of a philofopher, and wishes fitting for a Chriftian. He has fucceeded wonderfully in giving to his imitation the air of an original. The Christian had to ftruggle with the Heathen poet, and though we cannot fay that he has furpaffed him, he has, at least, entered into a noble competition. Of his smaller poems, the Prologue for the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre, has been univerfally admired, as a mafterly and comprehenfive criticism upon the several ages of English dramatic poetry. The fubject and the moral were well conceived, and are as nobly expreffed. The character of Shakspeare is delineated with a felicity of expreffion, that challenges the whole compafs of English poetry. His other Prologues are copies of his mind, clear and comprehenfive, pointed and energetic. Of his Odes upon the feafons, his addreffes to Autumn and Winter feem the best. Many of the ftanzas are exceedingly beautiful; as ufual, moral, and unufually pathetic. They manifeft, however, that his defcriptive poetry is not the production of a warm fancy, impelled to give vent by poely to its overflowing feelings. Thofe paffions and objects which would infpire the genuine poetic mind with enthufiafm, pafs by him unfelt and unnoticed. He is melancholy in Spring, jocund in Winter; he lavishes no encomiums upon the perfumed zephyrs, but flies to melancholy morals, or commemorates the comforts of a cheering flaggon and a fnug fire-fide. His Ode to Evening, addreffed to Stella, the Natural Beauty, and the Vanity of Wealth, are in general elegant. The first is warm and fentimental, and shows that he was neither ignorant of the feelings, nor infenfible to the joys of a lover. The Ode to Friendship is diftinguished by delicacy of fentiment and beauty of expreffion. Of his addrefs To Lyce, the idea perhaps is not original; but the images are happily felected, and well expreffed. Stella in Mourning, the verses to Lady Firebrace, To an elderly Lady, and On the Sprig of Myrtle, are occafional compofitions, and of courfe derive their merit chiefly from local and temporary circumstances. The principal art in fuch performances, is to make a trifling circumftance poetical or witty. In the verfes On the Sprig of Myrtle, he has very happily fucceeded. The Ant must be allowed to be nervous and elegant. The verses On the Death of Stephen Grey, are worthy the pen of Pope. The Elegy on the Death of Mr Levett, as it was among the laft, so it is one of the best of his performances. It is moral, characteristic, and pathetic. The following ftanzas are exqui, fitely beautiful: Yet ftill he fills affection's eye, Obfcurely wife and coarsely kind; Nor letter'd arrogance deny This praife to merit unrefin'd. When fainting nature call'd for aid, And hovering death prepar'd the blow, His vigorous remedy display'd The power of art without the fhow: And lonely want retir'd to die. The toil of every day supply'd. Of his remaining pieces, fome are mere impromptus, which were never intended for the public eye, and others were the fuggeftions of temporary incidents. Many of them are fprightly and elegant, and may be read with pleasure; but they require no diftinct enumeration, or particular criticism. Among our English poets, it is no unpleasant reflection to be able to find fo many elegant writers of Latin verfe; in the firft rank of which, Johnson ftands very high. Jonfon, Crafhaw, Crashaw, Cowley, May, Milton, Marvel, Addifon, Gray, Smart, Warton, and Johnson, are fuch writers of Latin verfe, as any country might with juftice be proud of. Johnson was eminently fkilled in the Latin tongue, and strongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry. The firit fruits of his genius were compofitions in Latin verfe. His tramlation of the Messiah, gained him reputation in the college in which it was written, and was approved by Pope. Virgil feems to have been his model for language and verification. He has copied the varied pauses of his verfe, the length of his periods, the peculiar grace of his expreffions, and his majestic dignity, with confiderable fuccefs. But his compofition is fometimes unclaffical and incorrect. The most exceptionable line is the first; tollere concentum, if allowable, is furely an awkward phrase for "be gin the fong." His Odes, particularly, the Ode Inchkenneth, Ode in the Ifle of Sky, and that to Mrs Thrale, from the fame place, are eafy, elegant, and poetical. They unite claffical language, tender fentiment, and harmonious verfe. His poem, Tv8 TEKUTOR, is nervous and energetic. His Epitaphs are diftinguished by claffical elegance and nervous fimplicity. Thofe on Goldsmith and Thrale seem the best. His Epigrams are, in general, neat and pointed. In the Anthologia, we admire fometimes a happy imitation, and fometimes regret inelegant expreffions. For obvious reafons, his Latin pieces, though excellent in their kind, can never acquire the popularity of THE the English. Those who read with pleasure the Latin claffics, fee their inferiority; to others, they are uminterefting and unintelligible. "The delight which they afford," to use his own words, in criticifing the Latin poetry of Milton," is rather by the exquifite imitation of the ancient writers, by the purity of the diction, and the harmony of the numbers, than by any power of invention, or vigour of fentiment." This character will generally fuit our modern Latin poetry; for if we except that noble ode of Gray's, written at the Grande Chartreufe, and fome few others, there are not many of the Poemata Anglorum, that contain much "power of invention, or vigour of fentiment." Upon the whole, the various productions