not stand its ground as long as life, and whether a soul well principled will not be sooner separated than subdued." Piozzi, p. 37. its pointed satire. [Sophron was For instances of fertility of fancy, and accurate description of real life, I appeal to No. 19, a man who wanders from one profession to another, with most plausible reasons for every change: No. 34, female fas Though instruction be the predominant purpose of the Rambler, yet it is enlivened with a considerable portion of amusement. Nothing can be more erroneous than the notion which some persons have entertained, that Johnson was then a retired authour, ignorant of the world; and, of consequence, that he wrote only from his imagination, when he described characters and manners. He said to me that, before he wrote that work, he had been "running about the world," as he expressed it, more than almost any body; and I have heard him relate, with much satisfaction, that several of the characters in the Rambler were drawn so naturally, that when it first circulated in numbers, a club in one of the towns in Es-tidiousness and timorous refinement: No. sex imagined themselves to be severally exhibited in it, and were much incensed against a person who, they suspected, had thus made then objects of publick notice; nor were they quieted till authentick assurance was given them, that the Rambler was written by a person who had never heard of any one of them. Some of the characters are believed to have been actually drawn from the life 2, particularly that of Prospero from Garrick 3, who never entirely forgave [This anecdote was, according to Mrs. Piozzi, communicated to Johnson by Mr. Murphy, but (as the lady tells it), with details which savour more of a desire to make a good story than to tell a true one. See Piozzi, p. 180.-ED.] 82, a virtuoso who has collected curiosities: No. 88, petty modes of entertaining a company, and conciliating kindness: No. 182, fortune-hunting: No. 194-195, a tutor's account of the follies of his pupil: No. 197 -198, legacy-hunting: He has given a specimen of his nice observation of the mere external appearances of life, in the following passage in No. 179, against affectation, that frequent and most disgusting quality: "He that stands to contemplate the crowds that fill the streets of a populous city will see will be difficult to behold without contempt many passengers, whose air and motions it and laughter: but if he examine what are the appearances that thus powerfully excite his risibility, he will find among them neither poverty nor disease, nor any involuntay or painful defect. The disposition to derision and insult is awakened by the softness of foppery, the swell of insolence, the liveliness of levity, or the solemnity of grandeur; by the sprightly trip, the stately walk, the formal strut, and the lofty mien; by gestures intended to catch the eye, and by looks 2 That of GELIDUs, in No. 24, from Professor Colson, and that of EUPHUES in the same paper, which, with many others, was doubtless drawn from the life. EUPHUES, I once thought, might have been intended to represent either Lord Chesterfield or Soame Jenyns; but Mr. Bindley, with more probability, thinks that George Bubb Doddington, who was remarkable for the homeliness of his person, and the finery of his dress, was the person meant under that character. MALONE. [See (ante, p. 38) reasons for doubting Johnson's temper, which almost amounted to enthat Gelidus could be meant for Professor Col-vy, there is none that seems, all the circumstances The folly of such guesses at characters is considered, more unjustifiable than this would forcibly exemplified in Mr. Malone's producing have been. Hawkins, however, who seldom three such different candidates for that of Eu- missed an opportunity of displaying Johnson's phues, as Lord Chesterfield, Soame Jenyns, and faults or frailties, does not, even, when censurBubb Doddington!-ED.] ing his conduct towards Garrick, allude to this offence. (See Life p. 421). Let us therefore hope, that the other biographers made an application of the character of Prospero which Johnson did not intend.-ED.] son. [Having just seen Garrick's generous and successful endeavours to advance the fame and improve the fortunes of his friend, it were melancholy to be obliged, by the evidence of Boswell, Murphy, and Mrs. Piozzi, to believe that 4 [These characters are alluded to in the conJohnson meant to satirize that amiable, inoffen-clusion of the 188th Rambler, but so slightly that sive, and (to him) most friendly man, whose profession, as well as his personal feelings, rendered him peculiarly sensitive to such attacks. Mr. Murphy, with less taste and good nature than is usual to him, seems to make light of poor Garrick's vexation; but amongst the many instances which have been adduced of that infirmity of it seems hardly worth while to inquire whether the hints were furnished by observation or invention. As to the anecdote told of the elder Dr. Salter, it could have only been, as Mr. Chalmers observes, the repetition of some story of his youthful days, for he was 70 years of age before he became a member of the Ivy-lane club.