CHARA CT ERS. 
tinction inthe world. Dr. Johnson 
says of it: 
‘* Your history is like all other 
histories, but your journal is in a 
very high degree curious and de- 
lightful. There is between the 
history and the journal that dif- 
ference which there will always be 
found between notions borrowed 
from without, and notions generated 
within. Your history was copied 
from books; your journal rose out 
of your own experience.and obser- 
vation. You express images which 
operated strongly upon yourself, and 
you have impressed them with great 
_ force upon your readers. I know 
not whether I could name any nar- 
rative by which curiosity is better 
excited or better pratified. 
In 1770, Mr. Boswell was mar- 
ried. The issue of his marriage are 
two sons and three daughters. 
Mrs. Boswell died a few years ago. 
At this time, likewise, he was in 
good practice at the Scotch bar, 
and, among others, took a very 
active part in the celebrated Douglas 
cause; concerning which we find 
a very interesting correspondence 
- betwixt him and Dr. Johnson, pub- 
lished in his Life of the latter. 
In 1784, he published a “‘ Letter 
to the people of Scotland, on the 
present state of the Nation,” against 
Mr. Fox’s India Bill. 
writes to him his approbation of it: 
“© T am very much of your opinion ; 
and, like you, feel great indignation 
at the indecency with which the 
king is every day treated. Your 
paper contains very considerable 
knowledge of the history and of the 
constituuon, very properly produced 
and applied.” 
In 1785, he quitted the Scotch 
bar, and came to reside entirely in 
Vou. XXXVI. 
Dr. Johnson * 
[*33 
London. The same year he pub- 
lished his ** Journal of a Tour to 
the Hebrides ;’ a work of which it 
might have been said, that it was 
one of the most entertaining in our 
language, if it had not been fol- 
lowed by his magnum opus, his 
6¢ Life eof Dr. Johnson,” * of which, 
however, it was a pleasing earnest. 
Soon after his return from a visit 
to Auchinleck, he was seized with a 
disorder, which proved fatal, on Tues- 
day, the 19th of May, in this year. 
Such are the brief chronological 
items of his life. 
Of his character it would be dif- 
ficult to say much more than he has 
said himself in his ** Journal to the 
Hebrides ;” and which may, with 
some propriety, be.copied here : 
“‘] have given a sketch of Dr. 
Johnson. My readers may wish 
to know a little of his fellow- 
traveller. Think, then, of a gentie- 
man of ancient blood; the pride of 
which was his predominant pas-ion, 
He was then in his 32d year, and 
had been about four years happily 
married. His inclination was to be 
a soldier; but his father, a respect- 
able judge, had pressed him into the 
profession of the law. He had 
travelled a good deal, and seen many 
varieties of human life. He had 
thought more than any body sup- 
posed, and had a pretty good stock 
of general learning and knowledge, 
He had all Dr. Johnson’s principles, . 
with some degree of relaxation. 
He had rather too little than too 
much prudence; and, his imagi- 
nation being lively, he often said 
things of which the effect was very 
different from the intention, He 
resembled, sometimes, 
¢ The best good man, with the worst 
natur’d muse.’ 
* For an account of which, see our Register for 1791. 
«Hr 
[*C] 
