were ungracious even if deserved. The follower kissed the rod, and has not hesitated to confess the punishment; he had a fixed purpose in view, and therefore, much to our advantage and to his own fame, “stooped to conquer.” For this deference toward great knowledge, pre-eminent abilities, and moral worth, he has been denounced with extravagant violence as if guilty of a moral offence. Hard names have been freely applied to what has unquestionably proved to be disinterested attachment. Yet who has contributed so much to our amusement? Where shall we find in our own or any other language one who has shown equal talent and industry in recording so much wit, wisdom, and acquaintance with life for the instruction and amusement of mankind? Such a book is not the product of chance. He had no model to follow; but with that happiness of thought, which if it does not imply genius certainly falls little short of it, struck out one for himself. As there has been but one Johnson, so there certainly is but one Boswell. He stands alone in the plan and execution of a work which has won the admiration of every description of reader.
Malone, who appears to have mentioned Boswell’s design to a Dublin correspondent so early as 1787, became more impressed in his favour by the reply. Unluckily the name is detached from the letter; but this Irish friend appears to have had keen insight into character, and evidently figured among the higher class of literary men of that city.
“You will think me very passive that I should never have read the illustrious Hawkins,[1] but I have
