to learn was how to [obtain and communicate happiness] do good and avoid evil. "Its elegance [who can exhibit?] is less attainable." I could, with pleasure, expatiate upon the masterly execution of the life of Dryden, which we have seen1 was one of Johnson's literary projects at an early. period, and which it is remarkable, that after desisting from it, from a supposed scantiness of materials, he should, at an advanced age, have exhibited so amply. p. 43. [Though Johnson had the highest opinion of Piozzi, Pope as a writer, his superior reverence for Dryden notwithstanding still appeared in his talk as in his writings; and when some one mentioned the ridicule thrown on him in the "Rehearsal," as having hurt his general character as an author, "On the contrary," says Dr. Johnson, "the greatness of Dryden's reputation is now the only principle of vitality which keeps the Duke of Buckingham's play from putrefaction." It was not very easy however for people not quite intimate with Dr. Johnson, to get exactly his opinion of a writer's merit, as though he would sometimes divert himself by confounding those who thought themselves safe to say to-morrow what he had said yesterday; and even Garrick, who ought to have been better acquainted with his tricks, professed himself mortified, that one time when he was extolling Dryden in a rapture that perhaps disgusted his friend, Dr. Johnson suddenly challenged him to produce twenty lines in a series that would not dis 1 See vol. iii. p. 434.-BOSWELL. 2 ["When a lady at Mr. Thrale's talked of his preface to Shakspeare as superior to Pope's, he said, 'I fear not, madam: the little fellow has done wonders." "Anecd. p. 42.-ED.] p. 43. Piozzi, grace the poet and his admirer. Garrick produced a passage that he had once heard the doctor commend, in which he now found, as Mrs. Piozzi remembered, sixteen faults, and made Garrick look silly at his own table.] His defence of that great poet against the illiberal attacks upon him, as if his embracing the Roman Catholic communion had been a time-serving measure, is a piece of reasoning at once able and candid. Indeed, Dryden himself, in his "Hind and Panther," hath given such a picture of his mind, that they who know the anxiety for repose as to the awful subject of our state beyond the grave, though they may think his opinion ill-founded, must think charitably of his sentiment: "But, gracious God, how well dost thou provide For erring judgments an unerring guide! Follow'd false lights; and when their glimpse was gone, My pride struck out new sparkles of her own. Be thine the glory and be mine the shame. Good life be now my task: my doubts are done; What more could shock my faith than Three in One ?" *. In drawing Dryden's character, Johnson has given, though I suppose unintentionally, some touches of his own. Thus: "The power that predominated in his intellectual operations was rather strong reason than quick sensibility. Upon all occasions that were presented, he studied rather than felt; and produced sentiments not such as nature enforces, but meditation supplies. With the simple and elemental passions, as they spring separate in the mind, he seems not much acquainted. He is, therefore, with all his variety of excellence, not often pathetick1, and had so little sensibility of the power of effusions purely natural, that he did not esteem them in others." It may indeed be observed, that in all the numerous writings of Johnson, whether in prose or verse, and even in his tragedy, of which the subject is the distress of an unfortunate princess, there is not a single passage that ever drew a tear. obaloghi VARIOUS READINGS IN THE LIFE OF DRYDEN. "The reason of this general perusal, Addison has attempted to [find in] derive from the delight which the mind feels in the investigation of secrets. th "His best actions are but [convenient] inability of wickedness. "When once he had engaged himself in disputation [matter], thoughts flowed in on either side. "The abyss of an un-ideal [emptiness] vacancy. "These, like [many other harlots], the harlots of other men, had his love though not his approbation. "He [sometimes displays] descends to display his knowledge with pedantick ostentation. "French words which [were then used in] had then crept into conversation." 2 The life of Pope was written by Johnson con amore, both from the early possession which that writer had taken of his mind, and from the pleasure which he must have felt, in for ever silencing all passages 1 It seems to me, that there are many pathetic passages in Johnson's works both prose and verse.- -KEARNEY. 2Mr. D'Israeli," as Mr. Chalmers observes, "has in the third volume of his Literary Curiosities,' favoured the public with an original memorandum of Dr. Johnson's, of hints for the Life of Pope,' written down as they were suggested mind in the course of is none of those gratifications which Mr. D'Israeli has so frequently administered to the lovers of literary history."-ED.] attempts to lessen his poetical fame, by demonstrating his excellence, and pronouncing the following triumphant eulogium :—“ After all this, it is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, Whether Pope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in return, if Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found? To circumscribe poetry by a definition, will only show the narrowness of the definer; though a definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made. Let us look round upon the present time, and back upon the past; let us inquire to whom the voice of mankind has decreed the wreath of poetry; let their productions be examined, and their claims stated, and the pretensions of Pope will be no more disputed." 