When I
mentioned this to a very eminent literary character[202], he opposed me
vehemently, exclaiming, 'No, no, it is _not_ a good imitation of
Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force; it has all the
nodosities of the oak without its strength.' This was an image so happy,
that one might have thought he would have been satisfied with it; but he
was not. And setting his mind again to work, he added, with exquisite
felicity, 'It has all the contortions of the Sybil, without the
inspiration.'
Mr. Croft very properly guards us against supposing that Young was a
gloomy man[203]; and mentions, that 'his parish was indebted to the
good-humour of the authour of the _Night Thoughts_ for an Assembly and a
Bowling-Green[204].' A letter from a noble foreigner is quoted, in which
he is said to have been 'very pleasant in conversation[205].'
Mr. Langton, who frequently visited him, informs me, that there was an
air of benevolence in his manner, but that he could obtain from him less
information than he had hoped to receive from one who had lived so much
in intercourse with the brightest men of what has been called the
Augustan age of England; and that he shewed a degree of eager curiosity
concerning the common occurrences that were then passing, which appeared
somewhat remarkable in a man of such intellectual stores, of such an
advanced age, and who had retired from life with declared disappointment
in his expectations.
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