by the same hand, is both in thinking and expression so far above it,
and so strikingly peculiar, as to leave no doubt of its true parent; and
that he also wrote 'A Dissertation on the State of Literature and
Authours[895],'[Dagger] and 'A Dissertation on the Epitaphs written by
Pope.'[Dagger] The last of these, indeed, he afterwards added to his
_Idler_[896]. Why the essays truly written by him are marked in the same
manner with some which he did not write, I cannot explain; but with
deference to those who have ascribed to him the three essays which I
have rejected, they want all the characteristical marks of Johnsonian
composition.

[Page 307: The Literary Magazine. AEtat 47.]

He engaged also to superintend and contribute largely to another monthly
publication, entitled _The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review_; the
first number of which came out in May this year[897]. What were his
emoluments from this undertaking, and what other writers were employed
in it, I have not discovered. He continued to write in it, with
intermissions, till the fifteenth number; and I think that he never gave
better proofs of the force, acuteness, and vivacity of his mind, than in
this miscellany, whether we consider his original essays, or his reviews
of the works of others. The 'Preliminary Address'[Dagger] to the Publick
is a proof how this great man could embellish, with the graces of
superiour composition, even so trite a thing as the plan of a magazine.

His original essays are, 'An Introduction to the Political State of
Great Britain[898];'[Dagger] 'Remarks on the Militia Bill[899];'[Dagger]
'Observations on his Britannick Majesty's Treaties with the Empress of
Russia and the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel[900];'[Dagger] 'Observations on
the Present State of Affairs[901];'[Dagger] and 'Memoirs of Frederick III,