9 ory 
colloquial diftates fhould be carefully in- 
terwoven. 
This book was, with much care and 
pains, compofed, condudted. through the 
prefs, prefented to the public. -Iis 
compofition delightfully foothed the au- 
thor’s mind, by calling up to him in re- 
trofpeStive view the affociates, the anufe- 
ments, the converfations of the prime 
years of his pa& life. By the public it. 
was atficit fight received with fome mea- 
fure of prejudice. againft it; for who 
could fuppofe that he whe could not make 
up a moderate ofavo, without intredu- 
cing into ita number of trifles unworthy 
to be written orread, fhould have furnitfh- 
ed out two copious, quastos of the bio- 
graphy of a fingle man of letters, other- 
wife than by filling them with triffes to 
fenfe, inthe proportion of a bag of chaff 
to a few grains of wheat? But every 
reader was foon pleafingly dHappointeds 
This wok was quickly tound to exhibit 
an inimitably faithful. picture of the min- 
gled genius and weaknefs, of the virtues 
and the vices, the found fenfe ard the pe- 
dantry, the benignity and the paffionate 
harfhnefs, of the great and excellent, al- 
though not confummately perfect man, 
the train of whofe life it endeavoured to 
unfold. It appeared to be filkd with a 
rich ftore of his genuine dictates, fo elo- 
quent and wife, tha€ they need hardly 
fhun comparifon with the moft elaborate 
ef thofe works which he himfelf publifh- 
ed. Johnfon was feen in it, net asa foli- 
tary figure, but affociated with thofe 
groupes cf his diflinguithed contempo- 
raries with which it was his good fortune, 
in ail the latter and more illuttrious years. 
of his life, often to meet and to converfe, 
It difplayed many fine fpecimens of that 
proportion, in which, in the latter part of 
the eighteenth century, hterature and phi- 
‘ Jofophical wifdom wereliabletobecarelefsly 
interming}ed in the ordinary coaverfation 
of the beft company in Britam. Ht pre- 
ferved a thowand precious anecdotical 
memorials of the ftate of arts, man. 
ners, and policy among us during this 
peried, fuch as muft be invaluable to the 
philofophers and antiquarians of ‘a future 
age. It gave, in the moft pleafing mode 
ef infisution, and in many. different 
points of view, almoft all the elementary 
praétical principles both of tafte and of 
mora} fcience.- It fhowed the colloquial 
tattle of Bofwell duly chakencd by the 
grave and rounded eloquence of Johnfon. 
It prefented a colleétion of a number of 
the moft elabovate of Johnfon’s f{maller 
occafional compofitions, which might 
Memoir of Fames Befwwell, Efe 
| [July Ty 
otherwife perhaps have been entirely lof 
to future times. Shewing Bolwell’s fill. 
in literary compofition, his general ac- 
quaintance with learning and fcience, his. 
knowledge of the manners, the fortunes, 
and the actuating principles of mankind, 
to have been greatly extended and improv- 
ed fince the time when he wrote his Ac- 
count of Corfica, it exalted the character 
of his talents in the eftimation of the 
world; and was reckoned to be fuch a 
maflter-ptece in- its particular fpecies, as. 
perhaps the literature of no cther nation, 
ancient or modern, could boat. It did. 
not indeed prefent tts author to the world: 
in another light than as a genius of the 
fecond elafs; yet it feemed to rank him 
nearer to the frft than to the third.. This 
eftimation of the charaéter of Bofwell’s 
Life of Johnfon, formed by the beft. cri- 
ties foon after its publication, feems to 
have been fince fully confirmed. I any 
well perfuaded that not one even cf the 
moit fuccefsful of his contemporaries at 
the Scottifh bar could have produced a 
work equally replete with charmingly 
amufive elegance and wifdom. is 
The publication of this capital work 
was the laft eminently-confpicuous event 
in Bofwell’s life. Mrs. Bofwell, an ami- 
able, accomplifhed, and prudent woman, 
had died about the time when he went to 
fettle permanently in London. Some of 
his children had been cut off in early in- 
fancy 3 but two fons and three daughters 
fill remained to him. Over their educa- 
tion he watched with a folicitude worthy 
of the tendereft and the moft prudent of 
parents. Elegant accomplhifhments, vir- 
tuous principles, a tafte for moderate, fim- 
ple, and innocent pleafures, and for thefe 
only, were earneftly and not unfuccefsfully- 
endeavoured te be imprefled, as latting 
endowments and -ornaments of their 
minds. To the neeeflary expence of his 
children’s education he is indeed faid to 
have appropriated a very large proportion — 
of his income in the latter years of his 
life. With the principles of piety his 
own mind was too habitually and deeply 
impreffed, not to make him anxioufly care- 
ful to inftruét perfons who were fo dear to 
him in the Chriflian faith, the confola- 
tions of which afford ever our beft refource 
amidf all the forrows of human life.— 
-I have been informed, that, with a tacit 
condemnation of hisown plan of life, he 
was exceedingly defirous that his ejdeit 
fon, a young man of very promifing dif- | 
pofitions and talents, fhould, after ftudy- 
ing the civil law at the Saxon Univerhty 
of Leipfic, qualify himfelf at cil i 
on a 
