Vindication of Dr. Johnfon and Mr. Bofwell.

very reverse, paffive obedience and nonrefiftance.

This

Before I quit this fubject I requeft your indulgence, Mr. Urban, while I add a word or two on what I have heard thrown out in fome companies for fome months paft: "that Dr. J. is very little obliged to his friends, and that inftead of raifing, they have great ly diminished his reputation." affertion is fo falfe, and fo perfectly abfurd, that it is very difficult to confider it difpaffionately. What! the reputa tion of this defervedly admired writer diminished by his fhewing himself on all occafions, without any preparation, in every cafual conversation in which he engages, fertile, witty, clofely argumentative, inftructive, and often profound! His reputation diminished by his illuftrating by the moft luminous good-fenfe every fubject on which he fpeaks!-Some one has remarked, that he appears to have been very prone to contradiction, and that many of his fpeeches begin with a negation. It is true; but that was merely a habit. Let the objecters fhew that he was wrong when he contradicted, and they will do fomewhat. But nine times out of ten he will be found to be in the right. Other men (though very few) have perhaps poffeffed as great talents as Dr. 1. though his talents of every kind were of the firft magnitude; but his powers in You, converfation were unrivalled. -Mr. Urban, well know what they were. They were indeed fo extraordinary, that no man of any intelligence ever fat an evening in his company, when he exerted himself, (and he always could be led to do fo,) that did not go away with To fay that a delight and admiration. lively and faithful exhibition in print of fuch uncommon and perishable talents has diminished his reputation, is just as abfurd as to maintain that Newton's fame is diminished by his Principia being fpread round the world; or that of Shakspeare tarnished by his plays being in every hand, and acted almost every night. The Moral Effays of this acute and penetrating writer, that ftupendous work, his Dictionary, (which must be read with admiration by every one who has ever attempted to define a fingle word, and recollects that the whole of this arduous task was performed by one man,) his beautiful and energetic poetry, his critical and moft judicious remarks on preceding writers in his biographical pieces, all thefe will live and be admired as long as the English lan

21

guage fhall have any existence; but it
is owing to Mr. Bofwell alone that pof-
terity will have alfo a very perfect idea
of his fingular talents in converfation,
talents most affuredly not poffeffed by
Locke, Boyle, Newton, Dryden, Ad-
difon, Pope, or any other celebrated
perfon who has flourished for a century
paft.

I cannot leave a book, from which I
have received fo much entertainment
and instruction, without taking notice
of two other objections that have been
made to it in fome of the periodical
publications. The firft is, that it is
full of egotisms. In the name of com-
mon fenfe, how is it poffible that the
diurnal account of the occurrences
which befal an individual, of the ob-
jects which he has feen in a journey,
and of the remarks that he has made,
upon them, fhould not be full of egot-
ifims? There is but one method of
avoiding them; a method adopted by a
certain fuperficial and popular tour-
writer:-" Set out at eight; walked up
the steep hill of; came at twelve
to -- -;"&c. This vile jargon is no
doubt relished by his commercial read-
ers, who afually themfelves employ the
fame ftyle; but I believe by no perfon
of any tafte or literature. The other
objection that I recollect to have been
made is, that this Journal is not elabo-
rate. It is only neceffary to fay, that it
would have been much out of character
if it had been elaborate. Eafe and elc-
gance it poffeffes throughont; and the
character of Dr. Johnfon exhibits fuch
acuteness of remark, and fuch nicety of
difcrimination, that, had it been the pro-
duction of Mr. Hume, or Dr. Robert
fon, it would have been thought an ex-
quifitely-finished performance.

