digious strength. But his great characteristic was uncommon vigour and logical precision of intellect, which, combined with a keen and penetrating judgment, and with a varied and close acquaintance with the different classes of mankind, enabled him to display, from the sources of his own mind, and independent of books, such a comprehensive view of his subject, such accuracy of perception and lucidity of discrimination, as threw light upon every question, however intricate, and proved the best of all practical guides in the customary occurrences of life.

To the possession of these inestimable qualities, in a degree seldom, if ever, exceeded, was added such a masterly intimacy with his native language, such a promptitude and precision in its use, that his conversation, which abounded likewise in wit and humour, had all the force, the elegance, and arrangement of the best written page.

Yet the style which he adopted as an author was polished with great care and corrected with indefatigable attention. It has beauties of peculiar lustre, and defects which are very apparent; but it has, upon the whole, greatly contributed, and more than the style of any other writer, to the correctness, the dignity, and harmony of English composition.

To much knowledge of the sciences of natural and experimental philosophy he had few pretensions; but he possessed the most valuable of all the arts in full perfection, "the art of thinking, the art of using his own mind," the most difficalt of all acquisitions. His mind too was stored with an exhaustless fund of imagery, which has rendered his prose, if not his poetry, in a very high degree rich and splendid.

After this brief summary of the general character of his mind, let us recapitulate the various channels into which its efforts were directed.

As a POET he cannot claim a station in the first rank. He is a disciple of Pope; all that strong sentiment, in nervous language and harmonious metre, can effect, he possesses in a high degree. We may further affirm, that his London, his Vanity of Human Wishes, his Prologue on the Opening of Drury-Lane Theatre, and his Stanzas on the Death of Levet, will never die.

To excellence as a BIBLIOGRAPHER he had many pretensions; strength of memory, an insatiable love of books, and a most extraordinary facility in acquiring an intimacy with their contents. What he has produced in this department is not of much extent, but it is well performed.

His merits as a BIOGRAPHER are so prominent as to be beyond all dispute. His Lives of Savage, of Cowley, of Dryden, and of Pope, are masterpieces, which, in many respects, can fear no rivalry. An intimate acquaintance with the human heart, and the most skilful introduction of moral and monitory precept, combine to render many of his productions under this head unspeakably valuable to the dearest interests of mankind. It must not be concealed, however, that they are occasionally deformed by his prejudices, his aversions, and his constitutional gloom.

In his character as an ESSAYIST, though essentially different in mode from, he ranks next in value to, Addison. He lashes the vices rather than ridicules the follies of mankind; and his wit and humour are, by no means, so delicate and finely shaded, as those of his predecessor. In force, in dignity, in splendour of eloquence; in correctness of style, melody of cadence and rotundity of period; in precision of argument, and perspicuity of inference, he is much superior to the author of the Spectator; but, on the other hand, he must yield the palm in ease and sweetness, in simplicity and vivacity. The three great faults, indeed, of Johnson as an Essayist, are, a style too uniformly laboured and majestic for the purposes of a popular essay, a want of variety in the choice of subject, and in his survey of human life, a tone too gloomy and austere, too querulous and desponding. The Rambler is, however, notwithstanding these defects, a work that, in vigour of execution, and comprehensiveness of utility, will not easily be paralleled; it is, in fact, a vast treasury of moral precept, and ethic instruction.

The reputation of Johnson as a PHILOLOGER appears to be somewhat on the decline. The attention which has been lately paid to Lexicography has laid open many omissions and defects in his Dictionary; but it should be considered, that a work of this kind must necessarily be defective; and that with our author rests the sole merit of having chalked out a plan, which, if not filled up by his own execution, must, there is every reason to think, be closely followed by his emulators, to attain the perfection at which he aimed. When we consider Johnson under the appellation of a NOVELLIST, it is impossible not to regret that Rasselas is the only work on which he can properly found a claim to the title. Yet we must add, that if in beauty of imagery, sublimity of sentiment, and knowledge of men and manners, too much praise cannot be given to this philosophic tale, it is obligatory on us to confess that it is greatly deficient in two essential qualifications of a legitimate novel, plot and incident. Rasselas indeed is merely the vehicle of the author's opinions on human life, and which, we are sorry to remark, partake of the same gloom which darkens the pages of the Rambler.

A very few lines will sketch our author's pretensions to the honours of a COMMENTATOR. The plan of his edition of Shakspeare has been much and justly admired; and no greater proof can be given of its excellence, than that every subsequent annotator has pursued the path which he had laid open. He was himself, however, too indolent, and too deficient in the very line of reading which he had recommended for the illustration of his bard, to carry his own instructions into effect; his edition, therefore, though it has been the parent of the best that we possess, is now of little value.

Not much, I am afraid, can be said in favour of our author as a POLITICIAN. He was at one time a most furious Jacobite, and his tenets at all times with regard to legislation were vehement, confined, and partial; so arbitrary, indeed, as to be frequently repugnant to the spirit of the British Constitution. He was, however, a highflown Tory on principle; and his political pamphlets, though deficient in candour, display considerable subtlety in point of argument, and much energy and perspicuity of style.