B O S W E L L. 



77.5 



Biwrull Mr Boswell again embarked in politics, in opposition 

 '- v~~- / to the very minib.:ry whom he had zealously support- 

 ed before, when he thought them in the right, and, in' 

 A Second Letter to the People of Scotland, he remon- 

 strated warmly against the measure, which was af- 

 terwards withdrawn. In 1784, he met with a severe 

 affliction in the death of his illustrious friend Dr 

 Johnson, who died on the 13th of December of that 

 year. Mr Boswell, during his residence in Scotland, 

 had no inconsiderable practice at the bar, and enjoy- 

 ed the intimate acquaintance of the most celebrated 

 among his countrymen, of Lord Kaimes, Lord 

 Hailes, Dr Robertson, Dr Blair, and Mr Beattie, be- 

 sides a numerous circle of other persons, distinguish- 

 ed for their rank, talents, and virtues ; but his love 

 for London, and its wide and varied scene of life 

 imbibed in his youth, and which gained strength 

 as he grew older, determined him at last to settle 

 with his family in the metropolis, which he did 

 in 1786, having a short time before been called to 

 the English bar. In 1785, he published his Journal 

 of a Tour to the Hebrides, which not only forms a 

 striking part of his delineation of Johnson, but is re- 

 plete with interesting information on various topics. 

 There has no where appeared so lively or so affect- 

 ing an account of the difficulties and escape of the 

 grandson of James II. after the battle of Culloden. 

 From this time he was for some years most assiduously 

 employed in preparing his great biographical work for 

 the press. At last his Life ofDr Johnson appeared in 

 1790, in 2 vols 4to. Of this work the public expecta- 

 tion was high, and it was amply gratified. Never be- 

 fore had the world seen so full, so faithful, and so cor- 

 rect a representation of an eminent man. Those who 

 had been unacquainted with Johnson were now intro- 

 duced into his society, and enjoyed " the feast of rea- 

 son" as much as if they had conversed with him for 

 years. Those who had known him found their know- 

 ledge so agreeably renovated, and so enlarged, that 

 many of them confessed, that they had a more vivid 

 idea of Johnson's character and colloquial powers from 

 Mr Boswell's narrative, than their own experience, 

 even in actual intercourse with him, could have sup- 

 plied. This work, however, did not escape criti- 

 cism : Some objected to the minuteness of the rela- 

 tion, and the introduction of petty details ; but it 

 should be recollected, that circumstances which, se- 

 parately taken, are of little moment, when united to- 

 gether go to constitute a full and lively resemblance, 

 instead of that meagre outline which biographers in 

 general are content to display. Others maintained, 

 that Johnson's virtues were such, that no mention 

 should have been made of his failings ; but to this it 

 may be observed, that the mode they recommend would 

 have been contrary to that strict regard for truth 

 which Johnson himself always inculcated in works of 

 this nature ; and, secondly, that this plan would have 

 defeated it own purpose. The world was already in 

 possession of the writings of Sir John Hawkins and 

 Mrs Piozzi. Had Mr Boswell confined himself to 

 the exemplification of his great friend's virtues alone, 

 the unfair and false exaggerations of the others would 

 have been considered as the real reverse of the pic- 



ture. He did better : By a candid, unvarnished ex- Boswell. 

 hibition of the whole truth, he clearly proved that v v~ - 

 his faults, when compared with his excellencies, were 

 as dust in the balance. Others there were who, un- 

 able to deny the merit of the work, attempted, with 

 feeble effect, to tear the laurels from the brow of the, 

 author. It required no great power of mind, they 

 observed, to record the brilliant sayings of others- 

 Nothing can be more ignorant than this remark. 

 There is no faculty more rare. " Few people," said 

 a celebrated wit, " can carry a bon mot : It cannot 

 then be easy to carry as many as will fill two quarto 

 volumes." But, in fact, it is a false representation 

 of the Life of Johnson, to describe it as merely a 

 collection of good sayings. Valuable as it is in that 

 respect, it is far from being the whole of its merit. 

 It contains an exquisite delineation of character, con- 

 veyed throughout with dramatic vivacity, and proves 

 the writer, as has been truly observed, to have had a 

 picturesque imagination, and a turn for poetry as 

 well as humour. It is remarkable that, notwith- 

 standing his enthusiastic admiration of Johnson, he is 

 free, from all attempt at imitation, and has never 

 transfused " the long majestic march" of the great 

 moralist's language into his own style, which, though 

 frequently enlivened by a happy vein of imagery, is 

 uniformly simple and unaffected. 



On the publication of this work, he was gratified 

 with the most liberal applause by his most distin- 

 guished contemporaries. Nor were their sentiments 

 in its favour expressed to himself alone : Mr Burke, 

 in a conversation with Sir James Mackintosh, decla- 

 red, that Boswell's Life would do more honour to 

 Johnson than all his works put together. Such an 

 encomium from such a man will much more than 

 counterbalance all the witling sneers with which dul- 

 ness, spleen, or malice, have assailed him. From 

 this time till his death, we have nothing memorable 

 to record. In 1795, he was suddenly seized with an 

 ague. The confinement which this disorder occa- 

 sioned brought on a painful complaint to which he 

 was subject, and he died at his house in London, on 

 the 19th of June. 



As a writer, his works must speak for him } as a 

 man, his character will be always remembered by 

 those who knew him with affectionate regret. He 

 has been described by others, and has even described 

 himself, as being vain ; but his vanity was of that 

 playful kind, and so remote from all wish to depress 

 others, that no one, whose temper was not sour in- 

 deed, could possibly have been offended with it. He 

 had his foibles ; who has them not ? His fondness 

 for social conviviality sometimes led him into excess, 

 but his principles were always untainted. In poli- 

 tics, he was at once a steady royalist and an ardent 

 friend of genuine liberty. In religion, he was from 

 thorough conviction a member of the English church ; 

 but intolerance, or enmity towards those who differed 

 from him, would have been totally inconsistent with 

 his mild disposition. " I can drink, I can laugh, I 

 can converse," as he tells us, " in perfect good hu- 

 mour, with Whigs, with Republicans, with Dissent- 

 ers, with Independents, with Quakers, with Mora- 



