Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1858-03-31
EBENSBURG, MARCH, 81, 1853

Carlyle's account of Boswell, while full of
his usual faults of STYLE looseness of construc-
ton. wilful oddity of expression, rough, alb
rupt, commissions, like the jags in mountain
chains, is exceedingly rich in thought ard
graphic in writing. AS you read it, and COM
pare the different magnitudes of the two men,
and think of the one or two qualities they
have in common, you are reminded of lion
patting and patronizing cat. because they
both belong to the feline tribe. Thus Car
lyle seems to stand over Boswell, with an air
of kindly, yet lord-like condescensou, and to
cry, Nv hat beautiful whiskers, although not
quite so large as mine }! Very respectable
claws, these, although not quite able to crack
the back of rhinoceros Is that something
like an incipient name on the creatures neck?
Oh, what new he utters, an infant roar,
faint approximation to that with which shake
the desert! Above all, with what compla-
cent delight and self-forgetting homage he
purs around the chair, and looks up in the
face Of his masteri" Truly he is ''hunter
of spiritual notabilities, loving such, longing
after such, and even creeping and crawling
to be near them
Amidst Boswells f'sycophancies, coxcomb-
lies, sensualities, pretension. and boisterous
imbecility," Carlyle, with strong, clear eye,
discerns him in an ''open sense" love of
excellence, spirit attracting him, not toward
the temporary pets of the public, to its paltry
lords many and gods many but to the true
and great men of hR own era. We must not
suppose that Boswell admired nobody except
himself and johnson; although johnson
seemed to intimate SO, when. IN a fit of spleen
he told him. Sir, you have only two sub
| jects-yourself and mel am sick of both. :"
He saw and proclaimed the greatness of Pao-
H.
appreciated the merits of his own countrymen,
Hume, Robertson, Blair, Kames and Lord
Hailes He admired Young of the might
| Thoughts" Pope, Milton and Shakespeare.
He did not, it is true, do full justice to Gold
smiths genius, but this arose partly from per-
sonal pique, and partly from the position they
both occupied to johnson. Two satellites
circling one sun may appreciate their COM
mon centre, but can hardly do justice to each
others actual or relative magnltude-the
earth and the moon, however different in size
and while both looking up to the sun, both
look do,oa on each other. But, taking Bos-
well as a whole, he was "a sincere worshipper
of worth and talent. find them where he might
Nor was this entirely the prostration ofa slave
before lord-a brute before mana cold
sunfower before a warm sun. We hold that
there can be no genuine, aud still less any
! prolonged worship of energy, without some
e et,ergy; of truth without little truth of
virtue, without degree of virtue; no wor-
shin IF man in the woman without portion
of the lnanlike no worship of woman with
ont rord deal of the feminine !; and no rel
ish for the powers and wonders of genius
without lesser or larger measure of genius
itself On this principle, which indeed lies
at the root of o .ouine hero-worship, aud even
6 in
tensitv of alteration proved his possession of
a degree. however small, of the true and the
excellent. He had sense enough to perceive
the sensible; wisdom enough to know where
wisdom lay, if not to sound its depths; eye
enough to see into, if not to the very bottom
of, the Castaian springs. He was, In short,
potentially, if not actually good. although
not a great, critic full of critical instinct,
and with clear, Photographic mind. but des-
titute of depth, eloquence, inventiveness, or
imagination, He was to great critic what
boy of fine fresh literary tastes is to grown
and thoroughly furnished man of genius
He sac merits and beauties without being
able to render reasons for his appreciation of
them, to analyze them with profound discrim-
ination, or to pIaise them with glowing elo-
quence. That his admiration of johnson, or
Raoli, or Burke, was altogether disinterested,
we do not believe; he had some notion that
it was only in their company that he was like.
ly to go down to future ages but it was not
this feeling, it was natural instinct, that led
him at first to seek their society and unless
his admiration of them had been genuine,
could he have sustained himself In it aud
had not the work of writing Johnson's Life
been labor of love, it is likely that a man so
dilatory and frivilous as he would have ex-
Jal inn toll On re
ton ? Undoubtedly he was vain man; and
hence according to Wilkes Gin one of his let
ters,) he sometimes palms off remarks as his
own (Which he could not, and which John
son did make" but this is seldom the ac
curacy of his statements is, on the whole, in
controvertible; and surely a man who has
expended so much admiration on others may
! be. permitted to reserve portion for himself;
and surely a cook may be allowed to lick his
fingers, nay, to appropriate few pullets legs
to. his own priqate use, and to boast of his
own cookery, who has furnished us with such
Camacho's wedding of dainty dishes, in the
name and to the honor of the rightful provi-
der. BY long intimacy, too, with johnson,
he had got so much into his track Of thought
and cast of style, that he sometimes. was ena-
bled to utter sentences almost worthy of the
photographer, and might have even written
an Imaginary conversation" or two, nearly
as good as the original.
CARLYLE's ESTIMATE OF BOSWELL.
Carlyle justly speake of Boswell as having
appreciated johnson more thoroughly than
his age, which looked on ''him as huge, i'll
snuffed tallow candle" This is undoubtedly
in some measure true; johnson had grea,
power in the world of letters, and uurivalled
SWAY as a converser in those circles where he
mingled, but there were strong prejudices
against him. partly on account of his coarse
manners, partly on account Of his dogmatisu