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

and reaction against the ldolatrou5 homage
paid him by clique. 1t is ridiculous IN
Thackeray talking of Johnson's pen having
been the great support of tory principles an
on the contrary, othing weaker and less tel
ling from the pen of a man of similar ability,
than his Taxation on Tyranny" and other
political pamphlets, exists he seems IN them
a mere angry and raving child compared to
Junius and Burke what a far inferior return
for his pension, you think, did he make than
Burke and Dryden, who wrote their very best
pamphlets or poems to the tune Of government
ingots The only good he really did to tory
ism was by his lively sallies in talk, as when
he called the devil the first whig. or said that
whiggism was tue negation OF all principle
In fact, he was too surly dog to be shackled
by pension or place, and to bark only when
he was bidden. And tory he professed
himself to be, there beat ir him as high
heart of independence, and burned as severe
| a scorn of servility, as in Burns himself. A
tory by education, he was a republican by
nature, To man of this kind, placed in
false position, employed by the government,
| vet unbeloved by the aristocracy, nusing
| under a scratch-wig and dusty brown coat a :
spirit as proud, as self-rellant and well-nigh
as miserable as Dante's-
"For Tory too hot, for drudge disobedient,
And too fond of the right to pursue the eXpe
dient'-
rather feared than cordially admired by the
/ literary world fonder of commanding a lit
tie select circle than ofcontliating many, and
who liked better to ''fold his limbs and have
his talk OUT by his own freside than to haunt
| the levees of princes, cool his heels In the
antechambers of dukes-to such a man Bos-
well came like ministering angel, aud both
might, on the day of the introduction. have
| exclaimed, O proclarunt diem! Boswell
could crafty johnson with that quota of in
cense which was denied him by the great,
and which, naughty as he was, had become
as necessary to his mental comfort as tea to
his bodily solacement; was always disposed to
listen to his conversation, to give him texts
for talk, ready to be at times his butt, and,
like lightning-rod to carry off the fury of
his sudder tornadoes of passion; chimed in
with all his prejudices and superstitions. less
from sycophancy than from sympathy knew
how to manage his weaknesses and to soothe
his melancholy. the rather that they were no
strangers to his own constitution, he being,
like ohnson, on different scale, compound
of intellectualism and animalism, OF gayety
and gloom by constituting Johnson father
confessor for his own faults, he made johnson
in exchange, reveal good deal of his secret
history, of which, however, he makes spar
ing and no angenerous use; and he suited
johnson, moreover, because be was the son
of a laird, doing homage to the son of the
keeper of Lichfeld book-stall because he
was Scotchman, humbling himself before
the great enemy Of his country and because,
instead of sometimes sneeriDg at him like
Bcauclerk, quizzing him like Garrick, or con-
fronting him in argument like Burke, Bos-
well was always the ready, unresisting pillow
for his eloquence or his wrath, his wisdom or
lis passion, his outspoken seorns and chagrins
or his sullen silence. johnson foTesaw, too,
that his life, when published by Boswell
| would become one of his most enduring titles
to fame, and would, in a degree second to
scarce one of his veritable works, display the
force of his intellect the depth of his sagacity,
the extent and variety of his knowledge, the
readiness Of his wit, and the rich resources of
his conversational genius. Boswell, on the
other hand, knew right well what he was
| about, and that In erecting pillar to John
sou, he was building monunteatuma acre per-
eunius to himself. Hence he endured great
deal from johnson without a murmur; and
! Scott happily compares him jockey showing
the points of high-fed charger, who. while
he receives not few kicks for his pains, tries,
with writhing lips, to pass them off as a joke.
and as only the ''hanimaPs way"
That johnson should have had some curl
GUS feelings in the presence of his future biog
rapher and literary undertaken, is not at all
| improbable TO be measured for your coffin
ere you are dead-to feel around you the air
of a postmorten examination while still in
perfect health-to have your witticisms as
! serious sayings recorded in a journal. as if in
the pages of an obituary-to be eyed with a
! look which seems to say, How will this ges-
ture or that word tell in a biography ?"-to
hear stifed sighs, having reference to the
postponed sale of your literary Remains,
heaved, as you tell your friend, in answer to
his kind inquiries, that you were never bet
ter in your life-to see suppressed smiles in
his hypocri:ical visage as he observes your
pale cheek, or hears your chest-shattering
! cough. or silently notes your increasing wrin-
( kles or gray hairs-to watch the step and eye
of the scoundrel through window, as he
hurries in on report of your sudden apop-
lectic seizure, and contrast it with the fcti-
tious Joy which mantles his face, as finding
you in your usual health. he grasps you war
mly by the hand. and cries, MAY you live 8
thousand years !"-to have your body treated
as Burke says the French revolntionists wish
ed to treat the Duke of Bedford. their only
inquiry being, chow he cuts up, how he tai
lows in the caul. or on the kidneys" prick
ing their dotted lines upon your hide, and
alive as you are, dividing you, like an OK,
into rumps, and sirts of pieces for roasting
boiling and stewing"-all this cannot be very
pleasant for any man of woman born, apd
vet all this has been submitted to by not fev
! men of genius. and was consciously so by DIR
| johnson, who. besides being permitted tt
, read Boswelrs record, might be said to enjoj
) the privilege of presiding at his postum
, nous dissection There is pretty myth b,
. Beresford, author of of the ''Miscries of Ilu