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didion, and taught him the abundant ufe of inverfions and li- 

 centious conftrudions of every fort. Almoft all his fentences 

 begin with an oblique cafe, and words ufed in uncommon figni- 

 fications, with Latin and Greek idioms, are ftrewed too plenti- 

 fully in his pages. Of this fort are the following : " I was only 

 " not a boy" — " Part they did" — " Shakefpeare approximates the 

 " remote" — " Cowley was ejedted from Cambridge" — " Brogues 

 " are a kind of artlefs fhoes" — " Milk liberal of curd." Such ex- 

 preffions it is unneceffary to mark with cenfure ; they bear in 

 themfelves an harfhnefs fo repulfive, that eafy writing muft be 

 held in more than ordinary contempt, when they are confidered 

 as patterns worthy of imitation. 



Metaphorical expreffion is one of thofe arts of fplendor 

 which Johnfon has moft frequently employed ; and while he has 

 availed himfclf of all its advantages, he has cfcaped moft of its 

 concomitant faults. Here is no mufe, which in one line is a 

 horfe and in the next a boat* •, nor is there any pains requifite 

 to keep the horfe and boat from finging. Johnfon prefents to 

 your view no chaos of difcordant elements, no feeble interlining 

 of the literal with the figurative. In his metaphors and fimiles 

 the pidure is always compleat in itfelf, and fome particulars of 

 exadt refemblance are diftindly impreffed upon the reader. What 

 image can be more beautiful than that which reprcfents the 

 beginnings of madncfs as " the variable weather of the mind, 

 " the flying vapours which from time to time cloud reafon 

 " without eclipfing it ?" Or what more appofite than that which 

 calls Congrcve's perfonnges " a fort of intclledual gladiators r" 



* Vide Jolinfon's Life of Atldifon. 



Sometimes, 



