Page images
PDF
EPUB

So millions of the subjects vnto paine Condemned soules about black Pluto

came.".

But the invocation, together with the manner the King of Death' 'their prides represt,' though worthy of attention, must be passed over, as already I have insensibly been led to trespass more on your limits than the subject deserves. The lines extracted are no unfavourable specimen of Markham's muse; and if I am not much mistaken, ought to place him above that line of mediocrity in which so many of his contemporaries are placed by the author of a very interesting and most amusing work that has recently appeared on the Manners and Literature of that age.

I shall conclude with two stanzas of the translation, which I hope you will think worthy of closing this account of a little volume, the more entitled to regard from its being apparently hitherto only known by name, while it is amongst the earliest performances of an author whose character is so well known and whose works are so uncommonly numerous, Rodomount, to allay the burning ardour of his thirst, drinks of the waters of Lethe, when he is immediately Julled from the fervour of his fury by 'Forgetfulnesse ;' or, according to the poem,

"Sooner he had not toucht the fatall spring,

But all old memory and thought was

gone, His former warre, his rage, his combating, [done: And euery acte before that present Hell he forgat, fiends, furies, and their king,

(All which in consultation were alone,) And had decreed, and taken Plutoes [downe. To make him king, and put old Ditis But like a man that knowes no former

crowne,

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

LITERARY RETROSPECTIONS; Or, some Remarks on the Character and Genius of JOHNSON. "respectable and judicious wriHERE is something," says a ter of the last century, so peculiar, even in the extravagances of true genius, something so seductive even in its wildest flights and vagaries, that the fruits of its very dissipation are more esteemed by readers of taste, than the most elaborate productions of plodding industry."

The general truth of this remark to a person extensively read in the literary records of past ages, will stand in need, perhaps, but of little illustration.

A sort of instinctive reverence has been usually observed to influence mankind when called to contemplate powers in whom Nature's bounty has been most conspicuous.

Among the antient Greeks very high honours were decreed for excelling in genius; whether amongst the Muses, in epic, lyric, or dramatic Poetry; in the various departments of history, eloquence, and polite literature; or in their schools of science: their distinguished votaries crowned with the laurels of flattering encomium, and the Olympian wreath decorated the brows of him who rose in his profession at once to eminence and fame.

it

were

It will often, however, happen, nay, may be said generally to happen, that the great (whose proverbial iogratitude towards Authors has probably proceeded from the want of the right discernment of merit, and other causes, rather than from an indifference to its claims) liberally bestow the marks of their favour upon that species of genius most congenial with their native habits of thinking; whilst a species foreign to those habits (though confessedly precedent in the seat of literary worth) passes, perhaps, with a cold acknowledgment.

If this be sometimes a characteristick of those in whom power and grandeur have imparted the means of extensive patronage, it may be thought no less a feature of those in common life, the aggregate of whose opinion, it is clear, must chiefly establish or reject the contemporary fame of an Author. As are the prejudices or tastes of the age, so respectively will be the mark of attention shewn to the several species

of

of genius which widely diversify the intellectual powers of man.

This reflection may be naturally enough excited upon contemplating, amongst those of numerous other individuals, the life, character, and writings, of Dr. JOHNSON.

The idols of their respective ages, whilst Pope and Garrick in their different spheres of genius were the subjects of enthusiastic eulogium, Johnson, until long after the publication of the Rambler, remained unpatronized and almost unknown, except indeed to the circle of literary friends with whom he was in habits of association, and amongst whom he always retained a sort of oracular authority. On a review, therefore, of the early career of this justly celebrated Critick and Moralist, one truth must be sufficiently evident, that, however men may emulate each other in awarding the just honours of merit to a writer of extraordinary endowments, after Death has removed him alike from a sense of their favours and neglects; the mind which disdains to solicit patronage where it is not offered, may yet languish in comparative penury, a stranger to the comforts which wealth cau bestow, thus abundantly realizing the justice of Johnson's own complaint:

"Slow rises worth by poverty oppress'd." Whilst contemplating the mind in whom beneficent Nature has implanted powers of a colossal growth, a twofold sensation of pride and acknowledgment excites the feelings: the latter is usually the sure consequence of the pleasures flowing from the perusal of certain works, the results of those powers; whilst the former may be said to emanate from reflecting upon the high "capacious powers which human nature occasionally displays for the benefit and ornament of her species..

