or partially determine what they never have examined; and whose sentence is therefore of no weight till it has received the ratification of our own conscience. "He that can descend to bribe suffrages like these at the price of his innocence; he that can suffer the delight of such acclamations to withhold his attention from the commands of the universal sovereign, has little reason to congratulate himself upon the greatness of his mind; whenever he awakes to seriousness and reflection, he must become despicable in his own eyes, and shrink with shame from the remembrance of his cowardice, and folly. "Of him that hopes to be forgiven, it is indispensably required that he forgive. It is therefore superfluous to urge any other motive. On this great duty eternity is suspended; and to him that refuses to practise it the throne of mercy is inaccessible, and the SAVIOUR of the world has been born in vain."* Admirably, however, as these noble precepts are expressed, the specimen that we have next to quote will, it is probable, be deemed still superior both in diction and imagery. The close is, indeed, one of the most exquisite and sublime passages in the works of its eloquent author. Speaking of *Rambler, No. 185. those who retire from the world that “ they may employ more time in the duties of religion; that they may regulate their actions with stricter vigilance, and purify their thoughts by more frequent meditation," he adds, "To men thus elevated above the mists of mortality, I am far from presuming myself qualified to give directions. On him that appears' to pass through things temporal,' with no other care than not to lose finally the things eternal,' I look with such veneration as inclines me to approve his conduct in the whole, without a minute examination of its parts; yet I could never forbear to wish, that while Vice is every day multiplying seducements, and stalking forth with more hardened effrontery, Virtue would not withdraw the influence of her presence, or forbear to assert her natural dignity by open and undaunted perseverance in the right. Piety practised in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desart, may give its fragrance to the winds of heaven, and delight those unbodied spirits that survey the works of GOD and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendor of beneficence." It has been the opinion of many of the friends * Adventurer, No. 126. of Johnson, of Mr. BOSWELL, Sir JOHN HAWKINS, and Mr. MURPHY, and through them of the public in general, that the essays in the Rambler were written apparently without much effort, without any of the lime labor which compositions so elegant and correct would lead the critic to suppose had been assiduously bestowed upon them. The fact is, that Johnson, having once well weighed the subject in his mind, had, from an habitual practice of using the most correct and forcible language on every occasion, the most copious stores of diction at command; and most usually, after having written with great rapidity, sent his sheets to the press without either transscription or revision. That he deserted his offspring, however, as these gentlemen conceived, after thus committing it to the public eye, is now known to be an idea altogether unfounded; and it is a most extraordinary circumstance, that the very elaborate correction which he subsequently bestowed on these papers should have escaped the detection of his most intimate associates. the discovery we are indebted to Mr. Alexander Chalmers, who in his preface to the Rambler, having quoted the three biographers of Johnson, thus proceeds: For "Such are the opinions of those friends of Dr. Johnson who had long lived in his society, had studied his writings, and were eager to give to the public every information by which its curiosity to know the history of so eminent a character. might be gratified. But by what fatality it has happened that they were ignorant of the vast labour Dr. Johnson employed in correcting this work after it came from the first press, it is not easy to determine. This circumstance indeed might not fall within the scope of Mr. MURPHY'S elegant essay; but had it been known to, Sir JOHN HAWKINS or to Mr. BOSWELL, they would undoubtedly have been eager to bring it forward `as a prominent part of Dr.Johnson's literary history. Mr. Boswell has given us some various readings of the Lives of the Poets;' and the reader will probably agree with him, that although the author's' amendments in that work are for the better, there is nothing of the pannus afflatus: the texture is uniform, and indeed what had been there at first is very seldom unfit to have remained.'* "These were the alterations made by the author in the manuscript, or in the proof before publication for the second edition. Mr. Boswell does not seem to have known that Dr. Johnson made so many alterations for the third edition, as to induce Mr. Nichols to collect them in an octavo pamphlet of three sheets closely printed, which was given to the purchasers of the second octavo edition. Since Mr. Nichols obligingly furnished me with the history of this pamphlet, I have been the less surprized at Mr. Bos well's not suspecting the alterations in the Rambler." At the conclusion of these various readings he offers an apology, of which I may be permitted to . avail myself. Should it be objected, that many of my various readings are inconsiderable, those who make the objection will be pleased to consider, that such small particulars are intended for those who are nicely critical in composition, to whom they will be an acceptable collection.' "Is it not surprizing, that this friend and companion of our illustrious author, who has obliged the public with the most perfect delineation ever exhibited of any human being, and who declared so often that he was determined To lose no drop of that immortal man; that one so inquisitive after the most trifling circumstance connected with Dr. Johnson's character or history, should have never heard or discovered that Dr. Johnson almost RE-WROTE the RAMBLER after the first folio edition? Yet the fact was, that he employed the lima laborem not only on the second, but on the third edition, to an extent, I presume, never known in the annals of literature, and may be said to have carried Horace's rule far beyond either its letter or spirit: Vos O carmen reprehendite, quod non Multa dies et multa litura coercuit, atque |