The character of Dr. Johnfon reminds me of a very judicious obfervation made in your review of this Journal. You have justly obferved, Mr. Urban, that "the work exhibits a feries of his converfation, many literary anecdotes, and opinions of men and books, moft of which, though delivered in common converfation, will abide the fevereft teft of criticifm; and to whofe colloquial opinions (you add) befide thofe of Dr. Johnfon, could this elogium be given?" After a high encomium on the character of Dr. Johnfon, as drawn by Mr. Bofwell, you fay, that "it does not give an entire and adequate idea of him; that fome traits feem yet to be wanting" and enlarging ftill further on

this

22

Vindication of Dr. Johnfon and Mr. Bofwell.

this topick, you very judiciously observe, that the great and leading feature of his mind was religion." This, Mr. Urban, is the true folution of many circumftances which have puzzled fome of his readers. You fay very truly, that "virtue, though in the humbleft occupations of life, was more certain to gain and fecure the poffeffion of his friendfhip, than the vigour of abilities, and the splendour of genius." Hence it was that he recommended one poem of Blackmore's, and the languid verfes of Watts, to be inferted in the great col. lection of English poets, published by a company of book fellers, which they very improperly call bis Collection of English Poets; for, excepting this recommendation, and his writing his admirable Lives of the Poets, he had no concern whatsoever with the work; nor did he, as you well know, form it, or correct a fingle sheet of it. If it had been his collection, the compofitions of his very ingenious friend, Goldfmith, would certainly not have been omitted. Dr. Johnson was much too judicious, and too good a critick, to think Blackmore or Watts good poets : it was fufficient for him that they were good men; and if one individual in twenty years were likely to be impreffed with a greater reverence for virtue and the Deity by their verses, that was a fufficient inducement to him to ftretch a little, and to fpeak fomewhat more favourably of them than his ftricter judgement would have otherwife allowed. Upon the fame principle he often faid, that he thought it improper, either in writing or converfation, to give any praife to Hume. The acuteneis, the fagacity, the elegant and engaging ftyle of Hume, he had too good fenfe not to admire; but he wished, by every poffible means, to deprefs and difcountenance a writer, whofe great object was to shake the foundations of revealed religion.

The confideration of this part of Dr. Johnson's character naturally leads me to his Prayers and Meditations, the pub lication of which, we have likewife been told in newfpapers and reviews, was a mortal ftab to his fame. That he ever intended them for publication, I own I very much doubt; and cannot help fufpecting that the rev. Mr. S. mifundertood him. This, I know, is the opinion of a very learned and excellent man, one of the oldeft friends of Dr. J.

now living. It is indeed hardly ere-
dible, that he fhould deliberately burn
a narrative of his life, written out care-
fully for the prefs, and at the fame time
direct the publication of thefe his pri-
vate thoughts and prayers. However,
published they have been; and, though
it is clear the diary which has crept in
to this publication toward the conclu
fion of it, ought not to have been print-
ed without leaving a few blanks in it,
I can by no means grant that a book,
which exhibits fuch a ftriking picture of
the piety and benevolence of this excel-
lent man, can ever, in the opinion of
any thinking perfon, in the flightest
degree leffen his defervedly high repu
tation. The objections, Mr. Urban,
that are made to his Prayers are curi-
ous: "there is nothing original in
them; they are merely the language of
fcripture and the liturgy." It is very
true; and fo are all the forms of prayer
that have been published these fifty
years paft on publick fafts and other fo-
lemn occafions, though they are the
productions of the collective body of
bishops (fome of them very learned
men), during that period.
But they
well knew, that there is a certain fo-
lemnity and reverence belonging to an-
cient forms, and particularly to our
own admirable liturgy; and therefore
did not venture to depart from them.-
However, even in this fpecies of com-
pofition, as in every other, the genius
of Johnfon beams forth; for it is re-
markable, that in near thirty prayers
upon one fubject (his birth-day, and
the new year), though the fentiments
are neceffarily nearly the fame, the lan-
guage in which they are cloathed is
wonderfully varied.

Another objection that has been made, is, that "Dr. Johnson was really a very good man; but it is a melancholy circumftance that he should have made fo much account of the rigid performance of religious duties." This courtly objection was made by a lady to a friend of mine, who faid, that the reminded him of our inimitable poet's Mrs. Quickly the dame breaks out into an elogium on her fellow-fervant, who, the fays, is "an honeft, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in a houfe withal: his worst fault is that he is given to PRAYER; he is fomething peevish that way; but nobody but has his fault."

