Yet Johnson assured me, that he had not taken upon him to add more than four or five words to the English language, of his own formation; and he was very much offended at the general licence by no means modestly taken" in his time, not only to coin new words, but to use many words in senses quite different from their established meaning, and those frequently very fantastical.

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Sir Thomas Browne, whose Life Johnson wrote, was remarkably fond of Anglo-Latin diction; and to his example we are to ascribe Johnson's sometimes indulging himself in this kind of phraseology. (') Johnson's comprehension of mind was the mould for his language. Had his conceptions been narrower, his expression would have been easier. His sentences have a dignified march; and it is certain that his example has given a general elevation to the language of his country, for many of our best writers have approached very near to him; and, from the influence which he has had upon our composition, scarcely any thing is written now that is not better expressed than was usual before he appeared to lead the national taste. (2)

(1) The observation of his having imitated Sir Thomas Browne has been made by many people; and lately it has been insisted on, and illustrated by a variety of quotations from Browne, in one of the popular Essays written by the Rev. Mr. Knox, master of Tunbridge School, whom I have set down in my list as one of those who have sometimes not unsuccessfully imitated Dr. Johnson's style.

(2) [The distinguishing excellence of Johnson's manner, both in speaking and writing, consists in the apt and lively illustrations by example, with which, in his vigorous sallies, he enforces his just and acute remarks on human life and manners,

This circumstance, the truth of which must strike every critical reader, has been so happily enforced by Mr. Courtenay, in his "Moral and Literary Character of Dr. Johnson," that I cannot prevail on myself to withhold it, notwithstanding his, perhaps, too great partiality for one of his friends :

By nature's gifts ordain'd mankind to rule,

He, like a Titian, form'd his brilliant school;
And taught congenial spirits to excel,

While from his lips impressive wisdom fell.
Our boasted GOLDSMITH felt the sovereign sway:
From him derived the sweet, yet nervous lay.
To Fame's proud cliff he bade our Raffaelle rise:
Hence REYNOLDS' pen with REYNOLDS' pencil vies.
With Johnson's flame melodious BURNEY glows,
While the grand strain in smoother cadence flows.
And you, MALONE, to critic learning dear,
Correct and elegant, refined though clear,
By studying him, acquired that classic taste,
Which high in Shakspeare's fane thy statue placed.
Near Johnson STEEVENS stands on scenic ground,
Acute, laborious, fertile, and profound.

Ingenious HAWKESWORTH to this school we owe,
And scarce the pupil from the tutor know.
Here early parts accomplish'd JONES sublimes,
And science blends with Asia's lofty rhymes :
Harmonious JONES! who in his splendid strains
Sings Camdeo's sports, on Agra's flowery plains,
In Hindu fictions while we fondly trace

Love and the Muses, deck'd with Attic grace.

ein all their modes and representations: the character and charm of his style, in a happy choice of dignified and appropriate expressions, and that masterly involution of phrase, by which he contrives to bolt the prominent idea strongly on the mind. GREEN, Diary of a Lover of Literature, p. 9.]

Amid these names can BoswELL be forgot,

Scarce by North Britons now esteem'd a Scot ? (1)
Who to the sage devoted from his youth,
Imbibed from him the sacred love of truth;
The keen research, the exercise of mind,
And that best art, the art to know mankind.
Nor was his energy confined alone
To friends around his philosophic throne;
Its influence wide improved our letter'd isle,
And lucid vigour mark'd the general style :
As Nile's proud waves, swoln from their oozy bed,
First o'er the neighbouring meads majestic spread;
Till gathering force, they more and more expand,
And with new virtue fertilise the land."

