This poem [Creation],
if he had written nothing else, would have transmitted him [Blackmore]
to posterity among the first favourites of the English muse; but to
make verses was his transcendent pleasure, and as he was not deterred
by censure, he was not satiated by praise.
He deviated, however, into other tracks of literature, and condescended to entertain his readers with plain prose. When The Spectator [by Steele and Addison] stopped, he considered the polite world as destitute of entertainment; and in concert with Mr. Hughes, who wrote every third paper, published three times a week The Lay Monastery, founded on the supposition that some literary men, whose characters are described, had retired to a house in the country to enjoy philosophical leisure, and resolved to instruct the public by communicating their disquisitions and amusements. Whether any real persons were concealed under fictitious names is not known. The hero of the club is one Mr. Johnson—such a constellation of excellence, that his character shall not be suppressed, though there is no great genius in the design, nor skill in the delineation.
The rest of the "Lay Monks" seem to be but feeble mortals in comparison with the gigantic Johnson, who yet, with all his abilities and the help of the fraternity, could drive the publication but to forty papers, which were afterwards collected into a volume, and called in the title A Sequel to the Spectator.
He deviated, however, into other tracks of literature, and condescended to entertain his readers with plain prose. When The Spectator [by Steele and Addison] stopped, he considered the polite world as destitute of entertainment; and in concert with Mr. Hughes, who wrote every third paper, published three times a week The Lay Monastery, founded on the supposition that some literary men, whose characters are described, had retired to a house in the country to enjoy philosophical leisure, and resolved to instruct the public by communicating their disquisitions and amusements. Whether any real persons were concealed under fictitious names is not known. The hero of the club is one Mr. Johnson—such a constellation of excellence, that his character shall not be suppressed, though there is no great genius in the design, nor skill in the delineation.
"The first I shall name is Mr. Johnson, a gentleman that owes to nature his excellent
faculties and an elevated genius, and to industry and application many
acquired accomplishments. His taste is distinguishing, just, and
delicate; his judgment clear, and his reason strong, accompanied with
an imagination full of spirit, of great compass, and stored with
refined ideas. He is a critic of the first rank; and what is his
peculiar ornament, he is delivered from the ostentation, malevolence,
and supercilious temper, that so often blemish men of that character.
His remarks result from the nature and reason of things, and are formed
by a judgment free and unbiassed by the authority of those who have
lazily followed each other in the same beaten track of thinking, and
are arrived only at the reputation of acute grammarians and
commentators—men who have been copying one another many hundred years
without any improvement; or, if they have ventured farther, have only
applied in a mechanical manner the rules of ancient critics to modern
writings, and with great labour discovered nothing but their own want
of judgment and capacity. As Mr. Johnson penetrates to the bottom of
his subject, by which means his observations are solid an natural as
well as delicate, so his design is always to bring to light something
useful and ornamental; whence his character is the reverse to theirs,
who have eminent abilities in insignificant knowledge, and a great
felicity in finding out trifles. He is not less industrious to search
out the merit of an author than sagacious in discerning his errors and
defects, and takes more pleasure in commending the beauties than
exposing the blemishes of a laudable writing; like Horace, in a long
work he can bear some deformities, and justly lay them on the
imperfection of human nature, which is incapable of faultless
productions. When an excellent drama appears in public, and by its
intrinsic worth attracts a general applause, he is not stung with envy
and spleen, nor does he express a savage nature in fastening upon the
celebrated author, dwelling upon his imaginary defects, and passing
over his conspicuous excellences. He treats all writers upon the same
impartial foot; and is not, like the little critics, taken up entirely
in finding out only the beauties of the ancient and nothing but the
errors of the modern writers. Never did anyone express more kindness
and good nature to young and unfinished authors: he promotes their
interests, protects their reputation, extenuates their faults, and sets
off their virtues, and by his candour guards them from the severity of
his jugment. He is not like those dry critics who are morose because
they cannot write themselves, but is himself master of a good vein in
poetry; and though he does not often employ it, yet he has sometimes
entertained his friends with his unpublished performances."
The rest of the "Lay Monks" seem to be but feeble mortals in comparison with the gigantic Johnson, who yet, with all his abilities and the help of the fraternity, could drive the publication but to forty papers, which were afterwards collected into a volume, and called in the title A Sequel to the Spectator.
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