Our correfpondeut mistakes. We well know the contrary. He taw many of the theets corrected fome of them; was confulted on the works of every individual poet ; and suggested many improvements throughout the whole. EDIT.

A third

Linnæus, his great Merit as a Naturalift.

A third objection, which I believe was made in fome of the Monthly Reviews, is, that thefe "Meditations do not answer to their name; they are not meditations." If a ferious review of paft life, and of the religious duty to be performed on a future day, mixed with refolutions of amendment, and tinctured with the moft fervent piety, entitle any effufions of the mind to the name of religious meditations, these have a title to that defignation.

That this excellent man's having charged himself with guilt in not rifing early in the morning; that his refolutions to get the better of his indolence in this refpect, so often made, and fo often broken, will leffen the weight of his religious and moral effays, fo long and fo justly admired, is an objection that I have heard from fome; but it is fo filly a remark, that it requires very little confutation. The tender fcrupulofity of any man's confcience can never be the true measure of his virtue; nor can be with truth be called idle, who, from bodily infirmi ties, lay in bed perhaps fome hours longer than others, but, during thofe hours when he was up, executed works that the ftrenuous triflers of the world behold with wonder, and that even laborious and ingenious men would find it difficult to perform, though their whole lives were devoted to the task, and though Nature should allow them a period of existence in this world, double to that which is commonly allotted to mortals. But it is unneceffary to purfue this fubject any further. A publication that fhews Dr. J. in the most amiable light, pious, charitable, humane, and affectionate; which proves that (though, like other human creatnres, he fometimes deviated from his good refolutions,) he endeavoured at least in every action of his life to conform to the will of his Creator, fo far from depreciating, cannot but greatly raise him in the opinion of the prefent age and of pofterity.

I have been led by my veneration for your old friend, Mr. Urban, into a longer difquifition than 1 originally in tended. It will, however, I hope, contribute to folve the doubts of one of your correfpondents, who feems to confider Dr. Johnfon's as a dubious character. You have unguardedly given fome countenance to his opinion, by making that the title of one of your articles in your Magazine for last month. Pardon the garrulity of an old man, who ought

23

perhaps long fince to have concluded; but the fubject muft plead my excufe: to ufe the words quoted on a fimilar occafion by the great and good man whofe inemory I have endeavoured to vindicate, rò yàp yégas isı Darórlar. ANTI-STILETTO.

MR. URBAN,

HAVE read with pleasure fome parts of the criticifms on Dr. Sparman's Voyage, and readily admit the obligations under which naturalifts in general lie to the great northern luminary LINNAEUS; no man ever did fo much with so few advantages; his fartheft travels were into England and Holland, and he fairly exhaufted every treafure of natural history which was at that time open to him. His difciples. caught his glorious flame, and, with enthufiaftic ardour, pervaded many of the most diftant parts of the globe. We are taught much by Haffelquist and much by Kalm; but their fearches were often checked by penury, and if we find fometimes difappointment in our expectations of information, it ought to be imputed to that, and poffibly to their fetting out too early in life, without that fund of knowledge which would have enabled them to make natural hif

tory fubfervient to the greatest of purpoles, I mean the elucidation of SACRED WRIT. The genius and learning of our SHAW would have fully accomplished the miffion of a naturalift, had he been paffeffed of fyftematic knowledge: he lived rather too early for that acquifition, and overlooked many fubjects which were afterwards feen by.lefs vivacious eyes, but bleiled with diftinguishing powers.

It is much to be lamented that the tranflation of Dr. Sparman's Voyage did not fall into the hands of a perion ca pable of felecting the parts worthy of the attention of the public, and omitting the witticifins which fink the dignity of a traveller who had risked fo much in refpect to life and health. What has made Hawkesworth's compilation fo contemptible, as the giving heads of chapters light as thofe of a no vel? And what has given that estimation to Cook's Voyage, but the folidity and ferious truths delivered from his own pen? Carteret's Voyage has the fame advantage, mangled as it is by the unfkilful hand of the editor.

