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"Since Pekuah was taken from me,' said the princess, 'I have no pleasure to reject or to retain. She that has no one to love or trust, has little to hope. She wants the radical principle of happiness. We may, per haps, allow, that what satisfaction this world can afford, must arise from the conjunction of wealth, knowledge, and goodness. Wealth is nothing but as it is bestowed, and knowledge nothing but as it is communicated: they must therefore be imparted to others, and to whom could I now delight to impart them? Goodness affords the only comfort which can be enjoyed without a partner, and goodness may be practised in retirement.''

In the expression of impassioned affection he is as "uncouth and tumultuous" as Garrick described him to have been in his conjugal endearments. See, for example, the passionate lament of the devoted Anningait on leaving his mistress Ajut :—

"O life!' says he, 'frail and uncertain! where shall wretched man find thy resemblance but in ice floating on the ocean? It towers on high, it sparkles from afar, while the storms drive and the waters beat it, the sun melts it above, and the rocks shatter it below. What art thou, deceitful pleasure! but a sudden blaze streaming from the north, which plays a moment on the eye, mocks the traveller with the hopes of light, and then vanishes for ever? What, love, art thou, but a whirlpool, which we approach without knowledge of our danger, drawn on by imperceptible degrees, till we have lost all power of resistance and escape? Till I fixed my eyes on the graces of Ajut, while I had not yet called her to the banquet, I was careless as the sleeping morse, 1 was merry as the singers in the stars. Why, Ajut, did I gaze upon thy graces? why, my fair, did I call thee to the banquet? Yet, be faithful, my love, remember Anningait, and meet my return with the smiles of virginity. I will chase the deer, I will subdue the whale, resistless as the frost of darkness, and unwearied as the summer sun. In a few weeks I shall return prosperous and wealthy; then shall the roe-fish and the porpoise feast thy kindred; the fox and hare shall cover thy couch; the tough hide of the seal shall shelter thee from cold; and the fat of the whale illuminate thy dwelling.'

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The Ludicrous.-The 'Rambler' is much more serious in its tone than the 'Spectator.' There is a greater proportion of gravely didactic papers. Not that the 'Rambler has not considerable variety of topics. He does not confine himself to rebuking and satirising vices: like the 'Spectator,' he aims at being a censor of minor immoralities. Humorous satire of the follies of young men and young women of fashion alternates with grave rebuke to scepticism, and grave advice to young and old of both sexes and of different occupations. But the prevailing tone is serious.

His sarcasm is very different from the "gay malevolence" of Addison, and his humour very different from the good-natured sympathy of Steele. When his indignation is roused, his vituperation is round and unqualified. When he is in a pleasant mood, his humour is broad and arrogant. The most pleasing form of his humour is when he is humorous at his own expense.

The review of 'A Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil, by Soame Jenyns,' is a well-known example of his bullying ridicule :

"He calls it a Free Enquiry, and indeed his freedom is, I think, greater than his modesty. Though he is far from the contemptible arrogance, or the impious licentiousness, of Bolingbroke, yet he decides too easily upon questions out of the reach of human determination, with too little consideration of mortal weakness, and with too much vivacity for the necessary caution."

"I am told that this pamphlet is not the effort of hunger: what can it be then but the product of vanity? and yet how can vanity be gratified by plagiarism or transcription? When the speculatist finds himself prompted to another performance, let him consider whether he is about to disburthen his mind or employ his fingers; and if I might venture to offer him a subject, I should wish that he would solve this question, Why he that has nothing to write, should desire to be a writer?"

The above shows the Great Moralist in his most unfavourable aspect. He appeared thus only when his deep prejudices were crossed. Many of the 'Ramblers' are full of genuine humour, broad and hearty, and of happy strokes of wit. The following account of "The Busy Life of a Young Lady," purporting to be written by herself, is a favourable specimen. It forms one of the latest Ramblers,' and is written in an appropriately simple style, as if he had been warned of the incongruity of his sounding periods on similar occasions before :

"Dear Mr Rambler,-I have been four days confined to my chamber by a cold, which has already kept me from three plays, nine sales, five shows, and six card-tables, and put me seventeen visits behind; and the doctor tells my mamma, that if I fret and cry, it will settle in my head, and I shall not be fit to be seen these six weeks. But, dear Mr Rambler, how can I help it? At this very time Melissa is dancing with the prettiest gentleman:she will breakfast with him to-morrow, and then run to two auctions, and hear compliments, and have presents; then she will be dressed, and visit, and get a ticket to the play; then go to cards and win, and come home with two flambeaux before her chair. Dear Mr Rambler, who can bear it?

