122, is chiefly remarkable for an ill-founded eulogium on the style of Knolles; which, so far from meriting the appellations of pure, nervous, elevated, and clear, has contributed, from its intricacy and mal-construction, more than any other circumstance, to cover his memory with oblivion.

Our author again recurs to Milton in Nos. 139 and 140, where he has presented us with a review of Sampson Agonistes; to this sublime drama, however, he has done evident injustice, by asserting, that it wants a middle, and that "nothing passes betwen the first act and the last, that either hastens or delays the death of Sampson." Mr. Cumberland, nevertheless, has most satisfactorily proved, that this middle part of the tragedy is occupied by incidents which directly conduce to the catastrophe, and but for which it could not have come to pass. To this able defence, therefore, of the injured poet, I refer the reader.*

The seven following essays, which complete our list of the critical papers of the Rambler, exhibit little to which the most fastidious reader can object; namely, N° 143, On the Criterions of Plagiarism; N° 152, On Epistolary Writing; N° 156, On Dramatic Laws; N° 158, On the Fallacy and Uncertainty of Critical Rules; N° 168, On

* Vide Observer, No. 111.

the Debasement of Poetry by Mean Expressions; N° 169, On Labour as necessary to Excellence; and N° 176, On the various Degrees of critical Perspicacity. Elegance of style, and acuteness of remark, characterize these as well as most of the lucubrations of the Rambler.

Of the papers which our author contributed to the ADVENTURER, there are but four that can properly rank under the present head; N° 58, On the Presumption of Modern Criticism; N° 92, On the Pastorals of Virgil; N° 95, An Apology for apparent Plagiarism; and No 137, On the Utility of Authors. The critique on the Eclogues of Virgil, is peculiarly discriminative and just; though when he affirms of the second eclogue, that it contains not "one affecting sentiment, or pleasing description, or one passage that strikes the imagination, or awakens the passions," it must be confessed, that the severity of the critic, occasioned probably by the unnatural passion alluded to in that pastoral, has blinded him to the perception of some very beautiful lines.

The second volume of the IDLER includes not less than twelve papers, the object of which is criticism. N° 59 treats On the Cause of the neglect of Books; N° 63, On the Progress of Arts and Languages; N° 65, On Posthumous Works; N° 66, On the Loss of Ancient Writings; N° 68,

and N° 69, On the History of Translations; N° 70, On Hard Words; N° 77, On Easy Writing; N° 84, On the best Method of writing Biography; N° 85, On Compilations; N° 91, On the Sufficiency of the English Language; and N° 97, On the Narratives of Travellers.

The Apology, in N° 70, for the use of Hard Words, may be considered by the reader, as it was certainly by Johnson himself, as a kind of self-defence; and it may be added, that it is satisfactory and well supported. "They," he remarks," that content themselves with general ideas, may rest in general terms; but those whose studies or employments force them upon closer inspection, must have names for particular parts, and words by which they may express various modes of combination, such as none but themselves have occasion to consider.",

The critical essays in the Idler, though brief, and not so much elaborated as those that are dispersed through the Rambler, display much sound judgment, and preceptive acumen, in an easy style of expression, and therefore please more generally, and are better understood, than more recondite observation, in more studied periods.

We have related that Johnson, principally out of friendship to Smart, was a contributor to the

Universal Visitor; and among these papers we have to record two; a Dissertation on Pope's Epitaphs, which was afterwards appended to the second volume of the Idler, and a Dissertation on the state of literature and authors. Many very ingenious remarks may be found in the first of these contributions; but the criticism is too minute, and sometimes trifling and fastidious.

To the Literary Magazine, which commenced in May, 1756, our author sent twenty-five reviews; many of these are very brief, but a few may be selected, which are worthy of the genius of the writer. Under the subject of which we are at present treating, two of them may be arranged, as very elegant and judicious critiques; viz. the Review of Warton's Essays on the Writings and Genius of Pope, vol. 1; and of Blackwell's Memoirs of the Court of Augustus. He likewise contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine, a Review of Tytler's Vindication of Mary Queen of Scots; to the London Chronicle, a Review of Grainger's Sugar Cane, a Didactic Poem; and to the Critical Review, a Review of Goldsmith's Traveller, and of Graham's Telemachus, a Masque.

But the volumes which, in this department, from their striking features and extent, are best entitled to our full consideration, are the "LIVES

OF THE ENGLISH POETS;" a work that has excited a large portion both of praise and censure.

Before the appearance of this poetic biography, little had been done to preserve the memory, or illustrate the writings, of our bards. Shakspeare, indeed, had been amply attended to; but, beyond the pale of the Drama, few of the cultivators of English poetry had attracted due notice. The catalogue, therefore, of those who preceded Dr. Johnson will necessarily be short.

In the year 1675, Edward Phillips, the nephew of Milton, published his "Theatrum Poetarum, or a complete collection of the Poets, especially the most eminent of all ages; the ancients distinguished from the moderns in their several alphabets. With some observations and reflections upon many of them, particularly those of our own nation.-Together with a prefatory discourse of the poets, and poetry in general." The notices in this work are very short, and are seldom productive of biographic incident; the Prefatory Discourse is an essay of much taste and merit.*

"The Lives of the most famous English Poets," by William Winstanley, which were published in

A further account of the Theatrum Poetarum, will be found in the second volume of my Essays on the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, p. 135.