JOHNSON. 71 







profession. The prejudice which he entertained against 

 Gray, on the other hand, was entirely confined to his 

 poetry, which he on all occasions undervalued even much 

 more than he has ventured to do in the ' Life' of that 

 poet. He was used to call him dull in every sense, both 

 as a writer and in society. 



Though generally just in his criticisms, yet he would 

 sometimes in conversation give his opinion with great 

 exaggeration, especially when his personal likings or dis- 

 likings were at issue : of this a memorable example is 

 given by Mr. Boswell. On Goldsmith's merits being the 

 subject of conversation, he dogmatically set him as an 

 historian above all those of this country, naming Robert- 

 son in particular, and admitting that he had never read 

 Hume. 



It is not, however, only in works of judgment as his 

 criticisms, or of narrative as his lives, or of dissertation 

 and argument, as his moral and controversial writings, 

 that Johnson attained great eminence. In works of 

 imagination he is to be reckoned a very considerable 

 artist, and to be ranked clearly among the English 

 classics. The ' Rasselas' might not, of itself, have sufficed 

 to support this character, for it is cold in the colouring, 

 and shows little play of fancy, belonging to the class of 

 philosophical romances, the least fitted to excite a lively 

 interest, or to command continued attention unless when 

 enlivened by either great powers of wit, or recommended 

 by extraordinary beauty of composition, or ministering 

 to the love of novelty by strange opinions. While the 

 book which, in some respects, it most resembles, the 

 great master-piece of Voltaire, is not easily laid down by 

 him that takes it up for the hundredth time, the reader 



