Abstract
THE charge of tautology. redundancy. and superfluity of expression brought against the opening couplet of Johnson's The Vanity 01 Human Wishes is a commonplace of criticism. It is most memorably conveyed in Coleridge's mocking paraphrase, 'Let observation with extensive observation observe mankind extensively'.1Along with this. the manner of the personifica·tion of Observation is still regarded in some quarters, perhaps by a majority of readers. as the poem's most unfortunate defect.:!If that view is right, a noble poem, one that is increasingly ranked among the greatest of its age, is flawed in its very footings. If Johnson had indeed initially made such a blunder, the remainder of the composition would not easily have recovered from it; but I doubt if over-nice readers of these lines suffer their supposed affliction for long. On the contrary, as I hope to show, this couplet, and indeed the whole opening paragraph, in their blend of elevation and precision, both in concept and style, impressively establish the quality of the ensuing poem. A prophetic strain. first emerging in Pope and partaking of the nature of epic, achieves its authentic voice for the eighteenth century in The Vanity of Human Wishes.
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