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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 MILTON

"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."

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If Mr. BOSWELL had examined this index, he would have discovered another gross breach of the courtesy of literature, no less thanShakspeare, 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 indexmaking 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.

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, 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 pedantick 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 his quibbles. Luckily, however, for the taste and improvement of the age, these objections are not very prevalent; and the ge neral 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

* 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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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 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

* RAMBLER, last paper.

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, although by no means ignorant of life and manners, could not descend to familiarities with tuckers and commodes, with fans and hoop-petticoats. A scholar by profession and a writer from necessity, he loved to bring forward subjects so near and dear as the disappointments of authors-the dangers and miseries of literary eminence-anxieties of li

terature-contrariety of criticism-miseries of patronage-value of fame-causes of the contempt of the learned-prejudices and caprices of criticism-vanity of an author's expectations-meanness of dedication-necessity of literary courage; and all those other subjects which relate to authors and their connection with the publick. Sometimes whole papers are devoted to what may be termed the personal concerns of men of literature; and incidental reflections are every-where interspersed for the instruction or caution of the same class*.

When he treats of common life and manners, it has been observed that he gives to the lowest of his correspondents the same style and lofty periods; and it may also be noticed, that the ridicule he attempts is in some cases considerably heightened by this very want of accommodation of character. Yet it must be allowed that the levity and giddiness of coquets and fine ladies are expressed with great difficulty, in the Johnsonian language. It has been objected also that even the names of his ladies have very little of the air either of court or city, as Zosima, Properantia, &c.-Every age seems to have its peculiar names of fiction. In the SPECTATOR'S time, the Damons and Phillises, the Amintors, Amandas and Cleoras, &c. were the representatives of every virtue,

In No. 141 he alludes to the fatigue of the Dictionary, which he was at that time compiling." The rower in time reaches the port, the lexicographer at last finds the conclusion of his alphabet;" which, however, he did not find until three years after this date.