that it soon embraced the greater part of the rising literary characters of the day, and was consequently founded on such a basis as will not easily be shaken by succeeding modes. Of his immediate contemporaries, who strove to wield the weapons of Achilles, Mr. Courtenay, in his "Poetical Review of the moral and literary Character of Dr. Johnson," has given us, in very elegant verse, the following discriminative catalogue:

By Nature's gifts ordain'd mankind to rule,
He, like a Titian, form'd his brilliant school,
And taught congenial spirits to excel,
While from his lips impressive wisdom fell.
Our boasted GOLDSMITH felt the sov'reign sway,
From him deriv'd the sweet yet nervous lay.
To Fame's proud cliff he bade our Raphael rise;
Hence REYNOLDS' pen with REYNOLDS' pencil vies.
With Johnson's flame melodious BURNEY glows,
While the grand strain in smoother cadence flows.
And you, MALONE, to critic learning dear,
Correct and elegant, refin'd tho' clear,
By studying him acquir'd that classic taste
Which high in Shakspeare's fane thy statue plac'd.
Near Johnson STEEVENS stands on scenic ground,
Acute, laborious, fertile, and profound.
Ingenious HAWKESWORTH to this school we owe,
And scarce the pupil from the tutor know.
Here early parts accomplish'd JONES sublimes,
And science blends with Asia's lofty rhymes:
Harmonious JONES! who in his splendid strains
Sings Camdeo's sports on Agra's flow'ry plains!

In Hindu fictions while we fondly trace
Love and the Muses, deck'd with Attic grace.
Amid these names can BoswELL be forgot,
Scarce by North Britons now esteem'd a Scot?
Who, to the sage devoted from his youth,
Imbib'd from him the sacred love of truth,
The keen research, the exercise of mind,
And that best art, the art to know mankind.-
Nor was his energy confin'd alone
To friends around his philosophic throne;
Its influence wide improv'd our letter'd isle,
And lucid vigour mark'd the gen'ral style.
As Nile's proud waves, swoln from their oozy bed,
First o'er the neighb'ring meads majestic spread;
Till gath'ring force, they more and more expand,
And with new virtue fertilize the land.

To the celebrated scholars which Mr.Courtenay has thus commemorated for their casual imitation of the style of Johnson, may be now added many more writers of acknowledged genius, and whose works are calculated to impart a very increased value to the language in which they are composed. The resemblance has with many of them been unintentional, and is consequently a strong proof of the wide influence which the diction of Johnson had already acquired over the literature of his country. When such writers as Dr. Robertson, Dr. Blair, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Burke, Dr. Leland, Madame D'Arblay, Dr. Ferguson, Dr. Knox, Dr. Stuart, Dr. Parr, Dr. Gillies, Archdeacon Nares, Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Chalmers, Mr. Roscoe, and Dr. Anderson, can be brought forward as having, in a greater or less degree, founded their style on that of the author of the Rambler, it may be presumed that the merits of the model which they had chosen, or unconsciously imitated, must have been great. In fact, the adoption of the style of Johnson by the Critic, the Orator, and the Historian, has been frequently attended with the best effects; as the weight, the splendor, and dignity of the subjects have often been such as would most happily harmonize with the strong and nervous periods of their prototype. On topics of a more familiar kind, however; on topics which detail the history of minute manners, where humour, irony, and delicate satire are demanded; it surely would be no mark of judgment to employ the elaborate and sonorous phraseology so uniformly characteristic of the lucubrations of the Rambler. The Novel and the familiar periodical Essay seldom require the grand and stately march of the Johnsonian period; Goldsmith, Mackenzie, and Madam D'Arblay have occasionally adopted, it is true, the splendour and force of Joshnon with great felicity; but the general cast of their diction is widely different; on the contrary, the Essays of Dr. Knox, though truly valuable for their moral and literary wealth, are, in point of composition, too studiously and exclusively copies from this great master. It has been too generally forgotten, indeed, that, bold, impressive, and magnificent as is the language of Johnson when occupied on themes of great importance, it has frequently been his misfortune to lavish it upon subjects too delicate to support its weight; on subjects where case and plainness only were required, where sonorous words served only to excite burlesque, and elaborate periods only to encumber.

To him, however, who possesses a correct taste and a strong discriminative judgment, the study of the style of Johnson must be attended with the best results; he will have before him specimens of the noblest and the richest diction of which our literature can boast; a diction, indeed, from its nature considerably limited in its due application; but when employed on subjects of true dignity and serious moment, to record the labours of the hero or the legislator, or to clothe with fresh energy the maxims of virtue and of piety, perhaps unparalleled in the powers of impression.

If we turn from the style of the Ramblers, to the consideration of their merit in the delineation of character and the exhibition of humour, we shall find abundant reason to conclude that Johnson was a most accurate and discriminating observer of human life in all its various shades and modifications. Though destined, during the most vigorous portion of his existence, to obtain a precarious, and very often a most scanty support, by the daily labours of his pen, he was yet enabled, in consequence of his powers, and rapidity of execution, to pass much of his time in the bosom of society. Excelling in conversation, expert in appreciating and drawing forth the talents of his companions, and often anxious, from morbid sensation, to escape from himself, he delighted not only in the frequent association of his intimate friends, but in that variety and information which are to be derived from mingling with every class of mankind. As he affirmed of himself, he had been "running about the world more than almost any body;" and the result of this habit was, in a mind uncommonly retentive and acute, a most exuberant fund of character and anecdote.

To stores thus ample and rich was added a strong but peculiar vein of humour; widely different, indeed, from the delicate and indirect satire of Addison, but nearly as powerful, and much more highly coloured. Had the language of Johnson been more plastic and accommodating, this talent would have appeared still more prominent; for, owing to the unvarying swell of his diction, which almost necessarily induces a tone of mind inimical to ridicule, his object has