Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-27
WAS JOHNSON REALLY RUDE?
CHESTERToN DISCUSSES LIT
ERARY MANS FAULTS.
He May Have Been Abrupt, But
He Certainly Wasn't Pedantic,
Is Verdict.
Foreign Correspondence Of The Star.

ToTeIEu correspondence OF Inc star.
LONDON, September %. 1909
G. K. Chesterton, whose massive bulk
dressed as DR.. Johnson was one of the
chief delights of the recent church pag-
cant, comes to the support of his hero In
bicentenary estimate which contests
''the two main popular notions that he
was pedantic and that he was rude"
That he was occasionally rude Chester
ton admits. but declares that The was
probably the most unpedantic man that
ever lived; certainly you and / are much
more pedantic than DIR. Johnson. For
pedantry means the worship of dead
words, and his words, whether long or
short, were always alive. He played
long words and short words against each
other with impromptu but infallible art
Chesterton then takes as an example
the story Of the Scotchman who, vexed
at the ritual jeers of Johnson against
his country, said:
DO you remember that God made
Scotland?' Johnson replied promptly:
Sir. you are to remember that he made
1t for Scotchmen." Then, after a pause
he said, in grave meditation: Compare
sons are odiouS, but God made HI"
Now" says Mr.. Chesterton, the vague
popular opinion of Johnson would con-
centrate on long words like compare
sons and 'odious' and retain the impress
sion that he was pedantic. 1t would be
HI and give the impression that he
was vulgar. The only true way OF
testing the matter is to look at the whole
sentence and ask ones self if there is a
single word, long or short, out of its
place.
johnson was the reverse of pedantic,
for he used long words only where they
would be effective. Generally it came to
this, that he spoke pompously when Bos-
well spoke fippantly. and fippantly when
Boswell spoke pompousy-a very sound
rule"
he Was Rude, Perhaps.
The charge of rudeness is admitted to
be much more real, but" says Chester
ton, ''about this also an impression still
surviving requires a great deal OF COR
rection. Johnson was sometimes inso-
lent, but he was never superior. He was
not despot, but exactly the reverse 1t
was his sense of the democracy of de-
bate that made him loud and unscrupu-
lous like mob 1t was exactly because
himself that he sought in desperate cases
to bear them down by clamor. Every
one knows the brilliant description of him
by one of his best friends, If his pistol
misses fire he knocks you down with the
butt of it, But few realize that this is
the act of simple and heroic fellow
lighting against a superior force.
johnson was man of great animal
impulsiveness and of irregular temper,
but Intellectually he was humble He
always went into every conflict with the
idea that the other man was as good as
he was, and that he might be defeated
His bellowings and bangings of the table
were the expressions of a fundamental
modesty. We can feel this element, I
think, in everything he said. down to
those last awful words upon his death
bed, when he spoke of Burke, the one
man who had really excited and ar.
rested him: II l saw him now 1t would
kill me-.
He may seem to be hammering at the
thunder" is the conclusion. but he can
walk into the heart without knocking