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My aunt has just brought me a bundle of your papers for my amusement. She says you are a philosopher, and will teach me to moderate my desires and look upon the world with indifference. But, dear Sir, I do not wish nor intend to moderate my desires, nor can I think it proper to look upon the world with indifference, till the world looks with indifference on me. I have been forced, however, to sit this morning a whole quarter of an hour with your paper before my face; but just as my aunt came in, Phyllida had brought me a letter from Mr Trip, which I put within the leaves; and read about absence and inconsolableness, and ardour, and irresistible passion, and eternal constancy, while my aunt imagined that I was puzzling myself with your philosophy, and often cried out, when she saw me look confused, 'If there is any word which you do not understand, child, I will explain it.

"But their principal intention was to make me afraid of men; in which they succeeded so well for a time, that I durst not look in their faces, or be left alone with them in a parlour; for they made me fancy that no man ever spoke but to deceive, or looked but to allure; that the girl who suffered him that had once squeezed her hand, to approach her a second time, was on the brink of ruin; and that she who answered a billet without consulting her

relations, gave love such power over her, that she would certainly become either poor or infamous.

"But I am most at a loss to guess for what purpose they related such tragic stories of the cruelty, perfidy, and artifices of men, who, if they ever were so malicious and destructive, have certainly now reformed their manners. I have not, since my entrance into the world, found one who does not profess himself devoted to my service, and ready to live or die as I shall command him. They are so far from intending to hurt me, that their only contention is who shall be allowed most closely to attend, and most frequently to treat me; when different places of entertainment or schemes of pleasure are mentioned, I can see the eye sparkle and the cheek glow of him whose proposals obtain my approbation; he then leads me off in triumph, adores my condescension, and congratulates himself that he has lived to the hour of felicity. Are these, Mr Rambler, creatures to be feared? Is it likely that any injury will be done me by those who can enjoy life only while I favour them with my presence?"

KINDS OF COMPOSITION.

Description. Johnson rarely attempts to describe natural scenery, and where he does try, as in the description of the "Happy Valley," in 'Rasselas,' the clumsiness and poverty of the language betray his want of familiarity with the work. His interest, as he boasted, centred in man.

Narration. He never attempted national history. Indeed he had a positive dislike to the subject; and rudely put down anybody that introduced it into conversation. As a biographer, he had great reputation in his own day. His Life of Savage, and his Lives of the great naval heroes, Blake and Drake (contributed to the 'Gentleman's Magazine'), were so much admired and talked of, that the king specially desired him to write the lives of his literary predecessors.

The excellence of his Lives consists not in narrative skill, nor in power of showing in varied lights the prominent features of character, but in the numerous maxims, moral and literary, attached to the biographical incidents. The narrative is really secondary. Such is his propensity to moralise, that the events in his biographies seem reduced to the importance of so many texts.

Exposition.-Johnson had not the qualifications of a popular expositor. His diction was too Latinised, and he did not sufficiently relieve the dryness of general statements by examples and illustrations.

The only art of exposition that he excels in is the putting of a statement obversely. We have already remarked his love of antithesis. In the review of Jenyns (which is also a good measure of his logical power) this is particularly apparent.

The short political tract entitled "The Patriot " is a very favourable specimen of his expository style. He considers with much

vigour the various distinguishing marks of a true patriot, what he will do, and what he will not do; and then, obversely, "what will prove a man to be not a patriot.'

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In expounding various delusive signs of patriotism, he proceeds almost entirely by repetition in pointed forms, direct and obverse. The following is a specimen :

"Some claim a place in the list of patriots by an acrimonious and unre mitting opposition to the Court.

