Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1819-05-13
ALEXANDRIA,:
CHARACTER OF pocr. SAM. JOHNSON.
THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1919.

CHARACTER OF DOcT. SAM. JOHNSON.
One might have hoped that the charac-
ter of Doctor Johnson would by this time
be as well settled point as any in the his.
tory o. literature. His writings are suffi.
! GENTLY various and volumnous, and have
for ha!fa century undergone the incessant
! scrutiny of the world. Some of the ablcst
men in the world have repeatedly given
| their judgment upon him and yet we con.
! tinually hear and continually read so much
for and against it--so many warm pane
gyrics, and so many fastidious censures
upon him and bis works, that a stranger
who had never heard of him before, would
naturally be led to conclude, from the mass
of controversy to which they occasionally
give rise, that he was a man of but to-day
or yesterday, whose fame was yet floating
in uncertainty, the privileged sport Of ca
price and surly hypercrtici That ex-
traordinary nan, whose example, while IL
wing, incite his contemporaries TO iniellec-
tual exertIon, and whom posterity will re-
gard with a mixture of reverence and emu
lation. now finds in many OF his readers Ell
Their bigot, so blended with admiration of
his superiative powers as to disgrace him
by the most clumsy imitation Of his imper-
fections, or Zollus, who aims only TO call
in question his reputation, and to destroy
his well earned fame.
Johnson had grown grey in literature -
He lived in the capacity of an author on
the town for more than fifty years. By ex-
haustng long and laborious life in con-
tributing to the improvement and delight
of his countrymen, he finally obtained, he-
cause he merited the general unfegned APP
probation Of the far greater part OF them,
and particularly of the learned, the pious,
the virluous and the wise. His enlighten-
ed mind looked only 10 the happiness and
perfection of his species, and was therefore
constantly employed in emitting such effu-
sions Of virtuous intelligence as tended e.
qually to clear the head and better the |
heart; anG when bis death, which had been |
some time expected, was announced, So
ciety in general regarded the melancholy |
event, not with ordinary regret merely but
with CONSERVATION or poignant sensibility |
like that OF a family who had lost its head,
OF all army whose general has fallen.
OF Johnson, as of most men who oullive
their cotemporaries, it may be said that the
anecdotes OF his juvenile days have perish
ed with the companions OF his youth. A
Boswell, Piozzi and other cleaners of Cd
dity and inbecilIty, by grouping in one
heterogeneous mass, the excen'ricities of
genius loaded with the frailtIes of age, and
toltering under The accumulated decays of
nature, exhibit him as monster. The one
has exposed him, like Swift, when he had
survived his under standing, as show to
crafty licentlous uierriment; and in gross
violation OF gratitude and friendship, bro't
derlsion on talents and qualities which he
still seemed to adore. The other, pIqued
at the disgust which Johnson avowed on
her marriage, IN this manner lakes her re-
venge on his memory; and after contribu-
ting her share to initiate him with vanity,
drags him forth in disguise, and invites the
public to laugh al the awkward and gigan-
tic caricature of her own imagination.
In fairly estimating the real merit OF this
elegant and mastery writer, it will be ne.
cessary to attend, not SO much to what ne
knew as to what he communicated. His
most intimate friends could obtain but
partial acquaintance with the former; the
public are in full possession Of the latter.
1t seems OF very little consequence how the
fountain is supplied, while the stream pre-
serves its fullness. The genius Of jahn.