I have rejected, they want all the characteristical marks of Johnfónian compofition. He engaged alfo to fuperintend and contribute largely to another monthly publication, entitled "THE LITERARY MAGAZINE, OR UNIVERSAL REVIEW;" the first number of which came out in May this year. What were his emoluments from this undertaking, and what other writers were employed in it, I have not discovered. He continued to write in it, with intermiffions, till the fifteenth number; and I think that he never gave better proofs of the force, acuteness, and vivacity of his mind, than in this miscellany, whether we confider his original effays, or his reviews of the works of others. The "Preliminary Address" to the publick is a proof how this great man could embellish even fo trite a thing as the plan of a magazine with the graces of fuperiour compofition. His original effays are, " An Introduction to the political State of GreatBritain;+" "Remarks on the Militia Bill;t" «Obfervations on his Britannick Majesty's Treaties with the Empress of Ruffia and the Landgrave of Heffe Caffel;t" "Obfervations on the prefent State of Affairs;t" and, "Memoirs of Frederick III. King of Pruffia.+" In all these he displays extensive political knowledge and fagacity, expreffed with uncommon energy and perfpicuity, without any of those words which he sometimes took a pleafure in adopting, in imitation of Sir Thomas Browne, of whofe "Christian Morals" he this year gave an edition, with his " Life *" prefixed to it, which is one of Johnson's best biographical performances. In one inftance only in thefe effays has he indulged his Brownism. Dr. Robertson, the hiftorian, mentioned it to me, as having at once convinced him that Johnson was the authour of the "Mernoirs of the King of Pruffia." Speaking of the pride which the old King, the father of his hero, took in being master of the tallest regiment in Europe, he says, "To review this towering regiment was his daily pleasure, and to perpetuate it was fo much his care, that when he met a tall woman he immediately commanded one of his Titanian retinue to marry her, that they might propagate procerity." For this Anglo-Latian word procerity, Johnson had, however, the authority of Addison. His reviews are of the following books: "Birch's Hiftory of the Royal Society ;+" " Murphy's Gray's-Inn Journal;+" "Warton's Eilay on the Writings and Genius of Pope. Vol. I.t" Hampton's Translation of Polybius ;+" "Blackwell's Memoirs of the Court of Auguftus ;†" "Ruffel's Natural History of Aleppo;t" "Sir Ifaac Newton's Arguments in Proof of a Deity ;t" "Borlafe's Hiftory of the Ifles of Scilly;t" "Home's Experi 1756. Atat. 47, ments on Bleaching ;t" "Browne's Christian Morals ;+t" "Hales on diftilling It is worthy of remark, in justice to Johnson's political character, which has been mifreprefented as abjectly fubmiffive to power, that his "Obfervations on the prefent State of Affairs," glow with as animated a spirit of conftitutional liberty as can be found any where. Thus he begins, "The time is now come, in which every Englishman expects to be informed of the national affairs, and in which he has a right to have that expectation gratified. For whatever may be urged by minifters, or those whom vanity or interest make the followers of minifters, concerning the neceffity of confidence in our governours, and the prefumption of prying with profane eyes into the receffes of policy, it is evident that this reverence can be claimed only by counsels yet unexecuted, and projects suspended in deliberation. But when a design has ended in mifcarriage or fuccess, when every eye and every ear is witness to general discontent, or general fatisfaction, it is then a proper time to disentangle confufion and illustrate obfcurity, to fhew by what caufes every event was produced, and in what effects it is likely to terminate; to lay down with distinct particularity what rumour always huddles in general exclamation, or perplexes by indigefted narratives; to fhew whence happiness or calamity is derived, and whence it may be expected; and honeftly to lay before the people what inquiry can gather of the past, and conjecture can eftimate of the future.” Here Here we have it affumed as an incontrovertible principle, that in this 1756. country the people are the fuperintendants of the conduct and measures of Etat. 47those by whom government is adminiftered, of the beneficial effect of which the present reign afforded an illustrious example, when addreffes from all parts of the kingdom controuled an audacious attempt to introduce a new power fubverfive of the crown. A still stronger proof of his patriotick spirit appears in his review of an "Effay on Waters, by Dr. Lucas;" of whom, after defcribing him as a man well known to the world for his daring defiance of power, when he thought it exerted on the fide of wrong, he thus speaks: "The Irish ministers drove him from his native country by a proclamation, in which they charged him with crimes of which they never intended to be called to the proof, and oppreffed him by methods equally irrefiftible by guilt and innocence. "Let the man thus driven into exile for having been the friend of his country, be received in every other place as a confeffor of liberty; and let the tools of power be taught in time, that they may rob, but cannot impoverish.” Some of his reviews in this magazine