} by art and judgment in beating out a few grains we cannot say of gold, but of the scoriæ and ashes of that metal, into a surface capable of covering by patches a considerable portion of a small octavo volume. The mind is not confused as in many other works by a breathless rapidity of narration, or the eye by that crowded typography which allows no repose to the reader. On the contrary between page and page, and line and line, there is ample room for reflection and rumination, as well as for recording in the margin such remarks as the narrative may appear to suggest. For example, on looking back we find the third page occupied with those most important and isolated words “ THE CATHEDRAL," standing prominently and alone Jike Stone-Henge in the midst of a barren plain. Now to many readers this will look like a waste of paper and of money; but when rightly considered we shall see that much instruction, both graphical and moral, is to be derived from the circumstance. It is printing like a painter and philosopher; for who but beholds in imagination, while he contemplates Mr. Duppa's page, this venerable cathedral reposing in unincumbered majesty in the midst of its spacious close, the eye expatiating upon a wide hot-pressed margin of paper, converted by the silent power hof fancy into trim gravel-walks and avenues of stately elms. It would have been a lamentable want of taste in the admirer of Raphael and M. Angelo to have choked up the view of Litchfield Cathedral with minor edifices. He has therefore, like a judicious designer, devoted a whole page, for the sake doubtless of picturesque effect, to this simple object; and we must do him the justice to add, that "The Cathedral" bursts upon the eye in the printed page with a prominence and relief which we could wish were more constantly imitated in the erection of real stone and mortar edifices, many of the finest of which, not excepting some of our Cathedrals themselves, are almost lost to the artist and the man of taste by the circumjacent buildings. to We have now seen with what excellent effect a few lines of letter press may be judiciously expanded, as in the work before over eight pages of superfine paper; and we shall, therefore, proceed to the further solution of our problem, the difficulties of which are by no means yet surmounted. It might chance that ▷ some captious reader, though delighted with the ingenuity of the project, might nevertheless think that in some of the before cited "pages it had been acted upon with rather too much spirit; and night, therefore, suggest the propriety of adding a few notes by o way of vekeing out a decent quantity of type. Such an expe"dient would not be lost upon an editor of genius, and he would in consequence open the narratives of Boswell and Piozzi, to find due matter for his purpose. Thus the mention of Strea tham (p. 1.) affords an admirable opportunity of telling the world where it lies and who lived there, while the succeeding pages furnish a natural apology for quotations to inform us who was Mrs. Porter, who was Mrs. Aston, who were Messrs. Green, Newton, Cobb, Darwin, Garrick, Vyse, &c. It may be fastidiously said that these notes are neither instructive nor entertaining, being only dry dates and names connected with persons either well-known or not worth knowing; and further it may be objected that the narratives of Dr. Johnson, by Boswell, Hawkins, and Mrs. Thrale, are so easily accessible as to furnish no fair apology for long quotations from them; but even admitting these drawbacks, the notes have still the merit of filling up a few interstices of letter press, and relieving the solitary appearance which "the cathedral" might otherwise have presented. So far all is well, yet still it appears that after all these strenu ous efforts the expansive powers of the manuscript, aided by all the favourable circumstances above-mentioned, would fall rather short of 150 pages, and the proposal, as we have seen, was to achieve no less than 226. But, as Virgil informed us long ago, that those can conquer who think they can conquer, nothing more is requisite than a little intrepidity to surmount even this obstacle. Suppose then, as not one syllable of the manuscript of the tour remains; we proceed to seventeen miscellaneous, "Observations and Remarks" of Dr. Johnson's, which may be made by good management to occupy about seven subsidiary pages. These little strokes indicate a master, and render a volume doubly inte resting to the scientific reader. Having thus advanced manfully through dedication, preface, contents, fac-simile, text, notes, and miscellanies, we arrive at the novel and interesting expedient of thirty-two pages of " Appen dix," which must consist of quotations, as follows; viz. Miss Seward's description of Lucy Porter, four pages; Dr. Taylor, three pages; Mr. Whateley's Delineation of Dovedale, five pages, &c. &c. The next resource was a master-piece of genius, and will at once astonish and delight the expecting reader. The process is as follows: Dr. Johnson writes a tour; a tour supposes post-horses, and post-horses naturally suggest the idea of post-roads. These premises duly considered, the whole plan flashes as irresistibly on the mind of a man of genius, as the doctrine of gravitation did upon that of Sir Isaac Newton when he saw an apple falling from a tree. Who can tell, doubtless thought our Editor, but some enthusiastic admirer of Dr. Johnson might choose to travel again, at least in imagination, this celebrated "Tour to North Wales and where can be the necessity of purchasing Carey's book of post-roads, when he has paid nine shillings for Johnson's peram bulation already. The propriety of this reasoning is evident to the most ordinary capacity; or, at all events, the following note of Mr. Duppa will tend to render it so. "That this work may be rendered more useful, the Editor has subjoined an Itinerary, to show in one view the relative distances of the places mentioned in the Diary, which will assist the Reader, and be of use to the Tourist." Having thus magnanimously resolved upon an Itinerary, the hot-pressed page must be ruled with upright lines exactly in the manner of an ordinary "Post-chaise Companion." After this effort of literary skill, two things only remain to be accomplished; namely, the already-mentioned "Table of Contents" at the beginning, and a copious "Index" of fourteen pages at the end. We are aware that our readers will here exclaim that if the whole volume be such as we have described, and such as the first eight pages already quoted would appear to indicate, there can be no need of an Index or Table of Contents at all, and much less for references more copious than the original manuscript itself. We pity those who reason in this contracted way, and shall proceed with our exposition of this