· eminent hands.' addition to the 'Coverley' series, which is here reprinted; but we have not cared to preserve any further examples of his style. From Hughes, again, another frequent writer, and an amiable man, whose contributions were for the most part in the form of letters, nothing has been taken. Next, by the amount of his assistance, comes the Bishop of Cloyne and the author of Tar-water-the great and good Dr. Berkeley. Excellent as they are, however, his papers in the 'Guardian' against Collins and the Free-thinkers do not come within our scheme. Among the remaining 'occasionals' were several These, however, though they graced the board, did not add materially to the feast. Pope, who has a couple of papers in the 'Spectator' and eight in the 'Guar'dian,' is not at his best as an essayist. His satire on 'Dedications," ,'* and his side-laugh at Bossu in theReceipt to make an Epick Poem,'t are the happiest of his efforts. His well-known ironic parallel between the pastorals of Ambrose Philips and his own is admirably ingenious; but, unfortunately, we have come to think the one as artificial as the other. The City Shower'§ of Swift scarcely ranks as an *'Guardian,' No. 4. 'Guardian,' No. 78. §'Tatler,' No. 238. essay essay at all, and his only remaining paper of importance is a letter on 'Slang.'* This, like Pope's pieces, is too exclusively literary for our purpose. Of Congreve, Gay, Tickell, Parnell, and the long list of obscurer writers, there is nothing that seems to merit the honours of revival. Between the Guardian' of 1713 and the 'Ram'bler' of 1750-2, there were a number of periodical essayists of varying merit. It is scarcely necessary to recall the names of these now forgotten 'Intelli'gencers,' 'Moderators,' like, the bulk of which places one of them, the Remembrancers,' and the were political. Fielding Freethinker' of Philips, nearly on a level with those great originals, the "Tatlers" and "" Spectators;" but the initial chapters to the different books of Tom Jones' attract us more forcibly to the author's own 'Cham 6 pion,' written in conjunction with the Ralph who 'makes Night hideous' in the Dunciad.' Those utterances, however, which can with any certainty be attributed to Fielding, bear such obvious signs of haste that it is scarcely fair to oppose any of them to the more finished and leisurely efforts of Addison. Another of Fielding's enterprises in the 'Spectator' * 'Tatler,' No. 230. vein was the Covent Garden Journal,' 1752. This, besides a remarkable paper on the Choice of Books,' contains a masterly essay on 'Profanity,'* including a character sketch of the most vigorous kind; but the very fidelity of the picture unfits it for a modern audience. Concurrently with the Covent Garden Journal’ appeared the final volume of Johnson's Rambler,' a work upon the cardinal defect of which its author laid his finger when, in later life, he declared it to be too wordy.' Coming from the Arch-Priest of magniloquence, this is no light admission. He seems also to have been fully alive to its want of variety, and frequently regretted that his labours had not been occasionally relieved by some lighter pen, in which connection (according to Arthur Murphy) he was accustomed to quote sonorously his own fine lines to Cave: 'Non ulla Musis pagina gratior, 'Utilibus recreare mentem.' Lady Mary said in her smart way that the 'Rambler' followed the Spectator' as a packhorse would do a *Covent Garden Journal,' Nos. 10 and 33. 'hunter;' 'hunter;' but slow-paced and lumbering as it is, no one can fail to recognise the frequent majesty of the periods and the uniform vigour of the thought. In the twenty-nine papers which Johnson wrote for Hawkesworth's Adventurer,' the Rambler' style is maintained. In the Idler,' however, which belongs to a later date, when its author's mind was unclouded, and he was comparatively free from the daily pressure of necessity, he adopts a simpler and less polysyllabic style. It is true that he still speaks of the changes of the barometer as the fallacious ' promises of the oraculous glasses;' but his themes are less didactic, and, in an unwieldy fashion, almost playful. To select positively humourous examples from his papers would, notwithstanding, be a difficult task. Compared with the somewhat similar productions of earlier essayists,* the oft-praised 'Journey in a Stage-Coach' of the Adventurer' is poor; but his large knowledge of literature and literary life gives point to the portrait of that inimitably. common-place critic Dick Minim,' though even here Addison has anticipated him with Sir Timothy • Tittle.'t 'Dick Minim' appears to have suggested *e.g., 'Spectator,' No. 132. t'Tatler,' No. 165. three three letters from Reynolds, the first of which, on 'Art-Connoisseurs,' we have been tempted to reproduce. Neither Langton nor Thomas Warton, both of whom gave some assistance in the Idler,' supplied anything of more importance than this thoughtful, if not very satirical, paper by Sir Joshua. As already stated, Johnson was only a contributor to the Adventurer,' 1752, the editor and chief writer of which was Dr. Hawkesworth of Cook's Voyages,' who was aided by Bathurst the physician, and Joseph Warton. Jack Hawkesworth,' said Johnson, 'is one of my imitators.' His strength lay chiefly in the old-fashioned oriental tale, and his social efforts are not very remarkable. In the Gradation from a 'Greenhorn to a Blood'* there is some useful costume; and there are ludicrous passages in the 'Distresses of an Author invited to read his Play,' where, by the way, the writer vindicates his claim to be reckoned a follower of the great Lexicographer,' by speaking of a chance addition to his wig as the 'pendulous reproach to the honours of my head ;' but it would not be possible to admit these two papers, as well as some others in the Adventurer,' 營 Adventurer,' No. 100. t'Adventurer,' No. 52. |