Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 5

Faults which many tongues [were desirous] _would have made haste_ to publish.

But though he [had not] _could not boast of_ much critical knowledge.

He [used] _waited for_ no felicities of fancy.

Or had ever elevated his [mind] _views_ to that ideal perfection which every [mind] _genius_ born to excel is condemned always to pursue and never overtake.

The [first great] _fundamental_ principle of wisdom and of virtue.'

_Various Readings in the Life of_ PHILIPS.

'His dreaded [rival] _antagonist_ Pope.

They [have not often much] _are not loaded with_ thought.

In his translations from Pindar, he [will not be denied to have reached]

_found the art of reaching_ all the obscurity of the Theban bard.'

_Various Readings in the Life of_ CONGREVE.

'Congreve's conversation must surely have been _at least_ equally pleasing with his writings.

It apparently [requires] _pre-supposes_ a familiar knowledge of many characters.

Reciprocation of [similes] _conceits_.

The dialogue is quick and [various] _sparkling_.

Love for Love; a comedy [more drawn from life] _of nearer alliance to life_.

The general character of his miscellanies is, that they shew little wit and [no] _little_ virtue.

[Perhaps] _certainly_ he had not the fire requisite for the higher species of lyrick poetry.'

_Various Readings in the Life of_ TICKELL.

'[Longed] _long wished_ to peruse it.

At the [accession] _arrival_ of King George.

Fiction [unnaturally] _unskilfully_ compounded of Grecian deities and Gothick fairies.'

_Various Readings in the Life of_ AKENSIDE.

'For [another] _a different_ purpose.

[A furious] _an unnecessary_ and outrageous zeal.

[Something which] _what_ he called and thought liberty.

A [favourer of innovation] _lover of contradiction_.

Warburton's [censure] _objections_.

His rage [for liberty] _of patriotism_.

Mr. Dyson with [a zeal] _an ardour_ of friendship.'

In the Life of LYTTELTON, Johnson seems to have been not favourably disposed towards that n.o.bleman[193]. Mrs. Thrale suggests that he was offended by _Molly Aston's_[194] preference of his Lordship to him[195].

I can by no means join in the censure bestowed by Johnson on his Lordship, whom he calls 'poor Lyttelton,' for returning thanks to the Critical Reviewers for having 'kindly commended' his _Dialogues of the Dead_. Such 'acknowledgements (says my friend) never can be proper, since they must be paid either for flattery or for justice.' In my opinion, the most upright man, who has been tried on a false accusation, may, when he is acquitted, make a bow to his jury. And when those who are so much the arbiters of literary merit, as in a considerable degree to influence the publick opinion, review an authour's work, _placido lumine_[196], when I am afraid mankind in general are better pleased with severity, he may surely express a grateful sense of their civility[197].

_Various Readings in the Life of_ LYTTELTON.

'He solaced [himself] _his grief_ by writing a long poem to her memory.

The production rather [of a mind that means well than thinks vigorously]

_as it seems of leisure than of study, rather effusions than compositions_.

His last literary [work] _production_.

[Found the way] _undertook_ to persuade.'

As the introduction to his critical examination of the genius and writings of YOUNG, he did Mr. Herbert Croft[198], then a Barrister of Lincoln's-inn, now a clergyman, the honour to adopt[199] a _Life of Young_ written by that gentleman, who was the friend of Dr. Young's son, and wished to vindicate him from some very erroneous remarks to his prejudice. Mr. Croft's performance was subjected to the revision of Dr.

Johnson, as appears from the following note to Mr. John Nichols[200]:--

'This _Life of Dr. Young_ was written by a friend of his son. What is crossed with black is expunged by the authour, what is crossed with red is expunged by me. If you find any thing more that can be well omitted, I shall not be sorry to see it yet shorter[201]'

It has always appeared to me to have a considerable share of merit, and to display a pretty successful imitation of Johnson's style. When I mentioned this to a very eminent literary character[202], he opposed me vehemently, exclaiming, 'No, no, it is _not_ a good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force; it has all the nodosities of the oak without its strength.' This was an image so happy, that one might have thought he would have been satisfied with it; but he was not. And setting his mind again to work, he added, with exquisite felicity, 'It has all the contortions of the Sybil, without the inspiration.'

Mr. Croft very properly guards us against supposing that Young was a gloomy man[203]; and mentions, that 'his parish was indebted to the good-humour of the authour of the _Night Thoughts_ for an a.s.sembly and a Bowling-Green[204].' A letter from a n.o.ble foreigner is quoted, in which he is said to have been 'very pleasant in conversation[205].'

