1 of Myrtle, are occafional compofitions, and of course derive their merit chiefly from local and temporary circumftances. The principal art in fuch performances, is to make a trifling circumftance poetical or witty. In the verses On the Sprig of My ile, he has very happily fucceeded. The Ant must be allowed to be nervous and elegant. The verfes On the Death of Stephen Grey, are worthy the pen of Pope. The Elegy on the Death of Mr. Levett, as it was among the last, so it is one of the beft of his performances. It is moral, characteristic, and pathetic. The following ftanzas are exquifitely beautiful. Yet ftill he fills affection's eye, Nor letter'd arrogance deny This praise to merit unrefin’d. When fainting nature call'd for aid, And hovering death prepar'd the blow, His vigorous remedy display'd The power of art without the show: In mifery's darkeft cavern known, every day The toil of every day supply'd. The concluding lines are exceptionable: Death broke at once the vital chain, Since it is the foul which gives life, the chain that confines the foul is coporeal: The vital chain cannot be faid, with propriety, to be broken by death, Johnfon would not have forgiven an error of this kind in Gray. Of his remaining pieces, fome are mere impromptus, which were never intended for the public eye, and others were the fuggeftions of temporary incidents. Many of them are sprightly and elegant, and may be read with pleasure; but they require no distinct enumeration, or particular criticifm. Among our English poets, it is no unpleafant reflection to be able to find fo many elegant writers of Latin verse; in the first rank of which, Johnson ftands very high. Jonfon, Crafhaw, Cowley, May, Milton, Marvel, Addifon, Gray, Smart, Warton, and Johnson, are fuch writers of Latin verse, as any country might with juftice be proud to own, Johnson was eminently skilled in the Latin tongue, and ftrongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry. The first fruits of his genius were compofitions in Latin verse. His tranflation of the Meffiab, gained him reputation in the college in which it was written, and was approved by Pope. Virgil feems to have been his model for language and verfification. He has copied the varied pauses of his verfe, the length of his periods, the peculiar grace of his expreffions, and his majestic dignity, with confiderable fuccefs. But his compofition is fometimes unclaffical and incorrect. The most exceptionable line is the firft; tollere concentum, if allowable, is furely an awkward phrafe for "begin the fong." His Odes, particularly, the Ode Inchkenneth, Ode in the Isle of Sky, and that to Mrs. Thrale, from the fame place, are easy, elegant, and poetical. They unite claffical language, tender fentiment, and harmonious verfe. His poem, Γνώθι σεαυτον, is neryous and energetic. His Epitaphs are diftinguished by claffical elegance and nervous fimplicity. Thofe on Goldsmith and Thrale seem the best. His Epigrams are, in general, neat and pointed. In the Anthologia, we admire fometimes a happy imitation, and fometimes regret inelegant expreffions. For obvious reafons, his Latin pieces, though excellent in their kind, can never acquire the popularity of the English. Those who read with pleasure the Latin claffics, fee their inferiority; to others, they are uninterefting and unintelligible. "The delight which they afford;" to use his own words, in criticifing the Latin poetry. of Milton, "is rather by the exquifite imitation of the ancient writers, by the purity of the diction, and the harmony of the numbers, than by any power of invention, or vigour of fentiment." This character will generally fuit our modern Latin poetry; for if we except that noble ode of Gray's, written at the Grande Chartreufe, and fome few others, there are not many of the Poemata Anglorum, that contain much power of invention, or vigour of fentiment." 66 Upon the whole, the various productions of Johnson show a life spent in study and meditation. It may be fairly allowed, as he used to fay of himself, that he has writ |