Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/237

 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS

��JOHNSON'S INFLUENCE

��I REMEMBER Mr. Burke, speaking of the Essays of Sir Francis Bacon, said, he thought them the best of his works. Dr. Johnson was of opinion, that ' their excellence and their value consisted in being the observations of a strong mind operating upon life ; and in consequence you find there what you seldom find in other books V It is this kind of excellence which gives a value to the

��1 From an unfinished Discourse, found by Mr. Malone among Sir Joshua's loose papers. Reynolds's Works, ed. 1797, vol. i. Preface, p. 19.

2 'He told me that Bacon was a favourite authour with him ; but he had never read his works till he was compiling the English Dictionary, in which, he said, I might see Bacon very often quoted.' Life, iii. 194.

' Bacon seems to have pleased himself chiefly with his Essays, which come home to men's business and bosoms, and of which therefore he declares his expectation that they will live as long as books last' The Rambler, No. 106. It was of the Latin version that Bacon spoke 'being in the universal language it may last as long as books last.' Bacon's Works, ed. 1803, ii. 252.

��In the Adventurer, No. 131, John son says that Bacon, 'after having surveyed nature as a philosopher, had examined " men's business and bosoms " as a statesman.'

Boswell quotes Johnson as say ing : ' Bacon observes that a stout healthy old man is like a tower undermined.' Life, iv. 277. This passage I have never found in Bacon, though I have often searched for it. Huet, Johnson's 'celebrated Huetius' (ib. iii. 172), compared 'la santd ruineuse des vieillards k une tour sape'e.' Sainte-Beuve, Cause- ries de Lundi, ii. 182.

' Dr. Bentley used to compare himself to an old trunk, which, if you let it alone, will stand in a corner a long time ; but if you jumble it by moving it will soon fall to pieces.' Nichols, Lit. Anec. iv. 351. performances

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