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the week day to think how near another Sabbath is ; but oh, much, much more pleasant to think how near eternity is, and how short the journey through this wilderness, and that it is but a step from earth to heaven."

Two or three years after he wrote this letter he published the "Rise and Progress ; " the worthy fruit from such a deep root of happiness.

Dr. Johnson says, that Dr. Doddridge was the author of one of the finest epigrams in the language. The motto of his family was Dum vivimus vivamus, which he thus paraphrased :

"Live while you live, the epicure would say,
And seize the pleasures of the present day :
Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries,
And give to God each moment as it flies.
Lord, in my views let both united be,
I live to pleasure when I live to thee."

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In general literature and criticism no name of the last century, or probably of any age, was superior to that of Dr. Johnson. He classified our language by his admirable dictionary, a work that differs from all others of the kind in the circumstance that it shows not merely the etymology of a word, but the sense in which various writers have used it. Hence it is a dictionary of quotations as well as words. There had been good English dictionaries before the time of Dr. Johnson, but none that, by examples from the greatest writers, gave such a knowledge of the

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delicacies and niceties of the language. laborious work was necessarily the employment of many years. No man was more diligent during his whole life than Dr. Johnson. The independence of his spirit was equalled by his industry. His noble letter to Lord Chesterfield, who had professed to be interested in his great work, the dictionary, and whose interest evaporated in mere profession, is a fine comment on the aid that rank too often gave to genius, and justifies our former remarks on the humiliations attendant on the old system of patronage.*

• ...

"Seven years, my lord, have now past since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door, during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent and cannot enjoy it, till I am solitary and cannot impart itt, till I am known and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as owing

* See page 205.

† Alluding to the death of his wife, which had occurred in the interval.

that to a patron which Providence has enabled me to do for myself."

Dr. Johnson's "Rambler" was at the end of the last century what the " Spectator" had been at the beginning; it had, however, neither the cheerfulness nor the versatility of its predecessor. Dr. Johnson, as a moralist, was decidedly gloomy; ever presenting the disappointments and mistakes rather than the joys and successes of life. All his views took a tint from the melancholy of his own character, and the deep but honest prejudices of his mind. No man ever expressed opinions more authoritatively, as if he completely settled every question. His life of Milton, in his "Lives of the Poets," is a memorable instance of this summary method. In the midst of much severity of manner, Dr. Johnson had a kind and benevolent heart; and at a time when religion had become mere formalism with multitudes, the decidedly moral tone of his writings essentially served the interests of outward propriety.

In standard historical literature, the eighteenth century was peculiarly rich. The three great historians, Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, notwithstanding very grave faults of opinion, and strong prejudices, by their admirable style of narration have undoubtedly the merit of rendering a previously uninviting study interesting, not merely to the scholar, but to the general reader. Hume's

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"England," Robertson's "Discovery of America," and his "Life of Mary Queen of Scots," and Gibbon's magnificent work "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," opened up treasures of knowledge, and suggested inquiries that have occupied other investigators from that time to the present, and at length have completely popularised the study of history.

CHAP. XV.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (continued).—

-IMAGINATIVE WRITINGS.

WE have mentioned Daniel De Foe as establishing a periodical that gave the hint of a similar work to Addison and Steele. He was also the founder of a class of very influential writings, that have been very differently estimated by various critics. "Robinson Crusoe "is undoubtedly the first popular specimen of the modern English novel.

This department of literature is intended to combine in prose composition the peculiarities of the epic and the dramatic forms; narrative and dialogue elucidating a story, and developing characters. This kind of writing was very partially known to the ancients; that is, in the amplified form in which we have it; though the mode of teaching a truth through the medium of a fable, is as old as the work of education itself. Thus, Æsop's Fables taught moral lessons in the guise of fanciful stories about animals, &c.; and tradition tells of many works of fiction of classic antiquity which were lost during the dark ages.

The monkish legends, containing the lives of

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