ervations during these various tours
constitute one of the most interesting features in the present volume.
His death took place on the 9th of August, 1847.

He left the character of a man of sterling integrity, excellent
judgment, admirable candor and fairness of mind, a single-hearted
devotion to truth, and a disposition of rare kindness and disinterested
humanity. His biography will be read with satisfaction, by those who
feel themselves indebted to his writings. It is simple, honest,
unpretending, like its subject. With the singularly prosaic mind of Mr.
George Combe, no one can expect to find it animated with any living
glow. It records the life of a public benefactor, but with as little
freshness or enthusiasm, as if the author were giving a Phrenological
lecture on a collection of skulls.

DR. JOHNSON; HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE AND HIS DEATH. New York: Harper
and Brothers. 12mo, pp. 405.

The author of this volume is not surpassed by Boswell in reverence for
"the Great Old Samuel," but happily is not infected with his
puerilities. His book is a favorable specimen of the right kind of "Hero
Worship," dealing tenderly with every relic of the departed, and
religiously gathering every precious tribute to his memory. It
reproduces a variety of characteristic events and scenes in the life of
DR. JOHNSON, without having the air of a compilation. No source of
information seems to have been overlooked, while the labors of previous
writers are so digested and arranged as to give the effect of an
original production. The main subject to which the volume is devoted, is
the illustration of Dr. Johnson's religious character, but numerous
attractive episodes are also introduced, which relieve it from all
tendency to monotony. The last incidents in his life are described with
peculiar interest. Several chapters are wholly occupied with his
Churchmanship, and under different heads, we have a spirited description
of his humanity, his treatment of dissenters, his views of monastic
life, his sympathy with Roman Catholics, and his superstition, all the
statements being fortified with quotations from his own language.
Various questions of collateral interest are discussed by the author, as
suggested by the topics under review, and are usually treated with equal
ability and religious feeling. The work will doubtless be received as a
valuable complement to our Johnsonian literature.

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