give most for it, but the fum he got for it is variously reported. As none of his compofitions have been more applauded than this, an examen of it in this place may not be improper, and the following may serve till a better fhall appear.

Confidered as a fpecimen of our language, it is scarcely to be paralleled: it is written in a style refined to a degree of immaculate purity, and difplays the whole force of turgid eloquence.

But it was compofed at a time when no fpring like that in the mind of Raffelas urged his narrator; when the heavy hand of affliction almoft bore him down, and the dread of future want haunted him. That he fhould have produced a tale fraught with lively imagery, or that he should have painted human life in gay colours, could not have been expected: poured out his forrow in gloomy reflection, and being deftitute of comfort himself, defcribed the world as nearly without it.

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In a work of fuch latitude as this, where nothing could be impertinent, he had an opportunity of divulging his opinion on any point that he had thought on: he has therefore formed many converfations on topics that are known to have been fubjects of his meditation, and has atoned for the paucity of his incidents by fuch difcuffions as are feldom attempted by the fabricators of romantic fiction.

Admitting that Johnfon fpeaks in the perfon of the victor-difputant, we may, while he is unveiling the hearts of others, gain fome knowledge of his own. He has in this Abyffinian tale given us what he calls a differtation on poetry, and in it that which appears to

me

me a recipe for making a poet, from which may be inferred what he thought the neceffary ingredients, and a reference to the paffage will tend to corroborate an obfervation of Mr. Garrick's, that Johnson's poetical faculty was mechanical, and that what he wrote came not from his heart but from his head. Imlac, the guide of the prince, relates to him the events of his life, which are-That his father was a wealthy merchant, but a man of uncultivated intellects, who left the choice of a profeffion, with very little biafs, to his fon. The young man was difgufted with trade, and inclined to general learning; but finding, as he says, that poetry was confidered as the highest learning, and regarded with veneration, he determined to become a poet. Ambition has feldom effected so stupendous a work as that of implanting poetic genius; but Imlac was refolved, and, if we may truft the account of his fuccefs, his defign was not abfurd: his industry was very commendable: he red all the poets of Arabia and Perfia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes that are fufpended in the mosque of Mecca: he then ranged mountains and defarts for images and refemblances, and pictured on his mind every tree of the forest and flower of the valley: an ample collection drawn from rocks, palaces, rivulets, clouds, &c. ftored his mind, and with the help of ethics, languages, and sciences, the refolute Imlac, who, till the age of twenty, had lived in ignorance, was by dint of mere industry transformed into a distinguished poet.

In the course of Imlac's narrative, Johnfon animadverts on the fuppofed efficacy of pilgrimages:

his argument decides nothing, but is conceived in fuch language, that none, how well acquainted foever with the book, will blame the insertion of it here.

• Pilgrimages, like many other acts of piety, may ⚫ be reasonable or fuperftitious, according to the principles upon which they are performed. Long journeys in fearch of truth are not commanded. ‹ Truth, such as is neceffary to the regulation of life, is always found where it is honeftly fought. Change of place is no natural caufe of the increase of piety, for it inevitably produces diffipation of mind. Yet, fince men go every day to view the 'fields where great actions have been performed, and ' return with stronger impreffions of the event, curiofity of the fame kind may naturally difpofe us to view ⚫ that country whence our religion had its beginning; ' and I believe no man furveys thofe awful scenes ' without fome confirmation of holy refolutions.

That the Supreme Being may be more eafily ' propitiated in one place than in another, is the dream of idle fuperftition; but that fome places may operate upon our own minds in an uncommon manner, is an opinion which hourly experience will justify. He who fuppofes that his vices may ⚫ be more fuccessfully combated in Palestine, will, perhaps, find himself mistaken, yet he may go 'thither without folly: he who thinks they will be 'more freely pardoned, dishonours at once his reason ⚫ and religion.'

In a following chapter the danger of infanity is the fubject of debate; and it cannot but excite the pity VOL. I. B b

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of all those who gratefully accept and enjoy Johnson's endeavours to reform and instruct, to reflect that the peril he defcribes he believed impending over him. That he was conscious of fuperior talents will furely not be imputed to vanity: how deeply then must he have been depreffed by the conftant fear that in one moment he might and probably would be, not only deprived of his diftinguished endowments, but reduced to a state little preferable, in as much as respects this world, to that of brutes! He has traced the mifery of infanity from its caufe to its effect, and feems to afcribe it to indulgence of imagination: he styles it one of the dangers of folitude, and perhaps to this dread and this opinion was his uncommon love of fociety to be attributed.

His fuperftitious ideas of the state of departed fouls, and belief in fupernatural agency, were produced by a mental disease, as impoffible to be shaken off as corporal pain. What it has pleased Omnipotence to inflict, we need never feek to excufe; but he has provided against the cavils of those who cannot comprehend how a wife can ever appear a weak man, by remarking, that there is a natural affinity between melancholy and fuperftition.

In characterising this performance, it cannot be said, that it vindicates the ways of God to man. It is a general fatire, representing mankind as eagerly purfuing what experience fhould have taught them they can never obtain: it expofes the weakneffes even of their laudable affections and propenfities, and it refolves the mightieft as well as the most trivial of their labours, into folly.

I wish I were not warranted in saying, that this elegant work is rendered, by its moft obvious moral, of little benefit to the reader. We would not indeed wifh to fee the rifing generation fo unprofitably employed as the prince of Abyffinia; but it is equally impolitic to reprefs all hope, and he who fhould quit his father's house in search of a profeffion, and return unprovided, because he could not find any man pleased with his own, would need a better juftification than that Johnfon, after fpeculatively furveying various modes of life, had judged happiness unattainable, and choice useless.

But let thofe, who, reading Raffelas in the spring of life, are captivated by its author's eloquence, and convinced by his perfpicacious wifdom that human life and hopes are fuch as he has depicted them, remember that he faw through the medium of adverfity. The concurrent teftimony of ages has, it is too true, proved, that there is no fuch thing as worldly felicity; but it has never been proved, that, therefore we are miserable. Those who look only here for happiness, have ever been and ever will be difappointed: it is not change of place, nor even the unbounded gratification of their wishes that can relieve them; but if they bend their attention towards the attainment of that felicity we are graciously promised, they will find no fuch vacuum as diftreffed Raffelas : the discharge of religious and social duties will afford their faculties the occupation he wanted, and the wellfounded expectation of future reward will at once ftimulate and fupport them.

The tale of Raffelas was written to answer a preffing neceffity, and was fo concluded as to admit of a continuation ;

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