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THE

ENGLISH REVIEW,

For SEPTEMBER, 1785.

ART. I. Prayers and Meditations compofed by Samuel Johnfon, L. L. D. and publifhed from his manufcripts, by George Strahan, A. M. Vicar of Jilington: and Rector of Little Thurrock, in Effex, Octavo. 3s. 6d. fewed, Cadel, 1785.

THERE is no evidence of the fuperiority of the Chriftian

religion to the fuperftitions which have been embraced by the rest of mankind, more agreeable and infinuating, than the fincerity with which it has been embraced by men of the most uncommon endowments, and who had no motive for their conduct but that of its inherent excellence. But, after all, this argument is more plaufible than demonftrative, and more congenial to the heart of man, than calculated to remove the difficulties of an impartial inquirer. And accordingly, we cannot help acknowledging our opinion, that rather too great a ftrefs has been laid upon it. Men of the most extraordinary penetration in certain fciences, will often be mere children and idiots in others. When the fubject which engroffes a man's principal attention is very abftrufe and comprehenfive in its nature, it may not be unreasonable to expect, that in other fubjects, for which he has little leifure and leis natural relish, he fhould rather take up with the leffons of his education, than inquire into and inveftigate the principles of truth for himfelf. And even where this is not the cafe, a gloomy turn of mind, an invincible timidity and intellectual cowardice, may induce a man to embrace fuperftition, and reject the light of reafon; and to herd rather with the enthusiast and the folitaire, than with the man who carries along with him, the intrepidity of philofophy into ENG. REV. SEPT. 1785. L

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the most facred and fublime enquiries. This was particu larly the cafe with the celebrated Pafcal. When we follow him through all his weakneffes, his religious horrors and facred punctilios, we are rather induced to pity the conftitutional feebleness of his nature, than to admire the perfeverance and fervour of his devotion.

We will here venture to deliver an opinion, which, if it will ftand the teft, will be of much importance in deciding the merits of fuch a performance as that under our examination. It should feem that a character manly and dignified in its manner of thinking, will not upon any occafion, or under any conftruction, difbelieve or deny the exiftence of thofe talents he really poffeffes. Falfe modefty is proverbially defpicable, and the man who difplays it, is either the meanest of hypocrites, or, to take it upon the moft favourable estimate, is unfortunate enough to have the fublimity of his mind degraded by the hypocondriacal propenfities of his animal conftitution. The apostle Paul, when he would inftruct us in Chriftian humility, does not call upon us to deny any one quality we poflefs, or to reprefent ourfelves, in defiance of the truth, as one mafs of deformity and guilt. His inftruction, enforced by the moft facred example, is fingly this, that we think not of ourfelves more highly than we ought to think, but that we think foberly." We undoubtedly owe to the excellencies of the fupreme being every poffible degree of veneration and honour; but that virtue should tremble in the prefence of infinite goodnefs, is not lefs contrary to reason, than it is contrary to heroifm. Virtue cannot tremble in the prefence of an all-powerful and inexorable tyrant; but in the prefence of infinite goodness, it feels a congeniality, and affumes a confidence, that fink as it were the gulph between, and dares to afpire to fentiments of attachment, fidelity, and love.

So far as thefe principles are to be admitted, the publication. before us, must be exposed to fome degree of cenfure. Dr. Johnfon was a man of a gloomy and timid turn of mind; and conftantly under the influence, as he expreffes it, of

morbid melancholy." The ferenity, the independence, and the exultation of religion, were fentiments to which he was a ftranger. But it would be unfair to conclude from this circumftance, that his piety was of no value, and his performance of no ufe. There is fomething fo great, and awful in the idea of a God, and fomething fo fafcinating in the effufions of gratitude, that there are numbers of men, fpirited, intrepid, and heroical in every other regard, that cannot boast all the tranquillity and affurance in the business of religion that are fo earneftly to be defired. And yet the

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piety of these men is edifying and venerable. They carry, in fpite of themselves, a part of their native dignity into this affection, and, upon points of abstract virtue and rectitude, their fentiments are in the highest degree elevated and generous. If therefore, the Prayers and Meditations of Dr. Johnfon had been chargeable with no other imperfection than this, we fhould have diffmiffed them with praife, and fanctioned them with our little tribute of recommendation.

The whole publication naturally divides itfelf into the two heads fpecified in the title. The prayers may be cha racterifed in two words. They are thort, fimple, and unadorned. They bear fome refemblance to the collects in our Book of Common Prayer, without that dignity which is derived to the latter from the venerable antiquity of their style and expreffion. They have no particular method, no beauties that fhould characterife the man under whofe name they appear, no difplay of genius, and, in a word, nothing that might not have been produced by any man of plain common fenfe. At the fame time, they contain few traces of weaknefs and abfurdity, unless perhaps we might be permitted to felect a fingle expreffion which occurs in every one of them. Take not thy holy fpirit from me. We acknowledge, that we do not perfectly understand the defign of this expreffion. Divines have diftributed the gifts of the fpirit into two claffes, that of affurance, and that of a fanctified and heavenly tenour of conduct. But the gloomy character of Dr. Johnfon's religion, and the difparaging expreffions which every where occur, do not permit us to allow either of these to be the thing intended.

