THE AGE OF JOHNSON.
THE qualities of genius are not Characteristic of an age. WO speak habitually of the eighteenth century as though it pr6:. 'tented to us certain definitely marked features diatinguishing It from all others; but while it has these features, and all "obstinate rationality" is one of them, We find-on closer exami- nation that what is common is 'merely formal, and that tht essential qualities of genitut exist on4 in relation to certain individuals. Collins, Gray, Johnson, Goldsmith, Sterne, and Fielding the mere enumeritiontf their names is sufficient te show the diversity of the influences at work. Each indiiidnaliti is clear-but and separate from its fellows; we de tat ollinpard Goldsmith with Sterne, Richardson with Fielding or Sazollete because each is in his own way incomparable; the" of that great age was not real, but only-apparent. Certain,. Johnson compiled his poem .Loutioss. rind his fragedy...lrend with the tame industry and Method Which he beat:aired UPOii the Dichosa*, and industry is not the equivalent of inspire!: lion. On the other hand, it has not its vices. and in the eighteenth century the cant of- inipiratien wits. not ntel-elj a cloak for idleness and inefficiency; The great maize-of -literature . produced dining this period Wad thorough!, efficient. Letters Were pelita: 'There wad nandind, -and if that 'standard imposed- Many irksome restriction; if a101 cultivated a sense . of proportion and dignity. It is jrulf tlitt the tenth rolume of The eainht-idia'Hisfoi* ri Englfah Literatufe Should biz entitled The Age' of Johnso* ' Jcilifitoji is a standard, and it is precisely his "obstinate' rationality-6 which makes bith a etanderd. He ri. to tis.whet Voltaire id to the French, 'a complete -. expression- of Our- national Character. One May condenin....11oirderz and Trent and 11-11.61,,Taig..ViNeklr.r.SMIS111:31r1 ZbiteirtAttisfam Press. Vs. rum] remark that flasselas has neither the vitality nor the irre- sistible irony of Candid's; but finally all adverse criticism is brought up against that "obstinate rationality," that stubborn and unswerving common-sense. Contrast his atti- tude toward religion with that of Coleridge. "Pray God," wrote the latter to a friend, "that he may grant me a living and not merely a reasoning faith." Johnson would no more bandy arguments with his God than he would bandy com- pliments with his King. In one of his admirable sermons is the passage : "The great efficient of union, between the soul end its Creator, is prayer ; of which the necessity is such that St. Paul directs as, to pray without ceasing; that is, to preserve in the mind such a constant dependence upon God, and such a constant desire of His assistance, as may be equivalent to constant prayer." There is another passage, recalling to our mind what Milton wrote of a "cloistered virtue": "He is happy that carries about with him in the world the temper of the cloister; and preserves the fear of doing evil, while he suffers himself to be impelled by the zeal of doing good, who uses the comforts and conveniences of his aondition as though he used them not, with that constant desire of a better state, which sinks the value of earthly things; who can be rich or poor, without pride in riches, or discontent in poverty ; who can manage the business of this life with such indifference as may shut out from his heart all incitements to fraud or injustice ; who can partake the pleasures of sense with temperance, and enjoy the distinc- tions of honour with moderation ; who can pass undefiled through a polluted world; and, among all the vicissitudes of good and evil, have his heart Bred only where true joys are to be found." No English prose has more balance, dignity, and proportion. Coleridge attracts us by his weakness; Johnson by his strength, though we know him more intimately than we know any other man of letters. Cicero is less complete to us precisely because he wrote of himself, and "ce qu'on dit de soi eat toujours pokaie "; but the justice of Boswell should have earned him a fourth throne beside Rhadatnanthus, Lyeurgue, and Minos : perhaps it has. Johnson is less read by us than Boswell; but Boswell is Johnson, a medium through whom we approach one "the very greatness of whose personality has tended to interfere with the recognition of his greatness as a man of letters." We quote the words from
r. D. N. Smith's chapter on " Johnson and Boswell" in the present volume, an able and interesting piece of work. Johnson could strike out his final and magisterial sentences upon men and affairs unerringly, because his intellect was always immersed in reality; and his verdicts upon his con. temporaries, in the main, are ours. There is a singular felicity, an almost Shakespearean touch, in the words written to Bennet Langton after Goldsmith's death : "But let not his frailties be remembered : he was a very great man" ; and to "Junius" be metes his own measure when he says: "To him that knows his company, it is not hard to be sarcastic in a mask." His judicial position was not unquestioned. Gray disliked him; Walpole calls him " Caliban "and "Demogorgon," and speaks of him and Mrs. Montagu in one breath as "setting up rival altars" at one of Lady Lucan's blue- stocking parties ; but Gray admired "London," and respected the character of "Ursa Major," while Walpole is pleased that "Demogorgon " should speak well of his works. Mr. Smith points out with justice that Johnson in criticizing "Lycidas " had in mind his own contemporaries, and certainly it is to the influence of Milton rather than to "the tyranny of Pope" that poetry in the eighteenth century owed its worst vices of rhetoric and inversion, even though that influence was largely transmitted through Pope. The age that succeeded Pope was not congenial to poetry ; but Gray, Collins, and Chatterton are sufficient proofs that it was not entirely barren ; and that they produced so little was more the fault of their own temperaments and characters than of any deficiency in the ne itself.
