The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Volume 06: Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent PersonsJohnson, Samuel
General
The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Volume 06: Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons
Johnson, Samuel
English essays -- 18th century
It is not by his liveliness of imagery, his pungency of periods, or his
fertility of allusion, that he detains the cits of London, and the boors
of Middlesex. Of style and sentiment they take no cognizance. They
admire him, for virtues like their own, for contempt of order, and
violence of outrage; for rage of defamation, and audacity of falsehood.
The supporters of the bill of rights feel no niceties of composition,
nor dexterities of sophistry; their faculties are better proportioned to
the bawl of Bellas, or barbarity of Beckford; but they are told, that
Junius is on their side, and they are, therefore, sure that Junius is
infallible. Those who know not whither he would lead them, resolve to
follow him; and those who cannot find his meaning, hope he means
rebellion.
Junius is an unusual phenomenon, on which some have gazed with wonder,
and some with terrour, but wonder and terrour are transitory passions.
He will soon be more closely viewed, or more attentively examined; and
what folly has taken for a comet, that from its flaming hair shook
pestilence and war, inquiry will find to be only a meteor, formed by the
vapours of putrefying democracy, and kindled into flame by the
effervescence of interest, struggling with conviction; which, after
having plunged its followers in a bog, will leave us, inquiring why we
regard it.
Yet, though I cannot think the style of Junius secure from criticism,
though his expressions are often trite, and his periods feeble, I should
never have stationed him where he has placed himself, had I not rated
him by his morals rather than his faculties. What, says Pope, must be
the priest, where a monkey is the god? What must be the drudge of a
party, of which the heads are Wilkes and Crosby, Sawbridge and Townsend?
Junius knows his own meaning, and can, therefore, tell it. He is an
enemy to the ministry; he sees them growing hourly stronger. He knows
that a war, at once unjust and unsuccessful, would have certainly
displaced them, and is, therefore, in his zeal for his country, angry
that war was not unjustly made, and unsuccessfully conducted. But there
are others whose thoughts are less clearly expressed, and whose schemes,
perhaps, are less consequentially digested; who declare that they do not
wish for a rupture, yet condemn the ministry for not doing that, by
which a rupture would naturally have been made.
If one party resolves to demand what the other resolves to refuse, the
dispute can be determined only by arbitration; and between powers who
have no common superiour, there is no other arbitrator than the sword.
Whether the ministry might not equitably have demanded more is not worth
a question. The utmost exertion of right is always invidious, and, where
claims are not easily determinable, is always dangerous. We asked all
that was necessary, and persisted in our first claim, without mean
recession, or wanton aggravation. The Spaniards found us resolute, and
complied, after a short struggle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account