and that no proposition is so purely theoretical as to be totally incapable of being applied to practical purposes. There is no apparent connection between duration and the cycloidal arch, the properties of which duly attended to, have furnished us with our best regulated methods of measuring time: and he who has made himself master of the nature and affections of the logarithmick curve, is not aware that he has advanced considerably towards ascertaining the proportion • We must smile at a little inaccuracy of metaphor in the Preface to the Transactions, which is written by Mr. Burrowes. The critick of the style of Johnson having, with a just zeal for literature, observed, that the whole nation are called on to exert themselves, afterwards says: "They are called on by every tye which can have a laudable influence on the heart of man." 1 What follows is, perhaps, the only passage in Boswell's work which we would wish away; and it seems strange how so artistic a workman should have suspended his narrative at such an inte re-ting point to introduce these dull illustrations. able density of the 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, which appeared in the news-papers : "Cervisial coctor's viduate dame, Opin'st thou this gigantic frame, 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. 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 Johnson's wishing to unite himself with this rich widow was much talked of, but I believe without foundation. The report, however, gave occasion for 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 BondCor. et Ad.-To above note add: "I shall quote as a specimen, the first three street. stanzas : "If e'er my fingers touch'd the lyre, In satire fierce, in pleasure gay; "My dearest Lady! view your slave, "To rich felicity thus raised, My bosom glows with amorous fire, 'Tis I MYSELF am Thrale's Entire."" "I believe so too," writes the lady opposite this passage. |