PREFACE. XL 



It is this fidelity of reprefentation which 

 makes Mrs. Piozzi's Memoirs of Dr. John- 

 fon, and Mr. Bofwell's Tour, and his Life 

 of that wonderful being, fo valuable to 

 thofe who wifli not for an idol to worfhip, 

 inftead of a great man to contemplate, as 

 nature, paffion, and habit, compounded 

 his character. 



If thofe biographers had invefted their 

 deceafed friend with excellence, which no 

 fbmbre i rri tability had ever overfhadowed ; 

 with juftice and candor, which no literary 

 jealoufy, no party prejudice, no bigot zeal 

 had ever warped ; the public might have 

 been led, through boundlefs veneration of 

 one, into injuftice towards many. The 

 world might have been induced to Relieve 

 that all whofe merit he has depreciated, 

 whofe talents he has undervalued, through 

 the courfe of his Lives of the Poets, had 

 deferred the fate they met on thofe pages. 

 Then, to the injury of our national tafte, 

 and to the literary and moral character of 

 the great Englifh Claffics, more univerfat 



con- 



