Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-07-16
TO THE LIFE.

IN the appended extract, from MAoAuLEY's siasbip
crueism upon boswELLs life Of JOHNSON we think vi
found most truthful picture Of that type Of man
has representatives in every community. We know me
whose trade is to besmear every body with aterv
Of whom there is bare chance Of making any thing
whose tongues never praise honestly blame
to whom the nod of greatness is ecstacy and who's
glory is meanness. Yet such men succeed wonderfully
we'll Practicing upon the little vanities Of Others the,
often climb into place or fill their pockets Every body
says what faerer he smeaning to others-while each
hugs to his bosom, quite true and just the share given
to him Of smiles and falsehoods Charleston Mercury
"Many of the greatest that ever lived have writ
ten biography Boswell was of the smallest men
that lived and he has beaten them ALL He was u
we are to give any credit to his own account the
united testimony of all who knew him. man of the
est and feeblest intellect JOHNSON described him as q
fellow who had missed his only chance of immortality by
not having been alive when the Duncad WAS written.
BEAuoLEnK used his name as proyerbia expression for
bore lie was the laughing stock of the whole OF that
brilliant society which has owed him the greater part
OF its fame. He always laying himself at the feet of
some eminent man. and begging to and tram
pied upon He always earning some ridiculous nick
name, and then binding it crown unto him., not
merely in metaphor but literally He exhibited himself
at the Shakespeare jubilee to all the crowd which filled
Stratfordon Avon with pacard around his hat bearing
the inscription of CORSICA BOSWELL In his tour he pro-
claimed TO all the world that in Edinburgh he known
by the appellaton of PAoLI BOSWELL. Servile and i'm
pertinent shallow and pedanc bloated with family pride,
and eternally clustering about the dignity OF born
teman yet STOPPING to be sdropper
common butt in the taverns of London curious to
know every body who talked about, that Tory and
High Churchman as he was, he manteuvred, have
been told for introduction to Tom PAINE vain of
the most childish distinctions, that, when he had been to
court he drove TO the office where his book being
the e new @ nd
such was this man. and such he content and proud
be. Every thing which another would have hidden
every thing, the publication of which would have made
another man hang himself was matter of gay and cla
morous exuation to his weak and diseased mind What
silly things he said what bitter retorts he provoked
how at one place he was troubled with evil presentmens
which came to nothing; how at another place. waking
from drunken doze he read the prayer book and took
hair OF the dog that had bitten him how he went to
men hanged, and came away maudlin how he added five
hundred pounds to the fortune of of his babies be-
cause she was not frightened at JoHNsoNs ugly face
how he frightened of his wits sea- and how the
sailors quoted him they would have quoted child
how tipsy he at Lady CoRKs evening, and how
much his merrment annoyed the ladies' how impairment
he to the Duchess of ARGYLE and with what stately
contempt she put down his impertnence how Colonel
MACLEOD sneered to his face at his impudent obtrusve
ness how his father and the very wife Of his bosom
laughed and reted his fooleres all these things he
proclaimed to all the world if they had been subjects
for pride and ostenatous rejoicing All the caprices of
his temper all the illusion of his vanit the hypochon
drac WITNESSES all his castles in the air. he displayed with
he making fool of himself to which it is impossible
to find parallel in the whole history of mankind He
has used many people ILL., but assuredy he has used
body SO i'll himself OF the talents that ordinarily raise
emnence writer's he had absolutely There
is not in all his book single remark of his tera
ture, politics. religion, society," which is not either
absurd His dissertations hereditary
gentt the slayetrade, and the entailng OF land
ed estates may examples. To say that these
passages sophstca would be to pay them an extra
VACANT compliment They have no pretence to argument
even to meaning He has reported innumerable OBJ
seryaons made by himself in the course OF conversation
OF those observations do not remember one which
above the intellectual capacity of boy of fifteen He has
printed many Of his letters and in these letters he is
always ranting twadding Logic eloquence wit taste
all those things which generally considered making
book valuable, utterly wanting to him. de had
indeed quick observation and retentiye memory.
These qualities, if he had been man of sense and virtue
would scarcely Of themselves have suced TO make him
conspicuous but he a Ounce, parasite and a
coxcomb, they have made him immortal Those parts of
his book considered abstracted most utterly worth
less delightful when we read them as illustrations Of
the character Of the writer Bad in themselves they are
good dramatically like the Of Justice SHALLOW,
the clipped English Of Dr. CAIUs, the misplaced con-
Of FLUELLEN OF all confessors, BOSWELL is the
most candid Other who have pretended TO lay open
their heartsRoUssEAU, for example, and Lord BIZ
RoS-haye evidently written With constant view to eff
feet and to be then most dstrusted when they
rather himself Of great crime and of dark and
tempestuous passions than proclaim all his little vanee
and all his wild fances. IL would be easier 70 hnd per-
son who would avow actions like those Of CESAR BoRGIA
or DASroN than who would publish day dream like
those Of Alnaschar and Malyolio. Those weaknesses
which keep covered up in the most places
Of the mind be disclosed TO the Of friendship
Of love- precisely the weaknesses which Boswell
paraded before all the world He perfectly frank
because the weakness of his understanding and the
multi Of his spirit prevented him from wing when he
made himself ridiculous. His book resembles nothing
much the conversation Of the inmates Of the Palace
Truth. An il-natured BOSWELL certainly was not
yet the magnity Of the most malignant sarist could
scarcely deeper than his houghtess loquaciy Having
himself sensibity to dersion and contempt he took il
for granted that all others equally callous He
not ashamed to exhibit himself to the whole world
common spy, tattler an humble companion with
the excuse Of poverty tell hundred stories OF his
pertness and folly and Of the insult which his pert
and folly brought upon him 1t natural that he
should show little discretion in in which the feelings
the honor Of others ght be concerned No
~ published such stories respecting persons whom
he professed to love and lie would infalibly
have made his hero contemplate he has made him
SELF had not this hero really possessed moral and
qualities Of very high order The best proof
that JOHNSON really extraordinary Is, that
bis character, instead Of being degraded has, the
whole, been raised by work in which oil his vices and
weaknesses exposed unsparngy than they
we're exposed by CHURCHILL or KENRICK"
TIE SUBLIME AND RIDICULOUS" Now" said Mr.
in lecture upon the muscles Of the scalp
" will tell you perfectly ridiculous story about this,