of Johnson show a life spent in ftudy and meditation. It may be fairly allowed, as he ufed to fay of himself, that he has written his fhare. His oddities and infirmities in common life, will, after a while, be overlooked and forgotten; but his writings will remain a monument of his genius and learning; ftill more and more ftudied and admired, while Britons fhall continue to be characterized by a love of elegance and fublimity, of good fenfe and virtue. In the works of Johnson, the reader will find a perpetual fource of pleafure and inftruction. With due precaution, men may learn to give to their ftyle, elegance, harmony, and precision; they may be taught to think with vigour and perfpicuity; and all, by a diligent attention to his writings, may advance in virtue. CRITIQUE ON DR JOHNSON's STYLE. FROM THE SAME. HE ftyle of his profe writings has been too often criticifed, to need being noticed here. It has been cenfured, applauded, and imitated, to extremes equally dangerous to the pusity of the English tongue. That he has innovated upon our language by his adoption of Latin derivatives and his preference of abstract to concrete terms, cannot be denied. But the danger from his innovation would be trifling, if thofe alone would copy him who can think, with equal precifion; for few paffages can be pointed out from his works, in which his meaning could be as accurately expreffed by fuch words as are in more familiar ufe. His comprehenfion of mind was the mould for his language. Had his comprehenfion been narrower, his expreffion would have been eafier. His fentences have a dignified march, fuitable to the elevation of his fentiments, and the pomp of his fonorous phrafeology. And it is to be remembered, that while he has has added harmony and dignity to our language, he has neither vitiated it by the infertion of foreign idioms, or the affectation of anomaly in the construction of his fentences. While the flowers of poetic imagination luxuriantly adorn his ftyle, it is never enfeebled by their plenti tude. It is clofe without obtenebration, perfpicuous without languor, and ftrong without impetuofity. No periods are fo harmonious; none fo nervous. He has laboured his ftyle with the greateft attention; perhaps its elaborateness is too apparent. It has, perhaps, too unwieldy and too uniform a dignity. He feems to have been particularly ftudious of the glitter of an antithefis between the epithet and the fubftantive. This ftrikes while it is new; but to the more experienced reader, though it may feem fometimes forcible, yet it will often prove tiresome. It is remarkable, that Johnfon's early performances bear few marks of the ftyle which he adopted in his Rambler. In his Life of Savage, the style is elegant, but not oftentatious. His fentences are naturally arranged, and mufical without artifice. He affects not the measuring of claufes, and the balancing of periods. He aims not at fplendid, glowing diction. He feeks not pointed phrafes, and elaborate contrafts. It is alfo worthy of remark, on this fubject, that Johnfon has altered, and perhaps improved his ftyle, long after his reputation had been established, and his Rambler had appeared. The compofition of this work differs a good deal from that of Raffelas, the Journey to the Western Islands, and The Lives of the Poets. The native vigour, and peculiarity of feature, are indeed preferved, but they are polished to greater elegance, and taught to wear the appearance of a happier eafe.-In the Rambler, his periods are longer, and his meaning more condensed; he is more fond of abstract terms, and ambitious of fefquipedalian words.But this work was written while he was occupied in collecting authorities for his Dictionary; at a time when Browne and Hooker, Bacon and Hakewell, were continually before him; men whom it was difficult to read, and remain free from the temptation to imitate. In his latter productions, particularly his Lives of the Poets, his fentences are shorter, their conftruction more fimple, and the ufe of Latin derivations less frequent. He has made his ftyle in a greater degree elegant without conftraint, dignified without ambitious ornament, ftrong without rigidity, and harmonious without elaboration. He has adopted a measured paufe, and a correfpondent length in the numbers of his periods, which gives to his profe much of the harmony, and fometimes fomewhat of the monotony of verfe. As Homer gave a peculiar language to his gods, to exprefs their divine conceptions, let us allow to Johnfon, and to men like him, a ftyle fuch as he ufed; for we have as yet found none more grand and energetic. WHIMSICAL EXPENCES OF ECONOMY. Do you know, Mr Editor, that I ed by economy? Never did a poor am in the high road to be ruin- man pay fo dear in order to fave money; money; and it is all owing to the cry that you and others have fet up about scarcity, that I am fairly driven out of my own house, and am the laughing stock of all my neighbours. You must know that I have the good fortune to enjoy the best wife in the world. She is a pattern to all her acquaintance. She looks into every thing herself, is quite notable, a great manager; an excellent market woman, and knows the cheapest shop in town for every article that we want. This is not only a great comfort, as well as faving to ourfelves, but a great convenience to our friends; for, when any of them want to buy a gown, or a pound of raifins, they are fure not only to confult my wife, but to take her with them for fear that they should be impofed u pon; and the kind foul is every day upon her feet trudging into the city with one friend or another, because really in the city things may be bought for almost half price; and this I can affure you is true, from the extraordinary bargains that she constantly makes. 