66 I remember once to have heard Johnson say, “ Sir, a thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope." That power must undoubtedly be allowed its due share in enhancing the value of his captivating composition. Johnson, who had done liberal justice to Warburton in his edition of Shakspeare, which was published during the life of that powerful writer, with still greater liberality took an opportunity, in the life of Pope, of paying the tribute due to him when he was no longer in "high place," but numbered with the dead 1. ' Of Johnson's conduct towards Warburton, a very honourable notice is taken by the editor of "Tracts by Warburton, and a Warburtonian, not admitted into the collection of their respective works." After an able and "fond, though not undistinguishing," consideration of Warburton's character, he says, "In two immortal works, Johnson has stood forth in the foremost rank of his admirers. By the testimony of such a man, impertinence must be abashed, and malignity itself must be softened. Of literary merit, Johnson, as we all know, was a sagacious but a most severe judge. Such was his discernment, that he pierced into the most secret springs of human actions; and such was his integrity, that he always weighed the moral characters of his fellow-creatures in the balance of the sanctuary.' He was too courageous to propitiate a rival, and too proud to truckle to a superiour. Warburton he knew, as I know him, and as every man of sense and virtue would wish to be known,-I mean, both from It seems strange, that two such men as Johnson and Warburton, who lived in the same age and country, should not only not have been in any degree of intimacy, but been almost personally unacquainted. But such instances, though we must wonder at them, are not rare. If I am rightly informed, after a careful inquiry, they never met but once, which was at the house of Mrs. French, in London, well known his own writings, and from the writings of those who dissented from his principles or who envied his reputation. But, as to favours, he had never received or asked any from the bishop of Gloucester; and, if my memory fails me not, he had seen him only once, when they met almost without design, conversed without much effort, and parted without any lasting impression of hatred or affection. Yet, with all the ardour of sympathetic genius, Johnson had done that spontaneously and ably, which, by some writers, had been before attempted injudiciously, and which, by others, from whom more successful attempts might have been expected, has not hitherto been done at all. He spoke well of Warburton, without insulting those whom Warburton despised. He suppressed not the imperfections of this extraordinary man, while he endeavoured to do justice to his numerous and transcendental excellencies. He defended him when living, amidst the clamours of his enemies; and praised him when dead, amidst the silence of his friends."-Having availed myself of the eulogy of this editor [Dr. Parr] on my departed friend, for which I warmly thank him, let me not suffer the lustre of his reputation, honestly acquired by profound learning and vigorous eloquence, to be tarnished by a charge of illiberality. He has been accused of invidiously dragging again into light certain writings of a person [Bishop Hurd] respectable by his talents, his learning, his station, and his age, which were published a great many years ago, and have since, it is said, been silently given up by their authour. But when it is considered that these writings were not sins of youth, but deliberate works of one well-advanced in life, overflowing at once with flattery to a great man of great interest in the church, and with unjust and acrimonious abuse of two men of eminent merit; and that, though it would have been unreasonable to expect an humiliating recantation, no apology whatever has been made in the cool of the evening, for the oppressive fervour of the heat of the day; no slight relenting indication has appeared in any note, or any corner of later publications; is it not fair to understand him as superciliously persevering? When he allows the shafts to remain in the wounds, and will not stretch forth a lenient hand, is it wrong, is it not generous to become an indignant avenger? [Warburton himself did not feel-as Mr. Boswell was disposed to think he did-kindly or gratefully of Johnson: for in one of his letters to a friend, he says, "The remarks he (Dr. Johnson) makes in every page on my commentaries, are full of insolent and malignant reflections, which, had they not in them as much folly as malignity, I should have had reason to be offended with. As it is, I think myself obliged to him in thus setting before the public so many of my notes, with his remarks upon them: for though I have no great opinion of the trifling part of the public, which pretends to judge of this part of literature, in which boys and girls decide, yet I think nobody can be mistaken in this comparison: though I think their thoughts have never yet extended thus far as to reflect, that to discover the corruption in an authour's text, and by a happy sagacity to restore it to sense, is no easy task: but when the discovery is made, then to cavil at the conjecture, to propose an equivalent, and defend nonsense, by producing out of the thick darkness it occasions a weak and faint glimmering of sense (which has been the business of this editor throughout) is the easiest, as well as the dullest, of all literary efforts.”—Warburton's Letters published by Bp. Hurd, 8vo. 367. ED.] |