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DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, who has been styled the brightest ornament of the 18th century, was born at Litchfield in Staffordshire, in the year 1709. His father, who was a bookseller of some reputation, placed him at the free school of Litchfield. He early displayed strong marks of genius. Some of his school exercises, which have been accidentally preserved, justify the expectations which determined a father, not opulent, to continue him in the paths of literature. Before he was fourteen years old, his mind was disturbed by scruples of infidelity; but his studies and inquiries being honest, ended in conviction. He found that religion is true; and what he had learned, he ever afterwards endeavoured to teach. Grotius's excellent book "On the Truth of the Christian Religion," was very useful in removing his doubts, and establishing his belief.

In 1728, he was entered as a commoner at Pembroke college, Oxford. Dr. Adam said of him, "that he was the best qualified young

man, that he ever remembered to have seen admitted." Here he produced a fine Latin version of Pope's Messiah. Pope read the translation, and returned it with this encomium; "The writer of this poem will leave it a question for posterity, whether his or mine be the original." From his father's insolvency, and the scantiness of his finances, he was obliged to leave Oxford before he had completed the usual studies, and without a degree.

From the university, he returned to Litchfield, with little improvement of his prospects; and soon after engaged as usher in a school in Leicestershire. But being unkindly treated by the patron of the school, he left it after a few months, in disgust. In 1735 he married a widow of Birmingham, much older than himself, and not very engaging in person or manners. She was possessed of 8007.; which enabled him to fit up a house and open an academy. But this plan also failed for want of encouragement: he obtained only three scholars, one of whom was the celebrated David Garrick. In 1737 he settled in London, where, for several years, he derived his principal employment and support, by writing for the Gentleman's Magazine.

In 1738, he published his "London," an admirable poem, which laid the foundation of his fame. It contains the most spirited invectives against tyranny and oppression, the warmest predilection for his own country, and the

purest love of virtue.-In 1744, appeared his "Life of Savage." The narrative is remarkably smooth and well disposed, the observations are just, and the reflections disclose the inmost recesses of the human heart." The Vanity of human Wishes," was produced in 1749. It contains profound reflections: and the various instances of disappointment are judiciously chosen, and strongly painted. "The Rambler" came out in 1750. In this work Johnson is the great moral teacher of his countrymen: his essays form a body of ethics: the observations on life and manners are acute and instructive: and the papers, professedly critical, serve to promote the cause of literature. Every page shows a mind teeming with classical allusion, and poetical imagery.-In 1755 he published his grand work, the "Dictionary of the English Language." This performance may properly be called the Mount Atlas of English literature. The labour of forming it was immense; and the definitions exhibit astonishing proofs of acuteness of in, tellect, and precision of language.-His "Lives of the English Poets" were completed in 1781. This is an eminently valuable work. His judgment, taste, quickness in the discrimination of motives, and his happy art of giving to well known incidents the grace of novelty, and the force of instruction, shine strongly in these narratives. Sometimes, however, his colourings receive a tinge from prejudice, and

10

LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON.

his judgment is insensibly warped by the particularity of his private opinions. He wrote also "The Idler," "Rasselas,"*"The Vision of Theodore," "A journey to the Western Islands of Scotland," and many other works, which our limits will not allow us to characterize, or even to enumerate.

In 1783, the palsy gave Johnson warning of the failure of his constitution. A melancholy, which in him was constitutional, and which had harassed him more or less through every period of his life, joined to a very scrupulous sense of duty, filled him with apprehension of an event, which few men have had so good a right to meet with fortitude. The last days of his existence were, however, less clouded by gloomy fears; and he departed this life, in the year 1784, with resignation and comfortable hope.

*The effect of Rasselas, and of Johnson's other moral tales, is thus beautifully illustrated by Mr. Courtenay in his "Poetical Review."

Impressive truth, in splendid fiction drest, Checks the vain wish, and calms the troubled breast;

O'er the dark mind a light celestial throws,
And soothes the angry passions to repose,
As oil effus'd illumes and smooths the deep,
When round the bark the swelling surges
sweep.

RASSELAS,

PRINCE OF ABISSINIA.

CHAP. 1.

Description of a Palace in a Valley.

YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas, prince of Abissinia.

Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty emperor, in whose dominions the Father of Waters begins his course; whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt.

According to the custom which has descended from age to age among the monarchs of the torrid zone, Rasselas was confined in a private palace, with the other sons and daughters of

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