JOHNSON. 67 



quently as a work of biography it has not any great claim 

 to our admiration. But some of the anecdotes are well 

 and shortly related, and some of the characters strikingly 

 and skilfully drawn, with a sufficiently felicitous selec- 

 tion of particulars and a remarkable force of diction. 

 There are not wanting declamatory passages of consider- 

 able power, but these are very inferior to the more quiet, 

 and graphic portions, and through the whole work there 

 prevails a tone of piety and virtue which shows the love 

 of these excellencies to have been deeply rooted in the 

 writer's mind, and to have always guided his feelings. 

 There is, too, an amiable desire shown to give merit its 

 reward ; nor do the author's prejudices interfere with this 

 just course, except in a very few instances, of political 

 feelings warping his judgment, or indignation at impiety 

 blinding him to literary excellence, or of admiration for 

 religious purity giving slender merits an exaggerated 

 value in his eyes. The justness of his taste may be in 

 all other cases admitted ; great critical acuteness is every- 

 where exercised; extensive reading of ancient and 

 modern poetry is shown ; and occasionally philosophical 

 subjects are handled with considerable happiness both of 

 thought and of illustration. 



The general opinion has always held up Savage's life 

 as the master-piece of this work, but certainly under the 

 impression made by strong invective, powerful, though 

 somewhat turgid declamation. There is beyond com- 

 parison, more, both of historical genius, and of critical 

 acumen in the Lives of Dryden, of Cowley, and of Pope. 



His 'Dryden' is distinguished by judicious and fair 

 criticism, both on the inimitable poems and as inimitable 

 prose of that great writer. Nothing especially can be 



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