Boswells Life of Johnson | Page 6

city of Lichfield, welcoming back its famous son to
dinner and tea, or to the seat of a country squire, or ducal castle, or
village tavern, or the grim but hospitable feudal life of the Hebrides.
And wherever we go with Johnson there is the lively traffic in ideas,
lending vitality and significance to everything about him.
A part of education and culture is the extension of one's narrow range
of living to include wider possibilities or actualities, such as may be
gathered from other fields of thought, other times, other men; in short,
to use a Johnsonian phrase, it is 'multiplicity of consciousness.' There is
no book more effective through long familiarity to such extension and
such multiplication than Boswell's Life of Johnson. It adds a new world
to one's own, it increases one's acquaintance among people who think,
it gives intimate companionship with a great and friendly man.
The Life of Johnson is not a book on first acquaintance to be read
through from the first page to the end. 'No, Sir, do YOU read books
through?' asked Johnson. His way is probably the best one of
undertaking this book. Open at random, read here and there, forward
and back, wholly according to inclination; follow the practice of
Johnson and all good readers, of 'tearing the heart' out of it. In this way
you most readily come within the reach of its charm and power. Then,
not content with a part, seek the unabridged whole, and grow into the
infinite possibilities of it.
But the supreme end of education, we are told, is expert discernment in
all things--the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the
counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the
counterfeit. This is the supreme end of the talk of Socrates, and it is the
supreme end of the talk of Johnson. 'My dear friend,' said he, 'clear
your mind of cant; . . . don't THINK foolishly.' The effect of long
companionship with Boswell's Johnson is just this. As Sir Joshua said,
'it brushes away the rubbish'; it clears the mind of cant; it instills the
habit of singling out the essential thing; it imparts discernment. Thus,
through his friendship with Boswell, Johnson will realize his wish, still

to be teaching as the years increase.

THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion
which he has given, that every man's life may be best written by
himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that
clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has
embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have
had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited. But
although he at different times, in a desultory manner, committed to
writing many particulars of the progress of his mind and fortunes, he
never had persevering diligence enough to form them into a regular
composition. Of these memorials a few have been preserved; but the
greater part was consigned by him to the flames, a few days before his
death.
As I had the honour and happiness of enjoying his friendship for
upwards of twenty years; as I had the scheme of writing his life
constantly in view; as he was well apprised of this circumstance, and
from time to time obligingly satisfied my inquiries, by communicating
to me the incidents of his early years; as I acquired a facility in
recollecting, and was very assiduous in recording, his conversation, of
which the extraordinary vigour and vivacity constituted one of the first
features of his character; and as I have spared no pains in obtaining
materials concerning him, from every quarter where I could discover
that they were to be found, and have been favoured with the most
liberal communications by his friends; I flatter myself that few
biographers have entered upon such a work as this, with more
advantages; independent of literary abilities, in which I am not vain
enough to compare myself with some great names who have gone
before me in this kind of writing.
Instead of melting down my materials into one mass, and constantly
speaking in my own person, by which I might have appeared to have
more merit in the execution of the work, I have resolved to adopt and

enlarge upon the excellent plan of Mr. Mason, in his Memoirs of Gray.
Wherever narrative is necessary to explain, connect, and supply, I
furnish it to the best of my abilities; but in the chronological series of
Johnson's life, which I trace as distinctly as I can, year by year, I
produce, wherever it is in my power, his own minutes, letters or
conversation, being convinced that