Johnson's language, however, must be allowed to be too masculine for the delicate gentleness of female writing. His ladies, therefore, seem strangely formal, even to ridicule; and are well denominated by the names which he has given them, as Misella, Zozima, Properantia, Rhodoclia. (2)

(1) The following observation in Mr. Boswell's "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" may sufficiently account for that gentleman's being "now scarcely esteemed a Scot" by many of his countrymen : - “ If he (Dr. Johnson) was particularly prejudiced against the Scots, it was because they were more in his way; because he thought their success in England rather exceeded the due proportion of their real merit; and because he could not but see in them that nationality which, I believe, no liberal-minded Scotchman will deny.' Mr. Boswell, indeed, is so free from national prejudices, that he might with equal propriety have been described as

"Scarce by South Britons now esteem'd a Scot.-COURTENAY." .(2) Mr. Burke said pleasantly, that “ his ladies were all Johnsons in petticoats." Mr. Murphy (Life, p. 159.) seems to pass somewhat of the same censure on the letter in the 12th Rambler, from a young woman that wants a place: yet--such is the uncertainty of criticism this is the paper quoted by Mr. Chalmers, as an example of such ease and familiarity of

It has of late been the fashion to compare the style of Addison and Johnson, and to depreciate, I think very unjustly, the style of Addison as nerveless and feeble, because it has not the strength and energy of that of Johnson. Their prose may be balanced like the poetry of Dryden and Pope. Both are excellent, though in different ways. Addison writes with the ease of a gentleman. His readers fancy that a wise and accomplished companion is talking to them; so that he insinuates his sentiments and tastes into their minds by an imperceptible influence. Johnson writes like a teacher. He dictates to his readers as if from an academical chair. They attend with awe and admiration; and his precepts are impressed upon them by his commanding eloquence. Addison's style, like a light wine, pleases every body from the first. Johnson's, like a liquor of more body, seems too strong at first, but, by degrees, is highly relished; and such is the melody of his periods, so much do they captivate the ear, and seize upon the attention, that there is scarcely any writer, however inconsiderable, who does not aim, in some degree, at the same species of excellence. But let us not ungratefully undervalue that beautiful style, which has pleasingly conveyed to us much instruction and entertainment.(') Though

style, which made him almost doubt whether it was Johnson's. Brit. Ess. vol. xix. p. 44.- CROKER.

(1) ["By the judicious advice of Mr. Mallet, I was directed to the writings of Swift and Addison: wit and simplicity are their common attributes, but the style of Swift is supported by manly original vigour; that of Addison is adorned by the female graces of elegance and mildness."- GIBBON, Memoirs, 4to. p. 86.]

comparatively weak, opposed to Johnson's Herculean vigour, let us not call it positively feeble. Let us remember the character of his style, as given by Johnson himself: "What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic; he is never rapid, and he never stagHis sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy.(1) Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must

nates.

(1) When Johnson showed me a proof sheet of the character of Addison, in which he so highly extols his style, I could not help observing, that it had not been his own model, as no two styles could differ more from each other. "Sir, Addison had his style, and I have mine." When I ventured to ask him, whether the difference did not consist in this, that Addison's style was full of idioms, colloquial phrases, and proverbs; and his own more strictly grammatical, and free from such phraseology and modes of speech as can never be literally translated or understood by foreigners; he allowed the discrimination to be just. Let any one who doubts it, try to translate one of Addison's Spectators into Latin, French, or Italian; and though so easy, familiar, and elegant, to an Englishman, as to give the intellect no trouble; yet he would find the transfusion into another language extremely difficult if not impossible. But a Rambler, Adventurer, or Idler, of Johnson, would fall into any classical or European language, as easily as if it had been originally conceived in it. -BURNEY.

His manner of criticising and commending Addison's prose was the same in conversation as we read it in the printed strictures, and many of the expressions used have been heard to fall from him on common occasions. It was, notwithstanding, observable enough (or I fancied so), that he did never like, though he always thought fit to praise, it; and his praises resembled those of a man who extols the superior elegance of high-painted porcelain, while he himself always chooses to eat off plate. I told him so one day, and he neither denied it nor appeared displeased. Piozzi.

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