without a tear in his eyes. He offered, if Mrs. Garrick would defire it of him, to be the editor of his works and the hiftorian of his life. It has been mentioned, that on his death-bed he thought of writing a Latin inscription to the memory of his friend. Numbers are still living who know these facts, and still remember with gratitude the friendship which he fhewed to them with unaltered affection for a number of years. His humanity and generofity, in proportion to his flender income, were unbounded. It has been truly faid, that the lame, the blind, and the forrowful, found in his house a sure retreat. A ftrict adherence to truth he confidered as a facred obligation, infomuch that, in relating the most minute anecdote, he would not allow himself the smallest addition to embellifh his ftory. The late Mr. Tyers, who knew Dr. Johnfon intimately, obferved, "that he always talked as if he was talking upon oath." After a long acquaintance with this excellent man, and an attentive retrospect to his whole conduct, fuch is the light in which he appears to the writer of this effay. The following lines of Horace may be deemed his picture in miniature : Iracundior eft paulo, minus aptus acutis In pede calceus hæret; at eft bonus, ut melior vir Non alius quifquam; at tibi amicus, at ingenium ingens, Inculto latet hoc fub corpore It remains to give a review of Johnson's works; and this, it is imagined, will not be unwelcome to the reader. Like Milton and Addison, he seems to have been fond of his Latin poetry. Those compofitions fhew that he was an early fcholar; but his verfes have not the graceful eafe that gave so much fuavity to the poems of Addifon. The translation of the * Your friend is paffionate, perhaps unfit The man you love; yet is he not poffefs'd Meffiah labours under two difadvantages; it is first compared with Pope's inimitable performance, and afterwards with the Pollio of Virgil. It may appear trifling to remark, that he has made the letter o, in the word Virgo, long and fhort in the same line; VIRGO, VIRGO PARIT. But the translation has great merit, and fome admirable lines. In the odes there is a fweet flexibility, particularly, To his worthy friend Dr. Laurence; on himself at the theatre, March 8, 1771; the Ode in the isle of Sky; and that to Mrs. Thrale from the fame place. His English poetry is fuch as leaves room to think, if he had devoted himself to the Muses, that he would have been the rival of Pope. His first production in this kind was LONDON, a poem in imitation of the third fatire of Juvenal. The vices of the metropolis are placed in the room of antient manThe author had heated his mind with the ardour of Juvenal, and, having the skill to polish his numbers, he became a fharp accufer of the times. The VANITY of HuMAN WISHES is an imitation of the tenth fatire of the fame author. Though it is tranflated ners. tranflated by Dryden, Johnson's imitation approaches nearest to the fpirit of the original. The fubject is taken from the ALCIBIADES of PLATO, and has an intermixture of the fentiments of SOCRATES concerning the object of prayers offered up to the Deity. The general propofition is, that good and evil are fo little understood by mankind, that their wifhes when granted are always deftructive. This is exemplified in a variety of inftances, fuch as riches, ftate-preferment, eloquence, military glory, long life, and the advantages of form and beauty. Juvenal's conclufion is worthy of a Christian poet, and such a pen as Johnson's. 66 "Let us," he fays, "leave it to the Gods to "judge what is fitteft for us. Man is dearer "to his Creator than to himfelf. If we must 66 pray for fpecial favour, let it be for a “found mind in a found body. Let us pray "for fortitude, that we may think the la"bours of Hercules and all his fufferings preferable to a life of luxury and the foft repofe of SARDANAPALUS. This is a blef 66 fing within the reach of every man; this we can give ourfelves. It is virtue, and "virtue only, that can make us happy." In 66 the translation the zeal of the Chriftian conspired with the warmth and energy of the poet; but Juvenal is not eclipfed. For the various characters in the original the reader is pleased, in the English poem, to meet with Cardinal Wolfey, Buckingham stabbed by Felton, Lord Strafford, Clarendon, Charles XII. of Sweden; and for Tully and Demofthenes, Lydiat, Galileo, and Archbifhop Laud. It is owing to Johnson's delight in biography that the name of LYDIAT is called forth from obfcurity. It may, therefore, not be ufelefs to tell, that LYDIAT was a learned divine and mathematician in the beginning of the last century. He attacked the doctrine of Ariftotle and Scaliger, and wrote a number of fermons on the harmony of the Evangelifts. With all his merit, he lay in the prifon of Bocardo at Oxford, till Bishop Ufher, Laud, and others, paid his debts. He petitioned Charles I. to be fent to Ethiopia to procure manuscripts. Having spoken in favour of monarchy and bishops, he was plundered by the Puritans, and twice carried away a prisoner from his rectory. He died very poor in 1646. The |