s, whatever was his motive for writing them,
whether gratitude for his pension, or the solicitation of men in power,
did not support the cause for which they were undertaken. They are
written in a style truly harmonious, and with his usual dignity of
language. When it is said that he advanced positions repugnant to the
"common rights of mankind," the virulence of party may be suspected. It
is, perhaps, true, that in the clamour, raised throughout the kingdom,
Johnson overheated his mind; but he was a friend to the rights of man,
and he was greatly superior to the littleness of spirit, that might
incline him to advance what he did not think and firmly believe. In the
False Alarm, though many of the most eminent men in the kingdom
concurred in petitions to the throne, yet Johnson, having well surveyed
the mass of the people, has given, with great humour, and no less truth,
what may be called, "the birth, parentage, and education of a
remonstrance." On the subject of Falkland's islands, the fine dissuasive
from too hastily involving the world in the calamities of war, must
extort applause even from the party that wished, at that time, for
scenes of tumult and commotion. It was in the same pamphlet, that
Johnson offered battle to Junius, a writer, who, by the uncommon
elegance of his style, charmed every reader, though his object was to
inflame the nation in favour of a faction. Junius fought in the dark; he
saw his enemy, and had his full blow; while he himself remained safe in
obscurity. "But let us not," said Johnson, "mistake the venom of the
shaft, for the vigour of the bow." The keen invective which he
published, on that occasion, promised a paper war between two
combatants, who knew the use of their weapons. A battle between them was
as eagerly expected, as between Mendoza and Big Ben. But Junius,
whatever was his reason, never returned to the field. He laid down his
arms, and has, ever since, remained as secret as the man in the mask, in
Voltaire's history.

The account of his journey to the Hebrides, or western isles of
Scotland, is a model for such as shall, hereafter, relate their travels.
The author did not visit that part of the world in the character of an
antiquary, to amuse us with wonders taken from the dark and fabulous
ages; nor, as a mathematician, to measure a degree, and settle the
longitude and latitude of the several islands. Those, who expected such
information, expected what was never intended. "In