Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/478

 460 Essay on

��is a sweet flexibility, particularly, To his worthy friend Dr. Laurence 1 ; on himself at the theatre, March 8, 1771 2 ; the Ode in the isle of Sky 3 ; and that to Mrs. Thrale from the same place 4.

His English poetry is such as leaves room to think, if he had devoted himself to the Muses, that he would have been the rival of Pope. His first production in this kind was LONDON 5 , a poem in imitation of the third satire of Juvenal. The vices of the metropolis are placed in the room of antient manners. The author had heated his mind with the ardour of Juvenal, and, having the skill to polish his numbers, he became a sharp accuser of the times. The VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 6 is an imitation of the tenth satire of the same author. Though it is translated by Dryden, Johnson's imitation approaches nearest to the spirit of the original. The subject is taken from the ALCIBIADES of PLATO, and has an intermixture of the sentiments of SOCRATES concerning the object of prayers offered up to the Deity. The general proposition is, that good and evil are so little understood by mankind, that their wishes when granted are always destructive. This is exemplified in a variety of instances, such as riches, state-preferment, eloquence, military glory, long life, and the advantages of form and beauty. Juvenal's conclusion is worthy of a Christian poet, and such a pen

said there is no such word as vari- I told him, I thought it a very sono-

abilis\T\ any classical writer. "Surely," rous hexameter. I did not tell him,

said the other ; " in Virgil ; variabile it was not in the Virgilian style.'

semper femina" " You forget," said Life, i. 272.

the opponent ; " it is variant et Johnson or Warton misquoted the

imitabile? ' Warton's Pope's Works, line. It stands :

ed. 1822, i. 159. It is not unlikely ' Mittit aromaticas vallis Saronica

that the two disputants were either nubes.'

Dr. Warton himself or his brother, Husbands' Miscellany, p. 112,

and Burke. and Johnson's Works, i. 156.

'As we were leaving Pembroke ' Life, iv. 143, n. 2; Works, i.

College' (writes Thomas Warton) 165.


 * Johnson said, " Here I translated 2 Ante, p. 197.

Pope's Messiah. Which do you think 3 Life, v. 155.

is the best line in it? My own fa- 4 Ib. v. 158; Letters, i. 284.

vourite is, 5 Ante, p. 372.

' Vallis aromaticas fundit Saronica 6 Ante, p. 386. nubes? "

as

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