nothing like the sensation it created occurred again until the death of Byron. His remains were deposited in Westminster Abbey, and of him may be repeated with literal truth the lines which Tickell wrote on the burial of Addison :— Ne'er to these chambers, where the mighty rest, Among those who bore his pall was the only person in his generation who could compete with him in intellect-the wisest of politicians, the most upright of patriots, the most eloquent of orators-the illustrious Edmund Burke. Two such stars were enough of themselves to fill the firmament with glory, and it is delightful to reflect that they were warm admirers of each other, and old and intimate friends. The appearance of Johnson is more familiar to us through the portraits of Reynolds and the descriptions of his biographers than that of any other person of past generations. He was made on a massive scale, and after early manhood grew unwieldy from corpulence. His face was scarred with the marks of scrofula, but his complexion was clear, and his features not ill-formed. "His eyes," says Mrs. Piozzi, "though of a light grey colour, were so wide, so piercing, and at times so fierce, that fear was, I believe, the first emotion in the hearts of all his beholders." His general aspect was strange and uncouth, for in addition to his form being bulky and ungraceful, his head shook with a nervous tremor, his body twitched with convulsive contractions, and his legs and arms were tossed about by involuntary movements. These peculiarities became exaggerated when his mind was at work. It was said by one of his friends that when he read his head swung seconds.3 Both in conversing and in meditation, he would sway backwards and forwards till his hands 1 Anecdotes by Mrs. Piozzi, p. 297. 3 [ Johnsoniana, No. 552.]. |