I cannot admit that the public lies under any great obligation to Dr. Spar

man

24 Dr. Sparman's Defects.-Verfion of the Lord's Prayer defended.

man as a naturalift. Like his brother voyagers over the fame prolific ocean, he has, like a true niggard, with-held from us thofe treasures of knowledge he had accumulated. We were in the fulleft expectation of the most ample account of the zoology of the islands he had vifited, of their birds, their fishes, their reptiles, and their infects. A few fhort chapters tell us, he failed from the Cape, that he faw ice within the antarctic circle, and touched at Otaheite, New Zealand, and numberless other ifles of the vaft PACIFIC. He returned to the Cape of GOOD HOPE; vifited with a thousand risks places most remote from that great promontory; confeffes that he made infinite acquifitions in natural hiftory; yet has favoured us with nothing more than most prolix defcriptions of a few antelopes, and three or four other animals: birds, fishes, and ferpents, he hath almost left untouched, but promifes (which probably the public will never enable him to perform) another volume, containing defcriptions of two thoufand fubjects, inhabitants of the fouthern extremity of the vast peninfulated continent of Africa. If ever he attempts that work, it is to be hoped he will make his defcriptions brief; his account of œconomy and manners as large as the extent of his obfervation will permit. His great mafter has left him an admirable model in the article evis aries *; nor need he difdain imitating our countryman, Mr.. Pennant, in his Hiftory of Quadrupeds. The learned Dr. Forfer and Dr. Sparman have both of them contrived to fplit on the fame rock; each have referved their natural hiftory for feparate publications, never confidering how few there are of our fect and yet there are numbers who would have had infinite pleafure in finding authentic accounts of the different kingdoms of nature judiciously given in their proper places.

I quite agree with the Reviewers, that Dr. Sparman has done proper juf tice to his deceafed countryman, Haffelquif, a man of infinite merit. He has been no farther fevere on the able, but petulant, De Buffon, than was neceffary. The rafh and falle judgement the French naturalift forms of the works of his brethren, have long fince loudly called for correction: but, at the fame time, let the good Swede remember not to fall into the fame fault. It is faid in your

Magazine, that even Pennant and Pallas ftand corrected! They do fo; but without any juftice. The white antelope of the former fyn. quad. No 28, Hift. Quad. N° 35, was first discovered by that gentleman. It differs widely from the Springbock in colours. in marks, in horns, and in fize, being equal to that of the fallow deer at least: the other about the fize of a roebuck, and of the weight of fifty pounds; but each of them are fully diftinguished in Mr Pennant's Hiftory of Quadrupeds, and engraven in the Amfterdam edition of De Buffon, Supp. tom. V. tab. xvi. and tom. IV. tab. lx. Neither is there any certainty of the juftice of Dr. Sparman's infinuation about Mr. Pennant being wrong about the colour of the baboon of the Cape. See his Voyage, II. 226. I would by no means difparage the labours of the learned and ingenious, but must admit the obfervation of the Reviewer, that one volume would fully comprize the fum of all Mr. Sparman's remarks. We are much obliged to him for what he has done; but it is not the talent of foreigners in general to comprize much in little neighbouring nation, may be applied to fpace. What Rofcommon applies to a Europe at large, and moft aptly to the illuftrious French naturalift in particular, and without overtraining the compliment which the noble poet pays to the authors of Great-Britain: Drawn to French wire, would thro' whole The weighty bullion of one English line

pages fhine.

Yours, &c. A NATURALIST.

MR. URBAN,

Y%

OUR correfpondent A. T. M. (vol. LIV. p. 816,) has commented in a very curious manner on the Lord's Prayer. Our common version of it appears to agree with the Greek; but A. T. M. has given, instead of a new tranflation, a new Lord's Prayer, and will probably, in fome future number, favour us with a new fet of Com mandments. This hypercritic is difgufted with the phrafe, "lead us not into temptation," not recollecting that temptation often means trial; e. g. God is faid "to tempt Abraham," Gen. xxii 1. And I believe no perfon, who is capable of reading this prayer in its original language, will tranflate it "let us not fall into temptation."

Yours, &c. T. CAMP.

Mr.

Anecdotes of Mr. Etough, his Peculiarities and Curiofity.