well acquainted with literature and the world of common life, is universally acknowledged. He has been, at the same time, subjected to just ridicule for his total want of that natural dignity by which men of the world secure and maintain the respect of their fellow-creatures in the daily business of life. He wanted this to such a degree, that even those relations whose respect was most necessary, according to the laws of nature, could scarcely extend it; and from the same cause, his intellectual exertions, instead of shedding a lustre upon his name, have proved rather a kind of blot in his pedigree. His unmanly obsequiousness to great men—even though some of these were great only by the respect due to talent—his simpleton drollery his degrading employment as a chronicler of private conversations—his mean tastes, among which was the disgusting one of a fondness for seeing executions—and the half folly, half vanity, with which ho could tell the most delicate things, personal to himself and his family, in print have altogether conspired to give him rather notoriety than true fame, and, though perhaps leaving him affection, deprive him entirely of respect. It was a remarkable point in the character of such a man, that, with powers of entertainment almost equal to Shakspeare's description of Yorick, he was subject to grievous fits of melancholy in private. One of his works, not noticed in the preceding narrative, was a series of papers under the title of "The Hypochondriac," which appeared in the London Magazine for 1782, and were intended to embody the varied feelings of a man subject to that distemper.
Perhaps, it is only justice to Boswell, after expressing the severe character which the world has generally pronounced upon him,[1] to give his own description and estimate of himself, from his Tour to the Hebrides. "Think of a gentleman of ancient blood, the pride of which was his predominant passion. He was then in his 33d year, and had been about four years happily married: his inclination was to be a soldier; but his father, a respectable judge, had pressed him into the profession of the law. He had travelled a good deal, and seen many varieties of human life. He had thought more than any body supposed, and had a pretty good stock of general learning and knowledge. He had all Dr Johnson's principles, with some degree of relaxation. He had rather too little than too much prudence; and, his imagination being lively, he often said things, of which the effect was very different from the intention. He resembled sometimes 'the best-natured man with the worst-natured muse.' He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the encomium of Dr Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the companion of his tour, represents him as one 'whose acuteness would help any inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation, and civility of manners, are sufficient to counteract the inconveniencies of travel, in countries less hospitable than we have passed.'"
BOSWELL, Alexander and James, sons of the preceding. It has been remarked, as creditable to the memory of James VI., that he educated two sons, who were both, in point of personal and intellectual character, much above the standard of ordinary men. The same remark will apply to the biographer of Johnson, who, whatever may be thought of his own character, reared two sons who stood forth afterwards as a credit to his parental care. A wish to educate his children in the best manner, was one of the ruling passions of this extraordinary littera-
- ↑ Sir William Forbes, in his Life of Beattie, thus speaks of Boswell:—"His warmth of heart towards his friends was very great; and I have known few men who possessed a stronger sense of piety, or more fervent devotion, (tinctured, no doubt, with a little share of superstition, which had probably been in some degree fostered by his habits of intimacy with Dr Johnson) perhaps not always sufficient to regulate his imagination or direct his conduct, yet still genuine, and founded both in his understanding and his heart. For Mr Boswell I entertained a sincere regard, which he returned by the strongest proof in his power to confer, by leaving me the guardian of his children."
