78 JOHNSON. 



Of Johnson's Latin verses it remains to speak, and 

 they assuredly do not rise to the level of his English, nor 

 indeed above mediocrity. The translation of Pope's 

 ' Messiah/ however, a work of his boyhood, gave a 

 promise not fulfilled in his riper years. His not unfre- 

 quent efforts in this line are neither distinguished by 

 the value of the matter nor the felicity of the diction ; 

 nor is he always correct in his quantity. Such offences 

 as 'Littera Skaise/ for an Adonian in his Sapphics to 

 'Thralia dulcis,' would have called down his severe cen- 

 sure on any luckless wight of Paris, or of Edinburgh, 

 \vho should peradventure have perpetrated them ; nor 

 would his being the countryman of Polignac, or of by 

 far the finest of modern Latinists, Buchanan, have ope- 

 rated except as an aggravation of the fault"". 



It remains to consider Johnson's personal character 

 and habits. Nor can we here avoid, first of all, attend- 

 ing to the rank which he held among those who either 

 cultivate conversation as an art, or indulge in it as a 

 relaxation, both pleasing and useful, from severer occu- 

 pations. That there have been others who shone more 

 in society both as instructive and as amusing companions, 

 is certain. Swift's range was confined, but within its 

 limits he must have been very great. Addison, with an 

 extremely small circle, has left a great reputation in this 

 kind. Steele was probably more various and more lively, 

 though less delightful. But Bolingbroke's superiority to 

 all others cannot be doubted; and nearer our times 

 Burke could hardly be surpassed, though his refinement 



* Varidbilis was always objected to by Parr, and it is not of pure 

 Latinity, though to be found, I believe, iu Apuleius, a mean 

 authority. 



