Ow the 13th of December, 1784, died Dr. Samuel Jvhuson, a noble defender of good morals and the greatest of English literature that the 18th century produced. Ho was well rend in Greek and Latin authors, and this fitted lim to pass judgment on the produc. tions of the poots and elegant writers of England, Ho d Lives of the Puets til years old, but he was 80 fai subject that the work was soon finished, for he was simply giving the results of the studies of a long life, and it was natural to Lim to assume the attitude of a judge. He had also great appetite for facts, and was ions a reader of books as he ourer of of veal pio stuffed The consequence is that his Lives are extremely pleasant to read. They contain much humorous narrative, careful criticism, and fair appreciation, They present to us picture of Buglish life in the sev teenth and eighteenth centuries which interests us by ite variety of detail. Fifty makers of verses ent in. euocession to the artist to have their portraits drawn, They form the ale bum which Johnson has bequeathed to posterity. By this gift bestowed on his grateful countrymen he ins pre" served for us a multitude of minute and interesting facts regarding Milton, Dry-Pope, Addison, Thomson, and Gray, besides others less famous, and we are able to look at will into England's prie vote life in those times, when torches were carried at night along the une lighted st were made Seorotaries of State, Johnson Las thus become a sort of English Plu. torch, with this difference, that the Greek author wrote the lives of statesmen and tary commanders, while Johnson confined his subjects to authors who dealt in rhymes and figures of speech, Pintarch nourishes in the minds of his youthful countrymen the love of coun. try, of freedom, and of military renown, Joluson aimed to train the taste and judgment of his readers in questions concerning poetic power and dox in literature, Some of these Lives are masterpieces of biographical art, and as an essayist he holds his own with Addison and Steele, But Johnson was greatest as a dictionary-maker. There were in his day few good dictionaries. The French Academy bad recently set an example and provided a model, otherwise there was little for Johnson to get help from.
Several of the greatest qualifications of any dictionary-maker combined to make Johnson euch
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