man of good principles. Johnson could easily see that those persons who looked on a dance or a laced waistcoat as sinful, deemed most ignobly of the attributes of God and the ends of creation. But with what a storm of invective he would have overwhelmed any man who had blamed him for celebrating the redemption of mankind with sugarless tea and butterless buns!"-Macaulay.

We can conceive that Johnson, had he lived when augury by tokens was in vogue, would have been a steadfast believer in the flight of crows; and that, if his lot had been cast in an astrological age, he would have consulted his horoscope before going on a journey or embarking in an enterprise."-Hazlitt.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

"That the dead are seen no more,' said Imlac, 'I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. . . . That it is doubted by single cavillers can very little weaken the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues confess it by their fears.' "—Rasselas.

"Methought I was in the midst of a very entertaining set of company, and extremely delighted in attending to a lively conversation, when on a sudden I perceived one of the most shocking figures imagination can frame advancing toward me. She was dressed in black, her skin was contracted into a thousand wrinkles, her eyes deep sunk in her head, and her complexion pale and livid as the countenance of death. Her looks were filled with terror and unrelenting severity, and her hands armed with whips and scorpions. As soon as she came near, with a horrid frown, and a voice that chilled my very blood, she bid me follow her. I obeyed, and she led me through rugged paths, beset with briars and thorns, into a deep, solitary valley. Wherever she passed the fading verdure withered beneath her steps; her pestilential breath infected the air with malignant vapours, obscured the lustre of the sun, and involved the fair face of heaven in universal gloom. Dismal howlings resounded through the forest,

from every baleful tree, the night raven uttered his dreadful note, and the prospect was filled with desolation and horror."-The Rambler.

"As I sat thus, forming alternatively excuses for delay and resolutions to go forward, an irresistible heaviness suddenly surprised me; I laid my head upon the bank and resigned myself to sleep, when methought I heard the sound as of the flight of eagles and a being of more than human dignity stood before me. While I was deliberating how to address him, he took me by the hand with an air of kindness, and asked me solemnly, but without severity: Theodore, whither art thou going?' 'I am climbing,' answered I, to the top of the mountain, to enjoy a more extensive prospect of the works of nature.' 'Attend first,' said he, 'to the prospect which this place affords, and what thou dost not understand I will explain. I am one of the benevolent beings who watch over the children of dust, to preserve them from those evils which will not ultimately terminate in good, and which they do not, by their own faults, bring upon themselves. Look around, therefore, without fear observe, contemplate, and be instructed.'"-The Vision of Theodore.

II. Humor.—" By way of strange contrast to this quality [gravity] his style is not infrequently marked by the most playful humor. Boswell's biography is full of these outbursts of pleasantry, when, by way of reaction from the inherent gravity of his nature, he would indulge in sallies of wit and repartee. There is just enough of this in his prose to give it flavor and attractiveness. In The Lives of the Poets' this order of style is well presented."—T. W. Hunt.

"When he is in a pleasant mood his humour is broad and arrogant. The most pleasing form of his humour is when he is humourous at his own expense. Many of the Ramblers are full of genuine humour, broad and hearty, and of happy strokes of wit."-Minto.

"When he threw aside his pen, which he regarded as an encumbrance, he became not only learned and thoughtful, but acute, witty, humourous, natural, honest."-Hazlitt.

"His little circle of friends called forth his humour as the House of Commons excited Chatham's eloquence.

.

His queer prejudices take a humourous form, and give a delightful zest to his conversation."-Leslie Stephen.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

"Last Saturday I came to Ashbourne-Ashbourne in the Peak. Let not the barren name of the Peak terrify you; I have never wanted strawberries and cream. The great bull has no disease but age. I hope in time to be like the great bull; and hope you will be like him too a hundred years hence."-Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale.

"Dear Sir, I will not send compliments to my friends by name, because I would be loath to leave any out in the enumeration. Tell them, as you see them, how well I speak of Scotch politeness, and Scotch hospitality, and Scotch beauty, and of everything Scotch, but Scotch oat-cakes and Scotch prejudices."-To James Boswell, Esq.

Johnson." Nay, sir, it was not the wine that made your ache, but the sense I put into it."

Boswell." What, sir; will sense make the head ache?"

66

head

Johnson.- Yes, sir, when it is not used to it."-Boswell's Life of Johnson.

12. Personification of Abstract Nouns.—This is a peculiarly Johnsonian characteristic. He continually uses the abstract noun as if it were a person, making it the subject of an active verb, and thus gaining brevity.

"To make up what is called the Johnsonian manner,' or 'Johnsonese,' we must take not only these striking peculiarities of sentence-structure but certain other peculiarities, especially a peculiar use of the abstract noun.”—Minto.

"It was not, however, the mere bigness of the words that distinguished his style but a peculiar love of putting the abstract for the concrete."-Leslie Stephen.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

"Luxury, avarice, injustice, violence, and ambition take up their ordinary residence in populous cities; while the hard and laborious life of the husbandman will not admit of these vices." -Thoughts on Agriculture.

"I shall therefore lay my case before you, and hope by your decision to be set free from unreasonable restraints and enabled to justify myself against the accusations which spite and peevishness produce against me."-The Rambler.

"To oppose the devastations of Famine, who scattered the ground everywhere with carcasses, Labour came down upon earth. Labour was the son of Necessity, the nurseling of Hope, and the pupil of Art; he had the strength of his mother, the spirit of his nurse, and the dexterity of his governess."-The Rambler.

"My name is Religion. I am the offspring of Truth and Love and the parent of Benevolence, Hope, and Joy. The monster from whose power I have freed you is called Superstition. She is the child of Discontent and her followers are Fear and Sorrow."-The Rambler.

BURKE, 1729-1797

Biographical Outline.-Edmund Burke, born at Dublin about January 12, 1729; father a Protestant attorney, mother a Roman Catholic; Burke is reared as a Protestant, but so many of his friends were Catholics that he early learned toleration; in 1741 he enters a school at Ballitore, County Kildare, kept by one Shackleton, a Quaker, with whose son, Richard, he forms and maintains a life-long friendship; he enters Trinity College, Dublin, in 1743, and remains there till 1748, studying diligently, but not following any systematic course; he becomes especially familiar with the works of Cicero, whom he takes as "the model on which he labored to form his own character, in eloquence, in policy, in ethics, and in philosophy;" he acquires some knowledge of Greek, and wins a scholarship on examination in 1746; he is entered at the Middle Temple, London, in 1747, takes A.B. at Dublin in the spring of 1748, and goes to London to study law in 1750; owing to weak health he does not study severely, but spends much time travelling about the Midland counties of England; little is known of his life between 1752 and 1757; he appears to have visited France, to have frequented theatres and debating clubs, and to have met some eminent men, including Garrick, who became his life-long friend; Burke refuses to enter upon the practice of law, which so angers his father that, in 1755, his paternal allowance of 100 a year is wholly or partly withdrawn, and he is forced to depend on literature for a livelihood; he had probably written before that time "Hints for an Essay on the Drama," unpublished till after his death; in 1756 he publishes "A Vindication of Natural Society" and "A Philo