Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/315

 ��In a conversation with the Due de Chaulnes x, the duke said to Johnson, ' that the morality of the different religions existing in the world was nearly the same.' ' But you must acknowledge, my lord,' said the Doctor, 'that the Christian religion alone puts it upon its proper basis the fear and love of God.' Ib. p. 149.

Of Mrs. Montagu's elegant 'Essay upon Shakspeare,' he always said, ' that it was ad hominem, that it was conclusive against Voltaire ; and that she had done what she intended to do 2 .'

Johnson's Preface to his edition of Shakspeare was styled by Dr. Adam Smith, the most manly piece of criticism that was ever published in any country 3. Ib. p. 151.

Dr. Johnson used to apply to Lord Chatham Corneille's celebrated lines to the Cardinal de Richelieu 4. During the American War he used to exclaim, ' Make Lord Chatham Dictator for six months, and we shall hear no more of these Rebels 5 .' Ib. p. 152.

��1 Letters, ii. 362, n. 5.

2 ' JOHNSON. "Sir, I will venture to say, there is not one sentence of true criticism in her book." GARRICK. " But, Sir, surely it shews how much Voltaire has mistaken Shakspeare, which nobody else has done." JOHN SON. " Sir, nobody else has thought it worth while. And what merit is there in that? You may as well praise a schoolmaster for whipping a boy who has construed ill." ' Life, ii. 88.

3 Adam Smith reviewed the Dic tionary in the Edinburgh Review for 1755, No. i. Life, i. 298, n. 2. See post under ADAM SMITH ON DR. JOHNSON.

4 'Qu'on parle mal ou bien du

fameux Cardinal, Ma prose ni mes vers n'en

diront jamais rien : II m'a fait trop de bien pour

en dire du mal,

X

��II m'a fait trop de mal pour en dire du bien.'

Johnson wrote of Chatham: 'For whom it will be happy if the nation shall at last dismiss him to nameless obscurity, with that equipoise of blame and praise which Corneille allows to Richelieu.' Works, vi. 197.

For his violent attack on Chatham, see Life, ii. 314. In 1778 he said to Bos well : ' Lord Chatham was a Dictator ; he possessed the power of putting the State in motion ; now there is no power, all order is relaxed.' Ib. iii. 356.

5 ' You talk, my Lords, of conquer ing America ; of your numerous friends there to annihilate the Con gress, and your powerful forces to disperse her army. I might as well talk of driving them before me with this crutch.' Lord Chatham, quoted in Seward's Anecdotes^ iii. 389- 2 Dr.

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