—ED.] elaborately formed as evidences of impor- | idle charge has been echoed from one bab tance." Piozzi, p. 3. [Of the allegorical papers in the Rambler, Labour and Rest (No. 33) was Johnson's favourite; but Serotinus (No 165), the man who returns late in life to receive honours in his native country, and meets with mortification instead of respect, was considered by him as a masterpiece in the science of life and manners.] Every page of the Rambler shows a mind teeming with classical allusions and poetical imagery: illustrations from other writers are, upon all occasions, so ready, and mingle so easily, in his periods, that the whole appears of one uniform vivid texture. The style of this work has been censured by some shallow criticks as involved and turgid, and abounding with antiquated and hard words. So ill-founded is the first part of this objection, that I will challenge all who may honour this book with a perusal, to point out any English writer whose language conveys his meaning with equal force and perspicuity 1. It must, indeed, be allowed, that the structure of his sentences is expanded, and often has somewhat of the inversion of Latin; and that he delighted to express familiar thoughts in philosophical language; being in this the reverse of Socrates, who, it is said, reduced philosophy to the simplicity of common life. But let us attend to what he himself says in his concluding paper: "When common words were less pleasing to the ear, or less distinct in their signification, I have familiarized the terms of philosophy, by applying them to popular ideas." And, as to the second part of this objection, upon a late careful revision of the work, I can with confidence say, that it is amazing how few of those words, for which it has been unjustly characterised, are actually to be found in it: I am sure not the proportion of one to each paper2. This No. 70, bler to another, who have confounded Johnson's Essays with Johnson's Dictionary; and because he thought it right in a lexicon of our language to collect many words which had fallen into disuse, but were supported by great authorities, it has been imagined that all of these have been interwoven into his own compositions. That some of them have been adopted by him unnecessarily, may, perhaps, be allowed; but, in general, they are evidently an advantage, for without them his stately ideas would be confined and cramped. "He that thinks with more extent than another, will want words of a larger meaning 3." He Idler, once told me, that he had formed word not authorized by former writers; but where are we to seek authorities for 'resuscitation, orbity, volant, fatuity, divaricate, asinine, narand innumerable others of the same stamp, which cotic, vulnerary, empireumatic, papilionaceous,' abound in and disgrace his pages?—for obtund, disruption, sensory, or panoply,' all occurring in the short compass of a single essay in the Rambler;-or for cremation, horticulture, germination, and decussation,' within a few pages in his Life of Browne? They may be found, perhaps, in the works of former writers, but they make no part of the English language. They are the illegitimate offspring of learning by vanity." It is wonderful, that, instead of asking where these words were to be found, Dr. Burrowes did not think of referring to Johnson's own dictionary. He would have found good authorities for almost every one of them; for instance, for resuscitation, Milton and Bacon are quoted; for volant, Milton and Phillips; for fatuity, Arbuthnot; for asinine, for germination, Bacon, and so on. Milton; for narcotic and vulnerary, Browne; But although these authorities, which Dr. Burrowes might have found in the dictionary, are a sufficient answer to his question, let it be also observed, that many of these words were in use in more familiar authors than Johnson chose to quote, and that the majority of them are now become familiar, which is a sufficient proof that the English language has not considered them as illegitimate. 1 Yet his style did not escape the harmless shafts of pleasant humour; for the ingenious Bonnell Thornton published a mock Rambler in the Dru--ED.] ry-lane Journal.-BOSWELL.-[And Mr. Murphy, in commenting on this passage, quotes the witty observation of Dryden: "If so many foreign words are poured in upon us, it looks as if they were designed not to assist the natives but to conquer them." Life, p. 157.