"confutation of their opinions, and an illuftration of "the doctrine of Free-will," with what else you think proper.

'It will, above all, be neceffary to take notice, that it is a thing diftinct from the Commentary.

I was fo far from imagining they [the compofitors] stood still, that I conceived them to have a good deal 'beforehand, and therefore was lefs anxious in pro'viding them more. But if ever they stand still on my account, it must doubtlefs be charged to me; and whatever elfe will be reasonable I fhall not oppofe; but beg a fuspense of judgment till morning, ' when I must intreat you to fend me a dozen proposals, you fhall then have copy to spare.

and

I am, Sir, your's, impransus,

SAM. JOHNSON.'

Johnson's tranflation of the Examen was printed by Cave, and came abroad, but without a name, in November, 1738, bearing the title of, 'An Examination ' of Mr. Pope's Effay on Man, containing a fuccinct 'view of the fyftem of the Fatalists, and a confutation ' of their opinions; with an illuftration of the doctrine ' of Free-Will, and an enquiry what view Mr. Pope 'might have in touching upon the Leibnitzian Philo'fophy and Fatalifm. By Mr. Croufaz, profeffor of Philosophy and Mathematics at Lausanne, &c.'

All the world knows that the Effay on Man was compofed from the dictamen of Lord Bolingbroke, and it is little less notorious that Pope was but meanly skilled in that fort of learning to which the fubject of his poem related: he had not been converfant with the writings or opinions of the different fects of philofophers

F2

1

lofophers of whom fome maintained and others denied the freedom of the will, and knew little more of the arguments for and against human liberty in oppofition to what is called Neceffity, than he was able to gather from the controverfy between Anthony Collins and his opponents, or that between Dr. Clarke and Leibnitz. He was therefore unable to defend what he had written, and ftood a dead mark for his adverfaries to fhoot at. Fortunate for him it was, that at this crisis there was living fuch a person as Mr. Warburton; and Pope had for all the remainder of his life reason to reflect with pleasure on the accident that brought them acquainted, and which I will presently relate.

Warburton's origin and rife into literary reputation are pretty well known. He had ferved a clerkship to an attorney the town-clerk of Newark upon Trent, and for a short time was himself a practiser in that profeffion; but having a strong propensity to learning, he determined to quit it, and pursue a course of study fuch as was neceffary to qualify him for the minifterial function, and having completed it, got admitted into holy orders, and fettled in London, where, upon his arrival, he became acquainted with some of the inferior wits, Concannen, Theobald, and others the enemies of Pope, and adopted many of their fentiments. In a letter to the former of these he writes, Dryden I ⚫ obferve borrows for want of leifure, and Pope for want of genius; Milton out of pride, and Addifon out of modefty;' further he affifted Theobald with notes on many paffages in his edition of Shakefpeare, which charge Mr. Pope with ignorance, and incapacity for the office of an editor.

But

But leaving literal criticism to these his first affociates, Warburton betook himself to ftudies of greater importance, and before the publication of the Examen of the Effay on Man, had made himself known, as an original thinker, by his Divine Legation of Mofes, a work which, as it met with great oppofition, gave him occafion to display a fingular talent in controversy. As there was nothing congenial in the minds of him and Pope, they neither of them fought the acquaintance of the other, but mere chance brought them together, a chance fo propitious to Warburton's fortunes that it became an epoch in his life, and was the leading circumstance to his becoming the owner of a fair estate, and his promotion to a bishopric.

The friendship of these two perfons had its commencement in that bookfeller's fhop which is fituate on the Weft fide of the gate-way leading down the Inner Temple-lane. Warburton had fome dealings with Jacob Robinson the publisher, to whom the shop belonged, and may be fuppofed to have been drawn there on business; Pope might have a call of the like kind: however that be, there they met, and entering into a converfation which was not foon ended, conceived a mutual liking, and as we inay suppose, plighted their faith to each other. The fruit of this interview and the subsequent communications of the parties was, the publication, in November 1739, of a pamphlet with this title, 'A Vindication of Mr. Pope's Effay on Man. By the author of the Divine Legation of Mofes. Printed for J. Robinson.'

Whether or not Croufaz ever replied to this vindication, I am not at leifure to enquire. I incline to

think he did not, and that the controverfy rested on the foot of the Examen and the Commentary on the one part, and the Vindication on the other. In the year 1743, Johnson took it into his head to review the argument, and became a moderator in a dispute which, on the fide of Warburton, had been conducted with a great degree of that indignation and contempt of his adverfary, which is vifible in most of his writings. This he did in two letters feverally published in the Gentleman's Magazine for the months of March and November in the above year, with a promise of more, but proceeded no farther than to ftate the fentiments of Mr. Croufaz refpecting the poem, from a feeming conviction that he was difcuffing an uninterciting question.

Johnson had already tried his hand at political fatire, and had fucceeded in it; and though no new occafion offered, he was either urged by diftrefs or prompted by that clamour against the minifter which in the year 1739 was become very loud, to join in the popular cry, and as it were, to carry war into his own quarters. This he did in a pamphlet, intitled, 'Marmor Norfol⚫cienfe, or an effay on an ancient prophetical inscrip<tion, in Monkish rhyme, lately discovered near Lynn in Norfolk, by Probus Britannicus.'

This mode of fatire, the publication of prophecies adapted to the incidents of the time when written, and not fo genuine as that of Nixon, the Chefhire feer, which fome thought was fulfilled in 1745, is not an invention fo new as many may think. In fome inftances it has been a mere exercise of wit; in others it has been used as a means to excite a people to

fedition.

fedition.

Under the first class is noted that mentioned

by Lord Bacon;

When Hempe is fpun,

'England's done;'

whereby, as his lordfhip fays, it was generally conceived, that after the princes had reigned which had the principal letters of that word Hempe, (which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip and Elizabeth) England fhould come to utter confufion; which, adds he, thanks be to God, is verified only in the change of name, for the king's ftile is now no more, of England, but of Britain. Of the latter clafs of feigned prophecies many have, within these few years, been published by authors who had not wit enough to put them into verse.

The infcription mentioned in the title-page of the Marmor Norfolcienfe, as alfo the relation of the manner of finding it, are, as will be readily fuppofed, equally fictitious, as the fole end of writing and publishing it was to give occafion for a comment, which fhould concentrate all the topics of popular discontent: accordingly it is infinuated, because an act of parliament had then lately paffed, by which it was enacted that all law proceedings fhould be in English, that therefore few lawyers understood Latin; and the people are taught to look on the defcendants of the Princess Sophia as intruders of yesterday, receiving an estate by voluntary grant, and erecting thereon a claim of hereditary right. The explanation of the prophecy, which is all ironical, refolves itself into an invective against a standing army, a ridicule of the balance of power, complaints of the inactivity of the British lion, and that the Hanover horse was fuffered to fuck his blood.