Pleased with the fond prospects of superiority and worth which enlarged capacity opens to our sight, we proudly imbibe notions of importance, view with greater complacency our frail and short-sighted reason, and are the easy converts to a doctrine which upholds the dignity and excellence of the intelligence which animates us. Vanity and ambition are ever unwilling to relinquish their favourite thesis of the native elevation of humanity; we are easily induced to cherish ideas

[ocr errors]

which widen the boundaries of the little world on which we vegetate, bear our speculations to regions far more remote, and favour pretensions of equality with those intelligences, the unknown inhabitants of a higher sphere, and possibly of a more privileged state of being. Constrained, however, by the evidence of long and mortifying experience, to distrust these Utopian schemes of mental supremacy; these pleasing illusions, these agreeable chimeras, are often in an instant dispelled through the intervention of some bumiliating proofs of incapacity; proofs which, even amongst the most favoured of the sons of earth, inculcate a striking lesson on the limited nature of the profoundest and most subtle disquisitions in which human inquiry can embark.

It is decreed in nature that the capacities which fertilize and adorn the mind of man, are varied in an almost infinite gradation. As throughout the vast succession of beings who have peopled this our globe, it may reasonably be presumed that some shades of difference in moral susceptibility and disposition have always prevailed; it is no less evident that the gifts and endowments of genius are dispensed on a scale of variety equally great ; that taste, learning, and science, present a field for criticism equally wide, and equally diversified in its soils and productions.

Amidst these gifts and this capacity of imparting knowledge and pleasure to their species, those writers who have scrupulously endeavoured by the worthiest and most laudable aims to promote the welfare and happiness of society, are incomparably more entitled to their warmest testimonies of applause, than those the tendency of whose writings is manifestly calcuJated to injure the cause of virtue, and to introduce light views of morality and religion. Instances in our own, as in all other times, have been too frequent, of talents of the first order, accompanied with a delicacy and discrimination of taste, accomplishments which render such talents far more insinuating and dangerous, being perverted to very unworthy purposes. Intellects, which would seem kindly bestowed by Heaven for alleviating the common lot of life, for adorning mankind, and reflecting honour on

the country which gave them birth, bave evinced a prompt and ready zeal in thwarting the intentions of their Donor, and disseminating the principles of vice, irreligion, and infelicity. Scarcely, in the history of civilized society is there an age (however pure in its general or national character) which has not supplied its frequent individuals, led by views which may be termed sordid and ignoble; whose ill-directed labours have been enlisted in any cause save that of moral rectitude, and of whom it may not inaptly be said, in the language of an eloquent and sublime Poet,

"When I behold a genius bright and base,

Of tow'ring talents, but terrestial aims; Methinks I see, as thrown from her high sphere,

The glorious fragments of a soul immortal,

With rubbish mixt, and glittering in

the dust."

The multiplied instances of this intellectual prostitution may have had its effect in reflecting a double lustre upon endowments of an extraordinary kind, expended for the moral advantage of their fellow-men; the tribute of applause which genius demands is then unbroken by any painful reminiscence of folly or depravity-the glow of acknowledgment is mingled with the most lively testimonies of

esteem.

The well-known Author who is the subject of the present speculation, may be justly said to illustrate both the positions here advanced.

Well calculated to favour the notion of the soul's elevation and capacity, he may likewise be held forth on the whole as an estimable example of the strictest moral worth, and undeviating rectitude of principle. He may even with propriety be said to claim a juster title to consistency of character than most of those who have embarked in the same line of professional life and literary intercourse. Those persons, for example, who have solicitously courted notoriety, have generally encountered the eye of many in society who have wish ed to ascertain whether their conduct in private life strictly accords with the sentiments which fill and animate their writings.

GENT. MAG. January, 1818.

[ocr errors]

If it then be found that purity of speculative doctrine and unblemished morals do not always accompany each other, although charity may in part suppress those faults which truth cannot wholly conceal; the memory of such faults considerably impairs the lustre of a reputation (however in other respects bright), if shaded with inconsistencies.

