THE POETICAL WORKS OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, L. L. D. WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. BURLINGTON, N.J. PRINTED AND SOLD, BI, DAVID ALLINSON, 2816. Extract from Dr. Aikin's Letter to a young lady on a Course of English Poetry. AN example of what may be done by strong sense, learning. and cultivated taste, towards producing valuable poetry, without a truly poetical genius; is afforded by several pieces in verse of the celebrated Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON, whøse great name in lite. rature has been acquired by his prose compositions. The walk in which a writer so qualified is most likely to succeed, is that of the morally didactick: energy of language, vigour and com. pass of thought, and correctness of versification, are the princi. pal requisites for the moral poet; and few have possessed them in a higher degree than the author in question." His imitations of two satires of Juvenal, under the title of “ London,” and “The Vanity of Human Wishes," are, per haps, the most manly compositions of the kind in our language: the Roman poet is distinguished by the earnest and pointed severity of his invective, as well as by the force of his painting, and the loftiness of his philosophy; and the imitation does not fall short of the original in these respects, whilst it is free from its grossness and impurity. LETTER XIX. The Life of the Author - 8 Parody of a Translation London. A Poem - - 63 from the medea of Buri- The Vanity of Human 1 pides --- - - - 119 Wishes : - - - 74 Burlesque on the modern Prologues - - -- 89 | Versifications, &c. - - 120 Spring . - - - - 96 (Epitaph for Mr. Hogarth ibid. Midsummer - - - - 98 [Translation of the two first Winter - - - - - - 101 | Verde' - . . . . 121 The Winter's Walk - - 102 To Miss Thrale, on her Epigram on George II. and year - - - - . - ibid. Colley Cibber, Esq. '- 104 Impromptu Translation 122 Stella in Mourning - - ibid. Lines written under a To Stella -.--. 105 Print representing Per- Verses written at the Re- sons skaiting . : . ibid. quest of a Gentleman to : Translation of a speech of whom a Lady had given Aquileio - - - - - 123 a Sprig of Myrtle - - 106 Impromptu - - . ibid. To Lady Firebrace, at Bu- Translation of Virgil. Pas- ry Assizes - - - - 107 toral I. - - - - - 124 To Lyce, an elderly Lady ibid. Translation of Horace, On the Death of Mr. Ro Book 1: Ode xxü. - - 125 bert Levett ... - 108 Translation of Horace, Epitaph on Claude Phillips 1101 Book II. Ode ix. - . 126 Epitaph on Sir Thomas Translation of part of the Hanmer, Bart. - - ibid. / Dialogue between Hec- On the death of Stephen tor and Andromache - 127 Grey, F.R. S. the elec. To Miss ****.... 129 trician - - - - - 112 Evening, an Ode. To Stella 131 To Miss Hickman, playing To the same - - - - 13% on the Spinnet • . - 113 To a friend . .. 133 Paraphrase of Proverbs, To a young lady on her. Chap. iv. Verses 6-11 - 114 ) birth-day .. - - 134 Horace, Lib. 4, Ode vij. Epilogue intended to have translated ...: 115 been spoken by a lady,..., On seeing a Bust of Mrs. &c. ...... '135 Montague - - - 116 The young Author « - 137 . LIFE DR. JOHNSON. THERE is not perhaps in the whole annals of literature, a life which has afforded more events for the detail of the biographer, than that of the very extraordinary character which is the subject of the following memoirs. As it is natural, that the merits and demerits, personal and literary, of a man so eminently distinguished in the departments of biography and criticism as Johnson, should attract the notice and call forth the exertions of numerous writers; it is not to be accounted singular, that, besides several slight sketches of his life taken by unknown authors, both favourable and copious narratives should have been presented to the world, by Sir John Hawkins, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Tyers, Mrs. Piozzi, Dr. Towers, and Mr. Arthur Murphy; who, from their intimate acquaintance with him, were enabled to write from personal knowledge. These several writers, by representing his character in different lights, contrasting his virtues with his faults, and displaying in a variety of anecdotes |