ABSTRACT
Rasselas has been considered as the masterpiece of Johnson, and has received very extensive and indeed merited commendation. But admiration of the man will often hurry us beyond deserved praise, and sink us in the meanness of hyperbole; and I fear this is sometimes the case with the Prince of Abyssinia. The language is harmonious, the arguments are acute, and the reflections are novel-but with all its splendour it exhibits a gloomy and imperfect picture. An excuse may indeed be offered for the melancholy scenes of life contained in this performance, which must be denied to the Rambler. Every one knows that Rasselas was composed to obtain money to behold an expiring parent whom Johnson tenderly loved; and it may be supposed that the gloom occasioned by such an approaching event, might in some measure tincture his writings. It is also to be remembered that he wrote it in want. These are indeed raisons de convenance, and might be admitted, did the Prince of Abyssinia stand out as an exception to his other writings: But as it is too much like all his other speculations upon life, we may justly conclude, that the same Rasselas would have been produced had he written it in the sunshine of plenty, and in the gaiety of happiness.
