The reputation of those writings, which he pro bably expected to be immortal, is every day fading; while those peculiarities of manner, and that careless table-talk, the memory of which, he probably thought, would die with him, are likely to be remembered as long as the English language is spoken in any quarter of the globe. -MACAULAY. PREFACE. THE conversational abilities of Dr Johnson were extraordinary. No subject, either trifling or important, could be introduced in his presence, but he would express himself upon it with an originality and power, which astonished and delighted those who heard him. Hence it is that the most interesting and valuable portions of Boswell's famous work, are those in which the desultory, but terse and wise, sentences of the Doctor are narrated with the circumstantial fidelity which so distinguishes that most perfect and interesting history of Johnson's life and literary epoch. |