Mr. Langton, who frequently visited him, informs me, that there was an air of benevolence in his manner, but that he could obtain from him less information than he had hoped to receive from one who had lived so much in intercourse with the brightest men of what has been called the Augustan age of England; and that he shewed a degree of eager curiosity concerning the common occurrences that were then pa.s.sing, which appeared somewhat remarkable in a man of such intellectual stores, of such an advanced age, and who had retired from life with declared disappointment in his expectations.

An instance at once of his pensive turn of mind, and his cheerfulness of temper, appeared in a little story which he himself told to Mr. Langton, when they were walking in his garden: 'Here (said he) I had put a handsome sun-dial, with this inscription, _Eheu fugaces!_[206] which (speaking with a smile) was sadly verified, for by the next morning my dial had been carried off.'[207]

'It gives me much pleasure to observe, that however Johnson may have casually talked,[208] yet when he sits, as "an ardent judge zealous to his trust, giving sentence" [209] upon the excellent works of Young, he allows them the high praise to which they are justly ent.i.tled.

"The _Universal Pa.s.sion_ (says he) is indeed a very great performance,--his distichs have the weight of solid sentiment, and his points the sharpness of resistless truth."'[210]

But I was most anxious concerning Johnson's decision upon _Night Thoughts_, which I esteem as a ma.s.s of the grandest and richest poetry that human genius has ever produced; and was delighted to find this character of that work: 'In his _Night Thoughts_, he has exhibited a very wide display of original poetry, variegated with deep reflections and striking allusions; a wilderness of thought, in which the fertility of fancy scatters flowers of every hue and of every odour. This is one of the few poems in which blank verse could not be changed for rhime but with disadvantage.'[211] And afterwards, 'Particular lines are not to be regarded; the power is in the whole; and in the whole there is a magnificence like that ascribed to Chinese plantation[212], the magnificence of vast extent and endless diversity.'

But there is in this Poem not only all that Johnson so well brings in view, but a power of the _Pathetick_ beyond almost any example that I have seen. He who does not feel his nerves shaken, and his heart pierced by many pa.s.sages in this extraordinary work, particularly by that most affecting one, which describes the gradual torment suffered by the contemplation of an object of affectionate attachment, visibly and certainly decaying into dissolution, must be of a hard and obstinate frame[213].

To all the other excellencies of _Night Thoughts_ let me add the great and peculiar one, that they contain not only the n.o.blest sentiments of virtue, and contemplations on immortality, but the _Christian Sacrifice_, the _Divine Propitiation_, with all its interesting circ.u.mstances, and consolations to 'a wounded spirit[214],' solemnly and poetically displayed in such imagery and language, as cannot fail to exalt, animate, and soothe the truly pious. No book whatever can be recommended to young persons, with better hopes of seasoning their minds with _vital religion_, than YOUNG'S _Night Thoughts_.

In the Life of SWIFT, it appears to me that Johnson had a certain degree of prejudice against that extraordinary man, of which I have elsewhere had occasion to speak[215]. Mr. Thomas Sheridan imputed it to a supposed apprehension in Johnson, that Swift had not been sufficiently active in obtaining for him an Irish degree when it was solicited[216], but of this there was not sufficient evidence; and let me not presume to charge Johnson with injustice, because he did not think so highly of the writings of this authour, as I have done from my youth upwards. Yet that he had an unfavourable bias is evident, were it only from that pa.s.sage in which he speaks of Swift's practice of saving, as, 'first ridiculous and at last detestable;' and yet after some examination of circ.u.mstances, finds himself obliged to own, that 'it will perhaps appear that he only liked one mode of expence better than another, and saved merely that he might have something to give[217].'

One observation which Johnson makes in Swift's life should be often inculcated:--

'It may be justly supposed, that there was in his conversation what appears so frequently in his letters, an affectation of familiarity with the great, an ambition of momentary equality, sought and enjoyed by the neglect of those ceremonies which custom has established as the barriers between one order of society and another. This transgression of regularity was by himself and his admirers termed greatness of soul; but a great mind disdains to hold any thing by courtesy, and therefore never usurps what a lawful claimant may take away. He that encroaches on another's dignity puts himself in his power; he is either repelled with helpless indignity, or endured by clemency and condescension[218].'