CHARACTERS. 



539 



stable basis of his reputation, a 

 more minute inquiry into their 

 merits will be necessary. 



It is scarcely requisite to ob- 

 serve, that he formed his style on 

 that of Dr. Johnson ; he was not, 

 however, a servile imitator ; his 

 composition has more ease and 

 sweetness than the model pos- 

 sesses, and is consequently better 

 adapted for a work, one great 

 object of which is popularity. He 

 has laid aside the sesquipedalia 

 verba, and, in a great measure, 

 the monotonous arrangement and 

 the cumbrous splendour of his 

 prototype, preserving, at the same 

 time, much of his harmony of ca- 

 dence and vigour of construction. 

 Of the following paragraphs, the 

 first and second exliibit a style 

 elegant, correct, nervous, and per- 

 spicuous, yet essentially different 

 from the diction of the Ram- 

 bler, while the third has been evi- 

 dently formed in the Johnsonian 

 mould. 



" The dread of death has sel- 

 dom been found to intrude upon 

 the cheerfulness, simplicity, and 

 innocence of children ; they gaze 

 at a funeral procession with as 

 much vacant curiosity as at any 

 other show, and see the world 

 change before them without the 

 least sense of their own share in 

 the vicissitude. In youth, when 

 all the appetites are strong, and 

 every gratification is heightened by 

 novelty, the mind resists mournful 

 impressions with a kind of elastic 

 power, by which the signature that 

 is forced upon it is immediately 

 effaced: when this tumult first sub- 

 sides, while the attachment of life 

 is yet strong, and the mind begins 

 to look forward, and concert mea- 

 sures by which those enjoyments 



ma}' be secured which it is solicit- 

 ous to keep, or others obtained to 

 atone for the disappointments 

 that are past, then death starts up 

 like a spectre, in all his terrors, the 

 blood is chilled at his appearance, 

 he is perceived to approach with 

 a constant and irresistible pace, 

 retreat is impossible, and resistance 

 is vain. 



" The terror and anguish which 

 this image produces whenever it 

 first rushes upon the mind, are al- 

 ways complicated with a sense of 

 guilt and remorse ; and generally 

 produce some hasty and zealous 

 purposes of more uniform virtue 

 and more ardent devotion ; of 

 something that may secure us not 

 only from the worm that never 

 dies, and the fire that is never 

 quenched, but from total mortality, 

 and admit hope to the regions 

 beyond the grave. 



" Let those who still delay that 

 which yet they believe to be of 

 eternal moment, remember, that 

 their motives to effect it will still 

 grow weaker, and the difficulty of 

 the work perpetually increase; to 

 neglect it now, therefore, is a 

 pledge that it will be neglected for 

 ever : and if they are roused by 

 this thought, let them instantly im- 

 prove its influence ; for even this 

 thought, when it returns, will re- 

 turn with less power, and though 

 it should rouse them now, will per- 

 haps rouse them no more. But let 

 them not confide in such virtue as 

 can be practised without a struggle, 

 and which interdicts the gratifica- 

 tion of no passion but malice ; nor 

 adopts principles which could never 

 be believed at the only time when 

 they could be useful ; like argu- 

 ments which men sometimes form 

 when they slumber, and the mu- 



