an overmastered apprehenfion, fell back in a fwown, without the appearance of any other life into her, then what by the moft refined wits of theological ⚫ fpeculators is conceived to be exerced by the purest parts of the feparated entelechies of bleffed faints in their fublimeft converfations with the celeftial hierarchies: this accident procured the incoming of < an apothecarie with reftoratives, as the other did that of a furgeon, with consolidative medica'ments.'

Speaking of the manner of Crichton's death, and that it followed from a thruft with his own fword by the hand of the prince, fon of the duke of Mantua, the author fays;

The whole court wore mourning for him full three quarters of a yeer together: his funeral was very stately, and on his hearfe were ftuck more Epitaphs, Elegies, Threnodies, and Epicediums, then, if digefted into one book, would have out-bulk't all Homers works; fome of them being couched in fuch exquifite and fine Latin, that you would have thought great Virgil, and Baptifta Mantuanus, for the love of their mother-city, had quit the Ely'fian fields to grace his obfequies: and other of them (befides what was done in other languages) compofed in fo neat Italian, and fo purely fancied, as if Ariofto, Dante, Petrark, and Bembo had been purposely refufcitated, to stretch even to the utmost, their poetick vein, to the honour of this brave man ; whofe picture till this hour is to be feen in the bedchambers or galleries of the most of the great men of that nation, reprefenting him on horseback, with a lance in one hand, and a book in the other: and moft

X 2

most of the young ladies likewise, that were any thing handfome, in a memorial of his worth, had his effigies in a little oval tablet of gold, hanging • 'twixt their breafts; and held (for many yeers together) that Metamazion, or intermammilary ornament, an as neceffary outward pendicle, for the better fetting forth of their accoutrements, as either Fan, Watch, or Stomacher.'

The feveral exploits of Crichton, above-related, as they appear upon the face of Sir Thomas Urquhart's book, are, it must be confeffed, unsupported by any citations from history, or the writings of contemporary biographers, or other narrators of remarkable transactions, and may, therefore, in the judgment of thofe who reflect on the hyperbolical ftyle of the author, and the extravagancies to which fuch an enthufiaftic spirit as his will lead men, stand in need of still farther proof. Happily, fince the publication of the Adventurer, fuch evidence has been laid before the public, as must remove all doubt of the existence of such a person as Crichton, and of the truth of the facts above-related of him.

For this information we are indebted to Mr. Pennant, who, in his tour to Scotland, vol. I. page 295, confirms the account of Sir Thomas Urquhart in all its particulars, vouching, as his authority, Aldus Manutius, Joannes Imperialis, a physician of Vicenza, and a writer whom I take to be Eftienne Pafquier, two of whom were perfonally acquainted with him, and eye-witneffes to the triumphs by them feverally recorded. From Aldus Manutius we learn, that Crichton was a fcholar of Buchanan.

Mr.

Mr. Pennant has further obliged the public with fome Latin verfes of Crichton's writing, and an engraving of him from an original portrait.

From all which teftimonies, it is but a neceffary conclufion, that whatever may be fuppreffed, as paffing credibility, of the perfon here celebrated, enough is, upon incontestable authority, related, to induce us to rank him among prodigies.

That Johnfon dictated this number of the Adventurer, I have already faid: that he did not himself write it may be thus accounted for; he had doubtlefs red the hiftory of Crichton in Sir Thomas Urquhart's book, and retained it with that firmness of memory, which held faft almost every thing that he met with in books. Suppofing him, as we may, too indolent to recur to one that he had formerly red through, and, in the hearing of Hawkefworth, to have related the tranfactions of fo wonderful a man, the latter might catch at it as a fit fubject for an effay, and give it to the world, as he has done in the Adventurer. To which we may add, that Johnson was feldom a narrator of events: his talent was original thinking; in converfation he told ftories, and related hiftorical facts with great precifion, but rarely fent them abroad in writing.

We are not to fuppofe, that that foreness of mind, which Johnson seems to have felt at the time of his difcontinuing the Rambler, was, in the fhort interval of fix months, fo completely healed, as to render him a difinterested candidate for praise in this new publication; or that he who had declared, that he could not compose a sermon, gratis, would write an Adventurer, without being hired to it on the contrary, it

is certain, that he retained his old maxim, that gain was the only genuine ftimulative to literary exertion, and that the affiftance he gave to this publication was purchased at two guineas, for every number that he had finished; a rate of payment which he had before adjusted in his ftipulation for the Rambler, and was probably the measure of a reward to his fellowlabourers.

The avowed end of the Adventurer, being the fame with that of the Rambler, and the plan and conduct thereof fo little different from it, the latter may be confidered as a continuation of the former: nevertheless, it may be observed, that in the Adventurer, the number of entertaining papers, of portraits, fingular characters, and effays of wit, humour, and pleasantry, is greater, in proportion, than in the Rambler; and to that diverfity it was doubtlefs owing, that the circulation of it was more diffufe. On the part of the writers it was carried on with great vigour, and, together with the Rambler, is likely to remain a lasting evidence of the spirit that dictated, and the public good fenfe that encouraged, fuch a feries, as they both contain, of religious inftruction, ceconomical wisdom, and innocent' delight.

Hawkefworth has, almost in terms, declared himfelf the editor of the Adventurer, and that the other contributors thereto were merely auxiliaries; and his zeal for its fuccefs may be inferred from the number of papers written by himself, which, upon a comparifon, will be found nearly equal to that of all the reft. This zeal was excited by a motive far more ftrong than any which actuated his co-adjutors, a defire of advantage in his then profeffion, which oftenfibly was

that

that of a governor of a fchool for the education of young females, by making himself known as a judge of life and manners, and capable of qualifying those of riper years for the important relations of domeftic fociety.

But while he was indulging a well-grounded hope to reap this fruit of his studies, a reward of a very different kind courted his acceptance. The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Herring, his diocefan and neighbour, having perufed his effays, and informed himself of his general character, made him an offer of a faculty that should raise him above the level of vulgar literati, and, almost without his being conscious of any fuch exaltation, create him a doctor of both laws, and the honour was accepted.

Among men of real learning, there is but one opinion concerning what are called Lambeth degrees. The right of conferring them is a relic of the power anciently exercised in this country by the legates of the pope, and is, by ftatute, transferred to the archbishop of Canterbury. It received a legal fanction in the determination, about the year 1720, of the cafe of the warden of Manchefter college. Degrees of this kind are often convenient for clergymen, as they are qualifications for a plurality of livings, but, as they imply nothing more than favour, convey little or no honour.

But Hawkefworth was fo far mistaken in his notion of this act of kindness of the archbishop, that though he had never red Juftinian, nor perhaps ever feen the Corpus Juris Civilis, or Corpus Juris Canonici, he conceived himself tranfmuted by it into a civilian and a canonift, and qualified for an advocate in either of thofe judicatures where the above laws are feverally recognised.