66 66 it will bake a pie, or a few tarts upon occafion; and you know, my love, it will keep your leg of mutton hot and comfortable any time that you fhould happen to be detained at Lloyd's. What do you think of it, my dear?" I never have an opinion of my own upon any subject of this kind. My wife is fovereign out of the counting-houfe, which is my only territory." My dear," fays I, you know beft. It is furely the duty of every one to leffen the confumption of wheat; and, if you think a mixed bread will answer, I would have you try it; but, my love, might you not make your experiment, and fend the loaf to the bake-house, and not buy an oven till you fee how it answers?" "Oh dear, no, by no means; now that is always your way. My God! trust a baker with an experiment when he is to be deprived of our custom if it fucceeds! No, I thank you. Why, he would burn it on purpofe." There is no arguing with my wife, fhe is fo clever; and, befides, when once the takes up a thing, the finds out fo many advantages in a minute, that did But, to my misfortunes. I need not ftrike her at first, that the fecond not tell you, Sir, who have fo well reafons are often more forcible than defcribed the prefent fcarcity, that the original inducement. This was every feeling heart is anxious to lef- precifely the cafe about the little caftfen the confumption of wheat, and to iron oven; it was thought of only make as great a faving as poffible of for the fake of the potatoe-bread; bread in thefe hard times. The but fuch a variety of uses for an number of substitutes for flour which oven came crouding upon her mind, have been fuggefted by the ingenious that the wondered how we had ever Sir John Sinclair, Prefident of the been able to go on without an oven. Board of Agriculture, and others, An oven would fave itfelf in two ftruck my wife very forcibly. "Dear months in the expence of fuel; for me!" the faid one morning at break- fhe declared for her own part, that faft" how fimple the receipt is! fhe liked baked meat as well as roast, Juft one half flour, and one half po- and, whenever I dined out, the and tatoes. I declare I will try it-and the children could do very well with then we shall make our own bread, a bit of a beef-fteak pie, or a baked and what a faving that will be! It fhoulder of mutton; and, befides, a is but having a little caft-iron oven caft-iron oven was no expence-She put up at the fide of the kitchen faw one fold at an auction for a cougrate, and it will be the most conve- ple of guineas, and the knew the bronient and handy thing in the world-ker that bought it; he lived in Moor. 1 fields, Belds, for the often dealt with him." to put in it as foon as the oven was When I came home to dinner, my wife told me with great joy, that the had got the oven, and the bricklayer was coming in the morning to fet it; and she had only paid two guineas and a half, and it was as good as new.There was not a fingle crack about it, and it was quite charming. There was only one thing that she did not know how to manage-there was not room by the fide of the fire for the oven without removing the boiler. But she was fure, if the bricklayer had not been an afs, he might have contrived it fomehow. But, hang the copper, it was not wanted often; it might be put up in the little back cellar under the counting houfe. It would be eafy, the bricklayer faid, to carry up a flue. I faw the had fettled the whole plan, and she entertained me during dinner with the I wish I had time to go through preparations he had made for our all our experiments. One time our new bread. She was fure, fhe faid, loaf would not rise-another time it that potatoes would be dear, because would not come out-it ftuck faft every body was going to eat them, to the bottom-it wanted falt, it had and the had therefore the precaution too much falt-it was too wet, it was to buy in as many as the thought too dry! it was fometimes quite would ferve us for the winter. "Good dough, but in general, it was burnt God! my dear, they will spoil. Where to a cinder. It went on this way for can you keep them ?" "I warrant the first week; my wife and I could you I'll find room," fays she;" and not difcover the reafon. We had as to their spoiling, I'll answer for tried potatoes in every way, we had them. How do I preferve pears till boiled them, mefhed them, pulverifed the month of June? and furely they them, poured water after water over are more delicate than potatoes." I them to make them white: we had know how clever my wife is at these reduced (1 fay we, for being a nathings. Her preferves are excellent, tional object, I was happy to take a and there is not a week but fome of part; befides, I own, I was a little our friends are forced to fend to us on the alert, for I had promifed my for a pot or two, when their own friends at Slaughter's to bring them are all spoilt; and my wife always a loaf,) we had reduced 20lbs. of potakes care to have enough on that tatoes to two, and had made excelvery account. lent ftarch of it, though we could not make bread. We had confumed half the stock of potatoes that was to ferve us all winter, without getting a fingle loaf that was eatable. My wife cried for vexation. She was fure there must be fomething in the Well, Sir, next day my wife begged of me to dine at the coffee-houfe, because I knew the kitchen would be quite taken up with the bricklayer; and he was determined to lofe no time, for she would have a loaf ready Ed. Mag. March 1799. A a matter |