e saw at first, a
{252} popular element in it. It has never been, like that of most
scholars and critics, an exclusively literary thing, confined solely to
people of literary instincts. Rather it has been, more and more, what
the newspapers and the _Johnsoniana_ and these coins or medals already
suggested, something altogether wider. Samuel Johnson was in his
lifetime a well-known figure in the streets, a popular name in the
press. He is now a national institution, with the merits, the defects,
and the popularity which belong to national institutions. His
popularity is certainly not diminished by the fact that he was the
complacent victim of many of our insular prejudices and exhibited a
good deal of the national tendency to a crude and self-confident
Philistinism. These things come so humanly from him that his wisest
admirers have scarcely the heart to complain or disapprove. They laugh
at him, and with him, and love him still. But they could not love him
as they do if he embodied only the weaknesses of his race. The
position he holds in their affection, and the affection of the whole
nation, is due to other and greater qualities. It is these that have
given him his rare and indeed unique distinction as the accepted and
traditional spokesman of the integrity, the humour, and the obstinate
common sense, of the English people.

{253}

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The finest Library Edition of the complete works of Johnson is that
published at Oxford in nine volumes in 1825. Another good one, the
volumes of which are less heavy, is that of 1823 in twelve volumes,
edited by Alexander Chalmers.

Among the very numerous editions of particular works the following may
be mentioned--

_The Six Chief Lives from Johnson's "Lives of the Poets"; with
Macaulay's "Life of Johnson._" Edited, with a Preface by MATTHEW
ARNOLD. 1878.

_History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia_. Edited, with Introduction
and Notes by GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL. 1887.

_Lives of the English Poets_. By SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. Edited by
GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L. In three volumes. 1905.

_Johnson on Shakespeare_. Essays and Notes selected and set forth with
an Introduction. By WALTER RALEIGH. 1908.

_The Letters of Samuel Johnson, LL.D._ Collected and edited by GEORGE
BIRKBECK HILL. In two volumes. 1892. Only a few of the letters are
given in the editions of the complete works. In this edition the
letters already given by Boswell i