the Ifle of Sky, and that to Mrs. Thrale, from the fame place.

"His English poetry is fuch as leaves room to think, if he had devoted himfelf to the Muses, that he would have been the rival of Pope. His first production in this kind was London, a poem, in imitation of the third fatire of Juvenal. The vices of the metropolis are placed in the room of ancient manners. The author had heated his mind with the ardour of Juvenal; and, having the skill to polifh his numbers, he became a fharp accufer of the times. The Vanity of Human Wishes is an imitation of the tenth fatire of the fame author. Though it is tranflated by Dryden, Johnfon's imitation approaches nearest to the spirit of the original.

What Johnson has faid of the Tragedy of Cato, may be applied to Irene: "It is rather a poem in dialogue than a drama; rather a fucceffion of just fentiments in ele

gant language, than a representation of na

tural affections.

fuages emotion.

Nothing excites or af

The events are expected

without folicitude, and are remembered without joy or forrow. Of the agents we have no care; we confider not what they are doing, nor what they are fuffering; we wish only to know what they have to fay. It is unaffecting elegance, and chill philofophy.

"The prologue to Irene is written with elegance, and, in a peculiar ftrain, fhows the literary pride and lofty fpirit of the author. The epilogue, we are told in a late publication, was written by Sir William Yonge. This is a new discovery, but by no means probable. When the appendages to a dramatic performance are not asfigned to a friend, or an unknown hand, or a perfon of fashion, they are always fuppofed to be written by the author of the play. It is to be wished, however, that the

epilogue in queftion could be transferred to any other writer. It is the worft Jeu d' Efprit that ever fell from Johnson's pen.

"Of his Mifcellaneous Tracts and Philological Differtations, it will fuffice to say, they are the productions of a man who never wanted decorations of language, and always taught his reader to think. The Life of the late King of Prussia, as far as it extends, is a model of the biographical style. The review of the " Origin of Evil," was, perhaps, written with afperity; but the angry epitaph, which it provoked from Soame Jenyns, was an ill-timed resentment, unworthy of the genius of that amiable author.

"The Rambler may be confidered as Johnson's great work. It was the basis of that high reputation which went on increafing to the end of his days. In this collection, Johnson is the great moral teacher of his countrymen; his effays form a body of ethics; the obfervations on life and man

ners are acute and instructive; and the papers, profeffedly critical, ferve to promote the cause of literature. It must, however, be acknowledged, that a fettled gloom hangs over the author's mind; and all the effays, except eight or ten, coming from the fame fountain-head, no wonder that they have the raciness of the foil from which they fprung. Of this uniformity Johnson was fenfible. He used to fay, that if he had joined a friend or two, who would have been able to intermix papers of a sprightly turn, the collection would have been more miscellaneous, and by confequence, more agreeable to the generality of readers.

His

"It is remarkable that the pomp of diction, which has been objected to Johnson, was firft affumed in the Rambler. Dictionary was going on at the fame time; and in the course of that work, as he grew familiar with technical and fcholaftic words, he thought that the bulk of his readers

were equally learned, or at least would admire the fplendour and dignity of the style. And yet it is well known, that he praifed in Cowley the eafe and unaffected ftructure of the fentences. Cowley may Cowley may be pla

ced at the head of thofe who cultivated a clear and natural ftyle. Dryden, Tillotson, and Sir William Temple followed. Addifon, Swift, and Pope, with more correctness, carried our language well nigh to perfection. Of Addison, Johnson was used to fay, he is the Raphael of essay writers. How he differed fo widely from fuch elegant models, is a problem not to be folved, unless it be true that he took an early tincture from the writers of the laft century, particularly Sir Thomas Brown.-Hence the peculiarities of his ftyle, new combinations, fentences of an unusual structure, and words derived from the learned languages. His own account of the matter is," when common words were lefs pleafing to the ear,