Johnson, however, after all the charges which envy, malignity, or a difference of literary opinion, has and may advance against him, must in this respect alone be allowed on all hands to occupy an elevated rank.— He laboured in his writings for the benefit and improvement of his countrymen; and uniformly endeavoured to maintain and illustrate, by an inconversation, those just and animated dependence of spirit in his life and lessons of moral excellence which convince and persuade in his works. By an unshaken and irreproachable adherence to what he believed the path of rectitude, he strove to sustain, amidst the difficulties which attend unpatronized merit, and the cheerless prospects which a scanty and precarious subsistence holds forth, that exalted dignity of thinking, which misfortunes have been found more frequently to subdue, than to strengthen.

It has been observed by writers who well knew the human heart, and who had deeply studied the various mingling causes which often combine in determining the judgments of mankind-that a contemporary, or even a succeeding generation, is by no means the best qualified duly to estimate the worth, or pronounce the panegyric, of a celebrated individual. Johnson is yet alive in the memory of the world; the age which succeeded him can scarcely be said to have passed away. The eccentricities which marked his personal character, the paradoxical strangeness which sometimes accompanied his literary opinions, and the dogmatism with which he defended any cause which humour or caprice tempted him to espouse, are thought the fair subjects of satire and animadversion; the various foibles of his public, social, or domestic life are yet, it may be said, the occasional theme of conversation and censure. As, on the one hand, amongst certain of his friends, his critical decisions have been contemplated as almost oracular,

[ocr errors]

oracular, and his moral apophthegms treasured up with all the pride of fond recollection; so, on the other, among the great majority of his countrymen, his name has lived in their remembrances, as associated with qualities in the highest degree unamiable, and scarcely consistent with those pretensions of worth which yet have been generally acknowledged by all: amongst this latter class, those whose ages do not permit them to speak from actual observation, or cognizance of the things they deprecate, imbibe their sentiments from others, or form a hasty and erroneous judgment from a perusal of biographical anecdotes and sketches, which in some shape or another have crept into most works of contemporary or succeeding date. Jealous of his high name, they eagerly preserve the memory of these minor foils of character; foils which with ordinary minds seem to question the justness of his celebrity; not considering that they were, unfortunately rather the effect of early prejudice contracted in education, of a native roughness tinctured with constitutional melancholy, than of any caprice or perversity of disposition, or a departure from those principles which he considered as sacred. To peruse the amusing and eventful biography of an individual celebrated in active and social life, is a task of more easy accomplishment to the generality of mankind, than to glean the varied fields of criticism, or climb the heights of science. Casual readers, therefore, naturally recur to what, with most pleasure, is attended with least trouble; and hence, oftentimes form their estimate, and even their literary estimate, rather from these objectionable traits, which occupy a prominent feature in Johnson, than from the sterling weight and real excellence of his works. Among those, likewise, who can discern and appreciate his various literary beauties, the dog matic intolerance with which his opinions are too frequently accompanied, the dictatorial tone which he occasionally assumed, and the strange pleasure which, in the true spirit of hyper criticism he discovered, of sometimes eliciting faults where all other minds must discover beauties, have considerably moderated that admiration which they would otherwise

feel it a first duty to bestow. Although, therefore, the well-earned laurels of this distinguished ornament of British Literature have indeed thus been abundant, many combining causes have prevented his fame from attaining generally that pinnacle of greatness, which, nevertheless, in the eyes of his admirers, nay in the eyes of impartial posterity, is his just award.

Viewed apart from the celebrity which he has acquired and must ever retain in elegant and philosophical criticism, Johnson rises still higher as a Moralist. He is an original, who thinks for himself, and delivers his opinions upon the important concerns of social and relative happiness with a native and spontaneous energy of thought, which, as it was not formed by the systems of others, scruples not occasionally to advance new doctrines in the face of established authorities.

