For an account of it see Appendix DD. to Forbes's Beattie. Henry Mackenzie, the author of The Man of Feeling, was the chief contributor as well as the conductor of the paper. He is given as the author of No. 16 in Lynam's edition, p. 1.
[1189] The name of Vicesimus Knox is now scarcely known. Yet so late as 1824 his collected Works were published in seven octavo volumes. The editor says of his Essays (i. iii):--'In no department of the Belles Lettres has any publication, excepting the Spectator, been so extensively circulated. It has been translated into most of the European languages.' See ante, i. 222, note 1; iii. 13, note 3; and iv. 330.
[1190] Lucretius, iii. 6.
[1191] It were to be wished, that he had imitated that great man in every respect, and had not followed the example of Dr. Adam Smith [ante, iii. 13, note 1] in ungraciously attacking his venerable Alma Mater Oxford. It must, however, be observed, that he is much less to blame than Smith: he only objects to certain particulars; Smith to the whole institution; though indebted for much of his learning to an exhibition which he enjoyed for many years at Baliol College. Neither of them, however, will do any hurt to the noblest university in the world. While I animadvert on what appears to me exceptionable in some of the works of Dr. Knox, I cannot refuse due praise to others of his productions; particularly his sermons, and to the spirit with which he maintains, against presumptuous hereticks, the consolatory doctrines peculiar to the Christian Revelation. This he has done in a manner equally strenuous and conciliating. Neither ought I to omit mentioning a remarkable instance of his candour: Notwithstanding the wide difference of our opinions, upon the important subject of University education, in a letter to me concerning this Work, he thus expresses himself: 'I thank you for the very great entertainment your Life of Johnson gives me. It is a most valuable work. Yours is a new species of biography. Happy for Johnson, that he had so able a recorder of his wit and wisdom.' BOSWELL.
[1192] Dr. Knox, in his Moral and Literary abstraction, may be excused for not knowing the political regulations of his country. No senator can be in the hands of a bailiff. BOSWELL.
[1193] It is entitled A Continuation of Dr. J--n's Criticism on the Poems of Gray. The following is perhaps the best passage:--'On some fine evening Gray had seen the moon shining on a tower such as is here described. An owl might be peeping out from the ivy with which it was clad. Of the observer the station might be such that the owl, now emerged from the mantling, presented itself to his eye in profile, skirting with the Moon's limb. All this is well. The perspective is striking; and the picture well defined. But the poet was not contented. He felt a desire to enlarge it; and in executing his purpose gave it accumulation without improvement. The idea of the Owl's complaining is an artificial one; and the views on which it proceeds absurd. Gray should have seen, that it but ill befitted the Bird of Wisdom to complain to the Moon of an intrusion which the Moon could no more help than herself.' p. 17. Johnson wrote of this book:--'I know little of it, for though it was sent me I never cut the leaves open. I had a letter with it representing it to me as my own work; in such an account to the publick there may be humour, but to myself it was neither serious nor comical. I suspect the writer to be wrong-headed.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 289. 'I was told,' wrote Walpole (Letters, viii. 376), 'it would divert me, that it seems to criticise Gray, but really laughs at Johnson. I sent for it and skimmed it over, but am not at all clear what it means--no recommendation of anything. I rather think the author wishes to be taken by Gray's admirers for a ridiculer of Johnson, and by the tatter's for a censurer of Gray.' '"The cleverest parody of the Doctor's style of criticism," wrote Sir Walter Scott, "is by John Young of Glasgow, and is very capital."' Croker Corres, ii. 34.
[1194] See ante, iv. 59, for Burke's description of Croft's imitation.
[1195] See ante, ii. 465.
[1196] H.S.E.
MICHAEL JOHNSON,
Vir impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum patientissimus; fiducia christiana fortis, fervidusque; paterfamilias apprime strenuus; bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et negotiis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi nec suis defuerit; lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel pias, vel castas laesisset, aut dolor, vel voluptas unquam expresserit.
Natus Cubleiae, in agro Derbiensi,
Anno MDCLVI.
Obiit MDCCXXXI.
Apposita est SARA, conjux,
Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate praecellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem: aeternitati semper attentam, omne fere virtutis nomen commendavit.
Nata Nortoniae Regis, in agro Varvicensi, Anno MDCLXIX;
Obiit MDCCLIX.
Cum NATHANAELE, illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII, cum vires et animi et corporis multa pollicerentur, anno MDCCXXXVII, vitam brevem pia morte finivit.