One of the most interesting chapters in the present volume is that by Professor W. P. Ker on "The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages." Everything Professor Ker touches *bows the same ability and scholarship, but this essay is singularly terse and lucid. He traces the development of what we may call the mediaeval Renaissance, commonly associated with the collaboration of Wordsworth and ..oleridge in Lyrical Ballads, through Temple, Hickes, Percy, Gray, Chatterton, and the Wartons. His appreciation of Gray's work it is a pleasure to quote "Gray's two translations from the Icelandic are far the finest result of those antiquarian studies, and they help to explain how comparatively small ,vas the influence of the North upon English poetry. How much Gray knew of the language is doubtful; but he certainly knew something, and did not depend entirely on the Latin translations which he found in Bartholinus or Torfaeus. Ile must have caught something of the rhythm in
• Vindum. vinslum Fit character,'
and have appreciated the sharpness and brilliance of certain among the phrases. His Deicent of Odin and his Fatal Sisters are more than a mere exercise in a foreign language, or a record of things discovered in little-known mythologies. The Icelandic poems were more to Gray than they were to any other scholar, because they exactly correspond to his own ideals of poetic style— concise, alert, unmuffied, never drawling or clumsy," The mediaeval influenee in Gray, however, was not wholly Icelandic, he had some knowledge at least of Provencal poetry through Creseimbeni, and he was a lover of Dante, in whom all the Romantic culture of the Middle Ages is consummated. Equally just is Professor Kees verdict on Chatterton "His poetry and his mediaeval tastes are distinct ; his poetry is not mediaeval." When he speaks of Walpole in connexion with Chatterton's impostures he is scrupulously fair to him, and justice to Walpole is sufficiently rare to be remarkable; while he points out that Chatterton "wanted nothing but time to establish a good practice as a literary man."
It is impossible for us to notice each individual section of this volume, and it is almost invidious to select any for special approval, when the general standard of excellence is so well maintained. The lute Mr. Tovey's chapter on Gray, rather biographical than critical, is the compression of a great mass of detail; and he was certainly the most fortunate, in the sense of being the best qualified, among all Gray's biographers. The first three chapters on "Richardson," "Fielding and Smollett," and " Sterne " give us the history of one of the most remarkable literary developments of their age, and show us in what sense N. Anatole France's description of England as the home of the novel is true. The chapter on "Richardson." by N. L. Cazainian, Maitre de Conferences at the Sorbonne, is, in fact, an example of how such things should be done. Mr. Austin Dobson is responsible for that on Goldsmith. Mr. Hunt deals with Home and Sir A. W. Ward with Gibbon. The chapters on "Philosophers," "Divines," "The Literature of Dissent," and "Political Literature" are respectively by Mr. Sorley, Archdeacon Hutton, Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Previte- Orton. We repeat that the level maintained is consistently high, though the interest of the subjects may vary according to the interests of their readers. We may remark only the sins of omission. Mr. Wheatley, in his chapter on " Letter- Writers," does no more than refer by the way to Cowper ; and Burke, too, is treated rather cursorily. "Junius," whose identity with Francis Mr. Previte-Orton considers probable,, is, after all, a poor substitute for Burke.
Previous page
