76 JOHNSON. 



is given much better, with more spirit, and very closely 



by 



" A soul that can securely death defy 

 And count it Nature's privilege to die ;" 



than by 



" For faith, that panting for a happier seat, 

 Counts death kind Nature's signal of retreat." 



And Dryden has nothing which corresponds to the 

 unintelligible verse, 



"For Nature sovereign o'er transmuted ill." 



The art of translation, in which Johnson's love of 

 accuracy qualified him to excel, as well as his facility 

 of pointed composition, was possessed in a much higher 

 degree by Dryden than either by Johnson or indeed by 

 any one else. That he was unequal in his versions, as in 

 all his works, is certain ; and his having failed to render 

 in perfection the diction of Virgil, which can hardly be 

 approached in any modern tongue but the Italian, is no 

 reason for overlooking his extraordinary genius displayed 

 in this most difficult line. I have always read with pain 

 the remarks on Dryden's translations, or rather on his 

 ' Virgil,' in Mr. Campbell's ' Essay on English Poetry ;' 

 and the rather that, when estimating Dryden's power as 

 a translator, he scarcely mentions his ' Juvenal,' and s. ,ys 

 nothing at all of his 'Ovid' and 'Lucretius;' these, 

 with ' Juvenal,' being past all doubt among his greatest 

 works. But, indeed, he consigns to equal silence the 

 immortal Ode, which, with the exception of some pas- 

 sages in Milton, is certainly the first poem in our lan- 

 guage/" Had Mr. Campbell expressed himself coldly 



I had often found in my deceased friend a disposition to under- 

 value that great ode. At length it broke out, the last time I saw 



