not sorrowed over the miserable failings of some of the noblest of men? But with Johnson's whole life lying open before us as no other great man's life lies, we can say : 'Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt, This uniformity in the main of character heightens still more. the contrast which exists in the minor parts. It not only heightens it but it renders it far more pleasing. The most striking quality in Johnson was his wisdom, his knowledge of the whole art of life. Gibbon describes 'the majestic sense of Thurlow 2 If common sense can be thought of as invested with majesty, it is seen in all its stateliness much more in the dictionary-maker than in the great Lord Chancellor. But mere common sense would never have made Johnson all that he is to us. Benjamin Franklin had of any single man seems more common sense than the frame capable of containing or supporting. But who loves common sense when it stands alone? It must be dashed by the failings of men of like affections with ourselves. It must at times be crossed by the playful extravagances of a wayward humour. It must be joined not with a cold and calculating selfishness, but with a tenderness and a pity for those whose want of it has brought them to misery. No one understood better than Johnson the art by which we arrive at such happiness as life admits of; no one felt more compassion for those who, through the infirmity of will, failed to practise this art. It is perhaps this union of the strongest common sense and a real tenderness of heart that more than anything else endears him to men who are wide as the poles asunder. Macaulay did 1 Samson Agonistes, 1. 1721. • Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, i. 222. not Fuel vena che mountain, moments make the year, 11 wraps life, as it is; 'he takes existence on the terms on which it is given to him? He never expects from life more Her life can afford. He always refuses to hide from himself the real wates of things. He puts up no screen between * Millon, quoded in Johnson's Dictionary under Sullenness. * Yong, Love of Fame, satire vi, * Howwell's Fife of Johnson, W. 5%. himself As truth wit pain i que a ...A IG* He dislikes al affectation, ali termini de bakatoo A the great lexicographer, 1 Morley's Life of Cobden, i, gOR. The Rambler, No. 116. 5 Ib. iv. 289. st von fund a forible Eng, and shakes linginer out of yn, whether you at He spends a whole night *ksony z a save to do honour to an attoress's MAKEY CLC) He orders a magnificent bot apple-pie and *w* * *uk with bayleares' He 'brokes the moses by VINAMILs of la own invention, and encircles her browS Wen a worn, hare? At five in the morning his face still Miller wä meikian verdour.' He 'rates the company to Varixe A a wond refreshment of coffee,' and it is near eight o'clock before he goes home to bed'. He gets up at three on a summer morning 'to have a frisk' with those young dogs, Beauclerk and Langton, and joins in drinking 'a bowl of that liquor called Bishop which he had always liked". With this entire absence of all 'studied behaviour' he combines the most 'inflexible dignity of character". Perhaps there never was a man more entirely free from what is known in this age as 'snobbishness.' In the days of his poverty his clothes might be little better than a beggar's, and his chairs might have lost a leg; but no external circumstances ever prompted him to make an apology, or to seem even sensible of their existence.' He reproaches Mrs. Thrale with her 'despicable dread of living in the Borough".' It is this freedom from affectation which gives such weight and such interest to his criticisms. He has none of ‘the cant of those who judge poetry by principles rather than perception.' He is never afraid to speak what he holds to be the truth, however great may be the author whom he reviews. When George III asked Miss Burney whether 'there was not sad stuff in Shakespeare,' he added :-'I know it is not to be said, but it's true. Only it's Shakespeare, and nobody dare abuse him".' There was no author whom Johnson dared not criticise with honest boldness. 'A quibble,' he writes, 'was to Shakespeare the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it. No one has bestowed loftier praise on Milton than Johnson, no one has done him more 'illustrious justice". He speaks of him as 'that poet whose works may possibly be read when every other monument 1 Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 286. 2 Boswell's Life of Johnson, i. 251. 4 Ib. i. 328 n. I. 3 Ib. i. 131. 5 Piozzi Letters, ii. 92. 7 Boswell's Life of Johnson, i. 497 n. I. 8 Works, v. 118. Boswell's Life of Johnson, i. 227. of |