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The title of meditations, which Mr. Strahan, for want of a better, has thought fit to bestow upon the rest of the work, is calculated to miflead. They confift neither of reflections within the breast of the author, nor upon the things around him. They are merely minutes, at one time of refolutions for his future conduct, and at another, in the ftyle of a diary or journal. Neither of thefe deserve that kind of acquital which we have beftowed upon the prayers. They are full of frivolous minuteneffes and feminine weaknefs, beyond any thing of which an abftract defcription can fuggeft the idea. At one time, Dr. Johnson talks of his corporeal fenfations, and, if we did not inform the reader, perhaps in cafting his eye over the paffage he might forget that he was reading a religious meditation.

I have for fome weeks paft, been much afflicted with the lumbago, or rheumatism in the loins, which often paffes to the mufcles of the belly, where it caufes equal, if not greater pain. In the day, the funhine mitigates it; and in cold or cloudy weather, fuch as has for

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fome time paft remarkably prevailed, the heat of a strong fire fuf pends it. In the night it is fo troublefome, as not very easily to be born. I le wrapped in flannel, with a very great fire near my bed; but whether it be that a recumbent pofture encreafes the pain, or that expanfion by moderate warmth excites what a great heat diffipates, I can feldom remain in bed two hours at a time, without the neceffity of rifing to heat the parts aficeted at the fire.

One night, between the pain and the, fpafms in my ftomach, I was infupportably diftreffed. On the next night, I think, I laid a a blifter to my back, and took opium; my night was tolerable, and, from that time, the fpafms in my ftomach, which disturbed me for many years, and for two paft harrafled me almost to diffraction, have nearly ceafed; I fuppofe the breaft is relaxed by the opium.'

At another time he expreffes his affectionate recollection of his 'deceafed wife in a manner, which, though it convinces us of his fincerity, is not, of all others the most calculated to awaken our fympathy.

This is the day on which, in 1752, I was deprived of poor dear Tetty. Having left off the practice of thinking on her, with fome particular combinations, I have recalled her to my mind of late leis frequently; but when I recollect the time, in which we lived together, my grief for her departure is not abated; and I have lefs pleasure in any good that befalls me, becaufe fhe does not partake it. On many occafions, I think what he would have faid or done. When I faw the fea at Brighthelmitone, I wifhed for her to have feen it with me. But with refpect to her, no rational with is now left, but that we may incet at last where the mercy of God hall make, us happy, and perhaps make us inftrumental to the happiness of each other. It is now eighteen years."

For a communication like the prefent, the world does not owe Mr. Strahan the higheft thanks. It has long been the complaint of the literary world, that the memory of a great author is continually overwhelmed by the indifcreet publication of the effufions of thofe moments when he was deferted by the mufe. But this complaint was certainly never more applicable than in the prefent cafe. Never did there exift a greater difparity between the performances of the fame author, than between the volume before us, and the Lives of the Poets, or the numbers of the Rambler. We are not, however, difpofed indifcriminately to join in every accufation of this kind. When the works of a celebrated free thinker are prefented to the world, while the whole body of the clergy are in a manner deploring the calamitous event, we are inclined to hold ourfelves in tranquillity and indifference, or rather to rejoice in the belief, that from indifcriminate and unreftricted enquiry, valuable truth will be more perfectly elucidated. And in the fame manner, when the memoirs of a private individual pull down the hero from his capricious exaltation, we irrefiftibly prefer the knowledge of character, and the devetopement

velopement of human nature, to the imaginary importance of a Villars, or a Dodington.

When, therefore, we were told that the prefent performance expofed the weakneffes of Dr. Johnfon, we were malicious enough to promife ourselves a rich and luxurious entertainment. Not that we have pleafure in the degradation of any man, but that, without refpect of perfons, we with to fee things as they are, and from the mafs of particular obfervation, to obtain the firft principles of general truth. "Whether therefore it be we or they," whether it be the aufterity of a Wynd ham, or the ftupidity of a Strahan, to which we are indebted for our materials, we are prepared with equal tranquillity to derive from them every advantage in our power. We have found, however, the publication under review, much more barren in this refpect than we had conceived. That Dr. Johnson, in fpite of all the contemptuous ridicule with which he has treated that delicate franic, which depends for its compofure on the clouds and the winds, was himself not exempt from languor, fluggishinefs and procrastination, is an obvious remark. That he was full of the lowest and most pitiable fuperftition, that his attention was often engroffed by things in the laft degree frivolous, futile, and unimportant, cannot be denied. But if these observations are rather dif advantageous to their hero, it is not lefs unquestionable, that he difplays a fenfibility of temper and an humane benevolence of heart that have rarely been equalled. In this point of view, we are prepared to beftow the highest honour upon his prayers and anxiety for his deceafed friends. The struggle in a breaft, conftituted as his was, between the fevere principles of Proteftantifm, and the genuine and undifciplinable feelings of the heart, illuftrates the kindness of his nature more than it could have been illuftrated by any other circumftance. M

ART. II. Tables of the Skeleton and Mufcles of the Human Body. By Bernard Siegfred Albinus, Tranflated from the Latin. Crown Folio, l. 11s. 6d. A. Bell, Edinburgh, 1778.

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N giving an opinion, of this edition of the very grand and truly valuable work of Albinus, we need neither fay any thing concerning the merit of the original, nor the utility of anatomical knowledge. While it is generally admitted, that an accurate acquaintance with the ftructure of every part of the human frame is effentially neceffary, for those who mean to practice any branch of the healing art, it is at the fame time univerfally allowed, that no anatomical tables exhibit more just reprefentations of the bones and mufcles than

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