-ED.] 2 3 [This is a truism in the disguise of a sophism. "He that thinks with more extent will," no doubt, "want words of a larger meaning," but the words themselves may be plain and simple; the number of syllables, and oro-rotundity (if one may venture to use the expression) of the [Mr. Boswell's zeal carries him too far: sound of a word can never add much, and may, Johnson's style, especially in the Rambler, is fre- in some cases, do injury to the meaning. What quently turgid, even to ridicule; but he has been words were ever written of a larger meaning too often censured with a malicious flippancy, than the following, which, however, are the most which Boswell may be excused for resenting; simple and elementary that can be found" God and even graver critics have sometimes treated said, Let there be light, and there was light!" him with inconsiderate injustice; for instance, If we were to convert the proposition in the Idler, The Rev. Dr. Burrowes (now Dean of Cork), in and say, that "he who thinks feebly needs bigger an "Essay on the Style of Dr. Johnson,' words to cover his inanity," we should be nearer published in the first volume of the Transactions the truth. But it must be admitted (as Mr. Bosof the Royal Irish Academy (1787), observes: well soon after observes) that Johnson (though "Johnson says that he has rarely admitted any | he, in some of his works, pushed his peculiarities opinion. Hawk. p. 271. his style upon that of Sir William Temple, | name him, would stamp a reverence on the and upon "Chambers's Proposal for his Dictionary." He certainly was mistaken; [That Johnson owed his excelor if he imagined at first that he was imi- lence as a writer to the divines and tating Temple, he was very unsuccessful 2; others of the last century, Sir John for nothing can be more unlike than the sim- Hawkins attests, from having been the witplicity of Temple, and the richness of John-ness of his course of reading, and heard him son. Their styles differ as plain cloth and brocade. Temple, indeed, seems equally erroneous in supposing that he himself had formed his style upon Sandys's View of the State of Religion in the Western Parts of the World. declare his sentiments of their works. Hooker he admired for his logical precision, Sanderson for his acuteness, and Taylor for his amazing erudition; Sir Thomas Browne for his penetration, and Cowley for the ease and unaffected structure of his periods. The tinsel of Sprat disgusted him, and he could but just endure the smooth verbosity of Tillotson. Hammond and Barrow he thought involved; and of the latter that he was unnecessarily prolix 4.] The style of Johnson was, undoubtedly, much formed upon that of the great writers in the last century, Hooker, Bacon, Sanderson, Hakewill, and others; those“ GIANTS," as they were well characterised by a GREAT PERSONAGE 3, whose authority, were I to to an absurd extent) has been on the whole a benefactor to our language; he has introduced more dignity into our style, more regularity into our grammatical construction, and given a fuller" Cum tabulis animum censoris sumet honesti; and more sonorous sound to the march of our sentences and the cadence of our periods.-ED.] The paper here alluded to was, I believe, Chamber's Proposal for a second and improved edition of his Dictionary, which, I think, appeared in 1738. This proposal was probably in circulation in 1737, when Johnson first came to London. MALONE. We may, with the utmost propriety, apply to his learned style that passage of Horace, a part of which he has taken as the motto to his Dictionary: Audebit quæcumque parûm splendoris habebunt Epist. 1. ii. e. 2. 2 The author appears to me to have misunderstood Johnson in this instance. He did not, I conceive, mean to say that, when he first began to write, he made Sir William Temple his model, with a view to form a style that should resemble his in all its parts; but that he formed his style on that of Temple and others, by taking from each those characteristic excellencies which were most worthy of imitation. See this matter further explained under April 9, 1778; where, in a conversation at Sir Joshua Reynold's, Johnson himself mentions the particular improvements which Temple made in the English style. These, Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum, doubtless, were the objects of his imitation, so far as that writer was his model.-MALONE. To so great a master of thinking, to one of such vast and various knowledge as Johnson, might have been allowed a liberal indulgence of that licence which Horace claims in another place: 3 [Here is an instance of the difficulty of explaining, after the lapse of a very few years, circumstances once of great notoriety. My learned and excellent friend, the Bishop of Ferns, writes to me, "State that this Great Personage was his late majesty, George the Third. Every one knows it now, but who will know it fifty years hence?" No doubt the generality of readers have understood Mr. Boswell to refer to the late king; but, although the Editor has made very extensive inquiries amongst those who were most likely to know, he has not been able to discover any precise authority on this point, nor has he obtained even a conjecture as to the person to whom, or the occasion on which, his majesty used this happy expression. The editor had formerly heard, but he does not recollect from whom, that when, on some occasion, the great divines of the 17th century were mentioned in the king's presence, his majesty said, "Yes-there were GIANTS in those days," in allusion to Genesis, Si forté necesse est vi. 4. It is to be observed, that Mr. Boswell, in his first edition, attributed this anecdote to "one whose authority, &c.:" in subsequent editions he changed "one" into "GREAT PERSONAGE." -ED.] [The editor has thought it right to preserve the foregoing, as the evidence of an eye-witness to Johnson's course of reading; though it may be well doubted whether Sir J. Hawkins has preserved exactly the characteristic qualities which he attributed to these illustrious men. It is not easy to conceive how the erudition of Taylor or the penetration of Browne could have improved Johnson's style; nor is it likely that Johnson would have celebrated the eloquent and subtile Taylor for erudition alone, or the pious and learned Browne for mere penetration. Johnson's friend, Mr. Fitzherbert, said (see post, 8th April, 1775) that "it was not every man who could carry a bon mot;" certainly Hawkins was not a man likely to convey adequately Dr. Johnson's critical opinion of Jeremy Taylor.-ED.] Yet Johnson assured me, that he had not taken upon him to add more that four or five words to the English language, of his own formation; and he was very much offended at the general licence by no means "modestly taken" in his time, not only to coin new words, but to use many words in senses quite different from their established meaning, and those frequently very fantastical. Sir Thomas Browne, whose Life Johnson wrote, was remarkably fond of AngloLatin diction; and to his example we are to ascribe Johnson's sometimes indulging himself in this kind of phraseology. Johnson's comprehenson of mind was the mould for his language. Had his conceptions been narrower, his expression would have been easier. His sentences have a dignified march; and it is certain, that his example has given a general elevation to the language of his country, for many of our best writers have approached very near to him; and, from the influence which he has had upon our composition, scarcely any thing is written now that is not better expressed than was usual before he appeared to lead the national taste. This circumstance, the truth of which must strike every critical reader, has been so happily enforced by Mr. Courtenay, in his "Moral and Literary Character of Dr. Johnson," that I cannot prevail on myself to withhold it, notwithstanding his, perhaps, too great partiality for one of his friends: "By nature's gifts ordain'd mankind to rule, He, like a Titian, form'd his brilliant school; And taught congenial spirits to excel, While from his lips impressive wisdom fell. Our boasted Goldsmith felt the sovereign sway; From him derived the sweet, yet nervous lay. To Fame's proud cliff he bade our Raffaelle rise: Hence Reynolds' pen with Reynolds' pencil vies. With Johnson's flame melodious Burney glows, While the grand strain in smoother cadence flows. The observation of his having imitated Sir Thomas Browne has been made by many people; and lately it has been insisted on, and illustrated by a variety of quotations from Browne, in one of the popular Essays written by the Rev. Mr. Knox, master of Tunbridge-school, whom I have set down in my list of those who have sometimes not unsuccessfully imitated Dr. Johnson's style.-BOSWELL. And you, Malone, to critic learning dear, Johnson's language, however, must be allowed to be too masculine for the delicate gentleness of female writing. His ladies, therefore, seem strangely formal, even to ridicule; and are well denominated by the names which he has given them, as Misella, Zozima, Properantia, Rhodoclia 3. It has of late been the fashion to compare the style of Addison and Johnson, and to depreciate 4, I think, very unjustly, the style The following observation in Mr. Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides may sufficiently account for that gentleman's being "now scarcely esteemed a Scot" by many of his countrymen: "If he (Dr. Johnson) was particularly prejudiced against the Scots, it was because they success in England rather exceeded the due prowere more in his way; because he thought their portion of their real merit; and because he could not but see in them that nationality, which, I believe, no liberal-minded Scotchman will deny." Mr. Boswell, indeed, is so free from national prejudices, that he might with equal propriety have been described as "Scarce by South Britons now esteemed a Scot." COURTENAY, 3.[Mr. Burke said pleasantly, that 'his ladies were all Johnsons in petticoats." Mr. Murphy (Life, p. 159) seems to pass somewhat of the same censure on the letter in the 12th Rambler, from a young woman that wants a place: yetsuch is the uncertainty of criticism-this is the paper quoted by Mr. Chalmers, as an example of such ease and familiarity of style, which made him almost doubt whether it was Johnson's Brit. Ess. vol. xix. p. 44.