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general depravity that leaves nothing to be hoped by firmness and integrity.

If instead of wandering after the meteors of philosophy, which fill the world with splendor for a while, and then sink and are forgotten, the candidates of learning would fix their eyes upon the permanent and immutable lustre of moral truth, they would find a more certain direction to honour and to happiness. A little power of discourse, and a little acquaintance with unnecessary speculations, is dearly purchased when it excludes those instructions which fortify the heart with resolution, and exalt the spirit to independence.

THE limits of this preface will not allow me to add much to the above specimen, yet to those who have studied the varieties of Dr. JOHNSON'S style at different periods of his life, the following will appear characteristick.-It is the translation in No. 48 from the fragment of a Greek poet.

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"Health, most venerable of the powers of heaven! with thee may the remaining part of my life be spent: nor do thou refuse to cohabit with For whatever there is of beauty or of pleasure in wealth, in decendants, in sovereign command, the highest summit of human enjoyment, or in those objects of desire which we endeavour to chase into the toils of love; whatever delight, or whatever solace is afforded by the celestials for the relief of the fatigues of man; in thy presence, thou parent of happiness! joys spread out and flourish in thy presence blooms the spring of pleasure, and without thee no man is blest.". In the second edition these last words were altered to there is no gladness, but in the third to no man is happy.

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The following short passage is given as containing corrections which are not merely verbak

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Treating of that great peculiarity of Milton's versification, the suppression of the last syllable of a word ending with a vowel, when a vowel begins the following word (No. 88), he remarks,

"This licence, though an innovation in English poetry, is yet allowed in many other languag es, ancient and modern, and therefore the criticks on Paradise Lost have, without much deliberation, commended Milton for introducing it.” Instances of this kind, however, are very rare, the greatest proportion of alterations being those of language.

After these extracts which, if I do not deceive myself, exhibit this writer in a character that has, for whatever reason, escaped the inquiries of his biographers, little remains to be said on the history of the RAMBLER. When it had passed two or three editions, an index was thoughit of, but this being a task unworthy of its author's talents, who was not of the opinion given by an old Spanish writer INDICEM libri ab AUTORE, librum ipsum a quovis alio conficiendum, the Rev. Mr. FLEXMAN, an index-maker by profession, was employed. Of his success Mr. BoswELL has given an anecdote which is worth transcribing as an additional proof of what has been often contested, Dr. JOHNSON's high veneration for MIL

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"JOHNSON Would sometimes found his dislikes on very slender circumstances, happening one day to mention Mr. FLEXMAN, a dissenting minister, with some compliment to his exact memory in chronological matters, the doctor replied, 'Let me hear no more of him, Sir; that is the fellow who made the index to my RAMBLERS, and set down the name of MILTON thus: MILTON Mr. John.'”

If Mr. BoswELL had examined this index, he would have discovered another gross breach of the courtesy of literature, no less than-Shakspeare, Mr. William; and both have been retained in every edition, except the present. Besides the barbarism of any appendage to names which are doomed by the general opinion of mankind to stand alone, FLEXMAN in these instances erred against the principles of index-making by introducing what was not to be found in the body of the work; and he ought to have known that the honours of the surname were given to SHAKSPEARE and MILTON at least half a century before.

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The mottos of the RAMBLER were translated soon after its first publication in the GENTleMAN'S MAGAZINE, partly from the Edinburgh edition above mentioned, partly by the author, and partly by the Rev. F. LEWIS of Chiswick, whom Dr. JOHNSON. described thus to Mr. MALONE: "Sir, he lived in London, and hung loose upon society." Some of the original mottos were changed in the second edition for others more appropriate*.

On the general merit of this work, it is now unnecessary to expatiate; the prejudices which were alarmed by a new style and manner have long subsided; criticks and grammarians have pointed out what they thought defective, or dangerous for imitation; and although a new set of objectors have appeared since the author's death,

* Dr. Warton was of opinion that the mottos prefixed to the Ramblers and Adventurers were not very happy, and that the attempt to translate them was absurd. Mr. Payne the publisher expresses the same sentiments in a letter to Dr. Warton now before me.

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the world has not been much swayed in its opinions by that hostility which is restrained until it can be vented with impunity. The few laboured and perhaps pedantic sentences which occur, have been selected and repeated with incessant malignity, but without the power of depreciation; and they who have thus found JOHNSON to be obscure and unintelligible, might with similar partiality celebrate SHAKSPEARE only for his puns and quibbles. Luckily, however, for the taste and improvement of the age, these objections are not very prevalent; and the general opinion, founded on actual observation, is, that although Dr. JOHNSON is not to be imitated with perfect success, yet the attempt to imitate him, where it has neither been servile nor artificial, has elevated the style of every species of literary composition. In every thing, we perceive more vigour, more spirit, more elegance. He not only began a revolution in our language, but lived till it was almost completed.

With respect to the plan of the RAMBLER, he may surely be said to have executed what he intended he has successfully attempted the propagation of truth; and boldly maintained the dignity of virtue. He has accumulated in this work a treasure of moral science, which will not be soon exhausted. He has laboured to refine our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations. Something he certainly has added to the elegance of its construction, and something to the harmony of its cadence*.

Comparisons have been formed between the RAMBLER and its predecessors, or rather between

* RAMBLER, last paper,

the genius of JOHNSON and of ADDISON, but have generally ended in discovering a total want of resemblance. As they were both original writers they must be tried, if tried at all, by laws applicable to their respective attributes. But neither had a predecessor. We can find no humour like ADDISON's; no energy and dignity like JOHNSON'S. They had nothing in common, but moral excellence of character; they could not have exchanged styles for an hour. Yet there is one respect in which we must give ADDISON the preference, more general utility. His writings would have been understood at any period; JOHNSON'S would have perhaps been unintelligible a century ago, and are calculated for the more improved and liberal education now so common. In both, however, what was peculiar was natural. The earliest of Dr. JOHNSON'S Works confirm this; from the moment he could write at all, he wrote in stately periods; and his conversation from first to last abounded in the peculiarities of his composition. In general we may say, with Seneca, Riget ejus oratio, nihil in ea placidum, nihil lene. ADDISON's style was the direct reverse of this.-If the "Lives of the Poets" be thought an exception to Dr. JOHNSON'S general habit of writing, let it be remembered that he was for the most part confined to dates and facts, to illustrations and criticisms, and quotations; but when he indulged himself in moral reflections, to which he delighted to recur, we have again the rigour and loftiness of the RAMBLER, and only miss some of what have been termed his hard words.

ADDISON principally excelled in the observation of manners, and in that exquisite ridicule he threw on the minute improprieties of life. JOHNSON, al

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