New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-03-28

80 1ooo3 tfIttbSu bltEtE ulScOurEeH on tfa
beard In the FIRST Of these, De Radeude
Bdrba, he makes 1t appear that we are bound
10 shave che beard. ID the second, De 454leuda
Barba, he proves we ought to LET the 5eara
grow;and in the third DE- ref Rade,sria ,d Ais,,-
tta Barba, he considers thai il IA IawfuI either
to shave or cultivate the beard as pleasure.
-
GRroz p eaasg's sssag d ceayssspoo
Doctor johnson as a Conyerzer
Many people think DIR. johnson the ers,pn,o,
9f conversational power. j think otherwise 81,
reasons which IshaIl soon explain, and f. sas,
er should look for such an erewpkari in Burke
Tut neither johnson nor Burke, however thew
might rank as potoers, was the artist thai
demanded Burke valued not at all the repu-
tation OF great performer In eenvsrsasion: hs
scarcely sentemplated the skill as having !. real
sIistence; and = man will never be an artist
VINO does not value his art, or even recognize If
az an objeetsuf6ciently defined Johnso1 aoafr
relied sturdily upon his natural powers for car
rying him aggressiyely through sill cgnyersa.
tonal occasions Of difficulties shat English q d.
ETY., from its known character and compos;rion
could be supposed likely 10 bring forward ui.h' '
5ut caring for any art or system Of rules that
might give further effect to that power Ifa
mani is strong enough to knock doy i n; vnins,
in hundred Of all antagonists, In spite of anv
advantages as to pugilistic science which thew
may possess over himself, he is not likely to care
for the improbable case Of d hundredtT1 man an.
pearing with strength equal to his own, super
added to the utmost excess Of that artifcialskill
which is wanting in himself Against such a
contingency it is not worth while going to tho
cost OF regular pugilistic training Half a
century might not bring up a case of actual
call for its application. Or, If il did, for sin
gle erfra Case Of that nature, there would al
ways be o resource in the ertra land, strictly
speaking, fouD arts Of kicking, scratohinS
pinching and tearing hair *,
The conversational powers Of johnson were
narrow in compass, however strong within their
Own essential limits. As conditio sine aun
non, he did not absolutely demand personal
contradictor by way of g stoker'' to suuply faeI
and keep up his steam; but he demanded at
least a subject teeming with elements Of known
contradictory opinion, whether linked to par
tisanshlpor not. His views of all things tended
to negation, never to the positive and the cres-
tive. Hence may be explained fact, which can
not have escaped any keen observer Of these htsge
Johnsonian memorabilia which we posses, VIZ:
that the egyration Of his flight upon any eneaues-
tion that ever came before him was so oexceedfnely
brief There was no process, no evolution, no
movements Of lf-confict or preparation; q word,
/ distinction, pointed antithesis, and, above all
~ new abstraction Of the logic involved in some
lem, formed the uttermost Of his efforts He
hissipated some casual perplexity that had ga
thered in the eddies Of conversation, but he con
tributed nothing to any weightier interest: be
unchoked q strangulated sewer in some blind
alley, but what river is there that fals his
cleansing power There is no man that can
cite any single errsr which Dr. johnson uu-
masked, or any important truth which be ex-
panded. Nor is this extraordinary DR.. John
son had mot within himself the fountain of s1ch
power, having not hrooding or uaturaIly
philosophic intellect. Philosophy in any ac-
quired sense he had none. How else could it
have happened that, upon David Hartley, upon
David Hume, upon Voitaire, upon Rousseau, the
true or the false philosophy of his @ IN tIay.
beyond personal sneer, founded on some pop
ular SANDER, he had nothing to say and said
nothing A new world was moulding itself in
Dir. Johnson's meridian hours, new generations
were ascending, aud .other palms were won.
Yet of all this the Doctor Suspected nothing.
Gountrymen and cotemporaries of the Doctors
brilliant men, but tas many think) triliDg men,
such as Horace Walpole and Lord Chesterfield,
already in the middle Of that eighteenth CEN
tury, could read the signs of the great changes
advancing, already started in horror from the
portenta which rose before them in Paris, ike
the procession of regal phantoms before Mac
beth, and have left in their letters records nm
depiable tsnch as now rehd like Gassandra pro-
1~iesl that already Trey haye noticed tremors
oh~ Il below their feet, and sounds in
n Inc sfouhs ssnre the great commissions
The air, running ne.- a-atined to rock, full
lnser winch Europe was as. - during the
thirty years later. Many instance -niy
asst war, showed US thatsin tie frivolous ,,,.
night often lurk the most fiery and accomplisbed
II asdes-de- camp and these GASES SHOW that
nen, in whom the world sees only elegant roafs
mstimes from careiessness, sometimes from
m fnpf US, ALA
f penetrating sagacity, and a learned snirit If
observation, such as may be looked for yainly n s
'ersons Of more solemn and academic pretensiaf.
But there was greater defect in Dr.. John
on, for purposes of conversation, than merely
rant OF eye for the social phenomena rising
round him. He had no eye for such nhenome.
%, because he had q somnolent want Of inter-
St IN them; and why because he had little
interest IN man. Having no sympathy with
uman nature In its struggles, Of faith in the
rogress Of man, he could not be supposed to
egard with much interest any forernnning
ymptmos Of changes that to him were then-
elves Indifferent And the reason that he felt
nus careless was the desponding taint in his
lood. It is good to be of melancholy temper
ment, as all the ancient Psychologists held,
ut only if the melancholy is balanced by fiery
spring qualities, not when 1t gravitates essen
ALLY to the earth. Hence the dropping, de-
ponding. character, and the monotony Of the
stimate which DIR. johnson applied to life.
'e were all, in his view, miserable, scrofulous
retches; the strumous diathesis was devel.
ped IN our flesh, or soon would be and, but for
is piety, which was the best Indication of some
reatness latent in him, he would have suggested
all mank nd a nobler use for garters than any
hlch regarded knees. In fact, 4 believe, that
Il for his piety. he would not only have cuun-
lied hanging in general, but hanged himself
particular Now, this gloomy temperament,
y as an occasional, but as d permanen Estate,
fatal to the power of brilliant conversation,
80 far as that power rests upon raising con-
nual succession of topics, and not merely of
sing with lifelsss talent the topics offered by
hers. Man is the central interest about which
evolve all the heeting phenomena of life s these
condary interests demand the first; and with
e little knowledge about them which muss e
lew from little care about them, there can
no salient fountain OF conversational themes.
ecfus--id est Qaod diserfstm facif From
e heart, from en- interest Of love or hatred or
'pe or care, springs all permanent clog aence;
I'd the elastic spring Of conversation Is gone,
the+talker Is mere showy man Of talent,
Hing at an var which he defests.
What an index might BE drawn I'D Of subjects
serestlng to human nature. and suggested by
events of the Jehnsonian period. ppon which
2 Doctor ought TO have talked. and must have
Iked, If his Interest in man had been catholic,