-ED.] 4 [Where did Mr. Boswell discover this, except in Sir J. Hawkins, who says (p. 270), with more than usual absurdity and bad taste, "I find Piozzi, p. 153. [His manner of criticising and commending Addison's prose was the same in conversation as we read it in his printed strictures, and many of the expressions used have been heard to fall from him on common occasions. It was notwithstanding observable enough (or Mrs. Piozzi fancied so), that he never liked, though he always thought fit, to praise it; and his praises resembled those of a man who extols the superiour elegance of highpainted porcelain, while he himself always chooses to eat off plate. She told him so one day, and he neither denied it nor appeared displeased. of Addison as nerveless and feeble, because | attain an English style, familiar but not it has not the strength and energy of that coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, of Johnson. Their prose may be balanced must give his days and nights to the volumes like the poetry of Dryden and Pope. Both of Addison 2." are excellent, though in different ways. Addison writes with the ease of a gentleman. His readers fancy that a wise and accomplished companion is talking to them; so that he insinuates his sentiments and taste into their minds by an imperceptible influence. Johnson writes like a teacher. He dictates to his readers as if from an academical chair. They attend with awe and admiration; and his precepts are impressed upon them by his commanding eloquence. Addison's style, like a light wine, pleases every body from the first. Johnson's, like a liquor of more body, seems too strong at first, but, by degrees, is highly relished; and such is the melody of his periods, so much do they captivate the ear, and seize upon the attention, that there is scarcely any writer, however inconsiderable, who does not aim, in some degree, at the same species of excellence. But let us not ungratefully undervalue that beautiful style, which has pleasingly conveyed to us much instruction and entertainment. Though comparatively weak, opposed to Johnson's Herculean vigour, let us not call it positively feeble. Let us remember the character of his style, as given by Johnson himself: "What he attempted he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetick; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity; his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy 1. Whoever wishes to an opinion gaining ground, not much to the advantage of Mr. Addison's style, the characteristies of which are feebleness and inanity-I speak of that alone, for his sentiments are excellent and his humour exquisite." What the worthy knight meant by inanity, as applied to Addison's style, is not worth inquiring.-Ed.] When Johnson showed me a proof-sheet of the character of Addison, in which he so highly extols his style, I could not help observing, that it had not been his own model, as no two styles could differ more from each other. "Sir, Addison had his style, and I have mine." When I ventured to ask him, whether the difference did not consist in this, that Addison's style was full of idioms, colloquial phrases, and proverbs; and his own more strictly grammatical and free from such phraseology and modes of speech as can never be literally translated or understood by foreigners; he allowed the discrimination to be just. Let any one who doubts it, try to translate one of Addison's Spectators into Latin, French, or Italian; and though so easy, familiar, and elegant, to an Englishman, as to give the intellect no trouble; yet he would find the transfusion into another language extremely difficult, if not impos 66 Piozzi, p. 45. But his opinion of Steele's essays was not so favourable. They are too thin (said he) for an Englishman's taste; mere superficial observations on life and manners, without erudition enough to make them keep, like the light French wines, which turn sour with standing awhile, for want of body, as we call it."] Though the Rambler was not concluded till the year 1752, I shall, under this year, say all that I have to observe upon it. Some of the translations of the mottos, by himself, are admirably done. He acknowledges to have received "elegant translations" of many of them from Mr James Elphinston; and some are very happily translated by a Mr. F. Lewis, of whom I never heard more, except that Johnson thus described him to Mr. Malone: "Sir, he lived in London, and hung loose upon society 4." The concluding paper of his Ram sible. But a Rambler, Adventurer, or Idler, of Johnson, would fall into any classical or European language, as easily as if it had been originally conceived in it.-BURNEY. 2 I shall probably, in another work, maintain the merit of Addison's poetry, which has been very unjustly depreciated.-BoswELL. Boswell never, that the editor knows of, executed [Mr. this intention.-ED.] 3 [This illustration (which Mr. Boswell has applied to Addison and Johnson) seems, in this instance, not very happy, and still less just. Steele's Essays have outlived a century, and are certainly not yet sour to any good taste.-ED.] 4 In the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1752, p. 468, he is styled "the Rev. Francis Lewis, of Chiswick." The late Lord Macartney, while he resided at Chiswick, at my request, made some inquiry concerning him at that place, but no intelligence was obtained. The translations of the mottos supplied by Mr. Elphinston appeared first in the Edinburgh edition of the Rambler, and in some instances were revised and improved, probably by Johnson, be |