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That the author of the Rambler, however artificial might be his language, could, from general observation, delineate characters so accordant to individual nature, as to be actually claimed by imaginary sufferers, we have a pleasant proof from the pen of Mrs. Piozzi. "When first the Rambler," she relates, " came out in separate numbers, as they were the objects of attention to multitudes of people, they happened, as it seems, particularly to attract the notice of a society who met every Saturday evening, during the summer, at Rumford in Essex, and were known by the name of the Bowling-green Club. These men, seeing one day the character of Leviculus the fortune-hunter, or Tetrica the old maid; another day, some account of a person who spent his life in hoping for a legacy, or of him who is always prying into other folk's affairs, began sure enough to think they were betrayed; and that someone of the coterie sat down to divert himself by giving to the public the portrait of all the rest. Filled with wrath against the traitor of Rumford, one of them resolved to write to the printer and enquire the author's name; Samuel Johnson was the reply. No more was necessary; Samuel Johnson was the name of the curate, and soon did each begin to load him with reproaches for turning his friends into ridicule in a manner so cruel and unprovoked. In vain did the guiltless curate protest his innocence; one was sure that Aliger meant Mr. Twigg, and that Cupidus was but another name for neighbour Baggs, till the poor parson, unable to contend any longer, rode to London, and brought them full satisfaction concerning the writer; who from his own knowledge of general manners, quickened by a vigorous and warm imagination, had happily delineated, though unknown to himself, the members of the Bowling-green Club."*

Occasionally, however, his characters were intended as copies of real life; and among these, Mrs. Piozzi has observed, that "the character of Prospero in the fourth volume of the Rambler, Garrick took to be his; and I have heard the author say," she proceeds, "that he never forgave the offence. Sophron was likewise a picture drawn from reality; and by Gelidus the philosopher, he meant to represent Mr. Coulson, a mathematician, who formerly lived at Rochester. The man immortalized for purring like a cat, was, as he told me, one Busby, a proctor in the Commons. He who barked so ingeniously, and then called the drawer to drive away the dog, was father to Dr. Salter of the Charter-house. He who sung a song, and by correspondent motions

* Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 233, 234, 235.

of his arm chalked out a giant on the wall, was one Richardson, an attorney."*

The talents of Johnson for humour and delineation of character will be best pointed out, however, by a minute review of what he has effected in these departments during the course of his periodical labours. In the Rambler, N° 12, containing a letter from a young woman who applies in London for service, may be selected not only as an instance of humour and close observation, but of what the author could effect, when, dropping his customary state, he chose to adopt a style of simplicity and ease. The characters of Polyphilus and Anthea, in Nos. 19 and 34, the first exposing the folly of ranging from one study to another, the second ridiculing the affectation of cowardice in the female sex, are drawn with great spirit and satirical force.

Though Johnson possessed little taste for the business or the pleasures of the country, he appears to have viewed both with an observing eye; and he has selected from rural life and occupations, especially in the female department, several subjects very happily susceptible of ludicrous representation. Of this description are the mischiefs of rural faction, in N° 46; the portrait of a Housewife in the country, in N°51; and the

VOL. IV.

* Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 49.

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character of Mrs. Busy, in N° 138. These sufficiently prove, what would otherwise not have been readily conceived, that our author was intimately acquainted with the various employments of domestic life in the country; and that even from the farm-yard and the stable, the kitchen and the dairy, he could draw abundant materials for humourous delineation.

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N° 59, which contains the character of Suspirius the Screech-owl, gave birth to the Croaker of Goldsmith in the Good-Natured Man, and is a just and poignant ridicule of a very troublesome species of eccentricity. The introductory matter in this essay includes an assertion to which the life of Johnson was nearly a perpetual contradiction. "Though I have," says he, " like the rest of mankind, many failings and weaknesses, I have not yet, by either friends or enemies, been charged with superstition." Now, it is certain, that both Johnson and his entertaining biographer, Boswell, were singularly addicted to a love of the mysterious; the latter has indeed endeavoured to disprove the charge of credulity so often attached to the character of his friend, but with so little success, that from his own life of the Doctor the strongest testimonies in behalf of the accusation may be drawn. Not only was Johnson a believer in the re-appearance of the departed, but he was

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likewise inclined to give credit to the existence of witches. In defence of the reality of apparitions, he would observe, that " a total disbelief of them is adverse to the opinion of the existence of the soul between death and the last day; the question simply is, whether departed spirits ever have the power of making themselves perceptible to us; a man who thinks he has seen an apparition, can only be convinced himself; his authority will not convince another, and his conviction, if rational, must be founded on being told something which cannot be known but by supernatural means."

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"Talking of ghosts, he said, he knew one friend, who was an honest man and a sensible man, who told him he had seen a ghost, old Mr. Edward Cave, the printer at St. John's Gate. He said, Mr. Cave did not like to talk of it, and seemed to be in great horror whenever it was mentioned. BOSWELL. 'Pray, Sir, what did he say was the appearance? JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, something of a shadowy being.'

"I mentioned witches, and asked him what they properly meant. JOHNSON. Why, Sir, they properly mean those who make use of the aid of evil spirits.' BOSWELL. "There is, 'no doubt, Sir, a general report and belief of their Boswell's Life, vol. 1, p. 96.

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