me.' He immediately afterwards went away. This was the last circumstance in the acquaintance of these two eminent men. The lofty spirit of Johnson, unbroken by old age and complicated disease, Burke venerated, as he had admired his intellectual force and exertions. He suggested to Boswell, as applicable to Johnson, what Cicero in his Cato Major says of Appius:• Intentum enim animum quasi arcum habebat, nec languescens succumbebat senectuti:' repeating, at the same time, the following noble words in the same passages: Ita enim senectus bonesta est si se ipsa defendit, si jus suum retinet, si nemini emancipata est, si usque ad extremum vitæ vindicat jus suum. Perhaps literary history does not afford a more striking instance of extraordinary talents more happily and beneficially exerted than in the mind of Samuel Johnson. An understanding, acute, poignant, forcible, and profound; an imagination, rich, strong, and * brilliant; a most retentive memory, stored with knowledge; were uniformly directed to promote the cause of wisdom, virtue, and religion. His Essays,' to use the words of his able biographer, form a body of ethics. In the usual progression of great minds, he became, as he advanced in years and knowledge, more practical. His Rambler shewed more of man in his general nature, as he himself says of Dryden: his Idler, as he says of Pope, more of man in his local manners. His Rambler was the work of a profound, comprehensive philosopher: his Idler, of a man of genius, experienced in life. The former describes men as they always are; the latter as they were then in England. As a critic, the world, since the time of Aristotle, has seen few, if any, equal to Johnson. Disregarding mere usage, he follows nature and reason. He considers not the mode in which the Greek tragedians arranged their performances, but the ope * Mr. Murphy, in his Life of Johnson, p. 155. 1 ration of passion, sentiment, and character in real life. He estimates imitative works by their likeness to originals. As a biographer, he stands unrivalled. He thoroughly knew the human understanding and heart; was perfectly acquainted with the kind of circumstances in which his subjects acted; with their individual history and character. In his literary portraits he ably marks the progress of mind; the incidents and causes which retarded or accelerated its movements, and the completion of its powers, attainments, and exertions. As a philologist, Johnson had not mere knowledge, but also science: he not only collected usages, but investigated principles. He has enriched our language; and improved it, if not in case and elegance, in precision and force. In politics he shewed less advancement than in philology, criticism, biography, and ethics. I do not mean the erroneousness only of his particular notions, but the mode of his general reasoning. In his other writings he is practically wise; in his political, speculatively abstract. From the whole of his works numerous and important additions have been made to the general mass of information; and still more momentous accessions to the general mass of instruction. Such have been the consequences of an extraordinary mind, exerted upon objects dependent for success on its intrinsic efforts. The moral character of Johnson was as estimable as his intellectual was admirable. He was temperate, intrepid, magnanimous, just, pious, benevolent, and beneficent. His head, his heart, his purse, were employed in doing good, and in dispensing happiness. His manners were less agrecable than his other qualities were valuable. His temper was irritable ;— he was impatient of folly and frivolity. He had an INTOLERANCE TO NONSENSE, very unpleasing to its numerous votaries; and very troublesome in the intercourse of fashionable life: he was peculiarly inimical to nonsense and folly, arrayed in the garb of sense and wisdom. But, with some defects in his social habits, he was, as a moral and a religious being, far above common men. Johnson esteemed Burke above all men : he said, he was a perpetual stream of mind. Burke is the only man whose common conversation corresponds with the general fame he has in the world. Take up whatever topic you please, he is ready to meet you.' As Johnson always praised the wonderful genius of Burke, Burke allowed the extraordinary talents of Johnson. One evening that they spent in company with Mr. Langton, Johnson happened to take most of the conversation. On their way home, Burke observed to Langton, that Johnson had been very great that night. Langton admitting this, added, he wished he had heard more from another person.' • Oh, no,' said Burke, it is enough for me to have rung the bell to him.' This observation arose from Burke's modesty had he appreciated with impartiality his own powers, he would have reflected that Johnson or no man was his superior in genius |