It was highly important to the general cause of virtue, and likewise of religion, that they found an advocate in talents of such capacity, and a mind of so extraordinary a grasp. The same energies, had they been prostituted to vicious or ignoble ends, might have been the occasion of very fatal consequences. As it remains, however, the character and genius of Johnson have not only exhibited, for the instruction of succeeding generations, the finest specimens of eloquence, in association or alliance with pure and elevated morality; but have opposed, it may be said, a bright and fortunate contrast to the lives, characters, and writings of many of our Gallic neighbours of contemporary fame. If the genius of France has shone forth with resplendent lustre amidst the literature of modern times; if her Rousseaus, her Diderots, and her D'Alemberts, have occasionally drawn the eyes of most learned societies, both foreign and domestic; if the brilliant and multifarious talents of her Voltaires be the theme of studied panegyric, not only in her own soil, but in every other Country of Continental Europe which has any pretensions to literary eminence: an Englishman, with the honest glow of enthusiasm rising in his bosom, will parallel their abilities (enlisted, as they often are, in the service of infidelity and moral seduction) with

the

[ocr errors]

the genius and mental resources of Johnson. Accompanied with innate dignity and independence of mind, ennobled by innate worth and integrity, he will not hesitate to assign to their possessor more exalted honours than all the laurels which have hung so thickly round their brows have ever acquired for these disciples of an imposing system of Philosophy. If the fame of the latter has considerably eclipsed that of the former on the wide theatre of Europe, this, among other concurring causes, may have been produced by the superior talent which they respectively possessed of flattering the passions of human nature, in conciliating the regards of power, and in administering agreeable flattery to sources from whence they were pretty sure to draw with accumulated interest in return.

The stern features of Johnson's mind were incapable of being accommodated to the exigences of time and policy-a more disinterested and elevated feeling pointed to nobler ends.

As the national character, and likewise the native literature, of this our Isle, must be acknowledged, upon a fair review, to differ essentially from that of France in its grand leading features; so that distinction perhaps has no where appeared more signally conspicuous, than in that particular walk in which our great Moralist shone, or more exemplified than in his life and labours. Separated only by a narrow channel of Ocean, while the natural and moral influences of her climate engendered and matured a universality of intellectual accomplishment in Voltaire-the fine discriminating powers and manliness of thought of our own country formed a proper contrast in the invigorated mind of Johnson.

As a Moralist and Critic, the fame of the Author of Rasselas has ranked eminently and proverbially high; he has been allowed in many respects to stand unrivaled amid the numerous competitors in the same line, who, it is the just boast of British Literature, have united and advanced our name to immortality, and rivaled the proudest claims of Antiquity. As a Biographer and Philologer, or Lexicographer, however, amidst the other characters he has adorned, he stands, if not equally distinguished,

Per

yet honourably conspicuous, and entitled to our most grateful acknowledgments. His Lives of Eminent Persons, the production of his earlier years, and which, combined with other circumstances, were the instruments which raised him to notoriety, and founded the basis of his future fame, may, for literary excellence, and propriety of style, be termed models for the imitation of Biographers. Although perhaps less nervous and antithetical than that of the Lives of the English Poets, they yet exhibit greater simplicity and ease. spicuous and pure, these compositions unite in a high degree dignity with elegance; beauty of arrangement, and harmony of period, are so happily combined, that the reader at once feels his interest excited, and his approbation secured; concise, yet on the other hand sufficiently luminous, the Author in narration strikes at principal events, neglecting the review of subordinate matter; his chief aim, after having imparted requisite information on those points, seems rather to be to delineate character, than to heap together occurrences in the detail. These performances, in conjunction with the Lives of the English Poets, must long remain among the most finished biographical sketches in the language.

His merits as a Lexicographer are well known, and scarcely capable, perhaps, of being further illustrated to a British publick. With unwearied pains and perseverance, unpatronized by the great, and unassisted by the learned, his truly valuable Dictionary, a literary achievement unprecedented in the annals of philology, at length crowned his labours by its appear ance. How far his abilities qualified him for the task he undertook, and how far his industry was successfully applied, will be clearly apparent to the candid examiner. He has done more for the perfectibility of the language, and advanced deeper into etymological studies, than any author, or, perhaps, than the united efforts of any set of authors, before or since his time. His derivations usually discover research and judgment, his various definitions are for the most part accurate and just, and the quotations he adduces in their support apt and luminous. If truth is constrained to admit that he has sometimes failed

« PreviousContinue »