definition which it imposed on him, to impress upon his style that feature which Coleridge calls the hyper-latinistic. After the publication of his Dictionary, he engaged in the preparation of an edition of Shakspeare, which however, on its appearance in 1765, greatly disappointed the public expectation. He had scarcely any acquaintance with the writings of Shakspeare's dramatic precursors and contemporaries, and therefore was ill qualified for elucidating the poet's meaning. While his commentary on Shakspeare was in progress, he was afflicted by the tidings of his mother's death, an event to which is owing the production of his celebrated story of Rasselas, in 1759, for he wrote that story in the evenings of one week to raise funds for the payment of his mother's funeral expenses,-a proof at once of the control of filial piety over constitutional indolence, of the affluence of his stores of wisdom, and of the facility and readiness with which he could express his thoughts in forcible and elegant language. He received for the copyright a hundred pounds.

The last of his works which we shall mention is his "Lives of the Poets," composed originally at the request of a bookseller, to serve as prefatory memoirs for a poetical compilation. This, which was published in 1781, is regarded by many as his best performance. It is disfigured, however, by a considerable amount of political prejudice, and by an unjust depreciation of romantic poetry. Indeed, his mind was incapable of duly estimating the merits of the picturesque or impassioned compositions of fancy.

In the 53rd year of his age Johnson had been relieved from pecuniary solicitude by a pension of 300l. a year, granted to him by the king in consideration of his literary merit, and the service he had rendered to the cause of virtue.

He now wrote little, but he talked much; and his powers of conversation were of the highest order, "Every sentence which dropped from his lips," says Macaulay, "was as correct in structure as the most nicely balanced period of the 'Rambler;' but in his talk there were no pompous triads, and little more than a fair proportion of words in -osity and ation; all was simplicity, ease, and vigour." His conversational ability was most strikingly displayed at the weekly meetings of a Literary Club, which was formed in the year 1764, and of which he was the leading member. Of the other members the most distinguished were Edmund Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Oliver Goldsmith, David Garrick, and Edward Gibbon the historian.

In 1763 Johnson was introduced to his biographer James Boswell, and from this period we have a very minute account of all his sayings, doings, and experiences. We must not, however, in this memoir, be tempted, by the copiousness of the information within our reach, to give a fuller sketch of the remainder of Johnson's history than is expedient in a book for schools. We must refer the reader to Boswell's interesting record, and proceed to the conclusion of our rapid sketch.

It may be safely affirmed that few of his generation led a more virtuous life than this truly great and good man. His benevolence, his love of truth, and his integrity were exemplary. His faith, too, in the merits of the gospel salvation was deep-rooted and abiding. Yet his melancholy mind often brooded dismally on that decree," Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." His dread that he might at some time become insane, and his assurance that he must one day be laid lifeless in the grave, were the feelings which most embittered his earthly existence. But

xviii SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON.

his last end was peace. Paralysis, asthma, and dropsy were the agents by which his mortal life was brought to its termination; but in spiritual health, vigour, and tranquillity, his soul passed from an evil to a blissful world. He died on the 13th of December, 1784, and was buried on the 20th in Westminster Abbey.

REMARKS ON RASSELAS.

IN the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1759, was advertised the original publication of a tale, in two volumes, entitled "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia." To this announcement were subjoined a brief description of the work, a long quotation from it, and a concluding eulogy in these terms: แ It abounds with the most elegant and striking pictures of life and nature, the most acute disquisitions, and the happiest illustrations of the most important truths.” What prompted the author to make Abyssinia the scene of this tale, was probably the interest with which he had perused, when a student at Oxford, Father Lobo's narrative of a voyage to Abyssinia, a translation of which into English was subsequently chosen by Johnson as his first literary offering to the public.

The history of Rasselas has been said to belong to the class of serious novels; but we can scarcely with any accuracy call it a novel at all. It contains very little incident, it is vague and undiversified in the delineation of character, and it possesses no claim whatever to be regarded as a picture of Oriental manners, or of society in any sense. It is mainly a succession of moral dialogues on the various vicissitudes of human life, full of wisdom, acuteness, and

somewhat melancholy and desponding; but if it darkens too deeply the scene of things temporal, it at least causes thereby to shine more brightly the hope which emanates from things eternal. "I will not maintain," says Boswell, "that the morbid melancholy in Johnson's constitution may not perhaps have made life appear to him more insipid and unhappy than it generally is; yet whatever additional shade his own particular sensations may have thrown on his representation of life, attentive observation and close inquiry have convinced me that there is too much truth in the gloomy picture." It should be remembered that Rasselas was written under the pressure of family affliction, having been composed by its author in the evenings of a single week, for the immediate purpose of obtaining funds to defray the expense of his mother's funeral, and to pay some little debts which she had left.

As regards the literary peculiarities of this philosophic tale, Sir Walter Scott says: "The style is in Johnson's best manner, enriched and rendered sonorous by the triads and quaternions which he so much loved, and balanced with an art which perhaps he derived from the learned Sir Thomas Brown." The following are examples of the triad or

triplet :

"In the morning he rose with new hope, in the evening applauded his own diligence, and in the night slept sound after his fatigue."-CHAP. V.

"He frequented the voluptuous and the frugal, the idle and the busy, the merchants and the men of learning.". CHAP. XVI.

"She found their thoughts narrow, their wishes low, and their merriment often artificial."-CHAP. XXV.