JOHNSON. 3 



In estimating the merits of Johnson, prejudices of a 

 very powerful nature have too generally operated un- 

 favourably to the cause of truth. The strongly marked 

 features of his mind were discernible in the vehemence 

 of his opinions both on political and religious subjects ; 

 he was a high tory, and a high churchman in all contro- 

 versies respecting the state ; he was under the habitual 

 influence of his religious impressions, and leant decidedly 

 in favour of the system established and protected by law. 

 He treated those whose opinions had an opposite inclina- 

 tion, with little tolerance and no courtesy ; and hence 

 while these undervalued his talents and his acquirements, 

 those with whom he so cordially agreed, were apt to 

 overrate both. To this must be added, two accidental 

 circumstances, from which were derived exaggerated opin- 

 ions, both of his merits and his defects ; the extravagant 

 admiration of the little circle in which he lived producing 

 a reaction among all beyond it ; and the vehement na- 

 tional prejudices under which he laboured, if indeed he 

 did not cherish and indulge them, prejudices that made 

 his own countrymen prone to exalt, and strangers as 

 prone to decry both his understanding and his knowledge. 

 On one point, however, there is never likely to be any 

 difference of opinion. While the exercise of his judgment 

 will by all be allowed to have been disturbed by his pre- 

 judices, the strength of his faculties will be admitted by 



author furnishes quite her fair proportion of the matter of ridicule. 

 Such weakness as marks many of her sentiments, such deeply seated 

 vanity as pervades the whole, not only of her own, but of her father's 

 memoirs, which are in truth an autobiography as much as a life of 

 him, cannot certainly be surpassed, if they can be matched, in the less 

 deliberate effusions of Mr. Boswell's avowed self-esteem. 



B 2 