editor's creative ability. To avoid unfairness we shall begin with the very first page, half of which is occupied with that interesting remark, "We left Streatham 11. a. m.' The text is apparently simple, and one might suppose would have furnished no occasion for note or comment; the full merits therefore of the plan pursued in this volume can be seen only by a proper juxta-position of the various places in which "Streatham" is produced. First, then, this important proper name takes its main position in the text; but it again meets the eye in the margin; and figures away a third time, with great splendour, in a note at the bottom of the page. In order however to prevent the possibility of forgetting so significant a place, being the point at which this memorable expedition commenced, Streatham announces itself in the Table of Contents; and stands a fifth time conspicuous in the Index at the end. So much for, "We left Streatham." The remaining half of the first page consists, as we have already seen, of the entertaining fact," Price of four horses 25. a mile," which of course furnishes a proper subject for the Index, as follows," Post-horses, the price of four, per mile, in 1774." Thus this instructive Index, fourteen pages, is not only in most cases a complete duplicate of the text; but has often the merit of surpassing it in the number of words and extent of information. Our Editor had probably in his mind the story of the sailor on short allowance, who looked at his last dry biscuit VOL. IX. NO. XVII. through a multiplying glass, in order to persuade himself and his friends that he was in possession of a respectable supply. The merits of the second page, both in the intrinsic value of the text, and the felicities of illustration, fully equal those of the first. The first line, as already quoted, consists of the word "Barnet," which every school boy would thus immediately know was a substantive by its characteristic property of standing alone. Barnet therefore is sounded in the text; Barnet is echoed in the margin; Barnet is re-echoed in the index; and Barnet is reverberated in the Table of Contents. Had it been but a few miles, further on the road to Wales, it would also have had the honour of a place in the Itinerary. The next passage (we quote regularly to prevent the suspicion of unfairness) is as follows; "On the road I read Tully's Epistles.", Index, "Tully's Epistles, read by Dr. Johnson on his journey to Llewenney." The same process is continued to "Litchfield," &c., till we come to the fourth page which is peculiarly interesting, and runs as follows; "To Mrs. Porter's. To Mrs. Aston's!!". These two prolific ladies thus majestically fill a whole page of the text; but, not content with this, they aspire to the super-added dignity of two notices in the Table of Contents, two respectable notes in the body of the work, with two long articles in the Appendix, as before rehearsed, and two references in the Index, to which are added two references to the notes. In this manner the work proceeds throughout, though not always"passibus equis;" and so beautifully do the text and index correspond, that memory Word nods to word, each sentence has a brother, an expedient of excellent use in impressing upon a sluggish those curious facts and illustrations with which the work abounds. We see the same image beautifully reflected from mirror to mirror, after the excellent plan of Turner's Latin Exercises; ego amo te-tu amaris a me:-Gutte carent lapides lapides caventur a guttis. By way of magnifying still more the editor's skill, it should be observed that the illustrations do not always take their leap from the text; but sometimes a note is elegantly and judiciously surmounted upon a note. Thus, Dr. Johnson happened to make a cursory remark upon Mr. Middle ton's dinner; this gives occasion to a long quotation from Boswell; Boswell's note leads the way to an article in the appendix from Mrs. Thrale; and the whole is concluded with this savory reference in the index :-" Cookery, dilated upon by Dr. Johnson; what Dr. Johnson was fond of." In this manner are broken sentences, hints, shreds, patches, the mutilated legs and wings of ideas, brought forward under the venerable name of Dr. Johnson, to produce an equivalent for nine "splendid shillings." If Johnson called a false copy of one of his letters an adumbration, what would he have said to these adumbrations of an adumbration? It is thus that Mr. Duppa has avoided the application of his own introductory remark, that "to publish whatever has fallen from the pen of a celebrated author has been reckoned among the vices of the time." We have endeavoured to do justice to Mr. Duppa's merit in giving this fragment of the great Colossus; we are therefore not to be blamed if, after all that we have written, our readers should pertinaciously reason as follows. There were but two cases which would justify the publication of Dr. Johnson's Adversaria in a form like the present; a form in which they will be handed over the world and down to posterity. One of these cases would have existed, if there had really been a dearth of intelligence relative to this extraordinary man; but after all the volumes which have been written respecting him there could be no valid plea of this description. His journeys, his modes of life, his habits of composition, and his most cursory remarks, have been faithfully and minutely-often too faithfully and too minutely transcribed and published; his privacies have been violated, and every means devised to satiate the public curiosity. The only other circumstance, which would have authorized the publication of these unfinished notes of his Tour in a handsome volume, would have been the existence of a finished volume afterwards published by himself on the subject. In this case the world might have felt a gratification in contrasting the perfect page with the imperfect note-book, the magnificent fabric with the slight and indistinct sketch. But even, to gratify this natural curiosity, materials are not wanting in the pages of Boswell, Hawkins, and other biographers. Their minute industry has preserved many fragments, from which we may see the gradations of Johnson's mind, and his habits of literary labour, from the first slight hint to a finished Rambler. If no other portrait had been in existence we should have been glad of the rough and incorrect sketch now before us; but where so many good likenesses were to be procured, what need was there for the addition of a bad one? All this may be very true; but it shall not induce us to retract our admiration of Mr. Duppa's skill in the arcana of intellectual economy, and the mystery of book-making. We must not, however, give to partiality what belongs to justice. The plain truth is, that the author has supplied a little help, and the fol |