properly called, are merely minutes; at one time of refolutions for his future conduct, and at another, in the ftyle of a diary or journal. Neither of them deferve the commendation which has been beftowed upon the Prayers. They are full of frivolous minuteneffes, and feminine weakness, beyond any thing of which an abstract defcription can fuggeft the idea. They tell us, that Johnson, in fpite of all the contemptuous ridicule with which he has treated that delicate frame, which depends for its compofure on the clouds and the winds, was himfelf not exempt from languor, fluggishness, and procraftination; that he was full of the most pitiable religious credulity; and that his attention was often engroffed by things in the laft degree frivolous, futile, and unimportant. But if thefe obfervations are rather difadvantageous to Johnson, it is no lefs unqueftionable that he difplays a fenfibility and a

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humane benovolence of heart, that have rarely been equalled. Mr. Strahan's ароlogy for Johnson's feeming to pray for his deceased wife, is fupported by his opinion, respecting purgatory, recorded by Mr.. Bofwell. In his cooler moments he did not think fuch prayers proper, except with the limitations there expreffed; but his morbid melancholy did not always allow him to be cool; there were many moments when his language countenanced a very different opinion. The ftruggle in a breaft, conftituted as his was, between the fevere principles of Proteftantism, and the genuine undisciplinable feelings of the heart, illuftrates the kindness of his nature more than it could be illustrated by any other circumstance.

His Sermons, published under the name of Dr. Taylor, are not unworthy of the author of the Rambler, and afford additional proof of his ardour in the cause of

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piety, and every moral duty.

The laft difcourfe in the collection was intended

to be delivered by Dr. Taylor, at the funeral of Johnson's wife, but he declined the office, because, as he told Mr. Hayes, the praise of the deceased was too much amplified. He who reads the difcourse, will find it a beautiful moral leffon, written with temper, and no where overcharged with ambitious ornaments. The reft of the difcourfes were the fund which Dr. Taylor, from time to time, carried with him to the pulpit.

The Style of his profe writings has been too often criticifed, to need being noticed here. It has been cenfured, applauded, and imitated, to extremes equally dangerous to the purity of the English tongue. That he has innovated upon our language by his adoption of Latin derivatives and his preference of abftract to concrete terms, cannot be denied. But the danger from

his innovation would be trifling, if those alone would copy him who can think with equal precifion; for few paffages can be pointed out from his works, in which his meaning could be as accurately expreffed by fuch words as are in more familiar ufe. His comprehenfion of mind was the mould for his language. Had his comprehenfion been narrower, his expreffion would have been eafier. His fentences have a dignified march, fuitable to the elevation of his fentiments, and the pomp of his fonorous phrafeology. And it is to be remembered, that while he has added harmony and dignity to our language, he has neither vitiated it by the infertion of foreign idioms, or the affectation of anomaly in the conftruction of his fentences. While the flowers of poetic imagination luxuriantly adorn his style, it is never enfeebled by their plentitude. It is close without obtenebration, perfpicuous without languor, and ftrong without im

petuofity. No periods are fo harmonious; none so nervous. He has laboured his style with the greatest attention; perhaps its elaborateness is too apparent. It has, perhaps, too unwieldy and too uniform a dignity. He feems to have been particularly ftudious of the glitter of an antithefis between the epithet and the substantive. This ftrikes while it is new; but to the more experienced reader, though it may seem sometimes forcible, yet it will often prove tirefome. It is remarkable that

Johnson's early performances bear few. marks of the ftyle which he adopted in his Rambler. In his Life of Savage, the style is elegant, but not oftentatious. His sentences are naturally arranged, and mufical without artifice, He affects not the measuring of claufes, and the balancing of periods. He aims not at fplendid, glowing diction. He feeks not pointed phrases, and elaborate contrafts. It is al