ftarted up a profeffed enemy to that poem. Johnfon fays, "his mind was one of thofe, in "which philofophy and piety are happily "united. He looked with diftrust upon all 66 66 metaphyfical fyftems of theology, and was perfuaded, that the pofitions of Pope were "intended to draw mankind away from Reve"lation, and to reprefent the whole course of things as a neceffary concatenation of in"diffoluble fatality." This is not the place for a controversy about the Leibnitzian system. Warburton, with all the powers of his large and comprehenfive mind, published a Vindication of Pope; and yet Johnson fays, that "in many paffages a religious eye may eafily dif cover expreffions not very favourable to morals, or to liberty." This fentence is fevere, and, perhaps, dogmatical. Croufaz wrote an Examen of THE ESSAY ON MAN, and afterwards a Commentary on every remarkable paffage; and though it now appears that Mrs. Elizabeth Carter tranflated the foreign Critic, yet it is certain that Johnfon encouraged the work, and, perhaps, imbibed thofe early prejudices which adhered to him to the end of his life. He fhuddered at the idea of irreligion. 66 Hence Hence we are told in the Life of Pope, "Never "were penury of knowledge and vulgarity of "fentiment fo happily disguised; Pope, in the "chair of wisdom, tells much that every man "knows, and much that he did not know him"felf; and gives us comfort in the pofition, "that though man's a fool, yet God is wife; that "human advantages are unftable; that our "true honour is, not to have a great part, but "to act it well; that virtue only is our own, "and that happiness is always in our power. "The reader, when he meets all this in its new array, no longer knows the talk of his mo"ther and his nurfe." But may it not be faid, that every system of ethics muft or ought to terminate in plain and general maxims for the use of life? and, though in fuch axioms no discovery is made, does not the beauty of the moral theory confift in the premises, and the chain of reasoning that leads to the conclufion? May not truth, as Johnfon himself fays, be conveyed to the mind by a new train of intermediate images? Pope's doctrine about the ruling paffion does not seem to be refuted, though it is called, in harfh terms, pernicious as well as falfe, tending to establish a kind of moral predestination, or or over-ruling principle, which cannot be refifted. But Johnfon was too eafily alarmed in the cause of religion. Organized as the human race is, individuals have different inlets of perception, different powers of mind, and different fenfations of pleasure and pain. All spread their charms, but charm not all alike, On different fenfes different objects strike; Hence different paffions more or lefs inflame, As ftrong or weak the organs of the frame. And hence one mafter-paffion in the breast, Like Aaron's ferpent swallows up the reft. Brumoy fays, Pascal from his infancy felt himfelf a geometrician; and Vandyke, in like manner, was a painter. Shakspeare, who of all poets had the deepest infight into human nature, was aware of a prevailing bias in the operations of every mind. By him we are told, to the mood of what It remains to enquire, whether in the lives before us the characters are partial, and too often drawn with malignity of mifreprefentation. To prove this it is alledged, that Johnson has misrepresented the circumftances relative to the VOL. I. m tranf tranflation of the first Iliad, and maliciously afcribed that performance to Addison, instead of Tickell, with too much reliance on the testimony of Pope, taken from the account in the papers left by Mr. Spence. For a refutation of the fallacy imputed to Addison, we are referred to a note in the Biographia Britannica, written by the late Judge Blackstone, who, it is faid, examined the whole matter with accuracy, and found that the firft regular statement of the accufation against Addison was published by Ruffhead in his Life of Pope, from the materials which he received from Dr. Warburton. But, with all due deference to the learned Judge, whofe talents deserve all praise, this account is by no means accurate. Sir Richard Steele, in a dedication of the Comedy of the Drummer to Mr. Congreve, gave the first infight into that bufinefs. He fays, in a style of anger and refentment, "If "that gentleman (Mr. Tickell) thinks himself 66 injured, I will allow I have wronged him "6 upon this iffue, that (if the reputed tranflator "of the first book of Homer shall pleafe to "give us another book) there fhall appear 4 another "another good judge in poetry, befides Mr. "Alexander Pope, who fhall like it." The authority of Steele outweighs all opinions founded on vain conjecture, and, indeed, feems to be decifive, fince we do not find that Tickell, though warmly preffed, thought proper to vindicate himself. But the grand proof of Johnfon's malignity, is the manner in which he has treated the character and conduct of Milton. To enforce this charge, has wearied fophiftry, and exhausted the invention of a party. What they cannot deny, they palliate; what they cannot prove, they fay is probable. But why all this rage against Dr. Johnson? Addison, before him, had faid of Milton ; Oh! had the Poet ne'er prophan'd his pén, And had not Johnson an equal right to avow his fentiments? Do his enemies claim a privilege to abuse whatever is valuable to Englishmen, either in Church or State, and must the liberty of UNLICENSED PRINTING be denied to the friends of the British conftitution? |