"This mark is by no means infallible. Patriotism is not necessarily inIcluded in rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not love his country. He that has been refused a reasonable or unreasonable request, who thinks his merit underrated, and sees his influence declining, begins soon to talk of natural equality, the absurdity of many made for one, the original compact, the foundation of authority, and the majesty of the people. As his political melancholy increases, he tells, and perhaps dreams, of the advances of the prerogative, and the dangers of arbitrary power; yet his design in all his declamation is not to benefit his country, but to gratify his malice."

Even this, which is in his later style, and is much more simple and concrete than the 'Rambler,' would have been more popularly effective if enlivened by examples. Macaulay would certainly have produced cases in point, if any were to be had. The following extract is more lively towards the end :

"It is the quality of patriotism to be jealous and watchful, to observe all secret machinations, and to see public dangers at a distance. The true lover of his country is ready to communicate his fears, and to sound the alarm whenever he perceives the approach of mischief. But he sounds no alarm when there is no enemy; he never terrifies his countrymen till he is terrified himself. The patriotism, therefore, may be justly doubted of him, who" [better, we may justly doubt the patriotism of him that] "professes to be disturbed by incredulities; who tells that the last peace was obtained by bribing the Princess of Wales; that the King is grasping at arbitrary power; and that, because the French in their new conquests enjoy their own laws, there is a design at Court of abolishing in England the trial by juries."

Persuasion.-Johnson's faulty exposition diminished his influence with the generality of readers. The magisterial air of his 'Rambler' probably awed many into reading him with respect, and trying to profit by his doctrine; but the dry abstract character of the exposition must have made the perusal anything but a labour of love.

His political tracts must have exercised the very minimum of influence for the productions of so great a writer. He was the last man in the world to conciliate opposition, and his strong powers of argument were warped by prejudice. His Taxation no Tyranny,' written to defend the taxation of the American colonists against their will, is at once overbearing and sophistical. It might inflame and imbitter partisans, but it was too abusive and too unreasonable to make converts.

OTHER WRITERS.

THEOLOGY.

At the beginning of this period the controversy with the Deists was at its height. Tindal's 'Christianity as old as the Creation' had wrought the excitement to a frenzy. There was no lack of replies in various degrees of power; Leland enumerates as "valuable treatises" that appeared within the year 1730, works by Dr Thomas Burnet, Dr Waterland, Mr Law, Mr Jackson, Dr Stebbing, Mr Balguy, James-afterwards Dr-Foster, and a "pastoral letter" by Bishop Sherlock. There were many others. One of the most elaborate defences was made by Dr John Conybeare (1691-1757), afterwards Bishop of Bristol. This is praised by Warburton as "one of the best-reasoned books in the world."

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The Deists were reinforced by Thomas Morgan and Thomas Chubb. Morgan published in 1737 The Moral Philosopher, a dialogue between Philalethes, a Christian Deist, and Theophanes, a Christian Jew.' He does not hold with Tindal.that the Christian republication of the law of nature is superfluous. He holds that Christ's promulgation of "the true and genuine principles of nature and reason 99 66 were such as the people had never heard or thought of before, and never would have known, without such an instructor, such means and opportunities of knowledge." He calls himself a Christian Deist. But he repudiates both miracles and prophecy Christ, he holds, attained moral truth by "the strength and superiority of his own natural faculties," and in that sense may be said to have had the light of revelation! He attacks Judaism. "He representeth the law of Moses as 'having neither truth nor goodness in it, and as a wretched scheme of superstition, blindness, and slavery, contrary to all reason and common-sense, set up under the specious popular pretence of a divine instruction and revelation from God.' And he endeavours to prove that this was the sentiment of St Paul." Further, he attacks the preaching of the apostles "pretends that they preached different gospels, and that the New Testament is a jumble of inconsistent religions." Morgan was specially refuted by Joseph Hallet, Dr John Chapman, and Dr Leland. Thomas Chubb (1679-1747) was a selfeducated man, journeyman to a tallow-chandler, yet much taken notice of for his "strong natural parts and acuteness" by wealthy patrons of letters. In his 'True Gospel of Jesus Christ asserted,' and in his Discourse on Miracles,' he takes much the same ground as Morgan. He left for publication after his death a variety of tracts on the most important subjects of religion. In these tracts, among other sceptical views, he expresses uncertainty regarding a future life.

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