New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-10-11
JAMES BOSWELL.
HIS METHODS APPLIED 10 HIMSELF.

4.
LIFE OF JAMES ROSWELL Cot Anchpieckl; With an an
Account OF his Savings, dongs and Writings. by
Percy F1tzserald, NJ. A., F. s. A. WITH four por-
traits. In two volumes svo, PIP. 29a-.o4. u. Ap-
pleton Co. d. era. 4. ~ i.r "a,
james Boswell, TO paraphrase remark OF raj
staff. has not only written himself. bat has been
the cause of writing-and much wrltlng-in others.
Mr. Fitzgerald who has fallen under the spell as
completely as any of HIS predecessors, is fam to
remark that all the editors of the biogrnpher OF
johnson have by q curious delusion seemed TO re-
gard their function as demanding such expansion
as would be thought legitimate in no other circum
stances. All Of them have held themselves at
liberty TO NEEDLE with the text aud ARRANGEMENT
Of their author in way which has in more tiinn
ono instance resulted in practical recasting OF the
book: while the itch for commenting upon. cor
recting and amending the original text has been
50 uncomfortable as TO suggest masterful desire
for literary association with one who has been
stigmatized as q fool. sycophant an impudcnt
fellow. at the same time that he has been hailed
as tie writer Of the best biography In the English
tor any other language. In the volumes before
us Mr. Fitzgerald has applied Boswclls own
methods to himself. with results which ore GER
toinly interesting. though the effects are py no
means always legitimately wrought -'a
For it is to be observed that a very large pro-
portion Of the interest here is really attributable
10 citations from Boswell's Life Of john
son, which are employed TO throw light
in this case, not upon the hero, but
upon the hero-worshipper. MIR. Fitzgerald has
pet theory to the effect that the Life OF John
SON. If read with due preparation, illuminatcs
Boswell's character. This can hardly be consd-
cred the great psychological discovery the author
Of these volumes appears TO think it, for it would
be difficult to name any book which does not more
lecce
Boswell, moreover, man who could not write
at all without displaying his own dominant char
acteristics inaspuch as these were first, bound
less vanity, and second, an Unsuitable curiosity
But one consequence of Mr.. Fitzgerald'S psyche
logical hypothesis is to furnish him with an eX-
cpse for transferring to his work scores of pages
Of the Life and generally to appropriate, under
enc prctext or another, all such good things OF
Boswell as will tighten and flavor his pages. we
do not so far to say that Boswell has already
told all that the world cares to know about him
self, for the curiosity of the world is very un
manageable quantity. But whoever takes the
trouble to compare the revelations of the Lie
with the new information supplied by MI Fltz-
gerald will be apt to suspect that the modern in
quest into Boswclrs career has resulted merely in
the raSing up of matter which for the biographers
sake had better have remained forgotten.
this consideration, for if poor "Bozzy" is made
to appear in many respects frazier and worse
man than the Life" shows him, on the other
hand some evidence is advanced which tends to
free him from the odum cast upon his memory
by Macaulay and othsr critics, and which war
rants more respectful and serious view of his
mental capacity. Mr.. Fitzgerald certainly makes
q centre shot when he notes the inherent pre-
posterousness Of the favorite theory that Boswell
was at once complete fool and the writer of the
best biography extant. The combination is OBJ
viously not merely paradoxical, but impossible
md it would seem that those who hold to his
inbecility are logically under obligation 10 demon
stratc, Ia Donnelly, that he did not write the
Life OF johnson" Whoever did write that ad-
mirablc ard deli.sltfu book certainly Very far
from being fool. and Mr.. Fitzgerald has done
a real service to literature in breaking ground
for such an examination of Boswell's character
as may reconcile the undeniable absurdities of
his conduct with the equally undeniable traces of
genius OF rare kind shown forth in his writ
ings No doubt johnson himself did much TO
establish the notion of Boswells folly and it is
perhaps deserving of note that the Doctor, in per-
hitting himself to he 1}oswcllized, showed the
possession of vanity in some respects even greater
than can be charged upon his enthusiastic BIZ
ographcr. Boswell indeed has received not lit
tie cavalier and even unfair treatnei-s His
surface folies and faults have been dwelt upon
often to the exclusion of the obligations under
which those very faults and follies have placed
the world For it is perfectly clear that no other
kind of man could have done what he did. The
combination Of qualities required for his twenty
years of vigilant observation and patient, humble
subserviency, and for the final arrangement and
mastery presentation of his material, must have
been Of the rarest
He was, in fact, q born biographer, and he
united In himself nearly all the essential charac-
teristics of the ideal editor, conceived to-day.
Mr. Fitzgerald acutely observes that BoswelPs
tact and Judgment in what is called inter
viewing" throws any modern examples of the
art completely in the shade. He never wearied
his readers with surplusage. He never spread
his stories so to weaken their point. lie had
the knack of painting vivid portrait with a
few words He was clever enough to improve
and heighten the anecdotes he inserted in his
book His Judgment in matters Of this kind
was really wonderful and clearly intutive. lie
possessed o fine literary taste, and his imperti-
nences and bru;alities were the defects inalenabe
from those qualities which have long enter
tanned and charmed the civilized world. But for
his intrusivcneSs, his cslousness to ridicule, his
amazing persistence, lis subordination OF good
breeding, charity and sensibty to the imperi-
GUS demands Of his subject, we should, moreover.
have known virtually nothing Of Samuel Johnson,
for neither Mrs. Thrale nor Sir John Hawkins. nor
any Of the lesser fry who wrote about him, could
have preserved his memory from oblivion. or
made him live as he lives in the yivacous pages
of Boswell 1t was indeed q fortunate conjunc-
ton that brought together the, man whose life
deserved so well to be written. and the other man
who was pre-cminently fitted to write it.
The personal life Of James Boswell. as related
In Mr.. Fitzgerald's book, presents few attractive
features at first sight. but the reader will not be
long in perceiving that however many foolish
things the man may have done, there was in him
a core of soundness. lie was from the beginning