Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1831-12-02
LIT f X A r Y .

Biographer Of DR.. Johnson, is from the last fdln'
bush Review. The castisation is tremendous.
II the unfortunate subject were alive, imPerVious
as he was to every thing like literary severity,
this would have made him tremble:
The Life Of Johnson is assuredly great-a
yery great work-Homer is not more decidedly
the first of heroic poets-Shakspeare is not more
decidedly the first of dramatlsts -Demosthenes
is not more decidedly the first of orators, than
Boswell is the first of biographers. He has no
second lie has distauced all his competitors
so decidedly, that it is not worth while to place
them. Eoiiose is first. and the rest nowhere.
We are nor sure that there is in the whole his
tory of the human intellect so strange pheno-
menon as this book. Many ct the greatest men
that ever lived have written biography. Boswell
was one of the smallest men that ever lived; and
he has beaten them all. He was, if we are to
rive any credit to his own account or to the unit
ed testimony of all who knew him, man OF the
meanest and fccbest intellect. Johnson describ-
OF HIM as afeliow who had missed his only chance
of Immortality, by not having been alive when
the Dunciad was written. Beauclerk used his
name as a proverbial expression for bore
He was the laughing stock of the whole OF that
brilliant society which has wed to him the great
err part of its fame. He was always laying him
self at the feet of some eminent man, aud beg
gins to be spit upon and tramp!ed upon. tie
was always earning some ridiculous nickname,
and then binding It as a crown unto him. hot
merely in metaphor, bat literally. tie exhibited
himself, at the Shakespeare Jubilee, to all the
crowd which filled Standardization, with a
placard around his hat, bearing the inscription
Of Corsica BosareH. In his Tour, he proclaim
ed to all the world, that at Ednbnrg he was
known by the appellation Of Pd0h BOS~sH. Ser
vile and Observation-Disclosures and pedantic-a
bigot and sot-bfoatet with family pride, and
eternally clustering about the dignity OF born
gentleman, vet stopping to be talebearer, an
caves dropper, a common butt in the taverns
of London. so curious to know every body who
was talked about, that, Tory and High Church
man "a he was. he man9uvred, we have been
told, for an introduction to Tom Paine--so vain
of the most childish distinctions, that, when he
had been to court, he drove to the office where
his book was being printed, without changing hls
clothes, and summoned all the printers devils to
admire his new ruffles and sword ;-such was this
map-and such he was content and proud to he.
Every thing which another would have hidden,
every thing, the publication OF which would
have made another man harg himself, was mat
ter of CAV and camorous exultation to his weak
and diseased mind. What silly things he said,
what bitter retorts he provokcd,-ho~ at one
place he was troubled with evil presentments
which came to nothng,-how at another place.
on waking from drunken doLe, he read the pray
er book, aud took hair of the dog that had bit.
ten him,-how he went TO see men hanged, and
came away maudlin, how he added five hundred
pounJs TO the fortune of one Of his babies, be-.
cause she was not frightened at JohnsOn's ugly
face.-how he was frightened out OF his wits at
sea.-and how the sailors quoted him as they
would have uuieted child, how tipsy he was at
Lady Cork's one evening, and how much his
merriment annoyed the ladies, impertinent
ne was 10 the Dutchess of Argyle. and with what
stately contempt she put down his mpertIncnce,
how Col Macleod sneered to his face at his impu-
dent obrusiveness,- his father & the very vile
OF his bosom laughed and fretted at his foolerles
all these things he proclaimed to all the world
as # thew had been subjects OF pride and osten'
tatious rejoicing. All the caprices OF his temper
all the illusions of his vanity, all his hypochon
,riac whimsies. all his castles in the air, he dis
played with a cool self complacency, perfect
unconsciousness that he was making fool o
himself to which it Is impossible to find para
lei in the whole history of mankind. He has used
MANY people i'll. but assuredly he has used nobo
DIV 80 Ill as himself
That.such a man should have written one o
the best books in the world, is strange enough
but this is not all; many persons who have con
Quoted themselves foolishly in active life. ano
whose conversation has indicated no superior
powers of mind have written valuable works.
Goldsmith was very justly described by one
his contemporaries as an inspired idiot, and b!
another as being
who wrote like angel and talked like poor Poll
La Fontaine was in society mere simPleton
His blunders would not come in amiss among thu
stories Of Hierocles. But these men ATTAINED
literary eminence in spite Of their weaknesses
Roswell attained it by reason of his weaknesses
If he had not been great fool. he would neve
have been great writer. Without all the quail
tiles which made him the Jest and the torment o
those among whom he lived.-without the off
sousness, the inquisitiveness, the etrontery, thu
toad eating. the insensibility to all reproof, hi
never could have produced so excellent book
He was slave, proud of his servitude,-a Pau