in
its new array, no longer knows the talk of his mother and his nurse.
But, may it not be said, that every system of ethics must, or ought, to
terminate, in plain and general maxims for the use of life? and, though
in such anxioms no discovery is made, does not the beauty of the moral
theory consist in the premises, and the chain of reasoning that leads to
the conclusion? May not truth, as Johnson himself says, be conveyed to
the mind by a new train of intermediate images? Pope's doctrine, about
the ruling passion, does not seem to be refuted, though it is called, in
harsh terms, pernicious, as well as false, tending to establish a kind
of moral predestination, or overruling principle, which cannot be
resisted. But Johnson was too easily alarmed in the cause of religion.
Organized as the human race is, individuals have different inlets of
perception, different powers of mind, and different sensations of
pleasure and pain.

"All spread their charms, but charm not all alike,
On different senses different objects strike:
Hence different passions more or less inflame,
As strong or weak the organs of the frame.
And hence one master-passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."

Brumoy says, Pascal, from his infancy, felt himself a geometrician; and
Vandyke, in like manner, was a painter. Shakespeare, who, of all poets,
had the deepest insight into human nature, was aware of a prevailing
bias in the operations of every mind. By him we are told, "Masterless
passion sways us to the mood of what it likes or loathes."

It remains to inquire, whether, in the lives before us, the characters
are partial, and too often drawn with malignity of misrepresentation? To
prove this, it is alleged, that Johnson has misrepresented the
circumstances relative to the translation of the first Iliad, and
maliciously ascribed that performance to Addison, instead of Tickell,
with too much reliance on the testimony of Pope, taken from the account
in the papers left by Mr. Spence. For a refutation of the fallacy
imputed to Addison, we are referred to a note in the Biographia
Britannica, written by the late judge Blackstone, who, it is said,
examined the whole matter with accuracy, and found, that the first
regular statement of the accusation against Addison, was published by
Ruffhead, in his life of Pope, from the materials which he received from
Dr. Warburton. But, with all due deference to the learned judge, wh