JOHNSON. 73 



of merit, the original verse doing no more than furnishing 

 a peg whereon to hang the imitation, and often not even 

 that, and a line and a half of Latin being in one place 

 the only excuse for sixteen of English. But if we leave 

 on one side the Latin altogether, the poems are truly 

 excellent. They abound in sterling sense, happily clothed 

 in a language full of point, illustrated by as happy a 

 selection as possible of examples, though figures are very 

 sparingly introduced ; and the ear is as well filled with 

 the harmony of the correct and smooth verse as the mind 

 is with the rich, strong, and appropriate diction. There 

 is little metaphor introduced; the fancy of the bard is 

 not much drawn upon; his feelings are not at work to 

 affect those of his readers ; he is operating with the head 

 and upon the understanding; he is now and then indig- 

 nant, often contemptuous, once or twice only pathetic; 

 but for eloquence in harmonious verse, for intellectual 

 vigour tuned to numbers, it would be difficult to name 

 any higher feats in any tongue. Many of the remarks 

 already made on the moral and descriptive poetry of 

 Voltaire* have their application to these great perfor- 

 mances ; and it is no small praise of any work of genius 

 that it may boast some similarity with what must be 

 admitted to bear away the palm from Voltaire's other 

 serious poems. 



The most splendid and the most renowned passage in 

 these pieces is the Charles XII. ; finer by a good deal 

 than the Hannibal of Juvenal, of which it much rather 

 fills the place than betrays the imitation. The Charles 

 is certainly finer than the Hannibal in all but one 



* Vol. i. 



