50 JOHNSON. 



man was always marked ; and it was observed, too, that 

 he disdained to hide from us the far less labour which he 

 had much more easily bestowed. 



There is no denying that some of Johnson's works, 

 from the meagreness of the material and the regularity 

 of the monotonous style, are exceedingly little adapted 

 to reading. They are flimsy, and they are dull ; they 

 are pompous, and though full of undeniable, indeed self- 

 evident truths, they are somewhat empty; they are, 

 moreover, wrapt up in a style so disproportioned in its 

 importance, that the perusal becomes very tiresome, and 

 is soon given up. This character belongs more especially 

 to the ' Rambler,' the object of such unmeasured praises 

 among his followers, and from which he derived the title 

 of the Great Moralist. It would not be easy to name a 

 book more tiresome, indeed more difficult to read, or one 

 which gives moral lessons in a more frigid tone, with less 

 that is lively or novel in the matter, in a language more 

 heavy and monotonous. The measured pace, the con- 

 stant balance of the style, becomes quite intolerable ; for 

 there is no interesting truth there to be inculcated remote 

 from common observation, nor is there any attack carried 

 on against difficult positions, nor is there any satirical 

 warfare maintained either with opinions or with persons. 

 There is wanting, therefore, all that makes us overlook the 

 formality and even lumbering heaviness of Johnson's 

 style in his other works ; and in this the style forms a 

 very large proportion of the whole, as the workmanship 

 does of filagree or lace, the lightness of which, however, 

 is a charm that Johnson's work wholly wants. It is 

 singular to observe how vain are all his attempts in these 

 papers to escape from his own manner, even when it was 