are very short accounts of the pieces noticed, and I mention them only that Dr. Johnson's opinion of the works may be known; but many of them are examples of elaborate criticism, in the most masterly style. In his review of the "Memoirs of the Court of Auguftus," he has the refolution to think and speak from his own mind, regardless of the cant transmitted from age to age, in praise of the ancient Romans. Thus: "I know not why any one but a school-boy in his declamation should whine over the Common-wealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as foon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption fold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another." Again, "A people, who while they were poor robbed mankind; and as foon as they became rich, robbed one another." In his review of the Mifcellanies in profe and verse, published by Elizabeth Harrison, but written by many hands, he gives an eminent proof at once of his orthodoxy and candour. "The authours of the effays in profe feem generally to have imitated, or tried to imitate, the copiousness and luxuriance of Mrs. Rowe. This, however, is not all their praise; they have laboured to add to her brightness of imagery, her purity of fentiments. The poets have had Dr. Watts before their eyes; a writer, who, if he ftood not in the first class of genius, compenfated that defect by a ready application of his powers to the promotion of piety. The attempt to employ the ornaments of romance in the decoration of religion, was, I think, first made by Mr. Boyle's Martyrdom of Theodora; but Boyle's philofophical ftudies Z 2 1756. Etat. 47. ftudies did not allow him time for the cultivation of style; and the completion of the great defign was referved for Mrs. Rowe. Dr. Watts was one of the first who taught the Diffenters to write and speak like other men, by fhewing them that elegance might confift with piety. They would have both done honour to a better fociety, for they had that charity which might well make their failings be forgotten, and with which the whole Christian world might wish for communion. They were pure from all the herefies of an age, to which every opinion is become a favourite that the univerfal church has hitherto detefted! "This praife, the general intereft of mankind requires to be given to writers who please and do not corrupt, who inftruct and do not weary. But to them all human eulogies are vain, whom I believe applauded by angels, and numbered with the just." His defence of tea against Mr. Jonas Hanway's violent attack upon that elegant and popular beverage, fhews how very well a man of genius can write upon the flighteft fubject, when he writes, as the Italians fay, con amore: I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infufion of that fragrant leaf than Johnson. The quantities which he drank of it at all hours were so great, that his nerves must have been uncommonly strong, not to have been extremely relaxed by fuch an intemperate use of it. He affured me, that he never felt the least inconvenience from it; which is a proof that the fault of his conftitution was rather a too great tenfion of fibres, than the contrary. Mr. Hanway wrote an angry answer to Johnson's review of his Effay on Tea, and Johnson, after a full and deliberate pause, made a reply to it; the only inftance, I believe, in the whole course of his life, when he condescended to oppose any thing that was written against him. I suppose when he thought of any of his little antagonists, he was ever juftly aware of the high fentiment of Ajax in Ovid: Ifte tulit pretium jam nunc certaminis hujus, But, indeed, the good Mr. Hanway laid himself so open to ridicule, that The generofity with which he pleads the caufe of Admiral Byng is highly to the honour of his heart and fpirit. Though Voltaire affects to be witty upon the fate of that unfortunate officer, obferving that he was fhot "pour encourager les autres," the nation has long been satisfied that his life was facrificed to the political fervour of the times. In the vault belonging to the Torrington 1756. family, in the church of Southill, in Bedfordshire, there is the following Etat. 47 Epitaph upon his monument, which I have transcribed: Johnson's most exquifite critical effay in the Literary Magazine, and indeed any where, is his review of Soame Jennings's "Inquiry into the Órigin of Evil." Jennings was poffeffed of lively talents, and a ftyle eminently pure and eafy, and could very happily play with a light fubject, either in profe or verse; but when he fpeculated on that most difficult and excruciating question, the Origin of Evil, he "ventured far beyond his depth," and, accordingly, was expofed by Johnson, both with acute argument and brilliant wit. I remember when the late Mr. Bicknell's humourous performance, entitled "The Mufical Travels of Joel Collyer," in which a flight attempt is made to ridicule Johnson, was ascribed to Soame Jennings, «Ha! (faid Johnson) I thought I had given him enough of it." His triumph over Jennings is thus defcribed by my friend Mr. Courtenay in his "Poetical Review of the literary and moral Character of Dr. Johnson," a performance of such merit, that had I not been honoured with a very kind and partial notice in it, I fhould echo the fentiments of men of the first taste loudly in its praise: "When specious fophifts with prefumption scan «The |