this interesting branch of science, to lead him to render it one of his topics of conversation; and he merely amused himself with some of the processes of distillation of the essential oils, as practised in the laboratories.

In what may be called the moral sciences, Johnson's studies appear to have been also limited. General History obtained so little of his regard, that we are told by his friend Mr Murphy, that

sooner than hear of the Panic war, he would be "rude to the person that introduced the subject." Still less does he seem to have troubled himself with that branch of the history of nations called their political economy, which is little connected with the passions of ambition and the love of glory, and which, although it began to be eagerly investigated in his time, both by British and foreign philosophers, is of a laborious and less amusing cast, than the study of general history, which usually confines itself to the detail of the exploits of warriors, the personal transactions of princes, or the progress of letters. Johnson's favourite subjects of study, or reflection, consisted of metaphysical discussion, moral theory or remarks, systems of religion, biography, and anecdotes concerning literature.

Johnson's talents were exerted, or his knowledge displayed, in two ways-in conversation and in writing. His conversation found so many admirers, and so much of it has been published, that, when added to his publications, it forms a mass of materials such as is seldom obtained for investigating the character of any individual. Judging from these, his general defect seems to have been

that he wanted system, that is, he had never, upon any subject, arranged the result of his reading and reflections into a systematic form, so as to be enabled to discern how far his notions were consistent either with truth or with each other. He had discussed nothing from beginning to end in a regular and complete manner. His religion and his politics were detached ideas, gleaned in his nursery, or, at best, from his college tutor. He adhered to the former, that is to his early religion, tenaciously during life, and does not appear to have possessed, in consequence of his melancholy temperament, sufficient intellectual intrepidity to investigate any part of it by the force of his own understanding This appears obvious, from the rage and horror with which he is said to have been always filled when the slightest symptom of religious incredulity appeared in the mind of any person with whom he conversed. These distempered symptoms could not have exhibited themselves in a man whose belief was founded upon conviction resulting from the investigation of evidence. In like manner, his politics were merely those of education and prejudice. In his political pamphlets are displayed his wonted energy of diction, confidence of averment, and a plausible sophistry; but no general principle is found to bind together his different positions, or to fix them in the mind as derived from fundamental and extensive views of general utility, or of moral duty.

The moral writings of Johnson, especially those contained in his Rambler, are truly valuable. But here also no system appears. His positions, unless at times when a too general mode of expres

sion is employed, are not erroneous, because he proceeds uniformly upon the general and established truths, that piety to God, and that temperance, fortitude, justice, and benevolence, are the great duties of man. To these principles, which he uniformly held sacred, he rigidly adhered; and thus, to the world at large, his writings are valuable, without an alloy of evil. But men of letters will discern, that each treatise is a separate effort of a powerful mind indeed, but of a mind which had not previously investigated the whole subject, and reduced it into a single systematic point of view. In like manner also, in the conversations of Johnson, it was remarked, that he frequently, and without any contest for victory, differed from himself in opinion upon general subjects, or views of duty and general utility, which could not possibly have happened if his knowledge and reflections had been fully arranged in his own mind.

This want of system in the mind and knowledge of Johnson, was the result of the mode in which he entered life, and carried on his literary exertions. He was under the necessity of occupying his time in writing for bread. He was therefore, like a lawyer, not left to chuse the subjects on which his talents were to be exerted. His employers, the booksellers, having occasion for Prefaces, Dedications, and short Essays, elegantly expressed, introduced him to a detached mode of writing. He possessed not sufficient wealth to enable him to devote years of his life towards the profound investigation, and the systematic discussion of some one branch of science. To write

for his own subsistence, and for the emolument of others, was his regular employment. He therefore cared little about his subject, and uniformly declared, that the acquisition of money was the only motive which could induce him to engage in the labour which it cost. His great work, the Dictionary of the English Language, was evidently a mere speculation of booksellers, in which Johnson was the operative manufacturer; and that it was tardily and reluctantly executed, is sufficiently demonstrated by the compliments which passed between him and Mr Andrew Millar, when the last sheet was sent to the press. The Rambler, so far as has been discovered, was no doubt projected by Johnson himself; but the papers in it were often hurriedly written, upon the spur of the occasion; and there is no reason to doubt that it would never have seen the light, had not the book seller been regular in advancing the price of the several numbers. The Idler was executed with similar views; and none of these works had a tendency to fix down the mind of Johnson, steadily and deliberately to the detailed systematic consideration of any branch of science. Hence Johnson is a moralist of no school, a circumstance which perhaps has a tendency to render his works more popular. He is neither a Stoic nor a Platonist, but a well-intentioned man, who gives detached essays upon the various duties of life, and enforces his admonitions with sententious energy of diction, and much beauty of illustration.

Johnson is known to have himself projected his edition of Shakespeare; but it was merely a pro

ject which, like a multitude of others, he formed for the purpose of getting money; and it was not executed till he began to be accused of injustice on account of his not publishing a work for which he had accepted the subscription-money. His Rasselas was professedly written to defray the expence of a journey to his native city, and his Lives of the Poets was a work planned by the booksellers. His Sermons, which he wrote upon commission, and his Dedications and Prologues, written for other authors, were evidently the efforts of a man who engaged in literature merely because it afforded him a pecuniary recompence. In this way, though Johnson was led to exert his talents upon a variety of subjects as a writer, and to acquire extensive information, he was at the same time not only prevented from becoming a systematic writer, but even from adding arrangement and unity to profound reflection upon any branch of science.

Johnson appears to have bestowed no less attention upon the cultivation of his talents for conversation than upon the art of writing. His mode of utterance was full, loud, solemn, and sonorous; and he endeavoured, in his diction, to assume the sententious stile that appears in his works. He was fond of conversation, because disliking, or being incapable of very active bodily exercise, it gave employment to the powers of his mind, and prevented that tendency to prey upon itself, or to sink into dejection, which was apt to haunt his solitary and unoccupied hours. In his conversation, the whole temper and character of Johnson displayed itself. Where he was listened