Reviews for The Life of Samuel Johnson
Review - Life of Samuel Johnson, The
This was a 1, 243-page biography of a man who didn’t do anything. When he was fairly young he wrote an English dictionary (impressive, I’ll admit) and a few poems, got a living of several hundred pounds a year from the king and spent the rest of his life sitting around talking to people. He did say some witty things, my favorite of which I have copied below.
• “Hearing a woman preach is like seeing a dog walking on its hind legs. It’s not done well, but you are surprised to see it done at all.”
• After an evening in company he was asked if he was not highly gratified by the visit. He replied, “No, Sir, not highly gratified; yet I do not recollect to have passed many evenings with fewer objections.”
• On whether expulsion from Oxford for Methodist praying was too hard a punishment for two students who were otherwise good beings: “A cow is a very good animal in the field, but we turn her out of a garden.”
• One being told “Drinking drives away care, and makes us forget whatever is disagreeable. Would you allow a man to drink for that reason?” He replied, “Yes, Sir, if he sat next to you.”
• After visiting Boswell at his home in Scotland, “I hope Mrs. Boswell is well. When shall I see her again? She is a sweet lady, only she was so glad to see me go, that I have almost a mind to come again, that she may again have the same pleasure.”
• On Americans, “Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.”
• “All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not.”
• “Being angry with one who controverts an opinion which you value, is a necessary consequence of the uneasiness which you feel. Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.”
• On poverty: “I believe, Sir, … It is better that some should be unhappy, than that none should be happy, which could be the case in a general state of equality.”
• “For general improvement, a man should read whatever his immediate inclination prompts him to; though to be sure, if a man has a science to learn, he must regularly and resolutely advance. What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.”
• On charity: “You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompence of their labour, than when you give money merely of charity.”
• On history: “Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, … be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. The man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.”
• “As the ladies love to see themselves in a glass; so a man likes to see himself in his journal.”
• “You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.”
• On being asked if the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland wasn’t worth seeing: “Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.”
• “Sir, there is nothing by which a man exasperates most people more, than by displaying a superior ability of brilliancy in conversation. They seem pleased at the time; but their envy makes them curse him at their hearts.”
• “The real character of man was found out by his amusements. No man is a hypocrite in his pleasure.”
• “The difference between a well-bred and an ill-bred man is this: One immediately attracts your liking, the other your aversion. You love the one till you find reason to hate him; you hate the other till you find reason to love him.”
The book was 1,000 pages too long. At times it was interesting, but the worthwhile parts could have been told in 243 pages. There are endless letters from Boswell in which he complains about depression, and endless letters in return from Johnson in which he chastises Boswell for complaining, then complains about his health, excusing himself by saying that he knows his friends care about him. I would not have liked Johnson. Somehow he seemed to draw people who liked to by insulted by him. Boswell would recite an instance of Johnson’s obnoxiousness, then follow it up with a letter by Johnson that proved he was a really nice man after all. In spite of the rare moments of wit or in-depth comment that I enjoyed, it was the hardest book for me to finish since Dante’s Divine Comedy.
• “Hearing a woman preach is like seeing a dog walking on its hind legs. It’s not done well, but you are surprised to see it done at all.”
• After an evening in company he was asked if he was not highly gratified by the visit. He replied, “No, Sir, not highly gratified; yet I do not recollect to have passed many evenings with fewer objections.”
• On whether expulsion from Oxford for Methodist praying was too hard a punishment for two students who were otherwise good beings: “A cow is a very good animal in the field, but we turn her out of a garden.”
• One being told “Drinking drives away care, and makes us forget whatever is disagreeable. Would you allow a man to drink for that reason?” He replied, “Yes, Sir, if he sat next to you.”
• After visiting Boswell at his home in Scotland, “I hope Mrs. Boswell is well. When shall I see her again? She is a sweet lady, only she was so glad to see me go, that I have almost a mind to come again, that she may again have the same pleasure.”
• On Americans, “Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.”
• “All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not.”
• “Being angry with one who controverts an opinion which you value, is a necessary consequence of the uneasiness which you feel. Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.”
• On poverty: “I believe, Sir, … It is better that some should be unhappy, than that none should be happy, which could be the case in a general state of equality.”
• “For general improvement, a man should read whatever his immediate inclination prompts him to; though to be sure, if a man has a science to learn, he must regularly and resolutely advance. What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.”
• On charity: “You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompence of their labour, than when you give money merely of charity.”
• On history: “Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, … be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. The man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.”
• “As the ladies love to see themselves in a glass; so a man likes to see himself in his journal.”
• “You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.”
• On being asked if the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland wasn’t worth seeing: “Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.”
• “Sir, there is nothing by which a man exasperates most people more, than by displaying a superior ability of brilliancy in conversation. They seem pleased at the time; but their envy makes them curse him at their hearts.”
• “The real character of man was found out by his amusements. No man is a hypocrite in his pleasure.”
• “The difference between a well-bred and an ill-bred man is this: One immediately attracts your liking, the other your aversion. You love the one till you find reason to hate him; you hate the other till you find reason to love him.”
The book was 1,000 pages too long. At times it was interesting, but the worthwhile parts could have been told in 243 pages. There are endless letters from Boswell in which he complains about depression, and endless letters in return from Johnson in which he chastises Boswell for complaining, then complains about his health, excusing himself by saying that he knows his friends care about him. I would not have liked Johnson. Somehow he seemed to draw people who liked to by insulted by him. Boswell would recite an instance of Johnson’s obnoxiousness, then follow it up with a letter by Johnson that proved he was a really nice man after all. In spite of the rare moments of wit or in-depth comment that I enjoyed, it was the hardest book for me to finish since Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Reviewed by Roger on 2003-07-20 08:34:23