Remarks on Johnson's Life of Milton

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: were thofe of Genius; thofe of Miltdri of the Man Of GMus.. The-formftr arifes from .imagination gettjng the. better of judgment; the latter; from habit .getting tie better of infatatian., ' Shakefpeafefs faults were thole pf..; greatpci; Ithpfe of Melton of a /////. pedant, . .yhen Shakefpeare fe.execraf ble lie'i$: fo..Qxxiuifitely fo, that he is: l inimitable in.his blei;iifhes as in hi l beamies, -; Xhe puns of Milton betray a narresynejs of e, dncation., and a. dfge ft. Thus far- Dr. Johnfon?s. exliibition of Milton in the.;fcale of-poetical: merit, which, perhaps at? the bottom may .amount 'to no more than.thiat MUtoa ould not makz.a fuddle, ..or. dpnce upon the chapter{Section 4jhe rape . But tliis too we leave to cri- t'rcs on poetry, -of whom we fhould Te- queft to explain the difference'between a Genius and a Man of Genius, and by what operation habit, in the abftract, -gets the better of imagination; remarking only for ourfelvcs, that for the balance-maf- ter to reproach Milton -for his pedantry is certainly -betraying a ftrange tmcon- fcioufnefs of his own talents, unlefs he depends upon his reader's fagacity in difcriminatinga great pedant from a little one. He is obliged, however, to com- rjlete the humiliation tf -Milton, to put his profe-works into the fcale. His theological quibbles and per- c plexed Speculations are daily equalled .Sec CibberVLettcr-to Pope, p. 35. and 7 and excelled by the moft abject en- thufiafts; and if we. confider him as a profe-writer, ibe has neither die learn- ing of a fcholar, nor the manners of a gentleman. There is no force in his reafoning, no elegance in his llyle, and no tafte in his.compofition. Peremptory, but not decifive! To make this go-down, even with a mode- fate tory, it ...